Postfire vegetation recovery in the Santa Monica Mountains under two alternative management programs
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Bulletin of the Southern California Academy of Sci↗
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Identifying resource manager information needs for the North Pacific Landscape Conservation Cooperative
Landscape Conservation Cooperatives (LCCs) are a network of 22 public-private partnerships, defined by ecoregion, that share and provide science to ensure the sustainability of land, water, wildlife and cultural resources in North America. LLCs were established by the U.S. Department of Interior (DOI) in recognition that response to climate change must be coordinated on a landscape-level basis because important resources, ecosystem processes and resource management challenges extend beyond national wildlife refuges, Bureau of Land Management lands, national parks, and even international boundaries. Therefore, DOI agencies must work with other Federal, State, Tribal (U.S. indigenous peoples), First Nation (Canadian indigenous peoples), and local governments, as well as private landowners, to develop landscape-level strategies for understanding and responding to climate change.
Alaska;British Columbia;California;Oregon;Washingt↗
Geologic map of the Peach Springs 30' x 60' quadrangle, Mohave and Coconino counties, northwestern Arizona
This map is a product of a cooperative project of the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. National Park Service, and the Bureau of Land Management to provide geologic map coverage and regional geologic information for visitor services and resource management of Grand Canyon National Park, Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Grand Canyon-Parashant-National Monument, and adjacent lands in northwestern Arizona. This map is a synthesis of previous and new geologic mapping that encompasses the Peach Springs 30' x 60' quadrangle, Arizona. The geologic data will support future geologic, biologic, hydrologic, and other science resource studies of this area conducted by the National Park Service, the Hualapai Indian Tribe, the Bureau of Land Management, the State of Arizona, and private organizations. The Colorado River and its tributaries have dissected the southwestern Colorado Plateau into what is now the southwestern part of Grand Canyon. The erosion of Grand Canyon has exposed about 426 m (1,400 ft) of Proterozoic crystalline metamorphic rocks and granite, about 1,450 m (4,760 ft) of Paleozoic strata, and about 300 m (1,000 ft) of Tertiary sedimentary rocks. Outcrops of Proterozoic crystalline rocks are exposed at the bottom of Grand Canyon at Granite Park from Colorado River Mile 207 to 209, at Mile 212, and in the Lower Granite Gorge from Colorado River Mile 216 to 262, and along the Grand Wash Cliffs in the southwest corner of the map area.
Arizona↗
Monitoring for the management of disease risk in animal translocation programmes
Monitoring is best viewed as a component of some larger programme focused on science or conservation. The value of monitoring is determined by the extent to which it informs the parent process. Animal translocation programmes are typically designed to augment or establish viable animal populations without changing the local community in any detrimental way. Such programmes seek to minimize disease risk to local wild animals, to translocated animals, and in some cases to humans. Disease monitoring can inform translocation decisions by (1) providing information for state-dependent decisions, (2) assessing progress towards programme objectives, and (3) permitting learning in order to make better decisions in the future. Here we discuss specific decisions that can be informed by both pre-release and post-release disease monitoring programmes. We specify state variables and vital rates needed to inform these decisions. We then discuss monitoring data and analytic methods that can be used to estimate these state variables and vital rates. Our discussion is necessarily general, but hopefully provides a basis for tailoring disease monitoring approaches to specific translocation programmes.
EcoHealth↗
Science in the Public Sphere: Greater Sage-grouse Conservation Planning from a Transdisciplinary Perspective
Integration of scientific data and adaptive management techniques is critical to the success of species conservation, however, there are uncertainties about effective methods of knowledge exchange between scientists and decisionmakers. The conservation planning and implementation process for Greater Sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus; ) in the Mono Basin, Calif. region, was used as a case study to observe the exchange of scientific information among stakeholders with differing perspectives; resource manager, scientist, public official, rancher, and others. The collaborative development of a risk-simulation model was explored as a tool to transfer knowledge between stakeholders and inform conservation planning and management decisions. Observations compiled using a transdisciplinary approach were used to compare the exchange of information during the collaborative model development and more traditional interactions such as scientist-led presentations at stakeholder meetings. Lack of congruence around knowledge needs and prioritization led to insufficient commitment to completely implement the risk-simulation model. Ethnographic analysis of the case study suggests that further application of epistemic community theory, which posits a strong boundary condition on knowledge transfer, could help support application of risk simulation models in conservation-planning efforts within similarly complex social and bureaucratic landscapes.
