Environmental Sciences Commons^™

Reducing Emissions From Agriculture To Meet The 2 °C Target, Eva Wollenberg, Meryl Richards, Pete Smith, Petr Havlík, Michael Obersteiner, Francesco N. Tubiello, Martin Herold, Pierre Gerber, Sarah Carter, Andrew Reisinger, Detlef P. Van Vuuren, Amy Dickie, Henry Neufeldt, Björn O. Sander, Reiner Wassmann, Rolf Sommer, James E. Amonette, Alessandra Falcucci, Mario Herrero, Carolyn Opio, Rosa Maria Roman-Cuesta, Elke Stehfest, Henk Westhoek, Ivan Ortiz-Monasterio, Tek Sapkota, Mariana C. Rufino, Philip K. Thornton, Louis Verchot, Paul C. West, Jean François Soussana, Tobias Baedeker

Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

More than 100 countries pledged to reduce agricultural greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the 2015 Paris Agreement of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Yet technical information about how much mitigation is needed in the sector vs. how much is feasible remains poor. We identify a preliminary global target for reducing emissions from agriculture of ~1 GtCO2e yr−1 by 2030 to limit warming in 2100 to 2 °C above pre-industrial levels. Yet plausible agricultural development pathways with mitigation cobenefits deliver only 21–40% of needed mitigation. The target indicates that more transformative technical and policy options will be needed, …

Coupled Impacts Of Climate And Land Use Change Across A River-Lake Continuum: Insights From An Integrated Assessment Model Of Lake Champlain's Missisquoi Basin, 2000-2040, Asim Zia, Arne Bomblies, Andrew W. Schroth, Christopher Koliba, Peter D.F. Isles, Yushiou Tsai, Ibrahim N. Mohammed, Gabriela Bucini, Patrick J. Clemins, Scott Turnbull, Morgan Rodgers, Ahmed Hamed, Brian Beckage, Jonathan Winter

College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences Faculty Publications

Global climate change (GCC) is projected to bring higher-intensity precipitation and higher-variability temperature regimes to the Northeastern United States. The interactive effects of GCC with anthropogenic land use and land cover changes (LULCCs) are unknown for watershed level hydrological dynamics and nutrient fluxes to freshwater lakes. Increased nutrient fluxes can promote harmful algal blooms, also exacerbated by warmer water temperatures due to GCC. To address the complex interactions of climate, land and humans, we developed a cascading integrated assessment model to test the impacts of GCC and LULCC on the hydrological regime, water temperature, water quality, bloom duration and severity …

Coupled Impacts Of Climate And Land Use Change Across A River-Lake Continuum: Insights From An Integrated Assessment Model Of Lake Champlain's Missisquoi Basin, 2000-2040, Asim Zia, Arne Bomblies, Andrew W. Schroth, Christopher Koliba, Peter D.F. Isles, Yushiou Tsai, Ibrahim N. Mohammed, Gabriela Bucini, Patrick J. Clemins, Scott Turnbull, Morgan Rodgers, Ahmed Hamed, Brian Beckage, Jonathan Winter, Carol Adair, Gillian L. Galford, Donna Rizzo, Judith Van Houten

Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

Global climate change (GCC) is projected to bring higher-intensity precipitation and higher-variability temperature regimes to the Northeastern United States. The interactive effects of GCC with anthropogenic land use and land cover changes (LULCCs) are unknown for watershed level hydrological dynamics and nutrient fluxes to freshwater lakes. Increased nutrient fluxes can promote harmful algal blooms, also exacerbated by warmer water temperatures due to GCC. To address the complex interactions of climate, land and humans, we developed a cascading integrated assessment model to test the impacts of GCC and LULCC on the hydrological regime, water temperature, water quality, bloom duration and severity …

Influence Of Topography And Human Activity On Apparent In Situ 10be-Derived Erosion Rates In Yunnan, Sw China, Amanda H. Schmidt, Thomas B. Neilson, Paul R. Bierman, Dylan H. Rood, William B. Ouimet, Veronica Sosa Gonzalez

College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Publications

In order to understand better if and where erosion rates calculated using in situ 10Be are affected by contemporary changes in land use and attendant deep regolith erosion, we calculated erosion rates using measurements of in situ 10Be in quartz from 52 samples of river sediment collected from three tributaries of the Mekong River (median basin areaD46.5 km2). Erosion rates range from 12 to 209mm kyr-1 with an area-weighted mean of 117±49mm kyr-1 (1 standard deviation) and median of 74mm kyr-1.We observed a decrease in the relative influence of human activity from our steepest and least altered watershed in the …

