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At least 505 records · Page 28Linked to original sources

Vegetation dynamics after spring and summer fires in red and white pine stands at Voyageurs National Park

Conducting dormant season or springtime prescribed fire treatments has become a common practice in many regions of the United States to restore ecosystems to their natural state. Despite the knowledge that historically, fires often occurred during the summer, the application of summer burns has been deterred, in part, by a lack of understanding of fire season effects on vegetation. We explored the differences in fire effects between spring and summer burns at Voyageurs National Park, Minnesota. The fire season effects on the ground layer vegetation were clearly different among the treatments: pre-burn, spring, and summer. Vegetation composition of pre-burn and after spring fires was similar, but differed significantly from the summer fires. Spring fires propagated the same species that were present prior to the fire, whereas summer fires promoted a new suite of species through the germination of seedbank and high seed dispersal species. Cover and richness of seed bank and intolerant species were greatest after the summer fires, which contributed to the peak in richness found across all reproductive and tolerance attributes five years after these fires. Post summer fire composition showed shifts in composition through time. Substantial differences in the effects of burn seasonality on ground layer vegetation should be considered in long term restoration efforts to help maintain species diversity in red and white pine forest ecosystems.

Minnesota↗

Exploring the limits of identifying sub-pixel thermal features using ASTER TIR data

Understanding the characteristics of volcanic thermal emissions and how they change with time is important for forecasting and monitoring volcanic activity and potential hazards. Satellite instruments view volcanic thermal features across the globe at various temporal and spatial resolutions. Thermal features that may be a precursor to a major eruption, or indicative of important changes in an on-going eruption can be subtle, making them challenging to reliably identify with satellite instruments. The goal of this study was to explore the limits of the types and magnitudes of thermal anomalies that could be detected using satellite thermal infrared (TIR) data. Specifically, the characterization of sub-pixel thermal features with a wide range of temperatures is considered using ASTER multispectral TIR data. First, theoretical calculations were made to define a “thermal mixing detection threshold” for ASTER, which quantifies the limits of ASTER's ability to resolve sub-pixel thermal mixing over a range of hot target temperatures and % pixel areas. Then, ASTER TIR data were used to model sub-pixel thermal features at the Yellowstone National Park geothermal area (hot spring pools with temperatures from 40 to 90 °C) and at Mount Erebus Volcano, Antarctica (an active lava lake with temperatures from 200 to 800 °C). Finally, various sources of uncertainty in sub-pixel thermal calculations were quantified for these empirical measurements, including pixel resampling, atmospheric correction, and background temperature and emissivity assumptions.

Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research↗

Modeling thermal dynamics of active layer soils and near-surface permafrost using a fully coupled water and heat transport model

Thawing and freezing processes are key components in permafrost dynamics, and these processes play an important role in regulating the hydrological and carbon cycles in the northern high latitudes. In the present study, we apply a well-developed soil thermal model that fully couples heat and water transport, to simulate the thawing and freezing processes at daily time steps across multiple sites that vary with vegetation cover, disturbance history, and climate. The model performance was evaluated by comparing modeled and measured soil temperatures at different depths. We use the model to explore the influence of climate, fire disturbance, and topography (north- and south-facing slopes) on soil thermal dynamics. Modeled soil temperatures agree well with measured values for both boreal forest and tundra ecosystems at the site level. Combustion of organic-soil horizons during wildfire alters the surface energy balance and increases the downward heat flux through the soil profile, resulting in the warming and thawing of near-surface permafrost. A projection of 21st century permafrost dynamics indicates that as the climate warms, active layer thickness will likely increase to more than 3 meters in the boreal forest site and deeper than one meter in the tundra site. Results from this coupled heat-water modeling approach represent faster thaw rates than previously simulated in other studies. We conclude that the discussed soil thermal model is able to well simulate the permafrost dynamics and could be used as a tool to analyze the influence of climate change and wildfire disturbance on permafrost thawing.

