Natural Resources and Conservation Commons^™

Controlling Lonicera Maackii (Amur Honeysuckle): Basal Bark And Prescribed Fire Efficacy And Impacts, Kaleb Baker

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Lonicera maackii is a non-native shrub that has invaded eastern and midwestern North American deciduous forests, altering the ecosystem functions and reducing biodiversity. Managers tasked with controlling L. maackii, being resource limited, require effective methods that are quick and easy to use without inflicting extensive nontarget damage. This study explores prescribed fire and seasonal basal applications of triclopyr as control methods and examines their extent of off-target damage. Paired-split plots were established to implement seasonal basal bark treatments within burned/unburned units where individual L. maackii were tracked to determine mortality and the hyperlocal impacts of management. Basal bark treatments were …

Gateways-Nd: Building The Institutional Infrastructure Towards Viable Postsecondary Stem Education Reform, J.M.D. Motschenbacher, M. Vosen Callens, J. Nyachwaya, E. Berg, J. Ladbury, R. Reichenbach, P. Kelter

School of Natural Resources: Documents and Reviews

No abstract provided.

Age-0 Walleye Sander Vitreus Display Length-Dependent Diet Shift To Piscivory, Christopher S. Uphoff, Casey W. Schoenebeck, Keith D. Koupal, Kevin L. Pope, W. Wyatt Hoback

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

The ontogenetic diet shift to piscivory can be energetically beneficial for fish growth and allows larger, more energetically profitable prey to be consumed. A shift to piscivory may be easier for longer individuals within a cohort due to larger gape size, and an early shift is likely advantageous, potentially leading to increased growth rates and survival. Such length-dependent ontogenetic diet shifts may explain the intracohort variability in length that is common for age-0 walleye (Sander vitreus). The objectives of this study were to describe seasonal intracohort variability in length, identify the timing of the shift to piscivory and …

Ecosystem Size Predicts Social-Ecological Dynamics, Mark A. Kaemingk, Christopher J. Chizinski, Craig R. Allen, Kevin L. Pope

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

Recreational fisheries are complex adaptive systems that are inherently difficult to manage because of heterogeneous user groups (consumptive vs. nonconsumptive) that use patchily distributed resources on the landscape (lakes, rivers, coastlines). There is a need to identify which system components can effectively predict and be used to manage nonlinear and cross-scale dynamics within these systems. We examine how ecosystem size or water body size can be used to explain complicated and elusive angler-resource dynamics in recreational fisheries. Water body size determined angler behavior among 48 Nebraska, U.S.A. water bodies during an 11- year study. Angler behavior was often unique and …

Droughtscape, Winter 2019, National Drought Mitigation Center

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

Contents

From the Director

Drought intensified in California and Nevada, eased elsewhere

Year in Review: Drought spread and intensified in the West; record precipitation in the East

Drought impact summary for 4th quarter 2018

Drought impact summary 2018

Five states began drought plan updates in 2018

New web-based form makes submitting drought observations easier

FEMA risk assessment process tailored for drought

Upcoming events

Effects Of Grazing And Fire On Soil Microbial Communities And Hydrological Processes In The Northern Great Plains Grassland, Jacob Comer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Historic grazing and fire regimes have been altered with the development of the livestock industry in the Northern Great Plains and have resulted in a reduction of diversity across all scales. As alternative land surface disturbances are developed to combat the loss of diversity, their potential to serve as a sustainable land surface disturbance should be evaluated. To determine the ability of an alternative grazing strategy to serve as a sustainable land surface disturbance, the reaction of the soil microbial community and soil hydrological processes should be evaluated. Objectives of this study were to: 1) evaluate the impact of alternative …

