Earth Sciences Commons^™

Reconstructing Deep-Ocean Circulation During Cenozoic Climate Transitions From The Marine Sediment Record, Brian Romans

Sustainability Seminar Series

Ocean circulation plays a critical role in the Earth’s climate system through the storage and transfer of heat and carbon dioxide. The North Atlantic and Southern Ocean are of particular interest because these are regions where deep-water components of global circulation develop. Dr. Romans uses the deep-sea sedimentary record to reconstruct past ocean circulation and its relationship to past climatic and tectonic conditions. He integrates information from a broad range of spatial and temporal scales, from seismic-reflection data that reveals regional sedimentation patterns to high resolution records based on quantitative grain-size analysis from cores. Dr. Romans will present research from …

Constraints Faced By Farmers In Fodder Production & Livestock Management In Western U.P., India, Manju Suman, Ashok Kumar, Vikash Kumar

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

The agrarian economy of the region is fully dependent on agriculture and related activities as clearly revealed by the utilization of land resource in the region. Fodder crop plays vital role in rearing of livestock. Fodder crops are mainly cultivated in kharif ( 87%) followed by rabi (90%) and jayad (45%). India is the largest producer of milk the world. Milk production has been growing at an average rate of 3.45% annum. The per capita availability of milk was around 296 gram per day in 2012-13. India covers about one fifth of livestock population of the world, but the milk …

Testing A Drone-Based Magnetic Field Surveying System, Erik Jacobson, Irina Filina

UCARE: Research Products

Aeromagnetic surveys are conducted by geoscientists to study subsurface geologic structures, such as faults. This type of survey uses a magnetometer mounted upon an airborne vehicle to collect magnetic field data. Magnetic anomalies are caused by variations in subsurface geology, namely in magnetic properties of subsurface rocks. Jacobson and Filina (2019) reported on the development of a new low cost drone, based magnetic field surveying system by the UNL Geophysics Team. This drone-based magnetic system is capable of collecting high resolution data at low speeds and low altitudes. The current study focuses on testing this system by conducting two flights …

Management Effects On Soil Quality Of The Geary Soil Series In Thayer County, Nebraska, Aime Nishimwe

UCARE: Research Products

The CGIAR reports that around 40% of global crop yield variability is explained by climate. While global food consumption is expected to soar in 2050, the impact of climate change accounts for approximately 5% decrease in crop productivity. FAO estimates a 60% increase in global food demand by 2050, with global population reaching 9.8 billions. Sustainable soil management was also noted to boost agricultural food production by 58%. The evaluation of the impact of different management practices on dynamic soil properties was conducted on Geary silty clay loam, 3 to 7 %, eroded soils, which are mainly used for crop …

Understanding Factors Influencing Farmers’ Intention For Adopting Improved Grassland Using The Theory Of Reasoned Action, In The Highlands Of Central Mexico, Carlos Galdino Martínez-García, Carloss Manuel Arriaga-Jordan, Adolfo Armando Rayas-Amor, Peter Dorward, Tahir Rehman

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Low adoption of improved grassland among small-scale dairy farmers has been attributed to different factors such as farmers and household characteristics, farm characteristics, institutional characteristics and capital constraints (Martínez-García et al., 2012). Several researchers illustrate the importance of farmers’ attitude, beliefs and social pressure from the salient referents in the adoption of innovations (Rehman et al., 2007; Rossi Borges et al., 2014). Regarding Mexico, there is a lack of information about understanding of attitudes, beliefs and social pressure underpinning farmers’ intentions to adopt agricultural innovations. In contrast to many adoption studies, it focuses on an innovation that …

The Ecological And Social Effects Of Eco-Environmental Policies On Grassland Rehabilitation In China, Shikui Dong

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Grassland degradation and desertification in China have challenged the sustainability of these invaluable natural resources. Since the beginning of 21st century, the Chinese government has set a lot of eco-environmental policies and programs to deal with these problems. To illustrate the effectiveness of these policies and programs in ecological and socio-economic dimensions, a quantitative assessment was conducted through collecting and analyzing the up-to-date information and data in this study. The results indicate that the ecological restoration projects facilitated by the grassland eco-environment policies and programs such as “Returning to Grassland by Excluding Grazing (RGEG)”, “Beijing-Tianjin Sand Source Control Engineering (BTSSCE)” …

