A Guidance Program For The Junior-Senior High School

The problem of this thesis is to set up a guidance program for the junior-senior high school. A program especially workable for the small junior-senior high school is desirable since these are most frequently found in this section of the state

Toxigenic phytoplankton and concomitant toxicity in the mussel Choromytilus meridionalis off the west coast of South Africa in the autumn of 2007

Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (p. 73-80).Harmful algal blooms are prevalent off the west coast of South Africa in the summer and autumn months, and have a detrimental impact on human activities along the coast. Some harmful algal blooms are dominated by phytoplankton which produce toxins that can cause shellfish poisoning syndromes. The relationship between the abundance and toxicity of toxigenic phytoplankton, and the concentrations and composition of toxins in the filter-feeding mussel Choromytilus meridionalis, was investigated. Several different methods were used to determine toxin concentations in the mussel

The Limits of Solidarity: leftist Jewish Israeli activism for Palestine in the 1960’s and 2010’s

What does it mean for Jewish Israelis to engage in Palestinian solidarity? How do they navigate their positions of privilege in their activism? To explore these questions, I begin with a historical trajectory of the rise and fall of leftist Jewish Israeli activist organizations in response to global and local developments. I focus on two periods and their organizations: The Israeli Socialist Organization in the 1960’s and 1970’s and Ta’ayush and Physicians for Human Rights Israel in the 2010’s. In both cases the individuals in question are a very small minority of Israelis. From there I analyze these organizations and activists’ struggles to escape dominant Zionist and Israeli state narratives and the continual shortcomings in their attempts to center Palestinians in their activism. Despite radical positions, activists from both eras remain trapped in existing systems of power

Urban Ecosystems: Alterations to Peakflow, Microclimate and the Natural Environment

More than half of the world’s population now lives in urbanized ecosystems. Continued human population growth over the next several decades will place unprecedented demand on urban water resources, resulting in escalating water quality and supply challenges. Urbanization exacts significant impacts on stream ecosystems including increased magnitude and frequency of peak flows, altered microclimates and reduced biodiversity. Increased impervious surface area in urban settings reduces or eliminates soil infiltration and increases the amount of stormwater runoff delivered to stream channels. Stormwater routing networks in urban areas channelize runoff, reducing stormwater transit time. Stormwater flow serves as an important transport mechanism for non-point source pollutants, and impervious surfaces serve as conduits to flow, replacing soils and vegetation that would otherwise attenuate runoff and transport of pollutants. Stream channels typically broaden and deepen in response to increased volume, velocity and frequency of peak flows, leading to increased channel instability, accelerated erosion, and subsequent loss of habitat. Given these scenarios, urbanization can degrade freshwater resources, detrimentally impact in-stream and riparian biota, and destroy riparian wetland form and function. The following work quantifies peak flow and microclimate alteration due to urbanization in a large, multi-use watershed of the central U.S. 


A long-term stream flow monitoring program was established in the Hinkson Creek Watershed located in Boone County, mid-Missouri during the fall of 2008. Hydroclimate stations were installed at five locations along Hinkson Creek within predominantly forest, cropland, and urban environments. Continuous stream stage and flow data from these sites were used to quantify peak flow in different environments of the watershed. Preliminary results indicate that forested environments tend to attenuate peak flows from small precipitation events (< 0.80 mm), whereas events of similar magnitude in urban settings cause spikes in flow and a flashier hydrograph. With larger precipitation events (> 1.0 mm), the time from peak rainfall to peak flow is decreased by as much as 13% in urban settings accompanied by at least 4 cm higher peak flows and 15-20% greater flow volume. Average air temperatures in the urban region exceed the forested region by at least 15% during winter months, holding important implications for snow melt and runoff, peak flow and ecosystem processes. Continued monitoring and analyses will more precisely quantify the effects of urbanization on these phenomena and will provide critical information for the sustainable management of urban natural resources. 
&#xa

Integrated Water Resources Research: Advancements in Understanding to Improve Future Sustainability

Anthropogenic and natural disturbances to freshwater quantity and quality is a greater issue for society than ever before. To successfully restore water resources in impaired watersheds requires understanding the interactions between hydrology, climate, land use, water quality, ecology, social and economic pressures. Current understanding of these interactions is limited primarily by a lack of innovation, investment, and interdisciplinary collaboration. This Special Issue of Water includes 18 articles broadly addressing investigative areas related to experimental study designs and modeling (n = 8), freshwater pollutants of concern (n = 7), and human dimensions of water use and management (n = 3). Results demonstrate the immense, globally transferable value of the experimental watershed approach, the relevance and critical importance of current integrated studies of pollutants of concern, and the imperative to include human sociological and economic processes in water resources investigations. Study results encourage cooperation, trust and innovation, between watershed stakeholders to reach common goals to improve and sustain the resource. The publications in this Special Issue are substantial; however, managers remain insufficiently informed to make best water resource decisions amidst combined influences of land use change, rapid ongoing human population growth, and changing environmental conditions. There is thus, a persistent need for further advancements in integrated and interdisciplinary research to improve scientific understanding, management and future sustainability of water resources

