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The Evaporative Demand Drought Index (EDDI) is an experimental drought monitoring and early warning guidance tool. It examines how anomalous the atmospheric evaporative demand (E0; also known as "the thirst of the atmosphere") is for a given location and across a time period of interest. EDDI is multi-scalar, meaning that this period—or "timescale"—can vary to capture drying dynamics that themselves operate at different timescales; we generate EDDI at 1-week through 12-month timescales. This webpage offers a frequently updated assessment of current conditions across CONUS, southern parts of Canada, and northern parts of Mexico; a tool to generate historical time series of EDDI for a user-selected region; introductions...
Abstract (from http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/10.1175/WCAS-D-16-0121.1): Much of the academic literature and policy discussions about sustainable development and climate change adaptation focus on poor and developing nations, yet many tribal communities inside the United States include marginalized peoples and developing nations who face structural barriers to effectively adapt to climate change. There is a need to critically examine diverse climate change risks for indigenous peoples in the United States and the many structural barriers that limit their ability to adapt to climate change. This paper uses a sustainable climate adaptation framework to outline the context and the relationships of power and authority,...
The viability of the whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) species is under threat due to precipitously declining populations. This study investigates the sources of differing levels of concern about climate-driven effects on whitebark pine trees. It also investigates support for different Whitebark Pine (WBP) management strategies on federal public lands.
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The purpose of this study was to understand how the U.S. Department of Interior’s federal land and resource managers and their stakeholders (i.e., NPS, BLM, FWS, BOR, BIA and tribes, among others) are experiencing and dealing with drought in their landscapes. The database is part of the Drought Risk and Adaptation in the Interior project. We conducted in-depth interviews (n=41) with DOI and tribal land managers in three case sites across the north central United States (northwest Colorado, southwest South Dakota, and Wind River Reservation), the goal of which was to develop a better understanding of drought vulnerabilities, risks, and responses in high-risk, multi-jurisdictional landscapes across the Missouri River...
To determine how climate-induced changes in hydrology and water level may affect the trophic state (productivity) of stratified lakes, two relatively pristine dimictic temperate lakes in Wisconsin, USA, were examined. Both are closed-basin lakes that experience changes in water level and degradation in water quality during periods of high water. One, a seepage lake with no inlets or outlets, has a small drainage basin and hydrology dominated by precipitation and groundwater exchange causing small changes in water and phosphorus (P) loading, which resulted in small changes in water level, P concentrations, and productivity. The other, a terminal lake with inlets but no outlets, has a large drainage basin and hydrology...
Sediment is an important pollutant for Lake Erie and its tributaries, both as a carrier of other substances, particularly phosphorus, and as a pollutant in its own right. Environmental managers have called for major reductions in sediment and phosphorus loadings from Lake Erie tributaries. In this study, thirty-year datasets (Water Years 1975-2004) with daily resolution are analyzed to identify and interpret trends in suspended sediment and particulate phosphorus concentrations and loads in two major US tributaries to Lake Erie. The Maumee and Sandusky Rivers in agricultural northwest Ohio show continual decreases in concentrations and loads throughout this period. The greatest decreases are observed in summer and...
Vegetative buffers may function better for filtering agricultural runoff in some locations than in others because of intrinsic characteristics of the land on which they are placed. The objective of this study was to develop a method based on soil survey attributes that can be used to compare soil map units for how effectively a buffer installed in them could remove pollutants from crop field runoff. Three separate models were developed. The surface runoff models for sediment and for dissolved pollutants were quantitative, based mainly on slope, soil, and rainfall factors of the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE), and were calibrated using the Vegetative Filter Strip Model (VFSMOD) for a standard buffer...
The Erosion Productivity Impact Calculator (EPIC) model has been successfully applied for agricultural policy analyses for more than a decade. EPIC has been tested and validated under a wide range of conditions; however, there is an ongoing need to further test the model to improve its prediction capabilities. In this study, EPIC was calibrated and validated using 3 years (1990–1992) of data collected from a field site near Nashua, Iowa. The model’s performance was evaluated by assessing its ability to replicate the effects of various tillage and crop rotation systems on subsurface tile flow, nitrate–nitrogen (NO3–N) loss with tile flow, and crop yield. Predicted annual average tile flows and nitrate losses in the...
Riverine nitrate N in the Mississippi River leads to hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico. Several recent modeling studies estimated major N inputs and suggested source areas that could be targeted for conservation programs. We conducted a similar analysis with more recent and extensive data that demonstrates the importance of hydrology in controlling the percentage of net N inputs (NNI) exported by rivers. The average fraction of annual riverine nitrate N export/NNI ranged from 0.05 for the lower Mississippi subbasin to 0.3 for the upper Mississippi River basin and as high as 1.4 (4.2 in a wet year) for the Embarras River watershed, a mostly tile-drained basin. Intensive corn (Zea mays L.) and soybean [Glycine max (L.)...
Nitrate leaching in the unsaturated zone poses a risk to groundwater, whereas nitrate in tile drainage is conveyed directly to streams. We developed metamodels (MMs) consisting of artificial neural networks to simplify and upscale mechanistic fate and transport models for prediction of nitrate losses by drains and leaching in the Corn Belt, USA. The two final MMs predicted nitrate concentration and flux, respectively, in the shallow subsurface. Because each MM considered both tile drainage and leaching, they represent an integrated approach to vulnerability assessment. The MMs used readily available data comprising farm fertilizer nitrogen (N), weather data, and soil properties as inputs; therefore, they were well...
