Theses and Dissertations at Montana State University (MSU)
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Item Rivers of resistance: resource conflict and rural organizing in the Americas(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2024) Anderson, Jacey Christine; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Molly ToddIn the last half of the twentieth-century, historians of every specialization framed their studies by national boundaries, and environmental historians of the so-called "global north" separated the domain of human culture from the domain of physical nature. For decades, scholars widely accepted and repeated these arrangements, but the lines of separation and division turned out to be far more effective as obstructions to understanding than as paths to insight. This transnational research sets a consequential example by removing those obstructions and by mapping those paths. This is an environmental history of two river basins in the Americas. The following chapters unpack parallels between these places, specifically, how people along the Rio Lempa in El Salvador and the Tongue River in Montana used their local knowledge of the land to successfully prevent mining projects in the late twentieth and early-twenty first centuries. I examine the environmental, societal, and cultural factors that led to these successes from different scales--the global to the local--and highlight common themes they shared. Both movements focused on defending their watersheds from mining projects that would have damaged water quality and altered locals' ways of life. The leaders of both movements were not traditional environmentalists and did not consider themselves to be; rather, they were ordinary people who were fighting for what they valued--a life of dignity and respect for their surroundings. By examining two distinct case studies, I show that "success" stories are not singular anomalies. They serve as models for future action.Item Spatial and temporal variability in movements and vital rates of sympatric salmonids in an unfragmented, inland watershed(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2019) Lance, Michael James; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Alexander V. ZaleThe life history patterns and vital rates of stream dwelling fish can differ across biological, spatial, and temporal scales. We determined the movement patterns and vital rates of three abundant salmonids--brown trout (Salmo trutta), mountain whitefish (Prosopium williamsoni), and rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)--in the Smith River watershed of Montana, a system with three distinct geomorphic regions: the headwaters, semi-wilderness canyon, and prairie. We marked 7,172 fish with passive integrated transponder (PIT) tags, monitored their watershed-scale movements past 15 stationary PIT arrays over four years, and relocated fish between arrays by conducting mobile surveys along the Smith River and major tributaries. Fish movement patterns and survival probabilities varied seasonally, among species, and among locations within the watershed. Volume of movement and diversity of movers were both greatest in the canyon region and in lower portions of tributaries. Fish rarely left the canyon, but movement into the canyon from other regions was common among some groups of fish. Mountain whitefish were most likely to move and brown trout were least likely to move. The stream lengths traversed by fish followed a leptokurtic distribution with most fish travelling < 10 km and decreasing numbers of fish travelling farther. Distinct life history patterns were not evident as judged by the stream lengths traversed by tagged fish; rather, a continuous spectrum of distances traversed was apparent. Species-specific spawning periods were associated with increased frequency of movement by mountain whitefish and rainbow trout. Increases in the frequency of watershed-scale movements of all three species were associated mean daily water temperatures of 11.7-15.3°C, compared to periods when water temperatures were cooler or warmer. Annual probabilities of survival were highest among mountain whitefish (0.38-0.54) and lower among brown trout (0.16-0.38) and rainbow trout (0.08-0.39). Survival of rainbow trout and mountain whitefish was highest in the canyon. Survival of mountain whitefish was also high in the headwaters but was lowest in the prairie. Movements of fish in the Smith River watershed were diverse, allowed movement among habitats with different probabilities of survival, and probably contributed to meta-population function, population resiliency, and species diversity.Item Flathead Watershed curriculum development : knowledge, skills, and disposition results from the Flathead Watershed delphi survey(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Education, Health & Human Development, 2016) Vallor, Rosanna Rohrs; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Michael BrodyThis research focused on the establishment of foundational knowledge, skills and dispositions for the Flathead Watershed Educators Guide, a place-based watershed curriculum for middle school grades based on the Flathead Watershed Sourcebook. The methodology of this research was the consensus building process known as the Delphi survey. Survey participants (n=33) were chosen based on their expertise as educators, resource managers and scientists living and practicing in the Flathead Watershed in northwestern Montana, USA. Participants' responses were gathered through the three-round survey by the Montana State University (MSU) research team using MSU's online software program Desire 2 Learn (D2L), an anonymous, asynchronous platform with distance accessibility. Round One responses were gathered through the D2L discussion function so that participants could read each other's responses and reply if desired, allowing an exchange and development of ideas. Round One discussion responses were formatted into statements, which were then made available to the participants to rate through two successive rounds using 1-5 Likert scales. Of the initial 142 statements, 91 statements were retained in the final round. The 91 final statements were matched to Flathead Watershed Sourcebook contents to identify the learning objectives for the Flathead Watershed Educators Guide. The final statements listed the knowledge, skills, and dispositions survey participants felt were most important for students in the Flathead Watershed to learn. Statements showed concern for conservation and protection of the natural environment through place-based watershed education.Item The effect of watershed structure and climate on streamflow response, hydrologic memory, and runoff source areas(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2014) Nippgen, Fabian; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Jack Brookshire; Brian McGlynn, Lucy Marshall and Ryan Emanuel were co-authors of the article, 'Landscape structure and climate influences on hydrologic response' in the journal 'Water resources research' which is contained within this thesis.; Brian McGlynn, Ryan Emanuel and James Vose were co-authors of the article, 'Watershed memory at the Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory: the effect of past precipitation and storage on hydrologic response' which is contained within this thesis.; Brian McGlynn and Ryan Emanuel were co-authors of the article, 'The temporal evolution of variable contributing areas' submitted to the journal 'Water resources research' which is contained within this