A Rapid Physical Habitat Assessment of Wadeable Streams for Mixed-Land-Use Watersheds

Mitigating stream and river impairment is complex, particularly in mixed-land-use watersheds given the likelihood of integrated responses of stream restoration to coupled and ongoing terrestrial ecosystem disturbance and the need for periodic reassessment and maintenance. Traditional biological sampling (e.g., macroinvertebrate sampling or other biological indices) alone seldom identifies the cause of biological community impairment and large fiscal investments are often made with no apparent improvement to aquatic ecosystem health. A stream physical habitat assessment (PHA) can yield information that, when paired with land-use data may reveal causal patterns in aquatic physical habitat degradation and help to identify sites for rehabilitation or restoration. A rapid and customizable physical habitat assessment method (rPHA) is presented that reduces commonly high PHA time and labor costs while facilitating informative value. Sampling time is reduced to approximately 30–40 min per survey site with a crew of three individuals. The method is flexible and thus adaptable to varied applications and needs. The rPHA design facilitates replication at regular spatial and temporal intervals thereby informing land-use managers and agencies of current conditions and trends in habitat response to natural and anthropogenic stressors. The rPHA outcomes can thus provide science-based supplemental information to better inform management practices and stream restoration decisions in contemporary mixed-land-use watersheds

Climatic Trends of West Virginia: A Representative Appalachian Microcosm

During the late 19th and very early 20th centuries widespread deforestation occurred across the Appalachian region, USA. However, since the early 20th century, land cover rapidly changed from predominantly agricultural land use (72%; 1909) to forest. West Virginia (WV) is now the USA’s third most forested state by area (79%; 1989–present). It is well understood that land cover alterations feedback on climate with important implications for ecology, water resources, and watershed management. However, the spatiotemporal distribution of climatic changes during reforestation in WV remains unclear. To fill this knowledge gap, daily maximum temperature, minimum temperature, and precipitation data were acquired for eighteen observation sites with long periods of record (POR; ≥77 years). Results indicate an increasingly wet and temperate WV climate characterized by warming summertime minimum temperatures, cooling maximum temperatures year-round, and increased annual precipitation that accelerated during the second half (1959–2016) of the POR. Trends are elevation dependent and may be accelerating due to local to regional ecohydrological feedbacks including increasing forest age and density, changing forest species composition, and increasing globally averaged atmospheric moisture. Furthermore, results imply that excessive wetness may become the primary ecosystem stressor associated with climate change in the USA’s rugged and flood prone Appalachian region. The Appalachian region’s physiographic complexity and history of widespread land use changes makes climatic changes particularly dynamic. Therefore, mechanistic understanding of micro- to mesoscale climate changes is imperative to better inform decision makers and ensure preservation of the region’s rich natural resources

An Assessment of Mean Areal Precipitation Methods on Simulated Stream Flow: A SWAT Model Performance Assessment

Accurate mean areal precipitation (MAP) estimates are essential input forcings for hydrologic models. However, the selection of the most accurate method to estimate MAP can be daunting because there are numerous methods to choose from (e.g., proximate gauge, direct weighted average, surface-fitting, and remotely sensed methods). Multiple methods (n = 19) were used to estimate MAP with precipitation data from 11 distributed monitoring sites, and 4 remotely sensed data sets. Each method was validated against the hydrologic model simulated stream flow using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). SWAT was validated using a split-site method and the observed stream flow data from five nested-scale gauging sites in a mixed-land-use watershed of the central USA. Cross-validation results showed the error associated with surface-fitting and remotely sensed methods ranging from −4.5 to −5.1%, and −9.8 to −14.7%, respectively. Split-site validation results showed the percent bias (PBIAS) values that ranged from −4.5 to −160%. Second order polynomial functions especially overestimated precipitation and subsequent stream flow simulations (PBIAS = −160) in the headwaters. The results indicated that using an inverse-distance weighted, linear polynomial interpolation or multiquadric function method to estimate MAP may improve SWAT model simulations. Collectively, the results highlight the importance of spatially distributed observed hydroclimate data for precipitation and subsequent steam flow estimations. The MAP methods demonstrated in the current work can be used to reduce hydrologic model uncertainty caused by watershed physiographic differences