Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Nevada Interagency Volunteer Program: Helping Hands Across Public Lands—Phase Ii: Final Project Report, December 31, 2012, Margaret N. Rees

Get Outdoors Nevada

• Maintained a central clearinghouse created for Southern Nevada public lands volunteers, including: ─ an online volunteer data-management application (Volgistics) adopted and customized for the program and populated with 8,500 active and 961 mailing list volunteer records ─ a community outreach Web site that currently averages 8,230 pages viewed per month since July 2007 and has aided in the recruitment of 11,943 volunteers ─ updated website to word press for sustainability ─ branding development and marketing and outreach tool creation
• Updated Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for all areas of Interagency Volunteer Program Management—recruitment, training, recognition, retention of volunteers, event planning, and …

U.S. Drought Monitor, December 25, 2012, Richard R. Heim Jr.

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for December 25, 2012 (12/25/12) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

Information Content Of Seasonal Forecasts In A Changing Climate, Nir Krakauer, Michael D. Grossberg, Irina Gladkova, Hannah Aizenman

Publications and Research

We study the potential value to stakeholders of probabilistic long-term forecasts, as quantified by the mean information gain of the forecast compared to climatology. We use as a case study the USA Climate Prediction Center (CPC) forecasts of 3-month temperature and precipitation anomalies made at 0.5-month lead time since 1995. Mean information gain was positive but low (about 2% and 0.5% of the maximum possible for temperature and precipitation forecasts, resp.) and has not increased over time. Information-based skill scores showed similar patterns to other, non-information-based, skill scores commonly used for evaluating seasonal forecasts but tended to be smaller, suggesting …

U.S. Drought Monitor, December 18, 2012, David Simeral

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for December 18, 2012 (12/18/12) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

Socio-Environmental Considerations At The Usuma Reservoir In Abuja, Nigeria, Fanan Ujoh Mr, James Ikyernum Mr, Olarewaju O. Ifatimehin Dr

Dr. Fanan Ujoh

Reservoirs are Man’s attempt towards water re-distribution from regions/seasons of abundance/surplus to regions/seasons of scarcity. This study focuses on socio-environmental impacts of the Lower Usuma dam in Abuja, on its four surrounding communities. Stratified random sampling technique was employed in the administration of a questionnaire to 200 respondents. Using descriptive statistics and the student t-test for the analysis, the study discovered that: (i) there has been no significant improvement in infrastructure provision by Government; (ii) cases of water-borne diseases are high; (iii) the communities have lost land for cultivation; and, (iv) the communities believe that the resettlement scheme is not …

Geomorphologic Evolution Of A Rapidly Deteriorating Barrier Island System With Multiple Sediment Sources: Eastern Isles Dernieres, Louisiana, 1887 To 2006, Benjamin T. Kirkland

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Trinity, East, and Wine Islands make up the eastern half of the Isles Dernieres barrier arc in south-central Louisiana. Formed following the abandonment of the Lafourche delta complex, subsidence and storm erosion have led to rapid deterioration of the system. Since 1887, the land area of the islands has decreased seventy-seven percent, and the gulf shoreline has retreated landward more than a kilometer. Wave ravinement on the shoreface of the islands is responsible for the most sediment loss; liberated sediment travels longshore to tidal inlets. The dominant ebb tidal currents then transport the sediment to where it is deposited in …

U.S. Drought Monitor, December 11, 2012, Rich Tinker

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for December 11, 2012 (12/11/12) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

Topographic Influences On Trends And Cycles In Nutrient Export From Forested Catchments On The Precambrian Shield, Samson G. Mengistu

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation explored topographic controls on spatial and temporal patterns in water yield and nutrient (carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus) export from forested headwater catchments in the Turkey Lakes Watershed in central Ontario, where other factors contributing to differences in water yield and nutrient export, including climate, geology, forest, and soils, are relatively constant. Topographic characteristics, including (a) hydrological flushing potential (expansion of water table into nitrate-N producing areas); (b) hydrological storage potential (area of wetlands, which can alternatively allow water and nutrients to bypass wetlands when storage capacity is filled with water or to trap them when not filled); and …

