Natural Resources Management and Policy Commons^™

The Effect Of Agrivoltaics On Irrigation Water Consumption In Central California, London Camba

Undergraduate Theses

An agricultural system where solar energy generation and agricultural systems are used together for mutual benefit, agrivoltaics reduces loss of water due to evaporation, particularly in drylands. Central California has faced extreme droughts, and water has become a scarce resource. However, the wide-scale use of agrivoltaics has been limited due to lack of knowledge about agrivoltaics and also the lack of funding for start-up agrivoltaics projects. Therefore, this research investigated the potential for agrivoltaics in Central California to reduce irrigation water consumption using a review of multiple crop studies using agrivoltaics to determine an optimal crop for agrivoltaics and a …

Effect Of Biomass Water Dynamics In Cosmic-Ray Neutron Sensor Observations: A Long-Term Analysis Of Maize–Soybean Rotation In Nebraska, Tanessa Morris

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

The precise measurement of soil water content (SWC) is crucial for effective water resource management. This study utilizes the Cosmic Ray Neutron Sensor (CRNS) for area-averaged SWC measurements, emphasizing the need to consider all hydrogen sources, including the time-variable ones like plant biomass and water content. Chapter 1 presents a background on soil moisture estimation, CRNS technology, and an overview of the study. It discusses various soil moisture measurement techniques, highlights the gap in knowledge addressed by CRNS technology, explains CRNS functionality and advancements, and outlines the study's motivations and methods.

Chapter 2 reports a study conducted near Mead, Nebraska, …

Beavers, Hydrology, And Wapato: A Baseline For Monitoring Franz Lake National Wildlife Refuge, Justine Casebolt

Environmental Science and Management Professional Master's Project Reports

Located in the lower Columbia River floodplain, Franz Lake National Wildlife Refuge is a unique landscape with a complex land use history. For thousands of years, Indigenous tribes lived on this land. In the early 1990s, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service acquired the land, after it was identified as a mitigation site following the construction of the Bonneville Lock and Dam. Franz Lake Refuge was once known for its prevalent Wapato (Sagittaria latifolia) population, an emergent plant with edible tubers and an important food source for Indigenous people. With specific growth requirements and hydrologic conditions for germination and …

Beneath The Surface: Exploring The Power Of Aquatic Rewilding In Europe, Jose Cornejo

Posters - 2024

This relatively new concept has been used mainly in various European projects that in words of the European Rewilding project, the leading organization in rewilding, is helping preserve Europe biodiversity richness and enhance benefits that nature provides to humans (Rewilding Europe, n.d.). This rewilding method is also applied in the aquatic ecosystem, which is often called marine rewilding or freshwater rewilding, and it can be applied to any freshwater, brackish, or saltwater. Therefore, for the purpose of uniting them we will call it aquatic rewilding.

There are many aquatic restoration projects and research compared to aquatic rewilding projects and organizations …

Demographic Consequences Of Off-River Nesting For Piping Plover (Charadrius Melodus) And Interior Least Tern (Sternula Antillarum Athalassos) In The Lower Platte River System, Nebraska, Elsa M. Forsberg

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

Piping plovers (Charadrius melodus; hereafter, plovers) and interior least terns (Sternula antillarum athalassos; hereafter, terns) are two avian species that nest along the Lower Platte River system (LPRS) in Nebraska. In the LPRS, river sandbars provide natural nesting habitat, but off-river sites provide substantial nesting habitat especially when sandbar habitat is scarce. Although presumed to be important for the persistence of plovers and terns, off-river habitat is not self-sustaining and predicted to decline. Understanding the vital rates of plovers and terns in the LPRS will inform the role of off- river sites in the future conservation …

Improving Accessibility And Understanding: Studying The Impact Of Human Activities And Dam Removals On Anadromous Fish Species In The Pacific Northwest, Adia F. Bennett

Scripps Senior Theses

Human activities in North American watersheds have significantly impacted anadromous fish, causing some species of salmon and steelhead to become threatened and endangered. These fish hold ecological, cultural, and economic importance, yet factors such as habitat destruction, overfishing, pollution, climate change, and hydroelectric dams continue to degrade populations. Dams are particularly harmful to anadromous fish, sparking a recent movement advocating for dam removals. This study uses NOAA’s 2022 Biological Viability Assessment to examine the response of anadromous fish to recent dam removals in the Pacific Northwest. Four populations were selected to analyze due to their interaction with sites that had …