Estimating Economic Losses To Tourism In Africa From The Illegal Killing Of Elephants, Robin Naidoo, Brendan Fisher, Andrea Manica, Andrew Balmford

Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

Recent surveys suggest tens of thousands of elephants are being poached annually across Africa, putting the two species at risk across much of their range. Although the financial motivations for ivory poaching are clear, the economic benefits of elephant conservation are poorly understood. We use Bayesian statistical modelling of tourist visits to protected areas, to quantify the lost economic benefits that poached elephants would have delivered to African countries via tourism. Our results show these figures are substantial (∼USD $25 million annually), and that the lost benefits exceed the anti-poaching costs necessary to stop elephant declines across the continent's savannah …

Disaggregating The Evidence Linking Biodiversity And Ecosystem Services, Taylor H. Ricketts, Keri B. Watson, Insu Koh, Alicia M. Ellis, Charles C. Nicholson, Stephen Posner, Leif L. Richardson, Laura J. Sonter

Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

Ecosystem services (ES) are an increasingly popular policy framework for connecting biodiversity with human well-being. These efforts typically assume that biodiversity and ES covary, but the relationship between them remains remarkably unclear. Here we analyse >500 recent papers and show that reported relationships differ among ES, methods of measuring biodiversity and ES, and three different approaches to linking them (spatial correlations, management comparisons and functional experiments). For spatial correlations, biodiversity relates more strongly to measures of ES supply than to resulting human benefits. For management comparisons, biodiversity of â € service providers' predicts ES more often than biodiversity of functionally …

Opportunities For Biodiversity Gains Under The World's Largest Reforestation Programme, Fangyuan Hua, Xiaoyang Wang, Xinlei Zheng, Brendan Fisher, Lin Wang, Jianguo Zhu, Ya Tang, Douglas W. Yu, David S. Wilcove

Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

Reforestation is a critical means of addressing the environmental and social problems of deforestation. China's Grain-for-Green Program (GFGP) is the world's largest reforestation scheme. Here we provide the first nationwide assessment of the tree composition of GFGP forests and the first combined ecological and economic study aimed at understanding GFGP's biodiversity implications. Across China, GFGP forests are overwhelmingly monocultures or compositionally simple mixed forests. Focusing on birds and bees in Sichuan Province, we find that GFGP reforestation results in modest gains (via mixed forest) and losses (via monocultures) of bird diversity, along with major losses of bee diversity. Moreover, all …

Multiple Post-Domestication Origins Of Kabuli Chickpea Through Allelic Variation In A Diversification-Associated Transcription Factor, R. Varma Penmetsa, Noelia Carrasquilla-Garcia, Emily M. Bergmann, Lisa Vance, Brenna Castro, Mulualem T. Kassa, Birinchi K. Sarma, Subhojit Datta, Andrew D. Farmer, Jong Min Baek, Clarice J. Coyne, Rajeev K. Varshney, Eric J.B. Von Wettberg, Douglas R. Cook

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum) is among the founder crops domesticated in the Fertile Crescent. One of two major forms of chickpea, the so-called kabuli type, has white flowers and light-colored seed coats, properties not known to exist in the wild progenitor. The origin of the kabuli form has been enigmatic. We genotyped a collection of wild and cultivated chickpea genotypes with 538 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and examined patterns of molecular diversity relative to geographical sources and market types. In addition, we examined sequence and expression variation in candidate anthocyanin biosynthetic pathway genes. A reduction in genetic diversity and extensive genetic …

Pyrogenic Fuels Produced By Savanna Trees Can Engineer Humid Savannas, William J. Platt, Darin P. Ellair, Jean M. Huffman, Stephen E. Potts, Brian Beckage

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

Natural fires ignited by lightning strikes following droughts frequently are posited as the ecological mechanism maintaining discontinuous tree cover and grass-dominated ground layers in savannas. Such fires, however, may not reliably maintain humid savannas. We propose that savanna trees producing pyrogenic shed leaves might engineer fire characteristics, affecting ground-layer plants in ways that maintain humid savannas. We explored our hypothesis in a high-rainfall, frequently burned pine savanna in which the dominant tree, longleaf pine (Pinus palustris), produces resinous needles that become highly flammable when shed and dried. We postulated that pyrogenic needles should have much greater influence on fire characteristics …

Conjoint Analysis Of Farmers' Response To Conservation Incentives, David Conner, Jennifer Miller, Asim Zia, Qingbin Wang, Heather Darby