An Investigation Of Urban Mobile Source Aerosol Using Optical Properties Measured By Crdt/N: Diesel Particulate Matter And The Impact Of Biodiesel, Monica Elizabeth Wright

Dissertations and Theses

Mobile source emissions are a major contributor to global and local air pollution. Governments and regulatory agencies have been increasing the stringency of regulations in the transportation sector for the last ten years to help curb transportation sector air pollution. The need for regulations has been emphasized by scientific research on the impacts from ambient pollution, especially research on the effect of particulate matter on human health. The particulate emissions from diesel vehicles, diesel particulate matter (DPM) is considered a known or probable carcinogen in various countries and increased exposure to DPM is linked to increased cardiovascular health problems in …

U.S. Drought Monitor, December 4, 2012, Rich Tinker

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for December 4, 2012 (12/4/12) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

Interactions Of Zooplankton And Phytoplankton With Cyanobacteria, Rebecca Alexander

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Cyanobacteria are a major concern in Nebraska reservoirs and are capable of producing toxins that can cause skin irritations and gastrointestinal problems, as well as affect the nervous system. It is important to determine the mechanisms that can cause cyanobacteria blooms due to the effect they can have on human health. The interaction of zooplankton and other phytoplankton groups with cyanobacteria is important because there is a biological component in surface waters that should be taken into consideration along with the physical and chemical parameters that have been noted to promote cyanobacteria. For example, zooplankton have the ability to alter …

Sources To Seafood: Mercury Pollution In The Marine Environment, Celia Y. Chen, Charles T. Driscoll, Kathleen F. Lambert, Robert P. Mason, Laurie R. Rardin, Catherine V. Schmitt, N. S. Serrell, Elsie M. Sunderland

Maine Sea Grant Publications

In 2010, the Toxic Metals Superfund Research Program at Dartmouth College brought together a group of 50 scientists and policy stakeholders to form C-MERC, the Coastal and Marine Mercury Ecosystem Research Collaborative. The goal was to review current knowledge—and knowledge gaps—relating to a global environmental health problem, mercury contamination of the world’s marine fish. C-MERC participants attended two workshops over a two-year period, and in 2012 C-MERC authors published a series of peer-reviewed papers in the journals Environmental Health Perspectives and Environmental Research that elucidated key processes related to the inputs, cycling, and uptake of mercury in marine ecosystems, effects …

Mapping The Surface Characteristics Of The Mojave With Remote Sensing For Terrestrial Habitat Modeling, Scott A. Nowicki

Scott A Nowicki

High-resolution ecological and climate modeling requires quantification of surface characteristics such as rock abundance, soil induration and surface roughness at fine-scale, since these features can affect the micro and macro habitat of a given area and ultimately determine the assemblage of plant and animal species that may occur there. Our objective is to develop quantitative data layers of thermophysical properties of the entire Mojave Desert Ecoregion for applications to habitat modeling being conducted by the USGS Western Ecological Research Center. These research efforts are focused on developing habitat models and a better physical understanding of the Mojave Desert, which have …

Logistic Curves, Extraction Costs And Peak Oil, Robert J. Brecha

Physics Faculty Publications

Debates about the possibility of a near-term maximum in world oil production have become increasingly prominent over the past decade, with the focus often being on the quantification of geologically available and technologically recoverable amounts of oil in the ground. Economically, the important parameter is not a physical limit to resources in the ground, but whether market price signals and costs of extraction will indicate the efficiency of extracting conventional or nonconventional resources as opposed to making substitutions over time for other fuels and technologies. We present a hybrid approach to the peak-oil question with two models in which the …

Lidar Investigations Of Snow Distribution In Mountainous Terrain, Alden Taylor Shallcross

