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At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
USGS2008

Late Pleistocene through Holocene landscape evolution of the White River Badlands, South Dakota

Badlands are common arid and semiarid landscapes long recognized in slope development and erosion rate studies by preeminent geomorphologists including Gilbert, Davis, and Schumm. The trip described here will examine in detail Quaternarystrata and landscape evolution in arguably the most famous badlands, the White River Badlands of South Dakota, which were pivotal during development of vertebrate paleontology in North America. Geologists have collected fossils from the White River Group there nearly every field season since the mid-1800s; however, until recently, little work was reported on the extensively exposed Quaternary strata. The White River Badlands are also a proposed dust source for the widespread PeoriaLoess of the Central Great Plains. The research highlighted on this trip includes (1) luminescence and radiocarbon ages from late Pleistocene through Holocene eolian sand, (2) radiocarbon ages from Holocene eolian cliff-top deposits, (3) luminescenceages from late Pleistocene fluvial silts, (4) radiocarbon ages of late Holocene fluvial silts, and (5) cosmogenic ages on ventifacts from the adjoining upper prairie. These new studies will facilitate discussions, including (1) late Quaternary paleoenvironments,(2) late Quaternary fluvial incision rates and episodes, (3) up-wind sediment supply of late Quaternary nonglaciogenic loess, (4) landscape evolution spanning late Pleistocene tableland through late Holocene sod table development, and (5) modern erosion-pedimentation rates.

South Dakota↗
USGS2011

Project plan-Surficial geologic mapping and hydrogeologic framework studies in the Greater Platte River Basins (Central Great Plains) in support of ecosystem and climate change research

The Greater Platte River Basin area spans a central part of the Midcontinent and Great Plains from the Rocky Mountains on the west to the Missouri River on the east, and is defined to include drainage areas of the Platte, Niobrara, and Republican Rivers, the Rainwater Basin, and other adjoining areas overlying the northern High Plains aquifer. The Greater Platte River Basin contains abundant surficial deposits that were sensitive to, or are reflective of, the climate under which they formed: deposits from multiple glaciations in the mountain headwaters of the North and South Platte Rivers and from continental ice sheets in eastern Nebraska; fluvial terraces (ranging from Tertiary to Holocene in age) along the rivers and streams; vast areas of eolian sand in the Nebraska Sand Hills and other dune fields (recording multiple episodes of dune activity); thick sequences of windblown silt (loess); and sediment deposited in numerous lakes and wetlands. In addition, the Greater Platte River Basin overlies and contributes surface water to the High Plains aquifer, a nationally important groundwater system that underlies parts of eight states and sustains one of the major agricultural areas of the United States. The area also provides critical nesting habitat for birds such as plovers and terns, and roosting habitat for cranes and other migratory birds that travel through the Central Flyway of North America. This broad area, containing fragile ecosystems that could be further threatened by changes in climate and land use, has been identified by the USGS and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln as a region where intensive collaborative research could lead to a better understanding of climate change and what might be done to adapt to or mitigate its adverse effects to ecosystems and to humans. The need for robust data on the geologic framework of ecosystems in the Greater Platte River Basin has been acknowledged in proceedings from the 2008 Climate Change Workshop and in draft reports by researchers developing a multidisciplinary science plan for the Greater Platte River Basin.

Open-File Report↗
USGS2024

U.S. Geological Survey Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center science highlights for fiscal year 2023

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center is based in Bozeman, Montana, and has field offices in Glacier National Park, Mont.; Missoula, Mont.; and Knoxville, Tennessee. Our scientists respond to the natural resource management needs of Federal, Tribal, and State partners—directly engaging in the coproduction and application of integrated, interdisciplinary science—and perform place-based research throughout the northern Rocky Mountains, including Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks and the northern Great Plains. However, the scope and implications of our research extend across the Nation. Our research themes are as follows: (1) climate change and drought, (2) species at risk, (3) habitat in changing landscapes, and (4) invasive species and wildlife disease. This Fact Sheet highlights examples of dynamic partnerships and key advances in our themes in fiscal year 2023 (October 2022–September 2023).

