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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Human Amplified Changes In Precipitation-Runoff Patterns In Large River Basins Of The Midwestern United States, Sara A. Kelly, Zeinab Takbiri, Patrick Belmont, Efi Foufoula-Georgiou Nov 2016

Human Amplified Changes In Precipitation-Runoff Patterns In Large River Basins Of The Midwestern United States, Sara A. Kelly, Zeinab Takbiri, Patrick Belmont, Efi Foufoula-Georgiou

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

Complete transformations of land cover from prairie, wetlands, and hardwood forests to homogenous row crop agriculture scattered with urban centers are thought to have caused profound changes in hydrology in the Upper Midwestern US since the 1800s. Continued intensification of land use and drainage practices combined with increased precipitation have caused many Midwest watersheds to exhibit higher streamflows today than in the historical past. While changes in crop type and farming practices have been well documented over the past few decades, changes in artificial surface (ditch) and subsurface (tile) drainage systems have not. This makes it difficult to quantitatively disentangle …


Factoring Attitudes Towards Conflict Risk Into Selection Of Protected Areas For Conservation, Edd Hammill, A. I. Tulloch, H. P. Possingham, N. Strange, K. A. Wilson Mar 2016

Factoring Attitudes Towards Conflict Risk Into Selection Of Protected Areas For Conservation, Edd Hammill, A. I. Tulloch, H. P. Possingham, N. Strange, K. A. Wilson

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

The high incidence of armed conflicts in biodiverse regions poses significant challenges in achieving international conservation targets. Because attitudes towards risk vary, we assessed different strategies for protected area planning that reflected alternative attitudes towards the risk of armed conflicts. We find that ignoring conflict risk will deliver the lowest return on investment. Opting to completely avoid conflict-prone areas offers limited improvements and could lead to species receiving no protection. Accounting for conflict by protecting additional areas to offset the impacts of armed conflicts would not only increase the return on investment (an effect that is enhanced when high-risk areas …


Sediment Supply Versus Local Hydraulic Controls On Sediment Transport And Storage In A River With Large Sediment Loads, David J. Dean, David J. Topping, John C. Schmidt, Ronald E. Griffiths, Thomas A. Sabol Jan 2016

Sediment Supply Versus Local Hydraulic Controls On Sediment Transport And Storage In A River With Large Sediment Loads, David J. Dean, David J. Topping, John C. Schmidt, Ronald E. Griffiths, Thomas A. Sabol

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

The Rio Grande in the Big Bend region of Texas, USA, and Chihuahua and Coahuila, Mexico, undergoes rapid geomorphic changes as a result of its large sediment supply and variable hydrology; thus, it is a useful natural laboratory to investigate the relative importance of flow strength and sediment supply in controlling alluvial channel change. We analyzed a suite of sediment transport and geomorphic data to determine the cumulative influence of different flood types on changing channel form. In this study, physically based analyses suggest that channel change in the Rio Grande is controlled by both changes in flow strength and …