Thesis (M.S.)--University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 83-87).

This project is a proposal on the versatile use of glass, its properties and technologies as well as its aesthetic qualities. A photovoltaic charging station for electric scooters is proposed for the Virginia Tech campus, combined with a bus shelter to allow mobility and integration of transportation. / Master of Science

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Eutrophication impacts the quality of many surface waters worldwide. Algal blooms threaten lake water quality and in order to control their growth, understanding of nutrient transport at the field-scale is essential. In order to accomplish this, a combination of field monitoring and computer modeling with the SWAT model was undertaken. / Four sites located in the Pike River watershed of southern Quebec were instrumented to monitor nutrient losses from both clay loam and sandy loam soils under both subsurface and naturally drained conditions. Results illustrate how the presence of subsurface drainage influences phosphorus loss depending on soil texture and structure. Total phosphorus loss from the clay loam subsurface drained site was 4.0 kg ha-1, 55% greater than the naturally drained clay loam site. Total phosphorus loss from the sandy loam subsurface drained site was 1.2 kg ha-1, 14% less than the naturally drained sandy loam site. Total phosphorus losses from the subsurface drainage systems in the clay loam field and the sandy loam field were 2.3 and 0.4 kg ha-1, respectively. Particulate phosphorus was the dominant (78%) form of phosphorus loss from the subsurface drainage system at the clay loam site. This indicates that bypass flow through the soil profile in the clay loam field led to excessive total phosphorus loss. / SWAT, a watershed-scale model was calibrated with over 6 site years of data, in an attempt to simulate hydrology and pollutant transport at the field-scale. After calibration, the monthly Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency varied from 0.09 to 0.74 for total drainage; 0.04 to 0.71 for sediment loading; 0.29 to 0.48 for nitrate loads and 0.28 to 0.64 for total phosphorus loads. Overall, SWAT has shown that it has the ability to simulate long-term sediment and nutrient transport at the field-scale. This makes SWAT a valuable tool for the development and evaluation of various beneficial management practices which control sediment and nutrient loss from agricultural fields.

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In the Missisquoi Bay of Lake Champlain situated in the South of Quebec, phosphorus originating from agricultural sources has been found to be a major contributor to the deterioration of water quality. This study sought to evaluate the nutrient loads, most particularly phosphorus, exported through surface runoff and tile drainage from two agricultural fields of the Missisquoi Bay watershed. As part of the study, a phosphorus simulation model was tested on one agricultural field. The evaluation of FHANTM 2.0 assessed the model's capacity to simulate the transport of phosphorus on agricultural fields. / From the two experimental fields studied, the results showed that the mean phosphorus load exported was larger in surface runoff than in tile drainage. The mean phosphorus load exported was 1.21 kg ha-1yr -1 in surface runoff, and 0.61 kg ha-1yr-1 in tile drainage. In contrast, nitrate loads exiting the fields were larger in tile drainage than in surface runoff. Over the two year study, the mean nitrate load was 5.64 kg ha-1yr-1 in surface runoff, and 91.43 kg ha-1yr-1 in tile drainage. / FHANTM's simulation of hydrology for one field gave slightly negative coefficients of performance (CP), representing a poor capacity to simulate surface and subsurface runoff depths. The simulation of phosphorus concentrations in surface runoff showed a small range of values compared to field measurements, while simulations of phosphorus concentration in tile drainage were considered acceptable. Therefore, the overall evaluation of the FHANTM 2.0 model indicated that it had difficulty in simulating the transport of phosphorus from an agricultural field in Quebec.

A dual stable isotope approach (delta13C and delta15N) was used to assess the importance of pelagic organic carbon in littoral secondary production and explore its predictability. Forty-seven sites were sampled in Lake Memphremagog (Quebec--Vermont) to characterize the isotopic position of the primary producers and filter-feeding freshwater mussels, as well as macrophyte biomass, chlorophyll-a concentration, and site exposure. The different sites spanned a wide range in the three environmental variables. For each site, littoral, terrestrial, and pelagic contributions to the diet of the mussels were calculated from mussel isotopic position, corrected for trophic enrichment. The mean contributions were: littoral---8%, terrestrial---27%, and pelagic---65%. However, the magnitude of the pelagic contribution was not related to macrophyte biomass, site exposure or chlorophyll-a concentration. The finding that the unionid mussels, a major littoral zone filter-feeder, obtain about two-thirds of their nutrition from pelagic zone particles washed into the littoral zone provides evidence for a close coupling in carbon flow of the littoral and pelagic zone. This study represents an important step towards a better understanding of carbon flow in aquatic food webs.

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