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

An algorithm is constructed to use snow-depth estimates, derived from repeat airborne LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), to identify the sampling strategy that requires the fewest total measurements to estimate the total snow volume in the Dry Creek Experimental Watershed (DCEW) Idaho. LiDAR is used to map snow cover by differencing the digital elevation models (DEMs) obtained from a snow-covered overflight and a snow-free overflight. Sixteen independent variables known to influence snow distribution are derived from a LiDAR digital elevation dataset, obtained during snow-free conditions, and used to predict snow distribution via binary regression trees. Variable ranges leading to the …

Mortality Assessment Of Redwood And Mixed Conifer Forest Types In Santa Cruz County Following Wildfire, Steve R. Auten

Master's Theses

On August 12, 2009, the Lockheed Fire ignited the west slope of the Santa Cruz Mountains burning approximately 7,819 acres. Foresters and other land managers were left with challenging decisions on how to evaluate tree mortality. Big Creek Lumber Company, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly)’s Swanton Pacific Ranch (SPR), and other resource professionals familiar with this region teamed up to develop a method for evaluating damage and thereby mortality for redwood, California nutmeg, live oak, tanoak, California bay, Pacific madrone, big leaf maple, Douglas-fir, Monterey pine, and knobcone pine. Quantitative damage criteria were used to design …

Shoreline Evolution: City Of Virginia Beach, Virginia, Chesapeake Bay, Lynnhaven River, Broad Bay, And Atlantic Ocean Shorelines, Donna A. Milligan, Christine Wilcox, C. Scott Hardaway Jr., Mary C. Cox

Reports

The City of Virginia Beach is situated along both the Atlantic Ocean and Chesapeake Bay (Figure 1). Through time, the City’s shoreline has evolved, and determining the rates and patterns of shore change provides the basis to know how a particular coast has changed through time and how it might proceed in the future.Along Chesapeake Bay’s estuarine shores, winds, waves, tides and currents shape and modify coastlines by eroding, transporting and depositing sediments.
The purpose of this report is to document how the shore zone of the City of Virginia Beach has evolved since 1937. Aerial imagery was taken for …

The Abundance And Distribution Pattern Of Quagga Mussels In The Las Vegas Bay Of Lake Mead, Nevada And Potential Correlation With Environmental Parameters, Scott Rainville

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The non-native quagga mussel [Dreissena bugensis (Andrusov, 1897)] was initially discovered in Boulder Basin of Lake Mead, Nevada-Arizona on January 6, 2007. This occurrence marked the first biological invasion of dreissenid mussels in the Western U.S., following a significant North American range expansion of invasive quagga mussels from populations that invaded and colonized the Great Lakes Region in the Northeastern U.S. during 1991. This nonindigenous mollusk species quickly spread from Boulder Basin and became established throughout the entire reservoir by the end of 2007, with the exception of the inner Las Vegas Bay. There was an apparent absence of settled …

Divergent Carbon Dynamics Under Climate Change In Forests With Diverse Soils, Tree Species, And Land Use Histories, Robert M. Scheller, Alec M. Kretchun, Steve Van Tuyl, Kenneth L. Clark, Melissa S. Lucash, John Hom

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Accounting for both climate change and natural disturbances—which typically result in greenhouse gas emissions—is necessary to begin managing forest carbon sequestration. Gaining a complete understanding of forest carbon dynamics is, however, challenging in systems characterized by historic over-utilization, diverse soils and tree species, and frequent disturbance. In order to elucidate the cascading effects of potential climate change on such systems, we projected forest carbon dynamics, including soil carbon changes, and shifts in tree species composition as a consequence of wildfires and climate change in the New Jersey pine barrens (NJPB) over the next 100 years. To do so, we used …

U.S. Drought Monitor, November 27, 2012, Eric Luebehusen

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for November 27, 2012 (11/27/12) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

