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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Multiyear Patterns In Benthic Algal Fatty-Acid Compounds Under Agricultural Stress, Sarah Whorley, John Wehr Sep 2018

Multiyear Patterns In Benthic Algal Fatty-Acid Compounds Under Agricultural Stress, Sarah Whorley, John Wehr

Articles & Book Chapters

Benthic algae are the nutritional base of most freshwater food webs. Here we consider the nutritional contribution of benthic algae in the form of fatty acids (FAs) over multiple seasons and years. Our study was conducted in the Upper Delaware River watershed (New York, USA), where best-management practices (BMPs) had been implemented over varying numbers of years (BMP age) to mitigate effects of agricultural activities in the watershed. We defined 4 BMP categories by the presence and duration of management used in each stream drainage prior to initiating our study: 1) reference (unaffected), 2) no BMP (agriculturally affected), 3) new …


Farm Service Agency Employee Intentions To Use Weather And Climate Data In Professional Services, Rachel E. Schattman, Gabrielle Roesch-Mcnally, Sarah Wiener, Meredith T. Niles, David Y. Hollinger Jun 2018

Farm Service Agency Employee Intentions To Use Weather And Climate Data In Professional Services, Rachel E. Schattman, Gabrielle Roesch-Mcnally, Sarah Wiener, Meredith T. Niles, David Y. Hollinger

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

This is a work of the U.S. Government and is not subject to copyright protection in the United States. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.. Agricultural service providers often work closely with producers, and are well positioned to include weather and climate change information in the services they provide. By doing so, they can help producers reduce risks due to climate variability and change. A national survey of United States Department of …


Salmon-Safe Farms, Ellen Southard, Amelia Bahr Apr 2018

Salmon-Safe Farms, Ellen Southard, Amelia Bahr

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

Stewardship Partners recognizes the crucial role farmers play in the protection of our watersheds and salmon populations, leading us to implement the Salmon-Safe program in Washington in 2004 to support landowners who are promoting and practicing sustainable land management to combat environmental degradation. To date, we have added more than 100 different Washington State farms and vineyards to the program — ensuring the restoration and maintenance of watershed health across tens of thousands of agricultural acres. Since the major salmon streams in the Puget Sound basin flow through the most productive agricultural valleys, conservation efforts aimed at protecting salmon and …


Listening To Farmers: The Farming In The Floodplain Project, Spencer Easton Apr 2018

Listening To Farmers: The Farming In The Floodplain Project, Spencer Easton

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

The Farming in the Floodplain Project (FFP) is an effort to engage farmers in the Clear Creek area, just east of Tacoma, in the planning and design of a multiple-benefit floodplain reconnection project. The foundation of the FFP is to understand and document technical information on the needs of the agricultural community in the area so that those needs can be incorporated into the project. Environmental Science Associates (ESA) conducted technical work on the FFP on behalf of PCC Farmland Trust. Over the course of the FFP, we learned to let the viewpoints of farmers guide how we conducted our …


Soil Conductivity Study And Implications For Fish And Farming Compatibility In The Swinomish Agricultural Area, Nicole Casper, Todd A. Mitchell, Karen J.R. Mitchell, Jason J. Thompson Apr 2018

Soil Conductivity Study And Implications For Fish And Farming Compatibility In The Swinomish Agricultural Area, Nicole Casper, Todd A. Mitchell, Karen J.R. Mitchell, Jason J. Thompson

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

The Swinomish agricultural area, along the Swinomish Channel, is part of the Skagit River Delta, a major agrarian region in Puget Sound. Historically a complex system of tidal channels serving as salmon habitat, the tidelands have since been diked and drained. In 2005, the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community (SITC) began restoration to demonstrate compatibility of fish habitat and agriculture. Muted tidal regulators (MTRs) operated to optimize tidal inundation and fish passage, replaced traditional tidegates, and prompted a study to evaluate soil conductivity impacts on agriculture. Objectives included electromagnetic (EM) surveying of soil conductivity, qualitatively assessing EM results utilizing two additional …


Integrating Watershed-Scale And River-Reach Protection And Restoration Planning To Promote Climate Resilience In The South Fork Nooksack River (Sfnr), Oliver Grah, Susan Dickerson-Lange Apr 2018

