Book review: Foundations of wildlife diseases
Charles van Riper III
2016, Journal of Wildlife Diseases (52) 976-979
A new textbook for practitioners and students of wildlife disease is available. Rick Botzler and Richard Brown have provided an excellent addition to the wildlife disease literature with Foundations of Wildlife Diseases. It has been 8 years since the last major wildlife disease book (Wobeser 2006),...
Expert elicitation of population-level effects of disturbance
Erica Fleishman, Mark Burgman, Michael C. Runge, Robert S Schick, Scott Krauss
Arthur N. Popper, Anthony Hawkins, editor(s)
2016, Book chapter, The effects of noise on aquatic life II
Expert elicitation is a rigorous method for synthesizing expert knowledge to inform decision making and is reliable and practical when field data are limited. We evaluated the feasibility of applying expert elicitation to estimate population-level effects of disturbance on marine mammals. Diverse experts estimated parameters related to mortality and sublethal...
Circumpolar distribution and carbon storage of thermokarst landscapes
David Olefeldt, S. Goswami, G. Grosse, D. Hayes, G. Hugelius, P. Kuhry, A. David McGuire, V.E. Romanovsky, A. B. K. Sannel, E.A.G. Schuur, M.R. Turetsky
2016, Nature Communications (7) 1-11
Thermokarst is the process whereby the thawing of ice-rich permafrost ground causes land subsidence, resulting in development of distinctive landforms. Accelerated thermokarst due to climate change will damage infrastructure, but also impact hydrology, ecology and biogeochemistry. Here, we present a circumpolar assessment of the distribution of thermokarst landscapes, defined as...
Inferring invasive species abundance using removal data from management actions
Amy J. Davis, Mevin Hooten, Ryan S. Miller, Matthew L. Farnsworth, Jesse S. Lewis, Michael Moxcey, Kim M. Pepin
2016, Ecological Applications (26) 2339-2346
Evaluation of the progress of management programs for invasive species is crucial for demonstrating impacts to stakeholders and strategic planning of resource allocation. Estimates of abundance before and after management activities can serve as a useful metric of population management programs. However, many methods of estimating population size are too...
Potential interactions among disease, pesticides, water quality and adjacent land cover in amphibian habitats in the United States
William A. Battaglin, Kelly L. Smalling, Chauncey W. Anderson, Daniel L. Calhoun, Tara E. Chestnut, Erin L. Muths
2016, Science of the Total Environment (566-567) 320-332
To investigate interactions among disease, pesticides, water quality, and adjacent land cover, we collected samples of water, sediment, and frog tissue from 21 sites in 7 States in the United States (US) representing a variety of amphibian habitats. All samples were analyzed for > 90 pesticides and pesticide degradates, and...
Use of mineral/solution equilibrium calculations to assess the potential for carnotite precipitation from groundwater in the Texas Panhandle, USA
Anthony J. Ranalli, Douglas B. Yager
2016, Applied Geochemistry (73) 118-131
This study investigated the potential for the uranium mineral carnotite (K2(UO2)2(VO4)2·3H2O) to precipitate from evaporating groundwater in the Texas Panhandle region of the United States. The evolution of groundwater chemistry during evaporation was modeled with the USGS geochemical code PHREEQC using water-quality data from 100 groundwater wells downloaded from the...
Negative impacts of invasive plants on conservation of sensitive desert wildlife
K. Kristina Drake, Lizabeth Bowen, Kenneth E. Nussear, Todd C. Esque, Andrew J. Berger, Nathan Custer, Shannon C. Waters-Dynes, Jay D. Johnson, A. Keith Miles, Rebecca L. Lewison
2016, Ecosphere (7)
Habitat disturbance from development, resource extraction, off-road vehicle use, and energy development ranks highly among threats to desert systems worldwide. In the Mojave Desert, United States, these disturbances have promoted the establishment of nonnative plants, so that native grasses and forbs are now intermixed with, or have been replaced by...
DOM composition and transformation in boreal forest soils: The effects of temperature and organic-horizon decomposition state
Jonathan A. O’Donnell, George R. Aiken, Kenna D. Butler, Francois Guillemette, David C. Podgorski, Robert G. M. Spencer
2016, Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences (121) 2727-2744
The boreal region stores large amounts of organic carbon (C) in organic-soil horizons, which are vulnerable to destabilization via warming and disturbance. Decomposition of soil organic matter (SOM) contributes to the production and turnover of dissolved organic matter (DOM). While temperature is a primary control on rates of SOM and...
