Other Environmental Sciences Commons^™

Fielding Sustainability: The Potential For Compost Extract As An Amendment On Athletic Turfgrass, Lacy M. Adams

Theses and Dissertations

Sustainability and green initiatives are being pushed across the country and the globe, but athletics are not seeing the same pressures as intensely. Golf courses are largely the only athletic arena that have received pressure and are beginning to implement more sustainable management practices. Agriculture is also making strides to use less chemicals through organic farming and improve soil health with cover crops. Meanwhile, the rest of the athletic world continues to contribute to soil compaction, chemical maintenance, and runoff all of which affect the quality of the local environment. The strides to improve athletics’ sustainability record can be seen …

Through The Eyes Of Locals: A Changing Climate In Bolivia, Jacob D. Rex

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Deforestation and Agricultural Land-Use Change in Bolivia as a Function of Socio-Economic Realities.

This research combines semi-structured interviews of key informants and local participants, as well as field observations, which were conducted between January and April of 2019 in the Departments of Santa Cruz & Chuquisaca.

Seasonality Of Nitrogen Balances In A Mediterranean Climate Watershed, Oregon, Us, Jiajia Lin, Jana E. Compton, Scott G. Leibowitz, George Mueller-Warrant, William Matthews, Stephen H. Schoenholtz, Daniel M. Evans, Rob A. Coulombe

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

We constructed a seasonal nitrogen (N) budget for the year 2008 in the Calapooia River Watershed (CRW), an agriculturally dominated tributary of the Willamette River (Oregon, U.S.) under Mediterranean climate. Synthetic fertilizer application to agricultural land (dominated by grass seed crops) was the source of 90% of total N input to the CRW. Over 70% of the stream N export occurred during the wet winter, the primary time of fertilization and precipitation, and the lowest export occurred in the dry summer. Averaging across all 58 tributary subwatersheds, 19% of annual N inputs were exported by streams, and 41% by crop …

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 …

Provision Of Climate Services For Agriculture: Public And Private Pathways To Farm Decision-Making, Tonya Haigh, Vikram Koundinya, Chad Hart, Jenna Klink, Maria Lemos, Amber Saylor Mase, Linda Prokopy, Ajay Singh, Dennis Todey, Melissa Widhalm

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Factors Influencing Farmers Adoption Of Best Management Practices: A Review And Synthesis, Tingting Liu, Randall J.F. Bruins, Matthew T. Heberling

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Temporal Migration Shifts In The Aransas-Wood Buffalo Population Of Whooping Cranes (Grus Americana) Across North America, Joel G. Jorgensen, Mary Bomberger Brown

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Birds are altering the phenology of critical life history events, including migration, in response to the effects of global climate change. Whooping Cranes (Grus americana) are one of the most critically endangered birds in the world. Their remnant population, referred to as the Aransas-Wood Buffalo Population, numbers between 300-400 individuals and migrates between the U.S. Gulf of Mexico coast and north-central Canada twice each year. Previous analyses suggested Whooping Crane migration was temporally constant in spring and fall. New analyses of observations spanning 1942-2016 show Whooping Crane migration is now occurring earlier in spring by approximately 22 days …

Twentieth Century Droughts And Agriculture: Examples From Impacts On Soybean Production In Kentucky, Usa, Rezaul Mahmood

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Regional Scale Cropland Carbon Budgets: Evaluating A Geospatial Agricultural Modeling System Using Inventory Data, Xuesong Zhang, Roberto C. Izaurralde, David H. Manowitz, Ritvik Sahajpal, Tristram O. West, Allison M. Thomson, Min Xu, Kaiguang Zhao, Stephen D. Leduc, Jimmy R. Williams