Developing Frameworks To Assess Impacts Of Multiple Drivers Of Change On Grassland System, M. E. Wedderburn, Oscar Montes De Oca, Francisco Dieguez

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Grassland systems face many simultaneous pressures including market and policy compliance that operate from local to global scale. The ability to adapt to these pressures against a background of constrained natural resources and inputs is vital to the continued success of the grassland livestock industry and all those dependent on its outputs. New Zealand and Uruguay collaborators have been developing a suite of tools and processes embedded in an “innovation platform” to enable farmers, agribusiness and policy planners to engage and collectively learn about the impact of their interacting individual decisions and strategies. We describe the generic framework and demonstrate …

Comparison Of Biomass Productivity And Its Persistency Among Four Perennial Grasses For Bioenergy Feedstock Production In Temperate Region Of Japan, Naohiro Uwatoko, Masaaki Katsura, Tomoyuki Takai, Mitsuru Gau

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

The present study was the first report of comparison of above ground biomass yield and its persistence among several bioenergy crops in a temperate zone of eastern Asia.

Novel Approaches To Developing On-Farm Biomass Production Systems, S. Ray Smith, Thomas Clarkson Keene, Lee Carol Greenwell, Krista L. Cotten

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Energy security and climate change are issues facing many countries today. Finding clean, renewable fuel sources has provided a challenge to look beyond the obvious and search for new ways to use old resources. Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) is a warm season grass native to many parts of the United States. In 2007, the University of Kentucky (UK) College of Agriculture started a collaborative project with the UK Cooperative Extension, farmers in northern Kentucky, Kentucky Forage and Grassland Council and East Kentucky Power Cooperative to explore and demonstrate how switchgrass can be grown, harvested and utilized in an economical …

Using Satellite Imaging Radar To Generate Flood Maps For Humanitarian Response: A Case Study For The 2019 Malawi Floods, Wen Yong Huang, Janet Llinas, Evelin Perez Flores, Aaron Davitt

Publications and Research

Floods are the most common, severe, and damaging natural disasters that can last hours, days, or weeks. Given its location along the great African Rift Valley, Malawi is especially vulnerable to floods due to its geography and low economic development (Figure 1). About 80 percent of Malawi‘s population lives in an agrarian economy. From January to March 2019, severe floods affected nearly 1 million people and claimed 56 lives in Malawi. The floods were caused by tropical cyclone Idai from March 4 to March 21, one of the worst tropical cyclones on record, and heavy rains that followed. The floods …

Complete Mitochondrial Genome Of Carijoa Riisei (Duchassaing & Michelotti, 1860) (Octocorallia: Alcyonacea: Stolonifera: Clavulariidae), Erin E. Easton, David Hicks

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

We report the first complete Stolonifera mitochondrial genome. Carijoa riisei (Duchassaing & Michelotti, 1860) isolate CLP2_A03 was collected by scuba at 32 m on the USTS Texas Clipper (27° 53.7827′N, 93° 36.2702′W). The complete mitogenome has the ancestral octocoral gene order for its 14 protein-coding genes, two rRNA genes, and one tRNA gene. It is 18,714 bp (30.7% A, 15.8% C, 18.8% G, and 34.7% T). Of the Alcyonacea mitogenomes published to date, it is most genetically similar (94% uncorrected) to Sinularia ceramensis Verseveldt, 1977 (NC_044122).

Famers’ Preferences For Fodder Trees In Agroforestry, Raghunandan Prasad Dwivedi, Sanjeev Kumar

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Agroforestry encompasses land use systems where woody perennials are intentionally grown on the same piece of land with agricultural crops and/or animals either in form of special arrangement of temporal sequence. A good deal of work has been done on the subject during last one and half decade. Agroforestry is an age-old land use that has been practiced for thousand of years by farmers the world over. Agroforestry is a land use that involves deliberate retention, introduction or mixture of trees or other woody perennials in crop/ animal production fields to benefit from the resultant ecological and economic interactions (Nair, …

Role Of Women In Sustainable Management Of Kangayam Grassland, Anil Kumar, J. C. Jeeva, S. Tanuja

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Kangayam grassland is located in the rain shadow area of the Western Ghats in South India between the coordinates 77° 17”E and 77° 55”E longitude and 10° 44” N and 11° 03” N latitude. It receives an annual rainfall of 666 mm. The grassland used to a barren land with overgrown until 150 years ago when the ownership of these lands were given to the local people by the British colonizers under land settlement called ayen pillu (remission in tax) and paravu pillu (grazing rent) (Nicholson,1887). The occupancy rights granted to the cultivators encouraged them to invest in the unproductive …

