Research and Publications - Department of Geography
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Item Alabama Forest Owner's Guide to Information Resources: Help for the Small LandownerSandy, John H.; University of Alabama TuscaloosaItem Author Catalog of the Peat Research Collection at the University of Minnesota DuluthSandy, John H.; Hendrickson, Susan; Hauck, Barbara; Weber, Frances; University of Alabama TuscaloosaItem A baseline analysis of marine debris on southern islands of Belize(Pergamon, 2021) Blanke, Jayla M.; Steinberg, Michael K.; Donlevy, James P.; University of Alabama TuscaloosaMarine debris is a global issue with acute impacts. Using beach transect surveys, this study investigates debris prevalence on 7 islands in the Caribbean country of Belize. 1754 items were cataloged based on object size, form, material, condition, and economic use. Most of the litter was plastics (68.1%). Styrofoam was the second highest in abundance (9.46%), followed by foam/rubber items (8.04%), glass (3.82%), metal (2.57%), and aluminum (1.94%). Most litter was associated with an urban source (74.8%), while 4.2% and 2.1% were linked to industrial and fishing activities respectively. This study provides a novel baseline for future studies in the scarcely studied region, especially as Belize's economy continues in the conscious shift away from single-use plastic and styrofoam products.Item Book Review of Ever the Land: A Homestead Chronicle(2022) Sandy, John H.; University of Alabama TuscaloosaA book review of Ever the Land: A Homestead Chronicle, by Ruben L. Parson. A retired St. Cloud State University professor, Parson relates the life of his family on a homestead in Otter Tail County, Minnesota, during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Parson’s grandfather, Pehr Pehrson, and his wife, Anna, and two young daughters emigrated from Sweden in 1869. They were among the first pioneers to settle in the wilderness of west-central Minnesota.Item Care for the Commodity? The Work of Saving Succulents in the Laboratory(De Gruyter, 2021) Margulies, JaredItem Characterization of Geographical Aspects of the Landscape and Environment in the Area of the Little Bighorn Battlefield, MontanaSandy, John H.; University of Alabama TuscaloosaOn June 24, 1876, a large military force of the United States Army 7th Cavalry converged on the lower Little Bighorn Valley in the Montana Territory, aiming to capture a large number of Native Americans. A major military battle ensued over the following two days. The landscape near the Little Bighorn Battlefield is both gentle and very rugged. The upland to the east of the Little Bighorn Valley is highly dissected by a complex drainage system, consisting of ravines, coulees, and ridges. Elevations from the valley floor to the upland change as much as 340 feet. The slope in parts of the upland is greater than 10 degrees, and in rugged areas of the bluffs and along some ravines and other erosional features in excess of 30 degrees. The Little Bighorn Valley itself is a gentle northward sloping plain, with the Little Bighorn River flowing to the east side of the valley adjacent to the upland. Local vegetation of the area is highly diverse, bearing a close relationship to the physiographic features, hydrology, and climate of this area. Certain characteristics of the Little Bighorn River and the bordering riparian zone add to the diversity of the landscape. A brief analysis suggests ways that elements of the landscape and environment affected the course of the battle.Item The Colorado and Virgin Rivers before Lake Mead(Taylor & Francis, 2018) Weber, Joe; University of Alabama TuscaloosaIn 1936, the completion of Hoover Dam on the Colorado River in Nevada and Arizona created Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the United States. When the lake reached capacity in 1941 several canyons and valleys were flooded, along with two towns, several mines, farm fields, and roads. The area had not been surveyed archaeologically and little detailed information exists about the vegetation and geology of this region. The map reconstructions the geography of the area in 1930 before Lake Mead was constructed, showing roads, towns, mines, physical features, and private property, and was created using a range of historical United States Geological Survey (USGS) maps, a digital elevation model (DEM) providing underwater elevations, and other historical sources. The map includes portions of southern Nevada and northwest Arizona, United States, and is at a scale of 1: 210,000. It is hoped that the map may draw attention to the lost geographies of other localities across the United States due to the more than 84,000 dams and reservoirs in the country.Item Crop climate suitability mapping on the cloud: a geovisualization application for sustainable agriculture(Nature Portfolio, 2020) Peter, Brad G.; Messina, Joseph P.; Lin, Zihan; Snapp, Sieglinde S.