Fact Sheet↗
USGS2008

Mormon cricket control in Utah's west desert - Evaluation of impacts of the pesticide Diflubenzuron on nontarget arthropod communities

Grasshopper and Mormon cricket (Orthoptera) populations periodically build to extremely high numbers and can cause significant economic damage in rangelands and agricultural fields of the Great Plains and Intermountain West. A variety of insecticides have been applied to control population outbreaks, with recent efforts directed at minimizing impacts to nontarget fauna in treated ecosystems. A relatively new insecticide for control of Orthoptera is diflubenzuron, which acts to inhibit chitin production, ultimately causing death during the molt following ingestion of the insecticide. All arthropods, including insects, mites, and crustaceans, use chitin to build their exoskeletons and will die if they are unable to produce it during the next molt. Diflubenzuron is not taxon specific—it affects all arthropods that ingest it, except adult insects, which do not molt. Consequently, application of this pesticide has the potential to significantly reduce not only target populations but all terrestrial and aquatic arthropods within treatment zones. Some research has been done in the Great Plains on the impact of diflubenzuron on nontarget arthropods in the context of grasshopper-control programs, but no work has been done in the Great Basin in Mormon cricket-control areas. This study was instigated in anticipation of the need for extensive control of Orthoptera outbreaks in Utah’s west desert during 2005, and it was designed to sample terrestrial and aquatic arthropod communities in both treated and untreated zones. Three areas were sampled: Grouse Creek, Ibapah, and Vernon. High mortality of Mormon cricket eggs in the wet, cool spring of 2005 restricted the need to control Mormon crickets to Grouse Creek. Diflubenzuron was applied (aerial reduced agent-area treatment) in May 2005. Terrestrial and aquatic arthropod communities were sampled before and after application of diflubenzuron in the Grouse Creek area of northwestern Utah in May and June of 2005. In July 2005, U.S. Geological Survey scientists sampled areas in Ibapah and Vernon that had been treated with diflubenzuron in 2004, along with adjacent untreated areas. Pitfall traps at four treated and four untreated sites were used to collect ground-dwelling terrestrial arthropods. Semiquantitative sweep surveys of aquatic habitats were made before treatment, 2 weeks after treatment, and 4 months after treatment (after leaf fall) at Grouse Creek. One-year post-treatment samples were collected by using the same methods for terrestrial and aquatic arthropods at Ibapah and Vernon in July 2005 (treatments applied in June 2004). More than 124,000 terrestrial arthropods were collected from the three study areas, and more than 200,000 aquatic invertebrates were collected in the aquatic samples. Direct effects of diflubenzuron on aquatic and terrestrial arthropod communities were not apparent in our data from Grouse Creek. The treatment was designed to avoid spraying pesticide on water bodies, and no measurable effects on aquatic communities from either springs or streams were observed, with the exception of the reduction of taxa richness at Vernon (a result confounded by elevational differences in the treatment and nontreatment zones). Some trends indicate diflubenzuron may affect some terrestrial taxa. Ant communities showed some differences, with possible lag effects at Ibapah and Vernon. Forelius was more abundant, while Tapinoma and, perhaps, Formica declined in treated zones in these two study areas. Solenopsis also was more numerous at treated Ibapah sites but varied without pattern at Vernon. Scorpions were abundant at Grouse Creek and Ibapah but rare at Vernon. Numbers did not change during several weeks at Grouse Creek, but at Ibapah, numbers at treated sites were much lower than at untreated sites. The Lygaeidae (in the order Hemiptera) were more abundant in the untreated zones at Ibapah and Vernon, although significantly so only at Ibapah. Lygaeidae were absent from the treated zone at Grouse Creek (before and after treatment) but were present after treatment in the untreated zone. Additional research is recommended to determine more explicitly whether these taxa are sensitive to diflubenzuron applications in the Great Basin.