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

Environmental degradation threatens the long term resiliency of the US food and farming system. While USDA has provided conservation incentives for the adoption of best management practices (BMPs), only a small percentage of farms have participated in such conservation programs. This study uses conjoint analysis to examine Vermont farmers' underlying preferences and willingness-to-accept (WTA) incentives for three common BMPs. Based on the results of this survey, we hypothesize that federal cost share programs' payments are below preferred incentive levels and that less familiar and more complex BMPs require a higher payment. Our implications focus on strategies to test these hypotheses …

Farmer Perceptions Of Climate Change: Associations With Observed Temperature And Precipitation Trends, Irrigation, And Climate Beliefs, Meredith T. Niles, Nathaniel D. Mueller

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

How individuals perceive climate change is linked to whether individuals support climate policies and whether they alter their own climate-related behaviors, yet climate perceptions may be influenced by many factors beyond local shifts in weather. Infrastructure designed to control or regulate natural resources may serve as an important lens through which people experience climate, and thus may influence perceptions. Likewise, perceptions may be influenced by personal beliefs about climate change and whether it is human-induced. Here we examine farmer perceptions of historical climate change, how perceptions are related to observed trends in regional climate, how perceptions are related to the …

Local Adaptation Or Foreign Advantage? Effective Use Of A Single-Test Site Common Garden To Evaluate Adaptation Across Ecological Scales, Eric J.B. Von Wettberg, Edward Marques, Courtney J. Murren

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Surface Permeability Of Natural And Engineered Porous Building Materials, David Grover, Cabot R. Savidge, Laura Townsend, Odanis Rosario, Liang Bo Hu, Donna M. Rizzo, Mandar M. Dewoolkar

College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences Faculty Publications

Characterization of surface gas permeability measurements on a variety of natural and engineered building materials using two relatively new, non-destructive surface permeameters is presented. Surface gas permeability measurements were consistent for both laboratory and field applications and correlated well with bulk gas permeability measurements. This research indicates that surface permeability measurements could provide reliable estimates of bulk gas permeability; and due to the non-destructive nature and relative sampling ease of both surface gas permeability tools, it is possible to quantify the range of the spatial autocorrelation, heterogeneity, and anisotropy in porous building materials and their degree of degradation from weathering.

Limits Of Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Calculators To Predict Soil N2O And Ch4 Fluxes In Tropical Agriculture, Meryl Richards, Ruth Metzel, Ngonidzashe Chirinda, Proyuth Ly, George Nyamadzawo, Quynh Duong Vu, Andreas De Neergaard, Myles Oelofse, Eva Wollenberg, Emma Keller, Daniella Malin, Jørgen E. Olesen, Jonathan Hillier, Todd S. Rosenstock

Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

Demand for tools to rapidly assess greenhouse gas impacts from policy and technological change in the agricultural sector has catalyzed the development of ' GHG calculators'-simple accounting approaches that use a mix of emission factors and empirical models to calculate GHG emissions with minimal input data. GHG calculators, however, rely on models calibrated from measurements conducted overwhelmingly under temperate, developed country conditions. Here we show that GHG calculators may poorly estimate emissions in tropical developing countries by comparing calculator predictions against measurements from Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Estimates based on GHG calculators were greater than measurements in 70% of …

Do Insect Outbreaks Reduce The Severity Of Subsequent Forest Fires?, Garrett W. Meigs, Harold S.J. Zald, John L. Campbell, William S. Keeton, Robert E. Kennedy

Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

Understanding the causes and consequences of rapid environmental change is an essential scientific frontier, particularly given the threat of climate- and land use-induced changes in disturbance regimes. In western North America, recent widespread insect outbreaks and wildfires have sparked acute concerns about potential insect-fire interactions. Although previous research shows that insect activity typically does not increase wildfire likelihood, key uncertainties remain regarding insect effects on wildfire severity (i.e., ecological impact). Recent assessments indicate that outbreak severity and burn severity are not strongly associated, but these studies have been limited to specific insect or fire events. Here, we present a regional …

The Moral Basis For Conservation - Reflections On Dickman Et Al., Douglas Sheil, Jane Cohen, Carol J.Pierce Colfer, David Price, Rajindra Puri, Manuel Ruiz-Perez, Yulia Sugandi, Paul Vedeld, Eva Wollenberg, Yurdi Yasmi

Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Salinity Adaptation And The Contribution Of Parental Environmental Effects In Medicago Truncatula, Ken S. Moriuchi, Maren L. Friesen, Matilde A. Cordeiro, Mounawer Badri, Wendy T. Vu, Bradley J. Main, Mohamed Elarbi Aouani, Sergey V. Nuzhdin, Sharon Y. Strauss, Eric J.B. Von Wettberg

