Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

¿Abandonar La Revolución O Tejer La Paz?: Migración Sur-Sur, Socialismo Y Geopolítica Decolonial Feminista En Suramérica, Christopher Courtheyn

Environmental Studies Program Faculty Publications and Presentations

El artículo presenta una geopolítica feminista de la migración venezolana a Colombia sobre venezolanas y venezolanos que, huyendo de la Revolución Bolivariana, se enfrentan a la discriminación y la violencia, al buscar establecerse en la Colombia capitalista, sumida en el contexto de un proceso de paz fallido hasta ahora. Los conflictos de migración y nacionalidad permean nuestro orden global de Estados nación soberanos, tanto en las migraciones norte-sur como en el sur global; mientras que la feminización y la racialización de los migrantes dividen a las clases subalternas y facilitan la explotación capitalista. Sin embargo, este artículo busca dilucidar las …

Buffalo Reading List, Madison Stevens, Elizabeth Lunstrum, Jamie Faselt, Brent L. Brock, Kyran E. Kunkel, Jake Rayapati, Chamois Andersen, Jeff Martin, Jordan Kennedy, Forrest Hisey, Andrea Olive, Matt Williamson

Environmental Studies Program Faculty Publications and Presentations

This reading list gathers together literature focused on buffalo (also known as bison) to support ongoing efforts to restore this iconic species to its keystone cultural and ecological role. The books and articles compiled here are grounded in a wide range of academic disciplines and approaches, representing many distinct ways of thinking about buffalo within the realm of Western sciences. This is not intended to be an exhaustive account of what is known about buffalo, much of which is held in Indigenous knowledge systems and communities. This academic list is designed as a resource for those working towards buffalo restoration, …

Delineating Flood Zones Upon Employing Synthetic Aperture Data For The 2020 Flood In Bangladesh, Saleh Ahmed

Environmental Studies Program Faculty Publications and Presentations

Delineating a flood map is critical to perceive the potential risks of the event at diverse communities living both in urban and rural settings in Bangladesh. A timely generated flood map can help determine the losses of properties, calculate payment options from insurances, and set up mitigation measures when required. Application of satellite remote sensing (RS) and geographic information systems (GIS) are common these days to determine inundated areas, and to calculate possible losses of economies at scale. However, challenges remain while considering the available options for collecting satellite imageries obtained during the monsoon season with more than 70% cloud …

Increasing Heat-Stress Inequality In A Warming Climate, Mohammad Reza Alizadeh, John T. Abatzoglou, Jan F. Adamowski, Jeffrey P. Prestemon, Bhaskar Chittoori, Ata Akbari Asanjan, Mojtaba Sadegh

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Adaptation is key to minimizing heatwaves' societal burden; however, our understanding of adaptation capacity across the socioeconomic spectrum is incomplete. We demonstrate that observed heatwave trends in the past four decades were most pronounced in the lowest-quartile income region of the world resulting in >40% higher exposure from 2010 to 2019 compared to the highest-quartile income region. Lower-income regions have reduced adaptative capacity to warming, which compounds the impacts of higher heatwave exposure. We also show that individual contiguous heatwaves engulfed up to 2.5-fold larger areas in the recent decade (2010–2019) as compared to the 1980s. Widespread heatwaves can overwhelm …

Environmental Displacement In The Anthropocene, Elizabeth Lunstrum, Pablo S. Bose

Environmental Studies Program Faculty Publications and Presentations

This intervention invites more substantial scholarly attention to human displacement in and of the Anthropocene—this current epoch in which humans have become the primary drivers of global environmental change—and sets out an initial framework for its study. The framework is organized around three interrelated contributions. First is the recognition that displacement is driven not just by climate change but also broader forms of environmental change defining the Anthropocene, including biodiversity loss, changes to land and water resources, and the buildup of nuclear debris, along with their intersections. Second, the framework parses out three distinct moments of displacement in the Anthropocene: …

Indigenous-Led Conservation Reading List, Megan Youdelis, Kim Tran, Elizabeth Lunstrum

Environmental Studies Program Faculty Publications and Presentations

This list compiles literature relevant to the bourgeoning Indigenous-led conservation movement, be that through Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs, Canada), Indigenous and Community Conserved Areas (ICCAs, global), or various other forms of Indigenous-led governance or co-governance mechanisms that elevate Indigenous rights, responsibilities, and legal traditions. The introductory Colonial Conservation section is not exhaustive, but rather provides context for the main import of the collection, which is to highlight the possibilities, successes, and challenges associated with decolonizing conservation through Indigenous-led governance. The list is global in scope but has been shaped by the Indigenous Circle of Experts’ (2018) report, We …

