Master\u27s Project: Maple: A Sap to Syrup Guide, A Manual for Career and Technical Centers of Vermont

Maple syrup production is a very important aspect of Vermont life and history. Every year in the early spring, people of all ages find their way to the woods to tap trees, collect sap, and participate in the great tradition of producing maple syrup. Maple syrup production is an essential industry from a historical, cultural, agricultural, and economic perspective. As the industry continues to grow, it creates potential employment opportunities for people of all ages, including recent high school graduates. Through a collaboration between Vermont high school agriculture/natural resources instructors, the UVM Extension Maple Specialist, Shelburne Farms, and the UVM Ecological Planning Program, a FFA Maple Career Development Event (CDE) and maple reference manual were developed primarily for use by Vermont Career and Technical Center educators and students. A CDE is a competition designed to both test skill development and to prepare high school students for careers in the area of focus. The maple manual was designed to provide up-to-date, science-based information on maple syrup production, to create consistency between curriculum taught at different high schools, and to serve as a reference to prepare students for the Maple CDE. This project provides high school educators with the necessary resources to better prepare students to become effective maple syrup producers, bringing this traditional product and skill into the next generation

Problem expansion and solution containment : news coverage and the climate debate

This project focuses on how news coverage of climate change structures policy debates to examine its role in slowing down the momentum for large-scale policy change, such as cap-and-trade legislation. I present a theory of media signaling in what I call the “muddled space” of policy debates on complex problems, and apply it to the issue climate change. I argue that there is a dual role for media influence in the muddled space: it prioritizes attention to policy problems, but also limits the comprehensiveness of solutions used to fix them. On problem expansion, findings suggest that two aspects of news coverage – attribute diversity and volume – amplify problem uncertainty in policy debates and heighten disputes over its severity and are thus important factors in prioritizing the climate problem. Causal uncertainty in news coverage – doubt about the linkages among human actions, global warming, and climate impacts – makes it less likely that the climate problem will be on the policy agenda. But once it is on the agenda, causal uncertainty seems to mobilize policy brokers around strategies to define the climate problem and delineate its solutions. On solution containment, findings suggest that high levels of causal uncertainty is a limiting factor for the generation of large-scale climate solutions, such as cap-and-trade. I also find that attribute diversity and causal uncertainty in news coverage play an important role in increasing the likelihood that policy debates on climate solutions will converge around incremental approaches to fixing it, such as energy efficiency measures. This study is important because it demonstrates that the influence of news coverage on public affairs is quite large in its ability to moderate attention to policy problems and their attendant solutions. The “muddled space” helps explain why complex problems get “stuck” in cycles of policy debates over problem definitions, which leads to less effective solutions employed to solve them. Finally, this study also helps explain why the US is such a laggard in terms of climate policy.Governmen

New archaeological discoveries in north-central Timor-Leste indicate sociocultural adaptations to landscape change during the Holocene

During the Holocene, Wallacea saw dramatic sociocultural changes during the Pre-ceramic, Neolithic, Metal-age, and Colonial periods, as well as climatic and associated environmental changes that affected the landscapes and ecologies of islands. These environmental and cultural processes appear to have influenced human socioeconomic adaptations throughout the archipelago. Here, we present new anthropological and archaeological data demonstrating the effects of these processes. Excavations at the cave site of Hatu Saur on the north coast of Timor-Leste have revealed a deep archaeological sequence that dates from ca. 10,500 years until the present. The site contains extensive assemblages of faunal remains, as well as stone artifacts, revealing settlement patterns that were influenced by sea level change and estuarine infilling after 7 ka. The sequence encompasses the beginning of the Neolithic in Timor-Leste, some 3500 years ago, and the period from ca. 700 years ago when outside influences, including Chinese and Makassar traders and Dutch and Portuguese colonization, greatly affected the indigenous culture and economy on the island of Timor, reflected in the material culture remains from Hatu Saur. The archaeological findings complement related anthropological research in the region that highlights unique local mythologies of settlement origins and their contested histories

Water resources, agriculture and the environment.

In this article, water utilization by individuals and especially agricultural systems is analyzed. Interrelationships exist among population growth, water use and distribution, the status of biodiversity, the natural environment, plus the impacts of water borne human diseases are reported

Natural selection towards wild-type in composite cross populations of winter wheat

Most of our crops are grown in monoculture with single genotypes grown over wide acreage. An alternative approach, where segregating populations are used as crops, is an exciting possibility, but outcomes of natural selection upon this type of crop are not well understood. We tracked allelic frequency changes in evolving composite cross populations of wheat grown over ten generations under organic and conventional farming. At three generations, each population was genotyped with 19 SSR and 8 SNP markers. The latter were diagnostic for major functional genes. Gene diversity was constant at SSR markers but decreased over time for SNP markers. Population differentiation between the four locations could not be detected, suggesting that organic vs. non-organic crop management did not drive allele frequency changes. However, we did see changes for genes controlling plant height and phenology in all populations independently and consistently. We interpret these changes as the result of a consistent natural selection towards wild-type. Independent selection for alleles that are associated with plant height suggests that competition for light was central, resulting in the predominance of stronger intraspecific competitors, and highlighting a potential trade-off between individual and population performanc