Publications about Worldwide

IAN is committed to producing practical, user-centered communications that foster a better understanding of science and enable readers to pursue new opportunities in research, education, and environmental problem-solving. Our publications synthesize scientific findings using effective science communication techniques.

Using macroalgal bioindicators to map nutrient plumes from fish farms and other sources at a bay-wide scale (Page 1)

Using macroalgal bioindicators to map nutrient plumes from fish farms and other sources at a bay-wide scale

Howarth LM, Filgueira R, Jiang D, Koepke H, Frame MK, Buchwald C, Finnis S, Chopin T, Costanzo SD, Grant J ·
2019

Human activities can elevate coastal levels of dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN). As macroalgae readily absorb and accumulate DIN, the elemental (total N and C:N ratio) composition of their tissues is less affected by temporal fluctuations compared to more direct measures of DIN concentration. Additionally, their isotopic (δ15N) composition can reflect that of the source, which could potentially be used to identify between multiple effluent sources.

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River Water‐Quality Concentration and Flux Estimation Can be Improved by Accounting for Serial Correlation Through an Autoregressive Model (Page 1)

River water‐quality concentration and flux estimation can be improved by accounting for serial correlation through an autoregressive model

Zhang Q, Hirsch RM ·
2019

Accurate quantification of riverine water‐quality concentration and flux is challenging because monitoring programs typically collect concentration data at lower frequencies than discharge data. Statistical methods are often used to estimate concentration and flux on days without observations. One recently developed approach is the Weighted Regressions on Time, Discharge, and Season (WRTDS), which has been shown to provide among the most accurate estimates compared to other common methods.

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Moving beyond the ecosystem in ecosystem health report cards (Page 1)

Moving beyond the ecosystem in ecosystem health report cards

Laumann KM, Nastase EA, Vargas-Nguyen V, Kelsey RH, Carew A, Donovan EC, Fries AS, Spitzer SE, and Dennison WC ·
2019

Early ecosystem health report cards focused on assessing the health of natural ecosystems, producing a “snapshot” of ecosystem health at one point in time. Ecosystem health report cards are used to guide efforts that improve ecosystem health through natural resources manage- ment and stakeholder engagement. Common themes among Report Cards include water quality and quantity and habitat. These indicators are not strictly environmental concerns, though.

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Scenarios of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (Page 1)

Scenarios of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services

Projecting changes in biodiversity and ecosystem services for decision-making

Brianne Walsh, Heath Kelsey, Bill Dennison ·
6 November 2019

The Belmont Forum Synthesis Workshop was held virtually, with four project teams from around the globe participating remotely. The process was convened by the Belmont Forum and facilitated by the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. It served as the-end term meeting for the Scenarios of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services I (CRA). Project teams from around the globe participated virtually via online software.

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Understanding Responses to Global Change (Page 1)

Understanding Responses to Global Change

International collaborations for practical outcomes

Vanessa Vargas-Nguyen, Yesenia Valverde, Jane Hawkey, Bill Dennison, Heath Kelsey, Katie May Laumann, Sky Swanson ·
6 November 2019

The Tripartite Valorization Workshop was convened by the Belmont Forum and facilitated by the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science in Washington DC on 8-10 December 2018. It served as the-end term meeting for the Food Security and Land Use Change Collaborative Research Action (CRA), and mid-term meetings for the Arctic Observing and Science for Sustainability and Mountains as Sentinels of Change CRAs.

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Healthy Rivers for All (Page 1)

Healthy Rivers for All

Brianne Walsh, Alexandra Fries, Heath Kelsey ·
29 January 2019

The world’s waters are threatened by a host of problems. Impacts from human activities like development and overuse are exacerbated by changes in climate and increased competition by different societal interests, putting vulnerable communities and ecosystems at risk. Creating a sustainable balance of water needs for both nature and people is challenging. It will require people that are competing for water resources to work together in new collaborations and partnerships.

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Towards a framework to support coastal change governance in small islands (Page 1)

Towards a framework to support coastal change governance in small islands

Glaser M, Breckwoldt A, Carruthers T, Forbes DL, Costanzo S, Kelsey RH, Ramachandran R, and Stead S ·
2018

Small islands can guide visualization of the diverse information requirements of future context-relevant coastal governance. On small marine islands (<20 000 km2), negative effects of coastal challenges (e.g., related to population growth, unsustainable resource use or climate change) can develop rapidly, with high intensity and extreme impacts.

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Evaluation of statistical methods for quantifying fractal scaling in water-quality time series with irregular sampling (Page 1)

Evaluation of statistical methods for quantifying fractal scaling in water quality time series with irregular sampling

Zhang Q, Harman CJ, Kirchner JW ·
2018

River water-quality time series often exhibit fractal scaling, which here refers to autocorrelation that decays as a power law over some range of scales. Fractal scaling presents challenges to the identification of deterministic trends because (1) fractal scaling has the potential to lead to false inference about the statistical significance of trends and (2) the abundance of irregularly spaced data in water-quality monitoring networks complicates efforts to quantify fractal scaling.

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