About
119
Publications
23,893
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
4,258
Citations
Current institution
Publications
Publications (119)
This report contains photos of agricultural best management practices (BMPs) including before-and-after sets of photos and after-only photos. These pictures were collected from various agencies and groups and are meant to be used by technical assistance providers, conservation practitioners, and others who are helping landowners and farmers decide...
Multivariate social vulnerability indices, used to compare communities' susceptibility to adverse disaster outcomes, cannot be combined with physical exposure risk estimates without double-counting some effects and potentially obscuring risk sources. Further, the techniques used to create the indices appear to have methodological concerns, includin...
Worldwide, enhancement of oyster populations is undertaken to achieve a variety of goals including support of food production, local economies, water quality, coastal habitat, biodiversity, and cultural heritage. Although numerous strategies for improving oyster stocks exist, enhancement efforts can be thwarted by long-standing conflict among commu...
Encouraging agricultural landowners to adopt conservation practices is crucial to enhancing ecosystem services in privately-owned farm landscapes. To improve engagement with landowners and increase adoption rates, much research has been dedicated to investigating how different psychological, social, economic, and political factors correlate with ad...
Excessive nitrogen (N) pollution in the Chesapeake Bay is threatening ecological health. This study presents a multilayer N flow network model where each network layer represents a stage in the production step from raw agricultural commodities such as corn to final products such as packaged meat. We use this model to assess the impacts of alternati...
This report presents results of an initial investigation into the state of social science integration within the Chesapeake Bay Partnership (CBP). The purpose of the study, which was requested by the Stewardship Working Group, was to identify opportunities where the practice of social science could be enhanced to advance goals and adaptively manage...
Although implementing conservation practices on private farms and forests can produce substantial environmental benefits, these practices are not being adopted widely enough to result in measurable improvements at regional scales. Researchers have investigated the production and program factors influencing producer choices to voluntarily adopt thes...
Would-be adopters of ecosystem service analysis frameworks might ask, ‘Do such frameworks improve ecosystem service provision or social benefits sufficiently to compensate for any extra effort?’ Here we explore that question by retrospectively applying an ecosystem goods and services (EGS) analysis framework to a large river restoration case study...
Chesapeake Bay oyster (Crassostrea virginica) management is often contentious due to differences in stakeholders’ support for alternative strategies that aim to reverse historic declines in oyster harvests and abundance. The OysterFutures (OF) research program brought 16 stakeholders from the fishing industry, non-governmental organizations, and st...
Shellfish hatcheries have become an increasingly important component of aquaculture production in the United States. Although the industry has been advancing technologically over time to stabilize production and supply, many hatcheries suffer regularly from bouts of stalled or failed production, termed crashes. Crashes are widely acknowledged to oc...
The Chesapeake Bay is the largest, most productive, and most biologically diverse estuary in the continental United States providing crucial habitat and natural resources for culturally and economically important species. Pressures from human population growth and associated development and agricultural intensification have led to excessive nutrien...
Background
Outreach events such as trainings, demonstrations, and workshops are important opportunities for encouraging private land operators to adopt voluntary conservation practices. However, the ability to understand the effectiveness of such events at influencing conservation behavior is confounded by the likelihood that attendees are already...
This report discusses practitioners’ perceptions of opportunities and challenges as coastal ecosystem-based management has developed and reviews the critical and emerging science needed to support regional ecosystem-based management in the US.
This report provides updated cost estimates for nonpoint source nutrient management practices (stormwater and agricultural). Stormwater best management practice (BMP) costs were estimated for Maryland from data collected by Maryland Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) counties. Agricultural BMP costs were derived from two sources: projects...
This report is an initial review of techniques to inform decision making under "deep uncertainty" (DMDU) and their potential use by NOAA. DMDU techniques are designed to be used in situations where uncertainty cannot be well characterized with existing data, models, or understanding. To manage this type of uncertainty, multiple scenario development...
