2331 research outputs found
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Climb Above Addiction Image 042
No full textThe Climb Above Addiction cluster project addresses the need for awareness, support, and education for those affected by addiction. The event component of the project, similar to the Relay for Life but with climbing rather than walking a track, raised money to support a scholarship for the Plymouth House recovery program. This photo was taken at the event. Pictured: Kimberly Marie Edmunds.https://digitalcommons.plymouth.edu/climbabove/1041/thumbnail.jp
Climb Above Addiction Image 049
No full textThe Climb Above Addiction cluster project addresses the need for awareness, support, and education for those affected by addiction. The event component of the project, similar to the Relay for Life but with climbing rather than walking a track, raised money to support a scholarship for the Plymouth House recovery program. This photo was taken at the event.https://digitalcommons.plymouth.edu/climbabove/1048/thumbnail.jp
Chemosensory behavior and temperature preferences of northern crayfish (Faxonius virilis) and rusty crayfish (Faxonius rusticus)
No full textInvasive crayfish can alter aspects of the behavior of native crayfish with consequences that are yet to be fully understood. Crayfish respond to water temperature and chemosensory cues as they navigate, forage, find mates, and encounter predators. Given the disruptive effects invasive species can directly have on native species, it is important to also establish how cues from non-native species may affect the sensory landscape and alter behavior of native species even in the absence of physical contact. We collected a resident species in New Hampshire, the northern crayfish (Faxonius virilis), and quantified the effects of cues (alarm substances and physical presence) from the non-native rusty crayfish (Faxonius rusticus) on its activity. We also quantified the temperature preferences of both species and tested for any interactive effects of temperature and rusty crayfish cues on the behavior of northern crayfish. We found that these two species differed in their temperature preference, with northern crayfish preferring a warmer temperature than the rusty crayfish. The alarm cue from rusty crayfish altered the behavior of northern crayfish, inducing them to move more slowly. We also found that temperature affected how northern crayfish reacted to rusty crayfish cues in terms of movement distance. Our findings suggest that chemosensory cues from non-native crayfish may have an effect on resident species during an invasion process. Future investigation into population- and region- specific chemosensory-induced behavioral changes in native crayfish species is warranted
Lichen Diversity and Abundance on Sport Climbing Routes at Rumney Rocks, New Hampshire
No full textClimbing has rapidly increased in popularity throughout the last decade. As climbing grows, so does the demand for outdoor climbing establishment. Exposed cliff faces are ideal for climbers, as well as lichens. Lichens are slow growing, dual organisms made up of fungi and algae. They play a pivotal role in nutrient cycling, making nitrogen bioavailable to plants. Given the patterns of climbing and route establishment, we hypothesized that more challenging routes would have greater lichen coverage and diversity than the easier routes. We also expected that the tops of routes would host more foliose, squamulose, and fruticose lichens, as the end of routes may be less trafficked compared to the start. The first author tested this hypothesis by rappelling over climbs with a square meter, estimating coverage of each lichen type. We found that large amounts of crustose lichen are present throughout each climb, with little to no foliose, or fruticose lichen present. Our next steps will be to compare climbs with lichen coverage estimates “off-route” to determine whether there are significant differences in coverage due to climbing activities. Our study will provide much needed information on one of the most overlooked impacts of climbers: the lichen community
Joe English Conservation Land
No full textThe Joe English conservation land parcel in Amherst, New Hampshire is owned by the town and the trails here are maintained by the Amherst Conservation Commission. Joe English was a very kind Native American who was a friend of the colonists in the late 1600s. For befriending the settlers from Massachusetts, Joe English was killed by hostile Indians from Southern Canada in 1706. There are a variety of trails that go through this conservation land that are well used by Amherst residents as well as the Peabody Mill Environmental Center (PMEC), an educational science center that abuts about 600 acres of the Joe English Conservation Land. PMEC is located at the end of Brook Rd in Amherst and this facility is where the public is able to park and access the Joe English trails. Since 1975 this land trust has been persistent in preserving hundreds of acres of conservation land in NH for the public to enjoy for generations. Birding is a very popular activity at the Joe English Reservation and attracts people from neighboring towns and states
Incipient Speciation Amongst Abies balsamea on Mount Moosilauke, New Hampshire
No full textLike other conifers Abies balsamea (L.) Mill. is pollinated by wind, but how pollen moves among populations, affecting local genetic variation, has not been studied. Previous studies have looked at the genus Abies and have used markers that can differentiate between individual species,1 but not lineage diversification within a single geographic region. The drastic altitudinal range in the White Mountains, provides an ideal location to study how populations change and diverge along environmental gradients. The purpose of this study is to explore the morphological and genetic diversity of Abies balsamea and determine whether incipient speciation is occurring in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Various selective pressures, including environmental conditions may be contributing to adaptations in microhabitats in which Abies balsamea is found in the region. It is predicted that genetic diversity will be greater between watersheds (WS) as the ridgelines will provide a barrier in which the pollen will be unable to cross