The biogeochemical impacts of alternative management practices for a row-crop field in Iowa were modeled. Numerous field measurements were made to quantify the impacts of no-till on crop yields, soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamics, nitrate leaching, and trace gas emissions. The observations provided first-hand information to understand the comprehensive effect of an alternative tillage method on agricultural production and the environment. Field observations indicated that the impacts of no-till on the Midwestern agro-ecosystems were highly variable in space and time due to the companion management practices, as well as the climatic and soil conditions. The modeled results indicated that the best management practices...
The influence of the proximity of urbanization and agriculture to stream water quality is often difficult to quantify. The objectives of this study were to (1) compare the influence of far-field land-use, encompassing a watershed drainage area, to a near-field, 200-m buffer on each side of the stream in an attempt to determine on which zone of influence land-use has the largest impact on water quality, and (2) incorporate the EPA's Rapid Habitat Assessment Protocol (Barbour et al., 1999) to characterize the riparian and channel characteristics of a stream that influence water quality, which can improve New York State's monitoring protocols. Impacts were assessed through biological, chemical, and physical-habitat...
Systems thinking and system dynamics simulation can provide insights for developing effective plans to protect the environmental integrity of natural systems impacted by human activities. In this study, a system archetype known as growth and underinvestment is hypothesized to explain the eutrophication problem of Lake Allegan in Michigan and identify policy leverage points for mitigation. An integrated system dynamics model is developed to simulate the interaction between key socioeconomic subsystems and natural processes driving eutrophication. The model is applied to holistically characterize the lake’s recovery from its hypereutrophic state and assess a number of proposed total maximum daily load (TMDL) reduction...
Quantifying and evaluating effects of best management practices (BMPs) on water quality is necessary to maximize the effectiveness of BMPs for minimizing pollutants. Watershed-scale evaluation of effects of BMP implementation on fecal bacteria and sediment yield can be estimated using a watershed water quality model, and strategies for identifying critical areas in a watershed can be pollutant specific. The soil and water assessment tool (SWAT) model was used in the Upper Wakarusa watershed (950 km2) in northeast Kansas to explore effectiveness of vegetative filter strip (VFS) lengths applied at the edge of fields to reduce non-point source pollution. The Upper Wakarusa watershed is a high priority total maximum...
This research examines the effects of climate change on the species composition of forests in the southern Great Lakes region in USA (Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio) by simultaneously addressing five key components necessary for realistic predictions of future forest composition. We simulated transient (1), species-level (2), forest response to climate change at a spatial scale that accounted for competitive effects (3), and regional site diversity (4), in the spatial configuration of forests within the regional landuse matrix (5). The JABOWA-II forest growth model was used to provide species-specific responses of 45 tree species to site conditions (e.g. climatic, edaphic) while accounting for competition for limited...
Water erosion results in the mobilization and depletion of soil organic carbon (SOC), but studies providing direct experimental evidence of eroded C mineralization and its linkage to the global C cycle are lacking. A study was conducted to determine the mineralization of SOC in runoff from a southwestern Ohio Crosby soil (fine, mixed, mesic Aeric Ochraqualf) that had been under no-till (NT), chisel till (CT) and moldboard plow (MP) for 38 years. To simulate present and future soil erosion conditions, the 0–3 and 5–8 cm soil layers from triplicate soil blocks extracted from each tillage practice were used. Soil layers were transferred to runoff trays and simulated rainfall (30±5 mm h−1) was applied for 1 h. Runoff...
Carbon sequestration has been well recognized as a viable option to slow the rise in atmospheric greenhouse gas concentration. The main goals of this study were to assess the carbon sequestration potential (CSP) by afforestation of marginal agricultural land (MagLand) and to identify hotspots for potential afforestation activities in the U.S. Midwest region (Michigan (MI), Indiana (IN), Ohio, Kentucky (KY), West Virginia, Pennsylvania (PA) and Maryland (MD)). The 1992 USGS National Land Cover Dataset and the State Soil Geographic (STATSGO) database were used to determine MagLand. Two forest types (coniferous and deciduous) and two management practices (short-rotation versus permanent forest) were combined to form...
An accurate and management sensitive simulation model for tile-drained Midwestern soils is needed to optimize the use of agricultural management practices (e.g., winter cover crops) to reduce nitrate leaching without adversely affecting corn yield. Our objectives were to enhance the Agricultural Production Systems Simulator (APSIM) for tile drainage, test the modified model for several management scenarios, and then predict nitrate leaching with and without winter wheat cover crop. Twelve years of data (1990–2001) from northeast Iowa were used for model testing. Management scenarios included continuous corn and corn–soybean rotations with single or split N applications. For 38 of 44 observations, yearly drain flow...
The potential for global climate changes to increase the risk of soil erosion is clear, but the actual damage is not. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the potential impacts of climate change on soil erosion, surface runoff, and wheat productivity in central Oklahoma. Monthly projections were used from the Hadley Centre's general circulation model, HadCM3, using scenarios A2a, B2a, and GGa1 for the periods of 1950-1999 and 2070-2099. Projected changes in monthly precipitation and temperature distributions between the two periods were incorporated into daily weather series by means of a stochastic weather generator (CLIGEN) with its input parameters adjusted to each scenario. The Water Erosion Prediction...
map background search result map search result map Drought Risk and Adaptation in the Interior (DRAI) Database of Interviews with DOI/Tribal land managers in northwest Colorado, southwest South Dakota, and Wind River Reservation in Wyoming, 2013-2016 Drought Risk and Adaptation in the Interior (DRAI) Database of Interviews with DOI/Tribal land managers in northwest Colorado, southwest South Dakota, and Wind River Reservation in Wyoming, 2013-2016