A limestone sample was scanned using computed tomography (CT) and the hydraulic conductivity of the 3D reconstructed sample was determined using Lattice- Boltzmann methods (LBM) at varying scales. Due to the shape and size of the original sample, it was challenging to obtain a consistent rectilinear test sample. Through visual inspection however, 91 mm and 76 mm samples were digitally cut from the original. The samples had porosities of 58% and 64% and produced hydraulic conductivity values of K= 13.5 m/s and K=34.5 m/s, respectively. Both of these samples were re-sampled to 1/8 and 1/64 of their original size to produce new virtual samples at lower resolutions of 0.542 mm/lu and 1.084 mm/lu, while still representing the same physical dimensions. The hydraulic conductivity tended to increase slightly as the resolution became coarser. In order to determine an REV, the 91 mm sample was also sub-sampled into blocks that were 1/8 and 1/64 the size of the original. The results were consistent with analytical expectations such as those produced by the Kozeny-Carman equation. A definitive REV size was not reached, however, indicating the need for a larger sample. The methods described here demonstrate the ability of LBM to test rock structures and sizes not normally attainable.

<p>Forest Conservation and People’s Livelihoods: Explaining Encroachment on Zambia’s Protected Forest Landscapes - The Case Of Mwekera National Forest, Kitwe, Copperbelt</p><p>Abstract</p><p>The conflicts between conservation objectives and the livelihood needs of local communities are intricate and difficult to resolve and yet the success of any conservation effort hinges on their solution. This is particularly true in forest conservation in Third World countries like Zambia, where rural populations depend directly on forest resources, which are in many cases protected.</p><p>Forest reserves in Zambia have undergone drastic changes over the years due to encroachment by such human activities as agriculture, charcoal burning and even settlements. This has led to the deforestation of most of them including Mwekera National Forest in Kitwe on the Copperbelt province. The Forest Department has attempted to involve the people in the management of these resources in a bid to redress the trend. But the fundamental causes for the encroachment and deforestation are not clear. This study was focused on unearthing the underlying causes of encroachment and the subsequent deforestation of Mwekera National Forest. This was done through a qualitative ethnographic approach employing individual interviews, focused group discussions, observations and pictures of relevant phenomena. The target groups included the forest communities living in and around Mwekera National Forest as well as government forestry officials at both local and national levels. The study was based on nature-culture theory, knowledge systems theory as well as the participatory approach.</p><p>The study reveals that macro-economic policies such as privatisation of the mines has undermined people’s livelihoods while the inefficient and bureaucratic land delivery system made “vacant” protected forest land an attractive option. The policy contradictions between the forest sector and other sectors such as energy, agriculture and land have not helped matters. Organisational constraints on the Forest Department such as its inadequate human, financial and other resources coupled with the delay in its transformation to a more autonomous Forest Commission have not secured protected forests. Its old centralist management approach has made participation by local people difficult to effect despite being provided for under new forestry policy and law. This has meant that decisions made by officials lack meaningful involvement and support of the local people, thereby seriously hindering effective forest protection. Herein lies one major cause of encroachment.</p>

<p>Abstract</p><p>Global aquaculture production has grown rapidly and is now among the fastest growing food production sectors in many countries.Introduced over the past 50 years or so,aquaculture in Africa has gone through different levels of growth. The desirability of aquaculture has been due to unreliable and unsustainable use of natural waters for capture fisheries. Due to the country’s concern, the government of Uganda has promoted aquaculture before for nutritional values. However, current policy initiatives that call for collective actions are geared towards commercial aquaculture development.</p><p>This work focuses on several aspects of aquaculture development in Uganda viz; past,present and future, potential, reared fish species, benefits, constraints and these are reflected in the policy and institutional arrangements with in the sector. This work has been undertaken with the aim of providing in detail the possible ways and means for sustainable utilization of aquaculture outcomes. Emphasis has been on how members of Kigoowa Catholic Women’s Development Association (KCWDA) have been empowered through group formation and aquaculture activities.</p><p>This work also analyses the dynamic gender relations that exist in resource ownership, access and use in Uganda and the implications thereof to aquaculture growth and expansion. Included are the possible options vulnerable people especially women undertake to sustain their livelihoods and those of their families and the community as a whole.</p><p>The information in this work is discussed in line with the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework. It therefore aims at providing an additional reference text on the subject and in the context of aquaculture. Details about certain concepts, policies and principles, nature of the sector and supportive literature on various issues are discussed.</p>

