Bull Kelp (Nereocystic lutkeana) Restoration and Management in Northern California

Northern California’s coastal marine ecosystems support one of the most productive and biodiverse habitats on the planet. Bull kelp forests (Nereocystic lutkeana) form habitats for an abundance of marine mammals, sea bird, fish, and invertebrates. In recent years, compounding ecological and climatic factors have disrupted the balance of the bull kelp forests and led to an unprecedented loss of bull kelp biomass and canopy cover. These areas that are typically teeming with marine life have shifted into a stable state of sea urchin barrens due to over grazing of bull kelp by purple sea urchins (Strongylocentrotus pupuratus). These sea urchin barrens provide very little habitat diversity and do not support the variety of life that rely on habitat forming bull kelp for nourishment, shelter, and breeding grounds. Marine heatwaves and warming ocean trends have exacerbated the detrimental effects of the sea urchins by leaving bull kelp more susceptible to grazing pressures. Estimates have shown a 93% loss of bull kelp canopy cover along the Mendocino and Sonoma counties coastline. This devastation has far reaching repercussions, from multi-million-dollar economic impacts on recreational and commercial fisheries that rely on bull kelp to provide habitat and food to their target species, to the loss of carbon sequestration services. This paper examines kelp restoration case studies to determine which restoration techniques and management practices have been successful. Based on this synthesis, I provide recommendations to the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary (GFNMS) to restore and manage these areas that have been heavily affected by bull kelp loss. My bull kelp restoration and management recommendations for GFNMS are three pronged. 1) Mobilize stakeholders to participate in mass urchin culling events in urchin barren areas that are in close proximity with remaining bull kelp forests. 2) At sites where sea urchins are successfully thinned to a manageable density, employ kelp enhancement techniques of outplanting thermally tolerant juvenile bull kelp and transplanting adult bull kelp from neighboring bull kelp forests. 3) Implement a citizen science and education program to increase awareness and visibility of the collapse of bull kelp forests on the Northern California coast

Let the Exceptions Do the Work: How Florida Should Approach Environmental Regulation After \u3cem\u3eCedar Point Nursery v. Hassid\u3c/em\u3e

For nearly fifty years, courts distinguished between per se physical takings and regulatory takings. Yet, in 2021, the Supreme Court signaled a change of course with the monumental Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid decision. The ruling challenges the government’s ability to mandate anything that impacts private property. In the face of environmental catastrophe and increasing pressure to assuage our climate crisis, how can governments respond without triggering a takings challenge? Chief Justice Roberts in his majority decision may have left the door cracked open for governments to work around the Cedar Point Nursery ruling. By looking at the legacy of other takings challenges, namely Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Council, this Comment argues that regulators and legislators may find hope in Cedar Point Nursery’s implied and stated exceptions. Florida is at a heightened risk from environmental calamity and will need to rely on creative lawmaking to prevent paying out just compensation. From proposed inspection regimes to wildlife protection and more, Floridian municipal and county governments rely on the temporary use of private property. This Comment pro- poses the ways in which Florida can still achieve progressive climate action while staying within the Supreme Court’s new takings law framework

Greenhouse Gas Flux Response to Harvest of Typha x Glauca in a Great Lakes Coastal Wetland

Although harvesting invasive species can promote biodiversity during wetlands restoration, there is little known about this mechanical treatment’s impacts on greenhouse gas flux, a significant biosphere-atmosphere interaction. We quantified greenhouse gas flux response to experimental harvest of invasive cattail (Typha x glauca) at Cheboygan Marsh in Northeastern Michigan during the 2015 growing season. During each sampling campaign (July 15, July 31, August 12) we collected gas samples from static PVC chambers at 6 harvest and adjacent Typha control plots. Using gas chromatograph analysis, we found no significant difference in CH4 or CO2 flux between harvest and control plots on any date. Average CH4 flux rates for harvest and Typha control were 56.0 and 36.0 mg C m-2 h-1 respectively. Average CO2 flux rates for harvest and Typha control were 35.7 and 43.2 mg C m-2 h-1 respectively. From hourly I-Button temperature measurements, we found harvest plots had an average maximum daily temperature than Typha control plots. We found a slight positive linear relationship between litter depth and average CH4 flux for each chamber. We found a positive linear relationship between reduction-oxidation potential and greenhouse gas flux on harvested plots. While our hypothesis of decreased greenhouse gas flux in harvest plots was not supported by our results, limitations in our experimental design indicate need for improved instrumentation and sampling procedure. Further, trends in temperature and redox data support need for more comprehensive inquiry into the interaction between these abiotic factors, harvest of Typha, and wetland microbial production of greenhouse gases

