Thesis (M.S.)--Indiana University, 2008. / Department of Earth Sciences, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Advisor(s): Pierre-Andre Jacinthe, Lenore P. Tedesco, Philippe G. Vidon. Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 95-99).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 149-154).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 166-174).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Baylor University, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 88-96).

This paper looks at the impact of agricultural subsidies on beef production in the fifty states of America, due to the adverse effects that large-scale agriculture production has on the Earth's climate. I examine production, sales, and employment data from the 2012 and 2007 USDA Agriculture Census to examine if there is or isn't a link between these factors and the level of beef subsidies received by each state.

In regions with low energy access kerosene lamps are commonly used, and these emit carbon dioxide (CO2) as well as household air pollutants (HAP). This bachelor thesis examines the possible reduction of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2eq) emissions and HAP from kerosene lamps by replacing them with off-grid solar powered lanterns. Life cycle assessment, or LCA, is used as a method to assess CO2eq emissions from the solar lanterns. Data on emissions from the different stages in the solar lantern lifecycle, as well as for the kerosene lamps, is gathered through literature studies. Furthermore, possible improvements of health and social aspects as result of replacing kerosene lamps are studied and discussed. The results show that CO2eq emissions could be significantly lower if solar lanterns were used. During a lifetime of 30 years, a simple kerosene lamp emits a total of 15 500 kg CO2eq, a hurricane lantern 7 900 kg CO2eq, whereas a solar lantern emits 66.1 kg CO2eq. However, it is found that the possible harmful effects of HAP are much larger than those of CO2. Finally, possibilities and challenges regarding implementation and usage of off-grid solar powered lanterns are identified and discussed.

The attribution of recent global warming to anthropogenic emissions is now well established. However, the relation of recent changes in other properties of the climate system to human activities is not as clearly understood. The aim of this thesis is to improve our understanding of this relation in the case of two of these properties, namely the diurnal temperature range (DTR) and modes of tropospheric variability. The DTR, the difference between daily maximum and minimum temperatures, has decreased over global land areas at a rate comparable to the mean warming. Model simulations including the effects of human emissions produce a comparable change, albeit of smaller magnitude. This decrease results from increased reflection of solar radiation by clouds moderated by decreasing soil moisture, mostly through its effect on the ground heat capacity. Recent trends in indices of some modes of atmospheric variability suggest the possibility that forced climate change may manifest itself through a projection onto these pre-existing modes. Model simulations indicate that this is plausible in the case of sea level pressure, but only partly so in the case of surface air temperature. On the interannual time scale examined in this thesis, these projections are consistent with a linear interpretation, rather than a nonlinear one. These results are, however, sensitive to the representation of small scale processes in the models. For instance, the DTR response depends strongly on the representation of cloud and land surface processes. Further examination of the response of one of the tropospheric modes, namely the Southern Annular Mode which represents the meridional shift of the mid latitude jet in the Southern Hemisphere, indicates that it is sensitive to the parametrisation of sub-grid scale mixing in the ocean. Nevertheless, these results suggest that the recent changes are consistent with enhanced greenhouse warming, and indicate that they are likely to continue into the foreseeable future. / Graduate

Electrification of low-income rural areas that have a limited connection or no access to electrical grids is one of the most demanding challenges in developing countries such as Peru. The international commitment to stop global warming and the reduction in the cost of renewable sources of energy have reduced the prices of fossil fuels in some cases. This has opened the way to the current research which proposes a hybrid energy system (HES) based on the use of renewable sources of energy. Therefore, a renewable electricity system (HRES) was set up at the village of Monte-Catache in the Cajamarca region, which is one of the poorest areas of Peru. Surveys and field studies were used to evaluate the socioeconomic characteristics, availability of renewable energy resources, and energy demand of this region. Potential energy sources were evaluated, and isolated photovoltaic systems with a battery bank were found to be the most appropriate according to the results obtained in the simulation with HOMER. This proposal constitutes an interesting contribution for future energy solutions in isolated and low-income rural areas. / Revisión por pares

A major goal in conservation biology is to understand the effects of short and long term environmental change on organisms. Fishes are the most valuable marine resource, however very little is known about the synergistic effect of current ocean warming and acidification, and the role of body size and local adaptation on their resilience. There is growing evidence that increased environmental temperature correlates with a reduction in ectotherm body size, suggesting a universal response to warming. To investigate the potential advantage of small body size in fish resilience, I made intra- and inter-specific comparisons of dwarf- and normal-size cleaner gobies of the genus Elacatinus. I first tested the hypothesis that smaller body size would correlate with a wider thermal tolerance by using same-age but different-size gobies reared at 'common garden' conditions. By employing critical thermal methodology, I provided empirical evidence supporting thermal biology theories that predict wider thermal tolerance windows as body size shrinks. These results provided the motivation to examine the effect of body mass on digestive performance, an indicator of fitness. Only smaller fish increased digestive metabolic scope at higher temperatures, thus suggesting that temperature increase caused by global warming will favor smaller individuals. To investigate the role of local adaptation on resilience in climate change, I compared the responses to warming and acidification between latitudinally- and morphologically-distinct populations of the little skate Leucoraja erinacea, by focusing on the most vulnerable life stages, embryos and juveniles. Embryos maintained at common garden conditions showed countergradient variation in performance curves. In juvenile skates, post-exercise metabolic curves shifted performance optima, exhibiting thermal adaptation in the two populations examined. This suggests that as skates hatch and are able to thermoregulate, they can change their temperature optima to exploit local thermal environments. Lastly, temperature and acidification levels predicted by the end of the century may reduce fitness of the northern population of skates, thus increasing vulnerability to local extinction.

Summer (JJA) temperature (T) and equivalent temperature (TE) for 18 of the largest cities in the eastern United States are investigated for two time periods: 1948-2014 and 1973-2014. Because temperature provides an incomplete description of lower tropospheric heat content, we supplement with TE, which also accounts for the energy associated with moisture. An auxiliary investigation using air mass data from the Spatial Synoptic Classification (SSC) augments the investigation of T and TE trends. The trend analysis revealed significant trends in Tmin at all stations over the 67-year time period and over most stations for the shorter (41-year) period. Minimum TE likewise increases nearly everywhere in the longer series, but at only around half of the stations in the shorter series. Stations with increasing TE in the shorter period are primarily coastal or located in the southern and upper Midwest, where there has also been a noticeable lack of warming. Our results also exhibit a decrease in the diurnal TE range that accompanies the documented decrease in diurnal temperature range over the same period. Trends in T and TE are evaluated in the context of changes in air mass frequency. A heat wave analysis was also conducted to identify changes in intensity and frequency using T and TE Overall, our findings suggest that TE provides a more comprehensive perspective on recent climate change than T alone. With heat wave frequency and intensity projected to increase, we recommend adoption of TE to account for changes in total surface heat content.