Utah↗
USGS2017

Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center—Celebrating 50 years of science

The Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center (NPWRC) celebrated its 50-year anniversary in 2015. This report is written in support of that observance. We document why and how the NPWRC came to be and describe some of its many accomplishments and the influence the Center’s research program has had on natural resource management. The history is organized by major research themes, proceeds somewhat chronologically within each theme, and covers the Center’s first 50 years of research. During that period, Center scientists authored more than 1,700 publications and reports. More than 1,000 seasonal or temporary field personnel, and more than 100 graduate students, contributed to the Center’s success; many went on to have exemplary careers in natural resource management, conservation, and education. The mission of the Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center today remains true to the original vision: to provide the knowledge needed to understand, conserve, and manage the Nation’s natural resources for current and future generations, with an emphasis on species and ecosystems of the northern Great Plains. The Center’s first 50 years of applied biological research provides a deep scientific foundation on which to address emerging issues for the natural resources in the northern Great Plains and beyond.

Circular↗
USGS2013

Scenarios of bioenergy development impacts on regional groundwater withdrawals

Irrigation increases agricultural productivity, but it also stresses water resources (Huffaker and Hamilton 2007). Drought and the potential for drier conditions resulting from climate change could strain water supplies in landscapes where human populations rely on finite groundwater resources for drinking, agriculture, energy, and industry (IPCC 2007). For instance, in the North American Great Plains, rowcrops are utilized for livestock feed, food, and bioenergy production (Cassman and Liska 2007), and a large portion is irrigated with groundwater from the High Plains aquifer system (McGuire 2011). Under projected future climatic conditions, greater crop water use requirements and diminished groundwater recharge rates could make rowcrop irrigation less feasible in some areas (Rosenberg et al. 1999; Sophocleous 2005). The Rainwater Basin region of south central Nebraska, United States, is an intensively farmed and irrigated Great Plains landscape dominated by corn (Zea mays L.) and soybean (Glycine max L.) production (Bishop and Vrtiska 2008). Ten starch-based ethanol plants currently service the region, producing ethanol from corn grain (figure 1). In this study, we explore the potential of switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.), a drought-tolerant alternative bioenergy feedstock, to impact regional annual groundwater withdrawals for irrigation under warmer and drier future conditions. Although our research context is specific to the Rainwater Basin and surrounding North American Great Plains, we believe the broader research question is internationally pertinent and hope that this study simulates similar research in other areas.

Nebraska↗
USGS2011

Restoration of the fire-grazing interaction in Artemisia filifolia shrubland of the Southern Great Plains, North America

1.  Patterns of landscape heterogeneity are crucial to the maintenance of biodiversity in shrublands and grasslands, yet management practices in these ecosystems typically seek to homogenize landscapes. Furthermore, there is limited understanding of how the interaction of ecological processes, such as fire and grazing, affects patterns of heterogeneity at different spatial scales. 2.  We conducted research in Artemisia filifolia (Asteraceae) shrublands located in the southern Great Plains of North America to determine the effect of restoring the fire–grazing interaction on vegetation structure. Data were collected for 3 years in replicated pastures grazed by cattle Bos taurus where the fire–grazing interaction had been restored (fire and grazing = treatment pastures) and in pastures that were grazed but remained unburned (grazing only, no fire = control pastures). The effect of the fire–grazing interaction on heterogeneity (variance) of vegetation structure was assessed at scales from 12·5 m 2 to 609 ha. 3.  Most measurements of vegetation structure within treatment pastures differed from control pastures for 1–3 years after being burned but were thereafter similar to the values found in unburned control pastures. 4.  Treatment pastures were characterized by a lower amount of total heterogeneity and a lower amount of heterogeneity through time. 5.  Heterogeneity of vegetation structure tended to decrease as the scale of measurement increased in both treatment and control pastures. There was deviation from this trend, however, in the treatment pastures that exhibited much higher heterogeneity at the patch scale (mean patch size = 202 ha) of measurement, the scale at which patch fires were conducted. 6. Synthesis and applications . Vegetation structure in A. filifolia shrublands of our study was readily altered by the fire–grazing interaction but also demonstrated substantial resilience to these effects. The fire–grazing interaction also changed the total amount of heterogeneity characterizing this system, the scale at which heterogeneity in this system was expressed and the amount of heterogeneity expressed through time. Land managers seeking to impose a shifting mosaic of heterogeneity on this vegetation type can do so by restoring the fire–grazing interaction with potential conservation benefits similar to what has been achieved in other ecosystems where historic cycles of disturbance and rest have been restored.

