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Canada Thistle

National Invasive Species Council

Alternate Names

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Description

Similar Species

Family: Asteraceae

Ecological Impact

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Discovering Associations Between Climatic And Oceanic Parameters To Monitor Drought In Nebraska Using Data-Mining Techniques, Tsegaye Tadesse, Donald A. Wilhite, Michael J. Hayes, Steve Goddard

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Drought is a complex natural hazard that is best characterized by multiple climatological and hydrological parameters. Improving our understanding of the relationships between these parameters is necessary to reduce the impacts of drought. Data mining is a recently developed technique that can be used to interact with large databases and assist in the discovery of associations between drought and oceanic data by extracting information from massive and multiple data archives. In this study, a new data-mining algorithm [i.e., Minimal Occurrences With Constraints and Time Lags (MOWCATL)] has been used to identify the relationships between oceanic parameters and drought indices. Rather …

Natürliche Und Nutzungsbedingte Land- Und Bodendegradationsprozesse, Untersucht Am Unteren Orchon (Nord-Mongolei) = Naturally And Land Use Caused Land And Soil Degradation Processes, Studied At The Lower Orchon (Northern Mongolia), Christian Opp

Erforschung biologischer Ressourcen der Mongolei / Exploration into the Biological Resources of Mongolia, ISSN 0440-1298

Landscape-ecological investigations were carried-out within the forest steppe of Northern Mongolia. The site conditions of the partly by agriculture used area of Cagaan Tolgoj at the Lower Orchon (Aimag Selenge) were analysed in seven test areas. Results of soil analysis are given. The evaluation of soil cover and partly vegetation cover was carried-out with special regard, to degradation phaenomena. It is based on field analysis, measurements during the soil survey and the detection of soil degradation parameter with the help of laboratory analysis. Among naturally and land use caused factors of soil status and of the changing conditions within forest …

St. Croix National Scenic Riverway Aquatic Invasive Species Interagency Task Force: 2005 Action Plan For The Lower St. Croix River

National Invasive Species Council

This plan outlines strategies and actions proposed by the participating agencies for the 2005 season to help accomplish the Task Force purpose and implement actions from the St. Croix Scenic Riverway Comprehensive Interstate Management Plan.

Implementing this action plan will help attain the following goals of the comprehensive interstate management plan:

Goal I: Prevent or slow the spread of aquatic invasive species into and within the St. Croix River.

Goal II: Abate harmful ecological, economic, social and public health impacts resulting from infestation of aquatic invasive species.

Asian Carps Of The Genus Hypophthalmichthys (Pisces, Cyprinidae) ― A Biological Synopsis And Environmental Risk Assessment, Cindy S. Kolar, Duane C. Chapman, Walter R. Courtenay Jr., Christine M. Housel, James D. Williams, Dawn P. Jennings

National Invasive Species Council

Carps of the family Cyprinidae, the largest family of freshwater fishes in the world (Nelson 1994), have long been introduced beyond their native ranges, a practice that continues today. Although carps have been introduced for several centuries, the widespread introduction of the genus Hypophthalmichthys, the bigheaded carps, is a relatively recent phenomenon. All three recognized species of Hypophthalmichthys—H. nobilis, in North America referred to as Bighead Carp; H. molitrix; Silver Carp; and H. harmandi, Largescale Silver Carp—are native to fresh waters of eastern Asia. Largescale Silver Carp have been introduced elsewhere in west-central Asia as a …

Focus Group Conference Report And Pathways Ranking Guide: June- August 2005

National Invasive Species Council

This document represents the second version of a guide and process for pathway definition, analysis and prioritization. It is expected that this document will undergo another trial test and revision prior to full implementation, though we strongly believed this is a ‘workable’ product that only requires refinement.

Throughout this systems development process, the Pathways Work Team struggled with several issues relevant to scientific data and public policy. While this report in no way attempts to resolve such intricate issues, it is essential that these considerations be brought to the forefront for future decision-making efforts and as such are enumerated below: …

The Use Of Discontinuities And Functional Groups To Assess Relative Resilience In Complex Systems, Craig R. Allen, L. Gunderson, A. R. Johnson

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

It is evident when the resilience of a system has been exceeded and the system qualitatively changed. However, it is not clear how to measure resilience in a system prior to the demonstration that the capacity for resilient response has been exceeded. We argue that self-organizing human and natural systems are structured by a relatively small set of processes operating across scales in time and space. These structuring processes should generate a discontinuous distribution of structures and frequencies, where discontinuities mark the transition from one scale to another. Resilience is not driven by the identity of elements of a system, …