Technological Need Assessment And Capacity Building Of Farm Women In Livestock Rearing, Sadhna Pandey, Purushottam Sharma, Satyapriya, R. K. Sharma

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

It has been reflected that women farmers are engaged in the livestock rearing for additional income generation for their family. They provide 60 percent of the livestock farming labour. Contribution of woman folk in dairy production system, like in all other land-related activities, is enormous. She harvests fodder-yielding crops and gather fodder and bedding material from the forest areas, make hay and stack it, feed and look after the animals, cleans animal shed, milks the animal, processes and markets the milk, and does almost everything relating to smallholder dairy farming. Men’s role in dairy is limited. He participates only in …

Ecological Restoration Of Common Pastures Through A Community Led Multi-Stakeholder Partnership, Giresh Mohan, Sarvashish Roy

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Kalyanpura watershed, spread over 5,175 ha area with 16 villages, is situated in the drought prone district of Bhilwara in Rajasthan. Prior to project initiation, only 27% of the area in Kalyanpura was under agriculture and the balance was mainly accounted for by village commons used for livestock grazing and fuel wood collection. Although the area receives an average annual rainfall of 700 mm, the undulating landscape, shallow soil cover and the absence of any soil moisture conservation resulted in high runoff and degraded commons. Recurring droughts and absence of irrigation facilities made farm based livelihood vulnerable to seasonality, especially …

A Proposal For Improving Pastures In Subsistence Farming Systems On The East India Plateau, Shivendra Kumar, Ashok Kumar, Peter Stuart Cornish

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

The East India Plateau (EIP) experiences deep poverty despite high rainfall (> 1200 mm). Livelihoods, once derived from Sal (Shorea robusta) forest, now depend on agriculture. Subsistence farmers practice monoculture rice-fallow on small, fragmented landholdings (total < 1 ha). Rice in the undulating landscape was traditionally grown in lowland drainage lines (Fig. 1) but population pressure has forced it onto adjacent terraced slopes (medium-uplands) that now comprise > 80% of the rice area (> 50% of land area). Rice is protected from grazing, but the watershed is otherwise grazed as common land with no pasture management. Grazed uplands are often degraded and unproductive, receiving no inputs. Livestock are limited to large animals providing draft power (males) and manure (fuel, compost), and goats for emergency finance.

Rainfall is not the primary …

Using On-Farm Demonstrations To Evaluate Newly Developed Cool-Season Forages In The Southeastern Usa, Tim Wilson, Mark Warren, Ann R. Blount, Cheryl L. Mackowiak, Jose C. B. Dubeux, James Devalerio, Barton Wilder, Derek Barber, Sydney Hayter

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Multiple demonstration sites throughout Florida were designed to evaluate and provide hands-on producer and county faculty access to newly developed cool-season winter forage crops that can be grown in the southeastern United States. Research funding for these projects was provided by the Dairy Research and Education Project, supported through the Georgia/Florida Dairy Industry check-off dollars. Early adopter producers interested in evaluating forages were identified for this cooperation. Long-term goals are to have the early adopter producer aid in the trialing and dissemination of information about improved varieties.

Cool-season forages for use on southeastern US livestock operations benefit the producer in …

Feed And Fodder–A Major Challenge In Cold Arid Region Of Leh, Mahendra Singh Raghuvanshi, R. K. Bhatt, J C. Tewari, Stanzin Landol, Jigmat Stanzin

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Agriculture and animal husbandry in cold arid region are interwoven with the complex fabric of the society in sociocultural, religious and economical ways. Mixed crop-livestock farming systems have exerted a powerful influence on climate of Leh because of dissected topography with high peaks and deep valleys, having immense surface area and substantial area of which is clothed with a massive green mantle of plant cover during cropping season. Increased development in terms of increased agriculture, construction of roads, other miscellaneous constructions, and revenue oriented forestry has accentuated deforestation to meet the demand of fuel, fodders based industries. This has also …

An Overview Of Current Status And Future Prospects Of Grassland Resource In Sri Lanka, Disna Ratnasekera

