Imaging the magmatic system of Mono Basin, California with magnetotellurics in three--dimensions
Jared R. Peacock, Margaret T. Mangan, Darcy McPhee, David A. Ponce
2015, Journal of Geophysical Research (120) 7273-7289
A three–dimensional (3D) electrical resistivity model of Mono Basin in eastern California unveils a complex subsurface filled with zones of partial melt, fluid–filled fracture networks, cold plutons, and regional faults. In 2013, 62 broadband magnetotelluric (MT) stations were collected in an array around southeastern Mono Basin from which a 3D...
In Response: Biological arguments for selecting effect sizes in ecotoxicological testing—A governmental perspective
Christopher A. Mebane
2015, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (34) 2440-2442
Criticisms of the uses of the no-observed-effect concentration (NOEC) and the lowest-observed-effect concentration (LOEC) and more generally the entire null hypothesis statistical testing scheme are hardly new or unique to the field of ecotoxicology [1-4]. Among the criticisms of...
Earthquake rupture process recreated from a natural fault surface
Thomas E. Parsons, Diane L. Minasian
2015, Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth (120) 7852-7862
What exactly happens on the rupture surface as an earthquake nucleates, spreads, and stops? We cannot observe this directly, and models depend on assumptions about physical conditions and geometry at depth. We thus measure a natural fault surface and use its 3D coordinates to construct a replica at 0.1 m...
The Open Water Data Initiative: Water information for a thirsty nation
Alan Rea, Edward Clark, Angela Adams, William B. Samuels
2015, Water Resources Impact (17) 7-10
Initial efforts of the Open Water Data Initiative have focused on three use cases covering flooding, drought, and contaminant spill response, with a goal of identifying critical water data resources and making them more accessible. Significant progress has been made in the past year, although much remains to be done....
Now hiring! Empirically testing a three-step intervention to increase faculty gender diversity in STEM
Jessi L. Smith, Ian M. Handley, Alexander V. Zale, Sara Rushing, Martha A. Potvin
2015, BioScience (65) 1084-1087
Workforce homogeneity limits creativity, discovery, and job satisfaction; nonetheless, the vast majority of university faculty in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields are men. We conducted a randomized and controlled three-step faculty search intervention based in self-determination theory aimed at increasing the number of women faculty in STEM at...
Trends in publications in fluvial geomorphology over two decades: A truly new era in the discipline owing to recent technological revolution?
Hervé Piégay, G. Mathias Kondolf, J. Toby Minear, Lise Vaudor
2015, Geomorphology (248) 489-500
Trends in the field of fluvial geomorphology have been reviewed by a number of authors, who have emphasized the dramatic change occuring in the field in the last two decades of the twentieth century, largely as a result of technological advances. Nevertheless, no prior authors have systematically compiled data on...
Horseshoe crab spawning activity in Delaware Bay, USA, after harvest reduction: A mixed-model analysis
David R. Smith, Timothy J. Robinson
2015, Estuaries and Coasts (38) 2345-2354
A Delaware Bay, USA, standardized survey of spawning horseshoe crabs, Limulus polyphemus, was carried out in 1999 − 2013 through a citizen science network. Previous trend analyses of the data were at the state (DE or NJ) or bay-wide levels. Here, an alternative mixed-model regression analysis was used to estimate...
Geochemistry and origin of metamorphosed mafic rocks from the Lower Paleozoic Moretown and Cram Hill Formations of North-Central Vermont: Delamination magmatism in the western New England appalachians
Raymond Coish, Jonathan Kim, Evan Twelker, Scott P. Zolkos, Gregory J. Walsh
2015, American Journal of Science (315) 809-845
The Moretown Formation, exposed as a north-trending unit that extends from northern Vermont to Connecticut, is located along a critical Appalachian litho-tectonic zone between the paleomargin of Laurentia and accreted oceanic terranes. Remnants of magmatic activity, in part preserved as metamorphosed mafic rocks in the Moretown Formation and the overlying...
A bootstrap method for estimating uncertainty of water quality trends
Robert M. Hirsch, Stacey A. Archfield, Laura A. DeCicco
2015, Environmental Modelling and Software (73) 148-166
Estimation of the direction and magnitude of trends in surface water quality remains a problem of great scientific and practical interest. The Weighted Regressions on Time, Discharge, and Season (WRTDS) method was recently introduced as an exploratory data analysis tool to provide flexible and robust estimates of water quality trends....
