Natural Resources and Conservation Commons^™

Ecology And Conservation Of Lesser Prairie-Chickens, Larkin A. Powell

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Scholars, conservationists, policymakers, and students will find critical information and a detailed case study on an avian species of conservation concern in this edited volume. Haukos and Boal have gathered work by 29 contributing authors in a well-designed set of 18 chapters that showcases current information about the Lesser Prairie-Chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus). The book is timely in covering this species, which has found itself in the throes of the court system recently, having been designated with federal protection as a threatened species in 2014, only to have the courts vacate the listing rule in 2015, just as this …

Culturally Induced Range Infilling Of Eastern Redcedar: A Problem In Ecology, An Ecological Problem, Or Both?, Aubrey Streit Krug, Daniel R. Uden, Craig R. Allen, Dirac L. Twidwell Jr

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

The philosopher John Passmore distinguished between (1) “problems in ecology,” or what we might call problems in scientific understanding of ecological change, and (2) “ecological problems,” or what we might call problems faced by societies due to ecological change. The spread of eastern redcedar (Juniperus virginiana) and conversion of the central and southern Great Plains of North America to juniper woodland might be categorized as a problem in ecology, an ecological problem, or both. Here, we integrate and apply two interdisciplinary approaches to problem-solving—social-ecological systems thinking and ecocriticism—to understand the role of human culture in recognizing, driving, and …

Modeling With A Conceptual Representation: Is It Necessary? Does It Work?, Rebecca C. Jordan, Steven Gray, Amanda E. Sorensen, Samantha Pasewark, Suparna Sinha, Cindy E. Hmelo-Silver

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

In response to recent educational imperatives in the United States, modeling and systems thinking have been identified as being critical for science learning. In this paper, we investigate models in the classroom from two important perspectives: (1) from the teacher perspective to understand how teachers perceive models and use models in the classroom and (2) from the students perspective to understand how student use model-based reasoning to represent their understanding in a classroom setting. Qualitative data collected from 19 teachers who attended a professional development workshop in the northeastern United States indicate that while teachers see the value in teaching …

Mesoscale Modeling Of The Meteorological Impacts Of Irrigation During The 2012 Central Plains Drought, Clint Aegerter, Jun Wang, Cui Ge, Suat Irmak, Robert Oglesby, Brian D. Wardlow, Haishun Yang, Jingshen You, Martha Shulski

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

In the summer of 2012, the central plains of the United States experienced one of its most severe droughts on record. This study examines the meteorological impacts of irrigation during this drought through observations and model simulations using the Community Land Model coupled to the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model. A simple parameterization of irrigation processes is added into the WRF Model. In addition to keeping soil moisture in irrigated areas at a minimum of 50% of soil moisture hold capacity, this irrigation scheme has the following new features: 1) accurate representation of the spatial distribution of irrigation area …

A Quantitative Framework For Assessing Ecological Resilience, Didier L. Baho, Craig R. Allen, Ahjond Garmestani, Hannah Fried-Petersen, Sophia E. Renes, Lance Gunderson, David G. Angeler

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Quantitative approaches to measure and assess resilience are needed to bridge gaps between science, policy, and management. In this paper, we suggest a quantitative framework for assessing ecological resilience. Ecological resilience as an emergent ecosystem phenomenon can be decomposed into complementary attributes (scales, adaptive capacity, thresholds, and alternative regimes) that embrace the complexity inherent to ecosystems. Quantifying these attributes simultaneously provides opportunities to move from the assessment of specific resilience within an ecosystem toward a broader measurement of its general resilience. We provide a framework that is based on reiterative testing and recalibration of hypotheses that assess complementary attributes of …

Location Matters: Evaluating Greater Prairie-Chicken (Tympanuchus Cupido) Boom Chorus Propagation, Edward J. Raynor, Cara E. Whalen, Mary Bomberger Brown, Larkin A. Powell

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Anthropogenic disturbances can affect species of conservation concern by influencing their behavior. Of special concern is the possibility that noise from anthropogenic structures in grassland habitats, such as wind turbines and roads, may affect the propagation of the low-frequency boom chorus of lekking male Greater Prairie-Chickens (Tympanuchus cupido). We used sound pressure levels from acoustic recordings taken at 10 leks in the Nebraska Sandhills, USA during 2013 and 2014 in a SPreAD-GIS sound propagation model to make spatial projections of the boom chorus under a variety of conditions including landscape composition, conspecific attendance, and weather. We then used sets of …

A Calibration-Free, Robust Estimation Of Monthly Land Surface Evapotranspiration Rates For Continental-Scale Hydrology, Jozsef Szilagyi

