Environmental Studies Program Student Theses 2011-12

The Colorado River is often referred to as the "lifeblood" of the American Southwest, as it sustains rapidly growing cities, feeds millions of agricultural acres, and f [...]

Mining activity in the central Andes poses a serious threat to human health due to the release of heavy metals in surface water. Long-term exposure to elevated levels of [...]

This study investigated the behavior of the terrestrial biosphere during times of significant drought, particularly in regard to carbon fluxes. The Simple Biosphere Model [...]

Spatial context in predator-prey systems has proven to have important dynamical consequences. Instabilities and spatial pattern formation driven by diffusion (Turing patt [...]

Managing the human wildlife interface in Northern Tanzania has become a challenge as human settlements are expanding into zones that have been designated to serve as wild [...]

This thesis seeks to determine the most effective means of distributing appropriate sustainable energy technology to individuals that have no access to energy services. T [...]

Mounting research on alpine treeline advance suggests that global and regional temperatures do not completely explain changes in treeline elevation and distribution. Rath [...]

In the mid 1940s remnant tallgrass prairie near Colorado Springs was recognized in vegetation studies on the plains. Tallgrass prairie is unusual in the arid Great Plains [...]

Alpine treeline is a valuable indicator of climate change because of its sensitivity to temperature. On Pikes Peak (Southern Rocky Mountains, Colorado), tree density and [...]