Open-File Report↗
Data management and digital delivery of analog data
The U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) data archive at the Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center is a comprehensive and impartial record of the Earth's changing land surface. USGS/EROS has been archiving and preserving land remote sensing data for over 35 years. This remote sensing archive continues to grow as aircraft and satellites acquire more imagery. As a world leader in preserving data, USGS/EROS has a reputation as a technological innovator in solving challenges and ensuring that access to these collections is available. Other agencies also call on the USGS to consider their collections for long-term archive support. To improve access to the USGS film archive, each frame on every roll of film is being digitized by automated high performance digital camera systems. The system robotically captures a digital image from each film frame for the creation of browse and medium resolution image files. Single frame metadata records are also created to improve access that otherwise involves interpreting flight indexes. USGS/EROS is responsible for over 8.6 million frames of aerial photographs and 27.7 million satellite images.
Conference Paper↗
Radiometric calibration updates to the Landsat collection
The Landsat Project is planning to implement a new collection management strategy for Landsat products generated at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center. The goal of the initiative is to identify a collection of consistently geolocated and radiometrically calibrated images across the entire Landsat archive that is readily suitable for time-series analyses. In order to perform an accurate land change analysis, the data from all Landsat sensors must be on the same radiometric scale. Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) is calibrated to a radiance standard and all previous sensors are cross-calibrated to its radiometric scale. Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) is calibrated to both radiance and reflectance standards independently. The Landsat 8 OLI reflectance calibration is considered to be most accurate. To improve radiometric calibration accuracy of historical data, Landsat 1-7 sensors also need to be cross-calibrated to the OLI reflectance scale. Results of that effort, as well as other calibration updates including the absolute and relative radiometric calibration and saturated pixel replacement for Landsat 8 OLI and absolute calibration for Landsat 4 and 5 Thematic Mappers (TM), will be implemented into Landsat products during the archive reprocessing campaign planned within the new collection management strategy. This paper reports on the planned radiometric calibration updates to the solar reflective bands of the new Landsat collection.
Conference Paper↗
Developing an institutional framework to incorporate ecosystem services into decision making-Proceedings of a workshop
The routine and effective incorporation of ecosystem services information into resource management decisions requires a careful consideration of the value of goods and services provided by natural systems. A multidisciplinary workshop was held in October 2008 on "Developing an Institutional Framework to Incorporate Ecosystem Services into Decision Making." This report summarizes that workshop, which focused on examining the relationship between an institutional framework and consideration of ecosystem services in resource management decision making. This workshop was the third in a series of three preconference workshops associated with ACES 2008 (A Conference on Ecosystem Services): Using Science for Decision Making in Dynamic Systems. These workshops were designed to explore the ACES 2008 theme on decision making and how the concept of ecosystem services can more effectively be incorporated into conservation, restoration, resource management, and development decisions. Preconference workshop 1, "Developing a Vision: Incorporating Ecosystem Services into Decision Making," was held April 15, 2008, in Cambridge, MA. In this workshop, participants addressed what would have to happen to make ecosystem services more routinely and effectively used in conservation, restoration, resource management, and development decisions, and identified some key challenges to developing the analytical framework (Hogan and others, 2009). Preconference workshop 2, "Developing an Analytical Framework: Incorporating Ecosystem Services into Decision Making," was held July 28, 2008, in Naples, FL, and focused on the analytical process and identification of research priorities for ecosystem services, their production and use, their spatial and temporal characteristics, their relationship with natural systems, and their interdependencies (Hogan and others, 2010). The summary presented here synthesizes the discussion at workshop 3 and considers how institutional structures and policy instruments can be used to achieve the vision developed