Environmental Monitoring Commons^™

Identification And Characterization Of Forest Fire Risk Zones Leveraging Machine Learning Methods, Joshua Balson, Matt Chinchilla, Cam Lu, Jeff Washburn, Nibhrat Lohia

SMU Data Science Review

Across the United States, record numbers of wildfires are observed costing billions of dollars in property damage, polluting the environment, and putting lives at risk. The ability of emergency management professionals, city planners, and private entities such as insurance companies to determine if an area is at higher risk of a fire breaking out has never been greater. This paper proposes a novel methodology for identifying and characterizing zones with increased risks of forest fires. Methods involving machine learning techniques use the widely available and recorded data, thus making it possible to implement the tool quickly.

The Effects Of Hydrologic Heterogeneity On Harmful Algal Blooms In Freshwater Reservoir, Lake Sinclair, Georgia, Margaret Blackledge

Biology Theses

Aquatic habitats are frequently studied after a major water quality problem like the occurrence of an algal bloom. In this study, A proactive rather than a reactive response was considered, where the complexity of conditions conducive to uncontrolled cell growth were studied before a bloom took place by sampling regularly. This study aimed to monitor water quality by monthly sampling of algal communities for approximately one year. As the base of the aquatic food web, algae are a highly diverse group of organisms with varying sensitivity to physical and chemical changes in the environment. Four shallow sites were monitored at …

Epa Region 8 Qa Document Review Crosswalk, Trec Inc., A Woodard And Curran Company, Nikia Greene

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Residential Metals Abatement Program Quality Assurance Project Plan (Non-Residential Parcels – Indoor Dust), Mike Mcanulty

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Butte Priority Soils Operable Unit (Bpsou) Draft Final Quarterly Operations And Maintenance Report Butte Treatment Lagoon System – Third Quarter 2021, Dave Griffis

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Npl Site Butte Priority Soils Operable Unit, Pioneer Technical Services, Inc.

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Modeling Nitrous Oxide Emissions From Large-Scale Intensive Cropping Systems In The Southern Amazon, Ciniro Costa Jr., Gillian L. Galford, Michael T. Coe, Marcia Macedo, Kathijo Jankowski, Christine S. O'Connell, Christopher Neill

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Nitrogen (N) fertilizer use is rapidly intensifying on tropical croplands and has the potential to increase emissions of the greenhouse gas, nitrous oxide (N₂O). Since about 2005 Mato Grosso (MT), Brazil has shifted from single-cropped soybeans to double-cropping soybeans with maize, and now produces 1.5% of the world's maize. This production shift required an increase in N fertilization, but the effects on N₂O emissions are poorly known. We calibrated the process-oriented biogeochemical DeNitrification-DeComposition (DNDC) model to simulate N₂O emissions and crop production from soybean and soybean-maize cropping systems in MT. After model validation with …

Final Butte Priority Soils Operable Unit Community Engagement Plan For Remedial Work, Josh Bryson, Eric Hassler

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Approved Final Butte Priority Soils Operable Unit Community Engagement Plan For Remedial Work, Josh Bryson, Eric Hassler

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Windblown Transport Of Toxic Metals In Airborne Particulate Matter Near The Jackpile-Paguate Uranium Mine On Laguna Pueblo, New Mexico, Savannah S. Larosa-Lopresti

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

Abandoned uranium mines across the U.S. disproportionately affect indigenous communities who suffer numerous intergenerational health consequences from chronic exposure to toxic metal mixtures. The Jackpile-Paguate Uranium Mine on Laguna Pueblo in west-central New Mexico was designated a Superfund Site in 2013 and exposure risks from inhalation of toxic metals in airborne particulate matter are of concern for the local tribal communities. This research aims to examine atmospheric parameters driving windblown transport of respirable particulate matter in the region, to determine concentrations of heavy metals including U, V, Pb, and As due to the link with potential health risks, and to …

Work Order No. 10591325, Environmental Protection Agency, Atlantic Richfield Company, Pioneer Technical Services, Inc.

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Mitigation Of Impacts To Historic Features At The Butte Reduction Works (Brw) Smelter Area Mine Waste Remediation And Contaminated Groundwater Hydraulic Control Site, Mitzi Rossillon

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Butte-Silver Bow Medical Monitoring Program Plan, Mike Mcanulty, Eric Hassler

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

The Potential Of Remotely Sensed Vegetation Indices For Monitoring Pasture Condition, Pouria Ramzi, Karen Holmes

Resource management technical reports

The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) is developing an integrated monitoring system using remote sensing and on-ground measurements to track pasture condition across Western Australia’s pastoral region. We extended and adapted the methods developed in the Pastoral Lease Assessment Using Geospatial Analysis (PLAGA) project (Robinson et al. 2012), which combined remotely sensed vegetation indices (VIs) with on-ground pasture condition observations to assess the potential of using different vegetation indices in a statewide condition monitoring system.

