Browsing by Author "Klein, Julia, committee member"
Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item Open Access A mobile system for community based natural resource monitoring: a case study in the Sierra Madre, Chiapas(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2012) Calo, Adam, author; Tyson, Elizabeth, author; Goldstein, Josh, committee member; Klein, Julia, committee member; Vázquez, Lius-Bernardo, committee member; Naranjo, Eduardo J., committee memberCommunity Based Natural Resource Monitoring (CBNRM) is a potential strategy to enable that Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) schemes reach their intended effect of conserving ecosystem services like water provision, carbon sequestration and storage, and biodiversity conservation while strengthening small scale agroforestry systems that are indicated to both adapt to and mitigate climate change. However, CBNRM requires low-cost, easy to learn, replicable and adaptable methodologies that can be verified by independent third parties. Organizations like the Global Canopy Program and the Community Forest Monitoring Working Group are supporting the development of mobile data collection tools that have the potential to address many of the equity, efficiency and effectiveness concerns of the UN's Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation program (REDD+) as well as provide additional benefits like empowering local communities with the tools to make informed decisions about their natural resources. We tested the viability of these mobile monitoring tools for data collection using Android compatible phones and the freeware program Open Data Kit(ODK) in the buffer zone of the El Triunfo Biosphere Reserve in the Sierra Madre of Chiapas, Mexico. In collaboration with the coffee cooperative Comon Yaj Noptic and a private coffee farm and reserve Finca Arroyo Negro, we carried out 190 sampling events with four community volunteer monitors between September and December 2011. Using this novel technology platform we tested 6 different monitoring targets: avian biodiversity point counts, above ground biomass, incidence of rare species, forest utility, land-use and internal control for coffee production. The opportunities to the mobile system are: the ability to collect large amounts and different types of data for little effort/cost while using one system, the system can be learned by users of varying technical experience, and the potential for aligning the economic interests in using the system to automate internal control with conservation goals. The greatest barrier is a lack of supporting organizational infrastructure for database management and support. For this mobile system to be realized in the region there must be significant investment in developing the back-end of the mobile system (database management and analysis) and continuous technical support and training for the community volunteers. We suggest that Pronatura Sur is best suited or this role since they have already invested significant effort into developing community based natural resource monitoring programs in the region.Item Open Access Cryo-geohazards in a warming climate: geophysical, hydrological, and remotely sensed investigations of glacial lakes, outburst floods, and rock glaciers(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) Rick, Brianna, author; McGrath, Daniel, advisor; Rathburn, Sara, committee member; McCoy, Scott, committee member; Klein, Julia, committee memberChanges to the cryosphere impact both societal and ecological communities, and understanding where changes have occurred in the past allow us to predict changes in the future, and help in creating plans to minimize or alleviate potential societal stressors. The overarching goal of this dissertation is to explore changes to the cryosphere at varying spatial and temporal scales, utilizing a range of methods from in situ measurements to large-scale remote sensing, exploring seasonal to annual to decadal scale changes. I investigate ice-marginal lake changes in Alaska (Chapter 2), document ice-dammed lake drainages in Alaska (Chapter 3), and explore the hydrological influence of the Lake Agnes rock glacier in Colorado (Chapter 4). Ice-marginal lakes impact glacier mass balance, water resources, and ecosystem dynamics, and can produce catastrophic glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs). Multitemporal inventories of ice-marginal lakes are a critical first step in understanding the drivers of historic change, predicting future lake evolution, and assessing GLOF hazards. In Chapter 2, I use Landsat satellite imagery and supervised classification to semi-automatically delineate lake outlines for four, ~5 year time periods between 1984 and 2019 in Alaska and northwest Canada. Overall, ice-marginal lakes in the region have grown in total number (+183 lakes, 38% increase) and area (+483 km2, 59% increase) between the time periods of 1984–1988 and 2016–2019, though 56% of inventoried lakes did not experience detectable change. Changes in lake numbers and area were notably unsteady and nonuniform. I demonstrate that lake area changes are connected to dam type (moraine, bedrock, ice, or supraglacial) and the spatial relationship to their source glacier (proglacial, detached, unconnected, ice, or supraglacial), with important differences in lake behavior between the sub-groups. In