There are many health issues surrounding Alberta’s forests today and for the future. Health impacts of diseases, pests and climate change are currently being predicted in order to implement new management ideas and solutions, and identify specific research needs. This study examines state of the art knowledge on the current impacts of Armillaria root disease (ARD) (Armillaria spp.) in Alberta’s boreal forest region. It also assesses the biology and structure of the disease within this region to predict the extent to which the boreal forest may be impacted. In the next 50 years, both Armillaria ostoyae (Romag.) Herink and Armillaria sinapina Bérubé & Dessureault will become more of a problem, due to climate change and the current mature state of Alberta’s forests. A. sinapina, as a less-pathogenic but more opportunistic species, is predicted to be more prevalent that A. ostoyae, since the former will flourish when there are environmental stresses. Management practices will require research and evaluation of the use of alternative native tree species that have a higher resistance to the Armillaria species within Alberta and the impacts of such alternatives to the forestry industry and community structure. Future research is also essential to determine if one promising biological control agent and fungus, Hypholoma fasciculare (Huds. ex. Fr.), will be a viable and cost effective method to control Armillaria species within Alberta.

The Framework Convention on Climate Change has yet to deal with tropical deforestation although it represents an important source of greenhouse gas emissions. In December 2005 negotiations on a possible regime to reduce emissions from deforestation resume under the impulse of a regime proposal based on the concept of compensated reduction. Over the course of 2006 Panamanian policy-makers working within the National Environmental Authority (ANAM) determine that such a regime is in the interest of Panama given that the integrity of the Kyoto Protocol's existing flexibility mechanisms is protected. However reducing its deforestation rate is not currently possible for Panama due to ANAM's limited institutional capacity to act on the field and limited political capacity to influence the national agenda. Important up-front flows of funds from developed countries combined with the adoption of a progressive project based compensation mechanism could contribute to reverse this trend.

This study has specifically developed and applied new methodologies and successfully captured very high‐resolution palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic data over a period ≤55 years in the Mid‐Devonian Orcadian Basin, Scotland. Analysis of 110 successive discrete laminae (55 varve sets) in a lacustrine sequence has produced the most detailed archive of environmental and climatic change through time ever from ancient sediments. Geological and geochemical data sets have captured intra‐annual (seasonal) variation in palaeoclimate and palaeoenvironment as well as short‐term cyclical change. Varve compositions (carbonate/clastic pairs) indicate a climate with substantial intra‐annual variation in rainfall. Cycles with an average periodicity of 12 years which have previously been attributed to sunspot solar forcing also show a shift in compositional dominance from allochthonous clastic material to authochthnonous carbonate precipitate over 12 years. This indicates that climatic wetness also varied cyclically. The abundance of specific biomarker compounds – particularly β,β‐carotane but also squalane and pristine/phytane coupled with elemental data (C/S) indicate that lake waters were hypersaline. Changes in the abundance and ratios of these salinity dependant proxies show that salinity varied seasonally as well as cyclically. Stable isotope data (δ13Ccarb / δ18Ocarb) show that temperature and primary productivity also varied on a seasonal and cyclical scale, while δ13Corg and the n‐alkane skew confirm that the organic carbon present was sourced predominantly from within‐lake algal sources at all timescales observed. The rate of carbon burial (MARcarbon) also exhibits cyclical variation. An antithetic relationship between δ18O–derived palaeotemperatures and a carbon burial efficiency parameter (forganic) at cycle scale shows that the fraction of organic carbon buried decreased as temperature increased.

No description available.

This thesis is a study of change and adaptability in a social-ecological system. In order to contribute to efforts toward sustainability on the British Columbia coast, the study focuses on the fisheries and aquaculture sector in Ucluelet, BC to investigate four specific issues, including: how coastal communities experience and deal with change; how global environmental change affects coastal communities; the key factors that build or threaten social-ecological resilience in coastal communities; and how resilience and adaptive capacity can be built to adapt to change and, in turn, shape change for sustainability. The findings of this thesis have relevance for systems on the British Columbia coast and at large. Above all, the experience in Ucluelet shows that the resilience of these communities is not in their maintenance of stability, but rather in their ability to turn successive experiences of change into opportunities for new cycles of more sustainable development and renewal. / Graduate

