Growth, food consumption, and energy status of juvenile pallid sturgeon fed natural or artificial diets
Hilary A. Meyer, Steven R. Chipps, Brian D. S. Graeb, Robert A. Klumb
2016, Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management (7) 388-396
Stocking of hatchery-raised fish is an important part of the pallid sturgeon Scaphirhynchus albus recovery program. In the wild, juvenile pallid sturgeon consume primarily aquatic insects, although little is known about specific dietary needs. In hatchery settings, pallid sturgeon are fed commercial diets that are formulated for salmonids. To compare...
Conservation status of polar bears (Ursus maritimus) in relation to projected sea-ice declines
Eric V. Regehr, Kristin L. Laidre, H. Resit Akcakaya, Steven C. Amstrup, Todd C. Atwood, Nicholas J. Lunn, Martyn E. Obbard, Harry Stern, Gregory W. Thiemann, Øystein Wiig
2016, Biology Letters (12) 1-5
Loss of Arctic sea ice owing to climate change is the primary threat to polar bears throughout their range. We evaluated the potential response of polar bears to sea-ice declines by (i) calculating generation length (GL) for the species, which determines the timeframe for conservation assessments; (ii) developing a standardized...
Anti-dog IgG secondary antibody successfully detects IgG in a variety of aquatic mammals
Katherine Roehl, Mark Jankowski, Erik K. Hofmeister
2016, Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine (47) 970-976
Serological tests play an important role in the detection of wildlife diseases. However, while there are many commercial assays and reagents available for domestic species, there is a need to develop efficient serological assays for wildlife. In recent years, marine mammals have represented a wildlife group with emerging infectious diseases,...
Gray wolf exposure to emerging vector-borne diseases in Wisconsin with comparison to domestic dogs and humans
Rocio F. Jara, Adrian P. Wydeven, Michael D. Samuel
2016, PLoS ONE (11) 1-17
World-wide concern over emerging vector-borne diseases has increased in recent years for both animal and human health. In the United Sates, concern about vector-borne diseases in canines has focused on Lyme disease, anaplasmosis, ehrlichiosis, and heartworm which infect domestic and wild canids. Of these diseases, Lyme and anaplasmosis are also...
Multidecadal increases in the Yukon River Basin of chemical fluxes as indicators of changing flowpaths, groundwater, and permafrost
Ryan C. Toohey, Nicole M. Herman-Mercer, Paul F. Schuster, Edda A. Mutter, Joshua C. Koch
2016, Geophysical Research Letters (43) 12120-12130
The Yukon River Basin, underlain by discontinuous permafrost, has experienced a warming climate over the last century that has altered air temperature, precipitation, and permafrost. We investigated a water chemistry database from 1982 to 2014 for the Yukon River and its major tributary, the Tanana River. Significant increases of Ca,...
Hurricane disturbance benefits nesting American Oystercatchers (Haematopus palliatus)
Theodore R. Simons, Shiloh A. Schulte
2016, Waterbirds (39) 327-337
Coastal ecosystems are under increasing pressure from human activity, introduced species, sea level rise, and storm activity. Hurricanes are a powerful destructive force, but can also renew coastal habitats. In 2003, Hurricane Isabel altered the barrier islands of North Carolina, flattening dunes and creating sand flats. American Oystercatchers (Haematopus palliatus)...
Isotope-abundance variations and atomic weights of selected elements: 2016 (IUPAC Technical Report)
Tyler B. Coplen, Yesha Shrestha
2016, Pure and Applied Chemistry (88) 1203-1224
There are 63 chemical elements that have two or more isotopes that are used to determine their standard atomic weights. The isotopic abundances and atomic weights of these elements can vary in normal materials due to physical and chemical fractionation processes (not due to radioactive decay). These variations are well...
Re-Occupancy of Breeding Territories by Ferruginous Hawks in Wyoming: Relationships to Environmental and Anthropogenic Factors
Zachary P. Wallace, Patricia L. Kennedy, John R. Squires, Robert J. Oakleaf, Lucretia E. Olson, Katie M. Dugger
2016, PLoS ONE (11)
Grassland and shrubland birds are declining globally due in part to anthropogenic habitat modification. Because population performance of these species is also influenced by non-anthropogenic factors, it is important to incorporate all relevant ecological drivers into demographic models. We used design-based sampling and occupancy models to test relationships of environmental...
Updated atomic weights: Time to review our table
Tyler B. Coplen, Fabienne Meyers, Norman E. Holden
2016, ChemistryViews Magazine (05 April 2016)
Despite common belief, atomic weights are not necessarily constants of nature. Scientists’ ability to measure these values is regularly improving, so one would expect that the accuracy of these values should be improving with time. It is the task of the IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry) Commission...