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa; Michigan State UniversityClimate change, food security, and environmental sustainability are pressing issues faced by today's global population. As production demands increase and climate threatens crop productivity, agricultural research develops innovative technologies to meet these challenges. Strategies include biodiverse cropping arrangements, new crop introductions, and genetic modification of crop varieties that are resilient to climatic and environmental stressors. Geography in particular is equipped to address a critical question in this pursuit-when and where can crop system innovations be introduced? This manuscript presents a case study of the geographic scaling potential utilizing common bean, delivers an open access Google Earth Engine geovisualization application for mapping the fundamental climate niche of any crop, and discusses food security and legume biodiversity in Sub-Saharan Africa. The application is temporally agile, allowing variable growing season selections and the production of 'living maps' that are continually producible as new data become available. This is an essential communication tool for the future, as practitioners can evaluate the potential geographic range for newly-developed, experimental, and underrepresented crop varieties for facilitating sustainable and innovative agroecological solutions.Item Does the Future Look Irrigated? Evaluating the Likelihood of Irrigation Adoption Within Alabama(2024) Pathak, Ruchie; Magliocca, Nicholas R.; Kumar, Mukesh; Rathore, Lokendra; Moradkhani, HamidFarmers have time and again adopted new methods or technologies. However, recent increases in global temperatures and occurrences of extreme weather events, call for an urgency to address and reduce the risks associated with climate change. Irrigation is a key adaptation that reduces crop heat stress and enhances agricultural production. Alabama is considered water-rich but lately has experienced increased rainfall variability and temperature extremes. Various state-wide initiatives to increase irrigation have been implemented, but adoption remains limited. Existing studies have explored factors influencing irrigation uptake, but none have engaged in a state-level assessment of its adoption potential. In this study, we provide spatially explicit estimates of the potential to implement irrigation practices across the state. Moreover, we derive an irrigation adoption index map for Alabama to identify areas where implementation is more or less likely based on a multi-criteria analysis. The results highlight a large potential for expansion in areas that have high shares of existing irrigation. Such an analysis can enable targeted mobilization of resources towards areas where uptake is currently low but feasible through increased adaptation efforts. Additionally, these estimates can be further used to evaluate future water demands or conduct other regional analyses.Item Effects of Forest Roads on Runoff Initiation in Low-Order Ephemeral Streams(American Geophysical Union, 2018-11-05) Ramos-Scharron, C. E.; LaFevor, M. C.; University of Texas System; University of Texas Austin; University of Alabama TuscaloosaUnderstanding hydrologic connectivity is essential for managing ephemeral head water streams where upstream land use influences downstream aquatic habitats. This study relies on a field-based approach to evaluate how precipitation and roads affect runoff generation in low-order ephemeral streams of the U.S. Virgin Islands. Logistic regression analyses show that runoff delivery from unroaded catchments agrees with a water storage conceptual model typical for subsurface storm and saturation overland flow-dominated settings. Without roads, runoff occurs only about 4 times per year in response to 10 and 78 mm of storm rainfall, depending on antecedent precipitation. In contrast, maximum 15-min rainfall intensities are a better predictor of runoff generation on unpaved roads than are total rainfall and antecedent conditions. Intensities surpassing similar to 10 mm/hr lead to road runoff, and this occurs about 40 times per year. Road-influenced streams represent an intermediate setting for which runoff generation depends on storm and antecedent rainfall, as well as the road surface area captured by drains and flow path distance. In our focus area, roads can provoke streams to deliver runoff to coral bearing waters 10 to 13 times every year as a response to 9.3- to 50-mm storms, depending on antecedent rainfall and road drain characteristics. These results highlight the sensitivity of road connectivity to