Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology Commons^™

Exposure And Food Web Transfer Of Pharmaceuticals In Ospreys (Pandion Haliaetus): Predictive Model And Empirical Data, Rebecca S. Lazarus, Barnett A. Rattner, Bryan W. Brooks, Bowen Du, Peter C. Mcgowan, Vicki S. Blazer, Mary Ann Ottinger

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

The osprey (Pandion haliaetus) is a well‐known sentinel of environmental contamination, yet no studies have traced pharmaceuticals through the water–fish–osprey food web. A screening‐level exposure assessment was used to evaluate the bioaccumulation potential of 113 pharmaceuticals and metabolites, and an artificial sweetener in this food web. Hypothetical concentrations in water reflecting “wastewater effluent dominated” or “dilution dominated” scenarios were combined with pH‐specific bioconcentration factors (BCFs) to predict uptake in fish. Residues in fish and osprey food intake rate were used to calculate the daily intake (DI) of compounds by an adult female osprey. Fourteen pharmaceuticals and a drug …

Co-Occurrence Of The Cyanotoxins Bmaa, Daba And Anatoxin-A In Nebraska Reservoirs, Fish, And Aquatic Plants, Maitham Ahmed Al-Sammak, Kyle D. Hoagland, David A. Cassada, Daniel D. Snow

Nebraska Water Center: Faculty Publications

Several groups of microorganisms are capable of producing toxins in aquatic environments. Cyanobacteria are prevalent blue green algae in freshwater systems, and many species produce cyanotoxins which include a variety of chemical irritants, hepatotoxins and neurotoxins. Production and occurrence of potent neurotoxic cyanotoxins β-N-methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA), 2,4-diaminobutyric acid dihydrochloride (DABA), and anatoxin-a are especially critical with environmental implications to public and animal health. Biomagnification, though not well understood in aquatic systems, is potentially relevant to both human and animal health effects. Because little is known regarding their presence in fresh water, we investigated the occurrence and potential for bioaccumulation of cyanotoxins …

Rapid Fluctuations In Mid-Latitude Siliceous Plankton Production During The Middle Eocene Climatic Optimum (Odp Site 1051, Western North Atlantic), Jakub Witkowski, Steven M. Bohaty, Kirsty M. Edgar, David M. Harwood

ANDRILL Research and Publications

The Middle Eocene Climatic Optimum (MECO; ~ 40 million years ago [Ma]) is one of the most prominent transient global warming events in the Paleogene. Although the event is well documented in geochemical and isotopic proxy records at many locations, the marine biotic response to the MECO remains poorly constrained. We present new high-resolution, quantitative records of siliceous microplankton assemblages from the MECO interval of Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 1051 in the subtropical western North Atlantic Ocean, which are interpreted in the context of published foraminiferal and bulk carbonate stable isotope (δ¹⁸O and δ¹³C) records. …

Winter Wind Chill Climatology For The High Plains Region, Holly B. Lussenden, Natalie A. Umphlett, Martha D. Shulski, Daniel Ebert

High Plains Regional Climate Center: Staff Publications

During the winter months in the High Plains region of the United States, wind chill temperatures can reach dangerous levels for humans and animals. Knowing the frequency in which extreme wind chill temperatures occur could help forecasters know when to issue wind chill advisories and also the general public understand just how rare, or common, certain wind chill temperatures are. A climatology spanning a 37-year period was created using data from 57 stations in and around the plains portion of the High Plains region from the Integrated Surface Hourly Database at National Climatic Data Center (NCDC). These climatologies were completed …

Climate Masters Of Nebraska: An Innovative Action-Based Approach For Climate Change Education, Tapan Pathak, Tonya Bernadt, Natalie A. Umphlett

High Plains Regional Climate Center: Staff Publications

Climate Masters of Nebraska is an innovative educational program that strategically trains community volunteers about climate change science and corresponding ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in an interactive and action-based teaching environment. As a result of the program, 91% of participants indicated that they made informed changes in their lives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Approximately 500 hours of volunteer work was reported by participants as an outreach for greenhouse gas emission reduction. The program can be easily replicated to other locales with an effective planning and with small leadership team.

