U.S. Drought Monitor, January 19, 2016,
2016
National Drought Mitigation Center/University of Nebraska-Lincoln
U.S. Drought Monitor, January 19, 2016, Mark D. Svoboda
United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive
Drought map of U.S. for January 19, 2016 (1/19/16) 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.
Closing The Water Balance With Cosmic-Ray Soil Moisture Measurements And Assessing Their Relation To Evapotranspiration In Two Semiarid Watersheds,
2016
Arizona State University
Closing The Water Balance With Cosmic-Ray Soil Moisture Measurements And Assessing Their Relation To Evapotranspiration In Two Semiarid Watersheds, A. P. Schreiner-Mcgraw, E. R. Vivoni, G. Mascaro, Trenton E. Franz
School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications
Soil moisture dynamics reflect the complex interactions of meteorological conditions with soil, vegetation and terrain properties. In this study, intermediate-scale soil moisture estimates from the cosmic-ray neutron sensing (CRNS) method are evaluated for two semiarid ecosystems in the southwestern United States: a mesquite savanna at the Santa Rita Experimental Range (SRER) and a mixed shrubland at the Jornada Experimental Range (JER). Evaluations of the CRNS method are performed for small watersheds instrumented with a distributed sensor network consisting of soil moisture sensor profiles, an eddy covariance tower, and runoff flumes used to close the water balance. We found a very …
Spatial Analysis Of Forest Crimes In Mark Twain National Forest, Missouri,
2016
SUNY ESF
Spatial Analysis Of Forest Crimes In Mark Twain National Forest, Missouri, Karun Pandit, Eddie Bevilacqua, Giorgos Mountrakis, Robert W. Malmsheimer
Journal of Geospatial Applications in Natural Resources
Forest crime mitigation has been identified as a challenging issue in forest management in the United States. Knowledge of the spatial pattern of forest crimes would help in wisely allocating limited enforcement resources to curb forest crimes. This study explores the spatial pattern of three different types of forest crimes: fire crime, illegal timber logging crime, and occupancy use crime in the Salem-Patosi Ranger District of Mark Twain National Forest. Univariate and bivariate Ripley’s K-functions were applied to explore the spatial patterns in crime events, like clustering and attraction among forest crime types. Results reveal significant clustering for each forest …
Comparison Of Terrain Indices And Landform Classification Procedures In Low-Relief Agricultural Fields,
2016
Southern Illinois University Carbondale
Comparison Of Terrain Indices And Landform Classification Procedures In Low-Relief Agricultural Fields, Derek A. Evans, Karl W. J. Williard, Jon E. Schoonover
Journal of Geospatial Applications in Natural Resources
Landforms control the spatial distribution of numerous factors associated with agronomy and water quality. Although curvature and slope are the fundamental surface derivatives used in landform classification procedures, methodologies for landform classifications have been performed with other terrain indices including the topographic position index (TPI) and the convergence index (CI). The objectives of this study are to compare plan curvature, the convergence index, profile curvature, and the topographic position index at various scales to determine which better identifies the spatial variability of soil phosphorus (P) within three low relief agricultural fields in central Illinois and to compare how two methods …
Discordant Data And Interpretation Of Results From Wildlife Habitat Models,
2016
Stephen F. Austin State University
Discordant Data And Interpretation Of Results From Wildlife Habitat Models, Anita T. Morzillo, Michael G. Wing, Justin Long
Journal of Geospatial Applications in Natural Resources
Wildlife habitat management is an important part of natural resource management. As a result, there are a large number of models and tools for wildlife habitat assessment. A consequence of the many assessment tools is inconsistency when comparing results between tools, which may lead to potential confusion management decisions. Our objective was to compare results from two wildlife habitat models – one being relatively coarse (HUC5) scale and not spatially dynamic and the other being finer scale spatial data based on a 30 m spatial resolution –for habitat assessment of three species across the West Cascades of Oregon: Northern spotted …
U.S. Drought Monitor, January 12, 2016,
2016
National Drought Mitigation Center
U.S. Drought Monitor, January 12, 2016, Brian Fuchs
United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive
Drought map of U.S. for January 12, 2016 (1/12/16) 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.
U.S. Drought Monitor, January 5, 2016,
2016
National Drought Mitigation Center
U.S. Drought Monitor, January 5, 2016, Brian Fuchs
United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive
Drought map of U.S. for January 5, 2016 (1/5/16) 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.
Pbl Rock And Roll: Tectonics In Illinois,
2016
Illinois Math and Science Academy
Pbl Rock And Roll: Tectonics In Illinois, Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy
Teacher Resources
This sample Problem Based Learning (PBL) unit focuses on creating earthquake friendly buildings and homes in response to the history of seismic activity in Illinois. Students explore concepts of engineering and tectonics. This unit is designed for educators who are learning to implement PBL into their classroom instruction.
