Other Environmental Sciences Commons^™

Plant Community Composition And Structure Monitoring At Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, 2017 Data Summary Report, Stephanie L. Rockwood

United States National Park Service: Publications

Abstract

This report presents the results of vegetation monitoring efforts in 2017 at Agate Fossil Beds National Monument (AGFO) by the Northern Great Plains Inventory and Monitoring Network (NGPN) and the Northern Great Plains Fire Effects Program (NGPFire). This was the seventh year of field work conducted by NGPN at AGFO.

In 2017, crew members from NGPN visited six long-term plant community monitoring (PCM) plots and NGPFire visited eight additional PCM and fire plant community monitoring (FPCM) plots to collect data on the plant communities at AGFO. This collaborative effort is part of a long-term monitoring program established to better …

A Comparative Study Of The Role Of Values In Reasoning About Socio-Hydrological Issues In Undergraduate Students From Developed And Developing Countries, Destini Petitt

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

In a world that is becoming increasingly connected and exploited, it is essential to understand how students’ values influence socio-scientific reasoning, particularly when dealing with complex, multifaceted, ever-connected water-related issues. This research strives to better understand stakeholder reasoning to provide teachers and decision-makers with ways to implement those stakeholders’ ideals into choices about complex socio-hydrological issues. Moreover, with 96% of research behavioral research being conducted on peoples from developed countries – who only represent 17% of the world’s population – this study strives to understand how peoples from developing countries – who represent 83% of the world’s population – reason. …

Nebraska Wetland Condition Assessment: Intensification Of The National Wetland Condition Assessment Throughout Nebraska, Cody Dreier

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

Even though wetlands provide a habitat for many plants and animals and numerous services for humans, they were not always treated as areas of value. Less than half of the United States’ pre-colonial wetlands have survived to the present day. Seeing a need to understand the remaining wetlands more fully, the Environmental Protection Agency developed the National Wetland Condition Assessment to monitor target wetlands throughout the country every five years.

This study is an intensification of the National Wetland Condition Assessment for Nebraska wetlands that allowed us to sample more areas of the state and gather additional information. During the …

Wetland Conservation Effects Result In Enhanced Playa Functionality In The Rainwater Basin, Nebraska, Hong Zhang

Community and Regional Planning Program: Theses

This study assessed the functionality level of wetland hydrology, hydrophyte and soil conditions, and then identified the restorable potential of conserved playas. The distribution of hydrology and hydrophyte were geospatially examined through annual tracking the quantity and quality of wetlands on historical hydric soil footprints under different conservation programs in the Rainwater Basin (RWB) in Nebraska, USA during 2004-2015. The results show that the historical hydric soil footprints with the conservation programs had significantly higher functionality of ponded water and hydrophyte than non-conserved wetlands. The yearly average of ponded water areas within footprints varies at 12.59% for the Waterfowl Production …

The Impact Of Land Use On Nitrate-N Movement And Storage In The Vadose Zone Of The Hastings’ Whpa, Craig Adams

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

Nebraska has one of the largest agricultural economies in the United States and relies heavily on irrigation and fertilizer application to maintain crop yields. Over-irrigation and continuous application of nitrogen (N) in many areas has led to accumulation of nitrate-N in soils and sediments throughout the state’s vadose zone. Because nitrate-N is both persistent and mobile, groundwater concentrations in many areas of Nebraska and other agriculturally intensive states are increasing. Nitrate-N contamination of public and private drinking water supplies that utilize groundwater are of particular concern. Vadose zone sampling is an important method for rapidly assessing the effect of changing …

T.D.A. Cockerell (1866–1948) Of The University Of Colorado: His Contributions To The Natural History Of The California Islands And The Establishment Of Channel Islands National Monument, Daniel R. Muhs

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Theodore Dru Alison Cockerell was a naturalist at the University of Colorado from 1904 to 1947 and studied botany, zoology, and paleontology in North and South America, Asia, Australia, Africa, and Europe. In the latter part of his career, he studied the California islands and published many papers on their natural history, 16 of them in four years (1937–1940). He made important contributions to the natural history of the islands in four distinct ways: entomology of the islands, including identification of a number of new species of bees; discovery of fossil marine invertebrate faunas and recognition that the zoogeography of …