Multi-decadal increases in dissolved organic carbon and alkalinity flux from the Mackenzie drainage basin to the Arctic Ocean
Suzanne E. Tank, Robert G. Striegl, James W. McClelland, Steven V. Kokelj
2016, Environmental Research Letters (11) 1-10
Riverine exports of organic and inorganic carbon (OC, IC) to oceans are intricately linked to processes occurring on land. Across high latitudes, thawing permafrost, alteration of hydrologic flow paths, and changes in vegetation may all affect this flux, with subsequent implications for regional and global carbon (C) budgets. Using a...
Uncertainty quantification and propagation for projections of extremes in monthly area burned under climate change: A case study in the coastal plain of Georgia, USA
Adam J. Terando, Brian J. Reich, Krishna Pacifici, Jennifer Costanza, Alexa McKerrow, Jaime A. Collazo
Karin L. Riley, Peter Webley, Matthew Thompson, editor(s)
2016, Book chapter, Natural hazard uncertainty assessment: Modeling and decision support
Human‐caused climate change is predicted to affect the frequency of hazard‐linked extremes. Unusually large wildfires are a type of extreme event that is constrained by climate and can be a hazard to society but also an important ecological disturbance. This chapter focuses on changes in the frequency of extreme monthly...
Unmanned aircraft systems in wildlife research: Current and future applications of a transformative technology
Katherine S. Christie, Sophie L. Gilbert, Casey L. Brown, Michael Hatfield, Leanne Hanson
2016, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment (14) 241-251
Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) – also called unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones – are an emerging tool that may provide a safer, more cost-effective, and quieter alternative to traditional research methods. We review examples where UAS have been used to document wildlife abundance, behavior, and habitat, and illustrate the...
Prediction of fish and sediment mercury in streams using landscape variables and historical mining
Charles N. Alpers, Julie L. Yee, Joshua T. Ackerman, James L. Orlando, Darrell G. Slotton, Mark C. Marvin-DiPasquale
2016, Science of the Total Environment (571) 364-379
Widespread mercury (Hg) contamination of aquatic systems in the Sierra Nevada of California, U.S., is associated with historical use to enhance gold (Au) recovery by amalgamation. In areas affected by historical Au mining operations, including the western slope of the Sierra Nevada and downstream areas in northern California, such as...
Climate change and the Delta
Michael D. Dettinger, Jamie Anderson, Michael L. Anderson, Larry R. Brown, Daniel Cayan, Edwin P. Maurer
2016, San Francisco Estuary and Watershed Science (14) 1-26
Anthropogenic climate change amounts to a rapidly approaching, “new” stressor in the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta system. In response to California’s extreme natural hydroclimatic variability, complex water-management systems have been developed, even as the Delta’s natural ecosystems have been largely devastated. Climate change is projected to challenge these management and ecological...
Interactions among vegetation, climate, and herbivory control greenhouse gas fluxes in a subarctic coastal wetland
K.C. Kelsey, A.J. Leffler, K.H. Beard, Joel A. Schmutz, R.T. Choi, J.M. Welker
2016, Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences (121) 2960-2975
High-latitude ecosystems are experiencing the most rapid climate changes globally, and in many areas these changes are concurrent with shifts in patterns of herbivory. Individually, climate and herbivory are known to influence biosphere-atmosphere greenhouse gas (GHG) exchange; however, the interactive effects of climate and herbivory in driving GHG...
MODIS imagery improves pest risk assessment: A case study of wheat stem sawfly (Cephus cinctus, Hymenoptera: Cephidae) in Colorado, USA
Jordan Lestina, Maxwell Cook, Sunil Kumar, Jeffrey T. Morisette, Paul J. Ode, Frank Peirs
2016, Environmental Entomology (45) 1343-1351
Wheat stem sawfly (Cephus cinctus Norton, Hymenoptera: Cephidae) has long been a significant insect pest of spring, and more recently, winter wheat in the northern Great Plains. Wheat stem sawfly was first observed infesting winter wheat in Colorado in 2010 and, subsequently, has spread rapidly throughout wheat production regions of the...
Geochemistry, Nd-Pb Isotopes, and Pb-Pb Ages of the Mesoproterozoic Pea Ridge Iron Oxide-Apatite–Rare Earth Element Deposit, Southeast Missouri
Robert A. Ayuso, John F. Slack, Warren C. Day, Anne E. McCafferty
2016, Economic Geology (111) 1935-1962
Iron oxide-apatite and iron oxide-copper-gold deposits occur within ~1.48 to 1.47 Ga volcanic rocks of the St. Francois Mountains terrane near a regional boundary separating crustal blocks having contrasting depleted-mantle Sm-Nd model ages (TDM). Major and trace element analyses and Nd and Pb isotope data were obtained to characterize...
