Resolving terrestrial ecosystem processes along a subgrid topographic gradient for an earth-system model
Z M Subin, Paul C.D. Milly, B N Sulman, Sergey Malyshev, E Shevliakova
2014, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (11) 8443-8492
Soil moisture is a crucial control on surface water and energy fluxes, vegetation, and soil carbon cycling. Earth-system models (ESMs) generally represent an areal-average soil-moisture state in gridcells at scales of 50–200 km and as a result are not able to capture the nonlinear effects of topographically-controlled subgrid heterogeneity in...
Efficient 3D movement-based kernel density estimator and application to wildlife ecology
Jeff Tracey-PR, James K. Sheppard, Glenn K. Lockwood, Amit Chourasia, Mahidhar Tatineni, Robert N. Fisher, Robert S. Sinkovits
2014, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the 2014 Annual Conference on Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment
We describe an efficient implementation of a 3D movement-based kernel density estimator for determining animal space use from discrete GPS measurements. This new method provides more accurate results, particularly for species that make large excursions in the vertical dimension. The downside of this approach is that it is much more...
Self-recognition in corals facilitates deep-sea habitat engineering
Sebastian J Hennige, Cheryl L. Morrison, Armin U. Form, Janina Buscher, Nicholas A. Kamenos, J. Murray Roberts
2014, Scientific Reports (4) 1-7
The ability of coral reefs to engineer complex three-dimensional habitats is central to their success and the rich biodiversity they support. In tropical reefs, encrusting coralline algae bind together substrates and dead coral framework to make continuous reef structures, but beyond the photic zone, the cold-water coral Lophelia pertusa also...
Correlations in distribution and concentration of calcium, copper and iron with zinc in isolated extracellular deposits associated with age-related macular degeneration
Jane M Flinn, Peter Kakalec, Ryan Tappero, Blair F. Jones, Imre Lengyel
2014, Metallomics (6) 1223-1228
Zinc (Zn) is abundantly enriched in sub-retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) deposits, the hallmarks of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), and is thought to play a role in the formation of these deposits. However, it is not known whether Zn is the only metal relevant for sub-RPE deposit formation. Because of their...
The curved 14C vs. δ13C relationship in dissolved inorganic carbon: A useful tool for groundwater age- and geochemical interpretations
Liang-Feng Han, Niel Plummer, Pradeep Aggarwal
2014, Chemical Geology (387) 111-125
Determination of the 14C content of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) is useful for dating of groundwater. However, in addition to radioactive decay, the 14C content in DIC (14CDIC) can be affected by many geochemical and physical processes and numerous models have been proposed to refine radiocarbon ages of DIC in...
Hillslope-scale experiment demonstrates role of convergence during two-step saturation
A. I. Gevaert, A. J. Teuling, R. Uijlenhoet, Stephen B. DeLong, T. E. Huxman, L. A. Pangle, David D. Breshears, J. Chorover, John D. Pelletier, S. R. Saleska, X. Zeng, Peter A. Troch
2014, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (18) 3681-1692
Subsurface flow and storage dynamics at hillslope scale are difficult to ascertain, often in part due to a lack of sufficient high-resolution measurements and an incomplete understanding of boundary conditions, soil properties, and other environmental aspects. A continuous and extreme rainfall experiment on an artificial hillslope at Biosphere 2's Landscape...
Evaluation of potential protective factors against metabolic syndrome in bottlenose dolphins:feeding and activity patterns of dolphins in Sarasota Bay, Florida
Randall S. Wells, Katherine A. McHugh, David C. Douglas, Steve Shippee, Elizabeth Berens McCabe, Nélio B. Barros, Goldie T. Phillips
2014, Frontiers in Endocrinology (4) 1-16
Free-ranging bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) living in Sarasota Bay, Florida appear to have a lower risk of developing insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome compared to a group of dolphins managed under human care. Similar to humans, differences in diet and activity cycles between these groups may explain why Sarasota dolphins...
Evaluation and prioritization of stream habitat monitoring in the Lower Columbia Salmon and Steelhead Recovery Domain as related to the habitat monitoring needs of ESA recovery plans
Amy L. Puls, Kara Anlauf Dunn, Bernadette Graham Hudson
2014, Report
The lower Columbia River and its tributaries once supported abundant runs of salmon and steelhead; however, there are five species currently listed under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA). The National Marine Fisheries Service has completed, and is proposing for adoption, a comprehensive ESA Recovery Plan for the Lower Columbia...
Earthquake mechanism and seafloor deformation for tsunami generation
Eric L. Geist, David D. Oglesby
Michael Beer, Ioannis A. Kougioumtzoglou, Edoardo Patelli, Ivan Siu-Kui Au, editor(s)
2014, Book chapter, Encyclopedia of earthquake engineering
Tsunamis are generated in the ocean by rapidly displacing the entire water column over a significant area. The potential energy resulting from this disturbance is balanced with the kinetic energy of the waves during propagation. Only a handful of submarine geologic phenomena can generate tsunamis: large-magnitude earthquakes, large landslides, and...