Comparing Crop Growth And Carbon Budgets Simulated Across Ameriflux Agricultural Sites Using The Community Land Model (Clm), Ming Chen, Timothy J. Griffis, John M. Baker, Jeffrey D. Wood, Tilden Meyers, Andrew E. Suyker

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Improvement of process-based crop models is needed to achieve high fidelity forecasts of regional energy, water, and carbon exchanges. However, most state-of-the-art Land Surface Models (LSMs) assessed in the fifth phase of the Coupled Model Inter-comparison project (CMIP5) simulated crops as unmanaged C3 or C4 grasses. This study evaluated the crop-enabled version of one of the most widely used LSMs, the Community Land Model (CLM4- Crop), for simulating corn and soybean agro-ecosystems at relatively long-time scales (up to 11 years) using 54 site-years of data. We found that CLM4-Crop had a biased phenology during the early growing season and that …

Guidelines For Ecotourism Operations In The Great Plains, Larkin A. Powell, Kelly Powell, Katie Nieland

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature defines ecotourism as: Environmentally responsible travel to natural areas, in order to enjoy and appreciate nature (and accompanying cultural features, both past and present) that promote conservation, have a low visitor impact and provide for beneficially active socioeconomic involvement of local peoples.

Ecotourism has the potential to support communities and conservation efforts from revenue streams to parks and reserves in the Great Plains, while also contributing to a culture shift towards a conservation ethic. Recent surges in ecotourism have contributed to growth in the tourism sectors in Great Plains states, because these …

The Prairie Post Quarterly Newsletter Of The High Plains Regional Climate Center- April 2018, Natalie Umphlett, Crystal J. Stiles, Shellie Hanneman

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

Inside this issue:

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

Weather photo of the quarter.........................................1

Tribal climate summaries......2

Product highlights..................3

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

State Climate Extremes Committee.................................4

Update on research................5

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

Droughtscape, Spring 2018, National Drought Mitigation Center

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

Contents

Drought shifts to south in beginning of 2018

Ag records impacts; strong fire season forecast

Drought maps show regional and river forecast areas

Greenness indicator could save lives in Africa

NDMC on a global playing field

Visitors from Korea tap drought resources, experts

Svoboda named to United Nations advisory group

Responding to drought in the Southern Plains

Crops, cattle and climatology in the Upper Niobrara

Connecting locally for global change

Geochemistry And Mineralogy Of Late Quaternary Loess In The Upper Mississippi River Valley, Usa: Provenance And Correlation With Laurentide Ice Sheet History, Daniel R. Muhs, E. Arthur Bettis Iii, Gary L. Skipp

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

The midcontinent of North America contains some of the thickest and most extensive last-glacial loess deposits in the world, known as Peoria Loess. Peoria Loess of the upper Mississippi River valley region is thought to have had temporally varying glaciogenic sources resulting from inputs of sediment to the Mississippi River from different lobes of the Laurentide Ice Sheet. Here, we explore a new method of determining loess provenance using K/Rb and K/Ba values (in K-feldspars and micas) in loess from a number of different regions in North America. Results indicate that K/Rb and K/Ba values can distinguish loess originating from …

Modular Oxidant Delivery System, Mark Christenson, Steven Douglas Comfort

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

In one implementation, a direct - push oxidant candle apparatus for the treatment of contaminated groundwater through direct - push installation methods includes : a drive tip positioned at a bottom end of the apparatus , the drive tip having one or more front surfaces that are shaped to create a bore as force is applied to an opposite base surface of the drive tip ; a structural pathway that is connected to and extend upwardly from the base surface of the drive tip ; one or more oxidant delivery devices that are enclosed within the structural pathway ; and …

Sensitivity Analyses For Simulating Pesticide Impacts On Honey Bee Colonies, A. Carmen Kuan, Gloria Degrandi-Hoffman, Robert J. Curry, Kristina V. Garber, Andrew R. Kanarek, Marcia N. Snyder, Kurt L. Wolfe, S. Thomas Purucker

