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Partnering for Climate Change Communication in the National Capital Region
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Jenell M. Walsh -Thomas, Melissa A. Clark, and Lindsey Beall, Graduate Students, George Mason University, Center for Climate Change Communication
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National Park Service Spotlights
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2016 Spotlight on National Park Resources
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Natural Resource Education and Outreach in a Cultural Resource Park: Expanding the Audience
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Giessell Aguilar, Alison Sloop - Biological Science Technician(s) NPS, Manassas National Battlefield Park
Located in
National Park Service Spotlights
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2016 Spotlight on National Park Resources
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Assessment of the Environmental Genomics of Aquatic Systems in the National Park Service’s National Capital Region with Emphasis on the Algal Communities Associated with the Nuisance Diatom Didymosphenia geminata
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Aaron Aunins - Genetics Biologist, Tim King - Fishery Biologist (Genomics), U.S. Geological Survey, Leetown Science Center
Located in
National Park Service Spotlights
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2016 Spotlight on National Park Resources
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Poster Session: 2016 Spotlight on National Parks
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Located in
National Park Service Spotlights
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2016 Spotlight on National Park Resources
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Spotlight Posters on National Park Resources
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Located in
National Park Service Spotlights
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2016 Spotlight on National Park Resources
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2016 Spotlight on National Park Resources in the National Capital Region
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To celebrate the National Park Service Centennial through talks and posters that highlight accomplishments in resources management and stewardship.
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News & Events
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Events
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Scenarios of future land use change around United States’ protected areas
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Land use change around protected areas can diminish their conservation value, making it important to
predict future land use changes nearby. Our goal was to evaluate future land use changes around protected
areas of different types in the United States under different socioeconomic scenarios. We analyzed
econometric-based projections of future land use change to capture changes around 1260 protected
areas, including National Forests, Parks, Refuges, and Wilderness Areas, from 2001 to 2051, under different
land use policies and crop prices. Our results showed that urban expansion around protected areas
will continue to be a major threat, and expand by 67% under business-as-usual conditions.
Concomitantly, a substantial number of protected areas will lose natural vegetation in their surroundings.
National land-use policies or changes in crop prices are not likely to affect the overall pattern of land use,
but can have effects in certain regions. Discouraging urbanization through zoning, for example, can
reduce future urban pressures around National Forests and Refuges in the East, while the implementation
of an afforestation policy can increase the amount of natural vegetation around some Refuges throughout
the U.S. On the other hand, increases in crop prices can increase crop/pasture cover around some protected
areas, and limit the potential recovery of natural vegetation. Overall, our results highlight that future
land-use change around protected areas is likely to be substantial but variable among regions and
protected area types. Safeguarding the conservation value of protected areas may require serious consideration of threats and opportunities arising from future land use.
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Resources
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Climate Science Documents
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Disturbance−diversity models: what do they really predict and how are they tested?
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The intermediate disturbance hypothesis (IDH) and the dynamic equilibrium model (DEM) are influential theories in ecology. The IDH predicts large species numbers at intermediate levels of disturbance and the DEM predicts that the effect of disturbance depends on the level of productivity. However, various indices of diversity are considered more commonly than the predicted number of species in tests of the hypotheses. This issue reaches beyond the scientific community as the predictions of the IDH and the DEM are used in the management of national parks and reserves. In order to compare responses with disturbance among measures of biodiversity, we used two different approaches of mathematical modelling and conducted an extensive meta-analysis. Two-thirds of the surveyed studies present different results for different diversity measures. Accordingly, the meta-analysis showed a narrow range of negative quadratic regression components for richness, but not evenness. Also, the two models support the IDH and the DEM, respectively, when biodiversity is measured as species richness, but predict evenness to increase with increasing disturbance, for all levels of productivity. Consequently, studies that use compound indices of diversity should present logical arguments, a priori, to why a specific index of diversity should peak in response to disturbance.
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Resources
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Climate Science Documents
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Shenandoah National Park
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The Shenandoah National Park is a place for recreation and re-creation. The Park develops research, species restoration, nonnative species management, and educational materials for the public and conservation practitioners.
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LP Members
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Organizations Search
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Spotlight on National Park Resources in the National Capital Region
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To celebrate the National Park Service Centennial through talks and posters that highlight accomplishments in resources management and stewardship. The 2016 Spotlight featured contributions from every park in the region.
Located in
National Park Service Spotlights
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2016 Spotlight on National Park Resources
