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Item Open Access Dataset associated with "Analysis of Kenya's Atmospheric Moisture Sources and Sinks"(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) Keys, Patrick W.Achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are contingent on understanding the potential interactions among human and natural systems. In Kenya, the goal of conserving and expanding forest cover to achieve SDG 15 ‘Life on land’ may be related to other SDGs because it plays a role in regulating some aspects of Kenyan precipitation. We present a 40-year analysis of the sources of precipitation in Kenya, and the fate of the evaporation that arises from within Kenya. Using MERRA2 climate reanalysis and the Water Accounting Model 2-layers, we examine the annual and seasonal changes in moisture sources and sinks. We find that most of Kenya’s precipitation originates as oceanic evaporation, but that 10% of its precipitation originates as evaporation within Kenya. This internal recycling is concentrated in the mountainous and forested Kenyan highlands, with some locations recycling more than 15% of evaporation, to Kenyan precipitation. We also find that 75% of Kenyan evaporation falls as precipitation elsewhere over land, including 10% in Kenya, 25% in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and around 5% falling in Tanzania and Uganda. Further, we find a positive relationship between increasing rates of moisture recycling and fractional forest cover within Kenya. By beginning to understand both the seasonal and biophysical interactions taking place, we may begin to understand the types of leverage points that exist for integrated atmospheric water cycle management. These findings have broader implications for disentangling environmental management and conservation and have relevance for large-scale discussions about sustainable development.Item Open Access Nitrous oxide emissions from 2008 to 2012 for agricultural lands in the conterminous United States(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) Ogle, S. M.; Del Grosso, S. J.; Nevison, C.Nitrous oxide (N2O) is an important greenhouse gas (GHG) that also contributes to depletion of ozone in the stratosphere. Agricultural soils account for about 60% of anthropogenic N2O emissions. Most national GHG reporting to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change assumes nitrogen (N) additions drive emissions during the growing season, but soil freezing and thawing during spring is also an important driver in cold climates. We show that both atmospheric inversions and newly implemented bottom-up modeling approaches exhibit large N2O pulses in the northcentral region of the United States during early spring and this increases annual N2O emissions from croplands and grasslands reported in the national GHG inventory by 11%. Considering this, emission accounting in cold climate regions is very likely under-estimated in most national reporting frameworks. Current commitments related to the Paris Agreement and COP 26 emphasize reductions of carbon compounds. Assuming these targets are met, the importance of accurately accounting and mitigating N2O increases once CO2 and CH4 are phased out. Hence, the N2O emission under-estimate introduces additional risks into meeting long term climate goals.Item Open Access Pingree Park Meteorological Data 2003 to 2008(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) Fassnacht, Steven R.Item Open Access Pingree Park Meteorological Data, 1977-1978(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) UnknownItem Open Access Climatic data of the CSU Mountain Campus and surrounding area collected during the summers between 1959 and 1964(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) Batten, Alan; Meyers, Alan; Turner, MarkItem Open Access Pingree Park Daily Mean Temperature Data from 1972 to 1977(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) UnknownItem Open Access Data associated with “Little South Poudre Watershed Climate and Hydrology 1961-1971”(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) Meiman, James R.; Leavesley, George H.Item Open Access Data and code associated with “Supporting Adaptive Management with Ecological Forecasting: Chronic Wasting Disease in the Jackson Elk Herd”(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2021) Galloway, Nathan L.; Monello, Ryan J.; Brimeyer, Doug; Cole, Eric K.; Hobbs, N. ThompsonAdaptive management has emerged as the prevailing approach for combining environmental research and management to advance science and policy. Adaptive management, as originally formulated by Carl Walters in 1986, depends on the use of Bayesian models to provide a framework to accumulate knowledge. The emergence of ecological forecasting using the Bayesian framework has provided robust tools and supports a new approach to informing adaptive management, which can be particularly useful in developing policy for managing infectious disease in wildlife. We used the potential infection of elk populations with chronic wasting disease in the Jackson Valley of Wyoming and the National Elk Refuge as a model system to show how Bayesian forecasting can support adaptive management in anticipation of management challenges. The core of our approach resembles the sex- and age-structured, discrete time models used to support management decisions on elk harvest throughout western North America. Our model differs by including stages for CWD infected and unaffected animals. We used data on population counts, sex and age classification, and CWD testing, as well as results from prior research, in a Bayesian statistical framework to predict model parameters and the number of animals in each age, sex, and disease stage over time. Initial forecasts suggested CWD may reach a mean prevalence in the population of 12%, but uncertainty in this forecast is large and we cannot rule out a mean forecasted prevalence as high as 20%. Using recruitment rates observed during the last two decades, the model predicted that a CWD prevalence of 7% in females would cause the population growth rate (l) to drop below 1, resulting in population declines even when