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

In Sri Lanka, nearly 12,000 km² of the total land area is under grass (Pemadasa, 1990). Use of grassland for livestock through traditional way goes back a number of centuries. Almost 20% of the countryside of the earth is covered by grassdominated flora, which includes numerous communities (Pemadasa, 1990).The cohesiveness of traditional societies and social groups in livestock rearing led to complete approaches that resulted in appropriate, environmentally sound sustainable technologies in sustainable grassland management. However, due to growing population and mismanagement, Sri Lankan grasslands are deteriorating. Moreover grasslands play key role in livestock production and environment stability. There …

Revolutionary Self-Sustaining Pasture-Crop Rotation Systems Developed By Researcher-Farmer Collaboration For Southern Australian Farming Systems, Belinda Hackney, Angelo Loi, Bradley Nutt, Ronald Yates, Jane Quinn, Janelle Jenkins, John Plitz, Michael O'Hare, Colin Butcher, Anna Butcher, Leslie Weston, Deirdre Lemerle, Ted Wolfe, John Howieson

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Mixed farming pasture-crop rotation systems in southern Australia have traditionally relied on subterranean clover and annual medics. Concern over the long-term persistence of these species was raised in the 1980‟s with the cessation of manufacture of suction harvesters required for seed production. Subsequently, their adaptation has been tested due to climate change. More frequent droughts, particularly the millennium drought (2002-2009), increased incidence of false breaks and dry spring conditions causing decline or complete loss of seedbank reserves and failure of new sowings. A concerted effort developing new legume species for Australian farming systems, led by Western Australia, resulted in domestication …

Physical And Biological Factors Controlling The Fate Of Nitrate In A Louisiana Coastal Deltaic Floodplain, Alexandra Christensen

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Mississippi River Delta is threatened by a growing pressure to support large human populations in the United States both with food production, navigation systems, and urban development in the Mississippi River Basin. Nitrate-nitrogen load in the Mississippi River, up to 100 Tg N yr^-1 from agricultural and urban runoff, leads to phytoplankton blooms and hypoxia across the Louisiana continental shelf, creating dead zones of low dissolved oxygen threatening a significant commercial fishery. Along the coast and river corridors, floodplain ecosystems have the capacity to retain and remove nitrate. This dissertation explores the role of productive, actively growing coastal …

Performance Of Acacia Senegal L.: Untapped Wealth Of Gum Arabic In Rangelands And Grasslands In Arid And Semi-Arid Region Of India, Rajendra Prasad, Vishva Deepak Tripathi, S. K. Dhyani, A. K. Handa, Badre Alam, Ajit, Ramesh Singh

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Acacia senegal (Linn) Wild a member of Mimosaceae is a small tree of 3-6m in height with umbrella-shaped crown. It is a typical tree of Sahel in Africa from Senegal to red sea and essentially limited to the area between 11⁰ and 16⁰ North, with a wide range of rainfall 100 to 800mm. It spread widely in tropical Africa from Mozambique, Zambia to Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Nigeria, and in South Asia in India and Pakistan. In India it is a typical tree of arid regions with a low rainfall of 100-250mm. It is drought resistant …

Determinants Of The Utilization Of Desho Grass (Pennisetum Pedicellatum) For Multiple-Purposes In Ethiopia, Bimrew Asmare, Jane Wamatu, Ashraf Alkhatib, Barbara Rischkowsky, Solomon Demeke, Taye Tolemariyam, Firew Tegegne

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

In the densely populated, humid highland and midland regions of Ethiopia, the green canopy of desho grass (DG), local varieties of Pennisetum sp., spread across the escarpments. Planting of DG is an example of a locally tried and tested land management technique documented by the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development as a successful technology to mitigate land degradation. This technology is in response to cropland encroachment onto communal grazing areas and overstocking of livestock that has led to overgrazing, causing further land degradation and serious pasture shortages. DG is used for multiple purposes in Ethiopia. It is mainly …

Cover Crops Alternatives For Sustainable Agriculture Systems In Uruguay, Walter Ayala, José A. Terra, Ethel Barrios, Ignacio Macedo

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

In Uruguay, the increase of cropland area during the last decade was based on rotation systems intensification and soybean expansion, achieving 1.321.000 ha (Souto, 2014). Diaz (2007) demonstrated the value of the ley-farming systems where the integration of livestock and crop production achieved benefits on sustainability. Despite the advantages of crop-pasture rotation systems (García Prechac et al., 2004), grain market prices and food demand resulted in pasture phase losses in rotation with crops. Recently, Livestock Agriculture and Fisheries Ministry implemented a national soil conservation plan, that regulates cropping rotation systems based on soil erosion estimations and other key soil …

