Sam Chambers (Former Employee)
Science and Products
Supporting energy and mineral development through successful reclamation
Federal lands of the US contain important reserves of oil, gas and other resources important for Unleashing American Energy (SO 3418). After development of these resources is complete, successfully reclaiming disturbed lands is a necessary step towards restoring wildlife habitat, forage production, and maintaining natural resources for future use. To improve reclamation outcomes on these lands and...
Impacts of Anthropogenic Land Cover Changes on Wildlife Bioenergetics and Landscape Connectivity
In order to maintain viable populations, wildlife require not only contiguous habitat but also the bodily ability to move through the landscape. The spatial expansion of human development can block or slow the movement of wildlife.
Remote Sensing of Energy Development
Oil and gas development across the western United States has increased substantially in recent decades, including within the Colorado Plateau. The Colorado Plateau is a high desert region of grasslands, shrublands, and woodlands and is home to a large number of world-renowned national and tribal parks and monuments (e.g., Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce, Arches, Canyonlands, Monument Valley, and Mesa...
UAS lidar Digital Terrain Model of a southern subset in Palo Alto Battlefield National Historic Park, Texas, March 2024
This is a 4cm resolution Digital Terrain Model (DTM) raster derived from an Unoccupied Aerial System (UAS; a DJI M600 equipped with a YellowScan Mapper+), lidar collected on March 26, 2024 by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Uncrewed Systems Office (NUSO). It covers a southern portion of Palo Alto Battlefield National Historic Park in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of South Texas.
Spatial data of oil and gas pads and access roads on the Colorado Plateau, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico
This data release contains spatial data on the location, number, size and extent of energy-related surface disturbances on the Colorado Plateau of Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico as of 2016. The database includes: 1) polygons of oil and gas pads generated from automated and manual classification of aerial imagery, and 2) polylines of roads derived from the U.S. Census Bureau TIGER/Line...
Geodatabase of oil and gas pads and roads within the Bureau of Land Management's Carlsbad Field Office administrative boundary, New Mexico
This database contains spatial data on the location, number, size and extent of energy-related surface disturbances within the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Carlsbad Field Office (CFO) administrative area. The BLM administers over 2 million acres of surface estate and 3 million acres of mineral estate in the southeastern portion of New Mexico. The BLM requires a thorough and...
Plant cover, climate, grazing disturbance, and soil class data from 1991-2020 compiled from remotely sensed data on two retired grazing allotments in Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, USA
These data were compiled for use by researchers and land managers in studies of post-grazing change in Capitol Reef National Park. The data were initially used for and are associated with the McNellis et al., 2023 (see Larger Work Citation). Objective(s) of our study were to study landscape change (specifically plant cover measured through remote sensing) through time in Capitol Reef...
Maps of cumulative energy expenditure models for jaguar in southern Arizona
Raster data depicting estimated jaguar energy expenditure required to move north from the US-Mexico border to reach important water sources. The data were generated for five scenarios: walled, un-walled crossing and three remediation scenarios: a border crossing through the wall in rugged terrain towards the west end of the wall, a crossing in a dry wash centrally located, one in less...
Maps of mule deer avoidance areas based on density of oil and gas developments, Book Cliffs, Utah
Vector data showing areas of dense oil and gas development that mule deer are expected to avoid, for twelve study sites in the Book Cliffs region in Utah.
The tortoise and the antilocaprid: Adapting GPS tracking and terrain data to model wildlife walking functions
Context The relationship between slope and terrestrial animal locomotion is key to landscape ecology but underexplored across species. This is partly due to a lack of scalable methodology that applies to a diversity of wildlife. Objectives This study investigates the slope-speed relationship for two species, Texas tortoise (Gopherus berlandieri) and pronghorn (Antilocapra americana)...
Authors
Samuel Norton Chambers, Joshua W. Von Nonn, Matthew Alexander Burgess, Lance R. Brady, Jeffrey Bracewell, Daniel A. Guerra, Miguel L. Villarreal
Livestock removal increases plant cover across a heterogeneous dryland landscape on the Colorado Plateau
Livestock removal is increasingly used as a management option to mitigate the negative impacts of grazing-related disturbances on rangelands. Removal generally increases plant cover, but it is unclear when, where, and by how much plant and soil cover changes can be expected. On the Colorado Plateau, complex geology, topography, soils, and climate all interact to mediate the relationship...
Authors
Brandon E McNellis, Anna C. Knight, Travis Nauman, Samuel Norton Chambers, C.W. Brungard, S.E. Fick, Carolyn Livensperger, C.G. Borthwick, Michael Duniway
Spatial models of jaguar energy expenditure in response to border wall construction and remediation
The construction of a wall at the United States-Mexico border is known to impede and deter movement of terrestrial wildlife between the two countries. One such species is the jaguar, in its northernmost range in the borderlands of Arizona and Sonora. We developed an anisotropic cost distance model for jaguar in a binational crossing area of the Madrean Sky Islands at the United States...
Authors
Samuel Norton Chambers, Miguel L. Villarreal, Laura M. Norman, Juan Carlos Bravo, Myles B. Traphagen
Conflict of energies: Spatially modeling mule deer caloric expenditure in response to oil and gas development
ContextWildlife avoid human disturbances, including roads and development. Avoidance and displacement of wildlife into less suitable habitat due to human development can affect their energy expenditures and fitness. The heart rate and oxygen uptake of large mammals varies with both natural aspects of their habitat (terrain, climate, predators, etc.) and anthropogenic influence (noise...
