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At least 145 records · Page 8Linked to original sources
USGS2021

Until It's a regulation it's not my fight: Complexities of a voluntary nonlead hunting ammunition program

Wildlife and human health are at risk of lead exposure from spent hunting ammunition. Lead exposure persists for bald eagles due to bullet fragments in game animal gut piles and unretrieved carcasses, and is also a human health risk when wild game is procured using lead ammunition. Programs encouraging the voluntary use of nonlead ammunition have become a popular approach mitigating these effects. This study explored attitudes and experiences of United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) staff implementing an outreach program encouraging deer hunters to voluntary use nonlead ammunition on 54 National Wildlife Refuges (NWRs) in the Upper Midwest, U.S. to understand factors affecting program implementation. We conducted 29 semi-structured interviews of USFWS staff along with 60 responses from an open-ended survey question. Twelve themes emerged from the data and were grouped into three broad categories: (1) challenges of dealing with complex issues, (2) importance of messengers and messages, and (3) resistance from staff. Challenges of dealing with complex issues included administrative restraint and uncertainty, scope and scale of program, human health not an agency responsibility, contextual political influences, and public-private collaborations. Importance of messengers and messages included the importance of experience, and salience of human health risk. Finally, resistance from staff included skepticism of the science and motives behind the program, competing priorities for refuge staff, differing perceptions of regulatory and voluntary approaches, cost and availability of nonlead ammunition, and disregard by some about lead ammunition and human health risks. Staff identified numerous challenges implementing the program, many of which were external factors beyond the control of the participants. Understanding the factors affecting program implementation may help guide future efforts encouraging the voluntary use of nonlead ammunition.

Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Miss↗
USGS2021

Uncertainty in critical source area predictions from watershed-scale hydrologic models

Watershed-scale hydrologic models are frequently used to inform conservation and restoration efforts by identifying critical source areas (CSAs; alternatively 'hotspots'), defined as areas that export relatively greater quantities of nutrients and sediment. The CSAs can then be prioritized or ‘targeted’ for conservation and restoration to ensure efficient use of limited resources. However, CSA simulations from watershed-scale hydrologic models may be uncertain and it is critical that the extent and implications of this uncertainty be conveyed to stakeholders and decision makers. We used an ensemble of four independently developed Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) models and a SPAtially Referenced Regression On Watershed attributes (SPARROW) model to simulate CSA locations for flow, phosphorus, nitrogen, and sediment within the ~17,000-km 2 Maumee River watershed at the HUC-12 scale. We then assessed uncertainty in CSA simulations determined as the variation in CSA locations across the models. Our application of an ensemble of models - differing with respect to inputs, structure, and parameterization - facilitated an improved accounting of CSA prediction uncertainty. We found that the models agreed on the location of a subset of CSAs, and that these locations may be targeted with relative confidence. However, models more often disagreed on CSA locations. On average, only 16%–46% of HUC-12 subwatersheds simulated as a CSA by one model were also simulated as a CSA by a different model. Our work shows that simulated CSA locations are highly uncertain and may vary substantially across models. Hence, while models may be useful in informing conservation and restoration planning, their application to identify CSA locations would benefit from comprehensive uncertainty analyses to avoid inefficient use of limited resources.

Ohio↗
USGS2021

Is there enough water? How bearish and bullish outlooks are linked to decision-maker perspectives on environmental flows