Weber MA, Wainger LA, Harms NE, Nesslage GM. 2020. The economic value of research in managing invasive hydrilla in Florida public lakes. Lake Reserv Manage. XX:XX–XX.
Decisions on how to allocate research funds can be informed by evaluating the benefits of research, yet past spending is rarely analyzed to gain insights for effective research alloca...
Ecosystem goods and services (EGS) have been promoted as a way to effectively examine tradeoffs and improve communication of project-related environmental outcomes in terms of human well-being. This document proposes a framework to inform the development of any future guidance to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) District planners for projecting...
An UMCES team conducted research and led two meetings on Maryland’s stormwater program (MS4) to explore perspectives on how to increase and diversify program benefits. Through the engagement of environmental restoration practitioners and local government officials and by reviewing similar programs around the country, UMCES generated recommendations...
Hennig Brandt's discovery of phosphorus (P) occurred during the early European colonization of the Chesapeake Bay region. Today, P, an essential nutrient on land and water alike, is one of the principal threats to the health of the bay. Despite widespread implementation of best management practices across the Chesapeake Bay watershed following the...
Following their memorialization as protected landscapes, battlefield parks can provide a blend of cultural and other ecosystem services. Among the many threats to providing these services are non-native invasive plants. In this chapter, we assess the threats imposed by biological invasions of non-native plants in battlefield parks and discuss manag...
Oyster aquaculture may have the potential to maintain commercial production of this iconic species by counteracting long-term declines in the wild population. In addition, a thriving aquaculture industry may be able to support goals to preserve cultural values associated with watermen livelihoods and communities, and create benefits derived from im...
Ecosystem service analysis aims to expand the accounting of human values for nature, yet frequently ignores or obfuscates a category of human values with potentially large magnitude, namely nonuse or passive use values. These values represent the satisfaction derived from the protection or restoration of species, habitats and wilderness areas, even...
Invasive species management can be a victim of its own success when decades of effective control cause memories of past harm to fade and raise questions of whether programs should continue. Economic analysis can be used to assess the efficiency of investing in invasive species control by comparing ecosystem service benefits to program costs, but on...
Development of the spatio-temporal spread model.
Invasive species management can be a victim of its own success when decades of effective control cause memories of past harm to fade and raise questions of whether programs should continue. Economic analysis can be used to assess the efficiency of investing in invasive species control by comparing ecosystem service benefits to program costs, but on...
Invasive species management can be a victim of its own success when decades of effective control cause memories of past harm to fade and raise questions of whether programs should continue. Economic analysis can be used to assess the efficiency of investing in invasive species control by comparing ecosystem service benefits to program costs, but on...
There is a growing movement in government, environmental non-governmental organizations and the private sector to include ecosystem services in decision making. Adding ecosystem services into assessments implies measuring how much a change in ecological conditions affects people, social benefit, or value to society. Despite consensus around the gen...
There is growing demand for information regarding the impacts of decisions on ecosystem services and human benefits. Despite the large and growing quantity of published ecosystem services research, there remains a substantial gap between this research and the information required to support decisions. Research often provides models and tools that d...
A qualitative ranking method, Q methodology, was used to assess stakeholder priorities for socioecological services derived from coastal marshes and communities. The goal was to reveal strength of concerns for and tradeoffs among effects of coastal resilience strategies. Factor analysis identified three perspectives that formed a spectrum from high...
In order to assist companies that are managing landholdings to support biodiversity, but lack the resources to invest in extensive scientific investigation, we evaluate the science available to inform land management choices. Using a literature review, we assess evidence of the effectiveness of land management recommendations. The central question...
Economic valuation of ecological restoration most often encompasses only the most tangible ecosystem service benefits, thereby omitting many difficult-to-measure benefits, including those derived from enhanced reliability of ecosystem services. Because climate change is likely to impose novel ecosystem stressors, a typical approach to valuing benef...
