Natural Resources and Conservation Commons^™

Hydrogen And Carbon Dioxide Kinetic Adsorption And Diffusion Behavior Into Organic-Rich Shale: Implications Of Mineralogy And Organic Content, Amer Alanazi, Hussein Abid, Saleh A. Bawazeer, Norah Aljeban, Israa S. Abu-Mahfouz, Alireza Keshavarz, Stefan Iglauer, Hussein Hoteit

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Geological storage of hydrogen (GSH) is a pivotal technology for advancing an industrial-scale hydrogen economy. Shale formations, known for their impermeable sealing and abundance, offer promising potential for secure GSH applications. However, the complex mineralogy and organic content of shale necessitate a detailed investigation. This study examines the potential of organic-rich shale samples from Jordanian oil source rocks for hydrogen (H2) storage and carbon dioxide (CO2) sequestration. Adsorption kinetics were measured at two different temperatures (303 and 333 K) and pressures (15 and 45 bar) using a volumetric experimental approach. Common mathematical models were applied to evaluate the adsorption data …

Visionary Indigenous Training And Leadership For Natural Resources (Vital4nr), Peter D. Howe

Funded Research Records

No abstract provided.

Western Australian Soil Groups - A Diagnostic Key To Identify Soils In Western Australia (5th Edition), Paul Galloway, Dennis Van Gool, Angela Stuart-Street, Edward A. Griffin, Shahab Pathan, Noel R. Schoknecht

Resource management technical reports

The aim of the Western Australian soil groups (WA soil groups) is to classify soils of Western Australia into a limited set using criteria that are easy to recognise in the field. It is a general-purpose classification with a focus on agronomic and rangeland grazing potential. The WA soil groups are designed for WA needs. It complements the Australian Soil Classification (ASC) by grouping the continuum of soils into a limited set of soil types, which simplifies soil variability for generalists, allows soil surveyors to create standardised soil-type legends for mapping products and permits further analyses of spatial data for …

Nuclear Energy Is Clean And Safe Energy, Katie Morland

Op-Eds from ENSC230 Energy and the Environment: Economics and Policies

From the grappling fear of horrific meltdowns to the promise of new innovative advancements, nuclear energy has been surrounded by misunderstandings and myths for decades. A non-partisan approach from media outlets is essential for having a well-balanced understanding of how nuclear energy works and why it is good for our consumption.

Despite bias concerns that are leading to misunderstanding, nuclear energy offers a wide range of reliable cleaner types of energy. Moving forward we need to ask ourselves are we going to keep letting misinformation and misconceptions stop us from developing better advancements in nuclear energy for cleaner energy use …

The Case For E15: A Cheaper, Cleaner Fuel, Cassidy Skillett

Op-Eds from ENSC230 Energy and the Environment: Economics and Policies

In its name, “E” indicates that the fuel contains ethanol and “15” communicates that 15% of the gasoline blend is ethanol. When Nebraskan drivers pull up to the gas station, they can buy cheaper and cleaner E15. In 43 states - drivers are not so lucky. A new bill would end fuel discrimination of E15 at refueling stations nationwide.

This change is long overdue and would allow E15 to be available year-round in all states rather than just during the winter.

Zoning Regulations Are Harming Nebraska’S Wind Energy Future, Carter Probst

Op-Eds from ENSC230 Energy and the Environment: Economics and Policies

Nebraska is a prime location for renewable energy sources, such as wind. According to Climate Central, a policy-neutral non-profit, “While Nebraska ranks fourth among U.S States for potential wind energy generation, it ranks 15th in installed capacity.” What is the number one reason Nebraska has not fully tapped into its potential, which would have numerous economic and climate benefits? Harsh zoning regulations at the county level, fueled by misinformation, have made installation of wind turbines nearly impossible across multiple counties in Nebraska.

Greet Vs. Corsia: The Future Of Sustainable Aviation Fuel, Christian Curtis

Op-Eds from ENSC230 Energy and the Environment: Economics and Policies

With the country buzzing from the shocking result of the presidential election, not much ink is being spilled about the upcoming conclusion of a months-long showdown between agriculture-state lawmakers and environmentalists. The bone of contention? What modeling system will be used to calculate sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) emissions. President Biden’s IRA provides for a $1.25/gallon tax credit for any fuel qualifying as SAF; would it surprise you that environmentalists and big industry don’t see eye to eye on what counts as “sustainable”?

