Browsing by Author "Laituri, Melinda, advisor"
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Item Open Access Alpine wind speed and blowing snow trend identification and analysis(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2012) Fuller, Jamie D., author; Laituri, Melinda, advisor; Cooley, Daniel, committee member; Doesken, Nolan, committee member; Elder, Kevin, committee memberThe substantial quantity of climate change related analyses has resulted in increased research efforts concerning temporal wind speed trends. A change in wind speeds over time could have a widespread effect on snow transport and distribution in alpine regions. Since alpine meteorological stations are sparsely distributed, the intentions of this research were to explore North American Regional Reanalysis (NARR) to assess long-term trends of atmospheric conditions affecting snow transport with greater spatial coverage. NARR is a consistent, continuous and long-term dataset spanning the extent of North America at a spatial resolution of 32 km2 grids. NARR data were compared to two alpine sites (Niwot Ridge, Colorado and Glacier Lakes Ecological Experiments Station, Wyoming) from1989 to 2009. Multiple analyses were conducted to evaluate dataset agreement and temporal trends of alpine climatic conditions at the annual, seasonal and daily scales. The correlation of temperature, precipitation and wind speed between NARR and alpine in situ datasets showed temperature data as correlated, but wind and precipitation lacked agreement. NARR wind speed data were systematically lower when compared to observational data for both locations, but the frequency of wind events was captured. Thus, to more accurately assess blowing snow dynamics using NARR additional methods would be needed to relate the lower wind speed values to the extent of blowing snow. Trend analyses of wind speed datasets for each temporal scale (annual, seasonal and daily) showed slight trends, minimal significance and trends were not significantly different between NARR and in situ data. The statistical similarities were observed for trends with opposite signatures and slopes and a result of weak trends. Additional blowing snow analyses were conducted using temperature, wind speed and precipitation to estimate probable blowing snow events. The low agreement between NARR and observational data for wind speed and precipitation parameters prohibited the use of NARR to assess blowing snow processes and expand spatial and temporal coverage.Item Open Access Assessment of Gullele Botanic Gardens conservation strategy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia research from the Peace Corps Masters International Progam(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2013) Reeder, Carl M., author; Laituri, Melinda, advisor; Evangelista, Paul, committee member; Daivs, Jessica, committee member; Sturtevant, Robert, committee memberMonitoring of current and future conditions is critical for a conservation area to quantify results and remain competitive against alternative land uses. This study aims to monitor and evaluate the objectives of the Gullele Botanic Gardens (GBG) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The following report advances the understanding of existing understory and tree species in GBG and aims to uncover various attributes of the conservation forest. To provide a baseline data-set for future research and management practices, this report focused on species composition and carbon stock analysis of the area. Species-specific allometric equations to estimate above-ground biomass for Juniperus procera and Eucalyptus globulus are applied in this study to test the restoration strategy and strength of applied allometry to estimate carbon stock of the conservation area. The equations and carbon stock of the forest were evaluated with the following hypothesis: Removal of E. globulus of greater than 35cm DBH would impact the carbon storage (Mg ha-1) significantly as compared to the overall estimate. Conservative estimates found E. globulus accounted for 68% of the total carbon. Results of both the carbon stock and species composition analyses were used to delineate forest stands with a Geographic Information System. Ultimately, the strategy of GBG to restore native stand structure and understory species to the area will be advanced by the organization of forest stands delineated by this study.Item Open Access Community water supply: project effectiveness and sustainability(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2008) Peltz, Christopher Dale, author; Laituri, Melinda, advisor; Smith, Freeman Minson, committee member; Tinsley, Richard L., committee memberCommunity managed water systems are some of the oldest forms of social organization, however, due to a number of postcolonial issues, such as dynamic political change, rapid population growth, environmental degradation, climate change, misguided development policies, and the shift from agrarian economies to market economies, these systems are in jeopardy of losing their resilience and effectiveness. These issues cause development practitioners to ask two questions: (1) what are the circumstances that contribute to the sustainability of rural water supply systems; and (2) what are the best ways to support rural communities in meeting their water supply needs? These two questions are explored by summarizing the major theoretical concepts and methodological practices of rural water supply development, and examining a case study of an ongoing water supply project in La Laguneta, El Salvador. The investigation of the theoretical underpinnings of current development thought and practice, and the application of those concepts during the preliminary phases of the project in El Salvador are then combined into a framework for assessing system effectiveness and sustainability: the Water Project Assessment Framework (WPF). The results of this research indicate that there are four major topic areas that contribute to water system sustainability and effectiveness, including the physical environment, the financial conditions, the socio-political context of the country and community, and a community's ability to access some form of outside development assistance, be it private, public, or non-governmental. Furthermore, this