Bee pollinators can thrive in highly urbanized environments if their preferred floral resources and habitat types are available. Enhanced pollinator habitats are being created globally, with a large local effort in Portland, Oregon. This project determined if we were providing the most preferred floral resources at enhanced pollinator sites for bees, if floral resources were available throughout the season, and if differences in dietary preferences between native and honey bees would allow for the identification of "native bee floral resources" in South East Portland. Bee pollinators were monitored from June to August at three enhanced pollinator sites in South East Portland, Oregon. A total of 566 individual bees were observed, tiny dark bees and bumblebees composed the large majority of the urban bee composition. Vegetation metrics and bee presence were correlated using a Generalized Linear Mixed Model and significant variables that predicted bee presence included Solidago canadenisis (p-value 0.0024), density of floral resources (p-value

Nearly extirpated from the Central Appalachians, USA by the mid-1900s as a result of human persecution, loss of forests, and absence of large mammal carrion, remnant populations of common ravens (Corvus corax) have recolonized portions of their historical range. One such area of recolonization is southeastern Kentucky where the species is listed as state threatened. Southeastern Kentucky appears to have extensive suitable breeding habitat, but raven records remain relatively rare with sightings and a few nests being confirmed during the past three decades. Because little is known about local ecology or population status of this reclusive corvid in Kentucky, I assessed distribution and occupancy of ravens in available cliff habitat to quantify factors that affect detectability of ravens, identify landscape attributes important to raven breeding locations at multiple scales, and develop a protocol for monitoring occupancy of potential raven breeding habitats in Kentucky. Based on surveys of 23 cliff sites during 2009–2010, I found that ravens are highly detectable (p=0.90 (95% CI = 0.81–0.95)) at known occupied cliff sites, suggesting a survey effort consisting of two visits, each lasting one hour, will enable occupancy to be determined with 95% confidence. Using this and the habitat information associated with occupancy (cliff area and horizontal strata orientation), a monitoring protocol was developed and initiated in 2011 that should be useful to wildlife managers and land stewards interested in long-term monitoring, management, and conservation of common ravens in Kentucky’s cliff habitat.

The main purpose of this thesis is to understand the relationship between natural resources and conflict and cooperation. In this research, I develop a theory of resource dependence focusing on water and energy resources that are important to people’s survival and national economy and security. I theorize the relationship between resource dependence and interstate conflict in two ways. First, I argue that as a state becomes more dependent on natural resources, the state is less likely to engage in conflict with other states. Resource dependence reduces conflict risks because a state with greater resource dependence does not want to lose any benefits that they currently enjoy from natural resources and as a result the potential costs of conflict increases. Second, I argue that as two states become more extensively (salience) and equally (symmetry) reliant on natural resources together, they are less likely to fight. Since they have similar benefits associated with natural resources that neither states want to lose, they have more incentives to avoid risky conflict over natural resources. To examine my theory of resource dependence and conflict, I create an original measure of a state’s level of dependence on freshwater resources and energy resources, in particular focusing on a state’s electricity demands, areas of river basins, and values of energy resources. I also create a dyadic measure of resource dependence (salience, symmetry, and interdependence). By using river-specific conflict data from the Transboundary Freshwater Disputes Database (TFDD) and militarized interstate disputes (MIDs) data from the Correlates of War (COW) project from 1960 – 2001, I test my arguments of the relationship between a state’s resource dependence and conflict at the monadic and the dyadic levels, as well as individual level in terms of citizens’ trust in government. Empirical analyses at the monadic level show that as a state becomes more dependent on water and energy resources, the state is less likely to engage in river conflicts with other states. However, a state’s resource dependence does not influence the chances for militarized conflict in shared river basins at the monadic level. Empirical results at the dyadic level also support my theory of resource dependence and conflict: as two states in a dyad become more extensively and equally dependent on water and energy resources, they are less likely to experience diplomatic conflicts and militarized interstate disputes. While high levels of resource dependence (demand and supply) reduce conflict at the monadic and dyadic levels, I find that pairs of countries with symmetric levels of resource dependence face higher conflict risks. In terms of trust in government, I find that a state’s level of resource dependence has positive impacts on people’s perception toward the government. My dissertation makes several contributions to the field of resource conflict and international relations. This study is one of the first efforts to look at the degree of dependence on natural resources to understand the variation in conflict and cooperation over natural resources. The chances for interstate conflict varies under the same scarcity (e.g. lack of water) or abundance resource conditions (e.g. both states oil producers). By looking at a state’s level of resource dependence varying over time and space, this research can uncover more detailed understandings about the states or dyads most likely to fight over water and energy resources. This study is one of the first to use a state’s electricity needs as a measure to capture a state’s dependence on natural resources. Electricity is crucial to a state’s political economy and people’s survival. Hence, by looking at the level of electricity demands by a state regarding water and energy resources, we can understand how much a state depends on natural resources. Furthermore, this research sheds light on how a state’s dependence on natural resources affect people’s trust in government, beyond previous study’s resource curse argument. Different from the previous researchers’ pessimistic diagnosis on natural resources, a state’s high level of dependence on natural resources can contribute to people’s better perception toward the government. Theoretically, my theory of resource dependence and conflict establishes a direct connection between a relatively new field of natural resource conflict with well-developed and classic International Relations and Political Economy research. Practically, my research can help policy makers figure out where and when resource conflict is most likely between countries. Policy makers can develop policy provisions properly to avoid conflict and to encourage peaceful and cooperative resolution over natural resources between countries.

