Natural Resources and Conservation Commons^™

Cover Crop Effects On Near-Surface Soil Aggregate Stability In The Southern Mississippi Valley Loess (Mlra 134), Chandler M. Arel

Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

Intensive agricultural cultivation within major land resource area (MLRA) 134, the Southern Mississippi Valley Loess, has led to soil erosion, soil compaction, and the overall destabilization of near-surface soil aggregates. The use of cover crops during the agricultural offseason has been shown to help alleviate soil compaction and provide stabilizing effects against soil erosion, which are particularly important as the silty soils of MLRA 134 have a large erosion potential. This study evaluated the effects of cover crop and no-cover crop treatment on silt-loam soils within MLRA 134. Treatments were implemented during Fall 2018 and Fall 2019 and consisted of …

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 …

Data Analytics For Sustainable Food And Agriculture Systems, Megan Lord Reavis

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The increasing concentration of anthropogenic greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is altering the climate, posing a serious threat to global agriculture and food security. Agriculture and food production contribute a quarter of all GHG emissions produced, so there is a critical need to limit emissions in this area while increasing food production to feed the anticipated 10 billion people by 2050. To address the needs of the future, data-driven solutions are needed to guide decision-making and provide support for actionable climate mitigation and survival strategies. Research efforts must be focused on analyzing problems on multiple scales, identifying new ways to …

A 60- Year Record Of The Demotechnic Index Of States, 1960-2019, Gavin James Kellough

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A country’s dependency on energy resources can be interpreted through the calculation of energy indices. The Demotechnic Index (DI) was used to determine the trajectory of energy efficiency of each state in the United States over the period 1960-2019. The DI serves as a measure of the energy intensity of states and a proxy for energy sustainability of each state.The DI is the ratio of total energy use to total metabolic energy demand of a population. Mathematically, DI = (E_T-E_M)/E_M E_T represents the total energy used (metabolic energy + technological energy in kilojoules annually, kJ/y), while EM represents the basic …

Forced And Unforced Permafrost Changes In The Northern Hemisphere During 1901-2100, Hong Guo

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Permafrost regions are very sensitive to rapid changes in climate and environment. In recent decades, there has been growing interest to better understand the permafrost degradation over the Northern Hemisphere in the context of human-induced climate change. Understanding permafrost dynamics is not only important for infrastructure but also for environmental protection in cold regions. In-situ permafrost measurements are important for assessing permafrost conditions. However, direct permafrost observations are sparse and asymmetrical in both spatial and temporal coverage. Active layer thickness (ALT) modeling is another approach that can overcome many of these limitations, but the models have large uncertainty in predicting …

The Effects Of Commercial Harvest On The Density And Demography Of Aquatic Turtles In Arkansas, Andrhea Darleen Massey

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The United States is home to the second highest concentration of turtle species in the world, after Asia. As of 2018, there are 57 turtle species recognized within the US, 40% of which are listed as threatened or endangered, with the primary threats to population persistence identified as over-consumption and/or habitat loss. Within the US, the Mississippi Alluvial Valley (MAV) region represents the second highest turtle species richness, after the Mobile River Basin. The MAV region of Arkansas is one of the least regulated in terms of commercial aquatic turtle harvest and has undergone large-scale habitat conversion from bottomland hardwood …

Body Mass And Body Condition Variation Of Mallards (Anas Platyrhynchos) Within And Among Winters Within The Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley, John Thompson Veon

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Most North American waterfowl overwinter in southern North America before migrating back to breeding grounds in the northern US and Canada. These species face the challenge of needing to maintain or increase their body mass during an environmentally difficult winter period. Successful body mass maintenance during the winter period has major ramifications not only for their winter survival but for their fitness across the entire year. Recent research in Europe and the western United States suggests that the body mass of mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) has increased from the late 1960s to early 2000s. However, the factors responsible for increases in …

Ecological Factors Influencing Population Dynamics Of The Mississippi Sandhill Crane, Grus Canadensis Pulla, Henry W. Woolley

