Past Seminars & Discussions

Modeling groundwater in the High Plains (Ogallala) Aquifer: Past, present, and future

Abstract

Scientists rely more and more on models to answer questions about natural resources, but how are these models made, and how are they related to data, let alone reality? This talk will cover some of the advances in computational methods for groundwater research, and give an overview of the trajectory of the High Plains (Ogallala) Aquifer, the largest freshwater aquifer in North America.

Digging deeper: persistence and climate sensitivity of deep soil organic matter.

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Deep soil layers (below 30cm or A-horizon) account for up to 70% of the carbon (C) stored in soils. Decomposition of deep soil organic matter (SOM) contributes to surface carbon dioxide efflux, and is controlled by climate, soil physico-chemical properties, and geomorphology of the landscapes and associated hydrology. This presentation will include synthesis of our past and ongoing projects on deep SOM dynamics, including SOM in weathered bedrock and how climate regulates SOM storage, chemical composition, persistence, and stabilization mechanisms using results from the NSF funded Southern Sierra Critical Zone Observatory, and agricultural systems in California. Our work contributes to improve our understanding of mechanisms that control deep SOM persistence and ability to predict the vulnerability of soil carbon to climate change.

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Black Environmentalists Matter: Culturally Relevant Approaches to Environmental Programming and Curricula

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For many years, scholars have commented on the whiteness of the environmental education sphere and the natural resources profession more broadly. However, many approaches to address this have focused on program availability more than cultural relevance. This talk will cover the ways in which this problem has surfaced in recent years and approaches that can be taken to address it.

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Great White Sharks - ocean tracking technologies reveal deep mysteries about one of earth’s most ancient and successful predators.

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As members of one of the most ancient vertebrate lineages, sharks have roamed the oceans for some 500 Million years persisting through multiple global mass extinction events. Great white sharks, one of the largest predatory shark species, are vast ocean travelers and can be found worldwide. Yet the western coast of North America is home to a unique and genetically isolated population of these feared and often misunderstood predators. Today, these ancient creatures concentrate around key areas at the doorstep of California’s most populated metropolitan areas. What they do, below the surface of the opaque waters has been seldom observed, and has largely remained a mystery. This void of knowledge is often colored by our primal fears, and the enduring narrative of Jaws. In this seminar we will look at some of the discoveries and myths dispelled about great white sharks that have resulted from over a decade and half of research and exploration.

Social Science Perspectives on Ethno-racial Diversity in wildlife Viewing and Conservation

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At a time when ethno-racial justice has taken center stage in the national conversation, it is increasingly important to consider how themes of diversity, equity, and inclusion apply to wildlife recreation and conservation. In this seminar, we review the importance of ethno-racial diversity in these fields, and the barriers that exist to minorities' participation in outdoor recreation. We then discuss our own research into ethno-racial patterns in the recreation specialization of birdwatchers, based on a study of United States eBird registrants. Finally, we provide a short list of best practices for wildlife organizations, agencies, and academics as they seek to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion through their work.

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Prioritizing Private Lands to Optimize Biodiversity Conservation

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Agriculture intensification in the Midwest has resulted in the simplification of agricultural systems (e.g., corn and soybean rotation compared to multi-crop diversity, cover crops, and/or integrated crop-livestock systems), increased field sizes, and removal of non-crop habitat to maximize production. Despite increased farm productivity, rural and urban residents are becoming increasingly affected by multiple emerging and continuing challenges including environmental concerns (e.g., climate variability, soil erosion, water pollution, etc.), economic uncertainties, and declines in rural community vitality. These challenges for increased food production, environmental protection, and economic uncertainties require innovative solutions to achieve resilient agricultural systems. To address these challenges, new local (or field) scale, precision technologies and strategic conservation planning frameworks have been developed to offer opportunities for agricultural producers to maximize whole-field profitability by strategically identifying marginal (or low yielding) acres for cropland diversification, while simultaneously reducing negative environmental impacts. These new precision technologies and strategic conservation planning frameworks also offer natural resource agencies and organizations innovative ways to prioritize enrollment of private lands in conservation programs (e.g., State Acres for Wildlife Enhancement, Conservation Program 33-Habitat Buffers for Upland Birds) with the goal of increasing available wildlife habitat. Implementing these innovative precision technologies and strategic conservation planning frameworks throughout the Midwest will require a collaborative effort among farmers, farmland owners, industry, and local/state/federal/NGO partners to achieve resilient agricultural systems in the 21st century.