Droughtscape, Winter 2014, Kelly Smith

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

Contents

Director’s report

Outlook & quarterly review . 2

Drought in 2013 review.

Quarterly impacts review . 5

Impacts in 2013 review.

Belmont Forum research0

USDM change maps 11

Central Asia drought planning

Kansas RC&D planning

Publication compares plans

Drought for planners webinar

Soil moisture networks

Kansas farm and ranch planning

$500 to develop leadership

Kids seek solutions

Plains symposium April 1-4

Adverse Outcome Pathway And Risks Of Anticoagulant Rodenticides To Predatory Wildlife, Barnett A. Rattner, Rebecca S. Lazarus, John E. Elliott, Richard F. Shore, Nico Van Den Brink

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Despite a long history of successful use, routine application of some anticoagulant rodenticides (ARs) may be at a crossroad due to new regulatory guidelines intended to mitigate risk. An adverse outcome pathway for ARs was developed to identify information gaps and end points to assess the effectiveness of regulations. This framework describes chemical properties of ARs, established macromolecular interactions by inhibition of vitamin K epoxide reductase, cellular responses including altered clotting factor processing and coagulopathy, organ level effects such as hemorrhage, organism responses with linkages to reduced fitness and mortality, and potential consequences to predator populations. Risk assessments have led …

Capacitively Coupled And Direct-Current Resistivity Surveys Of Selected Reaches Of Cozad, Thirty-Mile, Orchard-Alfalfa, Kearney, And Outlet Canals In Nebraska, 2012-13, Christopher M. Hobza, Bethany L. Burton, Jeffrey E. Lucius, Ryan E. Tompkins

United States Geological Survey: Water Reports and Publications

Understanding the spatial characteristics of leakage from canals is critical to effectively managing and utilizing water resources for irrigation and hydroelectric purposes. Canal leakage in some parts of Nebraska is the primary source of water for groundwater recharge and helps maintain the base flow of streams. Because surface-water supplies depend on the streamflow of the Platte River and the available water stored in upstream reservoirs, water managers seek to minimize conveyance losses, which can include canal leakage. The United States Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Central Platte Natural Resources District and Nebraska Public Power District, used capacitively coupled (CC) …

Finding Them Before They Find Us: Informatics, Parasites, And Environments In Accelerating Climate Change, Daniel R. Brooks, Eric P. Hoberg, Walter A. Boeger, Scott Lyell Gardner, Kurt E. Galbreath, David Herczeg, Hugo H. Mejía-Madrid, S. Elizabeth Rácz, Altangerel Tsogtsaikhan Dursahinhan

Harold W. Manter Laboratory of Parasitology: Faculty Publications

Parasites are agents of disease in humans, livestock, crops, and wildlife and are powerful representations of the ecological and historical context of the diseases they cause. Recognizing a nexus of professional opportunities and global public need, we gathered at the Cedar Point Biological Station of the University of Nebraska in September 2012 to formulate a cooperative and broad platform for providing essential information about the evolution, ecology, and epidemiology of parasites across host groups, parasite groups, geographical regions, and ecosystem types. A general protocol, documentation–assessment–monitoring–action (DAMA), suggests an integrated proposal to build a proactive capacity to understand, anticipate, and respond …

Nongeocentric Axial Dipole Field Behavior During The Mono Lake Excursion, Robert M. Negrini, Daniel T. Mccuan, Robert A. Horton, James D. Lopez, William S. Cassata, James E. T. Channell, Kenneth L. Verosub, Jeffrey R. Knott, Robert S. Coe, Joseph C. Liddicoat, Steven P. Lund, Larry Benson, Andrei M. Sarna-Wojcicki

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

A new record of the Mono Lake excursion (MLE) is reported from the Summer Lake Basin of Oregon, USA. Sediment magnetic properties indicate magnetite as the magnetization carrier and imply suitability of the sediments as accurate recorders of the magnetic field including relative paleointensity (RPI) variations. The magnitudes and phases of the declination, inclination, and RPI components of the new record correlate well with other coeval but lower resolution records from western North America including records from the Wilson Creek Formation exposed around Mono Lake. The virtual geomagnetic pole (VGP) path of the new record is similar to that from …

