Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Agricultural Economics / Jeffrey M. Peterson / Water scarcity is already a critical issue in many regions across the world and in many places water supplies are likely to be further threatened by climate change (Bates et al., 2008). Climate change will affect water availability in these areas both directly and indirectly. The direct effects come about because increased temperature (accompanied by changes in wind, humidity, and solar radiation) may increase evaporative losses from surface water bodies, and also because reduced precipitation lowers the rate of water inflows. In the case of groundwater, these factors will reduce the rate of aquifer recharge (Bates et al., 2008). The indirect effects arise from the biophysical impacts of climate change on vegetation, which are induced from rising temperatures, changing precipitation regimes, and increased atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. As a result of climate change, significant changes are expected in the hydrological cycle. This research is focused in how climate change can affect crop, land, and water allocation over time. The specific issue of this research comes from the following question: Is climate change likely to have a significant impact on the effectiveness of different water conservation policies in the High Plains aquifer region? This study is focused on the American High Plains, one of the most important water-scarce agricultural regions in North America. The study region for this research is a 31-county area overlying the Ogallala aquifer in western Kansas. This region encompasses approximately the western third of Kansas. Across these counties, the estimated remaining usable lifetime for aquifer water ranges from 50 to over 200 years (KGS), representing the range of water available in various parts of the aquifer. A Positive Mathematical Programming (PMP) model (Howitt, 1995) was developed and calibrated to land- and water-use data in the thirty one county area for a base period of 2000-2008. The PMP simulation uses inputs of price conditions and the aquifer level in a given year to predict the acreages planted to each of the major crops and the water use by crop. Decision makers are assumed to maximize profits, given the limited availability of water and arable land. The major crops in the model include wheat, corn, sorghum, soybeans, and alfalfa; the vast majority of historical planted acreage in the case counties is comprised of these five crops. The model was run for each of the case regions after calibrating the PMP model to data from 2000-2008. Calibration ensures that the model predictions fall within a small tolerance of the base period observations. This step avoids the problem of over-specialization (where the model places all of the acreages under one or two of the most profitable crops), and gives realistic acres and water use figures with which to work. The results suggest that the effects of the use of water conservation policies such as water use restriction and permanent conversion to dryland crops have positive effects on the trends of the different variables studied. With the implementation of these two policies, lower levels of total water use and higher levels of saturated thickness result but with a consequence of lower levels of net returns. However, the positive effects are lower in almost all cases if the effects of climate change on the same policies are taken into consideration. The scenarios of higher levels of temperature and lower precipitation levels projected for the region imply a greater demand for water for irrigated crops that results in lower levels of saturated thickness and simultaneously lower levels of net returns.

This thesis presents a critical examination of climate change vulnerability and adaptation in the northern Kaipara Catchment of Aotearoa New Zealand. I suggest that in order for all communities in the Kaipara to adapt successfully to climate change, adaptation policies must attend to climate change vulnerability as a complex and multifaceted phenomenon. Using a political ecology framework, I show that a range of communities in the Kaipara have become vulnerable to harm associated with climate change because of the effects of marginalization. Because communities have been alienated from land, are restricted in their ability to exert sovereignty or control over land management, experience exclusion from environmental decision-making, and live with limited financial means, services, and infrastructure, they can experience heightened levels of exposure and sensitivity to climatic hazards, and have reduced capacity to adapt to changing conditions.

