Brockport Earth Sciences Faculty Publications
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12648/1948
2024-03-10T16:55:47Z
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Sedge/Grass Meadow Restoration on Former Agricultural Lands along a Lake Ontario Drowned-River-Mouth Tributary
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12648/7751
Sedge/Grass Meadow Restoration on Former Agricultural Lands along a Lake Ontario Drowned-River-Mouth Tributary
Wilcox, Douglas A.; Healy, Alexander J.
Restoration of sedge/grass meadow habitat was implemented on former agricultural lands adjacent to a Lake Ontario
drowned-river-mouth tributary at an elevation that historically supports this community type. Four hectares of land
were disked in spring and seeded with diverse wetland mixes containing sedges, grasses, and forbs, with additional
Calamagrostis canadensis (bluejoint) and Carex stricta (upright sedge) seeds added. Seedling plugs of C. canadensis and
C. stricta were also planted. Mowing at a height of 45 cm to control tall, invasive annual weeds prior to seed-set was
conducted as an adaptive management practice. Three years after implementation, C. canadensis and C. stricta were not
found, but seeded Carex vulpinoidea (fox sedge) was dominant, and seeded Carex lupulina (hop sedge) and Carex lurida
(shallow sedge) were also present. Most invasive annuals were rare, but canopies created by larger perennials may pose
future problems. Although a greenhouse seed-bank emergence study was conducted, field sampling suggested that
plants growing on adjacent lands were a better predictor of future plant communities, with select seeded species serving
as a secondary predictor. Failure of some sedges to survive after seeding likely was not related to stratification or diurnal
temperature range. However, inadequate soil moisture related to soil type and a second-year drought likely played a role,
as might loss of viability of seeds during storage. Future efforts on similar lands might use fresh Carex seeds broadcast in
autumn for over-winter stratification, and specially developed seed mixes could focus on species that established at the
site and native species found nearby, while avoiding some potential problem species.
2016-01-01T00:00:00Z
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INTEGRATING WEIGHTED FLOW ACCUMULATION AND AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY FOR DESCRIBING OVERLAND FLOW PATHS: A CASE STUDY IN WESTERN NEW YORK
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12648/7750
INTEGRATING WEIGHTED FLOW ACCUMULATION AND AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY FOR DESCRIBING OVERLAND FLOW PATHS: A CASE STUDY IN WESTERN NEW YORK
Richards, Paul L.; lin, Brenda B.; Noll, Mark
Field measurements of overland runoff and aerial photographs were analyzed in Black Creek
watershed (western New York State), to determine if a topographically based loading model could be used to
identify overland flow paths in order to rank stream segments for prioritization for nutrient remediation. Discharge
and phosphorous concentration were measured at twelve sites to compute the frequency of overland flow,
approximate volume of overland flow and flux of phosphorous at each site. Using these metrics, sites were ranked
according to their phosphorous contribution to the stream network. Although a nonparametric correlation of
observed and modeled rankings suggests that flow accumulation did an inadequate job of ranking the sites, valuable
management information on hydrologic connectivity was acquired by identifying where the model did not perform
well. An analysis of the model showed that the performance of the weighted flow accumulation model was due
primarily to its inaccuracy in estimating contributing area. The field and aerial assessments suggest that subtle
anthropogenic changes to topography and hydrography, which altered surface flow paths, were the primary cause of
this inaccuracy. These changes were not represented at the resolution of the USGS 10-meter DEM used in the
model, either because the landscape modification took place after the source material for the DEM was created or
the resolution was too low. In descending order of importance, topographic alterations include road and driveway
berms, drainage ditches, stream straightening and stream squaring. One other modification type, tile drains, was
important for changing the catchment area of overland flows. These features have an enormous impact on surface
flow paths in the study area and were found to be important in controlling hydrologic 'connectivity' to the stream
network. Identifying where these features impact surface flow paths is critical information in Best Management
Practice (BMP) prioritization. Although the flow accumulation model did not accurately assess overland flow paths
well enough to rank stream segments sufficiently for buffer prioritization, useful information was gleaned by
overlaying the results of the model on aerial photographs and conducting field assessments. The ease with which
this model approach can be carried out, requiring no calibration and needing spatial data that are available in
practically all areas, make it a very effective tool for watershed planning. The study underscores the importance
that anthropogenic alterations of the landscape have on hydrology and the need for better digital elevation products
that represent these features.
