British Columbia (BC) grasslands represent 1% of the provincial land base, 95% of which are working rangelands. They have provided economic and cultural services for centuries. They are extremely valuable as a source of carbon sequestration, clean water and air and high quality low cost forage for the ranching industry. Classified as semi-arid, the grasslands have limited sources of fresh water to support wildlife and cattle. In areas without a nearby river, stream or lake fresh water is found mainly in closed-basin ponds that form in depressions in the terrain. Closed Basin Ponds take their name from operating as a “closed system“ meaning that except for surface runoff and direct precipitation, there are no other external sources of water to feed them. Also, water does not flow out of the system to other water sources. It leaves the system by evaporation and uptake by wildlife, vegetation and cattle. These ponds are breeding grounds for water fowl and amphibians and are used as drinking water sources for cattle during grazing. Changes in water levels of closed-basin ponds are controlled by hydrological processes. Many of these processes are sensitive to changes in climate. Recently, the ranching community has expressed a concern regarding an observed decline of closed-basin ponds in BC's semi-arid rangelands. However, to date, there is no official evaluation of changes in number and surface area of closed-basin pond to support these observations. Moreover, there are limited weather data analyses and field studies to explain the observed changes. This project aims to quantify the degree of decline in the abundance of ponds using remote sensing techniques and reveal significant changes in weather variables that may explain the declines.
Oral presentation and poster titles, abstracts, and authors from the Society for Range Management (SRM) Annual Meetings and Tradeshows, from 2013 forward.