<p> In an effort to highlight best practices in the management of wild eastern brook trout, an examination was performed of brook trout management plans and stocking habits for seven randomly selected states within the species native range. Additionally, surveys were distributed to these state&rsquo;s members of Trout Unlimited (TU) in an effort to understand angler motivations, awareness of and attitudes about their state&rsquo;s stocking practices and protection of wild brook trout fisheries. The states selected were within the eastern brook trout&rsquo;s native range and included West Virginia, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Maine, Vermont, Maryland, and North Carolina. While each state differs in its efforts to either restore or protect existing wild brook trout populations, all seven states continue to stock hatchery-raised brook trout to maintain a viable sport fishery. However, regarding stocking dynamics, each state has unique policies regarding where the stocking occurs in relation to how these efforts potentially impacts wild populations. Survey results indicated that, while the majority of TU members expressed a strong understanding of their states stocking practices, they were still strongly interested in gaining additional information, indicating a need for more transparency regarding stocking habits and practices. Furthermore, survey results indicated that a large percentage of TU members still enjoy fishing for popular, nonnative, sport fish such as bass and brown trout. Additionally, support for policies protecting wild brook trout diminished as opportunities for catching larger fish diminished along with the removal of popular, nonnative sport fish. Overall, results indicated a need for fisheries managers to work more closely with cold-water conservation organizations, such as Trout Unlimited, and their members to assist in the crafting of policies that benefit both the sport fishing industry and wild brook trout populations.</p>

Namibia’s community based natural resource management program (CBNRM) integrates local participation in rural development and biodiversity conservation. This effort was launched through key legislation that devolved the right to manage wildlife and other renewable resources on communal lands from the state to community level conservancies. Local participation is dependent upon the capacity of the locals to self mobilize and establish conservancies, plan and implement their programs, and monitor and evaluate their progresses and impacts. Accordingly, this study examines the role of capacity development (CD) in CBNRM, particularly its processes, products, performance, and permanence at the individual, organizational (conservancy), and community levels. The research was carried out using interviews and participatory self-assessment exercises with various conservancy stakeholders. This study uncovers why and how capacity development has to be based on local realities and aspirations where capacity users need to have ownership of the process through partnerships with service providers in order to enhance endogenous capacity. However, such notion of “partnership” between CD stakeholders is challenging to translate into reality in the face of power imbalances, where government and NGOs are continuously influenced and coerced by donor interests, where NGOs are considered stronger than the government because they control more financial and human resources, and where conservancies tend to report upwards to NGOs and government instead of their constituents. Moreover, this research reiterates that CD has to be holistic enough to incorporate individual, organizational, and community level changes in order to create sustainable capacities and prevent problems of elitism, manipulation, and dependency on few individuals. With respect to CBNRM, the research argues that its basic premise of diversifying rural livelihoods using incentives to bring about sustainable resource management can only be achieved when conservancies have the capacity to create representative and participatory democratic processes, and when they are able to generate equitable and reliable tangible benefits with manageable costs to their constituents. As seen in this study, when such governance and benefit sharing structures are in place, they enhance local participation by promoting political empowerment, trust, ownership, and positive attitude towards living with wildlife. However, if such conditions are not met, local participation is reduced, while intra-community conflicts from marginalization to nepotism and members’ dissatisfaction and disinterest are inevitable. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

abstract: The Gulf of Mexico (or “Gulf”) is of critical significance to the oil and gas industries’ offshore production, but the potential for accidental petrochemical influx into the Gulf due to such processes is high; two of the largest marine oil spills in history, Pemex's Ixtoc I spill (1979) and British Petroleum's (BP) Deepwater Horizon (2010), have occurred in the region. However, the Gulf is also of critical significance to thousands of unique species, many of which may be irreparably harmed by accidental petrochemical exposure. To better manage the conservation and recovery of marine species in the Gulf ecosystem, a Petrochemical Vulnerability Index was developed to determine the potential impact of a petrochemical influx on Gulf marine fishes, therein providing an objective framework with which to determine the best immediate and long term management strategies for resource managers and decision-makers. The resulting Petrochemical Vulnerability Index (PVI) was developed and applied to all bony fishes and shark/ray species in the Gulf of Mexico (1,670 spp), based on a theoretical petrochemical vulnerability framework developed by peer review. The PVI for fishes embodies three key facets of species vulnerability: likelihood of exposure, individual sensitivity, and population resilience, and comprised of 11 total metrics (Distribution, Longevity, Mobility, Habitat, Pre-Adult Stage Length, Pre-Adult Exposure; Increased Adult Sensitivity Due to UV Light, Increased Pre-Adult Sensitivity Due to UV Light; and Abundance, Reproductive Turnover Rate, Diet/Habitat Specialization). The resulting PVI can be used to guide attention to the species potentially most in need of immediate attention in the event of an oil spill or other petrochemical influx, as well as those species that may require intensive long-term recovery. The scored relative vulnerability rankings can also provide information on species that ought to be the focus of future toxicological research, by indicating which species lack toxicological data, and may potentially experience significant impacts. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Applied Biological Sciences 2020