Integrating Watershed-Scale And River-Reach Protection And Restoration Planning To Promote Climate Resilience In The South Fork Nooksack River (Sfnr), Oliver Grah, Susan Dickerson-Lange

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

The Nooksack Indian Tribe reservation is located at the foot of the North Cascades Mountains, approximately 13 miles east of Bellingham, WA and the Salish Sea. The Tribe relies on a harvestable surplus of Pacific salmon in the Nooksack River for cultural, subsistence, and commercial purposes. Today, Pacific salmon runs are less than 10 percent of the runs in the late 1800’s. Causes of the declines are complex; however, it is well understood that the legacy of commercial forestry, agriculture, and development has increased sediment loading and water temperature. Climate impacts will cumulatively add to the legacy impacts, which are …


Integrated Agricultural Riparian Stewardship In The Stillaguamish And Snohomish Watersheds, Kristin Marshall, Cindy Dittbrenner, Carrie Byron, Colin Hume Apr 2018

Integrated Agricultural Riparian Stewardship In The Stillaguamish And Snohomish Watersheds, Kristin Marshall, Cindy Dittbrenner, Carrie Byron, Colin Hume

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

The Stillaguamish and Snohomish River watersheds are regionally important to the health of Puget Sound and the Salish Sea and in particular for the recovery of salmon. The habitat gains needed to achieve salmon recovery in these watersheds include much of the agricultural landscape in Snohomish County, a situation that often results in conflicts between salmon recovery and agricultural communities. The Snohomish Conservation District’s National Estuary Program-funded Integrated Riparian Stewardship project is one of several efforts aimed at simultaneously achieving agricultural land preservation and salmon habitat protection and restoration in one of the fastest growing counties in the United States, …


Rain Rituals As A Barometer Of Vulnerability In An Uncertain Climate, L. Jen Shaffer Mar 2018

Rain Rituals As A Barometer Of Vulnerability In An Uncertain Climate, L. Jen Shaffer

Journal of Ecological Anthropology

Researchers and aid agencies, seeking to improve their understanding of local climate change responses, adaptation, and vulnerability, frequently interact with communities around the world who strongly emphasize their religious beliefs and practices. Dismissal and misunderstandings of these local perspectives can slow assessments of local climate vulnerability and development of adaptive capacity. In this paper, I show how analysis of rain ritual failure exposes the multiple stressors Ronga communities in southern Mozambique face, and as such, serves as a proxy measure for climate vulnerability at the local level. Oral histories and targeted interviews with participating elders, local chiefs, and community members …


Mixed Methods Approach To Understanding Farmer And Agricultural Advisor Perceptions Of Climate Change And Adaptation In Vermont, United States, Rachel E. Schattman, V. Ernesto Méndez, Scott C. Merrill, Asim Zia Feb 2018

Mixed Methods Approach To Understanding Farmer And Agricultural Advisor Perceptions Of Climate Change And Adaptation In Vermont, United States, Rachel E. Schattman, V. Ernesto Méndez, Scott C. Merrill, Asim Zia

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

The relationships among farmers’ belief in climate change, perceptions of climate-related risk, and use of climate adaptation practices is a growing topic of interest in U.S. scholarship. The northeast region is not well represented in the literature, although it is highly agricultural and will likely face climate-related risks that differ from those faced in other regions. We used a mixed methods approach to examine northeast farmers’ perceptions of climate change and climate-related risks over time, and perceived trade-offs associated with on-farm practices. Our investigation shows how northeastern farmers think about climate-risk, and what they are doing to address it.


Understanding The Food Water Nexus: Characterizing The Impact Of Climatological Anomalies On Agrosystems, Patrick M. Wurster Jr. Jan 2018

Understanding The Food Water Nexus: Characterizing The Impact Of Climatological Anomalies On Agrosystems, Patrick M. Wurster Jr.

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Climate variability at global and regional scales is escalating with increased atmospheric carbon and is expected to magnify the intensity and duration of meteorological extremes, especially droughts. From the many environmental stresses that diminish crop production (e.g., soil salinity, frost, soil erosion) drought is one of the most prevalent. This study focuses on the sensitivity of three key crops produced in the northwestern United States to climatological anomalies, while controlling for attribution using anomalies in price. The study differs from similar studies in that we focus on variability in production which captures both yield (tonnes/ha) and cropping area (ha), as …