Table Mountain pine is an Appalachian endemic that occurs in a patchy distribution from Georgia to Pennsylvania and is prolific at sites with a history of fire disturbance. The purpose of this dissertation was to reconstruct the fire regimes of Table Mountain pine stands in the Jefferson National Forest, Virginia. Sections from firescarred Table Mountain pines were collected at four sites to analyze fire history, while increment cores and stand composition information were collected from macroplots within each fire history site to investigate the possible influence of fires that were more ecologically severe. Results show that fire was frequent before the fire suppression era, with a Weibull median fire return interval between 2–3 years. The majority of fires occurred during the dormant season and beginning of the early growing season. Two of the four sites had a more even distribution of fire seasons, and these sites also had significant Table Mountain pine regeneration. Cohorts of tree establishment were visible in the fire charts of three of these sites, indicating fires that were likely moderate in severity. The canopy at three of the four sites is currently dominated by Table Mountain pine, but the understory at all sites has large numbers of fire-intolerant hardwoods and shrubs. These Table Mountain pine stands will likely succeed to xeric oak and fireintolerant hardwoods, such as red maple and black gum, in the future. Fire statistics indicate that all four sites currently exist outside their range of historical variation in fire occurrence.

Forest Conservation and People’s Livelihoods: Explaining Encroachment on Zambia’s Protected Forest Landscapes - The Case Of Mwekera National Forest, Kitwe, Copperbelt Abstract The conflicts between conservation objectives and the livelihood needs of local communities are intricate and difficult to resolve and yet the success of any conservation effort hinges on their solution. This is particularly true in forest conservation in Third World countries like Zambia, where rural populations depend directly on forest resources, which are in many cases protected. Forest reserves in Zambia have undergone drastic changes over the years due to encroachment by such human activities as agriculture, charcoal burning and even settlements. This has led to the deforestation of most of them including Mwekera National Forest in Kitwe on the Copperbelt province. The Forest Department has attempted to involve the people in the management of these resources in a bid to redress the trend. But the fundamental causes for the encroachment and deforestation are not clear. This study was focused on unearthing the underlying causes of encroachment and the subsequent deforestation of Mwekera National Forest. This was done through a qualitative ethnographic approach employing individual interviews, focused group discussions, observations and pictures of relevant phenomena. The target groups included the forest communities living in and around Mwekera National Forest as well as government forestry officials at both local and national levels. The study was based on nature-culture theory, knowledge systems theory as well as the participatory approach. The study reveals that macro-economic policies such as privatisation of the mines has undermined people’s livelihoods while the inefficient and bureaucratic land delivery system made “vacant” protected forest land an attractive option. The policy contradictions between the forest sector and other sectors such as energy, agriculture and land have not helped matters. Organisational constraints on the Forest Department such as its inadequate human, financial and other resources coupled with the delay in its transformation to a more autonomous Forest Commission have not secured protected forests. Its old centralist management approach has made participation by local people difficult to effect despite being provided for under new forestry policy and law. This has meant that decisions made by officials lack meaningful involvement and support of the local people, thereby seriously hindering effective forest protection. Herein lies one major cause of encroachment.

Abstract Global aquaculture production has grown rapidly and is now among the fastest growing food production sectors in many countries.Introduced over the past 50 years or so,aquaculture in Africa has gone through different levels of growth. The desirability of aquaculture has been due to unreliable and unsustainable use of natural waters for capture fisheries. Due to the country’s concern, the government of Uganda has promoted aquaculture before for nutritional values. However, current policy initiatives that call for collective actions are geared towards commercial aquaculture development. This work focuses on several aspects of aquaculture development in Uganda viz; past,present and future, potential, reared fish species, benefits, constraints and these are reflected in the policy and institutional arrangements with in the sector. This work has been undertaken with the aim of providing in detail the possible ways and means for sustainable utilization of aquaculture outcomes. Emphasis has been on how members of Kigoowa Catholic Women’s Development Association (KCWDA) have been empowered through group formation and aquaculture activities. This work also analyses the dynamic gender relations that exist in resource ownership, access and use in Uganda and the implications thereof to aquaculture growth and expansion. Included are the possible options vulnerable people especially women undertake to sustain their livelihoods and those of their families and the community as a whole. The information in this work is discussed in line with the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework. It therefore aims at providing an additional reference text on the subject and in the context of aquaculture. Details about certain concepts, policies and principles, nature of the sector and supportive literature on various issues are discussed.