Wetland Reserve Program Enhances Site Occupancy And Species Richness In Assemblages Of Anuran Amphibians In The Mississippi Alluvial Valley, Usa, Susan C. Walls, J. Hardin Waddle, Stephen P. Faulkner

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

We measured amphibian habitat use to quantify the effectiveness of conservation practices implemented under the Wetland Reserve Program (WRP), an initiative of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. From February to June 2007, we quantified calling male anurans in cultivated cropland, former cultivated cropland restored through the WRP, and mature bottomland hardwood forest. Sites were located in two watersheds within the Mississippi Alluvial Valley of Arkansas and Louisiana, USA. We estimated detection probability and site occupancy within each land use category using a Bayesian hierarchical model of community species occurrence, and derived an estimate of species richness …

Mapping Irrigated Areas In Afghanistan Over The Past Decade Using Modis Ndvi, Md. Shahriar Pervez, Michael Budde, James Rowland

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Agricultural production capacity contributes to food security in Afghanistan and is largely dependent on irrigated farming, mostly utilizing surface water fed by snowmelt. Because of the high contribution of irrigated crops (> 80%) to total agricultural production, knowing the spatial distribution and year-to-year variability in irrigated areas is imperative to monitoring food security for the country. We used 16-day composites of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor to create 23-point time series for each year from 2000 through 2013. Seasonal peak values and time series were used in a threshold-dependent decision tree …

Comparing Cropland Net Primary Production Estimates Frominventory, A Satellite-Based Model, And A Process-Based Model In Themidwest Of The United States, Zengpeng Li, Shuguang Liu, Zhengxi Tan, Normann B. Bliss, Claudia J. Young, Tristram O. West, Stephen M. Ogle

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Accurately quantifying the spatial and temporal variability of net primary production (NPP) for crop-lands is essential to understand regional cropland carbon dynamics. We compared three NPP estimates for croplands in the Midwestern United States: inventory-based estimates using crop yield data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS); estimates from the satellite-based Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) NPP product; and estimates from the General Ensemble biogeochemical Modeling System (GEMS) process-based model. The three methods estimated mean NPP in the range of 469–687 g C m−2yr−1and total NPP in the range of318–490 Tg C yr−1for croplands in …

Humic Substances Interfere With Detection Of Pathogenic Prion Protein, Christen B. Smith, Clarissa J. Booth, Tyler J. Wadzinski, Giuseppe Legname, Rick Chappell, Christopher J. Johnson, Joel A. Pedersen

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Studies examining the persistence of prions (the etiological agent of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies) in soil require accurate quantification of pathogenic prion protein (PrPTSE) extracted from or in the presence of soil particles. Here, we demonstrate that natural organic matter (NOM) in soil impacts PrPTSE detection by immunoblotting. Methods commonly used to extract PrPTSE from soils release substantial amounts of NOM, and NOM inhibited PrPTSE immunoblot signal. The degree of immunoblot interference increased with increasing NOM concentration and decreasing NOM polarity. Humic substances affected immunoblot detection of prion protein from both deer and hamsters. We also establish that after interaction with …

Structural Equation Models Of Vmt Growth In Us Urbanised Areas, Reid Ewing, Shima Hamidi, Frank Gallivan, Arthur C. Nelson, James B. Grace

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Vehicle miles travelled (VMT) is a primary performance indicator for land use and transportation, bringing with it both positive and negative externalities. This study updates and refines previous work on VMT in urbanised areas, using recent data, additional metrics and structural equation modelling (SEM). In a cross-sectional model for 2010, population, income and freeway capacity are positively related to VMT, while gasoline prices, development density and transit service levels are negatively related. Findings of the cross-sectional model are generally confirmed in a more tightly controlled longitudinal study of changes in VMT between 2000 and 2010, the first model of its …

Merging Remote Sensing Data And National Agricultural Statistics To Model Change In Irrigated Agriculture, Jesslyn F. Brown, Md Shahriar Pervez

