Fire is a naturally-occurring disruptive ecological force that is an essential part of certain ecosystems, and has historically been a tool used by indigenous fire stewards to maintain the health of the land. In the past century, fire has been severely suppressed throughout many areas of the Western United States as Western colonization and the suppression of native traditional ecological knowledge took place, causing a severe decline in ecosystem health and the accumulation of flammable vegetation, which has more recently contributed towards a frequency of catastrophic, high-intensity wildfires. Current fire management challenges include balancing social and ecological perspectives. In Colorado and other areas of the country, community wildfire protection plans (CWPP) are evolving as a means to involve a variety of community stakeholders in fire management decisions. Using Colorado CWPP boundaries as a social management unit and endangered species ranges as an ecological management unit, I analyzed the spatial overlap of these different factors. Since each CWPP has its own fire management policies, I drew implications from the results for which important factors different CWPPs should consider.

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in preventative measures and has led to extensive changes in lifestyle for the vast majority of the American population. As the pandemic progresses, a growing amount of evidence shows that minority groups, such as the Deaf community, are often disproportionately and uniquely affected. Deaf people are directly affected in their ability to personally socialize and continue with daily routines. More specifically, this can constitute their ability to meet new people, connect with friends/family, and to perform in their work or learning environment. It also may result in further mental health changes and an increased reliance on technology. The impact of COVID-19 on the Deaf community in clinical settings must also be considered. This includes changes in policies for in-person interpreters and a rise in telehealth. Often, these effects can be representative of the pre-existing low health literacy, frequency of miscommunication, poor treatment, and the inconvenience felt by Deaf people when trying to access healthcare. Ultimately, these effects on the Deaf community must be taken into account when attempting to create a full picture of the societal shift caused by COVID-19.

As the return to normality in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic enters its early stages, the necessity for accurate, quick, and community-wide surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 has been emphasized. Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) has been used across the world as a tool for monitoring the pandemic, but studies of its efficacy in comparison to the best-known method for surveillance, randomly selected COVID-19 testing, has limited research. This study evaluated the trends and correlations present between SARS-CoV-2 in the effluent wastewater of a large university campus and random COVID-19 testing results published by the university. A moderately strong positive correlation was found between the random testing and WBE surveillance methods (r = 0.63), and this correlation was strengthened when accommodating for lost samples during the experiment (r = 0.74).

In this project, I examined the relationship between lockdowns implemented by COVID-19 and the activity of animals in urban areas. I hypothesized that animals became more active in urban areas during COVID-19 quarantine than they were before and I wanted to see if my hypothesis could be researched through Twitter crowdsourcing. I began by collecting tweets using python code, but upon examining all data output from code-based searches, I concluded that it is quicker and more efficient to use the advanced search on Twitter website. Based on my research, I can neither confirm nor deny if the appearance of wild animals is due to the COVID-19 lockdowns. However, I was able to discover a correlational relationship between these two factors in some research cases. Although my findings are mixed with regard to my original hypothesis, the impact that this phenomenon had on society cannot be denied.

Globally, the incidental capture of non-target species in fisheries (bycatch) has been linked to declines of ecologically, economically, and culturally important marine species. Gillnet fisheries have especially high bycatch due to their non-selective nature, necessitating the development of new bycatch reduction technologies (BRTs). Net illumination is an emerging BRT that has shown promise in reducing bycatch of marine megafauna, including sea turtles, cetaceans, and seabirds. However, little research has been conducted to understand the effects of net illumination on fish assemblages, including bony fish and elasmobranchs (i.e. sharks, rays, and skates). Here, I assessed a 7-year dataset of paired net illumination trials using four different types of light (green LEDs, green chemical glowsticks, ultraviolet (UV) lights, and orange lights) to examine the effects of net illumination on fish catch and bycatch in a gillnet fishery at Baja California Sur, Mexico. Analysis revealed no significant effect on bony fish target catch or bycatch for any light type. There was a significant decrease in elasmobranch bycatch using UV and orange lights, with orange lights showing the most promise for decreasing elasmobranch bycatch, resulting in a 50% reduction in bycatch rates. Analysis of the effects of net illumination on elasmobranch target catch was limited due to insufficient data. These results indicate that the illumination of gillnets may offer a practical solution for reducing fish bycatch while maintaining target catch. More research should be conducted to understand the effects of net illumination in different fisheries, how net illumination affects fisher profit and efficiency, and how net illumination affects fish behavior. Further optimization of net illumination is also necessary before the technology can be recommended on a broader scale.

People have known about mass biodiversity loss and the human actions that drive it for decades now, and yet we have largely failed levels to change our behavior to protect the environment. What’s failing to motivate people to change? Some conservation psychologists have partially blamed the negative way we communicate about environmental issues for paralyzing audiences into doing nothing because they feel helpless to change such a big problem. Instead, many psychologists have called for using positive emotions in communication to motivate an audience, but there’s still little research showing whether that’s a more effective approach or not. To study whether positive or negative emotions are really more motivational for inspiring change, I looked at how different emotions were used in the discourse about an emerging conservation technology called de-extinction as a case study. De-extinction claims to be both a tool for fighting biodiversity loss and for inspiring more positive and inspiring narratives in conservation. In this thesis, I examine those claims by exploring five emotions that the discourse around de-extinction elicits: fear, guilt, grief, awe and hope. I examined the motivating power of those emotions and what kind of actions de-extinction discourse motivates or fails to motivate through the way it uses those emotions. I found that de-extinction discourse erases negative emotions and boosts positive ones as many conservation psychologists recommend. However, de-extinction discourse accomplishes this in misleading ways: it minimizes the sense of importance of ongoing extinctions by framing extinction as a reversible phenomenon, and it overstates the ability of technology alone to combat the extinction crisis without requiring societal change. As a result, de-extinction discourse could risk making the public less motivated to take personal action to forward conservation goals. I conclude that positivity or negativity should not be the central concerns for motivating action, but rather efficacy and honesty.

The purpose of this research is to exploit the neglect of specific populations and diseases in Latin America through an epidemiological literature review. As a small part of a larger publication, the foci of this research was the infectious disease, helminthiasis. Using manually indexed abstracts from the National Library of Medicine database in PubMed, 4,594 papers were synthesized and then processed for further review. Of those papers, 29 provided information about helminths in indigenous populations. These papers were reviewed and used in prevalence data extraction and variable analysis. The main conclusion was to reveal the fact that from an entire health database less than 30 papers provided information about the persistence of helminths in indigenous communities of Latin America. Not only that but the few papers that could be analyzed had consistently high prevalence ratios.

In this thesis paper, the mental health consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic are discussed. Chapter 1 discusses what inspired me to write this thesis and follows with a discussion of social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Chapter 2 takes a step back and discusses biological effects of social isolation in general. Chapter 3 discusses the psychological effects of social isolation. Finally, this thesis concludes with a discussion of what can be done to help those experiencing social isolation during the pandemic.

My research aims to determine the effectiveness of meditation and sleep applications (apps) on the reduction of anxiety and stress in college students, with a focus on sedative piano music. Results showed a significant reduction of stress and anxiety levels in college students when listening to sedative piano music versus non-sedative piano music. Music along with other therapy modalities in meditation and sleep apps show promise in reducing students’ anxiety and stress and promoting their successes.