On critiques of “Stationarity is dead: Whither water management?”
Paul C.D. Milly, Julio L. Betancourt, Malin Falkenmark, Robert M. Hirsch, Zbigniew W. Kundzewicz, Dennis P. Lettenmaier, Ronald J. Stouffer, Michael D. Dettinger, Valentina Krysanova
2015, Water Resources Research (51) 7785-7789
We review and comment upon some themes in the recent stream of critical commentary on the assertion that “stationarity is dead,” attempting to clear up some misunderstandings; to note points of agreement; to elaborate on matters in dispute; and to share further relevant thoughts....
Linking resource selection and mortality modeling for population estimation of mountain lions in Montana
Hugh S. Robinson, Toni K. Ruth, Justin A. Gude, David Choate, Rich DeSimone, Mark Hebblewhite, Marc R. Matchett, Michael S. Mitchell, Kerry Murphy, Jim Williams
2015, Ecological Modelling (312) 11-25
To be most effective, the scale of wildlife management practices should match the range of a particular species’ movements. For this reason, combined with our inability to rigorously or regularly census mountain lion populations, several authors have suggested that mountain lions be managed in a source-sink or metapopulation framework. We...
The Centennial Trends Greater Horn of Africa precipitation dataset
Chris Funk, Sharon E. Nicholson, Martin F. Landsfeld, Douglas Klotter, Pete J. Peterson, Laura Harrison
2015, Scientific Data (2)
East Africa is a drought prone, food and water insecure region with a highly variable climate. This complexity makes rainfall estimation challenging, and this challenge is compounded by low rain gauge densities and inhomogeneous monitoring networks. The dearth of observations is particularly problematic over the past decade, since the number...
Temporal variation in viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus antibodies in freshwater drum (Aplodinotus grunniens) indicates cyclic transmission in Lake Winnebago, Wisconsin
Anna Wilson-Rothering, Susan Marcquenski, Ryan P. Koenigs, Ronald Bruch, Kendall Kamke, Daniel A. Isermann, Andrew Thurman, Kathy Toohey-Kurth, Tony Goldberg
2015, Journal of Clinical Microbiology (53) 2889-2894
Viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus (VHSV) is an emerging pathogen that causes mass mortality in multiple fish species. In 2007, the Great Lakes freshwater strain, type IVb, caused a large die-off of freshwater drum (Aplodinotus grunniens) in Lake Winnebago, Wisconsin, USA. To evaluate the persistence and transmission of...
Global patterns and environmental controls of perchlorate and nitrate co-occurrence in arid and semi-arid environments
W Andrew Jackson, J.K. Bohlke, Brian J. Andraski, Lynne S. Fahlquist, Laura M. Bexfield, Frank D. Eckardt, John B. Gates, Alfonso F. Davila, Christopher P. McKay, Balaji Rao, Ritesh Sevanthi, Srinath Rajagopalan, Nubia Estrada, Neil C. Sturchio, Paul B. Hatzinger, Todd A. Anderson, Greta J. Orris, Julio L. Betancourt, David A. Stonestrom, Claudio Latorre, Yanhe Li, Gregory J. Harvey
2015, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (164) 502-522
Natural perchlorate (ClO4−) is of increasing interest due to its wide-spread occurrence on Earth and Mars, yet little information exists on the relative abundance of ClO4− compared to other major anions, its stability, or long-term variations in production that may impact the observed distributions. Our objectives were to evaluate the...
Atypical den use of Carolina Northern Flying Squirrels (Glaucomys sabrinus coloratus) in the southern Appalachian Mountains
Corinne A. Diggins, Christine A. Kelly, W. Mark Ford
2015, Southeastern Naturalist (14) N44-N49
Glaucomys sabrinus coloratus (Carolina Northern Flying Squirrel) is a federally endangered subspecies that occurs in high elevation forests of the southern Appalachian Mountains. Denning sites may be a limiting factor for this subspecies in areas where cavity trees are not abundant or where interspecific competition from other tree squirrels occurs....
Monitoring landscape-level distribution and migration Phenology of Raptors using a volunteer camera-trap network
David S. Jachowski, Todd E. Katzner, Jane L. Rodrigue, W. Mark Ford
2015, Wildlife Society Bulletin (39) 553-563
Conservation of animal migratory movements is among the most important issues in wildlife management. To address this need for landscape-scale monitoring of raptor populations, we developed a novel, baited photographic observation network termed the “Appalachian Eagle Monitoring Program” (AEMP). During winter months of 2008–2012, we partnered with professional and citizen...
