Other Environmental Sciences Commons^™

A Phylogenetic Supertree Of The Fowls (Galloanserae, Aves), Soo Hyumg Eo, Olaf R.P. Bininda-Emonds, John P. Carroll

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

The fowls (Anseriformes and Galliformes) comprise one of the major lineages of birds and occupy almost all biogeographical regions of the world. The group contains the most economically important of all bird species, each with a long history of domestication, and is an ideal model for studying ecological and evolutionary patterns. Yet, despite the relatively large amount of systematic attention fowls have attracted because of their socio-economic and biological importance, the species-level relationships within this clade remain controversial. Here we used the supertree method matrix representation with parsimony to generate a robust estimate of species-level relationships of fowls. The supertree …

Modeling Lakes And Reservoirs In The Climate System, M. D. Mackay, P. J. Neale, C. D. Arp, L. N. De Senerpont Domis, X. Fang, G. Gal, K. D. Johnk, G. Kirillin, J. D. Lenters, E. Litchman, S. Macintyre, P. Marsh, J. Melack, W. M. Mooij, F. Peeters, A. Quesada, S. G. Schladow, M. Schmid, C. Spence, S. L. Stokes

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Modeling studies examining the effect of lakes on regional and global climate, as well as studies on the influence of climate variability and change on aquatic ecosystems, are surveyed. Fully coupled atmosphere–land surface–lake climate models that could be used for both of these types of study simultaneously do not presently exist, though there are many applications that would benefit from such models. It is argued here that current understanding of physical and biogeochemical processes in freshwater systems is sufficient to begin to construct such models, and a path forward is proposed. The largest impediment to fully representing lakes in the …

First Record Of Pseudorabies In Feral Swine In Nebraska, Sam Wilson, Alan R. Doster, Justin D. Hoffman, Scott E. Hygnstrom

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

In 2007, two new populations of feral swine were discovered in Nance and Valley counties, Nebraska, USA. Necropsies and serologic testing was done on two individuals from the Nance County herd. Results indicated that a lactating sow had positive antibodies for pseudorabies virus (PRV). Investigations conducted by Nebraska Game and Parks Commission Law Enforcement division confirmed that the infected individual was transported illegally to Nebraska, USA, from Texas, USA. All domestic swine herds located within an 8 km radius of the infected individual tested negative for antibodies to PRV. Our results provide a clear example of how diseases can spread …

A Modified Advection-Aridity Model Of Evapotranspiration, Jozsef Szilagyi, Michael T. Hobbins, Janos Jozsa

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Analytical Solution Of The Coupled 2-D Turbulent Heat And Vapor Transport Equations And The Complementary Relationship Of Evaporation, Jozsef Szilagyi, Janos Jozsa

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Estimating Spatially Distributed Monthly Evapotranspiration Rates By Linear Transformations Of Modis Daytime Land Surface Temperature Data, J. Szilagyi, J. Jozsa

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Ecological Divergence Of Two Sympatric Lineages Of Buggy Creek Virus, An Arbovirus Associated With Birds, Charles R. Brown, Abinash Padhi, Amy T. Moore, Mary Bomberger Brown, Jerome E. Foster, Martin Pfeffer, Valerie A. O'Brien, Nicholas Komar

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Most arthropod-borne viruses (arboviruses) show distinct serological subtypes or evolutionary lineages, with the evolution of different strains often assumed to reflect differences in ecological selection pressures. Buggy Creek virus (BCRV) is an unusual RNA virus (Togaviridae, Alphavirus) that is associated primarily with a cimicid swallow bug (Oeciacus vicarius) as its vector and the Cliff Swallow (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota) and the introduced House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) as its amplifying hosts. There are two sympatric lineages of BCRV (lineages A and B) that differ from each other by .6% at the nucleotide level. Analysis of 385 …

2009 Interior Least Tern And Piping Plover Monitoring, Research, Management, And Outreach Report For The Lower Platte River, Nebraska, Mary Bomberger Brown, Joel G. Jorgensen

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

This document reports on our monitoring, research, management, and outreach activities during the past 12 months (2009). We prepared it to inform our partners, cooperating agencies, funding sources, and other interested parties of our activities and to provide a preliminary summary of our results.