Policies that mandate environmental flows (e-flows) can be powerful tools for freshwater conservation, but implementation of these policies faces many hurdles. To better understand these challenges, we explored two key questions: (1) What additional data are needed to implement e-flows? and (2) What are the major socio-political barriers to implementing e-flows? We surveyed water and natural resource decision makers in the semi-arid Red River basin, Texas-Oklahoma, USA, and used social network analysis to analyze their communication patterns. Most respondents agreed that e-flows can provide important benefits and identified the same data needs. However, respondents sharply in their beliefs on other issues, and a clustering analysis revealed two distinct groups of decision makers. One cluster of decision makers tended to be bearish, or pessimistic, and believed that: current flow conditions are not adequate, there are many serious socio-political barriers to implementation, water conflicts will likely increase in the future, and climate change is likely to exacerbate these issues. The other cluster of respondents was bullish, or optimistic: they foresaw fewer future water conflicts and fewer socio-political barriers to implementation. Despite these differences, both clusters largely identified the same data needs and barriers to e-flows implementation. Our social network analysis revealed that the frequency of communication between clusters was not significantly different than the frequency of communication within clusters. Overall, our results suggest that the different perspectives of decision-makers could complicate efforts to implement e-flows and proactively plan for climate change. However, there are opportunities for collaboration on addressing common data needs and barriers to implementation. Overall, our study provides a key socio-environmental perspective on e-flows implementation from a semi-arid and socio-politically complex river basin and contextualizes the many challenges facing e-flows implementation in river basins globally.

Journal of Environmental Management↗
USGS2021

Exploring how vessel activity influences the soundscape at a navigation lock on the Mississippi River

Vessel sound is now globally recognized as a significant and pervasive pollutant to aquatic life. However, compared to marine environments, there is a paucity of data on sound emitted by vessel activity in freshwater habitats. The Upper Mississippi River (UMR) is home to a diverse array of aquatic life as well as being a key route for barge transportation with 29 locks and dams. In this study, passive acoustic monitoring was conducted at Lock and Dam 19 near Keokuk, Iowa, on the UMR between 20 June – August 28, 2019 to coincide with peak navigation use. There was a significant increase in median sound pressure level (SPL; 50–12,000 Hz) recorded during vessel passages (123 dB re. 1μPa for recreational vessels and 137 dB re. 1μPa for commercial vessels) compared to median background levels (111 dB re. 1μPa). Results provide information on the ambient soundscape at a navigation lock, providing a baseline essential for future studies gauging the effect of anthropogenic sound on aquatic life. Lock 19 has also been identified as a potential site for acoustic deterrent deployment to prevent invasive fish movements. The results of this study can help determine the sound level or frequency deterrents would need to emit, to avoid those currently produced during vessel passage.

Illinois, Iowa↗
USGS2021

Sediment transport, turbidity, and dissolved oxygen responses to annual streambed drawdowns for downstream fish passage in a flood control reservoir

Sediment transport, turbidity, and dissolved oxygen were evaluated during six consecutive water years (2013–2018) of drawdowns of a flood control reservoir in the upper Willamette Valley, Oregon, USA. The drawdowns were conducted to allow volitional passage of endangered juvenile chinook salmon through the dam's regulating outlets by lowering the reservoir elevation to a point where the historical streambed was exposed and transported water and sediment through the reservoir dam. Sediment loads during the drawdown were highest in the first year of monitoring, with a computed value of 40,200 metric tons over a 5-day drawdown, followed by 5 years of lower sediment loads and lower sediment transport rates, suggesting that much of the stored sediment within the reservoir thalweg was transported out of the reservoir in the early years of the consecutive drawdowns. Suspended sediment concentrations (SSC) computed using turbidity and streamflow data resulted in maximum SSC at the onset of the drawdowns, with the highest computed values occurring during the water year 2017 drawdown at 17,500 mg/L (turbidity = 2,990 FNU), and average drawdown SSC values ranging from 654 to 3,950 mg/L for the six years of monitoring. Computed SSC were on the lower range of concentrations that could be harmful to out-migrating juvenile salmon published in other studies. High amounts of particulate organic matter and sand-sized material in drawdown SSC samples affected relations between turbidity and SSC, requiring the use of multiple surrogate regression models over short time frames. Dissolved oxygen minimum values were recorded in two of the monitoring years, with a minimum value of 0.71 and 3.4 mg/L recorded at the onset of the drawdowns in water years 2016 and 2018, respectively. Dissolved oxygen values below 4 mg/L lasted for 1 h, suggesting a rapidly expressed chemical oxygen demand. The response of suspended sediment loads and SSC highlight the site-specific nature of reservoir drawdowns, and the need for evaluation of expected sediment responses for drawdowns being considered at other locations.