Better management of water resources is a growing concern with increasing stress on natural resources. Despite technological improvements in the past decades, a method to instantaneously measure soil water flux remains elusive, especially at a resolution adequate for monitoring natural processes (i.e. 1 mm d-1). The objectives of this research were to evaluate and improve two emerging methods for water flux estimates, 1) streaming potential and 2) heat pulse measurements, as tools to perform at these low flux rates. Streaming potential measures a voltage between two electrodes resulting from water with charged particles generating a current as it flows between the charged surfaces of the soil. Heat pulse measurements, performed with a penta-needle heat pulse probe (PHPP), measure the transport rate and direction of a heat pulse as it propagates from a central needle to surrounding thermistors through soil. Water moving past this sensor carries heat and this allows estimation of water flux from measured heat flux. Streaming potential experimentation demonstrated a clear voltage response to low flow rates. Unfortunately, inconsistent results coupled with measurement complications – susceptibility to electromagnetic noise, drifting, etc. – led to difficulties when trying to establish a congruent relationship between flow rate and voltage behavior. We concluded that the necessary steps to potentially improve measurement consistency made streaming potential less desirable to pursue compared to other emerging tools for water flux measurements. Heat pulse work focused on modifying design parameters to improve low flux rate determination. We tested the effect of increasing heater needle diameter (from 2 mm to 5 mm), increasing heating time (from 8 to 24 and 40 seconds), and doubling heat input (from 120 W m-1 to 240 W m-1) in saturated sand. Results indicated that using larger heater needles and higher heat input improve flux estimation but increasing heating time resulted in marginal improvement. By using a PHPP with a 5 mm heater needle, 24 second heating time, and 240 W m-1 heating input, fluxes were resolved down to 1 cm d-1. Refinement of calibration procedures and inconsistencies between probes used must be resolved if measurement resolution is to be improved further.