in workshop 1, while recognizing the analytical capabilities and limitations identified in workshop 2. Our purpose was to identify how to use ecosystem service information more effectively and broadly in resource management and development decisions. We recognized the need to facilitate an integrated understanding of (1) the natural capital that produces ecosystem services; (2) the geospatial and temporal aspects of ecosystem service production, values, and use; (3) the value of ecosystem services (monetary and nonmonetary); and (4) institutional instruments, processes, and structures (property rights, laws, governance structures, and courts, for example). Interdisciplinary collaboration and understanding is beneficial and needs to engage stakeholders. The appropriate use of institutional structures, including markets, to integrate ecosystem services into decision making depends on the players and characteristics of the specific situation (such as stakeholders, the ecosystem, resources, and the political environment). Incorporating ecosystem service values into decisions requires consideration of place-based social, cultural, economic, and landscape characteristics and institutions. Thus, a single, prescribed solution will not work-various institutional strategies must be used in different situations. Market-based approaches require appropriate regulations, monitoring, and enforcement, depending on the situation and place. Further, market approaches will need to be coupled with nonmarket approaches into an integrated institutional framework.
Open-File Report↗
Mapping research on hydropower and sustainability in the Brazilian Amazon: Advances, gaps in knowledge and future directions
In the last twenty years, multiple large and small hydroelectric dams have begun to transform the Amazonian region, spawning a growing volume of academic research across diverse disciplinary and interdisciplinary fields. In this article, we offer a critical review of recent research related to hydropower and sustainability with a focus on the Brazilian Amazon. We revisit the sustainability concept to include the contribution of various knowledge fields and perspectives for understanding, managing and making decisions about social-ecological systems transformed by dams. We conducted a literature review in Web of Science of academic publications centered in the past 5 years (2014–2019), on diverse aspects of hydropower planning, construction, operation and monitoring in the Brazilian Amazon. We present results of a co-occurrence network analysis of publications, highlighting bridging fields, network disconnections, and opportunities for interdisciplinary research. Finally, we report recent advances in the understanding and management of social-ecological systems in Amazonian watersheds, including biophysical, socio-economic, governance and development processes linked to hydropower planning and implementation. This review identifies knowledge gaps and future research directions, highlighting opportunities for improved communication among scientists, practitioners, decision-makers, indigenous peoples and local communities.
Amazon↗
Rainfall as a driver of post-wildfire flooding and debris flows: A review and synthesis
The increasing threat of post-wildfire hazards creates an imperative for improved post-wildfire flooding and debris flow prediction capabilities. Because rainfall is a primary driver of predictive hydrology and debris flow initiation and inundation models, recent efforts have emphasized the need for interdisciplinary collaboration between meteorology and post-wildfire hazard science that develops more accurate rainfall estimates with longer lead times. In this work, we identified critical knowledge gaps for developing rainfall estimates and filled those gaps by reviewing recent literature and synthesizing pre-existing datasets. Gap areas were organized into the following general topics: a) rainfall intensity-duration-frequency relations, b) time-varying rainfall, c) spatially varying rainfall, and d) rainfall regimes. Recent key research advances include the increasing availability of gridded quantitative rainfall estimates, the expanded use of distributed hydrologic and erosion models that incorporate spatial and temporal variability in rainfall, and the linking of concepts and modeling from the atmospheric and climate sciences with post-wildfire hazard science. We prototype a rainfall regime regionalization schema that captures self-similar properties of rainfall intensity ( k , the maximum rainfall intensity) and temporal scaling ( n , the decay rate). Our k - n relations schema could serve as a framework for organizing, interpreting, and predicting post-wildfire hydrologic and erosional responses. Finally, we summarize salient gaps for implementing spatiotemporally varying rainfall as the driver of post-wildfire hydrologic models designed to improve the prediction of flooding and debris flow hazards to the built environment for emergency managers.
