Environmental Sciences Commons^™

Impacts Of Climate Change On The Surface Water Balance Of The Central United States, 1984-2007, Bo Dong

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

The climate system and the hydrologic cycle are strongly connected with each other. Understanding the interactions between these two systems is important, since variations in climate can trigger extensive changes in the hydrologic cycle, with significant impacts on agriculture, ecosystems, and society. Observations over the central U.S. in recent decades show numerous changes in climatic variables. This includes decreases in cloud cover and wind speed, increases in air temperature, and seasonal shifts in precipitation rate and rain/snow fraction. To assess the impacts of these variations in climate on the regional water cycle, a terrestrial ecosystem/land surface hydrologic model (Agro-IBIS) is …

Agricultural Landuse Change Impacts On Bioenergy Production, Avifauna, And Water Use In Nebraska's Rainwater Basin, Daniel R. Uden

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

Agriculture is an economically important form of landuse in the North American Great Plains. Since 19^th Century European settlement, conversion of grasslands to rowcrops has increased food and bioenergy production, but has decreased wildlife habitat. Future agricultural landuse changes may be driven by alternative energy demands and regional climatic changes. Landuse change and its drivers could affect bioenergy production, wildlife populations and natural resources, and considering the potential impacts of impending changes in advance could assist with preparations for an uncertain future.

This study addressed how the conversion of marginally productive agricultural lands in the Rainwater Basin region of …

Complex Terrain Leads To Bidirectional Responses Of Soil Respiration To Inter-Annual Water Availability, Diego Andrés Riveros-Iregui, Brian L. Mcglynn, Ryan E. Emanuel, Howard E. Epstein

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Research on the terrestrial C balance focuses largely on measuring and predicting responses of ecosystem-scale production and respiration to changing temperatures and hydrologic regimes. However, landscape morphology can modify the availability of resources from year to year by imposing physical gradients that redistribute soil water and other biophysical variables within ecosystems. This article demonstrates that the well-established biophysical relationship between soil respiration and soil moisture interacts with topographic structure to create bidirectional (i.e., opposite) responses of soil respiration to inter-annual soil water availability within the landscape. Based on soil respiration measurements taken at a subalpine forest in central Montana, we …

Interannual And Spatial Impacts Of Phenological Transitions, Growing Season Length, And Spring And Autumn Temperatures On Carbon Sequestration: A North America Flux Data Synthesis, Chaoyang Wu, Alemu Gonsamo, Jing Ming Chen, Werner A. Kurz, David T. Price, Peter M. Lafleur, Rachhpal S. Jassal, Danilo Dragoni, Gil Bohrer, Christopher M. Gough, Shashi B. Verma, Andrew E. Suyker, J. William Munger

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Understanding feedbacks of ecosystem carbon sequestration to climate change is an urgent step in developing future ecosystem models. Using 187 site-years of flux data observed at 24 sites covering three plant functional types (i.e. evergreen forests (EF), deciduous forests (DF) and non-forest ecosystems (NF) (e.g., crop, grassland, wetland)) in North America, we present an analysis of both interannual and spatial relationships between annual net ecosystem production (NEP) and phenological indicators, including the flux-based carbon uptake period (CUP) and its transitions, degree-day-derived growing season length (GSL), and spring and autumn temperatures. Diverse responses were acquired between annul NEP and these indicators …