Weed Infestation: A Service Learning Capstone Project, Catherine T. Clemens

IPS/BAS 495 Undergraduate Capstone Projects

Infestation of weeds can be most upsetting to anyone who finds themselves dealing with them. Whether they are in your garden, lawn, or you pass by them thinking they are a pretty flower, weeds definitely make their appearance in most places. For ranchers, weeds can take a huge toll on them and their operation. Since I live on a ranch it was only fit for me to create a project that would not only benefit myself and other ranchers in the Harney County community. My project was about the importance of weed control. It is a huge part of ranching …

The Sustainability-Peace Nexus In Crisis Contexts: How The Rohingya Escaped The Ethnic Violence In Myanmar, But Are Trapped Into Environmental Challenges In Bangladesh, Saleh Ahmed, William Paul Simmons, Rashed Chowdhury, Saleemul Huq

Global Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Because of ethnic and cultural violence in Myanmar, approximately a million Rohingya fled to neighboring Bangladesh starting from August 2017, in what the UN has called a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing”. Those arriving in Bangladesh were able to escape decade-long ethnic violence in Myanmar, but the Rohingya’s immediate destination, Cox’s Bazar district is one of the most climate-vulnerable and disaster-prone areas in Bangladesh. Currently, they have been subjected to extreme rainfalls, landslides, and flashfloods. With the COVID-19 pandemic, they continue to face fear and further marginalization in resource-constrained Bangladesh, as well as increased vulnerability due to tropical cyclones, flashfloods, …

Risky Development: Increasing Exposure To Natural Hazards In The United States, Megan Cattau

Human-Environment Systems Research Center Faculty Publications and Presentations

Losses from natural hazards are escalating dramatically, with more properties and critical infrastructure affected each year. Although the magnitude, intensity, and/or frequency of certain hazards has increased, development contributes to this unsustainable trend, as disasters emerge when natural disturbances meet vulnerable assets and populations. To diagnose development patterns leading to increased exposure in the conterminous United States (CONUS), we identified earthquake, flood, hurricane, tornado, and wildfire hazard hotspots, and overlaid them with land use information from the Historical Settlement Data Compilation data set. Our results show that 57% of structures (homes, schools, hospitals, office buildings, etc.) are located in hazard …

Warming Enabled Upslope Advance In Western Us Forest Fires, Mohammad Reza Alizadeh, John T. Abatzoglou, Charles H. Luce, Jan F. Adamowski, Arvin Farid, Mojtaba Sadegh

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Increases in burned area and large fire occurrence are widely documented over the western United States over the past half century. Here, we focus on the elevational distribution of forest fires in mountainous ecoregions of the western United States and show the largest increase rates in burned area above 2,500 m during 1984 to 2017. Furthermore, we show that high-elevation fires advanced upslope with a median cumulative change of 252 m (−107 to 656 m; 95% CI) in 34 y across studied ecoregions. We also document a strong interannual relationship between high-elevation fires and warm season vapor pressure deficit (VPD). …

Western Fires Are Burning Higher In The Mountains At Unprecedented Rates: It’S A Clear Sign Of Climate Change, Mojtaba Sadegh, John Abatzoglou, Mohammad Reza Alizadeh

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Western U.S. appears headed for another dangerous fire season, and a new study shows that even high mountain areas once considered too wet to burn are at increasing risk as the climate warms.

Nearly two-thirds of the U.S. West is in severe to exceptional drought right now, including large parts of the Rocky Mountains, Cascades and Sierra Nevada. The situation is so severe that the Colorado River basin is on the verge of its first official water shortage declaration, and forecasts suggest another hot, dry summer is on the way.

Warm and dry conditions like these are a recipe …

Refugee Camps Can Wreak Enormous Environmental Damages: Should Source Countries Be Liable For Them?, Leonard Hammer, Saleh Ahmed

University Author Recognition Bibliography: 2021

While it may seem that much of the world has been locked down during the past pandemic year, more than 80 million people are currently on the move – unwillingly.

Facing conflict in Syria, human rights violations in Myanmar and violence in Eritrea, among other hot spots, refugees are trying to relocate to North America and Western Europe, or at least to neighboring countries.