The Tern and Plover Conservation Partnership (TPCP), based at the University of Nebraska–School of Natural Resources, and the Nongame Bird Program (NBP), based at the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission (NGPC) work cooperatively on Interior Least Tern and Piping Plover monitoring, research, management, and education-outreach activities. While the proximate focus of our work is the Lower …

Incorporation Of Crop Phenology In Simple Biosphere Model (Sibcrop) To Improve Land-Atmosphere Carbon Exchanges From Croplands, Erandathie Lokupitiya, S. Denning, K. Paustian, I. Baker, K. Schaefer, Shashi B. Verma, T. Meyers, C. J. Bernacchi, Andrew E. Suyker, M. L. Fischer

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Croplands are man-made ecosystems that have high net primary productivity during the growing season of crops, thus impacting carbon and other exchanges with the atmosphere. These exchanges play a major role in nutrient cycling and climate change related issues. An accurate representation of crop phenology and physiology is important in land-atmosphere carbon models being used to predict these exchanges. To better estimate time-varying exchanges of carbon, water, and energy of croplands using the Simple Biosphere (SiB) model, we developed crop-specific phenology models and coupled them to SiB. The coupled SiBphenology model (SiBcrop) replaces remotely-sensed NDVI information, on which SiB originally …

Corrigendum To “Incorporation Of Crop Phenology In Simple Biosphere Model (Sibcrop) To Improve Land-Atmosphere Carbon Exchanges From Croplands” Published In Biogeosciences, 6, 969–986, 2009, Erandathie Lokupitiya, S. Denning, K. Paustian, I. Baker, K. Schaefer, Shashi B. Verma, T. Meyers, C. J. Bernacchi, Andrew E. Suyker, M. L. Fischer

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

In the above mentioned manuscript a mistake in Fig. 11 occured. The corrected version of the figure is as follows.

A Century Of Climate Change For Fairbanks, Alaska, Gerd Wendler, Martha Shulski

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Climatological observations are available for Fairbanks, Interior Alaska, for up to 100 years. This is a unique data set for Alaska, insofar as it is of relatively high quality and without major breaks. Applying the best linear fit, we conclude that the mean annual temperature rose from -3.6°C to -2.2°C over the century, an increase of 1.4°C (compared to 0.8°C worldwide). This comparison clearly demonstrates the well-known amplification or temperature change for the polar regions. The observed temperature increase is neither uniform over the time period nor uniform throughout the course of a year. The winter, spring, and summer seasons …

Lithobates Catesbeianus (American Bullfrog) Predation On Cliff Swallows, Mary Bomberger Brown, Charles R. Brown

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

During a 25-year study of Cliff Swallows (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota) in southwestern Nebraska, we observed Lithobates catesbeianus prey on, or attempt to prey on, Cliff Swallows. As we were mist-netting Cliff Swallows at a 10-nest colony on 7 July 1998, a L. catesbeianus attempted to eat a Cliff Swallow that was caught in the net.

Lichen Recovery Following Heavy Grazing By Reindeer Delayed By Climate Warming, David R. Klein, Martha Shulski

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Introduced reindeer, Rangifer tarandus, over exploited lichen-rich plant communities on St. Matthew Island in the Bering Sea. A die-off of the reindeer followed, exacerbated by extreme weather in 1964, resulting in extirpation of the reindeer. A similar pattern of removal of lichens as major components of plant communities has occurred following introductions of reindeer to other islands at high latitudes. By 1985, two decades following die-off of the reindeer, total lichen biomass was only 6% of that in similar plant communities on adjacent Hall Island, not reached by the reindeer. By 2005, 41 y after the reindeer die-off, lichen …

