Environmental Monitoring Commons^™

How The Presence Of Plastic In The North Pacific Gyre Affects The Growth Of Thalassiosira Through Remote Sensing And Laboratory Replication, Jordynn Brennan, Hesham El-Askary

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Through the use of remote sensing, we are able to determine the approximate location of the garbage patch in the North Pacific Gyre. Though remote sensing does not penetrate the surface of the ocean, monthly satellite images can be analyzed to determine the rate of growth or rate of decrease of certain parameters, such as atmospheric gases, phytoplankton, and dissolved organic matter. Over the past decade, data from the Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (Giovanni program) has shown a significant increase in dissolved organic matter and chlorophyll a content in the area of the North Pacific Garbage …

U.S. Drought Monitor, December 9, 2014, Anthony Artusa

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for December 9, 2014 (12/9/14) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Corn, Soybeans, Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

Combating Eutrophication: An Ecosystem Scale Analysis Of Aluminum Sulfate (Alum) Effectiveness Among Lakes, With Comparison To Alum And Biomanipulation Dual Treatment, Christa M. Webber

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Eutrophic conditions in lakes and reservoirs in agricultural regions often drive summer blooms of toxic cyanobacteria. Aluminum sulfate (alum) applications are commonly used to control cyanobacteria blooms and restore water quality in eutrophic lakes. However, studies of alum treatments often lack true replication, comparison to reference lakes, or comparison to other restoration techniques, such as an alum and biomanipulation combined or “dual” treatments. Without these comparisons, the variation of treatment response between replicate lakes and restoration techniques remains uncertain. Therefore, I sought to assess how water quality is affected by multiple restoration techniques among geographically proximate (1.4 km²) …

U.S. Drought Monitor, December 2, 2014, Anthony Artusa

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for December 2, 2014 (12/2/14) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Corn, Soybeans, Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

Umphlett Qci Dec 2014, Natalie A. Umphlett

High Plains Regional Climate Center: Staff Publications

Highlights for the Basin

Temperature and Precipitation Anomalies

Drought Conditions

Agriculture

Horticulture

Recreation and Tourism

3-Month Precipitation and Temperature Outlooks

Soil Moisture Conditions

River Health In Puyo, Ecuador The Use Of Macroinvertebrates As Bioindicators Of Water Quality And Alternatives To Chlorine For Whitening Clothes In The Puyo River Watershed, Allison Rowe

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Fresh water is an important resource in Puyo, Ecuador, a city named after the Kichwa word for ‘cloudy’ in reference to its overcast weather. However, the Puyo River watershed is the most contaminated in all of Pastaza Province. The objective of this investigation was first to evaluate the health of the Puyo River using macroinvertebrate analyses and measurements of chlorine concentrations, temperature, pH, turbidity, velocity, and flow rate. The second objective was to learn about practices used to whiten clothes in Puyo and perceptions of water quality in order to understand the magnitude of bleach pollution and the population’s awareness …

Effects Of Round Goby Presence On Invertebrate And Microbial Communities In Decaying Leaf Matter Of A Lake Erie Tributary Stream, Allyse M. Fischer

Biology Theses

Microbial communities are ubiquitous and carry out valuable functions in the environment. Decomposition of leaf material by microbial communities is important to return nutrients back to both terrestrial and aquatic organisms. Perturbations to the environment like the arrival of invasive species can have an impact on the structure and functions of the microbial community. The round goby (Neogobius melanostomus) is a Ponto-Caspian fish introduced into the Great Lakes which has since secondarily invaded tributary streams and rivers. Studies have shown they alter invertebrate communities, and these alterations have impacted organic matter decomposition. Stream studies suggest leaf litter decomposes …

Groundwater Trend Analysis And Salinity Risk Assessment For The South-West Agricultural Region Of Western Australia, 2007–12, G Paul Raper, Russell Speed, John Andrew Simons, A L. Killen, Andrew Blake, A T. Ryder, Rosemary H. Smith, Grantley Stainer, L Bourke

Resource management technical reports

Dryland salinity is a hydrologically driven land degradation hazard in the south-west agricultural region of Western Australia (WA). Shallow-rooted annual crops and pastures transpire significantly less water than the native vegetation they replaced, leading to an increase in recharge, rising groundwater levels and the development of shallow watertables in areas where often none existed previously. Rising groundwater levels mobilise soluble salts, naturally stored at high concentrations in the regolith. These salts can be concentrated in the root zone of vegetation by evapotranspiration.