research found that participatory methods, when used during the assessment phase of a water supply project, support better information collection and communication, ultimately leading to more effective and sustainable water supply systems.Item Open Access Distribution and economic analysis of Prosopis juliflora in Ethiopia(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2015) Wakie, Tewodros T., author; Laituri, Melinda, advisor; Evangelista, Paul, advisor; Hoag, Dana, committee member; Jarnevich, Catherine, committee memberInvasive species are one of the drivers of biological and socio-economic changes around the world. Over the past 30-40 years, the non-native Prosopis juliflora plant has emerged as a major invader of the arid and semi-arid regions of Ethiopia. Information on its distribution, impact, use and management is highly needed to contain and prevent the spread of this highly invasive plant. In the first study, I used a correlative modeling framework to track and map the current and potential distribution of P. juliflora in Afar, north-eastern Ethiopia. Specifically, I used time-series of Moderate Resolution Imaging Specrtoradiometer (MODIS) satellite imagery, 143 species-occurrence records and the Maxent modeling technique to map its current distribution. I then used topo-climatic predictors, species-occurrence records and the Maxent software to map its forecasted distribution. I found that the current extent of P. juliflora invasion in the Afar region is approximately 3,605 Km2, while its predicted distribution is approximately 5,024 Km2. My findings demonstrates that MODIS vegetation indices and species-occurrence points can be used with Maxent modeling software to map the current distribution of P. juliflora, while topo-climatic variables are good predictors of its potential habitat in Ethiopia. In the second study, I used a participatory research framework to map P. juliflora over a fine geographic scale, and to identify the major resource related problems in the region. I learned about the introduction history, spread, impacts, uses and traditional management practices of P. juliflora in Afar by interviewing 108 pastoralists and agro-pastoralists. Additionally, I detected the land-cover categories most affected by P. juliflora invasion by superimposing community produced maps on ancillary land-cover layers, and performing overlay analysis. Prosopis juliflora has highly invaded grasslands and open areas in Afar. The species displaces useful native grass and forage species, which are important for sustaining the region's wildlife and livestock resources. In addition to threats from invasive species, Afar people face conflicts from neighboring Issa ethnic groups, and land-grabs from the central government and foreign investors. The findings demonstrates that participatory mapping methods are suitable for mapping species distribution, detecting land-cover changes, and managing invasive plants. High invasive species control costs have swayed most developing countries to adopt cost effective P. juliflora eradication and utilization practices. However, the effectiveness and economic viability of these new approaches have not been thoroughly tested. In the third study, I used an economic analysis framework to assess the economic feasibility of selected P. juliflora eradication and utilization methods that are practiced in southern Afar. The dominant P. juliflora eradication option was to convert infested lands into irrigated farms, while the preferred utilization options were to make animal fodder from P. juliflora seed pods, and to produce charcoal from P. juliflora wood. I interviewed 19 enterprise owners (i.e., farmers, flour producers and charcoal makers) and collected primary data on prices, yields, costs and revenues. I assessed the economic feasibility of the selected methods by performing enterprise, profitability, sensitivity and risk analyses over 10 years and an interest rate of 10% per year. Converting P. juliflora infested lands into irrigated agriculture is a profitable and risky P. juliflora eradication approach. Charcoal making is a moderately profitable and less risky utilization approach, while flour production is a risky and an un-profitable utilization approach. Introducing new changes in the production and management steps of flour production may be needed to make flour enterprises profitable. My overall economic analysis suggests that control through utilization may be one of the effective and economically viable P. juliflora management strategies currently accessible to Ethiopia. I generated reliable information on the distribution and impacts of P. juliflora in Afar by employing a wide variety of scientific approaches. My results can guide local level P. juliflora utilization and control efforts in Afar, while my methodologies can be replicated for managing invasive plants in other developing countries.Item Open Access Don't cry over spilled water: identifying risks and solutions for produced water spills(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2017) Shores, Amanda Rose, author; Laituri, Melinda, advisor; Butters, Gregory, committee member; Pilon-Smits, Elizabeth, committee member; Gooseff, Michael, committee memberResource requirements and future energy generation requires careful evaluation, particularly due to climate change and water scarcity. This thesis discusses one aspect of energy generation linked to water; oil-and-gas extraction and the large volumes of waste water produced, otherwise known as "produced water". This research focuses on surface spills of produced water, their ramifications, safeguards against groundwater contamination at spill sites and potential remediation strategies. Produced water contains a variety of contaminants that include the group of known toxins, BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene), and high salt concentrations. A combination of factors such as large volumes of generated produced water, the need for storage and transportation across large distances and the toxic-and-mobile nature of produced water constituents creates risks for spills that can pollute groundwater. Spills occur regularly, particularly in Weld County, Colorado, where the demand for natural gas is high. To answer spill-related hypotheses, a multitude