Compound Extremes Drive The Western Oregon Wildfires Of September 2020, John T. Abatzoglou, David E. Rupp, Larry W. O'Neill, Mojtaba Sadegh

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Several very large high‐impact fires burned nearly 4,000 km² of mesic forests in western Oregon during September 7–9, 2020. While infrequent, very large high‐severity fires have occurred historically in western Oregon, the extreme nature of this event warrants analyses of climate and meteorological drivers. A strong blocking pattern led to an intrusion of dry air and strong downslope east winds in the Oregon Cascades following a warm‐dry 60‐day period that promoted widespread fuel flammability. Viewed independently, both the downslope east winds and fuel dryness were extreme, but not unprecedented. However, the concurrence of these drivers resulted in compound extremes …

Do Gender Differences Lead To Unequal Access To Climate Adaptation Strategies In An Agrarian Context?: Perceptions From Coastal Bangladesh, Saleh Ahmed, Elizabeth Kiester

University Author Recognition Bibliography: 2021

While people around the world are increasingly facing various climate-related stresses, women with limited resources in low income developing societies are often at a greater risk largely because of their pre-existing constraints on social, economic, political, and cultural resources and opportunities. In this paper, we investigate how gender differences influence farmers’ access to various resources that are critical for local climate adaptation in coastal Bangladesh. As one of the most climate-vulnerable regions in not only the country but the world, coastal Bangladesh is experiencing a significant increase in sea level rise, tropical cyclones, storm surges, coastal flooding, coastal erosions as …

Wildfires Force Thousands To Evacuate Near Los Angeles: Here’S How The 2020 Western Fire Season Got So Extreme, Mojtaba Sadegh, Ata Akbari Asanjan, Mohammad Reza Alizadeh

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Two wildfires erupted on the outskirts of cities near Los Angeles, forcing more than 100,000 people to evacuate their homes Monday as powerful Santa Ana winds swept the flames through dry grasses and brush. With strong winds and extremely low humidity, large parts of California were under red flag warnings.

High fire risk days have been common this year as the 2020 wildfire season shatters records across the West.

More than 4 million acres have burned in California – 4% of the state’s land area and more than double the previous annual record. Five of the state’s six largest historical …

Increasing Concurrence Of Wildfire Drivers Tripled Megafire Critical Danger Days In Southern California Between 1982 And 2018, Mohammad Sadegh Khorshidi, Philip E. Dennison, Mohammad Reza Nikoo, Amir Aghakouchak, Charles H. Luce, Mojtaba Sadegh

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Wildfire danger is often ascribed to increased temperature, decreased humidity, drier fuels, or higher wind speed. However, the concurrence of drivers—defined as climate, meteorological and biophysical factors that enable fire growth—is rarely tested for commonly used fire danger indices or climate change studies. Treating causal factors as independent additive influences can lead to inaccurate inferences about shifting hazards if the factors interact as a series of switches that collectively modulate fire growth. As evidence, we show that in Southern California very large fires and 'megafires' are more strongly associated with multiple drivers exceeding moderate thresholds concurrently, rather than direct relationships …

Beyond Climate Impacts: Knowledge Gaps And Process-Based Reflection On Preparing A Regional Chapter For The Fourth National Climate Assessment, Scott Lowe

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4) provided the most up-to-date understanding of climate change and its effects on the Earth system and on consequences for the United States, including impacts and associated risks, along with approaches to coping with these effects. It is intended to provide guidance to decision-makers in governmental sectors while, in practice, providing guidance for nongovernmental actors. Its regional and topical chapters highlight current knowledge, uncertainties, gaps in knowledge, and emerging threats. The current knowledge and gaps can help set a research agenda to inform future national, regional, and local climate assessments and thereby support better decision-making. …

Can Increased Training And Awareness Take Forest Research To New Heights?, David L. Anderson, Sarah Schulwitz, Matthew May, Gregory Hill, Will Koomjian, Christopher J. W. Mcclure

University Author Recognition Bibliography: 2020

Forest canopies contribute significantly to global forest biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, yet are declining and understudied. One reason for a knowledge gap is that accessing forest canopies can be difficult and dangerous. Thus, lack of relevant canopy access skills may compromise knowledge gain and personal safety. We assessed skill levels in canopy access methods and self-perception of skills amongst ecologists worldwide via a web-based survey, available in four languages. We obtained responses from expert arborists as a control group. From 191 respondents who said canopy access is relevant to their research (of 1,070 total responses), we found that ecologists are …

