Geology topics

Jake Weltzin

Publications and source records attributed to Jake Weltzin.

25 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

USGS2018

Ecosystems, Ecosystem Services, and Biodiversity

Biodiversity —the variety of life on Earth—provides vital services that support and improve human health and well-being. Ecosystems, which are composed of living things that interact with the physical environment, provide numerous essential benefits to people. These benefits, termed ecosystem services, encompass four primary functions: provisioning materials, such as food and fiber; regulating critical parts of the environment, such as water quality and erosion control; providing cultural services, such as recreational opportunities and aesthetic value; and providing supporting services, such as nutrient cycling. Climate change poses many threats and potential disruptions to ecosystems and biodiversity, as well as to the ecosystem services on which people depend. Building on the findings of the Third National Climate Assessment (NCA3), this chapter provides additional evidence that climate change is significantly impacting ecosystems and biodiversity in the United States. Mounting evidence also demonstrates that climate change is increasingly compromising the ecosystem services that sustain human communities, economies, and well-being. Both human and natural systems respond to change, but their ability to respond and thrive under new conditions is determined by their adaptive capacity, which may be inadequate to keep pace with rapid change. Our understanding of climate change impacts and the responses of biodiversity and ecosystems has improved since NCA3. The expected consequences of climate change will vary by region, species, and ecosystem type. Management responses are evolving as new tools and approaches are developed and implemented; however, they may not be able to overcome the negative impacts of climate change. Although efforts have been made since NCA3 to incorporate climate adaptation strategies into natural resource management, significant work remains to comprehensively implement climate-informed planning. This chapter presents additional evidence for climate change impacts to biodiversity, ecosystems, and ecosystem services, reflecting increased confidence in the findings reported in NCA3. The chapter also illustrates the complex and interrelated nature of climate change impacts to biodiversity, ecosystems, and the services they provide.

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USGS2018

National Park Service and the USA National Phenology Network

Understanding the seasonal cycles of plants and animals, how they are changing, and how they can inform management, operations, and interpretation is critical to the mission of the National Park Service (NPS): to preserve unimpaired the natural and cultural resources and values of the National Park System for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generations.

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USGS2018

USA National Phenology Network supports decision making

The USA National Phenology Network is a federally-funded, nationalscale science and monitoring initiative focused on phenology as a tool to understand how plants, animals, and landscapes respond to environmental variation and change.

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USGS2018

Phenology forecasts predict pest seasonal activity to support decision making

The USA National Phenology Network (USANPN) produces and distributes daily national phenology maps – or Pheno Forecasts – indicating when key pest species may be most susceptible to management as part of a growing suite of phenology map products. The USA-NPN’s Pheno Forecast maps show when key pest species, including emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis), apple maggot (Rhagoletis pomonella), lilac borer (Podosesia syringae), hemlock woolly adelgid (Adelges tsugae), and winter moth (Operophtera brumata), are most susceptible to management treatments (Figures 1, 2, 3). These maps, available at 2.5 km spatial resolution, are updated daily and are available six days into the future.

USA-NPN Information Sheet↗

USGS2017

USA National Phenology Network’s volunteer-contributed observations yield predictive models of phenological transitions

In support of science and society, the USA National Phenology Network (USA-NPN) maintains a rapidly growing, continental-scale, species-rich dataset of plant and animal phenology observations that with over 10 million records is the largest such database in the United States. Contributed voluntarily by professional and citizen scientists, these opportunistically collected observations are characterized by spatial clustering, inconsistent spatial and temporal sampling, and short temporal depth. We explore the potential for developing models of phenophase transitions suitable for use at the continental scale, which could be applied to a wide range of resource management contexts. We constructed predictive models of the onset of breaking leaf buds, leaves, open flowers, and ripe fruits – phenophases that are the most abundant in the database and also relevant to management applications – for all species with available data, regardless of plant growth habit, location, geographic extent, or temporal depth of the observations. We implemented a very basic model formulation - thermal time models with a fixed start date. Sufficient data were available to construct 107 individual species × phenophase models. Of these, fifteen models (14%) met our criteria for model fit and error and were suitable for use across the majority of the species’ geographic ranges. These findings indicate that the USA-NPN dataset holds promise for further and more refined modeling efforts. Further, the candidate models that emerged could be used to produce real-time and short-term forecast maps of the timing of such transitions to directly support natural resource management.

PLoS ONE↗

USGS2017

Developing enterprise tools and capacities for large-scale natural resource monitoring: A visioning workshop

In October 2016, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in collaboration with the Pacific Northwest Aquatic Monitoring Partnership (PNAMP, www.pnamp.org), convened a 30-person workshop, https://www.pnamp.org/event/5509, to identify and prioritize development of enterprise systems for programs that monitor the status and trends of species populations and their terrestrial, aquatic, and marine habitats. Participants included representatives from federal natural resource research and land management organizations and nongovernmental organizations that manage natural resource monitoring programs. Objectives of the workshop were: 1) identify resources that support natural resource monitoring programs working across the data life cycle; 2) prioritize desired capacities and tools to facilitate monitoring design and implementation; 3) identify standards and best practices that improve discovery, accessibility, and interoperability of data across programs and jurisdictions; and 4) contribute to an emerging community of practice focused on natural resource monitoring.

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USGS2013

North America

Plant phenological observations and networks in North America have been largely local and regional in extent until recent decades. In the USA, cloned plant monitoring networks were the exception to this pattern, with data collection spanning the late 1950s until approximately the early 1990s. Animal observation networks, especially for birds have been more extensive. The USA National Phenology Network (USA-NPN), established in the mid-2000s is a recent effort to operate a comprehensive national-scale network in the United States. In Canada, PlantWatch, as part of Nature Watch, is the current national-scale plant phenology program.

Book chapter↗