Darius Semmens
Darius Semmens is a Research Physical Scientist with the Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center
His current research interests include the development of new methods and tools for the assessment and valuation of ecosystem goods and services - the specific benefits that we derive from nature. More specifically, his work involves developing methods and tools that can account for the spatial and temporal dynamics of service production and incorporate that and other information into more rigorous analyses of the tradeoffs associated with landscape management. Darius' current work includes cultural ecosystem services modeling with the Social Values for Ecosystem Services (SolVES) tool, quantifying ecosystem service flows from migratory species to inform cross-jurisdictional management and conservation, and multi-resource analysis for energy and minerals.
Professional Experience
2008: Research Physical Scientist with the USGS
2004-2007: Postdoctoral fellow with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development
Education and Certifications
2004: University of Arizona: Ph.D. in Watershed Management (minor in Remote Sensing and Spatial Analysis)
1998: Northern Arizona University: M.S. in Geology (emphasis in Geomorphology)
1995: University of Minnesota: B.S. in Geology
Science and Products
Sustaining Environmental Capital Initiative summary report
Is the timing, pace and success of the monarch migration associated with sun angle?
Quantifying source and sink habitats and pathways in spatially structured populations: A generalized modelling approach
Willingness to pay for conservation of transborder migratory species: A case study of the Mexican free-tailed bat in the United States and Mexico
Monarch habitat as a component of multifunctional landscape restoration using continuous riparian buffers
Using social-context matching to improve spatial function-transfer performance for cultural ecosystem service models
Balancing sampling intensity against spatial coverage for a community science monitoring programme
Consequences of ignoring spatial variation in population trend when conducting a power analysis
Multi-country willingness to pay for transborder migratory species conservation: A case study of Northern Pintails
Ecosystem service flows from a migratory species: Spatial subsidies of the northern pintail
Tools for measuring, modelling, and valuing ecosystem services: guidance for Key Biodiversity Areas, natural World Heritage sites, and protected areas
Do economic values and expenditures for viewing waterfowl in the U.S. differ among species?
Non-USGS Publications**
**Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.
Science and Products
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Filter Total Items: 74
Sustaining Environmental Capital Initiative summary report
Federal agencies need credible scientific information to determine the production and value of ecosystem services in an efficient and timely manner. The U.S. Geological Survey addresses this scientific information need through the Sustaining Environmental Capital Initiative project. The project has relied on U.S. Geological Survey expertise related to water, fisheries, advanced modeling, and econoAuthorsChristopher Huber, James Meldrum, Rudy Schuster, Zachary H. Ancona, Kenneth J. Bagstad, Scott M. Beck, Daren Carlisle, Peter R. Claggett, Fabiano Franco, Heather S. Galbraith, Michelle Haefele, Kristin R Hoelting, Dianna M. Hogan, Kristina G. Hopkins, Tim Kern, Collin B. Lawrence, Stacy Lischka, John B. Loomis, Julie M. Mueller, Gregory B. Noe, Emily J. Pindilli, Brian Quay, Darius J. Semmens, Wilson Sinclair, Daniel E. Spooner, Brian Voigt, Barabara St. John WhiteIs the timing, pace and success of the monarch migration associated with sun angle?