Assessment of undiscovered continuous oil and gas resources in the Dnieper-Donets Basin and North Carpathian Basin Provinces, Ukraine, Romania, Moldova, and Poland, 2015
Timothy R. Klett, Christopher J. Schenk, Michael E. Brownfield, Ronald R. Charpentier, Tracey J. Mercier, Heidi M. Leathers-Miller, Marilyn E. Tennyson
2016, Fact Sheet 2016-3082
Using a geology-based methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated undiscovered, technically recoverable mean resources of 13 million barrels of oil and 2,643 billion cubic feet of natural gas in the Dnieper-Donets Basin and North Carpathian Basin Provinces of Ukraine, Romania, Moldova, and Poland....
Mountain goat abundance and population trends in the Olympic Mountains, northwestern Washington, 2016
Kurt J. Jenkins, Patricia J. Happe, Katherine F. Beirne, William T. Baccus
2016, Open-File Report 2016-1185
Executive SummaryWe estimated abundance and trends of non-native mountain goats (Oreamnos americanus) in the Olympic Mountains of northwestern Washington, based on aerial surveys conducted during July 13–24, 2016. The surveys produced the seventh population estimate since the first formal aerial surveys were conducted in 1983. This was the second population...
Annualized earthquake loss estimates for California and their sensitivity to site amplification
Rui Chen, Kishor S. Jaiswal, D Bausch, H Seligson, C.J. Wills
2016, Seismological Research Letters (87) 1363-1372
Input datasets for annualized earthquake loss (AEL) estimation for California were updated recently by the scientific community, and include the National Seismic Hazard Model (NSHM), site‐response model, and estimates of shear‐wave velocity. Additionally, the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s loss estimation tool, Hazus, was updated to include the most recent census...
Was everything bigger in Texas? Characterization and trends of a land-based recreational shark fishery
Matthew J. Ajemian, Philip D. Jose, John T. Froeschke, Mark L. Wildhaber, Gregory W. Stunz
2016, Marine and Coastal Fisheries: Dynamics, Management, and Ecosystem Science (8) 553-566
Although current assessments of shark population trends involve both fishery-independent and fishery-dependent data, the latter are generally limited to commercial landings that may neglect nearshore coastal habitats. Texas has supported the longest organized land-based recreational shark fishery in the United States, yet no studies have used this “non-traditional” data source...
Model description and evaluation of the mark-recapture survival model used to parameterize the 2012 status and threats analysis for the Florida manatee (Trichechus manatus latirostris)
Catherine A. Langtimm, William L. Kendall, Cathy A. Beck, Howard I. Kochman, Amy L. Teague, Gaia Meigs-Friend, Claudia L. Penaloza
2016, Open-File Report 2016-1163
This report provides supporting details and evidence for the rationale, validity and efficacy of a new mark-recapture model, the Barker Robust Design, to estimate regional manatee survival rates used to parameterize several components of the 2012 version of the Manatee Core Biological Model (CBM) and Threats Analysis (TA). The CBM...
Quantifying gas emissions from the 946 CE Millennium Eruption of Paektu volcano, Democratic People's Republic of Korea/China
Kayla Iacovino, Kim Ju-Song, Thomas W. Sisson, Jacob B. Lowenstern, Ri Ku-Hun, Jang Jong-Nam, Song Kun-Ho, Ham Song-Hwan, Clive Oppenheimer, James O.S. Hammond, Amy Donovan, Kosima Weber-Liu, Ryu Kum-Ran
2016, Science Advances (2) 1-11
Paektu volcano (Changbaishan) is a rhyolitic caldera that straddles the border between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and China. Its most recent large eruption was the Millennium Eruption (ME; 23 km3 DRE) circa 946 CE, which resulted in the release of copious magmatic volatiles (H2O, CO2, sulfur, and...
Vive la résistance: genome-wide selection against introduced alleles in invasive hybrid zones
Ryan P. Kovach, Brian K. Hand, Paul A. Hohenlohe, Ted F. Cosart, Matthew C. Boyer, Helen H. Neville, Clint C. Muhlfeld, Stephen J. Amish, Kellie Carim, Shawn R. Narum, Winsor H. Lowe, Fred W. Allendorf, Gordon Luikart
2016, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (283)
Evolutionary and ecological consequences of hybridization between native and invasive species are notoriously complicated because patterns of selection acting on non-native alleles can vary throughout the genome and across environments. Rapid advances in genomics now make it feasible to assess locus-specific and genome-wide patterns of natural selection acting on invasive...
Aqueous exposure to the progestin, levonorgestrel, alters anal fin development and reproductive behavior in the eastern mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki)
Tyler E. Frankel, Michael T. Meyer, Edward F. Orlando
2016, General and Comparative Endocrinology (234) 161-169
Endogenous progestogens are important regulators of vertebrate reproduction. Synthetic progestins are components of human contraceptive and hormone replacement pharmaceuticals. Both progestogens and progestins enter the environment through a number of sources, and have been shown to cause profound effects on reproductive health in various aquatic vertebrates. Progestins are designed to...