Ecosystem Services In The Wet Tropics: A Literature Review And Economic Valuation, Alyson Cheney

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The present study can be broken down into two sections. First, it created a literature review on the current body of knowledge regarding ecosystem services in the Australian Wet Tropics World Heritage Area. The second portion of the study was an economic valuation determining how much residents that live in the Wet Tropics value the benefits provided to them through ecosystem services. The literature review found that there were large gaps in the present body of knowledge. Biophysical studies made up the vast majority of the literature and very few ecosystem service economic valuations have been carried out for the …

U.S. Drought Monitor, November 25, 2014, Eric Luebehusen

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for November 25, 2014 (11/25/14) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Corn, Soybeans, Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

U.S. Drought Monitor, November 18, 2014, Eric Luebehusen

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for November 18, 2014 (11/18/14) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Corn, Soybeans, Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

Agricultural Advisors As Climate Information Intermediaries: Exploring Differences In Capacity To Communicate Climate, Tonya Haigh, Lois Wright Morton, Maria Carmen Lemos, Cody Knutson, Linda Stalker Prokopy, Yun Jia Lo, Jim Angel

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Although agricultural production faces chronic stress associated with extreme precipitation events, high temperatures, drought, and shifts in climate conditions, adoption of climate information into agricultural decision making has been relatively limited. Agricultural advisors have been shown to play important roles as information intermediaries between scientists and farmers, brokering, translating, and adding value to agronomic and economic information of use in agricultural management decision making. Yet little is known about the readiness of different types of agricultural advisors to use weather and climate information to help their clients manage risk under increasing climate uncertainty. More than 1700 agricultural advisors in four …

U.S. Drought Monitor, November 11, 2014, Matthew Rosencrans

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for November 11, 2014 (11/11/14) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Corn, Soybeans, Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

U.S. Drought Monitor, November 4, 2014, Matthew Rosencrans

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for November 4, 2014 (11/4/14) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Corn, Soybeans, Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

Peptide Arrays For Detecting Naphthenic Acids In Oil Sands Process Affected Water, Kamaljit Kaur, Subir Bhattacharjee, Rajesh G. Pillai, Sahar Ahmed, Sarfuddin Azmi

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Naphthenic acids (NAs) are water-soluble components of petroleum. The characterization and quantification of NAs by analytical methods have proved quite challenging, whilst the toxic effects of these water-soluble compounds on a variety of organisms adversely affecting reproduction and steroid production is becoming apparent. In this study, we report a fluorescence-based competitive binding method for rapid sensing of the presence of NAs using cellulosic peptide array strips as sensors. The peptide array was designed from sequences derived from the estrogen receptor (ER). Several of these peptides were able to detect the presence of NAs at low micromolar (∼5 mg L^{−1 …}

Detection Of Power Outages And Recovery Following Disaster Events: The Chilean Earthquake Of 1 April 2014, Tony Cole

Von Braun Symposium Student Posters

No abstract provided.

U.S. Drought Monitor, October 28, 2014, Brian Fuchs

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for October 28, 2014 (10/28/14) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Corn, Soybeans, Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

Extraction And Empowerment: The Application Of Traditional Knowledge Within The Development Of The Nwt Bhp Ekati Diamond Mine, Daniel Vanclieaf

Laurier Undergraduate Journal of the Arts

No abstract provided.