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

We employ Monte Carlo simulation and sensitivity analysis techniques to describe the population dynamics of pesticide exposure to a honey bee colony using the VarroaPop+Pesticide model. Simulations are performed of hive population trajectories with and without pesticide exposure to determine the effects of weather, queen strength, foraging activity, colony resources, and Varroa populations on colony growth and survival. The daily resolution of the model allows us to conditionally identify sensitivity metrics. Simulations indicate queen strength and forager lifespan are consistent, critical inputs for colony dynamics in both the control and exposed conditions. Adult contact toxicity, application rate and nectar load …

Irrigated Agriculture And Future Climate Change Effects On Groundwater Recharge, Northern High Plains Aquifer, Usa, Zachary H. Lauffenburger, Jason J. Gurdak, Chris Hobza, Duane Woodward

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Understanding the controls of agriculture and climate change on recharge rates is critically important to develop appropriate sustainable management plans for groundwater resources and coupled irrigated agricultural systems. In this study, several physical (total potential (ψT) time series) and chemical tracer and dating (3H, Cl−, Br−, CFCs, SF6, and 3H/3He) methods were used to quantify diffuse recharge rates beneath two rangeland sites and irrigation recharge rates beneath two irrigated corn sites along an east-west (wet-dry) transect of the northern High Plains aquifer, Platte River Basin, central Nebraska. The field-based recharge estimates and historical climate were used to calibrate site-specific Hydrus-1D …

A Naturalist’S Guide To The Great Plains, Paul A. Johnsgard

Zea E-Books Collection

This book documents nearly 500 US and Canadian locations where wildlife refuges, nature preserves, and similar properties protect natural sites that lie within the North American Great Plains, from Canada’s Prairie Provinces to the Texas-Mexico border. Information on site location, size, biological diversity, and the presence of especially rare or interesting flora and fauna are mentioned, as well as driving directions, mailing addresses, and phone numbers or internet addresses, as available. US federal sites include 11 national grasslands, 13 national parks, 16 national monuments, and more than 70 national wildlife refuges. State properties include nearly 100 state parks and wildlife …

Reproductive Success And Contaminant Associations In Tree Swallows (Tachycineta Bicolor) Used To Assess A Beneficial Use Impairment In U.S. And Binational Great Lakes’ Areas Of Concern, Christine M. Custer, Thomas W. Custer, Matthew A. Etterson, Paul M. Dummer, Diana Goldberg, J. Christian Franson

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

During 2010-2014, tree swallow (Tachycineta bicolor) reproductive success was monitored at 68 sites across all 5 Great Lakes, including 58 sites located within Great Lakes Areas of Concern (AOCs) and 10 non-AOCs. Sample eggs were collected from tree swallow clutches and analyzed for contaminants including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dioxins and furans, polybrominated diphenyl ethers, and 34 other organic compounds. Contaminant data were available for 360 of the clutches monitored. Markov chain multistate modeling was used to assess the importance of 5 ecological variables and 11 of the dominant contaminants in explaining the pattern of egg and nestling failure …

Estimates Of Present And Future Flood Risk In The Conterminous United States, Oliver E.J. Wing, Paul D. Bates, Andrew M. Smith, Christopher C. Sampson, Kris A. Johnson, Joseph Fargione, Philip Morefield

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

Past attempts to estimate rainfall-driven flood risk across the US either have incomplete coverage, coarse resolution or use overly simplified models of the flooding process. In this paper, we use a new 30m resolution model of the entire conterminous US with a 2D representation of flood physics to produce estimates of flood hazard, which match to within 90% accuracy the skill of local models built with detailed data. These flood depths are combined with exposure datasets of commensurate resolution to calculate current and future flood risk. Our data show that the total US population exposed to serious flooding is 2.6–3.1 …

Spectrally Based Bathymetric Mapping Of A Dynamic, Sandbedded Channel: Niobrara River, Nebraska, Usa, E. Dilbone, C.J. Legleiter, J.S. Alexander, B. Mcelroy

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Methods for spectrally based mapping of river bathymetry have been developed and tested in clear‐flowing, gravel‐bed channels, with limited application to turbid, sandbed rivers. This study used hyperspectral images and field surveys from the dynamic, sandy Niobrara River to evaluate three depth retrieval methods. The first regressionbased approach, optimal band ratio analysis (OBRA), paired in situ depth measurements with image pixel values to estimate depth. The second approach used ground‐based field spectra to calibrate an OBRA relationship. The third technique, image‐to‐depth quantile transformation (IDQT), estimated depth by linking the cumulative distribution function (CDF) of depth to the CDF of an …

