Master of Science (MS), Bowling Green State University, 2024, Geology

Within the United States, academic emphasis in high schools is placed on science topics such as chemistry, physics, and biology. This leaves other science topics underrepresented at a key time when students are developing career choices and attitudes. This study analyzed the impact of short term, project-based, place-based education, research-based outreach programs on students perception of science, self-efficacy, anxiety towards science, value of place-based education, and geoscience career interest. Specifically, I focused on how this type of program can be used to combat the lack of diversity in geoscience. The program takes place in the form of a 3-session geoscience outreach program investigating lead contamination throughout Northwest Ohio. This program was available to all classroom grades six through twelve with an emphasis on capturing underrepresented populations in science. The impact of the program was evaluated by a Likert scale pre-survey and post-survey. Over 6 months in 2023-2024, over 800 students participated in the program, and 597 surveys were collected. The results from this program show that a three-day place-based education outreach program can positively impact student perception of science, anxiety towards science, self-efficacy, career interest and value of place.

Committee: John Farver Ph.D (Committee Chair); Margaret Yacobucci Ph.D (Committee Member); Jodi Haney Ph.D (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Geology; Science Education; Secondary Education

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Akron, 2020, Integrated Bioscience

The Laurentian Great Lakes system holds approximately 20% of the world's available surface freshwater while being an immense economic engine for the region. Lake Erie, one of the five North American Great Lakes is classified as highly stressed and deteriorating. Flooding and erosion issues stemming from record-high water levels, as well as excessive nutrients causing harmful algal blooms which compounds the problems. This work investigates novel ways to approach, solve, and manage some of Lake Erie's most pressing problems. First, a historical political ecology approach was used to trace the history of land use practices that transformed the Great Black Swamp into the industrialized agricultural system that the Maumee River Watershed (MRW) is today. The analysis chronicles transformations in structure and function of the MRW implicating diverse drivers such as agricultural practices, legacy nutrient reservoirs, altered landscape hydrology, and energy policy while making policy recommendations at various scales. Second, a low-cost, open-source DIY spectrophotometer was developed in order to obtain crowd-sourced data to understand nutrient loading trends throughout the watershed, particularly the MRW. Tests of this device indicate that the typically expensive hardware is not the limitation. Rather, reagent performance is the leading cause of uncertainty. Third, a social-ecological risk and vulnerability model to flooding and erosion was created for the Ohio Lake Erie shoreline by adapting established maritime coastal indices to the limnological system. The result is both a foundation for Ohio's Department of Natural Resources, Office of Coastal Management to identify scientifically-informed, place-based priority management areas for erosion and flooding, as well as a methodological roadmap to adapt the Coastal and Place Vulnerability Indices to the other Great Lakes' states and provincial shorelines.

Committee: Peter Niewiarowski (Advisor); Hunter King (Committee Member); John Huss (Committee Member); Robin Kundis Craig (Committee Member); Lance Gunderson (Committee Member) Subjects: Biochemistry; Biology; Ecology; Environmental Management; Environmental Science; Geographic Information Science; Public Policy; Sustainability; Water Resource Management

Doctor of Philosophy in Urban Education, Cleveland State University, 2011, College of Education and Human Services

America's adult populace has failed to keep pace with the rapid inundation of science-centric advancements affecting nearly every facet of personal and public life. With deficiencies in areas of science knowledge, America's adult populace is characterized as civic science illiterate. This research constructed and employed the renewed citizen science paradigm, incorporating nonformal outdoor adult education and enhanced experiential learning while maintaining the basic tenet of citizen science, towards elevating the civic science literacy of adults who volunteered to conduct scientific research towards answering important research questions posed by a science research agency. With 67 volunteers, 23 adults were purposively selected on the basis of their complete participation throughout the program. Data was collected through a concurrent mixed methods design, and both quantitatively, self-report surveys (n=23), and qualitatively, mixed method interviews (n=10), analyzed. The results demonstrate that the renewed citizen science paradigm statistically significantly elevated the science vocabulary knowledge (p<0.001) and science process understanding (p<0.001) of participating adults; while collecting over 30,000 pieces of scientific data in conducting research for an outside agency. Additionally, the research communicates how marked elevations in civic science literacy catalyzed volunteers to participate and assert their new civic science literacy in personal, social, and political forums, having taken ownership of

