The Silurian-Devonian metasedimentary rocks of the Connecticut Valley-Gaspé trough (CVGT) were subjected to multiple deformational and metamorphic events during the Acadian orogeny in the Middle-Late Devonian. Plutons intruding the Devonian Waits River and Gile Mountain Formations have been considered post-tectonic, but microstructural studies of the intrusions and their metamorphic aureoles indicate some of these plutons intruded syntectonically. This study investigates the relationship between Acadian deformation and intrusion of the Knox Mountain pluton (KMP) of central Vermont. Structural and geochronological data were collected along a c. 15 km transect from the western limit of the CVGT, where the unconformable Richardson Memorial Contact coincides with the Dog River Fault Zone, into the margin of the KMP in the east. Field and microstructural observations indicate the KMP intruded syntectonically. Evidence for Acadian deformation post-dating intrusion includes folded and boudinaged granitic dikes at the margin of the KMP, and microstructures such as flame perthite, myrmekite, deformation twins, and textures associated with grain-boundary migration recrystallization in the granite. In the metamorphic aureole, biotite porphyroblasts overgrow S3, the earliest Acadian secondary foliation, and were deformed during S4 crenulation cleavage development. The KMP intruded at 377±5.2 Ma based on a U-Th-total Pb monazite crystallization age, which is concordant with the published age of the nearby Barre granite. The timing of S4 foliation development in the CVGT is constrained locally by 40Ar/39Ar geochronology at ~365 Ma, consistent with the microstructurally-inferred relative-age relationships. Plateau/weighted mean 40Ar/39Ar ages from across the transect and minimum ages from argon-loss profiles show a general trend of younging towards the east, suggesting these rocks have been affected by Alleghanian and Mesozoic deformation and exhumation.

Higher education is undergoing rapid changes brought about by the ongoing financial crisis, globalization, and the rapid advancement of information technology. This scholarly personal narrative will apply assemblage theory and system dynamics to analyze the financial, cultural, and political constraints hampering change processes at traditional institutions of higher learning. Using this analysis as a starting point, the author will describe an open learning organization that addresses these issues, and how these principles have been applied to create Oplerno, LLC.–a new kind of higher educational institution.

Shifting climatic regimes can increase or decrease the frequency of extreme hydrologic events (e.g., high and low streamflows) causing large societal and environmental impacts. The impacts are numerous and include human health and safety, the destruction of infrastructure, water resources, nutrient and sediment transport, and within stream ecological health. It is unclear how the hydrology of a given region will shift in response to climate change. This is especially the case in areas that are seasonally snow covered as the interplay of changing temperature, precipitation, and resulting snowpack can lead to an increased risk of flood or drought. This research aimed to understand the ways temperature and precipitation are changing using general circulation models and observed weather station data in the northeastern United States. With the knowledge that general circulation models do not accurately represent precipitation statistics and trends from the historical period, a large network of climate stations was utilized to further investigate shifts in precipitation. A hydrology model was utilized for further study of regional hydrology. The model used was the Regional Hydro-Ecologic Simulation System, which was calibrated to snow coverage and streamflow for a historical time period. The hydrology model was used to investigate the relationship of snow and streamflow in a changing climate. We characterized climate change and related impacts in the northeastern United States and estimated a decrease in snowfall of 50% and the number of days below freezing by 45 days by the end of the century. We also showed that precipitation is not only becoming more intense, but it is also more persistent -- a finding that may have significant hydrological implications including increased flood risk throughout the year. The 95th percentile of daily precipitation has increased by 0.5 mm per day per decade, while the probability of successive days with precipitation increased by 0.6 percent per decade. We also explored the role of snowpack in a changing climate. We found that temperature plays a larger role than precipitation in shifting hydrologic regime, because the warming-induced reduction of snowpack reduced the maximum flows more than the increasing precipitation increased the maximum flows. However, because of the increasing intensity and persistence of precipitation, instantaneous peak flows occurring outside of the snowmelt season will likely continue to increase during all times of the year. We shed light on the complexity of the modes of climate change and the interactions that increases in temperature and precipitation can have on the hydrology of a region.

The total number of operating dairy farms in the US has decreased by 74.1% over the past 25 years, dropping from 155,339 in 1992 to just 40,219 in 2017. As milk prices have fallen and become more volatile, profit margins have tightened, causing farmers to leave the business due to low profitability. Some Vermont farmers are currently looking for new economic strategies. One approach has been to transition from conventional to organic production in order to take advantage of better prices and new market opportunities. In order to make production decisions, farmers need accurate financial information on the costs and benefits of the various options available. Since 2004, UVM Extension has collected panel data on organic dairy farms in Vermont to help meet this growing need. As a part of UVM’s long-term organic dairy profitability research, this study analyzed 10 years of financial panel data (2006-2017) from an unbalanced panel of approximately 40 organic dairy farms in Vermont. For article 1, a multivariate fixed effects regression model was used to identify key factors influencing farm profitability and estimate their effects on Return on Assets. Variables related to feeding management, farm management, farm characteristics, input costs, and year were shown to be significant. For article 2, industry wide milk price trends were compared with descriptive statistics on Vermont organic dairy profitability outcomes across a 3-year period (2015-2017) in order to test the hypothesis that recent price shifts have a had a noticeable effect on farm profitability. Despite limited data for 2017, results indicated a study-wide reduction in ROA in line with national market trends. In identifying management and market factors associated with profitability, this thesis provides valuable decision-making information for farmers interested in switching to organic. Results suggest that feeding management and milk quality improvements can improve profitability outcomes on Vermont farms. Vermont farmers will also benefit from the updated cost of production and financial performance data presented here. Evidence from this thesis also supports a need for new supply management policies and a more nuanced approach to organic dairy profitability research.

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