Influence of forest harvest severity and time since perturbation on conservation of North American birds
Daniel J. Twedt
2019, Forest Ecology and Management (458)
I calculated avian conservation scores, based on published quantitative assessment of bird presence (typically relative abundance) and regional Partners in Flight conservation concern score of each species. I related these avian conservation scores to severity of forest perturbation (i.e., % retention) and number of years since perturbation for forest stands...
Using δ13C and δ18O to analyze loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) response to experimental drought and fertilization
Wen Lin, Jean-Christophe Domec, Eric Ward, John D. Marshall, John S King, Marshall A. Laviner, Thomas R Fox, Jason B. West, Ge Sun, Steve G McNulty, Asko Noormets
2019, Tree Physiology
Drought frequency and intensity are projected to increase throughout the southeastern USA, the natural range of loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.), and are expected to have major ecological and economic implications. We analyzed the carbon and oxygen isotopic compositions in tree ring cellulose of loblolly pine in a factorial drought...
General external uncertainty models of three-plane intersection point for 3D absolute accuracy assessment of lidar point cloud
Minsu Kim, Seonkyung Park, Jeffrey J. Danielson, Jeffrey Irwin, Gregory L. Stensaas, Jason M. Stoker, Joshua Nimetz
2019, Remote Sensing (11)
The traditional practice to assess accuracy in lidar data involves calculating RMSEz (root mean square error of the vertical component). Accuracy assessment of lidar point clouds in full 3D (dimension) is not routinely performed. The main challenge in assessing accuracy in full 3D is how to identify a conjugate point...
Holocene earthquake history and slip rate of the southern Teton fault, Wyoming, USA
Christopher DuRoss, Ryan D. Gold, Richard W. Briggs, Jaime E. Delano, Dean A. Ostenaa, Mark Zellman, Nicole Cholewinski, Seth Wittke, Shannon A. Mahan
2019, Geological Society of America Bulletin (132) 1566-1586
The 72-km-long Teton normal fault bounds the eastern base of the Teton Range in northwestern Wyoming, USA. Although geomorphic surfaces along the fault record latest Pleistocene to Holocene fault movement, the postglacial earthquake history of the fault has remained enigmatic. We excavated a paleoseismic trench at the Buffalo Bowl site...
Using age tracers and decadal sampling to discern trends in nitrate, arsenic and uranium in groundwater beneath irrigated cropland
Anthony J. Tesoriero, Karen R. Burow, Lonna Frans, Jonathan V. Haynes, Christopher M. Hobza, Bruce D. Lindsey, John E. Solder
2019, Environmental Science and Technology (53) 14152-14164
Repeat sampling and age tracers were used to examine trends in nitrate, arsenic and uranium concentrations in groundwater beneath irrigated cropland. Much higher nitrate concentrations in shallow modern groundwater were observed at both the Columbia Plateau and High Plains sites (median values of 10.2 and 15.4 mg/L as N, respectively)...
Synergistic interaction of climate and land-use drivers alter the function of North American, Prairie-pothole Wetlands
Owen P. McKenna, Samuel Richard Kucia, David M. Mushet, Michael J. Anteau, Mark T. Wiltermuth
2019, Sustainability (11)
Prairie-pothole wetlands provide the critical habitat necessary for supporting North American migratory waterfowl populations. However, climate and land-use change threaten the sustainability of these wetland ecosystems. Very few experiments and analyses have been designed to investigate the relative impacts of climate and land-use change drivers, as well as the antagonistic...
Riparian soil nitrogen cycling and isotopic enrichment in response to a long-term salmon carcass manipulation experiment
Megan Feddern, Gordon W. Holtgrieve, Steven Perakis, Julia A. Hart, Hyejoo Ro, Tom Quinn
2019, Ecosphere (10)
Pacific salmon acquire most of their biomass in the ocean before returning to spawn and die in coastal streams and lakes, thus providing subsidies of marine‐derived nitrogen (MDN) to freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems. Recent declines in salmon abundance have raised questions of whether managers should mitigate for losses of salmon...
A rapid assessment method for ground layer coastal vegetation
Chellby R. Kilheffer, Jordan Raphael, Lindsay Ries, H. Brian Underwood
2019, Journal of Coastal Conservation (23) 1047-1055
We aim to test a rapid ecological assessment method to monitor regenerating coastal vegetation without sacrificing accuracy. We estimated species frequency in vegetation plots using traditional point intercept methods. We also tested a rapid, digital method to take high-resolution digital photographs of plots. We navigated among plot locations using a...