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Framework For Pollination Systems Thinking And Conservation, Doug Golick, Jenny Dauer, Louise Lynch, Erin Ingram

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Can An Immersion Exhibit Inspire Connection To Nature And Environmentally Responsible Behavior?, Lisa Pennisi, N. Qwynne Lackey, Stephen M. Holland

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Northern Bobwhite Nest Site Selection In Field Borders, Danielle J. Berger, Jessica N. Piispanen, Tim F. Ginnett, Jason D. Riddle

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Water Quality In Narragansett Bay On Housing Prices, Tingting Liu, James J. Opaluch, Emi Uchida

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Differential Structure Of An Orbifold, Jordan Watts

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Tame Circle Actions, Susan Tolman, Jordan Watts

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The 5e Learning Cycle: What's The Story?, Kelsey Lipsitz, Dante Cisterna, Deborah Hanuscin

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Undergraduate Students Scientifically-Informed Decision-Making About Socio-Hydrological Issues, Jaime L. Sabel, Tina Vo, Ashley Alred, Jenny M. Dauer, Cory Forbes

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Measuring Farmer Conservation Behaviors: Challenges And Best Practices, Kristin Floress, Adam Reimer, Aaron Thompson, Mark Burbach, Cody Knutson, Linda Prokopy, Marc Ribaudo, Jessica Ulrich-Schad

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Multi-Scale Habitat Selection By Cow Moose (Alces Alces) At Calving Sites In Central Ontario, A.A.D. Mclaren, J. F. Benson, B.R. Patterson

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Feasibility Analysis Of Using Inverse Modeling For Estimating Field-Scale Evapotranspiration In Maize And Soybean Fields From Soil Water Content Monitoring Networks, Foad Foolad, Trenton E. Franz, Tiejun Wang, Justin Gibson, Ayse Kilic, Richard Allen, Andrew Suyker

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Foliar Reflectance And Biochemistry, 5 Data Sets, A. Solovchenko, A. Gitelson, O. Chivkunova, M. Merzlyak

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Hiring Leaders: Inference And Disagreement About The Best Person For The Job, Konstantinos Giannakas, Murray Fulton, Tala Awada

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Detecting Spatial Regimes In Ecosystems, Shana M. Sundstrom, Tarsha Eason, R. John Nelson, David G. Angeler, Chris Barichievy, Ahjond S. Garmestani, Nicholas A.J. Graham, Dean Granholm, Lance Gunderson, Melinda Knutson, Kirsty L. Nash, Trisha L. Spanbauer, Craig A. Stow, Craig R. Allen

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Research on early warning indicators has generally focused on assessing temporal transitions with limited application of these methods to detecting spatial regimes. Traditional spatial boundary detection procedures that result in ecoregion maps are typically based on ecological potential (i.e. potential vegetation), and often fail to account for ongoing changes due to stressors such as land use change and climate change and their effects on plant and animal communities. We use Fisher information, an information theory-based method, on both terrestrial and aquatic animal data (U.S. Breeding Bird Survey and marine zooplankton) to identify ecological boundaries, and compare our results to traditional …

Effects Of Climate Change And Anthropogenic Modification On A Disturbance-Dependent Species In A Large Riverine System, Sara L. Zeigler, Daniel H. Catlin, Mary Bomberger Brown, James D. Fraser, Lauren R. Dinan, Kelsi L. Hunt, Joel G. Jorgensen, Sarah M. Karpanty

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Humans have altered nearly every natural disturbance regime on the planet through climate and land-use change, and in many instances, these processes may have interacting effects. For example, projected shifts in temperature and precipitation will likely influence disturbance regimes already affected by anthropogenic fire suppression or river impoundments. Understanding how disturbance-dependent species respond to complex and interacting environmental changes is important for conservation efforts. Using field-based demographic and movement rates, we conducted a metapopulation viability analysis for piping plovers (Charadrius melodus), a threatened disturbance-dependent species, along the Missouri and Platte rivers in the Great Plains of North America. …

Plant Uptake And Stream Chemistry Set Global Bounds On Nitrogen Gas Emissions From Humid Tropical Forests, E.N.J. Brookshire, S. Gerber, W. Greene, R.A. Jones, Steven A. Thomas

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Denitrification and hydrologic leaching are the two major pathways by which nitrogen is lost from the terrestrial biosphere. Humid tropical forests are thought to dominate denitrification from unmanaged lands globally, but there is large uncertainty about the range and key drivers of total N gas emissions across the biome. We combined pantropical measures of small watershed stream chemistry with ecosystem modeling to determine total nitrogen gas losses and associated uncertainty across humid tropical forests. Our calculations reveal that denitrification in soils and along hydrologic flowpaths contributes on average >45% of total watershed N losses. However, when denitrification occurs exclusively in …

