Master of Science, University of Toledo, 2022, Biology (Ecology)

Atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations are increasing and may exceed 800 ppm by 2100. This is increasing global mean temperatures and the frequency and severity of heatwaves. Recently, it was shown for the first time that the combination of chronic warming and elevated carbon dioxide (eCO2) caused extreme upward bending during growth (i.e., hyponasty) of leaflets and leaf stems (petioles) in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), which reduced growth. However, that study examined only two levels of CO2 (400, 700 ppm) and temperature (30, 37oC) at the young vegetative plant stage. Further, they did not investigate underlying mechanisms for this warming + eCO2-induced hyponasty, which is likely to involve the plant hormones auxin and ethylene, based on their role in thermal hyponasty. In this study, warming + eCO2 hyponasty was evaluated in tomato across a range of temperatures and CO2 concentrations, and at multiple life stages. Ethylene tomato mutants were examined to explore the potential role of these hormones in warming + eCO2 hyponasty. Lastly, other species were examined to test the hypothesis that warming + eCO2 hyponasty is restricted to compound-leaved species in this family. At eCO2 (800 ppm), petiole angle increased ca. linearly as temperature increased from 30-38oC. Under heat stress (HS, 38°C), petiole angle increased at all eCO2 concentrations compared to ambient (600/800/1000 vs. 400 ppm). All life stages examined (juvenile, pre-reproductive, and flowering) had increased petiole angle in leaves developed during warming + eCO2, such that most leaves exhibited hyponasty in juvenile plants but only young leaves did so in adults (previously fully-developed leaves were unaffected). Ethylene-insensitive (nr) and -constitutive (epi) mutants displayed similar changes in petiole angle with warming + eCO2 compared to the non-mutant reference (cv. Celebrity), indicating that ethylene is not a main component of the mechanism of this hyponastic response. (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Scott Heckathorn Dr. (Committee Chair); Heidi Appel Dr. (Committee Member); Jennifer Boldt Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Agriculture; Agronomy; Biology; Botany; Climate Change; Ecology; Environmental Science; Forestry; Morphology; Physiology; Plant Biology; Plant Sciences

Master of Science (MS), Bowling Green State University, 2017, Biological Sciences

Global-average surface temperatures and climate variability are predicted to increase and there is the potential for a positive or negative feedback between atmospheric carbon dioxide and warming. However, our ability to make this determination is crippled by our lack of understanding of the conjoined effects of warming and organisms, both above- and belowground, on elements of the carbon cycle. Herbivores affect plant production as well as soil processes, such as carbon dioxide efflux, by altering litterfall quantity and quality via their grazing activity and excretions. Furthermore, predators can have non-consumptive effects (NCEs) on herbivores, subsequently impacting these effects. Using experimental field mesocosms, we investigated the effects of nighttime, daytime, and hybrid (4 pm to 4 am) warming treatments on interactions between wolf spiders (Lycosidae) and two-lined grasshoppers (Melanoplus bivittatus) on aspen saplings (Populus tremuloides). More frass was found in litterfall in hybrid warming/predator present mesocosms than in ambient temperature/predator present mesocosms. Additionally, spiders tended to be more active under hybrid warming than other warming treatments, and grasshoppers were more than twice as likely to be active if predators were present compared to absent. Soil respiration (carbon dioxide efflux) was lower in soils previously under daytime warming treatments than in soils previously under hybrid warming treatments. These results add to the limited body of literature focused on effects of multiple warming scenarios, including nighttime warming, on organisms and ecosystem processes and emphasize the need for further research on effects of complex warming treatments on trophic interactions.

Committee: Shannon Pelini Ph.D. (Advisor); Kevin McCluney Ph.D. (Committee Member); Brian Scholtens Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Biology; Ecology; Entomology

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2007, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects:

