Other Environmental Sciences Commons^™

U.S. Drought Monitor, April 5, 2016, Richard Tinker

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for April 5, 2016 (4/5/16) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Corn, Soybeans, Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

The Prairie Post Quarterly Newsletter Of The High Plains Regional Climate Center- April 2016, Natalie A. Umphlett, Bill Sorensen, Jamie Lahowetz, Crystal J. Stiles

Prairie Post: Quarterly Newsletter of the High Plains Regional Climate Center

Inside this issue:

Message from the interim director........................................1

Staff spotlight...........................1

Weather-Ready Nation Ambassador Program............2

Tribal work highlight..............2

Product highlight....................3

Partnership spotlight.............3

AWDN information.................4

Update on regional climate conditions..................................4

Outreach/engagement.........5

Recent and upcoming travel and activities.............................6

Droughtscape, Spring 2016, National Drought Mitigation Center

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

Contents

Director’s report

First quarter drought summary

First quarter drought impacts

Drought Risk Management Research Center

Kenyan official visits

DrIVER eyes forecasting

Drought scenario exercise

Student projects

Drought tournament

Response and recovery guide

Drought Portal

Network of drought observers

Caribbean “writeshops”

Communications staff grows

U.S. Drought Monitor, March 29, 2016, Brad Rippey

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for March 29, 2016 (3/29/16) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Corn, Soybeans, Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

Environmental Variables Affecting The Performance Of Large-Scale Solar Photovoltaic Power Plants, Parikhit Sinha

Climate Sustainability Lecture Series

The environmental sciences have been critical to identifying global environmental challenges such as climate change, but they have been less extensively utilized in deploying solutions to those challenges, such as solar energy. Environmental variables such as temperature, humidity, aerosols, clouds, soiling, and snowfall have important effects on solar PV performance, and these effects can vary regionally. The current status of large-scale solar PV deployment will be discussed along with the role of environmental variables on PV performance.

U.S. Drought Monitor, March 22, 2016, Brad Rippey

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for March 22, 2016 (3/22/16) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Corn, Soybeans, Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

U.S. Drought Monitor, March 15, 2016, Richard R. Heim Jr.

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of the United States for March 15, 2016 (3/15/16) plus: United States crop areas experiencing drought (map), the approximate percentage of crop located in drought by state (bar graph), and the percentage of crop area located in drought during past 52 weeks (line graph) for corn, soybeans, hay, cattle, and winter wheat.

U.S. Drought Monitor, March 8, 2016, David Miskus

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for March 8, 2016 (3/8/16) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Corn, Soybeans, Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

U.S. Drought Monitor, March 1, 2016, David Miskus

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for March 1, 2016 (3/1/16) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Corn, Soybeans, Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

U.S. Drought Monitor, February 23, 2016, Eric Luebehusen

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for February 23, 2016 (2/23/16) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Corn, Soybeans, Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

U.S. Drought Monitor, February 16, 2016, Eric Luebehusen

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for February 16, 2016 (2/16/16) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Corn, Soybeans, Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

U.S. Drought Monitor, February 9, 2016, Anthony Artusa

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for February 9, 2016 (2/9/16) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Corn, Soybeans, Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

U.S. Drought Monitor, February 2, 2016, Anthony Artusa

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for February 2, 2016 (2/2/16) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Corn, Soybeans, Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

U.S. Drought Monitor, January 26, 2016, Mark D. Svoboda

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for January 26, 2016 (1/26/16) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Corn, Soybeans, Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

U.S. Drought Monitor, January 19, 2016, Mark D. Svoboda

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for January 19, 2016 (1/19/16) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Corn, Soybeans, Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

Spatial Analysis Of Forest Crimes In Mark Twain National Forest, Missouri, Karun Pandit, Eddie Bevilacqua, Giorgos Mountrakis, Robert W. Malmsheimer

Journal of Geospatial Applications in Natural Resources

Forest crime mitigation has been identified as a challenging issue in forest management in the United States. Knowledge of the spatial pattern of forest crimes would help in wisely allocating limited enforcement resources to curb forest crimes. This study explores the spatial pattern of three different types of forest crimes: fire crime, illegal timber logging crime, and occupancy use crime in the Salem-Patosi Ranger District of Mark Twain National Forest. Univariate and bivariate Ripley’s K-functions were applied to explore the spatial patterns in crime events, like clustering and attraction among forest crime types. Results reveal significant clustering for each forest …

Comparison Of Terrain Indices And Landform Classification Procedures In Low-Relief Agricultural Fields, Derek A. Evans, Karl W. J. Williard, Jon E. Schoonover