Factors Affecting Regional Variation In Growth Of Channel Catfish, Bart W. Durham, Kevin L. Pope, Gene R. Wilde

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

We related the length at age of channel catfish Ictalurus punctatus, an indirect measure of growth, to three climatic and five morphoedaphic variables in 144 Texas reservoirs. Growth of channel catfish ages 3 through 6 was negatively related to longitude, a factor that explained as much as 34% of the variation in length at age. Channel catfish length at age was not significantly related to latitude, conductivity, morphoedaphic index, mean depth, and maximum depth in all age-classes. Among age-7 channel catfish, length at age was positively related to reservoir area, which explained 35% of the variation in growth. A …

Atrazine Runoff In The Blue River Basin: Geomorphology, Rainfall, And Agronomic Practices, Kundan Dhakal

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Atrazine concentrations in the Big Blue River Basin (BRB) in Nebraska and Kansas periodically exceed the U.S. EPA Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) of 3 µg L^-1. The present study is focused on watershed variables influencing surface runoff of atrazine. The assessment includes the impact of corn and sorghum planting progress (indicating atrazine application), rainfall, antecedent soil water content, and soil restrictive layer on stream-measured weekly atrazine load in independent BRB subwatersheds for 1997 - 2004. Maximum atrazine loading occurred after most of the corn had been planted but during sorghum planting from mid-May to early June, immediately following …

An Analysis Of Simulated Long-Term Soil Moisture Data For Three Land Uses Under Contrasting Hydroclimatic Conditions In The Northern Great Plains, Rezaul Mamood, Kenneth G. Hubbard

High Plains Regional Climate Center: Staff Publications

Soil moisture (SM) plays an important role in land surface and atmosphere interactions. It modifies energy balance near the surface and the rate of water cycling between land and atmosphere. The lack of observed SM data prohibits understanding of SM variations at climate scales under varying land uses. However, with simulation models it is possible to develop a long-term SM dataset and study these issues. In this paper a water balance model is used to provide a quantitative assessment of SM climatologies for three land uses, namely, irrigated corn, rain-fed corn, and grass, grown under three hydroclimatic regimes in Nebraska. …

An Agricultural Drought Risk-Assessment Model For Corn And Soybeans, Hong Wu, Kenneth G. Hubbard, Donald A. Wilhite

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Copyright © 2004 Royal Meteorological Society. Published by Wiley InterScience. Used by permis-sion.

Drought Monitoring Using Data Mining Techniques: A Case Study For Nebraska, Usa, Tsegaye Tadesse, Donald A. Wilhite, Sherri K. Harms, Michael J. Hayes, Steve Goddard

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Drought has an impact on many aspects of society. To help decision makers reduce the impacts of drought, it is important to improve our understanding of the characteristics and relationships of atmospheric and oceanic parameters that cause drought. In this study, the use of data mining techniques is introduced to find associations between drought and several oceanic and climatic indices that could help users in making knowledgeable decisions about drought responses before the drought actually occurs. Data mining techniques enable users to search for hidden patterns and find association rules for target data sets such as drought episodes. These techniques …

General Guidelines For The Establishment & Evaluation Of Invasive Species Early Detection & Rapid Response Systems

National Invasive Species Council

Preventing the introduction of invasive species is the first line of defense against invasions. However, even the best prevention efforts will not stop all invasive species introductions. Early detection and rapid response (ED&RR) efforts increase the likelihood that invasions will be addressed successfully while populations are still localized and population levels are not beyond that which can be contained and eradicated. Once populations are widely established, all that might be possible is the partial mitigation of negative impacts. In addition, the costs associated with ED&RR efforts are typically far less than those of long-term invasive species management programs.