Ungulate Predation And Ecological Roles Of Wolves And Coyotes In Eastern North America, John F. Benson, Karen M. Loveless, Linda Y. Rutledge, Brent R. Patterson

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Understanding the ecological roles of species that influence ecosystem processes is a central goal of ecology and conservation biology. Eastern coyotes (Canis latrans) have ascended to the role of apex predator across much of eastern North America since the extirpation of wolves (Canis spp.) and there has been considerable confusion regarding their ability to prey on ungulates and their ecological niche relative to wolves. Eastern wolves (C. lycaon) are thought to have been the historical top predator in eastern deciduous forests and have previously been characterized as deer specialists that are inefficient predators of …

Aquacrop-Os: An Open Source Version Of Fao’S Crop Water Productivity Model, T. Foster, N. Brozovic, A. P. Butler, C. M. U. Neale, D. Raes, P. Steduto, E. Fereres, T. C. Hsiao

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Crop simulation models are valuable tools for quantifying crop yield response to water, and for devising strategies to improve agricultural water management. However, applicability of the majority of crop models is limited greatly by a failure to provide open-access to model source code. In this study, we present an open-source version of the FAO AquaCrop model, which simulates efficiently water-limited crop production across diverse environmental and agronomic conditions. Our model, called AquaCrop-OpenSource (AquaCrop-OS), can be run in multiple programming languages and operating systems. Support for parallel execution reduces significantly simulation times when applying the model in large geospatial frameworks, for …

In-Situ Observation And Transport Modelling Of Arsenic In Gangetic Plain, India, Pankaj Kumar Gupta, Pranjay Joshi, Jahangeer

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

The focus of this study is to investigate the arsenic movement and impacts on the residual concentrations on groundwater pollution load. The Gangetic plain area in the Ballia, Uttar Pradesh is selected as study area, which is also reported to extreme arsenic pollution in soil-water system. A modelling approach is developed to assess the arsenic flux in partially saturated zone using data of soil texture, soil hydraulic properties and stratigraphy. Soil type, slope, and land-use cover is considered for estimating the transient flux at the top boundary from daily precipitation and evapotranspiration data of the study area. Solute transport in …

Paid To Pump: How A Tax Credit Could Discourage Conservation Of The High Plains Aquifer, S. Polzkill,, A. Stejskal, H. Wilke, Anna Wistrom, Katherine E. B. Gibson, Mindy J. Spiehs, Nicholas Brozovic

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

In 1965’s United States v. Shurbet case, an irrigator from Texas asserted his claim for a depletion tax deduction for groundwater pumped from the High Plains Aquifer. He argued that the unique conditions of the southern High Plains region - a plateau where the shallow aquifer is recharged only through precipitation at a slow rate - meant the groundwater resource would be depleted in time. The state argued that groundwater was not fundamentally an exhaustible natural deposit, but the Supreme Court concluded the tax deduction was appropriate given the “peculiar” conditions in the area. It was stated the decision was …

Pathways To Increasing Farmer-Led Investments In Sustainable Agricultural Water Management In Sub-Saharan Africa, Douglas J. Merrey, Peter G. Mccornick, Molly C. Nance

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Without a transformative leap forward in the use of irrigation, Africa will continue falling short in the struggle to feed its growing population, improve its people’s nutrition, grow its economies, adapt to the impacts of climate change, and eliminate poverty. While Africans must lead this transformation for it to be successful, the international community can help African countries substantially increase the use of more productive and sustainable water management practices and unlock the potential of farmer-led irrigated agriculture. Achieving highly productive irrigated agricultural systems in Africa requires an enabling environment that facilitates the full engagement of farmers, public and private …

Regional Supply Chains: Strengthening Urban-Rural Connections Around The Benefits From Natural Areas, Bradford S. Gentry, Eve Boyce, Abigail Martin, Max Webster, Rachel Weston

Yale School of the Environment Publications Series

Report of the 2017 Berkley Workshop

Held at the Inn at Shelburne Farms, Shelburne, VT - June 2017

Malta : Natural Freshwater Resources, Lisamarie Pereira

Global Public Health

The aim of this paper is to discuss Malta’s struggle with limited natural freshwater resources. Malta currently uses aquifers to obtain natural freshwater. For over a decade, aquifers have been under pressure from over-abstraction. Due to this issue, Malta has not been able to obtain enough natural freshwater for agriculture and basic living. The biggest risk due to over-abstraction is retrieving a smaller volume of freshwater. In Malta’s attempted interventions, the biggest issue is the Maltese government’s misconceptions. The Maltese government believes the country has unlimited natural freshwater resources. Due to this misconception, nothing is being done to actively fix …