Assessing Stormwater Management Pond Water Quality, Function, And The Potential Biotic Effects To Receiving Waters, Mitchell Elstone

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The use of stormwater management ponds (SWMPs) has been increasing over the past five decades. However, an in-depth understanding of the daily performance of SWMPs and functionality during cold periods is limited. This is in part because mandated monitoring is relatively infrequent, and the assumption that SWMPs are inactive between storm events and during the winter. The goals of this research were to better understand daily stormwater (SW) characteristics, the performance of SWMPs based on current forms of evaluation and assess the potential for SWMP effluent to impact downstream biota. Influent and effluent samples from two SWMPs were collected daily …

A Comparison Of Sediment Accumulation Effectiveness Behind Beaver Dam Analogues, One Rock Dams, And Post-Assisted Log Structures On East Foster Creek, Douglas County, Wa, Griffin Hansen

All Master's Theses

Waterways are valuable resources for communities and habitats, but are subject to degradation in the form of incision. This is a type of streambed erosion where streams narrow and deepen. Sediment control dams were placed on East Foster Creek in Douglas County, WA to control incision following the 2020 Pearl Hill fire. This study examined sediment capture in the ponds behind these dams, which included beaver dam analogues (BDAs), one rock dams (ORDs), and post-assisted log structures (PALS). Sediment capture may be influenced by several factors, including dam type, height, width, distance between dams, vegetation, land use, topography, soil type, …

From Creek To Ditch And Back Again: The History And Future Of Pattee Creek, Missoula, Montana, Carver Edward Butterfield

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Pattee Creek was once a free-flowing stream that meandered across the Missoula Valley, but has been channelized, piped, and degraded by logging, mining, agriculture, and urbanization. This thesis used a mixed-method approach to examine the impact of human activities on the Pattee Creek watershed. Beginning with a historical overview, the story of how the creek has been utilized and why it was buried was told. An analysis of historical photos from 1937 to 2019 revealed drastic changes in the land cover of the watershed and the channel of lower Pattee Creek. Developed land increased dramatically, while open land decreased and …

Population Demography Of A Glacial-Relict Stream Fish Mediated Via Anthropogenic Alteration, Joseph M. Spooner

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

Northern Pearl Dace Margariscus nachtriebi are a small-bodied glacial-relict fish species of greatest conservation need (SGCN) found throughout Canada and the northern United Sates. Their distribution within the Nebraska Sandhills Ecoregion is isolated from the northern core distribution of the species following the last glaciation period approximately 18,000 years ago. Headwater streams within the Nebraska Sandhills Ecoregion are predominately groundwater fed and provide the cool water temperatures needed to support Northern Pearl Dace and other glacial-relict SGCN. Headwater streams within the Nebraska Sandhills Ecoregion have been geomorphically altered through anthropogenic processes such as channelization whereby habitat homogenization has occurred. Evidence …

Habitat Heterogeneity In Nebraska Streams And Distribution Prediction For Tier-1 Cyprinids Using Multi-Scale Modeling Of Fluvial And Landscape Features, Connor P. Hart

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

Multiscale environmental processes determine in-stream habitat conditions which drive species distributions. Habitat constitutes the physical template upon which ecological processes occur and species conduct life stage activities. Habitat heterogeneity promotes biodiversity of aquatic systems. Stream classification informs freshwater conservation by providing a useful framework to account for habitat heterogeneity, often based on landscape regions of similar environmental processes. A greater understanding of landscape-based classification frameworks as means to classify stream systems may improve understanding of drivers of biodiversity. Using Nebraska as a case study, on a statewide scale, objectives were 1) to characterize habitat availability for several at-risk fish species, …

Connecting The Nebraska Water Quality Index To The Aquatic Microbial Community Of The North Platte River Basin, Nebraska, Paula R. Guastello

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

The Nebraska Water Quality Index, under development by the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy, summarizes in a single value eight environmental parameters that have been monitored in Nebraska for nearly 20 years. Water quality parameters including those used in the Nebraska Water Quality Index have been shown in previous studies to impact bacterial growth. As such, this index has the potential to correlate with the freshwater microbial community. Here, I relate the Nebraska Water Quality Index to microbial community composition and structure using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequence data collected from the North Platte River Basin, Nebraska. This index …

