Environmental Monitoring Commons^™

Farmer Perceptions Of Sustainable Agriculture Practices And Drought Risk Reduction In Nebraska, Usa, Cody L. Knutson, Tonya Haigh, Michael J. Hayes, Melissa Widhalm, J. Nothwehr, M. Kleinschmidt, L. Graf

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Social factors, such as farming methods, have an impact on farm vulnerability to drought, but have received little research or policy attention. Some researchers and advocates have argued that sustainable agriculture systems are less vulnerable to climate risk than conventional systems because sustainable agriculture requires producers to have skills promoting adaptability. In this paper, we investigate producers’ perceptions on the use of sustainable agriculture in reducing drought risk, and what they believe would help them better adapt to drought. We surveyed and interviewed farmer members of two sustainable agriculture organizations in Nebraska, USA, during a multi-year drought period from 1999 …

The Global Drought Monitor Portal, Michael J. Brewer, Richard R. Heim Jr.

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Drought monitoring, assessment, response, mitigation, adaptation, and early warning systems have been created in a number of countries around the world, and some regional and continental efforts have been successful. However, the creation of a Global Drought Early Warning System (GDEWS) remains elusive. A GDEWS incorporates forecasting and research improvements, in addition to monitoring, impact, planning, mitigation and adaptation and recovery information. At a series of workshops in 2010, the U.S. National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) agreed to take the first step toward a GDEWS, the formation of a Global Drought Monitoring Portal (GDMP). This effort currently covers three …

Colorado's Large Snow Events' Impact On Tree Ring Growth And Dillon Reservoir, Katrina Leona Marzetta

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Meteorological observations from 1894 through 2010 suggest that 17 historically large snow events occurred in the mountains of Colorado within Denver's water supply region. Of these 16 events, 14 can be identified in precipitation sensitive tree ring records as positive climatic pointer years. If these storms were to occur today, they would have the potential to fill reservoirs in Denver Water's supply system, even after years of sustained drought. These "drought busters" have the potential to refill Dillon Reservoir by increasing average yearly inflow up to 146% of the previous year's inflow. Such drought busters can help Denver recover from …

State Of The Climate In 2010, Jessica Blunden, Derek S. Arndt, Molly O. Baringer

United States Department of Commerce: Staff Publications

Several large-scale climate patterns influenced climate conditions and weather patterns across the globe during 2010. The transition from a warm El Niño phase at the beginning of the year to a cool La Niña phase by July contributed to many notable events, ranging from record wetness across much of Australia to historically low Eastern Pacific basin and near-record high North Atlantic basin hurricane activity. The remaining five main hurricane basins experienced below- to well-below-normal tropical cyclone activity. The negative phase of the Arctic Oscillation was a major driver of Northern Hemisphere temperature patterns during 2009/10 winter and again in late …

Droughtscape, Winter 2011, Kelly Smith

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

Register for the U.S. Drought Monitor Forum

La Niña Brings Southeast, Southwest Drought

International Efforts

Drought Returns in 2010

Impacts Emerge “Before” Summer Drought in East

October-December Quarterly Impacts Summary

Climate Adaptation for Local Government

NDMC Elicits Missouri River Basin Recollections

Woudenberg Coordinates Educational Booklet

Influence Of Karst Landscape On Planetary Boundary Layer Atmosphere: A Weather Research And Forecasting (Wrf) Model–Based Investigation, Ronnie Leeper, Rezaul Mamood, Arturo I. Quintanar

High Plains Regional Climate Center: Staff Publications

Karst hydrology provides a unique set of surface and subsurface hydrological components that affect soil moisture variability. Over karst topography, surface moisture moves rapidly below ground via sink holes, vertical shafts, and sinking streams, reducing surface runoff and moisture infiltration into the soil. In addition, subsurface cave blockage or rapid snowmelt over karst can lead to surface flooding. Moreover, regions dominated by karst may exhibit either drier or wetter soils when compared to nonkarst landscape. However, because of the lack of both observational soil moisture datasets to initialize simulations and regional land surface models (LSMs) that include explicit karst hydrological …

Assessment Of Black Carbon In Snow And Ice From The Tibetan Plateau And Pacific Northwest, Matthew Glen Jenkins