<p>Landscape-level understanding of forest carbon (C) dynamics is required to quantify the net contribution of forest biomes to the global C cycle and to help forest managers to understand the impacts of forest management activities to the C sequestration in forests. Landscape-level estimation of C exchanges in various ecosystems is also crucial for the validation of the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) derived Gross Primary Productivity (GPP) which may help in improving MODIS GPP algorithm and the estimation of national-scale C budget to meet Canada’s international greenhouse gas inventory reporting obligations.</p> <p>In this study, Carbon version of Canadian Land Surface Scheme (C-CLASS) was used to simulate historic C dynamics of a 2500 ha temperate Douglas fir forest landscape in Oyster River area of Vancouver Island in British Columbia from 1920 to 2005 and a 6275 ha boreal black spruce forest landscape at Chibougamau, Quebec from 1928 to 2005. The impacts of disturbance history and the climate variability on the landscape-level C stocks and fluxes were also investigated. The disturbance matrix of the Carbon Budget Model of the Canadian Forest Sector v3 (CBM-CFS3) was incorporated into C-CLASS to account for the removal of the C stocks by disturbance events. Study results indicate that GPP and autotrophic respiration (R_a) in the temperate Douglas fir forest landscape are sensitive to the air temperature variability. Stand replacing disturbance events can remove large amounts of C in the disturbed year, however, it takes a long period of time for the recovery of landscape-level total ecosystem carbon (TEC) to the initial state, which depends on forest age and the effects of historic climate variability. Our analysis further showed that in undisturbed forest landscape, simulated annual net ecosystem productivity (NEP) deviations were positively related to daily minimum and maximum temperatures in spring, while they were not sensitive to summer temperatures. Study results also showed that simulated landscape-level NEP is less sensitive to the changes in air temperature compared to other simulated C fluxes such as GPP, R_a and and heterotrophic respiration (R_h). Simulated landscape-level C stocks (aboveground biomass, belowground biomass, dead organic matter and soil organic matter) are sensitive to the changes in air temperature. This work suggests that the C-CLASS model can be used to investigate the impacts of climate variability and disturbance events on the historic C dynamics of forest landscapes. This study has also made it possible to analyze the importance of climate drivers and the development of methods for including climate sensitivity into inventory-based models.<strong></strong></p> <p>In addition, C-CLASS simulated GPP overCanada’s landmass (at 1-km resolution) in 2003 and its comparison with the MODIS GPP product (MOD17) indicated overestimation of MODIS GPP compared to the C-CLASS upscaled GPP overCanada’s landmass. This overestimation was attributed to the limitations in the components of MODIS GPP algorithm. It further suggests that the parameterization of light use efficiency in MODIS GPP algorithm is amenable to improvement based on observations of light use efficiency at eddy covariance flux tower sites or the photochemical reflectance index derived from satellite remote sensing data.</p> <p>This study would be helpful in calculating Canada’s national terrestrial ecosystem C budget which is important for making environmental policies and ecosystem management for enhancing the terrestrial C sink.<strong></strong></p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The Biloxi Marsh of the eastern Mississippi River delta plain is exposed to meteorological forces ranging from large-scale, mid-latitude cyclones to smaller scale storms and squalls. Each time that these marsh platforms are exposed to a storm event, the potential exists for either deposition or erosion to take place. This study examines the connection between wind speeds, stratigraphic composition, marsh edge morphology, and marsh edge erosion at 4 sites in the Biloxi Marsh. As much as 2.17 m of erosion were measured during the 9-month study with a maximum, averaged erosion rate of 0.03 m day-1. Shell berm transgression was also documented as the result of winds from a low-pressure system near the site that resulted large waves. Shell berm movement occurred as a result of high wind speeds on shore but there was no connection between wind speeds and erosion for the duration of this study across all sites.

