Natural Resources and Conservation Commons^™

Investigating Diurnal And Seasonal Climatic Response To Land Use And Land Cover Change Over Monsoon Asia With The Community Earth System Model, Rezaul Mahmood

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Land Use/Land Cover Changes And Regional Climate Over The Loess Plateau During 2001-2009 – Part I. Observed Evidences, Rezaul Mahmood

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

On Underestimation Of Global Vulnerability To Tree Mortality And Forest Die-Off From Hotter Drought In The Anthropocene, Craig D. Allen, David D. Breshears, Nate G. Mcdowell

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Patterns, mechanisms, projections, and consequences of tree mortality and associated broadscale forest die-off due to drought accompanied by warmer temperatures—‘‘hotter drought’’, an emerging characteristic of the Anthropocene—are the focus of rapidly expanding literature. Despite recent observational, experimental, and modeling studies suggesting increased vulnerability of trees to hotter drought and associated pests and pathogens, substantial debate remains among research, management and policy-making communities regarding future tree mortality risks. We summarize key mortalityrelevant findings, differentiating between those implying lesser versus greater levels of vulnerability. Evidence suggesting lesser vulnerability includes forest benefits of elevated [CO2] and increased water-use efficiency; observed and modeled increases …

Land Use/Land Cover Changes And Regional Climate Over The Loess Plateau During 2001-2009 – Part Ii., Rezaul Mahmood

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Enso Teleconnection Pattern Changes Over The Southeastern United States Under A Climate Change Scenario In Cmip5 Models, Ji-Hyun Oh, D.W. Shin, Steven D. Cocke, Guillermo A. Baigorria

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

A strong teleconnection exists between the sea surface temperature (SST) over the tropical Pacific and the winter precipitation in the southeastern United States (SE US).This feature is adopted to validate the fidelity of Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) in this study. In addition, the authors examine whether the teleconnection pattern persists in the future under a global warming scenario. Generally, most of the eight selected models show a positive correlation between November SST over Ni˜no 3 region and December–February (DJF) mean daily precipitation anomalies over the SE US, consistent with the observation. However, the models with poor realization …

Biodigestor: Rural Power Plant, Felipe Ribeiro Bozza

Op-Eds from ENSC230 Energy and the Environment: Economics and Policies

Biodigestor: Rural Power Plant

Social Policies As Subsidy For Environmental Education: A Citizen Behavioral Change Tool, Gracielle Peixoto

Op-Eds from ENSC230 Energy and the Environment: Economics and Policies

Social Policies as subsidy for Environmental Education: A citizen behavioral change tool

One Tragedy, One Action, Amy Fosler

Op-Eds from ENSC230 Energy and the Environment: Economics and Policies

One Tragedy, One Action

Leveling The Financial Playing Field For Renewables, Taylor Nissen

Op-Eds from ENSC230 Energy and the Environment: Economics and Policies

Leveling the Financial Playing Field for Renewables

Great Economic Growth Versus Sustainability, Maria Brandao

Op-Eds from ENSC230 Energy and the Environment: Economics and Policies

Great Economic Growth versus Sustainability

It Is Always Possible, Ivan Makino

Op-Eds from ENSC230 Energy and the Environment: Economics and Policies

It Is Always Possible

Say No To Natural Gas, Alex Bruening

Op-Eds from ENSC230 Energy and the Environment: Economics and Policies

Say No to Natural Gas

Iowa Does It Better: Necessary Role Model Needed To Up Nebraska’S Poor Recycling Diversion Rates, Brian Burris

Op-Eds from ENSC230 Energy and the Environment: Economics and Policies

Iowa Does It Better: Necessary Role Model needed to Up Nebraska’s Poor Recycling Diversion Rates

What The Frack?, Carson Schwalbach

Op-Eds from ENSC230 Energy and the Environment: Economics and Policies

What The Frack?