Soil Health Assessment In Reclaimed Mine Soils, Katie Danielle Stutler

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

West Virginia is one of the top coal-producing states in the nation, which has resulted in over 500,000 acres of highly disturbed, anthropogenic mine soils caused by surface mining. Mine soils are often rocky and contain low organic matter content, low plant-available nutrients, and toxic metals, which could result in poor soil health and low productivity. Soil health has been defined as the continued capacity of soil to function as a living ecosystem that sustains plants, animals, and humans. It is assumed that with time since reclamation, mine soil properties and related functions may change, and soil health will improve …

Isotopic Composition Of Groundwater And Precipitation In Nebraska, Usa, Mikaela L. Cherry, Troy E. Gilmore, Aaron R. Mittelstet, Didier Gastmans, John Gates

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Groundwater is vital worldwide for water supply, agriculture and industry. Nearly 60% of all water use in Nebraska is from groundwater. Over 90% of groundwater is used for irrigation in Nebraska, which has the largest area of irrigated land in the United States. Many Nebraskans depend on groundwater for drinking water, both from private wells and municipal wells. The sustainability of groundwater resources is dependent on groundwater recharge. The recharge processes, as well as climatic patterns, influence the stable isotope signatures.

Based on weekly samples collected at two monitoring stations managed by the National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP), Harvey (2001) …

Variation In Reproductive Timing For The Northern Long-Eared Myotis (Myotis Septentrionalis) Across Nebraska, Keith Geluso, Cliff Lemen, Patricia Freeman, Brett R. Andersen, Jeremy A. White, Heather M. Johnson

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

The northern long-eared myotis (Myotis septentrionalis), a federally threatened species, occurs in extreme northern, eastern, and southern Nebraska. These regions vary in climate due to geographic location, topography, and elevation. During a 1-week period in early July 2015, we surveyed bats across the state and observed striking variation in the reproductive status for M. septentrionalis. We examined whether or not growing degree days, an abiotic climatic factor used mainly for agricultural practices, was associated with this reproductive variation in a mammalian species. In early July, we captured only pregnant females in the Pine Ridge region of northwestern Nebraska, …

Passive Cooling In Non-Residential Nearly Zero Energy Buildings: A Thermal Comfort Analysis Based On Measurement, Modelling And Simulation, Adam O'Donovan

Theses

Overheating in non-residential nearly zero energy buildings (nZEBs) presents a major risk to the well-being, productivity and thermal satisfaction of the people who occupy them. As global temperatures are expected to increase in the future, the overheating risk and cooling demand is also expected to increase. Therefore, low cost and low energy solutions that are able to maintain thermally comfortable conditions without the need for mechanical systems will be vital in decarbonising the building stock and ensuring that buildings are comfortable and remain low carbon now and in the future. Passive cooling has long been championed as a low cost …

Effects Of Fragmentation On Species Retention In National Parks, Liz Tanner

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

The North American landscape is becoming increasingly fragmented, resulting in habitat patches with decreased area and increased isolation. Often, these patches exist as protected areas, such as national parks. The Theory of Island Biogeography is frequently used as a model for these patches, where each park serves as an ‘island’ surrounded by a ‘sea’ of human-altered habitats. As such, species richness and extinctions in a park might be explained by its area. For this study, I used regression models to examine the relationship between richness and area, as well as extinctions and area, for mammals and birds in national parks. …

Application And Refinement Of Molecular Ecology Techniques For Amphibian Conservation, Stephanie Marie Burgess

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Wildlife conservation has become increasingly difficult due to habitat loss habitat fragmentation and land use change. Thus conservationists have embraced advances in molecular ecology such as landscape genetics and microbial bioinformatics that employ genetic techniques to further understand the relationship between individuals and their environment. In landscape genetics model inferences can be used to identify features that facilitate or resist gene flow providing a framework for anticipating the impacts of land use changes on a species’ ability to disperse. However the factors that affect the transferability of landscape genetics inferences are poorly understood and little is known about the effect …