Accumulating evidence in ecology: Once is not enough
James D. Nichols, William Kendall, G.Scott Boomer
2019, Ecology and Evolution (9) 13991-14004
Many published studies in ecological science are viewed as stand-alone investigations that purport to provide new insights into how ecological systems behave based on single analyses. But it is rare for results of single studies to provide definitive results, as evidenced in current discussions of the “reproducibility crisis” in science....
Creating figures in R that meet the AFS style guide: Standardization and supporting script
Hayley C. Glassic, Kurt C. Heim, Christopher S. Guy
2019, Fisheries Magazine (44) 539-544
Visual display of information in scientific and non‐scientific literature is the most efficient way to summarize large amounts data, focus the readers’ attention on patterns, and substantiate the message in the narrative. Figures often represent years of data collection and substantial monetary investment, and it is worth repeating the cliché...
Peak streamflow and stages at selected streamgages on the Arkansas River in Oklahoma and Arkansas, May to June 2019
Jason M. Lewis, A.R. Trevisan
2019, Open-File Report 2019-1129
As much as 22 inches of rain fell in Oklahoma in May 2019, resulting in historic flooding along the Arkansas River in Oklahoma and Arkansas. The flooding along the Arkansas River and its tributaries that began in May continued into June 2019. Peaks of record were measured at 12 U.S....
Using component ratios to detect metadata and instrument problems of seismic stations: Examples from 18 years of GEOSCOPE data
Helle A. Pedersen, Nicolas Leroy, Dimitri Zigone, Martin Vallee, Adam T. Ringler, David C. Wilson
2019, Seismological Research Letters (91) 272-286
Replacement or deterioration of seismic instruments and the evolution of the installation conditions and sites can alter the seismic signal in very subtle ways, so it is notoriously difficult to monitor the signal quality of permanent seismic stations. We present a simple tool, energy ratios between each pair of the...
Chronic wasting disease—Research by the U.S. Geological Survey and partners
M. Camille Hopkins, Christina M. Carlson, Paul C. Cross, Christopher J. Johnson, Bryan J. Richards, Robin E. Russell, Michael D. Samuel, Glen A. Sargeant, Daniel P. Walsh, W. David Walter
2019, Open-File Report 2019-1109
IntroductionChronic wasting disease (CWD) is the only transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, a class of invariably fatal neurodegenerative mammalian diseases associated with a misfolded cellular prion protein found in wild free-ranging animals. Because it has a long incubation period, affected animals in Cervidae (the deer family; referred to as “cervids”) may not...
The (mythical) M8.2 off coast of Peru earthquake of 12 December 1908
Domenico Di Giacomo, James W. Dewey
2019, Article
Global earthquake catalogs covering the early twentieth century differ in their listings of a large earthquake, or earthquakes, on 12 December 1908. Some catalogs list an M∼7">M∼7M∼7 earthquake originating in northern...
Remote sensing of tracer dye concentrations to support dispersion studies in river channels
Carl J. Legleiter, Richard R. McDonald, Jonathan M. Nelson, Paul J. Kinzel, Ryan L. Perroy, Donghae Baek, Il Won Seo
2019, Journal of Ecohydraulics (4) 131-146
In river channels the flow field influences the dispersion of biota, contaminants, and other suspended or dissolved materials. Insight on patterns and rates of dispersion can be gained by injecting a pulse of visible dye and observing spatial and temporal variations in dye concentration as the pulse moves downstream. We...
Phenotypic plasticity or a reproductive dead end? Primnoa pacifica (Cnidaria: Alcyonacea) in the southeastern Alaska region
Rhian G. Waller, Robert P. Stone, Lauren Rice, Julia Johnstone, Ashley M. Rossin, Elise Hartill, Keri Feehan, Cheryl Morrison
2019, Frontiers in Marine Science (6)
Red tree corals (Primnoa pacifica) are abundant in the eastern Gulf of Alaska, from the glacial fjords of Southeast Alaska where they emerge to as shallow as 6 m, to the continental shelf edge and seamounts where they are more commonly found at depths greater than 150 –...
Identification of a novel Adélie penguin circovirus at Cape Crozier (Ross Island, Antarctica)
Virginia Morandini, Katie Dugger, Grant Ballard, Megan Elrod, Annie Schmidt, Valeria Ruoppolo, Amélie Lescroël, Dennis Jongsomjit, Melanie Massaro, Jean Pennycook, Kara Schmidlin, Simona Kraberger, David G. Ainley, Arvind Varsani
2019, Viruses (11)
Understanding the causes of disease in Antarctic wildlife is crucial as many of these species are already threatened by environmental changes brought about by climate change. In recent years, Antarctic penguins have been showing signs of an unknown pathology: a feather disorder characterised by missing feathers resulting in exposed skin....
