I quantified the bat assemblage associated with a Sonoran Desert riparian corridor at a wildland-urban interface using mist netting (2002-2005) to assess differential spatial and temporal resource use. My capture rate was high (17 species and 961 individuals) considering the aridity of the area; however, landscape complexity of this montane region undoubtedly contributes to foraging opportunities. I found that bats were distributed along the canyon when water was plentiful but their activity was concentrated at isolated pools during dry periods. I also found temporal variation in pool-use by the most frequently captured species. I conducted an acoustic study to measure bat-use between deciduous riparian and Sonoran desertscrub communities. I measured activity levels using number of acoustic call files. I found greater bat foraging in desertscrub and used a multidisciplinary approach to determine why bats might use the more arid environment. All capture data and supporting analyses are included in appendices.

Naturally-functioning riparian ecosystems provide important habitat for wildlife and serve as corridors for individuals to move from one area of suitable habitat to the next. Site-level quality and landscape-level connectivity of wildlife habitat are of critical importance to myriad species across the landscape in southern Illinois. However, multi-scale analyses of habitat suitability and connectivity of riparian corridors are rare in the literature. The first objective of this study evaluated microhabitat quality at 4 streams (3 treatments, 1 control) restored 30 years ago following strip mining for coal in Perry County, Illinois. Microhabitat differences were very minor among restored and control stream sites. Of the 41 variables measured, 14 differed among sites, 4 of which were uncorrelated: canopy cover, overstory hard mast, bare ground, and herbaceous ground cover; thus, restored riparian buffers were comparable to unmined sites, indicating that restoration efforts were successful. The second objective assessed broad-scale habitat connectivity of stream corridors across the Coastal Plain, Shawnee Hills, and Southern Till Plain Natural Divisions in southern Illinois. Landscape metrics were measured from 3,157 ha of riparian buffers utilizing the 31 longest stream segments across these study sites. Of the 39 variables measured, 17 differed among sites, 3 of which were uncorrelated: mean patch size of forested area, area-weighted mean shape index of wetland patches, and the mean nearest neighbor distance between wetland patches. The Shawnee Hills division had the largest mean patch size of forests, Coastal Plain wetlands had the most connectivity via mean nearest neighbor metrics, and Southern Till Plain wetlands were the most fragmented via their area-weighted mean shape indices. These findings can be useful to land managers when preserving or restoring riparian wildlife habitat in southern Illinois and throughout the Midwest.

The aim of this study is to examine the public preferences for urban riparian corridors in arid ‎regions, by testing to what extent people are willing to trade-off unmaintained ecological ‎landscape for aesthetics offered by specific micro and ‎macro environmental factors. Landscape ‎design reflects ecological and aesthetic values, and trade-offs are often made ‎between the two in ‎‎practice. In arid regions, water scarcity means riparian corridors are the ‎richest landscape ‎typology and the only ‎blue-green links for hundreds of miles. Pressure from ‎urbanization and ‎lack of eco-literacy contribute to negative ‎feedback loops which present dire ‎challenges for ‎migrating avifauna and regional wildlife. Regarding natural ‎resources and ‎biodiversity, where ‎multiple deliverable ‎ecosystem services rely on the quality and health of that ‎‎ecosystem, riparian ‎systems with high biomass are more desirable. Although this can be ‎achieved with low or no ‎‎maintenance riparian buffers, these unmaintained ecological landscapes ‎play an intrinsic role in ‎sustaining the ‎global ecosystem services and are important for the survival of the inhabitants ‎‎(avifauna). Ecological ‎landscapes are often subjected to trade-offs with aesthetic ‎landscapes that ‎include micro and ‎macro environmental factors such as manicured landscapes. It is accepted that ‎‎there is a ‎preference for aesthetics in landscape design; however, it is unclear how laypeople ‎prioritize ‎aesthetics ‎over different ecological factors in landscape scenes. This study uses a ‎Discrete Choice ‎Experiment (DCE) to elicit the ‎preferences of current or pretendant residents of ‎Jeddah City, Saudi Arabia for multiple landscape scenes. The method ‎combines ecological ‎landscape characteristics adopted from ‎the QBR index that are found in the study area in Jeddah ‎and aesthetic ‎characteristics, such as micro and macro environmental factors that are commonly ‎suggested in landscape design projects adapted from relevant visual preference studies (Alsaiari, ‎‎2018; Kenwick et al., 2009; Kuper‎ ‎,‎2017; Zhao et al., 2017). ‎DCE is a widely used method to ‎reveal preferences by analyzing the trade-offs people make ‎between ‎alternatives. Participants in ‎this study were exposed to a set of designs, which included ‎various configurations of ‎aesthetic ‎and ecological elements. Participants' choices revealed the influence of their ecological and ‎‎aesthetic values. Results show that minimal design interventions would prevent trading off the ‎ecological unmaintained landscape and that there are four subgroups with distinct homogeneous ‎preferences for the attributes affecting the appeal for the urban riparian corridor in Jeddah City. ‎Finally, results show that even though there are significant differences between subgroups based ‎on preferences, the demographic information is proportionally distributed in a way the means ‎differences diminish between the subgroups. ‎Findings in this study will equip ‎decision-makers ‎with operational definitions relating to riparian ‎landscape design and a method ‎that they can use ‎to minimize losses in ecological value over aesthetic value. This study will help‎ ‎researchers and ‎landscape architects advance visual preference research further into the domain ‎of empirical ‎‎studies.‎ ‎ / Doctor of Philosophy / Landscape architecture is a profession that entails planning and design outdoor spaces, ‎‎landmarks, and ‎structures to improve the built environment and increasing the quality of ‎‎people's lives by achieving ‎environmental, social, economic, and aesthetic outcomes‎. The ‎profession often reflects ecological and ‎aesthetic values, and trade-offs are often made ‎between ‎the two in ‎practice. These ecological values ‎represent environmental characteristics that are ‎important for the survival of wildlife (protected path ‎and safe habitat) and the overall ecosystem ‎‎(every being has a role that sustain the health of the ‎environment). Culturally, human is ‎accustomed to a slick-and-clean (tamped) looking plant within urban ‎developments (i.e., ‎neighborhoods). An example of the trade-off that often happen in practice between ‎the ‎ecological and aesthetic values is replacing an ecologically unmaintained plants that play ‎important ‎ecological role (i.e., wildlife habitat) with clean tamped plants to increase the value of ‎a real estate. Due ‎to the uncertainty surrounding people's acceptance of the features of these ‎ecological unmaintained ‎plants, especially when it entails introducing ecological riparian ‎landscape attributes within ‎neighborhoods for the first time, this dissertation focuses on both ‎assessing ecological elements ‎preferences within an urban arid region in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia ‎and assessing the extent to which ‎advanced analytical methods are capable of providing a better ‎understanding of ecological riparian ‎landscape attributes preference differences among a ‎seemingly homogenous sample of participants. ‎The increasing usage of manipulated images in ‎choice tasks inspired this dissertation. The results of the ‎study demonstrate that among the ‎relatively homogenous sample of participants that was recruited, ‎four significant preference ‎patterns have emerged, which could be used to describe and predict ‎preference for ecological ‎riparian landscape attributes and choice with great accuracy. The dissertation ‎also investigates ‎policy implications that might be beneficial in creating a ‎physical environment that ‎match public ‎preferences. ‎It also offers research implications and recommendations for landscape ‎architects ‎and urban designers on how to employ visual choice experiments, which have been well-‎‎developed in other research field