Oklahoma↗
USGS2020

Lesser prairie-chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) use of man-made water sources

The lesser prairie-chicken ( Tympanuchus pallidicinctus ) occurs in the semiarid southern Great Plains, a region prone to periods of drought. Researchers generally believe that lesser prairie-chickens are able to satisfy their water requirements through preformed water and metabolic processes, but also know that they experience low survival and reproductive success during periods of drought. We used motion-sensing cameras to assess lesser prairie-chicken visits to man-made free water sources over a 48-month period from March 2009 to February 2013 in west Texas. Our objective was to examine temporal patterns of water use by lesser prairie-chickens, and to explore life history phenology and environmental conditions that may influence the species' use of free water. We documented 1,439 visits to water sources by lesser prairie-chickens. Their use of water sources was high during the winter months (December–February; 92 visits per 100 trap days) but the highest average visit rate to water sources occurred during the lekking-nesting life stage (March–May; 146 visits per 100 trap days). Water use was lower during the brood-rearing stage (June–August; 71 visits per 100 trap days) and lowest during the brood dispersal and independence stage (September–November; 19 visits per 100 trap days). Water use was strongly associated with dew point (P < 0.0001) and temperature (P = 0.0002) but was not associated with precipitation (P = 0.1037). These data indicate life-cycle stage (e.g., lekking-nesting) and reduced availability of preformed water may influence use of free water sources by lesser prairie-chickens. Current climate models predict the region of the study area will experience increases in temperature and decreases in frequency of precipitation. The combined effect of this would be reduced environmental moisture. If the prediction of increasing aridity in the region holds true, man-made water sources may become a tool for conservation of the species.

Texas↗
USGS1975

Water-resources investigations of the U.S. Geological Survey in the northern Great Plains coal region of Wyoming, Montana, and North Dakota, 1975

The Geological Survey's Water Resources Division has for many years maintained a program of water-resources investigations that includes the coal regions of Wyoming, Montana, and North Dakota. These programs have been supported by State and local agencies and by other agencies of the Federal government, largely to provide data for water-resources development projects, allocations of water, and to inventory of water resources for future planning. The recent interest in coal has added new dimensions and greater intensity to the investigations. The work has expanded to include monitoring the environmental effects of coal mining and processing and to determine the availability of additional water supplies for coal-conversion plants and related demands. New objectives are now reflected in the program. Much of the work is to assist the Bureau of Land Management in its responsibilities to minimize the possible detrimental effects of coal mining on the public resource lands. The Environmental Protection Agency also supports a significant part of the program. Their support is to assure that water-quality information is collected at key locations, with types of water-quality data and frequency of sampling needed by that agency in the discharge of its function. Relatively large increases in the program have been funded by direct appropriation to the Geological Survey. This report describes the water-resources investigation program that is currently in operation. Locations of gaging stations and water-quality measuring sites, frequencies and parameters, and areas of groundwater studies are included in this report. Brief descriptions of coal-related studies by investigators who are headquartered outside the Northern Great Plains coal regions are also included. Such studies are research in topics related to coal extraction, water supply, and post-mining reclamation

