Other Environmental Sciences Commons^™

Integrating Land Cover Modeling And Adaptive Management To Conserve Endangered Species And Reduce Catastrophic Fire Risk, David Breininger, Brean Duncan, Mitchell J. Eaton, Fred Johnson, James Nichols

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Land cover modeling is used to inform land management, but most often via a two-step process, where science informs how management alternatives can influence resources, and then, decision makers can use this information to make decisions. A more efficient process is to directly integrate science and decision-making, where science allows us to learn in order to better accomplish management objectives and is developed to address specific decisions. Co-development of management and science is especially productive when decisions are complicated by multiple objectives and impeded by uncertainty. Multiple objectives can be met by the specification of tradeoffs, and relevant uncertainty can …

Development And Evaluation Of High Resolution Simulation Tools To Improve Fire Weather Forecasts, Brian K. Lamb, Jason M. Forthofer, Peter R. Robichaud

Joint Fire Science Program Research Project Reports

Fire weather forecasts rely on numerical weather simulations where the grid size is 4 km x 4 km or larger. In areas of complex terrain, this model resolution will not capture the details of wind flows associated with complicated topography. Wind channeling in valleys, wind speed-up over mountains and ridges, and enhanced turbulence associated with rough terrain and tall forest canopies are poorly represented in current weather model applications. A number of numerical wind flow models have been developed for simulating winds at high resolution; however, there are limited observational data available at the spatial scales appropriate for evaluating these …

Exploring How Deliberation On Scientific Information Shapes Stakeholder Perceptions Of Forest Management And Climate Change, Troy E. Hall, Jarod J. Blades

Joint Fire Science Program Research Project Reports

Climate change has resulted in rapid biophysical changes in forests of the western U.S. and has prompted the need for an increased understanding of potential impacts and adaption measures. Land managers, policy makers, and community officials lack locally relevant climate change science and are urgently calling for research to inform management decisions. Nevertheless, a substantial disconnect remains between emerging scientific information and its application in management decisions. Effective action depends on understanding regional and local implications of climate change and open, reasoned discussions about current research and potential mitigation actions among researchers, land managers, and other stakeholders. Boundary objects have …

Fire Effects On Seedling Establishment Success Across Treeline: Implications For Future Tree Migration And Flammability In A Changing Climate, F. S. Chapin Iii, Teresa N. Hollingsworth, Rebecca E. Hewitt

Joint Fire Science Program Research Project Reports

Understanding the complex mechanisms controlling treeline advance or retreat in the arctic and subarctic has important implications for projecting ecosystem response to changes in climate. Changes in landcover due to a treeline biome shift would alter climate feedbacks (carbon storage and energy exchange), ecosystem services such as wildlife and berry habitat, and landscape flammability. Wildfire frequency and extent has increased in the last half-century in the boreal forest and tundra in response to warmer weather and lower precipitation. Invasion of tundra by trees may be facilitated by wildfire disturbance, which exposes new seedbeds, increases nutrient availability immediately post-fire, and creates …

Annual Patterns And Budget Of Co2 Flux In An Arctic Tussock Tundra Ecosystem, Walter C. Oechel, Cheryl A. Laskowski, George Burba, Beniamino Gioli, Aram A. M. Kalhori

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

The functioning of Arctic ecosystems is not only critically affected by climate change, but it also has the potential for major positive feedback on climate. There is, however, relatively little information on the role, patterns, and vulnerabilities of CO₂ fluxes during the nonsummer seasons in Arctic ecosystems. Presented here is a year-round study of CO₂ fluxes in an Alaskan Arctic tussock tundra ecosystem, and key environmental controls on these fluxes. Important controls on fluxes vary by season. This paper also presents a new empirical quantification of seasons in the Arctic based on net radiation. The fluxes were computed …

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

Plant Community Composition And Structure Monitoring For Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, 2013 Annual Report, Isabel W. Ashton, Michael Prowatzke

United States National Park Service: Publications

Introduction

During the last century, much of the prairie within the Northern Great Plains has been plowed for cropland, planted with non-natives to maximize livestock production, or otherwise developed, making it one of the most threatened ecosystems in the United States. Within Nebraska, greater than 77% of the area of native mixed-grass prairie has been lost since European settlement (Samson and Knopf 1994). The National Park Service (NPS) plays an important role in preserving and restoring some of the last pieces of intact prairies within its boundaries. The stewardship goal of the NPS is to “preserve ecological integrity and cultural …

