Download Land Desertification and Degradation Research Highlights

Land Desertification and Degradation Research Highlights at Colorado
State University
Colorado State University is world-renowned for its environmental and natural resources research,
education and outreach efforts. Faculty and staff across colleges, schools and other research units at
CSU are actively working on projects related to desertification that are relevant to the mission of the
United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification.
Following are highlights of the breadth of research efforts under way at CSU.
Research
Department of Soil and Crop Sciences
CSU’s Department of Soil and Crop Sciences has many projects focused on issues that combat
desertification. The primary theme that runs throughout the research and outreach work is conservation
and efficient use of the incident precipitation. Projects include a wide range of efforts such as plant
breeding for drought tolerance and production systems; no-till management and dryland cropping
system intensification that reverse soil degradation; and limited irrigation to stretch scarce irrigation
water resources.
Researchers collaborate closely with CSU’s Department of Bioagricultural Sciences and Pest
Management and Department of Agriculture and Resource Economics to develop management
systems that account for insect, disease, weed management and economic consequences. In short,
the ultimate goal is to develop cropping systems that are sustainable for the long-term in both an
economic and environmental sense.
Human Dimensions Research in Samburu, Kenya
Brett Bruyere, assistant professor in CSU’s Department of Human Dimensions of Natural Resources,
and doctoral student Adam Beh have worked for the past four years researching the perceptions about
nature and protected areas by pastoral communities in northern Kenya. One outcome of the research is
development of a capacity-building and training program for local conservation professionals and
community members about monitoring local environmental conditions such as ground cover and
vegetation species diversity. In an area where wood provides the primary source of heat and energy
and wildlife provide one of the only means of income through wildlife-based tourism, sustainability of
trees and habitat is critical. The work of Bruyere and Beh is helping these communities move toward
that goal.
Pastoral Transformations to Resilient Futures in Kenya
Kathleen Galvin, professor in the Department of Anthropology and senior research scientist at the
Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory at CSU and collaborators including Robin Reid, director of CSU’s
Center for Collaborative Conservation, will work with Maasai pastoralists in Kenya to co-create
strategies for sustaining livestock production in dryland systems based on an understanding of the most
important climate and social changes affecting livestock management and the cultural, socio-economic
and physical impediments to climate change adaptation.
Climate Change Resilience Research in Mongolia
In two separate but related projects, CSU researchers are studying climate change impacts on the
livelihoods of Mongolian pastoralists. In a NSF grant, Maria Fernandez-Gimenez, associate professor in
CSU’s Department of Forest, Rangeland and Watershed Stewardship and collaborators including five
Mongolian research institutes and non-governmental organizations are studying the role of communitybased rangeland management in building resilience to climate change in Mongolia. In a project funded
through the Livestock-Climate Change Collaborative Research Support Program, Fernandez-Gimenez
and a team of scientists are training community-based rangeland and integrated ecosystem monitoring
in Mongolia.
Theory suggests that local resource management institutions may contribute to resilience – the ability
of a system to absorb or adapt to change without altering its basic parts and functions – and enable
communities to adapt more successfully to climate change. Mongolia is an ideal place to test this theory
because it has experienced one of the most significant warming trends on earth over the past 40 years.
More than 2,000 community-based rangeland management organizations have formed there since
1999, an unprecedented social experiment that creates an opportunity for rigorous policy learning. CSU
researchers involved with these projects include Steven Fassnacht, Melinda Laituri, Robin Reid and
Jes Thompson.
Dust Lofting Affects on Climate
Susan van den Heever, assistant professor in the Department of Atmospheric Science, along with her
doctoral student Robert Seigel are using a DoD-supported grant to investigate mechanisms of surface
mineral dust lofting by severe convection. The plains of Colorado are commonly subjected to very dry
conditions during the spring and summer months that allow deep convection to loft vast amounts of
mineral dust into the atmosphere. In addition to Colorado, dust lofting via deep convection is a common
occurrence in most arid environments such as North Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Once lofted, dust
can impact the climate of these already sensitive regions by both affecting the radiation budget of the
atmosphere and altering precipitation processes. Additionally, lofted mineral dust poses hazards to
aviation due to poor visibility and engine ingestion. Using a numerical model developed at CSU, van
den Heever and Seigel will gain a better understanding of the role of surface and environmental
conditions in the lofting of mineral dust by severe storms to aid in more efficient short-term and longterm forecasts.
