Unmanned aerial vehicle to estimate nitrogen status of turfgrasses

Spectral reflectance data originating from Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) imagery is a valuable tool to monitor plant nutrition, reduce nitrogen (N) application to real needs, thus producing both economic and environmental benefits. The objectives of the trial were i) to compare the spectral reflectance of 3 turfgrasses acquired via UAV and by a ground-based instrument; ii) to test the sensitivity of the 2 data acquisition sources in detecting induced variation in N levels. N application gradients from 0 to 250 kg ha-1 were created on 3 different turfgrass species: Cynodon dactylon x transvaalensis (Cdxt) Patriot, Zoysia matrella (Zm) Zeon and Paspalum vaginatum (Pv) Salam. Proximity and remote-sensed reflectance measurements were acquired using a GreenSeeker handheld crop sensor and a UAV with onboard a multispectral sensor, to determine Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). Proximity-sensed NDVI is highly correlated with data acquired from UAV with r values ranging from 0.83 (Zm) to 0.97 (Cdxt). Relating NDVI-UAV with clippings N, the highest r is for Cdxt (0.95). The most reactive species to N fertilization is Cdxt with a clippings N% ranging from 1.2% to 4.1%. UAV imagery can adequately assess the N status of turfgrasses and its spatial variability within a species, so for large areas, such as golf courses, sod farms or race courses, UAV acquired data can optimize turf management. For relatively small green areas, a hand-held crop sensor can be a less expensive and more practical option

Rangeland Systems: Processes, Management and Challenges

environmental management; environmental law; ecojustice; ecolog

16th Wildland Shrub Symposium Threats to Shrubland Ecosystem Integrity 2010 May 18-20 Logan, UT

Abstract: The 29 papers in this proceedings are divided into the main organized sessions of the 16th Wildland Shrub Symposium, including the plenary session to introduce the theme of threats to shrubland ecosystem integrity, impacts of energy development and reclamation on ecosystem function, invasive plant ecology. wildlife habitats: impacts and restoration opportunities, historical perspectives in shrublands, ecosystem threats due to fire in the Mojave Desert, and modeling and monitoring of shrubland ecosystems. An overarching goal of the symposium was to make linkages between research and management

ADAPTATION IN RANGELAND SOCIAL-ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS: A MIXED-METHODS, CROSS-SCALE EXAMINATION OF FACTORS INFLUENCING RANCHERS’ ADAPTATION TO DROUGHT AND CLIMATE CHANGE

Rangeland social-ecological systems (SESs), which make up vast tracts of land on Earth, are critical for safeguarding ecosystem services, producing food and fiber, protecting open space, contributing to local and regional economies, and maintaining cultures and knowledges. Sustaining rangelands, the ranching livelihoods that depend on them, and the suite of ecosystem goods and services they provide hinges on a greater understanding of the social processes that influence ranchers\u27 ability to adapt within these changing systems. In this study, I used a mixed-methods approach to examine factors influencing ranchers’ adaptation to drought and climate change across scales. In Chapter 3, I systematically reviewed social science studies examining adaptation in rangeland SESs, finding that this research is theoretically and conceptually fragmented, yet geographically concentrated. For this body of research to provide important insights into climate change adaptation policy and practice, I suggest there is a need for more transdisciplinary and translational approaches to evaluating adaptation in rangeland SESs, particularly in understudied rangeland systems. In Chapter 4, I used a quantitative approach to examine factors that influence Montana ranchers’ (n= 450) adaptive decision-making in light of drought and climate change. Consistent with existing theory of adaptive decision-making in rangeland systems, I demonstrated the significant role of ranchers’ management goals and use of information on their use of adaptive practices. Unlike previous conceptualizations, I found that ranchers’ use of rangeland monitoring is also a significant, positive predictor of adaptive decision-making and mediates the influence of other factors — an assertion that has been made in the rangeland management literature but has lacked empirical evidence. These findings demonstrate that the role of loop-learning — or taking in new information and applying it in an iterative fashion to adaptive decision-making processes — may be more important to adaptive decision-making than earlier conceptualizations suggest. In Chapter 5, I used a mixed-methods approach to examine how ‘structures’ — specifically government programs and grazing permits administered by public lands agencies — influence Montana ranchers’ ability to adapt to drought and other climate-related events. Through an analysis of survey data (n= 450) and in-depth interviews (n= 34), three key themes emerged: 1) the need for increased flexibility within government programs to allow ranchers to achieve desired outcomes in ways that fit their operations and local conditions; 2) the need for participatory design approaches when developing programs intended to assist ranchers in adaptive management and; 3) the need for collaborative, working relationships between ranchers and government representatives in order to navigate the ‘gray zones’ of program and policy implementation on-theground. Based on these findings, I discuss how government programs and permits might more effectively enable ranchers’ ability to adapt to complex and changing conditions. As a whole, this dissertation reflects a commitment to research that uses and develops methodological approaches for conducting meaningful social science research with ranchers in the U.S., expands upon theory and concepts related to climate change adaptation, informs policy and practices for management, and illuminates future research directions