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, Earth Sciences

Atmospheric CO2 from global carbon emissions has increased at an unprecedented rate since the 1880s. Approximately 26% of atmospheric CO2 is absorbed into the surface ocean, resulting in a decrease in seawater pH referred to as ocean acidification. Additionally, increased atmospheric CO2causes the planet to warm, leading to ocean warming. Decreases in ocean pH and increases in ocean temperature negatively affect coral health, leading to decreased coral growth, cover, and biodiversity. Under future ocean acidification scenarios, the surface ocean is expected to decrease pH approximately 0.1 – 0.3 pH units, which leads to declining coral health. Calcification is energetically demanding, and when exposed to low pH corals need more fuel to maintain growth rates. Previous studies have shown a variety of responses to ocean acidification including decreased growth, decreased energy stores, or increased respiration. However, many of these effects are minimized when coral have access to food, which provides extra energy to the coral host. Most of these experiments are short or moderate-duration and do not study the long-term effects of ocean acidification to coral physiology and biogeochemistry. Therefore, volcanic CO2-vent ecosystems with naturally low pH can act as natural laboratories to study the effect of chronic ocean acidification on ecological time scales. The symbiotic coral Cladocora caespitosa and the asymbiotic coral Astroides calycularis grow at CO2-vents around the island of Ischia, Italy. To explore how these corals cope with low pH we 1) conducted a field survey of corals collected from ambient pH non-vent sites and low pH CO2-vent sites and 2) conducted a 6-month long experiment exposing corals collected from ambient and low pH sites to experimentally low pH. The field survey revealed that corals from CO2-vent sites have higher heterotrophic capacity than corals collected from ambient pH sites, allowing these corals to survive in a persistently low pH env (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Andréa Grottoli (Advisor); Jean-Pierre Gattuso (Committee Member); Elizabeth Griffith (Committee Member); William Lyons (Committee Member); Agustí Muñoz-Garcia (Committee Member) Subjects: Biogeochemistry; Biological Oceanography; Climate Change; Ecology; Environmental Science

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2024, Environmental Science

Blood-seeking mosquitoes primarily rely on thermal and chemical cues as they navigate towards hosts. Mosquitoes display specific preferences for target host temperature while avoiding harmful ambient temperature. This behavior known as thermotaxis is in part regulated by the nociceptor transient receptor potential ankyrin 1 (TRPA1), which is expressed in thermosensitive sensilla of mosquitoes. TRPA1 of female mosquitoes is known to detect both noxious temperatures and chemicals; when activated by these stimuli, TRPA1 triggers avoidance behaviors. Therefore, TRPA1 is considered a potential biochemical target for mosquito repellents and antifeedants. One aspect of TRPA1 channels from mosquitoes and other insects that has not been fully studied is the potential interactions between temperature and chemical agonists. In this study, I examined whether high ambient temperatures that activate Aedes aegypti TRPA1 (AaTRPA1) influence the sensitivity of the channel and behavior of mosquitoes to repellent TRPA1 chemical agonists. First, I expressed AaTRPA1 heterologously in Xenopus laevis oocytes and used whole-cell two-electrode voltage clamping to measure TRPA1 activity. I found that the electrophysiological response of AaTRPA1 to two chemical agonists (catnip oil, citronellal) was significantly reduced while the channel was activated by a thermal stimulus ( ~38°C). Moreover, in behavioral bioassays, I found that adult female Ae. aegypti were less repelled by catnip oil when exposed to a noxious temperature (~50°C). Collectively, my results suggest that TRPA1-agonizing repellents, such as catnip oil, may be less efficacious during extreme heat events, which are becoming more common as global climate change progresses.

Committee: Peter Piermarini (Advisor); Megan Meuti (Committee Member); Larry Phelan (Committee Member) Subjects: Cellular Biology; Entomology; Physiology

MFA, Kent State University, 2023, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of English

Rain & Otherwise is a poetry compilation that examines intimacy through various modes of the human experience. Among these experiences are themes of grief, existentialism, gender and sexuality, weather and global warming, space (micro v. macro), and familial lineage. This project aims to push the bounds of meaning and form through understatement, fragmentation of punctuation and space, and primarily sound as it relates literally to the ear and figuratively through interpreted meanings. This project is a result of the times we all find ourselves in, and ultimately strives to comfort the anxious souls of the era.

Committee: Caryl Pagel (Advisor); Chris Barzak (Committee Member); Catherine Wing (Committee Member) Subjects: Fine Arts

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2022, Economics

International efforts to mitigate climate change constitute a global coordination game between world actors regarding their contribution to and prevention of a warming global environment. While national climate policy decisions are likely focused on domestic political pressures, a second driving force exists in this international coordination: climate policy adopted by each individual nation impacts the inherent payoff of policy decisions available to other nations. We study this coordination specifically between the United States (US) and the European Union (EU). Implementing an event study approach, our results indicate that US policies which loosen climate protections are associated with decreased market pricing for EU emissions allowance futures, while the opposite is true for US policies which tighten climate protections. We interpret these results as suggestive evidence that markets perceive the US and the EU to engage in a common interest game with respect to climate policy in which their policy decisions are strategic complements.

