Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2004. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 184-226).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 137-143).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. [152]-161).

Thesis (M.S.)--Ohio University, August, 2000. / Title from PDF t.p.

Thesis (M.S.)--Ohio University, August, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 35-40).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1996. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [146]-169).

Thesis (M.S.)--Ohio University, August, 2004. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references (p. 35-40)

Climate change has exacerbated environmental degradation processes, causing an imbalance in the natural concentrations in atmospheric greenhouse gases. This has resulted in a myriad of socio–economic effects which have focused global attention on methodologies to reduce these effects, such as carbon sequestration. To achieve long term sustainability and success, community involvement in the technical and social aspects of carbon sequestration projects is necessary and must be acknowledged. One such mitigation methodology which incorporates the ideals of community proactive participation is carbon sink reforestation projects. This study is based on a community perspective of a carbon sink reforestation project, carried out in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The study provides a holistic perspective of the concept of carbon sequestration drawing together technical aspects of carbon sequestration reforestation projects and the inclusion of the role of communities. The methodology comprised of questionnaires with industry experts and a local community, following a thematic data analysis. The current perception from industry is that the South African government lacks significant technology, capacity and finance to effectively manage national forest carbon sequestration regimes. Project participants expressed the view that these types of projects provided a sense of belonging and hope and articulated their gratitude for the environmental knowledge they gained from the project experience. Technical and social aspects of such projects such as carbon calculations and participatory rural appraisal techniques enhance a country’s ability for successful implementation of such projects. Findings reveal a need for technology, capacity building and finance; and the effects participation in these projects has on individuals. This is followed by recommendations and a ‘How To Guide’ developed by the researcher. This guide intends to enhance the collaboration of the technical aspects and involvement of communities throughout the project implementation process. Carbon regimes in this century will continue to grow in size and complexity. Stakeholder participation will be a strong factor in the success or failure of carbon sequestration reforestation projects. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2012.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Sydney, 2000. / Title from title screen (viewed February 12, 2009). Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the School of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science. Degree awarded 2000; thesis submitted 1999. The 2 in the title is in subscript. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print form.

Atmospheric CO₂ is projected to increase for the foreseeable future. The amount of CO₂ that remains in the atmosphere is regulated, in large part, by the ocean. As the long-term response to the changing atmospheric pCO₂ unfolds, the ocean sink will continue to be modified on seasonal to decadal timescales by climate variability and change. The magnitude of this variability is an active area of research. Accurately quantifying this variability is a challenge given the paucity of direct in-situ observations. In order calculate the global air-sea CO₂ sink, ocean pCO₂ needs to be known, or at least accurately estimated, at all locations at regular intervals. Two approaches to estimate air-sea CO₂ flux are, 1) from simulations of the Earth system and 2) data gap-filling mapping techniques. The goals of this thesis are to 1) rigorously quantify errors in a leading pCO₂ and ocean CO₂ sink mapping technique and 2) to evaluate the efficacy of adding Earth system model based estimates of ocean pCO₂ as a first guess into machine learning based mapping techniques. To meet the first goal, we use a suite of Large Ensemble model members as a testbed to evaluate a leading pCO₂ gap-filling approach (SOM-FFN). We find that the SOM-FFN performs well when sufficient data is available, but overestimates Southern Ocean decadal variability by about 39%. To meet our second goal, we incorporate Earth system model pCO₂ output into machine learning techniques either by adding the output as an additional feature or by post-processing the model output by learning the misfit (misfit=observation-model) and correcting for it. We find that blending model output and observations using machine learning marginally improves prediction accuracy. In addition, we discuss the potential of the learned misfits as a new model diagnostic tool, which can be used to visualize spatiotemporal pCO₂ estimates. Taken together, this study has significant implications in the development of carbon monitoring systems, in turn aiding policy making and improving our understanding of the evolution of the air-sea CO₂ sink.