Videos
Creating a Mobile Experience for the Explore Natural Communities Website
Judy Teague - Senior Ecologist, Allen Ansellmo - Software Engineer, Erin Jones - Vegetation Ecologist, Dave Hauver - Software Engineer Natureserve, Diane Pavek - Research Coordinator, Ann Gallagher - Science Education Coordinator, Urban Ecology Research Learning Alliance, NPS National Capital Region
Japanese American Veterans Association Oral History Topic
Amber Cohen - Graduate Student, University of Maryland
Partnering for Climate Change Communication in the National Capital Region
Jenell M. Walsh -Thomas, Melissa A. Clark, and Lindsey Beall, Graduate Students, George Mason University, Center for Climate Change Communication
Japanese-American Veterans Association Oral History Project
National Capital Region, Communications and Anthropology Programs. The Japanese American Veterans Association Oral History Project was initiated by the National Capital Regional Office’s Communication Department. The project’s goal was to record the oral histories of a group of Japanese Americans who were interned during WWII at sites that are now NPS units. These videos allow those who witnessed history tell their story of loyalty in the face of discrimination. This poster will include videos of the interviews.
Partnering for Climate Change Communication in the National Capital Region
The Climate Change Communication Intern Program. In 2012, the Urban Ecology Research Learning Alliance in the National Capital Region and the Center for Climate Change Communication (4C) formed a partnership to communicate about local climate change impacts on natural and cultural resources. The partnership supports NCR parks in telling their climate change stories. The internship involves eight interdisciplinary undergraduate and graduate interns. NPS and 4C mentors work with interns to develop outreach and education products, which leverage traditional and emerging communication modes. Products have addressed communication needs, structured web resources, and connected visitor experiences with park-specific climate change impacts. Interns have developed wayside content, webpages, social media posts, videos, infographics, and interpretive tools. We have evaluated materials informally and formally through presentations to park staff and surveys in NCR. We see this program’s success as a model for other regions, agencies, and NGO’s as a method to start discussions with stakeholders about localized climate impacts.
Appalachian LCC Conservation Design
A phased, multi-year effort by Clemson researchers and technical teams is analyzing terrestrial and aquatic resources within the Appalachian LCC geography to help identify places where conservation efforts will be most strategic and effective in achieving conservation goals.
Initial Consultations
Check out recorded videos, PowerPoint presentations, and notes from previous phase 1 consultations with technical experts across the Appalachians to refine the Appalachian LCC conservation design.
Imperiled Aquatic Species Conservation Strategy for the Upper Tennessee River Basin
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, with assistance and guidance from the U.S. Geological Survey, states, and other partners, has developed a cost-effective conservation strategy for 36 imperiled freshwater fish and mussel species in the 22,360 square-mile Upper Tennessee River Basin.
A SOCIAL TRAP ANALYSIS OF THE LOS ANGELES STORM DRAIN SYSTEM: A RATIONALE FOR INTERVENTIONS
The principles of analyzing social traps can be used to devise intervention strategies for the problems of toxic and solid waste dumping into the Los Angeles storm water drain system. Both problems readily fit into the social trap model. Intervention strategies center on 1) bringing long-term negative consequences to bear on behavioral choices of offenders, 2) increasing short-term positive consequences for correct behaviors, 3) decreasing short-term negative consequences that prevent correct behaviors, 4) increasing short-term negative consequences for environmentally destructive behaviors, 5) decreasing short-term positive consequences that support inappropriate behaviors, and 6) educating the public on the long-term positive consequences of appropriate behaviors.