Committee: David Lindequist (Advisor); Nam Vu (Committee Member); Jing Li (Committee Member) Subjects: Climate Change; Economics; Environmental Economics; Finance

DNP, Otterbein University, 2022, Nursing

Hypothermia changes normal physiology resulting in altered clotting, metabolism, immune function, and healing processes which increases patient's risk for adverse outcomes. During the perioperative period anesthesia is recognized as a main cause of inadvertent perioperative hypothermia (IPH). As a result several organizations have developed clinical practice guidelines (CPG) to prevent IPH. There is an inconsistent utilization of warming devices and a lack of policy and procedure directing the effective maintenance of normothermia for surgical patients at a medium sized academic level one trauma hospital in the Midwest. Having no established standard practice protocol within this institution places the patients at an increased risk for the development of hypothermia during outpatient elective surgeries, which may lead to adverse patient outcomes. The Rosswurm and Larrabee (1999) model for Change to Evidence-Based Practice will frame this project and a CPG will be evaluated by key stakeholders using the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation II. The AGREE II tool evaluations scaled domain scores ranged from 82-93%. Overall quality of the CPG was evaluated at 89% and 80% would recommend the CPG for implementation. The Rosswurm and Larrabee (1999) model for Change to Evidence-Based Practice framed this project and the 2016 AORN CPG was evaluated by key stakeholders using the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation II. The AGREE II tool evaluations were scored using AGREE II set scoring. The CPG was found to be of high quality and a recommendation was made to the facility to form a protocol based on the CPG.

Committee: Dr. Kacy Ballard DNP, CRNA (Advisor); Dr. Brian Garrett DNP, CRNA (Committee Member); Ms. Concetta Persichetti BSN, RN (Committee Member) Subjects: Health Care; Health Sciences; Medicine; Nursing

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2021, Earth Sciences

The distribution and abundance of coral reef ecosystems is declining globally due to the detrimental impacts of climate change. As the surface ocean becomes warmer and more acidic, corals must adapt or acclimatize in order to survive and persist. The overarching goal of my dissertation was to evaluate the biological processes that lead corals to adapt and acclimatize to the levels of ocean warming and acidification expected later this century. Following a review of 255 coral heat-stress experiments conducted over the last thirty years (Chapter 2), I identified several gaps in our knowledge of coral bleaching. For instance, the majority of experimental coral bleaching research has been conducted on only three Scleractinian coral species, many reef regions worldwide are critically understudied, and the literature is heavily biased towards adult life stages (as opposed to gametes, larvae, recruits). Similarly, the majority of studies are short-term in duration (i.e., < 7 days) and focus on only one or two aspects of coral biology (e.g., calcification or photosynthetic efficiency). Thus, our understanding of the long-term impacts of global climate change on coral holobiont physiology is lacking. To better understand the link between holobiont physiology and the environment, I conducted a comprehensive survey of Oʻahu coral reefs (Chapter 3), including eight species collected from six reef locations. I found that environmental gradients of temperature, significant wave height, and seawater chlorophyll concentration were strongly correlated with the physiological profiles of Hawaiian corals, though the strength of this relationship was species specific. My results indicate that Montipora capitata and Pocillopora acuta have the most physiological variance along environmental gradients, suggesting a higher capacity for adaptation or acclimatization. Conversely, Porites evermanni and Pocillopora meandrina have the least physiological variance which does not correlate strongl (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Andréa Grottoli (Advisor); Agustí Muñoz-Garcia (Committee Member); Lawrence Krissek (Committee Member); Robert Toonen (Committee Member); Noah Weisleder (Committee Member) Subjects: Biogeochemistry; Biology; Climate Change; Earth; Ecology; Environmental Science; Oceanography

Bachelor of Arts, Wittenberg University, 2020, Sociology

This is a study that looks at the environmental attitudes of students at Wittenberg University. The study examines attitudes and behavior through the lens of the theorists Vaclav Havel and Karl Marx. Participants were asked to take a brief survey that accessed their carbon footprint, asked them what they knew about climate change and how environmentally friendly they thought they were. Then participants were asked if they would be interested in participating in an interview. The interviews asked a variety of questions ranging from personal opinion on climate change to participants' actual behavior and included an education piece on what Wittenberg does for the environment. Through interviews and surveys, this study's aim was to find commonalities and differences between participant responses and their reasoning behind their positions and behaviors. The study found that many participants felt that they needed to be able to buy more or different products in order to be more environmentally friendly. The study also found that participants were greatly influenced by professors or classes to be more ethical in environmental decisions.