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

Accurate quantification and clear understanding of regional scale cropland carbon (C) cycling is critical for designing effective policies and management practices that can contribute toward stabilizing atmospheric CO₂ concentrations. However, extrapolating site-scale observations to regional scales represents a major challenge confronting the agricultural modeling community. This study introduces a novel geospatial agricultural modeling system (GAMS) exploring the integration of the mechanistic Environmental Policy Integrated Climate model, spatially-resolved data, surveyed management data, and supercomputing functions for cropland C budgets estimates. This modeling system creates spatiallyexplicit modeling units at a spatial resolution consistent with remotely-sensed crop identification and assigns cropping systems …

Carbon–Temperature–Water Change Analysis For Peanut Production Under Climate Change: A Prototype For The Agmip Coordinated Climate-Crop Modeling Project (C3mp), Alex Ruane, Sonali Mcdermid, Cynthia Rosenzweig, Guillermo Baigorria, James W. Jones, Consuelo Romero, L. Dewayne Cecil

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Climate change is projected to push the limits of cropping systems and has the potential to disrupt the agricultural sector from local to global scales. This article introduces the Coordinated Climate-Crop Modeling Project (C3MP), an initiative of the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) to engage a global network of crop modelers to explore the impacts of climate change via an investigation of crop responses to changes in carbon dioxide concentration ([CO2]), temperature, and water. As a demonstration of the C3MP protocols and enabled analyses, we apply the Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT) CROPGRO-Peanut crop model for …

The Agricultural Model Intercomparison And Improvement Project (Agmip): Protocols And Pilot Studies, Cynthia Rosenzweig, J. W. Jones, J. L. Hatfield, Alex Ruane, K. J. Thornburn, J. M. Antle, G. C. Nelson, C. Porter, S. Janssen, B. Basso, F. Ewert, D. Wallach, G. Baigorria, J. M. Winter

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

The Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) is a major international effort linking the climate, crop, and economic modeling communities with cutting-edge information technology to produce improved crop and economic models and the next generation of climate impact projections for the agricultural sector. The goals of AgMIP are to improve substantially the characterization of world food security due to climate change and to enhance adaptation capacity in both developing and developed countries. Analyses of the agricultural impacts of climate variability and change require a transdisciplinary effort to consistently link state-of-the-art climate scenarios to crop and economic models. Crop model …

The Agricultural Model Intercomparison And Improvement Project (Agmip): Protocols And Pilot Studies, Cynthia Rosenzweig, J. W. Jones, J. L. Hatfield, A. C. Ruane, K. J. Boote, P. Thornburn, J. M. Antle, G. C. Nelson, C. Porter, S. Janssen, S. Asseng, B. Basso, F. Ewert, D. Wallach, G. Baigorria, J. M. Winter

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

The Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) is a major international effort linking the climate, crop, and economic modeling communities with cutting-edge information technology to produce improved crop and economic models and the next generation of climate impact projections for the agricultural sector. The goals of AgMIP are to improve substantially the characterization of world food security due to climate change and to enhance adaptation capacity in both developing and developed countries. Analyses of the agricultural impacts of climate variability and change require a transdisciplinary effort to consistently link state-of-the-art climate scenarios to crop and economic models. Crop model …

Do Wind Turbines Affect Weather Conditions?: A Case Study In Indiana, Meghan F. Henschen, Brittany Herrholtz, Lacey Rhudy, Kathryn Demchak, Brian Doogs, Joshua Holland, Erik Larson, Johnny Martin, Matthew Rudkin

The Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research

Wind turbines are becoming increasingly widespread in the United States as the world looks for cleaner sources of energy. Scientists, policymakers, and citizens have strong opinions regarding the positive and negative effects of wind energy projects, and there is a great deal of misinformation about wind energy circulating on the Web and other media sources. The purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of how the rotation of hundreds of turbines can influence local weather conditions within a wind farm and in the surrounding areas. This experiment measures temperature, atmospheric pressure, wind speed, wind direction, relative humidity, …

Land Change Variability And Human–Environment Dynamics In The United States Great Plains, Mark A, Drummond, Roger F. Auch, Krista A. Karstensen, Kristi L. Sayler, Janis L. Taylor, Thomas Loveland

