Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment Commons^™

Climate Change And San Francisco Bay-Delta Tidal Wetlands, V Thomas Parker, John Callaway, Lisa M. Schile, Michael C. Vasey, Ellen R. Herbert

Environmental Science

Climate change will affect tidal wetlands with higher rates of sea-level rise and higher concentrations of salt in brackish and freshwater tidal systems, in addition to causing increases in atmospheric CO2 concentration, warmer temperatures, and shifts in precipitation. In the San Francisco Bay–Delta, the areas most likely to be affected—brackish and freshwater tidal wetlands—are also the sites with the majority of endemic plant species and the greater biodiversity and productivity. Effects on the San Francisco Bay– Delta estuary are complex and difficult to predict, but a few things are clear. Biodiversity of the tidal wetland system in the San Francisco …

A Financial Impact Assessment Of Ld 1725: Stream Crossings (Presentation), New England Environmental Finance Center, Muskie School Of Public Service

Water

This report looks at the potential financial impact of LD 1725 on the estimated 30,000 stream crossings in the State of Maine that would be affected by the law. Our research for this report included the analysis of nearly 2000 stream crossings and the data collection necessary for the development of extensive stream crossing replacement cost models. We found that the 1.2 bankfull requirements in LD 1725 would result in a 75% ‐ 250% increase in structure widths for stream crossing projects across the state. An upsize of this magnitude would increase the cost of replacing stream crossings statewide by …

A Financial Impact Assessment Of Ld 1725: Stream Crossings Presentation, New England Environmental Finance Center

Economics and Finance

This report looks at the potential financial impact of LD 1725 on the estimated 30,000 stream crossings in the State of Maine that would be affected by the law. Our research for this report included the analysis of nearly 2000 stream crossings and the data collection necessary for the development of extensive stream crossing replacement cost models. We found that the 1.2 bankfull requirements in LD 1725 would result in a 75% ‐ 250% increase in structure widths for stream crossing projects across the state. An upsize of this magnitude would increase the cost of replacing stream crossings statewide by …

Ua12/13 2011 Sustainability Report [Western Kentucky University], Wku Office Of Sustainability, Christian Ryan-Downing

Sustainability Publications and Resources

AASHE is an association of colleges and universities that are working to create a sustainable future. AASHE’s mission is to empower higher education to lead the sustainability transformation. The organization provides resources, professional development and a network of support to enable institutions of higher education to model and advance sustainability in everything they do, from governance and operations to education and research. For more information about AASHE, visit www.aashe.org.

In early 2010, Western Kentucky University became a charter member of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education’s Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS). STARS® is a …

Implications Of Community Concordance For Assessing Stream Integrity At Three Nested Spatial Scales In Minnesota, U.S.A., Christine L. Dolph, David D. Huff, Christopher J. Chizinski, Bruce Vondracek

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

1. Fish and invertebrate assemblage data collected from 670 stream sites in Minnesota (U.S.A.) were used to calculate concordance across three nested spatial scales (statewide, ecoregion and catchment). Predictive taxa richness models, calibrated using the same data, were used to evaluate whether concordant communities exhibited similar trends in human-induced taxa loss across all three scales. Finally, we evaluated the strength of the relationship between selected environmental variables and the composition of both assemblages at all three spatial scales.

2. Significant concordance between fish and invertebrate communities occurred at the statewide scale as well as in six of seven ecoregions and …

Farmer Perceptions Of Sustainable Agriculture Practices And Drought Risk Reduction In Nebraska, Usa, Cody L. Knutson, Tonya Haigh, Michael J. Hayes, Melissa Widhalm, J. Nothwehr, M. Kleinschmidt, L. Graf

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Social factors, such as farming methods, have an impact on farm vulnerability to drought, but have received little research or policy attention. Some researchers and advocates have argued that sustainable agriculture systems are less vulnerable to climate risk than conventional systems because sustainable agriculture requires producers to have skills promoting adaptability. In this paper, we investigate producers’ perceptions on the use of sustainable agriculture in reducing drought risk, and what they believe would help them better adapt to drought. We surveyed and interviewed farmer members of two sustainable agriculture organizations in Nebraska, USA, during a multi-year drought period from 1999 …

The Global Drought Monitor Portal, Michael J. Brewer, Richard R. Heim Jr.

