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Mussel Squeeze: Dissolved Oxygen And Temperature Can “Squeeze” Zebra Mussels Out Of Invaded Reservoirs, Crysta Gantz, Rich Miller, Steve Wells, Mark D. Sytsma, Angela Strecker

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Zebra mussels (Dreissena polymorpha) are an aquatic invasive species that cause extensive economic and ecological impacts and are a management priority in areas outside of their native range. Survivorship and distribution of zebra mussels within a waterbody are thought to be influenced by temperature and dissolved oxygen conditions, but detailed information to confirm the importance of these environmental controls is necessary to inform management efforts. We measured planktonic zebra mussel veliger density and adult survivorship in San Justo Reservoir in central California to determine distribution and timing of spawning in relation to temperature and dissolved oxygen throughout winter, spring, and …

Response Of Soil Respiration To Changes In Soil Temperature And Water Table Level In Drained And Restored Peatlands Of The Southeastern United States, E. E. Swails, K. Krauss, Marcelo Ardón, A. L. Peralta, A. M. Helton, Jennifer L. Morse, Multiple Additional Authors

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background

Extensive drainage of peatlands in the southeastern United States coastal plain for the purposes of agriculture and timber harvesting has led to large releases of soil carbon as carbon dioxide (CO2) due to enhanced peat decomposition. Growth in mechanisms that provide financial incentives for reducing emissions from land use and land-use change could increase funding for hydrological restoration that reduces peat CO2 emissions from these ecosystems. Measuring soil respiration and physical drivers across a range of site characteristics and land use histories is valuable for understanding how CO2 emissions from peat decomposition may respond to raising water table levels. …

The Consequential Role Of Aesthetics In Forest Fuels Reduction Propensities: Diverse Landowners’ Attitudes And Responses To Project Types, Risks, Costs, And Habitat Benefits, Robert G. Ribe, Max Nielsen-Pincus, Chris Enright, Bart R. Johnson, David Hulse

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Private landowners in the southern Willamette Valley of Oregon, USA were surveyed. The survey queried probabilities of implementing specific fuels reduction projects in extensive areas of specific forest types on their property. The projects were described in relation to the beginning and target forest types, the actions required, costs, and long-term maintenance. Forest types were first rated for scenic beauty and informed levels of wildfire risk reduction, scarce habitat production, and associated property rights risks. Propensities to perform each fuels reduction project were then obtained. These were adversely affected by disbelief in heightened wildfire risks or climate change, higher project …

River Discharge Mediates Extent Of Phytoplankton And Harmful Algal Bloom Habitat In The Columbia River Estuary (Usa) During North Pacific Marine Heat Waves, Taylor N. Dodrill, Yangdong Pan, Tawnya D. Peterson

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Marine heat waves (MHWs) have been associated with extensive harmful algal blooms (HABs) in the northeast Pacifc Ocean, but the degree to which these large-scale oceanographic events are mirrored in nearshore environments has not been well established. We compared phytoplankton assemblages in the Lower Columbia River Estuary (LCRE) during two Pacifc MHWs that took place in 2015 and 2019, with observations from 2017, a year with no MHW. These data were paired with environmental data from the summers of 2015–2019 to characterize differences in estuarine conditions during MHWs that promote phytoplankton assemblage transitions and identify HAB-conducive conditions. Bloom densities of …

Ecological Homogenization Of Oil Properties In The American Residential Macrosystem, Christopher D. Ryan, Peter M. Groffman, J. Morgan Grove, Sharon J. Hall, James B. Heffernan, Sarah E. Hobbie, Dexter H. Locke, Jennifer L. Morse, Rinku Roy Chowdhury, Tara Trammell, Multiple Additional Authors

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

The conversion of native ecosystems to residential ecosystems dominated by lawns has been a prevailing land-use change in the United States over the past 70 years. Similar development patterns and management of residential ecosystems cause many characteristics of residential ecosystems to be more similar to each other across broad continental gradients than that of former native ecosystems. For instance, similar lawn management by irrigation and fertilizer applications has the potential to influence soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) pools and processes. We evaluated the mean and variability of total soil C and N stocks, potential net N mineralization and nitrification, …

Predicting Springtime Herbicide Exposure Across Multiple Scales In Pacific Coastal Drainages (Oregon, Usa), Kaegan Michael Scully-Engelmeyer, Elise F. Granek

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Identification of non-point sources of watershed pollution such as pesticide runoff is challenging due to spatial and temporal variation in landscape patterns of land use and environmental conditions. Regional case study monitoring investigations can document region-specific conditions and processes to inform managers about pesticide movement through watersheds. Additionally, modeling field-collected data within these contexts can be used to predict pesticide presence in un-sampled areas. During a 45 day period in the spring of 2019, we sampled sixteen coastal watersheds in Oregon, USA for current-use water-borne herbicides commonly used in forestland vegetation management. At 80 % of sampling locations, at least …

