Treesearch

Research on environmentally consequential human decision-making often begins from the premise that consumption decisions are motivated by individual values. However, we argue that social science research aiming to understand consumer decision-making will benefit from integrating the lived experiences of people in households, where decisions are often influenced or mitigated by the presence of those who share homes. Conducting research on consumption decisions regarding household resources revealed the embedded nature of these decisions, which are situated in the context of the socially...

The Kirtland's warbler (Setophaga kirtlandii) is a long-distance Neotropical migratory bird with narrow suitable nesting habitat conditions consisting of dense, young (3–20 year) jack pine (Pinus banksiana) forests growing on nutrient-poor and well-drained soils primarily within northern Lower Michigan. The Kirtland's warbler was officially delisted after more than 50 years of conservation and management activities following initial listing in 1966 under the U.S. Endangered Species Preservation Act (Byelich et al. 1976). However, Kirtland's warbler is considered a conservation-reliant...

A new instrument to quantify firebrand dynamics during fires with particular focus on those associated with the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) has been developed. During WUI fires, firebrands can ignite spot fires, which can rapidly increase the rate of spread (ROS) of the fire, provide a mechanism by which the fire can pass over firebreaks and are the leading cause of structure ignitions. Despite this key role in driving wildfire dynamics and hazards, difficulties in collecting firebrands in the field and preserving their physical condition (e.g. dimensions and temperature) have limited...

There is a strong need to increase the basic understanding of the propagation mechanisms in wildfires to improve the scientific tools needed for firefighting and fire prevention. This study focuses on the fire spread mechanisms by radiation. Three contiguous trees were ignited and the mechanisms leading to flame spread to a target tree were analyzed. The experiments were designed to avoid fire spread by flame contact and study how radiation heat transfer could ignite the target tree. Different measurements were performed, including heat fluxes, temperature and mass loss rate. The vegetation...

A stagnation-point flow model based in part on the mass transfer B-number was adapted to approximate the heat flux and time to ignition of dowel arrays subject to forced convection flame spread. Previous work on forced flow flame spread along a dowel array has characterized the existence of discretized flame behavior. In deployment-scale wildland fire models, small fuels are smaller than the grid resolution. Sub-grid modeling then relies on empirical relationships, such as Nusselt number–Reynolds number (Nu-Re) models, to estimate the fire spread. Current Nu-Re models utilized to calculate...

Tropical montane cloud forests (TMCF) are threatened ecosystems despite their capacity to maintain high dryseason baseflow. A number of conservation policies, including payments for hydrological services, have been implemented to protect these forests. However, since most of the modeling tools used to assess the impacts of these policies were developed for temperate zones, more work is needed to understand and improve the applicability of popular models in tropical contexts. This study uses local evapotranspiration and streamflow datasets to calibrate and validate an improved version of...

Climate-smart forestry (CSF) is an emerging branch of sustainable adaptive forest management aimed at enhancing the potential of forests to adapt to and mitigate climate change. It relies on much higher data requirements than traditional forestry. These data requirements can be met by new devices that support continuous, in situ monitoring of forest conditions in real time. We propose a comprehensive network of sensors, i.e., a wireless sensor network (WSN), that can be part of a worldwide network of interconnected uniquely addressable objects, an Internet of Things (IoT), which can make...

Urban waterfronts are experiencing a renaissance, as it is estimated that by 2030 more than 60 percent of the world’s population will live in cities, the majority of which are located in coastal or riparian regions. On a global level, changing public demands have spurred a new language of sustainability, revitalisation, and resilience with regard to urban waterfronts. Prior research has explored the potential ecological and social impacts of these trends, both in terms of benefits such as opportunities for recreation, as well as negative consequences such as increasing gentrification. Less...

Coastal communities are threatened by extreme weather events in the form of storm surge and by frequent, chronic, or nuisance flooding. The physical damage of these events is vast and established in the literature; however, the social-emotional impacts are less well-documented. This pilot study sought to understand the impacts of tidal flooding on flood-prone communities in Queens, NY. Through in-depth, semi-structured interviews (n=9) with civic science participants, we document flooding impacts, identify adaptations to flooding, and examine sources of information about flooding--including...