Quantifying Greenhouse Gas Exchange And Ecosystem Services In Ecosystems Managed For Nature-Based Solutions Using Eddy Covariance, Remote Sensing, And Models, Lucas Clay

All Dissertations

As global temperatures rise due to climate change, nature-based solutions are increasingly being used to restore nature and to remove carbon from the atmosphere. Nature-based solutions draw on methodologies such as ecological forestry and improved forest management to reduce emissions and maximize resilience. These protocols are still in their infancy and additional measurements and case studies are important to optimizing these protocols. Herein this dissertation we describe multiple measurement methodologies for both greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and for ecosystem services. In coastal wetland ecosystems, the need for GHG measurements is paramount to understanding the ability of these ecosystems to reduce …

Performance Of Acoustic Telemetry And Space Use Of Pallid Sturgeon In The Lower Platte River, Nebraska, Christopher F. Pullano

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Pallid Sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus albus) are centenarian, potamodromous, rheophiles that historically occupied the Missouri River and Mississippi River basins. Listed on the U.S. Endangered Species Act in 1990, population declines are attributed to habitat fragmentation and degradation, as well as overharvest, and hybridization. A knowledge gap exists regarding the extent to which tributaries facilitate key life stages for Pallid Sturgeon. This study evaluated the capacity of acoustic telemetry to monitor the movements of Pallid Sturgeon in a shallow, braided tributary to the Missouri River. The specific objectives were to (1) evaluate the environmental variables influencing the performance of acoustic …

Occupancy Of Fish Species Of Greatest Conservation Need And Temporal Patterns Of Assemblage Occurrence In Sandhills Ecoregion, Nebraska Streams, Braxton M. Newkirk

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Fish species’ occurrence is influenced by environmental conditions across multiple spatial and temporal scales. Alteration to stream systems has the potential to affect occurrence patterns of fish species. Stream systems of the North American Great Plains face threats originating from climate change and anthropogenic activities resulting in negative implications for many fish species. The Sandhills Ecoregion, Nebraska is considered one of the largest intact grasslands in North America, and thus may experience fewer threats than surrounding areas. Stream systems of the Sandhills Ecoregion are home to 12 fish species of greatest conservation need (SGCN). Little context exists regarding the environmental …

Spatial Ecology Of American Bison On Vermejo Park Ranch, New Mexico, Kate Ann Asmus

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

American bison (Bison bison) are a keystone species that impact grassland productivity, plant diversity, and landscape heterogeneity. We used GPS telemetry and a replicate herbivore grazing experiment on Vermejo Park Ranch in northeastern New Mexico to advance understanding of bison spatial ecology and grazing dynamics. First, we evaluated the potentially disparate influences of forage productivity and site fidelity on the size and selection of home ranges of bison. Home range size was strongly negatively influenced by forage productivity. However, home range selection was influenced more strongly by site fidelity than spatial variation in forage, as bison selected home …

Leveraging High-Frequency Water Quality Data And Machine Learning For Monitoring Harmful Algal Blooms, Ibrahim Busari

All Dissertations

Freshwater management is one of the most critical resources on the earth due to the plethora of water use and its limited availability. Increased algae proliferation is one of the significant problems of freshwater bodies that is triggered by nutrient enrichment and enabling conditions such as light and warm temperatures. This algal proliferation is toxic to the ecosystem through their biomass and potential toxin production that can cause hypoxic conditions and is often referred to as Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs). Current monitoring approaches include laboratory analysis of water samples to observe algal cells, monitoring of water quality parameters using water …

Understanding Mechanisms For Coastal Marsh Sustainability In A Changing Climate, Ashley R. Booth

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In the Chenier Plain of Louisiana and Texas, coastal marshes are subject to high rates of relative sea level rise (RSLR), restricted sedimentation, and declining elevation attributed to subsidence and decades of intensive management. These marshes were created via mineral sedimentation but now largely accrete via organic matter accumulation. This organic matter accumulation (OMA) – or the balance between plant productivity and decomposition – is essential for maintaining elevation and thus long-term sustainability. However, management for elevation is complicated by a poor understanding of how abiotic factors like flooding and salinity impact processes driving OMA and elevation. To better understand …

Climatological Trends And Effects Of Aerosols And Clouds On Large Solar Parks: Application Examples In Benban (Egypt) And Al Dhafrah (Uae), Harshal Dhake, Panagiotis Kosmopoulos, Antonis Mantakas, Yashwant Kashyap, Hesham El-Askary, Omar Elbadawy

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Solar energy production is vastly affected by climatological factors. This study examines the impact of two primary climatological factors, aerosols and clouds, on solar energy production at two of the world’s largest solar parks, Benban and Al Dhafrah Solar Parks, by using Earth observation data. Cloud microphysics were obtained from EUMETSAT, and aerosol data were obtained from the CAMS and assimilated with MODIS data for higher accuracy. The impact of both factors was analysed by computing their trends over the past 20 years. These climatological trends indicated the variations in the change in each of the factors and their resulting …