The condition of natural resources affects human well-being in a multitude of ways, including changes to health, safety, and recreational opportunities. Valuing environmental changes, as the specific goods and services that emerge from ecosystems, has been proposed as a method for systematically including these often-ignored benefits in policy deci...
This report presents results of an interdisciplinary team who evaluated the state of the science for valuing ecosystem services derived from implementing conservation practices on agricultural and forest lands. A case study of conservation practices on farms within the Western Lake Erie Basin was used to illustrate methods for estimating monetary v...
Background
Many of the practices currently underway to reduce nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment loads entering the Chesapeake Bay have also been observed to support reduction of disease-causing pathogen loadings. We quantify how implementation of these practices, proposed to meet the nutrient and sediment caps prescribed by the Total Maximum Daily...
Total Loading Reduction Estimates for the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.
Total Loading Reduction Estimates for the Potomac River Basin.
One consequence of nutrient-induced eutrophication in shallow estuarine waters is the occurrence of hypoxia and anoxia that has serious impacts on biota, habitats, and biogeochemical cycles of important elements. Because of the important role of dissolved oxygen (DO) on these ecosystem features, a variety of DO criteria have been established as ind...
Water hyacinth, Eichhornia crassipes, is an invasive, tropical, aquatic plant that has caused significant environmental and economic damage since its establishment in Louisiana, USA, in 1884. Both invasion control programs and freezing temperatures are known to negatively affect water hyacinth populations; however, the combined impact of these fact...
The challenges of applying benefit transfer models to policy sites are often underestimated. Analysts commonly need to estimate site-specific effects for areas that lack data on the number of people who use the resource, intensity of use, and other relevant variables. Here, we address issues of applying transfer functions to sites that have sparse...
This chapter introduces the concepts and methods of benefit transfer applied to ecosystem service valuation. It integrates guidance provided in the ecosystem service valuation and benefit transfer literatures to provide introductory insights and guidelines. Building on the general benefit transfer introduction in prior chapters, the chapter provide...
The complex, widely dispersed, and cumulative environmental challenges currently facing society require holistic, transdisciplinary approaches to resolve. The concept of ecosystem services (ES) has become more widely accepted as a framework that fosters a broader systems perspective of sustainability, and can make science more responsive to the nee...
Federal agencies take many actions on behalf of the American public that influence ecosystem conditions and change the provision of a variety of ecosystem services valued by the public. To date, most decisions affecting ecosystems have relied on ecological assessments with little or no consideration of the value of ecosystem services. Best practice...
A comprehensive synthesis of data from empirically based published studies and a widely used stormwater best management practice (BMP) database were used to assess the variability in nitrogen (N) removal performance of urban stormwater ponds, wetlands, and swales and to identify factors that may explain this variability. While the data suggest that...
The relationship between landscape pattern and the distribution and spread of exotic species is an important determinant of where and when management actions are best applied. We have developed an interdisciplinary approach for prioritizing treatment of harmful, nonnative, invasive plants in National Park landscapes of the Mid-Atlantic USA. The app...
The goal of landscape ecology is to understand the relationships between landscape pattern and ecological process; the role of humans and other forces of landscape change on these pattern-process relationships; and the principles required to make informed decisions in natural resource management. The interdisciplinary nature of the science of lands...
The ineffectiveness of traditional agricultural policies to reduce nutrient-related water quality impairments has prompted some states, local environmental and conservation agencies, and some nonprofit groups, to experiment with new approaches. This article examines innovations that make use of economic incentives to engage the agricultural sector...
We developed a synthesis using diverse monitoring and modeling data for Mattawoman Creek, Maryland, USA to examine responses of this tidal freshwater tributary of the Potomac River estuary to a sharp reduction in point-source nutrient loading rate. Oligotrophication of these systems is not well understood; questions concerning recovery pathways, th...
Widespread invasion by non-native plants has resulted in substantial change in fire-fuel characteristics and fire-behaviour in many of the world's ecosystems, with a subsequent increase in the risk of fire damage to human life, property and the environment. Models used by fire management agencies to assess fire risk are dependent on accurate assess...