The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam: Source Of Cooperation Or Contention?,
2016
University of Wisconsin–Madison
The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam: Source Of Cooperation Or Contention?, Meron Teferi Taye, Tsegaye Tadesse, Gabriel B. Senay, Paul Block
School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications
This paper discusses the challenges and benefits of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), which is under construction and expected to be operational on the Blue Nile River in Ethiopia in a few years. Like many large-scale projects on transboundary rivers, the GERD has been criticized for potentially jeopardizing downstream water security and livelihoods through upstream unilateral decision making. In spite of the contentious nature of the project, the authors argue that this project can provide substantial benefits for regional development. The GERD, like any major river infrastructure project, will undeniably bring about social, environmental, and economic change, and in …
Temporal Variability In Large Grazer Space Use In An Experimental Landscape,
2016
Kansas State University, Manhattan & University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Temporal Variability In Large Grazer Space Use In An Experimental Landscape, Edward J. Raynor, Anthony Joren, Adam Skibbe, Mark Sowers, John M. Briggs, Angela N. Laws, Douglas Goodin
School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications
Land use, climate change, and their interaction each have great potential to affect grazing systems. With anticipated more frequent and extensive future drought, a more complete understanding of the mechanisms that determine large grazer landscape-level distribution under varying climatic conditions is integral to ecosystem management. Using an experimental setting with contrasting fire treatments, we describe the inter-annual variability of the effect of landscape topography and disturbance from prescribed spring fire on large grazer space use in years of variable resource availability. Using GPS telemetry, we investigated space use of plains bison (Bison bison bison) as they moved among watersheds managed …
Narrowing The Agronomic Yield Gaps Of Maize By Improved Soil, Cultivar, And Agricultural Management Practices In Different Climate Zones Of Northeast China,
2016
China Agricultural University, Beijing
Narrowing The Agronomic Yield Gaps Of Maize By Improved Soil, Cultivar, And Agricultural Management Practices In Different Climate Zones Of Northeast China, Zhijuan Liu, Xiaoguang Yang, Xiaomao Lin, Kenneth Hubbard, Shuo Lv, Jing Wang
School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications
Northeast China (NEC) is one of the major agricultural production areas in China, producing about 30% of China’s total maize output. In the past five decades, maize yields in NEC increased rapidly. However, farmer yields still have potential to be increased. Therefore, it is important to quantify the impacts of agronomic factors, including soil physical properties, cultivar selections, and management practices on yield gaps of maize under the changing climate in NEC in order to provide reliable recommendations to narrow down the yield gaps. In this study, the Agricultural Production Systems Simulator (APSIM)-Maize model was used to separate the contributions …
To Exclose Nests Or Not: Structured Decision Making For The Conservation Of A Threatened Species,
2016
State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry
To Exclose Nests Or Not: Structured Decision Making For The Conservation Of A Threatened Species, Jonathan B. Cohen, Anne Hecht, Kelly F. Robinson, Erik E. Osnas, Andrew Tyre, Christina Davis, Alison Kocek, Brooke Maslo, Scott M. Melvin
School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications
Decisions regarding endangered species recovery often face sparse data and multiple sources of uncertainty about the effects of management. Structured decision making (SDM) provides a framework for assembling knowledge and expert opinion and evaluating the tradeoffs between different objectives while formally incorporating uncertainty. The Atlantic Coast piping plover provides an illustrative case for the utility of SDM in endangered species management because its population growth is simple to model, most populations are monitored, decision alternatives are well defined, and many managers are open to recovery recommendations. We built a model to evaluate the decision to use nest exclosures to protect …
Convergent Evolution In Social Swallows (Aves: Hirundinidae),
2016
University of Chicago
Convergent Evolution In Social Swallows (Aves: Hirundinidae), Allison E. Johnson, Jonathan S. Mitchell, Mary B. Brown
School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications
Behavioral shifts can initiate morphological evolution by pushing lineages into new adaptive zones. This has primarily been examined in ecological behaviors, such as foraging, but social behaviors may also alter morphology. Swallows and martins (Hirundinidae) are aerial insectivores that exhibit a range of social behaviors, from solitary to colonial breeding and foraging. Using a well-resolved phylogenetic tree, a database of social behaviors, and morphological measurements, we ask how shifts from solitary to social breeding and foraging have affected morphological evolution in the Hirundinidae. Using a threshold model of discrete state evolution, we find that shifts in both breeding and foraging …
Current Topics In Avian Conservation Genetics
With Special Reference To The Southwestern Willow Flycatcher,
2016
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Current Topics In Avian Conservation Genetics With Special Reference To The Southwestern Willow Flycatcher, R.M. Zink
School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications
No abstract provided.
