Thesis (Ph.D.)--Portland State University, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.Hous.Man.)--University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 131-136).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 169-181).

<p> Seagrass ecosystems are some of the most productive in the world and provide a variety of ecosystem services but are facing global decline chiefly due to anthropogenic disturbance. Mechanical disturbances to seagrass meadows from anchoring, propeller scars, and mooring scars result in losses or damage to both shoots and the underlying rhizome. I conducted a literature synthesis on the extent of, recovery from, and ecological impacts of these mechanical disturbances to seagrass meadows. The literature suggests that anchoring damage tends to be worst in deeper water where larger vessels anchor and can cause large (>100m²) loss per anchoring and recovery may take decades to over a century. Propeller damage is of largest concern in shallow (&lt;2m) areas experiencing heavy boat traffic because propeller damage can only occur where the propeller can come close to the seagrass. Mooring damage is highly variable depending on the type of mooring used (&lt;10m² to >1000m² scoured per mooring). Seagrass patches experiencing these mechanical disturbances have, in some studies, been found to have lower seagrass percent cover and shoot density than reference areas. This indicates scars can have &lsquo;halos&rsquo; of impacted seagrass meadow. Some seagrass systems cannot recover within a century (e.g. <i>Posidonia oceanica</i> meadows at the extent of their depth tolerance) while others recover annually from some disturbances (e.g., anchor scars &lt;1m²). Systems face altered species composition when scars are preferentially recolonized by certain species and patterns of recovery are affected by altered biogeochemical conditions following disturbances. Additionally, mooring, anchoring, and propeller scarring frequently alter meadow density, cover, patch size, patch shape, patch isolation, edge area, and ratios of edge to interior meadow leading to changes in faunal community structure. Correlations between these disturbances and faunal abundances, densities, and richness in seagrass ecosystems are complex, vary temporally (sometimes on the scale of days), and may result in species showing positive, negative, or no responses to a wide range of disturbance regimes. </p><p> To explore the connections between mooring scarring, the surrounding seagrass meadow condition and epifaunal community, in the second part of this thesis I measured 30 mooring scars to determine average scar size. To explore any potential &lsquo;halo&rsquo; effect around mooring scars for seagrass or epifauna and to seek any difference in epifaunal community between mooring and reference sites I also sampled paired sites at eight locations in Nantucket Harbor, Massachusetts three times each in the summer of 2015. Each location consisted of a meadow site actively experiencing mooring scarring and a reference site without moorings. My conservative sampling methods of the 30 sampled mooring scars found scars to average 21.1m². Across my paired sites, seagrass was found to have lower cover and lower canopy height in mooring versus reference sites. Seagrass cover and canopy height were lower in the first few meters (typically 2-3m) surrounding each scar in comparison to paired reference quadrats indicating a &lsquo;halo&rsquo; effect of each scar. I did not detect a difference in epifaunal community composition or density per blade between mooring and reference sites; however, the relatively constant per blade concentration of epifauna combined with the differences in seagrass biomass between the mooring versus reference sites indicate an overall increase in the total amount of epifauna in areas with less disturbance. Epifaunal community composition was different and between locations and sampling dates indicating these factors are more important than proximity to mooring scarring in determining epifaunal abundance and richness. When considering scar area and the &lsquo;halo&rsquo; of each scar I estimate that at least 32ha (2%) of Nantucket Harbor was impacted by mooring scarring. Given that the estimates of seagrass do not include areas previously denuded of this plant and that my measurements were conservative, likely a larger portion of this harbor&rsquo;s potential seagrass habitat is impacted. Combined with the findings of loss due to these direct boat-related physical disturbances of seagrass meadows worldwide across regions, this halo effect is likely to also be found for moorings globally. I encourage management of the issue by employing and fine-tuning mooring methods (such as deploying moorings with anchor connections that do not drag on the sea floor) to minimize these unintentional but strong effects of mooring on the recipient habitat.</p><p>

Recent trends indicate that firms are spending more money and resources on environmental protection and are seeking proactive ways to reduce the environment impact of their business actions. This dissertation discusses the impact of environmental issues on strategy formulation and proposes underlying themes of corporate environmentalism based on inclusion of the biophysical environment in strategy, formulation, and organization wide recognition of and response to environmental issues. Corporate environmentalism is proposed to consist of two constructs: an overall corporate environmental orientation wherein environmentalism is internalized as a corporate value, and an environmental strategic focus involving the integration of environmental issues into the strategic planning process. The construct of corporate environmentalism is operationalized and the relationship with its antecedents is empirically tested. Using theoretical perspectives from ecology, marketing, and strategic management, this study builds an integrated model of corporate environmentalism including its antecedents and consequences. Public concern, threat of legislation, top management commitment, long term focus, and the need for competitive advantage are some antecedents that were gleaned from the literature. A two-stage methodology was used: the first stage involved in-depth interviews with managers of 6 firms. Based on these interviews three models of corporate environmentalism were constructed. The second stage involved empirical testing of these models. A survey instrument was designed and mailed to 1012 firms. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis of the constructs of corporate environmentalism was done to examine the dimensionality of the constructs. The models were tested using path analysis. Top management commitment and the need for competitive advantage emerged as the two key variables that explained corporate environmentalism. Public concern and the threat of legislation indirectly influenced corporate environmentalism through top management commitment. Strategic implications of corporate environmentalism for firms are discussed and a framework for future research on environmental issues facing business is proposed.

Interest in corporate environmentalism has exploded in recent years from a minor concern to a serious endeavor. Most firms today devote an average of 1-2% of revenues to environmental matters. Recent research has shown that an upstream, proactive approach to environmental strategy can lead to win-win outcomes and improved environmental and financial performance. Much has been learned about how top managers develop and promote proactive ecostrategies, and the details of employee contributions are also becoming clear. However, middle managers' contributions to realized ecostrategy are largely unexplored, as are multilevel aspects of environmental strategy making. Drawing from literatures of strategic processes, organizational behavior, and environmentalism, the dissertation hypothesized that attitudes, behaviors, communication style, and identity orientation of middle managers is associated with the promotion of environmental initiatives by subordinates. A quantitative case study tested the hypotheses. Three companies in the retail grocery business participated in the study, and survey data was collected from 584 managers at three organizational levels. The final sample consisted of 406 managers, and hierarchical linear regression was used to analyze the data. Results show that middle managers' activities and attitudes are indeed related significantly to emergent environmental initiatives in the organizations studied. Thus, middle managers are critical, central players in achieving environmental performance improvements. In addition, specific patterns of middle manager involvement varied significantly by company, and there were indications that these patterns were related to organizational culture. Other results include the development and validation of an expanded measure of environmental initiative development that, for the first time, delineates a multiphasic process and proves useful in understanding the nuanced nature of proactive ecostrategy making. Similarly, the dissertation combined and retested previous findings from organizational behavior, strategic, and relational models of organizational environmentalism, thereby permitting comparison of the relative influence of different factors for the first time. Finally, this study represents the first use of multilevel quantitative analysis, specifically multilevel regression and hierarchical linear modeling, in the study of environmentalism in organizations. These results reinforce the value of mesolevel studies of environmentalism by providing depth and nuance that is inaccessible in organization-level quantitative studies or qualitative case studies.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 361-391).

No description available.

The aims of the work reported in this thesis are: (1) To investigate the application of a Wave Analysis Approach in the study of the acoustics of small rooms where the conditions for a Geometrical Statistical Analysis are not valid.

No description available.