Ancient low–molecular-weight organic acids in permafrost fuel rapid carbon dioxide production upon thaw
Travis W. Drake, Kimberly P. Wickland, Robert G. M. Spencer, Diane M. McKnight, Robert G. Striegl
2015, PNAS (112) 13946-13951
Northern permafrost soils store a vast reservoir of carbon, nearly twice that of the present atmosphere. Current and projected climate warming threatens widespread thaw of these frozen, organic carbon (OC)-rich soils. Upon thaw, mobilized permafrost OC in dissolved and particulate forms can enter streams and rivers, which are important processors...
Limited role for thermal erosion by turbulent lava in proximal Athabasca Valles, Mars
Vincenzo Cataldo, David A. Williams, Colin M. Dundas, Laszlo P. Keszthelyi
2015, Journal of Geophysical Research E: Planets (120) 1800-1819
The Athabasca Valles flood lava is among the most recent (<50 Ma) and best preserved effusive lava flows on Mars and was probably emplaced turbulently. The Williams et al. (2005) model of thermal erosion by lava has been applied to what we term “proximal Athabasca,” the 75 km long upstream portion of...
Further assessment of Monkeypox Virus infection in Gambian pouched rats (Cricetomys gambianus) using in vivo bioluminescent imaging
Elizabeth Falendysz, Juan G. Lopera, Faye Lorenzsonn, Johanna S. Salzer, Christina L. Hutson, Jeffrey Doty, Nadia Gallardo-Romero, Darin S. Carroll, Jorge E. Osorio, Tonie E. Rocke
2015, PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases
Monkeypox is a zoonosis clinically similar to smallpox in humans. Recent evidence has shown a potential risk of increased incidence in central Africa. Despite attempts to isolate the virus from wild rodents and other small mammals, no reservoir host has been identified. In 2003,Monkeypox virus (MPXV) was accidentally introduced into the...
Laboratory investigations of African Pouched Rats (Cricetomys gambianus) as a potential reservoir host species for Monkeypox Virus
Christina L. Hutson, Yoshinori J. Nakazawa, Joshua Self, Victoria A. Olson, Russell L. Regnery, Zachary Braden, Sonja Weiss, Jean Malekani, Eddie Jackson, Mallory Tate, Kevin L. Karem, Tonie E. Rocke, Jorge E. Osorio, Inger K. Damon, Darin S. Carroll
2015, PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases
Monkeypox is a zoonotic disease endemic to central and western Africa, where it is a major public health concern. Although Monkeypox virus (MPXV) and monkeypox disease in humans have been well characterized, little is known about its natural history, or its maintenance in animal populations of sylvatic reservoir(s). In 2003, several species...
Marsh canopy leaf area and orientation calculated for improved marsh structure mapping
Elijah W. Ramsey III, Amina Rangoonwala, Cathleen E. Jones, Terri Bannister
2015, Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing (81) 807-816
An approach is presented for producing the spatiotemporal estimation of leaf area index (LAI) of a highly heterogeneous coastal marsh without reliance on user estimates of marsh leaf-stem orientation. The canopy LAI profile derivation used three years of field measured photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) vertical profiles at seven S. alterniflora...
Developing a workflow to identify inconsistencies in volunteered geographic information: a phenological case study
Hamed Mehdipoor, Raul Zurita-Milla, Alyssa Rosemartin, Katharine L. Gerst, Jake F. Weltzin
2015, PLoS ONE (10)
Recent improvements in online information communication and mobile location-aware technologies have led to the production of large volumes of volunteered geographic information. Widespread, large-scale efforts by volunteers to collect data can inform and drive scientific advances in diverse fields, including ecology and climatology. Traditional workflows to check the quality of...
Concentration comparison of selected constituents between groundwater samples collected within the Missouri River alluvial aquifer using purge and pump and grab-sampling methods, near the city of Independence, Missouri, 2013
Heather M. Krempa
2015, Scientific Investigations Report 2015-5144
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the City of Independence, Missouri, Water Department, has historically collected water-quality samples using the purge and pump method (hereafter referred to as pump method) to identify potential contamination in groundwater supply wells within the Independence well field. If grab sample results are comparable...
