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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Habitat Modeling of Invasive Blue Catfish in the Patuxent River, Chesapeake Bay
(2019-04-25)Invasive blue catfish (Ictalurus furcatus) populations have expanded to many tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay, negatively impacting native species through predation and competition. To mitigate this problem, the state of ... -
Assessing Nutrient Retention of Restored Wetlands in North Carolina
(2019-04-25)Wetlands are among the most productive and dynamic ecosystems in the world; biogeochemical cycling and storage processes are crucial for nutrient retention in wetland systems. This study aims to test if restored wetlands ... -
Comparative Analysis on the Allocation of Environmental Mitigation Trust Funds at EPA Region 4
(2019-04-25)A notice of violation of the Clean Air was issued to Volkswagen Group by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2015. Volkswagen was revealed to have intentionally programmed a “defeat device” in approximately ... -
Prioritizing High-altitude Ramsar Wetlands in the Eastern Himalayas
(2019-04-26)Himalayan high-altitude wetlands are some of the most iconic and hydrologically dynamic ecosystems in South and Central Asia. Yet little is known about their historical ecology; less is reported on their management. To aid ... -
Water Management in Rural East Indonesia
(2019-04-25)In 2014, Megan Nicholas-Harper co-founded a small grassroots initiative to provide access to drinking water in remote East Indonesia. The high rate of child mortality and morbidity were believed to stem from poor water quality, ... -
State-Level Financing for Agricultural Conservation
(2019-04-25)Agriculture has an enormous impact on environmental quality in the United States, and agricultural conservation programs have great potential to mitigate this impact. We find that state-level programs comprise approximately ... -
Identifying Pollution Sources for Management Prioritization in the Albemarle-Pamlico Watersheds
(2019-04-25)The Albemarle-Chowan, Roanoke, and Tar-Pamlico watersheds have displayed degradation in water quality in recent history. To address concerns about the effects of poor water quality, the North Carolina Chapter of The Nature ... -
EVALUATING THE SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL EXTENT OF INUNDATION DUE TO SEA LEVEL RISE ON LAND, BUILDINGS, AND PEOPLE IN MO’OREA, FRENCH POLYNESIA
(2019-04-24)Driven by a combination of ice sheet loss, ocean thermal expansion, and changes in land water storage, sea levels are expected to rise, though local rates of change vary considerably. Historically, small island nations have ... -
ANALYZING THE IMPACT OF NUCLEAR RETIREMENT ON CARBON EMISSIONS
(2019-04-25)Decreased economic competitiveness and increased safety concerns of nuclear power plants with the introduction of renewable energy have led to decisions to retire nuclear plants earlier than licensed. Though not renewable, ... -
Integrating Medium-Voltage Lines into the OnSSET Model for Electrification Planning
(2019-04-25)Extending electricity access to the 1 billion people worldwide who live without is a complex and costly undertaking, requiring data-driven methods to inform decision makers. Models for electricity access optimization fill ... -
Roadmap for Achieving Biogen’s Scope 3 Science-Based Target
(2019-04-25)Biogen has set a Science-Based Target (SBT) to reduce its absolute greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 35 percent across its entire value chain (scopes 1, 2, and 3) by 2030 from a 2013 base-year. In this project, we focused primarily ... -
UNOCCUPIED AIRCRAFT SYSTEM APPLICATIONS FOR SALT MARSH SHORELINES: A HANDBOOK
(2019-04-25)Salt marshes provide coastal storm protection, fishery habitat, water filtration, carbon storage, and ecotourism. While estimated at 3.8 million acres in the U.S., salt marsh habitats have declined rapidly over the last ... -
Are Higher Exposures to Flame Retardant Chemicals Associated with Papillary Thyroid Cancer?
(2019-04-24)Papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) occurrence has been significantly increasing throughout the world, and particularly in the US, for several decades. At the same time the use of flame retardants (FR) chemicals has increased, ... -
Understanding and Contextualizing Micro-Hydro Plant Sustainability in Nepal
(2019-04-24)Since 1996, the Alternative Energy Promotion Center (AEPC) of the Government of Nepal installed over 1,000 micro-hydro plants (MHPs) ranging from 10 to 100 kW to support off-grid electrification of rural Nepal. As of 2019, ... -
Aligning NYISO's Carbon Pricing with Existing Climate Policy
(2019-04-24)States across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic have implemented particularly ambitious policies to deploy clean energy and reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the electric sector. These policies create a challenge ... -
Economic Valuation of Mangrove-Fishery Linkages in Guyana and Suriname
(2019-04-24)Mangroves are among the most productive ecosystems in the word. By providing valuable ecosystem services, mangroves enhance human well-being and contribute to biodiversity conservation in the tropical and subtropical regions ... -
Impacts of Cosmetic Ingredients on Larval Barnacles: A Study & Discussion of How Cosmetic Ingredients Affect Marine Life
(2019-04-24)In recent years, scientists have discovered toxicity of active ingredients in sunscreens to marine life such as coral reefs. While the research findings have brought about significant policy changes in places like Hawaii ... -
Methods and Challenges of Sustainability Measurement for Small-Scale Coffee Roasters
(2019-04-24)Strategic consideration of sustainability in business practices can create value for stakeholders, help manage supply chain risks from climate change, improve employee and customer retention, and increase the financial ... -
CARBON STOCKS IN NORTHEASTERN GABON AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS FOR RUBBER TREE CONCESSIONS
(2019-04-24)Agricultural activities such as oil palm and rubber production have the potential to grow the economies and increase employment in tropical nations, but measures must be taken to offset the negative environmental effects ... -
Integrating Circular Economy for PET Plastic at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business
(2019-04-24)Plastic has become an integral part of our economy as a core material. However, current waste systems are proving insufficient to address the increasing rise of plastic waste, which paired with consumer challenges, has led ...
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