Phytoforensics: Trees As Bioindicators Of Potential Indoor Exposure Via Vapor Intrusion, Jordan L. Wilson, V. A. Samaranayake, Matt A. Limmer, Joel G. Burken

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Human exposure to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) via vapor intrusion (VI) is an emerging public health concern with notable detrimental impacts on public health. Phytoforensics, plant sampling to semi-quantitatively delineate subsurface contamination, provides a potential non-invasive screening approach to detect VI potential, and plant sampling is effective and also time- and cost-efficient. Existing VI assessment methods are time- and resourceintensive, invasive, and require access into residential and commercial buildings to drill holes through basement slabs to install sampling ports or require substantial equipment to install groundwater or soil vapor sampling outside the home. Tree-core samples collected in 2 days at …

Present And Future Thermal Environments Available To Sharp-Tailed Grouse In An Intact Grassland, Edward J. Raynor, Larkin Powell, Walter H. Schacht

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Better understanding animal ecology in terms of thermal habitat use has become a focus of ecological studies, in large part due to the predicted temperature increases associated with global climate change. To further our knowledge on how ground-nesting endotherms respond to thermal landscapes, we examined the thermal ecology of Sharp-tailed Grouse (Tympanuchus phasianellus) during the nesting period. We measured site-specific iButton temperatures (TiB) and vegetation characteristics at nest sites, nearby random sites, and landscape sites to assess thermal patterns at scales relevant to nesting birds. We asked if microhabitat vegetation characteristics at nest sites matched the characteristics that directed macrohabitat …

Plant Community Composition And Structure Monitoring For Scotts Bluff National Monument, 2017 Data Report, Ryan Manuel

United States National Park Service: Publications

Abstract

This report presents the results of vegetation monitoring efforts in 2017 at Scotts Bluff National Monument (SCBL) by the Northern Great Plains Inventory and Monitoring Network (NGPN) and Northern Great Plains Fire Ecology Program (NGPFire).

During the seventh full year of field work, crew members from NGPN visited eight long-term monitoring plots on May 22-25, 2017 to collect data on the plant communities at SCBL. This is part of a long-term monitoring effort to better understand the condition of the vegetation at SCBL. NGPN staff captured data relating to species richness, herb-layer height, abundance of individual native and non-native …

Acoustic Surveys Of Bats At Northern Great Plains Parks And Preliminary Results From 2014-16, Daniel S. Licht

United States National Park Service: Publications

Executive Summary

From 2014-16, the Northern Great Plains Inventory & Monitoring Network (Network)—in collaboration with the Midwest Regional Biologist—used acoustic methods to monitor bat populations at 12 Network parks. Six parks were monitored using the nascent North American Bat Monitoring Program (NABat) framework. Six other parks did not meet a priori criteria for inclusion in NABat so they were monitored using similar methods, but a non-systematic sampling frame.

Fifty-five NABat stations were established along with 62 non-NABat stations. Stations were typically monitored for 4-7 nights each year using equipment that records the echolocation calls of bats. Fourteen mobile survey routes …

Origin Of Last-Glacial Loess In The Western Yukon-Tanana Upland, Central Alaska, Usa, Daniel R. Muhs, Jeffrey S. Pigati, James R. Budahn, Gary L. Skipp, E Arthur Bettis Iii, Britta Jensen

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Loess is widespread over Alaska, and its accumulation has traditionally been associated with glacial periods. Surprisingly, loess deposits securely dated to the last glacial period are rare in Alaska, and paleowind reconstructions for this time period are limited to inferences from dune orientations. We report a rare occurrence of loess deposits dating to the last glacial period, ~19 ka to ~12 ka, in the Yukon-Tanana Upland. Loess in this area is very coarse grained (abundant coarse silt), with decreases in particle size moving south of the Yukon River, implying that the drainage basin of this river was the main source. …

Evaluation Of Acoustic Telemetry Grids For Determining Aquatic Animal Movement And Survival, Richard T. Kraus, Christopher M. Holbrook, Christopher S. Vandergoot, Taylor R, Stewart, Matthew D. Faust, Douglas A. Watkinson, Colin Charles, Mark A. Pegg, Eva C. Enders, Charles C. Krueger

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

1. Acoustic telemetry studies have frequently prioritized linear configurations of hydrophone receivers, such as perpendicular from shorelines or across rivers, to detect the presence of tagged aquatic animals. This approach introduces unknown bias when receivers are stationed for convenience at geographic bottlenecks (e.g. at the mouth of an embayment or between islands) as opposed to deployments following a statistical sampling design.

