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World Wildlife Fund

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The purpose of the plowprint is to track annual grassland conversion to cropland across the Mississippi River Basin and Great Plains region, and to provide a way to measure the loss of this important habitat type, against which annual changes can be compared. This report tracks changes at the sub-regional scale, as well as in the context of the broader geography, and highlights key elements of change each year. The focus of this report is on changes in grassland conversion from 2014-2015, based on data from the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service Cropland Data Layer and the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Annual Crop Inventory. For this analysis, cropland is defined as any annually planted agricultural...
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Developing a Rio Grande-Río Bravo Basin International Research Conference
Stretching almost 1,900 miles from Colorado to the Gulf of Mexico, the Rio Grande/Río Bravo Basin (RGB) supplies drinking water for more than 6 million people and irrigation for about 2 million acres of land. The river also supports habitat for many at-risk and endangered species. Because of its size and diverse ecosystem services, the RGB faces complex shared-management challenges that will require coordination among many players. This project will provide opportunities for water managers and users across the basin to collaborate to prevent future conflicts and foster innovative water management in the face of a changing climate. The project leaders will design and convene one tribal RGB forum and will design...
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Remote Acquisition of High Quality Topography (LIDAR) and Multispectral Imagery Data for the Rio Grande through the Big Bend National Park: A Critical Need for Climate Change Mitigation Planning
In response to the rapid and dramatic hydroecological deterioration of the Rio Grande through Big Bend, the Big Bend Conservation Cooperative (BBCC), a multi-disciplinary group of natural resource agencies, research institutions, and conservation organizations have been organizing and implementing a wide range of river rehabilitation, scientific research activities and climate change initiatives. More recently, the Basin and Bay Expert Science Team, part of an environmental flows initiative by the state of Texas, is using best available science to recommend environmental flow regimes for the major rivers of Texas. Limited understating of the sediment dynamics of the Rio Grande and riparian vegetation change hinders...
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Targeting grassland conservation: An Estimate of Land-Use Conversion Risk in the Northern Great Plains
WWF and partners will assess the probability of grasslands being converted to cropland in the Northern Great Plains by analyzing land characteristics (e.g. soil properties conducive to specific crops), climate variables (e.g. rainfall, temperature before and during the growing season) associated with different land uses. The conversion risk analysis will produce a statistical model that explains which factors drive grassland conversion and can predict grassland conversion risk across the NGP- at five and ten years from present. Likely impacts from climate change on suitability of lands for different crops will be incorporated by simulating conversion risks unde alternative future climate scenarios at 20 and 40...
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Value-added conservation: Optimizing landscapes for ecosystem services
Despite growing interest in ecosystem services and multi-functional landscapes, there are still relatively few examples of projects that assess the delivery of multiple goods and services and evaluate how multi-objective conservation strategies can improve outcomes relative to single-objective or species-centric approaches (Boody et al. 2005). Quantifying the impact of conservation on the delivery of multiple ecosystem services and habitat values requires specialized expertise and extensive data collection. Even with robust biophysical and habitat models, relating these models to impacts on individuals and communities is challenging and requires interdisciplinary approaches. In addition to modeling and data hurdles,...
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