Committee: Nona Moskowitz (Advisor); Sheryl Cunningham (Committee Member); Sarah Fortner (Committee Member) Subjects: Climate Change; Environmental Justice; Environmental Studies; Sociology; Sustainability

Bachelor of Arts, Wittenberg University, 2020, Political Science

Despite the scientific consensus that climate change is occurring, denial of this reality has persisted in the United States. While there are many possible explanations for this skepticism, one potential cause that has yet to be explored in detail is fear and its destabilizing influence on individuals' decision making processes. Prompted by concerns that addressing climate change will harm the economy, question free market ideology, and threaten the American way of life, it is argued in this paper that the emotional experiences prompted by these sources of fear can lead individuals to deny climate change. To test this hypothesis, National Election Studies survey data was used to gauge the covariation between climate denial and a variety of potential measures of fear. The results of these analyses demonstrate that both free market ideology and a desire to protect one's sense of American identity are associated with climate change denial, suggesting that these sources of fear must first be addressed in order to effectively communicate the risks of climate change to the American public.

Committee: Staci Rhine (Advisor); James Allan (Committee Member); Sarah Fortner (Committee Member) Subjects: American Studies; Climate Change; Political Science; Psychology; Public Policy

Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2021, Journalism (Communication)

The public primarily learns about scientific information from the news media. These news media have been, unfortunately, found guilty of fueling: biased coverage of climate change, misinformation about climate change, and politicization of climate science. “Disinformation outfits,” who are comprised of industry actors, prominent climate change deniers, and their organizations also used or attempted to use the news media to discredit climate scientists with the goal of accelerating the level of public uncertainty about global climate change and slow action to prevent it. This thesis explores how the news media discussed a small but very vocal cohort of climate change denialists throughout the 1990s. The use of “fake experts” has been found to be one of the most powerful techniques for effective misinformation campaigns. This paper examines the inclusion of key climate change skeptics via quantitative content analysis in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Guardian, and The Times of London from 1989-2006. This paper also researches the prevalence of legitimization strategies iv that weaker parties use to amplify their messaging. The results find that skeptic inclusion was much higher in U.S. conservative papers than U.K. conservative papers. Left-center papers were more likely to include “compromised” scientists and discuss climate change controversies than conservative papers. Conservative papers were more likely to include irrelevant “fake experts” and actively misuse and misrepresent scientific information, as well discredit climate scientists. Skeptics were discussed more during years of particular significance to climate change history suggesting they were capitalizing on media opportunity structures. This thesis also found evidence of early “source hacking,” or the targeting of journalists to spread misinformation.

Committee: Mike Sweeney Dr. (Committee Member); Rosanna Planer (Committee Member); Alexander Godulla Dr. (Committee Chair) Subjects: Environmental Science; History; International Relations; Journalism; Science History; World History

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2020, Atmospheric Sciences

In recent decades, West Antarctica (WA) has undergone extensive surface warming mainly due to the large-scale atmospheric variability. The increasing summer surface air temperature can promote glacier acceleration and ultimately increase ice loss and sea-level rise. For areas like the Antarctic Peninsula (AP), surface melting triggered by temperature increase since the 1950s significantly contributes to the ice loss, such as the Larsen B ice shelf collapse in 2002. Over ice shelves outside the AP, basal melting still dominates surface ice shelf thinning at present. However, with the current warming trend and substantial surface melting in WA projected by climate models, it is unclear if this projected surface melting will also lead to continental ice loss as it has and continues to do in the AP. With limited surface observations due to the extreme weather over Antarctica, our understanding of regional climate conditions in WA is not comprehensive. Previous studies assess the long-term temperature trend using model simulations (e.g. Bromwich et al., 2013b), but research on individual melt events and regional factors is limited. Thus, this study: 1) investigates the 2016 melt case based on Antarctic Mesoscale Prediction System (AMPS) outputs; 2) improves the Polar WRF (PWRF) simulation results by using high-resolution reanalysis data as input fields, surface albedo from satellite observations, and better selection of physical schemes; 3) analyzes and quantifies the contributors of surface melting in four previous major melt cases based on improved model simulations. This research is intended to understand the physical mechanisms of surface melting and to distinguish the contribution of each factor, which can benefit future projections of the stability of the Ross Ice Shelf (RIS) as a result of a changing climate. This study first investigates the foehn effect at the beginning of the 2016 event via the AMPS output. The foehn effect increases surface temperature by up (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: David Bromwich Dr. (Advisor); Alvaro Montenegro Dr. (Advisor); Ellen Mosley-Thompson Dr. (Committee Member); Jay Hobgood Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Toledo, 2020, Biology (Ecology)