Comparison of fire costs. Comparison of costs (in 2010 dollar values) from six paired fires in (a) native grass (prior to A. gayanus grass invasion) and (b) A. gayanus fuelled fires. For (b), the cover of A. gayanus in the burnt area was provided by fire fighters and reported for each. Paired fires were selected based on the close proximity of igni...
The cost-effectiveness of total maximum daily load (TMDL) programs depends heavily on program design. We develop an optimization framework to evaluate design choices for the TMDL for the Potomac River, a Chesapeake Bay sub-basin. Scenario results suggest that policies inhibiting nutrient trading or offsets between point and nonpoint sources increas...
The goal of this project was to develop a decision support tool for the National Park Service to assist in characterizing the economic benefits of the management of harmful non-native invasive plants and applying that information to prioritizing and designing treatments. A web-based software tool has been developed using two case study parks of the...
The Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) program is an unprecedented opportunity to restore the Chesapeake Bay, yet program costs threaten to undermine its complete implementation. Analyses of Bay TMDL program design and implementation were used to relate program cost-effectiveness to choices in (1) compliance definitions, (2) geographic...
The development of private rural lands can significantly fragment landscapes, with potentially negative consequences on ecosystem services. Models of land-use trends beyond the urban fringe are therefore useful for developing policy to manage these environmental effects. However, land-use change models have been primarily applied in urban environme...
Increasingly government agencies are seeking to quantify the outcomes of proposed policy options in terms of ecosystem service benefits, yet conflicting definitions and ad hoc approaches to measuring ecosystem services have created confusion regarding how to rigorously link ecological change to changes in human well-being. Here, we describe a step-...
This document is intended to guide selection of metrics for verifying implementation of tidal wetland restoration and for monitoring site development and ecological outcomes within a monitoring program being developed by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF). The goals of the monitoring program are to demonstrate the potential benefits o...
Submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) has declined dramatically in the Chesapeake Bay and worldwide, largely as a result of stress from poor water quality. In response, the Chesapeake Bay Program established a goal of achieving 185,000 acres of SAV bay wide, recognizing that this level of restoration would be dependent upon improved water quality. As...
Applying ecosystem service valuation principles to natural resources management has the potential to encourage the efficient use of resources, but can decision support systems built on these principles be made both practical and robust? The limitations to building such systems are the practical limits on managers' time to develop or learn tools and...
Planners in a rapidly urbanizing area must take into account trade-offs between multiple environmental issues of concern. A 15-county region, centered on Charlotte, North Carolina, is experiencing a boom in growth resulting in both air and water quality concerns. We examine changes to environmental and socio-economic factors across the region for t...
We develop indicators showing the relative environmental burdens that human activities place on locales for a given level of economic benefits. The main purpose is to develop tools that allow us to examine the potential vulnerabilities within economies to changes in resource conditions. The indicators of pollution emission or resource consumption p...
We examined regional conditions and trends related to quality of life and potential vulnerabilities of these factors to changes in the condition of natural resources in the Mid-Atlantic Region, USA. We selected a variety of variables on economic and socio-demographic conditions that demonstrate links between the condition of natural areas and human...
Ecosystem compensation and exchange programs require benefit analysis in order to guarantee that compensation or trades preserve the social benefits lost when ecosystems are destroyed or degraded. This study derives, applies, and critiques a set of ecosystem benefits indicators (EBIs). Organized around the concept of ecosystem services and basic va...
Reforestation of frequently flooded, marginally productive agricultural lands may provide environmental benefits. However, for reforestation to occur private landowners must earn enough revenues from forestlands to offset both the costs of reforesting as well as any forgone agricultural income. Among the possible revenue sources is the sale of carb...
Understanding the way regional landscapes operate, evolve, and change is a key area of research for ecosystem science. It is also essential to support the "place-based" management approach being advocated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other management agencies. We developed a spatially explicit, process-based model of the 2352 km2...
