Water Resource Management Commons^™

A Novel Strategy To Reconstruct Ndvi Time-Series With High Temporal Resolution From Modis Multi-Temporal Composite Products, Linglin Zeng, Brian Wardlow, Shun Hu, Xiang Zhang, Guoqing Zhou, Guozhang Peng, Daxiang Xiang, Rui Wang, Ran Meng, Weixiong Wu

Center for Advanced Land Management Information Technologies: Publications

Vegetation indices (VIs) data derived from satellite imageries play a vital role in land surface vegetation and dynamic monitoring. Due to the excessive noises (e.g., cloud cover, atmospheric contamination) in daily VI data, temporal compositing methods are commonly used to produce composite data to minimize the negative influence of noise over a given compositing time interval. However, VI time series with high temporal resolution were preferred by many applications such as vegetation phenology and land change detections. This study presents a novel strategy named DAVIR-MUTCOP (DAily Vegetation Index Reconstruction based on MUlti-Temporal COmposite Products) method for normalized difference vegetation index …

Temporal Invariance Of Social-Ecological Catchments, Mark A. Kaemingk, Christine N. Bender, Chris Chizinski, Aaron J. Bunch, Kevin L. Pope

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

Natural resources such as waterbodies, public parks, and wildlife refuges attract people from varying distances on the landscape, creating “social-ecological catchments.” Catchments have provided great utility for understanding physical and social relationships within specific disciplines. Yet, catchments are rarely used across disciplines, such as its application to understand complex spatiotemporal dynamics between mobile human users and patchily distributed natural resources. We collected residence ZIP codes from 19,983 angler parties during 2014–2017 to construct seven angler–waterbody catchments in Nebraska, USA. We predicted that sizes of dense (10% utilization distribution) and dispersed (95% utilization distribution) angler–waterbody catchments would change across seasons and …

Roost Use And Movements Of Northern Long-Eared Bats In A Southeast Nebraska Agricultural Landscape, Christopher Fill, Craig R. Allen, John F. Benson, Dirac Twidwell

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

Bats are important bio-indicators of ecosystem health and provide a number of ecosystem services. White-nose Syndrome and habitat loss have led to the decline of many bat species in eastern North America, including the federally threatened northern long-eared bat, Myotis septentrionalis. White-nose Syndrome was only recently found in Nebraska, which lies on the western extent of this species geographic range. To better understand how this forest-dependent species persists in an agriculturally dominated landscape amid a growing number of pressures, we investigated the roosting habits of this bat at the Homestead National Monument of America, located in southeast Nebraska. We …

Phylogenomics Reveals Ancient And Contemporary Gene Flow Contributing To The Evolutionary History Of Sea Ducks (Tribe Mergini), Philip Lavretsky, Robert E. Wilson, Sandra L. Talbot, Sarah A. Sonsthagen

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

Insight into complex evolutionary histories continues to build through broad comparative phylogenomic and population genomic studies. In particular, there is a need to understand the extent and scale that gene flow contributes to standing genomic diversity and the role introgression has played in evolutionary processes such as hybrid speciation. Here, we investigate the evolutionary history of the Mergini tribe (sea ducks) by coupling multi-species comparisons with phylogenomic analyses of thousands of nuclear ddRAD-seq loci, including Z-sex chromosome and autosomal linked loci, and the mitogenome assayed across all extant sea duck species in North America. All sea duck species are strongly …

Nebraska Water Center Annual Report 2019-2020

Nebraska Water Center: Administrative Materials

Contents

Introduction: Foreword • Director’s Letter • Nebraska Water Center (NWC) Overview and Timeline • In Memoriam: Kyle Hoagland

Research • Water Sciences Laboratory • Nebraska Vadose Zone Program • Ogallala Water Coordinated Agriculture Project • Water for Agriculture Project • Greeley Award • U.S. Geological Survey 104b Projects

Extension & Outreach: NWC Events • Nebraska Nitrate Initiative • Bazile Groundwater Management Area • Water and Integrated Crops Hub • Water Faculty Directory • State Legislative Funding • Water Resources Advisory Panel

Teaching: Know Your Well • Sorab Panday Spotlight • NWC Postdoc Profiles • NWC Student Intern Profiles • …

A Model-Based Exploratory Study Of Sulfur Dioxide Dispersions From Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations In The Southeastern United States, Jesse Winchester, Rezaul Mahmood, William Rodgers, Philip J. Silva, Nanh Lovanh, Joshua D. Durkee, John Loughrin

