Mineral resource of the month: Iron and steel
Michael D. Fenton
2014, Earth
Iron is one of the most abundant elements on Earth, but it does not occur in nature in a useful metallic form. Although ancient people may have recovered some iron from meteorites, it wasn’t until smelting was invented that iron metal could be derived from iron oxides. After the beginning...
Nocturnal field use by fall migrating American woodcock in the Delta of Arkansas
David G. Krementz, Richard Crossett II, Sarah E. Lehnen
2014, Journal of Wildlife Management (78) 264-272
The American woodcock (Scolopax minor) population has declined since the late 1960s across its range and is now considered a species of special concern. Research on woodcock habitat use during migration and migratory routes through the Central Flyway has been limited. We assessed woodcock phenology, estimated density, and nocturnal habitat...
Reconstruction of historic sea ice conditions in a sub-Arctic lagoon
Chris Petrich, Adrienne C. Tivy, David H. Ward
2014, Cold Regions Science and Technology (98) 55-62
Historical sea ice conditions were reconstructed for Izembek Lagoon, Bering Sea, Alaska. This lagoon is a crucial staging area during migration for numerous species of avian migrants and a major eelgrass (Zostera marina) area important to a variety of marine and terrestrial organisms, especially Pacific Flyway black brant geese (Branta...
Decadal oscillation of lakes and aquifers in the upper Great Lakes region of North America: hydroclimatic implications
C.J. Watras, J.S. Read, K.D. Holman, Z. Liu, Y.-Y. Song, A.J. Watras, S. Morgan, E.H. Stanley
2014, Geophysical Research Letters (41) 456-462
We report a unique hydrologic time-series which indicates that water levels in lakes and aquifers across the upper Great Lakes region of North America have been dominated by a climatically-driven, near-decadal oscillation for at least 70 years. The historical oscillation (~13y) is remarkably consistent among small seepage lakes, groundwater tables and...
Isolation and molecular characterization of a novel picornavirus from baitfish in the USA
Nicholas B.D. Phelps, Sunil K. Mor, Anibal G. Armien, William N. Batts, Andrew E. Goodwin, Lacey Hopper, Rebekah McCann, Terry Fei Fan Ng, Corey Puzach, Thomas B. Waltzek, Eric Delwart, James Winton, Sagar M. Goyal
2014, PLoS ONE (9)
During both regulatory and routine surveillance sampling of baitfish from the states of Illinois, Minnesota, Montana, and Wisconsin, USA, isolates (n = 20) of a previously unknown picornavirus were obtained from kidney/spleen or entire viscera of fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas) and brassy minnows (Hybognathus hankinsoni). Following the appearance of a diffuse cytopathic...
Status of forest birds on Rota, Mariana Islands
Richard J. Camp, Kevin W. Brinck, P. Marcos Gorresen, Fred A. Amidon, Paul M. Radley, S. Paul Berkowitz, Paul C. Banko
2014, Report, Hawaii Cooperative Studies Unit Technical Report
The western Pacific island of Rota is the third largest human inhabited island in the Mariana archipelago, and is designated an Endemic Bird Area. Between 1982 and 2012, 12 point-transect distance sampling surveys were conducted to assess population status. Surveys did not consistently sample the entire island; thus, we used...
Modelling riverine habitat for robust redhorse: assessment for reintroduction of an imperilled species
J. M. Fisk III, Thomas J. Kwak, R. J. Heise
2014, Fisheries Management and Ecology (21) 57-67
A critical component of a species reintroduction is assessment of contemporary habitat suitability. The robust redhorse, Moxostoma robustum (Cope), is an imperilled catostomid that occupies a restricted range in the south-eastern USA. A remnant population persists downstream of Blewett Falls Dam, the terminal dam in the Pee Dee River, North...
Breaking the oceanic lithosphere of a subducting slab: the 2013 Khash, Iran earthquake
William D. Barnhart, Gavin P. Hayes, S. Samsonov, E. Fielding, L. Seidman
2014, Geophysical Research Letters (41) 32-36
[1] Large intermediate depth, intraslab normal faulting earthquakes are a common, dangerous, but poorly understood phenomenon in subduction zones owing to a paucity of near field geophysical observations. Seismological and high quality geodetic observations of the 2013 Mw7.7 Khash, Iran earthquake reveal that at least half of the oceanic lithosphere,...
Distal border fragments of the equine navicular bone: association between magnetic resonance imaging characteristics and clinical lameness
Elizabeth H. Yorke, Carter E. Judy, Travis C. Saveraid, Conor P. McGowan, Fred J. Caldwell
2014, Veterinary Radiology & Ultrasound (55) 35-44
Distal border fragments of the navicular bone are increasingly being detected due to the improved capabilities of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), but their clinical significance remains unclear. The purpose of this retrospective study was to describe the location, size, and frequency of fragments in a cohort of horses presented for...