Montana, North Dakota, Wyoming↗
USGS2002

Strategic plan for the Coordinated Intermountain Restoration Project

In 1982, the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Idaho State Office began the Intermountain Greenstripping and Rehabilitation Research Project (IGRRP), or the “Greenstripping Program,” to investigate plant materials and technologies that can reduce wildfire incidence and improve rehabilitation practices. Rehabilitation is normally applied as a reactive process to wildfires, yet land managers in the Great Basin wish to become proactive by replacing fire-prone invasive annual grasses with native plants. The Coordinated Intermountain Restoration Project (CIRP) evolved from the Greenstripping Program to conduct research studies and provide technical assistance on restoration of native ecosystems on rangelands that are infested with invasive annual grasses or other invasive or noxious weeds. To accomplish this objective, the CIRP will promote the understanding of ecosystem disturbance dynamics as well as evaluate plant materials, site preparation techniques, weed control methods, seeding equipment, management methods, and monitoring techniques for restoration projects. The CIRP will not address the restoration of forested or woodland (juniper [Juniperus]) ecosystems. It will include a component on fuel management to reduce the impacts of wildfires on semiarid rangeland ecosystems where exotic annual grasses provide the fuel. The people who will benefit directly from this research include land managers and users of public and private lands in the northern Great Basin, the Columbia Plateau, and the Snake River Plain. The CIRP will provide an integration framework for a multidisciplinary approach to research with numerous opportunities for input and collaboration. The U.S. Geological Survey will initially dedicate approximately \$1 million over 5 years (about \$200,000 per year) to jump-start this effort. U.S. Geological Survey funds will establish a science advisory board to oversee the project. This board will contain members of Federal research and management agencies within the region. U.S. Geological Survey funds will support (1) continued development of VegSpec, a computer program that is a restoration expert system, (2) research to examine changes in ecosystem processes when native plant-dominated communities shift to communities dominated by exotic annual grasses, and (3) research to address mechanisms for establishing native plants in locations dominated by exotic annual grasses. Through these initial funds, USGS hopes to leverage additional research with other agencies (e.g., BLM’s Great Basin Restoration Initiative or the Native Plant Materials Development Project, which is an interagency program to supply and manage native plant materials for restoration and rehabilitation on Federal lands) or funding organizations (e.g., the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s [USDA] National Research Initiative Competitive Grants Program, or the USDA’s and U.S. Department of the Interior’s [USDOI] Joint Fire Science Program), and to obtain additional research partners (e.g., university or Federal scientists) willing to expand this effort to address all aspects of this strategic plan.

Information and Technology Report↗
USGS2011

Stratigraphy of the Younger Dryas Chronozone and paleoenvironmental implications: Central and Southern Great Plains

The Great Plains of the United States was the setting for some of the earliest research in North America into patterns and changes in the character of late Pleistocene environments and their effects on contemporary human populations. Many localities in the region have well-stratified records of terminal Pleistocene and early Holocene human (Paleoindian) activity and past environments. These have proven important in debates over the character of the Younger Dryas Chronozone (YDC; 11,000–10,000 14 C BP; 12,900–11,700 cal BP) in the continental interior. This paper reviews the lithostratigraphic record of the YDC on the Central and Southern Great Plains and summarizes paleobiological records (largely isotopic). The goal is to determine if there is any uniformity in the timing, character, direction and/or magnitude of changes in depositional environments or broader geomorphic systems before, during or after the YDC in order to address the question of the character of environments through this time. The stratigraphic records of the late Pleistocene to early Holocene transition, and in particular, the stratigraphic records of the YDC vary through time and space. The data clearly show that a host of geomorphic processes produced the terminal Pleistocene and early Holocene stratigraphic records of the Great Plains. Moreover, the YDC is not necessarily manifest as a distinct lithostratigraphic or biostratigraphic entity in these different types of deposits and soils. The various geomorphic systems of the Great Plains did not behave synchronously in response to any common climate driver. These stratigraphic records reflect local environmental conditions and probably a complex response to the reorganization of mid-latitude climates in the terminal Pleistocene and early Holocene.

Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Okl↗
USGS1989

Effects of fire in the Northern Great Plains

This publication is a review of selected literature about prescribed burning in the Northern Great Plains (NGP) for management of wildlife. It also will be useful to other resource managers and researchers and to persons interested in the NGP. It is more 'descriptive' than 'interpretative.'The publication is a joint effort of the South Dakota State Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit (SDCFWRU), South Dakota State University, Brookings; the Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center (NPWRC), Jamestown, N.D.; and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Fergus Falls, Minn. Manuscript typing and library services were shared between SDCFWRU and NPWRC.This publication (EC 761) is the second of three SDSU Extension circulars on grassland fires. EC 760 is Prescribed burning guidelines in the Northern Great Plains; EC 762 is Annotated bibliography of fire literature relative to northern grasslands in South-Central Canada and North-Central United States and contains many more citations than presented in this publication. All three circulars may be obtained from either the Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences Department; SDSU Box 2206; ph (605) 688-6121; or from the Ag Communications Bulletin Room; SDSU Box 2231; ph (605) 688-5628; both in Brookings, S.D. 57007.