Does Drought Stress Eliminate The Benefit Of Elevated Co2,/Sub> On Soybean Yield? Using An Improved Model To Link Crop And Soil Water Relations, Wenguang Sun, David Fleisher, Dennis Timlin, Chittaranjan Ray, Zhuangji Wang, Sahila Beegum, Vangimalla Reddy

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Crop simulation models are indispensable tools that facilitate studies to assess climate impacts and adaptation responses, but have not been adequately tested in terms of accurately predicting crop growth and water stress responses to high carbon dioxide concentrations [CO₂]. The soybean model, GLYCIM, previously modified with a coupled leaf-level gas exchange – energy balance model, was integrated with a two-dimensional convectivediffusive root growth module which linked soil and leaf water potentials with the regulation of stomatal conductance. We evaluated the accuracy of this modified GLYCIM using experimental data from a Free-Air CO₂ Enrichment (FACE) site, SoyFACE, and …

Dual Activation Of Peroxymonosulfate Using Mnfe2O4/G‑C3N4 And Visible Light For The Efficient Degradation Of Steroid Hormones: Performance, Mechanisms, And Environmental Impacts, Kitipong Poomipuen, Chainarong Sakulthaew, Chanat Chokejaroenrat, Athaphon Angkaew, Kanidrawee Techauay, Thapanee Poompoung, Kanokwan Teingtham, Piyaporn Phansak, Piyangkun Lueangjaroenkit, Daniel D. Snow

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Single activation of peroxymonosulfate (PMS) in a homogeneous system is sometimes insufficient for producing reactive oxygen species (ROS) for water treatment applications. In this work, manganese spinel ferrite and graphitic carbon nitride (MnFe₂O₄/g-C₃N₄; MnF) were successfully used as an activator for PMS under visible light irradiation to remove the four-mostdetected- hormone-contaminated water under different environmental conditions. The incorporation of g-C₃N₄ in the nanocomposites led to material enhancements, including increased crystallinity, reduced particle agglomeration, amplified magnetism, improved recyclability, and increased active surface area, thereby facilitating the PMS activation and electron …

Water-Energy-Food Linkages In Community Smallholder Irrigation Schemes: Center Pivot Irrigation In Rwanda, Ankit Chandra, Derek M. Heeren, Lameck O. Odhiambo, N. Brozovic

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Water, energy, and food are linked in intricate ways in irrigated agriculture and understanding the interplay of these components is crucial for sustainable and profitable crop production, particularly in smallholder setting such as in sub-Saharan Africa. This study evaluates water-energy-food linkages, engineering and economic performance, irrigation decision making, and challenges faced around water management in a community-based mechanized irrigation scheme in Rwanda. The research is the first to analyze such as scheme, which uses technology typically used by large farmers in a smallholder setting. The study investigates the variation in water requirements and the relationship and impacts of this variability …

Design Of Stormwater Bmps For Surface And Groundwater Protection Based On Site-Scale Soil Properties: Phase I, Kelly Kibler, Lisa Chambers, Melanie Beazley

Florida DOT

Much of Earth’s nutrient cycling takes place in soils. Characteristics of soils control physical, chemical, and biological processes that determine rates of nutrient fluxes, storage, or transformation. As remediation of excess nutrients in stormwater runoff is one function of stormwater Best Management Practices (BMPs), the soil profile constitutes one of the most important factors of BMP design. Variation observed in BMP effectiveness (e.g., why one BMP design works effectively in one place and not another) can often be explained by variations in the soil profile, either through direct means or by a soil’s influence on hydraulics of stormwater flow through …

Understanding The Factors Affecting Nebraskan Farmers’ And Landowners' Decision To Adopt Precision Agricultural Technologies And Programs, Corrin C. Winter

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

Advisors: Andrew Little, Christopher Chizinski

To gain insights into the challenges faced by Nebraska farmers and landowners when adopting precision agriculture technologies, I analyzed data collected from a 2022 survey involving 7,503 participants, consisting of producers and farmland owners from across the state of Nebraska. The primary objective was to provide valuable insights for agencies seeking to improve their precision agriculture and conservation outreach efforts for the benefit of conservation and Nebraskan farmers and landowners. This study aimed to understand key factors influencing adoption behaviors by evaluating the constraints to precision agriculture adoption, assessing the impact of producer and landowner …