Atmospheric carbon-dioxide (CO2) enrichment is largely the cause of current global warming. Hence, in the future, organisms will experience the interactive effects of elevated CO2 (eCO2) and chronic warming rather than their individual effects. Though individual effects of eCO2 or chronic warming on plant responses have been studied in some detail, interactive effects of eCO2 and chronic warming on plant responses such as nitrogen (N) relations (uptake, translocation, assimilation) and leaf hyponasty (upward bending of leaves) have been rarely studied. Therefore, the goals of my dissertation work included (1) investigation of eCO2 plus chronic warming on plant N relations, using tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L. cv. Big Boy) and wheat (Triticum aestivum L. cv. Glenn) followed by a meta-analytic review, and (2) investigation of eCO2 plus chronic warming on leaf hyponasty and subsequent effects of hyponasty on plant growth, using tomato and other economically-important species. These goals were achieved by growing plants in a full-factorial experimental design, using two levels of CO2 (ambient vs. elevated) and two temperature regimes (near-optimal vs. supra-optimal) in controlled-environment growth chambers. In all experimental trials conducted, eCO2 plus warming inhibited tomato vegetative growth, whereas warming alone inhibited growth to a smaller extent, and eCO2 alone increased growth. One potential reason for inhibition of plant growth at eCO2 plus warming could be the observed increase in leaf hyponasty. Warming or eCO2 alone caused modest leaf hyponasty, whereas eCO2 plus warming caused severe leaf hyponasty, which correlated with decreased leaf area and biomass. This could be explained by decreased light interception, and thus in situ photosynthesis, as leaves became more vertically-oriented. Severe hyponasty driven by eCO2 plus warming was observed only in the compound-leaved species tested, but not in the simple-leaved species tested. Tomato plants grown at e (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Scott Heckathorn (Committee Chair); Heidi Appel (Committee Member); Jennifer Boldt (Committee Member); Michael Weintraub (Committee Member); John Gray (Committee Member); Maria Bidart (Committee Member) Subjects: Agriculture; Biochemistry; Biology; Botany; Climate Change; Ecology; Environmental Science; Physiology; Plant Biology; Plant Sciences

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2019, Chemical Engineering

Carbon capture has been regarded as one of the viable solutions to mitigate the global warming effect due to CO2 emission and sustain the use of fossil fuels, but the energy load associated with implementing carbon capture in coal-fired power stations can notably decrease the efficiency of power generation. To overcome the deficiency, exploring novel materials for carbon capture has drawn significant attention. Specifically, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have been identified as promising adsorbents for carbon capture because of their highly tunable nature, selective adsorption, and large adsorption capacity. A large number of MOFs have been discovered in recent years, and many of them have been demonstrated to possess promising separation performance. To date, most of the studies reported have mainly focused on exploring potential MOF candidates by evaluating their adsorption properties (e.g., selectivity) or their performance using a process model. Although MOFs have been demonstrated to show potentially better performance (i.e., less energy intensity) than MEA, the overall impact by this emerging new class of materials remains unknown. To this end, to facilitate the development of a new technology based on MOF adsorbents, the overall impacts of implementing MOF-based carbon capture, including the energy load and resource depletion from the MOF synthesis process as well as other steps in the whole life cycle of MOFs, should be considered. In this study, we present a comprehensive life-cycle analysis for a selected set of 50 MOFs to evaluate the overall impact of MOF-based post-combustion carbon capture and compared with that by MEA. Our results again show the great promise of MOFs in carbon capture. From the life cycle point of view, besides the energy load of capturing carbon using MOFs, we find significant impacts from the use of solvent in MOF-based carbon capture. Furthermore, the key role of MOF stability is also identified in determining the overall impact. (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Li-Chiang Lin (Advisor); Bhavik Bakshi R (Advisor) Subjects: Chemical Engineering