female harvest was zero. The primary value of this ecological forecasting approach is to provide a framework to assimilate data with understanding of disease processes to enable continuous improvement in understanding the ecology of CWD and its management.Item Open Access Data associated with Boone (2020) "Hierarchical global plant biophysical regions as potential analysis units"(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2020) Boone, Randall BRegional and global vegetation simulations can be problematic when analysis units to which parameters are assigned do not align with plant productivity and phenology. Having a suite of pre-defined biophysical regions at a variety of scales that correspond to differences in plant productivity and phenology would allow analysts to select a set of analysis units at the scale needed. In other cases, environmental or social responses may be hypothesized to be related to differences in plant dynamics. One may compare the discrimination in such data that biophysical regions at difference scales provide to determine which best distinguishes the responses in question, such that like responses fall within the same regions to the degree possible. If those relationships are significant, the responses may then be extrapolated based on the biophysical regions. I defined hierarchical biophysical regions based on plant productivity and phenology by clustering global 0.083° Normalized Difference Vegetation Indices over a 10-year period. Agglomerative average-linkage distances based on squared error between clusters was conducted using an iterative sampling approach to merge more than 2 million clusters into fewer and fewer clusters based on NDVI greenness profiles comprised of 240 values over 10 yrs, until all cells were in a single cluster. Greater and greater differences in greenness profiles were ignored at higher levels of the hierarchy. Using a difference increment of 0.1, 253 non-duplicative sets of clusters were created, and 107 of those were included in animations that may be used to explore differences in global plant dynamics. Differences in clusters were quantified based on comparing the focal set of cluster results with 10 other cluster sets. Analysts may use the hierarchical clusters to improve the alignment of their parameter sets that inform plant growth and other dynamics with real-world plant dynamics.Item Open Access Expert survey data on key challenges, drivers, and ecosystem services across mountains worldwide(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2019) Klein, J. A.; Tucker, C. M.; Nolin, A. W.; Hopping, K. A.; Reid, R. S.; Steger, C.; Grêt-Regamey, A.; Lavorel, S.; Müller, B.; Yeh, E. T.; Boone, R. B.; Bougeron, P.; Bustic, V.; Castellanos, E.; Chen, X.; Dong, S. K.; Greenwood, G.; Keiler, M.; Marchant, R.; Seidl, R.; Spies, T.; Thorn, J.; Yager, K.; Abbott, M.; Bowser, G.; Carpenter, C.; Cumming, G. S.; Evangelista, P.; Fernandez-Gimenez, M. E.; Flint, C. G.; Forbes, B. C.; Gerkey, D.; Ghate, R.; Ghorbani, M.; Haider, L. J.; Karna, B.; Kulbhushan, K.; Leisz, S. J.; Martín-López, B.; Nakileza, B. R.; Price, M. F.; Savchuk, D.; Šmid Hribar, M.; Sproles, E.; Suryawanshi, K. R.; Taber, A.; Tappeiner, U.; Tevzadze, G.; Ueno, K.Mountain social-ecological systems (MtSES) are vital to humanity, providing ecosystem services to over half the planet's human population. Despite their importance, there has been no global assessment of threats to MtSES, even as they face unprecedented challenges to their sustainability. With survey data from 57 MtSES sites worldwide, we test a conceptual model of the types and scales of stressors and ecosystem services in MtSES and explore their distinct configurations according to their primary economic orientation and land use. We find that MtSES worldwide are experiencing both gradual and abrupt climatic, economic, and governance changes, with policies made by outsiders as the most ubiquitous challenge. Mountains that support primarily subsistence-oriented livelihoods, especially agro-pastoral systems, deliver abundant services but are also most at risk. Moreover, transitions from subsistence- to market-oriented economies are often accompanied by increased physical connectedness, reduced diversity of cross-scale ecosystem services, lowered importance of local knowledge, and shifting vulnerabilities to threats. Addressing the complex challenges facing MtSES and catalyzing transformations to MtSES sustainability will require cross-scale partnerships among researchers, stakeholders and decision-makers to jointly identify desired futures and adaptation pathways, assess tradeoffs in prioritizing ecosystem services, and share best practices for sustainability. These transdisciplinary approaches will allow local stakeholders, researchers and practitioners to jointly address MtSES knowledge gaps while simultaneously focusing on critical issues of poverty and food security.Item Open Access Snow persistence grids and snow zone shape files for the western United States(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2012) Moore, Cara; Kampf, Stephanie; Stone, Brandon; Richer, EricThis study maps the geographic extent of intermittent and seasonal snow cover in the western United States using thresholds of 2000–2010 average snow persistence derived from moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer snow cover area data from 1 January to 3 July. Results show seasonal snow covers 13% of the region, and intermittent snow covers 25%. The lower elevation boundaries of intermittent and seasonal snow zones increase from north-west to south-east. Intermittent snow is primarily found where average winter land surface temperatures are above freezing, whereas seasonal snow is primarily where winter temperatures are below freezing. However, temperatures at the boundary between intermittent and seasonal snow exhibit high regional variability, with average winter seasonal snow zone temperatures above freezing in west coast mountain ranges. Snow cover extent at peak accumulation is most variable at the upper elevations of the intermittent snow zone, highlighting the sensitivity of this snow zone boundary to climate conditions.