Climate Change 2014: Technical Summary
Chrisopher B. Field, Vicente Barros, Katherine Mach, Michael Mastrandrea, Maarten van Aalst, Niel Adger, Douglas J Arent, Jonathan Barnett, Richard Betts, Eren Bilir, Joern Birkmann, Joann Carmin, Dave Chadee, Andrew Challinor, Monalisa Chaterjee, Wolfgang Cramer, Debra Davidson, Yuka Estrada, Jean-Pierre Gatusso, Yasuakai Hijioka, Gary Yohe, Margaret Hiza, Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, He-Qing Huang, Gregory Insarov, Roger Jones, Sari Kovats, Patricia Romero Lankao, Joan Nymand Larsen, Inigo Losada, Jose Marengo, Roger McLean, Linda Mearns, Reinhard Mechler, John Morton, Isabelle Niang, Taikan Oki, Jane Mukarugwiza Olwoch, Maggie Opondo, Elvira Poloczanska, Hans #NAME? Portner, Andy Reisinger, Aromar Revi, Daniela Schmidt, Rebecca Shaw, William Solecki, Daithi Stone, John Stone, Ken Strzepek, Avelino G. Suarez, Petra Tschakert, Riccardo Valentini, Sebastian Vicuna, Alicia Villamizar, Katharine Vincent, Rachel Warren, Leslie White, Thomas Wilbanks, Poh Poh Wong
2014, Book chapter, Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Part A: Global and Sectoral Aspects. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Human interference with the climate system is occurring (WGI AR5 SPM Section D.3; WGI AR5 Sections 2.2, 6.3, 10.3 to 10.6, 10.9). Climate change poses risks for human and natural systems. The assessment of impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability in the Working Group II contribution to the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report...
Trends in the capture fisheries in Cuyo East Pass, Philippines
Tee-Jay A. San Diego, William L. Fisher
2014, International Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Studies (1) 57-72
Findings are presented of a comprehensive analysis of time series catch and effort data from 2000 to 2006 collected from a multi-species, multi-gear and two-sector (municipal and commercial) capture fisheries in Cuyo East Pass, Philippines. Multivariate techniques were used to determine temporal variation in species composition and gear selectivity that...
Studying seafloor bedforms using autonomous stationary imaging and profiling sonars
Ellyn T. Montgomery, Christopher R. Sherwood
2014, Conference Paper, OCEANS 2013: Proceedings of a meeting held 23-27 September 2013, San Diego, California, USA
The Sediment Transport Group at the U.S. Geological Survey, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center uses downward looking sonars deployed on seafloor tripods to assess and measure the formation and migration of bedforms. The sonars have been used in three resolution-testing experiments, and deployed autonomously to observe changes in...
Molecular signature of organic nitrogen in septic-impacted groundwater
William A. Arnold, Krista Longnecker, Kevin D. Kroeger, Elizabeth B. Kujawinski
2014, Environmental Science: Processes and Impacts (16) 2400-2407
Dissolved inorganic and organic nitrogen levels are elevated in aquatic systems due to anthropogenic activities. Dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) arises from various sources, and its impact could be more clearly constrained if specific sources were identified and if the molecular-level composition of DON were better understood. In this work, the...
2011 Summary: Coastal wetland restoration research
Kurt P. Kowalski, Michael J. Wiley, Douglas A. Wilcox, Martha L. Carlson Mazur, Alex Czayka, Andrea Dominguez, Susan Doty, Mike Eggleston, Sean Green, Amanda Sweetman
2014, Report
The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) projects currently taking place in Great Lakes coastal wetlands provide a unique opportunity to study ecosystem response to management actions as practitioners strive to improve wetland function and increase ecosystem services. Through a partnership between the U.S. Geological Survey – Great Lakes Science Center...
Seismic evidence for a crustal magma reservoir beneath the upper east rift zone of Kilauea volcano, Hawaii
Guoqing Lin, Falk Amelung, Yan Lavallee, Paul G. Okubo
2014, Geology (42) 187-190
An anomalous body with low Vp (compressional wave velocity), low Vs (shear wave velocity), and high Vp/Vs anomalies is observed at 8–11 km depth beneath the upper east rift zone of Kilauea volcano in Hawaii by simultaneous inversion of seismic velocity structure and earthquake locations. We interpret this body to...
A universal Model-R Coupler to facilitate the use of R functions for model calibration and analysis
Yiping Wu, Shuguang Liu, Wende Yan
2014, Environmental Modelling and Software (62) 65-69
Mathematical models are useful in various fields of science and engineering. However, it is a challenge to make a model utilize the open and growing functions (e.g., model inversion) on the R platform due to the requirement of accessing and revising the model's source code. To overcome this barrier, we...
