Nicholas School of the Environment
Master's projects by Nicholas School of the Environment students, including the Duke Marine Laboratory.
The masters project is done in partial fulfillment of the degree requirements for the professional Master of Environmental Management or the Master of Forestry degree. While the MP may include original laboratory or field research, it may also take the form of management plans, handbooks, educational curricula, or other such products. Each student is advised by a faculty member who reviews and approves the project prior to completion.
A masters projects that is original research should not be as large as a masters thesis although it should be of publishable quality but not necessarily comprehensive enough to stand alone as a publication. A masters projects that does not follow the usual format for scientific research should follow a framework that is considered good practice in an appropriate field.
Duke migrated to an electronic-only system for masters projects between 2006 and 2010. As such, projects completed between 2006 and 2010 may not be part of this system, and those created before 2006 are not hosted here except for a small number that have been digitized.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Recent Submissions
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Evaluating the Efficacy of iNaturalist & BioBlitzes as Biological Inventory Tools for Landscape Management
(2021-12-08)Well-informed landscape management decisions rely on accurate data of species presence which is often a resource-intensive and time-consuming effort to collect. Due to limited resources, Duke Forest Management Team has been ... -
Drone Use in Forestry 2021
(2021-12-08)In the last 20 years, advancements in technology, such as remote sensing, have facilitated improvements in forest management. The utilization of one remote sensing tool, in particular, an unmanned aerial vehicle (drone), ... -
Vulnerability to cavitation and response of canopy conductance to root cavitation in five southeastern US pine species
(2021-12-08)Although the Southeastern United States generally receives considerable precipitation and total precipitation has slightly increased, the region has experienced recent recurrent droughts and is anticipated to encounter more ... -
Carbon Gain and Allocation in Five Shade Intolerant Pinus Species
(2021-12-08)Pinus virginiana (Virginia pine), Pinus echinata (shortleaf pine), Pinus taeda (loblolly pine), Pinus elliottii (slash pine), and Pinus palustris (longleaf pine) are five of the most dominant shade-intolerant pine species ... -
Analysis of aboveground carbon for indigenous communities in Oaxaca, MX
(2021-12-08)Managing forests for carbon is a productive and sustainable way to provide conservation and economic and ecological value. Oaxaca, the most biologically diverse state in Mexico, located in the southwestern region of the ... -
ACE Basin National Wildlife Refuge Forest Inventory and Carbon Stock Analysis
(2021-12-08)The ACE Basin National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) is 11,815 acres of critical wildlife habitat in South Carolina’s Lowcountry region. The Refuge contains a mosaic of forest types, including upland pine and hardwood, bottomland ... -
A CASE STUDY ON BUILDING ENERGY EFFICIENCY MEASURES AT W.E. HUNT RECREATION CENTER, TOWN OF HOLLY SPRINGS
(2021-12-04)The Town of Holly Springs, located in Wake County of North Carolina, is interested in improving energy efficiency in municipal operations and facilities to offset increasing energy consumption and utility costs that are ... -
Remote Sensing Tree Physiology
(2021-08-17)Transpiration, or plant water loss, is a critical component of water balance and flux for terrestrial systems worldwide, yet uncertainty in large-scale estimates create significant challenges for water resource forecasting ... -
Identifying Metrics for Health and Outdoor Initiatives: A Toolkit for Community Evaluators
(2017-04-27)Rising rates of urbanization and resource exploitation have reduced opportunities for human interaction with nature and motivated an expansion of interest in research and development of initiatives to achieve human health ... -
ANALYZING LANDSCAPE CONNECTIVITY FOR FELIDAE IN OAXACA GIVEN CURRENT AND POTENTIAL COMMUNITY LAND USE TRENDS
(2021-04-30)Oaxaca state in southern Mexico lies adjacent to the Mesoamerican biological corridor and is comprised of a uniquely diverse landscape. It is further home to many indigenous peoples who possess autonomy and communal land ... -
An Evaluation of Black Sea Bass (Centropristis striata) Distribution and Habitat Availability in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean under Climate Change
(2021-04-30)Fishery scientists are increasingly concerned about the impacts of climate change on marine fisheries and ecosystem health. Many marine species along the Northeast United States continental shelf have shifted spatial distribution ... -
A Policy Evaluation considering the Pacific Salmon Treaty’s Impacts on the Southeast Alaska Chinook Salmon Commercial Troll Fishery
(2021-04-30)Conflicts regarding salmon harvest and conservation have been intensified by the highly migratory nature of the species often moving between the Pacific Northwest, British Columbia, and Alaska. Pacific salmon stocks migrate ... -
Assessing fishing vessel compliance with area closures on the high seas
(2021-04-30)High seas marine ecosystems are facing a variety of threats, including fish stock overexploitation; the destruction of deep-sea habitats by harmful fishing gears; and illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. To help ... -
Agroecology and Women-Run Farms: A case study of women farmers in the United States
(2021-04-30)Women’s farm labor has always been an integral part of agriculture in the United States. How that labor has been understood and documented has changed over time. Today, women are on record as the primary decision-makers ... -
Policy Recommendations for Unoccupied Aircraft Systems (UAS) Operations in the North Carolina Coastal Reserve and National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR)
(2021-04-30)Unoccupied aircraft systems (UAS, also known as drones) are revolutionizing environmental monitoring along North Carolina’s changing coastline. Drones are already utilized by researchers at the North Carolina Coastal Reserve ... -
THE FUTURE OF BIG OIL IN THE HYDROGEN ECONOMY
(2021-04-30)Globally, oil and gas companies have approached hydrogen fuel with varying levels of interest and investment. In Europe, where policymakers have earmarked large sums of investment in the future of hydrogen, oil majors have ... -
CREATING VALUE CHAINS FOR SOIL HEALTH AND RESILIENT FOOD SYSTEMS IN WARREN COUNTY
(2021-04-30)This Master’s Project aims to support Working Landscapes, a rural development nonprofit based in Warren County, NC, in developing a food waste recovery enterprise to handle food scraps from their food processing operation ... -
Ocean Justice: Strategies for an Equitable Implementation of North Carolina's Offshore Wind Industry
(2021-04-30)The United States currently faces a dual crisis of climate change and inequality. Racial wealth disparities stemming from a history of discriminatory policies and oppressive practices have been further compounded by climate ... -
Analyzing the Transportation and Climate Initiative Program Using an Integrated Assessment Model
(2021-04-30)The Transportation & Climate Initiative (TCI) is a cap-and-invest program that is designed to help the thirteen participating states reduce CO2 emissions; however, the anticipated electrification of the transportation sector ... -
Linking Urban Land Use to Aquatic Metabolic Regimes
(2021-04-30)Metabolism is a foundational property of ecosystems, and the productivity of rivers determines their capacity to retain and transform nutrients as well as support biodiversity. Stream metabolism has been increasingly used ...
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