Bella’s proposals
Proposal 1
Title: Industrial Management of Toxic Chemicals
Justification: The purpose of analyzing this data would be to examine the US manufacturing sector and determine whether they have succeeded in reducing toxic chemical substance emissions throughout history (Fujii & Managi, 2013). This specific article contains “toxic chemical substance emissions in the metal fabrication industry,” where the data has come from three US manufacturing sectors from 1991 to 2009 (Fujii & Managi, 2013). Looking at toxicity data for environmental chemicals is also key to analyze how many chemicals are in the environment. This can help to determine the aftermath of the industrial pollution and management of these toxic chemicals, with the impact on the environment. A good source for this would be looking at the “EPA and other organizations that are developing chemical screening and prioritization programs” (Judson et al., 2009). An analysis of these chemicals and possible sources could be strong informational data to look further into the industrial management of toxic chemicals.
Research question: “How has industrial management of toxic chemicals impacted environmental accumulation?”
Proposed methods:
- Gather as much historical information on industrial chemical pollution sectors as possible (Fujii & Managi, 2013)
- Using a linear regression, model the trends of toxic emissions over time
- Analyze the amount of toxins in the environment throughout history (Judson et al., 2009)
- Use either Pearson or Spearman to test the correlation of emissions with environmental toxicity levels
Expected Outcomes: Based on the research question, we expect to find a high correlation between industrial management of the toxic chemicals and environmental accumulation of the same toxic chemicals. I think this is because most chemicals in the environment often come from the industrial production sector.
Proposal 2
Title: Anthropogenic Impacts on Tropical Forest Biodiversity
Justification: With rising temperatures, worsened natural disasters, and desertification, tropical forests are at a high risk of losing many plant and animal species over time. This can be caused by “deforestation and fragmentation, over-exploitation, invasive species, and climate change” (Morris, 2010). These changes in tropical forests not only impact changes in species richness or species diversity, but also “interactions between species, how those species are organized in networks, and the function that those species perform” (Morris, 2010). With many sources on tropical forest fragmentation and deforestation, with data that correlates to species diversity, there are many pieces of data that could be analyzed in this realm. Looking at global patterns of tropical forest fragmentation would most likely be the strongest source because we can apply differences in species richness and evenness throughout the world, rather than in one specific geographic area, which can improve the strength of this study (Taubert et al., 2018).
Research question: Does tropical forest fragmentation impact species biodiversity?”
Proposed methods:
- We will analyze tropical forest fragmentation from a global aspect (Taubert et al., 2018)
- We will then analyze species richness and diversity in these same geographic areas with multiple sources, including (Morris, 2010).
- We can use spatial regression models to determine a possible relationship
- We can also use correlation analysis to strengthen the possibility of a relationship.
Expected Outcomes: We expect more fragmentation in an area to correlate with decreasing to a lack of species diversity, including richness and evenness. We could also expect an increase in invasive species. I think there will be some outliers because of invasive species, but also because of anthropogenic impacts, like rehabilitation centers and humans bringing non-native species.
Rachel’s proposals
Proposal 1
Title: Tree Cover vs. Wildlife Sightings
Justification: The purpose of this project would be to assess if there is a relationship between tree cover density and wildlife sighting. Understanding this relationship could provide valuable insights into how changes in forest compositions influence the abundance and behavior of various wildlife species. By analyzing patterns of tree cover density in different areas and correlating them with wildlife sightings, we could identify key habitats that support higher biodiversity [Wang et al. (2023)]. This information would be crucial for conservation efforts, allowing scientists and environmental organizations to prioritize specific areas for protection or restoration. Additionally, the findings could guide land development/management to effectively balance human development with species conservation. The goal of this project would be to acuqire information that can contribute to species protection, minimize deforestation, and save animal habitats from unnecessary human development (Mueller et al., 2022).
Research question: “How does the density of tree cover in forested areas correlate with the frequency and diversity of wildlife sightings?”
Proposed methods:
- Collect tree cover and wildlife sighting data (Mueller et al., 2022; Wang et al., 2023)
- Use exploratory data analysis
- Look for correlation using a correlation co-efficient
- Apply regression models to quantify the relationship between tree cover and wildlife sightings, and adjusting for factors such as forest type, climate, and location.
Proposal 2
Title: Urban Green Space’s Effects on Urban Heat Islands
Justification: Urban heat islands (UHIs) occur when urban areas, due to human activity and infrastructure, experience significantly higher temperatures than the surrounding rural or natural landscapes. This phenomenon risks public health by exacerbating heat waves and causing heat-related illnesses. Additionally, hotter temperatures lead to more consumption of electricity utilized for air conditioning and cooling purposes. Green spaces, such as parks, urban forests, rooftop gardens, etc are believed to mitigate this effect (Aram et al., 2019). Vegetation in these areas absorbs carbon dioxide, releases oxygen, and filters pollutants, improving overall public health. They have the potential to enhance air quality, provide shade, and promote evapotranspiration. The findings of this project will inform future decisions on city and urban planning, including the installation of more green spaces and protection of current green spaces to keep our cities healthy (Liu et al., 2022).