Journal of Geophysical Research D: Atmospheres↗

Survey of vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizae in lettuce production in relation to management and soil factors

The occurrence of vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizae (VAM) root colonization and spore number in soil was assessed for 18 fields under intensive lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) production in California during July and August of 1995. Data on management practices and soil characteristics were compiled for each field, and included a wide range of conditions. The relationship between these factors and the occurrence of VAM in these fields was explored with multivariate statistical analysis. VAM colonization of lettuce tended to decrease with the use of chemical inputs, such as pesticides and high amounts of P and N fertilizers. Addition of soil organic matter amendments, the occurrence of other host crops in the rotation, and soil carbon:phosphorus and carbon:nitrogen ratios, were positively associated with VAM colonization of lettuce roots. The number of VAM spores in soil was strongly correlated with the number of other host crops in the rotation, the occurrence of weed hosts and sampling date, but was more affected by general soil conditions than by management inputs. Higher total soil N, C and P, as well as CEC, were inversely related to soil spore number. A glasshouse study of the two primary lettuce types sampled in the field showed no significant differences in the extent of root colonization under similar growing conditions. The results of this study are compared with other studies on the effects of management and soil conditions on mycorrhizal occurrence in agriculture.

Journal of Agricultural Science↗

Coevolution of bed surface patchiness and channel morphology: 2. Numerical experiments

In gravel bed rivers, bed topography and the bed surface grain size distribution evolve simultaneously, but it is not clear how feedbacks between topography and grain sorting affect channel morphology. In this, the second of a pair of papers examining interactions between bed topography and bed surface sorting in gravel bed rivers, we use a two-dimensional morphodynamic model to perform numerical experiments designed to explore the coevolution of both free and forced bars and bed surface patches. Model runs were carried out on a computational grid simulating a 200 m long, 2.75 m wide, straight, rectangular channel, with an initially flat bed at a slope of 0.0137. Over five numerical experiments, we varied (a) whether an obstruction was present, (b) whether the sediment was a gravel mixture or a single size, and (c) whether the bed surface grain size feeds back on the hydraulic roughness field. Experiments with channel obstructions developed a train of alternate bars that became stationary and were connected to the obstruction. Freely migrating alternate bars formed in the experiments without channel obstructions. Simulations incorporating roughness feedbacks between the bed surface and flow field produced flatter, broader, and longer bars than simulations using constant roughness or uniform sediment. Our findings suggest that patches are not simply a by-product of bed topography, but they interact with the evolving bed and influence morphologic evolution.

Journal of Geophysical Research F: Earth Surface↗

Optimizing selection of training and auxiliary data for operational land cover classification for the LCMAP initiative

The U.S. Geological Survey’s Land Change Monitoring, Assessment, and Projection (LCMAP) initiative is a new end-to-end capability to continuously track and characterize changes in land cover, use, and condition to better support research and applications relevant to resource management and environmental change. Among the LCMAP product suite are annual land cover maps that will be available to the public. This paper describes an approach to optimize the selection of training and auxiliary data for deriving the thematic land cover maps based on all available clear observations from Landsats 4–8. Training data were selected from map products of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Land Cover Trends project. The Random Forest classifier was applied for different classification scenarios based on the Continuous Change Detection and Classification (CCDC) algorithm. We found that extracting training data proportionally to the occurrence of land cover classes was superior to an equal distribution of training data per class, and suggest using a total of 20,000 training pixels to classify an area about the size of a Landsat scene. The problem of unbalanced training data was alleviated by extracting a minimum of 600 training pixels and a maximum of 8000 training pixels per class. We additionally explored removing outliers contained within the training data based on their spectral and spatial criteria, but observed no significant improvement in classification results. We also tested the importance of different types of auxiliary data that were available for the conterminous United States, including: (a) five variables used by the National Land Cover Database, (b) three variables from the cloud screening ‘‘Function of mask” (Fmask) statistics, and (c) two variables from the change detection results of CCDC. We found that auxiliary variables such as a Digital Elevation Model and its derivatives (aspect, position index, and slope), potential wetland index, water probability, snow probability, and cloud probability improved the accuracy of land cover classification. Compared to the original strategy of the CCDC algorithm (500 pixels per class), the use of the optimal strategy improved the classification accuracies substantially (15-percentage point increase in overall accuracy and 4-percentage point increase in minimum accuracy).

ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing↗

Deriving habitat models for northern long-eared bats from historical detection data: A case study using the Fernow Experimental Forest

The listing of the northern long-eared bat ( Myotis septentrionalis ) as federally threatened under the Endangered Species Act following severe population declines from white-nose syndrome presents considerable challenges to natural resource managers. Because the northern long-eared bat is a forest habitat generalist, development of effective conservation measures will depend on appropriate understanding of its habitat relationships at individual locations. However, severely reduced population sizes make gathering data for such models difficult. As a result, historical data may be essential in development of habitat models. To date, there has been little evaluation of how effective historical bat presence data, such as data derived from mist-net captures, acoustic detection, and day-roost locations, may be in developing habitat models, nor is it clear how models created using different data sources may differ. We explored this issue by creating presence probability models for the northern long-eared bat on the Fernow Experimental Forest in the central Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia using a historical, presence-only data set. Each presence data type produced outputs that were dissimilar but that still corresponded with known traits of the northern long-eared bat or are easily explained in the context of the particular data collection protocol. However, our results also highlight potential limitations of individual data types. For example, models from mist-net capture data only showed high probability of presence along the dendritic network of riparian areas, an obvious artifact of sampling methodology. Development of ecological niche and presence models for northern long-eared bat populations could be highly valuable for resource managers going forward with this species. We caution, however, that efforts to create such models should consider the substantial limitations of models derived from historical data, and address model assumptions.

West Virginia↗

Variations in community evacuation potential related to average return periods in probabilistic tsunami hazard analysis

Tsunami risk management requires strategies that can address multiple sources with different recurrence intervals, wave-arrival times, and inundation extents. Probabilistic tsunami hazard analysis (PTHA) provides a structured way to integrate multiple sources, including the uncertainties due to the natural variability and limited knowledge of sources. PTHA-based products relate to specific average return periods (ARP) and while there has been considerable attention paid to ARP choice for building codes, guidance on ARP choice to support evacuation planning and related land use is lacking. We use the State of California (USA) coastal communities as a case study to explore the use of geospatial analysis and pedestrian-evacuation modeling for comparing the societal implications of tsunamis based on evacuation areas that reflect inundation from 475-year, 975-year, and 2475-year ARPs. Results demonstrate that changes in PTHA ARP had a substantial effect on the number of tax-lot parcels in PTHA evacuation areas, but not on the primary land use of these parcels or which communities had the largest number of exposed parcels. Composite PTHA maps provided high-level insights on hazard exposure and identified dominant sources; however, disaggregated PTHA outputs that reflect single source parameters (e.g., wave-arrival time) were necessary to quantify evacuation potential from local and distant tsunamis. Framing changes in ARP assumption based on changes in the number, land-use type, and potential evacuation challenges of parcels in evacuation areas can provide valuable insight on the real-world implications of which ARP to use in land use or evacuation planning.

California↗

An approach for characterizing the distribution of shrubland ecosystem components as continuous fields as part of NLCD

Characterizing and quantifying distributions of shrubland ecosystem components is one of the major challenges for monitoring shrubland vegetation cover change across the United States. A new approach has been developed to quantify shrubland components as fractional products within National Land Cover Database (NLCD). This approach uses remote sensing data and regression tree models to estimate the fractional cover of shrubland ecosystem components. The approach consists of three major steps: field data collection, high resolution estimates of shrubland ecosystem components using WorldView-2 imagery, and coarse resolution estimates of these components across larger areas using Landsat imagery. This research seeks to explore this method to quantify shrubland ecosystem components as continuous fields in regions that contain wide-ranging shrubland ecosystems. Fractional cover of four shrubland ecosystem components, including bare ground, herbaceous, litter, and shrub, as well as shrub heights, were delineated in three ecological regions in Arizona, Florida, and Texas. Results show that estimates for most components have relatively small normalized root mean square errors and significant correlations with validation data in both Arizona and Texas. The distribution patterns of shrub height also show relatively high accuracies in these two areas. The fractional cover estimates of shrubland components, except for litter, are not well represented in the Florida site. The research results suggest that this method provides good potential to effectively characterize shrubland ecosystem conditions over perennial shrubland although it is less effective in transitional shrubland. The fractional cover of shrub components as continuous elements could offer valuable information to quantify biomass and help improve thematic land cover classification in arid and semiarid areas.