Optimization For Qinghai-Xizang Plateau Ecological Security Barrier System, Bojie Fu, Yanxu Liu, Wenwu Zhao, Xiaoming Feng, Shiliang Liu, Chiyuan Miao, Xuhui Wang, Chunyang He, Changjia Li, Aizhong Ye, Zhongmin Hu, Zhifeng Liu, Dingyang Zhou

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

The ecological security barrier system is a composite system to maintain ecological security and sustainable development within and outside the region. This system enables the maintenance of the structure and function of the ecosystem in the ecological security barrier region relatively shielded from or minimally impacted by external environmental threats, so that forms a multilevel and orderly stable pattern. Over the period from 2000 to 2020, the ecosystem water conservation function was on the rise, and the soil conservation function, net ecosystem productivity, and habitat quality were generally stable in the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau. Comparing the previous three national parks and …

Green Certificate Of “Lucid Waters And Lush Mountains” And The Yellow River Demonstration, Guangqian Wang, Deyu Zhong

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

Guided by the “Lucid Waters and Lush Mountains are Invaluable Assets”, this work systematically studies the mechanism for realizing ecological value and proposes an implementation plan centered on a Green Certificate system for ecological assets, to be advanced in three stages. The Green Certificate serves as an objective and quantifiable proof of ecological assets, integrating four categories of ecological products—ecological water, soil and water conservation, carbon sequestration, and afforestation (grass planting)—into a unified, tradable rights certificate system. This provides an institutional foundation for transforming “Lucid Waters and Lush Mountains” into “Gold and Silver Mountains” through market mechanisms. Taking the Yellow …

Evolutionary Logic And Development Trends Of China’S Ecological And Environmental Fiscal Polocies—Quantitative Analysis Based On Policy Texts, Yu Qi, Wumei Shi, Yankun Xu

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

The modern fiscal system has a unique role in promoting the development of green transformation, taking into account the different interests of different subjects, linking different governance links, and balancing the distribution of benefits between regions and generations, and has become a tool that is increasingly relied upon to improve the basic system of ecological civilization, sound ecological and environmental governance system, and innovate the mechanism of green and low-carbon development. Through a retrospective study of 1 516 policy texts issued by the central government departments since the reform and opening up of China, which are closely related to “ecological …

Research On Regional Suitability Assessment And Promotion Mechanisms Of Conservation—Based Utilization Models For Black Soil, Xiaojie Liu, Liangjie Xin, Jiliang Ma, Yuxian Wang, Fan Zhang

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

Black soil represents a high-quality and scarce arable land resource, serving as a critical foundation for ensuring food security in China. However, prolonged development and utilization have resulted in varying degrees of degradation of black soil in Northeast China, directly affecting national food security and ecological stability. Since 2015, China has initiated and progressively intensified efforts in black soil protection. Technical models such as the “Lishu Model” and the “Longjiang Model” have been developed, demonstrated, and promoted, leading to increasingly significant conservation outcomes. Nevertheless, current technical models for black soil protection face dual challenges: unclear suitability boundaries and difficulties in …

Coordination Degree Of Composite Systems And Its Application, Ke Qi, Jiaojun Zhu, Dexiong Teng, Xiao Zheng, Huaiqing Zhang

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

A composite system (CS) is an organic whole composed of multiple subsystems. It has the property of operating in a coordinated manner through the interconnection and interaction between its subsystems, which could be evaluated by the indicator of coordination degree of composite systems (CDoCS). However, there is currently a lack of quantitative methods for CDoCS and the CDoCS-based technology for composite system optimization. As a result, there is a lack of effective solutions to the problems caused by the disharmony of composite systems such as the mountain-water-forest-farm-lake-grass-sand systems (i.e., composite ecosystems) and the social-economic-natural systems. Therefore, the connotation of CDoCS …

Comparison And Enlightenment Of International Renewable Energy Legislation Systems, Lanchun Li, Wei Feng, Wei Chen, Qing Liu

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

The high-quality development of renewable energy cannot be achieved without legal system guarantees. In the new era, the deepening of national major strategies such as energy revolution, high-quality development, and dual carbon have put forward new and higher requirements for China’s renewable energy legal system. Based on the perspective of “past-now-future”, this study systematically reviews the development process and evolution trend of international renewable energy legal systems, extracts typical experiences of major countries, and compares and summarizes the analyses of China’s legal systems. In light of gaps, it is proposed to further improve the revision of the Renewable Energy Law …