There were 6 regions in WA’s pastoral rangelands with DPIRD on-ground condition traverse points: Kimberley and Broome, Pilbara, Yalgoo and Sandstone, Goldfields, …

Implications Of Condition Shifts On Shallow Lakes, Alicia Skolte

Biology Graduate Theses

Shallow lakes have undergone condition shifts throughout time by natural causes, management actions, or a combination of the two. Because shallow lakes are especially vulnerable to shifts towards turbid conditions, management actions on shallow lakes have focused on water level/retainment, biomanipulations, the management/removal of non-native species, and land-use changes. This review compiles a summary on ecosystem shifts including a discussion on the frequency of shifts historically and the importance and causes of those shifts, trophic cascades, and the influence of introduced species in shallow lakes. This review will then examine case-studies of management-linked shifts and explain current shift theory. Next, …

Iron Geochemistry Across An Estuary-To-Coastal Gradient, Lissett G. Diaz

Honors Theses

Iron is a ubiquitous earth element that participates in biogeochemical processes that occur in marine sediments. Microorganisms utilize iron for many purposes, including cell growth, conserving energy, and for maintaining metabolic activity. In coastal sedimentary settings, understanding the redox reactions involving ferric iron, Fe³⁺, and ferrous iron, Fe²⁺, in its solid phase and pore-water phases, respectively, enable an appreciation of biogeochemical transformations occurring in the coastal zone. In this study, iron concentrations in sediment of ranging permeability were determined at four stations marking an estuary-coast transition zone in Singleton Swash in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The …

Biodiversity Scale-Dependence And Opposing Multi-Level Correlations Underlie Differences Among Taxonomic, Phylogenetic And Functional Diversity, Nadejda A. Mirochnitchenko, Erica F. Stuber, Joseph J. Fontaine

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

Aim: Biodiversity is a multidimensional property of biological communities that represents different information depending on how it is measured, but how dimensions relate to one another and under what conditions is not well understood. We explore how taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional diversity can differ in scale-of-effect dependence and habitat-biodiversity relationships, and subsequently how spatial differences among biodiversity dimensions may arise. Location: Nebraska, United States. Taxon: Birds. Methods: Across 2016 and 2017, we conducted 2,641 point counts at 781 sites. We modeled the occupancy of 141 species using Bayesian Bernoulli-Bernoulli hierarchical logistic regressions. We calculated species richness (SR), phylogenetic diversity (PD), …

American Burying Beetle, Plant Richness, And Soil Property Responses To Collapse Of Juniperus Virginiana Woodlands With Fire, Alison K. Ludwig

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Grasslands are declining in the Great Plains due to land use changes, woody plant encroachment, and loss of historic fire cycles. Prescribed burn associations have utilized prescribed fire to collapse invading woodlands and allow the restoration of grasslands. This fire is considered “extreme” because it is capable of changing the structure and function of an ecosystem. Our study site is the Loess Canyons Experimental Landscape, a long-term, ecoregion-scale experiment to apply prescribed fire across the region to restore grasslands. The Nebraska Natural Legacy Project established the Loess Canyons ecoregion as a Biologically-Unique Landscape in 2005 with the state’s wildlife action …

Identification Of Phosphorous Loading Point Source Facilities To 303(D) Listed Nutrient Impaired Waters Through Watershed Delineation Using Arcgis For Life Cycle Assessment Applications, John Zimmerman

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The work done for this project is part of a larger “life cycle assessment (LCA) of novel electrochemical phosphorus recovery technology at the wastewater treatment plant and U.S. watershed scales” (Morrissey 2019). The goal of that LCA is to determine “environmental impacts of implementing electrochemical struvite recovery at the wastewater treatment plant, U.S watershed, and global scales” (Morrissey 2019). This project’s goal is to identify locations deemed more sensitive to eutrophication impacts. The results will be used as part of the life cycle inventory (LCI) accounting for geographically explicit phosphorus flows. The waters identified as impaired were sourced from the …

Assessment Of Soil Sampling Equipment For Guiding Fertiliser Decisions, David Weaver, Robert Summers, David Rogers, Peta Richards, David Rowe

Resource management technical reports

A range of methods, technologies and equipment are used to collect representative composite soil samples from paddocks. Once collected, soil samples are analysed for various parameters that provide evidence to guide fertiliser decisions. The sampling methods, technologies and equipment used must result in samples that consistently represent the parameter of interest.

Soil sampling technology and equipment has advanced from manual devices (such as pogo-stick-style foot-thrust core samplers [pogo]) to a variety of mechanised core-thrust samplers and augers that are fitted to vehicles or battery drills. Each device may function differently under different conditions, and each requires differing levels of human …