of methodology were employed: modeling, greenhouse experimentation, gas chromatography and summarization of spill reports and statistical analyses. Using publicly available spill data, this research found that the frequency of oil-and-gas related spills and the average spilled volume has increased in Weld County from 2011–2015. Additionally, the number of spills that have resulted in groundwater contamination has increased in the area. By focusing on the oil-and-gas operators responsible for these spills, a linear relationship was found between the volumes of oil-and-gas produced compared to the volumes of produced-water generated. However, larger oil-and-gas producers did not show a linear relationship between oil-and-gas produced and produced-water generated, such that larger producers were more efficient and generated less water per unit of energy. So while scale-up efficiency seems to exist for produced-water generation, no mitigation of spill volume would be obtained by utilizing larger producers. Regardless of which operator was responsible for the spill, the groundwater depth at a spill site significantly predicted when a spill would result in groundwater contamination. This result was also validated though modeling; shallow depths to groundwater as well as larger spill volumes and coarse soil textures contributed to higher concentrations of groundwater contamination. Previous research has shown that a large fraction of spills occur at well pads. Our results suggest that fracking-site selection should preclude areas where the groundwater is shallow and soil is coarsely textured. Additionally, precautions should be taken to reduce the volume of spilled produced water to reduce the risk of groundwater contamination. This research additionally sought to reduce contaminant migration in soils towards groundwater at produced-water spill sites. In a greenhouse study it was shown that foxtail barley (Hordeum jubatum) and perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne), can tolerate high salt concentrations in produced water while taking up minute levels of BTEX. The presence of plants changed the concentration of BTEX and naphthalene in the soil, but the direction of the change depended upon the particular plant and varied across contaminants. Additionally, the roots of either species saw no decrease of biomass upon exposure to BTEX and salt but shoots biomass was significantly reduced for foxtail barley. These results suggest that these grasses would not be capable of addressing large concentrations of BTEX at spill sites; however, these plants would be useful near well pads that regularly experience smaller spills, thus being able to tolerate spills while continually removing small amounts of BTEX in the soil. In conclusion, this thesis sought to identify holistic tools for produced-water spill prevention, mitigation and remediation to lessen environmental and health concerns while creating minimal disturbance to the natural landscape. The results lend themselves to important management information applicable to Weld County, CO but with lessons that others can draw upon elsewhere. This dissertation highlights areas for improved regulation and best management practices that can preemptively reduce the risk for groundwater contamination from produced water spills.Item Open Access Evaluating the utility of global versus local geospatial data for secondary cities(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2019) Davis, Danielle Brooke, author; Laituri, Melinda, advisor; Tulanowski, Beth, committee member; Galvin, Kathleen, committee memberThe 21st century is experiencing the emergence of the world's secondary cities as major urban growth areas. Secondary cities are regional hubs for commerce, logistics, services, and governance. They have populations ranging from under 300,000 to 5 million and are experiencing rapid, unplanned and informal growth patterns. Their dynamic growth means secondary cities are often data-poor and under-resourced, which impacts the ability of governments to target development efforts, respond to emergencies, and design sustainable futures. This research is a result of the Secondary Cities (2C) Initiative of the U.S. Department of State, Office of the Geographer and Global Issue. This initiative utilizes field-based participatory mapping for data generation to help secondary cities prepare for resilience, human security, and emergency preparedness. Geospatial data are key to the sustainable development of secondary cities for the future. Given the importance of geospatial data I explore two types of geospatial data for informed city planning: globally available data and locally collected data. First, I examine globally available data by assessing Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Indicator 11.3.1, which compares land consumption rate to population growth rate, utilizing the recommended data. I apply SDG Indicator 11.3.1 to five 2C cities: Denpasar, Indonesia; Esmeraldas, Ecuador; Kharkiv, Ukraine; MedellÃn, Colombia; and Mekelle, Ethiopia. Second, I examine locally collected geospatial data of urban springs data collected in Kharkiv, Ukraine as a potable water source during a case of emergency. Specifically, these examinations utilize suitable data that are products of the 2C Initiative. The results revealed unexpected nuances of both data types that proved complimentary to each other.Item Open Access Knowledge integration in transdisciplinary research: a case study of the socio-ecological complexity project(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2015) Allegretti, Arren Mendezona, author; Laituri, Melinda, advisor; Pickering, Kathleen, advisor; Thompson, Jessica, committee member; Fernandez-Gimenez, Maria, committee memberKnowledge integration has been crucial for gaining a holistic picture of the inner workings of socio-ecological systems. Integrating local and scientific knowledge sustains biological and global cultural diversity, and may fill gaps in understanding that cannot be elucidated by individual scientific disciplines. Interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research teams face the challenge of collaborating and integrating their varying disciplinary paradigms and epistemologies along with stakeholders' local knowledge for