Environmental Monitoring Commons^™

The Potential Of Remotely Sensed Vegetation Indices For Monitoring Pasture Condition, Pouria Ramzi, Karen Holmes

Resource management technical reports

The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) is developing an integrated monitoring system using remote sensing and on-ground measurements to track pasture condition across Western Australia’s pastoral region. We extended and adapted the methods developed in the Pastoral Lease Assessment Using Geospatial Analysis (PLAGA) project (Robinson et al. 2012), which combined remotely sensed vegetation indices (VIs) with on-ground pasture condition observations to assess the potential of using different vegetation indices in a statewide condition monitoring system.

There were 6 regions in WA’s pastoral rangelands with DPIRD on-ground condition traverse points: Kimberley and Broome, Pilbara, Yalgoo and Sandstone, Goldfields, …

Implications Of Condition Shifts On Shallow Lakes, Alicia Skolte

Biology Graduate Theses

Shallow lakes have undergone condition shifts throughout time by natural causes, management actions, or a combination of the two. Because shallow lakes are especially vulnerable to shifts towards turbid conditions, management actions on shallow lakes have focused on water level/retainment, biomanipulations, the management/removal of non-native species, and land-use changes. This review compiles a summary on ecosystem shifts including a discussion on the frequency of shifts historically and the importance and causes of those shifts, trophic cascades, and the influence of introduced species in shallow lakes. This review will then examine case-studies of management-linked shifts and explain current shift theory. Next, …

Biodiversity Scale-Dependence And Opposing Multi-Level Correlations Underlie Differences Among Taxonomic, Phylogenetic And Functional Diversity, Nadejda A. Mirochnitchenko, Erica F. Stuber, Joseph J. Fontaine

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

Aim: Biodiversity is a multidimensional property of biological communities that represents different information depending on how it is measured, but how dimensions relate to one another and under what conditions is not well understood. We explore how taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional diversity can differ in scale-of-effect dependence and habitat-biodiversity relationships, and subsequently how spatial differences among biodiversity dimensions may arise. Location: Nebraska, United States. Taxon: Birds. Methods: Across 2016 and 2017, we conducted 2,641 point counts at 781 sites. We modeled the occupancy of 141 species using Bayesian Bernoulli-Bernoulli hierarchical logistic regressions. We calculated species richness (SR), phylogenetic diversity (PD), …

American Burying Beetle, Plant Richness, And Soil Property Responses To Collapse Of Juniperus Virginiana Woodlands With Fire, Alison K. Ludwig

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

Grasslands are declining in the Great Plains due to land use changes, woody plant encroachment, and loss of historic fire cycles. Prescribed burn associations have utilized prescribed fire to collapse invading woodlands and allow the restoration of grasslands. This fire is considered “extreme” because it is capable of changing the structure and function of an ecosystem. Our study site is the Loess Canyons Experimental Landscape, a long-term, ecoregion-scale experiment to apply prescribed fire across the region to restore grasslands. The Nebraska Natural Legacy Project established the Loess Canyons ecoregion as a Biologically-Unique Landscape in 2005 with the state’s wildlife action …

Assessment Of Soil Sampling Equipment For Guiding Fertiliser Decisions, David Weaver, Robert Summers, David Rogers, Peta Richards, David Rowe

Resource management technical reports

A range of methods, technologies and equipment are used to collect representative composite soil samples from paddocks. Once collected, soil samples are analysed for various parameters that provide evidence to guide fertiliser decisions. The sampling methods, technologies and equipment used must result in samples that consistently represent the parameter of interest.

Soil sampling technology and equipment has advanced from manual devices (such as pogo-stick-style foot-thrust core samplers [pogo]) to a variety of mechanised core-thrust samplers and augers that are fitted to vehicles or battery drills. Each device may function differently under different conditions, and each requires differing levels of human …

Making Agriculture Carbon Neutral Amid A Changing Climate: The Case Of South-Western Australia, Ross Kingwell

Climate Science Research Articles

Making Australian agriculture carbon neutral by 2050 is a goal espoused by several agricultural organisations in Australia. How costly might it be to attain that goal, especially when adverse climate change projections apply to agriculture in southern Australia? This study uses scenario analysis to examine agricultural emissions and their abatement via reforestation in south-western Australia under projected climate change. Most scenarios include the likelihood of agricultural emissions being reduced in the coming decades. However, the impact of projected adverse climate change on tree growth and tree survival means that the cost of achieving agricultural carbon neutrality via reforestation is forecast …