Pronghorn Survival And Resource Selection In Western Nebraska's Agriculturally Dominated Landscape, Katie Piecora

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

Nebraska’s pronghorn population has been stable over the last decade, yet their presence on the landscape remains a contentious subject amongst private landowners. Conversion of grassland for crop production and increased anthropogenic activity has drastically altered pronghorn behavior throughout their current range, however basic ecology and resource use by pronghorn in Nebraska remains poorly understood. Establishing baseline population metrics and seasonal patterns of resource use for this population at the eastern periphery of the species range is critical to guide management actions. We deployed GPS collars on 110 adult pronghorn to quantify survival, mortality risk, and seasonal resource selection in …

Droughtscape, Summer 2023, National Drought Mitigation Center

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

DroughtScape, Summer 2023

Mentoring Experiences Of Undergraduate Students And Faculty Members In Science, Technology, Engineering, And Mathematics, Pamela Martínez Oquendo

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

I present a comprehensive view of mentoring experiences of undergraduate students and faculty members in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). In Chapter 1, I describe a brief outline of this dissertation. In Chapter 2, I present an interpretative phenomenological analysis of the lived experiences of former STEM undergraduate mentors of the Nebraska STEM For You (NE STEM 4U) afterschool mentoring program. In Chapter 3, I describe how the ramifications of faculty mentorship influence the science pipeline using a qualitative synthesis. In Chapter 4, I describe how the STEM faculty-student mentoring engagement involves a strong psychological support component using a …

The Flow Of Power: Addressing Asymmetric Flood Risk In The Upper Valley, Eric Vr Hryniewicz

Geography Undergraduate Senior Theses

Floods are the most damaging natural disasters in America. Land use change in upland watersheds can increase the probability and severity of floods (Bronstert, Niehoff, & Burger, 2002). When watersheds are divided by political and private property boundaries it leads to a misalignment of incentives in which downstream users lack recourse for upstream land use decisions contributing to flood risk. In this thesis, researchers interrogate the attributes of town officials and towns that determine what motivates town governments to act on flooding and what motivates and enables town officials to collaborate on planning and how do they collaborate in practice. …

The Association Between Drought Exposure And Respiratory-Related Mortality In The United States From 2000 To 2018, Yeongjin Gwon, Yuanyuan Ji, Jesse E. Bell, Azar M. Abadi, Jesse D. Berman, Austin Rau, Ronald D. Leeper, Jared Rennie

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Climate change has brought increasing attention to the assessment of health risks associated with climate and extreme events. Drought is a complex climate phenomenon that has been increasing in frequency and severity both locally and globally due to climate change. However, the health risks of drought are often overlooked, especially in places such as the United States, as the pathways to health impacts are complex and indirect. This study aims to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the effects of monthly drought exposure on respiratory mortality for NOAA climate regions in the United States from 2000 to 2018. A two-stage model …

Review Of Toxicity Of Agricultural Chemicals And Implications For Aquatic Fauna Of The Keep River, Samanatha Reynolds, David Morgan

Natural resources commissioned reports

This report was compiled for the Western Australian Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) as part of the National Water Grid Authority (NWGA) project entitled “Managing water quality to enable future irrigation development in the Kimberley Region, WA”. The purpose of this report is to review the toxicity of farm chemicals (herbicides and insecticides) used by farm operators in the Keep River catchment and their potential impacts on the aquatic species in the river, in particular those species that are listed under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. It is designed to complement the report entitled …

Downstream Hydrochemistry And Irrigation Water Quality Of The Syr Darya, Aral Sea Basin, South Kazakhstan, Bagdat Satybaldiyev, Baimurat Ismailov, Nurbek Nurpeisov, Kairat Kenges, Daniel D. Snow, Arindam Malakar, Omirzhan Taukebayev, Bolat Uralbekov

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

New hydrochemical measurements from the Syr Darya provide insights into factors affecting the composition and quality of a major freshwater source replenishing the Aral Sea. This river is heavily used for power and irrigation and crosses territories of four Central Asia republics. It is intensely managed, draining several major tributaries, many reservoirs, and numerous irrigation distribution systems and canals. Analysis of seasonal changes in dissolved ion concentrations using geochemical diagrams, elemental ratios, statistical correlation, and equilibrium modeling allowed the characterization of mineral formation processes that control the dissolved chemical composition. Measured water hydrochemistry and composition type differs substantially from previous …

