A landscape of overlapping risks for wolf-human conflict in Wisconsin, USA.

Managing risk requires an adequate understanding of risk-factors that influence the likelihood of a particular event occurring in time and space. Risk maps can be valuable tools for natural resource managers, allowing them to better understand spatial characteristics of risk. Risk maps can also support risk-avoidance efforts by identifying which areas are relatively riskier than others.

Projecting Soil Organic Carbon Distribution in Central Chile under Future Climate Scenarios.

Soil organic C (SOC) is the largest terrestrial C pool, and it influences diverse soil properties and processes in a landscape. At global scales, SOC is related to climate; as climate changes, we expect that SOC will change at broad scales as well, but how SOC will respond to climate change in diverse environments is complex and highly uncertain. To evaluate the potential impact of predicted changes in temperature and precipitation across central Chile, we first estimated current SOC content using pedon descriptions and environmental variables (temperature, rainfall, land use, topography, soil types, and geology) as predictors.

GPS suggests low physical activity in urban Hispanic school children: a proof of concept study.

Background: Urban environments can increase risk for development of obesity, insulin resistance (IR), and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) by limiting physical activity. This study examined, in a cohort of urban Hispanic youth, the relationship between daily physical activity (PA) measured by GPS, insulin resistance and cardiovascular fitness.

Methods: Hispanic middle school children (n = 141) were assessed for body mass index (BMI), IR (homeostasis model [HOMA-IR]), cardiovascular fitness (progressive aerobic cardiovascular endurance run [PACER]).

Ecosystem-service tradeoffs associated with switching from annual to perennial energy crops in riparian zones of the US Midwest.

Integration of energy crops into agricultural landscapes could promote sustainability if they are placed in ways that foster multiple ecosystem services and mitigate ecosystem disservices from existing crops. We conducted a modeling study to investigate how replacing annual energy crops with perennial energy crops along Wisconsin waterways could affect a variety of provisioning and regulating ecosystem services. We found that a switch from continuous corn production to perennial-grass production decreased annual income provisioning by 75%, although it increased annual energy provisioning by 33%, decreased annual phosphorous loading to surface water by 29%, increased below-ground carbon sequestration by 30%, decreased annual nitrous oxide emissions by 84%, increased an index of pollinator abundance by an average of 11%, and increased an index of biocontrol potential by an average of 6%.