Environmental Monitoring Commons^™

Extending The Soil Moisture Data Record Of The U.S. Climate Reference Network (Uscrn) And Soil Climate Analysis Network (Scan), Ethan J. Coopersmith, Jesse E. Bell, Michael H. Cosh

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

Soil moisture estimates are valuable for hydrologic modeling, drought prediction and management, climate change analysis, and agricultural decision support. However, in situ measurements of soil moisture have only become available within the past few decades with additional sensors being installed each year. Comparing newer in situ resources with older resources, previously required a period of crosscalibration, often requiring several years of data collection. One new technique to improve this issue is to develop a methodology to extend the in situ record backwards in time using a soil moisture model and ancillary available data sets. This study will extend the soil …

Restoration Of Headwater And Coastal Fens In The Lake Superior Basin Of Upper Michigan, James A. Bess

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

In 2009, research projects were initiated at Michigan Technological University to develop restoration techniques for headwater fens and coastal wetlands in the southern Lake Superior Basin in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The primary focus of these was to quantify the efficacy of using locally collected seeds as a technique for wetland restoration. Two primary sites were selected, the Sleeper Lake Fen complex in Luce County and the Portage Waterway-Keweenaw Bay region of Lake Superior in Baraga and Houghton Counties. At the Sleeper Lake site, a combination of heavy machinery, seeding and mulch application was used to restore a 1.6 km ditch …

Bridging The Blue-Green Divide: The Role Of Environmental Ngos In Tackling Environmental Problems In Taiwan, Yttrium Sua

Pomona Senior Theses

This thesis attempts to provide a brief historical outline of the environmental movement in Taiwan and the unique political situation that has directly affected how the movement has progressed. Thereafter, it looks at some examples of environmental disputes that have occurred in recent years, paying special attention to the ways the environmental movement has interacted with the government. This provides the background to frame the analysis, which will shed light on the reasons for the current state of distrust and antagonistic interactions between the environmental movement and the government. Finally, the thesis evaluates whether such interactions with the government is …

Gis Analysis Of Brownfield Sites In The City Of Minneapolis, Shreya Vaidya

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Brownfield sites have many negative ramifications on a local area which includes loss of economy, decline in land use value and potential hazard to human health and the environment. Despite the efforts on redeveloping brownfields, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) claims that over 10,000 known contaminated or potentially contaminated sites remain across Minnesota and thousands are likely to exist but have not been identified and recorded. The objectives of this study are to map the brownfield sites in Minneapolis based on the information provided by the regulatory sources and to categorize and analyze all the sites on the basis of …

Understanding Ocean Acidification Impacts On Organismal To Ecological Scales, Andreas J. Andersson, David I. Kline, Peter J. Edmunds, Stephen D. Archer, Nina Bednarsek, Robert C. Carpenter, Meg Chadsey, Philip Goldstein, Andrea G. Grottoli, Thomas P. Hurst, Andrew L. King, Janet E. Kübler, Ilsa B. Kuffner, Katherine R.M. Mackey, Bruce A. Menge, Adina Paytan, Ulf Riebesell, Astrid Schnetzer, Mark E. Warner, Richard C. Zimmerman

OES Faculty Publications

Ocean acidification (OA) research seeks to understand how marine ecosystems and global elemental cycles will respond to changes in seawater carbonate chemistry in combination with other environmental perturbations such as warming, eutrophication, and deoxygenation. Here, we discuss the effectiveness and limitations of current research approaches used to address this goal. A diverse combination of approaches is essential to decipher the consequences of OA to marine organisms, communities, and ecosystems. Consequently, the benefits and limitations of each approach must be considered carefully. Major research challenges involve experimentally addressing the effects of OA in the context of large natural variability in seawater …

Participatory Conservation Of Coastal Habitats: The Importance Of Understanding Homeowner Decision Making To Mitigate Cascading Shoreline Degradation, Steven B. Scyphers, Steven J. Picou, Sean P. Powers

University Faculty and Staff Publications

Along densely populated coasts, the armoring of shorelines is a prevalent cause of natural habitat loss and degradation. This article explores the values and decision making of waterfront homeowners and identifies two interlinked and potentially reversible drivers of coastal degradation. We discovered that: (1) misperceptions regarding the environmental impacts and cost-effectiveness of different shoreline conditions was common and may promote armoring; and (2) many homeowners reported only altering their shorelines in response to damage caused by armoring on neighboring properties. Collectively, these findings suggest that a single homeowner’s decision may trigger cascading degradation along a shoreline, which highlights the necessity …