Evaluation Of Hydrogeochemical Characteristics Of San Joaquin, Tulare, And Mojave Aquifers, Southern California, Maedeh Hassanvand

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Before making attempts to enhance and manage the quality of water, a thorough understanding of these processes is necessary since the chemical quality of groundwater is impacted by a number of linked processes. This would be more important in arid and semiarid regions like the southern part of California where more rely on groundwater for agriculture and drinking water uses than the other states. As a result, fundamental knowledge of the governing processes of groundwater chemistry is required for effective water resource management. Thus, this study is primarily concerned with three aspects in Mojave, Tulare, and San Joaquin aquifers: The …

The Last Drought Frontier: Building A Drought Index For The State Of Alaska, Olivia Campbell

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

Drought is characterized by periods of below average precipitation. There are five major types of drought recognized in the literature: meteorological, hydrological, agricultural, socioeconomic, and ecological. A relatively new concept in the drought literature is “snow drought.” A key part of the definition of drought is that it is not always accompanied by extreme heat. This means drought can occur even in cold climates, cold seasons, and higher latitudes and altitudes, like Alaska. Drought is a natural part of climate variability, but Alaska’s climate is changing faster than any other state in the United States. Alaska is no stranger to …

Droughtscape, Spring 2023, National Drought Mitigation Center

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

DroughtScape, Spring 2023

Pan-Arctic Soil Moisture Control On Tundra Carbon Sequestration And Plant Productivity, Donatella Zona, Peter M. Lafleur, Koen Hufkens, Beniamino Gioli, Barbara Bailey, George Burba, Eugénie S. Euskirchen, Jennifer D. Watts, Kyle A. Arndt, Mary Farina, John S. Kimball, Martin Heimann, Mathias Göckede, Martijn Pallandt, Torben R. Christensen, Mikhail Mastepanov, Efrén López-Blanco, Albertus J. Dolman, Roisin Commane, Charles E. Miller, Josh Hashemi, Lars Kutzbach, David Holl, Julia Boike, Christian Wille, Torsten Sachs, Aram Kalhori, Elyn R. Humphreys, Oliver Sonnentag, Gesa Meyer, Gabriel H. Gosselin, Philip Marsh, Walter C. Oechel

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Long-term atmospheric CO₂ concentration records have suggested a reduction in the positive effect of warming on high-latitude carbon uptake since the 1990s. A variety of mechanisms have been proposed to explain the reduced net carbon sink of northern ecosystems with increased air temperature, including water stress on vegetation and increased respiration over recent decades. However, the lack of consistent long-term carbon flux and in situ soil moisture data has severely limited our ability to identify the mechanisms responsible for the recent reduced carbon sink strength. In this study, we used a record of nearly 100 site-years of eddy covariance …

Globally Scalable Approach To Estimate Net Ecosystem Exchange Based On Remote Sensing, Meteorological Data, And Direct Measurements Of Eddy Covariance Sites, Ruslan Zhuravlev, Andrey Dara, André Luís Diniz Dos Santos, Oleg Demidov, George Burba

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Despite a rapid development of Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) for carbon removal in recent years, the methods for evaluating NBS still have certain gaps. We propose an approach based on a combination of remote sensing data and meteorological variables to reconstruct the spatiotemporal variation of net ecosystem exchange from eddy-covariance stations. A Lagrangian particle dispersion model was used for upscaling satellite images and flux towers. We trained data-driven models based on kernel methods separately for each selected land-cover class. The results suggest that the proposed approach to quantifying carbon exchange on a medium-to-large scale by blending eddy covariance flux data with …

Role Of Social Determinants Of Health In Differential Respiratory Exposure And Health Outcomes Among Children, Jagadeesh Puvvula, Jill A. Poole, Yeongjin Gwon, Eleanor G. Rogan, Jesse E. Bell

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Background Attributes defining the Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) are associated with disproportionate exposures to environmental hazards and differential health outcomes among communities. The dynamics between SDoH, disproportionate environmental exposures, and differential health outcomes are often specific to micro-geographic areas.

Methods This study focused on children less than 20 years of age who lived in Douglas County, Nebraska, during 2016–2019. To assess the role of SDoH in differential exposures, we evaluated the association between SDoH metrics and criteria pollutant concentrations and the association between SDoH and pediatric asthma exacerbations to quantify the role of SDoH in differential pediatric asthma outcomes. …