thesis.Watershed-scale hydrology research has long focused on understanding how various feedbacks in the soil-vegetation-atmosphere continuum affect streamflow. With this dissertation I sought to contribute to our understanding of how watershed characteristics (e.g. topography and vegetation) and climate affect various aspects of watershed hydrology, such as streamflow response times, watershed memory, and runoff source areas. Specifically, I was interested in 1) how watershed structure and climate affect inter- and intra-watershed variability in hydrologic response times, 2) how past precipitation and watershed memory affect runoff response on time scales of months to years, and 3) how runoff source areas vary through time. I approached these challenges/questions through a combination of spatially and temporally intensive and extensive observations synthesized as a) application of a simple lumped model to distill complex watershed behavior into comparable metrics across nested watersheds, b) empirical analysis of long-term hydroclimatic data sets to investigate the effect of watershed memory on the hydrologic response of watersheds, and c) the development of a parsimonious but fully distributed hydrologic rainfall-runoff model to characterize the effect of topographically driven lateral water redistribution and water uptake by vegetation on landscape scale hydrologic connectivity. We demonstrated that 1) differences in response times between watersheds were caused by differences in watershed structure while differences in response times between years were a function of maximum snow accumulation; 2) we found strong influences of past precipitation on runoff from monthly to annual time scales; 3) runoff source areas were highly variable over the course of two water years and exhibited hysteretic spatial behavior over the course of the snow melt seasons. This dissertation contributed new hydrologic understanding of how watershed properties (topography, geology, vegetation etc.), climatic variability, and the interactions between them affect hydrologic response at the watershed scale.Item Applications of the Green-Ampt infiltration model to watersheds in Montana and Wyoming(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Engineering, 1989) Van Mullem, Joseph AlphonseItem Selected multivariate statistical methods applied to runoff data from Montana watersheds(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Engineering, 1968) Lewis, Gary LeeItem A spatial comparison of channel morphology between burn, timber and old growth areas within the Yellowstone ecosystem(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 1997) Myers, Stephen CharlesItem Identifying linkages between aquatic habitat, geomorphology, and land use in Sourdough Creek Watershed(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2004) McIlroy, Susan Kay; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Cliff Montagne.Aquatic systems reflect the geomorphological and land use processes that shape them. System function, structure, and composition are driven by both autogenous and exogenous processes at small- and large-scales. Impacts often act synergistically, increasing the complexity and magnitude of their effects on aquatic systems. To assess these impacts, watershed scale studies are becoming more common, and an integration of research and management is beginning to emerge. Diverse user groups and differing agendas complicate watershed management and restoration, making a collaborative decision-making process imperative. Objectives of this study were to identify linkages between aquatic habitat, geomorphology, and land use in Sourdough Creek Watershed, explore potential land use impacts in the Lower Watershed, and identify a sustainable management plan for the watershed. Specific questions involved identifying potential westslope cutthroat trout reintroduction areas in the Upper Watershed and exploring statistical correlations between six land classes and the response variables of large woody debris and pool length. This study found suitable reintroduction areas as well as identified linkages between predictor variables and LWD and pool length across land classes. Although others have assessed aquatic habitat on a large-scale as well as identified potential management paradigms, this study integrates the two in order to provide a useful document for stakeholders and managers of Sourdough Creek Watershed.Item Effects of wildfire on first order stream channel morphology Yellowstone National Park, USA(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 1999) Ernstrom, Kim J.Item The application of approximate bayesian computation in the calibration of hydrological models(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2014) Brown, Jason John; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Robert A. Payn; Lucy A. Marshall, Rob A. Payn, and Mark C. Greenwood were co-authors of the article, 'The application of approximate bayesian computation and sequential monte carlo in the calibration of hydrological models' submitted to the journal 'Hydrology and earth system sciences' which is contained within this thesis.There is an increasing need to obtain proper estimates for the uncertainty associated with Conceptual Rainfall-Runoff models and their predictions. Within hydrology, uncertainty analysis is commonly conducted using Bayesian inference or Generalized Likelihood Uncertainty Estimation (GLUE). Bayesian inference is a statistically rigorous method for estimating uncertainty, but it depends upon a formal likelihood function that may not be available. GLUE utilizes a generalized likelihood function that can operate as a proxy for a formal likelihood function. While this allows GLUE to effectively calibrate hydrological models with intractable likelihood functions, the lack of statistical rigor may negatively affect the uncertainty estimations. Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC) is a family of likelihood-free methods that have been recently introduced for calibrating hydrological models. While these methods are implemented using formal Bayesian inference for assessing uncertainty, they do not require any assumptions regarding the likelihood function. Thus they have the potential flexibility of GLUE with the statistical rigor inherent in Bayesian Inference. The studies presented within this thesis demonstrate the theoretical links between GLUE and ABC. We then assess the efficacy of an implementation of ABC utilizing a Sequential Monte Carlo sampler (ABC-SMC) for calibrating Conceptual Rainfall-Runoff models. Two components of the ABC-SMC algorithm were evaluated. These included three classes of summary statistics used for evaluating model performance and post-processing techniques to adjust the final posterior distributions of the parameters. ABC-SMC was computationally efficient in calibrating a six parameter hydrological model for one synthetic and two real world data sets. Post-processing using local linear regression generated marginal improvements to the posterior distributions. Summary statistics measuring the goodness-of-fit between the observed and predicted hydrographs performed well for the synthetic data where the total uncertainty was low. A composite summary statistic based upon matching both hydrograph and hydrological signatures of a basin were more effective for the real world data sets as total uncertainty increased. The results suggest a properly implemented ABC-SMC algorithm is an effective method for calibrating watershed models and for conducting uncertainty analysis.