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

My dissertation encompasses three studies involving ecological factors influencing the Mississippi sandhill crane (Grus canadensis pulla) population at Mississippi Sandhill National Wildlife Refuge. To examine influences on the historical population I studied trends in nesting, number of chicks fledged annually, and their environmental and biotic drivers during 1991-2018. I expected precipitation to be positively associated with population measures and drought, extreme heat, and predation to be inversely related to population measures. To examine the influence of current habitat food production on the crane population I quantified measures of production in 2018 and 2019 and their relationship to time …

Economic Estimates Of Wild Hog (Sus Scrofa) Damage And Control Among Young Forest Plantations In Alabama, Micah Fern, Rebecca Barlow, Chris Slootmaker, John Kush, Stephanie Shwiff, Larry Teeter, Jim Armstrong

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Operating as ecological engineers, the increased distribution and abundance of wild hogs (Sus scrofa) has caused considerable socio-economic impacts. The international scope of economic research providing wild hog damage estimates are often confined to agricultural crops, while damage estimates among forest plantations are lacking. In Alabama, private landowners hold the majority of timberland acreage and are less equipped to absorb financial losses from wild hog damage than their industrial counterparts. A survey was conducted to estimate the economic impact of wild hogs, namely costs of damage and control, to privately owned forestlands. The survey was distributed in the …

Rehydrating The Landscape At Yanget, Geraldton, Western Australia, Jamie Bowyer, Rod O'Bree

Natural resources published reports

Rod and Bridie O’Bree’s farm is 25 km east of Geraldton in the Northern Agricultural Region of Western Australia. The long-term rainfall average is 486 mm although that has dropped to 354 mm over the last 30 years. They run a 150 head beef cattle herd, fatten 500-700 lambs annually and have a 40-60 head horse stud on the farm. They purchased the farm early in 2008 after one of the worst droughts in the area. There was little to no vegetation, brown or green, across the farm and all of the water from a 25 mm rain event ran …

Deterring Non-Target Birds From Toxic Bait Sites For Wild Pigs, Nathan P. Snow, Joseph M. Halseth, Justin A. Foster, Michael J. Lavelle, Justin W. Fischer, Michael P. Glow, Ingrid A. Messer, Seth M. Cook, Kurt C. Vercauteren

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Toxic baiting of wild pigs (Sus scrofa) is a potential new tool for population control and damage reduction in the US. Field trials testing a prototype toxic bait (HOGGONE 2 containing 5% sodium nitrite [SN]), though, revealed that wild pigs spilled small particles of toxic bait outside of bait stations which subsequently created hazards for non-target species that consumed those particles, primarily passerine birds. To deter non-target birds from consuming particles of spilled bait, we tested four deterrents at mock bait sites (i.e., baited with bird seed) in north-central Colorado, USA during April–May 2020. We found a programable, inflatable deterrent …

Responses Of Turkey Vultures To Unmanned Aircraft Systems Vary By Platform, Morgan B. Pfeiffer, Bradley F. Blackwell, Thomas W. Seamans, Bruce N. Buckingham, Joshua L. Hoblet, Patrice E. Baumhardt

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

A challenge that conservation practitioners face is manipulating behavior of nuisance species. The turkey vulture (Cathartes aura) can cause substantial damage to aircraft if struck. The goal of this study was to assess vulture responses to unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) for use as a possible dispersal tool. Our treatments included three platforms (fixed-wing, multirotor, and a predator-like ornithopter [powered by flapping flight]) and two approach types (30 m overhead or targeted towards a vulture) in an operational context. We evaluated perceived risk as probability of reaction, reaction time, flight-initiation distance (FID), vulture remaining index, and latency to return. …

Landscape Transformations Produce Favorable Roosting Conditions For Turkey Vultures And Black Vultures, Jacob E. Hill, Kenneth F. Kellner, Bryan M. Kluever, Michael L. Avery, John S. Humphrey, Eric A. Tillman, Travis L. Devault, Jerrold L. Belant

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Recent increases in turkey vulture (Cathartes aura) and black vulture (Coragyps atratus) populations in North America have been attributed in part to their success adapting to human-modified landscapes. However, the capacity for such landscapes to generate favorable roosting conditions for these species has not been thoroughly investigated. We assessed the role of anthropogenic and natural landscape elements on roosting habitat selection of 11 black and 7 turkey vultures in coastal South Carolina, USA using a GPS satellite transmitter dataset derived from previous research. Our dataset spanned 2006–2012 and contained data from 7916 nights of roosting. Landscape …

Sex And Nest Type Influence Avian Blood Parasite Prevalence In A High-Elevation Bird Community, Marina D. Rodriguez, Paul F. Doherty, Antoinette J. Piaggio, Kathryn P. Huyvaert

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Background: The prevalence of avian haemosporidian parasites and the factors influencing infection in the Colorado Rocky Mountains are largely unknown. With climate change expected to promote the expansion of vector and avian blood parasite distributions, baseline knowledge and continued monitoring of the prevalence and diversity of these parasites is needed.

Methods: Using an occupancy modeling framework, we conducted a survey of haemosporidian parasite species infecting an avian community in the Colorado Rocky Mountains in order to estimate the prevalence and diversity of blood parasites and to investigate species-level and individual-level characteristics that may influence infection.

Results: We estimated the prevalence …

Potential Use For Serosurveillance Of Feral Swine To Map Risk For Anthrax Exposure, Texas, Usa, Rachel M. Maison, Courtney F. Pierce, Izabela K. Ragan, Vienna R. Brown, Michael J. Bodenchuk, Richard A. Bowen, Angela M. Bosco-Lauth

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Anthrax is a disease of concern in many mammals, including humans. Management primarily consists of prevention through vaccination and tracking clinical-level observations because environmental isolation is laborious and bacterial distribution across large geographic areas diffi cult to confi rm. Feral swine (Sus scrofa) are an invasive species with an extensive range in the southern United States that rarely succumbs to anthrax. We present evidence that feral swine might serve as biosentinels based on comparative seroprevalence in swine from historically defi ned anthrax-endemic and non–anthraxendemic regions of Texas. Overall seropositivity was 43.7% (n = 478), and logistic regression revealed county endemicity …

Longleaf Pine Restoration In The South Carolina Sandhills Wiregrass Gap, Jacob W. Murray

All Theses

Longleaf pine restoration has been a topic of great concern and intrigue in the southeast and has taken on new fervor in recent decades as restoration methods continue to develop. Many landowners and forest managers are now pursuing ecological forestry and restoration ecology in great numbers as a new form of land management. However, niche regions can often be overlooked, as is the case with the Carolina Sandhills Wiregrass Gap, an area devoid of wiregrass and one that is on the outskirt regions of the historical longleaf pine range. Field studies were conducted pre- and post-harvest during two growing seasons …

Identification Of Phosphorous Loading Point Source Facilities To 303(D) Listed Nutrient Impaired Waters Through Watershed Delineation Using Arcgis For Life Cycle Assessment Applications, John Zimmerman

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The work done for this project is part of a larger “life cycle assessment (LCA) of novel electrochemical phosphorus recovery technology at the wastewater treatment plant and U.S. watershed scales” (Morrissey 2019). The goal of that LCA is to determine “environmental impacts of implementing electrochemical struvite recovery at the wastewater treatment plant, U.S watershed, and global scales” (Morrissey 2019). This project’s goal is to identify locations deemed more sensitive to eutrophication impacts. The results will be used as part of the life cycle inventory (LCI) accounting for geographically explicit phosphorus flows. The waters identified as impaired were sourced from the …

How Are Agricultural Research Projects Conceiving Innovation? An Assessment Of The European Union Multi-Actor Projects, Samuel Brea Martinez-Collado

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Horizon research programs are the European Union’s lighthouse for innovation and research concerning the agri-food chain, the management of natural resources, and the bioeconomy. Their innovation strategy approach is one that pursues the practical application of the research via the collaboration of all actors involved. Such strategy is the reflection of a Multi-Actor Approach as their procedure to enhance innovation. This paper presents the main trends and directions 101 Multi-Actor Projects (MAPs) are following on said approach towards innovation. The analysis is based on the use of well-defined “pathways” and “measures” proposed in the Guidelines for Evaluation of Innovation in …

How Do Genetic Relatedness And Spatial Proximity Shape African Swine Fever Infections In Wild Boar?, Tomasz Podgórski, Kim M. Pepin, Anna Radko, Angelika Podbielska, Magdalena Łyjak, Grzegorz Woźniakowski, Tomasz Borowik

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

The importance of social and spatial structuring of wildlife populations for disease spread, though widely recognized, is still poorly understood in many host-pathogen systems. In particular, system-specific kin relationships among hosts can create contact heterogeneities and differential disease transmission rates. Here, we investigate how distance-dependent infection risk is influenced by genetic relatedness in a novel host-pathogen system: wild boar (Sus scrofa) and African swine fever (ASF).We hypothesized that infection risk would correlate positively with proximity and relatedness to ASF-infected individuals but expected those relationships to weaken with the distance between individuals due to decay in contact rates and …

Feasibility Discussion Of Potential Carbon Offsetting Options For Nebraska, Andrew Mwape

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Conclusion

Highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of carbon offsetting options in the context of the state of Nebraska, this discussion shows that the choice and decisions about which option is better than the other depends on the interests at play and expected outcomes of the participation in carbon markets. However, irrespective of the motive to engage in emission reduction projects for carbon marketing, factors such as cost, and project efficiency can never be overlooked. Given the options discussed in this report, Nebraska has a lot of potential for carbon offsetting or emission reduction projects that would not only reduce and …

Low Impact Sampling Of Speleothems – Reconciling Scientific Study With Cave Conservation, Claire L.V. Macgregor, John C. Hellstrom, Jon D. Woodhead, Russell N. Drysdale, Rolan S. Eberhard

International Journal of Speleology

Speleothems are increasingly valued as important paleoclimate archives and yet the removal of samples from caves can come at a cost to natural heritage, impacting delicate environments with limited mechanisms for repair. Conservation of cave environments is a key responsibility for scientists and, with this in mind, we are working to develop and implement techniques that allow us to extract valuable scientific data, with minimal impact. In this study, we demonstrate the utility of low-impact reconnaissance dating surveys on caves in southern Tasmania and southwest Western Australia as a precursor to the removal of stalagmites for paleoclimate reconstruction. Small flakes …

The Danov Archive, Victor Fet, Alexander Kogan

Open Access Books

This memorial volume compiles materials about Rostislav Dаnov (1941—1993) of St. Petersburg (Russia), a naturalist, artist, and snake-hunter, who worked for many years in Turkmenistan (West Kopetgagh Mts). The book celebrates Dаnov’s 80th birthday. It includes previously unpublished artwork and scientific illustrations by Dаnov as well as his texts, research papers, various memoirs, biographic information, and unique photographs. The book is intended for everyone who is interested in history of science and conservation in Central Asia and the USSR.

Фет В, Коган А, составители. Дановcкий архив. Библиотека Университета Маршалла, Хантингтон, Западная Виргиния, 2021. 494 с. Этот том содержит материалы о …

Shifts In The Acute Stress Response In Red-Eared Sliders (Trachemys Scripta) During The Activity Season, Jennifer Lauren Terry

Student Theses and Dissertations

Tradeoffs may occur among biological processes if individuals are energetically challenged. Glucocorticoids (GC) promote essential daily processes and energy reprioritization during stressful or energy-demanding periods and provide insight to an individual’s energetic state. I captured 123 wild adult red-eared sliders (Trachemys scripta) outside of Cherry Valley, Arkansas in the Arkansas Delta between May and October 2019 to assess energy tradeoffs between innate immunity and GC secretion. I collected blood samples at 0–3, 30, and 60 min and used plasma in bacterial killing assays and radioimmunoassays to assess innate immunity and corticosterone concentrations, respectively. Tradeoffs were not evident in this population …

Incorporating Chlorophyll-A Levels Into An Integral Projection Model Of Gizzard Shad (Dorosoma Cepedianum) In The Upper Mississippi River, Raquel Castromonte, Gregory J. Sandland, James Peirce

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Correlated Evolution Of Distinct Signals Associated With Increased Social Selection In Female White-Shouldered Fairywrens, John Anthony Jones, Karan J. Odom, Ian R. Hoppe, Doka Nason, Serena Ketaloya, Jordan Karubian

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Conspicuous female signals have recently received substantial scientific attention, but it remains unclear if their evolution is the result of selection acting on females independently of males or if mutual selection facilitates female change. Species that express female, but not male, phenotypic variation among populations represents a useful opportunity to address this knowledge gap. White-shouldered fairywrens (Malurus alboscapulatus) are tropical songbirds with a well-resolved phylogeny where female, but not male, coloration varies allopatrically across subspecies. We explored how four distinct signaling modalities, each putatively associated with increased social selection, are expressed in two populations that vary in competitive pressure on …

Salient Experiences In Student Development: Impact Of An Undergraduate Stem Teacher Preparation Program, Amie S. Sommers, Kelly Gomez Johnson, Paula Jakopovic, Julio Rivera, Neal Grandgenett, John A. Conrad, William E. Tapprich, Christine E. Cutucache

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

The need for a comprehensive, high-quality pipeline for the development of undergraduate pre-service teachers, especially those that represent a diverse student body, within STEM disciplines is acute. Here, we studied the NoyceSCIENCE program to determine the most impactful experiences offered to undergraduates through the lens of student development theory. We used qualitative coding to analyze data collected from journals (n = 29) written by students of varying backgrounds, and at varying levels within the program (i.e., the Scholar and Intern level) over a 3-year program running period. We observed that faculty mentorship, the ability of undergraduates to mentor others, volunteer …

Monitoring Agroecosystem Productivity And Phenology At A National Scale: A Metric Assessment Framework, Dawn M. Browning, Eric S. Russell, Guillermo E. Ponce-Campos, Nicole Kaplan, Andrew D. Richardson, Bijan Seyednasrollah, Sheri Spiegal, Nicanor Saliendra, Joseph G. Alfieri, John Baker, Carl Bernacchi, Brandon T. Bestelmeyer, David Bosch, Elizabeth H. Boughton, Raoul K. Boughton, Pat Clark, Gerald Flerchinger, Nuria Gomez-Casanovas, Sarah Goslee, Nick M. Haddad, David Hoover, Abdullah Jaradat, Marguerite Mauritz, Gregory W. Mccarty, Gretchen R. Miller, John Sadler, Amartya Saha, Russell L. Scott, Andrew Suyker, Craig Tweedie, Jeffrey D. Wood, Xukai Zhang, Shawn D. Taylor

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Effective measurement of seasonal variations in the timing and amount of production is critical to managing spatially heterogeneous agroecosystems in a changing climate. Although numerous technologies for such measurements are available, their relationships to one another at a continental extent are unknown. Using data collected from across the Long-Term Agroecosystem Research (LTAR) network and other networks, we investigated correlations among key metrics representing primary production, phenology, and carbon fluxes in croplands, grazing lands, and crop-grazing integrated systems across the continental U.S. Metrics we examined included gross primary productivity (GPP) estimated from eddy covariance (EC) towers and modelled from the Landsat …

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 …

Rooting Out Genetic Structure Of Invasive Wild Pigs In Texas, Anna M. Mangan, Antoinette J. Piaggio, Michael J. Bodenchuk, Courtney F. Pierce, Timothy J. Smyser

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Invasive wild pigs (Sus scrofa), also called feral swine or wild hogs, are recognized as among the most destructive invasive species in the world. Throughout the United States, invasive wild pigs have expanded rapidly over the past 40 years with populations now established in 38 states. Of the estimated 6.9 million wild pigs distributed throughout the United States, Texas supports approximately 40% of the population and similarly bears disproportionate ecological and economic costs. Genetic analyses are an effective tool for understanding invasion pathways and tracking dispersal of invasive species such as wild pigs and have been used recently …