The Role Of Citizens In Detecting And Responding To A Rapid Marine Invasion, Steven B. Scyphers, Sean P. Powers, J. Lad Akins, J. Marcus Drymon, Charles W. Martin, Zeb H. Schobernd, Pamela J. Schofield, Robert L. Shipp, Theodore S. Switzer

University Faculty and Staff Publications

Documenting and responding to species invasions requires innovative strategies that account for ecological and societal complexities. We used the recent expansion of Indo-Pacific lionfish (Pterois volitans/miles) throughout northern Gulf of Mexico coastal waters to evaluate the role of stakeholders in documenting and responding to a rapid marine invasion. We coupled an online survey of spearfishers and citizen science monitoring programs with traditional fishery-independent data sources and found that citizen observations documented lionfish 1–2 years earlier and more frequently than traditional reef fish monitoring programs. Citizen observations first documented lionfish in 2010 followed by rapid expansion and proliferation in …

Evaluating The Long-Term Effects Of Logging Residue Removals In Great Lakes Aspen Forests, Michael I. Premer

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Commercial aspen (Populus spp.) forests of the Great Lakes region are primarily managed for timber products such as pulp fiber and panel board, but logging residues (topwood and non-merchantable bolewood) are potentially important for utilization in the bioenergy market. In some regions, pulp and paper mills already utilize residues as fuel in combustion for heat and electricity, and progressive energy policies will likely cause an increase in biomass feedstock demand. The effects of removing residues, which have a comparatively high concentration of macronutrients, is poorly understood when evaluating long-term site productivity, future timber yields, plant diversity, stand dynamics, and …

On Underestimation Of Global Vulnerability To Tree Mortality And Forest Die-Off From Hotter Drought In The Anthropocene, Craig D. Allen, David D. Breshears, Nate G. Mcdowell

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Patterns, mechanisms, projections, and consequences of tree mortality and associated broadscale forest die-off due to drought accompanied by warmer temperatures—‘‘hotter drought’’, an emerging characteristic of the Anthropocene—are the focus of rapidly expanding literature. Despite recent observational, experimental, and modeling studies suggesting increased vulnerability of trees to hotter drought and associated pests and pathogens, substantial debate remains among research, management and policy-making communities regarding future tree mortality risks. We summarize key mortalityrelevant findings, differentiating between those implying lesser versus greater levels of vulnerability. Evidence suggesting lesser vulnerability includes forest benefits of elevated [CO2] and increased water-use efficiency; observed and modeled increases …

Estimation Of Daily Air Temperature Based On Modis Land Surface Temperature Products Over The Corn Belt In The Us, Linglin Zeng, Brian D. Wardlow, Tsegaye Tadesse, Jie Shan, Michael Hayes, Deren Li, Daxiang Xiang

Center for Advanced Land Management Information Technologies: Publications

Air temperature (Ta) is a key input in a wide range of agroclimatic applications. Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Ts (Land Surface Temperature (LST)) products are widely used to estimate daily Ta. However, only daytime LST (Ts-day) or nighttime LST (Ts-night) data have been used to estimate Tmax/Tmin (daily maximum or minimum air temperature), respectively. The relationship between Tmax and Ts-night, and the one between Tmin and Ts-day has not been studied. In this study, both the ability of Ts-night data to estimate Tmax and the ability of Ts-day data to estimate Tmin were tested and studied in the Corn …

Evaluating A Satellite-Based Seasonal Evapotranspiration Product And Identifying Its Relationship With Other Satellite-Derived Products And Crop Yield: A Case Study For Ethiopia, Tsegaye Tadesse, Gabriel B. Senay, Getachew Berhan, Teshome Regassa, Shimelis Beyene

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Satellite-derived evapotranspiration anomalies and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) products from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data are currently used for African agricultural drought monitoring and food security status assessment. In this study, a process to evaluate satellite-derived evapotranspiration (ETa) products with a geospatial statistical exploratory technique that uses NDVI, satellite-derived rainfall estimate (RFE), and crop yield data has been developed. The main goal of this study was to evaluate the ETa using the NDVI and RFE, and identify a relationship between the ETa and Ethiopia’s cereal crop (i.e., teff, sorghum, corn/maize, barley, and wheat) yields during the main rainy …

