Natural Resources and Conservation Commons^™

Decline Of Novel Ecosystems Used By Endangered Species: The Case Of Piping Plovers, Least Terns, And Aggregate Mines, Joel G. Jorgensen, Stephen J. Brenner, Lauren R. Greenwalt, Mark P. Vrtiska

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Sand and gravel mining creates novel ecosystems along the Platte, Loup, and Elkhorn rivers in Nebraska, USA. Piping plovers and least terns are state and/or federally threatened and endangered species, respectively, that nest and raise young at these sites and their derivatives. Despite hosting relatively large numbers of piping plovers and least terns for decades, an important question that has largely gone unaddressed is whether the industry that has produced these novel ecosystems is stable and will continue to produce habitat consistently in the future. We evaluated how the number, size, and spatial distribution of different site types hosting different …

Moonlight: A Photo Essay, David A. Westbrook

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Modeling The Release And Spreading Of Permanganate From Aerated Slow-Release Oxidants In A Laboratory Flow Tank, Ann Kambhu, Yusong Li, Troy E. Gilmore, Steve D. Comfort

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Aerated, slow-release oxidants are a relatively new technology for treating contaminated aquifers. A critical need for advancing this technology is developing a reliable method for predicting the radius of influence (ROI) around each drive point. In this work, we report a series of laboratory flow tank experiments and numerical modeling efforts designed to predict the release and spreading of permanganate from aerated oxidant candles (oxidant-wax composites). To mimic the design of the oxidant delivery system used in the field, a double screen was used in a series of flow tank experiments where the oxidant was placed inside the inner screen …

Could Energy Equilibrium And Greenhouse Gas Emissions In Agroecosystems Play A Key Role In Crop Replacement? A Case Study In Orange And Kiwi Orchards, Anastasios Mazis, Vassilis Litskas, Dimitrios P. Platis, Georgios .. Menexes, Christos D. Anagnostopoulos, Aggeliki Tsaboula, Andreas P. Mamolos, Kiriaki L. Kalburtji

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

The development of agriculture is linked to energy resources. Consequently, energy analysis in agroecosystems could be a useful tool for monitoring some measures in the agricultural sector to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. The objectives of this study were to (a) evaluate differences of energy indices in orange and kiwi orchards, and (b) point out whether inputs, outputs, efficiency, productivity, and carbon footprint can play a key role in crop replacement. Proportional stratified random sampling was used to select 26 orchards (10 oranges, 16 kiwis) from the Prefecture of Arta, western Greece, during 2015 and 2016. Univariate statistical methods were combined …

Mussel Musings On The Powell River, Aggy Vanderpool

Cumberland Mountain Naturalist

No abstract provided.

A Continental-Scale Assessment Of Density, Size, Distribution And Historical Trends Of Farm Dams Using Deep Learning Convolutional Neural Networks, Martino E. Malerba, Nicholas J. Wright, Peter I. Macreadie

Climate Science Research Articles

Farm dams are a ubiquitous limnological feature of agricultural landscapes worldwide. While their primary function is to capture and store water, they also have disproportionally large effects on biodiversity and biogeochemical cycling, with important relevance to several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, the abundance and distribution of farm dams is unknown in most parts of the world. Therefore, we used artificial intelligence and remote sensing data to address this critical global information gap. Specifically, we trained a deep learning convolutional neural network (CNN) on high-definition satellite images to detect farm dams and carry out the first continental-scale assessment on density, …

Production Of Embryos And A Live Offspring Using Post Mortem Reproductive Material From Bison (Bison Bison Bison) Originating In Yellowstone National Park, Usa, Hayley M. Benham, Matthew P. Mccollum, Pauline Nol, Rebecca K. Frey, P. Ryan Clarke, Jack C. Rhyan, Jennifer P. Barfield

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Bison from Yellowstone National Park (YNP) have an important genetic history. As one of the few wild herds of bison with no evidence of cattle DNA introgression and a large enough population to maintain genetic diversity, they are considered a conservation priority for the species. Unfortunately, there is a high prevalence of the zoonotic disease brucellosis in the herd. Part of the management strategy for controlling the disease and herd size in YNP is to remove bison from the population during the winter migration out of the park. This interagency management cull provides an opportunity to collect a large number …

Digital Soil Mapping And Assessment For Australia And Beyond: A Propitious Future, Ross Searle, Alex Mcbratney, Mike Grundy, Darren Kidd, Brendan P. Malone, Dominique Arrouays, Uta Stockmann, Peter Zund, Peter Wilson, John Wilford, Dennis Van Gool, John Triantafilis, Mark Thomas, Liz Stower, Brian Slater, Nathan Robinson, Anthony Ringrose-Voase, José Padarian, Jim Payne, Thomas Orton, Nathan Odgers, Lauren O'Brien, Budiman Minasny, John Mclean Bennett, Craig Liddicoat, Edward Jones, Karen Holmes, Ben Harms, Jonathon Gray, Elisabeth Bui, Kaitlyn Andrews