2013-01-01T00:00:00Z
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The Role of Sublimational Cooling in a Late-Season Midwestern Snow Event
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12648/2195
The Role of Sublimational Cooling in a Late-Season Midwestern Snow Event
Market, Patrick S.; Przybylinksi, Ronald W.; Rochette, Scott M.
Analysis is provided of a surprise late-season snow event over eastern Missouri and western Illinois. While snow totals failed to exceed 15 cm (6 in.) at any single location, the system was noteworthy because of the poor performance of public, private, and media forecasts in anticipating the event. Using observed data and a successful simulation with a mesoscale numerical model, the event is scrutinized to determine the forcing mechanisms for the precipitation over a small area. A region of enhanced frontogenesis is diagnosed over the region both in the observed data as well as the model output. That the precipitation fell as snow is shown to be the result of a dry layer of air between the surface and the cloud base that saturated and cooled due largely to snow sublimation–evaporation in just a few hours to permit the fall of snow uninhibited from the cloud base to the ground.
Copyright 2006 American Meteorological Society (AMS). Permission to use figures, tables, and brief excerpts from this work in scientific and educational works is hereby granted provided that the source is acknowledged. Any use of material in this work that is determined to be “fair use” under Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act September 2010 Page 2 or that satisfies the conditions specified in Section 108 of the U.S. Copyright Act (17 USC §108, as revised by P.L. 94-553) does not require the AMS’s permission. Republication, systematic reproduction, posting in electronic form, such as on a web site or in a searchable database, or other uses of this material, except as exempted by the above statement, requires written permission or a license from the AMS. Additional details are provided in the AMS Copyright Policy, available on the AMS Web site located at (http://www.ametsoc.org/) or from the AMS at 617-227-2425 or copyright@ametsoc.org.
2006-06-01T00:00:00Z
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Extracting Spatiotemporal Objects From Raster Data To Represent Physical Features and Analyze Related Processes
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12648/2196
Extracting Spatiotemporal Objects From Raster Data To Represent Physical Features and Analyze Related Processes
Zollweg, James A.
Numerous ground-based, airborne, and orbiting platforms provide remotely-sensed data of remarkable spatial resolution at short time intervals. However, this spatiotemporal data is most valuable if it can be processed into information, thereby creating meaning. We live in a world of objects: cars, buildings, farms, etc. On a stormy day, we don’t see millions of cubes of atmosphere; we see a thunderstorm ‘object’. Temporally, we don’t see the properties of those individual cubes changing, we see the thunderstorm as a whole evolving and moving. There is a need to represent the bulky, raw spatiotemporal data from remote sensors as a small number of relevant spatiotemporal objects, thereby matching the human brain’s perception of the world. This presentation reveals an efficient algorithm and system to extract the objects/features from raster-formatted remotely-sensed data. The system makes use of the Python object-oriented programming language, SciPy/NumPy for matrix manipulation and scientific computation, and export/import to the GeoJSON standard geographic object data format. The example presented will show how thunderstorms can be identified and characterized in a spatiotemporal continuum using a Python program to process raster data from NOAA’s High-Resolution Rapid Refresh v2 (HRRRv2) data stream.
This contribution has been peer-reviewed. The double-blind peer-review was conducted on the basis of the full paper. https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-annals-IV-4-W2-87-2017 | © Authors 2017. CC BY 4.0 License.
2017-01-01T00:00:00Z