understanding and adapting to global and local environmental issues. Communication and knowledge integration across funders, researchers, and research end-users in transdisciplinary research are critical for meeting diverse stakeholder needs and genuinely engaging multiple knowledge systems. These knowledge systems may include a combination of researcher and local ecological knowledge embedded in institutions, disciplines, and cultures. The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate and apply knowledge integration tools for examining socio-ecological systems and transdisciplinary research communication. Specifically, I examine the Socio-ecological Complexity (SEC) project as a case study. The SEC is a pseudonym for an actual project examining the role of Community-Based Rangeland Management (CBRM) institutions in influencing the resilience of Mongolian socio-ecological rangeland systems to climate change. I apply two tools for the integration of knowledge within SEC: participatory reflection and participatory mapping. I apply participatory reflection among the SEC research team and provide stakeholder engagement indicators for reflecting, communicating, and incorporating the needs of funders, researchers, and research end users as major stakeholder groups in transdisciplinary research. These specific indicators allow transdisciplinary research teams to assess the current level of knowledge integration, communicate and target stakeholder needs that may influence project outcomes in communicating their research. To integrate the local ecological knowledge (LEK) of research end users, I apply participatory mapping to explore herders' knowledge of their rangelands and their perceptions of socio-ecological boundaries imbedded in their pastures. The process of participatory mapping revealed emic narratives on physical and human demarcated boundaries influencing landscapes, adaptive practices, and local governance arrangements for accessing pasture resources. Participatory mapping and participatory reflection serve as tools for integrating and communicating diverse knowledge systems in transdisciplinary research. To examine how knowledge and world views may be communicated among diverse actors in transdisciplinary research, I provide a reflexive account of the role of voice in transdisciplinary fieldwork. My reflexive account reveals the complex network of actors and how identity, language, financial structures and hierarchy within a multi-cultural and transdisciplinary project shape actors' voices and opinions. The application of knowledge integration tools (participatory reflection and participatory mapping) and the open dialogue about the role of voice in transdisciplinary research provide diverse views for evaluating transdisciplinary research outcomes and analyzing coupled human-environment relationships in socio-ecological systems.Item Open Access Landslide riskscapes in the Colorado Front Range: a quantitative geospatial approach for modeling human-environment interactions(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2021) Hicks, Heather Brainerd, author; Laituri, Melinda, advisor; Fassnacht, Steven, committee member; Grigg, Neil, committee member; Rathburn, Sara, committee memberThis research investigated the application of riskscapes to landslides in the context of geospatial inquiry. Riskscapes are framed as a landscape of risk to represent risk spatially. Geospatial models for landslide riskscapes were developed to improve our understanding of the spatial context for landslides and their risks as part of the system of human-environment interactions. Spatial analysis using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) leveraged modeling methods and the distributed properties of riskscapes to identify and preserve these spatial relationships. This dissertation is comprised of four separate manuscripts. These projects defined riskscapes in the context of landslides, applied geospatial analyses to create a novel riskscape model to introduce spatial autocorrelation methods to the riskscape framework, compared geostatistical analysis methods in these landslide riskscape assessments, and described limitations of spatial science identified in the riskscape development process. The first project addressed the current literature for riskscapes and introduced landslides as a measurable feature for riskscapes. Riskscapes are founded in social constructivist theory and landslide studies are frequently based on quantitative risk assessment practices. The uniqueness of a riskscape is the inclusion of human geography and environmental factors, which are not consistently incorporated in geologic or natural hazard studies. I proposed the addition of spatial theory constructs and methods to create spatially measurable products. I developed a conceptual framework for a landslide riskscape by describing the current riskscape applications as compared to existing landslide and GIS risk model processes. A spatial modeling formula to create a weighted sum landslide riskscape was presented as a modification to a natural hazard risk equation to incorporate the spatial dimension of risk factors. The second project created a novel method for three geospatial riskscapes as an approach to model landslide susceptibility areas in Boulder and Larimer Counties, Colorado. This study synthesized physical and human geography to create multiple landslide riskscape models using GIS methods. These analysis methods used a process model interface in GIS. Binary, ranked, and human factor weighted sum riskscapes were created, using frequency ratio as the basis for developing a weighting scheme. Further, spatial autocorrelation was introduced as a recommended practice to quantify the spatial relationships in landslide riskscape development. Results demonstrated that riskscapes, particularly those for ranked and human factor riskscapes, were highly autocorrelated, non-random, and exhibited clustering. These findings indicated that a riskscape model can support improvements to response modeling, based on the identification of spatially significant clustering of hazardous areas. The third project extended landslide riskscapes to measurable geostatistical comparisons using geostatistical tools within a GIS platform. Logistic regression, weights of