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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Surface Mining And Reclamation Effects On Flood Response Of Watersheds In The Central Appalachian Plateau Region, Todd R. Lookingbill, Joseph R. Ferrari, B. Mccormick, P. A. Townsend, K. N. Eshleman Jan 2009

Surface Mining And Reclamation Effects On Flood Response Of Watersheds In The Central Appalachian Plateau Region, Todd R. Lookingbill, Joseph R. Ferrari, B. Mccormick, P. A. Townsend, K. N. Eshleman

Geography and the Environment Faculty Publications

Surface mining of coal and subsequent reclamation represent the dominant land use change in the central Appalachian Plateau (CAP) region of the United States. Hydrologic impacts of surface mining have been studied at the plot scale, but effects at broader scales have not been explored adequately. Broad-scale classification of reclaimed sites is difficult because standing vegetation makes them nearly indistinguishable from alternate land uses. We used a land cover data set that accurately maps surface mines for a 187-km2 watershed within the CAP. These land cover data, as well as plot-level data from within the watershed, are used with HSPF …


The Role Of Landscape Connectivity In Assembling Exotic Plant Communities: A Network Analysis, Emily S. Minor, Samantha M. Tessel, Katharina A.M. Engelhardt, Todd R. Lookingbill Jan 2009

The Role Of Landscape Connectivity In Assembling Exotic Plant Communities: A Network Analysis, Emily S. Minor, Samantha M. Tessel, Katharina A.M. Engelhardt, Todd R. Lookingbill

Geography and the Environment Faculty Publications

Landscape fragmentation and exotic species invasions are two modern-day forces that have strong and largely irreversible effects on native diversity worldwide. The spatial arrangement of habitat fragments is critical in affecting movement of individuals through a landscape, but little is known about how invasive species respond to landscape configuration relative to native species. This information is crucial for managing the global threat of invasive species spread. Using network analysis and partial Mantel tests to control for covarying environmental conditions, we show that forest plant communities in a fragmented landscape have spatial structure that is best captured by a network representation …


Altered Ecological Flows Blur Boundaries In Urbanizing Watersheds, Todd R. Lookingbill, Sujay S. Kaushal, Andrew J. Elmore, Robert Gardner, Keith N. Eshleman, Robert H. Hilderbrand, Raymond P. Morgan, Walter R. Boynton, Margaret A. Palmer, William C. Dennison Jan 2009

Altered Ecological Flows Blur Boundaries In Urbanizing Watersheds, Todd R. Lookingbill, Sujay S. Kaushal, Andrew J. Elmore, Robert Gardner, Keith N. Eshleman, Robert H. Hilderbrand, Raymond P. Morgan, Walter R. Boynton, Margaret A. Palmer, William C. Dennison

Geography and the Environment Faculty Publications

The relevance of the boundary concept to ecological processes has been recently questioned. Humans in the post-industrial era have created novel lateral transport fluxes that have not been sufficiently considered in watershed studies. We describe patterns of land-use change within the Potomac River basin and demonstrate how these changes have blurred traditional ecosystem boundaries by increasing the movement of people, materials, and energy into and within the basin. We argue that this expansion of ecological commerce requires new science, monitoring, and management strategies focused on large rivers and suggest that traditional geopolitical and economic boundaries for environmental decision making be …