Informing Wetland Management With Waterfowl Movement And Sanctuary Use Responses To Human-Induced Disturbance, Fiona Mcduie, Austen A. Lorenz, Robert C. Klinger, Cory T. Overton, Cliff L. Feldheim, Joshua T. Ackerman, Michael L. Casazza

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Long-term environmental management to prevent waterfowl population declines is informed by ecology, movement behavior and habitat use patterns. Extrinsic factors, such as human-induced disturbance, can cause behavioral changes which may influence movement and resource needs, driving variation that affects management efficacy. To better understand the relationship between human-based disturbance and animal movement and habitat use, and their potential effects on management, we GPS tracked 15 dabbling ducks in California over ~4-weeks before, during and after the start of a recreational hunting season in October/November 2018. We recorded locations at 2-min intervals across three separate 24-h tracking phases: Phase 1) two …

The U.S. Inland Creel And Angler Survey Catalog (Creelcat): Development, Applications, And Opportunities, Abigail J. Lynch, Nicholas A. Sievert, Holly S. Embke, Ashley M. Robertson, Bonnie J.E. Myers, Micheal S. Allen, Zachary S. Feiner, Frederick Hoogakker, Scott Knoche, Rebecca M. Krogman, Stephen R. Midway, Chelsey L. Nieman, Craig P. Paukert, Kevin L. Pope, Mark W. Rogers, Lyndsie S. Wszola, T. Douglas Beard

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

Inland recreational fishing, defined as primarily leisure-driven fishing in freshwaters, is a popular pastime in the USA. State natural resource agencies endeavor to provide high-quality and sustainable fishing opportunities for anglers. Managers often use creel and other angler survey data to inform state- and waterbody-level management efforts. Despite the broad implementation of angler surveys and their importance to fisheries management at state scales, regional and national coordination among these activities is minimal, limiting data applicability for larger-scale management practices and research. Here, we introduce the U.S. Inland Creel and Angler Survey Catalog (CreelCat), a first-of-its-kind, publicly available national database of …

The Coastal Monitor: Vol. 7 No. 3, John Tanacredi Ph.D.

The Coastal Monitor

Where has all the pollution gone? No hazardous toxic algal blooms? Incredible summer estuarine water quality! No fish kills. Banner years in recreational fisheries for Stripers and Blues and incredible numbers of Humpback whales! No going to restaurants, so greater at home use of water and septic systems! Since March 2020, drier years than most, thus reducing runoff with fertilizers and organic pesticides, resulting in reduced water contamination. So maybe, just maybe, this COVID- 19 period which has altered our collective lives forever, has also resulted in a grand experiment on what has been hiding in plain sight? That is, …

Fisheries Science Update - West Coast Demersal Scalefish Resource - October 2021, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Fisheries Science Updates

The West Coast Demersal Scalefish Resource (WCDSR) is halfway into a 20-year recovery plan following a period of overfishing in the 1990s and 2000s.

This latest assessment provides an important “health check” on the recovery status.

The recovery plan is based on maintaining recreational (including charter) and commercial sector’s total fishing mortality below catch limits and protecting key spawning aggregations to recover the WCDSR by 2030.

The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) tracks recovery progress by undertaking weight of evidence stock assessments of WCDSR indicator species dhufish and pink snapper every 3-5 years.

The latest science shows …

Beach Suitability For Nesting Olive Ridley Sea Turtles (Lepidochelys Olivacea), Playa Malena, Azuero Peninsula, Panama, Soleil Foy

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Sea turtle species all over the world are facing continuous declines in their populations partly due to diminished viable nesting habitat. Understanding sea turtle nesting preferences and the suitability of beaches for reproductive success is necessary in order to sustain their populations and ensure their conservation. Olive ridley sea turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea) are one of the species experiencing this trend, especially in the Eastern Pacific. This study examined the beach suitability of a site known as Playa Malena in the Azuero Peninsula in Panama for Olive ridley nesting. This site was compared to the suitability of 7 other …

Abundance, Foraging Levels, And Dietary Preferences Of Chaetodon Capistratus On Reefs Surrounding Porvenir Island In The Guna Yala Comarca Of Panamá, Eleanor Ann Casement

