The spatial and temporal behavior of invasive species spread implies that optimal management strategies involve decisions over space and time. Dispersal and propagule pressure are two primary drivers of the spatial-temporal ecological process of species invasion. In the case of riparian communities, stream flow drives the dispersal of vegetation propagules....
Managing agricultural diversity ensures a range of public services, such as genetic resource diversity, food security for subsistence-based economies, and landscape resilience in the context of climate change, among others. These agrobiodiversity conservation services are positive externalities from agrobiodiversity conservation. Whereas their value is not captured in market transactions, management...
In a simulator-defined MDP, the Markovian dynamics and rewards are provided in the form of a simulator from which samples can be drawn. This paper studies MDP planning algorithms that attempt to minimize the number of simulator calls before terminating and outputting a policy that is approximately optimal with high...
Resilience-based management in rangelands implies maintaining desirable ecological states and avoiding thresholds to less desirable ones; however, the efficacy of resilience-based management depends upon several driving forces. These forces include management by those who depend upon rangelands for their livelihoods, the current state of ecological health of rangelands, and changing...
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Heidi J. Albers John A. Tanaka
Resilience-based management in rangelands implies
Tetrachlorethene (PCE) and trichloroethene (TCE) were common solvents used in the 1970’s that are now frequently observed groundwater contaminants. One method of remediating these contaminants is in-situ bioremediation that uses a dechlorinating microbial population. The microbial population performs the sequential reductive dechlorination of PCE and TCE to cis-1,2-dichloroethene (c-DCE), vinyl...
The objective of this dissertation was to examine trade-offs and synergies between multiple ecosystem services derived from plantation forests in the coastal Pacific Northwest. I accomplished this in five chapters. In the first chapter I provided background information for the study. In the next chapter I set the context for...
Quarantines and control programs are two policy tools used to prevent and reduce the damages caused by invasive species. Quarantines restrict the movement of material that could spread invasive species. Their requirements impose costs on businesses within the quarantine zone by creating barriers to trade and increasing production costs, which...
In this dissertation, I combined a scenario-based, standard-response optimization model with a stochastic simulation model to improve the efficiency of the deployment of initial attack firefighting resources on wildland fires in California and the Republic of Korea. The optimization model minimizes the expected number of fires that do not receive...
This research focuses on the relationship between the emerging role of land trusts and
rapid growth and change in the West. Teton County, Idaho, Teton County, Wyoming, and
Sublette County, Wyoming, and each of their associated land trusts, are used as case studies. Each county has experienced varying levels of...
Stream-restoration projects are usually designed to improve habitat quality for fishes.
These projects manipulate flow patterns, substrate distribution, and amount and
placement of large woody debris. Consequently, they also affect the size and composition
of the aquatic macroinvertebrate community. This research evaluates two types of fish
habitat restoration: off-channel structures...