Oregon↗
USGS2022

Local environment and individuals’ beliefs: The dynamics shaping public support for sustainability policy in an agricultural landscape

Agricultural landscapes are the bleeding-edge in the advancement of sustainability and climate change adaptation. Our study focuses on how individual support for sustainability policy is shaped in coupled natural and human systems. We present an agent-based model in which a cultural decision-rule quantifies the probability that a stakeholder decides to support an easement policy for a region in the Central Great Plains, USA. Our model defines a cultural threshold used to assess how culturally meaningful the policy is for each stakeholder. The individual cultural threshold is estimated using the value-belief-norm framework and is modified by perceived changes in the environment. Results demonstrated that few stakeholders support the policy in the average cultural setting (8.9%). However, enough stakeholders would support the policy under a lower cultural threshold (40.7%). Our results indicate that sustainability policies do not need to be cheap if they are culturally meaningful.

Kansas↗
USGS2023

Four decades of regional wet deposition, local bulk deposition, and stream-water chemistry show the influence of nearby land use on forested streams in Central Appalachia☆

Hydrologic monitoring began on two headwater streams (<1 km 2 ) on the University of Kentucky's Robinson Forest in 1971. We evaluated stream-water (1974–2013) and bulk-deposition (wet + dust) (1984–2013) chemistry in the context of regional wet-deposition patterns that showed decreases in both sulfate and nitrate concentrations as well as proximal surface-mine expansion. Decadal time steps (1974–83, 1984–93, 1994–2003, 2004–2013) were used to quantify change. Comparison of the first two decades showed similarly decreased sulfate (minimum flow-adjusted annual-mean concentration of ≈13.5 mg/L in 1982 to 8.8 mg/L in 1992) and increased pH (6.6–6.8) in both streams, reflecting contemporaneous changes in both bulk and wet deposition. In contrast, concentrations of nitrate (0.14 to >0.25 mg/L) and base cations increased between these two decades, coinciding with expansion of surface mining between 1985 and 1995. In 2004, stream-water pH (6.7 in 2004), sulfate (9.2 mg/L), and nitrate (>0.11 mg/L) were similar to 1982, despite wet-deposition concentrations being lower. Base-cation concentrations were higher in the stream adjacent to ongoing surface mining relative to the stream situated near the middle of the experimental forest. However, pH decreased to approximately 5.7 by 2013 for both streams, which, combined with a shift in dominant cations from calcium to magnesium and potassium, indicates that the soil-buffering capacity of this landscape has been exceeded. Ratios of bulk deposition and stream-water concentrations indicate enrichment of sulfate (1.7–25.2) and cations (0.5–64.8), but not nitrogen (0.1–5.6), indicating that the Forest is not nitrogen saturated and that ongoing changes in water-quality are sulfate driven. When concentrations were adjusted to account for changes in streamflow (climate) over the 4 decades, external influences (land management/regulation) explained most change. The amount and direction of change differed among constituents, both between consecutive decades and between the first and last decades, reflecting the influence of localized surface mining even as regional wet deposition continued to improve due to the Clean Air Act. The implication is that localized stressors have the potential to out-pace the benefits of national environmental policies for communities that depend on local water-resources in similar environments.

Kentucky↗
USGS2023

Water-soluble organic carbon release from mineral soils and sediments in an irrigated agricultural system