1.13 – Emerging contaminants
Larry B. Barber
2014, Book chapter, Comprehensive water quality and purification
Since the Industrial Revolution, a diversity of large-scale chemical innovations has impacted aquatic systems in urban environments. Beginning in the 1990s, there has been a growing scientific interest and public awareness of the effects of the chemicals used in domestic, commercial, industrial, and agricultural applications, referred to in this article...
Thermodynamic properties for arsenic minerals and aqueous species
D. Kirk Nordstrom, Juraj Majzlan, Erich Konigsberger
Robert J. Bowell, Charles N. Alpers, Heather E. Jamieson, D. Kirk Nordstrom, Juraj Majzlan, editor(s)
2014, Book chapter, Arsenic: Environmental geochemistry, mineralogy, and microbiology (Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry no. 79)
Quantitative geochemical calculations are not possible without thermodynamic databases and considerable advances in the quantity and quality of these databases have been made since the early days of Lewis and Randall (1923), Latimer (1952), and Rossini et al. (1952). Oelkers et al. (2009) wrote, “The creation...
Development and characterization of 12 microsatellite markers for the Island Night Lizard (Xantusia riversiana), a threatened species endemic to the Channel Islands, California, USA
Ryan P. O’Donnell, Charles A. Drost, Karen E. Mock
2014, Conservation Genetics Resources (6) 699-700
The Island Night Lizard is a federally threatened species endemic to the Channel Islands of California. Twelve microsatellite loci were developed for use in this species and screened in 197 individuals from across San Nicolas Island, California. The number of alleles per locus ranged from 6 to 21. Observed heterozygosities...
Growth and smolting in lower-mode Atlantic Salmon stocked into the Penobscot River, Maine
Joseph D. Zydlewski, Andrew O’Malley, Oliver Cox, Peter Ruksznis, Joan G. Trial
2014, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (34) 147-158
Restoration of Atlantic Salmon Salmo salar in Maine has relied on hatchery-produced fry and smolts for critical stocking strategies. Stocking fry minimizes domestication selection, but these fish have poor survival. Conversely, stocked smolts have little freshwater experience but provide higher adult returns. Lower-mode (LM) fish, those not growing fast enough to ensure...
Modeling the hydrogeophysical response of lake talik evolution
Burke J. Minsley, Tristan Wellman, Michelle Ann Walvoord, Andre Revil
2014, Conference Paper, SEG Technical Program Expanded Abstracts 2014
Geophysical methods provide valuable information about subsurface permafrost and its relation to dynamic hydrologic systems. Airborne electromagnetic data from interior Alaska are used to map the distribution of permafrost, geological features, surface water, and groundwater. To validate and gain further insight into these field datasets, we also explore the geophysical...
Tracking changes in volcanic systems with seismic Interferometry
Matthew M. Haney, Alicia J. Hotovec-Ellis, Ninfa L. Bennington, Silvio De Angelis, Clifford Thurber
2014, Book chapter, Encyclopedia of Earthquake Engineering
The detection and evaluation of time-dependent changes at volcanoes form the foundation upon which successful volcano monitoring is built. Temporal changes at volcanoes occur over all time scales and may be obvious (e.g., earthquake swarms) or subtle (e.g., a slow, steady increase in the level of tremor). Some of the...
Rocking behavior of an instrumented unique building on the MIT campus identified from ambient shaking data
Mehmet Çelebi, Nafi Toksoz, Oral Buyukozturk
2014, Earthquake Spectra (30) 705-720
A state-of-the-art seismic monitoring system comprising 36 accelerometers and a data-logger with real-time capability was recently installed at Building 54 on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) Cambridge, MA, campus. The system is designed to record translational, torsional, and rocking motions, and to facilitate the computation of drift between select...
Meteorological variables associated with deep slab avalanches on persistent weak layers
Alex Marienthal, Jordy Hendrikx, Karl W. Birkeland, Kathryn M. Irvine
2014, Conference Paper, Proceedings, International Snow Science Workshop, Banff, 2014
Deep slab avalanches are a particularly challenging avalanche forecasting problem. These avalanches are typically difficult to trigger, yet when they are triggered they tend to propagate far and result in large and destructive avalanches. For this work we define deep slab avalanches as those that fail on persistent weak layers...
Landsat: Sustaining earth observations beyond Landsat 8
Francis P. Kelly, Thomas M. Holm
2014, Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing (80) 15-15
The Landsat series of Earth-observing satellites began 41-years ago as a partnership between the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) of the Department of the Interior (DOI) and The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). For the past 41 years, Landsat satellites and associated U.S. Government ground processing, distribution, and archiving systems...
