Other Environmental Sciences Commons^™

Scoping Study Of The Effects Of Aging On Landmines, Daniele Ressler

CISR Studies and Reports

The Mine Action Information Center at James Madison University has partnered with a British EOD consultancy company, C King Associates Ltd, to conduct a preliminary study into the effects of aging on landmines. This project entailed examination and disassembly of several types of anti-personnel mines, a literature review of relevant material and analysis of the initial findings.

The study confirms a fairly obvious assumption: The characteristics of mines change significantly as they grow older. However, while this situation is constantly observed in the field through the recovery of rotted, rusted and damaged mines, it has never been adequately investigated. The …

National Primary Drinking Water Regulations

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

NOTES

1 Definitions

• Maximum Contaminant Level Goal (MCLG): The level of a contaminant in drinking water below which there is no known or expected risk to health. MCLGs allow for a margin of safety and are non-enforceable public health goals.

• Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL): The highest level of a contaminant that is allowed in drinking water. MCLs are set as close to MCLGs as feasible using the best available treatment technology and taking cost into consideration. MCLs are enforceable standards.

• Maximum Residual Disinfectant Level Goal (MRDLG): The level of a drinking water disinfectant below which there is …

Phylogeography Of The Rufous-Naped Wren (Campylorhynchus Rufinucha): Speciation And Hybridization In Mesoamerica, Hernan Vazquez-Miranda, Adolfo G. Navarro-Siguenza, Kevin E. Omland

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

The Rufous-naped Wren (Campylorhynchus rufinucha) is a sedentary, morphologically variable species distributed in the dry forests of Mesoamerica. It ranges from Colima, Mexico, south to Costa Rica along the Pacific slope, with a disjunct population in central Veracruz. Populations of two forms on the Pacific slope intergrade in Chiapas, Mexico, apparently as a result of secondary contact. We sequenced a mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) gene to explore phylogeographic patterns and hybridization. We found three divergent lineages, two geographically spanning the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and a disjunct Veracruz population. Analyses of molecular variation and statistics are consistent with genetically distinct …

Estimating The Effects Of Detection Heterogeneity And Overdispersion On Trends Estimated From Avian Point Counts, Matthew A. Etterson, Gerald J. Niemi, Nicholas P. Danz

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

Point counts are a common method for sampling avian distribution and abundance. Although methods for estimating detection probabilities are available, many analyses use raw counts and do not correct for detectability. We use a removal model of detection within an N-mixture approach to estimate abundance trends corrected for imperfect detection. We compare the corrected trend estimates to those estimated from raw counts for 16 species using 15 years of monitoring data on three national forests in the western Great Lakes, USA. We also tested the effects of overdispersion by modeling both counts and removal mixtures under three statistical distributions: …

Droughtscape, Spring 2009, Kelly Smith

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

U.S. Drought Monitor Publishes Map 500!

Weakening La Niña May Mean Relief for Texas

Upcoming Workshops

Drought Impacts Worst in California, Texas

CoCoRaHS to Request Drought Impact Data, Too

NDMC Adds Researcher

K-12 Students Learn About Drought

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 …

Water Quality Variability In A Bioswell And Concrete Drainage Pipe, Southwest Lincoln, Nebraska, Jessica Shortino

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

Abstract The goal of this project is to evaluate the effectiveness of bioswells in protecting water quality from urban runoff. The hypothesis tested in this project is that water in bioswells improves water quality. Water quality in both a bioswell and an underground concrete lined ditch, both containing ground and surface water, were tested for certain water quality parameters. These parameters consisted of: Dissolved Oxygen, pH, water temperature, weather temperature, Total Dissolved Solids, Specific Conductivity, Alkalinity, Total Dissolved Carbon, Chemical Oxygen Demand, and depth and width of the sampling site. An additional contaminant that was looked at was motor oil. …

Impacts Of Plant Size, Density, Herbivory, And Disease On Native Platte Thistle (Cirsium Canescens), Deidra Jacobsen

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

Abstract. Based on prior field observations, we hypothesized that individual and interacting effects of plant size, density, insect herbivory, and especially fungal disease, influenced seedling and juvenile plant growth in native Platte thistle populations (Cirsium canescens Nutt.). We worked at Arapaho Prairie in the Nebraska Sandhills (May - August 2007), monitoring plant growth, insect damage, and fungal infection within different density thistle patches. In the main experiment, we sprayed half of test plants in different density patches with fungicide (Fungonil© Bonide, containing chlorothalonil) and half with a water control. Fungal infection rates were very low, so we found no difference …

A Survey Of Western United States Instream Flow Programs And The Policies That Protect A River's Ecosystem, Kyle Jackson

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

The Western United States can best be described as a vast, varying land, with the high plains to the east and the jagged horizons of Rockies to the west. However there is one common trait shared by these states: the lack of water resources. With the continued development of this land, the fact that water is scarce is becoming more real. This issue became more difficult to handle as the public became more aware that many competing uses existed for the finite resource, and those different uses were degrading the natural environments of the surface waters. With this realization instream …

Env 492 Undergraduate Research Symposium, Scott R. Abella

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Research

In spring semester since January, UNLV Environmental Studies and Biology students in ENV 492 (Undergraduate Research) have conducted a wide variety of ecological research projects.

