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Geography and the Environment Faculty Publications

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Full-Text Articles in Physical and Environmental Geography

A 20-Year Ecotone Study Of Pacific Northwest Mountain Forest Vulnerability To Changing Snow Conditions, Todd R. Lookingbill, Jack Dupuy, Ellery Jacobs University Of Richmond, Matteo Gonzalez, Tihomir S. Kostadinov Feb 2024

A 20-Year Ecotone Study Of Pacific Northwest Mountain Forest Vulnerability To Changing Snow Conditions, Todd R. Lookingbill, Jack Dupuy, Ellery Jacobs University Of Richmond, Matteo Gonzalez, Tihomir S. Kostadinov

Geography and the Environment Faculty Publications

Background: Global climate change is expected to significantly alter growing conditions along mountain gradients. Landscape ecological patterns are likely to shift significantly as species attempt to adapt to these changes. We evaluated the extent to which spatial (elevation and canopy cover) and temporal (decadal trend and El Niño–Southern Oscillation/Pacific Decadal Oscillation) factors impact seasonal snowmelt and forest community dynamics in the Western Hemlock–True Fir ecotone region of the Oregon Western Cascades, USA. (2) Methods: Tsuga heterophylla and Abies amabilis seedling locations were mapped three times over 20 years (2002–2022) on five sample transects strategically placed to cross the ecotone. Additionally, …

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Landscapes Of War Permanently Altered Topography Is One Of The Casualties Of War, But Battlefields Can Also Be Of "Collateral Value", Todd R. Lookingbill, Peter D. Smallwood Jan 2020

Landscapes Of War Permanently Altered Topography Is One Of The Casualties Of War, But Battlefields Can Also Be Of "Collateral Value", Todd R. Lookingbill, Peter D. Smallwood

Geography and the Environment Faculty Publications

But the rationale for creating battlefield parks has changed over the past 100 years, as have attitudes about battlefield conservation with a related emphasis on the physical landscapes themselves, leading to their management for multiple, layered assets through principles of constructive conservation. Existing battlefield parks provide perhaps the longest-standing examples of the evolution of landscapes of war toward generators of multiple ecosystem benefits. Moving from battlefield parks that, in some cases, have not seen warfare for hundreds of years, we examined landscapes of more recent conflict and considered the future collateral values that could be attained by establishing parks at …

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Biodiversity And Carbon Content Of Trees On A University Campus, Todd R. Lookingbill, Kimberly Britt Klinker Jan 2016

Biodiversity And Carbon Content Of Trees On A University Campus, Todd R. Lookingbill, Kimberly Britt Klinker

Geography and the Environment Faculty Publications

The summer research project described in this chapter can serve as a model for the introduction of a spatial approach to problem solving in a multidisciplinary setting. This example demonstrates that even undergraduate students can collect, analyze, and build web applications for relevant spatial databases. It also demonstrates the importance of having a campus GIS support group to guide projects, train the students in technical skills, and enable them to share their results through an ArcGIS Online based web app. Involvement in the summer project prompted the students to pursue degrees in geography, economics and environmental studies, and computer science …

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Snow Cover Variability In A Forest Ecotone Of The Oregon Cascades Via Modis Terra Products, Tihomir Sabinov Kostadinov, Todd R. Lookingbill Jan 2015

Snow Cover Variability In A Forest Ecotone Of The Oregon Cascades Via Modis Terra Products, Tihomir Sabinov Kostadinov, Todd R. Lookingbill

Geography and the Environment Faculty Publications

Snowcover pattern and persistence have important implications for planetary energy balance, climate sensitivity to forcings, and vegetation structure, function, and composition. Variability in snow cover within mountainous regions of the Pacific Northwest, USA is attributable to a combination of anthropogenic climate change and climate oscillations. However, snowcovered areas can be heterogeneous and patchy, requiring more detailed mapping of snow trends to understand their potential influences on montane forests. We used standard dailyMODIS snow products (MOD10A1.5) to investigate the 15-year record (2000–2014) of snow cover in the predominant forest ecotone of the Oregon Western Cascades. We modeled the ecotone using field …

