Thesis (M.A.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2005. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file viewed on (December 13, 2006) Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Montana, 2007. / Title from title screen. Description based on contents viewed Oct. 12, 2007. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.) University of Missouri-Columbia, 2006. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on August 28, 2006) Includes bibliographical references.

No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Alberta, 2009. / Title from pdf file main screen (viewed on Nov. 19, 2009). "A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Environmental Engineering, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Alberta." Includes bibliographical references.

Recently, the Mississippi community college system has experienced significant budget cuts. Although fundraising has long historical significance, it has not been fully embraced by the community college system. With the transfer of wealth estimated to be $41-$136 trillion over the next 40 years, there has never been a better time for community colleges to tell their story. Studies reveal that planned giving is a key strategy for fundraising and that new innovative ideas must be developed to take advantage of private sources of funding. Planned giving in the form of forestland donations is an innovative avenue that can benefit the institution and the potential donor through charitable estate planning. Although there are examples of planned giving through donations of forestland, there is not any extensive research on this subject involving community colleges. The purpose of this study was to use the concept of the Bulldog Forest at Mississippi State University to determine if the idea of the community college foundation forest would be feasible and valuable to implement within the Mississippi community college system. Holmes Community College (HCC) alumni, who fall into the non- industrial private forest landowner category, were surveyed to determine their interest in donating their forestland to the institution through charitable estate planning options. Through the use of growth-and-yield models, hypothetical management regimes were employed on hypothetical forestland donations to produce long-term cash flow scenarios for a specific rate of return for a specific rotation. These scenarios determined the level of funding that could be generated through a planned giving program involving forestland. The findings revealed that HCC alumni do not have an immediate interest in donating their forestland to the HCC foundation. It is recommended that personal connection(s) be established with these alumni along with the facets of planned giving explained by a trained professional. The findings also revealed that the donation of forestland can be very profitable for a community college foundation. However, further research is needed to explore the other charitable estate planning options since it was assumed that all of the hypothetical forestland donations were outright gifts.

Forests provide a multitude of ecological services and are one of Canada’s most important natural resources that support a profitable industry, especially in New Brunswick. The activities associated with harvesting and forest management have documented ecological impacts such as the increased mobilization of mercury from the land to adjacent streams. Methylated mercury bioaccumulates and biomagnifies (concentrates) through food webs and in headwater streams forestry has been shown to change its accumulation. However, not much is known about the spatial trends of mercury accumulation and biomagnification through stream food webs and how different forest management practices affect these trends. To delineate these patterns, food webs were sampled across a spatial gradient from three basins experiencing different levels of forest management intensity. At a basin scale, methylmercury concentrations were greatest in filtered water, food sources, and one invertebrate taxa in a harvested but less intensively managed basin, likely due to increased inorganic sediments and dissolved organic carbon also observed. Biomagnification was lower in this same basin, possibly from inefficient trophic transfer of methylmercury from food sources. Longitudinally this basin also showed differences in fine particulate organic matter (FPOM) and coarse particulate organic matter (CPOM) mercury compared to the other basins, likely due to similar spatial patterns in organic matter. In conclusion, mercury dynamics in stream food webs were impacted by forestry primarily in water and basal food sources at a basin scale, but spatial patterns were inconsistent. / Thesis / Master of Biological Science (MBioSci) / Forest harvesting is an essential and large part of Canada’s economy, and it is important to ensure that its impacts on freshwater systems are minimal. Forest management can increase the amount of the toxic metal mercury entering streams and this can have harmful effects in top predators, like fish, since mercury concentrates through food webs. The knowledge lacking is how different harvesting practices change the amount of mercury in these food webs and whether impacts increase as streams get larger. Of the three basins I studied, the one with harvesting but little assisted regeneration (moderately impacted) had the highest mercury levels in water, leaves, and algae. From upstream to downstream the leaves and biofilm from the moderately impacted basin accumulated less mercury compared to the least harvested basin. Additionally, mercury concentrated less through the food web of this basin. The changes in the moderately impacted basin may be caused by sediments and other materials that transport mercury into the stream and increase water and food levels, but this high mercury was not being transferred to the other organisms in the food web. In conclusion, forest management had some effects on mercury at the base of food webs at a large scale, but patterns through space were inconsistent.

Forests provide important ecosystem services and play a dominant role in the global carbon and hydrologic cycles. These ecosystems are becoming more vulnerable to climate change-related threats such as extreme temperature and precipitation events, drought and wildfires. In addition, forest ecosystems have also undergone land use changes and a significant reduction in cover area, specifically in North America. There has been renewed realization to restore and rehabilitate forest ecosystems because they are a major carbon sink and play a key role in sequestering atmospheric carbon dioxide. In response, plantation forests are being widely established to sequester carbon, increase biodiversity, secure water resources and generate economic revenue when harvested. Forest managers employ different management practices such as thinning or retention harvesting to enhance growth, plant structural and species diversity within forest plantations, with the ultimate goal of emulating the characteristics and benefits of natural forests. However, the influence of these forest management practices on the growth, productivity and specifically water cycling in plantation forests is not well studied and reported in the literature. This experimental study investigated the effect of four different variable retention harvesting (VRH) treatments on evapotranspiration and water balance in an 83-year-old red pine (Pinus resinosa) plantation forest in the Great Lakes region in Canada. These VRH treatments included 55% aggregated crown retention (55A), 55% dispersed crown retention (55D), 33% aggregated crown retention (33A), 33% dispersed crown retention (33D) and unharvested control (CN) plot. Tree-level experimental work was conducted in the control plot and showed that most of the water transport (65%) occurred in the outermost sapwood, while only 26% and 9% of water was transported in the middle and innermost depths of sapwood, respectively. These results help to avoid overestimation of transpiration, which may cause large uncertainties in water budgets in pine forests. Study results further showed that the 55D treatment had the highest tree-level transpiration followed by 33D, 55A, 33A and CN plots. During periods of low precipitation, vapor pressure deficit (VPD) was the main driver or control on transpiration in VRH treatments. However, transpiration was more closely coupled with photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) in the control plot. Moreover, the 55D treatment resulted in on average 58% of total water loss from canopy as transpiration and 42% from the understory and ground surface as evapotranspiration. These findings suggest that dispersed or distributed retention of 55% basal area (55D) provides the optimal environmental conditions for forest growth with reduced competition of trees for water as shown by enhanced transpiration. This study will help researchers, forest managers and decision-makers to improve their understanding of thinning impacts on water and carbon exchanges in forest ecosystems and select and adopt viable forest management practices to enhance their carbon sequestration capabilities, water use efficiency and resilience to climate change. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

No description available.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 1998. / Vita. Includes bibliographic references (p. [128]-144).