Agricultural Advisors: A Receptive Audience For Weather And Climate Information?, Linda Stalker Prokopy, Tonya Haigh, Amber Saylor Mase, Jim Angel, Chad Hart, Cody Knutson, Maria Carmen Lemos, Yun Jia Lo, Jean Mcguire, Lois Wright Morton, Jennifer Perron, Dennis Todey, Melissa Widhalm

Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

As the climate in the midwestern United States becomes increasingly variable because of global climate change, it is critical to provide tools to the agricultural community to ensure adaptability and profitability of agricultural cropping systems. When used by farmers and their advisors, agricultural decision support tools can reduce uncertainty and risks in the planning, operation, and management decisions of the farm enterprise. Agricultural advisors have historically played a key role in providing information and guidance in these decisions. However, little is known about what these advisors know or think about weather and climate information and their willingness to incorporate this …

U.S. Drought Monitor, November 20, 2012, Eric Luebehusen

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for November 20, 2012 (11/20/12) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

U.S. Drought Monitor, November 13, 2012, David Miskus

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for November 13, 2012 (11/13/12) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

U.S. Drought Monitor, November 6, 2012, David Miskus

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for November 6, 2012 (11/6/12) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

Point Source And Non-Point Source Pollution In A Secondary Stream: Nutrient Concentration And Fecal Microbe Counts In Tates Creek, Madison County, Kentucky, Walter S. Borowski, Krisopher H. Carroll, Bethany Gabbard

EKU Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Nutrient concentration and fecal microbe counts are elevated in Tates Creek, a stream that emanates from the town of Richmond, KY, passes by a conventional sewage treatment plant that discharges into the stream, and winds for 13 miles through pastureland and a series of small communities on septic systems before entering the Kentucky River. The sewage treatment plant shut-down operations during our study and we monitored dissolved nutrients (ammonium, nitrate, and phosphate), fecal microbes (total coliform and Escherichia coli), and stream biota before and after treatment operations ceased. Sampling occurred 4 times in both 2011 and 2012 between May …

2011 Chesapeake Bay Sav Coverage, Sav Data Administrator, Virginia Institute Of Marine Science

Data

Abstract: The 2011 Chesapeake Bay SAV Coverage was mapped from 1:24,000 black and white aerial photography to assess water quality in the Bay. Each area of SAV was interpreted from the rectified photography and classified into one of four density classes by the percentage of cover. The SAV beds were entered into an SDE GIS fetaure class using the quality control procedures documented below. The dataset contains all SAV areas that were identified from the areas flown. Some areas that are presumed to contain no SAV were not flown. Some small beds, particularly along narrow tributaries may not have been …

U.S. Drought Monitor, October 30, 2012, Michael J. Brewer, Liz Love-Brotak

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for October 30, 2012 (10/30/12) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

Do We Really Need New Policies? A Study On Soil Sealing In Egypt, Ahmed Harb Rabia

Ahmed Harb Rabia A.H. Rabia

Egypt has the lowest area of agricultural land per individual in Africa. The agricultural land stands for a total of approximately 3.5 million ha which characterized about 3.5% of the total area of Egypt in 2007. The urban encroachment over arable productive agricultural land in Egypt is common and is called (urban desertification). Therefore, the annual loss of arable land to urbanization is 1.2%. This indicates a serious situation to the agricultural area. the Academy of Scientific Research & Technology (1994) has reported that during the period from 1978 to 1984, the annual expansion rates of the dwelling area ranged …

Evaluation Of Space-Based Support Through Servir During And After The 2009 Floods And Landslides In El Salvador, Eric R. Anderson, D Irwin, F Delgado, M Diaz, G Molina, Emil Cherrington

Von Braun Symposium Student Posters

No abstract provided.

Prototype Servir Analysis And Product Toolbox: Development Of A Data Access Platform For Remote Sensing Product Dissemination, James Brenton

Von Braun Symposium Student Posters

No abstract provided.