Vulnerability Analysis of Western Water Resources to Climate Variability and Change –
Colorado River Basin
The overarching objective of this research in CSU’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
is to develop and implement a probabilistic framework for assessing regional-scale vulnerability of
Western water resources to climate variability and change that incorporates ecologic and economic
factors in the Colorado River basin. Given the importance of uncertainty and variability in scenarios of
future climate as well as our imperfect knowledge of physical and biological processes governing the
water balance, the statistical-dynamical hydrologic modeling proposed will allow propagation of
uncertainty through to economic modeling and decision-making.
Vulnerability of Future U.S. Water Supply to Shortage
Civil engineering researchers at Colorado State are investigating the likelihood of water shortages over
the 21st century in 98 basins covering the contiguous United States. Off-stream water use in the United
States increased rapidly over much of the 20th century in response to population and economic growth.
Although total water withdrawals have leveled off in recent years and water use efficiency has been
improving, expected future population and income growth will place additional demands on raw water
supplies. In addition, climatic change is increasing hydrologic uncertainty. Taken together, these forces
are making careful water management more important and calling for a realistic broad-scale
understanding of the vulnerability of our water supply to shortage. Researchers are comparing
projected water demand and renewable water supply using a water routing model that allows simulation
of water storage and evaporation, inter-basin transfers, deliveries to consumptive uses and in-stream
flow constraints.
Training Next Generation of Water Scientists and Engineers
A CSU professor of civil and environmental engineering this summer received funding for a new $2.75
million research and education program to train the next generation of water scientists. The new
program is funded by IGERT, the National Science Foundation’s flagship interdisciplinary research
training program. Professor Jorge Ramirez and his collaborators received the prestigious NSF grant to
develop a new doctoral program in integrated, multidisciplinary research and education that addresses
the complex hydrologic, ecologic and socio-economic challenges facing society.
Programs, Labs and Centers
Livestock-Climate Change Collaborative Research Support Program
The Livestock-Climate Change Collaborative Research Support Program supports innovative,
multidisciplinary research aimed at helping small-scale livestock producers in developing countries
manage livestock under changing climate conditions. In these developing countries, a large proportion
of the population depends upon livestock for a significant part of their income. Ultimately, the goal is not
just to study these systems but to help livestock producers adapt to climate change and improve their
livelihoods. The project is headed up by Clinical Sciences Professor M.D. Salman; Department of Soil
and Crop Sciences Professor Jessica Davis and Dana Hoag, professor, Department of Agricultural and
Resource Economics; and Shana Gillette, assistant professor, Department of Clinical Sciences. The
Livestock-Climate Change CRSP is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development through a
grant to CSU’s Animal Population Health Institute and the Institute for Livestock and the Environment.
The program will support research on small-scale livestock production in semi-arid ecosystems in parts
of East and West Africa and Central Asia where livestock production is closely tied to the state of
environmental, human and animal health.
The Livestock-Climate Change CRSP shares the United Nations Convention to Combat
Desertification’s vision of improving food security, alleviating poverty, improving carbon sequestration,
adapting to increasing water scarcity, restoring degraded rangelands and finding solutions for
sustainable land and resource management. To date, the program has funded several projects that
address many of these issues.
Restoration Ecology Laboratory
CSU’s Restoration Ecology Lab's primary research focus is on the mechanisms controlling community
assembly in terrestrial plant communities. The lab researchers are interested in understanding the
mechanisms that cause or prevent shifts in plant community composition. Such questions are central to
the field of Restoration Ecology because, in order to move communities from one state to another,
these mechanism must be understood. To this end, the lab focuses on invasive species, soil processes
and amendments, toxic compounds and revegetation techniques. Restoration ecologists in the lab work
closely with colleagues in the Center for Rhizoshpere Biology, the Department of Soil and Crop
Sciences, and the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology to study the manipulation
and management of soil processes for the restoration of degraded lands.
Center for Collaborative Conservation
The Center for Collaborative Conservation bridges the activities and interests of people who do
conservation in communities from Colorado, the U.S. West and around the world. The center’s
Collaborative Conservation Fellows Program promotes research that connects learning with action on
critical issues for conservation and livelihoods on local landscapes around the world. The program’s
current 16 fellows are working on problems as diverse as the sharing of scarce water resources among
agricultural and urban communities in Colorado, the engagement of transboundary stakeholders in
ecosystem services projects in Costa Rica and Panama, and the identification of prospective tribal
professionals to lead collaborative efforts on conservation issues on tribal lands for 30 tribal nations
across the U.S. In Colorado, five fellows are working to better understand how collaboratives work and
how they can work effectively through using both market and non-market-based incentives for
conservation.
