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New study on restored wetlands published by NCED affiliates
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As increasing amounts of carbon enter the atmosphere at a time of climate change, carbon storage in wetlands becomes crucial to a natural and healthy ecosystem. Currently, there are many efforts to restore wetlands, but recent research by David Moreno-Mateo, former NCED postdoc at the University of California, Berkeley, suggests that complete recovery of wetland ecosystems might never occur. While restored wetlands may resemble the original wetland in appearance, the plants will take years to redevelop natural cycles and may never recover from the loss of carbon.
An analysis of this research, titled "Structural and Functional Loss in Restored Wetland Ecosystems," was published last month in the January 24th issue of PLoS (Public Library of Science) Biology. The paper was co-authored by David Moreno-Mateo, NCED PI Mary Power, Francisco A. Com�n of the Department of Conservation of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Restoration at the Pyrenean Institute of Ecology, Zaragoza, Spain, and Roxana Yockteng of the Mus�um National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris. Support for research came from NCED, as well as from the Spanish Ministry for Innovation and Science, and the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology.
Read about the study here.
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AGU Townhall Meeting Report
Community Earth-surface Science: Articulating a Vision for the Future
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The Earth-surface Science Community Town Hall Meeting at the Fall 2011 AGU Conference included a panel of principle investigators from some of the major NSF-funded projects (including CSDMS, the National CZO network, CUASI, NCED, SAHRA, and the Hydrologic Synthesis on Water Cycle Dynamics) and an open discussion to prioritize community research activities, inform colleagues of existing resources, and let NSF know what the community needs and believes is worthy of support in the near future. The meeting was attended by 167 participants, including many graduate students, junior and senior scientists, and internationals. Paul Cutler, NSF Program Director of Geomorphology and Land-use Dynamics represented NSF on the panel. Find the full report of the AGU Townhall Meeting, which includes a record of the discussion and identified action items here. |
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The Geoscience Alliance National Conference 2012
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The second National Geoscience Alliance Conference, titled "Home Places, Local Landscapes, Traditional Knowledge and Modern Technologies," will be held on March 17-18, 2012 on the Flathead Reservation at Salish Kootenai College in Pablo, Montana.
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2010 Geoscience Alliance Conference
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Read the full story here.
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| Stream Project Workshop Tours the Nation | |
NCED Principal Investigators Peter Wilcock and Daniel Baker from Johns Hopkins University have been teaching a short course workshop on Stream Project at regional stream restoration conferences across the country, gathering a variety of audiences.
The Stream Project is a collaboration among scientists, engineers, and decision analysts from NCED, the Intermountain Center for River Rehabilitation and Restoration (ICRRR), and the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to create a stream restoration decision analysis and design guidance methodology that defines and implements a rational, objectives-driven approach to evaluating and designing stream restoration projects. Within a multi-objective decision analysis framework, achievable objectives are identified given watershed context and site conditions, tools are provided to determine the degree of response possible, and a decision analysis organizes the analysis of project alternatives.
The workshop, entitled "Introduction to Stream Project: Decision Analysis and Design Guidance for Stream Restoration," provides an overview of Stream Project logic, a survey of the assessment, design, and decision tools, and hands-on practice applying these tools to case studies. Dr. Wilcock and Dr. Baker presented the course to about 40 participants at the River Restoration Northwest Symposium in January and a group of 24 participants at the Mid-Atlantic Stream Restoration Conference in November 2011. They will be giving a pre-symposium short course to about 20 attendees of the Upper Midwest Stream Restoration Symposium on March 4th, as well as at the World Environmental and Water Resources Congress in Albuquerque in May.
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Students from gidaa Program Excel at Duluth Science Fair
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Native students from the NCED-sponsored gidakiimanaaniwigamig program achieved a large number of awards at the 59th Annual Northeastern Minnesota and 2nd Annual American Indian Science and Engineering Fair held at the University of Minnesota-Duluth on February 4th. This year showed the largest Native participation in the Duluth Regional Science Fair to date with a total of 26 Native students, including many gidaa students.
Seven gidaa students received first place awards in their respective categories, advancing them to the Minnesota Academy of Science State Science Fair. Four students wrote first place research papers, advancing them to the Junior Science and Humanities Symposium. Two students will go on to the International Sustainable World Energy Engineering and Environment Project (ISWEEP) in Houston, TX. Nine students will go on to the National American Indian Science and Engineering Fair in Albuquerque, NM in March. Several students in all grade levels won other special awards, including one first place Department of Army Award. Some students will also go on to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Pittsburgh, PA in May.
Gidaa, along with partners NCED and the Center for Compact and Efficient Fluid Power (CCEFP), will be sponsoring 14 students to go to the National American Indian Science and Engineering Fair (NAISEF), which will take place March 22-24, 2012 in Albuquerque.
We wish all students congratulations on their awards from the Duluth science fair and good luck as they advance onto higher-level fairs!
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NCED at the AAG meeting
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The annual Association of American Geographers (AAG) meeting will take place February 24-28, 2012 in New York. NCED Affiliate Scientist Patrick Belmont will present an invited talk as part of a paper session on Watershed Sediment Source Identification on February 28th. His talk will discuss " Lidar and radionuclide fingerprinting: advances in watershed sediment budgeting." Other presentations in the session will be given by members of the U.S. Geological Survey, Stroud Water Research Center, and other universities. Find more information on the meeting here. |
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| Recent NCED Publications | |
Moreno-Mateos D , Power ME , Com�n FA , Yockteng R , 2012 Structural and Functional Loss in Restored Wetland Ecosystems. PLoS Biol 10(1): e1001247. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001247
Voller, V. R., V. Ganti, C. Paola, and E. Foufoula-Georgiou (2012), Does the flow of information in a landscape have direction?, Geophys. Res. Lett., 39, L01403, doi:10.1029/2011GL050265.
Cantero, Mariano I, et al. "Emplacement of massive turbidites linked to extinction of turbulence in turbidity currents." Nature geoscience 5.1 (2011):42-45.
Singh, A., S. Lanzoni, P. R. Wilcock, and E. Foufoula-Georgiou (2011), Multiscale statistical characterization of migrating bed forms in gravel and sand bed rivers, Water Resour. Res., 47, W12526, doi:10.1029/2010WR010122.
Nittrouer, J. A., D. Mohrig, and M. Allison (2011), Punctuated sand transport in the lowermost Mississippi River, J. Geophys. Res., 116, F04025, doi:10.1029/2011JF002026.
Nittrouer, J.A., Mohrig, D., Allison, M.A. and Meyret, A.-P. B. (2011), The lowermost Mississippi River: a mixed bedrock-alluvial channel. Sedimentology, 58: 1914-1934. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-3091.2011.01245.x
He, Laien and Gregory V. Wilkerson, 2011.Improved Bankfull Channel Geometry Prediction Using Two-Year Return-Period Discharge. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 47(6):1298-1316. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752-1688.2011.00567.x
Edmonds, Douglas A, John B. Shaw, and David Mohrig. Geology 39.12 (2011):1175-1178.
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