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Overland Flow And Rainfall Simulation Studies On Ornamental Vegetation, Compost, And Jute Netting, Brent G. Hallock, Candace Kimmelshue, Steve Rein, Michael Curto, Misty Scharff

Earth and Soil Sciences

The literature is replete with studies quantifying erosion control effectiveness from raindrop impact on various vegetation types and erosion control products. However, there is little published overland flow research documenting the effectiveness of ornamental vegetation and erosion control products in filtering sediment and nutrients from stormwater runoff. The California Department of Transportation and the Office of Water Programs, California State University, Sacramento, has conducted two studies at the Erosion Control Research Facility at Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo addressing the use of ornamental vegetation as an erosion control treatment. The first study addressed how well ornamental vegetation, jute …

Spokane River In Idaho And Washington Tmdl Water Quality And Hydrodynamic Modeling Quality Assurance Project Plan -- Draft, Scott A. Wells, Chris Berger

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The focus of this present study is to perform the following tasks:

• Converting the Upper Spokane River CE‐QUAL‐W2 models (Washington and Idaho) to version 3.6

• Combining the Washington and Idaho models

• Reviewing and updating model boundary conditions

• Check model calibration

• Meet with stakeholders

• Develop and Run Modeling Scenarios

• Create reports on calibration and scenario runs

Lophorhothon., David R. Schwimmer

Faculty Bibliography

No abstract provided.

Creating Lakes From Open Pit Mines: Processes And Considerations, Emphasis On Northern Environments, Christopher H. Gammons, Les N. Harris, James M. Castro, Peter A. Cott, Bruce W. Hanna

Geological Engineering

Creating Lakes from Open Pit Mines: Processes and Considerations, Emphasis on Northern Environments. This document summarizes the literature of mining pit lakes (through 2007), with a particular focus on issues that are likely to be of special relevance to the creation and management of pit lakes in northern climates. Pit lakes are simply waterbodies formed by filling the open pit left upon the completion of mining operations with water. Like natural lakes, mining pit lakes display a huge diversity in each of these subject areas. However, pit lakes are young and therefore are typically in a non-equilibrium state with respect …

Modeled Red Spruce Distribution Response To Climatic Change In Monongahela National Forest, James Michael Stanton

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

In Monongahela National Forest of West Virginia, red spruce grows in high-elevation island ecosystems that are particularly sensitive to changes in climatic conditions. The ecological niche modeling application Maxent was used to project the distribution response of red spruce to climatic change for the purposes of conservation planning. Red spruce distribution data was acquired from the United States Forest Service. Three sets of nineteen bioclimatic variables, corresponding to present, 2050, and 2080 conditions, were derived from 1961-1990 monthly temperature and precipitation means and the IPCC A2 emissions scenario of HadCM3. The modeling revealed rapidly diminishing red spruce habitat suitability from …

Nutrient Analysis Of The Estuarine And River Waters Of The Santa Margarita River Estuary, Barbara Elisabeth Long

Theses Digitization Project

The purpose of this project was to analyze nutrient concentrations in the estuarine and river waters of the Santa Margarita River Estuary located on United States Marine Corps Base, Camp Pendleton in northern San Diego County, north of Oceanside, California.

Cyanide Analysis In Wastewater, Heather Marie Lutes

Theses Digitization Project

The purpose of this project was to look at and determine the methods that would best prevent the occurrence of false readings durring testing and analysis of cyanide in wastewater. This project was designed to help those wastewater treatment plants in the Santa Ana Watershed who are in the process of developing a uniform method that minimizes or eliminates interferences currently found. Eastern Municipal District, Inland Empire Utilities agency, Orange County Water District, San Bernardino Valley Municipal, Water District, and Western Municipal Water District all are members of the Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority (SAWPA).

An Inventory And Condition Survey Of The Lower Murchison River Area, Western Australia, P Hennig

Technical Bulletins

The inventory and condition survey of the lower Murchison River area, undertaken by the Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia (DAFWA) between 2002 and 2003, describes and maps the natural resources of the region’s pastoral leasehold land. This survey report provides a baseline record of the existence and condition of the natural area’s resources, to assist with the planning and implementation of land management practices. The report identified and described the condition of soils, landforms, vegetation, habitat, ecosystems, and declared plants and animals. It also assessed the impact of pastoralism and made land management recommendations. This survey report presents …

The Biscayne Aquifer Of Southeastern Florida, Kevin J. Cunningham, Lee J. Florea

Earth, Environmental, and Atmospheric Sciences Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Bringing Us Together : Presentations From The Natural Resource Management Division Meeting, May 2008, Georgina Wilson, Don Bennett, Richard J. George, Sandra Van Vreeswyk, Rebecca Heath, Jamie Bowyer, T M. Lacey, Dennis Van Gool, Peter J. Tille, John P. Collins, Justin L.M Hardy, Derk Bakker, Arjen Ryder, Bindi Isbister, Bill H. Verboom, Luke Bayley, Karen Roberts, Kaz Johnson, Richard Glover

Resource management technical reports

No abstract provided.

