UMD Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/3
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Item LEVERAGING FINE-SCALE GEOSPATIAL DATA TO ADVANCE BIODIVERSITY SENSITIVE URBAN PLANNING, WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT, AND GREEN CORRIDOR DESIGN: APPLICATION TO THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA(2023) Spivy, Annette Leah; Mullinax, Jennifer; Environmental Science and Technology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Typically, urban wildlife communities are made up of generalist species that are adept at utilizing human resources. However, many wildlife species struggle in the face of extensive urbanization and would benefit from increased conservation of urban green space, increased urban landscape connectivity, and proactive wildlife population management strategies. Unfortunately, maintaining and/or increasing the availability of quality habitat for biodiversity conservation in urban areas can be challenging as these conservation efforts are often influenced by the decreasing availability of critical resources and the challenges in allocating those resources among competing socioeconomic and environmental needs. Therefore, to improve the management and conservation of urban wildlife, accurate measurements of potential trade-offs between the environmental, economic, and social goals and management actions of a city’s sustainable development plan are needed. Until now, much of the effort in wildlife habitat modeling and biodiversity mapping has been across large geographic areas or broad spatial scales. Those efforts have provided valuable insights into overall biodiversity patterns, identifying key hotspots, and understanding large-scale ecological processes. However, in urban environments, the dynamics of wildlife, habitat availability, and ecosystem services operate differently than in natural or rural landscapes. As urbanization continues to expand, there is a growing need to focus on fine-scale factors to address specific conservation challenges in urban systems. This research seeks to address some of these challenges and demonstrates how new and traditional species-relevant geospatial datasets can be leveraged in urban planning and design to drive local-scale conservation decisions that put biodiversity in the forefront. This work links long-term, multi-taxon, wildlife survey data and high-resolution land use and land cover datasets (1m) to determine where high-quality, well-connected habitats exist, or could most easily be justified and acquired, within the District of Columbia. This work also evaluates the spatial patterns of ecosystem service provisions across the urban landscape to identify “win-win” areas for conservation or restoration that will benefit both biodiversity and human wellbeing. Finally, the work evaluates a local translocation effort of the vulnerable eastern box turtle (Terrapene carolina carolina) to inform mitigation strategies when a sudden loss of habitat in an urban environment is inevitable. This research is particularly relevant to wildlife managers and urban planners in highly urbanized areas, where large parcels of land with suitable habitat are minimal and municipal environmental departments are often under-resourced. Local policymakers interested in incentivizing conservation efforts to meet state or national goals can use this information for strategic urban conservation initiatives.Item Shellfisheries and Cultural Ecosystem Services: Understanding the Benefits Enabled through Work in Farmed and Wild Shellfisheries(2020) Michaelis, Adriane Kristen; Shaffer, L. Jen; Anthropology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)As commercial shellfish aquaculture continues to expand in the United States (US), industry supporters promote the ability of bivalve shellfish to provide ecosystem services, suggesting aquaculture’s potential to ecologically and economically supplement wild shellfisheries (Beck et al., 2011; van der Schatte Olivier et al., 2018). Within this discussion of bivalve-related benefits, sociocultural benefits are largely absent (Alleway et al., 2018). This oversight hinders industry growth as it: 1) ignores evidence suggesting sociocultural benefits are more salient to individuals than other types of ecological benefits (Daniel et al., 2012) and 2) does not acknowledge the high level of job satisfaction associated with fisheries-based livelihoods precisely because of their many linked sociocultural benefits (Pollnac & Poggie, 2006; Smith & Clay, 2010). It is reasonable to assume that shellfish aquaculture might provide similar benefits, but this has not been considered in aquaculture’s promotion and development. To address this lapse, this dissertation detailed sociocultural benefits related to aquaculture and wild shellfisheries using an ethnographic approach framed by ecosystem services. Three complementary studies blending semi-structured interviews, photovoice interviews, participant observation, and Q methodology were conducted, targeting US shellfisheries at three scales: 1) within the state of Maryland, 2) within seven total states in the Chesapeake Bay, Gulf of Mexico, and New England regions and 3) throughout the US. Results illustrated that cultural ecosystem services are important to individuals working with shellfish and were used to create the first comprehensive list detailing the benefits enabled through work with shellfish. Project participants perceived the value of these benefits differently, and views were most strongly linked to participant role in the industry rather than other attributes. Results showed that, for the most part, shellfish aquaculture was able to provide similar benefits to a wild shellfishery. Findings from this study are relevant to both shellfisheries promotion and management as results highlight not only the range of benefits enabled through shellfisheries, but also the diversity of views and values held by industry members. Additionally, this project provided an excellent case study with which to investigate the complexity of linked and changing ecosystem services.Item VALUING FOREST ECOSYSTEM SERVICES IN MARYLAND AND SUGGESTING FAIR PAYMENT USING THE PRINCIPLES OF SYSTEMS ECOLOGY(2012) Campbell, Elliott Thomas; Tilley, David R; Environmental Science and Technology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Forests provide a multitude of vital benefits to the ecosystems, economies and people of Maryland. Forests regulate atmospheric gas exchange, ameliorate micro-climates, stabilize coastlines and riverbanks, provide wildlife habitat, generate and maintain soils, improve water quality, dampen storm flows, abate air pollution, and provide food, fiber, fuel and shelter. While markets exist to set the price for an economic good like timber, many of the ecosystem services listed above are poorly valued, if at all. This research provides a connection between biophysical and economic methods for evaluating the environment. The hydrology, soil, carbon, air pollution, pollination and biodiversity of a forest are measured from a biophysical standpoint with emergy and converted to dollars using new emergy-to-dollar ratios; termed eco-prices. The functioning of the forest is