Changes In The Exposure Of California’S Levee-Protected Critical Infrastructure To Flooding Hazard In A Warming Climate, Iman Mallakpour, Mojtaba Sadegh, Amir Aghakouchak

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Levee systems are an important part of California's water infrastructure, engineered to provide resilience against flooding and reduce flood losses. The growth in California is partly associated with costly infrastructure developments that led to population expansion in the levee protected areas. Therefore, potential changes in the flood hazard could have significant socioeconomic consequences over levee protected areas, especially in the face of a changing climate. In this study, we examine the possible impacts of a warming climate on flood hazard over levee protected land in California. We use gridded maximum daily runoff from global circulation models (GCMs) that represent a …

Coronavirus Closures Could Lead To A Radical Revolution In Conservation, James Stinson, Elizabeth (Libby) Lunstrum

University Author Recognition Bibliography: 2020

In the early days of the COVID-19 lockdowns, social media was flooded with reports of animals reclaiming abandoned environments. According to one widely shared post, dolphins had returned to the canals of Venice.

While many of those stories have since been debunked, conservationists are providing legitimate reports of cleaner air and water, and wildlife reclaiming contested habitats.

With widespread closures of parks and conservation areas around the world, could this be an opportunity to transform the way we manage and use these protected environments?

Road Development In Asia: Assessing The Range-Wide Risks To Tigers, Neil Carter, Alexander Killion, Tara Easter, Jodi Brandt, Adam Ford

Human-Environment Systems Research Center Faculty Publications and Presentations

Roads are proliferating worldwide at an unprecedented rate, with potentially severe impacts on wildlife. We calculated the extent and potential impacts of road networks across the 1,160,000-km², 13-country range of the globally endangered tiger (Panthera tigris)—a conservation umbrella species. We found that roads were pervasive, totaling 134,000 km across tiger conservation landscapes (TCLs), even in tiger priority sites and protected areas. Approximately 43% of the area where tiger breeding occurs and 57% of the area in TCLs fell within the road-effect zone. Consequently, current road networks may be decreasing tiger and prey abundances by more than …

Variation In The Microbiota Associated With Daphnia Magna Across Genotypes, Populations, And Temperature, Jonas Frankel-Bricker, Michael J. Song, Maia J. Benner, Sarah Schaack

University Author Recognition Bibliography: 2020

Studies of how the microbiome varies among individuals, populations, and abiotic conditions are critical for understanding this key component of an organism’s biology and ecology. In the case of Daphnia, aquatic microcrustaceans widely used in population/community ecology and environmental science studies, understanding factors that influence microbiome shifts among individuals is useful for both basic and applied research contexts. In this study, we assess differences in the microbiome among genotypes of D. magna collected from three regions along a large latitudinal gradient (Finland, Germany, and Israel). After being reared in the lab for many years, we sought to characterize any …

Probabilistic Hazard Assessment Of Contaminated Sediment In Rivers, Shahab Aldin Shojaeezadeh, Mohammad Reza Nikoo, Ali Mirchi, Iman Mallakpour, Amir Aghakouchak, Mojtaba Sadegh

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

We propose a probabilistic framework rooted in multivariate and copula theory to assess heavy metal hazard associated with contaminated sediment in freshwater rivers that provide crucial ecosystem services such as municipal water source, eco-tourism, and agricultural irrigation. Exploiting the dependence structure between suspended sediment concentration (SSC) and different heavy metals, we estimate the hazard probability associated with each heavy metal at different SSC levels. We derive these relationships for warm (spring-summer) and cold (fall-winter) seasons, as well as stormflow condition, to unpack their nonlinear associations under different environmental conditions. To demonstrate its efficacy, we apply our proposed generic framework to …

Saving The Vicuña: The Political, Biophysical, And Cultural History Of Wild Animal Conservation In Peru, 1964–2000, Emily Wakild

History Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article examines national efforts to protect wildlife in the twentieth century. Its focus is the vicuña, a small llama-like species native to the Andes, which nearly went extinct due to the high economic value of its wool. Instead, the Peruvian national government—despite significant regime shifts—intervened to put in place and then perpetuate a series of conservation measures, including trade restrictions and a territorial reserve, that protected the population and allowed it to rebound. Using a combination of cultural, economic, political, and biological methods to understand the animals and people concerned about them, this article argues that conservation reoriented relationships …