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Incorporating Risk Of Reinvasion To Prioritize Sites For Invasive Species Management, Todd R. Lookingbill, Emily S. Minor, Nadia Bukach, Joseph R. Ferrari, Lisa A. Wainger Jan 2014

Incorporating Risk Of Reinvasion To Prioritize Sites For Invasive Species Management, Todd R. Lookingbill, Emily S. Minor, Nadia Bukach, Joseph R. Ferrari, Lisa A. Wainger

Geography and the Environment Faculty Publications

The relationship between landscape pattern and the distribution and spread of exotic species is an important determinant of where and when management actions are best applied. We have developed an interdisciplinary approach for prioritizing treatment of harmful, nonnative, invasive plants in National Park landscapes of the Mid-Atlantic USA. The approach relies upon a detailed model of reinvasion risk that combines information on: (1) global factors representing park-level infestation from seed and sprout, (2) landscape factors including disturbance-based spread vectors and neighborhood seed density, and (3) local factors determining establishment probability based on habitat suitability. Global seed rain estimates are derived …

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Proposing New Barrens National Natural Landmarks, Todd R. Lookingbill, Mary C. Brickle, Katharina A.M. Engelhardt Jan 2013

Proposing New Barrens National Natural Landmarks, Todd R. Lookingbill, Mary C. Brickle, Katharina A.M. Engelhardt

Geography and the Environment Faculty Publications

The National Natural Landmarks (NNL) Program, administered and maintained through the National Park Service, was established in 1962 with the goal of highlighting sites that best demonstrate the outstanding geologic and biologic features of the United States. In a unique partnership between public and private landowners, the National Park Service accepts sites into the program that best illustrate the diversity of our country’s natural heritage regardless of ownership. The NNL program seeks solely to recognize these sites for their geologic and biologic significance and to strengthen the public’s appreciation for and conservation of America’s natural heritage. Potential NNLs are evaluated …

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Threshold Responses Of Forest Birds To Landscape Changes Around Exurban Development, Todd R. Lookingbill, Marcela Suarez-Rubio, Scott Wilson, Peter Leimgruber Jan 2013

Threshold Responses Of Forest Birds To Landscape Changes Around Exurban Development, Todd R. Lookingbill, Marcela Suarez-Rubio, Scott Wilson, Peter Leimgruber

Geography and the Environment Faculty Publications

Low-density residential development (i.e., exurban development) is often embedded within a matrix of protected areas and natural amenities, raising concern about its ecological consequences. Forest-dependent species are particularly susceptible to human settlement even at low housing densities typical of exurban areas. However, few studies have examined the response of forest birds to this increasingly common form of land conversion. The aim of this study was to assess whether, how, and at what scale forest birds respond to changes in habitat due to exurban growth. We evaluated changes in habitat composition (amount) and configuration (arrangement) for forest and forest-edge species around …

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Cartografía, Corredores Y Cooperación: La Búsqueda De Soluciones Transfronterizas En Las Fronteras Amazónicas, David S. Salisbury, Diego B. Leal, Andrea B. Chávaz Michaelsen, Bertha Balbín Ordaya, A. William Flores De Melo, Pedro Tipula Tipula, Maria Luiza Pinedo Ochoa Jan 2013

Cartografía, Corredores Y Cooperación: La Búsqueda De Soluciones Transfronterizas En Las Fronteras Amazónicas, David S. Salisbury, Diego B. Leal, Andrea B. Chávaz Michaelsen, Bertha Balbín Ordaya, A. William Flores De Melo, Pedro Tipula Tipula, Maria Luiza Pinedo Ochoa

Geography and the Environment Faculty Publications

Implementation of conservation and development in the Amazon borderlands requires effective transboundary coordination. Updated, readily understandable, and transboundary cartography becomes increasingly essential in Southwestern Amazonia as residents and decision makers attempt to mitigate the socio-environmental challenges and impacts in the borderlands. The lack of updated borderland cartography complicates the planning of development, integration, and conservation projects at a variety of different scales. The Transboundary Geographic Group of Southwestern Amazonia (GTASO) has created a network to continuously exchange geographic information, resulting in a June 2013 workshop and the creation of five transboundary thematic maps of the Amazon regions of Ucayali and …