Olivia Johnson Honors Portfolio

Olivia Johnson\u27s honors portfolio captured in May 2023

X-ray surveys of active galactic nuclei in field and cluster environments

In recent years, the Chandra and XMM-Newton observatories have provided an unprecedented view of the X-ray sky, with deep surveys resolving the majority of the X-ray flux in the Universe for the first time. This thesis presents three multiwavelength surveys of different environments based on deep X-ray observations, which together aim to develop our understanding of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) and their role within the evolution of galaxies and their larger-scale environment.I present results of the ELAIS Deep X-ray Survey (EDXS), an early C handra ‘blank field’ survey designed to characterise the components of the XRB and to study their relation to populations detected in other wavebands. Between 50-64% of the XRB is resolved into sources detected in the two EDXS fields which are optically identified as quasars, bright galaxies, and optically faint sources. The X-ray spectral properties of the sources indicate that those with optically faint and galaxy morphology are likely to house a large population of obscured AGN as predicted by synthesis models of the XRB. These optically resolved sources have fainter X-ray and optical fluxes, harder X-ray spectra, redder optical colours, and more scatter in their X-ray to optical ratios than the quasars in the sample, which is in general consistent with X-ray obscuration o f nuclear light in sources in which the host galaxy dominates the optical properties. Detailed comparison of the X -ray and optical/near-IR spectra of selected E D X S sources indicates substantial variety in source morphology and in relative obscuration by gas and dust in the obscured AG N population.I have conducted an analysis of the AGN content of the 2 = 0.83 galaxy cluster MS 1054- OS based on archival Chandra data. I detect 47 X-ray point sources in the MS1054-03 field, of which two are confirmed from pre-existing spectroscopy to be luminous AGN at the redshift of the cluster. At bright fluxes, I find a 2δ excess of point sources compared to the predictions from field surveys, consistent with ~ 6 additional cluster AGN. Combined with the identification of 7 cluster AGN in deep radio observations, these observations suggest significantly enhanced AGN activity in MS1054-03 compared to local galaxy clusters. The excess of X-ray detected AGN is found at radial distances of 1 to 2 Mpc from the cluster centre, suggesting they may be associated with infalling galaxies. The radio AGN are seen within the inner Mpc of the cluster and are largely undetected in the X-ray, suggesting they are either intrinsically less luminous and/or heavily obscured.I have surveyed the SSA 22 protocluster at z = 3.09 using both extremely deep XMM-Newton imaging data and narrow-band wide-field Lycv observations of the field. I detect 29 new candidate Lyα emitters and 190 X-ray sources in the region. A Lyman Break Galaxy (LBG) and two Lyα candidates are detected in the X-ray, hosting quasars with estimated bolometric luminosities of ~10⁴⁶ erg s⁻¹ . The observed AGN fractions of LBGs and Lyα candidates in SSA 22 are ~4% and ~1.3%, respectively. Stacking analysis of the LBG, Lyα candidate, and submillimetreselected samples in the field do not result in significant detections, and limit the average hard X-ray luminosity of each type of source to ~5 x 10⁴³ erg s⁻¹. There is no evidence of diffuse X-ray emission associated with the protocluster as a whole or with luminous, diffuse regions of Lyα flux in the structure. Soft band X-ray flux on scales of ~1 Mpc is limited to L₀.₅₋₂keV ≲ 9 x 10⁴³ erg s⁻¹ , robustly excluding all but the faintest thermal emission seen in local clusters. On smaller scales of ~ 0.6 Mpc which may be more typical of high redshift clusters, the limit is L₀.₅₋₂keV ≲ 3 x 10⁴³ which just excludes the level of emission seen in clusters at z ~ 1.3. The limit on thermal X-ray emission associated with the diffuse Lyα emission, is L₀.₅₋₂keV ≲ 1 x 10⁴² erg s⁻¹ . Point source limits in these regions exclude A G N with obscuring columns of NH ≲ 10²³ cm⁻² to L₀.₅₋₈keV ≲ 3 x 10⁴³ erg s⁻¹ , and all but Compton thick sources to L₀.₅₋₈keV ≲ 10⁴⁵ erg s⁻¹

A Profile of Top Performers on the Uniform CPA Exam

The Elijah Watt Sells Award, one of the most prestigious professional awards in the US, honors top performers on the Uniform CPA Examination. This article provides statistics by state and by gender of past award winners, from the first CPA exam in 1923 through the most recent available exam results for 2012. In addition, it presents a profile of the top performers based on the results of a survey administered by the authors to recent Sells Award winners. Specifically, the survey examined the recipient\u27s educational level, the amount and type of preparation, and the impact of the award on the winner\u27s career. It is hoped that future candidates and state boards of accountancy will find this information useful and that this discussion will further promote the award\u27s prestige. This discussion focused on winners of the Elijah Watt Sells Award for outstanding performance on the CPA exam, providing data by state and by gender for the period from 1924 through 2012

From Colonial Agriculture to Community Resilience: A History of the United States Gulf Coast, 1718-2005

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College

Recoding The Archive: Memory And Identity In The Photographic And Filmic Works Of Shirin Neshat, Shoja Azari, And Alia Ali

Shirin Neshat, Shoja Azari, and Alia Ali are artists of Middle Eastern descent living and working in the United States, mainly in photographic and filmic modes. Neshat and Azari were born in Iran and immigrated to the U.S. amid the 1979 Iranian Revolution, which drastically changed the political and cultural landscape of the country. Ali was born in Yemen but her father is specifically South Yemeni and her mother Yugoslavian, two countries that no longer exist. As artists experiencing exile and diaspora, with complicated relationships to their home countries, their identities are muddled by hybridity and the struggle between being connected to home through memory but seeing a different landscape represented through Western media. By creating photographs and films that serve to reconnect the artists with their homes or their Middle Eastern identities, the artists awaken memories not accepted, or even suppressed by mass media and the West. As media frequently used to preserve memories, the works of Neshat, Ali, and Azari use photography and film to instead “create” new ones. In effect, Neshat, Azari, and Ali “recode” the archive; the artists apply media-created languages of stereotype and appropriate media connected to their cultures in order to re-appropriate their individual histories—private memories—into the official history