An evaluation of a bed instability index as an indicator of habitat quality in mountain streams of the northwestern United States
Paul C. Kusnierz, Christopher M. Holbrook, David L. Feldman
2015, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment
Managers of aquatic resources benefit from indices of habitat quality that are reproducible and easy to measure, demonstrate a link between habitat quality and biota health, and differ between human-impacted (i.e., managed) and reference (i.e., nonimpacted or minimally impacted) conditions. The instability index (ISI) is an easily measured index that...
Groundwater quality data in 15 GAMA study units: results from the 2006–10 Initial sampling and the 2009–13 resampling of wells, California GAMA Priority Basin Project
Robert Kent
2015, Data Series 919
The Priority Basin Project (PBP) of the Groundwater Ambient Monitoring and Assessment (GAMA) program was developed in response to the Groundwater Quality Monitoring Act of 2001 and is being conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the California State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB). From May...
Soil carbon storage following road removal and timber harvesting in redwood forests
Joseph Seney, Mary Ann Madej
2015, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms (40) 2084-2092
Soil carbon storage plays a key role in the global carbon cycle and is important for sustaining forest productivity. Removal of unpaved forest roads has the potential for increasing carbon storage in soils on forested terrain as treated sites revegetate and soil properties improve on the previously compacted road surfaces....
Tree mortality from drought, insects, and their interactions in a changing climate
William R.L. Anderegg, Jeffrey A. Hicke, Rosie A. Fisher, Craig D. Allen, Juliann E. Aukema, Barbara Bentz, Sharon Hood, Jeremy W. Lichstein, Alison K. Macalady, Nate G. McDowell, Yude Pan, Kenneth Raffa, Anna Sala, John D. Shaw, Nathan L. Stephenson, Christina L. Tague, Melanie Zeppel
2015, New Phytologist (208) 674-683
Climate change is expected to drive increased tree mortality through drought, heat stress, and insect attacks, with manifold impacts on forest ecosystems. Yet, climate-induced tree mortality and biotic disturbance agents are largely absent from process-based ecosystem models. Using data sets from the western USA and associated studies, we present a...
Baseline Coastal Oblique Aerial Photographs Collected from Navarre Beach, Florida, to Breton Island, Louisiana,
September 1, 2014
Karen L. M. Morgan
2015, Data Series 952
Summary The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), as part of the National Assessment for Coastal Change Hazards Project, conducts baseline and storm response photography missions to document and understand the changes in vulnerability of the Nation's coasts to extreme storms (Morgan, 2009). On September...
Volcano monitoring from space
Michael P. Poland
2015, Book chapter, Global Volcanic Hazards and Risk
Unlike many natural hazards, volcanoes usually give warnings of impending eruptions that can be detected from hours to years prior to any hazardous activity [Sparks et al., 2012]. The Eyjafjallajökull eruption, for example, was preceded by several discrete episodes of subsurface magma accumulation that highlighted the potential for future...
Modeling the complex impacts of timber harvests to find optimal management regimes for Amazon tidal floodplain forests
Lucas B. Fortini, Wendell P. Cropper, Daniel J. Zarin
2015, PLoS ONE (10) 1-17
At the Amazon estuary, the oldest logging frontier in the Amazon, no studies have comprehensively explored the potential long-term population and yield consequences of multiple timber harvests over time. Matrix population modeling is one way to simulate long-term impacts of tree harvests, but this approach has often ignored common impacts...
Late Pleistocene ages for the most recent volcanism and glacial-pluvial deposits at Big Pine volcanic field, California, USA, from cosmogenic 36Cl dating
Jorge A. Vazquez, Jeff M Woolford
2015, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems (16) 1-17
The Big Pine volcanic field is one of several Quaternary volcanic fields that poses a potential volcanic hazard along the tectonically active Owens Valley of east-central California, and whose lavas are interbedded with deposits from Pleistocene glaciations in the Sierra Nevada Range. Previous geochronology indicates an ∼1.2 Ma history of...
Controls on the breach geometry and flood hydrograph during overtopping of non-cohesive earthen dams
Joseph S. Walder, Richard M. Iverson, Jonathan W. Godt, Matthew Logan, Stephen A. Solovitz
2015, Water Resources Research (51) 6701-6724
Overtopping failure of non-cohesive earthen dams was investigated in 13 large-scale experiments with dams built of compacted, damp, fine-grained sand. Breaching was initiated by cutting a notch across the dam crest and allowing water escaping from a finite upstream reservoir to form its own channel. The channel developed a stepped...