A Scanner-Based Approach To Soil Profile-Wall Mapping Of Root Distribution, J. M. Dauer, J. M. Withington, J. Oleksyn, J. Chorover, O. A. Chadwick, P. B. Reich, D. M. Eissenstat

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Simulation Of Boundary Layer Trajectory Dispersion Sensitivity To Soil Moisture Conditions: Mm5 And Noah-Based Investigation, Rezaul Mahmood

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A System For Estimating Bowen Ratio And Evaporation From Waste Lagoons, Rezaul Mahmood

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Near Surface Atmospheric Response To Simulated Changes In Land-Cover, Vegetation Fraction, And Soil Moisture Over Western Kentucky, Rezaul Mahmood

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Impact Of Empire Expansion On Household Diet: The Inka In Northern Chile’S Atacama Desert, Sheila D. Vinton, Linda Perry, Karl J. Reinhard, Calogero M. Santoro, Isabel Teixeira-Santos

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

The impact of expanding civilization on the health of American indigenous societies has long been studied. Most studies have focused on infections and malnutrition that occurred when less complex societies were incorporated into more complex civilizations. The details of dietary change, however, have rarely been explored. Using the analysis of starch residues recovered from coprolites, here we evaluate the dietary adaptations of indigenous farmers in northern Chile’s Atacama Desert during the time that the Inka Empire incorporated these communities into their economic system. This system has been described as ‘‘complementarity’’ because it involves interaction and trade in goods produced at …

Photosynthetic Response Of Soybean To Twospotted Spider Mite (Acari: Tetranychydae) Injury, Adeney De Freitas Bueno, Regiane Cristina Oliveira De Freitas Bueno, Paul David Nabity, Leon George Higley, Odair Aparecido Fernandes

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

The twospotted spider mite Tetranychus urticae Koch is a common pest on soybean plants. To clarify plantarthropod interaction on mite-soybean system, leaf fluorescence, photosynthetic responses to variable carbon dioxide levels, and chlorophyll content were evaluated. Significant photosynthetic rate reduction was observed due to stomatal limitation. Stomatal closure was the major plant physiological response. As a consequence, there was reduction in photosynthetic rates. Surprisingly, plants did not show chlorophyll content reduction associated with photosynthetic impairment. No differences in fluorescence data indicate that T. urticae injury did not impair the function of light harvesting and photoelectron transport. These results showed that T. …

Methods And Tools For Drought Analysis And Management, Cody L. Knutson

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Drought is an ambiguous concept. It is often difficult to tell when you are in a drought because of its slow, protracted nature and lack of news-grabbing impacts— such as water inundating communities or buildings burning—associated with other natural disasters. It is equally difficult to track the effect of drought on people, their livelihoods, and the environment because of the ubiquitous role that water plays in our world. As a result, we often wait until we are in the midst of a water crisis to seek ad hoc solutions, which can be costly, inefficient, and highly politicized.

To overcome the …

Trends In Twentieth-Century U.S. Snowfall Using A Quality-Controlled Dataset, Kenneth E. Kunkel, Michael Palecki, Leslie Ensor, Kenneth Hubbard, David Robinson, Kelly Redmond, David Easterling

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

A quality assessment of daily manual snowfall data has been undertaken for all U.S. long-term stations and their suitability for climate research. The assessment utilized expert judgment on the quality of each station. Through this process, the authors have identified a set of stations believed to be suitable for analysis of trends. Since the 1920s, snowfall has been declining in the West and the mid-Atlantic coast. In some places during recent years the decline has been more precipitous, strongly trending downward along the southern margins of the seasonal snow region, the southern Missouri River basin, and parts of the Northeast. …

Trends In Twentieth-Century U.S. Extreme Snowfall Seasons, Kenneth E. Kunkel, Michael A. Palecki, Leslie Ensor, David Easterling, Kenneth Hubbard, David Robinson, Kelly Redmond