evidence, and probabilistic neural networks methods were used to analyze the weighted sum landslide riskscape models using ArcGIS and Spatial Data Modeler (ArcSDM). Results showed weights of evidence models performed better than both logistic regression and neural networks methods. Receiver Operator Characteristic (ROC) curves and Area Under the Curve validation tests were performed and found the weights of evidence model performed best in both posterior probability prediction and AUC validation. A fourth project was developed based on the limitations discovered during the analytical process evaluations from the riskscape model development and geostatistical analysis. This project reviewed the issues with data quality, the variations in results predicated on the input parameters within the analytical toolsets, and the issues surrounding open-source application tools. These limitations stress the importance of parameter selection in a geospatial analytical environment. These projects collectively determined methods for riskscape development related to landslide features. The models presented demonstrate the importance and influence of spatial distributions on landslide riskscapes. Based on the proposed conceptual framework of a spatial riskscape for landslides, weighted sum riskscapes can provide a basis for prioritization of resources for landslides. Ranked and human factor riskscapes indicate the need to provide planning and protection for areas at increased risk for landslides. These studies provide a context for riskscapes to further our understanding of the benefits and limitations of a quantitative riskscape approach. The development of a methodological framework for quantitative riskscape models provides an approach that can be applied to other hazards or study areas to identify areas of increased human-environment interaction. Riskscape models can then be evaluated to inform mitigation and land-use planning activities to reduce impacts of natural hazards in the anthropogenic environment.Item Open Access Linking riparian vegetation to precipitation using NDVI at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2015) Birtwistle, Amy N., author; Laituri, Melinda, advisor; Bledsoe, Brian, committee member; Friedman, Jonathan, committee memberMeasuring precipitation in semi-arid landscapes is important for understanding the processes related to rainfall and run-off. However, rain gauges are sparsely distributed. Linear regressions comparing rain gauge and RADAR precipitation estimates revealed that RADAR data is often misleading especially for monsoon type storms. This study investigates an alternative way to map the spatial and temporal variation of precipitation inputs along ephemeral stream channels using NDVI derived from Landsat TM imagery. NDVI was derived on 26 pre- and post-monsoon season Landsat images across Yuma Proving Ground (YPG) in southwestern Arizona. The mean NDVI values along ephemeral stream channels explained 73% of the variance in precipitation totals from a nearby rain gauge for 25 monsoon seasons. A 0.0006 increase in NDVI per day between pre- and post-monsoon season imagery was found to indicate high precipitation inputs and possibly indicate flow events. A second set of Landsat TM imagery were used to relate gains in NDVI during seven winter seasons to precipitation recorded from a nearby NEXRAD radar station. The NEXRAD Stage IV radar data were found to be more accurate during winter precipitation events when associated with rain gauge stations (adjusted R2: 0.81 & 0.84). High correlations were found between NDVI and precipitation at the 32, 48, 64 and 96d time intervals, though each season varied. The number of precipitation events with >5mm at the 96d interval showed significant correlation (0.63 & 0.77) while the number of events with >10mm had less correlation. Moreover, the combination and analysis of these two NDVI datasets revealed that wet winters may influence the vegetation for more than four years into the future.Item Open Access Modeling plant hotspots in New Guinea and village-scale land change dynamics in Papua New Guinea(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Hoover, Jamie Deanne, author; Leisz, Stephen J., advisor; Laituri, Melinda, advisor; James, Shelley, committee member; Kumar, Sunil, committee memberThe island of New Guinea harbors the third largest tropical forest in the world, after Amazonia and the Congo. Forest cover changes in New Guinea are occurring at a fast rate and it is vital to improve our understanding of the drivers of forest change and identify how these changes impact human livelihoods and biotic diversity. New Guinea is politically split into two countries; the western half is Indonesia and the eastern half is Papua New Guinea. The first part of this dissertation focuses on Papua New Guinea, where logging and subsistence agriculture account for 92% of forest cover changes. Since a large majority of the population is dependent on subsistence agriculture (swidden), understanding how subsistence strategies evolve over time can be used to inform land-use and land-cover (LULC) changes. To assess how subsistence strategies relate to LULC changes, I compare remote sensing analyses alone to a mixed methods approach or participatory remote sensing (PRS) that combines land-use mapping exercises, household surveys, remote sensing classifications, and the validation of image analyses. The remote sensing analyses alone were two and a half times larger than what land managers and the PRS methods identified. The inclusion of participatory data showed that the increase in food production to support the growing population was achieved by implementing a variety of strategies rather than continual expansion of the swidden area. Participatory data also better described that swidden LULC changes were based more on social, climatic, and environmental conditions than population growth pressures. To further my investigation of subsistence strategies and swidden LULC changes I conducted a long-term swidden LULC study using 40 Landsat scenes between 1972 and 2015. We found that swidden trends were not significant over the time period and therefore there was not a causal relationship between population growth and swidden trends. This result is different than national and