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. High soil salinity negatively influences plant growth and yield. Some taxa have evolved mechanisms for avoiding or tolerating elevated soil salinity, which can be modulated by the environment experienced by parents or offspring. We tested the contribution of the parental and offspring environments on salinity adaptation and their potential underlying mechanisms. In a two-generation greenhouse experiment, we factorially manipulated salinity concentrations for genotypes of Medicago truncatula …

Dating The Incision Of The Yangtze River Gorge At The First Bend Using Three-Nuclide Burial Ages, Devin Mcphillips, Gregory D. Hoke, Jing Liu-Zeng, Paul R. Bierman, Dylan H. Rood, Samuel Niedermann

College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Publications

Incision of the Yangtze River gorge is widely interpreted as evidence for lower crustal flow beneath the southeast margin of the Tibetan Plateau. Previous work focused on the onset of incision, but the duration of incision remains unknown. Here we present cosmogenic nuclide burial ages of sediments collected from caves on the walls of the gorge that show the gorge was incised ~1 km sometime between 18 and 9 Ma. Thereafter, incision slowed substantially. We resolve middle Miocene burial ages by using three nuclides and accounting for in situ muogenic production. This approach explains the absolute concentrations of 10Be, 26Al, …

Farmer Perceptions Of Climate Change Risk And Associated On-Farm Management Strategies In Vermont, Northeastern United States, Rachel E. Schattman, David Conner, V. Ernesto Méndez

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

Little research has been conducted on how agricultural producers in the northeastern United States conceptualize climate-related risk and how these farmers address risk through on-farm management strategies. Two years following Tropical Storm Irene, our team interviewed 15 farmers in order to investigate their perceptions of climate-related risk and how their decision-making was influenced by these perceptions. Our results show that Vermont farmers are concerned with both ecological and economic risk. Subthemes that emerged included geographic, topographic, and hydrological characteristics of farm sites; stability of land tenure; hydrological erosion; pest and disease pressure; market access; household financial stability; and floods. Farmers …

Evaluating Stormwater Pollutant Removal Mechanisms By Bioretention In The Context Of Climate Change, Amanda Cording

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Stormwater runoff is one of the leading causes of water quality impairment in the U.S. Bioretention systems are ecologically engineered to treat stormwater pollution and offer exciting opportunities to provide local climate change resiliency by reducing peak runoff rates, and retaining/detaining storm volumes, yet implementation is outpacing our understanding of the underlying physical, biological, and chemical mechanisms involved in pollutant removal. Further, we do not know how performance will be affected by increases in precipitation, which are projected to occur in the northeastern U.S. as a result of climate change, or if these systems could act as a source or …

Quantifying Soil Greenhouse Gas Emissions And Soil Carbon Storage To Determine Best Management Practices In Agroecosystems, Tyler Goeschel

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Intensive agriculture, coupled with an increase in nitrogen fertilizer use, has contributed significantly to the elevation of atmospheric greenhouse gases (GHGs), including carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O). Rising GHG emissions usually mean a decrease in soil carbon. Currently, soil C is twice that of all standing crop biomass, making it an extremely important player in the C cycle. Fortunately, agricultural management practices have the potential to reduce agricultural GHG emissions whilst increasing soil C. Management practices that impact GHG emissions and soil C include various tillage practices, different N fertilization amounts and treatments (synthetic N, cattle …

Master's Project - Solar Farming In Vermont - What's The Harvest?, Sam Carlson

Rubenstein School Masters Project Publications

An operational research project to investigate net economic, environmental and public policy benefits from converting land from agriculture to solar electricity generation was undertaken on a 15-acre farm in Proctor, Vermont. Two solar arrays (66 KW AC and 500 KW AC) were established.

The net after-tax financial return on cash equity of the 66 KW AC solar project was calculated to be 21% for the investor over a 25-year period (less than 1% average annual rate of return), while the financial return for the 500 KW AC solar project was 145% over a similar period (5.8% average annual rate of …

High Flow Events As Hot Moments Of Reactive Fe And P Export: Impacts Of Land Cover And Seasonality, Braden Rosenberg

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

High flow events often comprise the majority of annual discharge and riverine geochemical flux of phosphorus (P) and metals such as iron (Fe) and manganese (Mn) due to glacial melt, snowmelt, and storm-driven sustained high flow. Aquatic ecosystem productivity in receiving water bodies such as Lake Champlain and the Gulf of Alaska (GoA) are impacted by the riverine import of nutrients. The magnitude of these high flow events can be a strong predictor of receiving water body conditions, and in some cases can contribute to eutrophication. We explore the intersection of high flow events and land cover in contrasting catchments …