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Temporal variability in the occurrence of the most extreme snowfall years, both those with abundant snowfall amounts and those lacking snowfall, was examined using a set of 440 quality-controlled, homogenous U.S. snowfall records. The frequencies with which winter-centered annual snowfall totals exceeded the 90th and 10th percentile thresholds at individual stations were calculated from 1900–01 to 2006–07 for the conterminous United States, and for 9 standard climate regions. The area-weighted conterminous U.S. results do not show a statistically significant trend in the occurrence of either high or low snowfall years for the 107-yr period, but there are regional trends. Large …

Equilibrium Sampling Used To Monitor Malodors In A Swine Waste Lagoon, Rezaul Mahmood

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Eco-Geomorphic Implications Of Hillslope Aspect: Inferences From Analysis Of Landscape Morphology In Central New Mexico, Erkan Istanbulluoglu, Omer Yetemen, Enrique R. Vivoni, Hugo A. Gutierrez-Jurado, Rafael L. Bras

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

We investigate the influence of hillslope aspect on landscape morphology in central New Mexico, where differences in soils, vegetation, and landforms are observed between mesic north-facing and xeric south-facing slopes. Slope–area and curvature–area relations, derived from a Digital Elevation Model (DEM), are used to characterize the opposing hillslope morphologies. In all geologies and elevation ranges studied, topographic data reveal significantly steeper slopes in north-facing aspects, and shallower slopes in south-facing aspects. North-facing slope curvatures are also greater than south-facing curvatures. Using a conceptual slope-area model, we suggest that for a given drainage area, steeper north-facing slopes imply lower soil erodibility. …

Buffered, Lagged, Or Cooled? Disentangling Hyporheic Influences On Temperature Cycles In Stream Channels, Alicia S. Arrigoni, Geoffrey C. Poole, Leal A. K. Mertes, Scott J. O'Daniel, William W. Woessner, Steven A. Thomas

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

We monitored summertime base flow water temperatures of hyporheic discharge to surface water in main, side, and spring channels located within the bank-full scour zone of the gravel- and cobble-bedded Umatilla River, Oregon, USA. Diel temperature cycles in hyporheic discharge were common, but spatially variable. Relative to the main channel’s diel cycle, hyporheic discharge locations typically had similar daily mean temperatures, but smaller diel ranges (compressed by 2 to 6°C) and desynchronized phases (offset by 0 to 6 h). In spring channels (which received only hyporheic discharge), surface water diel cycles were also compressed (by 2 to 6°C) and desynchronized …

Application Of A Routing Model For Detecting Channel Flow Changes With Minimal Data, Jozsef Szilagyi, Nicholas Pinter, Rob Venczel

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Comment On "Comparison Of 15 Evaporation Models Applied To A Small Mountain Lake In The Northeastern Usa", Jozsef Szilagyi

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Riparian Zone Evapotranspiration From Diurnal Groundwater-Level Fluctuations, Zoltan Gribovszki, Peter Kalicz, Jozsef Szilagyi, Mihaly Kucsara

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Evapotranspiration Calculation On The Basis Of The Riparian Zone Water Balance, Zoltan Gribovszki, Peter Kalicz, Mihaly Kucsara, Jozsef Szilagyi, Peter Vig

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Fish Distributions And Nutrient Cycling In Streams: Can Fish Create Biogeochemical Hotspots?, Peter B. Mcintyre, Alexander S. Flecker, Michael J. Vanni, James M. Hood, Brad W. Taylor, Steven A. Thomas

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Rates of biogeochemical processes often vary widely in space and time, and characterizing this variation is critical for understanding ecosystem functioning. In streams, spatial hotspots of nutrient transformations are generally attributed to physical and microbial processes. Here we examine the potential for heterogeneous distributions of fish to generate hotspots of nutrient recycling. We measured nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) excretion rates of 47 species of fish in an N-limited Neotropical stream, and we combined these data with population densities in each of 49 stream channel units to estimate unit- and reach-scale nutrient recycling. Species varied widely in rates of N …