Committee: Jonathan Messemer Ed.D. (Committee Chair); James Carl Ph.D. (Committee Member); Robert Ferguson Ph.D. (Committee Member); Abbed Babaei Ph.D. (Committee Member); Wentworth Clapham Ph.D. (Committee Member); Heather Gallacher Ph.D. (Other) Subjects: Adult Education; Education; Environmental Education; Science Education

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2023, Environment and Natural Resources

Mountain ecosystems and communities are undergoing profound changes driven by a complex interplay of environmental, economic, and sociocultural factors, including climate change, natural hazards, land use change, and rapid infrastructure development. These interconnected changes have far-reaching impacts on local livelihoods, the supporting ecosystems, and the overall sustainability of mountain social-ecological systems. While community resilience has been promoted as a collective capacity to navigate change and advance development, empirical studies on its effectiveness within mountain communities remain limited. To bridge this knowledge gap, this dissertation embarks on an ethnographic and citizen science study in the Hindu-Kush Himalayan region, employing a mixed-methods approach comprising interviews, interventions, and ethnography. This dissertation presents an exploration of community resilience within the context of complex mountain social-ecological systems. By illuminating the significance of social capital and participatory knowledge engagement, the study unveils pathways towards community resilience. A novel conceptual diagram aids in untangling the essence of community resilience as a collective capacity, while subsequent case studies dissect the interactions among critical capacities such as social capital, knowledge, and learning. The dissertation underscores the necessity for context-specific approaches and capacity dynamics, as well as the ethical and political dimensions inherent in community resilience initiatives. This work not only enriches the understanding of community resilience from conceptualization to practical application but also provides actionable insights for effective development interventions. Moreover, the empirical study, conducted in a mountain community and employing digital mapping techniques, offers a small-scale perspective on how to facilitate effective learning and knowledge sharing. To finish, this dissertation research (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Jeremy Brooks (Advisor) Subjects: Environmental Management; Environmental Studies; Geography; Natural Resource Management; Social Research

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2023, EECS - Electrical Engineering

The ionosphere occupies a privileged position in the geospace system, perturbed by space weather in the magnetosphere above and by terrestrial weather in the electrically neutral atmosphere below, which enables its use as a tool for detection of geophysical signatures in adjacent systems. Ionospheric measurements have been a subject of interest since the dawn of radio. Today, the increased availability of computing power and data storage stands to enable significant strides in frontier questions in aeronomy. However, the costs of constructing and maintaining measurement networks limits the density and cadence of available measurements. This work describes the design and deployment of a modular, low-cost sensing network which uses the well-established technique of Doppler measurement of the carrier signals from atomic-clock beacon stations, such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology stations WWV and WWVH, as a proxy measurement for change in virtual ionospheric height. Four sections are presented: An introduction to the citizen scientists of the amateur radio community, the results of a pilot experiment conducted on the occasion of WWV's hundredth anniversary, documentation of hardware, and the data collected by the stations deployed at the time of writing. This community-supported network of stations act together as a meta-instrument to address the problem of undersampling in the geospace environment.

Committee: Christian Zorman (Advisor); Steven Hauck III (Committee Member); David Kazdan (Committee Member); Francis Merat (Committee Member) Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences; Electrical Engineering; Remote Sensing

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2021, Geography

The Pacific Golden Chanterelle (Cantharellus formosus) is a widely sought-after mushroom most abundant in the forests of Washington and Oregon, USA. This project used the species to investigate how accurately the species distribution could be modeled using natural history (herbarium) as model training data and citizen science (iNaturalist) as validation data. To combat the potential sampling bias towards population centers an effort variable weighting scheme was used to consider observations in harder to reach areas more than those in easier to access areas. Four models were created and run using the natural history data as training points: Random Forests (RF), Maxent, General Linear Model (GLM), and Artificial Neural Network (ANN); the effort variable was only applied to the ANN and GLM models. Out of these four, RF was found to perform the best with an equitable skill score (ETS) 0.987 when tested against the iNaturalist citizen science validation points. Overall, this project provides a good proof of concept and framework for the use of herbarium and citizen science data for use in biogeographical modeling projects in the future.