Structured Decision Making As A Conceptual Framework To Identify Thresholds For Conservation And Management, Julien Martin, Michael C. Runge, James D. Nichols, Bruce C. Lubow, William L. Kendall

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Thresholds and their relevance to conservation have become a major topic of discussion in the ecological literature. Unfortunately, in many cases the lack of a clear conceptual framework for thinking about thresholds may have led to confusion in attempts to apply the concept of thresholds to conservation decisions. Here, we advocate a framework for thinking about thresholds in terms of a structured decision making process. The purpose of this framework is to promote a logical and transparent process for making informed decisions for conservation.

Specification of such a framework leads naturally to consideration of definitions and roles of different kinds …

Wilson Inlet Catchment Appraisal 2007, Ron Master

Resource management technical reports

No abstract provided.

Estimating Survival Of Precocial Chicks During The Prefledging Period Using A Catch-Curve Analysis And Count-Based Age-Class Data, Conor P. Mcgowan, Joshua J. Millspaugh, Mark R. Ryan, Casey D. Kruse, Greg Pavelka

United States Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District

ABSTRACT: Estimating reproductive success for birds with pre-cocial young can be difficult because chicks leave nests soon after hatching and individuals or broods can be difficult to track. Researchers often turn to estimating survival during the pre-fledging period and, though effective, mark-recapture based approaches are not always feasible due to cost, time, and animal welfare concerns. Using a threatened population of Piping Plovers (Charadrius melodus) that breeds along the Missouri River, we present an approach for estimating chick survival during the pre-fledging period using long-term (1993–2005), count-based, age-class data. We used a modified catch-curve analysis, and data collected …

A System For Estimating Bowen Ratio And Evaporation From Waste Lagoons, Arturo I. Quintanar, Rezaul Mahmood, John H. Loughrin, Nanh Lovanh, Monica V. Motley

High Plains Regional Climate Center: Staff Publications

A low‐cost system was deployed above a swine waste lagoon to obtain estimates of Bowen ratios and characterize lagoon temperatures. The system consisted of humidity and temperature sensors and anemometers deployed above the lagoon, water temperature sensors, and a meteorological station located by the lagoon. To evaluate the system, data was analyzed from the 25th through 28th June 2007. Bowen ratios showed diurnal behavior near the lagoon surface characterized by negative values during day and positive ones at night. Latent (evaporation) and sensible heat fluxes were towards the atmosphere and the lagoon, respectively for most of the day. A diurnal …

Clues To The Medieval Destabilization Of The Nebraska Sand Hills, Usa, From Ancient Pocket Gopher Burrows, Rebecca L. Schmeisser, David B. Loope, David A. Wedin

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

The Nebraska Sand Hills are a stabilized dune field in the central United States that reflect past conditions of drought. The most recent drought, known as the Medieval Climatic Anomaly, occurred from A.D. 900 to A.D. 1300 and had an enormous effect on the thriving prairie ecosystem, which included large populations of the plains pocket gopher (Geomys bursarius). Burrows of these organisms across a paleosol-eolian sand boundary in the Sand Hills indicate abrupt climate change during the transition from stabilized to active dune field and from humid to arid conditions. Medieval gophers tunneled at greater depths below the …

Mitigation Under Section 404 Of The Clean Water Act: Where It Comes From, What It Means, Palmer Hough, Morgan Robertson

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

The requirement to mitigate impacts to wetlands and streams is a frequently misunderstood policy with a long and complicated history. We narrate the history of mitigation since the inception of the Clean Water Act Section 404 permit program in 1972, through struggles between the US Environmental Protection Agency and the US Army Corps of Engineers, through the emerging importance of wetland conservation on the American political landscape, and through the rise of market-based approaches to environmental policy. Mitigation, as it is understood today, was not initially foreseen as a component of the Section 404 permitting program, but was adapted from …

Quantifying Equid Behavior—A Research Ethogram For Free-Roaming Feral Horses, Jason I. Ransom, Brian S. Cade