Report↗
USGS2014

Advancing geodesy in the U.S. Midcontinent: workshop report

The workshop on “Advancing Geodesy in the U.S. Midcontinent” was held from October 31 to November 1, 2012, at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. The workshop included 28 participants from academia, government, and private-sector organizations that are involved in research on geodesy and earthquake hazards in the seismically active areas of the U.S. midcontinent (the region of relatively undeformed crust roughly between the Great Plains and Appalachian Mountains). The workshop was intended to provide guidance to the U.S. Geological Survey’s internal and external Earthquake Hazards research programs in the U.S. midcontinent. The 2012 workshop was developed as a follow-up to the “Workshop on New Madrid Geodesy and Understanding Intraplate Earthquakes,” held in Norwood, Massachusetts, in March 2011. The goal of the 2012 workshop was to provide specific recommendations to the U.S. Geological Survey on priorities for infrastructure and research investments related to geodesy in the U.S. midcontinent.

Open-File Report↗
USGS2023

Seventy questions of importance to the conservation of the North Central grasslands of the United States in a changing climate

Successful conservation of ecosystems in a changing climate requires actionable research that directly supports the rethinking and revising of management approaches to address changing risks and opportunities. As an important first step toward actionable research, we reviewed and synthesized grassland management-related documents to identify broadly shared questions that, if answered, would help to support collective conservation of the grasslands in the northern Great Plains of the United States in a changing climate. A Management Priorities Working Group reviewed 183 grassland-relevant management documents and identified 70 questions. Feedback was iteratively provided by a Climate and Ecology Working Group, an Advisory Committee, and representatives from grassland management agencies and organizations. The identified questions generally fall under 15 topics: land conversion; restoration; disturbance regimes; woody encroachment; herbaceous invasives; grazing; water quality, quantity, and availability; animal species; private land; public understanding; legal and policy changes; economic incentives; coordination across management entities; accessibility of science and tools; and novel ways of thinking. These questions can inform a research agenda for researchers looking to conduct actionable science in the Great Plains grassland ecosystems. Both the approach and the questions presented here can also be adapted and applied in other regions and ecosystems.

Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota,↗
USGS2022

Whooping crane stay length in relation to stopover site characteristics

Whooping crane ( Grus americana ) migratory stopovers can vary in length from hours to more than a month. Stopover sites provide food resources and safety essential for the completion of migration. Factors such as weather, climate, demographics of migrating groups, and physiological condition of migrants influence migratory movements of cranes (Gruidae) to varying degrees. However, little research has examined the relationship between habitat characteristics and stopover stay length in cranes. Site quality may relate to stay length with longer stays that allow individuals to improve body condition, or with shorter stays because of increased foraging efficiency. We examined this question using habitat data collected at 605 use locations from 449 stopover sites throughout the United States Great Plains visited by 58 whooping cranes from the Aransas–Wood Buffalo Population tracked with platform transmitting terminals. Research staff compiled land cover (e.g., hectares of corn; landscape level) and habitat metric (e.g., maximum water depth; site level) data for day use and evening roost locations via site visits and geospatial mapping. We used Random Forest regression analyses to estimate importance of covariates for predicting stopover stay length. Site-level variables explained 9% of variation in stay length, whereas landscape-level variables explained 43%. Stay length increased with latitude and the proportion of land cover as open-water slough with emergent vegetation as well as alfalfa, whereas stay length decreased as open-water lacustrine wetland land cover increased. At the site-level, stopover duration increased with wetted width at riverine sites but decreased with wetted width at palustrine and lacustrine wetland sites. Stopover duration increased with mean distance to visual obstruction as well as where management had reduced the height of vegetation through natural (e.g., grazing) or mechanical (e.g., harvesting) means and decreased with maximum water depth. Our results suggest that stopover length increases with the availability of preferred land cover types for foraging. High quality stopover sites with abundant forage resources may help whooping cranes maintain fat reserves important to their annual life cycle.

Proceedings of the North American Crane Workshop↗
USGS2017

Culturally induced range infilling of eastern redcedar: a problem in ecology, an ecological problem, or both?