Arizona, Florida, Texas↗

Compensatory effects of recruitment and survival when amphibian populations are perturbed by disease

The need to increase our understanding of factors that regulate animal population dynamics has been catalysed by recent, observed declines in wildlife populations worldwide. Reliable estimates of demographic parameters are critical for addressing basic and applied ecological questions and understanding the response of parameters to perturbations (e.g. disease, habitat loss, climate change). However, to fully assess the impact of perturbation on population dynamics, all parameters contributing to the response of the target population must be estimated. We applied the reverse‐time model of Pradel in Program mark to 6 years of capture–recapture data from two populations of Anaxyrus boreas (boreal toad) populations, one with disease and one without. We then assessed a priori hypotheses about differences in survival and recruitment relative to local environmental conditions and the presence of disease. We further explored the relative contribution of survival probability and recruitment rate to population growth and investigated how shifts in these parameters can alter population dynamics when a population is perturbed. High recruitment rates (0·41) are probably compensating for low survival probability (range 0·51–0·54) in the population challenged by an emerging pathogen, resulting in a relatively slow rate of decline. In contrast, the population with no evidence of disease had high survival probability (range 0·75–0·78) but lower recruitment rates (0·25). Synthesis and applications. We suggest that the relationship between survival and recruitment may be compensatory, providing evidence that populations challenged with disease are not necessarily doomed to extinction. A better understanding of these interactions may help to explain, and be used to predict, population regulation and persistence for wildlife threatened with disease. Further, reliable estimates of population parameters such as recruitment and survival can guide the formulation and implementation of conservation actions such as repatriations or habitat management aimed to improve recruitment.

Journal of Applied Ecology↗

Influences of spawning timing, water temperature, and climatic warming on early life history phenology in western Alaska sockeye salmon

We applied an empirical model to predict hatching and emergence timing for 25 western Alaska sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) populations in four lake-nursery systems to explore current patterns and potential responses of early life history phenology to warming water temperatures. Given experienced temperature regimes during development, we predicted hatching to occur in as few as 58 d to as many as 260 d depending on spawning timing and temperature. For a focal lake spawning population, our climate-lake temperature model predicted a water temperature increase of 0.7 to 1.4 °C from 2015 to 2099 during the incubation period, which translated to a 16 d to 30 d earlier hatching timing. The most extreme scenarios of warming advanced development by approximately a week earlier than historical minima and thus climatic warming may lead to only modest shifts in phenology during the early life history stage of this population. The marked variation in the predicted timing of hatching and emergence among populations in close proximity on the landscape may serve to buffer this metapopulation from climate change.

Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences↗

Development of a species status assessment process for decisions under the U.S. Endangered Species Act

Decisions under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) require scientific input on the risk that the species will become extinct. A series of critiques on the role of science in ESA decisions have called for improved consistency and transparency in species risk assessments and clear distinctions between science input and policy application. To address the critiques and document the emerging practice of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), we outline an assessment process based on principles and practices of risk and decision analyses that results in a scientific report on species status. The species status assessment (SSA) process has three successive stages: 1) document the life history and ecological relationships of the species in question to provide the foundation for the assessment, 2) describe and hypothesize causes for the current condition of the species, and 3) forecast the species' future condition. The future condition refers to the ability of a species to sustain populations in the wild under plausible future scenarios. The scenarios help explore the species' response to future environmental stressors and to assess the potential for conservation to intervene to improve its status. The SSA process incorporates modeling and scenario planning for prediction of extinction risk and applies the conservation biology principles of representation, resiliency, and redundancy to evaluate the current and future condition. The SSA results in a scientific report distinct from policy application, which contributes to streamlined, transparent, and consistent decision-making and allows for greater technical participation by experts outside of the USFWS, for example, by state natural resource agencies. We present two case studies based on assessments of the eastern massasauga rattlesnake Sistrurus catenatus and the Sonoran Desert tortoise Gopherus morafkai to illustrate the process. The SSA builds upon the past threat-focused assessment by including systematic and explicit analyses of a species' future response to stressors and conservation, and as a result, we believe it provides an improved scientific analysis for ESA decisions.

Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management↗

Geospatial tools effectively estimate nonexceedance probabilities of daily streamflow at ungauged and intermittently gauged locations in Ohio

Study region The state of Ohio in the United States, a humid, continental climate. Study focus The estimation of nonexceedance probabilities of daily streamflows as an alternative means of establishing the relative magnitudes of streamflows associated with hydrologic and water-quality observations. New hydrological insights for the region Several methods for estimating nonexceedance probabilities of daily mean streamflows are explored, including single-index methodologies (nearest-neighboring index) and geospatial tools (kriging and topological kriging). These methods were evaluated by conducting leave-one-out cross-validations based on analyses of nearly 7 years of daily streamflow data from 79 unregulated streamgages in Ohio and neighboring states. The pooled, ordinary kriging model, with a median Nash–Sutcliffe performance of 0.87, was superior to the single-site index methods, though there was some bias in the tails of the probability distribution. Incorporating network structure through topological kriging did not improve performance. The pooled, ordinary kriging model was applied to 118 locations without systematic streamgaging across Ohio where instantaneous streamflow measurements had been made concurrent with water-quality sampling on at least 3 separate days. Spearman rank correlations between estimated nonexceedance probabilities and measured streamflows were high, with a median value of 0.76. In consideration of application, the degree of regulation in a set of sample sites helped to specify the streamgages required to implement kriging approaches successfully.

Ohio↗

Tsunami vertical-evacuation planning in the U.S. Pacific Northwest as a geospatial, multi-criteria decision problem

Tsunami vertical-evacuation (TVE) refuges can be effective risk-reduction options for coastal communities with local tsunami threats but no accessible high ground for evacuations. Deciding where to locate TVE refuges is a complex risk-management question, given the potential for conflicting stakeholder priorities and multiple, suitable sites. We use the coastal community of Ocean Shores (Washington, USA) and the local tsunami threat posed by Cascadia subduction zone earthquakes as a case study to explore the use of geospatial, multi-criteria decision analysis for framing the locational problem of TVE siting. We demonstrate a mixed-methods approach that uses potential TVE sites identified at community workshops, geospatial analysis to model changes in pedestrian evacuation times for TVE options, and statistical analysis to develop metrics for comparing population tradeoffs and to examine influences in decision making. Results demonstrate that no one TVE site can save all at-risk individuals in the community and each site provides varying benefits to residents, employees, customers at local stores, tourists at public venues, children at schools, and other vulnerable populations. The benefit of some proposed sites varies depending on whether or not nearby bridges will be functioning after the preceding earthquake. Relative rankings of the TVE sites are fairly stable under various criteria-weighting scenarios but do vary considerably when comparing strategies to exclusively protect tourists or residents. The proposed geospatial framework can serve as an analytical foundation for future TVE siting discussions.

Washington↗

Pedestrian flow-path modeling to support tsunami evacuation and disaster relief planning in the U.S. Pacific Northwest

Successful evacuations are critical to saving lives from future tsunamis. Pedestrian-evacuation modeling related to tsunami hazards primarily has focused on identifying areas and the number of people in these areas where successful evacuations are unlikely. Less attention has been paid to identifying evacuation pathways and population demand at assembly areas for at-risk individuals that may have sufficient time to evacuate. We use the neighboring coastal communities of Hoquiam, Aberdeen, and Cosmopolis (Washington, USA) and the local tsunami threat posed by Cascadia subduction zone earthquakes as a case study to explore the use of geospatial, least-cost-distance evacuation modeling for supporting evacuation outreach, response, and relief planning. We demonstrate an approach that uses geospatial evacuation modeling to (a) map the minimum pedestrian travel speeds to safety, the most efficient paths, and collective evacuation basins, (b) estimate the total number and demographic description of evacuees at predetermined assembly areas, and (c) determine which paths may be compromised due to earthquake-induced ground failure. Results suggest a wide range in the magnitude and type of evacuees at predetermined assembly areas and highlight parts of the communities with no readily accessible assembly area. Earthquake-induced ground failures could obstruct access to some assembly areas, cause evacuees to reroute to get to other assembly areas, and isolate some evacuees from relief personnel. Evacuation-modeling methods and results discussed here have implications and application to tsunami-evacuation outreach, training, response procedures, mitigation, and long-term land use planning to increase community resilience.