The charge …

Beginning A New Era Of Drought Monitoring Across North America, Jay Lawrimore, Richard R. Heim Jr., Mark D. Svoboda, Val Swail, Phil J. Englehart

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Drought experts from the United States, Canada, and Mexico met at the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, North Carolina, for a three-day workshop in late April 2002 to discuss the United States Drought Monitor program and to develop a plan for initiating a new program of drought monitoring for North America. Since its inception in 1999, the U.S. Drought Monitor (DM) has been extremely successful in assessing and communicating the state of drought in the United States on a weekly basis. This success, and the recognition that an ongoing comprehensive and integrated drought assessment was needed throughout all three …

The Drought Monitor, Mark D. Svoboda, Doug Lecomte, Mike Hayes, Richard Heim, Karin Gleason, Jim Angel, Brad Rippey, Rich Tinker, Mike Palecki, David Stooksbury, David Miskus, Scott Stephens

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

There is a need for improved drought monitoring and assessment methods in the United States. Drought is the most costly natural disaster [Federal Emergency Management Agancy (FEMA 1995; Wilhite 2000)], but it is often neglected by developers of assessment and forecast products. Drought is more nebulous than other disasters and does not lend itself to traditional assessments or forecast methods. Its relatively slow onset and the complexity of its impacts are reasons for the new assessment methodology. Improvements in drought monitoring and forecasting techniques will allow for better preparation, lead to better management practices, and reduce the vulnerability of society …

Asian Carp: Key To Identification

National Invasive Species Council

Asian carp are large 39-40 in. (40-50 lb.) fish introduced into the U.S. by fish farmers in Southern states in the 1960’s and 70’s to control vegetation and algae blooms. Three of these species, the grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella), bighead carp (Hypophthalmichthys nobilis), and silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix) have been released or have escaped to the wild and are reproducing in many rivers and streams of the Mississippi River Basin. As they continue to expand their range, and show up in commercial and sport fish catches, a need has arisen to develop a simple …

Future Antarctic Margin Drilling: Developing A Science Program Plan For Mcmurdo Sound -- Report Of A Workshop Oxford, Uk April 5–7, 2001, David M. Harwood, Laura Lacy, Richard Levy

ANDRILL Research and Publications

ANDRILL (ANtarctic DRILLing) is a multinational initiative with the objectives to recover stratigraphic core records for use in interpreting Antarctica’s climatic, glacial and tectonic history over the past 50 million years and at varying scales of age resolution (0.1 to 100 thousand years [k.y.]). A key motivation of ANDRILL is that the role of the Antarctic cryosphere (ice sheets, ice shelves and sea-ice) in the global climate system is complex and poorly known. Understanding the past history of ice volume variation in Antarctica and associated physical changes in this region is critical to proper assessment of the global climate system …

Land Use Change And Modification Of Near-Surface Thermal Records In The Northern Great Plains, Rezaul Mahmood, Ken Hubbard, Christy Carlson

High Plains Regional Climate Center: Staff Publications

The North American Great Plains have experienced a rapid overturning of natural grasslands to agricultural land use over the last century. Moreover, in some areas more than 80% of the land use has changed from dry land to irrigated agriculture during the second half of the twentieth century. It is speculated that these changes have modified near-surface atmospheric condition and our modeling study seems to support this. To identify changes in land surface- atmospheric modifications we have applied a soil moistureenergy balance model at three locations in Nebraska: Mead, York, and McCook. The model was applied for three land uses …

Black Carp

National Invasive Species Council

What are black carp?

What do they look like?

Where are they from?

How Did They Get Here?

What impacts would they have on our aquatic habitats?

What is the Service doing about black carp?

What are the negative impacts of this ruling?

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Asian Carp

National Invasive Species Council

Four species of large Asian carps (grass, bighead, silver and black) have been imported into the U.S. for use in the aquaculture industry, and biologists are raising more and more concerns about their effect on native fish and shellfish when released or escaped to the wild. In fact, in the fall of 1999, fish kills in isolated ditches adjacent to the Upper Mississippi River on the Mark Twain National Wildlife Refuge in southern Illinois included large numbers (97%) of Asian carps, but only one individual each of four native fish species. After that incident, reports came in of commercial fishermen …

Intermediate Rings Between A Local Domain And Its Completion, Ii, William Heinzer, Christel Rotthaus, Sylvia Wiegand

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

We present results connecting flatness of extension rings to the Noetherian property for certain intermediate rings between an excellent normal local domain and its completion. We consider conditions for these rings to have Cohen-Macaulay formal fibers. We also present several examples illustrating these results.