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Reef fish are a physically and functionally diverse group of organisms that live in close association with coral reef habitats. Chaetodontidae represents the most species rich family of corallivorous fish, and their reliance on corals as food resources has led to their designation as indicator species of coral cover and health. However, the majority of research on the foraging ecology of Caribbean Chaetodontids dates back several decades, and therefore does not account for recent changes in coral community composition as the result of disease, climate change, and other stressors. As the novel and deadly stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) …

Wildflower Pollen Quality In Roadside Habitats, With Particular Emphasis On Hedera Helix, Aoife Mcmullin, Paul Hamilton

SURE Journal: Science Undergraduate Research Experience Journal

The quality of air is of more significance today than ever before. Human population growth and pollutants emitted through fossil fuel consumption put pressures on air quality. It is widely acknowledged that atmospheric pollutants negatively impact human health; the same is also true for the health of wildlife and plants exposed to these pollutants (Brunekreef & Holgate, 2002; EEA, 2019; Schiavoni, et al., 2017). Pollen and seed formation of flowering plants have been affected when grown in areas of poor air quality (Azzazy, 2016; Sénéchal, et al., 2015). The purpose of this research was to assess pollen of …

A Two-Stage Approach To Integrate Vessel Geo-Tracking Data And Logbooks For Monitoring Fishing Activity Of Coastal Fisheries In Waters Off Northwestern Taiwan, Yi-Jou Lee, Nan-Jay Su, Cheng-Hsin Liao, Wei-Chuan Chiang, Chun-Huei Li

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

Catch and fishing effort data are fundamental information to stock assessment and fisheries management, but difficult to obtain without the support of administration and sound fishery data collection system. This study integrated various sources of data from a simplified vessel geo-tracking system and logbooks from interviews with captains of coastal gillnet fisheries. We developed a two-step approach based on hierarchical cluster analysis to characterize the operation patterns and infer the fishing activities of the fishery. Results showed that the fishing effort in terms of operation duration could be estimated precisely for various vessel sizes, with catch composition and harvest information …

Otoliths Of South-Western Australian Fish: A Photographic Catalogue, Chris Dowling, Kim Smith, Elaine Lek, Joshua Brown

Fisheries Research Reports

Due to the species-specific nature of otoliths and given they are often the only part of the fish preserved when fish die, otolith catalogues can be used in numerous applications, such as diet studies in fish eating animals, including pinnipeds, fish and sea birds; archaeological purposes such as reconstructing indigenous people’s diets from otoliths found in middens or evolutionary history of fish species by comparing fossilized otoliths. Given the unique mixture of subtropical and temperate fish, including many endemic species that occur off the southwest corner of WA having a catalogue for this area is extremely important for people working …

Rabbit Control: Rhdv1 K5, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Biosecurity factsheets

The national release of the Korean strain of rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus, RHDV1 K5, took place during the first week of March 2017. It was the first time in 20 years a new rabbit biocontrol agent had been released into Australia, and was part of a 20-year national biocontrol plan for rabbits. More than 600 release sites were selected, including 110 sites in Western Australia (WA).

RHDV1 K5 is a naturally occurring Korean variant of the rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV). Its release was expected to boost management and help slow the increase in rabbit numbers. RHDV1 K5 does not …

Do Environmental Toxins Predict Violent Crimes?, Tyler Stahl

Symposium of Student Scholars

Do chemical pollutants that persistent in the environment and bioaccumulate in the body affect human health and behavior? Could these Persistent, Bioaccumulative, and Toxic (PBT) chemicals play a role in the cause of violent crimes due to deterioration of mental and cognitive functions? In the past, Mercury, a PBT chemical, has been shown in salmon to be associated with aggression. Could similar aggression occur in humans exposed to mercury through a toxic spill? Two sources of data are utilized in this analysis. The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Annual Toxic Release Inventory publishes data on toxic releases into the environment and …

Summer To Autumn Population Of Wild Eumaeus Atala On The Ft. Lauderdale Campus Of Nova Southeastern University, Alexandra M. Lens

Mako: NSU Undergraduate Student Journal

Eumaeus atala is an endangered tropical butterfly native to the Caribbean and some parts of Florida, USA. Following population reductions primarily due to habitat loss, E. atala populations are now increasing due to conservation efforts of its cycad host plants, especially Zamia integrifolia (coontie). The purpose of this study was to observe, document, and measure the population of wild E. atala on the Ft. Lauderdale, Florida campus of Nova Southeastern University where landscaping use of host plants supports a natural population of E. atala. Forty-four host plants located in two different sites were observed for 14 weeks. One site …