Bacterial community diversity of the deep-sea octocoral Paramuricea placomus
Christina A. Kellogg, Steve W. Ross, Sandra D. Brooke
2016, PeerJ (4)
Compared to tropical corals, much less is known about deep-sea coral biology and ecology. Although the microbial communities of some deep-sea corals have been described, this is the first study to characterize the bacterial community associated with the deep-sea octocoral, Paramuricea placomus. Samples from five colonies of P. placomus were...
Watershed geomorphological characteristics
Faith A. Fitzpatrick
2016, Book chapter, Handbook of applied hydrology
This chapter describes commonly used geomorphological characteristics that are useful for analyzing watershed-scale hydrology and sediment dynamics. It includes calculations and measurements for stream network features and areal basin characteristics that cover a range of spatial and temporal scales and dimensions of watersheds. Construction and application of longitudinal profiles are...
Forecasting climate change impacts on plant populations over large spatial extents
Andrew T. Tredennick, Mevin Hooten, Cameron L. Aldridge, Collin G. Homer, Andrew R. Kleinhesselink, Peter B. Adler
2016, Ecosphere (7)
Plant population models are powerful tools for predicting climate change impacts in one location, but are difficult to apply at landscape scales. We overcome this limitation by taking advantage of two recent advances: remotely sensed, species-specific estimates of plant cover and statistical models developed for spatiotemporal dynamics of animal populations....
Linking field-based metabolomics and chemical analyses to prioritize contaminants of emerging concern in the Great Lakes basin
John M. Davis, Drew R. Ekman, Quincy Teng, Gerald T. Ankley, Jason P. Berninger, Jenna E. Cavallin, Kathleen M. Jensen, Michael D. Kahl, Anthony L. Schroeder, Daniel L. Villeneuve, Zachary G. Jorgenson, Kathy Lee, Timothy W. Collette
2016, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (35) 2493-2502
The ability to focus on the most biologically relevant contaminants affecting aquatic ecosystems can be challenging because toxicity-assessment programs have not kept pace with the growing number of contaminants requiring testing. Because it has proven effective at assessing the biological impacts of potentially toxic contaminants, profiling of endogenous metabolites (metabolomics)...
A Lota lota consumption: Trophic dynamics of nonnative Burbot in a valuable sport fishery
Stephen L. Klobucar, W. Carl Saunders, Phaedra E. Budy
2016, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (145) 1386-1398
Unintentional and illegal introductions of species disrupt food webs and threaten the success of managed sport fisheries. Although many populations of Burbot Lota lota are declining in the species’ native range, a nonnative population recently expanded into Flaming Gorge Reservoir (FGR), Wyoming–Utah, and threatens to disrupt predator–prey interactions within this popular sport...
Fragmented patterns of flood change across the United States
Stacey A. Archfield, Robert M. Hirsch, A. Viglione, G. Blöschl
2016, Geophysical Research Letters (43) 10232-10239
Trends in the peak magnitude, frequency, duration, and volume of frequent floods (floods occurring at an average of two events per year relative to a base period) across the United States show large changes; however, few trends are found to be statistically significant. The multidimensional behavior of flood change across...
Effects of lake trout refuges on lake whitefish and cisco in the Apostle Islands Region of Lake Superior
Chiara M. Zuccarino-Crowe, William W. Taylor, Michael J. Hansen, Michael J. Seider, Charles C. Krueger
2016, Journal of Great Lakes Research (42) 1092-1101
Lake trout refuges in the Apostle Islands region of Lake Superior are analogous to the concept of marine protected areas. These refuges, established specifically for lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) and closed to most forms of recreational and commercial fishing, were implicated as one of several management actions leading to successful...
Cultivation of a native alga for biomass and biofuel accumulation in coal bed methane production water
Logan H. Hodgskiss, Justin Nagy, Elliott P. Barnhart, Alfred B. Cunningham, Matthew W. Fields
2016, Algal Research (19) 63-68
Coal bed methane (CBM) production has resulted in thousands of ponds in the Powder River Basin of low-quality water in a water-challenged region. A green alga isolate, PW95, was isolated from a CBM production pond, and analysis of a partial ribosomal gene sequence indicated the isolate belongs to the Chlorococcaceae...
Climate change and dissolved organic carbon export to the Gulf of Maine
Thomas G. Huntington, William M. Balch, George R. Aiken, Justin Sheffield, Lifeng Luo, Collin S. Roesler, Philip Camill
2016, Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences (121) 2700-2716
Ongoing climate change is affecting the concentration, export (flux), and timing of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) exported to the Gulf of Maine (GoM) through changes in hydrologic regime. DOC export was calculated for water years 1950 through 2013 for 20 rivers and for water years 1930 through 2013 for 14...