provincial scale observations. Overall, the inclusion of participatory information via PRS methods should be used to understand swidden system LULC complexities and land-management strategies. Such information can improve LULC trend assessments at wider extents and be more informative for national forest cover change assessments. The other part of this dissertation has a wider extent and looks at New Guinea as a whole. Although it is known for high rates of biodiversity, there are few quantitative studies that have assessed plant diversity on the island. Here, I model vascular and non-vascular terrestrial plants at the genus taxonomic level to predict the biodiversity hotspots. To do this, I used an ecological niche model called MaxEnt and occurrence data from online, herbarium, and museum databases are paired with environmental variables. The results from this study identify sampling efforts, sampling biases, and predict plant distributions and biodiversity hotspots (richness). I found that richness increases west to east along the central mountain range and increases from south to north across the island. Even though MaxEnt is capable of minimizing sampling biases, I speculate that sampling biases may influence the richness pattern observed south to north because the southern third of the island is under sampled and the geologic history is markedly different. At higher elevations in regions with complex topography the predicted genera richness are smaller in area but more numerous. Comparatively, larger areas of higher predicted richness occur at lower elevations and where the topography is more homogeneous. While modeling with genus level data supplies baseline information about plant distributions, some genera are more speciose than others, so this effort may not capture the full scope of richness or endemism in New Guinea. However, these results can be used to prioritize future sampling needs, support conservation strategies, compare genus diversity to other regions of the world, and discuss principles and drivers of biogeography.Item Embargo Quantifying and mapping tree mortality due to mountain pine bark beetles via analyses of remote sensing data in northern Colorado(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2024) Taleb, Hamza A. S., author; Laituri, Melinda, advisor; Fassnacht, Steven, committee member; Leisz, Stephen, committee member; Grigg, Neil, committee memberIn the past two decades, Mountain Pine Bark Beetle (MPBB) infestations have become more pervasive due to increasing temperatures and drought conditions related to climate change causing regional-scale mortality. Insect effects on tree die-off, fuels, and fire behavior can vary widely. A key problem in understanding insect-fire relationships is the lack of empirical maps that show interrelated changes in the distribution of insect infestations and fire zones over space and time. This study demonstrates an approach to tracking and mapping the spread of MPBB by analyses of vegetation indices calculated from Landsat TM data in the study site in northwestern Colorado. These indices were used for calculations in the Random Forest (RF) classifier algorithm and the Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier algorithm to determine the presence or absence of MPBB and to illustrate the changes in the distribution of infestations with time. A comparison was made between the accuracy of the two classification algorithms (RF and SVM) in tracking and mapping the spread of MPBB. R2 has proved to be a reliable measure of accuracy of regression models. If the statistical accuracy of all the models, (RF vs. SVM and binary vs. regression) are compared, both the regression and binary models based on RF are more accurate. The results of this study can provide a useful tool for forest managers to make decisions about how changing conditions affect potential problems in forest management.Item Open Access Sharing water across boundaries in the Colorado River Basin: mapping agricultural policies, data, and perspectives(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2014) Sternlieb, Faith, author; Laituri, Melinda, advisor; Waskom, Reagan, committee member; Mumme, Stephen, committee member; Heikkila, Tanya, committee memberEmerging institutional arrangements that incorporate water sharing indicate changes in both the political and environmental climate in the Colorado River Basin (CRB). These arrangements are geographically taking shape at the intersections of hydrologic, political, and sectoral boundaries. Water sharing arrangements (WSAs) foster an array of relationships between institutions and between actors and organizations responsible for designing and administering rules and policies, where the agricultural (Ag) sector is at the center of these arrangements. Water sharing provides a means to better understand different types of overlapping boundaries, contributing to new theories and methodologies about changes in governance. Therefore, the culmination of this research seeks to answer the question: what is the role of boundaries in water sharing arrangements and their potential contribution to agricultural water governance in the Colorado River Basin? This dissertation presents three boundary studies of WSAs in the CRB, illuminating changes in governance related to increasing the legal and political capacity to share water under stressed conditions. A political boundary analysis shows emergent patterns in Ag water governance, patterns which resulted from a boundary typology incorporating physical, political, and sectoral boundaries. The boundary typology was applied to the other two studies: a geospatial analysis of water sharing arrangements and a case study in the CRB through interviews with farmers and Ag water managers of Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) projects. A geospatial analysis provides the necessary arena to geovisualize Ag water governance through the introduction of governance layers. Governance layers are defined by two key components: (a) mandated or naturally occurring geographic boundaries and (b) decisions made based on those boundaries. The third study tests the application of the boundary typology and its innate connection to scale to better understand the geographic perspectives of farmers regarding changes in