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
Quantifying and valuing ecosystem services: An application of ARIES to the San Pedro River basin, USA
Climate change's impact on key ecosystem services and the human well-being they support in the US
Moving across the border: Modeling migratory bat populations
National valuation of monarch butterflies indicates an untapped potential for incentive-based conservation
A comparative assessment of tools for ecosystem services quantification and valuation
Comparing approaches to spatially explicit ecosystem service modeling: a case study from the San Pedro River, Arizona
An application of Social Values for Ecosystem Services (SolVES) to three national forests in Colorado and Wyoming
How do migratory species add ecosystem service value to wilderness? Calculating the spatial subsidies provided by protected areas
A framework for quantitative assessment of impacts related to energy and mineral resource development
Impacts of climate change on ecosystem services
Ecosystem services valuation to support decisionmaking on public lands—A case study of the San Pedro River watershed, Arizona
The Colorado Plateau V: research, environmental planning, and management for collaborative conservation
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
Quantifying and valuing ecosystem services: An application of ARIES to the San Pedro River basin, USA
A large body of research exists that identifies and values ecosystem services - the benefits that ecosystems provide to humans (MA, 2005) - and their underlying ecological processes. However, the development of software decision support tools that integrate ecology, economics and geography that can be independently used within the public, private, academic and NGO sectors is a more recent phenomenAuthorsKenneth J. Bagstad, Darius J. Semmens, Ferdinando Villa, Gary JohnsonClimate change's impact on key ecosystem services and the human well-being they support in the US
Climate change alters the functions of ecological systems. As a result, the provision of ecosystem services and the well-being of people that rely on these services are being modified. Climate models portend continued warming and more frequent extreme weather events across the US. Such weather-related disturbances will place a premium on the ecosystem services that people rely on. We discuss someAuthorsErik J. Nelson, Peter Kareiva, Mary Ruckelshaus, Katie Arkema, Gary Geller, Evan Girvetz, Dave Goodrich, Virginia Matzek, Malin Pinsky, Walt Reid, Martin Saunders, Darius J. Semmens, Heather TallisMoving across the border: Modeling migratory bat populations
The migration of animals across long distances and between multiple habitats presents a major challenge for conservation. For the migratory Mexican free-tailed bat (Tadarida brasiliensis mexicana), these challenges include identifying and protecting migratory routes and critical roosts in two countries, the United States and Mexico. Knowledge and conservation of bat migratory routes is critical inAuthorsWiederholt Ruscena, Laura López-Hoffman, Jon Cline, Rodrigo Medellin, Paul M. Cryan, Amy Russell, Gary McCracken, Jay Diffendorfer, Darius J. SemmensNational valuation of monarch butterflies indicates an untapped potential for incentive-based conservation
The annual migration of monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) has high cultural value and recent surveys indicate monarch populations are declining. Protecting migratory species is complex because they cross international borders and depend on multiple regions. Understanding how much, and where, humans place value on migratory species can facilitate market‐based conservation approaches. We perforAuthorsJames E. Diffendorfer, John, Loomiz, Leslie Ries, Karen Oberhauser, Laura Lopez-Hoffman, Darius J. Semmens, Brice Semmens, Bruce Butterfield, Kenneth J. Bagstad, Josh Goldstein, Ruscena Wiederholt, Brady Mattson, Wayne E. ThogmartinA comparative assessment of tools for ecosystem services quantification and valuation
To enter widespread use, ecosystem service assessments need to be quantifiable, replicable, credible, flexible, and affordable. With recent growth in the field of ecosystem services, a variety of decision-support tools has emerged to support more systematic ecosystem services assessment. Despite the growing complexity of the tool landscape, thorough reviews of tools for identifying, assessing, modAuthorsKenneth J. Bagstad, Darius J. Semmens, Sissel Waage, Robert WinthropComparing approaches to spatially explicit ecosystem service modeling: a case study from the San Pedro River, Arizona
Although the number of ecosystem service modeling tools has grown in recent years, quantitative comparative studies of these tools have been lacking. In this study, we applied two leading open-source, spatially explicit ecosystem services modeling tools – Artificial Intelligence for Ecosystem Services (ARIES) and Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) – to the San PedroAuthorsKenneth J. Bagstad, Darius J. Semmens, Robert WinthropAn application of Social Values for Ecosystem Services (SolVES) to three national forests in Colorado and Wyoming
Despite widespread recognition that social-value information is needed to inform stakeholders and decision makers regarding trade-offs in environmental management, it too often remains absent from ecosystem service assessments. Although quantitative indicators of social values need to be explicitly accounted for in the decision-making process, they need not be monetary. Ongoing efforts to map suchAuthorsBenson C. Sherrouse, Darius J. Semmens, Jessica M. ClementHow do migratory species add ecosystem service value to wilderness? Calculating the spatial subsidies provided by protected areas
Species that migrate through protected and wilderness areas and utilize their resources, deliver ecosystem services to people in faraway locations. The mismatch between the areas that most support a species and those areas where the species provides most benefits to society can lead to underestimation of the true value of protected areas such as wilderness. We present a method to communicate the “AuthorsLaura Lopez-Hoffman, Darius J. Semmens, Jay DiffendorferA framework for quantitative assessment of impacts related to energy and mineral resource development
Natural resource planning at all scales demands methods for assessing the impacts of resource development and use, and in particular it requires standardized methods that yield robust and unbiased results. Building from existing probabilistic methods for assessing the volumes of energy and mineral resources, we provide an algorithm for consistent, reproducible, quantitative assessment of resourceAuthorsSeth S. Haines, James Diffendorfer, Laurie S. Balistrieri, Byron R. Berger, Troy A. Cook, Donald L. Gautier, Tanya J. Gallegos, Margot Gerritsen, Elisabeth Graffy, Sarah Hawkins, Kathleen Johnson, Jordan Macknick, Peter McMahon, Tim Modde, Brenda Pierce, John H. Schuenemeyer, Darius J. Semmens, Benjamin Simon, Jason Taylor, Katherine Walton-DayImpacts of climate change on ecosystem services
Key Findings By 2050, climate change will triple the fraction of counties in the U.S. that are at high or extremely high risk of outstripping their water supplies (from 10 percent to 32 percent). The most at risk areas in the U.S. are the West, Southwest and Great Plains regions. Regulation of drinking water quality will be strained as high rainfall and river discharge conditions may lead to higheAuthorsPeter Kareiva, Mary Ruckleshaus, Katie Arkema, Gary Geller, Evan Girvetz, Dave Goodrich, Erik Nelson, Virginia Matzek, Malin Pinsky, Walt Reid, Martin Saunders, Darius J. Semmens, Heather TallisEcosystem services valuation to support decisionmaking on public lands—A case study of the San Pedro River watershed, Arizona
This report details the findings of the Bureau of Land Management–U.S. Geological Survey Ecosystem Services Valuation Pilot Study. This project evaluated alternative methods and tools that quantify and value ecosystem services, and it assessed the tools’ readiness for use in the Bureau of Land Management decisionmaking process. We tested these tools on the San Pedro River watershed in northern SonAuthorsKenneth J. Bagstad, Darius J. Semmens, Rob Winthrop, Delilah Jaworksi, Joel LarsonThe Colorado Plateau V: research, environmental planning, and management for collaborative conservation
Roughly centered on the Four Corners region of the southwestern United States, the Colorado Plateau covers some 130,000 square miles of sparsely vegetated plateaus, mesas, canyons, arches, and cliffs in Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico. With elevations ranging from 3,000 to 14,000 feet, the natural systems found within the plateau are dramatically varied, from desert to alpine conditions.ThNon-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.