A Not-So-Silent Spring: The Impacts Of Traffic Noise On Call Features Of The Bloody Bay Poison Frog (Mannophryne Olmonae), Catherine G. Clemmens

Senior Independent Study Theses

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of Azo Textile Dyes On Gross Primary Production And Community Respiration In An Artificial Environment, Theresa L. Petzoldt

Honors Theses

Azo dyes are the largest category of textile dyes in production today, with over 100,000 tons of dye produced yearly in the United States. Ten to fifty percent of this dye is not fixed to the fabric during the textile production process, and is therefore discarded as effluent. Because dye waste is difficult to process in wastewater treatment facilities, it is important to understand how this waste affects aquatic systems using a whole ecosystem approach. This study used an artificial stream to model the effects of four azo dyes on benthic biofilm production and respiration. Dyes were found to have …

The Impact Of Dams On Nitrogen Cycling In The Messalonskee Stream, Rebecca K. Forgrave

Honors Theses

The Messalonskee Stream in central Maine has five hydroelectric dams on 16.6km. Each dam drastically changes the flow regime of the stream, dividing it into segments with different patterns of sediment settling and organic matter retention. I investigated how these disruptions impact nitrogen cycling, specifically nitrification rates above and below each dam. I expected higher nitrification rates above the dams, where levels of organic matter are higher, and lower rates below the dam where scouring removes organic matter and fine sediment from the streambed. I measured sediment nitrification rates with a nitrapyrin-inhibition assay and potential drivers of nitrification including sediment …

Changing The Climate Narrative: How A Long-Term Climate Change Might Save Our Lives, Natalie P. Harreld

CMC Senior Theses

The goal of this paper is to offer new insights into the climate change debate by shifting away from the heated anthropologic arguments that dominate politics, media, and popular science. Instead, I choose to rely on the long-term impacts of a changing climate on our planet. The paper begins with a break down of key processes involved in short-term and long-term climate change, using the latest research. After a foundational understanding of climate sciences is established, we will discuss the failure of the climate change debate in educating the general public about the facts of a changing climate. Finally, the …

The Effects Of Mountaintop Removal Mining And Valley Fills On Stream Salamander Communities, Brenee' Lynn Muncy

Theses and Dissertations--Forestry and Natural Resources

Mountaintop removal mining and valley filling (MTR/VF) is a common form of land conversion in Central Appalachia and threatens the integrity of stream ecosystems. We investigated the effects of MTR/VF on stream salamander occupancy probabilities and community structure by conducting area constrained active searches for stream salamanders within intermittent streams located in mature forest (i.e., control) and those impacted by MTR/VF. During March to June of 2013, we detected five stream salamander species (Desmognathus fuscus, D. monticol, Eurycea cirrigera, Pseudotriton ruber, and Gyrinophilus porphyriticus) and found that the probability of occupancy was greatly reduced in MTR/VF streams compared …

Reconstruction Of The Hirnantian (Late Ordovician) Palaeotopography In The Upper Yangtze Region, Linna Zhang, Junxuan Fan, Qing Chen, Shuang-Ye Wu

Department of Earth, Environment and Sustainability Faculty Publications

Reconstruction of the Hirnantian (Late Ordovician) palaeotopography in South China is important for understanding the distribution pattern of the Hirnantian marine depositional environment. In this study, we reconstructed the Hirnantian palaeotopography in the Upper Yangtze region based on the rankings of the palaeo-water depths, which were inferred according to the lithofacies and biofacies characteristics of the sections. Data from 374 Hirnantian sections were collected and standardized through the online Geobiodiversity Database. The Ordinary Kriging interpolation method in the ArcGIS software was applied to create the continuous surface of the palaeo-water depths, i.e. the Hirnantian palaeotopography. Meanwhile, the line transect analysis …

The Middle Of Nowhere? : Managing Northern Rocky Mountain Ghost Towns, Krista Evans

