Diverse Management Strategies Produce Similar Ecological Outcomes on Ranches in Western Great Plains: Social-Ecological Assessment

Data on the depth distribution of the major atmospheric gases and the abundance of gaseous 12CO2, 13CO2, and 14CO2 in the subsoil unsaturated zone have been obtained from several sites in the western Great Plains of the United States. Sample profiles range from land surface to depths of 50m. Although each site must be considered on an individual basis, several general statements can be made regarding the profiles. 1) Diffusion of these gaseous molecules through the unsaturated zone is an important transport mechanism. 2) As predicted by diffusion theory, depth profiles of the various isotopic species of CO2 differ substantially from one another, depending on individual sources and sinks such as root respiration and oxidation of organic carbon at depth. 3) In general, post-bomb (> 100% modern) 14C activities are not observed in the deep unsaturated zone, in contrast to diffusion model predictions. 4) In spite of generally decreasing 14C activities with depth, absolute partial pressures of 14CO2 in the subsoil unsaturated zone are 1–2 orders of magnitude higher than the partial pressure of 14CO2 in the atmosphere.

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Disturbance and Fish Communities in Intermittent Tributaries of a Western Great Plains River

Copeia ◽

10.2307/1446392 ◽

1991 ◽

Vol 1991 (3) ◽

pp. 659 ◽

Cited By ~ 75

Author(s):

Kurt D. Fausch ◽

Robert G. Bramblett

Keyword(s):

Great Plains ◽

Fish Communities ◽

Western Great Plains

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Land Use and Family Formation in the Settlement of the US Great Plains

Social Science History ◽

10.1017/s0145553200011834 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 36 (3) ◽

pp. 279-310 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Myron P. Gutmann ◽

Sara M. Pullum-Piñón ◽

Kristine Witkowski ◽

Glenn D. Deane ◽

Emily Merchant

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Great Plains ◽

Agricultural Land ◽

Family Formation ◽

Descriptive Analysis ◽

The United States ◽

Level Data ◽

The Us ◽

Intensive Cropping ◽

Western Great Plains

In agricultural settings, environment shapes patterns of settlement and land use. Using the Great Plains of the United States during the period of its initial Euro-American settlement (1880–1940) as an analytic lens, this article explores whether the same environmental factors that determine settlement timing and land use—those that indicate suitability for crop-based agriculture—also shape initial family formation, resulting in fewer and smaller families in areas that are more conducive to livestock raising than to cropping. The connection between family size and agricultural land availability is now well known, but the role of the environment has not previously been explicitly tested. Descriptive analysis offers initial support for a distinctive pattern of family formation in the western Great Plains, where precipitation is too low to support intensive cropping. However, multivariate analysis using county-level data at 10-year intervals offers only partial support to the hypothesis that environmental characteristics produce these differences. Rather, this analysis has found that the region was also subject to the same long-term social and demographic changes sweeping the rest of the country during this period.

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Diversity, flexibility, and the resilience effect: lessons from a social-ecological case study of diversified farming in the northern Great Plains, USA

Ecology and Society ◽

10.5751/es-06736-190345 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 19 (3) ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Liz Carlisle

Keyword(s):

Great Plains ◽

Northern Great Plains ◽

Social Ecological

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Identifying social–ecological gaps to promote biocrust conservation actions

Web Ecology ◽

10.5194/we-20-117-2020 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 20 (2) ◽

pp. 117-132

Author(s):

María D. López-Rodríguez ◽

Sonia Chamizo ◽

Yolanda Cantón ◽

Emilio Rodriguez-Caballero

Keyword(s):

