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Thesis advisor: Marilyn Cochran-Smith / Changes in climate are being experienced by people globally, and increasingly pushing into school science. Educators struggle to make sense of the critical thinking and agency youth will need to face such changes. To this end climate change curriculum, teaching and learning in schools has garnered significant attention in educational research in the last decade. This is particularly important given that formal education is viewed as an important canvas for building the capacity of young people. However, curriculum materials are mostly understudied and taken for granted. In addition, there is also a paucity of scholarship from the global South with respect to climate change education. To address the need for climate change education as well as inclusion of international perspectives, this dissertation presents an analysis of climate change content in select textbooks and supplementary educational materials from Bangladesh, California & Ghana, and three widely different jurisdictions. Using a cultural politics framework, I explored the following questions related to climate change content in textbooks and supplementary materials: (1) How is climate change portrayed in select official/state approved textbooks (2) How is climate change portrayed in supplementary materials? (3) What are the similarities and differences the textbooks and supplementary materials? Using a classical content analysis approach, I show that the content in all three textbooks acknowledged the contributions of human activity to climate change, for example discussing the primary role of human activity to the warming of the planet. However, there were some distinct differences when it came to discussions around the scientific consensus on climate change. While Bangladesh fully noted the scientific consensus, California presented mixed messaging and Ghana did not reference the scientific consensus at all. The textbooks from the three jurisdictions included local and global climate change impacts and policy solutions. My analysis also showed that the two supplementary materials from the United States used different frames to challenge each other’s messaging. And while Heartland Institute cast doubt on the scientific consensus, the Paleontological Research Institution embraced it. Lastly, the United Nations, as an exemplar of content intended for an international audience, was constructed similar to the textbooks in attempting to balance local and global perspectives on climate policy solutions. Importantly, I argue that textbooks and supplementary materials need to provide robust content that attends to the context-specific complexity of climate change. I discuss cultural influences on climate change education. Finally, I conclude with recommendations for the inclusion of more localized ideas on climate change impact and policies / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2022. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

One of the key areas of climate change impacts is the water resources. Surface water has been compromised by climate change, and so has groundwater. Sub-Saharan Africa has been one of the major sufferers of climate change since the early 70s. The limitations of current global climate models in the prediction of the future climate over the continent have been a source of research challenges in the last decade. Over the decades, West Africa and the Sahel region have been subjected to major droughts and recurrent dry spells. While most studies in the region have tackled climate change effects on surface water and agriculture, a few have highlighted its effects on groundwater. This study investigates climate change impacts on both surface and groundwater in the Kou basin in Burkina Faso. The Kou River and its tributaries have experienced depletion over the last decades. Therefore, it has become necessary to investigate the deficit of the river flow and how the groundwater that forms the springs that feed the rivers is affected by climate change. The study resorts to integrated hydrologic modelling approach using the SWAT surface model and the MODFLOW groundwater model to assess the impact of climate change. Simulations from selected Regional Climate Models (RCMs) are used. Investigations from the RCMs show that the study area is expected to be drier with less precipitation and higher temperatures. Furthermore, the SWAT model results show that as rainfall reduces, future stream flows also significantly decrease. Results from the MODFLOW model also follow the trend of the SWAT model. Groundwater levels are declining whatever the RCM outputs used. Overall, all the models predicted a severely decreasing trend in surface and groundwater in the Kou basin. The study results will be particularly useful for water resources managers in the Kou River basin. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

Northern peatlands represent a globally significant carbon stock, equating to almost one-third of the world’s organic soil carbon. The largest areal disturbance to northern peatlands is wildfire where carbon loss, through peat smouldering combustion, is highly variable. The tightly-coupled ecohydrological nature of peatlands results in autogenic feedbacks and the occurrence of threshold behaviour. High depth of burn has been evidenced in black spruce dominated peatlands in the sub-humid Boreal Plains ecozone of Alberta, Canada so this was chosen as the area of study. A landscape-scale assessment of peat hydrophysical properties found that peat smouldering combustion vulnerability was greatest at stand-age > 80 years, in coarse/heterogeneous hydrogeological settings, and in peatland margins compared to peatland middles. In combination, and when exposed to a climatic water deficit, we found that these drivers of cross-scale variability could lead to high peat burn severity. Assessment of a partially-drained and burned peatland enabled the identification of a black spruce basal diameter threshold that corresponded to the occurrence of high peat burn severity. We suggest that the above-ground fuel load threshold could occur due to the initiation of a self-reinforcing feedback by anthropogenic disturbance or climate change. Moreover, surpassing a peat burn severity threshold can cause the breakdown of an important feedback that limits evaporation losses post-fire, likely leading to further carbon losses through increased decomposition rates and/or ecosystem regime shift. We found that although peat moisture content was increased by fuel modification treatment, combustion carbon losses were greater in fuel-treated areas compared to the control because of the addition of mulch (wood) to the surface. Hence, peatland wildfire management that integrates the modification of above- and below-ground fuels, considers ecohydrological thresholds, and drivers of cross scale variability, is required to effectively reduce the risk of high peat burn severity in black spruce dominated peatlands. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This dissertation is composed of two manuscripts in Production Economics and two manuscripts in International Agricultural Development. The first two manuscripts focus on production economics, and both are an exploration of nitrogen use and its impact on continuous corn production and profitability in Colorado. The first manuscript titled "Switching Regression Stochastic Plateau Production Functions––A Comparison of Alternative Specifications" proposes an alternative approach for estimating crop yield response functions using a frequentist approach. The second manuscript titled "Profitability Effects of Different Tillage Systems in Continuous Corn Rotations" explores the interaction between different tillage systems and nitrogen fertilization in irrigated continuous corn production in northeastern Colorado. We find that strip tillage is better suited for continuous corn production under the agro-climatic conditions in northeastern Colorado. The third and fourth manuscripts focus on international agricultural development and analyze the role of factors that influence the agricultural development of small-holder farmers in Ecuador, namely, markets, food value chains, risk preferences, and risk perceptions. The third manuscript titled "Does the Use of Specialty Varieties and Post-Harvest Practices Benefit Farmers? Cocoa Value Chains in Ecuador" analyzes the impact of the use of specialty cocoa varieties on small-scale farmers' income. It finds that the use of specialty cocoa varieties has a low impact on small-scale cocoa producers' income, and that post-harvest practices may lead to substantial price responses irrespective of the type of cocoa grown. Finally, the fourth manuscript titled "Linking Risk Preferences and Risk Perceptions of Climate Change Using Prospect Theory" explores how farmers' risk preferences correlate with their perceptions of climate risk. It finds that farmers that behave in accordance to the assumptions of prospect theory are more likely to perceive greater risks from climate change, that is, they are more likely to perceive the risks associated with climate change as being more threatening at a personal level. Since risk perception is a necessary prerequisite for adaptation, the results presented in this manuscript, have important policy implications for process of adoption of new technologies aimed at mitigating effects of climate change. / Doctor of Philosophy / This dissertation focuses on Production Economics and International Agricultural Development. The first two manuscripts focus on production economics, and both are an exploration of nitrogen use and its impact on continuous corn production and profitability in Colorado. The first manuscript proposes an alternative approach for estimating crop yield response functions to a single input. The second manuscript explores the interaction between different tillage practices and nitrogen fertilization in irrigated continuous corn production. The third and fourth manuscripts focus on international agricultural development, and they analyze the role of different factors that influence the agricultural development of small-holder farmers in Ecuador. The third manuscript analyzes cocoa markets in Ecuador. It finds that the use of gourmet cocoa varieties has a low impact on small-scale cocoa producers' income, and that post-harvest practices may lead to substantial benefits. Finally, the fourth manuscript explores farmers' risk behavior. It finds that farmers that behave in accordance to the assumptions of prospect theory, are more likely to show a greater risk perception of climate change, that is, they are more likely to perceive the risks associated with climate change as being more threatening at a personal level. Since risk perception is a necessary prerequisite for adaptation, the results presented in this manuscript, have important policy implications for the adoption process of new technologies aimed at mitigating effects of climate change.

Relocation is often taboo among policy makers and planners due to its political, social, and ethical connotations, and although increasingly mentioned as one of the potential climate change adaptation strategies, it mostly adheres to rhetoric with limited discussion of its actual implementation. Scientific study and observation indicate the imminence of climate change impacts, many of which may exceed the adaptive capacity of vulnerability hotspots. Therefore, it is imperative to reassess this response option in the light of its past negative reputation, the success of current initiatives, and decision makers' evolving perception of relocation as an adaptation option. The main objective of this dissertation research is to determine the need for, interest in, and prospects for community relocations as an adaptation option; explore ways to address limitations associated with this alternative, and identify opportunities that could emerge from the relocation process. This study reviews experiences from the past and current relocation efforts and gauges the current level of interest in and support for this adaptation option among policy makers and planners. It also provides conceptual models - the relocation scenario, its digitalized simulation, the Climate Change Relocation Leaf, and the Relocation Suitability Index - designed to help communities, policy makers and planners explore this alternative. The research commences with a comprehensive literature review of theoretical knowledge, past experiences, current case studies, and the existing state of institutional, political, and social perspectives related to climate change migration and relocation. It continues with a comparative content analysis of climate change adaptation plans to elucidate the relocation rhetoric utilized in the selected texts at what frequency and in what context. Next, the study represents the climate change relocation models and a scenario developed to engage decision-makers and stakeholders in assessing the need for and possibility of relocation. Lastly, the project concludes with the development of a conceptual and tabular framework for the Relocation Suitability Index and subsequent simulation designed to compare possible relocation host sites systematically based on their absorption capacity. / Ph. D.