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Reservoir Fisheries

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As the earth’s climate warms, the persistence of trout in the cool-water regions of Georgia may be threatened. This study focused on how warming stream temperatures from May to September could affect both trout-based recreational opportunities and future suitable thermal habitat availability for trout within the state. We evaluated the potential effects of three hypothetical temperature increases (1°, 2°, and 2.6° Celsius) to predict how each would affect future trout habitat availability and recreational opportunities for trout in Georgia. The amount of stream miles with temperatures cool enough for trout to survive was then overlain with angler preference data to determine where habitat and loss of angling opportunities would be the greatest across northern Georgia. Our results predict that suitable cool water habitat will decline by 33-70% for brook trout and a 30- 68% for brown trout and rainbow trout. Such a decline would result in a loss of angling opportunities for anglers during the summer months. Such a decline in suitable cool water for all three species will be increasingly restricted to higher elevations during summer, where refuge from lethal temperatures is available. These results suggest shifting trout angling seasons to earlier in the year to avoid losing trout fish opportunities during the warmest months of the year.

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Assessing the Role of Trust and Values in Social Conflict Over Invasive Species Management: A Case Study on Guam

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Within the past century, military action, development and the introduction of multiple invasive species have dramatically transformed the natural landscape and forests on the island of Guam. Changes to the forest, including the introduction of invasive species, have contributed to the dramatic loss of forest birds and the sterilization of palm trees, an iconic and culturally important species featured on the island’s flag. Invasive species management on Guam will require widespread public support. Thus, greater understanding of local attitudes, beliefs and values could identify policies with widespread public support and pathways for public engagement, outreach and communication. Yet to date, research has largely ignored the social and cultural aspects of invasion and environmental management on Guam. To address this gap, we explored residents’ perceptions of and support for species control and removal efforts, as well as their attitudes about changes in place, species and access to natural spaces due to the spread of invasive species. Drawing on results from small group interviews, our findings highlight the important role of trust and engagement for invasive species management and have important implications for global environmental change and conservation efforts on Guam and beyond.

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Wealth, race, and wildlife: The impacts of structural inequality on urban wildlife

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Urban ecosystems are intrinsically heterogenous, characterized by dynamic biotic and abiotic interactions that are not witnessed in non-urban environments. Urban flora and fauna experience a suite of novel disturbances and stressors that have led to remarkable phenotypic strategies and adaptations to cope with urban living. Despite recent groundbreaking discoveries and innovation in the fields of urban ecology and evolution, the drivers of urban heterogeneity that induce biological change are seldom articulated. The spatiotemporal distributions of urban organisms are directly affected by the uneven distribution of resources (e.g., refugia, food, water) across cities, all of which are connected to societal function and governance. Hence, to build a comprehensive understanding of urban systems and wildlife adaptation, we must integrate and reconcile how structural inequality – especially racism and classism – shape urban environmental mosaics. In this seminar talk, Dr. Chris Schell will discuss how structural and systemic inequalities, especially economic and racial inequality, shape ecological and evolutionary outcomes of wildlife. In addition, he will discuss how certain species (e.g. coyotes and raccoons) may serve as ecosystem sentinels or bioindicators of environmental health and inequity. In doing so, we will discuss how leading with an environmental justice and activism framework in the natural sciences can promote conversation, sustainability, and resilience in a human-dominated world.

