Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Western Sydney, 2004. / A thesis presented to the University of Western Sydney, College of Science, Technology and Environment, School of Science, Food and Horticulture, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Includes bibliographies.

Thesis (MS)--University of Montana, 2009. / Contents viewed on December 7, 2009. Title from author supplied metadata. Includes bibliographical references.

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on Feb 17, 2010). The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file. Thesis advisor: Dr. Kathleen M. Trauth. Includes bibliographical references.

published_or_final_version / Ecology and Biodiversity / Master / Master of Philosophy

These photos are provided in order to more fully illustrate and explain the Zion and Pipe Spring technical report.

The Lake Minnewanka area is one of Banff National Park's most scenic and highly visited regions. Impacts such as the loss of significant montane habitat (characteristic of the Lower Bow Valley ecosystem) and social implications like crowding led to the need to develop a strategy for managing the area. The author worked with a planning team from the Canadian Parks Service(CPS) in Banff National Park (BNP) to develop the Minnewanka Area Plan. The primary purpose of the thesis is to evaluate the Minnewanka Area Plan to determine whether it effectively serves to maintain and enhance ecological integrity. A theoretical framework based on integrated ecosystem management was developed to evaluate the plan. Normative criteria from literature on recreational carrying capacity management and meaningful public participation were defined and applied to the plan. Overall, the plan was rated as successful according to the normative criteria. All of the criteria for an effective approach to carrying capacity management were considered and the plan reflected a fair and efficient public participation process. Stakeholder input influenced plan decisions to a high degree and several partnerships were developed through the planning process. Several inadequacies in the plan were identified through the evaluation. The adoption of an approach to ecosystem management called the Limits of Acceptable Change (LAC) was recommended as a guiding principle within the plan. The step-by-step LAC model was seen as overly complex in the context of the case study. Indicators and a monitoring program which are central to the LAC process were not defined as part of the plan. The evaluation of the public participation process indicated that stakeholder participation was high early in the planning process and reflected a partnership relationship where stakeholders shared the power of decision-making. During completion of the draft and final plan, the process became one of public consultation where the level and frequency of participation was lowered. Recommendations for improving the efficacy of the Minnewanka Area Plan are made within the thesis. A simpler approach to visitor and resource management which maintains the essential criteria of the LAC approach is suggested. Measures for maintaining a high level of public participation and improving the accountability of the CPS in decision-making are proposed. The normative criteria based on carrying capacity management and meaningful public participation processes are presented as a model for facilitating integrated ecosystem management in area planning within national parks.

The study area, the KwaZulu-Natal Bight, is an oceanographically important area, which, regardless of having two of the most important fisheries off the east coast of South Africa, has received little research attention regarding its biological functioning. Until now chiefly oceanographic processes have been considered the drivers of this generally oligotrophic system. This study seeks to understand which of three important processes, a topographically induced oceanic upwelling cell near Richards Bay, a cyclonic eddy near Durban, or fluvial fluxes centred around the Thukela River, forces ecological functioning through their nutrient or organic matter input. The overall aim of the thesis is to understand the pelagic and benthic ecosystems of the Bight in terms of these drivers through the use of stable isotope (δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N) analyses of a range of biotic and abiotic samples. These were collected on board of a number of research cruises – forming predominantly part of the larger African Coelacanth Ecosystem Programme suite of studies – in the wet and dry seasons of 2010. Isotopic analyses found distinctions between fluvial and oceanic particulate organic matter and indicate that upwelling was not occurring in either sampling season. Organic matter originating from the Thukela River did not play a significant role in the wet season, although it dominated the planktonic pelagic food web in the dry season. The organic matter of the most productive region in the Bight, the Middle Shelf, was of riverine origin in the dry season, but of indeterminate origin in the wet season when it may have been an artefact of an old upwelling event which had previously occurred to the north of the Bight. There is, however, some evidence suggesting that this organic matter may rather have been of riverine origin, with its δ¹³C signals subsequently having been modified by the diatom bloom occurring there. In the demersal ecosystem, sediment isotopic data show organic matter to be well-mixed throughout the Bight in both seasons, with riverine organic matter dominating most of the Bight except its northern and southern edges, where oceanic organic matter increases in importance. Sediment organic matter (most likely via the macrobenthic biota) was deemed an important food source for demersal animals and omnivory an important feeding strategy. Seasonal studies from 2008 to 2010 in the Thukela Bank area indicate that the demersal animals' stable isotope signatures responded to the seasonal isotopic changes in riverine organic matter, indicating the cross-seasonal importance of this food source to the demersal ecosystem. Parallel methodological studies examined how routine isotopic sample handling procedures could have affected the results of the ecological studies. These studies suggest that i) effects of preservation/fixation methods and the use of dyes are species-dependant; ii) acidification has no effect on zooplankton isotopic signatures, and that iii) drying methods alone and interactively with multiple thawing and refreezing of samples affect the stable isotope values offish muscle tissues. Recommendations are made for further improvements in methodology and considerations to be taken when processing samples. Overall, it is concluded that riverine input to the Bight has a more important biological role than previously thought, and that organic matter from this source is an important driver of ecosystems within the Bight throughout the year for the demersal and pelagic ecosystems. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2012.