Community-Based Coastal Restoration: Long Term Impacts On Habitats And People In Volusia County, Rachel Wimmer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Coastal habitats provide invaluable economic and ecosystem services. However, coastlines are eroding at increasing rates due to anthropogenic and climate driven changes. Grey and green infrastructure solutions have been proposed to retard the decay of coastlines, with oysters serving as a popular living shoreline. Three community-based stabilizations that implemented living shorelines and engaged local communities in restoration efforts over the past decade in Volusia County were revisited to determine if they were successful and if they produced positive public perceptions of success. Chicken Island, which was restored after waves, boat wakes, tides, and adverse weather altered the natural shoreline, had …

Natural Resources Governance Employing Blockchain-Based Decision-Making, Farinaz Sabz Ali Pour, Adrian Gheorghe

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

Natural resources are essential structures of socio-economic systems which shape the well-being of humanity, environment, and the economy. Human actions have become the critical responsibility for environmental changes and pressuring many planetary boundaries. Having a systematic approach can provide a governance platform including the inherent characteristics of the resource, the historically established form of use, and transaction costs. A natural resource governance framework is developed by applying Blockchain technology as the primary goal of this study to regulate and manage the extraction and trades. Blockchain technology provides a distributed concurrency monitoring system for sustainable resource management. Persistent and pervasive cooperation …

Urban Forests In A Changing Environment: Motivations For Tree Planting And Perspectives Of Climate Change Impacts On Urban Forests, Tobias Burnham

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

Urban trees perform several ecosystem services important to humans. Climate variability and poor management threatens urban forests with ecological and socio-economic consequences. Therefore, it is critical urban trees are sustainably managed. For an urban tree management plan to succeed, social inputs at the residential scale must be taken into consideration. The aim of this research is to help inform urban forest managers of social variables that may play an integral role in successful implementation of urban forest management plans. Social factors behind home-owner decision-making to plant or remove trees in the Lincoln and Omaha metro areas show that 75% of …

Evaluating Soil Loss From Ephemeral Gullies With Photogrammetry, Chinthaka B. Weerasekara

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

No abstract provided.

Seascape Genetics And Rehabilitation Efficiency In The Florida Manatee, Madison Hall

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Florida manatee (Trichechus manatus latirostris) was recently downlisted federally from "endangered" to "threatened" despite acknowledgments of remaining threats to long term population persistence. Challenges to future manatee conservation include, but are not limited to, increases in frequency of harmful algal blooms, intensifying anthropogenic disturbance, and loss of warm-water habitat. The goals of this dissertation were 1) to assess threats to the manatee via a comprehensive, long-term (1973-2016), retrospective analysis of the manatee rescue and rehabilitation partnership (MRRP) and 2) to use seascape genetics analysis to examine whether abiotic, biotic, or anthropogenic seascape variables could significantly describe genetic distance patterns …

Through The Eyes Of Locals: A Changing Climate In Bolivia, Jacob D. Rex

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Deforestation and Agricultural Land-Use Change in Bolivia as a Function of Socio-Economic Realities.

This research combines semi-structured interviews of key informants and local participants, as well as field observations, which were conducted between January and April of 2019 in the Departments of Santa Cruz & Chuquisaca.

Evaluating Reforestation Options For Surface Mines In Appalachia, Joseph Frederick

Theses and Dissertations--Forestry and Natural Resources

During the last century coal extraction has degraded ecosystems in Appalachia, converting forested land into other cover types that have a diminished capacity to naturally progress to later stages of succession. This projects objective was to examine two options for land-use that can assist in returning the reclaimed surface mines to forested cover types, with increased ecosystem services, and a potential for economic gain.