Committee: Mary Henry (Advisor); Jessica McCarty (Committee Member); Nicholas Money (Committee Member) Subjects: Geography

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2020, Arts and Sciences: Geography

The saguaro (Carnegiea gigantea [Engelm.] Britton and Rose) is a long-lived, columnar cactus and a keystone species in Sonoran Desert ecology. The saguaro is an iconic symbol of the U.S. American Southwest with a long and deep ethnobotanical history. In the northern Sonoran Desert, saguaro research is focused on two primary domains: the influence of climate on growth and reproduction and the anthropogenic impacts of human activity on the species and to the landscape. Saguaro growth and establishment are strongly influenced by the timing and amount of summer precipitation, and winter minimum temperature is an additional control. Anthropogenic historic land uses in the Southwest significantly altered ecosystem function and vegetation community type and structure throughout the region. Understanding the changes in community form and process provides a basis for ecological restoration. Saguaro National Park (SNP) is comprised of two districts on the east and west sides of Tucson, Arizona, and contains historic plots that have been monitored for more than 80 years. This dissertation utilizes some of the oldest demographic data available for the species to examine the physical geographic, anthropogenic, and climatic conditions and processes that affect saguaro growth and establishment at multiple spatial and temporal scales. The stratified plot-based approach utilized in this dissertation captures the response of the saguaro to climatic and landscape settings in different vegetational communities and across gradients of slope, aspect, and elevation within SNP. Additionally, much of the data collected for this dissertation are publicly available and serve as the latest snapshot in time of the saguaro population for the work of a next generation of researchers and public land stewards. This dissertation is presented in journal article format. Chapter 2 analyzes the demographic change over 75 years within a population of saguaros in an area of SNP that has a legacy o (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Nicholas Dunning Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Richard Beck Ph.D. (Committee Member); Kevin Raleigh Ph.D. (Committee Member); Vernon Scarborough Ph.D. (Committee Member); Susanna Tong Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Geography

Master of Science (MS), Bowling Green State University, 2021, Geology

Urban environments have a history of anthropogenic input of heavy metals to soils. Toledo, Ohio is an urban setting that has been altered through heavy industry and transportation dating back to the 1800s. Heavy metal contamination in soil has been shown to cause serious health effects in humans, such as brain damage, birth defects, cancer, and even death. A total of 137 Toledo soil samples were collected in collaboration with local Toledo schools, the Manos Community Garden, and a previous study completed by Stewart et al (2014). Stewart's study samples and the local Toledo schools' soil samples were collected by K-12 students through a hands-on citizen science project. The samples were analyzed to determine the concentrations of a series of heavy metals, including arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead, nickel, and zinc. The results revealed multiple samples with elevated levels of all six focus metals greater than the Ohio EPA's soil background levels of the region. Two of these elements, arsenic and lead, had concentrations higher than the USEPA screening level for soils of this region in 73% and 7% of samples, respectively. Locations with elevated heavy metals concentrations in soils were mostly residential yards with older houses and within areas of high transportation. Therefore, the elevated levels of heavy metals were likely deposited from a legacy of human activities. Heavy metal predictive concentration maps of the Toledo, Ohio area were created to show possible areas of concern. The predictive maps showed a higher concentration of most elements in the Old West End area of Toledo. The findings were presented to the collaborating schools and in public forums to educate citizens about elevated heavy metal soil contamination in their area. They were given possible reasons for the contamination, explaining the harmful side effects of human activities on the soils. The health risks associated with the contamination were presented along with how to prevent health (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: John Farver Dr. (Advisor); Jeffrey Snyder Dr. (Committee Member); Margaret Yacobucci Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Geochemistry; Geology