Forest Fire Effects On Landscape Snow Albedo Recovery And Decay, Max Gersh, Kelly E. Gleason, Anton Surunis

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Surface snow albedo (SSA) darkens immediately following a forest fire, while landscape snow albedo (LSA) brightens as more of the snow-covered surface becomes visible under the charred canopy. The duration and variability of the post-fire snow albedo recovery process remain unknown beyond a few years following the fire. We evaluated the temporal variability of post-fire snow albedo recovery relative to burn severity across a chronosequence of eight burned forests burned from 2000 to 2019, using pre- and post-fire daily, seasonal, and annual landscape snow albedo data derived from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MOD10A1). Post-fire annual LSA increased by 21% …

On Capturing Human Agency And Methodological Interdisciplinarity In Socio-Hydrology Research, David J. Yu, Melissa Haeffner, Hanseok Jeong, Saket Pande, Juliane Dame, Giuliano Di Baldassarre, Glenda Garcia-Santos, Leon Hermans, Rashata Muneepeerakul, Multiple Additional Authors

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Socio-hydrology has expanded and been effective in exposing the hydrological community to ideas and approaches from other scientific disciplines, and social sciences in particular. Yet it still has much to explore regarding how to capture human agency and how to combine different methods and disciplinary views from both the hydrological and the social sciences to develop knowledge. A useful starting ground is noting that the complexity of human–water relations is due to interactions not only across spatial and temporal scales but also across different organizational levels of social systems. This calls for consideration of another analytical scale, the human organizational …

Standardized Neon Organismal Data For Biodiversity Research, Daijiang Li, Sydne Record, Eric R. Sokol, Matthew E. Bitters, Melissa Y. Chen, Ruvi Jaimes, Matthew R. Helmus, Lara Jansen, Marta A. Jarzyna, Multiple Additional Authors

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Understanding patterns and drivers of species distribution and abundance, and thus biodiversity, is a core goal of ecology. Despite advances in recent decades, research into these patterns and processes is currently limited by a lack of standardized, high-quality, empirical data that span large spatial scales and long time periods. The NEON fills this gap by providing freely available observational data that are generated during robust and consistent organismal sampling of several sentinel taxonomic groups within 81 sites distributed across the United States and will be collected for at least 30 years. The breadth and scope of these data provide a …

Drivers Of Spatiotemporal Eukaryote Plankton Distribution In A Trans-Basin Water Transfer Canal In China, Yuying Li, Faisal Hayat Khan, Jiamin Wu, Yun Zhang, Yeqing Jiang, Xiaonuo Chen, Yinlei Yao, Yangdong Pan, Xuemei Han

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Planktonic eukaryotes are important components of aquatic ecosystems, and analyses of the whole eukaryotic planktonic community composition and function have far-reaching significance for water resource management. We aimed to understand the spatiotemporal variation and drivers of eukaryotic plankton distribution in the Middle Route Project of the South-to-North Water Diversion in Henan Province, China. Specifically, we examined planktonic assemblages and water quality at five stations along the canal and another one located before the dam in March, June, September, and December 2019. High-throughput sequencing revealed that the eukaryotic plankton community was primarily composed of 53 phyla, 200 genera, and 277 species, …

Using An Affinity Analysis To Identify Phytoplankton Associations, Weiju Zhu, Zhaojian Ding, Yangdong Pan, Quanxi Wang

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Phytoplankton functional traits can represent particular environmental conditions in complex aquatic ecosystems. Categorizing phytoplankton species into functional groups is challenging and time-consuming, and requires high-level expertise in species autecology. In this study, we introduced an affinity analysis to aid the identification of candidate associations of phytoplankton from two data sets comprised of phytoplankton and environmental information. In the Huaihe River Basin with a drainage area of 270,000 km2 in China, samples were collected from 217 selected sites during the low-water period in May 2013; monthly samples were collected during 2006–2011 in a man-made pond, Dishui Lake. Our results indicated that …

Can Diatom Motility Indices Reflect Excess Fine Sediment Condition In Streams?, Christine L. Weilhoefer, Yangdong Pan

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

The diatom motility trait is widely used in bioassessment studies, however, there is no strong consensus as to what environmental conditions diatom motility reflects. We used random forest models to explore the behavior of several diatom-based motility indices and examined whether stronger diatom motility-environmental relationships could be developed by controlling for environmental factors that influence natural sediment loads and factors that co-occur with anthropogenic sediment loading. Across the study area, median values of most stressors were low; streambed fine sediments ranged from 0 to 100% (median: 6.7%) and total phosphorus concentrations ranged from 0 to 2587 µg L−1 (median: 17 …