Ag water governance, especially as they relate to WSAs in the Basin. The focus of the interviews is on the USBR, specifically to better understand whether the USBR inhibits or encourages water sharing across hydrologic, political, and sectoral boundaries. Together these three studies demonstrate the importance of hydrologic, political, sectoral, and other boundaries in collective and individual decision-making by agricultural water users, irrigation districts, the state, and the federal government about water management for agriculture across the basin. In addition, boundaries, whether bonafied or fiat, can be spatialized, or localized in space. Finally, just as space is integral in understanding agricultural water governance, so is place, such as the places that support agriculture. Places throughout the CRB are changing. The boundaries that define place are shifting, making way for new opportunities like the water sharing arrangements that have revolutionized an aging system.Item Open Access The Cache la Poudre AquaBlitz: exploring watershed ecology with elementary and middle school students(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2015) Skach, Sky, author; Laituri, Melinda, advisor; Newman, Gregory, committee member; Fernandez-Gimenez, Maria, committee memberEvidence suggests that experiential environmental education is both effective and influential on student knowledge and attitudes. The Cache la Poudre AquaBlitz, was designed as a rapid-assessment of watershed health and as an educational experience for 4th-6th grade students combining current best practices in environmental education and citizen science with a local, place-based focus. This manuscript provides a summary of the project curricula and an assessment of knowledge acquisition by students. Data analysis suggests that the curricula were successfully written for the targeted grade levels and that student understanding of watershed ecology was increased.Item Open Access Tracing hydrosocial change: the social constellations of water access and allocation for oil and gas development in Colorado(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2018) Boone, Karie, author; Laituri, Melinda, advisor; Carolan, Michael, committee member; Hempel, Lynn, committee member; Poff, LeRoy, committee memberIncreasing water use for OG development in Colorado suggests a change in the social constellations of water governance. Colorado's water allocation institutions, practices and policies relationally shape and are shaped by water's biophysical movement over space and time through a hydrosocial cycle. The hydrosocial cycle (HSC) framework examines social complexity of water governance institutions by systematically analyzing institutional change and continuity to identify the causes and consequences of decreasing agricultural water access. Starting with history, change and continuity are operationalized through a historical institutional framework that systematically pinpoints institutional outcomes resulting from a particular sequence of events, policies and practices occurring in a unique context. This historical institutional analysis finds that social complexity can be measured more accurately by attending to relational and informal institutions, operationalizing the HSC framework to address ambiguities between historical policy and contemporary practices. To capture social complexity, then, this research considers how objects in nature and society are relational so that their meanings and uses depend on human agency and context. Colorado's institution of water rights is relational in two crucial ways. First, formal institutions are shaped by their social, political, and environmental settings/contexts. Concomitantly, formal institutions are shaped by processes and interactions that link Colorado's energy and water institutions across policy topics and levels of government instead of viewing them as evolving in isolation. A hydrosocial analysis additionally captures social complexity of water institutions through an examination of the often overlooked informal social processes occurring 'under the surface'. Informal institutions are nuanced norms, decision-making structures, unwritten rules and activities that shape and are shaped by agent's lived experiences. These informal dealings are consistently negotiated day-by-day, are not defined in formal laws, policies or organizational documents but help explain formal institutional change and actual policy outcomes. The integration of informal and relational institutions links the hydrological and social while further enriching our understanding of how increasing water use for OG extraction shapes agricultural water access and allocation in Colorado's rural communities. The changing nature of water use is taking place in Colorado's rural agricultural regions and in appropriated river basins, the Colorado River in the western part of the state and the South Platte River Basin flowing through the eastern plains. This dissertation asks if agricultural water users in these basins and in Colorado's top OG producing regions, Weld and Garfield Counties, are experiencing changes in water access related to increased water use for OG development. It additionally examines the implications of these changes. Each of the following chapters addresses this question while making theoretical and conceptual contributions to the HSC framework. The first two chapters utilize a comparative case study methodology to provide in-depth examination of the 'how' and 'why' of historical and political change processes, an important step in building understanding of Colorado's changing agricultural water allocation and access. A historical institutional analysis finds that social complexity can be measured more accurately by attending to relational and informal institutions. Chapter two examines relational and informal institutions from the perspective of water users on the ground and in the field. Interviews qualitatively investigate if agricultural water users are experiencing changes in water access related to increased water use for OG. In response, four primary themes emerged from an analysis of interview data: decreasing and differential water access for producers, leasing land and water from municipal and industrial users, maintaining agricultural