Earth-Science Reviews↗
Stakeholder Evaluation for Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge: Completion Report
The National Wildlife Refuge System, managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), is the largest system of public lands in the world dedicated to wildlife conservation. There are over 545 national wildlife refuges nationwide, encompassing 95 million acres. As part of the National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act of 1997, each refuge is developing 15-year comprehensive conservation plans (CCPs). Each CCP describes a vision and desired future condition for the refuge and outlines goals, objectives, and management strategies for each refuge's habitat and visitor service programs. The CCP process for Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge (Refuge) in Davis, West Virginia was initiated in 2006. This planning process provides a unique opportunity for public input and involvement. Public involvement is an important part of the CCP process. Participation by parties with a stake in the resource (stakeholders) has the potential to increase understanding and support and reduce conflicts. Additionally, meaningful public participation in a decision process may increase trust and provide satisfaction in terms of both process and outcome for management and the public. Public meetings are a common way to obtain input from community members, visitors, and potential visitors. An 'Issues Workbook' is another tool the FWS uses to obtain public input and participation early in the planning process. Sometimes, however, these traditional methods do not capture the full range of perspectives that exist. A stakeholder evaluation is a way to more fully understand community preferences and opinions related to key topics in refuge planning. It can also help refuge staff understand how changes in management affect individuals in terms of their preference for services and experiences. Secondarily, a process such as this can address 'social goals' such as fostering trust in regulating agencies and reducing conflict among stakeholders. As part of the CCP planning effort at Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge, the FWS sponsored a stakeholder evaluation conducted by the Policy Analysis and Science Assistance Branch of U.S. Geological Survey, Fort Collins Science Center the winter of 2006-2007. The stakeholder evaluation was intended to answer the following questions: 1)Which Refuge management issues are most important, and to whom?, 2)How do opinions about what is most important to stakeholders overlap or conflict?, 3)Why do stakeholders emphasize specific issues, and what values are driving this?, and 4)What potential solutions do stakeholders have for addressing important issues? This information will be used by the Refuge to help guide development of their CCP as they strive to balance stakeholder desires with their charge to manage the unique wetlands and uplands of the Canaan Valley for wildlife conservation.
Open-File Report↗
Identifying biotic integrity and water chemistry relations in nonwadeable rivers of Wisconsin: Toward the development of nutrient criteria
We sampled 41 sites on 34 nonwadeable rivers that represent the types of rivers in Wisconsin, and the kinds and intensities of nutrient and other anthropogenic stressors upon each river type. Sites covered much of United States Environmental Protection Agency national nutrient ecoregions VII-Mostly Glaciated Dairy Region, and VIII-Nutrient Poor, Largely Glaciated upper Midwest. Fish, macroinvertebrates, and three categories of environmental variables including nutrients, other water chemistry, and watershed features were collected using standard protocols. We summarized fish assemblages by index of biotic integrity (IBI) and its 10 component measures, and macroinvertebrates by 2 organic pollution tolerance and 12 proportional richness measures. All biotic and environmental variables represented a wide range of conditions, with biotic measures ranging from poor to excellent status, despite nutrient concentrations being consistently higher than reference concentrations reported for the regions. Regression tree analyses of nutrients on a suite of biotic measures identified breakpoints in total phosphorus (~0.06 mg/l) and total nitrogen (~0.64 mg/l) concentrations at which biotic assemblages were consistently impaired. Redundancy analyses (RDA) were used to identify the most important variables within each of the three environmental variable categories, which were then used to determine the relative influence of each variable category on the biota. Nutrient measures, suspended chlorophyll a, water clarity, and watershed land cover type (forest or row-crop agriculture) were the most important variables and they explained significant amounts of variation within the macroinvertebrate (R 2 = 60.6%) and fish (R 2 = 43.6%) assemblages. The environmental variables selected in the macroinvertebrate model were correlated to such an extent that partial RDA analyses could not attribute variation explained to individual environmental categories, assigning 89% of the explained variation to interactions among the categories. In contrast, partial RDA attributed much of the explained variation to the nutrient (25%) and other water chemistry (38%) categories for the fish model. Our analyses suggest that it would be beneficial to develop criteria based upon a suite of biotic and nutrient variables simultaneously to deem waters as not meeting their designated uses. ?? 2007 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.