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Over 22 million hectares (ha) of U.S. croplands are irrigated. Irrigation is an intensified agricultural land use that increases crop yields and the practice affects water and energy cycles at, above, and below the land surface. Until recently, there has been a scarcity of geospatially detailed information about irrigation that is comprehensive, consistent, and timely to support studies tying agricultural land use change to aquifer water use and other factors. This study shows evidence for a recent overall net expansion of 522 thousand ha across the U.S. (2.33%) and 519 thousand ha (8.7%) in irrigated cropped area across the High …

Comparing Crop Land Net Primary Production Estimates From Inventory, A Satellite-Based Model, And A Process-Based Model In The Midwest Of The United States Zhengpeng, Zhengpeng Li, Shuguang Liu, Zhengxi Tan, Normann B. Bliss, Claudia J. Young, Tristram O. West, Stephen M. Ogle

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Accurately quantifying the spatial and temporal variability of net primary production (NPP) for crop-lands is essential to understand regional cropland carbon dynamics. We compared three NPP estimates for croplands in the Midwestern United States: inventory-based estimates using crop yield data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS); estimates from the satellite-based Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectro radiometer (MODIS) NPP product; and esti-mates from the General Ensemble bio geochemical Modeling System (GEMS) process-based model. The three methods estimated mean NPP in the range of 469–687 g C m⁻²yr⁻¹and total NPP in the range …

Summary Of The Snowmastodon Project Special Volume: A High-Elevation, Multi-Proxy Biotic And Environmental Record Of Mis 6–4 From The Ziegler Reservoir Fossil Site, Snowmass Village, Colorado, Usa, Ian M. Miller, Jeffrey S. Pigati, R. Scott Anderson, Kirk R. Johnson, Shannon A. Mahan, Thomas A. Ager, Richard G. Baker, Maarten Blaauw, Jordon Bright, Peter M. Brown, Bruce Bryant, Zachary T. Calamari, Paul E. Carrara, Michael D. Cherney, John R. Demboski, Scott A. Elias, Daniel C. Fisher, Harrison J. Gray, Danielle R. Haskett, Jeffrey S. Honke, Stephen T. Jackson, Gonzalo Jiménez- Moreno, Douglas Kline, Eric M. Leonard, Nathaniel A. Lifton, Carol Lucking, H. Gregory Mcdonald, Dane M. Miller, Daniel R. Muhs, Stephen E. Nash, Cody Newton, James B. Paces, Lesley Petrie, Mitchell A. Plummer, David F. Porinchu, Adam N. Rountrey, Eric Scott, Joseph J.W. Sertich, Saxon E. Sharpe, Gary L. Skipp, Laura E. Strickland, Richard K. Stucky, Robert S. Thompson, Jim Wilson

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

In North America, terrestrial records of biodiversity and climate change that span Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage (MIS) 5 are rare. Where found, they provide insight into how the coupling of the ocean–atmosphere system is manifested in biotic and environmental records and how the biosphere responds to climate change. In 2010–2011, construction at Ziegler Reservoir near Snowmass Village, Colorado (USA) revealed a nearly continuous, lacustrine/wetland sedimentary sequence that preserved evidence of past plant communities between ~140 and 55 ka, including all of MIS 5. At an elevation of 2705 m, the Ziegler Reservoir fossil site also contained thousands of well-preserved bones …

Radiocarbon Dating Loess Deposits In The Mississippi Valley Using Terrestrial Gastropod Shells (Polygyridae, Helicinidae, And Discidae), Jeffrey S. Pigati, John Mcgeehin, Daniel R. Muhs, David A. Grimley, Jeffrey C. Nekola

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Small terrestrial gastropod shells (mainly Succineidae) have been used successfully to date late Quaternary loess deposits in Alaska and the Great Plains. However, Succineidae shells are less common in loess deposits in the Mississippi Valley compared to those of the Polygyridae, Helicinidae, and Discidae families. In this study, we conducted several tests to determine whether shells of these gastropods could provide reliable ages for loess deposits in the Mississippi Valley. Our results show that most of the taxa that we investigated incorporate small amounts (1–5%) of old carbon from limestone in their shells, meaning that they should yield ages that …

Geologic Setting And Stratigraphy Of The Ziegler Reservoir Fossil Site, Snowmass Village, Colorado, Jeffrey S. Pigati, Ian M. Miller, Kirk R. Johnson, Jeffrey S. Honke, Paul E. Carrara, Daniel R. Muhs, Gary Skipp, Bruce Bryant

