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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Species Distribution Modeling For Arid Adapted Habitat Specialists In Zion National Park, Sam Driver, Daniel R. Unger, David L. Kulhavy, Chris M. Schalk Dec 2020

Species Distribution Modeling For Arid Adapted Habitat Specialists In Zion National Park, Sam Driver, Daniel R. Unger, David L. Kulhavy, Chris M. Schalk

Student Publications

The Arizona toad (Anaxyrus microscaphus) and Jones’ waxy dogbane (Cycladenia humilis var. jonesii) are habitat specialists with historical ranges in the desert southwest and specifically, Zion National Park (ZION). The machine learning method, MaxEnt, constructed species distribution models (SDMs) in ZION for the two study species at 30 m and 900 m spatial resolutions using climate, topographic, and remotely sensed data. Additionally, 900 m forecasting models were constructed to observe the shifts in suitable habitat for the years 2050 and 2070, based off two representative concentration pathway scenarios. Results indicate promising predictive power for both high …


Geochemical Characterization Of Base Metals In Stream Water And Sediments In The Caddo Lake Watershed, Cass, Harrison, And Marion Counties, Texas, Melinda S. Faulkner, Melanie L. Ertons, Joseph D. Watkins Sep 2020

Geochemical Characterization Of Base Metals In Stream Water And Sediments In The Caddo Lake Watershed, Cass, Harrison, And Marion Counties, Texas, Melinda S. Faulkner, Melanie L. Ertons, Joseph D. Watkins

Faculty Publications

The Caddo Lake watershed is located in northeastern Texas and encompasses much of Cass, Harrison, and Marion counties. The watershed is drained by major streams and tributaries flowing in an easterly direction over Eocene-aged rocks and sediments of the Wilcox and Claiborne groups, and empty into the western arm of Caddo Lake. Since 1995, Caddo Lake and some of its tributaries have been included on the State of Texas Clean Water Act 303(d) list by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) for impairment due to mercury content in edible tissue, depressed dissolved oxygen, base metal concentrations, and low pH …


Structural Control Of Mesic Vegetation Communities Within The Owl And Bear Creek Watersheds, Fort Hood Military Installation, Texas, Melinda S. Faulkner, Matthew Mcbroom, Kenneth W. Farrish, Kevin Stafford Jun 2019

Structural Control Of Mesic Vegetation Communities Within The Owl And Bear Creek Watersheds, Fort Hood Military Installation, Texas, Melinda S. Faulkner, Matthew Mcbroom, Kenneth W. Farrish, Kevin Stafford

Faculty Publications

The Fort Hood Military Installation is a karst landscape, dominated by Lower Cretaceous carbonates of the Trinity and Fredericksburg groups. The study area is the northeastern peninsula known as the Owl Mountain Province, utilized by the U.S. Army for troop maneuvers and training. The geomorphic evolution of the province has been controlled by the structural development of incised canyons in the Owl and Bear creek watersheds, following the deformational trend of the Balcones/Ouachita fault system and the transverse Belton High-Central Texas Reef Trend. These trends control cave development in the subsurface, karst manifestations at the surface, joints in outcrop, stream …


A Student Led Investigation Of The Landscape Dynamics Of Campus Recycling, Brandon Mcbride, Cheryl L. Scott, David L. Kulhavy, I-Kuai Hung, Daniel Unger Jan 2019

A Student Led Investigation Of The Landscape Dynamics Of Campus Recycling, Brandon Mcbride, Cheryl L. Scott, David L. Kulhavy, I-Kuai Hung, Daniel Unger

Faculty Publications

Two senior undergraduate students within the environmental science division at Stephen F. Austin State University (SFASU) quantitatively diagnosed the environmental, ecological, and socioeconomic dynamics involved in plastic recycling. This study incorporated actively collecting recycled plastic bottles on campus to produce an enumerated analysis of recycling on campus; and to gain an understanding of the socioeconomics of recycling via an anonymous survey used to determine the recycling knowledgebase of natural resource students at SFASU. Undergraduate students, via their incorporation into a campus wide environmental site assessment of recycling plastic bottles, were able to apply their classroom knowledge to a real-world environmental …


