This study aimed to investigate the effects of Advanced Placement Environmental Science on the pro-environmental behaviors and beliefs in high school juniors and seniors at a high school in central New Jersey. Using a pro-environmental behaviors scale adapted from earlier research by Astrid Leeuw (2015) in conjunction with the theory...
This dissertation focuses on indoor free-space optical communications systems for use in short range wireless networks. We propose that current radio frequency wireless links be augmented or replaced with optical frequency links due to overcrowding in the radio frequency spectrum. Optical frequencies contain hundreds of terahertz of unregulated bandwidth and...
A substantial fraction of estuarine tidal wetlands have been lost to development or other human uses in the Pacific Northwest since the 1800s. Wetland restoration, typically through tidal re-connection, can restore normal tidal hydrology to these areas and improve estuarine capacity to support ecosystem functions and services. Restoration may initiate...
The Altar Valley is an important working landscape that supports biodiversity and vulnerable species in Pima County, Arizona (Huckelberry 2000). This semi-desert grassland, alluvial valley and 713,807-acre watershed composed of 39 subbasins serves as an aquifer to a portion of southwestern Tucson. This region of Southern Arizona has been identified...
Animals aggregate and interact in nonuniform and nonrandom patterns, which lead to group level characteristics that have important evolutionary and ecological consequences. Network analysis provides a useful conceptual framework for linking animal interactions at all scales from dyads to communities, to populations and ecosystems. Despite exciting theoretical and applied advances...
Pacific salmon are an integral part of ecosystems, industry, culture, and food source. Rapid declines and extirpation in many populations and species have caught the interest of environmentalists, scientists, recreational anglers, commercial fishers, general public, and economists. Billions of dollars have been spent to restore, return, improve, sustain dwindling populations...
The Oregon coast faces complex environmental and social challenges, such as the threat of a regionally disastrous Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ) earthquake and tsunami. Researchers are united in their assertion that the CSZ is new, the region is due for a quake, and to mitigate this hazard society must collaborate...
In communities impacted by climate disasters, institutions largely determine the distribution of outcomes within a population. This research aims to examine the role of institutions in differential outcomes for displaced communities impacted by the 2020 Labor Day Wildfires in the Santiam Canyon and the Rogue Valley. Using semi-structured interviews of...
Characterizing stakeholder behavior when making decisions in watershed management is a great challenge for planners, not only because plans are associated with physical uncertainties but also because stakeholders’ behaviors are influenced by numerous factors. Since stakeholders’ decision-making is linked to multiple types of uncertainty, communication of uncertainty to stakeholders by...
My dissertation title is, “Applied economic strategies to evaluate policies and environmental outcomes: case studies from immigration and ecosystem services.” The first two chapters of this dissertation concern the relationship between local immigration policies and societal welfare. The third chapter examines the impact of human activity on the environment and...