This study proposes a middle ground between no analysis of services and econometric analysis, which is not realistic for small-scale permitting applications due to its cost and reliance on specialized expertise. The goal is an evaluation method, applicable by noneconomists using existing data sources, that can identify likely differences in the soc...
Abstract not available
This report describes a method for expanding indices of wetland function to reflect the services and values of wetlands, and is intended as a first step in the development of practical tool for assessing wetland trade-offs. Services are defined as the beneficial outcomes of wetland functions, and the value of services depends on the ability of the...
The Patuxent Landscape Model (PLM) is designed to simulate fundamental ecological processes on the watershed scale, in interaction with an economic component that predicts the land use patterns. The paper focuses on the ecological component of the PLM and describes how the spatial and structural rescaling can be instrumental for calibration of comp...
This paper develops a spatial hedonic model to explain residential values in a region within a 30-mile radius of Washington DC. Hedonic models of housing or land values are commonplace, but are rarely estimated for non-urban problems and never using the type of spatial data (geographical information system or GIS) available to us. Our approach offe...
We are attempting to integrate ecological and economic modeling and analysis in order to improve our understanding of regional systems, assess potential future impacts of various land-use, development, and agricultural policy options, and to better assess the value of ecological systems. Starting with an existing spatially articulated ecosystem mod...
Recent understanding about system dynamics and predictability that has emerged from the study of complex systems is creating new tools for modeling interactions between anthropogenic and natural systems. A range of techniques has become available through advances in computer speed and accessibility and by implementing a broad, interdisciplinary sys...
Ecological economics addresses the dangers of excluding nature from economic decisions. Discusses how traditional economic frameworks separate economic interests from environmental interests. Introduces some alternative ideas wherein environmental interests are incorporated into economic planning. (MCO)
An examination of the structures, total strains, and rock types across the Melones fault zone indicates that in the central Sierra Nevada this fault separates and locally imbricates two distinct terranes. East of the fault, a widespread early Jurassic cleavage displays west-northwest to northwest strikes and is associated with moderate to high stra...
The increase in global air temperature recorded between the 1960s and
1980s is reduced by about a third when the warming effects of El
Niños are removed from the data, according to a recent study
published in the July issue of Geophysical Research Letters. The
research shows that El Niños, or climatic events characterized by
unusually warm ocean te...
In response to the rare but serious threat that volcanoes pose to airplanes, the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently established a volcano monitoring service. Under the agreement NOAA will contact FAA if satellite images show ash eruptions reaching higher than 5 km along flight routes.
Th...
The Carnegie Institution of Washington (D.C.) announced on January 5 that it will transfer control of the Mount Wilson Observatory, which it has managed since 1904, to the Mount Wilson Institute, a private group established in 1986. The Mount Wilson Institute's board is made up of representatives from the Carnegie Institution, Los Angeles County Mu...
AGU president Don Anderson joined former astronaut Sally Ride and
National Aeronautics and Space Administration official Lennard Fisk
March 8 in testifying before the Senate committee on Commerce, Science,
and Transportation. The three had been asked to speak on the future of
the Mission to Planet Earth, proposed both in a National Academy of
Scien...
Lightning is the second most deadly weather phenomenon after flash floods. It kills more people a year than tornadoes and damages utilities, curtails recreational activities, and affects flight paths. Roughly half of all aviation accidents are weather related according to Delain Edman, of the National Weather Service's National Severe Storms Foreca...
The Environmental Protection Agency began testing about 600 community water well systems for pesticides in July. The testing is part of a 2‐year survey of private and community wells throughout the United States designed to identify the extent of pesticide residues in drinking water wells nationwide. Testing on more than 750 private wells began in...
Low rainfall and higher than normal temperatures continue across much of the nation. Since the end of January, 35 states have developed extreme drought conditions, according to scientists of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who gave a news briefing June 29.
Historical data back to the 1920s show that the first preceding period co...
