Stone Thomas A.

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Stone
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Thomas A.
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  • Article
    Objective indicators of pasture degradation from spectral mixture analysis of Landsat imagery
    (American Geophysical Union, 2008-07-23) Davidson, Eric A. ; Asner, Gregory P. ; Stone, Thomas A. ; Neill, Christopher ; Figueiredo, Ricardo O.
    Degradation of cattle pastures is a management concern that influences future land use in Amazonia. However, “degradation” is poorly defined and has different meanings for ranchers, ecologists, and policy makers. Here we analyze pasture degradation using objective scalars of photosynthetic vegetation (PV), nonphotosynthetic vegetation (NPV), and exposed soil (S) derived from Landsat imagery. A general, probabilistic spectral mixture model decomposed satellite spectral reflectance measurements into subpixel estimates of PV, NPV, and S covers at ranches in western and eastern Amazonia. Most pasture management units at all ranches fell along a single line of decreasing PV with increasing NPV and S, which could be considered a degradation continuum. The ranch with the highest stocking densities and most intensive management had greater NPV and S than a less intensively managed ranch. The number of liming, herbiciding, and disking treatments applied to each pasture management unit was positively correlated with NPV and negatively correlated with PV. Although these objective scalars revealed signs of degradation, intensive management kept exposed soil to <40% cover and maintained economically viable cattle production over several decades. In ranches with few management inputs, the high PV cover in young pastures declined with increasing pasture age, while NPV and S increased, even where grazing intensity was low. Both highly productive pastures and vigorous regrowth of native vegetation cause high PV values. Analysis of spectral properties holds promise for identifying areas where grazing intensity has exceeded management inputs, thus increasing coverage of senescent foliage and exposed soil.
  • Article
    Nutrient gradients in Panamanian estuaries : effects of watershed deforestation, rainfall, upwelling, and within-estuary transformations
    (Inter-Research, 2013-05-22) Valiela, Ivan ; Giblin, Anne E. ; Barth-Jensen, Coralie ; Harris, Carolynn ; Stone, Thomas A. ; Fox, Sophia E. ; Crusius, John
    To test whether deforestation of tropical forests alters coupling of watersheds, estuaries, and coastal waters, we measured nutrients in 8 watershed-estuarine systems on the Pacific coast of Panama where watershed forest cover ranged from 23 to 92%. Watersheds with greater forest cover discharged larger dissolved inorganic nitrogen concentrations and higher N/P into estuary headwaters. As freshwater mixed with seawater down-estuary, within-estuary biogeochemical processes erased the imprint of watershed deforestation, increased ammonium, lowered nitrate concentrations, and otherwise altered down-estuary water column composition. As estuarine water left mangrove estuaries, ammonium, nitrate, and phosphate, but not dissolved organic nitrogen, were exported to receiving near-shore waters. Mangrove estuaries in this region thus provide important ecological services, by uncoupling coastal waters from changes in terrestrial land covers, as well as by subsidizing adjoined receiving coastal waters by providing nutrients. The pattern of land-sea coupling and exports was disrupted during La Niña-influenced conditions. In one instance when La Niña conditions led to upwelling of deeper layers, high concentrations of marine-derived ammonium were inserted into estuaries. In another instance, La Niña-associated high rainfall diluted nutrient concentrations within estuaries and lowered salinity regionally, and the fresher upper layer impaired coastal upwelling. Regional rainfall has increased during the last decade. If La Niña rainfall continues to increase, disruptions of current land-estuary-sea couplings may become more frequent, with potentially significant changes in nutrient cycles and ecological services in these coupled ecosystems.
  • Article
    Deforestation of watersheds of Panama : nutrient retention and export to streams
    (Springer, 2013-03-19) Valiela, Ivan ; Barth-Jensen, Coralie ; Stone, Thomas A. ; Crusius, John ; Fox, Sophia E. ; Bartholomew, Megan
    A series of eight watersheds on the Pacific coast of Panama where conversion of mature lowland wet forest to pastures by artisanal burning provided watershed-scale experimental units with a wide range of forest cover (23, 29, 47, 56, 66, 73, 73, 91, and 92%). We used these watersheds as a landscape-scale experiment to assess effects of degree of deforestation on within-watershed retention and hydrological export of atmospheric inputs of nutrients. Retention was estimated by comparing rainfall nutrient concentrations (volume-weighted to allow for evapotranspiration) to concentrations in freshwater reaches of receiving streams. Retention of rain-derived nutrients in these Panama watersheds averaged 77, 85, 80, and 62% for nitrate, ammonium, dissolved organic N, and phosphate, respectively. Retention of rain-derived inorganic nitrogen, however, depended on watershed cover: retention of nitrate and ammonium in pasture-dominated watersheds was 95 and 98%, while fully forested watersheds retained 65 and 80% of atmospheric nitrate and ammonium inputs. Watershed forest cover did not affect retention of dissolved organic nitrogen and phosphate. Exports from more forested watersheds yielded DIN/P near 16, while pasture-dominated watersheds exported N/P near 2. The differences in magnitude of exports and ratios suggest that deforestation in these Panamanian forests results in exports that affect growth of plants and algae in the receiving stream and estuarine ecosystems. Watershed retention of dissolved inorganic nitrogen calculated from wet plus dry atmospheric deposition varied from 90% in pasture- to 65% in forest-dominated watersheds, respectively. Discharges of DIN to receiving waters from the watersheds therefore rose from 10% of atmospheric inputs for pasture-dominated watersheds, to about 35% of atmospheric inputs for fully forested watersheds. These results from watersheds with no agriculture or urbanization, but different conversion of forest to pasture by burning, show significant, deforestation-dependent retention within tropical watersheds, but also ecologically significant, and deforestation-dependent, exports that are biologically significant because of the paucity of nutrients in receiving tropical stream and coastal waters.