High Plains Regional Climate Center: Staff Publications

In the Southeastern U. S. there are Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) that emit a variety of gases, including SO₂. Sulfur is emitted as reduced sulfur compounds and can react in the atmosphere to produce SO₂. It is expected that the concentra­tion and spread of SO₂ emissions from these sources would differ between wet and dry periods. In this research, SO₂ emissions from locations representing CAFOs and its dispersion over the south­eastern U.S. were simulated through sensitivity experiments using the Weather Research and Forecasting-Chemistry (WRF- Chem) model. Simulations were performed for dry periods and …

Effects Of Salt Runoff On Aquatic Macroinvertebrate Colonies, Kendra Fink

Journal of Earth and Life Science

Aquatic macroinvertebrates bridge the gap in part between primary and secondary consumers, making them ecologically important for most aquatic systems. They are used as biotic indicators for water quality due to their sensitivity to pollutants and may be affected, specifically, by chloride ion concentrations in the water. Water quality can be evaluated by looking at species compositions and their respective tolerance values. To determine long-term effects of road salt on macroinvertebrate colonies, a total of 338 identified macroinvertebrates of 10 families (two generalized to class) at 9 sites were collected from before, after, and between three bridges on Turtle River …

Comparative Analysis Of Water Quality Monitoring Procedures In A Small, Eutrophic Lake, South-Central Minnesota, Owen Lott

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Understanding the spatial and temporal distribution of water quality variables in lakes is vital for assessing their overall health. So vital in fact, that numerous government agencies are tasked with testing and maintaining a healthy public surface water supply. This study focuses primarily on the efficacy of one of such agency’s procedure for monitoring surface water quality. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s (MPCA) procedure for water quality testing does not account for neither the spatial nor temporal variability of water quality in small Minnesota lakes, including the lake at the center of this study, Bass Lake. Currently, the MPCA assumes …

2020 Kentucky River Watershed Watch: Annual Report, Malissa Mcalister, Steven Evans

Kentucky River Watershed Watch

No abstract provided.

Impacts Of Extreme Environmental Disturbances On Piping Plover Survival Are Partially Moderated By Migratory Connectivity, Kristen S. Ellis, Michael J. Anteau, Francesca J. Cuthbert, Cheri L. Gratto-Trevor, Joel G. Jorgensen, David J. Newstead, Larkin Powell, Megan M. Ring, Mark H. Sherfy, Rose J. Swift, Dustin L. Toy, David N. Koons

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

Effective conservation for listed migratory species requires an understanding of how drivers of population decline vary spatially and temporally, as well as knowledge of range-wide connectivity between breeding and nonbreeding areas. Environmental conditions distant from breeding areas can have lasting effects on the demography of migratory species, yet these consequences are often the least understood. Our objectives were to 1) evaluate associations between survival and extreme environmental disturbances at nonbreeding areas, including hurricanes, harmful algal blooms, and oil spills, and 2) estimate migratory connectivity between breeding and nonbreeding areas of midcontinental piping plovers (Charadrius melodus). We used capture …

Droughtscape, Winter 2021, National Drought Mitigation Center

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

DroughtScape, Winter 2021

Regional Impacts Of Invasive Species And Climate Change On Black Ash Wetlands, Joseph Shannon

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

For more than a decade intensive research on the ecohydrology of black ash wetland ecosystems has been performed to understand these systems before they are drastically altered by the invasive species, emerald ash borer (EAB). In that time there has been little research aimed at the scale and persistence of the alterations. Three distinct but related research articles will be presented to demonstrate a method for moderate resolution mapping of black ash across its entire range, understand the relative impacts of EAB and climate change on probable future wetland conditions, and develop an experimental and modeling approach to quantify and …

Factors Influencing Aquatic Invertebrate Diversity In Mine Pit Lakes Along The Mesabi Iron Range, Jeremy Laurich

Journal of Earth and Life Science

Restoration of mine pit lakes for recreation is going to be very important for the future of Minnesota’s Mesabi Iron Range area. As many as 250 lakes will need to be restored in the future along this 100-kilometer-long swath of mining country. Information regarding the organisms that currently inhabit these lakes is important for future restorations to be a success. The focus of this study was to identify the types of aquatic invertebrates present in pit lakes and to identify some of the factors that influence their abundance and diversity. During this study, invertebrate samples were taken along the shore …

Is There A Relationship Between Aquatic Vegetation And Amphipod Stocking Mortality?, Alaina Taylor

