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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics
A New Method Comparing Snowmelt Timing With Annual Area Burned, Donal S. O'Leary Iii, Trevor D. Bloom, Jacob C. Smith, Christopher R. Zemp, Michael J. Medler
A New Method Comparing Snowmelt Timing With Annual Area Burned, Donal S. O'Leary Iii, Trevor D. Bloom, Jacob C. Smith, Christopher R. Zemp, Michael J. Medler
Environmental Studies Faculty and Staff Publications
The interactions between climate and wildland fire are complex. To better understand these interactions, we used ArcMap 10.2.2 to examine the relationships between early spring snowmelt and total annual area burned within a defined region of the Rocky Mountains of the western United States. Our research methods used Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS) fire perimeter data and weekly snow extent provided by the Rutgers Global Snow Lab analysis of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) daily snow maps. Our results indicated a significant correlation between early spring snowmelt and total annual area burned (P = 0.0497), providing further evidence …
Integrating Scientific And Local Knowledge To Inform Risk-Based Management Approaches For Climate Adaptation, Thomas Webler, Nathan P. Kettle, Kirstin Dow, Seth Tuler, Jessica Whitehead, Karly M. Miller
Integrating Scientific And Local Knowledge To Inform Risk-Based Management Approaches For Climate Adaptation, Thomas Webler, Nathan P. Kettle, Kirstin Dow, Seth Tuler, Jessica Whitehead, Karly M. Miller
Environmental Studies Faculty and Staff Publications
Risk-based management approaches to climate adaptation depend on the assessment of potential threats, and their causes, vulnerabilities, and impacts. The refinement of these approaches relies heavily on detailed local knowledge of places and priorities, such as infrastructure, governance structures, and socio-economic conditions, as well as scientific understanding of climate projections and trends. Developing processes that integrate local and scientific knowledge will enhance the value of risk-based management approaches, facilitate group learning and planning processes, and support the capacity of communities to prepare for change. This study uses the Vulnerability, Consequences, and Adaptation Planning Scenarios (VCAPS) process, a form of analytic-deliberative …
Stability, Sustainability, And Catastrophe: Applying Resilience Thinking To U.S. Agriculture, Gigi M. Berardi, Rebekah Paci-Green, Bryant Hammond
Stability, Sustainability, And Catastrophe: Applying Resilience Thinking To U.S. Agriculture, Gigi M. Berardi, Rebekah Paci-Green, Bryant Hammond
Environmental Studies Faculty and Staff Publications
Resilience is closely related to notions of sustainability, but emphasizes unpredictable, dynamic environments. As conceptualized in engineering, hazards management, and ecology literature, part of resilience is adaptive capacity, the ability to react effectively to change over time in order to maintain a desirable system state. Agricultural policy has had the effect of undermining such adaptive capacity with its emphasis on stabilization. Using a resilience framework and Hurricane Katrina as an analogy, we suggest that the emphasis on stability and efficiency degrades agricultural system resilience in two ways: through reduced diversity in size and type of production, as well …
Speculations About The Effects Of Fire And Lava Flows On Human Evolution, Michael J. Medler
Speculations About The Effects Of Fire And Lava Flows On Human Evolution, Michael J. Medler
Environmental Studies Faculty and Staff Publications
Recent research argues that an association with fire, stretching back millions of years, played a central role in human evolution resulting in many modern human adaptations. Others argue that hominin evolution was driven by the roughness of topographic features that resulted from tectonic activity in the African Rift valley. I combine these hypotheses to propose that, for millions of years, active lava flows in the African Rift provided consistent but isolated sources of fire, providing very specific adaptive pressures and opportunities to small isolated groups of hominins. This allowed these groups of early hominins to develop many fire specific adaptations …