Water interactions with soil and vegetation are greatly altered in agricultural watersheds compared to natural landscapes, which impacts sources and fates of organic carbon (OC). While mineral soil horizons in natural ecosystems primarily act as filters for dissolved organic carbon (DOC) leached from organic surface horizons, tilled soils largely lack an organic horizon and their mineral horizons therefore act as a source for both DOC and sediment to surface waters. Irrigated watersheds highlight this difference, as DOC and total suspended sediment (TSS) concentrations simultaneously increase during the low-discharge irrigation season, suggesting that sediment-associated OC may constitute a significant source of DOC. While water-soluble OC (WSOC) from sediments and soils has been found to be compositionally similar to stream DOC, these contributions remain poorly quantified in agricultural streams. To address this, we conducted abiotic solubilization experiments using sediments (suspended and bed) and soils from an irrigated agricultural watershed in northern California, USA. Sediments (R 2 > 0.99) and soils (0.74 < R 2 < 0.89) displayed linear solubilization behaviors over the range of concentrations tested. Suspended sediment from the irrigation season exhibited the largest solubilization efficiency (10.9 ± 1.6% TOC sediment solubilized) and potential (1.79 ± 0.26 mg WSOC g −1 dry sediment), followed by suspended sediment from a winter storm, then bed sediment and soils. Successive solubilization experiments increased the total release of WSOC by ∼50%, but most (88–97%) of the solid-phase OC remained insoluble in water. Using these solubilization potential estimates and measured TSS concentrations, we estimated that WSOC from suspended sediment in streams represented 4–7% of the annual DOC export from the watershed. However, field sediment export is much higher than what is represented by suspended sediment in the water column, therefore field-scale contributions from sediments could be much higher than estimated.

California↗
USGS2024

Strategic restoration planning for land birds in the Colorado River Delta, Mexico

Ecological restoration is an essential strategy for mitigating the current biodiversity crisis, yet restoration actions are costly. We used systematic conservation planning principles to design an approach that prioritizes restoration sites for birds and tested it in a riparian forest restoration program in the Colorado River Delta. Restoration goals were to maximize the abundance and diversity of 15 priority birds with a variety of habitat preferences. We built abundance models for priority birds based on the current landscape, and predicted bird distributions and relative abundances under a scenario of complete riparian forest restoration throughout our study area. Then, we used Zonation conservation planning software to rank this restored landscape based on core areas for all priority birds. The locations with the highest ranks represented the highest priorities for restoration and were located throughout the river reach. We optimized how much of the available landscape to restore by simulating restoration of the top 10–90% of ranked sites in 10% intervals. We found that total diversity was maximized when 40% of the landscape was restored, and mean relative abundance was maximized when 80% of the landscape was restored. The results suggest that complete restoration is not optimal for this community of priority birds and restoration of approximately 60% of the landscape would provide a balance between maximum relative abundance and diversity. Subsequent planning efforts will combine our results with an assessment of restoration costs to provide further decision support for the restoration-siting process. Our approach can be applied to any landscape-scale restoration program to improve the return on investment of limited economic resources for restoration.

Colorado River Delta↗
USGS2024

Will there be water? Climate change, housing needs, and future water demand in California

Climate change in California is expected to alter future water availability, impacting water supplies needed to support future housing growth and agriculture demand. In groundwater-dependent regions like California's Central Coast, new land-use related water demand and decreasing recharge is already stressing depleted groundwater basins. We developed a spatially explicit state-and-transition simulation model that integrates climate, land-use change, water demand, and groundwater gain-loss to examine the impact of future climate and land use change on groundwater balance and water demand in five counties along the Central Coast from 2010 to 2060. The model incorporated downscaled groundwater recharge projections based on a Warm/Wet and a Hot/Dry climate future from a spatially explicit hydrological process-based model. Two urbanization projections from a parcel-based, regional urban growth model representing 1) recent historical and 2) state-mandated housing growth projections were used as alternative spatial targets for future urban growth. Agricultural projections were based on recent historical trends from remote sensing data. Annual projected changes in groundwater balance were calculated as the difference between land-use related water demand, based on historical estimates, and climate-driven recharge plus agriculture return flows. Results indicate that future changes in climate-driven groundwater recharge, coupled with cumulative increases in agricultural water demand, result in overall declines in future groundwater balance, with a Hot/Dry future resulting in cumulative groundwater decline in all but Santa Cruz County. Cumulative declines by 2060 are especially prominent in San Luis Obispo (−2.9 to −5.1 Bm 3 ) and Monterey counties (−6.5 to −8.7 Bm 3 ), despite limited changes in agricultural water demand over the model period. These two counties show declining groundwater reserves in a Warm/Wet future as well, while San Benito and Santa Barbara County barely reach equilibrium. These results suggest future groundwater supplies may not be able to keep pace with regional demand and declining climate-driven recharge, resulting in a potential reduction in water security in the region. However, our county-scale projections showed new housing and associated water demand does not conflict with California's groundwater sustainability goals. Rather, future climate coupled with increasing agricultural groundwater demand may reduce water security in some counties, potentially limiting available groundwater supplies for new housing.