Colorado Natural Heritage Program
The Colorado Natural Heritage Program in CSU’s Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation
Biology is the state’s only comprehensive source of information on the location and status of species at
risk and their habitats. CNHP has also mapped and modeled vegetation and wetlands throughout much
of the state. These data provide fundamental guidance for prioritizing efforts to conserve biodiversity in
the face of human and natural impacts including desertification. CNHP monitors many sites throughout
Colorado where conservation management is critical, and this information will herald impacts of climate
change and desertification as they become evident while providing insights into maintaining biodiversity
through proactive management. CNHP’s data can support desertification research, mitigation,
restoration and management needs by providing baseline information on the presence of resources
that are at risk to desertification impacts.
North Central Regional Climate Science Center
Colorado State University is home to one of eight U.S. Department of the Interior Climate Science
Centers. The CSU-led consortium of nine universities and other affiliated national laboratories was
selected to host a regional Climate Science Center. The center is designed to put science to work to
help federal, state, local, private and non-profit natural resource managers understand current and
future impacts of climate change on critical natural, cultural, wildlife and agricultural resources. Dennis
Ojima, professor in CSU’s Department of Forest, Rangelands and Watershed Stewardship and senior
research scientist at the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory in CSU’s Warner College of Natural
Resources, leads the consortium.
International Center for Integrated Water Resources and Management
The International Center for Integrated Water Resources and Management in CSU’s Civil and
Environmental Engineering department was established in 2009 as a research center of UNESCO – a
coalition of American universities and governmental units for meeting the challenges of planning and
managing water in water-scarce and water-stressed environments. The special features of proposed
projects emphasize interdisciplinary, transboundary and integrated approaches with additional
emphasis on sensitive aquifers in arid environments. Current negotiations for joint research are
occurring with Saudi Arabia, Portugal, Greece and Italy. Past work on the topics of drought and
desertification include “The Future of Arid Lands,” “Impacts of Limited Water in the Arid West,” “Drought
Perception and Societal Consequences,” “Managing Transboundary Waters in the Context of Extreme
Hydrological Events,” “Rural/Urban Development and Arid Lands,” and “Middle East Water Efficiency of
Use in the Agricultural Sector.”
Colorado Climate Center
The Colorado Climate Center in the CSU Atmospheric Science department collects and disseminates
data about Colorado as a mid-latitude interior continental state, which, combined with complex
topography, results in dramatic climate differences from place to place and from year to year. From the
Great Plains of eastern Colorado to the high peaks of the Rockies and the Continental Divide, to the
valleys, canyons and plateaus of western Colorado, the various climates of the state are each very
different. Nolan Doesken, director of the Colorado Climate Center, is also a contributor to the U.S.
Drought Monitor, which lists areas of the country suffering from drought. The drought monitor, through
the National Drought Mitigation Center based at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, is a synthesis of
multiple indices and impacts that represent a consensus of some 200 federal and academic scientists.
Center for Protected Area Management and Training
The Center for Protected Area Management and Training in the Warner College of Natural Resources
works collaboratively with government agencies, conservation NGOs and community organizations to
develop capacity-building initiatives for leadership in protected lands management across the globe.
Working across all IUCN protected area categories, the center works collaboratively with partners to
combine best practices from higher education and innovation generated through university research
into field-based training programs. These programs are developed together with local, long-term
institutional partners and give frontline conservation practitioners the tools they need to successfully
manage landscapes and seascapes for the benefit of people and nature.
Conservation Leadership Through Learning
Conservation Leadership Through Learning, or CLTL, is a 17-month Conservation Leadership master’s
specialization offered jointly by Colorado State University and El Colegio de la Frontera Sur in Mexico.
CLTL will prepare students to be a part of the next generation of conservation leaders to tackle dynamic
challenges from climate change to biodiversity loss to desertification and beyond. CLTL merges trans-
disciplinary university education with real-world action to train leaders who can deliver on-the-ground
benefits for conservation and communities. By reaching far beyond classroom walls, students will
develop knowledge and real-world skills to become effective conservation leaders.
Colorado Water Institute
Colorado State University hosts the state-supported Colorado Water Institute, which addresses
important issues related to Colorado’s water supply and growth, water quality issues, water policies,
water rights and impacts of new water facilities on resources and the environment. In 1964, Congress
authorized the establishment of a water resources research institute in each state to develop,
implement and coordinate water and water-related research programs in the state and transfer
research results to potential users. With water needs intensifying and changing, the institute is known
for scientific research and policy analysis including drought planning and mitigations and climate
changes and adaptation to help Colorado prepare for any water circumstance.