Data From: Yellow Air Day Advisory Study, Arthur J. Caplan

Browse all Datasets

Using a dataset consisting of daily vehicle trips, PM2.5 concentrations, along with a host of climactic control variables, we test the hypothesis that “yellow air day” advisories provided by the Utah Division of Air Quality resulted in subsequent reductions in vehicle trips taken during northern Utah’s winter-inversion seasons in the early 2000s. Winter inversions occur in northern Utah when climactic conditions are such that PM2.5 concentrations (derived mainly from vehicle emissions) become trapped in the lower atmosphere, leading to unhealthy air quality (concentrations of at least 35 µg/m3) over a span of what are called “red air days”. When concentrations …

Pollination Habitat And Flower Plating For City Beautification, Jim Speer

2021 Spring Reports (Sullivan)

The City of Sullivan identified needs to improve sustainable infrastructure and green space in Sullivan, IN through their Quality of Life plan. Students in ENVI460 were tasked with providing recommendations for their daily operations and site plans that could improve habitats and attractiveness for the community and tourists. Students provided recommendations for native habitat planting and community involvement/education. They also provided site recommendations for community garden and green space updates.

Ichthyofaunal Utilization Of A Man-Made Salt Marsh Creak In Mission Bay, California, 25 Years After Creation, Maria Angst

McNair Summer Research Program

Southern California’s wetlands are drastically declining due to human activities. Increasingly, marsh restoration and creation are being used to mitigate such losses. This study used minnow traps to resample the ichthyofauna of a created marsh (Crown Point Mitigation Site; CPMS) and an adjacent natural marsh (Kendall Frost) in Mission Bay, California, 26 years following the marsh creation. These data were compared to data collected from 1995-1998, immediately after marsh creation. Fishes trapped included Fundulus parvipinnis, Gillichthys mirabilis, Ctenogobius sagittula, Atherinops affinis, and Mugil cephalus. Species richness and dominance measures were higher in the natural relative to the created marsh. The …

Investigation Into Bacterial Impairment Of Greene And Polk County Water Systems, John C. Kincaid

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Bacterial impairment of water systems is a major issue facing mankind. Bacteria that are introduced into a system have the potential to cause harmful diseases to wildlife and humans. In Greene and Polk counties, many water systems have become bacterially impaired over the years. Despite this, little is known about the contamination of known harmful bacteria in this region. To address this issue, I investigated the presence of known human pathogens across water systems in these two counties, many of which have displayed high levels of E. coli and fecal indicator microorganisms over many years. I used a high-throughput sequencing …

Testing A Global Standard For Quantifying Species Recovery And Assessing Conservation Impact, Molly K. Grace, H Resit Akcakaya, Elizabeth L. Bennett, Thomas M. Brooks, Anna Heath, Simon Hedges, Craig Hilton-Taylor, Michael Hoffmann, Axel Hochkirch, Richard Jenkins, David A. Keith, Barney Long, David P. Mallon, Erik Meijaard, E J. Milner-Gulland, Jon Paul Rodriguez, P J. Stephenson, Simon N. Stuart, Richard P. Young, David Fairclough

Fisheries Research Articles

Recognizing the imperative to evaluate species recovery and conservation impact, in 2012 the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) called for development of a “Green List of Species” (now the IUCN Green Status of Species). A draft Green Status framework for assessing species’ progress toward recovery, published in 2018, proposed 2 separate but interlinked components: a standardized method (i.e., measurement against benchmarks of species’ viability, functionality, and preimpact distribution) to determine current species recovery status (herein species recovery score) and application of that method to estimate past and potential future impacts of conservation based on 4 metrics ( …

Net Geochemical Release Of Base Cations From 25 Forested Watersheds In The Catskill Region Of New York, Sara C. Nieman, Chris E. Johnson

Civil and Environmental Engineering - All Scholarship

Chemical weathering of minerals is the principal mechanism by which base cations (Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, K⁺, and Na⁺) are released and acidity is neutralized in soils, bedrock and drainage waters. Quantifying the release of base cations from watershed soils is therefore crucial for the calculation of “critical loads” of atmospheric acidity to forest ecosystems. We used a mass-balance approach to estimate the rate of release of base cations in 25 headwater catchments in the Catskill region of New York, an area historically subject to high inputs of acid deposition. In 2010-2013, total net …