Ecosystem Connectivity For Livable Cities: A Connectivity Benefits Framework For Urban Planning, Carole Hardy, Catherine De Rivera, Leslie Bliss-Ketchum, Eric P. Butler, Sahan Dissanayake, Dorothy A. Horn, Ben Huffine, Amanda M. Temple, Michael Vermeulen, Hailey Wallace, Jennifer Michelle Karps

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Urbanization disrupts landscapes and ecosystem functions, which poses threats to biodiversity, social systems, and human health, particularly among vulnerable populations. Urban land-use planners are faced with competing demands for housing, safety, transportation, and economic development and often lack tools to integrate these with protecting environmental functions. We identify three major barriers to integrating the benefits that flow with connected, functioning ecosystems into land-use planning. The lack of a shared language among planners and stakeholders poses a barrier to the restoration and preservation of ecological features. Methods of incorporating the benefits from connectivity are not standardized because values are not readily …

Citizen Science Across Two Centuries Reveals Phenological Change Among Plant Species And Functional Groups In The Northeastern Us, Kerissa Battle, Anna Duhon, Conrad R. Vispo, Theresa M. Crimmins, Todd Rosenstiel, Lilas L. Armstrong-Davies, Catherine De Rivera

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

1. Understanding the breadth and complexity of changes in phenology is limited by the availability of long-term historical data sets with broad geographic range.
2. We compare a recently discovered historical data set of plant phenology observations collected across the state of New York (1826–1872) to contemporary volunteer-contributed observations (2009–2017) to evaluate changes in plant phenology between time periods. These multi-site, multi-taxa phenology data matched with temperature data uniquely extend historical observations back in time prior to the major atmospheric effects of the Industrial Revolution.
3. The majority of the 36 trees, shrubs and forbs that comprised our analysable data set flowered and …

Black Carbon Dominated Dust In Recent Radiative Forcing On Rocky Mountain Snowpacks, Kelly E. Gleason, Joseph R. Mcconnell, Monica M. Arienzo, Graham Sexstone, Stefan Rahimi

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

The vast majority of surface water resources in the semi-arid western United States start as winter snowpack. Solar radiation is a primary driver of snowmelt, making snowpack water resources especially sensitive to even small increases in concentrations of light absorbing particles such as mineral dust and combustion-related black carbon (BC). Here we show, using fresh snow measurements and snowpack modeling at 51 widely distributed sites in the Rocky Mountain region, that BC dominated impurity-driven radiative forcing in 2018. BC contributed three times more radiative forcing on average than dust, and up to 17 times more at individual locations. Evaluation of …

Extreme Winds Alter Influence Of Fuels And Topography On Megafire Burn Severity In Seasonal Temperate Rainforests Under Record Fuel Aridity, Cody Evers, Andres Holz, Sebastian Upton Busby, Max Nielsen-Pincus

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Nearly 0.8 million hectares of land were burned in the North American Pacific Northwest (PNW) over two weeks under record-breaking fuel aridity and winds during the extraordinary 2020 fire season, representing a rare example of megafires in forests west of the Cascade Mountains. We quantified the relative influence of weather, vegetation, and topography on patterns of high burn severity (>75% tree mortality) among five synchronous megafires in the western Cascade Mountains. Despite the conventional wisdom in climate-limited fire regimes that regional drivers (e.g., extreme aridity, and synoptic winds) overwhelm local controls on vegetation mortality patterns (e.g., vegetation structure and …

Visualizing Connectivity For Wildlife In A World Without Roads, Catherine De Rivera, Leslie Bliss-Ketchum, Martin Lafrenz, A. V. Hanson, L. E. Mckinney-Wise, A. H. Rodriguez, J. Schultz, Alana Simmons, D. Taylor Rodriguez, Multiple Additional Authors

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Roads are not the only determining factor for wildlife movement across the landscape, but due to the extensive distribution of the road network their impact can be dramatic. Although it has been well documented that roads decrease habitat connectivity for wildlife due to animal-vehicle collisions, habitat fragmentation, and avoidance behavior, approaches for identifying connectivity across the landscape often do not fully examine the barrier effect of roads. Here, we explored the extent of the impact of roadways on wildlife connectivity by using Omniscape to model connectivity including and without the barrier effect of roads, then evaluating the difference between these …

Variability Of Potential Soil Nitrogen Cycling Rates In Stormwater Bioretention Facilities, Erin N. Rivers, Jennifer L. Morse

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Low-impact development (LID) is a common management practice used to infiltrate and filter stormwater through vegetated soil systems. The pollutant reduction potential of these systems is often characterized by a single pollutant removal rate; however, the biophysical properties of soils that regulate the removal of pollutants can be highly variable depending on environmental conditions. The goal of this study was to characterize the variability of soil properties and nitrogen (N) cycling rates in bioretention facilities (BRFs). Soil properties and potential N cycling processes were measured in nine curbside bioretention facilities (BRFs) in Portland, OR during summer and winter seasons, and …