This project examined a biomass plantation and an American chestnut trial. In the biomass trial, greatest heights for American sycamore (12.3 m) and black locust (8.0 m) were found in the fertilizer plots. Mean individual tree …

Post-Glacial Fire History Of Horsetail Fen And Human-Environment Interactions In The Teanaway Area Of The Eastern Cascades, Washington, Serafina Ferri

All Master's Theses

Landscapes of the Pacific Northwest have been shaped by dramatic shifts in climate since the last glacial maximum and more recently, by human activity. However, it is unclear how past relationships between people, fire, and climate interacted on the landscape. The purpose of this research was to reconstruct the post-glacial fire history of a wetland known as Horsetail Fen, located in the Teanaway area of the eastern Cascades of Washington State. The goal was to evaluate how fire activity has varied under different climatic scenarios during the last ~16,000 years and in relation to human land-use actions. This lake was …

A Novel Snp Genotyping Technique To Determine Orangutan Relatedness And Genetic Diversity At Camp Leakey In Tanjung Puting, Central Kalimantan, Ruth Ella Linsky

All Master's Theses

Genetic studies of dispersal patterns in wild populations of orangutans (Pongo spp.) have sought to confirm behavioral observations that female orangutans tend to stay near their natal range while males disperse. In order to genotype a previously unsampled wild population of endangered orangutans at Tanjung Puting National Park I developed novel application of a methyl based magnetic capture for enrichment of fecal DNA and commercial human targeted single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) microarray technology. I confirmed results of this new genotyping technique through standard microsatellite short tandem repeat (STR) micro-capillary genotyping. I estimate genetic diversity and relatedness (r) …

Seasonal Soil Carbon Fluxes In Transitioning Agricultural Soils In Central Washington State: Relations To Land-Use, Environmental Factors And Soil Carbon-Nitrogen Characteristics, Brandon Kautzman

All Master's Theses

Changing agricultural land-use practices to increase soil carbon sequestration contributes to climate change mitigation and improved food security by moving CO₂ from the atmosphere into soil as soil organic carbon (SOC). In 2016, a farm in Thorp, Washington, Spoon Full Farm, began converting land historically farmed using conventional methods of tillage and synthetic fertilizers to conservation farming methods with direct seeding and organic soil amendments with a goal of sequestering carbon in the soil. This project evaluates relationships of soil CO₂ respiration and net ecological exchange (NEE) with land-use types, seasonal environmental factors (air temperature, relative humidity, soil …

River Report. State Of The Lower St. Johns River Basin, Florida: Water Quality, Fisheries, Aquatic Life, Contaminants, 2019, Environmental Protection Board, City Of Jacksonville, University Of North Florida, Jacksonville University, Gerry Pinto, Brian P. Zoellner, Christopher Baynard, Charles Closmann, Nisse Goldberg, Scott F. Jones, William Penwell, Radha Pyati, Adam E. Rosenblatt, Gretchen Bielmyer-Fraser

State of the River Report

No abstract provided.

Changes In Walleye Fecundity And Egg Size Before, During, And After Rehabilitation Of The Red Lakes Fishery, Benjamin J. Miller, Benjamin D. Erb

Journal of Earth and Life Science

The Red Lakes in northern Minnesota experienced a major Walleye Sander vitreus fishery crash in the late 20th century, but has since recovered to record abundances and supports a major commercial and recreational fishery. Fecundity is an integral aspect of recruitment that can contribute greatly to the understanding of fishery population dynamics. To elucidate the effects of varying Walleye densities and exploitation rates on fecundity and egg size in years 1989 (overexploited fishery), 2004 (recovering fishery), and 2017 (recovered fishery), we analyzed linear models that related fecundity or egg size to morphological features for these three sampling periods. Walleyes were …

Cause‐Specific Mortality Of The World’S Terrestrial Vertebrates, Jacob E. Hill, Travis L. Devault, Jerrold L. Belant

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Aim: Vertebrates are declining worldwide, yet a comprehensive examination of the sources of mortality is lacking. We conducted a global synthesis of terrestrial vertebrate cause‐specific mortality to compare the sources of mortality across taxa and determine predictors of susceptibility to these sources of mortality.

Location: Worldwide.

Time period: 1970–2018.

Major taxa studied: Mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians.