Journal of Geospatial Applications in Natural Resources

Landforms control the spatial distribution of numerous factors associated with agronomy and water quality. Although curvature and slope are the fundamental surface derivatives used in landform classification procedures, methodologies for landform classifications have been performed with other terrain indices including the topographic position index (TPI) and the convergence index (CI). The objectives of this study are to compare plan curvature, the convergence index, profile curvature, and the topographic position index at various scales to determine which better identifies the spatial variability of soil phosphorus (P) within three low relief agricultural fields in central Illinois and to compare how two methods …

Discordant Data And Interpretation Of Results From Wildlife Habitat Models, Anita T. Morzillo, Michael G. Wing, Justin Long

Journal of Geospatial Applications in Natural Resources

Wildlife habitat management is an important part of natural resource management. As a result, there are a large number of models and tools for wildlife habitat assessment. A consequence of the many assessment tools is inconsistency when comparing results between tools, which may lead to potential confusion management decisions. Our objective was to compare results from two wildlife habitat models – one being relatively coarse (HUC5) scale and not spatially dynamic and the other being finer scale spatial data based on a 30 m spatial resolution –for habitat assessment of three species across the West Cascades of Oregon: Northern spotted …

U.S. Drought Monitor, January 12, 2016, Brian Fuchs

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for January 12, 2016 (1/12/16) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Corn, Soybeans, Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

U.S. Drought Monitor, January 5, 2016, Brian Fuchs

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for January 5, 2016 (1/5/16) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Corn, Soybeans, Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

Informative Spectral Bands For Remote Green Lai Estimation In C3 And C4 Crops, Oz Kira, Anthony L. Nguy-Robertson, Timothy J. Arkebauer, Raphael Linker, Anatoly A. Gitelson

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Green leaf area index (LAI) provides insight into the productivity, physiological and phenological status of vegetation. Measurement of spectral reflectance offers a fast and nondestructive estimation of green LAI. A number of methods have been used for the estimation of green LAI; however, the specific spectral bands employed varied widely among the methods and data used. Our objectives were (i) to find informative spectral bands retained in three types of methods, neural network (NN), partial least squares (PLS) regression and vegetation indices (VI), for estimating green LAI in maize (a C4 species) and soybean (a C3 species); (ii) to assess …

Alpha-Lipoic Acid Supplementation Protects Enzymes From Damage By Nitrosative And Oxidative Stress, Sylvia Hiller, Robert Dekroon, Eric D. Hamlett, Longquan Xu, Cristina Osorio, Jennifer Robinette, Witold Winnik, Stephen Simington, Nobuyo Maeda, Oscar Alzate, Xianwen Yi

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

Background: S-nitrosylation of mitochondrial enzymes involved in energy transfer under nitrosative stress may result in ATP deficiency. We investigated whether α-lipoic acid, a powerful antioxidant, could alleviate nitrosative stress by regulating S-nitrosylation,which could result in retaining themitochondrial enzyme activity.

Methods: In this study, we have identified the S-nitrosylated forms of subunit 1 of dihydrolipoyllysine succinyltransferase (complex III), and subunit 2 of the α-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase complex by implementing a fluorescence-based differential quantitative proteomics method.

Results: We found that the activities of these two mitochondrial enzymes were partially but reversibly inhibited by S-nitrosylation in cultured endothelial cells, and that their activities …

Estimating Ozone And Secondary Pm2.5 Impacts From Hypothetical Single Source Emissions In The Central And Eastern United States, Kirk R. Baker, Robert A. Kotchenruther, Rynda C. Hudman

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

Secondary pollutant impacts from emissions of single sources may need to be assessed to satisfy a variety of regulatory requirements including the Clean Air Act New Source Review and Prevention of Significant Deterioration programs and the National Environmental Policy Act. In this work, single source impacts on O₃ and secondary PM_2.5 are estimated with annual 2011 photochemical grid model simulations where new hypothetical sources are added to the central and eastern United States with varying precursor emission rates and emission release heights. Impacts from these hypothetical sources are tracked with photochemical grid model source apportionment. Single source impacts …

Seasonality Of Coliform Bacteria Detection Rates In New Jersey Domestic Wells, Thomas B. Atherholt, Nicholas A. Procopio, Sandra M. Goodrow

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

It is important that indicators of fecal pollution are reliable. Coliform bacteria are a commonly used indicator of fecal pollution. As other investigators have reported elsewhere, we observed a seasonal pattern of coliform bacteria detections in domestic wells in New Jersey. Examination of a statewide database of 10 years of water quality data from 93,447 samples, from 78,207 wells, generated during real estate transactions, revealed that coliform bacteria were detected in a higher proportion of wells during warm weather months. Further examination of the seasonal pattern of other data, including well water pH, precipitation, ground and surface water temperatures, surface …