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Ecology and conservation of ungulate movement and migration

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Our understanding of how wildlife move within their environment generally stems from ecological concepts and theory related to habitat. As a result, many studies assume that wildlife behavior can be explained and predicted through habitat characteristics such as elevation, temperature, land cover type, and/or plant biomass. Yet, wildlife behaviors such as site fidelity (i.e., returning to the same location over and over again) are not well explained by habitat characteristics alone. There is mounting evidence that wildlife have strong memory capabilities and use their memorized information to guide how they move through their landscape and choose where to spend time. In this talk, I draw upon my research, in collaboration with colleagues and students, to assess the relative role of habitat versus memory in determining wildlife movement and migration. By monitoring individual animals for multiple years of their life and analyzing how they behave relative to their previous experience, our research clearly shows that habitat characteristics alone cannot explain wildlife use of the landscape. Without understanding an animal’s past experience and how they use that information to make future decisions, our ability to understand and predict animal behavior is limited. I then assess how an animal’s memory plays a strong role in how they respond to anthropogenic change such as energy development. Memory plays a pervasive role in wildlife behavior, and studying how animals use their memory, and its consequences, will shape our understanding of wildlife ecology into the future.

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How did a small UK NGO help shape European Union Agriculture Policy?

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Social behavior, spatial ecology, and population dynamics of top predators

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Top predators are important components of ecological communities, and yet their populations are declining globally in response to a variety of human-caused stressors. My colleagues and I have been studying large carnivores across the world to understand their basic ecology, inform local management, and provide broader insight for conservation. I will begin by sharing some results from a global collaboration investigating drivers of cohesion, or the time that individuals spend together, within Canis (wolves, coyotes, dingoes, and jackals) social groups. Social cohesion in canids was strongly influenced by species, breeding status, season, and by interactions with other species – including humans. Second, I will discuss behavioral responses of mountain lions in greater Los Angeles to dramatic reductions in human activity associated with the California stay-at-home order during the Covid-19 pandemic. We found that mountain lions moved more efficiently with fewer humans on the landscape and relaxed avoidance of human infrastructure like trails and development. Our findings highlight that large carnivores likely suffer indirect costs associated with avoiding human activity during 'normal' periods. Finally, I share results from population modeling with mountain lions in two isolated, inbred populations in southern California where we simulated potential strategies for conserving small, isolated populations. Specifically, we evaluated the relative demographic and genetic benefits of a) immigration provided by highway crossing structures, b) translocation of animals, and c) artificial insemination. Collectively, our work highlights the many challenges facing top predators in a human-dominated world and provides potential solutions for their successful conservation.

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Risk and capacity: conservation delivery to people whose primary goal is not conservation

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Predicting Escherichia coli loads in cascading dams with machine learning: An integration of hydrometeorology, animal density and grazing pattern

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Accurate prediction of Escherichia coli contamination in surface waters is challenging due to considerable uncertainty in the physical, chemical and biological variables that control E. coli occurrence and sources in surface waters. This study proposes a novel approach by integrating hydro-climatic variables as well as animal density and grazing pattern in the feature selection modeling phase to increase E. coli prediction accuracy for two cascading dams at the US Meat Animal Research Center (USMARC), Nebraska. Predictive models were developed using regression techniques and an artificial neural network (ANN). Two adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) structures including subtractive clustering and fuzzy c-means (FCM) clustering were also used to develop models for predicting E. coli. The performances of the predictive models were evaluated and compared using root mean squared log error (RMSLE). Cross-validation and model performance results indicated that although the majority of models predicted E. coli accurately, ANFIS models resulted in fewer errors compared to the other models. The ANFIS models have the potential to be used to predict E. coli concentration for intervention plans and monitoring programs for cascading dams, and to implement effective best management practices for grazing and irrigation during the growing season.

Operational Updates to NDMC's Drought Risk Atlas – Climate Trends and Hydrology Data

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The National Drought Mitigation Center’s Drought Risk Atlas has been updated to include climate trends and new hydrology data at National Weather Service (NWS) and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) observing sites across the Lower 48. Long-term trends on meteorological drought indices such as the standardized precipitation index, and on frequency of precipitation events, were calculated and evaluated for statistical significance at the NWS sites. A standardized streamflow index was calculated for the USGS sites using both gamma and Tweedie distributions. Results from these two distributions were compared for goodness of fit to the observed streamflow distributions. Both of these datasets, and the trends calculated from them, are available in the Drought Risk Atlas, and will be updated annually.

