University of South Carolina Honors College
Environment & Sustainability Program
Environmental Science, B.S.
Graduation with Leadership Distinction: Research
Kaitlyn Bretz
Valuation of Nature and the Role of Subaks in Bali, Indonesia
Kaitlyn Bretz (University of South Carolina - Columbia, Environment & Sustainability Program)
The subak system of field irrigation in Bali, Indonesia follows a tradition that first gained prominence around the late 17th century and is still widely used today. Subaks, or water temple networks, are separate autonomous social groups that enable religious leaders and farmers to set staggered irrigation schedules that balance between water sharing and pest control of entire water sheds . The priests of the master water temple establish a common calendrical framework for farmers, which correlates with the water requirements of rice cultivation and accommodates a period for the fields to fallow, limiting pest reproduction and spread. In the 1970s, Bali experienced an influx of technology, including fertilizers, new strains of rice, and state-organized irrigation tactics during the Green Revolution. Management programs mandated asynchronous planting of rice fields, which disrupted the normal cycle of planted/fallow fields and the key concepts of the subak system broke down, causing diseases, pests, and pollution. Today, subaks are under additional pressure due to tourism and development. In the last 20 years, post-Suharto Bali has engaged the concept of Tri Hita Krana, which plays an integral role in the ideological return to traditional cultural and religious values. The role of the subaks in modern balinese communities has yet to be investigated. Mixed-methods research including surveys, interviews, and data on the use of subaks will be used to assess variation in Balinese ecological worldviews and to understand how different individuals view the subaks' importance, both in historic and modern times.
Effects of radioactive contamination in Chernobyl, Ukraine and Fukushima, Japan on the developmental instability of butterfly species
The long-term effects of radioactive exposure from nuclear accidents on environments are virtually unknown and there is a great need for assessments of radiation effects on living organisms. Past studies have found an increased frequency of developmental abnormalities in butterflies exposed to various levels of radioactive contamination. We collected butterfly species from clean and radiation-contaminated sites around Chernobyl, Ukraine and Fukushima, Japan. Butterflies have large populations, short generation times, develop in two stages within the environment, and their physiology is ideal for morphometric analyses, making them good indicators of environmental effects caused by long-term radiation exposure. Morphometric analyses were used to identify variation in wing vein patters, with fluctuating asymmetry (FA), or the variation between the left and right wings, as our primary measurement of developmental instability related to the mutagenic effects of radiation. FA has been demonstrated to be a sensitive biomarker of environmental stress in many species, including butterflies. We analyzed the size and shape as indexed by centroid size, the square root of the sum of the variance of landmarks around the centroid in both x- and y-directions, and by Procrustes distance, the square root of the sum of squared differences between the positions of landmarks in two optimally superimposed configurations at the centroid size. Our preliminary results indicate that there is no significant relationship between FA and background radiation, however there was significant variation in wing centroid size between clean and irradiated sites, with butterflies exposed to long-term radiation having an overall smaller size. This project will be continued in the future to investigate any differences in centroid size and FA over multiple years.
Kaitlyn Bretz (University of South Carolina - Columbia, Environment & Sustainability Program); Andrea Bonisoli-Alquati (Louisiana State University, School of Renewable Natural Resources); Timothy Mousseau (University of South Carolina - Columbia, Department of Biological Sciences)
Dr. Pournelle's research "focuses on the environmental dimensions of social and cultural change in wetland environments, especially regarding urban origins and sustainability in deltaic settings. Currently, she is invesitgating the possibility and efficacy of using constructed wetlands to remediate petroleum production, agricultural, and urban wastewater streams in southern Iraq."