compared to the most likely alternative land-use (suburbia) and biophysical value is assigned based on this difference. The novel method for assigning value to ecosystem services and the ability to link biophysical evaluation and economic valuation has the potential to be influential in how ecosystem services are incorporated into the economy and used to guide decision making in the future. This research seeks to value ecosystem services provided by forests in Maryland and proposes that an Ecological Investment Corporation (EIC) could be an additional tool for society to direct payments from consumers to land stewards to encourage the production of ecosystem services. To ensure that Maryland forests continue to produce ecosystem services at the current rate, land stewards should receive compensation between $178 and $744 million. On a per capita basis, a resident of Maryland enjoys $850 worth of ecosystem services from the forest as public value. On an area basis, the typical acre of forest in Maryland generates over $2000 of ecosystem services as public value. Based on our compensation estimates for ecosystem services, a land steward should receive a fair payment price of $71 to $298 per year per a typical acre of forest. This research is a step forward for emergy science, providing novel methods for quantifying ecosystem services, calculating ecological debt, and converting renewable emergy flows to dollars.Item Ecological Values and Ecosystem Services of Natural Forests: A Study of Prince William Forest Park, Virginia(2010) Dawson, Allen; Sullivan, Joseph; Plant Science and Landscape Architecture (PSLA); Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Abstract The Urban Forest Effects (UFORE) model developed by the USDA Forest Service quantifies the ecological benefits of urban forests. UFORE has been used to analyze many urban areas, including National Park land in Washington, D.C., but has not been applied to natural forests. We conducted a UFORE analysis of Prince William Forest Park for species composition and individual tree characteristics including tree height, DBH, canopy architecture, and general tree health, collecting data during the 2007 field season. The results show that the park contains over 6,287,000 trees and these trees store 394,000 tons of carbon with an annual net sequestration rate of 12,300 tons. This forest also abates 414 tons of air pollution annually. These results quantify and affirm to policymakers and the public the value and ecological importance of the forests managed by the National Park Service surrounding metropolitan Washington, D.C.Item A von Bertalanffy Based Model for the Estimation of Oyster (Crassostrea virginica) Growth on Restored Oyster Reefs in Chesapeake Bay(2008-02-21) Liddel, Michael Keith; Paynter, Kennedy T; Marine-Estuarine-Environmental Sciences; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)A model to estimate the mean monthly growth of Crassostrea virginica oysters in Chesapeake Bay was developed. This model is based on the classic von Bertalanffy growth function, however the growth constant is changed every monthly timestep in response to short term changes in temperature and salinity. Using a dynamically varying growth constant allows the model to capture seasonal oscillations in growth, and growth responses to changing environmental conditions that previous applications of the von Bertalanffy model do not capture. This model is further expanded to include an estimation of Perkinsus marinus impacts on growth rates as well as estimations of ecosystem services provided by a restored oyster bar over time. The model was validated by comparing growth estimates from the model to oyster shell height observations from a variety of restoration sites in the upper Chesapeake Bay. Without using the P. marinus impact on growth, the model consistently overestimates mean oyster growth. However, when P. marinus effects are included in the model, the model estimates match the observed mean shell height closely for at least the first 3 years of growth. The estimates of ecosystem services suggested by this model imply that even with high levels of mortality on an oyster reef, the ecosystem services provided by that reef can still be maintained by growth for several years. Because larger oyster filter more water than smaller ones, larger oysters contribute more to the filtration and nutrient removal ecosystem services of the reef. Therefore a reef with an abundance of larger oysters will provide better filtration and nutrient removal. This implies that if an oyster restoration project is trying to improve water quality through oyster filtration, it is important to maintain the larger older oysters on the reef.Item INTEGRATED ECOLOGICAL ECONOMIC MODELING OF ECOSYSTEM SERVICES FROM THE BRAZILIAN AMAZON RAINFOREST(2004-10-26) Portela, Rosimeiry G.; Costanza, Robert; Marine-Estuarine-Environmental Sciences; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation links the natural and social sciences, using modeling techniques to enhance understanding of the functioning of a complex ecosystem and its relevance to humans. For this purpose, I developed a Regional Unified Metatomodel of the Brazilian Amazon (RUMBA) to simulate the Amazon forest provision of ecosystem goods and services and their contribution to human economy and welfare. The model was also used to simulate the potential effect of an incentive to reduce deforestation in return for a payment for avoided releases of carbon into the atmosphere. Simulation was done from 1975 to 2100, with calibration performed for the first 25 years, and for four scenarios: a baseline scenario, based on historical trends, and four alternative scenarios based on different assumptions and policy choices. The baseline scenario shows deforestation proceeding at high rates, leading to decreasing provision of forest goods and services and increasing economic growth. The growth of GRP per capita, on the other hand, remains much smaller than that of GRP. Regional welfare decreases significantly over the simulated period. The overall monetary contribution of ecosystem goods and services to the regional economy is estimated as 5 times the GRP in year 2100. Scenarios of increased investment in development yielded higher economic growth accompanied by lower levels of welfare, while opposite trends were found for scenarios of higher investment in human, knowledge and natural capital. Finally, results also show that in order for a monetary compensation to represent a significant incentive to land owners to reduce deforestation, higher prices for avoided carbon emissions would have to be set than current prices of the emerging carbon market. Main research findings are that increasing land use change in the Brazilian Amazon incurs significant losses of ecosystem services without this being adequately offset by increasing monetary income or welfare of people. This reseach has also found that in the absence of significant incentives from global beneficiaries for any one ecosystem service, or a combination of incentives addressing several types of ecosystem services, rational land uses at the local level lead to sub-optimal provision of these services from the global perspective.