Evaluating Landscape Degradation Along Climatic Gradients During the 1930s Dust Bowl Drought From Panchromatic Historical Aerial Photographs, United States Great Plains

The United States Great Plains (USGP) are some of the most productive rangelands globally and a significant carbon sink for the atmosphere, but grassland response to precipitation is highly variable and poorly constrained over time and space. There is a rich historical aerial photographic record of the USGP which provides an unparalleled view of past landscapes and allows for evaluation of surficial response to drought beyond the satellite record, such as during the 1930s Dust Bowl Drought (DBD). This study classified the extent and loci of surficial denudation from seamless mosaics of radiometrically corrected and georectified digitized aerial negatives acquired in the late 1930s from six counties distributed across USGP ecoregions. The dominant sources of degradation found for sites east of the 100th meridian are cultivated fields and fluvial deposits, associated with woody vegetation response to water availability in uncultivated areas. For sites to the west, denuded surfaces are predominantly eolian sandsheets and dunes, correlated with intensity of drought conditions and reduced plant diversity. Discrete spatial signatures of the drought are observed not only within the classically recognized southern Dust Bowl area, but also in the northern and central plains. Statistical analyses of site variability suggest landscape response to the DBD is most strongly influenced by the arid–humid divide and severity of precipitation and temperature anomalies. With a projected increase 21st century aridity, eolian processes cascading across western grasslands, like during the Dust Bowl, may significantly impact future dust particle emission and land and carbon storage management

Is there a solution to the spatial scale mismatch between ecological processes and agricultural management?

The major limit to develop robust landscape planning for biodiversity conservation is that the spatial levels of organization of landscape management by local actors rarely match with those of ecological processes. This problem, known as spatial scale mismatch, is recognized as a reason of lack of effectiveness of agri-environment schemes. We did a review to describe how authors identify the problem of spatial scale mismatch in the literature. The assumption is made that the solutions proposed in literature to conciliate agricultural management and conservation of biodiversity are based on theoretical frameworks that can be used to go towards an integration of management processes and ecological processes. Hierarchy Theory and Landscape Ecology are explicitly mobilized by authors who suggest multiscale and landscape scale approaches, respectively, to overcome the mismatch problem. Coordination in management is proposed by some authors but with no theoretical background explicitly mentioned. The theory of organization of biological systems and the theories of Social-Ecological Systems use the concept of coordination and integration as well as concepts of organization, adaptive capabilities and complexity of systems. These theories are useful to set up a new framework integrating ecological processes and agricultural management. Based on this review we made two hypotheses to explain difficulties to deal with spatial scale mismatch: (1) authors generally do not have an integrated approach since they consider separately ecological and management processes, and (2) an inaccurate use of terminology and theoretical frameworks partially explain the inadequacy of proposed solutions. We then specify some terms and highlight some ‘rules’ necessary to set up an integrative theoretical and methodological framework to deal with spatial scale mismatch.(Presentation des résumés n°186, p. 95-96, non paginé

Quantifying the spatio-temporal dynamics of woody plant encroachment using an integrative remote sensing, GIS, and spatial modeling approach.