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Amazonian States Map Threatened Borderlands, David S. Salisbury, A. William Flores De Melo, Jorge Vela Alvarado, Bertha Balbin Ordaya Oct 2012

Amazonian States Map Threatened Borderlands, David S. Salisbury, A. William Flores De Melo, Jorge Vela Alvarado, Bertha Balbin Ordaya

Geography and the Environment Faculty Publications

Recently, the Regional Initiative to Integrate South America has begun promoting a transboundary road that would bisect the forested borderlands and connect the two largest cities in the region, while the state governments seek to promote a direct ecological railroad alternative. Both transportation initiatives promise to alter forests and rivers and transform economies and cultures, but these projects also lack the base geographic information necessary to understand their potential transboundary impacts and benefits.

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Taller Transfronterizo Para La Amazonía Peruana Y Brasileña, David S. Salisbury, A. Willian Flores De Melo, Bertha Balbín Ordaya Aug 2012

Taller Transfronterizo Para La Amazonía Peruana Y Brasileña, David S. Salisbury, A. Willian Flores De Melo, Bertha Balbín Ordaya

Geography and the Environment Faculty Publications

Con el fin de establecer alianzas institucionales y gubernamentales, se llevó a cabo el Taller de “Integración de Datos y Desarrollo de Capacidades Técnicas para Mitigar los Desafíos Ambientales en la Amazonía Peruana y Brasileña”, el cual contó con la participación de las instituciones e investigadores de Ucayali y el estado de Acre en Brasil, con el fin de buscar estrategias para desarrollar una base de datos espaciales y elaborar los mapas que sirvan de apoyo a la toma de decisiones en el corto, mediano y largo plazo en las dos regiones fronterizas ya mencionadas.

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Grts And Graphs: Monitoring Natural Resources In Urban Landscapes, Todd R. Lookingbill, John Paul Schmit, Shawn L. Carter Jan 2012

Grts And Graphs: Monitoring Natural Resources In Urban Landscapes, Todd R. Lookingbill, John Paul Schmit, Shawn L. Carter

Geography and the Environment Faculty Publications

Environmental monitoring programs are an important tool for providing land managers with a scientific basis for management decisions. However, many ecological processes operate on spatial scales that transcend management boundaries (Schonewald-Cox 1988). For example, adjacent lands may influence protected-area resources via edge effects, source-sink dynamics, or invasion processes (Jones et al. 2009). Hydrologic alterations outside management units also may have profound effects on the integrity of resources being managed (Pringle 2000). The impacts of climate change are presenting challenges to resource management at local-to-global scales (Karl et al. 2009). This potential disparity between ecological and political boundaries presents an interesting …

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Transboundary Political Ecology In The Peru-Brazil Borderlands: Mapping Workshops, Geographic Information, And Socio-Environmental Impacts, David S. Salisbury, A. William Flores De Melo, Pedro Tipula Tipula Jan 2012

Transboundary Political Ecology In The Peru-Brazil Borderlands: Mapping Workshops, Geographic Information, And Socio-Environmental Impacts, David S. Salisbury, A. William Flores De Melo, Pedro Tipula Tipula

Geography and the Environment Faculty Publications

Development, resource, and settlement frontiers inspired by national policies and global demand continue to expand into the international boundary lands of Amazonia. National policies promote development and conservation projects on lands already inhabited and managed. Regional governments are increasingly frustrated by the inadequate and outdated geographic information available to solve overlapping claims and improve planning in sensitive border regions. The resulting combination of inappropriate policies, contested resources, and poor geographic information in the borderlands create impacts not only for national, regional, and local landscapes and livelihoods but also foreign relations due to transboundary effects. This article uses a transboundary political …

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Coca And Conservation: Cultivation, Eradication, And Trafficking In The Amazon Borderlands, David S. Salisbury, C. Fagan Aug 2011

Coca And Conservation: Cultivation, Eradication, And Trafficking In The Amazon Borderlands, David S. Salisbury, C. Fagan