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Drought monitoring, assessment, response, mitigation, adaptation, and early warning systems have been created in a number of countries around the world, and some regional and continental efforts have been successful. However, the creation of a Global Drought Early Warning System (GDEWS) remains elusive. A GDEWS incorporates forecasting and research improvements, in addition to monitoring, impact, planning, mitigation and adaptation and recovery information. At a series of workshops in 2010, the U.S. National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) agreed to take the first step toward a GDEWS, the formation of a Global Drought Monitoring Portal (GDMP). This effort currently covers three …

Catch, Treat And Release With Limited Removal Red Desert Complex Wild Horse Herd Management Areas (Lost Creek, Stewart Creek, Green Mountain, Crooks Mountain, Antelope Hills), United States Department Of The Interior, Bureau Of Land Management

Environmental Assessments (WY)

This Environmental Assessment (EA) has been prepared to disclose and analyze the environmental consequences of a "Catch, Treat and Release (CTR)" of wild horses in the Red Desert Wild Horse Herd Management Area (HMA) Complex. In addition to the proposed action of a CTR gather, removal of wild horses outside identified HMAs within the project area will also be conducted. The HMAs included in this complex are Lost Creek, Stewart Creek, Green Mountain, Crooks Mountain and Antelope Hills (See Area Map, Appendix 2). The EA is a site-specific analysis of potential impacts that could result with the implementation of a …

2011 Nebraska Water Monitoring Programs Report, Marty Link

Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality: Reports

The Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality (NDEQ) is charged with monitoring, assessing, and to the extent possible, managing the state’s water resources. The purpose of this work is to protect and maintain good quality water and encourage or execute activities to improve poor water quality. Monitoring is done on the over 18,000 miles of flowing rivers and streams, our greater than 280,000 acres of surface water in lakes and reservoirs, and the vast storage of groundwater in Nebraska’s aquifers.

Droughtscape, Winter 2011, Kelly Smith

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

Register for the U.S. Drought Monitor Forum

La Niña Brings Southeast, Southwest Drought

International Efforts

Drought Returns in 2010

Impacts Emerge “Before” Summer Drought in East

October-December Quarterly Impacts Summary

Climate Adaptation for Local Government

NDMC Elicits Missouri River Basin Recollections

Woudenberg Coordinates Educational Booklet

Using The Judas Technique To Locate And Remove Wintertime Aggregations Of Invasive Common Carp, P. G. Bajer, Christopher J. Chizinski, P. W. Sorensen

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

Radio- and acoustic telemetry in three Midwestern lakes demonstrated that common carp, Cyprinus carpio L., aggregate as water temperatures descend below 10C. Particularly dense aggregations formed at temperatures <5 >C, and once located, these aggregations could be removed with an efficiency of up to 94% using seine nets. Carp aggregated just below the surface of the ice (approximately 1.5 m) and rarely descended to warmer waters, which extended down to 10 m. Although aggregations consistently formed close to shore, their locations could not be explained by temperature or dissolved oxygen. The aggregations also moved frequently, making radio-tagged fish invaluable to locate …

Mixed-Source Reintroductions Lead To Outbreeding Depression In Second-Generation Descendents Of A Native North American Fish, David D. Huff, Loren M. Miller, Christopher J. Chizinski, Bruce Vondracek

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

Reintroductions are commonly employed to preserve intraspecific biodiversity in fragmented landscapes. However, reintroduced populations are frequently smaller and more geographically isolated than native populations. Mixing genetically, divergent sources are often proposed to attenuate potentially low genetic diversity in reintroduced populations that may result from small effective population sizes. However, a possible negative tradeoff for mixing sources is outbreeding depression in hybrid offspring. We examined the consequences of mixed-source reintroductions on several fitness surrogates at nine slimy sculpin (Cottus cognatus) reintroduction sites in south-east Minnesota. We inferred the relative fitness of each crosstype in the reintroduced populations by comparing …

Breeding Bird Response To Partially Harvested Riparian Management Zones, Christopher J. Chizinski, Anna Peterson, Joann Hanowski, Charles R. Blinn, Bruce Vondracek, Gerald J. Niemi

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

We compared avian communities among three timber harvesting treatments in 45-m wide even-age riparian management zones (RMZs) placed between upland clearcuts and along one side of first- or second-order streams in northern Minnesota, USA. The RMZs had three treatments: (1) unharvested, (2) intermediate residual basal area (RBA) (targeted goal 11.5m²/ha, realized 16.0m2/ha), and (3) low RBA (targeted goal 5.7m²/ha, realized 8.7m²/ha). Surveys were conducted one year pre-harvest and three consecutive years post-harvest. There was no change in species richness, diversity, or total abundance associated with harvest but there were shifts in the types of …

Smoke Signals: An Investigation Of The Effects Of Eco-Stoves On Community And The Environment, Claire Hennigan, Amy Rogers

VA Engage Journal

The use of solid biomass fuels and the implementation of eco-stoves to mitigate its harmful effects has become a popular topic in discussions on global development. An article published on use of traditional fuels in The New Yorker reports, “A map of the world's poor is easy to make…just follow the smoke.” Eco-stoves are now being constructed in impoverished communities around the world as an alternative to traditional stove models as a means to improve health and overall quality of life. Global Brigades, a sustainable development NGO, has been working in communities in rural Honduras to construct an eco-stove model …

