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<p> This thesis traces the coastal restoration movement in Louisiana from the early identification of coastal land loss by scientists to the introduction of proactive legislation by politicians like Senator John Breaux. Serving to highlight the transcendence of Louisiana&rsquo;s problem from a local issue to one of national significance, the focal point of this work is the 1990 federal Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection, and Restoration Act or &ldquo;Breaux Act.&rdquo; The restoration of Louisiana&rsquo;s wetlands arose from an emphasis on their economic importance purported by grassroots groups like the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, as well as state and federal politicians. Due to the atypical nature of this disaster, meaning its difference from typical disasters that are readily apparent and fast acting, such as hurricanes, earthquakes, and tornadoes, the movement to properly address it was rather convoluted and never quite resulted in complete success.</p>

<p> Using palynological data, this project explores how changing land use practices associated with successive waves of colonial settlement shaped local environments in La Cienega, New Mexico. This is accomplished by linking collected pollen data to known historic occupations beginning with pre-colonial Puebloan populations and continuing through the present day, encompassing both Hispanic and Anglo-American colonial occupations. The data were collected from a single sediment core taken at a small pond located within La Cienega. Pollen from 12 samples was analyzed, providing a 600-year record of changes within local plant communities. The collected data are interpreted in relation to known archaeological sites within La Cienega as well as historical accounts of colonial settlement and practice within the region. Ultimately, the pollen data reveal complex and subtle changes to the landscape that run counter to other studies of environmental change in colonial settings, which stress large scale change and degradation associated with European colonial practice. Instead, the data from La Cienega show persistence within local ecosystems and land-use practice occurring alongside changes influenced by new agro-pastoral regimes and demographic change. This draws into question existing models that stress discontinuity between pre-colonial and colonial societies, while also emphasizing the role of the physical environment in mediating the colonial experience. By engaging environmental data, this research highlights the complex relationships that exist between human communities and their landscape, while also discussing the particularities of colonial settlement in the American Southwest. Furthermore it highlights the efficacy of palynology to aid in understanding the ecology of colonial settlement.</p>

The Caspian Sea is the world's largest closed body of water, and it has a number of unique features, not least, the considerable fluctuations in water level during the 20th century. This water level dropped by 3 m from 1929 to 1977, increased rapidly by 2.6 m during thetwo decades following, and from 1995 a slow rate of change continues. It is likely that the underlying causes of these water level changes are the human activities in the Caspian Sea Basin but literature shows that climate change also had a significant effect. Moreover, these sea level changes occur in a region with a high intrinsic level of seismic activity due to its tectonic setting. Since the sea level fluctuations represent very large scale changes in the loading of the Earth's crust, it seems likely that they are responsible for aspects of the overall seismicity. This is analogous to the problem of Reservoir Induced Seismicity, although even the largest reservoirs are tiny compared to the Caspian Sea. The research reviews the available data to create a reliable database of seismic events in the desired timeframe and location. It was observed that there was a correlation between the Caspian Sea level fluctuations and changes in regional seismicity. Further analysis indicated changes in the b-value of the Gutenberg-Richter Relationship that had an inverse correlation with water level fluctuations, demonstrating that RIS effects are significant. Through statistical examination of the earthquakes listed in the catalogue, the research attempted to find events which could possibly be induced earthquakes. Another large scale effect of the Caspian Sea level changes is investigated on its coasts where the beach profiles were affected by these changes. This sea is a unique laboratory for studies related to sea level rise and several studies have been performed by other researchers on the northern and western Caspian Sea coast. The southern coast, however, has not been adequately explored, thus this research aimed to investigate this part of the coastline. Three field surveys were made along 700 km of the southern coast. In addition to shore sediment sampling, land forms were mapped. Also, deep sediments were sampled by divers along profiles at right angles to the coast at 5 depths up to a depth of 10 m, and hydrographic profiles were surveyed. Laboratory tests were performed on the collected sediment samples. Several classifications were generated based on different factors, and finally, the southern Caspian Sea coast was classified into four categories with respect to their behaviour in response to sea level change. This study investigates the cause and two large scale impacts of the changing water level in the Caspian Sea, and provides a database for future studies. The result can be applied to predict future problems if the water level of the Caspian Sea continues to show considerable changes.

The enhanced warming effect possibly due to anthropogenic green house gas emissions has led to the derangement of global climatic mechanisms (especially at the interannual scale). This has led to the disturbances to the equilibrium of the Earth System and the interconnected self-regulatory processes. Terrestrial vegetation takes an active role in the regulation of the equilibrium of the Earth System by the processes of resistance and resilience. Whilst comprehensive and extensive modelling studies that investigate the effects of climatic change in terrestrial systems have been undertaken, few investigations have focused on the change and evolution in these systems from a holistic geophysiological perspective. In the first part of this thesis, econometric time-series modelling techniques were applied to National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer derived Normalized Difference Vegetation Index data sets in order to evaluate the responses of terrestrial South American vegetation to the interannual El Nifio Southern Oscillation climatic perturbations. Lags between vegetation response and the El Nifio Southern Oscillation perturbations are identified and quantified. The results indicate that the terrestrial vegetation loses its sensitivity to El Nifio Southern Oscillation perturbations in the post 1993 period, leading to the hypothesis that the terrestrial system maybe showing a Gaian behaviour that would enable homeostasis in the system of concern. The null hypothesis of this was tested using a stochastic Auto Regressive Integrative Moving Average model, which further strengthens the argument put forward by the hypothesis. Further comprehensive analysis was performed by using the Hybrid version 4.1, a mechanistical model of vegetation dynamics to test the effects of varying changes in the phase and amplitudes of the El Nino Southern Oscillation on terrestrial vegetation. Simulations of different interannual El Nino Southern Oscillation climatic scenarios under varying trends for increases in atmospheric C02 concentrations confirm the possibility of such a homeostatic property in the terrestrial vegetation system within its geophysiological limits.