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2019, Arts and Sciences: Geography

With the rapid advance in remote sensing technology and the continuous improvement in ground-based observation devices, the recent decade has witnessed a tremendous growth in the collection of spatio-temporal data about the Earth's environment. Thermal infrared (TIR) remote sensing provides an effective tool for mapping land surface temperature (LST), which is a useful parameter for modelling the urban heat island (UHI) and heat wave (HW) and evaluating anthropogenic influences on climate change. Unfortunately, no single satellite system provides the thermal measurements at both high spatial and high temporal resolution. Polar orbiting satellite systems like MODIS provide daily thermal data at a moderate spatial resolution (1 km). Landsat and ASTER satellite systems can acquire thermal data at relatively high spatial resolution (120 m for Landsat TM, 60 m for Landsat ETM+, 100 m for Landsat-8 TIRS, 90 m for ASTER) but with temporally infrequent coverage (16 day revisit for both Landsat and ASTER). In this study, A ST-Cokriging method was formulated and implemented for blending spatio-temporal data sets acquired by multi-source remote sensing systems. The ST-Cokriging method extends traditional Cokriging method from a solely spatial domain to a spatio-temporal domain, therefore exploiting not merely spatial covariance structure but also temporal covariance and spatio-temporal cross-covariance structures in the fusion computation. The application examples demonstrate that our method can e?ectively ?ll in data gaps (holes) caused by clouds and generate reliable results at both high spatial resolution and high temporal frequency. The ST-Cokriging method was utilized to enhance the time-series LST product from MODIS thermal remote sensing. In the first application, the ST-Cokriging method was used to enhance MODIS LST data. Based on the enhanced MODIS Terra (morning) and Aqua (afternoon) LST time series, we evaluated the impact of traffic volume on spatial extent and in (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Hongxing Liu Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Richard Beck Ph.D. (Committee Member); Kenneth Hinkel Ph.D. (Committee Member); Emily Kang Ph.D. (Committee Member); Susanna Tong Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Geographic Information Science

Master of Science, University of Akron, 2017, Biology

Community structure is being altered by direct and indirect effects of climate change. Increasing temperatures can threaten community structure resulting in the disruption of interactions within those communities most sensitive to changes in climate. Among those communities at risk for change is the North American grassland habitat and its resident insect community. Climate change can potentially affect primary production and the abundance and diversity of both plants and animals in different ecosystems. Here we have used open-top chambers to study the impact warming temperatures have on the resident plant and insect community on grassland habitat in order to better understand how grassland areas are affected and may change as a result of global warming, and how climate change will impact the community and ecosystem as a whole. Results show that passively warmed open-top chambers have a measureable increase of 1-4°C in ambient temperature above that of the controls. Results also show no significant treatment effects of temperature on primary production, except for litter, and no significant effect on the abundances of the resident insect community as a whole. Interestingly, results do reveal significant effects of treatment on insect taxonomic orders and families as well as significant effects on the trophic levels within the grassland habitat confirming that insects are responding in different ways to artificial warming, which can ultimately alter trophic dynamics directly and indirectly.

Committee: Randall Mitchell (Advisor); Greg Smith (Committee Member); Peter Nieverowski (Committee Member) Subjects: Biology; Ecology

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2016, English

Composition studies has failed to offer any field-wide conversation acknowledging global warming or the part that our normalized pedagogical and theoretical orientations play in propping up the status quo. To be sure, composition studies did not create the United States' (or the world's) energy, manufacturing, or economic infrastructures. The field does, however, participate and benefit from these structures, and our disciplinary goal to exist at the forefront of composing—which includes both technological and cultural practices—means that we have a level of complicity that we have yet to acknowledge meaningfully. Composition studies' history is littered with aspirational forays into epistemologies that expand our thinking toward ecology (Coe, 1974; Cooper, 1986; Dobrin and Weisser, 2002), the environment (Herndl and Brown, 1996; Killingsworth and Palmer, 1991), and sustainability (Owens, 2001). These respective offerings did not necessarily compel different theoretical or pedagogical paths, nor were they necessarily directly responding to resource consumption, environmental degradation, or global warming. Our field needs a more robust, resource-conscious line of inquiry that theorizes the relationship between texts and resource consumption, recognizes that sustainable composition is concerned about production (of texts), understands that sustainability should be considered situationally, not as a God term, and rethinks the resource cost of composing. Shifting composition studies' framework from its dominant epistemological orientation (specifically social-epistemology) toward an ontological line of inquiry that emphasizes writing's material and resource choices can provide a path forward for compositionists who want to contribute to global warming amelioration side-by-side with disciplinary goals. Applying ontological lenses around the concepts of material lifecycles, coexistence, and our interconnected world can allow composition to contribute to global warm (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Jason Palmeri PHD (Committee Chair); Katharine Ronald PHD (Committee Member); John Tassoni PHD (Committee Member); Roxanne Ornelas PHD (Other) Subjects: Composition; Rhetoric