Sequence Stratigraphy Of The Andrill And-2a Drillcore, Antarctica: A Long-Term, Ice-Proximal Record Of Early To Mid-Miocene Climate, Sea-Level And Glacial Dynamism, Christopher R. Fielding, Greg H. Browne, Brad Field, F. Florindo, D. M. Harwood, L. A. Krissek, Richard Levy, K. Panter, Sandra Passchier, Stephen F. Pekar

ANDRILL Research and Publications

Present understanding of Antarctic climate change during the Early to Mid-Miocene, including major cycles of glacial expansion and contraction, relies in large part on stable isotope proxies from deep sea core drilling. Here, we summarize the lithostratigraphy of the ANDRILL Southern McMurdo Sound Project drillcore AND-2A. This core offers a hitherto unavailable ice-proximal stratigraphic archive from a high-accommodation continental margin setting, and provides clear evidence of repeated fluctuations in climate, ice expansion/contraction and attendant sea-level change over the period c. 20.2–14.2 Ma, with a more fragmentary record of Late Miocene and Pliocene time. The core is divided into seventy-four high-frequency …

Late Cenozoic Oscillations Of Antarctic Ice Sheets Revealed By Provenance Of Basement Clasts And Grain Detrital Modes In Andrill Core And-1b, Franco M. Talarico, Robert M. Mckay, Ross D. Powell, Sonia Sandroni, Tim Naish

ANDRILL Research and Publications

Petrological investigations of the sand fraction and of granule- to cobble-sized clasts in the Plio-Pleistocene sedimentary cycles of the AND-1B drill core at the NW edge of the Ross Ice Shelf (McMurdo Sound) highlight significant down-core modal and compositional variations. These variations provide: (i) direct information about potential source regions during both glacial maxima and minima; and (ii) evidence of an evolving provenance, documented by long-term shifts in compositional patterns that can be interpreted as reflecting variations in ice volume and ice sheet thermal regimes and changes in paleogeography related to the emergence of several volcanic centers during the deposition …

Influence Of Karst Landscape On Planetary Boundary Layer Atmosphere: A Weather Research And Forecasting (Wrf) Model–Based Investigation, Ronnie Leeper, Rezaul Mamood, Arturo I. Quintanar

High Plains Regional Climate Center: Staff Publications

Karst hydrology provides a unique set of surface and subsurface hydrological components that affect soil moisture variability. Over karst topography, surface moisture moves rapidly below ground via sink holes, vertical shafts, and sinking streams, reducing surface runoff and moisture infiltration into the soil. In addition, subsurface cave blockage or rapid snowmelt over karst can lead to surface flooding. Moreover, regions dominated by karst may exhibit either drier or wetter soils when compared to nonkarst landscape. However, because of the lack of both observational soil moisture datasets to initialize simulations and regional land surface models (LSMs) that include explicit karst hydrological …

Human Sanitary Wastes And Waste Treatment In New York City, David J. Tonjes, Christine O'Connell, Omkar Aphale, R. Lawrence Swanson

Technology & Society Faculty Publications

Henry Hudson first sailed toNew Yorkharbor 400 years ago. Since then,New York Cityhas both affected and been affected by water quality in greaterNew YorkHarbor. In this paper, we focus on sewers, sewerage, and sewage treatment inManhattanand their effects on theHudson River. It is clear that feedbacks among drinking water quality and quantity, population, public perceptions, regulations, and estuarine water quality exist, although their strength and character have varied over time. Early land uses damaged local water supplies found on ManhattanIsland. New Yorkthen began to exploit the large fresh water resources available to its north, which helped the City to expand …

Buffernomics: Assessing Willingness To Pay For Lake Conservation On North Pond And East Pond, Sophie D. Sarkar

Honors Theses

Hedonic property valuations in Maine have estimated that a one-meter decrease in water clarity can reduce shoreline property values by 4 to 16%. To avoid a loss on their lakefront investment, shoreline property owners have a particularly large incentive to conserve lake water quality. Nevertheless, while some shoreline residents voluntarily install vegetated buffers and actively participate in lake stewardship, others continue to ignore shoreline zoning laws at the expense of lake health. In this thesis, I examine the dichotomy of active and indifferent shoreline residents by analyzing the motivations that distinguish residents who are willing to pay (WTP) for and …

Biomass Energy At Colby College, Rachel E. Baron

Honors Theses

In light of growing concern regarding the effects of global climate change, Colby College signed the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) in 2008. Through this pledge, Colby has committed to reducing carbon emissions in its Climate Action Plan (IPCC 2007; CCAP 2010). The College seeks to be carbon neutral by 2015 (CCAP 2010). This will be accomplished through a variety of mechanisms, one of which includes the construction of a biomass facility to replace most of the oil currently used for heating (CCAP 2010).

Anthropogenic global climate change has been documented by many scientists, but was widely …