Litter quality versus soil microbial community controls over decomposition: a quantitative analysis
Cory C. Cleveland, Sasha C. Reed, Adrienne B. Keller, Diana R. Nemergut, Sean P. O’Neill, Rebecca Ostertag, Peter M. Vitousek
2014, Oecologia (174) 283-294
The possible effects of soil microbial community structure on organic matter decomposition rates have been widely acknowledged, but are poorly understood. Understanding these relationships is complicated by the fact that microbial community structure and function are likely to both affect and be affected by organic matter quality and chemistry, thus...
Blocking and guiding adult sea lamprey with pulsed direct current from vertical electrodes
Nicholas S. Johnson, Henry T. Thompson, Christopher M. Holbrook, John A. Tix
2014, Fisheries Research (150) 38-48
Controlling the invasion front of aquatic nuisance species is of high importance to resource managers. We tested the hypothesis that adult sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus), a destructive invasive species in the Laurentian Great Lakes, would exhibit behavioral avoidance to dual-frequency pulsed direct current generated by vertical electrodes and that the...
Marsh soils as potential sinks for Bacteroides fecal indicator bacteria, Waccamaw National Wildlife Refuge, Georgetown, SC, USA
Judith Z. Drexler, Heather E. Johnson, Joseph W. Duris, Ken W. Krauss
2014, Water, Air, & Soil Pollution (225) 1-7
A soil core collected in a tidal freshwater marsh in the Waccamaw National Wildlife Refuge (Georgetown, SC) exuded a particularly strong odor of cow manure upon extrusion. In order to test for manure and determine its provenance, we carried out microbial source tracking using DNA markers for Bacteroides, a noncoliform,...
Forecasting landscape effects of Mississippi River diversions on elevation and accretion in Louisiana deltaic wetlands under future environmental uncertainty scenarios
Hongqing Wang, Gregory D. Steyer, Brady R. Couvillion, John M. Rybczyk, Holly J. Beck, William J. Sleavin, Ehab A. Meselhe, Mead A. Allison, Ronald G. Boustany, Craig J. Fischenich, Victor H. Rivera-Monroy
2014, Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science (138) 57-68
Large sediment diversions are proposed and expected to build new wetlands to alleviate the extensive wetland loss (5,000 km2) affecting coastal Louisiana during the last 78 years. Current assessment and prediction of the impacts of sediment diversions have focused on the capture and dispersal of both water and sediment on...
A radiogenic isotope tracer study of transatlantic dust transport from Africa to the Caribbean
A. Kumar, W. Abouchami, S.J.G. Galer, V.H. Garrison, E. Williams, M.O. Andreae
2014, Atmospheric Environment (82) 130-143
Many studies have suggested that long-range transport of African desert dusts across the Atlantic Ocean occurs, delivering key nutrients and contributing to fertilization of the Amazon rainforest. Here we utilize radiogenic isotope tracers – Sr, Nd and Pb – to derive the provenance, local or remote, and pathways of dust...
Geologic setting and stratigraphy of the Ziegler Reservoir fossil site, Snowmass Village, Colorado
Jeff S. Pigati, Ian M. Miller, Kirk R. Johnson, Jeffrey S. Honke, Paul E. Carrara, Daniel R. Muhs, Gary Skipp, Bruce Bryant
2014, Quaternary Research
The geologic setting of the Ziegler Reservoir fossil site is somewhat unusual – the sediments containing the Pleistocene fossils were deposited in a lake on top of a ridge. The lake basin was formed near the Town of Snowmass Village, Colorado when a glacier flowing down Snowmass Creek Valley...
Contrasting past and current numbers of bears visiting Yellowstone cutthroat trout streams
Mark A. Haroldson, Charles C. Schwartz, Justin E. Teisberg, Kerry A. Gunther, Jennifer K. Fortin, Charles T. Robbins
2014, Journal of Wildlife Management (78) 369-378
Spawning cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii bouvieri) were historically abundant within tributary streams of Yellowstone Lake within Yellowstone National Park and were a highly digestible source of energy and protein for Yellowstone’s grizzly bears (Ursus arctos) and black bears (U. americanus). The cutthroat trout population has subsequently declined since the introduction...
Changing climate and the altitudinal range of avian malaria in the Hawaiian Islands: an ongoing conservation crisis on the island of Kaua'i
Carter T. Atkinson, Ruth B. Utzurrum, Dennis A. LaPointe, Richard J. Camp, Lisa H. Crampton, Jeffrey T. Foster, Thomas W. Giambelluca
2014, Global Change Biology (20) 2426-2436
Transmission of avian malaria in the Hawaiian Islands varies across altitudinal gradients and is greatest at elevations below 1500 m where both temperature and moisture are favorable for the sole mosquito vector, Culex quinquefasciatus, and extrinsic sporogonic development of the parasite, Plasmodium relictum. Potential consequences of global warming on this...
