This study utilized long-term daily precipitation and snow-water equivalent (SWE) data derived from the Natural Resources Conservation Service’s Snow Telemetry Network (SNOTEL). All existing SNOTEL sites in the Olympic, Coast and Cascade ranges in Washington (n = 66) and Oregon (n = 52) and in the California Sierra Nevada (n...
Snowpack impacts and trends in precipitation regimes are investigated for the mountainous western United States from water years 1984–2016. The vast majority of snow trend studies utilize undifferentiated air temperature records, which do not segregate between days with and without precipitation and effectually dilute temperature trends relevant for snowpack monitoring....
1. A rational conservation program for such migratory fishes as the salmon must be based on a knowledge of (a) whether or not the species consists of local, self-perpetuating populations and (b) the nature and extent of the oceanic migrations.
2. The conservation of a species that is broken up...
Earth’s atmosphere is unequivocally warming due to CO₂ and other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from human activities and this is having widespread impacts on forest ecosystems that provide important services to human societies. Forest ecosystems help regulate atmospheric CO2 concentrations by sequestering carbon in tree biomass and soils, which is...
Large ensembles of regional climate simulations were generated from the weather@home distributed volunteer computing project over the western US domain. Weather@home uses the U.K. Met Office Hadley Centre’s regional climate model HadRM3P (~0.22°) nested within the atmospheric global model HadAM3P (1.875 longitude° by 1.25 latitude°). Simulations from HadRM3P were evaluated...
The aggregate industry is responsible for the extraction and production of crushed stone, sand, and gravel— the literal building blocks of our society. Across the U.S. there are tens of thousands of quarries and sand and gravel pits, the majority of which are left abandoned or with minimal reclamation efforts....
Forest disturbances, such as wildfires, pine beetle outbreaks, and floods are important features of many landscapes and ecosystems. Many disturbances are increasing in size, frequency, and intensity due to changing climates and land management decisions. The changing ecological and aesthetic conditions following a disturbance can lead to negative short- and...
American pikas (Ochotona princeps) are considered an indicator species of climate change. Adaptations for cold climates and active winters make pikas particularly sensitive to increasing temperatures. This, combined with evidence that multiple historically occupied populations have been extirpated within the past century, contributed to American pikas becoming a focal species...