United States Geological Survey: Publications

Feral horses (Equus caballus) are globally distributed in free-roaming populations on all continents except Antarctica and occupy a wide range of habitats including forest, grassland, desert, and montane environments. The largest populations occur in Australia and North America and have been the subject of scientific study for decades, yet guidelines and ethograms for feral horse behavioral research are largely absent in the scientific literature. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Fort Collins Science Center conducted research on the influences of the immunocontraceptive porcine zona pellucida (PZP) on feral horse behavior from 2003–2006 in three discrete populations in the American …

Climate Change And Water Resources Management: A Federal Perspective, Levi D. Brekke, Julie E. Kiang, J. Rolf Olsen, Roger S. Pulwarty, David A. Raff, D. Phil Turnipseed, Robert S. Webb, Kathleen D. White

United States Geological Survey: Publications

Many challenges, including climate change, face the Nation’s water managers. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has provided estimates of how climate may change, but more understanding of the processes driving the changes, the sequences of the changes, and the manifestation of these global changes at different scales could be beneficial. Since the changes will likely affect fundamental drivers of the hydrological cycle, climate change may have a large impact on water resources and water resources managers.

The purpose of this interagency report prepared by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Bureau of Reclamation …

Structured Decision Making As A Conceptual Framework To Identify Thresholds For Conservation And Management, Julien Martin, Michael C. Runge, James D. Nichols, Bruce C. Lubow, William L. Kendall2

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Threshold and their relevance to conservation have become a major topic of discussion in the ecological literature. Unfortunately, in many cases the lack of a clear conceptual framework for thinking about thresholds in terms of a structured decision making process. The purpose of this framework is to promote a logical and transparent process for making informed decisions for conservation.

Specification of such a framework leads naturally to consideration of definitions and roles of different kinds of thresholds in the process. We distinguish among three categories of thresholds. Ecological thresholds are values of system state variables at which small changes bring …

Behavior And Reproductive Success Of Rock Sandpipers Breeding On The Yukon-Kuskokwim River Delta, Alaska, Matthew Johnson, Jesse R. Conklin, Branden L. Johnson, Brian J. Mccaffery, Susan M. Haig, Jeffrey R. Walters

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

We studied Rock Sandpiper (Calidris ptilocnemis) breeding behavior and monitored reproductive success from 1998 to 2005 on the Yukon-Kuskokwim River Delta, Alaska, USA. We banded 24 adults and monitored 45 nests. Annual return rate of adults ranged between 67 and 100%. Six pairs of Rock Sandpipers bred at our study site for ≥ 2 years, and among these we did not observe mate change (i.e., when both members of a pair returned and each mated with a new individual). Nests were typically initiated by mid-May and 53% of females laid second clutches if first clutches were lost through …

Review Of Hard Road West: History And Geology Along The Gold Rush Trail By Keith Heyer Meldahl, Harmon D. Maher Jr.

Geography and Geology Faculty Publications

The dust jacket of Hard Road West promises familiar pleasures to John McPhee lovers, and so I picked the book up with great anticipation. McPhee’s works have greatly heightened the interest of writers and readers in the genre of creative nonfiction, and while for me, Keith Meldahl’s work does not quite reach McPhee’s stratospheric heights, for the right audience it is definitely a very good read.

Droughtscape, Winter 2009, Kelly Smith

DroughtScape: Quarterly Newsletter of the National Drought Mitigation Center (2007–2023)

Bastrop TX: Feb. 12 Central CA: Feb. 24, 26

La Niña May Keep West and Gulf Coast Dry

Big Canoes to Launch

2008 in Review

U.S. Feels Drought Impacts in 2008

NDMC Welcomes Widhalm, Sakamoto

Climate Modelers at Workshop Look to Sea Surface Temperatures for Drought Prediction

Farming For The Future : Industry Practice Baselines, Danielle England, Susan Murphy-White, John Noonan, Marie Shanks, Jon Warren

Resource management technical reports

No abstract provided.

A Computational Study Of Tsunami Runup As A Function Of Coastline Morphology, Kevin Ewell

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Tsunamis are surface waves with wavelengths on the order of tens to hundreds of kilometers. Modeling the propagation of a tsunami as it approaches shore requires detailed knowledge of bathymmetry in order to correctly capture the evolution of the wave as it slows down. Most published studies of terminal tsunami behavior (such as wave height and runup) are done for specific sites, often comparing model "postdictions" to recorded events. The goal of the present study is to understand in a general way how coastline indentations (such as bays and inlets) affect tsunami runup and wave height. The COMCOT tsunami propagation …