Component-specific dynamics of riverine mangrove CO2 efflux in the Florida coastal Everglades
Tiffany G. Troxler, Jordan G. Barr, Jose D. Fuentes, Victor C. Engel, Gordon H. Anderson, Christopher Sanchez, David Lagomosino, Rene Price, Stephen E. Davis
2015, Agricultural and Forest Meteorology (213) 273-282
Carbon cycling in mangrove forests represents a significant portion of the coastal wetland carbon (C) budget across the latitudes of the tropics and subtropics. Previous research suggests fluctuations in tidal inundation, temperature and salinity can influence forest metabolism and C cycling. Carbon dioxide (CO2) from respiration that occurs from below...
Niche divergence builds the case for ecological speciation in skinks of the Plestiodon skiltonianus species complex
Guinevere O.U. Wogan, Jonathan Q. Richmond
2015, Ecology and Evolution (5) 4683-4695
Adaptation to different thermal environments has the potential to cause evolutionary changes that are sufficient to drive ecological speciation. Here, we examine whether climate-based niche divergence in lizards of the Plestiodon skiltonianus species complex is consistent with the outcomes of such a process. Previous work on this group shows that...
Recent Arctic tundra fire initiates widespread thermokarst development
Benjamin M. Jones, Guido Grosse, Christopher D. Arp, Eric K. Miller, Lingli Liu, Daniel J. Hayes, Christopher F. Larsen
2015, Scientific Reports 1-13
Fire-induced permafrost degradation is well documented in boreal forests, but the role of fires in initiating thermokarst development in Arctic tundra is less well understood. Here we show that Arctic tundra fires may induce widespread thaw subsidence of permafrost terrain in the first seven years following the disturbance. Quantitative analysis...
Influence of hyporheic exchange, substrate distribution, and other physically-linked hydrogeomorphic characteristics on abundance of freshwater mussels
Donald O. Rosenberry, P. Zion Klos, Rita Villella Bumgardner
2015, Ecohydrology (8) 1284-1291
Both endangered and non-endangered unionid mussels are heterogeneously distributed within the Allegheny River, Pennsylvania. Mussel populations vary from high to low density downstream of Kinzua Dam, and the direction, amount, and range of hyporheic exchange (seepage) at the sediment–water interface were suspected to influence their distribution and abundance. Nineteen hydrogeomorphic variables, including the...
Performance evaluation of five turbidity sensors in three primary standards
Teri T. Snazelle
2015, Open-File Report 2015-1172
This report is temporarily unavailable....
Hydrology of and Current Monitoring Issues for the Chicago Area Waterway System, Northeastern Illinois
James J. Duncker, Kevin K. Johnson
2015, Scientific Investigations Report 2015-5115
The Chicago Area Waterway System (CAWS) consists of a combination of natural and manmade channels that form an interconnected navigable waterway of approximately 90-plus miles in the metropolitan Chicago area of northeastern Illinois. The CAWS serves the area as the primary drainage feature, a waterway transportation corridor, and recreational waterbody....
Chesapeake Bay impact structure: A blast from the past
David S. Powars, Lucy E. Edwards, Gregory S. Gohn, J. Wright Horton Jr.
2015, General Information Product 159
About 35 million years ago, a 2-mile-wide meteorite smashed into Earth in what is now the lower Chesapeake Bay in Virginia. The oceanic impact vaporized, melted, fractured, and displaced rocks and sediments and sent billions of tons of water, sediments, and rocks into the air. Glassy particles of solidified melt...
The Chesapeake Bay impact structure
David S. Powars, Lucy E. Edwards, Gregory S. Gohn, J. Wright Horton Jr.
2015, Fact Sheet 2015-3071
About 35 million years ago, during late Eocene time, a 2-mile-wide asteroid or comet smashed into Earth in what is now the lower Chesapeake Bay in Virginia. The oceanic impact vaporized, melted, fractured, and (or) displaced the target rocks and sediments and sent billions of tons of water, sediments, and...
Large-scale range collapse of Hawaiian forest birds under climate change and the need 21st century conservation options
Lucas B. Fortini, Adam E. Vorsino, Fred A. Amidon, Eben H. Paxton, James D. Jacobi
2015, PLoS ONE (10)
Hawaiian forest birds serve as an ideal group to explore the extent of climate change impacts on at-risk species. Avian malaria constrains many remaining Hawaiian forest bird species to high elevations where temperatures are too cool for malaria's life cycle and its principal mosquito vector. The impact of climate change...