Bachelor of Arts (BA), Ohio University, 2019, Environmental Studies

Hydraulic fracturing is an environmental justice issue in Appalachia, particularly when it comes to the siting of waste fluid injection wells. Athens County, Ohio, is home to 8 injection wells that are actively receiving waste fluid from hydraulic fracturing. These wells pose threats to environmental and community health. This project: 1) documents risk perceptions of people living near the wells and 2) addresses the viability of inexpensive environmental monitoring technology for citizens to use. Through a risk perception survey sent to communities with and without oil and gas waste fluid injection wells in Athens County, citizens addressed their concerns about hydraulic fracturing. Some respondents discussed how hydraulic fracturing is disrupting their sense of place and raised concerns about environmental and human health issues. Others spoke to the economic and political benefits from hydraulic fracturing. This highlights contradictory perceptions and contention in these communities. Low-cost water quality monitoring devices that can collect and transmit data in remote areas may be able to address citizens' concerns about pollution and alleviate scientists' concerns about the legitimacy of citizen-collected data. Citizen science can be one tool to address citizens' water quality concerns and address environmental injustice in Appalachian oil and gas communities such as Athens.

Committee: Natalie Kruse (Advisor); Michele Morrone (Advisor) Subjects: Environmental Health; Environmental Justice; Environmental Science; Environmental Studies; Gender; Geography; Regional Studies; Sustainability

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2018, Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology

Citizen science has broadened the scope of biodiversity monitoring and research. Citizen scientists visit more locations, more often and collect data on more species than any single study can. They have fewer restrictions related to funding, scheduling and political will. They create more data than ever before, especially in remote locations such as Small Island Developing States (SIDS). However, citizen science uses traditional science perspectives in data analysis; acknowledging the perspectives of the citizen scientist is important when making conservation decisions based on citizen science data. I use novel perspectives that make citizen science data more useful/powerful. I focus on 16 native bird species and 20 migrant species of international concern using volunteer observations from the open access eBird database. Using forestry maps and satellite data, I created a new, adaptable, classified habitat map for Grand Bahama and appended the habitat data to eBird observations for the island. Observer effort was significantly higher in beach and grass habitats. I found most of the focal species in this study outside their documented habitat type. Bird species richness and observer richness differed significantly among habitat types. Bird species composition was significantly influenced by habitat type and survey effort. Mantel tests showed significant correlation between geographic locations and both bird species dissimilarity and observer dissimilarity. The Mantel tests also showed significant correlations between observer community differences and species community differences. I used Moran's I to determine spatial autocorrelation of observer effort and recorded species diversity within the dataset. Observer richness and the total number of surveys were negatively spatially autocorrelated in the overall dataset. I found that observer community similarity showed significant effects on recorded survey effort and species diversity in most habitats.

Committee: Robert Cummins (Advisor); James Oris (Advisor); David Russell (Committee Member); Mary Henry (Committee Member); Thomas Crist (Committee Member); Jing Zhang (Committee Member) Subjects: Animals; Biology; Statistics; Wildlife Conservation; Wildlife Management; Zoology

Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2018, Biological Sciences (Arts and Sciences)

Populations of the Diamond-backed Terrapin, Malaclemys terrapin, are threatened as a result of road mortality, habitat destruction, nest predators, and commercial fishing practices. Numerous conservation initiatives have been established to mitigate population declines including head-starting. Head-starting involves raising juvenile individuals in captivity until they reach a body size with higher survival. Here, I compared patterns of growth in wild M. terrapin from the Patuxent River and Poplar Island, Maryland with a head-started subset of the Poplar Island population. Chapter 1 describes patterns of growth among populations and between the sexes. Head-started female M. terrapin are larger than wild females from both populations until after the onset of sexual maturity. This effect results from the accelerated growth head-started turtles experience in captivity and contributes to faster maturity in some head-started females. Wild males from Poplar Island followed patterns similar to wild females where a growth lag was observed during the hatchling and juvenile stages. Early in life, growth in head-started and Patuxent River males, however, was characterized by accelerated growth, suggesting wild males from the Patuxent are larger sooner compared the Poplar Island males, possibly due to differences in the available thermal and resource environments. In Chapter 2, I investigated growth between captive M. terrapin in two water temperature treatments, 24°C and 29°C, raised in K-12 classrooms throughout Maryland. Water temperature and basking behavior were monitored for six months and plastron length and mass were recorded monthly. No divergence in growth was observed between treatments, but I detected a difference in basking behavior that suggested M. terrapin in the cooler (24°C) water treatment compensated in the cooler rearing environment by basking and achieved a similar size to their warmer counterpart. This study coupled with long-term M. terrapin demographic d (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Willem Roosenburg (Advisor) Subjects: Biology; Ecology