All Master's Theses

Numerous abandoned hard rock mining settlements in the American West are now referred to as ghost towns. As tourist attractions and significant historic resources, preserving and managing these remote ghost towns can be challenging. Heritage managers face a number of issues, from implementing an appropriate preservation strategy to attracting enough visitors to remain economically viable. The purpose of this study is to perform a comparative analysis of current management methods used at several notable ghost towns. Additionally, the study explores how tourist perceptions of these landscapes can influence ghost town preservation strategies. I accomplish this by performing case studies at …

Getting Plant Conservation Right (Or Not): The Case Of The United States, Kayri Havens, Andrea T. Kramer, Edward O. Guerrant Jr.

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Effective plant conservation includes addressing basic needs such as information about species distribution and rarity; research, management, education, and training capacity to mitigate threats facing threatened species; policy and funding to support continued capacity and conservation; and, ultimately, a public that understands and supports the importance of plants and the need for their conservation. Coordination of plant conservation efforts is also needed to ensure that resources and expertise are used in a strategic, efficient, and effective manner.We argue that no country is currently getting plant conservation right; plants are becoming increasingly rare around the world. Plants are often not fully …

Sampling For Effective Ex Situ Plant Conservation, Edward O. Guerrant Jr., Kayri Havens, Pati Vitt

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Sampling a whole flora or any significant subset for ex situ conservation purposes is a complex, long-term proposition. Thus, it is important to consider what constitutes an adequate sample not only for all taxa as a whole but also for each taxon individually as well as how to strategically schedule collection over time. There are five basic sampling questions: from which species to collect, from how many and which populations, from how many and which individuals, how many and what kind of propagules to collect, and, finally, at what point is the desired sample size too great for a population …

Improving The Representation Of Roots In Terrestrial Models, Erica A.H. Smithwick, Melissa S. Lucash, M. Luke Mccormack, Gajan Sivandran

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Root biomass, root production and lifespan, and root-mycorrhizal interactions govern soil carbon fluxes and resource uptake and are critical components of terrestrial models. However, limitations in data and confusions over terminology, together with a strong dependence on a small set of conceptual frameworks, have limited the exploration of root function in terrestrial models. We review the key root processes of interest to both field ecologists and modelers including root classification, production, turnover, biomass, resource uptake, and depth distribution to ask (1) what are contemporary approaches for modeling roots in terrestrial models? and (2) can these approaches be improved via recent …

Effects Of Including Saponins (Micro-Aid®) On Intake, Rumenfermentation And Digestibility In Steers Fed Low-Qualityprairie Hay, C P. Mcmurphy, A J. Sexten, G L. Mourer, E D. Sharman, S J. Trojan, M J. Rincker, W K. Coblentz, D L. Lalman

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

Sixteen ruminally cannulated crossbred steers (529 ± 45 kg initial body weight, BW) wereused to evaluate in situ dry matter (DM), neutral detergent fiber (aNDF), and N degrada-tion characteristics of low-quality prairie hay, blood urea-N (BUN) and rumen fermentationparameters in steers provided a protein supplement with or without Micro-Aid®(MA; plantderived saponin). Steers were allowed ad libitum access to chopped prairie hay (49 g crudeprotein (CP)/kg DM and 738 g aNDF/kg DM) and randomly assigned to one of four treat-ments: (1) no supplement (C), (2) cottonseed meal and wheat middlings: 920 g DM/d (PC;positive control), (3) MA added to PC to …

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 …

Larval Mortality And Development For Rotation-Resistant And Rotation-Susceptible Populations Of Western Corn Rootworm On Bt Corn, N A. Tinsley, J L. Spencer, R E. Estes, J. R. Prasifka, P M. Schrader, B. W. French, M E. Gray

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

The western corn rootworm, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera LeConte, is one of the most economically important insect pests threatening the production of corn, Zea mays (L.), in the United States. Throughout its history, this insect has displayed considerable adaptability by overcoming a variety of pest management tactics, including the cultural practice of annual crop rotation. Since first reported in Illinois in the late 1980s, populations of the rotation-resistant western corn rootworm have spread over a wide area of the eastern Corn Belt. Currently, little information is available concerning the interaction of rotation resistance with the use of genetically modified corn expressing …