Testing fault growth models with low-temperature thermochronology in the northwest Basin and Range, USA
Magdalena A. E. Curry, Jason B. Barnes, Joseph P. Colgan
2016, Tectonics (35) 2467-2492
Common fault growth models diverge in predicting how faults accumulate displacement and lengthen through time. A paucity of field-based data documenting the lateral component of fault growth hinders our ability to test these models and fully understand how natural fault systems evolve. Here we outline a framework for using apatite...
Sex-biased survivorship and differences in migration of wild steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss) smolts from two coastal Oregon rivers
Neil F. Thompson, Camille A. Leblanc, Jeremy D. Romer, Carl B. Schreck, Michael S. Blouin, David L. G. Noakes
2016, Ecology of Freshwater Fish (25) 642-651
In salmonids with partial migration, females are more likely than males to undergo smoltification and migrate to the ocean (vs. maturing in freshwater). However, it is not known whether sex affects survivorship during smolt migration (from fresh water to entry into the ocean). We captured wild steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss) smolts in...
Scaling relation between earthquake magnitude and the departure time from P wave similar growth
Shunta Noda, William L. Ellsworth
2016, Geophysical Research Letters (43) 9053-9060
We introduce a new scaling relation between earthquake magnitude (M) and a characteristic of initial P wave displacement. By examining Japanese K-NET data averaged in bins partitioned by Mw and hypocentral distance, we demonstrate that the P wave displacement briefly displays similar growth at the onset of rupture and that the...
Dynamic distributions and population declines of Golden-winged Warblers
Kenneth V. Rosenberg, Tom Will, David A. Buehler, Sara Barker Swarthout, Wayne E. Thogmartin, Ruth E. Bennett, Richard Chandler
2016, Book chapter, Golden-winged Warbler ecology, conservation, and habitat management (Studies in Avian Biology, volume 49)
With an estimated breeding population in 2010 of 383,000 pairs, the Golden-winged Warbler (Vermivora chrysoptera) is among the most vulnerable and steeply declining of North American passerines. This species also has exhibited among the most dynamic breeding distributions, with populations expanding and then contracting over the past 150 years in...
Seismic imaging beneath an InSAR anomaly in eastern Washington State: Shallow faulting associated with an earthquake swarm in a low-hazard area
William J. Stephenson, Jackson K. Odum, Charles W. Wicks Jr., Thomas L. Pratt, Richard J. Blakely
2016, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (106) 1461-1469
In 2001, a rare swarm of small, shallow earthquakes beneath the city of Spokane, Washington, caused ground shaking as well as audible booms over a five‐month period. Subsequent Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) data analysis revealed an area of surface uplift in the vicinity of the earthquake swarm. To investigate...
Variation of organic matter quantity and quality in streams at Critical Zone Observatory watersheds
Matthew P. Miller, Elizabeth W. Boyer, Diane M. McKnight, Michael G. Brown, Rachel S. Gabor, Carolyn T. Hunsaker, Lidiia Iavorivska, Shreeram Inamdar, Louis A. Kaplan, Dale W. Johnson, Henry Lin, William H. McDowell, Julia N. Perdrial
2016, Water Resources Research (52) 8202-8216
The quantity and chemical composition of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in surface waters influence ecosystem processes and anthropogenic use of freshwater. However, despite the importance of understanding spatial and temporal patterns in DOM, measures of DOM quality are not routinely included as part of large-scale ecosystem monitoring programs and variations...
Comparative use of side and main channels by small-bodied fish in a large, unimpounded river
Ann Marie Reinhold, Robert G. Bramblett, Alexander V. Zale, David W. Roberts, Geoffrey C. Poole
2016, Freshwater Biology (61) 1611-1626
Ecological theory and field studies suggest that lateral floodplain connectivity and habitat heterogeneity provided by side channels impart favourable habitat conditions for lotic fishes, especially fluvial fishes dependent on large patches of shallow, slow velocity habitats for some portion of their life cycle. However, anthropogenic modification of...
Nannoplankton malformation during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum and its paleoecological and paleoceanographic significance
Timothy J. Bralower, Jean Self-Trail
2016, Paleoceanography (31) 1423-1439
The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) is characterized by a transient group of nannoplankton, belonging to the genus Discoaster. Our investigation of expanded shelf sections provides unprecedented detail of the morphology and phylogeny of the transient Discoasterduring the PETM and their relationship with environmental change. We observe a much larger range...
