GIS: Mapping Environmental Issues Spatially

We conducted two GIS projects in EV221 over the last two days. First, we mapped
California Gnatcatcher habitat in California in relation to existing and
potential roads and development. It is evident that Gnatcatcher habitat
is severely fragmented by roads, and from the GIS map that we produced,
it seems as though proposed roads will further encroach on habitat.

Today, we mapped several aerial photos of tree line on Pike's Peak
in order to trace the migration of tree line over time. In our site,
labeled "windyup2," on the southeast side of Pike's Peak, the tree
line had clearly moved several meters higher. However, this was
far less movement than on the west and north sides of Pike's Peak.
This may be due to higher precipitation on the west and north sides
of Pike's, as well as the fact that Engelmman Spruce, faster growing
conifer, grows on the east slope, whereas Bristlecone Pine, a slower
growing species, predominantly grows in the eastern slope.

The results of the study, however, are very significant, because
it indicates that tree growth is in fact responding to climate change.
Using data (i.e. photographs) from the past can help us predict future
changes in tree line. This has important implications for the habitat and migration
patterns of many species.

Research Proposal: Techniques for Managing Shrimp Farm Effluent Draining Into Mangrove

My research proposal attempts to address the issue of nutrient
loading and the addition of toxins form shrimp farm effluent in
mangroves. Specifically, my research focuses on shrimp farming
and mangrove ecosystems in Thailand.

In the last twenty years, the number of shrimp farms in Thailand
has increased without bounds. This phenomenon has resulted in
the loss of a large percentage of mangrove land areas in southern
Thailand. two reasons: First, in some areas, mangroves are simply
cleared to make way for shrimp farms, which use the brackish, tidally
fluctuating water to simulate "normal" conditions. Secondly, in areas
where shrimp farms are on the fringe of mangroves forests, waste water
from shrimp farms gets dumped straight back into the mangroves, where
biological functions such as microbial breakdown of nutrients and healthy
living conditions for shellfish, crabs, snakes, and other organisms, are
altered.

I have so far spent most of my time reviewing literature on the more broad
topic of shrimp farming and the effect that it has on mangrove ecosystem health.
It is clear that shrimp farming is not going to disappear within the next five to ten
years, unless Thailand experienced drastic governmental policy reform. So, it
seems logical to find a more sustainable way for shrimp farms to operate such
that mangroves are not affected, or at least are affected to a lesser degree, than
they are currently. A few options have been proposed. One idea is that shrimp
farms could implement a closed system in which there is no waste water was
produced. However, this requires a huge amount of initial cost for the technology
necessary to treat waste. Alternatively, waste waster could potentially be treated
using more natural means, such as water hyacinth or bacteria.

Ultimately, we need to develop more sustainable aquaculture systems globally,
but the first step before attacking the root of the problem is diverting the harmful
effects on mangroves that are proliferating right now.

Considerations of Past Research: Methods and Insights

The first week of EV221 focused on environmental history and narratives, as well as past studies. We read William Doolittle's Phytoliths as Indicators of prehistoric maize cultivation, David Seamon's article on Phenomenology, Marion Hordequin's Climate, Collective Action and Individual Ethical Obligations, as well as William Cronon's paper, A Place for Stories: Nature, History, and Narrative, describing narratives on the Dust Bowl.

All of these texts have in common the theme of multiple views on environmental issues. In different contexts, and form different backgrounds, environmental historians, as well as researchers and scientists, interpret observations, ethnographic studies, and data differently. Cronon's piece, for example, discusses two books written about the Dust Bowl: Dust Bowl and The Dust Bowl. Despite the similarity of the titles, the content and argument presented in the books could not be more different. Donald Wortser's Dust Bowl portrays the pioneers and homesteaders of the Great Plains as ignorant easterners who do not know how to ecologically manage the fragile environment in which they are farming. Paul Bonnifield's The dust Bowl, on the other hand, glorifies the people of the Dust Bowl, and describes the event as a natural disaster that was not related to farming in the Great Plains. These two different environmental narratives illustrate just how differently humans can perceive of the same events, depending on the beliefs and opinions, as well as research techniques, that they bring to the study.

This can be very problematic, especially when policy makers have to use these studies and opinions to inform future environmental policy. It is also disturbing as a student of environmental science because any article, peer reviewed or not, that I read is inherently subjective. In my own work, therefore, I must use the information gleaned from any article to inform my own opinion, and attempt to use the observations and conclusions of others to form my own research, to be carried out as objectively as possible. The task seems daunting, even insurmountable at times. Environmental Inquiry has prepared me well for confronting and managing with the array of available studies and research. I hope that the skills learned in EV221 will help me through literature review and the process of designing and executing my own research.

Current Environmental Research: Benefits and Drawbacks

This week we studied contemporary environmental inquiry. We looked at scientific
research and the problem of interpretation of data, as well as the preexisting notions
and values that scientists bring to their research.

This phenomenon is not, however, unique to the present. In fact, we read two very different interpretations of the Dust Bowl in the Great Plains. Paul Bonnifield's The Dust Bowl, for example, portrays the pioneers of the Great Plains as heroic conquerors of nature, whereas Donald Worster's Dust Bowl, considers the fragility and ever-changing nature of the soil
and climate of the Great Plains, claiming that humans degraded the land to such an extent that it was no longer fertile, and the dust storms that resulted were a direct effect of our ignorance.

Looking at the study of environmental issues in the present is even more
complicated because of the technology that we now have available to collect
data on issues ranging from loss of biodiversity to climate and how global
climate is changing to the effect of nutrient loading on bacteria in wetlands.
Because of this vast amount of knowledge available to the scientific
community, as well as the public, it can be difficult to find common ground
when considering this multitude of data. There exists inevitable discrepancies
in values and priorities among those interpreting the data, which is ultimately
the basis of the political structure that informs our policies toward the environment.
All of this is very disconcerting, especially because every scientist or researcher genuinely
wants to perform the most subjective studies possible. The task, therefore, is to select
research topics that are relevant to problems that need to be solved, collect data
with a subjective approach, and engage policy makers such that the data is used to support
the most ecologically sustainable policies regarding the environment.