Browsing by Author "Panday, Frances Marie"
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Item Campus Forest Carbon Project Technical Guidance Document(2022-08-11) Panday, Frances Marie; Howerton, Michael; Kopp, Katelyn; Hurtt, George; Lamb, RachelThe technical guidance document was created for the Office of Sustainability to support the inclusion of forest carbon into UMD's Greenhouse Gas Inventory. This document outlines the Campus Forest Carbon's project role within UMD's climate action plan and the approach to calculating forest carbon dynamics on UMD managed and owned properties.Item An Evaluation of the Climate Change Preparedness of Terrestrial Protected Areas(2022-05-01) Panday, Frances Marie; Hurrt, George; Lamb, RachelThe rate at which the climate changes and the direction of these shifts is highly variable across the landscape. As proposed by Loarie et al. (2009), the concept of a climate change velocity (CV) adds a spatial component to the rate at which the temperature increases across the landscape. Identifying where regions will experience the most significant changes in climate conditions is highly valuable for the management of areas with high ecological and societal value, such as protected areas (PAs). To examine the relationship between climate velocity and protected areas, Loarie et al. (2009) proposes the concept of a climate residence time (CRT), which estimates the length of time current climate conditions will remain in a given spatial location before shifting. Current infrastructure design managing protected areas is outdated and may be ill-equipped to handle future changes in climate. Current work examining the relationship between protected area and the CV is relatively new, but results are promising. Here, we evaluate the climate-change preparedness of terrestrial protected areas in MD by first, quantifying the magnitude of future changes using the climate residence time, and second, evaluating their capacity to manage changes by qualitatively scoring their associated management plans for climate adaptation and/or mitigation language. This two-fold approach showed that most PAs have climate residence times less than or equal to 1.5 years and had plans with little to no language addressing climate change and its associated impacts. This suggests that PAs in MD are poorly prepared for future changes in climate. Given these results, including CVs and CRTs within PA management plans would improve a park’s adaptive capacity but also signal the need for a cross-coordinated management effort that transcends different management and governance scales.Item Hawaiian Spinner Dolphins: Vulnerability to Climate Change and Exposure to Anthropogenic Sound(2021) Panday, Frances Marie; Lettrich, MatthewCetaceans such as the Hawaiian spinner dolphin (Stenella longirostris) use the high-frequency (kHz) channel to communicate, find prey, and avoid predators. Anthropogenic activities, such as navigational sonar and vessel noise may result in acoustic disturbance or injury and impede dolphin behavior or have population-level impacts. Despite vessels producing lower frequency sounds (<400 Hz) that are detected at longer distances, it is still an effective proxy for sound propagation because higher frequency sounds are detected at shorter distances. This could mean overlap between vessel noise and dolphin hearing sensitivity, suggesting interference with their acoustic habitat. Climate change may also present additional threats to the distribution and abundance of the population. I evaluated the climate vulnerability and exposure to sound for two Hawaiian Spinner Dolphin stocks to determine if one stock was more at risk than the other and if there were any factors that contributed to such difference. I used NOAA Fisheries’ stock assessment reports to define clear stock boundaries and identify the pelagic and insular stocks. I conducted a literature review of relevant life histories and used a systematic methodology developed as part of NOAA Fisheries’ Marine Mammal Climate Vulnerability Assessment (MMCVA) project to assess their vulnerability to climate change. I quantified potential shipping exposure using a defined scoring rubric comparing the proportion of Marine Cadastre’s 2019 AIS (Automatic Identification Systems) Vessel Transit Counts data layer overlapping each stock boundary. Despite both stocks having high vulnerability to climate change, the insular stock was more susceptible due to the greater number of cumulative stressors and closer proximity to human activity. This stock also had greater exposure to sound because of its larger overlap with high-density vessel traffic. The life history attributes scored for climate change that have the most influence from sound were site fidelity, home range, and diet specificity. While the relationship between climate change and sound is still understudied, sound exposure may intensify the climate vulnerability of marine species if ocean acidification alters the ocean soundscape. Regardless, these findings offer resource managers additional information to consider in the management of Pacific cetacean stocks.Item Peer-Reviewed Offset Protocol for U.S. Forest Projects 1.0(2022-04-29) Albee, Madeleine; Hoffman Delett, Camille; Panday, Frances Marie; Lamb, Rachel; Hurtt, GeorgeThe protocol was developed for submission into Second Nature's Peer Review Offset Network by the Campus Forest Carbon Project. As of October 2022, the protocol is still under review. This offset protocol is a modified version of a previously adopted protocol created by the California Environmental Protection Agency Air Resources Board as a Compliance Offset Protocol for U.S. Forest Projects. The Campus Forest Carbon Project modified this protocol using NASA Carbon Monitoring System science to integrate a high-resolution remote sensing and modeling based quantification methodology into the voluntary carbon offset market for forest projects. Accompanying the protocol is a background and development document that outlines the specific changes to the protocol and the context surrounding its development.