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Spring 2013 Water Seminar Series - "Recent Variations in Low-Temperature and Moisture Constraints on Vegetation in the Southwestern U.S."

Added on April 15, 2013, 12:11 pm

Starting in the late 1970s, warming in the Southwest has produced fewer cool season freezes, losses in regional snowpack, earlier spring flowering and leafout, and hotter summers, all of which should affect vegetation differently across the region’s diverse climatic and biotic zones. Another potential impact of the ongoing regional warming is changes in how recent and future droughts affect vegetation. One way to examine the effects of drought and a warming climate on vegetation is to compare climatic controls on photosynthesis and transpiration during the major regional droughts of the 1950s and 2000s, periods of unusually dry conditions before and during the recent decades of warming. Here, we examine indices that represent climatic constraints on foliar growth for both drought periods and evaluate these indices for areas that experienced tree mortality during the 2000s drought. Relative to the 1950s drought, warmer conditions during the 2000s drought brought about fewer occurrences of temperatures too low for foliar growth at lower elevations in winter and higher elevations in summer, as well as higher vapor pressure deficits that were more limiting from spring through summer at lower and middle elevations. At many locations where tree mortality occurred during the 2000s drought, low-temperature constraints on foliar growth were extremely unlimiting, whereas vapor pressure deficit constraints were extremely limiting from early spring through late autumn. In addition to discussing how these results demonstrate the importance of seasonality and elevational gradients for understanding the effects of drought and warming on vegetation in topographically complex regions like the Southwest, we also explore how projected changes in future regional climate may potentially further or alter these effects.
Blackboard Video Everywhere

Added on March 4, 2013, 11:47 am

Add video to a YouTube account via a webcam
Spring 2013 Water Seminar Series - Participatory Water Governance: Experiences and Issues from Around the World

Added on February 4, 2013, 3:41 pm

Social participation in water governance has recently become a reality in many economies and societies. Characterized by the direct involvement of an array of people in decision-making and implementation of water policy or management, at a minimum, social participation involves individuals and/or collectives having an opportunity to express their voices and articulate their arguments in public forums.Understanding the growing interest in participatory or collaborative water management involves uncovering larger political, economic, and cultural trends of recent decades which frame participatory actions. This presentation draws upon severalcases from around the world by a group of scholars and practitioners that I have worked with in examining participation as it relates to water rights definition, hydropower dam construction, urban river renewal, irrigation organizations, water development, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), river basin management, water policy implementation and judicial decision-making in water conflicts. Yet there are commonalities in participatory experiences across this broad spectrum of water issues. Calls for inclusion and social participation have not disappeared and are unlikely to, particularly for those engaged with democratization as social participation continues to be connected with the goals of rectifying social inequities, responding appropriately to environmental disturbances, and transforming structures of power. Attempts to level the terrain of social equity through participatory water governance remain appealing largely because genuine participation of the disenfranchised in water management may build bases of power and change networks of social equity. Yet the constraints to genuine broad-based social participation are undeniable. As translating social demands and coping with public interests within water management have become a reality in many parts of the globe during recent decades, many challenges have cropped up. This presentation considers dimensions in which power regulation, social equity, and democracy-building are connected with social participation that are only beginning to be analysed for the water sector.
The Death Penalty: Justice, Retribution and Dollars

Added on November 29, 2012, 3:20 pm

The death penalty continues to generate intense debate, including in Nebraska — one of 33 states that authorize capital punishment. In this debate, Nebraska Solicitor General J. Kirk Brown and University of Colorado Boulder professor Michael Radelet will explore such questions as whether the death penalty is humane, fairly applied, reduces violent crime, or is cost effective. They’ll also examine impacts on the condemned person, the legal and judicial systems, victims’ loved ones, and the taxpaying society at large.
NUgrant Interest and Outside Activity Reporting Form tutorial video and documents

Added on August 10, 2012, 12:09 pm

Supporting Documents: IOARF Training IOARF Help Document COI FAQs Public Health Service Agency List & more