The Status Of Fishes In The Missouri River, Nebraska: Lake Sturgeon (Acipenser Fulvescens), Kirk D. Steffensen, Sam Stukel, Dane A. Shuman

Transactions of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences and Affiliated Societies

Lake Sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) occurrences in the Missouri River along Nebraska’s eastern border are historically sporadic and rare. Presently, the wild Lake Sturgeon population in this river reach may be extirpated. A Recovery Program initiated by the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) has stocked almost 150,000 hatchery-reared Lake Sturgeon into the lower Missouri River at several sites in Missouri. As a result, the number of Lake Sturgeon collected has increased. Since monitoring began in 2003, no Lake Sturgeon have been collected above Gavins Point Dam while 40 fish were collected downstream of Gavins Point Dam. The majority of …

U.S. Drought Monitor, October 21, 2014, Michael J. Brewer

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for October 21, 2014 (10/21/14) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Corn, Soybeans, Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

U.S. Drought Monitor, October 14, 2014, Mark D. Svoboda

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for October 14, 2014 (10/14/14) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Corn, Soybeans, Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

U.S. Drought Monitor, October 7, 2014, Mark D. Svoboda

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for October 7, 2014 (10/7/14) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Corn, Soybeans, Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

Droughtscape, Fall 2014, Kelly Smith

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

Contents

Director’s report

Upcoming events

Drought and climate summary

Drought impacts

Drought planning in Brazil

Ethiopian workshop

Visiting scholar

Help for South Plains ranchers

Wind River tribal workshop

Inter Tribal Buffalo Council

South Dakota ranch workshops

Current Status And Long-Term Trends In Water Quality And Living Resources In The Virginia Tributaries And Chesapeake Bay Mainstem From 1985 Through 2013, Daniel M. Dauer, Todd A. Egerton, John R. Donat, Michael F. Lane, Suzanne C. Doughten, Cindy Johnson, Monika Arora

Status and Trends for Virginia Chesapeake Bay

The period prior to the implementation of the Chesapeake Bay Monitoring Program was characterized by a marked decline in the water quality of the Chesapeake Bay. The disappearance of submerged aquatic vegetation in certain regions of the Bay, declines in the abundance of some commercially and recreationally important species, increases in the incidence of low dissolved oxygen events, changes in the Bay's food web, and other ecological problems have been related to the deteriorating water quality (e.g. USEPA, 1982,1983;Officer et al.,1984; Orth and Moore, 1984). The results of concentrated research efforts in the late 1970s and early 1980s stimulated the …

U.S. Drought Monitor, September 30, 2014, Richard R. Heim Jr.

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of the United States for September 30, 2014 (9/30/14) plus: United States crop areas experiencing drought (map), an approximate percentage of crop located in drought by state (bar graph), and the percentage of crop area located in drought during the past 52 weeks (line graph) for corn, soybeans, hay, cattle, and winter wheat.

The Status Of Fishes In The Missouri River, Nebraska: Shovelnose Sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus Platorynchus), Kirk D. Steffensen, Sam Stukel, Dane A. Shuman

Transactions of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences and Affiliated Societies

The Shovelnose Sturgeon Scaphirhynchus platorynchus remains the most abundant riverine sturgeon species in North American despite the anthropogenic modifications that have occurred throughout their historic range; however, their populations have declined throughout Nebraska since the construction of Fort Randall and Gavins Point Dams. Therefore, the objective of this study was to present the current status of Shovelnose Sturgeon in the Missouri River along Nebraska’s border. Data was acquired from 2003 to 2012 from all reaches of the Missouri River along Nebraska’s eastern border. Catch rates of Shovelnose Sturgeon increased in a downstream trend and were highest in the reach below …

U.S. Drought Monitor, September 23, 2014, Richard R. Heim Jr.

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of the United States for September 23, 2014 (9/23/14) plus: United States crop areas experiencing drought (map), an approximate percentage of crop located in drought by state (bar graph), and the percentage of crop area located in drought during the past 52 weeks (line graph) for corn, soybeans, hay, cattle, and winter wheat.

U.S. Drought Monitor, September 16, 2014, Michael J. Brewer

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for September 16, 2014 (9/16/14) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Corn, Soybeans, Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

U.S. Drought Monitor, September 9, 2014, Brian Fuchs

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for September 9, 2014 (9/9/14) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Corn, Soybeans, Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

U.S. Drought Monitor, September 2, 2014, David Simeral

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for September 2, 2014 (9/2/14) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Corn, Soybeans, Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.