strong contrast to all other dam types, ice-dammed lakes decreased in number (–6, 9% decrease) and area (–51 km2, 40% decrease), while moraine-dammed lakes increased (+56, 26% and +479 km2, 87% for number and area, respectively) at a faster rate than the average when considering all dam types together. Proglacial lakes experienced the largest area changes and rate of change out of any lake position throughout the period of study, and moraine-dammed lakes experienced the largest increases. Moraine-dammed lakes with large growth are also associated with clean-ice glaciers (<19% debris cover). By tracking individual lakes through time and categorizing lakes by dam type, subregion, and location, I detect trends that would otherwise be obscured if these characteristics were not considered. Chapter 2 highlights the importance of including lake characteristics when performing ice-marginal lake inventories, and provides insight into the physical processes driving recent ice-marginal lake evolution. Chapter 3 focuses specifically on ice-dammed lakes, as the glacial lake outburst flood record is dominated by these types of lakes, yet as I found in Chapter 2, ice-dammed lakes are decreasing in number and area. Rapid lake drainage (on the order of hours to days) can produce devastating outburst floods leading many to propose that hazards from glacial lakes are increasing. Outburst flood compilations do show an increase in number of events over time, however, recent studies attribute such trends to observational bias. This leaves large uncertainty about current and future glacial-lake hazards. Using multitemporal satellite imagery, I documented 1150 drainages from 106 lakes between 1985–2020, with an apparent increase in event frequency from 5 in 1985 to 70 in 2020. However, accounting for the increasing number of satellite images throughout the record, I find no temporal trend in drainage frequency. Furthermore, I document a loss of >75% of ice-dammed lakes since the 1960s. This suggests a decrease in regional flood hazard and motivates an unbiased look at other regions. As the world deglaciates, rock glaciers are important headwater features that have a delayed response to warming. Over 10,000 rock glaciers have been mapped in the contiguous United States, and 38% of these rock glaciers are found in Colorado. North American rock glaciers are estimated to have the third largest water volume equivalent by region, though these features are an often-disregarded component of the water budget in alpine basins. In this study, I incorporate geophysical, hydrochemical, and remotely sensed data to investigate the ice presence, movement, and hydrologic influence of the Lake Agnes rock glacier in the northern Front Range, Colorado. I observe an average horizontal velocity of 17 ± 5 cm yr-1 between 2019 and 2021 for the active lobe. Rock glacier streams remained below 2.5 °C throughout the summer, mixed-source streams remained below 3.5 °C, and the non-rock glacier stream reached 13.5 °C. The geophysical surveys suggest an internal rock glacier structure of an active layer ~3 m thick, underlain by an ice-poor layer up to 10 m thick, underlain by an ice-rich layer up to 18 m thick, with total rock glacier thickness between 20–30 m. This study confirms the presence of ice within the Lake Agnes rock glacier and documents its influence on basin hydrochemistry, elevating ion concentrations, pH, and maintaining low stream temperatures. In basins such as the Lake Agnes basin, the reduced climate sensitivity of rock glaciers and their sustained cold-water input to mountain streams will likely provide a refuge for cold-water species in a warming climate.Item Open Access Exploring public land's organizational resilience and communication in the context of climate change(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2010) Schweizer, Sarah Elizabeth, author; Thompson, Jessica Leigh, advisor; Welling, Leigh, committee member; Klein, Julia, committee memberClimate change presents significant ecological and social challenges to natural resource agencies, which are responsible for managing changing landscapes while at the same time communicating the impacts of this phenomenon and associated management responses with an increasingly concerned public audience. In most cases, organizations were not structured to undertake dynamic, interdisciplinary issues, such as climate change and consequently suffer in slow response times and ineffective communication. Due to these challenges this research investigates three separate scales of climate change communication within America's public lands. Research will inform important knowledge gaps pertaining to climate change communication and management in federal land management agencies. The three scales and research perspectives will contribute to a larger investigation, providing multiple insights to a very complex and nuanced challenge of communicating and organizing in an era of rapid environmental change such as climate change.Item Open Access Illegal Walleye introduction may destabilize a wild Lake Trout—Cutthroat Trout fishery in a Wyoming reservoir(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Johnson, Clark F., author; Johnson, Brett M., advisor; Klein, Julia, committee member; Myrick, Christopher, committee memberIntroduced Lake Trout Salvelinus namaycush coexisted for decades with