Master of Science (MS), Bowling Green State University, 2018, Biological Sciences

Bats play critical roles in the numerous ecosystems they inhabit as nutrient cyclers, pollinators, and major sources of pest control. In agricultural landscapes, such as those in the Oak Openings, these services can be extremely valuable. Unfortunately, bats face population declines due to threats such as wind farms along migration routes, the lethal fungal disease white-nose syndrome, and habitat degradation and loss due to anthropogenic pressures. The objective of this study was to examine how native bats are using both natural and human dominated landscapes within this region while identifying features within these landscapes that promote bat activity and diversity. To do so I developed a three-part study to observe spatial and temporal trends. First, driving transects were conducted from May through September to analyze activity and diversity in three different landscape types (natural, mosaic, and agricultural landscapes). Second, paired stationary sites were set up overnight to compare core sites within Oak Openings Preserve to edge sites to assess how bats responded to areas of natural landscapes directly facing human pressure. Finally, with the help of citizen science volunteers, walking surveys were conducted through three different parks, as part of an ongoing project of the Root Lab at BGSU, to look at temporal trends in bat populations. Over the course of five months and more than 50 nights, I recorded and identified over 2,200 bat calls. The majority of these calls (95%) were dominated by just three bat species (big brown, silver-haired, and eastern red). I found a significant decrease in activity in agricultural landscapes (p=0.04, Pearson's Test), compared to mosaic and natural landscapes. I also found certain landscape features, such as canopy cover and distance to riparian systems, were correlated with bat activity. Within the Oak Openings Park, I found that core natural sites had significantly more activity than edge or savanna sites. (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Karen Root PhD (Advisor); Kevin McCluney PhD (Committee Member); Helen Michaels PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Biology

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2016, Antioch New England: Environmental Studies

Traditional citizen science projects have been based on the scientific community's need to gather vast quantities of high quality data, neglecting to ask what the project participants get in return. How can participants be seen more as collaborative partners in citizen science projects? Online communities for citizen science are expanding rapidly, giving participants the opportunity to take part in a wide range of activities, from monitoring invasive species to identifying far-off galaxies. These communities can bring together the virtual and physical worlds in new ways that are egalitarian, collaborative, applied, localized and globalized to solve real environmental problems. There are a small number of citizen science projects that leverage the affordances of an online community to connect, engage, and empower participants to make local change happen. This multiple case study applies a conceptual framework rooted in sociocultural learning theory, Non-Hierarchical Online Learning Communities (NHOLCs), to three online citizen communities that have successfully fostered online collaboration and on-the-ground environmental actions. The purpose of the study is to identify the range and variation of the online and programmatic functions available in each project. The findings lead to recommendations for designing these innovative communities, specifically the technological and programmatic components of online citizen science communities that support environmental actions in our backyards.

Committee: James Karlan Ed.D. (Committee Chair); Jean Kayira Ph.D. (Committee Co-Chair); Michael Mueller Ph.D. (Committee Member); David Sobel M.Ed. (Committee Member) Subjects: Conservation; Education; Educational Technology; Environmental Education; Environmental Studies; Science Education

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2012, Environmental Science

While the number of conservation projects has increased domestically and worldwide, many environment education programs have failed to fulfill their goals of encouraging the citizens to actively adopt pro-environment behaviors. To investigate the potential correlation between people's environment attachment and people's tendency to perform pro-environment behaviors, a survey was conducted in the rural part of Wayne County, OH in 2009. The result of the survey research shows a significant correlation between people's attachment to the natural environment and their tendency to participate in certain kinds of pro-environment behaviors. Such finding supplements the previous research on the relationship between place attachment and pro-environment behaviors. The survey results from my 2009 survey show that these local citizens tend to associate fireflies with good environment quality. A literature review yielded little evidence to support or reject such hypothesis. One major reason for the lack of research on the relationship between fireflies and the natural environment was because of the lack of suitable technology to monitor firefly activities in the field. I developed a new timed sequential digital photographic method to monitor firefly flashing activities in their natural habitats. Such method has potential for engaging citizens into environment education programs. I used this method to collect data on the West Badger Farm near Wooster, OH in 2009. The results showed that this method could capture the flashing activities of different firefly species and was sensitive to the changes of the flashing activities. The two species of fireflies I studied showed similar responses to climatic factors, but different responses to landscape types and farming practices. The data also suggested that these two firefly species were active at the same time during the night, contrary to previous studies that classified them into different active groups (“early-active” vs. “late-acti (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Richard Moore PhD (Advisor); Jeremy Bruskotter PhD (Committee Member); Joe Kovach PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Behavioral Sciences; Conservation; Ecology; Entomology; Environmental Education; Environmental Science; Science Education; Sociology; Wildlife Conservation