Journal of Earth and Life Science

Amphipod occurrence and abundance has declined in the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR). Wildlife managers have stocked prairie pothole wetlands with Gammarus lacustris since 2018 to establish self-sustaining populations. G. lacustris have been detected in only 2 of 22 stocked basins, suggesting that they have died or failed to reproduce in most stocking attempts. Aquatic plant surveys were conducted in stocked wetlands and compared to data from surveys of wetlands with naturally occurring populations to understand if G. lacustris would be expected to survive in stocked wetlands based on characteristics of the aquatic vegetation communities. SAV coverage was significantly higher in …

Development Of Multi-Catchment Rating Curves For Streams Of Appalachian Mixed-Land-Use Watersheds: Preliminary Results, Zachary A. Heck

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Anthropogenic activities can alter the quantity and quality of water. Traditional monitoring of streamflow involves measurements of stage (mm), or water height, and discharge (i.e., streamflow) (m3 s -1 ) above a local datum. However, while stage is relatively easily monitored, continuous streamflow measurement is often impractical and prohibitively expensive. To address this challenge, rating curve equations can be developed to convert stage to flow. To establish a series of rating curves for flow estimations in Appalachia, an investigation was conducted in a representative urbanizing, mixed-land-use watershed in north-central West Virginia consisting of 21 nested stream gauge sites. At each …

Experiential Learning In Soil Science: Evaluating Soil Quality In South Wollo, Ethiopia, Melissa Allen, Martha Mamo, Shimelis Beyene, Teshome Regassa, Gandura O. Abagandura, Solomon Abreha, Anthony James Mucia, Tsegaye Tadesse

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

This study abroad program provided an opportunity to enhance the international experience and research skills of University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) students within a multidisciplinary team’s research-education goal on improving food security in Ethiopia. The experiential study component of the project included preparatory sessions during the Fall 2015 Semester at the UNL followed by a four- to five-week fieldwork experience in Ethiopia. Teams from the UNL and an Ethiopian university participated in survey data collection and field soil evaluations from farms in the Gerado area of South Wollo, Ethiopia. Having students interact with farmers increased student self-confidence and enhanced their leadership …

Nanomaterials In The Environment, Human Exposure Pathway, And Health Effects: A Review, Arindam Malakar, Sushil R. Kanel, Chittaranjan Ray, Daniel D. Snow, Mallikarjuna N. Nadagouda

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Nanomaterials (NMs), both natural and synthetic, are produced, transformed, and exported into our environment daily. Natural NMs annual flux to the environment is around 97% of the total and is significantly higher than synthetic NMs. However, synthetic NMs are considered to have a detrimental effect on the environment. The extensive usage of synthetic NMs in different fields, including chemical, engineering, electronics, and medicine, makes them susceptible to be discharged into the atmosphere, various water sources, soil, and landfill waste. As ever-larger quantities of NMs end up in our environment and start interacting with the biota, it is crucial to understand …

Baseflow Nitrate Dynamics Within Nested Watersheds Of An Agricultural Stream In Nebraska, Usa, Galen Richards, Troy E. Gilmore, Aaron R. Mittelstet, Tiffany Messer, Daniel D. Snow

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

There is a need to evaluate high surface nitrate concentrations across agricultural watersheds, both spatially and temporally, to increase understanding of source and timing of nitrogen loads in streams and rivers. Bazile Creek is a high-nitrate stream originating in the agriculturally intensive Bazile Groundwater Management Area of Eastern Nebraska, USA. It is a gaining stream that receives groundwater with high nitrate concentrations originating from nonpoint sources. The objective of this study was to determine spatial and temporal variability of baseflow nitrate concentrations in Bazile Creek and its tributaries and to relate this variability to watershed characteristics. Surface-water nitrate samples were …

Surveillance Of Plasticizers, Bisphenol A, Steroids And Caffeine In Surface Water Of River Ganga And Sundarban Wetland Along The Bay Of Bengal: Occurrence, Sources, Estrogenicity Screening And Ecotoxicological Risk Assessment, Paromita Chakraborty, Nancy W. Shappell, Moitraiyee Mukhopadhyay, Sathaporn Onanong, Daniel D. Snow

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

The transboundary River Ganga serves as a conduit for meltwater from the Himalayas and is a major freshwater source for two thirds of Indian population before emptying into the Sundarban Delta, the largest estuary in the Bay of Bengal. Endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) such as phthalic acid esters (PAEs) and bisphenol A (BPA) used as organic plastic additives can pollute the aquatic environment receiving plastic litter. Hence, we have investigated these EDCs in water samples from Ganga and Sundarban wetland of India. Since these compounds exhibit estrogenic potential, we have further measured steroids and evaluated the estrogenic activity (estradiol equivalents, …