Sustainable Development Goal #3 Good Health and Well-Being: Maternal and Child Health
Get PDFThe United Nations General Assembly has created 17 global goals labeled Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to create a more peaceful, prosperous, and sustainable planet. The 2030 agenda calls for action of all countries in a global partnership to end poverty, create economic growth, reduce inequalities, and address climate change by preserving life on land and in water. Sustainable Goal #3, focuses on ensuring healthy lifestyles and sustaining well-being. This poster concentrates on maternal and child health by identifying the targets of SDG #3, indicators of how we measure progress and actors involved. The goal of this poster was to create awareness of this Sustainable Development Goal and what individuals, states, and organizations are working towards to achieve the 2030 targets. Progress has been made, although there needs to be continuous effort throughout all countries in order to accomplish the standards set in the SDGs
Proactive Watershed Planning and Community Engagement in the Warner River Watershed
No full textGiven current threats to our waterways, watershed planning is a blossoming field. Unfortunately, organizations aiming to develop such plans are given little guidance on the planning process. The Environmental Protection Agency Handbook for Developing Watershed Plans briefly describes watershed planning as an “adaptive,” “integrated,” and “participatory and collaborative” process but does not advise how to incorporate these approaches or explain their benefits and challenges. I comparatively analyze these watershed planning approaches in Chapter 1 and then provide two examples in Chapters 2 and 3 of how the approaches are being applied within the Warner River Watershed (NH) to proactively conserve wild brook trout and high-quality coldwater stream habitat. In Chapter 2, I evaluate the effectiveness of a collaborative and participatory landowner engagement program designed to increase landowner awareness and appreciation of aquatic organisms living in their stream. This highly effective program fostered stewardship behaviors and stimulated landowners to implement land management recommendations to improve stream habitat quality. In Chapter 3, I describe how I collaboratively developed an adaptive, integrated decision-making framework to prioritize culvert replacement projects. After many adjustments and iterations, I created a final product that included parameters related to social, economic, and environmental well-being, and also integrated stream habitat with surrounding landscape condition. These efforts and similar efforts being conducted in the Warner River Watershed will help ensure the sustainability and resiliency of wild brook trout and protect high-quality coldwater stream habitat
All Odds Against Them: The Superintendent’s Leadership in Rapid and Sustained System Improvement in Small, Rural, Impoverished, School Districts
No full textThis research is an examination of the instructional leadership practices of effective rural superintendents who oversee school districts in small, rural school districts in the most northern New England states of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The study looked at the successful leadership practices of school district superintendents who have maintained a path of growth and improvement in districts that were small, rural and impoverished, however, they have overcome these limiting factors to show improvement in student achievement and instruction. The purpose of this study was to identify these successful leadership practices and to compare them to those identified in the meta-analysis done by Marzano and Waters in 2009. It is important to discover why these districts improved and identify factors that might account for their success as compared to other districts with similar demographics. There is value in studying the leadership in schools that have needed improvement and become successful and sustained their turnaround over time. Such information will provide a model school leaders can learn from and replicate in their own efforts in future school reform. A multiple case study approach utilized several steps to gather information from four cases selected using the model proposed in a case study done by Masumoto and Brown-Welty in 2009. This current study employed a multiple case study design using interviews with four superintendents, staff members (i.e., teachers and administrators and other educational professionals) at both the building level and at the district level during site visits to each school selected. Interviews were used as primary source data and were compared with documents related to the school district’s work. Results indicate that the factors identified in prior research related to effective district leadership, collaborative goal setting, establishment of nonnegotiable goals for achievement and instruction, creation of school board alignment and support of goals, and the allocation of resources to support the goals for achievement and instruction were present in these successful turnaround rural districts (Marzano & Waters, 2009). In addition, the research identified two new factors, high expectations and climate and culture that appeared to play an important role in the improvement of the districts with increased student achievement despite their challenging demographics. Recommendations as a result of these findings for rural district leaders are discussed