specific road drain characteristics and display the potential for connectivity as a guiding watershed restoration principle.Item Extinctionscapes: Spatializing the commodification of animal lives and afterlives in conservation landscapes(Routledge, 2021-01-22) Bersaglio, Brock; Margulies, Jared; University of Birmingham; University of Alabama TuscaloosaThis article advances a more-than-human perspective on geographies of death and dying, engaging with extinctionscapes as spaces where the memorialization of nonhuman life generates affective and commodifiable experiences with species loss in conservation landscapes. Bringing geographical concepts, such as absence-presence, into conversation with recent literature on lively commodities, we describe how animals at the threshold of life and death are made to work for conservation as well as how their afterlives are subjected to ongoing forms of commodification through acts of memorialization in landscape. Specifically, our analysis focuses on the stories of three rhinos at a conservancy in Kenya to consider the themes of death and dying, value, and commodification in relation to endangered species conservation. By situating the lives and afterlives of these rhinos in the history of settler colonialism and capitalism in Kenya, we examine how commodification, as a social and cultural process, becomes entangled with the corporeal and discorporate lives of animals and contributes to the reproduction of historic injustices through extinctionscapes. Ultimately, we argue for ongoing critical engagement with the amorphous borderland of life and death in geographies of conservation, which represents an important space of biopolitics and commodification.Item FIRE IN EASTERN NORTH AMERICAN OAK ECOSYSTEMS: FILLING THE GAPS(Springer, 2016) Varner, J. Morgan; Arthur, Mary A.; Clark, Stacy L.; Dey, Daniel C.; Hart, Justin L.; Schweitzer, Callie J.; Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University; University of Kentucky; United States Department of Agriculture (USDA); United States Forest Service; University of Alabama TuscaloosaThis special issue of Fire Ecology is focused on the fire ecology of eastern USA oak (Quercus L.) forests, woodlands, and savannas. The papers were presented as part of the Fifth Fire in Eastern Oak Forests Conference in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA, in 2015. The topic of fire in Eastern oak ecosystems is one that has received insufficient interest from the broader fire ecology community. Specific papers in this issue address the historical role of fire in the region, the response and adaptations of plant and animal species to fire and fuels treatments, and the future of these important ecosystems under a future of global change. We hope that this issue provokes future research on the past, present, and future of fire in eastern North American oak ecosystems.Item Glaciers and Glaciation in North America(2022) Sandy, John H.; University of Alabama TuscaloosaItem Impacts of streamflow alteration on benthic macroinvertebrates by mini-hydro diversion in Sri Lanka(Nature Portfolio, 2021) Munasinghe, Dinuke S. N.; Najim, Mohamed M. M.; Quadroni, Silvia; Musthafa, Muneeb M.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa; University Kelaniya; South Eastern University of Sri Lanka; University of InsubriaOur study focused on quantifying the alterations of streamflow at a weir site due to the construction of a mini-hydropower plant in the Gurugoda Oya (Sri Lanka), and evaluating the spatial responses of benthic macroinvertebrates to altered flow regime. The HEC-HMS 3.5 model was applied to the Gurugoda Oya sub-catchment to generate streamflows for the time period 1991-2013. Pre-weir flows were compared to post-weir flows with 32 Indicators of Hydrologic Alteration using the range of variability approach (RVA). Concurrently, six study sites were established upstream and downstream of the weir, and benthic macroinvertebrates were sampled monthly from May to November 2013 (during the wet season). The key water physico-chemical parameters were also determined. RVA analysis showed that environmental flow was not maintained below the weir. The mean rate of non-attainment was similar to 45% suggesting a moderate level of hydrologic alteration. Benthic macroinvertebrate communities significantly differed between the study sites located above and below the weir, with a richness reduction due to water diversion. The spatial distribution of zoobenthic fauna was governed by water depth, dissolved oxygen content and volume flow rate. Our work provides first evidence on the effects of small hydropower on river ecosystem in a largely understudied region. Studies like this are important to setting-up adequate e-flows.Item Indian and White in Happy Valley: Long Prairie(2023) Sandy, John H.Item Korean ‘Housewives’ and ‘Hipsters’ Are Not Driving a New Illicit Plant Trade: Complicating Consumer Motivations Behind an Emergent Wildlife Trade in Dudleya farinosa(2020) Margulies, Jared; University of Alabama TuscaloosaIllegal trade in wild plants receives less scientific and policy attention than illegal trade in wild animals and animal-derived products. One exception to this generalizable trend is the recent emergence of an illegal trade in the California succulent species Dudleya farinosa. US officials and mainstream media reporting on these incidents suggest the final destination of these plants is succulent consumer markets in South Korea and other East Asian countries. It is believed that this illegal trade emerged in response to sudden and widespread consumer demand for succulents due to: (1) the increasing popularity of succulent plants in mainstream South Korean and East Asian cultures writ large; and (2) the preferential valuing of ‘wild’ versus cultivated plants by succulent consumers. Based on findings from content analysis of media reports and in-depth qualitative interviews in California and South Korea, I argue instead for a more nuanced perspective of the drivers of this emergent trade, with the primary motivational desire for these plants coming from a selective and highly skilled community of succulent enthusiasts, rather than mainstream plant consumer groups. In presenting these findings I demonstrate the importance of in-depth, critical qualitative research for exploring the emergence of particular trades in wildlife in order to inform more sustainable and legal trades. I clarify the primary drivers of this new trade in Dudleya farinosa as an illegal but logical response to the economics and temporalities of plant trade. I offer suggestions on how these findings can inform more sustainable solutions to the illicit extraction of wild plants in meeting consumer demand.Item Leveraging big data for public health: Mapping malaria vector suitability in Malawi with Google Earth Engine(PLOS, 2020) Frake, April N.; Peter, Brad G.; Walker, Edward D.; Messina, Joseph P.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa; Michigan State UniversityIn an era of big data, the availability of satellite-derived global climate, terrain, and land cover imagery presents an opportunity for modeling the suitability of malaria disease vectors at fine spatial resolutions, across temporal scales, and over vast geographic extents. Leveraging cloud-based geospatial analytical tools, we present an environmental suitability model that considers water resources, flow accumulation areas, precipitation, temperature, vegetation, and land cover. In contrast to predictive models generated using spatially and temporally discontinuous mosquito presence information, this model provides continuous fine-spatial resolution information on the biophysical drivers of suitability. For the purposes of this study the model is parameterized forAnopheles gambiaes.s. in Malawi for the rainy (December-March) and dry seasons (April-November) in 2017; however, the model may be repurposed to accommodate different mosquito species, temporal periods, or geographical boundaries. Final products elucidate the drivers and potential habitat ofAnopheles gambiaes.s. Rainy season results are presented by quartile of precipitation; Quartile four (Q4) identifies areas most likely to become inundated and shows 7.25% of Malawi exhibits suitable water conditions (water only) forAnopheles gambiaes.s., approximately 16% for water plus another factor, and 8.60% is maximally suitable, meeting suitability thresholds for water presence, terrain characteristics, and climatic conditions. Nearly 21% of Malawi is suitable for breeding based on land characteristics alone and 28.24% is suitable according to climate and land characteristics. Only 6.14% of the total land area is suboptimal. Dry season results show 25.07% of the total land area is suboptimal or unsuitable. Approximately 42% of Malawi is suitable based on land characteristics alone during the dry season, and 13.11% is suitable based on land plus another factor. Less than 2% meets suitability criteria for climate, water, and land criteria. Findings illustrate environmental drivers of suitability for malaria vectors, providing an opportunity for a more comprehensive approach to malaria control that includes not only modeled species distributions, but also the underlying drivers of suitability for a more effective approach to environmental management.Item Library Resources for Owners of Minnesota’s Private Woodlands(1991-04-10) Sandy, John H.Item Long Prairie River Region: Natural Environment and Land Use(2022) Sandy, John H.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa