Environmental Sciences Commons^™

Meet Me In The Middle: A Scoping Review On Understanding Adolescent Needs In Climate Communication, Gwendolyn Monica Hoff Anderson

Master's Projects and Capstones

The greatest effects of climate change are likely to be felt by youth. Young people are disproportionately affected by climate change due to their critical developmental stage and lack of power, and they experience both higher severity and prevalence of mental health issues related to climate change. Strong emotions have long been recognized as potential catalysts for action, or they may lead to paralyzing feelings of being overwhelmed. Climate communication is a critical tool to spark climate concern and encourage action. Activism, in turn, may help youth manage their anxiety about climate change. This scoping review examines emerging evidence on …

Characterization Of Boreal-Arctic Vegetation Growth Phases And Active Soil Layer Dynamics In The High-Latitudes Of North America: A Study Combining Multi-Year In Situ And Satellite-Based Observations, Michael G. Brown

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examined the seasonal freeze/thaw activity in boreal-Arctic soils and vegetation physiology in Alaska, USA and Alberta, Canada, using in situ environmental measurements and passive microwave satellite observations. The boreal-Arctic high-latitudes have been experiencing ecosystem changes more rapidly in comparison to the rest of Earth due to the presently warming climatic conditions having a magnified effect over Polar Regions. Currently, the boreal-Arctic is a carbon sink; however, recent studies indicate a shift over the next century to become a carbon source. High-latitude vegetation and cold soil dynamics are influenced by climatic shifts and are largely responsible for the regions …

In Quest Of A Shared Planet: Negotiating Climate From The Global South, Naveeda Khan

Literary Studies

Based on the author’s eight years of fieldwork with the United Nations-led Conference of Parties (COP), In Quest of a Shared Planet offers an illuminating first-person ethnographic perspective on climate change negotiations. Focusing on the Paris Agreement, anthropologist Naveeda Khan introduces readers to the only existing global approach to the problem of climate change, one that took nearly thirty years to be collectively agreed upon. She shares her detailed descriptions of COP21 to COP25 and growing understanding of the intricacies of the climate negotiation process, leading her to ask why countries of the Global South invested in this slow-moving process …

Subterraneans: A Regional Earth Dwelling For Comfort And Beauty, Isaak Benchoff

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

Subterraneans is a study of an affordable, self-sufficient, sustainable, and dignified housing prototype for the region of Northwest Arkansas. It is a design process investigation based on the ideas of turning a local, sustainable material into affordable homes that can be built within a community of people sharing land and resources. The homes would utilize as many natural materials as possible to minimize the impact on the Earth and the cost to the owners.

Research looked at many different vernacular building precedents as well as the work done by contemporary design firms in the area of economical, low-impact, and passively …

Cross-Boundary Stewardship In Protected Area Centered Ecosystems: Perceptions Of Success And Characteristics Of Cooperative Engagement, Ryan D. Tarver

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The legal boundaries of protected areas, such as national parks are established and enforced by humans. Therefore, jurisdictional boundaries are ultimately have human meaning but not necessarily ecological relevance as natural phenomena such as watersheds and wildlife habitat often extend beyond a jurisdictional boundary. When considering the extent of natural system, we find that protected areas only make up part of a given ecosystem. The result is a large expanse of lands that fall under a various ownership types that include both publicly and privately designated tracts of land. This presents a management challenge when attempting to manage at the …

Practical Improvements For Pivot And Surface Irrigation, Jonathan A. Holt

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Irrigation is critical to meeting global food and fiber demands. Optimizing agricultural irrigation may help sustain production levels, while reducing its demand for water. This research evaluated precision sprinklers and drip irrigation for pivots, five pivot track mitigation tools, three scientific irrigation scheduling (SIS) methods, sensors for surface irrigation cutoff, and automating surface systems to implement surge irrigation. With pivots and surface irrigation being the most common methods for irrigation in the West, small improvements from these tools could result in significant water savings.

Low energy precision application (LEPA) sprinklers and mobile drip irrigation (MDI) were tested on two pivots. …

Opportunities And Challenges For Cooperative Extension Becoming A Major Actor In Climate Change Mitigation And Adaptation, Dakoeta R. Pinto

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Addressing climate change in the United States is an increasingly complex issue that requires social and technological changes throughout the country, which the Cooperative Extension System (Extension) can influence. Based at land-grant universities, their goals are to bring relevant science and innovation to the people of the United States. For a successful low-carbon transition, there are certain elements of society that must be influenced by innovators like Extension. Extension’s historical roots in agriculture prevail today with most of their programming focusing on this sector. However, there is a movement within Extension to expand their programmatic efforts to address more contemporary …