Environmental Management↗
The discourses of incidents: Cougars on Mt. Elden and in Sabino Canyon, Arizona
Incidents are relatively short periods of intensified discourse that arise from public responses to symbolically important actions by public officials, and an important part of the conflict that increasingly surrounds state wildlife management in the West. In an effort to better understand incidents as a facet of this conflict, we analyzed the discourses of two incidents in Arizona that were precipitated by the intended removal of cougars by managers in response to public safety concerns. We used newspaper content, 1999–2007, to elucidate seminal patterns of public discourses and discourse coalitions as well as differences in discursive focus between incident periods and background periods. Cougars were mentioned in newspaper articles 13–33 times more often during incidents compared with background periods. State wildlife agency commissioners and hunters were part of a discourse coalition that advocated killing cougars to solve problems, blamed cougars and those who promoted the animals’ intrinsic value and sought to retain power to define and solve cougar-related problems. Personnel from affected state and federal agencies expressed a similar discourse. Environmentalists, animal protection activists, and some elected officials were of a coalition that defined “the problem” primarily in terms of people’s behaviors, including behaviors associated with current institutional arrangements. This discourse advocated decentralizing power over cougar management. The discourses reflected different preferences for the allocations of power and use of lethal versus non-lethal methods, which aligned with apparent core beliefs and participants’ enfranchisement or disenfranchisement by current state-level management power arrangements.
Arizona↗
Ecology and evolution of pine life histories
Introduction - Pinus is a diverse genus of trees widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Understanding pine life history is critical to both conservation and fire management. Objectives - Here I lay out the different pathways of pine life history adaptation and a brief overview of pine evolution and the very significant role that fire has played. Results - Pinus originated ~150 Ma in the mid-Mesozoic Era and radiated across the northern continent of Laurasia during the Cretaceous Period. Pines have followed two evolutionary strategies interpreted as responses to competition by the newly emerging angiosperms. The Strobus lineage mostly has radiated into stressful sites of low nutrient soils and extremes in cold or heat. The Pinus (subgenus) lineage has radiated into fire-prone landscapes with diverse fire regimes. Examination of life history traits illustrates syndromes associated with fire-avoider, fire-tolerater, fire-embracer, and fire-refuge strategies. Conclusion - Understanding the current pattern of pine distribution requires interpreting their evolution in terms of climate, geology, and fire. All three of these factors have played a role since the Mesozoic origin of the genus. All are important to the appropriate management of these resources.
Annals of Forest Science↗
Quantifying groundwater’s role in delaying improvements to Chesapeake Bay water quality
A study has been undertaken to determine the time required for the effects of nitrogen-reducing best management practices (BMPs) implemented at the land surface to reach the Chesapeake Bay via groundwater transport to streams. To accomplish this, a nitrogen mass-balance regression (NMBR) model was developed and applied to seven watersheds on the Delmarva Peninsula. The model included the distribution of groundwater return times obtained from a regional groundwater-flow (GWF) model, the history of nitrogen application at the land surface over the last century, and parameters that account for denitrification. The model was (1) able to reproduce nitrate concentrations in streams and wells over time, including a recent decline in the rate at which concentrations have been increasing, and (2) used to forecast future nitrogen delivery from the Delmarva Peninsula to the Bay given different scenarios of nitrogen load reduction to the water table. The relatively deep porous aquifers of the Delmarva yield longer groundwater return times than those reported earlier for western parts of the Bay watershed. Accordingly, several decades will be required to see the full effects of current and future BMPs. The magnitude of this time lag is critical information for Chesapeake Bay watershed managers and stakeholders.