A basic question concerning the monarch butterfly’s fall migration is which monarchs succeed in reaching overwintering sites in Mexico, which fail—and why. We document the timing and pace of the fall migration, ask whether the sun’s position in the sky is associated with the pace of the migration, and whether timing affects success in completing the migration. Using data from the Monarch Watch tagAuthorsOrley R. Taylor, James P Lovett, David L Gibo, Emily L. Weiser, Wayne E. Thogmartin, Darius J. Semmens, James E. Diffendorfer, John M. Pleasants, Samuel Pecoraro, Ralph GrundelQuantifying source and sink habitats and pathways in spatially structured populations: A generalized modelling approach
The ability to classify habitats and movement pathways as sources or sinks is an important part of the decision making process for the conservation of spatially structured populations. Diverse approaches have been used to quantify the importance of habitats and pathways in a spatial network, however these approaches have been limited by a lack of general applicability across life histories and movAuthorsJames E. Diffendorfer, Christine Sample, Joanna A Beiri, Benjamin L. Allen, Yulia Dementieva, Alyssa Carson, Connar Higgins, Sadie Piatt, Shirley Qiu, Summer Stafford, Brady J. Mattsson, Darius J. Semmens, Wayne E. ThogmartinWillingness to pay for conservation of transborder migratory species: A case study of the Mexican free-tailed bat in the United States and Mexico
We estimated U.S. and Mexican citizens’ willingness to pay (WTP) for protecting habitat for a transborder migratory species, the Mexican free-tailed bat (Tadarida brasiliensis mexicana), using the contingent valuation method. Few contingent valuation surveys have evaluated whether households in one country would pay to protect habitat in another country. This study addresses that gap. In our studyAuthorsMichelle Haefele, John B. Loomis, Robert W. Merideth, Aaron M. Lien, Darius J. Semmens, Jim Dubovsky, Ruscena Wiederholt, Wayne E. Thogmartin, Ta-Ken Huang, Gary McCracken, Laura Lopez-Hoffman, Rodrigo Medellin, James E. DiffendorferMonarch habitat as a component of multifunctional landscape restoration using continuous riparian buffers
Stabilizing the eastern, migratory population of monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) is expected to require substantial habitat restoration on agricultural land in the core breeding area of the Upper Midwestern U.S. Previous research has considered the potential to utilize marginal land for this purpose because of its low productivity, erodible soils, and high nutrient input requirements. ThisAuthorsDarius J. Semmens, Zachary H. AnconaUsing social-context matching to improve spatial function-transfer performance for cultural ecosystem service models
Recreational and aesthetic enjoyment of public lands is increasing across a wide range of activities, highlighting the need to assess and adapt management to accommodate these uses. Despite a growing number of studies on mapping cultural ecosystem services, most are local-scale assessments that rely on costly and time-consuming primary data collection. As a result, the availability of spatial infoAuthorsDarius J. Semmens, Benson C. Sherrouse, Zachary H. AnconaBalancing sampling intensity against spatial coverage for a community science monitoring programme
Community science is an increasingly integral part of biodiversity research and monitoring, often achieving broad spatial and temporal coverage but lower sampling intensity than studies conducted by professional scientists. When designing a community‐science monitoring programme, careful assessment of sampling designs that could be both feasible and successful at meeting programme goals is essentiAuthorsEmily L. Weiser, Jay E. Diffendorfer, Ralph Grundel, Laura Lopez Hoffman, Samuel Pecoraro, Darius J. Semmens, Wayne E. ThogmartinConsequences of ignoring spatial variation in population trend when conducting a power analysis
Long-term, large-scale monitoring programs are becoming increasingly common to document status and trends of wild populations. A successful program for monitoring population trend hinges on the ability to detect the trend of interest. Power analyses are useful for quantifying the sample size needed for trend detection, given expected variation in the population. Four components of variation (withiAuthorsEmily L. Weiser, James E. Diffendorfer, Laura Lopez-Hoffman, Darius J. Semmens, Wayne E. ThogmartinMulti-country willingness to pay for transborder migratory species conservation: A case study of Northern Pintails
Using contingent valuation, we estimated willingness to pay (WTP) in Canada, Mexico, and the United States to protect habitat for Northern Pintails (hereafter pintails), a migratory waterfowl species that provides benefits to and requires habitat in the three countries. Our study contributes to research on spatial subsidies by measuring the value of migratory species habitat. While WTP to protectAuthorsMichelle Haefele, John B. Loomis, Aaron M. Lien, James A. Dubovsky, Robert W. Merideth, Kenneth J. Bagstad, Ta-Ken Huang, Brady J. Mattsson, Darius J. Semmens, Wayne E. Thogmartin, Ruscena Wiederholt, James E. Diffendorfer, Laura Lopez-HoffmanEcosystem service flows from a migratory species: Spatial subsidies of the northern pintail
Migratory species provide important benefits to society, but their cross-border conservation poses serious challenges. By quantifying the economic value of ecosystem services (ESs) provided across a species’ range and ecological data on a species’ habitat dependence, we estimate spatial subsidies—how different regions support ESs provided by a species across its range. We illustrate this method foAuthorsKenneth J. Bagstad, Darius J. Semmens, James E. Diffendorfer, Brady J. Mattsson, James A. Dubovsky, Wayne E. Thogmartin, Ruscena Wiederholt, John B. Loomis, Joanna A. Bieri, Christine Sample, Joshua Goldstein, Laura Lopez-HoffmanTools for measuring, modelling, and valuing ecosystem services: guidance for Key Biodiversity Areas, natural World Heritage sites, and protected areas
Increasing interest in measuring, modelling and valuing ecosystem services (ES), the benefits that ecosystems provide to people, has resulted in the development of an array of ES assessment tools in recent years. Selecting an appropriate tool for measuring and modelling ES can be challenging. This document provides guidance for practitioners on existing tools that can be applied to measure or modeAuthorsRachel A Neugarten, Penny F Langhammer, Elena Osipova, Kenneth J. Bagstad, Nirmal Bhagabati, Stuart H M Butchart, Nigel Dudley, Vittoria Elliott, Leah R. Gerber, Claudia Gutierrez-Arrellano, Kasandra-Zoica Ivanić, Marianne Kettunen, Lisa Mandle, Jennifer C Merriman, Mark Mulligan, Kelvin S-H Peh, Ciara Raudsepp-Hearne, Darius J. Semmens, Sue Stolton, Simon Willcock, Craig GrovesDo economic values and expenditures for viewing waterfowl in the U.S. differ among species?