Methods: We searched for studies that used telemetry to determine the cause of death of terrestrial vertebrates. We determined whether each mortality was caused by anthropogenic or natural sources and further classified mortalities within these two categories (e.g. harvest, vehicle collision and predation). …

Feral Swine Harming Insular Sea Turtle Reproduction: The Origin, Impacts, Behavior And Elimination Of An Invasive Species, Richard M. Engeman, Robert W. Byrd, Jamie Dozier, Mark A. Mcalister, James O. Edens, Elizabeth M. Kierepka, Timothy J. Smyser, Noel Myers

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Feral swine are among the world's most destructive invasive species wherever they are found, with translocations figuring prominently in their range expansions. In contrast, sea turtles are beloved species that are listed as threatened or endangered throughout the world and are the focus of intense conservation efforts. Nest predation by feral swine severely harms sea turtle reproduction in many locations around the world. Here we quantify and economically assess feral swine nest predation at North Island, South Carolina, an important loggerhead sea turtle nesting beach. Feral swine depredation of North Island sea turtle nests was first detected in 2005, with …

A Bioeconomic Model For The Optimization Of Local Canine Rabies Control, Aaron Anderson, Johann Kotze, Stephanie A. Shwiff, Brody Hatch, Chris Slootmaker, Anne Conan, Darryn Knobel, Louis H. Nel

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

We present a new modeling tool that can be used to maximize the impact of canine rabies management resources that are available at the local level. The model is accessible through a web-based interface that allows for flexibility in the management strategies that can be investigated. Rabies vaccination, sterilization, chemo-contraception, and euthanasia can be specified and limited to specific demographic groups. Additionally, we allowed for considerable complexity in the specification of management costs. In many areas, the costs of contacting additional dogs increases as management effort increases, and this can have important strategic implications. We illustrated the application of the …

No Detection Of Brodifacoum Residues In The Marine And Terrestrial Food Web Three Years After Rat Eradication At Palmyra Atoll, Central Pacific, A. Wegmann, G. Howald, S. Kropidlowski, N. Holmes, A.B. Shiels

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Invasive alien species represent one of the greatest threats to native plants and animals on islands. Rats (Rattus spp.) have invaded most of the world’s oceanic islands, causing lasting or irreversible damage to ecosystems and biodiversity. To counter this threat, techniques to eradicate invasive rats from islands have been developed and applied across the globe. Eradication of alien rats from large or complex island ecosystems has only been successful with the use of bait containing a rodenticide. While effective at eradicating rats from islands, rodenticide can persist in the ecosystem longer than the time required to eradicate the target rat …

Ecological Functions Of Vertebrate Scavenging, James C. Beasley, Zachary H. Olson, Nuria Selva, Travis L. Devault

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Introduction

The role of vertebrate scavenging in food web dynamics has historically been minimalized and portrayed as the activity of a select group of obligate scavengers (e.g., vultures), with a simplistic linkage between carrion and detritivores in food webs. Research in the last few decades, however, has revealed that the role of carrion in food web dynamics is severely underestimated, highly complex, and pervasive among ecosystems across the globe (DeVault et al. 2003; Selva and Fortuna 2007; Wilson and Wolkovich 2011). Such observations have led to a surge in research interest in scavenging ecology that continues to reveal new information …

Mind The Gap: Experimental Tests To Improve Efficacy Of Fladry For Nonlethal Management Of Coyotes, Julie K. Young, John Draper, Stewart Breck

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Coyotes (Canis latrans) are the top predator of livestock in the contiguous United States. Developing more effective nonlethal tools to prevent coyote depredation will facilitate coexistence between livestock producers and coyotes. Fladry is a nonlethal deterrent designed to defend livestock by creating a visual barrier to wolves (C. lupus). Fladry may also be effective with coyotes, but large gap spacing between flags may reduce its efficacy. To address this issue, we performed 2 experiments on captive coyotes using fladry modified to reduce gap spacing at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Predator Research Facility in Millville, Utah, USA, during 2015–2016 and …