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Land use and land cover changes have complex linkages to climate variability and change, biophysical resources, and socioeconomic driving forces. To assess these land change dynamics and their causes in the Great Plains, we compare and contrast contemporary changes across 16 ecoregions using Landsat satellite data and statistical analysis. Large-area change analysis of agricultural regions is often hampered by change detection error and the tendency for land conversions to occur at the local-scale. To facilitate a regional-scale analysis, a statistical sampling design of randomly selected 10 km × 10 km blocks is used to efficiently identify the types and rates …

An Artesian Well System In Beaver Crossing, Nebraska, It's Development And Demise, Mary Lanik

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

ABSTRACT

Nebraska has a veritable wealth of groundwater. The High Plains Aquifer underlies most of the state, and within its sand and gravel deposits, many interconnected aquifers provide fresh water for a variety of uses.

One of the most spectacular examples of this resource is the artesian well. Beaver Crossing, Nebraska was once home to one of the most prolific artesian systems in the state before its demise. Founded in the 1880’s, Beaver Crossing soon became known for its many artesian wells, that provided leisure activities and supported profitable business ventures such as small farming, ice production and aquiculture. Eventually …

Cellulosic Ethanol: The Benefits, Obstacles, And Implications For Nebraska, Cassidee Lin Thompson

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

Abstract Ethanol is a biofuel that has unique capabilities to mitigate global climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions while simultaneously supporting rural economies and decreasing the United States’ dependence on foreign oil. Currently, the state of Nebraska depends on corn ethanol, which may be unsustainable. Cellulosic ethanol is a promising alternative but it is not without its problems, including high production costs and potential environmental damage. This thesis is an attempt to understand the benefits, downfalls, and processes of corn-based and cellulosic ethanol and the potential implications to Nebraska. This research should shed some light on the current obstacles …

Applications And Potentials For Biogenic Methane Recovery Operations In Nebraska Agriculture, Industry, And Economic Development, David Micheal Dingman

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

ABSTRACT: This thesis report illustrates the applications and potentials of biogenic methane recovery in Nebraska’s agricultural and industrial sectors and as a means for increasing sustainable economic development in the state’s rural communities. As the nation moves toward a new green economy, biogenic methane recovery as a waste management strategy and renewable energy resource presents significant opportunities for Nebraska to be a national and world leader in agricultural and industrial innovation, advanced research and development of renewable energy technology, and generation of new product markets. Nebraska’s agricultural economy provides a distinct advantage to the state for supporting methane recovery operations …

Changes In Producer Attitudes Towards Windbreaks In Eastern Nebraska, 1983 To 2009, Kim Tomczak

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

Abstract Windbreaks are rows of trees or shrubs arranged on the landscape to reduce wind speed. In agricultural landscapes we find them as farmstead windbreaks, livestock windbreaks and field windbreaks. While farmstead and livestock windbreaks are well accepted by the agricultural community, field windbreaks are often viewed differently. A 1982 study of the attitudes of farmers in Eastern Nebraska indicated that many of the producers were around the age of 50 and that they used different types of windbreaks. This study repeated that survey in the same. When compared to data from 1982, farmers today are not educated about the …

Forestry's Role In Sustainable Agriculture, James R. Brandle

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Department Of Agricultural Meteorology Csrees Comprehensive Review

School of Natural Resources: Documents and Reviews

No abstract provided.

Agroclimatic Calendar For Nebraska, R. E. Neild

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Crops are planted so growth, development and harvest correspond closely to the season most favorable for yield and quality. With exception of fall-seeded small grains and some forages, most Nebraska crops are planted in the spring when temperature and precipitation are increasing.

Irrigated Agriculture Significantly Modifies Seasonal Boundary Layer Atmosphere And Lower Tropospheric Convective Environment, E. Lachenmeier, R. Mahmood, C. Phillips, U. Nair, E. Rappin, R. Pielke Sr., W. Brown, S. Oncley, J. Wurman, K. Kosiba, A. Kaulfus, J. Santanello Jr., E. Kim, P. Lawston-Parker, Michael Hayes, T. Franz

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.