Natural Resources Research Articles

Digital Soil Mapping and Assessment (DSMA) has progressed from challenging traditional soil science paradigms, through small scale prototyping, to large-scale implementation capturing quantitative measures of soil attributes and functions. This paper considers the future for DSMA in the context of a highly uncertain world where high-quality knowledge of soil dynamics will be important for responding to the challenges of sustainability. Irrespective of whether the need is for survival, increased productivity or broadening the services provided from land management, or simply securing the soil itself, we see DSMA as a fundamental approach and essential tool. With a broadening need and a …

Dispersal And Land Cover Contribute To Pseudorabies Virus Exposure In Invasive Wild Pigs, Felipe A. Hernandez, Amanda N. Carr, Michael P. Milleson, Hunter R. Merrill, Michael L. Avery, Brandon M. Parker, Cortney L. Pylant, James D. Austin, Samantha M. Wisely

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

We investigated the landscape epidemiology of a globally distributed mammal, the wild pig (Sus scrofa), in Florida (U.S.), where it is considered an invasive species and reservoir to pathogens that impact the health of people, domestic animals, and wildlife. Specifically, we tested the hypothesis that two commonly cited factors in disease transmission, connectivity among populations and abundant resources, would increase the likelihood of exposure to both pseudorabies virus (PrV) and Brucella spp. (bacterial agent of brucellosis) in wild pigs across the Kissimmee Valley of Florida. Using DNA from 348 wild pigs and sera from 320 individuals at 24 sites, we …

Red Imported Fire Ants Reduce Invertebrate Abundance, Richness, And Diversity In Gopher Tortoise Burrows, Deborah M. Epperson, Craig R. Allen, Katharine F. E. Hogan

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Gopher Tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) burrows support diverse commensal invertebrate communities that may be of special conservation interest. We investigated the impact of red imported fire ants (Solenopsis invicta) on the invertebrate burrow community at 10 study sites in southern Mis- sissippi, sampling burrows (1998–2000) before and after bait treatments to reduce fire ant populations. We sampled invertebrates using an ant bait attractant for ants and burrow vacuums for the broader invertebrate community and calculated fire ant abundance, invertebrate abundance, species richness, and species diversity. Fire ant abundance in gopher tortoise burrows was reduced by >98% in treated sites. There was …

Comment On: “A Review Of The Complementary Principle Of Evaporation: From The Original Linear Relationship To Generalized Nonlinear Functions” By Han And Tian (2020), Richard D. Crago, Jozsef Szilagyi, Russell Qualls

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

The paper by Han and Tian (2020) reviews the history of developments in the complementary relationship (CR) between actual and potential evaporation and introduces the generalized complementary principle (GCP) developed by the authors. This comment assesses whether the GCP: (1) can give reasonable results from a wide range of surfaces worldwide; (2) is supported by experimental data that verify the three stages of evaporation implicit in the GCP, particularly in the wet-surface limit; (3) has been proven to be correct by the authors in a previous paper; and (4) is supported by model studies showing that wet surfaces occur predominantly …

Is Hay For The Birds? Investigating Landowner Willingness To Time Hay Harvests For Grassland Bird Conservation, Matthew P. Gruntorad, Katherine A. Graham, Nico Arcilla, Christopher J. Chizinski

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Birds in agricultural environments have exhibited steep global population declines in recent decades, and effective conservation strategies targeting their populations are urgently needed. In grasslands used for hay production, breeding birds’ nest success improves substantially if hay harvests are delayed until after mid-July. However, few studies have investigated private hay producers’ willingness to alter their harvesting practices to support bird conservation, a critical factor for bird conservation where most land is privately owned, such as in the North American Great Plains. We surveyed Nebraska hay producers to examine whether livestock production, wildlife knowledge, and hunting activity affects their willingness to …

A Unified Vegetation Index For Quantifying The Terrestrial Biosphere, Gustau Camps-Valls, Manuel Campos-Taberner, Alvaro Moreno-Martinez, Sophia Walther, Gregory Duveiller, Alessandro Cescatti, Miguel D. Mahecha, Jordi Munoz-Mari, Francisco Javier Garcia-Haro, Luis Guanter, Martin Jung, John A. Gamon, Markus Reichstein, Steven W. Running

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Empirical vegetation indices derived from spectral reflectance data are widely used in remote sensing of the biosphere, as they represent robust proxies for canopy structure, leaf pigment content, and, subsequently, plant photosynthetic potential. Here, we generalize the broad family of commonly used vegetation indices by exploiting all higher-order relations between the spectral channels involved. This results in a higher sensitivity to vegetation biophysical and physiological parameters. The presented nonlinear generalization of the celebrated normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) consistently improves accuracy in monitoring key parameters, such as leaf area index, gross primary productivity, and sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence. Results suggest that …

Per- And Polyfluoroalkyl Substance (Pfas) Transport From Groundwater To Streams Near A Pfas Manufacturing Facility In North Carolina, Usa, Marie-Amélie Pétré, David P. Genereux, Lydia Koropeckyj-Cox, Detlef R.U. Knappe, Sandrine Duboscq, Troy E. Gilmore, Zachary R. Hopkins