Why Keystone Pipeline Xl Construction Doesn’T Matter Either Way, Melissa Allen

Op-Eds from ENSC230 Energy and the Environment: Economics and Policies

Why Keystone Pipeline XL Construction Doesn’t Matter Either Way

Biofuels: Good And Bad, Megan Neve

Op-Eds from ENSC230 Energy and the Environment: Economics and Policies

Biofuels: Good and Bad

A Call For Congressional Climate Action, Calvin Harman

Op-Eds from ENSC230 Energy and the Environment: Economics and Policies

A Call for Congressional Climate Action

Potential Biogas Production On Livestock Operations, Mariana Baia

Op-Eds from ENSC230 Energy and the Environment: Economics and Policies

Potential Biogas Production on Livestock Operations

The Clean Power Plan – Has The Epa Got It Right…, Brooke Welsh

Op-Eds from ENSC230 Energy and the Environment: Economics and Policies

The Clean Power Plan – Has the EPA Got It Right…

The Cost Of Change, Thomas Mcguire

Op-Eds from ENSC230 Energy and the Environment: Economics and Policies

The Cost of Change

Nuclear Power Gateway To A Sustainable Energy Sector, Tyler Glewwe

Op-Eds from ENSC230 Energy and the Environment: Economics and Policies

Nuclear Power Gateway to a Sustainable Energy Sector

Energy Race To Save The Planet, Ty Rempe

Op-Eds from ENSC230 Energy and the Environment: Economics and Policies

Energy Race to Save the Planet

Corn Ethanol, A Bad Idea, Taylor Hackbart

Op-Eds from ENSC230 Energy and the Environment: Economics and Policies

Corn Ethanol, A Bad Idea

Modeling The Snow Surface Temperature With A One-Layer Energy Balance Snowmelt Model, J. You, D. G. Tarboton, C. H. Luce

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Snow surface temperature is a key control on and result of dynamically coupled energy exchanges at the snow surface. The snow surface temperature is the result of the balance between external forcing (incoming radiation) and energy exchanges above the surface that depend on surface temperature (outgoing longwave radiation and turbulent fluxes) and the transport of energy into the snow by conduction and meltwater influx. Because of the strong insulating properties of snow, thermal gradients in snow packs are large and nonlinear, a fact that has led many to advocate multiple layer snowmelt models over single layer models. In an effort …

The Effect Of Weather During Rearing On Morphometric Traits Of Juvenile Cliff Swallows, Erin A. Roche, Mary Bomberger Brown, Charles R. Brown

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Episodes of food deprivation may change how nestling birds allocate energy to the growth of skeletal and feather morphological traits during development. Cliff swallows (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota) are colonial, insectivorous birds that regu­larly experience brief periods of severe weather–induced food deprivation during the nesting season which may affect offspring development. We investigated how annual variation in timing of rearing and weather were associated with length of wing and tail, skeletal traits, and body mass in juvenile cliff swallows reared in southwestern Nebraska during 2001–2006. As predicted under conditions of food deprivation, nestling skeletal and feather measurements were generally smaller …

Translating Aboveground Cosmic-Ray Neutron Intensity To High-Frequency Soil Moisture Profiles At Sub-Kilometer Scale, R. Rosolem, T. Hoar, A. Arellano, J. L. Anderson, W. J. Shuttleworth, X. Zeng, Trenton E. Franz

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Above-ground cosmic-ray neutron measurements provide an opportunity to infer soil moisture at the subkilometer scale. Initial efforts to assimilate those measurements have shown promise. This study expands such analysis by investigating (1) how the information from aboveground cosmic-ray neutrons can constrain the soil moisture at distinct depths simulated by a land surface model, and (2) how changes in data availability (in terms of retrieval frequency) impact the dynamics of simulated soil moisture profiles. We employ ensemble data assimilation techniques in a “nearly-identical twin” experiment applied at semi-arid shrubland, rainfed agricultural field, and mixed forest biomes in the USA. The performance …

The Figure Of Bitu-Man, Paul Royster

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries: Faculty Publications

The ominously imposing figure in the above illustration is “the Syncrude bird deterrent device, locally known as ‘Bitu-man’.” He stands (or stood—the original image was from the late 1970s) in the tailings pond of the Syncrude Canada Ltd. oil sands mining operation along the Athabasca River near Fort McMurray in northeastern Alberta. That operation surface mines (i.e., strip mines) bitumen-impregnated sand, processes it with hot water and steam, and discharges the liquid effluent or “tailings” into a pond covering roughly 3000 hectares (11 square miles). (Google Map coordinates: 56.9°N, -111.3° W). Residue bitumen collects on the surface and poses a …

Connections Between Student Explanations And Arguments From Evidence About Plant Growth, Jenny Dauer, Jennifer H. Doherty, Allison L. Freed, Charles W. Anderson

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

We investigate how students connect explanations and arguments from evidence about plant growth and metabolism—two key practices described by the Next Generation Science Standards. This study reports analyses of interviews with 22 middle and high school students postinstruction, focusing on how their sense-making strategies led them to interpret—or misinterpret—scientific explanations and arguments from evidence. The principles of conservation of matter and energy can provide a framework for making sense of phenomena, but our results show that some students reasoned about plant growth as an action enabled by water, air, sunlight, and soil rather than a process of matter and energy …

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

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 …