California↗
USGS2024

Economic losses to inland recreational fisheries from harmful algal blooms

This paper presents research on the recreational impacts of harmful algal blooms (HABs) and other water quality changes in the U.S. heartland. We examine the link between recreational fishing and water quality using a random utility model of reservoir choices, and data on effort and health-based advisories for reservoirs in Nebraska. We find that advisories linked specifically to algal blooms affect the demand for and value of fishing, and that these effects are heterogeneous. The estimated welfare loss at HAB-afflicted reservoirs is approximately $12 per trip, with larger losses experienced by gamefish-oriented and college-educated fishers.

Journal of Environmental Management↗
USGS2025

High-intensity fire supports restoration of grassland species richness and community composition following woody encroachment

Woody encroachment has driven drastic declines in grassland biodiversity and productivity. In the U.S. Great Plains, high-intensity prescribed fire is increasingly being used to shift encroaching redcedar woodlands to a grassland state. High-intensity fire treatments drive redcedar mortality and increase herbaceous biomass. However, it is unclear how grassland community composition recovers following stand-consuming fire. We contrast herbaceous community composition, basal cover, and species richness in woodlands treated with stand-consuming high-intensity fire to reference grassland and woodland sites to examine whether high-intensity fires facilitate restoration of grassland communities. To determine the long-term outcomes of high-intensity fire treatments, we use a space-for-time substitute to measure changes to herbaceous community and species richness over a time-since-fire gradient of 17 years. We found that herbaceous cover and species richness increased substantially in woodlands treated with stand-consuming high-intensity fire compared to unburned woodlands, and that these values were similar to those observed in both burned and unburned grasslands. Herbaceous community composition in woodlands treated with high-intensity fire also shifted towards grasslands, though some legacies of woodland communities persisted. Time-since-fire generally did not have a large influence on total herbaceous cover or species richness through time, though grass cover decreased in woodlands treated with high-intensity fire a decade post-treatment. Our findings suggest that a single high-intensity fire can support the restoration of herbaceous plant species richness and cover, and shift community composition to a grassland regime, though additional low-intensity fire treatments may be necessary to erode legacies from the encroached state.

Nebraska↗
USGS2025

Shrinking channels, growing threats: Habitat degradation from channel narrowing and invasive vegetation in three dryland rivers

Water development and the proliferation of invasive riparian vegetation have led to widespread habitat loss and simplification of rivers in the western United States, contributing to the imperilment of native fishes. Here, we quantify channel narrowing and vegetation encroachment, which are conspicuous indicators of riverine habitat alteration, along ∼400 km of three dryland tributaries of the upper Colorado River. We conducted a comparative analysis of aerial photographs between the 1930s and 2010s/2020s time periods using visual interpretation and used Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data along with Object-Based Image Analysis (OBIA) to quantify canopy cover of woody riparian species. All three rivers underwent substantial channel narrowing, coinciding with a general decrease in spring floods over time. However, the extent of narrowing varied among the rivers (78 %, 73 %, and 29 %) with greater narrowing corresponding to larger reductions in spring flows. In contrast, contemporary woody cover was similarly high among all three rivers (39 %, 41 %, and 36 %), and a woody vegetation analysis we conducted for one river indicated a substantial increase in vegetation along the active channel (4 %–74 %). These findings underscore a common pattern observed in rivers throughout the basin, where river channels often undergo narrowing and encroachment by invasive vegetation following dam construction and/or decreases in flows, ultimately leading to habitat simplification, with negative implications for native fishes and other riparian biota. Our findings also emphasize that, even in the presence of nonnative vegetation establishment, preserving or restoring large magnitude and long duration floods can help conserve diverse habitat in dryland rivers.

Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah↗
USGS2003

Carbon dynamics and land-use choices: building a regional-scale multidisciplinary model

Policy enabling tropical forests to approach their potential contribution to global-climate-change mitigation requires forecasts of land use and carbon storage on a large scale over long periods. In this paper, we present an integrated modeling methodology that addresses these needs. We model the dynamics of the human land-use system and of C pools contained in each ecosystem, as well as their interactions. The model is national scale, and is currently applied in a preliminary way to Costa Rica using data spanning a period of over 50 years. It combines an ecological process model, parameterized using field and other data, with an economic model, estimated using historical data to ensure a close link to actual behavior. These two models are linked so that ecological conditions affect land-use choices and vice versa. The integrated model predicts land use and its consequences for C storage for policy scenarios. These predictions can be used to create baselines, reward sequestration, and estimate the value in both environmental and economic terms of including C sequestration in tropical forests as part of the efforts to mitigate global climate change. The model can also be used to assess the benefits from costly activities to increase accuracy and thus reduce errors and their societal costs.

Journal of Environmental Management↗
USGS1993

Cogestion and recreation site demand: a model of demand-induced quality effects

This analysis focuses on problems of estimating site-specific dollar benefits conferred by outdoor recreation sites in the face of congestion costs. Encounters, crowding effects and congestion costs have often been treated by natural resource economists in a piecemeal fashion. In the current paper, encounters and crowding effects are treated systematically. We emphasize the quantitative impact of congestion costs on site-specific estimates of benefits conferred by improvements in outdoor recreation sites. The principal analytic conclusion is that techniques that streamline on data requirements produce biased estimates of benefits conferred by site improvements at facilities with significant crowding effects. The principal policy recommendation is that the Federal and state agencies should collect and store information on visitation rates, encounter levels and congestion costs at various outdoor recreation sites.

Journal of Environmental Management↗
USGS1982

Simulations of seabird damage and recovery from oilspills in the northern Gulf of Alaska.

If an oilspill contacts a colony of glaucous-winged gulls Larus hyperboreus, reducing the population by 50%, the population is expected to recover to its pre-spill level in c.20 yr. For common murres Uria aalge, this same situation yields a recovery time of c.70 yr. Assuming that oil is found in the study area, and based on the expected number of oilspills to occur and contact these colonies during the lease lifetime, and assuming that each oilspill contact causes a fractional population loss of 0.95, the probability of reducing the population to some fraction of its initial level was calculated. For gulls, only a 10% change of population reduction to less than one-half the pre-spill level was calculated for the lease lifetime. For murres, only a 4% change of similar reduction was calculated.-from Authors

Journal of Environmental Management↗
USGS2015

Investing in citizen science can improve natural resource management and environmental protection

Citizen science has made substantive contributions to science for hundreds of years. More recently, it has contributed to many articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals and has influenced natural resource management and environmental protection decisions and policies across the nation. Over the last 10 years, citizen science&mdash;participation by the public in a scientific project&mdash;has seen explosive growth in the United States, particularly in ecology, the environmental sciences, and related fields of inquiry. In this report, we explore the current use of citizen science in natural resource and environmental science and decision making in the United States and describe the investments organizations might make to benefit from citizen science.

Issues in Ecology↗
USGS2006

Public expectations about access fees and road closures on public lands

It is sometimes suggested that land managers could better communicate with the general public by relying on people who are active in community affairs to frame the message. By comparing responses from the 'attentive' and general public on the Colorado Plateau in the USA, this study investigated the expected effects of using recreation access fees or road closures to manage recreation on public lands. Although neither the attentive nor general public strongly anticipated benefits from the two management options, the attentive public was more likely than the general public to report positive expectations. Those more likely to expect fewer benefits from the management options do so because of factors that are outside the influence of managers (e.g., socio-demographics and value orientation). The results point out challenges for building public support through mobilizing the attentive public to develop a positive management atmosphere with fees and road closures. ?? 2006 University of Newcastle upon Tyne.

Journal of Environmental Planning and Management↗