Analytical Pyrolysis Principles And Applications To Environmental Science, Michael A. Kruge

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Over the past half century, analytical pyrolysis has proven itself to be an effective means for the semiquantitative characterization of complex macromolecular organic substances. It has been demonstrated that instruments such as Py-FID, Py-MS, and in particular, Py-GC/MS can provide valuable geochemical insights when applied to a wide variety of problems in environmental science. The more widespread use of analytical pyrolysis methods in the evaluation of environmental pollution is recommended, because of their relatively low cost and information-rich results.

Pyrolysis is the heating of organic substances in an inert, oxygen-free atmosphere, thereby avoiding combustion. When performed on a large scale, …

Aerosol Optical Properties Over Mount Song, A Rural Site In Central China, Lunche Wang, Wei Gong, Ramesh P. Singh, Xiangao Xia, Huizheng Che, Ming Zhang, Hong Lin

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Seasonal variations of aerosol optical depth (AOD), Ångström exponent (α), single scattering albedo (SSA), water vapor content (WVC), aerosol size distribution and refractive index at Mount Song, a rural site in Central China are analyzed using ground-based sunphotometer data for the period April 2012 to May 2014 for the first time. The results show that the area is highly polluted even the major anthropogenic emission sources are far away. Seasonal mean AOD is high (0.72 ± 0.52) during summer (June–August) season and low (0.51 ± 0.38) during autumn (September–November) season. The monthly mean α is very low (0.81 ± 0.30) …

Studying Air Pollutants Origin And Associated Meteorological Parameters Over Seoul From 2000 To 2009, Sunmin Park, Hesham El-Askary, Ismail Sabbah, Hanbin Kwak, Anup K. Prasad, Woo-Kyun Lee, Menas Kafatos

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

We investigate the temporal characteristics of major air pollutants collected from 44 air quality stations over the city of Seoul, Korea, namely, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, particular matter at 10 microns, and sulfur dioxide (SO2) between 2000 and 2009. The corresponding satellite datasets, namely, aerosol optical depth (AOD_sat), Ångström exponent, and fine mode fraction, collected from moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) as well as the Aeronet ground aerosol optical depth (AOD_aeronet), have been analyzed. Pollutants’ seasonal effect has been inferred from the precipitation and temperature. The four pollutants under study show varying temporal characteristics with different …

Remote Sensing And Modeling Of Atmospheric Dust And Studying Its Impact On Environment, Weather, And Climate, Hesham El-Askary, Seon K. Park, Slobodan Nickovic, Mian Chin

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

An overview of the 2015 volume of Advances in Meteorology, which was co-edited by Chapman faculty member Dr. Hesham El-Askary.

On The Detection And Monitoring Of The Transport Of An Asian Dust Storm Using Multi-Sensor Satellite Remote Sensing, Hesham El-Askary, S. K. Park, M. H. Ahn, A. Prasad, Menas Kafatos

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Dynamical and physical features of a long range transported dust event originating in China affecting Korea early March 2008 are examined using an integrative multi-sensor and multi-algorithm approach. Aerosol loadings and their size mode were analyzed over both ocean and land surfaces using the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aerosol optical depth (AOD), employing standard dark target (DT) and deep blue (DB) algorithms, and the Ångström exponent (AE). Anthropogenic absorbing aerosols and smoke were found to be significant over the Indochina Peninsula, the Philippines and southern China, while a mixture of dust and pollution were predominant over central to northern …

Acknowledgment Of Supporters, Utton Center, University Of New Mexico - School Of Law

Water Matters!

List of supporters.

U.S. Drought Monitor, December 30, 2014, Brad Rippey

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for December 30, 2014 (12/30/14) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Corn, Soybeans, Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

Registration Of ‘Newell’ Smooth Bromegrass, K P. Vogel, R B. Mitchell, B L. Waldron, M R. Haferkamp, J D. Berdahl, D D. Baltensperger, Galen Erickson, T J. Klopfenstein

Green Canyon Environmental Research Area, Logan Utah

No abstract provided.

U.S. Drought Monitor, December 16, 2014, David Miskus

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for December 16, 2014 (12/16/14) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Corn, Soybeans, Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.