Many economic studies value birdwatching in general and often do not account for potential differences in viewers’ benefits from observing different species. But, how different are economic values of viewing various bird species? To answer that question, we surveyed Ducks Unlimited (DU) members using an online questionnaire to estimate trip expenditures and consumer surplus per trip for viewing piAuthorsJohn Loomis, Michelle Haefele, James Dubovsky, Aaron M. Lien, Wayne E. Thogmartin, James E. Diffendorfer, Dale D. Humburg, Brady J. Mattsson, Kenneth J. Bagstad, Darius J. Semmens, Laura Lopez-Hoffman, Robert MeridethNon-USGS Publications**
Liu, Y., Mahmoud, M., Hartmann, H., Stewart, S., Wagener, T., Semmens, D., Stewart, R., Gupta, H., Dominguez, D., Hulse, D., Letcher, R., Rashleigh, B., Smith, C., Street, R., Ticehurst, J., Twery, M., van Delden, H., Waldick, R., White, D., and Winter, L., 2008, Formal scenario development for environmental impact assessment studies, in Jakeman, A., A. Voinov, A. E. Rizzoli, and S. Chen, (Eds.) Environmental Modelling, Software and Decision Support, 3. IDEA Book Series, Elsevier, 338 pp.Kepner, W.G., Hernandez, M., Semmens, D.J., and Goodrich D.C.,2008, The Use of Scenario Analysis to Assess Future Landscape Change on Watershed Condition in the Pacific Northwest (USA), in Use of Landscape Sciences for Environmental Security: NATO Security through Science Series, Springer Publishers, The Netherlands. ISBN 978-1-4020-6588-0, pp. 237-261.Kepner, W.G., Semmens, D.J., Hernandez, M., and Goodrich, D.C., 2008, Evaluating Hydrological Response to Forecasted Land-use Change, Chapter 15 in Special Issue of Association of American Geographers. North American Land Cover Summit. Washington, DC. pp. 275-292. ISBN 978-0-89291-271-1.Semmens, D.J., Goodrich, D.C., Unkrich, C.L., Smith, R.E., Woolhiser, D.A., and Miller, S.N., 2008, KINEROS2 and the AGWA modeling framework, in Wheater, H., Sorooshian, S., and Sharma, K.D., eds., Hydrological Modelling In Arid and Semi-Arid Areas: Cambridge University Press, New York, 206pp.Miller, S.N., Semmens, D.J., Goodrich, D.C., Hernandez, M., Miller, R.C., Kepner, W.G., and Guertin, D.P., 2007, The Automated Geospatial Watershed Assessment tool: Environmental Modeling and Software, v. 22, n. 3, p. 365-377.Nikolova, M., S. Nedkov, D. Semmens, and S. Iankov, 2007, Environmental quality and landscape-risk assessment in the Yantra River Basin, in W. Kepner, W., Müller, F., Petrosillio, I., Jones, B., Krauze, K., Victorov, S., and Zurlini, G., (eds.), Use of Landscape Sciences for the Assessment of Environmental Security: NATO Security Through Science Series, Springer Publications, p. 202-217.Kepner, W.G., Semmens, D.J., Basset, S.D., Mouat, D.A., Goodrich, D.C., 2004, Scenario analysis for the San Pedro River, analyzing hydrological consequences for a future environment: Environmental Modeling and Assessment, v. 94, p. 115-127.**Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.