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

We quantified per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) transport from groundwater to five tributaries of the Cape Fear River near a PFAS manufacturing facility in North Carolina (USA). Hydrologic and PFAS data were coupled to quantify PFAS fluxes from groundwater to the tributaries. Up to 29 PFAS were analyzed, including perfluoroalkyl acids and recently identified fluoroethers. Total quantified PFAS (ΣPFAS) in groundwater was 20−4773 ng/L (mean = 1863 ng/L); the range for stream water was 426−3617 ng/L (mean = 1717 ng/L). Eight PFAS constituted 98% of ΣPFAS; perfluoro-2-(perfluoromethoxy)propanoic acid (PMPA) and hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid (GenX) accounted for 61%. For PFAS …

Combining Uav-Rgb High-Throughput Field Phenotyping And Genome-Wide Association Study To Reveal Genetic Variation Of Rice Germplasms In Dynamic Response To Drought Stress, Zhao Jiang, Haifu Tu, Baowei Bai, Chenghai Yang, Biquan Zhao, Ziyue Guo, Qian Liu, Hu Zhao, Wanneng Yang, Lizhong Xiong, Jian Zhang

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Accurate and high-throughput phenotyping of the dynamic response of a large rice population to drought stress in the field is a bottleneck for genetic dissection and breeding of drought resistance.

Here, high-efficiency and high-frequent image acquisition by an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was utilized to quantify the dynamic drought response of a rice population under field conditions. Deep convolutional neural networks (DCNNs) and canopy height models were applied to extract highly correlated phenotypic traits including UAV-based leaf-rolling score (LRS_uav), plant water content (PWC_uav) and a new composite trait, drought resistance index by UAV (DRI_uav).

The DCNNs achieved high accuracy (correlation …

Ecophysio-Optical Traits Of Semiarid Nebraska Grasslands Under Different Juniperus Virginiana And Pinus Ponderosa Canopy Covers, Anastasios Mazis, Julie A. Fowler, Jeremy Hiller, Yuzhen Zhou, Brian Wardlow, David A. Wedin, Tala Awada

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Despite conservation efforts in the U.S. Great Plains, woody species have continued to expand at an unprecedented rate, threatening key ecosystem services and resilience. Cross-scale monitoring of these grasslands is key to successful integrative management strategies. In this study we measured plant optical traits derived from hyperspectral proximal sensing techniques with a field spectrometer, coupled with field-based measurements, including fluorescence and chlorophyll content, to determine the impacts of Juniperus virginiana and Pinus ponderosa expansion on grasslands health in Nebraska Sandhills, and investigated the use of optical-based approaches as indicators of successful monitoring of grasslands. Our results showed that higher woody …

Differentiating Early From Later Diagenesis Cretaceous Sandstone And Petroleum Reservoir Of The Cedar Mountain Formation In Utah, C. Robertson, G.A. Ludvigson, R.M. Joeckel, S. Mohammadi, J.I. Kirkland

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

How Well Do U.S. Western Water Markets Convey Economic Information, R. Rimsaite, K. Fisher-Vanden, S. Olmstead, D. Grogan

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Satellite-Based Assessment Of The Relative Contribution Of Hydroclimatic Variables On Vegetation Growth In Global Agricultural And Non-Agricultural Regions, Akarsh Asoka, Brian Wardlow, Tsegaye Tadesse, Matthew Huber, Vimal Mishra

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Vegetation growth plays a crucial role in the carbon cycle and climate change mitigation. However, the relative contribution of hydroclimatic variables (relative humidity, terrestrial water storage, day and night-time land surface temperatures) on vegetation growth of agricultural and nonagricultural areas at the global scale remains unexplored. Using satellite-based datasets, we examined the changes in Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and the four hydroclimatic variables during 2003–2014. Also, the relative contribution of the four hydroclimatic variables on vegetation growth in agricultural and nonagricultural areas was estimated. A significant (p-value < 0.05) greening has occurred in the agricultural regions of India and Brazil during 2003–2014. Whereas in nonagriculture areas, a considerable greening occurred only in India and China during the 2003–2014 period. Among the four hydroclimatic variables, both day-time and night-time land surface temperature are the significant contributors of vegetation growth in the two-thirds of the global landmass. Terrestrial water storage is a substantial contributor to the vegetation growth in the tropics and subtropics. Night-time land surface temperature is strongly associated with the vegetation growth in the colder regions. The hydroclimatic variables do not explain the considerable amount of the total variance of vegetation growth over the agricultural areas in China, which is due to human agricultural management practices. Generally, the response of hydroclimate variables on vegetation growth in the agricultural and nonagricultural areas has significant implications in many areas, including food security, carbon sequestration, water resource management, and climate change.

Assessing The Value Extension Adds To Decision Making Among Natural Resource Leaders, R. Rimsaite, M. Kreye

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.