Getting The Dirt On Phosphorus Pollution In Mountain Lakes: Are Rising Soil Temperatures Contributing To Eutrophication In Mountain Watersheds?, Gordon O. Gianniny

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Mountain watersheds provide a critical supply of clean water to millions of people around the world. In recent years, evidence of a concerning trend has emerged in these watersheds: rising phosphorus (P) concentrations. P often acts as the limiting nutrient in mountain lake ecosystems, so increasing P availability in mountain lakes and streams has the potential to drastically increase algal growth in these systems. In extreme cases, increasing mountain lake P concentrations may even cause harmful algal blooms that degrade downstream water quality. While the implications of rising P concentrations in mountain lakes are serious, the cause driving this widespread …

Regeneration Of Quaking Aspen And Understory Vegetation Change After Fire Risk Reduction Treatment, Allison M. Trudgeon

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) is a keystone species that, when coexisting with conifers (i.e., seral aspen), often undergoes stand-replacing disturbances to sustain long term vigor. Historically, mixed-to-high severity fire reduced fuels and regenerated aspen, but such disturbances have become less common in recent decades. This has often led to high fuel loading, and many seral aspen stands are at now risk of an unpredictable, high-severity fire, posing a threat to development in the wildland-urban-interface. The lack of a commercial market for aspen, and the risk of conducting prescribed fire, means there are few alternate management options. This has …

Soil Health And Remediation For Urban Gardens In Utah, Melissa Chilinski

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports

Urban environments are at an increased risk of soil contamination and poor soil health due to anthropogenic causes. As healthy farmland is developed, new urban farmers and gardeners are often left growing food on unwanted land with unknown histories of previous use. Varied research and methods for obtaining healthy soils can cause new growers to make decisions that negatively impact soil health and fertility, or on the other hand, conflicting information can cause individuals to become unnecessarily fearful of common soil contaminants and their effect on human health. Common soil contaminants, like trace metals (often referred to as heavy metals) …

Understanding The Operations And Decision-Making Of Cow-Calf Farmers In Northwest Arkansas, Clayton Weyl

Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness Undergraduate Honors Theses

Societal pressure on farmers has become a more central part of the rhetoric surrounding livestock production. This study includes farmers in the discourse on the rhetoric surrounding climate change via interviews and simulations tailored to their operation. Previous research has addressed regenerative agricultural practices and conditions that influence farmer decision-making, but little research has analyzed decision-making in tandem with environmental practices. The literature reveals that cow-calf producer decision-making is influenced by their reliance on cattle as an income source, and farmers overall choose climate-friendly practices based on their perceptions about climate change. The goal of this research was to gather …

Subgrade Subsurface Anomalous Body Full-Waveform Inversion Based On Ground-Penetrating Radar, Hu Leilei, Chen Kang, Huang Dejun, Yang Rong

Coal Geology & Exploration

The hidden dangers of road collapse and underground voids are usually difficult to notice and easy to occur in sudden. They have caused huge losses in people's lives and properties. Therefore, the detection and analysis of road collapse and underground voids are crucial. The ground-penetrating radar (GPR) is the main method for detecting the hidden dangers of urban road collapse currently by virtue of its high accuracy, high efficiency, continuous non-destructiveness and real-time imaging. A convolution type objective function FWI algorithm was proposed to solve the problem of the lower inversion accuracy and practicability caused by the inaccurate estimation of …

Tomography Method For Adjacent Channel Frequency Shift Of Transmitted In-Seam Waves, Tian Han, Wu Rongxin, Hu Ze’An, Yang Qiaonan

Coal Geology & Exploration

In-Seam Seismic is one of the main detection methods for small geological structures in the coal mining working face. In this method, the energy attenuation feature of in-seam waves is mainly utilized. In case of any significant geological anomaly or receivers coupling difference in coal working face, the energy distribution of the in-seam wave at different frequency bands will be significantly affected, and the stability and accuracy of in-seam wave detection results will be decreased. Using the centroid frequency change features of the in-seam wave signals for inversion imaging is an innovative, effective method. However, for this method, there are …

Heat Conduction Performance And Transfer Mechanism Of Sand-Barite Powder Backfill Materials, Jia Hailiang, Zhu Zixian, Zhou Yang, Sun Qiang

Coal Geology & Exploration

The ground source heat pump of buried pipeline is a major form of shallow thermal energy utilization, and the thermophysical properties of backfill materials, especially the thermal conductivity, are the key factors affecting the heat transfer efficiency of the heat pump system. In this paper, the variation law of thermal conductivity of the sand-barite powder samples at different barite powder mixing ratio (volume fraction) and saturation was studied. The mechanism of improving the thermal conductivity of backfill materials with barite powder was revealed based on the macroscopic and microscopic experiments such as stereoscope and nuclear magnetic resonance analysis. In addition, …