Authors
Samuel Norton Chambers, Miguel L. Villarreal, Olivia Jane Marie Duane, Seth Munson, Erica Francis Stuber, Gayle Loren Tyree, Eric K. Waller, Michael Duniway
Science and Products
Supporting energy and mineral development through successful reclamation
Federal lands of the US contain important reserves of oil, gas and other resources important for Unleashing American Energy (SO 3418). After development of these resources is complete, successfully reclaiming disturbed lands is a necessary step towards restoring wildlife habitat, forage production, and maintaining natural resources for future use. To improve reclamation outcomes on these lands and...
Impacts of Anthropogenic Land Cover Changes on Wildlife Bioenergetics and Landscape Connectivity
In order to maintain viable populations, wildlife require not only contiguous habitat but also the bodily ability to move through the landscape. The spatial expansion of human development can block or slow the movement of wildlife.
Remote Sensing of Energy Development
Oil and gas development across the western United States has increased substantially in recent decades, including within the Colorado Plateau. The Colorado Plateau is a high desert region of grasslands, shrublands, and woodlands and is home to a large number of world-renowned national and tribal parks and monuments (e.g., Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce, Arches, Canyonlands, Monument Valley, and Mesa...
UAS lidar Digital Terrain Model of a southern subset in Palo Alto Battlefield National Historic Park, Texas, March 2024
This is a 4cm resolution Digital Terrain Model (DTM) raster derived from an Unoccupied Aerial System (UAS; a DJI M600 equipped with a YellowScan Mapper+), lidar collected on March 26, 2024 by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Uncrewed Systems Office (NUSO). It covers a southern portion of Palo Alto Battlefield National Historic Park in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of South Texas.
Spatial data of oil and gas pads and access roads on the Colorado Plateau, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico
This data release contains spatial data on the location, number, size and extent of energy-related surface disturbances on the Colorado Plateau of Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico as of 2016. The database includes: 1) polygons of oil and gas pads generated from automated and manual classification of aerial imagery, and 2) polylines of roads derived from the U.S. Census Bureau TIGER/Line...
Geodatabase of oil and gas pads and roads within the Bureau of Land Management's Carlsbad Field Office administrative boundary, New Mexico
This database contains spatial data on the location, number, size and extent of energy-related surface disturbances within the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Carlsbad Field Office (CFO) administrative area. The BLM administers over 2 million acres of surface estate and 3 million acres of mineral estate in the southeastern portion of New Mexico. The BLM requires a thorough and...
Plant cover, climate, grazing disturbance, and soil class data from 1991-2020 compiled from remotely sensed data on two retired grazing allotments in Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, USA
These data were compiled for use by researchers and land managers in studies of post-grazing change in Capitol Reef National Park. The data were initially used for and are associated with the McNellis et al., 2023 (see Larger Work Citation). Objective(s) of our study were to study landscape change (specifically plant cover measured through remote sensing) through time in Capitol Reef...
Maps of cumulative energy expenditure models for jaguar in southern Arizona
Raster data depicting estimated jaguar energy expenditure required to move north from the US-Mexico border to reach important water sources. The data were generated for five scenarios: walled, un-walled crossing and three remediation scenarios: a border crossing through the wall in rugged terrain towards the west end of the wall, a crossing in a dry wash centrally located, one in less...
Maps of mule deer avoidance areas based on density of oil and gas developments, Book Cliffs, Utah
Vector data showing areas of dense oil and gas development that mule deer are expected to avoid, for twelve study sites in the Book Cliffs region in Utah.
The tortoise and the antilocaprid: Adapting GPS tracking and terrain data to model wildlife walking functions
Context The relationship between slope and terrestrial animal locomotion is key to landscape ecology but underexplored across species. This is partly due to a lack of scalable methodology that applies to a diversity of wildlife. Objectives This study investigates the slope-speed relationship for two species, Texas tortoise (Gopherus berlandieri) and pronghorn (Antilocapra americana)...
Authors
Samuel Norton Chambers, Joshua W. Von Nonn, Matthew Alexander Burgess, Lance R. Brady, Jeffrey Bracewell, Daniel A. Guerra, Miguel L. Villarreal
Livestock removal increases plant cover across a heterogeneous dryland landscape on the Colorado Plateau
Livestock removal is increasingly used as a management option to mitigate the negative impacts of grazing-related disturbances on rangelands. Removal generally increases plant cover, but it is unclear when, where, and by how much plant and soil cover changes can be expected. On the Colorado Plateau, complex geology, topography, soils, and climate all interact to mediate the relationship...
Authors
Brandon E McNellis, Anna C. Knight, Travis Nauman, Samuel Norton Chambers, C.W. Brungard, S.E. Fick, Carolyn Livensperger, C.G. Borthwick, Michael Duniway
Spatial models of jaguar energy expenditure in response to border wall construction and remediation
The construction of a wall at the United States-Mexico border is known to impede and deter movement of terrestrial wildlife between the two countries. One such species is the jaguar, in its northernmost range in the borderlands of Arizona and Sonora. We developed an anisotropic cost distance model for jaguar in a binational crossing area of the Madrean Sky Islands at the United States...
Authors
Samuel Norton Chambers, Miguel L. Villarreal, Laura M. Norman, Juan Carlos Bravo, Myles B. Traphagen
Conflict of energies: Spatially modeling mule deer caloric expenditure in response to oil and gas development
ContextWildlife avoid human disturbances, including roads and development. Avoidance and displacement of wildlife into less suitable habitat due to human development can affect their energy expenditures and fitness. The heart rate and oxygen uptake of large mammals varies with both natural aspects of their habitat (terrain, climate, predators, etc.) and anthropogenic influence (noise...
Authors
Samuel Norton Chambers, Miguel L. Villarreal, Olivia Jane Marie Duane, Seth Munson, Erica Francis Stuber, Gayle Loren Tyree, Eric K. Waller, Michael Duniway