Land use efficiency: anticipating future demand for land-sector greenhouse gas emissions abatement and managing trade-offs with agriculture, water, and biodiversity
Competition for land is increasing, and policy needs to ensure the efficient supply of multiple ecosystem services from land systems. We modelled the spatially explicit potential future supply of ecosystem services in Australia’s intensive agricultural land in response to carbon markets under four global outlooks from 2013 to 2050. We assessed the productive efficiency of greenhouse gas emissions abatement, agricultural production, water resources, and biodiversity services and compared these to production possibility frontiers (PPFs). While interacting commodity markets and carbon markets produced efficient outcomes for agricultural production and emissions abatement, more efficient outcomes were possible for water resources and biodiversity services due to weak price signals. However, when only two objectives were considered as per typical efficiency assessments, efficiency improvements involved significant unintended trade-offs for the other objectives and incurred substantial opportunity costs. Considering multiple objectives simultaneously enabled the identification of land use arrangements that were efficient over multiple ecosystem services. Efficient land use arrangements could be selected that meet society’s preferences for ecosystem service provision from land by adjusting the metric used to combine multiple services. To effectively manage competition for land via land use efficiency, market incentives are needed that effectively price multiple ecosystem services.
METABOLISM AS A CURRENCY AND CONSTRAINT IN ECOLOGY Temperature dependence of trophic interactions are driven by asymmetry of species responses and foraging strategy
We test for the existence of asymmetries in consumer–resource thermal responses by analy- sing an extensive database on thermal response curves of ecological traits for 309 species spanning 15 orders of magnitude in body size from terrestrial, marine and freshwater habitats. We find that asymmetries in consumer–resource thermal responses are likely to be a common occurrence.Overall, our study reveals the importance of asymmetric thermal responses in consumer–resource dynamics. In particular, we identify three general types of asymmetries: (i) different levels of performance of the response, (ii) different rates of response (e.g. activation energies) and (iii) different peak or optimal temperatures. Such asymmetries should occur more frequently as the climate changes and species’ geographical distributions and phenologies are altered, such that previously noninteracting species come into contact.By using characteristics of trophic interactions that are often well known, such as body size, foraging strategy, thermy and environmental temperature, our framework should allow more accurate predictions about the thermal dependence of consumer–resource interactions. Ultimately, integration of our theory into models of food web and ecosystem dynamics should be useful in understanding how natural systems will respond to current and future temperature change.
Effect of fine wood on juvenile brown trout behaviour in experimental stream channels
In-stream wood can increase shelter availability and prey abundance for stream-living fish such as brown trout, Salmo trutta, but the input of wood to streams has decreased in recent years due to harvesting of riparian vegetation. During the last decades, fine wood (FW) has been increasingly used for biofuel, and the input of FW to streams may therefore decrease. Although effects of in-stream FW have not been studied as extensively as those of large wood (LW), it is probably important as shelter for small-sized trout. In a laboratory stream experiment, we tested the behavioural response of young-of-the-year wild brown trout to three densities of FW, with trout tested alone and in groups of four. Video recordings were used to measure the proportion of time allocated to sheltering, cruising and foraging, as well as the number of aggressive interactions and prey attacks. Cruising activity increased with decreasing FW density and was higher in the four-fish groups than when fish were alone. Foraging decreased and time spent sheltering in FW increased with increasing FW density. Our study shows that juvenile trout activity is higher in higher fish densities and that trout response to FW is related to FW density and differs from the response to LW as reported by others.
Data Needs Assessment Foundational Research
The Data Needs Assessment research project was undertaken to review a variety of resources on conservation planning - such as datasets and tools - and provide packages of products, data, and identified gaps to improve conservation planning in the Appalachian LCC. A suite of core conservation planning products and data from principal investigators at Clemson University are found below. These products and information generated from this foundational assessment were incorporated into the Interactive Conservation Planning and Design effort and in the drafting of the regional conservation plan for the Cooperative.
Conservation Planning and Design: NatureScape
The Appalachian NatureScape Design incorporates and models newly developed data and information from all Appalachian LCC funded research projects as well as key existing datasets from partners to produce a series of maps that integrate aquatic connectivity with terrestrial significant habitats to guide conservation planning and decision making.