Management Plan

National Invasive Species Council

Farmers, ranchers, scientists, State officials, and many others have urged the Federal Government to consider invasive species issues a priority and to develop a coordinated national effort to address the problem. In response, the President issued Executive Order 13112 on Invasive Species (Order) in February 1999. The Order established the National Invasive Species Council (Council), co-chaired by the Secretaries of Agriculture, Commerce, and the Interior; and includes the Secretaries of State, Treasury, Defense, and Transportation, and the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. The Order directs the Council to form a non-Federal Invasive Species Advisory Committee (ISAC) to advise the …

Pitcher’S Thistle

National Invasive Species Council

What is the Pitcher’s thistle?

Scientific Name

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Why is the Pitcher’s thistle threatened?

Shoreline Development

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Yellow Jackets (Vespula Spp.) Disperse Trillium (Spp.) Seeds In Eastern North America, Jennifer A. Zettler, Timonthy P. Spira, Craig R. Allen

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

Approximately 70 plant families worldwide have ant-dispersed seeds (myrmecochory). In this putative ant-plant mutualism, ants are attracted to and disperse seeds that have a lipid-rich elaiosome. We observed yellow jackets (Vespula spp.) dispersing seeds of three elaiosome-bearing species-Trillium cuneatum, T. undulatum and T catesbaei-in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina and South Carolina. Moreover, we estimated the mean distance yellow jackets dispersed seeds of T. cuneatum by placing intact fruits on index cards and recovering dispersed seeds on sheets placed on the ground surface. Of the seeds presented, 41% were recovered and the average dispersal distance …

Asian Carp Management And Control Workshop

National Invasive Species Council

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s Columbia Fishery Resources Office and Region 6 Aquatic Nuisance Species Coordinator co-hosted an Asian Carp Workshop in St. Louis, Missouri on April 19-20, 2000 to initiate the process of gathering input for the development of a Mississippi River Basin Asian Carp Management and Control Plan. The goal of the workshop was to review status, distribution, biology; ecological and economic benefits and impacts of four Asian carp species and identify management and control alternatives to reduce or mitigate these impacts.

Fifty-eight participants from state and federal natural resources agencies, universities and research facilities along with …

Intermediate Rings Between A Local Domain And Its Completion, William Heinzer, Christel Rotthaus, Sylvia Wiegand

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

We consider the structure of certain intermediate domains between a local Noetherian domain Rand an ideal-adic completion R* of R that arise as the intersection of R* with a field containing R. In the case where the intersection domain A can be expressed as a directed union of localized polynomial extension rings of R, the computation of A is easier. We examine conditions for this to happen. We also present examples to motivate and illustrate the concepts considered.

Mountain Evolution And Environmental Changes Of Huangshan (Yellow Mountain), China, Pei-Hua Huang, Robert F. Diffendal Jr., Min-Qing Yang, Patricia E. Helland

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

Huangshan (Yellow Mountain) is located in southern part of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. The highest Lotus Flower peak is 1,864 m above sea level. Formative ages of the Huangshan and its granite, process of mountain geomorphic evolution from the Eocene to Quaternary, environmental changes of Quaternary, formative origin of beautiful peaks and fascinating rocks were studied and the questionable “Pleistocene glaciation” was also discussed in this paper.

Monitoring The 1996 Drought Using The Standardized Precipitation Index, Michael J. Hayes, Mark D. Svoboda, Donald A. Wilhite, Olga V. Vanyarkho

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Droughts are difficult to detect and monitor. Drought indices, most commonly the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI), have been used with limited success as operational drought monitoring tools and triggers for policy responses. Recently, a new index, the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), was developed to improve drought detection and monitoring capabilities. The SPI has several characteristics that are an improvement over previous indices, including its simplicity and temporal flexibility, that allow its application for water resources on all timescales. In this article, the 1996 drought in the southern plains and southwestern United States is examined using the SPI. A series …

How To Reduce Drought Risk, Cody Knutson, Mike Hayes, Tom Phillips

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

This guide describes a practical step-by-step process for identifying actions that can be taken to reduce potential drought-related impacts before a drought occurs. Step 1 begins with making sure that the right people are brought together and supplied with adequate data to make informed and equitable decisions during the process. Steps 2 and 3 narrow the focus of the study by identifying high priority drought-related impacts that are relevant to the user’s location or activity. Step 4 demonstrates that in order to reduce the potential for the identified impacts to occur in the future, it is necessary to understand the …

Chapter 2 Climate, Donald A. Wilhite, Kenneth G. Hubbard

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

The broad climatic patterns of the Sand Hills region are also characteristic of the central Great Plains environment. The spatial and temporal patterns of these climatic variables have a significant effect on the natural resources of the region.