Quantification And Mapping Of Surface Residue Cover For Maize And Soybean Fields In South Central Nebraska,
2016
University of Florida
Quantification And Mapping Of Surface Residue Cover For Maize And Soybean Fields In South Central Nebraska, Vivek Sharma, Suat Irmak, Ayse Kilic, Vasudha Sharma, John E. Gilley, George Meyer, Stevan Z. Knezevic, D. B. Marx
School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications
The area cultivated under conservation tillage practices such as no-till and minimal tillage has recently increased in Midwestern states, including Nebraska. This increase, consequently, resulted in changes in some of the impacts of cropping systems on soil, such as enhancing soil and water quality, improving soil structure and infiltration, increasing water use efficiency, and promoting carbon sequestration. However, there are no methods currently available to quantify the percent crop residue cover (CRC) and the area under conservation tillage for maize and soybean at large scales on a continuous basis. This research used Landsat-7 (ETM+) and Landsat-8 (OLI) satellite data to …
Sensitivity Of Evapotranspiration Retrievals From The Metric Processing Algorithm To Improved Radiometric Resolution Of Landsat 8 Thermal Data And To Calibration Bias In Landsat 7 And 8 Surface Temperature,
2016
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Sensitivity Of Evapotranspiration Retrievals From The Metric Processing Algorithm To Improved Radiometric Resolution Of Landsat 8 Thermal Data And To Calibration Bias In Landsat 7 And 8 Surface Temperature, Ayse Kilic, Richard G. Allen, Ricardo Trezza, Ian Ratcliffe, Baburao Kamble, Clarence W. Robison, Doruk Ozturk
School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications
We made an assessment on the use of 12-bit resolution of Landsat 8 (L8) on evapotranspiration (ET) retrievals via the METRIC process as compared to using 8-bit resolution imagery of previous Landsat missions. METRIC (Mapping Evapotranspiration at high Resolution using Internalized Calibration) is an ET retrieval system commonly used in water and water rights management where the surface energy balance process is coupled with an extreme- end point calibration process to remove most impacts of systematic bias in remotely sensed inputs. We degraded L8 thermal images by grouping sequential digital numbers to reduce the apparent numerical resolution and then recomputed …
Data Descriptor: Remotely Sensed
High Resolution Irrigated Area
Mapping In India For 2000 To 2015,
2016
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)
Data Descriptor: Remotely Sensed High Resolution Irrigated Area Mapping In India For 2000 To 2015, Anukesh Krishnankutty Ambika, Brian D. Wardlow, Vimal Mishra
School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications
India is among the countries that uses a significant fraction of available water for irrigation. Irrigated area in India has increased substantially after the Green revolution and both surface and groundwater have been extensively used. Under warming climate projections, irrigation frequency may increase leading to increased irrigation water demands. Water resources planning and management in agriculture need spatially-explicit irrigated area information for different crops and different crop growing seasons. However, annual, high-resolution irrigated area maps for India for an extended historical record that can be used for water resources planning and management are unavailable. Using 250m normalized difference vegetation index …
A Spatiotemporal Analysis Of Midwest Us Temperature And Precipitation Trends During The Growing Season From 1980 To 2013,
2016
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
A Spatiotemporal Analysis Of Midwest Us Temperature And Precipitation Trends During The Growing Season From 1980 To 2013, Shuwei Dai, Martha Shulski, Kenneth Hubbard, Eugene S. Takle
School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications
Since late 1970s, climate warming has been widely recognized. In the Midwest, farmers cannot rely on the normal calendar anymore, and it has become critically necessary to evaluate the most recent climate trends relative to growing season in order to conduct adaptation efforts for agriculture. Based on the homogenized historical monthly temperature and precipitation records during the period of 1980–2013 from 302 observing stations in the 12 Midwestern US states, we investigate the climate trends on four timescales: monthly, early growing season, late growing season, and the entire growing season. The climate metrics include maximum temperature, minimum temperature, average temperature, …
Impact Perceptions And Acceptance Capacity Toward Piping Plovers Charadrius Melodus Among Visitors On A Public Beach In Nebraska, Usa,
2016
Nebraska Game and Parks Commission
Impact Perceptions And Acceptance Capacity Toward Piping Plovers Charadrius Melodus Among Visitors On A Public Beach In Nebraska, Usa, Joel G. Jorgensen, Mary Bomberger Brown
School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications
On an increasingly crowded planet, shorebirds and humans are frequently found sharing the same ecosystems. This development requires that the managers of these human-wildlife ecosystems address human dimensions challenges in addition to those associated with species biology. To better understand such challenges, we evaluated impact perceptions and overall acceptance capacity in visitors on public beaches of Lake McConaughy, Nebraska, USA towards a federally- protected shorebird, the Piping Plover Charadrius melodus. Overall acceptance capacity for these birds was relatively high and perceptions of inconvenience caused by the presence of the birds were low. However, acceptance capacity and impact perceptions varied …
Informative Spectral Bands For Remote Green Lai Estimation In C3 And C4 Crops,
2016
Technion-Israel Institute of Technology
Informative Spectral Bands For Remote Green Lai Estimation In C3 And C4 Crops, Oz Kira, Anthony L. Nguy-Robertson, Timothy J. Arkebauer, Raphael Linker, Anatoly A. Gitelson
School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications
Green leaf area index (LAI) provides insight into the productivity, physiological and phenological status of vegetation. Measurement of spectral reflectance offers a fast and nondestructive estimation of green LAI. A number of methods have been used for the estimation of green LAI; however, the specific spectral bands employed varied widely among the methods and data used. Our objectives were (i) to find informative spectral bands retained in three types of methods, neural network (NN), partial least squares (PLS) regression and vegetation indices (VI), for estimating green LAI in maize (a C4 species) and soybean (a C3 species); (ii) to assess …