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

The geologic setting of the Ziegler Reservoir fossil site is somewhat unusual—the sediments containing the Pleistocene fossils were deposited in a lake on top of a ridge. The lake basin was formed near Snowmass Village, Colorado (USA) when a glacier flowing down Snowmass Creek Valley became thick enough to overtop a low point in the eastern valley wall and entered the head of Brush Creek Valley. When the glacier retreated at about 155–130 ka, near the end of Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage 6, the Brush Creek Valley lobe left behind a moraine that impounded a small alpine lake. The lake …

Toxicity Of Pb‐Contaminated Soil To Japanese Quail (Coturnix Japonica) And The Use Of The Blood–Dietary Pb Slope In Risk Assessment, W. Nelson Beyer, Yu Chen, Paula Henry, Thomas May, David Mosby, Barnett A. Rattner, Valerie I. Shearn-Bochsler, Daniel Sprague, John Weber

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

This study relates tissue concentrations and toxic effects of Pb in Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica) to the dietary exposure of soil‐borne Pb associated with mining and smelting. From 0% to 12% contaminated soil, by weight, was added to 5 experimental diets (0.12 to 382mg Pb/kg, dry wt) and fed to the quail for 6 weeks. Benchmark doses associated with a 50% reduction in delta‐aminolevulinic acid dehydratase activity were 0.62mg Pb/kg in the blood, dry wt, and 27mg Pb/kg in the diet. Benchmark doses associated with a 20% increase in the concentration of erythrocyte protoporphyrin were 2.7mg Pb/kg in …

Testing Metapopulation Concepts: Effects Of Patch Characteristics And Neighborhood Occupancy On The Dynamics Of An Endangered Lagomorph, Mitchell J. Eaton, Phillip T. Hughes, James E. Hines, James D. Nichols

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Metapopulation ecology is a field that is richer in theory than in empirical results. Many existing empirical studies use an incidence function approach based on spatial patterns and key assumptions about extinction and colonization rates. Here we recast these assumptions as hypotheses to be tested using 18 years of historic detection survey data combined with four years of data from a new monitoring program for the Lower Keys marsh rabbit. We developed a new model to estimate probabilities of local extinction and colonization in the presence of nondetection, while accounting for estimated occupancy levels of neighboring patches. We used model …

Probit Models For Capture-Recapture Data Subject To Imperfect Detection, Individual Heterogeneity And Misidentification, Brett T. Mcclinktock, Larissa L. Bailey, Brian P. Dreher, William A. Link

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

As noninvasive sampling techniques for animal populations have become more popular, there has been increasing interest in the development of capture-recapture models that can accommodate both imperfect detection and misidentification of individuals (e.g., due to genotyping error). However, current methods do not allow for individual variation in parameters, such as detection or survival probability. Here we develop misidentification models for capture-recapture data that can simultaneously account for temporal variation, behavioral effects and individual heterogeneity in parameters. To facilitate Bayesian inference using our approach, we extend standard probit regression techniques to latent multinomial models where the dimension and zeros of the …

Testing Metapopulation Concepts: Effects Of Patch Characteristics And Neighborhood Occupancy On The Dynamics Of An Endangered Lagomorph, Mitchell J. Eaton, Phillip T. Hughes, James E. Hines, James D. Nichols

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Metapopulation ecology is a field that is richer in theory than in empirical results. Many existing empirical studies use an incidence function approach based on spatial patterns and key assumptions about extinction and colonization rates. Here we recast these assumptions as hypotheses to be tested using 18 years of historic detection survey data combined with four years of data from a new monitoring program for the Lower Keys marsh rabbit. We developed a new model to estimate probabilities of local extinction and colonization in the presence of nondetection, while accounting for estimated occupancy levels of neighboring patches. We used model …

Probit Models For Capture-Recapture Data Subject To Imperfect Detection, Individual Heterogeneity And Misidentification1, Brett T. Mcclintock, Larissa L. Bailey, Brian P. Dreher, William A. Link