The focus of this mini-dissertation is the use of riparian buffer zones to manage nitrate pollution of water resources. Riparian buffer zones are vegetated areas adjacent to streams, lakes and rivers, that are managed to enhance and protect aquatic resources from the adverse impacts of agricultural practices. These zones are recognised globally for their function in water quality amelioration. Despite the growing literature, there is little consensus on how to design, assess and manage these riparian buffer zones specifically for nitrate attenuation. For the purpose of this mini-dissertation, a literature review of world-wide research into the nitrate attenuation efficiencies of riparian buffer zones was undertaken. A database was created using the key information from this literature. Two key processes responsible for immobilising and/or removing nitrate from surface and subsurface flows are generally recognised in the available literature, namely: vegetative uptake and the process of denitrification. A comparison of the available riparian studies indicated that there are similar characteristics in riparian buffer zones that may be responsible for enhancing these key mechanisms. Studies where there was shallow lateral subsurface or uniform surface water delivery pathways, vegetation of close structure and composition, high organic matter in the soils and fluctuating soil surface saturation rates showed the most significant nitrate attenuation efficiencies. The mini-dissertation proposes that these similarities can be used to both assess a riparian landscape for its potential to attenuate nitrate, and to size a riparian buffer zone specifically to meet this function. A set of proposed guidelines based on the findings of the dissertation attempt to illustrate how riparian pollution control recommendations can be achieved. These guidelines are an example of how to assist a farmer or similar landowner in achieving good nitrate removal efficiencies from a riparian buffer zone. The guidelines work through three steps, which help to establish and prioritise management zones, assess each zone's potential for nitrate attenuation, and determine adequate riparian buffer widths for each management zone. A case study was used to illustrate the practical application of the guidelines. Full testing of these guidelines was not within the scope of this mini-dissertation, however the guidelines are an indication of how information regarding riparian function can be applied to a system to determine effective management of water resources. / Thesis (M.Env.Dev.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2002

Riparian systems perform many critical ecological functions and services. Riparian areas are in urgent need of rehabilitation to restore their natural functioning. In order to successfully implement rehabilitation efforts in riparian areas, a management plan for rehabilitation is required. An important facet of a management plan would be the assessment of riparian habitat quality. The aim of this study is to produce a riparian habitat assessment approach that would be helpful in developing a rehabilitation management plan. The approach needs to assess habitat from a landscape scale through to a site scale, be concise, user friendly, effective and be able to be used by all land managers. It must also allow for the identification of areas of high asset value that will be prioritised for rehabilitation efforts. Existing local and international habitat assessment methodologies reviewed did not satisfactorily meet all the above objectives. Accordingly, a new methodology for riparian habitat assessment was developed, consisting of a 3-leve1 approach which assesses habitat from a landscape scale (macroscale assessment), a reach scale (intermediate-scale assessment) and at a site scale (microscale assessment). The approach was tested in a case study of the Rivers Bend farm in the Nkwaleni Valley, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The developed methodology allows for an assessment technique of riparian areas that now explicitly includes landscape attributes, local characteristics of the river system (reach scale) and site scale level of assessment. Both the macroscale and the microscale assessments produced spatial representations of asset values within the study area. These areas were prioritised for rehabilitation efforts. Although these assessments produced results for identifying asset sites, the scoring· systems did not reflect the changes in habitat quality with enough detail. It is recommended that the characteristics determining the quality ratings and the scoring systems of these assessments be reassessed. The intermediate-scale assessment produced relevant stream profiles and gradient classes, but the application of the assessment did not successful1y delineate the river into homogenous segments. Further study is required to better integrate the 3-levels of the developed methodology. / Thesis (M.Env.Dev.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2001.

The KwaZulu-Natal Bight is an important area along the South African east coast, stretching 160 km north from Scottsburgh to St Lucia (Lutjeharms et al., 2000). The Bight is of interest to the region as the area contains some distinct physical features, which are presumed to drive the ecological functioning of the shelf ecosystem through their role in nutrient sources. These include the Tugela River, the second largest river in South Africa in terms of outflow, and the Agulhas Current that forms an outer border at the edge of the continental shelf. Phytoplankton interacts with the majority of essential ecological networks and therefore greatly influences marine ecosystems. To this end, it is necessary to understand their ecophysiological rate processes – particularly those that are influenced by the dominant nutrient inputs to the Bight. The overall aim of this project is therefore to provide an insight into the sources of nutrients driving phytoplankton productivity in the Bight. Synoptic surveys were conducted to provide an indication of the distribution of Total Suspended Solids (TSS), Particulate Organic Matter (POM) and phytoplankton in the Bight, while focussed experiments used stable isotopes to examine the rate processes involving C and N acquisition, as well as sources of N available in the surface water. Concentration of particulate organic phosphorus and nitrogen were found to be higher in the wet season when compared to the dry season. During the wet season a large variation in chlorophyll-a fluorescence was observed across the Bight, while natural abundance isotope data indicated a seasonal change in the nutrient source available. For the wet season nutrient concentration varied with site and depth, however uptake rates (μg N.1ˉ¹.hˉ¹) measured using ¹⁵N tracer additions were not significantly different with site and depth. Alternatively, the dry season showed a significant difference between site in surface waters. In the wet season the mid shelf area had the highest uptake rate and phytoplankton biomass while the Richards Bay north site dominated, with regard to the previously mentioned factors, in the dry season. At the time of the experiments, neither the Durban eddy nor the upwelling cell were present, and hypotheses regarding the importance of these physical features in driving phytoplankton nutrient acquisition could not be assessed. However, a notable difference in uptake rate between the wet and dry seasons was observed, and this difference is likely due to the fluvial sources of nutrients from the Tugela and many other rivers entering the KZN coast, which are absent during the dry season. The results indicate that terrestrial nutrient sources play a major role in influencing nutrient concentrations on the Bight, and hence influence the nearshore ecosystem of the region. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2012.