Management Strategies ◽

Soil Surface ◽

Social Dimension ◽

Ecological Functions ◽

Conservation Policies ◽

Research Areas ◽

Social Ecological ◽

The Social ◽

Conservation Actions ◽

New Research

Abstract. Globally, most bare-looking areas in dryland regions are covered by biocrusts which play a crucial role in modifying several soil surface properties and driving key ecosystem processes. These keystone communities face important threats (e.g. climate change) that place their conservation at risk and in turn the sustainability of the ecosystems they inhabit. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop ecosystem management strategies to ensure their protection. However, to provide a solid path towards biocrust conservation, the understanding by stakeholders and governance structures of the ecological functions of these communities, their role as benefit providers, and the pressures threatening their important effects are indispensable. Whereas the ecological scope of biocrust has been widely studied in the last decades, the social dimension of their role remained unexplored. By reviewing literature in biocrusts from a social–ecological approach, here we identified knowledge gaps and new research areas that need to be addressed in order to produce scientific knowledge that better guides dryland conservation policies and actions. This research agenda is a prerequisite to advance biocrust conservation.

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Qualitative Modelling for Bridging Expert-Knowledge and the Social-Ecological Dynamics of an East African Savanna

10.20944/preprints202111.0569.v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Maximilien Cosme ◽

Christelle Hély ◽

Franck Pommereau ◽

Paolo Pasquariello ◽

Christel Tiberi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Expert Knowledge ◽

Discrete Event ◽

Management Strategies ◽

Dynamic Modelling ◽

Quantitative Information ◽

East African ◽

African Savanna ◽

Qualitative Modelling ◽

Social Ecological ◽

Economic Transitions

Sub-Saharan social-ecological systems are undergoing changes in environmental conditions, including modifications in rainfall pattern and biodiversity loss. Consequences of such changes depend on complex causal chains which call for integrated management strategies whose efficiency could benefit from ecosystem dynamic modelling. However, ecosystem models often require lots of quantitative information for estimating parameters, which is often unavailable. Alternatively, qualitative modelling frameworks have proved useful for explaining ecosystem response to perturbations, while requiring fewer information and providing more general predictions. However, current qualitative methods have some shortcomings which may limit their utility for specific issues. In this paper, we propose the Ecological Discrete-Event Network (EDEN), an innovative qualitative dynamic modelling framework based on "if-then" rules which generates many alternative event sequences (trajectories). Based on expert knowledge, observations and literature, we use this framework to assess the effect of permanent changes in surface water and herbivores diversity on vegetation and socio-economic transitions in an East African savanna. Results show that water availability drives changes in vegetation and socio-economic transitions, while herbivore functional groups had highly contrasted effects depending on the group. This first use of EDEN in a savanna context is promising for bridging expert knowledge and ecosystem modelling.

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Phylogenetic Analysis of Buggy Creek Virus: Evidence for Multiple Clades in the Western Great Plains, United States of America

Applied and Environmental Microbiology ◽

10.1128/aem.00868-06 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 72 (11) ◽

pp. 6886-6893 ◽

Cited By ~ 22

Author(s):

Martin Pfeffer ◽

Jerome E. Foster ◽

Eric A. Edwards ◽

Mary Bomberger Brown ◽

Nicholas Komar ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Phylogenetic Analysis ◽

Great Plains ◽

Passer Domesticus ◽

Viral Envelope ◽

Viral Gene ◽

Insect Vector ◽

Coding Region ◽

Cliff Swallow ◽

Amino Acid Divergence ◽

Western Great Plains

ABSTRACT We present the first detailed phylogenetic analysis of Buggy Creek virus (BCRV), a poorly known alphavirus with transmission cycles involving a cimicid swallow bug (Oeciacus vicarius) vector and cliff swallows (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota) and house sparrows (Passer domesticus) as the principal avian hosts. Nucleotide sequences of a 2,075-bp viral envelope glycoprotein-coding region, covering the entire PE2 gene, were determined for 33 BCRV isolates taken from swallow bugs at cliff swallow colonies in Nebraska and Colorado in the summer of 2001 and were compared with the corresponding region of BCRV isolates collected from Oklahoma in the 1980s. We also analyzed isolates of the closely related Fort Morgan virus (FMV) collected from Colorado in the 1970s. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that BCRV falls into the western equine encephalomyelitis complex of alphaviruses, in agreement with antigenic results and a previous alphavirus phylogeny based on the E1 coding region. We found four distinct BCRV/FMV clades, one each unique to Nebraska, Colorado, and Oklahoma and one containing isolates from both Nebraska and Colorado. BCRV isolates within the two clades from Nebraska showed 5.7 to 6.2% nucleotide divergence and 0.7 to 1.9% amino acid divergence, and within these clades, we found multiple subclades. Nebraska subclades tended to be confined to one or a few cliff swallow colonies that were close to each other in space, although in some cases, near-identical isolates were detected at sites up to 123 km apart. Viral gene flow occurs when cliff swallows move (bugs) between colony sites, and the genetic structure of BCRV may reflect the limited dispersal abilities of its insect vector.