Long-Term Forest Carbon Storage And Structural Development As Influenced By Land-Use History And Reforestation Approach, Andrea Rose Urbano

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Temperate forests are an important carbon sink, yet there is uncertainty regarding land-use history effects on biomass accumulation and carbon storage potential in secondary forests. Understanding long-term biomass dynamics is important for managing forests as carbon sinks and for co-benefits such as watershed protection and biodiversity. However there are many unanswered questions regarding these dynamics in northeastern U.S. forests: How have secondary forests of the U.S. Northeast recovered post nineteenth century agricultural abandonment? How has the region's extensive land-use history influenced long-term structural development and aboveground carbon storage? To answer these questions, we employed a longitudinal study based on twelve …

Master's Project - Wildlife Habitat Linkages Surrounding The Lake George And Southern Lake Champlain Region, Sam E. Talbot

Rubenstein School Masters Project Publications

Conservation priorities – when developed systematically and objectively – can maximize land protection efforts in heterogeneous landscapes susceptible to parcelization and development. One such region surrounds Lake George and Southern Lake Champlain, nested between the Green and Adirondack Mountains. This mosaic of conserved and private parcels sits upon an array of forest, agriculture, wetland, and development valuable to both humans and resident wildlife species. This landscape’s inherent connectedness provides many benefits to wildlife, including species richness, enhanced persistence, and increased genetic interchange. However, it is difficult to make definitive statements about potential wildlife movement through such complex matrices. Therefore, wildlife …

Master's Project: Describing Forest Structure In Southern Blue Ridge Cove Forests: A Lidar-Based Analysis, Jamie Ervin

Rubenstein School Masters Project Publications

The practice of ecological restoration requires identifying a reference, or desired condition. In the Eastern United States, reference conditions can be difficult to identify due to the widespread impacts of anthropogenic influences like logging, fire suppression, and forest fragmentation on ecosystem structure. The Southern Appalachian Mountains contain some of the largest patches of unlogged primary forests in the Eastern United States. Although not entirely unaltered by humans, these existing primary forests can provide important information about the composition and structure of the Southern Appalachian landscape prior to Euro-American settlement.

Cove forests occupy mid-elevation slopes throughout the Southern Appalachians. Due to …

Master's Project - Connecting Guests To The Landscape At Kripalu: Ecological Assessment, Interpretation, And Education, Jessica D. Griffen

Rubenstein School Masters Project Publications

Sweeping views of the Berkshires and miles of trails await guests at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in western Massachusetts, yet surprisingly few visitors venture outside. I collaborated with Mass Audubon to transform Kripalu's grounds from a beautiful backdrop viewed through the windows to an essential part of the guest experience. To accomplish this, I conducted a rapid ecological assessment of the 125-acre property, mapped its network of trails, and piloted natural history programs for guests. The rapid ecological assessment serves as a resource for Kripalu’s grounds staff and future educators. To encourage more guests to venture outside, I …

Williston, Vt: Evaluating Child Lead Screening Rates And A Potential Exposure, Ethan R. Harlow

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

The CDC recommends that all 1-and 2-year-old children be screened for lead and that the most effective measure for mitigating lead poisoning in children is through primary prevention. This study evaluates lead screening rates at a Family Medicine Clinic in Williston, VT and seeks to gather community perspective on a potential failure of primary prevention in the town.

Placing Natural Resource Decisions In Social And Historical Contexts: Sociological Inquiries Into Agency Communications, Management Rationalities, And Community Change, Emilian Geczi

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

A sociological understanding of natural resource management decisions traces the links between historical change (How does this historical period differ from other periods?), society (What social relations exist at this time and how do they persist or change?), and individuals (What types of conduct and discourse prevail in this society and in this period?). The papers submitted for this dissertation examine the connections between identity, social milieu, and historical change relative to three resource management issues:

(1) The promotion of nature play areas as a novel landscape form. Analysis of agency materials suggests that these spaces are advertised as bucolic …

Invasive Plant Ecology In Vermont: Insights From Spatial Analysis And Interactions Of Garlic Mustard (Alliaria Petiolata) With Native Plants And Invertebrates, Chenin Kathleen Limback

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Causes and patterns of invasive plant species establishment and success depend broadly upon their ecology, including habitat suitability and interactions with other plants and animals. Here I examine the traits and distribution of invasive plants in Vermont, using spatial analysis, laboratory and field studies. I used GIS to investigate environmental factors correlated with presence of 19 invasive plant species in Vermont campgrounds. My results support the assumption that human dispersal of invasive plant seed and stock may be more important than natural dispersal of these plant species to new sites. I also investigate in-depth the relationships of invasive herbaceous garlic …