Washington↗

Time series of high-resolution images enhances efforts to monitor post-fire condition and recovery, Waldo Canyon fire, Colorado, USA

Interpretations of post-fire condition and rates of vegetation recovery can influence management priorities, actions and perception of latent risks from landslides and floods. In this study, we used the Waldo Canyon fire (2012, Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA) as a case study to explore how a time series (2011–2016) of high-resolution images can be used to delineate burn extent and severity, as well as quantify post-fire vegetation recovery. We applied an object-based approach to map burn severity and vegetation recovery using Worldview-2, Worldview-3 and QuickBird-2 imagery. The burned area was classified as 51% high, 20% moderate and 29% low burn-severity. Across the burn extent, the shrub cover class showed a rapid recovery, resprouting vigorously within 1 year, whereas 4 years post-fire, areas previously dominated by conifers were divided approximately equally between being classified as dominated by quaking aspen saplings with herbaceous species in the understorey or minimally recovered. Relative to using a pixel-based Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), our object-based approach showed higher rates of revegetation. High-resolution imagery can provide an effective means to monitor post-fire site conditions and complement more prevalent efforts with moderate- and coarse-resolution sensors.

Colorado↗

A spatial exploration of informal trail networks within Great Falls Park, VA

Informal (visitor-created) trails represent a threat to the natural resources of protected natural areas around the globe. These trails can remove vegetation, displace wildlife, alter hydrology, alter habitat, spread invasive species, and fragment landscapes. This study examines informal and formal trails within Great Falls Park, VA, a sub-unit of the George Washington Memorial Parkway, managed by the U.S. National Park Service. This study sought to answer three specific questions: 1) Are the physical characteristics and topographic alignments of informal trails significantly different from formal trails, 2) Can landscape fragmentation metrics be used to summarize the relative impacts of formal and informal trail networks on a protected natural area? and 3) What can we learn from examining the spatial distribution of the informal trails within protected natural areas? Statistical comparisons between formal and informal trails in this park indicate that informal trails have less sustainable topographic alignments than their formal counterparts. Spatial summaries of the lineal and areal extent and fragmentation associated with the trail networks by park management zones compare park management goals to the assessed attributes. Hot spot analyses highlight areas of high trail density within the park and findings provide insights regarding potential causes for development of dense informal trail networks.

Virginia↗

Seasonal variations in ectotherm growth rates: Quantifying growth as an intermittent non steady state compensatory process

Generally, growth rates of living organisms are considered to be at steady state, varying only under environmental forcing factors. For example, these rates may be described as a function of light for plants or organic food resources for animals and these could be regulated (or not) by temperature or other conditions. But, what are the consequences for an individual's growth (and also for the population growth) if growth rate variations are themselves dynamic and not steady state? For organisms presenting phases of dormancy or long periods of stress, this is a crucial question. A dynamic perspective for quantifying short-term growth was explored using the daily growth record of the scallop Pecten maximus (L.). This species is a good biological model for ectotherm growth because the shell records growth striae daily. Independently, a generic mathematical function representing the dynamics of mean daily growth rate (MDGR) was implemented to simulate a diverse set of growth patterns. Once the function was calibrated with the striae patterns, the growth rate dynamics appeared as a forced damped oscillation during the growth period having a basic periodicity during two transitory phases (mean duration 43. days) and appearing at both growth start and growth end. This phase is most likely due to the internal dynamics of energy transfer within the organism rather than to external forcing factors. After growth restart, the transitory regime represents successive phases of over-growth and regulation. This pattern corresponds to a typical representation of compensatory growth, which from an evolutionary perspective can be interpreted as an adaptive strategy to coping with a fluctuating environment.

Journal of Sea Research↗