A twenty-one year (1952-72) accumulation of banding data for Canada geese in Utah was studied to determine the distribution and chronology of the harvest of the geese and the effects that hunting regulations have had upon harvests and population parameters. The banding data were also used in an attempt to develop a population model capable of predicting population trends and desirable survival rates. Within Utah, the bulk of the annual harvest (78 percent) takes place in the northern portion of the State in the vicinity of the Great Salt Lake marshes. In Northern Utah the harvest peaks on the opening weekend, and approximately 50 percent of the annual harvest takes place by day 21 of an average hunting season of 82 days. Most of the harvest in Northern Utah is made up of geese produced in Utah. Peak harvests in Southern Utah do not occur until well into the average season, and non- Utah produced geese comprise a larger proportion of the harvest in Southern Utah than in Northern Utah. The harvest in Eastern Utah appears to be largely dependent on geese produced outside of the State. Outside Utah, harvests of Utah produced Canada geese have increased. Prior to 1950, over 80 percent of the recoveries of Utah-banded geese were made in Utah. The percentage steadily declined to less than 50 during the early 1970s. Stepwise multiple regression analysis revealed that only one hunting regulation, the daily bag limit, had a statistically significant relationship with estimates of annual harvests and band recovery rates . No regulations had statistically significant relationships with estimates of annual survival rates. Annual estimates of band recovery rates declined significantly during the period 1952-72, but estimates of annual survival rates for the same period showed no significant trend and were comparable to pre-1950 estimates. The attempt to formulate a population model was a failure. This was due in part to calculation errors associated with critical input to the model. However, the failure was largely due to the lack of a theoretically sound foundation.

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The primary aim of the research conducted for this thesis was to develop a predictive model of information systems success for a publicly-available, web-based application that provides information to users on both the value of carbon credits that result from sequestration of carbon in a forest as well as potential earnings from supply of saleable timber. The application, also developed as part of this research, is called the CO2 Calculator. In addition attitudes of respondents to climate change and carbon sequestration were also gauged to ascertain their knowledge of key environmental issues relevant to the system.The model used as the foundation for the research is the DeLone and McLean (1992, 2002, 2003) model of information systems success. This model was adapted to measure information systems success for the CO2 Calculator which is a publicly available, web-based application rather than a proprietary, task-specific, organizationally focused application as measured in the prior research.Data was collected via a survey dispatched by email to users who accessed the CO2 Calculator. The survey instrument used builds on the existing work of Torkzadeh and Doll (1988, 1999), Seddon and Kiew (1994) and Torkzadeh et al. (2005). All of these researchers used variations of the End User Survey (EUS) to collect data on end users’ perceptions of the success of various applications, all of which were internal, organisationally-focussed, task specific, proprietary systems. This meant the survey items used for the current research were adapted to measure users’ attitudes to a publicly-available, web-based application that had no task-specific roles in an organisation.Analysis of the data proceeded in two distinct phases. The first phase was the examination and presentation of descriptive information about the demographic characteristics of the sample and the users’ attitudes to climate change, carbon sequestration and the overall success of the CO2 Calculator. The descriptive data indicated the respondents are a technologically literate group who have concerns related to environmental management and the use of land for sustainable practices. It also showed that the users were extremely satisfied with the CO2 Calculator.In the second phase Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was used to examine the constructs underlying the data and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used to examine the relationships among the constructs. Both the EFA and SEM resulted in structures and relationships that differed from the hypothesised outcomes and revealed a set of constructs and relationships that were clearly associated with the success of a publicly-available, web based application with different theoretical associations than those found by previous researchers examining organisationally-focussed, proprietary applications.Regression analyses were also conducted to check the relationships among constructs that were omitted from the final structural model, but were on the hypothesised model. Support for their inclusion in further studies was found as the analysis identified that the scales used to measure these constructs were significant predictors of the outcome variables although not when networked with those constructs that were on the final measurement model.Notwithstanding the limitations of the research, it has resulted in the identification of a predictive model of information success for web-based, publicly available, nonorganisationally focused systems.

Bibliography: leaves 99-102. Identifies aesthetic knowledge as a fundamentally linked perceptual and ontological process. Aesthetic processes are identified as criteria relevant for locating and advocating ethics in 'eco-culturally sustainable development'. Cultural actions are ethical evaluations about valuing nature.