126855-Thumbnail Image.png

Student capstone and applied projects from ASU's School of Sustainability.

Displaying 1 - 2 of 2
Filtering by

Clear all filters

Mindiac: Mindfulness for the Sustainability Professional

Description
In recent years, contemplative discourse has guided fields as diverse as psychology, medicine, and spiritual practice. With sustainability’s emergence as a caring profession, we believe mindfulness can contribute to the conversation. Exercises that develop skills such as active listening, preventative self-care, and self-awareness are explored through the five facets of…

In recent years, contemplative discourse has guided fields as diverse as psychology, medicine, and spiritual practice. With sustainability’s emergence as a caring profession, we believe mindfulness can contribute to the conversation. Exercises that develop skills such as active listening, preventative self-care, and self-awareness are explored through the five facets of mindfulness: non-reactivity, observing, acting with awareness, describing, and non-judging of experience (Baer, Smith, Hopkins, Krietmeyer, & Toney, 2006). Thus, we have created an online publication called Mindiac that utilizes the five facets of mindfulness to help sustainability professionals develop and refine intangible skills that will help them solve sustainability problems. Through interviews, framework identification, research, and online publishing software, fifteen articles on mindfulness were created. The six-part publication will equip sustainability professionals with tools to navigate complex situations in applied settings.
ContributorsAyotte, Kaylin (Author) / Burdge, Isabel (Author)
Created2019-05-15

Adding a Soil Fertility Dimension to Locust and Grasshopper Management, a Case Study in West Africa

Description
In Senegal, West Africa, soils are a vital resource for livelihoods and food security in smallholder farming communities. Low nitrogen (N) soils pose obvious challenges for crop production but may also, counterintuitively, promote the abundance of agricultural pests like the Senegalese locust, Oedaleus senegalensis. In this study I investigated how…

In Senegal, West Africa, soils are a vital resource for livelihoods and food security in smallholder farming communities. Low nitrogen (N) soils pose obvious challenges for crop production but may also, counterintuitively, promote the abundance of agricultural pests like the Senegalese locust, Oedaleus senegalensis. In this study I investigated how the abundance of locusts and grasshoppers are impacted by soil fertility through plant nutrients and how these variables change across land use types. We worked in two rural farming villages in the Kaffrine region of Senegal. Overall, there was little variation in soil properties and an agricultural landscape low in soil organic matter (SOM) and inorganic soil nitrogen. I corroborated that SOM is a significant driver of soil inorganic N, which had a positive relationship to plant N content. Of the management practices we surveyed, fallowing fields was important for soil nutrient restoration and years spent fallow was significantly correlated to inorganic soil N and SOM. O. senegalensis was least abundant in groundnut areas where plant N was highest. Additionally, I found a significant negative correlation between O. senegalensis abundance and plant N, suggesting that plant nutrients are an important driver of their populations. Grasshoppers, excluding O. senegalensis, were more numerous in grazing areas and fallow areas, perhaps due to a higher diversity of ecological niches and host plants. These results connect land use, soil, and vegetation to herbivores and suggest that improving soil fertility could be used as an alternative to pesticides to keep locusts at bay and improve crop yields.
ContributorsWord, Mira (Author) / Hall, Sharon (Contributor) / Robinson, Brian (Contributor) / Manneh, Balanding (Contributor) / Beye, Alioune (Contributor) / Cease, Arianne (Contributor)
Created2018-04-10