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

As noninvasive sampling techniques for animal populations have become more popular, there has been increasing interest in the development of capture-recapture models that can accommodate both imperfect detection and misidentification of individuals (e.g., due to genotyping error). However, current methods do not allow for individual variation in parameters, such as detection or survival probability. Here we develop misidentification models for capture-recapture data that can simultaneously account for temporal variation, behavioral effects and individual heterogeneity in parameters. To facilitate Bayesian inference using our approach, we extended standard probit regression techniques to latent multinomial models where the dimension and zeros of the …

Loess Records, Daniel R. Muhs, Stephen R. Cattle, Onn Crouvi, Denis-Didier Rousseau, Jimin Sun, Marcelo A. Zárate

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Loess is aeolian sediment, dominated by silt-sized particles, that is identifiable in the field as a distinct sedimentary body. It covers a significant portion of the land surface of the Earth and as such constitutes one of the most important archives of long-term dust deposition. Large tracts of loess cover Europe, Asia, South America, and North America, and smaller loess bodies are found covering parts of Africa, the Middle East, New Zealand, and Australia. Loess thickness, particle size, and carbonate content decrease downwind from sources, trends that are powerful tools for reconstructing paleowinds. Many loess sections consist of relatively thick …

Evidence Of Repeated Wildfires Prior To Human Occupation On San Nicolas Island, California, Jeffrey S. Pigati, John P. Mcgeehin, Gary L. Skipp, Daniel R. Muhs

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Understanding how early humans on the California Channel Islands might have changed local fire regimes requires a baseline knowledge of the frequency of natural wildfires on the islands prior to human occupation. A sedimentary sequence that was recently discovered in a small canyon on San Nicolas Island contains evidence of at least 24 burn events that date to between ~37 and 25 ka (thousands of calibrated ¹⁴C years before present), well before humans entered North America. The evidence includes abundant macroscopic charcoal, blackened sediments, and discrete packages of oxidized, reddish-brown sediments that are similar in appearance to sedimentary features …

Two-Source Energy Balance Model To Calculate E, T, And Et: Comparison Of Priestley-Taylor And Penman-Monteith Formulations And Two Time Scaling Methods, Paul D. Colaizzi, Nurit Agam, Judy A. Tolk, Steven R. Evett, Terry A. Howell, Prasanna H. Gowda, Susan A. O'Shaughnessy, William P. Kustas, Martha C. Anderson

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

The two-source energy balance (TSEB) model calculates the energy balance of the soil-canopy-atmosphere continuum, where transpiration is initially determined by the Priestley-Taylor equation. The TSEB was revised recently using the Penman-Monteith equation to replace the Priestley-Taylor formulation, thus better accounting for the impact of large and varying vapor pressure deficits (VPD) typical of advective, semiarid climates. This study is a comparison of the Priestley- Taylor and Penman-Monteith versions of the TSEB (termed TSEB-PT and TSEB-PM, respectively). Evaporation (E), transpiration (T), and evapotranspiration (ET) calculated by the TSEB-PT and TSEB-PM versions were compared to measurements obtained with microlysimeters, sap flow gauges, …

Obama Climate Plan, J. David Aiken

Cornhusker Economics

States have been the policy leaders in establishing programs to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from power plants in the US through state renewable energy programs and energy efficiency programs. However, US global warming policy may have turned an important corner during the Obama administration. In the US the two largest sources of GHG emissions are motor vehicles and coal-fired power plants. Significantly reducing US GHG emissions would require addressing these two issues. The Obama climate plan does so. The most contentious issue is reducing GHG emissions from existing power plants. But states will be able to do so through …

Metr 341: Synoptic Meteorology—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Inquiry Project, Matthew S. Van Den Broeke

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

Synoptic meteorology is foundational to atmospheric science, and it is critical that students strengthen their ability to think critically and independently in this course. Anecdotal evidence from teaching similar courses, and from education literature in the physical sciences, has pointed to the value of problem solving using data from real events. This inquiry project allowed further investigation of optimal instructional methods for this particular course, and led to the qualitative and partially quantified conclusion that hands-on in-class activities seem to support the most significant learning gains. In addition, this project led to the conclusion that a high degree of peer …