All Master's Theses

An ice core from Mt. Geladandong, Tibetan Plateau, spanning 1853-1983, and snow samples collected over two winters from the Cascade Mountains were analyzed for concentrations of black carbon (BC) using a Single Particle Soot Photometer (SP2). From the ice core, the high-resolution BC record displayed substantial variability, a 2-fold increase in peak concentrations from 1853-1930 to 1930-1983, and a 1.6-fold increase in average concentrations from 1853-1975 to 1975-1983. Concentrations were also higher than at two areas closer to BC sources and analyzed by the same method. In the Pacific Northwest, BC concentrations varied seasonally and annually, with the highest concentrations …

Improving Ensemble Streamflow Prediction Using Interdecadal/Interannual Climate Variability, Kenneth W. Lamb

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The National Weather Service’s (NWS) river forecast centers provide long-term water resource forecasts for the main river basins in the U.S. The NWS creates seasonal streamflow forecasts using an ensemble prediction model called the Extended Streamflow Prediction (ESP) software. ESP creates runoff volume forecasts by taking the current observed soil moisture and snowpack conditions in the basin and applying them to historical temperature and precipitation scenarios. The ESP treats every historic input year as a likely scenario of future basin conditions. Therefore improving the knowledge about how long-term climate cycles impact streamflow can extend the forecast lead time and improve …

Droughtscape, Fall 2010, Kelly Smith

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

CDC Issues Drought Guidance for Public Health

La Niña May Intensify Drought in South

Recent Workshops and Meetings

East Feels Impacts as Heat Intensifies Drought

New Products

Nicole Wall Co-Facilitates Republican River Basin Task Force

NDMC Climatologist on Ethiopia Team

Droughtscape, Summer 2010, Kelly Smith

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

Upcoming Workshops

Mild Drought Season Likely to Persist

Drought Impacts Intensify in Upper Midwest

Visiting Scientists

North Carolina Takes Drought Monitor Seriously

International Work- Murcia, Spain, June

Stable Isotopic And Geochemical Variability Within Shallow Groundwater Beneath A Hardwood Hammock And Surface Water In An Adjoining Slough (Everglades National Park, Fl), Lee J. Florea, Dorien K. Mcgee, Jonathan G. Wynn

Earth, Environmental, and Atmospheric Sciences Faculty Publications

Data from a ten-month monitoring study during 2007 in south Florida provide insight into the variation of δ18O, δD, and δ13C of DOC in surface water and shallow groundwater of the Everglades ecosystem. Bi-monthly samples were taken from surface water and time-averaged precipitation at Taylor Slough, and shallow groundwater from a well and a small cave within Palma Vista Hammock, an exposure of the Upper Pleistocene Miami Limestone.

δ18O and δD values in shallow groundwater from the well and cave remain near the mean of -2.4 ‰ and -12 ‰, respectively (VSMOW scale). 18O and D are enriched in surface …

Measurement And Interpolation Of Sea Surface Temperature And Salinity In The Tropical Pacific: A 9,000 Nautical Mile Research Odyssey, Amber Brooks

Earth and Soil Sciences

The purpose of this project was to compare spline and inverse distance weighting interpolation tools on data collected in the tropical Pacific Ocean by ship and data from a global network of CTD floats, known as Argo floats (fig.1), to provide evidence that technological advancement and integration is aiding our understanding of the ocean-atmosphere system of planet Earth. Thirty-one sea surface temperature and salinity samples were manually taken across a 9,000 nautical mile trek of the Pacific Ocean for the months of April, May and June 2008. Argo ASCII globally gridded monthly averaged sea surface temperature and salinity data, from …

Recent Advances In The Climate Change Biology Literature: Describing The Whole Elephant, A. Townsend Peterson, Shaily Menon, Xingong Li

Peer Reviewed Publications

Climate change biology is seeing a wave of new contributions, which are reviewed herein. Contributions treat shifts in phenology and distribution, and both document past and forecast future effects. However, many of the current wave of contributions are observational and correlational, and few are experimental in nature, and too often a conceptual framework in which to contextualize the results is lacking. An additional gap is the lack of effective cross-linking among areas of research, for example, connection of sea-level rise and climate change implications for distributions of species, or evolutionary adaptation studies with distributional shift studies. Although numerous important contributions …

Assessment Of Impacts To Hydroclimatology And River Operations Due To Climate Change Over The Colorado River Basin, William Paul Miller