Predicting watershed post-fire sediment yield with the InVEST sediment retention model: Accuracy and uncertainties
Joel B. Sankey, Jason McVay, Jason R. Kreitler, Todd Hawbaker, Nicole Vaillant, Scott Lowe
2015, Conference Paper
Increased sedimentation following wildland fire can negatively impact water supply and water quality. Understanding how changing fire frequency, extent, and location will affect watersheds and the ecosystem services they supply to communities is of great societal importance in the western USA and throughout the world. In this work we assess...
Summary of oceanographic measurements for characterizing light attenuation and sediment resuspension in the Barnegat Bay-Little Egg Harbor Estuary, New Jersey, 2013
Patrick J. Dickhudt, Neil K. Ganju, Ellyn T. Montgomery
2015, Open-File Report 2015-1146
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, measured suspended-sediment concentrations, currents, waves, light attenuation, and a variety of other water-quality parameters in the summer of 2013 in Barnegat Bay-Little Egg Harbor, New Jersey. These measurements quantified light attenuation and sediment resuspension in three...
Age-related mortality explains life history strategies of tropical and temperate songbirds
Thomas E. Martin
2015, Science (349) 966-970
Modelling regional land change scenarios to assess land abandonment and reforestation dynamics in the Pyrenees (France)
Laure Vacquie, Thomas Houet, Terry L. Sohl, Ryan R. Reker, Kristi L. Sayler
2015, Journal of Mountain Science (12) 905-920
Over the last decades and centuries, European mountain landscapes have experienced substantial transformations. Natural and anthropogenic LULC changes (land use and land cover changes), especially agro-pastoral activities, have directly influenced the spatial organization and composition of European mountain landscapes. For the past sixty years, natural reforestation has been occurring due...
Automated extraction of natural drainage density patterns for the conterminous United States through high performance computing
Larry V. Stanislawski, Jeff T. Falgout, Barbara P. Buttenfield
2015, Conference Paper
Hydrographic networks form an important data foundation for cartographic base mapping and for hydrologic analysis. Drainage density patterns for these networks can be derived to characterize local landscape, bedrock and climate conditions, and further inform hydrologic and geomorphological analysis by indicating areas where too few headwater channels have been extracted....
Assessing dorsal scute microchemistry for reconstruction of shortnose sturgeon life histories
Matthew E. Altenritter, Michael T. Kinnison, Gayle B. Zydlewski, David H. Secor, Joseph D. Zydlewski
2015, Environmental Biology of Fishes (98) 2321-2335
The imperiled status of sturgeons worldwide places priority on the identification and protection of critical habitats. We assessed the micro-structural and micro-chemical scope for a novel calcified structure, dorsal scutes, to be used for reconstruction of past habitat use and group separation in shortnose sturgeon (Acipenser brevirostrum). Dorsal...
Vulnerability of larval lamprey to Columbia River hydropower system operations—effects of dewatering on larval lamprey movements and survival
Theresa L. Liedtke, Lisa K. Weiland, Matthew G. Mesa
2015, Open-File Report 2015-1157
Numbers of adult and juvenile Pacific lamprey ( Entosphenus tridentatus ) in the upper Columbia River Basin of the interior Pacific Northwest have decreased from historical levels (Close and others, 2002), raising concerns f rom State and Federal agencies and Tribal entities. In 1994, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service...
Crustal-scale tilting of the central Salton block, southern California
Rebecca Dorsey, Victoria E. Langenheim
2015, Geosphere (11) 1365-1383
The southern San Andreas fault system (California, USA) provides an excellent natural laboratory for studying the controls on vertical crustal motions related to strike-slip deformation. Here we present geologic, geomorphic, and gravity data that provide evidence for active northeastward tilting of the Santa Rosa Mountains and southern Coachella Valley about...
Managing more than the mean: Using quantile regression to identify factors related to large elk groups
Angela K. Brennan, Paul C. Cross, Scott Creely
2015, Journal of Applied Ecology (52) 1656-1664
Summary Animal group size distributions are often right-skewed, whereby most groups are small, but most individuals occur in larger groups that may also disproportionately affect ecology and policy. In this case, examining covariates associated with upper quantiles of the group size distribution could facilitate better understanding and management of...