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A Unified Effort to Fight an Enemy of Wheat and Barley: Fusarium Head Blight

Plant Disease ◽

10.1094/pdis-03-12-0291-fe ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 96 (12) ◽

pp. 1712-1728 ◽

Cited By ~ 321

Author(s):

Marcia McMullen ◽

Gary Bergstrom ◽

Erick De Wolf ◽

Ruth Dill-Macky ◽

Don Hershman ◽

...

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Fusarium Head Blight ◽

Great Plains ◽

Plant Disease ◽

Management Strategies ◽

The United States ◽

Export Market ◽

Northern Great Plains ◽

Head Blight ◽

Food And Feed

Wheat and barley are critical food and feed crops around the world. Wheat is grown on more land area worldwide than any other crop. In the United States, production of wheat and barley contributes to domestic food and feed use, and contributes to the export market and balance of trade. Fifteen years ago, Plant Disease published a feature article titled “Scab of wheat and barley: A re-emerging disease of devastating impact”. That article described the series of severe Fusarium head blight (FHB) epidemics that occurred in the United States and Canada, primarily from 1991 through 1996, with emphasis on the unparalleled economic and sociological impacts caused by the 1993 FHB epidemic in spring grains in the Northern Great Plains region. Earlier publications had dealt with the scope and damage caused by this disease in the United States, Canada, Europe, and China. Reviews published after 1997 further described this disease and its impact on North American grain production in the 1990s. This article reviews the disease and documents the information on U.S. FHB epidemics since 1997. The primary goal of this article is to summarize a sustained, coordinated, and collaborative research program that was put in place shortly after the 1993 epidemic, a program intended to quickly lead to improved management strategies and outreach implementation. This program serves as a model to deal with other emerging plant disease threats.

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Ecology and Management of the Western Bean Cutworm (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) in Corn and Dry Beans—Revision With Focus on the Great Lakes Region

Journal of Integrated Pest Management ◽

10.1093/jipm/pmz025 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Jocelyn L Smith ◽

Christina D Difonzo ◽

Tracey S Baute ◽

Andrew P Michel ◽

Christian H Krupke

Keyword(s):

Great Lakes ◽

Great Plains ◽

Geographic Range ◽

Economic Damage ◽

Great Lakes Region ◽

Dry Beans ◽

Eastern Canada ◽

New Information ◽

Western Bean Cutworm ◽

Western Great Plains

Abstract The western bean cutworm, Striacosta albicosta (Smith) is a native North American pest of corn and dry beans. The historical geographic range of the western bean cutworm covered the western Great Plains states including Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming. Since 1999, the geographic range of the western bean cutworm has rapidly expanded eastward across the U.S. Corn Belt and eastern Canada, causing significant and economic damage to corn Zea mays (L.) and dry edible beans Phaseolus spp., in parts of this region. Since 2010, increasing challenges related to managing this pest in its new range prompted numerous research studies that provided new insights into the biology and management of western bean cutworm. This revision of a previous Journal of IPM profile summarizes new information regarding the ecology and biology of western bean cutworm, and discusses updated recommendations for scouting and management in corn and dry beans, with an emphasis in the expanded geographic range of the Great Lakes region.

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