Temporal Trends In The Spatial Distribution Of Impervious Cover Relative To Stream Location, J. Wickham, A. Neale, M. Mehaffey, T. Jarnagin, D. Norton

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

Use of impervious cover is transitioning from an indicator of surface water condition to one that also guides and informs watershed planning and management, including Clean Water Act (33 U.S.C. §1251 et seq.) reporting. Whether it is for understanding surface water condition or planning and management, impervious cover is most commonly expressed as summary measurement (e.g., percentage watershed in impervious cover). We use the National Land Cover Database to estimate impervious cover in the vicinity of surface waters for three time periods (2001, 2006, 2011). We also compare impervious cover in the vicinity of surface waters to watershed summary estimates …

Cyanotoxins In Inland Lakes Of The United States: Occurrence And Potential Recreational Health Risks In The Epa National Lakes Assessment 2007, Keith A. Loftin, Jennifer L. Graham, Elizabeth D. Hillborn, Sarah C. Lehmann, Michael T. Meyer, Julie E. Dietze, Christopher B. Griffith

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

A large nation-wide survey of cyanotoxins (1161 lakes) in the United States (U.S.) was conducted during the EPA National Lakes Assessment 2007. Cyanotoxin data were compared with cyanobacteria abundance- and chlorophyll-based World Health Organization (WHO) thresholds and mouse toxicity data to evaluate potential recreational risks. Cylindrospermopsins, microcystins, and saxitoxins were detected (ELISA) in 4.0, 32, and 7.7% of samples with mean concentrations of 0.56, 3.0, and 0.061 mg/L, respectively (detections only). Co-occurrence of the three cyanotoxin classes was rare (0.32%) when at least one toxin was detected. Cyanobacteria were present and dominant in 98 and 76% of samples, respectively. Potential …

Carbon Storage In Us Wetlands, A. M. Nahlik, M. S. Fennessy

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

Wetland soils contain some of the highest stores of soil carbon in the biosphere. However, there is little understanding of the quantity and distribution of carbon stored in our remaining wetlands or of the potential effects of human disturbance on these stocks. Here we use field data from the 2011 National Wetland Condition Assessment to provide unbiased estimates of soil carbon stocks for wetlands at regional and national scales. We find that wetlands in the conterminous United States store a total of 11.52 PgC, much of which is within soils deeper than 30 cm. Freshwater inland wetlands, in part due …

The Prairie Post Quarterly Newsletter Of The High Plains Regional Climate Center: January 2016, Martha Shulski, Natalie Umphlett, Crystal J. Stiles

Prairie Post: Quarterly Newsletter of the High Plains Regional Climate Center

Inside this issue:

Message from the director........................................1

Staff spotlight...........................1

HPRCC staff changes..............2

Product highlight....................2

Research highlight..................2

Partnership spotlight.............3

AWDN information.................4

Update on regional climate conditions..................................4

Outreach/engagement.........5

Recent and upcoming travel and activities.............................6

A Comparison Between 2010 And 2006 Air Quality And Meteorological Conditions, And Emissions And Boundary Conditions Used In Simulations Of The Aqmeii-2 North American Domain, Till E. Stoeckenius, Christian Hogrefe, Justin Zagunis, Timonthy M. Sturtz, Benjamin Wells, Tanarit Sakulyanontvittaya

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

Several participants in Phase 2 of the Air Quality Model Evaluation International Initiative (AQMEII-2) who are applying coupled models to the North American domain are comparing model results for two years, 2006 and 2010, with the goal of performing dynamic model evaluation. From a modeling perspective, the differences of interest are the large reductions in domain total emissions of NO_x (21%) and SO₂ (37%) from 2006 to 2010 and significant differences in meteorological conditions between these two years. The emission reductions occurred mostly in the eastern U.S, with some reduction in emissions from western wildfires in 2010. Differences …

Potential Aquifer Vulnerability In Regions Down-Gradient From Uranium In Situ Recovery (Isr) Sites, James A. Saunders, Bruce E. Pivetz, Nathan Voorhies, Richard T. Wilkin

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

Sandstone-hosted roll-front uranium ore deposits originate when U(VI) dissolved in groundwater is reduced and precipitated as insoluble U(IV) minerals. Groundwater redox geochemistry, aqueous complexation, and solute migration are important in leaching uranium from source rocks and transporting it in low concentrations to a chemical redox interface where it is deposited in an ore zone typically containing the uranium minerals uraninite, pitchblende, and/or coffinite; various iron sulfides; native selenium; clays; and calcite. In situ recovery (ISR) of uranium ores is a process of contacting the uranium mineral deposit with leaching and oxidizing (lixiviant) fluids via injection of the lixiviant into wells …