Digital Twin Technology Of Geological Information In Mining And Excavation Working Face, Li Peng, Cheng Jianyuan

Coal Geology & Exploration

The mine geology transparency is the basis for the intelligent coal mine construction. 3D geological modeling is an important measure for realizing the mine geology transparency. In the geological modeling of the previous working face, there are problems including the discrepancy between the interpolation algorithm and the geological law, the low fusion level of the multi-source heterogeneous geological data, and the seldom coupling between the coal mine production equipment and the geological information. The concept of the digital twin of the geological information about coal mine working face was proposed, the discrete smooth interpolation (DSI) algorithm was adopted, and the …

Quantitative Experimental Study On Time-Varying Characteristics Of Bleeding Of Cement-Based Grouting Materials, Zhang Runqi, Xu Bin, Yin Shangxian, Li Shuxia, Chang Yongwang, Lian Huiqing, Cao Min

Coal Geology & Exploration

Cement-based cementitious materials are the most common grouting materials for grouting engineering. This type of material has obvious water separation effect, and obtaining the quantitative formula of water separation thickness will be helpful to improve the calculation accuracy of slurry diffusion radius. By observing the water separation process of three admixtures, namely pyrophyllite powder (0%-35%), polyvinyl alcohol (0%-8%) and fly ash (0%-90%) in cement-based slurry, the water separating rate, stone formation rate, final water separation time and water separation thickness of the three admixtures were obtained. It is found that the water separation thickness of the slurry varies regularly with …

Occurrence Characteristics And Ecological Risk Assessment Of Heavy Metals In Fly Ash Of Ningdong Energy Chemical Industry Base, Zhang Zhiguo, Tan Yuning, Hu Youbiao, Zheng Yonghong, Chen Denghong, Cai Weiqing, Li Yating, Lu Jiangwei

Coal Geology & Exploration

In order to expand the resource utilization of fly ash, research was conducted based on the fly ash of Yuanyang Lake Power Plant in the Ningdong Energy Chemical Industry Base. Specifically, the physical and chemical properties of fly ash were characterized and analyzed by means of scanning electron microscope, energy spectrum analysis and X-ray diffraction. Besides, the total amount, effective state and content in different forms of Pb, Cr, Ni, Cu, Cd and As in fly ash were determined through acid digestion, DTPA extraction and 5-step Tessier sequential extraction. In addition, the ecological risk of heavy metals in fly ash …

Distribution Characteristics Of Trace Elements In Different Density Fractions Of High-Germanium Coal From Wulantuga, Inner Mongolia, China, Duan Piaopiao, Wang Wenfeng, Ma Mengya

Coal Geology & Exploration

The exploitation and utilization of critical metals in coal measures is of great significance to alleviate the shortage of strategic mineral resources in China. In addition to the critical metal germanium (Ge), the low-rank coal from Wulantuga Coal Mine of Shengli Coalfield in Inner Mongolia, China is enriched with the toxic elements Be, F, As, Hg, Sb and W. Considering the extraction and utilization of key metals and environmental protection, the coal in the study area must be washed. As shown in the previous study, flotation is relatively good for the removal of As, Sb and W inWulantuga coal, but …

Main Influencing Factors For Regional Pre-Grouting Technology Of Water Hazard Treatment In Coal Seam Floor And Efficient Hole Arrangement, Hu Weiyue, Zhao Chunhu, Lyu Hanjiang

Coal Geology & Exploration

Regional advance grouting transformation and reinforcement of water conducting formation and aquifer is the main technical means to prevent and control the karst water hazards in the coal seam floor of North China type coalfields. Herein, analysis was conducted for the general application mode of the regional advance grouting transformation and reinforcement for water hazard treatment in the thin and thick limestone layers in the coal seam floor based on the basic mine hydrogeological principle of the application of regional advance grouting transformation technology. In the analysis, consideration was given to the hydrogeological structure of the coal seam floor, the …

Formation Mechanism Of Coalbed Methane In Dafosi Mine Field, Huanglong Coalfield, Liu Kaide, Yao Kaiwen, Chen Nengyuan, Fan Zhangqun, Li Shujia, Zheng Han, Yue Wenping, Li Xiaolong

Coal Geology & Exploration

Dafosi mine field is a typical low-rank coalbed methane (CBM) field in Binchang mining area of Huanglong Jurassic. There are many coalbed methane wells in the field, but few researches are performed on the formation mechanism of coalbed methane. Thus, it is of great guiding significance to clarify the geochemical characteristics and formation mechanism of coalbed methane (CBM) in the mine field, which could provide important basis for the analysis on productivity difference of high- and low-yield CBM Wells. For this reason, the samples of drained gas at the wellhead of six CBM wells, 22 coal samples of No.4 coal …