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This dissertation investigated the impacts of climate change to the hydroclimatology and river and reservoir management operations within the Colorado River Basin. Preliminary research indicated observed warming trends throughout the Colorado River Basin and corresponding seasonal trends to the magnitude and timing of runoff in the Colorado River Basin. Subsequent research investigated the changing character of precipitation and corresponding impacts to streamflow over the Colorado River Basin. Analysis of snowpack telemetry (SNOTEL) stations over the American West and Colorado River Basin indicated decreasing trends in annual snowpack, often at least at the 95% confidence interval. A shorter snowpack season was …

Information Technology Implementation Decisions To Support The Kentucky Mesonet, D. Michael Grogan

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The Kentucky Mesonet is a high-density, mesoscale network of automated meteorological and climatological sensing platforms being developed across the commonwealth. Data communications, collection, processing, and delivery mechanisms play a critical role in such networks, and the World Meteorological Organization recognizes that “an observing system is not complete unless it is connected to other systems that deliver the data to the users.” This document reviews the implementation steps, decisions, and rationale surrounding communications and computing infrastructure development to support the Mesonet. A general overview of the network and technology-related research is provided followed by a review of pertinent literature related to …

Droughtscape, Spring 2010, Kelly Smith

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

NDMC and NC Drought Council Team Up

Drought to Intensify in Northwest and Hawaii

International Work

Impacts Recorded in Hawaii and Western States

U.S. Drought Monitor Archives Enhanced

Low-Water Impact Surveys Completed

K-12 Drought Outreach

Water Source Partitioning For Shrubland Transpiration Using Innovative Field Methods, Dale A. Devitt, Michael Young, Matthew S. Lachniet, Jeremy Koonce, Amanda Wagner, Brian M. Bird, J. Healey

2010 Annual Nevada NSF EPSCoR Climate Change Conference

37 PowerPoint slides Convener: Franco Biondi, UNR & Michael Young, DRI Session 4: Ecological Change and Water Resources Abstract: -Climate change models predict a decline in precipitation over the next few decades throughout much of the southwest. -Such change has the potential to shift water uptake dynamics of phreatophytes -If groundwater pumping also occurs, the impact of climate change could be exacerbated. -A better understanding of the forces that drive the coupling and decoupling of phreatophytes to groundwater is needed.

Biotic Responses To Climate Change In The Great Basin And Mojave Desert: Vegetation, David Charlet, Patrick Leary

2010 Annual Nevada NSF EPSCoR Climate Change Conference

84 PowerPoint slides Convener: Franco Biondi, UNR & Michael Young, DRI Session 4: Ecological Change and Water Resources Abstract: -The Problem -To detect changes in vegetation as it responds to changes in climate, we must first know where the vegetation is now -GAP (Geographic Approach to Protection of Biodiversity) map --National project to map land cover throughout the US. --Nevada map (Edwards et al. 1996) -Southwest ReGAP map --Land cover map for southwestern US (Prior-Magee et al. 2007) to correct problems identified in GAP map

Research Poster: Climate Prediction Downscaling Of Temperature And Precipitation In The Great Basin Region, Ramesh Vellore, Benjamin J. Hatchett, Darko Koracin

2010 Annual Nevada NSF EPSCoR Climate Change Conference

Research poster

Research Poster: Eco-Hydrological Pathways Inferred From Stable Isotopes In A Pinus Ponderosa And Pinus Monophylla Woodland Of The Sheep Range, Southern Great Basin, Usa, Kelli Hoover, Simon Poulson, Franco Biondi, Jeffrey Underwood

2010 Annual Nevada NSF EPSCoR Climate Change Conference

Research poster

Research Poster: Climate Change Impacts To Groundwater, Springs Hydrology And Aquatic Communities Amargosa Desert And Death Valley National Park, Nevada And California, Terry Fisk, Greg Pohll, Don Sada, Mark Stone

2010 Annual Nevada NSF EPSCoR Climate Change Conference

Research poster

Effects Of Drought On Avian Community Structure, Thomas P. Albright, Anna M. Pidgeon, Chadwick D. Rittenhouse, Murray K. Clayton, Curtis H. Flather, Patrick D. Culbert, Brian D. Wardlows, Volker C. Radeloff