Despite a longstanding universal concern about and intensive research into woody plant encroachment (WPE)---the replacement of grasslands by shrub- and woodlands---our accumulated understanding of the process has either not been translated into sustainable rangeland management strategies or with only limited success. In order to increase our scientific insights into WPE, move us one step closer toward the sustainable management of rangelands affected by or vulnerable to the process, and identify needs for a future global research agenda, this dissertation presents an unprecedented critical, qualitative and quantitative assessment of the existing literature on the topic and evaluates the utility of an integrative remote sensing, GIS, and spatial modeling approach for quantifying the spatio-temporal dynamics of WPE.In sum, this dissertation demonstrates that integrative remote sensing, GIS, and spatial modeling approaches have enormous potential for addressing questions relevant to both rangelands research and management. However, it also suggests that much work remains to be done before we can translate our understanding of WPE into sustainable rangeland management strategies. In particular, we need to more fully explore the limitations and potentials of currently available data and techniques for quantifying WPE; build structures for data sharing and integration; develop a set of relevant standards; more actively engage in collaborative research efforts; and foster cross-cutting dialogues among researchers, managers, and communities.Specifically, this research demonstrates that the application of cutting-edge remote sensing techniques (Multiple Endmember Spectral Mixture Analysis, fuzzy logic-based change detection) to conventional medium spatial and spectral resolution imagery (Landsat Thematic Mapper, Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus, ASTER) can be used to generate spatially explicit estimates of temporal changes in the abundance of woody plants and other surface materials. The research also shows that spatial models (Geographically Weighted Regression, Weights of Evidence, Weighted Logistic Regression) integrating this timely remotely sensed information with readily available GIS data can yield reasonably accurate estimates of an area's relative vulnerability to WPE and of the importance of anthropogenic and geoecological variables influencing the process. Such models may also be used for the testing of existing and generation of new scientific hypotheses about WPE, for evaluating the impact of natural or human-induced modifications of a landscape on the landscape's vulnerability to WPE, and for identifying target areas for conservation, restoration, or other management objectives.Findings from this research suggest that gaps in our current understanding of WPE and difficulties in devising sustainable rangeland management strategies are in part due to the complex spatio-temporal web of interactions between geoecological and anthropogenic variables involved in the process as well as limitations of presently available data and techniques. However, an in-depth analysis of the published literature also reveals that aforementioned problems are caused by two further crucial factors: the absence of information acquisition and reporting standards and the relative lack of long-term, large-scale, multi-disciplinary research efforts. The methodological framework proposed in this dissertation yields data that are easily standardized according to various criteria and facilitates the integration of spatially explicit data generated by a variety of studies. This framework may thus provide one common ground for scientists from a diversity of fields. Also, it has utility for both research and management

Annual Report of the University, 2007-2008, Volumes 1-6

Project Summary and Goals Historically, affirmative action policies have evolved from initial programs aimed at providing equal educational opportunities to all students, to the legitimacy of programs that are aimed at achieving diversity in higher education. In June 2003, a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action pushed higher education across the threshold toward creating a new paradigm for diversity in the 21 51 century. The court clearly stale that affirmative action is still viable but that our institutions must reconsider our traditional concepts for building diversity in the next few decades. This shift in historical context of diversity in our society has led to an important objective: If a diverse student body is an essential factor in a quality higher education, then it is imperative that elementary, secondary and undergraduate schools fulfill their missions to successfully educate a diverse population. In NM, the success of graduate programs depends on the state\u27s P-12 schools, the community and institutions of higher education, and their shared task of educating all students. Further, when the lens in broadened to view the entire P - 20 educational pipeline, it becomes apparent that the loss of students from elementary school to high school is enormous, constricting the number of students who go on to college. Not only are these of concern to what is happening in terms of their academic education but as well in terms of the communities that are affected to make critical decision and become and stay involved in the political and policy world that affects them. Guiding Principles Engaging Latino Communities for Education New Mexico (ENLACE NM) is a statewide collaboration of gente who represent the voices of underrepresented children and families- people who have historically not had a say in policy initiatives that directly impact them and their communities. Therefore, they, and others from our community, are at the forefront of this initiative. We have developed this collaboration based on a process that empowers these communities to find their voice in the pursuit of social justice and educational access, equity and success

Land Degradation Assessment with Earth Observation

This Special Issue (SI) on “Land Degradation Assessment with Earth Observation” comprises 17 original research papers with a focus on land degradation in arid, semiarid and dry-subhumid areas (i.e., desertification) in addition to temperate rangelands, grasslands, woodlands and the humid tropics. The studies cover different spatial, spectral and temporal scales and employ a wealth of different optical and radar sensors. Some studies incorporate time-series analysis techniques that assess the general trend of vegetation or the timing and duration of the reduction in biological productivity caused by land degradation. As anticipated from the latest trend in Earth Observation (EO) literature, some studies utilize the cloud-computing infrastructure of Google Earth Engine to cope with the unprecedented volume of data involved in current methodological approaches. This SI clearly demonstrates the ever-increasing relevance of EO technologies when it comes to assessing and monitoring land degradation. With the recently published IPCC Reports informing us of the severe impacts and risks to terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems and the ecosystem services they provide, the EO scientific community has a clear obligation to increase its efforts to address any remaining gaps—some of which have been identified in this SI—and produce highly accurate and relevant land-degradation assessment and monitoring tools