Regional distribution models with lack of proximate predictors: Africanized honeybees expanding north
Catherine S. Jarnevich, Wayne E. Esaias, Peter L.A. Ma, Jeffery T. Morisette, Jaime E. Nickeson, Thomas J. Stohlgren, Tracy R. Holcombe, Joanne M. Nightingale, Robert E. Wolfe, Bin Tan
2014, Diversity and Distributions (20) 193-201
Species distribution models have often been hampered by poor local species data, reliance on coarse-scale climate predictors and the assumption that species–environment relationships, even with non-proximate predictors, are consistent across geographical space. Yet locally accurate maps of invasive species, such as the Africanized honeybee (AHB) in North America, are needed...
Increased flexibility for modeling telemetry and nest-survival data using the multistate framework
Olivier Devineau, William L. Kendall, Paul F. Doherty Jr., Tanya M. Shenk, Gary C. White, Paul M. Lukacs, Kenneth P. Burnham
2014, Journal of Wildlife Management (78) 224-230
Although telemetry is one of the most common tools used in the study of wildlife, advances in the analysis of telemetry data have lagged compared to progress in the development of telemetry devices. We demonstrate how standard known-fate telemetry and related nest-survival data analysis models are special cases of the...
Effect of passive acoustic sampling methodology on detecting bats after declines from white nose syndrome
Laci S. Coleman, W. Mark Ford, Christopher A. Dobony, Eric R. Britzke
2014, Journal of Ecology and the Natural Environment (6) 56-64
Concomitant with the emergence and spread of white-nose syndrome (WNS) and precipitous decline of many bat species in North America, natural resource managers need modified and/or new techniques for bat inventory and monitoring that provide robust occupancy estimates. We used Anabat acoustic detectors to determine the most efficient passive acoustic...
Effects of woody vegetation on overbank sand transport during a large flood, Rio Puerco, New Mexico
Eleanor R. Griffin, Mariela C. Perignon, Jonathan M. Friedman, Gregory E. Tucker
2014, Geomorphology (207) 30-50
Distributions of woody vegetation on floodplain surfaces affect flood-flow erosion and deposition processes. A large flood along the lower Rio Puerco, New Mexico, in August 2006 caused extensive erosion in a reach that had been sprayed with herbicide in September 2003 for the purpose of saltcedar (Tamarix spp.) control. Large...
Approaches for advancing scientific understanding of macrosystems
Ofir Levy, Becky A. Ball, Ben Bond-Lamberty, Kendra S. Cheruvelil, Andrew O. Finley, Noah R. Lottig, Surangi W. Punyasena, Jingfeng Xiao, Jizhong Zhou, Lauren B. Buckley, Christopher T. Filstrup, Tim H. Keitt, James R. Kellner, Alan K. Knapp, Andrew D. Richardson, David Tcheng, Michael Toomey, Rodrigo Vargas, James W. Voordeckers, Tyler Wagner, John W. Williams
2014, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment (12) 15-23
The emergence of macrosystems ecology (MSE), which focuses on regional- to continental-scale ecological patterns and processes, builds upon a history of long-term and broad-scale studies in ecology. Scientists face the difficulty of integrating the many elements that make up macrosystems, which consist of hierarchical processes at interacting spatial and temporal...
Wildlife connectivity approaches and best practices in U.S. state wildlife action plans
Iara Lacher, Marit L. Wilkerson
2014, Conservation Biology (28) 13-21
As habitat loss and fragmentation threaten biodiversity on large geographic scales, creating and maintaining connectivity of wildlife populations is an increasingly common conservation objective. To assess the progress and success of large-scale connectivity planning, conservation researchers need a set of plans that cover large geographic areas and can be analyzed...
Temporal variation in development of ecosystem services from oyster reef restoration
Megan K. LaPeyre, Austin T. Humphries, Sandra M. Casas, Jerome F. La Peyre
2014, Ecological Engineering (63) 34-44
Restoration ecology relies heavily on ecosystem development theories that generally assume development of fully functioning natural systems over time, but often fail to identify the time-frame required for provision of desired functions, or acknowledge different pathways of functional development. In estuaries, a decline of overall habitat quality and functioning has...
Distinguishing high surf from volcanic long-period earthquakes
John J. Lyons, Matthew M. Haney, David Fee, John F. Paskievitch
2014, Geophysical Research Letters (41) 1171-1178
Repeating long-period (LP) earthquakes are observed at active volcanoes worldwide and are typically attributed to unsteady pressure fluctuations associated with fluid migration through the volcanic plumbing system. Nonvolcanic sources of LP signals include ice movement and glacial outburst floods, and the waveform characteristics and frequency content of these events often...