Unlv Magazine, Michelle Mouton, Tony Allen, Afsha Bawany, Shane Bevell, Phil Hagen, Greg Lacour, Erin O'Donnell, Karyn S. Hollingsworth

UNLV Magazine

No abstract provided.

Using Gis To Locate Areas For Growing Quality Coffee In Honduras, Ellen Mickle

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

Abstract Small-scale coffee producers worldwide remain vulnerable to price fluctuations after the 1999-2003 coffee crisis. One way to increase small-scale farmer economic resilience is to produce a more expensive product, such as quality coffee. There is growing demand in coffee-producing and coffee-importing countries for user-friendly tools that facilitate the marketing of quality coffee. The purpose of this study is to develop a prototypical quality coffee marketing tool in the form of a GIS model that identifies regions for producing quality coffee in a country not usually associated with quality coffee, Honduras. Maps of areas for growing quality coffee were produced …

Evaluating Hazelnut Cultivars For Yield, Quality And Disease Resistance, Sam Tobin

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

ABSTRACT This long term study focuses on testing various hazelnut cultivars for yield, nut quality and disease resistance. There are various cultivars that are being tested for these desired traits but only the Grand Traverse and Skinner will be applicable for the results of this localized study. The desired traits of commercial nut production are best matched by these two cultivars. Results from previous harvests will be used to draw trends to recommend commercially functional cultivars in Eastern Nebraska.

Tree Canopy Types Constrain Plant Distributions In Ponderosa Pine- Gambel Oak Forests, Northern Arizona, Scott R. Abella

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Research

Trees in many forests affect the soils and plants below their canopies. In current high-density southwestern ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests, managers have opportunities to enhance multiple ecosystem values by manipulating tree density, distribution, and canopy cover through tree thinning. I performed a study in northern Arizona ponderosa pine-Gambel oak (Quercus gambelii) forests to measure the influences of tree canopy types on understory plant communities and soil properties. On ten 2.5-acre (1-ha) sites, I sampled five 43-ft2 (4-m2) plots below each of the following five canopy types: openings; single ponderosa pine; and Gambel oak single stems, dispersed clumps, and thickets. …

Development Of A Healthy Farm Index To Assess Ecological, Economic, And Social Function On Organic And Sustainable Farms In Nebraska's Four Agroecoregions., James R. Brandle

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

An Evaporation Estimation Method Based On The Coupled 2-D Turbulent Heat And Vapor Transport Equations, Jozsef Szilagyi, Janos Jozsa

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

The analytical solution of the coupled turbulent diffusion equations of heat and vapor transport across a moisture discontinuity under near-neutral atmospheric conditions and constant energy available at the evaporating surface yields a simple equation (i.e., the wet-surface equation [WSE]) that relates the change in surface temperature to the change in the land surface moisture content as the environment dries. With the help of percent possible sunshine, air temperature, and humidity measurements at selected weather stations as well as land surface temperature values from MODIS data, monthly, warm-season evaporation rates were estimated for five rectangular regions across the contiguous U.S. employing …

Complementary Relationship Of Evaporation And The Mean Annual Water-Energy Balance, Jozsef Szilagyi, Janos Jozsa

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

By combining the complementary relationship of evaporation with the coupled long-term water-energy balance of Porporato et al. (2004) in a Budyko-type framework, one can, from atmospheric measurements alone, derive important ecosystem characteristics, such as the mean effective relative soil moisture and the maximum soil water storage, as well as predict changes in the rooting depth of vegetation as a response to climate variations.

Comment On ‘‘Power Law Catchment-Scale Recessions Arising From Heterogeneous Linear Small-Scale Dynamics’’ By C. J. Harman, M. Sivapalan, And P. Kumar, Jozsef Szilagyi

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

It is demonstrated that a near-linear subsurface runoff response from a short and relatively steep slope segment and a nonlinear response at the watershed scale may primarily arise from geometry rather than from an assumed linear nature of the subsurface runoff response from the hillslope, as Harman et al. [2009] employed for the Panola Mountain Research (PMR) catchment in Georgia. The authors caution in their paper that hydraulic theory (exemplified by the study of Brutsaert and Nieber [1977]) cannot generally account for the heterogeneity in the watershed scale and therefore should be used with certain reservation when employing it for …

Movements, Distribution, And Abundance Of Great Argus Pheasants (Argusianus Argus) In A Sumatran Rainforest, Nurul L. Winarni, Timothy G. O'Brien, John P. Carroll, Margaret F. Kinnaird

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

We used radiotelemetry, habitat sampling, camera trapping, and line-transect surveys to explore movement patterns, distribution, and abundance of Great Argus Pheasants (Argusianus argus) in Sumatra, Indonesia. We radiotracked six adult and one subadult males. Territories averaged 14.5 ± 8.5 ha, and home-range size did not vary by month or by relative abundance of selected plant foods. Daily travel distance (849 ± 211 m) varied significantly between months but did not reflect changes in plant foods. Territories were used almost exclusively by resident males. Males preferentially used undisturbed forest (habitat I). Vegetation structure at male display sites and random points indicated …

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 …