Evaluating Interactive Transect Area Assessments Hands-On Instruction For Natural Resource Undergraduate Students, Daniel Unger, Sarah Schwab, Ryan Jacques, Yanli Zhang, I-Kuai Hung, David L. Kulhavy Jan 2016

Evaluating Interactive Transect Area Assessments Hands-On Instruction For Natural Resource Undergraduate Students, Daniel Unger, Sarah Schwab, Ryan Jacques, Yanli Zhang, I-Kuai Hung, David L. Kulhavy

Faculty Publications

Undergraduate students pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Spatial Science degree at Stephen F. Austin State University (SFASU) receive instruction in the spatial sciences with a focus on hands-on applications. All undergraduate students take the course Introduction to Spatial Science which includes a comprehensive overview of spatial science incorporating a comparison of standard inexpensive area assessment techniques with high-end computer based area assessment methodologies. Students within this course were instructed how to assess the area of a surface feature on an aerial image with a ruler applying the transect method. Student's average Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) between a student's …


Integrating Hands-On Undergraduate Research In An Applied Spatial Science Senior Level Capstone Course, David Kulhavy, Daniel R. Unger, I-Kuai Hung, David Douglass Jan 2015

Integrating Hands-On Undergraduate Research In An Applied Spatial Science Senior Level Capstone Course, David Kulhavy, Daniel R. Unger, I-Kuai Hung, David Douglass

Faculty Publications

A senior within a spatial science Ecological Planning capstone course designed an undergraduate research project to increase his spatial science expertise and to assess the hands-on instruction methodology employed within the Bachelor of Science in Spatial Science program at Stephen F Austin State University. The height of 30 building features estimated remotely with LiDAR data, within the Pictometry remotely sensed web-based interface, and in situ with a laser rangefinder were compared to actual building feature height measurements. A comparison of estimated height with actual height indicated that all three estimation techniques tested were unbiased estimators of height. An ANOVA, conducted …


The Changing Roles Of Natural Resource Professionals: Providing Tools To Students To Teach The Public About Fire, Pat Stephens Williams, Brian Oswald, Karen Stafford, Justice Jones, David Kulhavy Jan 2011

The Changing Roles Of Natural Resource Professionals: Providing Tools To Students To Teach The Public About Fire, Pat Stephens Williams, Brian Oswald, Karen Stafford, Justice Jones, David Kulhavy

Faculty Publications

The Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture (ATCOFA) at Stephen F. Austin State University is taking a proactive stance toward preparing forestry students to work closely with the public on fire planning in wildland-urban interface areas. ATCOFA's incorporation of the "Changing Roles" curriculum provides lessons on how natural resource managers' roles are (1) different than they used to be, and (2) ever-evolving. The undergraduate Forestry Field Station summer program at the University's Piney Woods Conservation Center now emphasizes the importance and challenges of working with the public. The program brings practicing professionals from the Texas Forest Service to describe …


Broad-Scale Relations Between Conservation Reserve Program And Grassland Birds: Do Cover Type, Configuration And Contract Age Matter?, Sam Riffell, Daniel Scognamillo, L. Wes Burger Jr., Shawn Bucholtz Jan 2010

Broad-Scale Relations Between Conservation Reserve Program And Grassland Birds: Do Cover Type, Configuration And Contract Age Matter?, Sam Riffell, Daniel Scognamillo, L. Wes Burger Jr., Shawn Bucholtz

Faculty Publications

The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) is a voluntary cropland set-aside program where environmentally-sensitive cropland is retired to a conservation practice. Grassland birds should benefit because most CRP is grass habitat and because amount of land in CRP is highest in agriculture-dominated areas of the United States where grassland habitat has been most impacted. We used the Breeding Bird Survey and Common Land Unit (CLU) data (spatially-explicit data of farm field boundaries and land cover) to identify relations between types and configurations of CRP and grassland bird abundance in 3 Midwestern states. All 13 species we studied were related to at …