Transmission Routes Of The Microbiome And Resistome From Manure To Soil And Lettuce, Yuepeng Sun, Daniel D. Snow, Harkamal Walia, Xu Li

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

The land application of animal manure can introduce manure microbiome and resistome to croplands where food crops are grown. The objective of this study was to characterize the microbiome and resistome on and in the leaves of lettuce grown in manured soil and identify the main transmission routes of microbes and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) from soil to the episphere and endosphere of lettuce. Shotgun metagenomic results show that manure application significantly altered the composition of the microbiome and resistome of surface soil. SourceTracker analyses indicate that manure and original soil were the main source of the microbiome and resistome …

Long Term Nutrient And Chlorophyll A Dynamics Across Long Island Sound And Impacts On Dissolved Oxygen Conditions Within The Western Sound (1991-2019), Sherry Perreira

Dissertations and Theses

Nitrogen overload, eutrophication, and hypoxia have been challenging and persistent water quality problems in Long Island Sound (LIS) over the past decades with major impacts on commercial industries, ecology, and recreational activities in the region. Recognizing these problems, the EPA enforced three phases of the Clean Water Act (CWA) to reduce nitrogen loads in an effort to improve this important estuary. This study examines how nitrogen (NH₃, NO_x & TDN), chlorophyll a (CHLA), and dissolved oxygen (DO) concentrations changed in LIS over the past 30 years, in response to water quality regulations as well as changes in …

Lake Ivanhoe 2021 Water Quality Highlight Report, Amanda Mcquaid, Robert Craycraft

UNH Cooperative Extension

A Water Quality Highlight Report by UNH CE Lakes Lay Monitoring Program for Lake Ivanhoe (Wakefield, NH) for sampling efforts in 2021.

Effects Of Multiple Stressors On Aquatic Macroinvertebrate Communities In A Mixed-Land-Use Watershed, Joellen Stivala

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

As urbanization continues, there is a need to identify and understand environmental stressors that impact stream condition in mixed-land-use watersheds. This study analyzed four years of aquatic macroinvertebrate community and environmental data collected from ten sites located at the mouths of first-order tributaries and along the main stem creek of a 23-km², mixed-land-use watershed in central Appalachia. The main objectives were to 1) determine stream ecological integrity by analyzing stream macroinvertebrate taxonomic and trait-based composition and 2) assess which of 23 environmental variables explained significant variability in common community composition metrics (WVSCI, GLIMPSS, Biotic Index, % clingers, etc.). …

Bow Lake (Station 3 - Bennett) 2021 Water Quality Highlight Report, Amanda Mcquaid, Robert Craycraft

UNH Cooperative Extension

A Water Quality Highlight Report by UNH CE Lakes Lay Monitoring Program for Bow Lake, Station 3 Bennett (Barrington and Northwood, NH) for 2021.

Bow Lake (Station 1 - Ledges) 2021 Water Quality Highlight Report, Amanda Mcquaid, Robert Craycraft

UNH Cooperative Extension

A Water Quality Highlight Report by UNH CE Lakes Lay Monitoring Program for Bow Lake, Station 1 Ledges (Barrington and Northwood, NH) for 2021.

Baboosic Lake 2021 Water Quality Highlight Report, Amanda Mcquaid, Robert Craycraft

UNH Cooperative Extension

A Water Quality Highlight Report by UNH CE Lakes Lay Monitoring Program for Baboosic Lake (Amherst and Merrimack, NH) for 2021.

Province Lake 2021 Water Quality Highlight Report, Amanda Mcquaid, Robert Craycraft

UNH Cooperative Extension

A Water Quality Highlight Report by UNH CE Lakes Lay Monitoring Program for Province Lake (Wakefield, NH and Parsonsfield, ME) for 2021.

Pine River Pond 2021 Water Quality Highlight Report, Amanda Mcquaid, Robert Craycraft

UNH Cooperative Extension

No abstract provided.

Great East Lake 2021 Water Quality Highlight Report, Amanda Mcquaid, Robert Craycraft

UNH Cooperative Extension

A Water Quality Highlight Report by UNH CE Lakes Lay Monitoring Program for Great East Lake (Wakefield, NH; Acton , ME) for sampling efforts in 2021.

Belleau Lake 2021 Water Quality Highlight Report, Amanda Mcquaid, Robert Craycraft

UNH Cooperative Extension

A Water Quality Highlight Report by UNH CE Lakes Lay Monitoring Program for Belleau Lake in Wakefield, NH for 2021.