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

2012 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 279-310 ◽  
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.

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

2012 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 279-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. P. Gutmann ◽  
S. M. Pullum-Pinon ◽  
K. Witkowski ◽  
G. D. Deane ◽  
E. Merchant
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Great Plains ◽  
Family Formation ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Great Plains

scholarly journals Do the Quality and Quantity of Honey Bee-Collected Pollen Vary Across an Agricultural Land-Use Gradient?

2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 189-196
Author(s):  
Michael P Simanonok ◽  
Clint R V Otto ◽  
Matthew D Smart
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Protein Content ◽  
Great Plains ◽  
Honey Bees ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
The United States ◽  
Northern Great Plains ◽  
Row Crops ◽  
Growing Seasons ◽  
Flowering Season

Abstract Pollen is the source of protein for most bee species, yet the quality and quantity of pollen is variable across landscapes and growing seasons. Understanding the role of landscapes in providing nutritious forage to bees is important for pollinator health, particularly in areas undergoing significant land-use change such as in the Northern Great Plains (NGP) region of the United States where grasslands are being converted to row crops. We investigated how the quality and quantity of pollen collected by honey bees (Apis mellifera L. [Hymenoptera: Apidae]) changed with land use and across the growing season by sampling bee-collected pollen from apiaries in North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota, USA, throughout the flowering season in 2015–2016. We quantified protein content and quantity of pollen to investigate how they varied temporally and across a land-use gradient of grasslands to row crops. Neither pollen weight nor crude protein content varied linearly across the land-use gradient; however, there were significant interactions between land use and sampling date across the season, particularly in grasslands. Generally, pollen protein peaked mid-July while pollen weight had two maxima in late-June and late-August. Results suggest that while land use itself may not correlate with the quality or quantity of pollen resources collected by honey bees among our study apiaries, the nutritional landscape of the NGP is seasonally dynamic, especially in certain land covers, and may impose seasonal resource limitations for both managed and native bee species. Furthermore, results indicate periods of qualitative and quantitative pollen dearth may not coincide.

scholarly journals Distribution of Gaseous 12CO2, 13CO2, and 14CO2 in the Sub-Soil Unsaturated Zone of the Western US Great Plains

Radiocarbon ◽  
1983 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 315-346 ◽  
Author(s):  
D C Thorstenson ◽  
E P Weeks ◽  
Herbert Haas ◽  
D W Fisher
Keyword(s):  
Great Plains ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Unsaturated Zone ◽  
Diffusion Theory ◽  
The United States ◽  
Atmospheric Gases ◽  
Sources And Sinks ◽  
Western Us ◽  
Partial Pressures ◽  
Western Great Plains

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.

scholarly journals Regional uptake and release of crop carbon in the United States

2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (8) ◽  
pp. 2037-2046 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. O. West ◽  
V. Bandaru ◽  
C. C. Brandt ◽  
A. E. Schuh ◽  
S. M. Ogle
Keyword(s):  
Great Plains ◽  
Carbon Budget ◽  
Supply And Demand ◽  
The United States ◽  
Northern Great Plains ◽  
Agricultural Crops ◽  
Biomass Storage ◽  
The Us ◽  
Import And Export ◽  
Crop Biomass

Abstract. Carbon fixed by agricultural crops in the US creates regional CO2 sinks where it is harvested and regional CO2 sources where it is released back to the atmosphere. The quantity and location of these fluxes differ depending on the annual supply and demand of crop commodities. Data on the harvest of crop biomass, storage, import and export, and on the use of biomass for food, feed, fiber, and fuel were compiled to estimate an annual crop carbon budget for 2000 to 2008. With respect to US Farm Resource Regions, net sources of CO2 associated with the consumption of crop commodities occurred in the Eastern Uplands, Southern Seaboard, and Fruitful Rim regions. Net sinks associated with the production of crop commodities occurred in the Heartland, Northern Great Plains, and Mississippi Portal regions. The national crop carbon budget was balanced to within 0.3 to 6.1 % yr−1 during the period of this analysis.

Adaptation with climate uncertainty: An examination of agricultural land use in the United States

2018 ◽  
Vol 77 ◽  
pp. 392-401 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianhong E. Mu ◽  
Bruce A. McCarl ◽  
Benjamin Sleeter ◽  
John T. Abatzoglou ◽  
Hongliang Zhang
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
The United States ◽  
Agricultural Land Use ◽  
Climate Uncertainty

scholarly journals Economics of Compensation in Development Rights Programs

1975 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-194
Author(s):  
Barry C. Field ◽  
Jon M. Conrad
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Urban Sprawl ◽  
Land Use Planning ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
The United States ◽  
Industrial Property ◽  
Planning And Control ◽  
The Face ◽  
And Control ◽  
Market Pressures

Interest in land-use planning and control in the United States has recently shifted to a variety of non-conventional tools in an attempt to attain results that have eluded older techniques such as traditional zoning. A major land-use objective has been to continue certain existing land uses in the face of market pressures to convert to more intensive uses. This has been the case, for example, with ecologically fragile areas such as wetlands, or environmentally valuable areas such as scenic land, which are also economically attractive for development into housing or industrial property. In recent years interest has also turned to preservation of agricultural land, particularly in areas near urban concentrations that are feeling the effects of urban sprawl.

scholarly journals How emissions, climate, and land use change will impact mid-century air quality over the United States: a focus on effects at National Parks

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (19) ◽  
pp. 26495-26543 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Val Martin ◽  
C. L. Heald ◽  
J.-F. Lamarque ◽  
S. Tilmes ◽  
L. K. Emmons ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
National Parks ◽  
Land Use Changes ◽  
The United States ◽  
Western Us ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Epa ◽  
Surface O3

Abstract. We use a global coupled chemistry-climate-land model (CESM) to assess the integrated effect of climate, emissions and land use changes on annual surface O3 and PM2.5 on the United States with a focus on National Parks (NPs) and wilderness areas, using the RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 projections. We show that, when stringent domestic emission controls are applied, air quality is predicted to improve across the US, except surface O3 over the western and central US under RCP8.5 conditions, where rising background ozone counteracts domestic emissions reductions. Under the RCP4.5, surface O3 is substantially reduced (about 5 ppb), with daily maximum 8 h averages below the primary US EPA NAAQS of 75 ppb (and even 65 ppb) in all the NPs. PM2.5 is significantly reduced in both scenarios (4 μg m−3; ~50%), with levels below the annual US EPA NAAQS of 12 μg m−3 across all the NPs; visibility is also improved (10–15 deciviews; >75 km in visibility range), although some parks over the western US (40–74% of total sites in the US) may not reach the 2050 target to restore visibility to natural conditions by 2064. We estimate that climate-driven increases in fire activity may dominate summertime PM2.5 over the western US, potentially offsetting the large PM2.5 reductions from domestic emission controls, and keeping visibility at present-day levels in many parks. Our study suggests that air quality in 2050 will be primarily controlled by anthropogenic emission patterns. However, climate and land use changes alone may lead to a substantial increase in surface O3 (2–3 ppb) with important consequences for O3 air quality and ecosystem degradation at the US NPs. Our study illustrates the need to consider the effects of changes in climate, vegetation, and fires in future air quality management and planning and emission policy making.

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