Gum Exudation In Relation To Depth Of Incisions On Stem-Bark Of Butea Monosperma L.: A Dominant Interspersed Tree Species In Grazing Lands, Vishva Deepak Tripathi, Rajendra Prasad, Chandra Shekhar Sahay, Prasahant Singh, S. K. Dhyani

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Butea monosperma (Palas), a medium-sized deciduous tree belonging to the family Leguminosae-Papilioneae (family Fabaceae), is a native to tropical South Asia, especially from the regions of India (Indo-Gangetic plains). B. monosperma is a gum yielding tree, found naturally in most of the rangelands and grasslands particularly in arid and semi-arid regions. It is an important multipurpose tree for the rural population providing fodder, fibre, fuel wood, gum, medicine and shade. In Bundelkhand it is most widespread species and mainly found in open woodlands, degraded/ pasture lands and forest and farmer’s lands. It is adapted to survive under harsh environmental conditions …

Performance Of Bajra Napier Hybrid Varieties In North Konkan Zone Of Maharashtra, A. V. Dahipahle, S. B. Bhagat, B. D. Shinde, U. V. Mahadkar, S. B. Gangawane

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum) commonly referred to as elephant grass, is popular fodder crop for small scale dairy farmers in the high and medium potential dairy production areas of north konkan zone of Maharashtra under the cut & carry system of production. It is a fast growing, deeply rooted, perennial grass growing up to 4 m tall that can spread by underground stems to form thick ground cover. Napier is easy to establish and persistent, drought tolerant, suitable for cutting and very good for silage making. It is also used as a soil stabilizer in soil conservation methods …

New Mechanisms Of Grassland Carbon Sink For Increasing Green Of Grasslands And Income Of Pastoralists, Ji Zhao

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

International meetings in Durban and Doha reach an agreement on a second commitment to the Kyoto Protocol which is planned to be phased in from 2013. China has is-sued two major papers to guide green house gas management, namely the Work Programs of Greenhouse Gases Emission Control for the 12th Five-Year Plan and China's Policies and Actions for Addressing Climate Change. The primary mission of these policies and regula-tions is to improve farmland and grassland carbon sink by implementing grassland protection policy such as forage-livestock balance, grassland enclosure, rest grazing and rotational grazing, controlling grazing capacity and grass-land degradation. …

Information Bank Of Phytoremedial Plants In Arid And Semi-Arid Rangeland Ecosystems, Fatemeh Montazeri, Reza Tamartash, Mohammadreza Tatian, Maedeh Yousefian

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Accumulation of heavy elements by human activities in ecosystems and food chains created hazards for human, plants and ecosystems. Among different methods of managing heavy elements in the environment, using phytoremedial plants has emerged as an efficient way to reduce the concentration of heavy metals in soils (Shtangeeva, 2008). This research examines the efficiency of this heavy metal reduction strategy in dry rangeland ecosystems.

Application Of Payment For Ecosystem Services In China’S Rangeland Conservation: A Social-Ecological System Resilience Perspective, Wenjun Li, Yanbo Li

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Payment for ecosystem services (PES) has been adopted by the Chinese government over the past decade as a mechanism to combat regional-scale rangeland degradation. We analyzed some fundamental problems associated with PES application in rangeland management from the perspective of social-ecological system (SES) resilience by using as a case study he PES project of “retire livestock to restore rangeland” in Inner Mongolia. The study findings demonstrated that PES project resulted in obvious negative impacts on local pastoralists’ livelihood and society networks without achieving any substantial rangeland restoration. Such failures are rooted in that PES strategy in which the logic of …

Subsurface Analytics: Contribution Of Artificial Intelligence And Machine Learning To Reservoir Engineering, Reservoir Modeling, And Reservoir Management, Shahab D. Mohaghegh

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Subsurface Analytics is a new technology that changes the way reservoir simulation and modeling is performed. Instead of starting with the construction of mathematical equations to model the physics of the fluid flow through porous media and then modification of the geological models in order to achieve history match, Subsurface Analytics that is a completely AI-based reservoir simulation and modeling technology takes a completely different approach. In AI-based reservoir modeling, field measurements form the foundation of the reservoir model. Using data-driven, pattern recognition technologies; the physics of the fluid flow through porous media is modeled through discovering the best, most …