2. We evaluated two-dimensional acoustic receiver arrays (grids: receivers spread uniformly across space) as an alternative approach to provide estimates of survival, movement and habitat use. Performance of variably spaced receiver grids (5–25 km spacing) was evaluated by simulating …

Variability Of Rainfall Erosivity And Erosivity Density In The Ganjiang River Catchment, China: Characteristics And Influences Of Climate Change, Xianghu Li, Xuchun Ye

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Soil erosion is one of the most critical environmental hazards in the world. Understanding the changes in rainfall erosivity (RE) and erosivity density (ED), as well as their affecting factors, at local and catchment scales in the context of climate warming is an important prerequisite of soil erosion prevention and soil loss risk assessment. The present study identified the variability and trends of RE and ED in terms of both time and space in the Ganjiang River catchment over the period of 1960–2012, and also analyzed and discussed the impact of climate change. The results show that RE and ED …

Can Genomic Variation Explain The Extinction Of The Passenger Pigeon?, Chih-Ming Hung, R. M. Zink, Shou-Hsien Li

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Hybrid Speciation In Birds, With Special Reference To Darwin's Finches, G. E. Hill, R. M. Zink

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Gene Flow From Single And Stacked Herbicide-Resistant Rice (Oryza Sativa): Modeling Occurrence Of Multiple Herbicide-Resistant Weedy Rice, Joseph Dauer, Andrew Hulting, Dale Carlson, Luke Mankin, John Harden, Carol Mallory-Smith

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Background: Provisia™ rice (PV), a non-genetically engineered (GE) quizalofop-resistant rice, will provide growers with an additional option for weed management to use in conjunction with Clearfield® rice (CL) production. Modeling compared the impact of stacking resistance traits versus single traits in rice on introgression of the resistance trait to weedy rice (also called red rice). Common weed management practices were applied to 2-, 3- and 4-year crop rotations, and resistant and multiple-resistant weedy rice seeds, seedlings and mature plants were tracked for 15 years.

Results: Two-year crop rotations resulted in resistant weedy rice after 2 years with abundant populations (exceeding …

Dominant Plant Species Shape Soil Bacterial Community In Semiarid Sandy Land Of Northern China, Shaokun Wang, Xiaoan Zuo, Xueyong Zhao, Tala Awada, Yongqing Luo, Yuqiang Li, Hao Qu

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Plant species affect soil bacterial diversity and compositions. However, little is known about the role of dominant plant species in shaping the soil bacterial community during the restoration of sandy grasslands in Horqin Sandy Land, northern China. We established a mesocosm pots experiment to investigate short-term responses of soil bacterial diversity and composition, and the related soil properties in degraded soils without vegetation (bare sand as the control, CK) to restoration with five plant species that dominate across restoration stages: Agriophyllum squarrosum (AS), Artemisia halodendron (AH), Setaria viridis (SV), Chenopodium acuminatum (CA), and Corispermum macrocarpum (CM). We used redundancy analysis …

Urban Stream Microbial Communities Show Resistance To Pharmaceutical Exposure, E. J. Rosi, H. A. Bechtold, D. D. Snow, M. Rojas, A. J. Reisinger, J. J. Kelly

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Residues of pharmaceuticals are increasingly detected in surface waters throughout the world. In four streams in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, we detected analgesics, stimulants, antihistamines, and antibiotics using passive organic samplers. We exposed biofilm communities in these streams to the common drugs caffeine, cimetidine, ciprofloxacin, and diphenhydramine. Respiration rates in the least urban stream were suppressed when exposed to these drugs, but biofilm functioning in the most urban stream was resistant to drug exposure. Exposure to the antibiotic ciprofloxacin altered bacterial community composition at all sites, with the greatest change occurring in the most urban stream. These results indicated that continuous …