Delaware, Maryland↗
A chemical and bio‐herbicide mixture increased exotic invaders, both targeted and non‐targeted, across a diversely invaded landscape after fire
Questions Invasive‐plant treatments often target a single or few species, but many landscapes are diversely invaded. Exotic annual grasses (EAGs) increase wildfires and degrade native perennial plant communities in cold‐desert rangelands, and herbicides are thus sprayed to inhibit EAG germination and establishment. We asked how EAG target and non‐target species responded to an herbicide mixture sprayed over a large, topographically diverse landscape after wildfire. We focused on how whole‐community and natural EAG‐pathogen treatment responses varied over years and physical properties of sites. Location Sagebrush steppe of southwest Idaho, USA. Methods We monitored plant cover and diversity in 41 pairs of plots located inside or outside areas (486 ha total) treated with a combined aerial broadcast spray of pre‐emergent herbicide (imazapic) and weed‐suppressive bacteria ( Pseudomonas fluorescens , “MB906”) to target EAGs after wildfires. Results EAG cover and exotic species richness were initially less in treated plots but increased to levels similar to or greater than those of untreated plots by the third post‐treatment year. The EAG pathogen Ustilago bullata was not directly affected by the treatment. The treatment increased exotic perennial forb cover in all plots and exotic annual forb cover in cooler/wetter plots but reduced exotic annual forb cover in warmer/drier plots. Cover of the invasive biennial grass Poa bulbosa decreased more across study years in untreated than treated plots. Among natives, the treatment reduced perennial grass cover and annual forb presence but led to marginal increases in perennial forb cover and, on soils with less gravel, increased shrub presence. Conclusions A treatment targeting a single plant functional group did not achieve lasting success in these diversely invaded communities. Spraying alone did not release native perennials sufficiently to counteract the simultaneous release of secondary invaders and the return of target invaders. Planting or seeding may also be needed to achieve management goals.
Idaho↗
Beyond exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity: A response based ecological framework to assess species climate change vulnerability
As the impacts of global climate change on species are increasingly evident, there is a clear need to adapt conservation efforts worldwide. Species vulnerability assessments (VAs) are increasingly used to summarize all relevant information to determine a species’ potential vulnerability to climate change and are frequently the first step in informing climate adaptation efforts. VAs commonly integrate multiple sources of information by utilizing a framework that distinguishes factors relevant to species exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity. However, this framework was originally developed for human systems, and its use to evaluate species vulnerability has serious practical and theoretical limitations. By instead defining vulnerability as the degree to which a species is unable to exhibit any of the responses necessary for persistence under climate change (i.e., toleration of projected changes, migration to new climate-compatible areas, enduring in microrefugia, and evolutionary adaptation), we can bring VAs into the realm of ecological science without applying borrowed abstract concepts that have consistently challenged species-centric research and management. This response-based framework to assess species vulnerability to climate change allows better integration of relevant ecological data and past research, yielding results with much clearer implications for conservation and research prioritization.
Climate Change Responses↗
U.S. Geological Survey Methodology Development for Ecological Carbon Assessment and Monitoring
Ecological carbon sequestration refers to transfer and storage of atmospheric carbon in vegetation, soils, and aquatic environments to help offset the net increase from carbon emissions. Understanding capacities, associated opportunities, and risks of vegetated ecosystems to sequester carbon provides science information to support formulation of policies governing climate change mitigation, adaptation, and land-management strategies. Section 712 of the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 2007 mandates the Department of the Interior to develop a methodology and assess the capacity of our nation's ecosystems for ecological carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas (GHG) flux mitigation. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) LandCarbon Project is responding to the Department of Interior's request to develop a methodology that meets specific EISA requirements.
Fact Sheet↗