"Fight Back against the Zombies": Narratives and Norms in Climate Change Education

Abstract

Facts about climate change are often ineffective in impacting students’ climate change beliefs or environmentally-related behaviors. Multiple theories of environmental behavior utilize norms, both personal and social, in fostering environmental behavior change. Science fiction writers may also attempt to sway individuals’ perceptions of climate change through imaginings of a future impacted by climate change. The impact of these fictional narratives on individuals’ climate change perceptions and related behaviors has not been widely studied. We examined the impact of 1) personal versus social norms and 2) fiction versus non-fiction climate change readings on undergraduate students’ climate change perceptions and behaviors. Students (n=88) enrolled in an online general education science course completed a pre-survey, five intervention readings and writing responses, and a post-survey. On average, students’ climate change beliefs, risk perceptions, and behavioral intentions increased across all intervention groups. Trends in this exploratory research suggested that social norms and fiction writings are worth exploring as particularly effective ways to engage students in climate change discussions. Students’ written responses showed that they most often suggested vague behavior or solutions to environmental issues rather than specific behaviors. I will discuss the implications of these results in incorporating narratives, values, and norms in scientific courses on climate change and environmental issues.

A Tour of Three Studies: How Can We Better Support Our Teaching Assistants?

Abstract

Graduate teaching assistants (TAs) are responsible for the instruction of many introductory undergraduate science courses, and yet most TAs have little or no experience teaching or professional development (PD). In this seminar I will discuss the progression of three studies on TAs’ preparedness for their roles as instructors. First, I will describe a synthesis of the relatively sparse literature on PD for TAs and its comparison to a K-12 PD consensus model. This review led to the second study I will describe that developed a model of TA self-efficacy using survey and interview data. The results of this mixed-methods study showed that higher self-efficacy TAs are more outwardly focused on their impact on student learning, while lower self-efficacy TAs are more inwardly focused on their own selves, tasks and communication. These findings resulted in the third study of this seminar, which is a piloted exploration of the relationship between TAs’ self-efficacy and teaching approaches. In this study we analyzed survey data to determine whether self-efficacy is correlated with either student-centered or teacher-centered approaches to teaching. Implications for how these studies can inform TA PD opportunities will be discussed, as well as suggestions and goals for further research efforts.

Collaborations along Riverscapes: The Platte River Initiative

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Increasing Representation in Academic Environment One Step At A Time

Abstract

As we are trying to work on our New Year resolutions, reflect on the wins and missed opportunities of the historically hard 2020, and become better versions of ourselves, we keep waking up in a society aching from injustice. Despite the overall cautious hope that perhaps we will start healing and focusing on unity, many in our society and community remain unheard. Challenges associated with inclusivity and diversity representation in many academic areas, including natural resource and agricultural sciences, stay persistent. The stagnation around solving the problem seems to be around the how, as the task is hard, complex, and uncomfortable. Splitting this task and focusing on the achievable next step might help the progress be less intimidating and maybe less impossible. In my talk, I will share my experiences from serving on the SNR diversity and inclusion committee (NRDI), including lessons learned from using a book club format to discuss the equity, inclusivity, and diversity issues with SNR students, postdocs, faculty, and staff. It would be great to use this opportunity on Thursday to have a discussion, to listen and learn from each other’s stories, and collect suggestions for the step that NRDI or each of us personally could take on next.

A Climatological Analysis of Convective Storm Initiation

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Convective storms were responsible for over 27 billion dollars in damage across North America in 2019 and are also the primary source of precipitation for the great plains of the United States. An import aspect of convective storms is their initiation, a process which is currently not well understood. Despite these facts, limited work has been done on convective storm initiation from a climatological perspective in part due to the difficulty in identifying convective storm initiation points. This research utilizes an algorithm called thunderstorm observation by radar (ThOR) to identify thunderstorm initiation points for a study domain in the Central Plains of the United States. Preliminary findings will be presented based on the 5+ years of convective storm initiation points identified thus far, with a focus on identifying climatologically favorable and unfavorable areas for convective storm initiation as well as areas that have the largest interannual variability in convective storm initiation.

Sandhills Conservation: Successful Landowner-led Partnerships

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Nebraska Invasive Species Program

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Wetland Conservation in Nebraska: Beyond Ducks

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Diversifying a Corn and Soybean Desert

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A Future with Fire: The Rise of Prescribed Fire Usage in Nebraska and the Great Plains

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