Geography and the Environment Faculty Publications

The cultivation and traffic of coca, Erythrolxylum coca, and coca derivatives remain understudied threats to the conservation of the Amazon rainforest. Currently the crop is transforming land use and livelihoods in the ecologically and culturally rich borderlands of Amazonian Peru. The isolated nature of this region characterized by indigenous populations (both settled and uncontacted), conservation units, resource concessions, and a lack of state presence provides fertile ground for the boom and bust cycle of coca production and facilitates the international transport of the product to neighboring Brazil. This paper explores the social and environmental impacts of coca production, eradication, and …

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Combining A Dispersal Model With Network Theory To Assess Habitat Connectivity, Todd R. Lookingbill, Robert H. Gardner, Joseph R. Ferrari, Cherry E. Keller Jan 2010

Combining A Dispersal Model With Network Theory To Assess Habitat Connectivity, Todd R. Lookingbill, Robert H. Gardner, Joseph R. Ferrari, Cherry E. Keller

Geography and the Environment Faculty Publications

Assessing the potential for threatened species to persist and spread within fragmented landscapes requires the identification of core areas that can sustain resident populations and dispersal corridors that can link these core areas with isolated patches of remnant habitat. We developed a set of GIS tools, simulation methods, and network analysis procedures to assess potential landscape connectivity for the Delmarva fox squirrel (DFS; Sciurus niger cinereus), an endangered species inhabiting forested areas on the Delmarva Peninsula, USA. Information on the DFS’s life history and dispersal characteristics, together with data on the composition and configuration of land cover on the peninsula, …

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Extractive Reserves, David S. Salisbury Jan 2010

Extractive Reserves, David S. Salisbury

Geography and the Environment Faculty Publications

Extractive reserves are territories dedicated to environmental protection and the sustainable use of nature resources by traditional populations. Reserves follow a traditional land tenure model based on individual family and communal property rights to common areas, such as forest trails used to extract or harvest nontimber forest products. Although the extractive reserve concept originates in the tropical forests of the Brazilian Amazon, reserves have also been created in aquatic, floodplain, and savanna landscapes throughout Brazil. There are now 50 extractive reserves covering more than 10 million hectares, an area larger than Portugal, and more continue to be created. Despite their …

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Surface Mining And Reclamation Effects On Flood Response Of Watersheds In The Central Appalachian Plateau Region, Todd R. Lookingbill, Joseph R. Ferrari, B. Mccormick, P. A. Townsend, K. N. Eshleman Jan 2009

Surface Mining And Reclamation Effects On Flood Response Of Watersheds In The Central Appalachian Plateau Region, Todd R. Lookingbill, Joseph R. Ferrari, B. Mccormick, P. A. Townsend, K. N. Eshleman

Geography and the Environment Faculty Publications

Surface mining of coal and subsequent reclamation represent the dominant land use change in the central Appalachian Plateau (CAP) region of the United States. Hydrologic impacts of surface mining have been studied at the plot scale, but effects at broader scales have not been explored adequately. Broad-scale classification of reclaimed sites is difficult because standing vegetation makes them nearly indistinguishable from alternate land uses. We used a land cover data set that accurately maps surface mines for a 187-km2 watershed within the CAP. These land cover data, as well as plot-level data from within the watershed, are used with HSPF …

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The Role Of Landscape Connectivity In Assembling Exotic Plant Communities: A Network Analysis, Emily S. Minor, Samantha M. Tessel, Katharina A.M. Engelhardt, Todd R. Lookingbill Jan 2009

The Role Of Landscape Connectivity In Assembling Exotic Plant Communities: A Network Analysis, Emily S. Minor, Samantha M. Tessel, Katharina A.M. Engelhardt, Todd R. Lookingbill

Geography and the Environment Faculty Publications

Landscape fragmentation and exotic species invasions are two modern-day forces that have strong and largely irreversible effects on native diversity worldwide. The spatial arrangement of habitat fragments is critical in affecting movement of individuals through a landscape, but little is known about how invasive species respond to landscape configuration relative to native species. This information is crucial for managing the global threat of invasive species spread. Using network analysis and partial Mantel tests to control for covarying environmental conditions, we show that forest plant communities in a fragmented landscape have spatial structure that is best captured by a network representation …

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