Recent climate change forecasts have aroused growing interest in the influence of water
scarcity and climate on agricultural production and irrigation practice. However, it is common in
the economic literature to aggregate disparate crops when modeling irrigation choices. That
approach confounds the crop-specific effects of climate and water scarcity that...
In western North America, snow provides crucial storage of winter precipitation, effectively transferring water from the relatively wet winter season to the typically dry summers. Manual and telemetered measurements of spring snow-pack, corroborated by a physically based hydrologic model, are examined here for climate-driven fluctuations and trends during the period...
Hindcast and 21st century winds, simulated by General Circulation Models (GCMs), were used to drive global- and regional-scale spectral wind-wave generation models in the Pacific Ocean Basin to assess future wave conditions along the margins of the North American west coast and Hawaiian Islands. Three-hourly winds simulated by four separate...
Large river basins integrate the signal of water from atmospheres to oceans. Climate change is widely expected to alter streamflow and potentially disrupt water management systems. We tested the ecological resilience -- capacity of headwater ecosystems to sustain streamflow under climate change – and the engineering resilience – capacity of...
We investigated the effects of climate on the growth of red alder across a broad latitudinal gradient and over a wide range of growing conditions in the Pacific Northwest of North America (PNW). Data for this study came from a study established in 1988 that includes 31 research installations located...
Streamflow patterns are a result of the interaction of many factors, including climate, vegetation, geology, and topography. Analyses indicate that streamflow patterns have changed around the United States over the past century, raising questions about the possible role of climate variability as a driver of water yield. This thesis examines...
The influence of fire and climate events on age structure of different species was examined in
old-growth mixed conifer in the southern Sierra Nevada. Within a 48-ha stem-mapped sample area, after a
mechanical thinning, all stumps were examined for fire scars and 526 stumps were cut to ground level and...
The topics in this dissertation center on the snow processes that dominate mountain environments in the Western U.S. and Alaska, particularly in locations lacking long-term observational datasets or locales that are difficult to access in-person. Some are currently glacierized or have been glaciated in the recent past. Each of the...
Western rangelands are currently under severe threat from exotic annual grasses. To successfully manage rangelands that are either infested with or susceptible to exotic annual grasses, we must focus on increasing resilience to disturbance and resistance to exotic annual grass invasion. Here, we present a fuel-based model and research framework...
Projections of a drier, warmer climate in the U.S. Southwest would complicate
management of the Colorado River system – yet these projections, often based on coarse
resolution global climate models, are quite uncertain. We present an approach to understanding
future Colorado River discharge based on land surface characterizations that map...