Research question: “How do urban green spaces affect the local temperature compared to non-green urban areas?”
Proposed methods:
- Find temperature data for an urban area and compare the area with green space to non-green space (Aram et al., 2019; Liu et al., 2022)
- Use exploratory data analysis
- Look for correlation using a correlation co-efficient
- Apply regression models to quantify the relationship between tree cover and wildlife sightings, and adjusting for factors such as forest type, climate, and location.
Zac’s Proposals
Proposal 1
Title: Tree Planting Along Roads and Traffic Speeds
Justification: Narrowing roads and creating visual obstacles have been common traffic calming measures for decades. Trees have often been planted along roads to provide shade, protect structures from vehicles and separate pedestrians from cars. Murals/asphalt art, signs, bollards and road striping have been used to slow traffic sometimes by physically shrinking the road and other times by creating illusions or visual obstructions causing drivers to perceive the road as narrower than it is. Another example of visual calming measures is employing street parking to make the lanes feel smaller and the street feel fuller (Hamidi et al., 2023). The U.S. is built around cars but increasingly municipalities are looking for ways to improve awareness of traffic fatalities and injuries while reducing their frequency. Planting trees along roadways may not only be linked to calmer traffic but could impact vehicle emissions diffusion, reducing the impact of driving in tree-filled cities.
Research question: “How does planting trees along roadways impact vehicle speeds?” To explore this question, we will examine the relationship between tree planting density and vehicle speeds on roadways using linear regression models to test the hypothesis that higher tree densities along roadways decrease vehicle speeds.
Proposed methods:
We can use municipal and federal traffic data sources paired with municipal forestry data with spatial overlap. Ideally, this data will be focused on Fort Collins as it is spatially relevant and strong forestry records exist through the city forester, local arborist organizations and the USFS (McPherson et al., 2003). If data is incomplete for Fort Collins, a search may be conducted to identify a municipality with more comprehensive data available. This investigation is best kept to one municipality to avoid other cofounding traffic management strategies from interfering with the analysis.
- Conduct exploratory analysis to identify traffic corridors with and without trees or with different treen planting densities.
- Compare the traffic speeds observed on roadways with different tree densities.
- Apply regression models to quantify the relationship between the density of trees lining a road and observed traffic speeds, adjusting for factors such as road width, posted speed limit, tree size, and road hierarchy.
Expected Outcomes: Given the efficacy of visual traffic calming measures and existing research on tree planting to protect pedestrians and structures from vehicles, tree planting along roadways is likely to effectively reduce traffic speeds in addition to providing the physical barrier for pedestrians and structures along the road.
Proposal 2
Title: Campuses and Biodiversity
Justification: In some locations, campuses can represent a substantial amount of green space relative to the surroundings. These more carefully landscaped areas on campuses significantly improve biodiversity. Past research has included insect (Wheeler Jr, 2008) and bird (Sanllorente et al., 2023) biodiversity studies showing higher species richness than in surrounding developed areas. That said, campuses often have a drastically different flora profile than undeveloped natural areas and flora biodiversity can be a concern (Susilowati et al., 2021). With the understanding that natural areas enhance biodiversity (Müller et al., 2018), this analysis seeks to compare landscaped campuses to less developed or completely untouched urban natural areas to assess the loss of biodiversity and habitat that comes with more traditional campus landscaping.
Research question: “How do campuses compare to natural areas for urban and peri-urban biodiversity conservation?” We will test this question using statistical models to compare biodiversity between the two environments. Our hypothesis being that campuses harbor less biodiversity because of uniform landscaping practices are provide less diversity than is found in undeveloped natural areas.
Proposed methods: We will compare biodiversity data from campuses — primarily higher education institutions due to data availability — and urban natural areas to assess biodiversity loss in general and in specific organism groups. The preference is for data from the same ecoregion and ideally local geography as comparing comparable environments is helpful in reducing confounding factors. If time allows, comparing cases from multiple ecoregions could reflect interesting differences in biodiversity conservation or loss.
Expected Outcomes: Given the abundant research supporting natural areas and campuses as biodiversity hotspots, this research is mostly focused on comparing the two. Along those lines, we expect universities with landscaped natural areas to harbor less biodiversity than undeveloped natural areas. It’s possible that certain campuses or ecoregions may see a larger difference in biodiversity. Additionally, within the same ecoregion there may be significant differences in the specific organisms or groups of organisms that see biodiversity impacts. For example, flora are likely to see a greater reduction in biodiversity than fauna due to landscaping creating environments with less species richness.