The philosopher John Passmore distinguished between (1) “problems in ecology,” or what we might call problems in scientific understanding of ecological change, and (2) “ecological problems,” or what we might call problems faced by societies due to ecological change. The spread of eastern redcedar ( Juniperus virginiana ) and conversion of the central and southern Great Plains of North America to juniper woodland might be categorized as a problem in ecology, an ecological problem, or both. Here, we integrate and apply two interdisciplinary approaches to problem-solving—social-ecological systems thinking and ecocriticism—to understand the role of human culture in recognizing, driving, and responding to cedar’s changing geographic distribution. We interpret the spread of cedar as a process of culturally induced range infilling due to the ongoing social-ecological impacts of colonization, analyze poetic literary texts to clarify the concepts that have so far informed different cultural values related to cedar, and explore the usefulness of diverse interdisciplinary collaborations and knowledge for addressing social-ecological challenges like cedar spread in the midst of rapidly unfolding global change. Our examination suggests that it is not only possible, but preferable, to address cedar spread as both a scientific and a social problem. Great Plains landscapes are teetering between grassland and woodland, and contemporary human societies both influence and choose how to cope with transitions between these ecological states. We echo previous studies in suggesting that human cultural values about stability and disturbance, especially cultural concepts of fire, will be primary driving factors in determining future trajectories of change on the Great Plains. Although invasion-based descriptors of cedar spread may be useful in ecological research and management, language based on the value of restraint could provide a common vocabulary for effective cross-disciplinary and interdisciplinary communication about the relationship between culture and cedar, as well as an ethical framework for cross-cultural communication, decision-making, and management.

Ecology and Society↗
USGS1984

Lightning fires in North Dakota grasslands and in pine-savanna lands of South Dakota and Montana

Lightning strike fires which occurred between 1940 and 1981 were studied in mixed-grass prairie grasslands and in pine-savanna lands in the Northern Great Plains region. A majority (73%) of ignitions occurred during July and August, while a lesser number was recorded in April, May, June, and September. The April-September period is also the average time of the freeze-free period and approximates the average distribution period for thunderstorm activity in this region. The area burned by each of 293 lightning fires (most of which were suppressed) ranged from 0.004-1158.3 ha ( X̄ = 10.8 ha). The frequency of lightning fires in mixed-grass prairie grasslands averaged 6.0/yr per 10,000 km 2 in eastern North Dakota, 22.4/yr per 10,000 km 2 in southcentral North Dakota, 24.7/yr per 10,000 km 2 in western North Dakota, and 91.7/yr per 10,000 km 2 in pine-savanna lands in northwestern South Dakota and southeastern Montana. The ecological role of lightning-set fires is discussed relative to the development of resource research and management plans and to the interpretation of historical records of natural fire occurrence in the Northern Great Plains region.

Journal of Range Management↗
USGS2021

Simulated atmospheric response to four projected land-use land-cover change scenarios for 2050 in the north-central United States

Land-use land-cover change (LULCC) has become an important topic of research for the central United States because of the extensive conversion of the natural prairie into agricultural land, especially in the northern Great Plains. As a result, shifts in the natural climate (minimum/maximum temperature, precipitation, etc.) across the north-central United States have been observed, as noted within the Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4) report. Thus, it is necessary to understand how further LULCC will affect the near-surface atmosphere, the lower troposphere, and the planetary boundary layer (PBL) atmosphere over this region. The goal of this work was to investigate the utility of a new future land-use land-cover (LULC) dataset within the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) modeling system. The present study utilizes a modeled future land-use dataset developed by the Forecasting Scenarios of Land-Use Change (FORE-SCE) model to investigate the influence of future (2050) land use on a simulated PBL development within the WRF Model. Three primary areas of LULCC were identified within the FORE-SCE future LULC dataset across Nebraska and South Dakota. Variations in LULC between the 2005 LULC control simulation and four FORE-SCE simulations affected near-surface temperature (0.5°–1°C) and specific humidity (0.3–0.5 g kg −1 ). The differences noted in the temperature and moisture fields affected the development of the simulated PBL, leading to variations in PBL height and convective available potential energy. Overall, utilizing the FORE-SCE dataset within WRF produced notable differences relative to the control simulation over areas of LULCC represented in the FORE-SCE dataset.

Nebraska, South Dakota↗