Dr. Jennifer R. Pournelle
Kaitlyn Bretz (University of South Carolina - Columbia, Environment & Sustainability Program); Khaleel J. Al-Sudani (University of Basrah, Geology Dept.); Eric Tappa (University of South Carolina - Columbia, Environment & Sustainability Program); Jennifer R. Pournelle (University of South Carolina - Columbia, Environment & Sustainability Program)
The Sealands Archaeology and Environment Program sampled geological sections in the Mesopotamian marshes south of the Euphrates River near Hareer, Basra Governorate, southern Iraq in order to investigate regional geomorphological and climate change over the past ~7k years. These sections show largely homogenous grey, silty-clay to clayey-silt sediments with few visual stratigraphic indicators. In this study, we refine that stratigraphic sequence by classification of malacofauna into faunal assemblages locally typical of marine, brackish, and freshwater environments, and by analyzing that shell fossil record for evidence of past climatic variation by using oxygen and carbon isotope ratios (18O/16O and 13C/12C) as proxy indicators for precipitation and temperature change. This technique has proven especially useful in arid regions such as southern Iraq. Isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) was used to measure variation in oxygen and carbon isotope ratios from several taxa. IRMS results suggest an overall shift from a wetter climate to more arid conditions through the mid to late Holocene, while variations in the faunal assemblage indicate shift from marine-estuarine to brackish-fresh (marine and lacustrine) environmental conditions during the Terminal Ubaid-Early Uruk period, with alternating marsh and fluvial conditions thereafter.
Establishing marsh stratigraphic boundaries in Basra Governorate, southern Iraq using stable isotope analyses of δ18O and δ13C in macrofossils
Analysis of the New Ecological Paradigm: Evidence from the Outer Coast of Washington
In an outgrowth from the environmental movement of the 1970s, which brought to the fore an ecological understanding of the natural world, researchers identified an emerging worldview they named the New Environmental Paradigm (NEP). This pro-environmental worldview challenged thenpreexisting pro-utilization worldview, the Dominant Social Paradigm (DSP). A 12-item NEP scale was developed by Dunlap and Van Liere (1978) to measure this new worldview within the population and was later modified to a 15-item scale, renamed the New Ecological Paradigm (revised-NEP) scale. The revised-NEP is arguably the most widely used measure of how humans view the environment, but due to the inconsistency in its application, reported statistics, and dimensionality, the veracity of this scale is uncertain. Using results from surveys distributed among West Coast recreationists, we have identified two factors within the revised-NEP: a factor identified as ‘NEP’ or preservation, and the other as ‘DSP’ or utilization. We provide evidence that this two-factor model fits with the data and is consistent with the results of several other studies. An extensive literature review reveals that the NEP has been used inconsistently, sometimes measuring environmental attitudes, values, and/or beliefs, rather than the pro-environmental worldview it was initially developed to measure. Further, the connection between the revised-NEP scale and pro-environmental behavior is weak and thus should not be the only measure used to predict pro-environmental behavior within a population. However, the revised-NEP should not be discounted because of its weaknesses and misuse by researchers: the NEP is a key part of several frameworks that outline the connection between belief and behavior and has high comparability due to its widespread use in the past several decades. It is thus recommended that the revised-NEP should be applied alongside other scales to assess the full breadth of variables affecting pro-environmental behavior.
Kaitlyn Bretz (University of South Carolina - Columbia, Environment & Sustainability Program); Sarah Gonyo (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science Center for Coastal Monitoring & Assessment, Biogeography Branch); Theresa Goedeke (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science Center for Coastal Monitoring & Assessment, Biogeography Branch)
Dr. Timothy A. Mousseau
Professor Mousseau and his collaborators "have explored the ecological and evolutionary consequences of the radioactive contaminants affecting populations of birds, insects and people inhabiting the Chernobyl region of Ukraine, and in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. His current research is aimed at elucidating the causes of variation among different species in their apparent sensitivity to radionuclide exposure."
Theresa Goedeke, Ph.D.
Dr. Goedeke works in the Biogeography branch in the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) in the National Ocean and Atmosphere Administration (NOAA). She is a sociologist who works on a wide range of projects within NCCOS. See some of the current research projects through the link below.
Dr. Gonyo works in the Biogeography branch in the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) in the National Ocean and Atmosphere Administration (NOAA), alongside Theresa Goedeke, Ph.D.. She is a natural resource economist who works on a wide range of projects within NCCOS. See some of the current research projects through the link below.
Sarah Gonyo, Ph.D.