An Analysis of the History and Current Treatment Trends of the Parasitic Mite Varroa destructor (Acari: Varroidae) in Maine Beekeeping

Varroa mites, Varroa destructor (Acari: Varroidae), are a parasitic mite of honey bee colonies worldwide. Varroa mites feed on both adult honey bees and developing brood, easily spread between colonies, and can kill European honey bee colonies within just a few years. Beekeepers must apply mite treatments to maintain healthy colonies. This thesis is an overview of the currently available mite treatments in the United States and how they relate to Maine Beekeeping. There are three main research components of this thesis. The first is the analysis of two surveys that Maine beekeepers completed in 2019. The second is a research project testing the efficacy of a new approach to two commonly use mite treatments with the largest commercial beekeeper in Maine. The third is the generation of mite treatment resources based on the previous two components and subsequent presentation to beekeepers across Maine. Numerous mite treatment information sources already exist, but the amount of information can often be difficult for beekeepers unfamiliar with treating. Most Maine beekeepers are small-scale and provided feedback that helped make these outputs applicable to a wider range of beekeeper demographics. Beekeeping is an important part of Maine’s economy and lifestyle, and varroa mite treatment is an essential part of beekeeping. This thesis is a collection of literature, stakeholder-engaged research, and personal anecdotes that is intended to further the field of varroa mite IPM and provide useful resources for beekeepers in Maine and elsewhere to consult when approaching difficult mite treatment decisions

Market potential for pork products with embedded environmental attributes: an experimental approach

This dissertation focuses on determining benefits or value of environmental improvements in agricultural production, specifically, with an application to the pork industry. Values or benefits from reduced odor, reduced manure run-off, and reduced manure spills were elicited from consumers from Iowa, Kansas, Vermont, Oregon, and North Carolina. For the study, two pound packages of pork chops with selected combinations of air, ground water, and surface water environmental attributes were used to obtain consumer willingness-to-pay for environmental improvements. These benefits or willingness-to-pay for improved environmental practices have been obtained through research using a multiple trial second-price sealed-bid auction;A focus of this dissertation is to investigate the relationship between willingness-to-pay for embedded environmental attributes and socioeconomic characteristics. The dependent variables analyzed had a mix of continuous and discrete points within the distribution because of self-selectivity. Given this, a two-stage econometric procedure employing a polychotomous choice function, specifically an ordered probit, was used to investigate this relationship. Predictive ability of the model was limited and sensitive to the variables included;Two measures of willingness-to-pay for improved environmental attributes were developed and examined. It was found that under both these measures, approximately two-thirds of the participants indicated they would be willing to pay a premium for pork products with embedded environmental attributes. The average premium paid by premium payers under both measures ranged from 1.62 to 2.23 for the package with all three embedded environmental attributes. Statistical methods were used to examine whether there were differences in premiums with differing levels of embedded environmental attributes. Examining the premiums across the different locations in this study shows that there were no significant differences in the premium level by location. Demographic and attitudinal data of the participants in this study are presented. Statistical tests are employed to see whether they are significantly different across premium payers and non-premium payers

SPATIOTEMPORAL DYNAMICS OF NITROGEN AND CARBON BIOGEOCHEMISTRY IN A WETLAND-STREAM SEQUENCE

Studies of aquatic ecosystems often segregate streams from the influential ponds, lakes, and wetland zones that act as important transitions between terrestrial and fluvial systems. Across the aquatic landscape, these zones interact to form linked ecosystems that function as discrete nutrient processing domains, shifting biogeochemical signals due to spatial and temporal variability in hydrologic and biologic controls. Using a mass-balance approach, we profiled nutrient dynamics along a 23-km wetland-stream sequence over three seasons. Hydrologic, morphologic, and biologic conditions, as well as landscape attributes, were quantified to determine potential controls on biogeochemical cycling in a tributary of the Upper Clark Fork River (UCFR), MT that is known for contributing disproportionate nutrient loads. Results identified a geomorphic and hydrologic sequence of wetland-stream interactions that generated discrete zones of nutrient production, transformation, and uptake. Zones of production resulted in five-to seven-fold increases in nitrate loads. Across all four stream reaches, nutrient dynamics were driven primarily by net groundwater exchange, which explained up to 30% (P = 0.0064) of the change in nitrate load. Nitrogen transformation of ammonium-rich groundwater inputs resulted in mean nitrification rates of 248.49 mg N m-2 d-1; on par with engineered surface-flow constructed treatment wetlands. Abnormally high C loss rates(up to -54.9 g C m-2 d-1) calculated from changes in the dissolved organic carbon (DOC) load between ground-and surface water compartments suggest DOC removal pathways other than heterotrophic respiration –i.e., adsorption to the extensive carbonate precipitates which coat benthic and hyporheic substrates. During the study period,water flowing through this sequence of aquatic systems exhibited an average increase in nitrate load of 461% and a doubling of ammonium, soluble reactive phosphate, and DOC loads with a mere 32% increase in discharge

William Nathaniel Irving (1927-1987)

William Nathaniel Irving died on November 25, 1987. He was an arctic archaeologist and professor of anthropology at the University of Toronto, internationally recognized as a leading scholar in arctic prehistory. His contributions were significant and appreciated during his lifetime. His initial research interests were in the Inuit cultures of northern Alaska and their antecedents, which led him to study both their ethnoarchaeology and the systematics and technology of stone implements, e.g., those of the arctic small tool tradition. His major research focus in the last two decades of his career was in searching in the northern Yukon for answers to a problem that puzzled anthropologists for over a century - when did humans enter the New World? Irving spent a good deal of time studying this topic while continuing to fulfill his university responsibilities as teacher, administrator and director of numerous graduate students. ..

Saying No to (the) Oxygen Capital? Amenity Migration, Counter-territorialization, and Uneven Rural Landscape Change in the Kaz Dağları (Ida Mountains) of Western Turkey

Diverse forms of conservation and development are transforming the material landscapes and related livelihoods of communities in rural places around the world. While many studies focus on changing protected area governance and ecotourism efforts associated with nature protection, other studies focus on residential development in areas experiencing amenity migration. We use a comparative political ecology approach that draws on key insights from the political ecology literature, first, on neoliberal protected area expansion, and, second, on exurbia that highlight the dynamics of competing rural capitalisms and reterritorialization in areas experiencing amenity migration to explore these coupled conservation and development dynamics. Drawing on the case of the Kazdağları (Ida Mountains) along the Bay of Edremit in western Turkey, we examine how changing environmental governance associated with the region\u27s national park created key conditions for the emergence of new real estate dynamics that supported amenity-related development in some villages. Yet our research also uncovers further uneven rural landscape changes and divergent outcomes associated with this reterritorialization process. Our findings suggest the presence of counter-territorialization dynamics, or the efforts of culturally distinctive villages in rural areas to resist these landscape changes. In the Kazdağları, selective strategies of engagement and non-engagement with the real estate market contribute to these divergent outcomes. To protect their cultural identity, villagers commodify particular landscape features, which enable these counter-territorializaton efforts to succeed. These findings hold insights for efforts to understand landscape patterns in rural areas characterized by changing protected area governance, high levels of natural amenity attracting in-migrants, and settlements with distinctive cultural identities