Climate And Surging Of Donjek Glacier, Yukon, Canada, Ellyn M. Enderlin

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Links between climate and glacier surges are poorly understood but are required to enable prediction of surges and mitigation of associated hazards. Here, we investigate the role of snow accumulation, rain, and temperature on surge periodicity, area changes, and timing of surge initiation since the 1930s at Donjek Glacier, Yukon, Canada. Snow accumulation measured in three ice cores collected at Eclipse Icefield indicates that a cumulative accumulation of 15.5 ± 1.46 or 16.6 ± 2.0 m w.e. occurred in the ten to twelve years between each of its last eight surges, depending on ice motion spatiotemporal offset corrections. Although we …

The American West As A Social-Ecological Region: Drivers, Dynamics And Implications For Nested Social-Ecological Systems, Jodi Brandt, Matthew A. Williamson

Human-Environment Systems Research Center Faculty Publications and Presentations

The American West exists in the popular imagination as a distinct region, and policies and politics often suggest that both the challenges and the opportunities for land management and human well-being across the region are relatively homogeneous. In this paper, we argue that there are key characteristics that define the West as a social-ecological region, and also that there are myriad social-ecological systems (SESs) within the region that require diverse and dynamic approaches to managing change over time. We first conceptualize aridity, topography, and a unique political economy of land as exogenous factors that persist over time and space to …

Where To Forage When Afraid: Does Perceived Risk Impair Use Of The Foodscape?, Samantha P.H. Dwinnell, Hall Sawyer, Jill E. Randall, Jeffery L. Beck, Jennifer S. Forbey, Gary L. Fralick, Kevin L. Monteith

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The availability and quality of forage on the landscape constitute the foodscape within which animals make behavioral decisions to acquire food. Novel changes to the foodscape, such as human disturbance, can alter behavioral decisions that favor avoidance of perceived risk over food acquisition. Although behavioral changes and population declines often coincide with the introduction of human disturbance, the link(s) between behavior and population trajectory are difficult to elucidate. To identify a pathway by which human disturbance may affect ungulate populations, we tested the Behaviorally Mediated Forage‐Loss Hypothesis, wherein behavioral avoidance is predicted to reduce use of available forage adjacent to …

Reduced-Impact Logging For Climate Change Mitigation (Ril-C) Can Halve Selective Logging Emissions From Tropical Forests, Anand Roopsind

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Selective logging causes at least half of the emissions from tropical forest degradation. Reduced-impact logging for climate (RIL-C) is proposed as a way to maintain timber production while minimizing forest damage. Here we synthesize data from 61 coordinated field-based surveys of logging impacts in seven countries across the tropics. We estimate that tropical selective logging emitted 834 Tg CO₂ in 2015, 6% of total tropical greenhouse gas emissions. Felling, hauling, and skidding caused 59%, 31%, and 10% of these emissions, respectively. We suggest that RIL-C incentive programs consider a feasible target carbon impact factor of 2.3 Mg emitted per …

The Ethics Of Eliminating Harmful Species: The Case Of The Tsetse Fly, Jérémy Bouyer, Neil H. Carter, Chelsea Batavia, Michael Paul Nelson

Human-Environment Systems Research Center Faculty Publications and Presentations

Wildlife species harmful to humans are often targets of control and elimination programs. A contemporary example is the tsetse fly, a vector of sleeping sickness and African animal trypanosomosis. Tsetse flies have recently been targeted by a pan-African eradication campaign. If it is successful, the campaign could push the entire tsetse family to extinction. With the emergence of effective and efficient elimination technologies, ethical assessment of proposed elimination campaigns is urgently needed. We examine the ethics of tsetse fly elimination by considering arguments predicated on both the instrumental and the intrinsic values of the species at local and global scales. …

Including Variability Across Climate Change Projections In Assessing Impacts On Water Resources In An Intensively Managed Landscape, Bangshuai Han, Shawn G. Benner, Alejandro N. Flores

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

In intensively managed watersheds, water scarcity is a product of interactions between complex biophysical processes and human activities. Understanding how intensively managed watersheds respond to climate change requires modeling these coupled processes. One challenge in assessing the response of these watersheds to climate change lies in adequately capturing the trends and variability of future climates. Here we combine a stochastic weather generator together with future projections of climate change to efficiently create a large ensemble of daily weather for three climate scenarios, reflecting recent past and two future climate scenarios. With a previously developed model that captures rainfall-runoff processes and …