Master of Science, University of Toledo, 2015, Biology (Ecology)

Atmospheric CO2 enrichment is expected to benefit plant growth, despite causing global warming and nitrogen (N) dilution in plants. Most plants procure most of their N as two inorganic forms, nitrate (NO3-) or ammonium (NH4+), using membrane-localized transport proteins in roots which are key targets of improving N-use efficiency in plants. Though it is expected that there will be interactive effects of elevated CO2, chronic warming, and N form on root N relations, this has not been studied. In this study, tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L. cv. Big Boy) plants were grown at two levels of CO2 (ambient=400 ppm vs. elevated=700 ppm) and under two temperature regimes (30oC vs. 37oC), while providing either NO3- (1.5 mM) or NH4+ (1.5 mM) as the sole N source. To assess plant N relations under these conditions, plant biomass (shoot, root, total), %N (shoot, root, total), root N-uptake rate, the concentration of total root proteins, and the concentration of N uptake and assimilatory proteins in roots per unit total root protein and per gram of dry root mass were measured. Elevated CO2 and chronic warming acted synergistically to severely inhibit the growth of plants, regardless of N form, while individually, these factors slightly increased growth. Although %N in roots among all treatments was similar, the combination of elevated CO2 and warming decreased (1) the rate of N uptake by roots, (2) the concentration of total protein in roots, indicating an inhibition of N assimilation (especially in NH4+-treated plants), and (3) shoot %N, indicating a possible negative effect on N translocation from roots to shoots (especially in NO3--treated plants). However, for the most part, the concentrations in roots of the main N-uptake and N-assimilation proteins were little affected by elevated CO2 and warming, and when affected, were not correlated with root total protein or N-uptake rate; hence, N uptake and assimilation in roots were controlled by the activities of these proteins rathe (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Scott Heckathorn (Advisor); Sasmita Mishra (Committee Member); Jennifer Boldt (Committee Member) Subjects: Botany; Climate Change; Environmental Science; Plant Sciences

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2015, Atmospheric Sciences

Seasonal U.S. climate division data (1895-2014) of temperatures and precipitation in seven chosen divisions are analyzed for trends and patterns of variability and for factors contributing the most to the variability of temperature in each season and division. The divisions are chosen to represent regions of the U.S. that conform to particular patterns of variability of the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) in summer. Rotated principal component analysis (RPCA) of atmospheric and oceanic teleconnection indices, annual atmospheric CO2 concentrations, and time series of cloud cover and divisionally-averaged precipitation removes intercorrelations between these variables in each region. The orthogonal factors produced from RPCA are used in stepwise multiple linear regression (SMLR) to determine the explainable variance in seasonally-averaged daily maximum and minimum temperatures (Tmax, Tmin) and diurnal temperature range (DTR). Simple linear regression is used to determine rates of change in divisionally-averaged DTR, Tmax, and Tmin in each region and season. The major temperature trends found are accelerated warming of Tmin in most regions and seasons, no decline in spring DTR nationally, and similarities among the four interior/central regions. These regions are characterized by statistically significant long-term (1895-2013) and short-term (1960-2013) decreases in DTR and increases in Tmin, with long-term decreases in annually-averaged Tmax and in summer and autumn seasonally-averaged Tmax. The Northwest, Northeast coastal, and Desert Southwest regions experienced long-term increases in DTR and significant increases in both Tmax and Tmin. Variance within time series of seasonally-averaged temperatures is generally greater during warmer periods. Inconsistency in seasonal precipitation in most regions may be increasing in each region's wet season. Cloud cover is the factor explaining the most variability in DTR overall among all four seasons in Central Ohio (Ohio (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Jay Hobgood (Advisor); Alvaro Montenegro (Committee Member); Jeffery Rogers (Other) Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences; Climate Change; Earth