Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Drought Levels In Nevada Counties, 2022, Julianna Jovillar, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Environment

This fact sheet synthesizes data on drought levels within Nevada counties from the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) in 2022. The information presented in this document focuses on the breakdown of the number of Nevada residents affected by the droughts within each county and the drought experience in each county.

Disturbance Reduces Fungal White-Rot Litter Mat Cover In A Wet Subtropical Forest, D. Jean Lodge, Ashley E. Van Beusekom, Grizelle González, Mareli Sánchez-Julia, Sarah Stankavich

USDA Forest Service / UNL Faculty Publications

Fungi that bind leaf litter into mats and produce white-rot via degradation of lignin and other aromatic compounds influence forest nutrient cycling and soil fertility. Extent of white-rot litter mats formed by basidiomycete fungi in Puerto Rico decreased in response to disturbances—a simulated hurricane treatment executed by canopy trimming and debris addition in 2014, a drought in 2015, a treefall, and two hurricanes 10 days apart in September 2017. Percent fungal litter mat cover ranged from 0.4% after Hurricanes Irma and Maria to a high of 53% in forest with undisturbed canopy prior to the 2017 hurricanes, with means mostly …

Toward A Feminist Political Ecology Of Household Food And Water Security During Drought In Northern Nicaragua, Christopher M. Bacon, Lisa C. Kelley, Iris Stewart-Frey

Environmental Studies and Sciences

Few studies assess the relationship between food and water access, despite global concerns about people’s inability to maintain access to both food and water. We conducted a mixed-methods comparative case study in northern Nicaragua, with smallholders from two neighboring communities that differed in water availability and institutional strength, using a feminist political ecology framework and food and water security definitions that focus on access, availability, use, and stability. We adopted a participatory approach that included: a sex-disaggregated survey in 2016; interviews, participant observation, and community-based water quality testing from 2014 to 2019; and analysis of a severe drought that occurred …

Utah County Level Drought Effect On Cattle Inventories 1981-2016, Fred Openshaw

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Utah cattle industry generates 20.6% of sales value for the agricultural sector. As well, this industry encompasses about 34.4% of Utah farms. Besides these figures, Utah cattle ranchers depend heavily upon both public and private lands for grazing as a primary source of feed for their herds. The soil moisture levels of pasturelands impacts the forage yield for a particular year. As a result, the primary purpose of this research is to determine if drought impacts Utah county cattle inventory numbers and what the magnitude of the impact is by analyzing data from 1981 to 2016. A secondary purpose …

Impact Of Saturated Thickness To Protect Farmers From Drought In High Plains Aquifer, Olivier Tuyizere, Taro Mieno

UCARE Research Products

●The High Plains aquifer is the primary source of water supply for irrigating major crops in the region including corn and soybeans ●Climate change is expected to reduce groundwater availability in High Plains Aquifer and increase extreme climatic events such as droughts. ●Aquifer depletion leads to lower well yields, which in turn diminish the effectiveness of irrigation against drought.

●Estimate the effect of saturated thickness to protect irrigated corn and soybeans production against severe drought in the High Plains Aquifer. ●Calculate the impact of aquifer depletion on farmers’ ability to protect against severe droughts based on the regression results.

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 …

Spatial And Temporal Intricacies Of Natural Resource Use: Studies In Water, Forests, And Hydrocarbons, Dadhi Adhikari

Economics ETDs

This dissertation examines spatial and temporal impacts of natural resource use. The second chapter integrates hydrological and economic systems to examine the impact of drought on these two systems and explores the spatial impact of policies aimed to mitigate the drought impact. The systems dynamics model developed for this chapter simultaneously considers the physical hydrology in the Middle Rio Grande water basin in New Mexico, the engineered water management system, and a behavioral model of residential water demand for three cities: Albuquerque, Rio Rancho, and Santa Fe, New Mexico. The simulation results showed that droughts that occur in later periods, …

Measuring The Adaptive Response To Drought, Kyle Eagar

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Scientific evidence suggests that future climate change has the potential to bring about an increase in both the frequency and duration of drought in some regions of the world (United Nations, 2012). Economists have theorized that at least some of the adverse effects of these droughts will be mitigated through various adaptive responses by agricultural producers. The effectiveness of any adaptive response to climate change will depend on how quickly producers can recognize a change in climatic patterns and respond accordingly. The following paper investigates the relationship between a specific climate signal (prolonged drought) and the land use decision of …

Three Essays On Biofuels, Drought, Livestock, And The Environment, Sunil P. Dhoubhadel

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This dissertation consists of three essays. The first essay examines the impact of the 2012 drought and the biofuels mandate on the U.S. grain and livestock markets. A stochastic equilibrium displacement model is used to analyze the impact on eight commodity markets viz. beef, pork, poultry, corn, distillers’ grain (DG), soybean, soymeal, and ethanol. Among the eight markets, corn and beef are found to be the most vulnerable to drought. The use of Renewable Identification Number (RIN) credits as an instrument to mitigate the impact of drought has limited effectiveness. A mandate waiver of about 23% is required to fully …

Raising Grain In Next Year Country: Dryland Farming, Drought, And Adaptation In The Golden Triangle, Montana, Caroline M. Stephens