wild, native Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout Oncorhynchus clarkii bouvieri and Rainbow Trout O. mykiss in Buffalo Bill Reservoir, Wyoming. Recently, managers became concerned when illegally introduced Walleye Sander vitreus were discovered. The goals of this study were to examine potential habitat constraints on predator-prey interactions, and determine how arrival of a coolwater predator may affect the Oncorhynchus population. We measured limnological variables and used gill nets, electrofishing and trap nets to sample fish populations monthly during April–October in 2012 and 2013 to determine fish habitat use and collect samples for growth and diet analyses. Prior to thermal stratification Lake Trout, Oncorhynchus spp., and Walleye co-occurred at depths <18 m, but during summer Walleye and Oncorhynchus spp. remained in shallow water and Lake Trout retreated to the hypolimnion. Only large (≥ 600 mm TL) Lake Trout consumed Oncorhynchus spp. and only during the unstratified period, but 64% of diet of all Walleye sampled was Oncorhynchus spp. regardless of stratification. Low Secchi depth (mean = 1.6 m) and warm (19°C) epilimnetic temperatures appear to have inhibited Lake Trout predation on Oncorhynchus spp. in summer and made conditions more favorable for Walleye. Abundance estimation showed that Lake Trout abundance (17,894 fish > 210 mm TL, 68% CI = 13,765–22,531) was lower than Oncorhynchus spp. (43,872 fish, 90% CI = 33,627–54,118). Walleye appeared to still be rare and could not be enumerated with confidence. Bioenergetics modeling showed that lifetime per capita consumption of Oncorhynchus spp. by Lake Trout (18.29 kg) was similar to that by Walleye (14.71 kg), despite the longer lifespan of Lake Trout. A growing Walleye population may adversely affect both Lake Trout and Oncorhynchus populations in this system.Item Open Access Productivity and phenology in a process-driven carbon cycle model(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2018) Cheeseman, Michael J., author; Denning, Scott, advisor; O'Dell, Chris, advisor; Barnes, Libby, committee member; Klein, Julia, committee memberThe carbon cycle is a major source of uncertainty in predicting future climate, especially with regard to changes in the terrestrial biosphere. One obstacle in predicting the sources and sinks of the carbon cycle is accurately predicting phenological transitions of the terrestrial biosphere with a global process-driven model. We hypothesize that the terrestrial biosphere and its phenological transitions can be simulated using a set of universal biological strategies and a simple set of plant functional types in the Simple Biosphere (SiB4) model. In order to test our hypothesis, we compare the SiB4 output to a suite of satellite observations of the terrestrial biosphere including solar induced fluorescence (SIF) from the Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO-2), MODIS-based LAI, and AVHRR-based NDVI. Our first analysis compares modeled canopy SIF to aggregated satellite observed SIF over different biomes. We find that the model consistently over predicts pixel-scale SIF. Modeled SIF over evergreen needleleaf forests has an especially high bias during the winter. Our second analysis compares modeled and observed phenology over different regions around the globe. We find that SiB4 is generally successful in simulating growing season onset, but often simulates late senescence, especially in grasslands. We also find that SiB4 simulates crops well in the United States but fails to properly predict the planting and harvesting time of crops in other regions, especially the developing world.Item Open Access Towards understanding the processes that influence global mean temperature(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2011) Mullin, Kathryn A., author; Thompson, David, advisor; Denning, Scott, committee member; Klein, Julia, committee memberGlobal mean surface temperature variability is largely determined by the global mean surface energy budget, which is driven by many natural and anthropogenic forcings. In theory, if all natural sources of global mean temperature variability could be removed from the global mean temperature time series the anthropogenic signal would be clearer. Previous studies have exploited this reasoning to remove the signature of volcanoes, the El-Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), and dynamic variability from the global mean temperature time series. This thesis extends previous work by 1) examining the linkages between global mean temperature and natural variability as a function of timescale; and 2) examining the two-way coupling between area-averaged surface temperatures and sea ice concentration. The results reveal a series of unique spatial structures in surface temperatures that drive intraannual, interannual, and decadal variability in global mean temperature. The results confirm the apparent role of hemispheric mean temperatures in driving sea ice variability, and also point to a possible feedback between wintertime sea ice concentration and springtime surface temperatures over the Northern Hemisphere. Linkages between sea ice concentration and surface temperature in the Southern Hemisphere are much weaker, and it can be argued that the hemispheric difference in these linkages may aid in explaining the different trends in sea ice between the two hemispheres.