Significance Of The Trace Fossil Zoophycos In Pliocene Deposits, Antarctic Continental Margin (Andrill 1b Drill Core), Molly F. Miller, Ellen A. Cowan, Simon H. H. Nielsen

ANDRILL Research and Publications

Zoophycos is a complex three dimensional trace fossil that is abundant in deep ocean sediments worldwide, but has not been described previously from Cenozoic continental margin deposits of Antarctica. In the ANDRILL 1B core drilled through the north-west McMurdo ice shelf, Zoophycos occurs in a 17m thick unit of interglacial sediments bounded above and below by glacial surfaces of erosion. This unit was deposited during the transition from the relatively warm Early Pliocene characterized by productive open waters to the cooler Late Pliocene with fluctuating subpolar ice sheets. Globally, Late Cenozoic Zoophycos are most abundant at great depths (.1000 m), …

Ecosystem Jenga!, Natalie Umphlett, Tierney Brosius, Ramesh Laungani, Diandra L. Leslie-Pelecky

High Plains Regional Climate Center: Staff Publications

Students are often taught that ecosystems are "delicately balanced," But what. exactly, does this mean? How do we help students relate what they learn in the classroom about ecosystems to the world immediately around them?

As scientists who work closely with middle school students as part of a National Science Foundation-funded Graduate Fellows in K-12 Education program called Project Fulcrum. we have learned that abstract concepts, such as "delicately balanced ecosystem," are often not truly understood. We addressed this concern in a seventh-grade science classroom in Lincoln. Nebraska. by introducing students to locally threatened saline wetlands and the endangered Salt …

Mineralogy Of Mine Waste At The Vermont Asbestos Group Mine, Belvidere Mountain, Vermont, Denise M. Levitan, Jane M. Hammarstrom, Mickey E. Gunter, Robert R. Seal Ii, I-Ming Chou, Nadine M. Piatak

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Samples from the surfaces of waste piles at the Vermont Asbestos Group mine in northern Vermont were studied to determine their mineralogy, particularly the presence and morphology of amphiboles. Analyses included powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), electron probe microanalysis (EPMA), and Raman spectroscopy. Minerals identified by XRD were serpentine-group minerals, magnetite, chlorite, quartz, olivine, pyroxene, and brucite; locally, mica and carbonates were also present. Raman spectroscopy distinguished antigorite and chrysotile, which could not be differentiated using XRD. Long-count, short-range XRD scans of the (110) amphibole peak showed trace amounts of amphibole in most samples. Examination …

Benchmarking Biodiversity: Land Resource Mapping In The Ord River Catchment., Tricia Handasyde, Peter J. Tille, Noel R. Schoknecht, Karen Carnes

All other publications

This 2009 report describes the mapping of landform, vegetation and soils undertaken in the Ord River Catchment in the East Kimberley of Western Australia in order to provide a basis for biodiversity benchmarking. The project: • brought together and standardised existing Ord River catchment land resource mapping held by the Department of Agriculture and Food (DAFWA) and Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) in a format compatible with adjoining mapping in the Northern Territory • mapped to land unit level an additional 4400 sq km of the Ord River catchment. • re-digitised 2200 sq km of vegetation mapping previously not …

Metal Concentrations In Native Yupik Foodstuffs From St. Lawrence Island, Alaska, Judith Kricheff

Geology Theses and Dissertations

The Yupik people of St. Lawrence Island, Alaska have a traditional subsistence lifestyle with the majority of their diet consisting of local birds, fish, seal, walrus, and whale. Diets based on fish and marine mammals, such as the Yupik diet, are potential pathways for exposure to mercury and other toxic metals. At St. Lawrence Island, metal contaminants may come from local sources such as weathered rock or two abandoned U.S. military bases or remote sources through atmospheric deposition or seasonal migration of animals to the island.
The main goals of this study are to determine the total concentrations of copper …

Mercury Uptake By Aquatic Macrophytes In Urban And Rural Watersheds, Albany County, Ny, Bernd G. Neumann

Geology Theses and Dissertations

Plants growing in metalliferous soils may restrict metal uptake and transport depending on metal concentration, sediment characteristics, and plant species. As native plants are replaced by invasives, different patterns of metal cycling can occur, making continued study of this process important. Sediments and tissues of four aquatic plant species/genera: Phragmites australis (common reed); Iris versicolor (blueflag iris); Typha latifolia (broadleaf cattail); and genera Cyperus sp. (sedge) from three urban and two rural sites in Albany County, NY were analyzed for total mercury (Hg_­T) by cold vapor atomic absorption spectroscopy. Sediments were also measured for organic carbon (OC) by …