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Climate change has already and will likely continue to impact agriculture in the Western United States, threatening water supplies for both irrigated and rainfed agriculture (Calzadilla et al. 2010; Chambers and Pellant 2008; MacDonald et al. 2010; Pedersen et al. 2009). In the Golden Triangle, a region in north central Montana, known for its dryland grain production, the same is true. There is a need for in-depth, fine-grained, place-based, and qualitative research about the process of climate change adaptation in agriculture (Miller et al. 2013). Drought challenges farmers in the Triangle, which is semiarid and receives 10-15 inches of annual …

The Impact Of Weather Extremes On Agricultural Production Methods: Does Drought Increase Adoption Of Conservation Tillage Practices?, Ya Ding, Karina Schoengold, Tsegaye Tadesse

Tsegaye Tadesse

One benefit of conservation tillage practices is an increase in soil moisture. The paper combines panel data techniques with spatial analysis to measure the impact of extreme weather events on the adoption of conservation tillage. Zellner’s SUR technique is extended to spatial panel data to correct for cross-sectional heterogeneity, spatial autocorrelation, and contemporaneous correlation. Panel data allows the identification of differences in adoption rates as a function of the severity of past drought or flood events. The adoption of no-till, alternative conservation tillage, and reduced till are estimated relative to conventional tillage. Extremely dry conditions in recent years are found …

Aridity, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Provides an overview of how aridity in the American West has influenced that region's economic, environmental, and political development and U.S. Government policies in this region.

Final Evaluation Of The North East Agricultural Region (Near) Strategy, Andrew Blake, Don Burnside, Vicki Williams

All other publications

No abstract provided.

Spring-Fed Stream Benthic Macroinvertebrate Communities As Early Biological Indicators Of Groundwater Tipping Points., Rosemary A. Burk, Jan Kallberg, James H. Kennedy

Rosemary A. Burk

In 2007, a 20-county area encompassing the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex was designated by the State as a Priority Groundwater Management Area (PGMA) in need of implementing strategies for groundwater conservation. The newly created PGMA’s population is expected to increase from 5.5 million in 2000 to 9.5 million by 2030 with projected water needs rising from 1,677 million m3 in 2000 to 3,034 million m3 by 2030 according to a study by Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). The Trinity Aquifer supplied 73% of the area’s groundwater in 2000, with the aquifer outcrop zone being highly susceptible to anthropogenic sources of …

Measuring Economic Impacts Of Drought: A Review And Discussion, Ya Ding, Michael J. Hayes, Melissa Widhalm

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

A comprehensive assessment of drought economic impacts provides critical information to rational decisions supporting drought mitigation policies and programs. The objective of this paper is to increase the understanding of the full scope of drought economic impacts and the associated quantitative assessment methodologies. To accomplish this, the paper reviews the literature of drought economic impact studies in both agricultural and non-agricultural sectors, summarizes the methods and data employed, compares the various results, and investigates the problems and limitations of previous studies. The paper concludes with a discussion of the challenges and directions of future improvement on drought economic impact assessment.

The Impact Of Weather Extremes On Agricultural Production Methods: Does Drought Increase Adoption Of Conservation Tillage Practices?, Ya Ding, Karina Schoengold, Tsegaye Tadesse

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

One benefit of conservation tillage practices is an increase in soil moisture. The paper combines panel data techniques with spatial analysis to measure the impact of extreme weather events on the adoption of conservation tillage. Zellner’s SUR technique is extended to spatial panel data to correct for cross-sectional heterogeneity, spatial autocorrelation, and contemporaneous correlation. Panel data allows the identification of differences in adoption rates as a function of the severity of past drought or flood events. The adoption of no-till, alternative conservation tillage, and reduced till are estimated relative to conventional tillage. Extremely dry conditions in recent years are found …

Farm Sector Recovery Following The 2002 Drought, Matthew A. Diersen

Economics Commentator

No abstract provided.

Direct And Indirect Effects Of Drought On South Dakota's Economy, Matthew A. Diersen, Gary Taylor, Alan May

Economics Commentator

No abstract provided.

Growth In Colorado And The West: Trends And Issues [Outline], James N. Corbridge Jr.

Water and Growth in the West (Summer Conference, June 7-9)

4 pages.

Contains references.

Climate Variability And Western Water: What Can We Expect?, Roger S. Pulwarty

Water and Growth in the West (Summer Conference, June 7-9)

7 pages.

1988 Drought Effect On The Economy, Lynn Selzle-Wolters, Burton Pflueger

Economics Commentator

No abstract provided.

Journey In A Forgotten Land - Part 1: Food And Drought In Ethiopian/Kenyan Border Lands, Norman Miller

Dartmouth Scholarship

The herding peoples who live in the border areas of Kenya and Ethiopia share a common complaint. They believe themselves to be a forgotten people, unknown and unwanted in the capitals of Addis Ababa and Nairobi. This is not entirely true, but the remote, inhospitable nature of their land supports the belief that they are indeed untouched by the outside world. The majority of the people on both sides of the border are Boran, or their near cousins the Gabbra. They are traditionally pastoralists who move with their cattle, camels, sheep, and goats over vast areas of this dry land. …