I studied aspects of fisher (Martes pennanti) population ecology on the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation in northern California to fill critical information gaps relative to timber management and its effect on the status of fishers, a candidate for listing under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. A decline in mark-resight density estimates of fishers from 1998 (52/100 km2; 95% CI = 43–64) to 2005 (14/100 km2; 13–16) was likely due to changes in prey habitat suitability, increased predation pressure, and/or disease. The decline was also indicated by catch-per-unit effort indices, but not by camera station or track-plate station indices. Colleagues and I developed and tested methods of collecting mark-recapture data using genetic marking, passive integrated transponder (PIT) tag technology, and digital, passive-infrared photography that could be used in a demographic monitoring protocol. The comparatively high cost of PIT tag reading equipment and genetic analyses makes the use these methods dramatically more expensive and yield less demographic data compared to using a traditional mark-recapture approach using only live trapping. By monitoring 40 radio-marked, breeding age (≥ 2 years old) females during 2005–2011, we found that 87% exhibited denning behavior and 65% of these were successful in weaning at least one kit (mean = 1.9). Of 14 kits radio-marked in their first fall, 3 died prior to dispersal, 3 lost collars, and the other 8 established home ranges 0.8–18.0 km away from natal areas. Nipple size (width multiplied by height of the largest anterior nipple), evaluated as a predictive index of female fisher reproductive success, differed among nonbreeders vs. attempted and current breeders. A predictive index for use in assigning reproductive status to females with unknown reproductive histories had an overall correct classification rate of 81% and a chance-corrected measure of prediction of 69.5%. These results illustrate the value in establishing long-term, accurate programs to monitor populations of imperiled species which strive to determine cause and affect relationships to changes in populations and ultimately, modeling habitat fitness. The relatively low reproductive rate of female fishers brings into question the species ability to demographically respond to increased rates of juvenile and adult mortality with increased reproduction and/or survival. The limited dispersal capability of juvenile fishers restricts ability to rescue vanishing local populations from extirpation, re-inhabit landscapes from which they were previously extirpated, and establish the functional connectivity of metapopulations.

No description available.

This study contributes to the discussion of managing tourism to a protected area in a developing country (Galapagos, Ecuador). The first part of the analysis provides quantitative data about preferences of tourists and potential impacts on park revenues from price discrimination. It uses the data from a choice experiment survey conducted in the summer of 2009 in which these four attributes of a tour of the Galapagos were described: tour length, depth of naturalist experience, level of protection of Galapagos from invasive species, and price of the tour. On average the Galapagos tourist would be willing to pay slightly more than 2.5 times for a trip with a high-level of environmental protection than for a trip that is equivalent on all other characteristics but has a lower level of environmental protection. The mean marginal willingness to pay (MWTP) for a trip with an in-depth naturalist experience is 1.8 times more than that for a trip with a less detailed naturalist experience but equivalent on other characteristics. The relatively inelastic demand for travel to the islands would allow managers to adjust access fees to shift the distribution of length of trips while not affecting the revenues. The second part of the analysis evaluates the influence on travel to the islands by depicting Galapagos as a standard market commodity as well as depicting it as an environmental commodity. This analysis compares the results obtained from two different choice experiment surveys given to tourists finishing their trip to Galapagos. One survey design portrays the archipelago as a standard holiday island destination while the other design highlights the uniqueness and vulnerability of the islands' biodiversity and the challenges that tourism poses to the islands' conservation. Results suggest that additional information modified an individual's decision-making process. In the first design case (which excludes environmental information), the influence of attributes such as length and depth of natural experience is attenuated. The MWTPs estimated for these attributes are smaller in absolute terms although differences on the MWTP are not statistically significant.

No description available.

No description available.