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Droughts are expected to become more frequent under global climate change. Avifauna depend on precipitation for hydration, cover, and food. While there are indications that avian communities respond negatively to drought, little is known about the response of birds with differing functional and behavioral traits, what time periods and indicators of drought are most relevant, or how response varies geographically at broad spatial scales. Our goals were thus to determine (1) how avian abundance and species richness are related to drought, (2) whether community variations are more related to vegetation vigor or precipitation deviations and at what time periods relationships …

Droughtscape, Winter 2010, Kelly Smith

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

USDM Forum Highlights

Drought Likely to Ease

Research Shows Birds Vulnerable to Drought

Drought Recedes in 2009

CA, TX Suffer Impacts from Ongoing Drought

NDMC Wishes Ryu Well

Conferees Pick SPI for Global Drought Index

Combined Effects Of Heat Waves And Droughts On Avian Communities Across The Conterminous United States, Thomas P. Albright, Anna M. Pidgeon, Chadwick D. Rittenhouse, Murray K. Clayton, Brian D. Wardlow, Curtis H. Flather, Patrick D. Culbert, Volker C. Radeloff

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Increasing surface temperatures and climatic variability associated with global climate change are expected to produce more frequent and intense heat waves and droughts in many parts of the world. Our goal was to elucidate the fundamental, but poorly understood, effects of these extreme weather events on avian communities across the conterminous United States. Specifically, we explored: (1) the effects of timing and duration of heat and drought events, (2) the effects of jointly occurring drought and heat waves relative to these events occurring in isolation, and (3) how effects vary among functional groups related to nest location and migratory habit, …

Effects Of Lightning And Other Meteorological Factors On Fire Activity In The North American Boreal Forest: Implications For Fire Weather Forecasting, David Peterson, Jun Wang, Charles Ichoku, Lorraine Remer

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

The effects of lightning and other meteorological factors on wildfire activity in the North American boreal forest are statistically analyzed during the fire seasons of 2000–2006 through an integration of the following data sets: the MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) level 2 fire products, the 3-hourly 32-km gridded meteorological data from North American Regional Reanalysis (NARR), and the lightning data collected by the Canadian Lightning Detection Network (CLDN) and the Alaska Lightning Detection Network (ALDN). Positive anomalies of the 500 hPa geopotential height field, convective available potential energy (CAPE), number of cloud-to-ground lightning strikes, and the number of consecutive dry …

Droughtscape, Fall 2009, Kelly Smith

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

DroughtScape, Fall 2009

Impacts Of Meteorological Factors On Modis-Observed Fire Activity In The North American Boreal Forest: The Role Of Lightning, David A. Peterson

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The meteorological impact on wildfire activity in the North American boreal forest during the fire seasons of 2000 – 2006 is statistically analyzed through an integration of the following data sets: the MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) level 2 fire products, the 3-hourly 32-km gridded meteorological data from North American Regional Reanalysis (NARR), the instantaneous lightning data collected by the Canadian Lightning Detection Network (CLDN), and the Alaska Lightning Detection Network (ALDN). Positive anomalies of the 500 hpa geopotential height field, convective available potential energy (CAPE), number of cloud-to-ground lightning strikes, and the number of consecutive dry days are found …

Droughtscape, Summer 2009, Kelly Smith

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

U.S. Drought Monitor Forum, 2009

El Niño Could Bring Wet Winter After Hot Summer

Around the World

Agriculture Hit Hard in California, Texas

Predictable Patterns in Missouri River Basin?

Seeking Low-Flow Effects in Colorado, Southeast

VegDRI Began Coast-to-Coast Coverage in May

Droughtscape, Spring 2009, Kelly Smith

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

U.S. Drought Monitor Publishes Map 500!

Weakening La Niña May Mean Relief for Texas

Upcoming Workshops

Drought Impacts Worst in California, Texas

CoCoRaHS to Request Drought Impact Data, Too

NDMC Adds Researcher

K-12 Students Learn About Drought

A Century Of Climate Change For Fairbanks, Alaska, Gerd Wendler, Martha Shulski

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Climatological observations are available for Fairbanks, Interior Alaska, for up to 100 years. This is a unique data set for Alaska, insofar as it is of relatively high quality and without major breaks. Applying the best linear fit, we conclude that the mean annual temperature rose from -3.6°C to -2.2°C over the century, an increase of 1.4°C (compared to 0.8°C worldwide). This comparison clearly demonstrates the well-known amplification or temperature change for the polar regions. The observed temperature increase is neither uniform over the time period nor uniform throughout the course of a year. The winter, spring, and summer seasons …