Master of Computer Science, Miami University, 2012, Computer Science and Software Engineering

Recently, inquiry-based learning has been used to enable students to ask scientific questions and come to objective conclusions based on observation and experimentation. Within this context, we have been exploring the impact of mobile devices upon different modes of learning including inquiry-based instruction. While much attention has been on mobile devices in the classroom due to their growing popularity, mobile learning has the ability to go beyond the confines of the brick and mortar to improve information retention and student engagement. This thesis explores best practices in engaging students in inquiry-based learning experiences using Research Buddy, an application developed over the course of this study to support citizen science and research data collection. We found that participants who used mobile devices in our study preferred using mobile devices as they made data collection easier and less overwhelming compared to participants using traditional paper and pencil methods of data collection. There is further work to be done to understand the full effect mobile devices have on perceived learning and engagement in inquiry-based experiment models.

Committee: Dr. Gerald Gannod PhD (Advisor); Dr. Jim Kiper PhD (Committee Member); Dr. Glenn Platt PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Computer Science; Education; Psychology

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2007, Educational Leadership

This ethnographic dissertation focuses on the impact of inside and outside learning spaces on the discourse of rural, Appalachian fifth grade children during a five month period. Outside discourse was especially examined during a month-long stream-monitoring unit. The project also focused on how the children's Appalachian culture influenced their discourse. The theoretical framework of this study was social constructivism. Data for this sociocultural project was gathered through field notes, audiotapes, and informal student interviews with selected students. Secondary data included photographs of the children and the places where the conversations occurred during the data collection in addition to family photographs of the children or family members in or near streams. Data was collected from January through the beginning of June, 2007. A constructivist grounded theory approach to data analysis was utilized during and after the data collection period. This study of a particular group of Appalachian fifth graders led to insights about the dialogic relationship between space, culture, and practices of doing problem-based science.

Committee: Dennis Carlson (Advisor) Subjects:

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2012, Biological Sciences

The Oak Openings Region of Northwest Ohio is unique in terms of the flora and fauna that exists within a relatively fragmented area. It contains more rare and endangered plant species than any other area of its size in Ohio and much is known about a number of terrestrial and aquatic animals in the area as well. One group of animals that has not been studied is that of the order Chiroptera, bats. Bats are threatened on many fronts, from the effects of human persecution, to habitat loss, to the recent effects of a deadly fungus, White Nose Syndrome. The Oak Openings is an ideal area to study this group of animals because of its unique composition that includes many natural areas, including that of oak savannas, within an urban/suburban/agricultural matrix. My research objectives included 1) developing a spatially explicit habitat model of bat presence within protected areas of the oak openings region 2) determine the relative difference in activity and presence between forest and savanna sites within the oak openings region and 3) determine the knowledge and attitudes people of the area hold in regards to bats and then develop educational opportunities to increase knowledge and attitudes about bats. Ecological knowledge regarding bats within protected areas, and potential habitat needs, is lacking so I began by acoustically surveying for bats using the Anabat bat detector to determine bat presence within protected areas. I then developed Maxent species distribution models for each of seven species of bats. These models were then tested using citizen science collected data. Models for all seven species performed well when tested with this data, demonstrating the use of Maxent modeling and citizen science collected data for refinement and testing of data sets. With these models I was able to determine areas of potential importance both within and outside of current protected areas as well as critical habitat characteristics for bat presence. Second, I again used Anaba (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Karen Root (Advisor); Helen Michaels (Committee Member); Karen Sirum (Committee Member); Moira van Staaden (Committee Member); Enrique Gomezdelcampo (Other) Subjects: Conservation; Ecology