Leveraging Natural Resources Toward Resilience: Outreach, Restoration, And Monitoring For A Resilient Nh Coast, Alyson Eberhardt, David M. Burdick, Gregg E. Moore

Faculty Publications

Both sound science and meaningful community engagement are critical to creating resilient coastlines given that important natural resources and high population densities coexist in these areas. Salt marshes and sand dunes provide important benefits to the people who live near them, such as mitigating flood impacts, when the condition of the ecosystem is robust enough to support such functions. To enhance the ability of these systems to perform ecosystem services, the goals of this project were to 1. Empower landowners to sustainably manage their own property to support coastal ecosystems and the benefits they provide, 2. Restore eroded sand dunes …

Fractured Rock Groundwater Wa Wheatbelt: Data And Methodology Review, Louise Hopgood, Richard Nixon

Natural resources commissioned reports

The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) in partnership with Water Corporation, working with Murdoch and Curtin universities, are looking at new options to improve farm water security in the wheatbelt of Western Australia.

Winter rainfall has declined since 2000 and dams, traditionally used for farm water supply, no longer provide sufficient or reliable water, especially after 1 to 2 below average years. Increasingly, groundwater supplies are being considered to supply farm needs, including those from fractured rock aquifers, with opportunities to desalinate to improve water quality.

This project undertook to review groundwater availability in fractured rock aquifers …

Salicylic Acid Response To Simulated Herbivory In Geographically Distinct T. Heterophylla And H. Discolor Populations, Amy E. Castle

Honors Projects

It is commonly known that plants may produce salicylic acid as a chemical defense response to wounding, although the phenomenon has usually been observed with regard to insect herbivory. Stem and leaf tissue of two species, Tsuga heterophylla and Holodiscus discolor, which are often eaten by deer, were extracted in methanol and analyzed by HPLC to quantify salicylic acid concentration in experimentally wounded or control samples. No salicylic acid response was detectable in T. heterophylla, suggesting it is a less useful candidate species for future study. Some but not all H. discolorsamples had a measurable salicylic acid …

Fungi Associated With Herbaceous Plants In Coastal Northern California, Greg Huffman

Natural Sciences and Mathematics | Biological Sciences Master's Theses

The presence of fungal species associated with herbaceous plants was monitored in coastal Marin County, California, USA. The research involved a combination of field sampling surveys and data collection using a stratified random design, pathogen identification through microbiological and molecular analysis, and descriptive analysis and ordination of results. A total of two years of repeated sampling (four times a year) was organized to allow for the detection of seasonal differences in pathogen presence on aerial plant parts. The objective of this study was to identify microbial species present on herbaceous plants using ITS1 sequence analysis. Throughout March of 2018 to …

Intangible Cultural Heritage: A Benefit To Climate-Displaced And Host Communities, Gül Aktürk, Martha B. Lerski

Publications and Research

Climate change is borderless, and its impacts are not shared equally by all communities. It causes an imbalance between people by creating a more desirable living environment for some societies while erasing settlements and shelters of some others. Due to floods, sea level rise, destructive storms, drought, and slow-onset factors such as salinization of water and soil, people lose their lands, homes, and natural resources. Catastrophic events force people to move voluntarily or involuntarily. The relocation of communities is a debatable climate adaptation measure which requires utmost care with human rights, ethics, and psychological well-being of individuals upon the issues …

The Potential Influence Of Abiotic Conditions On Mussel Species Abundance In San Francisco Bay, Alexandra G. Farrell, M. Christina Vasquez Dr.

Honors Thesis

Climate change has negatively altered seawater conditions, which may have severe implications for marine ecosystems. Mussels are susceptible to environmental changes since they are primary consumers and filter-feeding bivalves. Two species of particular interest to the West Coast of the U.S. are Mytilus galloprovincialis and M. trossulus. M. trossulus is native to the California Coast and was historically prevalent from Southern California to Washington. However, with increased shipping and rising seawater temperature, M. galloprovincialis, an invasive species from the Mediterranean, pushed the species range of M. trossulus poleward. M. trossulus is more tolerant of cold seawater with variable salinity while …