water rights, and balancing equity in water access. Findings illuminate the important and changing role Agricultural Water Supply Organizations (AWSOs ) play in balancing equity in and maintaining water access for agricultural users. Chapter three suggests attending to increasing social distance in the U.S, including the rural-urban divide, by infusing policies with rural understandings. An embodied and inclusive pedagogy encourages empathy so that fewer political divides surface when rural communities feel silenced and forgotten. Interdisciplinary learning paradigms should work to generate empathy so that urban-biased water policies and practices infuse understanding across difference and foster social cohesionItem Open Access Using spatiotemporal correlative niche models for evaluating the effects of climate change on mountain pine beetle(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2015) Sidder, Aaron M., author; Laituri, Melinda, advisor; Kumar, Sunil, advisor; Sibold, Jason, committee memberOver the last decade western North America has experienced the largest mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins) outbreak in recorded history and Rocky Mountain forests have been severely impacted. Although bark beetles are indigenous to North American forests, climate change has facilitated the beetle’s expansion into previously unsuitable habitats. I used three correlative niche models (MaxEnt, Boosted Regression Trees, and Generalized Linear Models) to estimate: (i) the current potential distribution of the beetle in the U.S. Rocky Mountain region, (ii) how this extent has changed since historical outbreaks in the 1960s and 1970s, and (iii) how the potential distribution may be expected to change under future climate scenarios. Additionally, I evaluated the temporal transferability of the niche models by forecasting historical models and testing the model predictions using temporally independent outbreak data from the current outbreak. My results indicated that there has been a significant expansion of climatically suitable habitat over the past 50 years and that much of this expansion corresponds with an upward shift in elevation across the study area. Furthermore, my models indicate that drought was a more prominent driver of current outbreak than temperature, which suggests a change in the climatic signature between historical and current outbreaks. The current climatic niche of the mountain pine beetle includes increased precipitation, colder winter temperatures, and a later spring than the historical climatic niche, which reflects a shift into higher elevation habitats. Projections under future conditions suggest that there will be a large reduction in climatically suitable habitat for the beetle and that high-elevation forests will continue to become more susceptible to outbreak. While all three models generated reasonable predictions (AUC = 0.85 - 0.87), the generalized linear model correctly predicted a higher percentage of current outbreak localities when trained on historical data. My findings suggest that projects aiming to reduce omission error in estimates of future species responses may have greater predictive success with simpler, generalized models.Item Open Access Watershed characteristics that are related to the occurrence of impaired (CWA 303(d)) waters for park units within the Pacific West Region of the National Park Service(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2012) Ling, Jia L., author; Laituri, Melinda, advisor; Loftis, Jim, committee member; Newman, Gregory, committee memberSince the establishment of the Clean Water Act (CWA) in 1972, the federal government has made significant strides toward improving the quality of U.S. water resources. The Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) program created from the federal CWA distributed the responsibility for improving water quality to states, territories, and authorized tribes, while appointing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as the lead oversight. Over 43,500 TMDL plans have been developed according to the EPA's national summary of TMDL information. However, implementation of TMDLs is often delayed, which hinders improvement in water quality and may reduce the restoration potential of an impaired waterbody. The National Park Service (NPS) is an important stakeholder in the TMDL program because restoring and preserving water quality for future uses and enjoyment is a vital component of its mission. Therefore, the goal of this study is to identify watershed characteristics that are relevant to the occurrence of impaired waters within watersheds that intersect park units. This will assist NPS managers in evaluating waterbodies at risk and restoration potential. An initial list of 25 watershed characteristics was identified to be included in this study. A survey was administered to NPS aquatic professionals to further reduce the number of characteristics and evaluate the most pertinent characteristics based on professional opinions. Eleven watershed characteristics were selected and quantified to examine their correlation to the occurrence of impaired waters. Watershed characteristics were chosen to represent each of the three categories: (1) land cover / use, (2) ecological / physical characteristics, and (3) social influences. The study area was limited to HUC 12 polygons that intersect park units within the Pacific West Region of NPS. Watershed characteristics and impairments were measured for all intersecting HUC 12 polygons. Impairments were assessed based on state listings of CWA 303(d) waters and categories 4a, 4b, and 4c of CWA Section 305(b). Linear regression analysis was employed to investigate the correlation between each watershed characteristic to percent impairment. The results of the analyses revealed that average slope, amount of hydrography, agricultural land cover, and forest land cover were significant indicators of impaired waters at alpha 0.10 level. Although many of the watershed characteristics may have synergistic effects, multicollinearity was not considered in the design of this study. However, the results of this study may guide water quality professionals to hone their efforts on actively managing the significant watershed characteristics identified in this study.