The role of groundwater pumping and drought in shaping ecological futures for stream fishes in a dryland river basin of the western Great Plains, USA

Ecohydrology ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 4 (5) ◽  
pp. 682-697 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey A. Falke ◽  
Kurt D. Fausch ◽  
Robin Magelky ◽  
Angela Aldred ◽  
Deanna S. Durnford ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
Great Plains ◽  
Stream Fishes ◽  
Groundwater Pumping ◽  
Dryland River ◽  
Western Great Plains

scholarly journals Groundwater declines are linked to changes in Great Plains stream fish assemblages

2017 ◽  
Vol 114 (28) ◽  
pp. 7373-7378 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshuah S. Perkin ◽  
Keith B. Gido ◽  
Jeffrey A. Falke ◽  
Kurt D. Fausch ◽  
Harry Crockett ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Great Plains ◽  
Fish Assemblages ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
High Plains ◽  
Stream Fish ◽  
Fish Assemblage Structure ◽  
Stream Fishes ◽  
Groundwater Pumping ◽  
Small Stream ◽  
Stream Fish Assemblages

Groundwater pumping for agriculture is a major driver causing declines of global freshwater ecosystems, yet the ecological consequences for stream fish assemblages are rarely quantified. We combined retrospective (1950–2010) and prospective (2011–2060) modeling approaches within a multiscale framework to predict change in Great Plains stream fish assemblages associated with groundwater pumping from the United States High Plains Aquifer. We modeled the relationship between the length of stream receiving water from the High Plains Aquifer and the occurrence of fishes characteristic of small and large streams in the western Great Plains at a regional scale and for six subwatersheds nested within the region. Water development at the regional scale was associated with construction of 154 barriers that fragment stream habitats, increased depth to groundwater and loss of 558 km of stream, and transformation of fish assemblage structure from dominance by large-stream to small-stream fishes. Scaling down to subwatersheds revealed consistent transformations in fish assemblage structure among western subwatersheds with increasing depths to groundwater. Although transformations occurred in the absence of barriers, barriers along mainstem rivers isolate depauperate western fish assemblages from relatively intact eastern fish assemblages. Projections to 2060 indicate loss of an additional 286 km of stream across the region, as well as continued replacement of large-stream fishes by small-stream fishes where groundwater pumping has increased depth to groundwater. Our work illustrates the shrinking of streams and homogenization of Great Plains stream fish assemblages related to groundwater pumping, and we predict similar transformations worldwide where local and regional aquifer depletions occur.

Diverse Management Strategies Produce Similar Ecological Outcomes on Ranches in Western Great Plains: Social-Ecological Assessment

2018 ◽  
Vol 71 (5) ◽  
pp. 626-636 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hailey Wilmer ◽  
David J. Augustine ◽  
Justin D. Derner ◽  
María E. Fernández-Giménez ◽  
David D. Briske ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Great Plains ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Ecological Assessment ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Western Great Plains

scholarly journals Distribution of Gaseous 12CO2, 13CO2, and 14CO2 in the Sub-Soil Unsaturated Zone of the Western US Great Plains

Radiocarbon ◽  
1983 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 315-346 ◽  
Author(s):  
D C Thorstenson ◽  
E P Weeks ◽  
Herbert Haas ◽  
D W Fisher
Keyword(s):  
Great Plains ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Unsaturated Zone ◽  
Diffusion Theory ◽  
The United States ◽  
Atmospheric Gases ◽  
Sources And Sinks ◽  
Western Us ◽  
Partial Pressures ◽  
Western Great Plains

Data on the depth distribution of the major atmospheric gases and the abundance of gaseous 12CO2, 13CO2, and 14CO2 in the subsoil unsaturated zone have been obtained from several sites in the western Great Plains of the United States. Sample profiles range from land surface to depths of 50m. Although each site must be considered on an individual basis, several general statements can be made regarding the profiles. 1) Diffusion of these gaseous molecules through the unsaturated zone is an important transport mechanism. 2) As predicted by diffusion theory, depth profiles of the various isotopic species of CO2 differ substantially from one another, depending on individual sources and sinks such as root respiration and oxidation of organic carbon at depth. 3) In general, post-bomb (> 100% modern) 14C activities are not observed in the deep unsaturated zone, in contrast to diffusion model predictions. 4) In spite of generally decreasing 14C activities with depth, absolute partial pressures of 14CO2 in the subsoil unsaturated zone are 1–2 orders of magnitude higher than the partial pressure of 14CO2 in the atmosphere.

Disturbance and Fish Communities in Intermittent Tributaries of a Western Great Plains River

Copeia ◽  
1991 ◽  
Vol 1991 (3) ◽  
pp. 659 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kurt D. Fausch ◽  
Robert G. Bramblett
Keyword(s):  
Great Plains ◽  
Fish Communities ◽  
Western Great Plains

scholarly journals Land Use and Family Formation in the Settlement of the US Great Plains

2012 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 279-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
Myron P. Gutmann ◽  
Sara M. Pullum-Piñón ◽  
Kristine Witkowski ◽  
Glenn D. Deane ◽  
Emily Merchant
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Great Plains ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Family Formation ◽  
Descriptive Analysis ◽  
The United States ◽  
Level Data ◽  
The Us ◽  
Intensive Cropping ◽  
Western Great Plains

In agricultural settings, environment shapes patterns of settlement and land use. Using the Great Plains of the United States during the period of its initial Euro-American settlement (1880–1940) as an analytic lens, this article explores whether the same environmental factors that determine settlement timing and land use—those that indicate suitability for crop-based agriculture—also shape initial family formation, resulting in fewer and smaller families in areas that are more conducive to livestock raising than to cropping. The connection between family size and agricultural land availability is now well known, but the role of the environment has not previously been explicitly tested. Descriptive analysis offers initial support for a distinctive pattern of family formation in the western Great Plains, where precipitation is too low to support intensive cropping. However, multivariate analysis using county-level data at 10-year intervals offers only partial support to the hypothesis that environmental characteristics produce these differences. Rather, this analysis has found that the region was also subject to the same long-term social and demographic changes sweeping the rest of the country during this period.

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