Climate change is one of the factors that pose new challenges to the sustainability of the capture fishery and aquaculture sector around the world. As concerns over the impacts of climate change on ecosystems have been increasing over the last few decades, this study investigated how anticipated changes in climatic conditions would affect Manila Clams and Pacific Oysters bottom culture in British Columbia (BC) and assessed the extent to which the environmental databases that have been assembled by various agencies and institutions in BC could support this type of analysis. This study examined changes in sea surface salinity (SSS) and sea surface temperature (SST) developed scenarios of these changes and analyzed the trends based on projections of SST and SSS of open ocean adjacent waters of BC’s coast. In addition, this study quantified beach exposure/inundation as result of sea level rise (SLR). Moreover, this study identified areas along the Strait of Georgia (SoG) that have capability for shellfish culture and defined capability indices for Manila Clams and Pacific Oysters bottom culture based on the physical conditions that characterize existing commercial aquaculture operations. Finally, this study assessed how bottom shellfish culture sites’ capability in the SoG will be affected by changes in SST, SSS and beach exposure/inundation associated with SLR. Results of the analysis indicate that the annual average projections of SST of open ocean adjacent waters of BC’s coast will increase approximately 10C between 2012 and 2050 at a rate of 0.1110C/year, and between 2051 and 2100 the SST will increase approximately 20C at a rate of 0.0330C/year. The annual average projections of SSS of open ocean adjacent waters of BC’s coast will decrease approximately 0.2 ppt between 2012 and 2050 at a rate of 0.0055 ppt/year. Furthermore, projections from 2051 to 2100 indicate that SST will decrease approximately 0.5 ppt at a rate of 0.0088 ppt/year. In addition to the performed analysis, this study selected and simulated SLR on three sites (Buckley Bay and Fanny Bay in Baynes Sound, and Henry Bay on Texada Island). The results indicate that an increase of 1.2 m in sea level will inundate 121 ha of Buckley Bay and Fanny Bay combined and 37 ha of Henry Bay. An increase of 2 m in sea level will inundate 195.2 ha of Buckley Bay and Fanny Bay, and, 51.4 ha of Henry Bay. Capability indices’ classes defined and mapped in this study for Manila Clams bottom culture are: Not advisable, Poor, Medium and Good; and Not Advisable, Medium and Good for Pacific Oysters. This study concluded that the existing datasets provided by various agencies and institutions are accessible, and can be used to investigate the impacts of climate change on coastal aquaculture in BC, although there is lack of some datasets as well as there is a need to improve some available datasets. This study also demonstrated and concluded that site capabilities to support Manila Clams and Pacific Oysters culture in the SoG will not be affected by the expected changes of SST, SSS. Changes in SST and SSS associated with SLR will not adversely affect shellfish bottom culture in the SoG. In contrary, SLR will have a negative impact on shellfish bottom culture. / Graduate

Climate change represents a challenging problem in public policy. This project examines various policy solutions to rising emissions, and suggests one that might be best suited to Canada, a highly-integrated, highly-developed economy which relies on natural resources, including fossil fuels, for its balance of payments, governmental revenues, and a small portion of its GDP. It adopts a public policy framework from Simpson, Rivers and Jaccard (2008) to analyze policy solutions using the following criteria: political acceptability, economic efficiency, administrative feasibility and effectiveness at reducing emissions. Additionally, it offers substantial discussion relating to the potential constraints and opportunities to climate change policy presented by NAFTA, compliance with which is key to the viability of any emissions regime. It advocates an upstream cap-and-trade system, integrated with the NAFTA area and regulated by an empowered Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), as well as complementary policies to lower emissions in inelastic sectors. / Graduate / mat.huff@gmail.com

Observations of the temperature structure of the stratosphere made by the selective chopper radiometer on the Nimbus 5 satellite are used to analyse the energetics of the sudden warming of January/February 1973. A method of retrieving vertical profiles of zonal Fourier coefficients of temperature from the Fourier coefficients of the measured radiances is described. Some retrievals are compared with conventional observations and quite good agreement is obtained. Comparison of independent estimates of the mean meridional circulation shows that the retrieved temperature and height fields are not sufficiently accurate to give precise values for the zonal mean vertical and meridional velocities. The implication of this result for the energy budget is demonstrated. The sudden warming is analysed first in terms of wave structure and changes in temperature and zonal wind. No evidence for an upward propagating temperature or geopotential disturbance is found. Wave amplifications are observed to occur simultaneously at all levels or to propagate downwards. Largest temperature changes occur in the upper middle stratosphere and maximum zonal flow accelerations in the upper stratosphere. The energy cycle of the lower middle stratosphere is found to be in agreement with observations of previous warmings except in that little increase in eddy energy occurs during the event. A marked baroclinic energy cycle below 10 mb in high latitudes is shown to enhance vertical energy propagation prior to the warming, leading to increased eddy available potential energy between 10 and 2 mb. The variation with latitude of the energetics during the warming is shown to be significant. In the upper stratosphere barotropic conversion from zonal to eddy kinetic energy dominates in mid-latitudes causing deceleration of the zonal flow there first. In high latitudes the deceleration of the zonal flow occurs through the action of the induced mean meridional circulation, while the major source of eddy kinetic energy here is convergence of the vertical eddy energy flux. Examination of the relationship between the latitudinal distributions of the vertical eddy energy flux and the zonal flow reveals that maximum upward propagation of energy is centred con- sistently to the north of the polar night jet until the onset of the warming when coincidence occurs. Some aspects of the observed warming are compared with numerical simulations of sudden warmings. Although the 1973 event is characterised by a wavenumber one disturbance some striking resemblances are found in two numerically simulated wavenumber two type warmings.

Thesis (PhD)--University of South Australia, 1997

Thesis (Ph. D. - Soil, Water and Environmental Science)--University of Arizona, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 175-187).