Earth science is a dynamic system science that explores the structures and processes of the earth. Knowledge about the earth is important for citizens since the science is a vital part in the sustainable development of the society. Without good basic knowledge the citizens don’t have the possibility to anticipate in the questions and decision-making that concerns e.g. anthropogenic climate change. In the Swedish school system earth science is not an independent subject until academically studies at the University’s. The purpose of this study is to investigate the level of knowledge among citizens and policymakers in Sweden and to find out if there is any illiteracy for earth science in Sweden. The method conducted of two web-based surveys and the questions in the surveys are focused around the subject of anthropogenic climate change because it is one of the most well known areas of earth science amongst the citizens. The survey results are based on 159 answers from each survey and shows that there is illiteracy for earth science in Sweden. It is also possible to se that the policymakers have better knowledge about earth science than the citizens. The results also show that there is a concern amongst the citizens regarding the effects that humans do to anthropogenic climate change. One solution to the illiteracy and worries amongst the public is better education in earth science. How to best teach a subject is developed in the research area of didactics but for earth science this is a relatively young science, in need of more research both in Sweden and internationally. / Geovetenskap är en dynamisk systemvetenskap som utforskar jordens utveckling och uppbyggnad. Geovetenskapliga kunskaper är vitala för det moderna hållbara samhället, men i Sverige finns ämnet geovetenskap bara som fristående ämne på akademisk nivå. Utan grundkunskaper har medborgarna inte lika stora möjligheter att delta i debatter och fatta beslut i frågor som exempelvis antropogena klimatförändringar. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka det geovetenskapliga kunskapsläget i Sverige och om frånvaron av denna undervisning i skolan/gymnasiet kan orsaka geovetenskaplig analfabetism. Undersökningen genomfördes via två internetbaserade enkäter en riktade sig mot Sverige allmänhet och en mot tjänstemän/politiker. Frågorna i enkäterna byggdes upp kring antropogena klimatförändringar då detta område är mer allmänt känt än ämnet geovetenskap och de övrigt innefattande områdena. Resultatet från undersökningen baseras på 159 svar från respektive enkät och visar att det finns en geovetenskaplig analfabetism i båda undersökningsgrupperna. Det går att utläsa en liten skillnad i kunskapsnivå mellan de två undersökningsgrupperna, beslutsfattare/tjänstemän har en något högre kunskapsnivå än allmänheten. Resultaten visar också att det finns en oro bland allmänheten för olika effekter av klimatförändringar som att Golfströmmen kan stanna och att antalet tsunamivågor kan komma att öka. Dessutom tror en mindre del (16%) av allmänheten att jordbävningen i Chile 2010 orsakades av antropogena klimatförändringar. För att kunna förbättra de geovetenskapliga kunskapsnivåerna krävs utbildning av både barn och vuxna. Dessutom krävs det mer forskning i geovetenskaplig didaktik som är ett ungt och outforskat område både i Sverige och internationellt.

Tanken på att skapa en geopark, ett område med geovetenskapliga besöksmål, i Siljansområdet väcktes för flera år sedan. Idag arbetar Projekt Meteorum med att förverkliga denna idé. Utgångspunkten är det meteoritnedslag som formade landskapet här för 377 miljoner år sedan och som sedan dess haft stor betydelse för bygden och dess utveckling. Den geologiska historien i Siljansområdet är lång och inte helt lätt att förstå, som så ofta när vi försöker tolka det som hänt långt före vår egen tid. Den tar egentligen sin början för omkring 1 800 miljoner år sedan, då bergarterna i sydöst bildas i samband med att den svekofenniska bergskedjan reste sig.  Det landskap som meteoriten träffade bildades under många årmiljoner. Fler bergarter bildades, berg höjde sig och eroderade ner, hav sköljde över land och drog sig tillbaka. Efter meteoritnedslaget följde många miljoner år under vilka nya lager av bergarter bildades och eroderades bort, senast genom istidens inverkan. Men än idag finns kraterstrukturen kvar och tack vare nedslaget är Siljansområdet idag en av mycket få platser i Sverige där vi kan studera de välbevarade sedimentära bergarterna. Här berättas en historia om livets utveckling och en planet i ständig förändring. De speciella förutsättningarna har utan tvekan påverkat så väl djur och natur som de människor som valde att bosätta sig här. Denna historia kan ge mycket glädje och ökad förståelse för såväl vår egen planet som den speciella plats Siljansområdet är. Att arbeta med att berätta den inom ramen för en geopark är ett utmärkt sätt att binda samman och belysa alla de delar som formar bygden idag. Där ryms såväl den säregna naturen som den viktiga kalkindustrin. Med meteoritnedslaget som centrum kommer besökare att lockas från hela världen för att uppleva allt Siljansområdet har att erbjuda.