Shallow-water foraminifera and other microscopic biota of Clipperton Island, tropical eastern Pacific
Mary McGann, Robert W Schmieder, Louis-Philippe Loncke
2019, Atoll Research Bulletin (626)
The recent foraminiferal fauna and associated microbiota of Clipperton Island (10.2833°N, 109.2167°W) were investigated at 20 sites collected in the intertidal zone around the perimeter of the island and from the edge of the inner brackish-water lagoon. Due to the island’s geographic location in a low productivity zone, a lack...
Optical wave gauging using deep neural networks
Daniel D. Buscombe, Roxanne J Carini, Shawn Harrison, C Chris Chickadel, Jonathan A. Warrick
2019, Coastal Engineering (155)
We develop a remote wave gauging technique to estimate wave height and period from imagery of waves in the surf zone. In this proof-of-concept study, we apply the same framework to three datasets: the first, a set of close-range monochrome infrared (IR)...
A parametric numerical analysis of factors controlling ground ruptures caused by groundwater pumping
Matteo Frigo, Massimiliano Ferronato, Jun Yu, Shujun Ye, Devin Galloway, Dora Carreon-Freyre, Pietro Teatini
2019, Water Resources Research (55) 9500-9518
A modeling analysis is used to investigate the relative susceptibility of various hydrogeologic configurations to aseismic rupture generation due to deformation of aquifer systems accompanying groundwater pumping. An advanced numerical model (GEPS3D) is used to simulate rupture generation and propagation for three typical processes: (i) reactivation of a preexisting...
Geospatial scaling of runoff and erosion modeling in the Chihuahuan Desert
Grady Ball, Kyle R. Douglas-Mankin
2019, Applied Engineering in Agriculture (5) 733-743
Large-scale assessments of rangeland runoff and erosion require methods to extend plot-scale parameterizations to large areas. In this study, Rangeland Hydrology and Erosion Model (RHEM) parameters were developed from plot-scale foliar and ground-cover transect data for an arid, grass-shrub rangeland in southern New Mexico, and a method was assessed to...
Potentiometric surface of groundwater-level altitudes near the planned Highway 270 bypass, east of Hot Springs, Arkansas, July–August 2017
Anna M. Nottmeier, Phillip D. Hays
2019, Scientific Investigations Map 3444
The Ouachita Mountains aquifer system potentiometric-surface map is one component of the Hot Springs Bypass Groundwater Monitoring Project. The potentiometric-surface map provides a baseline assessment of shallow groundwater levels and flow directions before the construction of the Arkansas Department of Transportation planned extension of the Highway 270 bypass, east of...
Heterogeneity in hyporheic flow, pore water chemistry, and microbial community composition in an alpine streambed
A.R. Nelson, A. Sawyer, R. Gabor, C. Saup, S. Bryant, K. Harris, Martin A. Briggs, Kenneth Williams, M. J. Wilkins
2019, Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences (124) 3465-3478
The hyporheic zone, where surface water and groundwater mix, is an important microbial habitat where biogeochemical reactions influence water quality. We show that spatial variability in hyporheic flow in the East River near Crested Butte, Colorado, drives heterogeneity in streambed geochemical conditions and microbial community assemblages, but the diversity of...
Using morphological measurements to predict subspecies of Midcontinent sandhill cranes
Jay A VonBank, David A. Brandt, Aaron T. Pearse, David B. Wester, Bart M Ballard
2019, Wildlife Society Bulletin (4) 737-744
The Midcontinent population of sandhill cranes (Antigone canadensis) has historically been classified into 3 putative subspecies, but genetic analyses have identified only 2 genetically distinct subspecies. Previous studies have successfully used morphometrics in combination with an individual's sex to differentiate subspecies of sandhill cranes that had...
Santa Barbara area coastal ecosystem vulnerability assessment
M.R. Myers, D.R. Cayan, S.F. Iacobellis, J.M. Melack, R.E. Beighley, Patrick L. Barnard, J.E. Dugan, H.M. Page
2019, Report
The Santa Barbara Area Coastal Ecosystem Vulnerability Assessment (SBA CEVA) is a multidisciplinary research project that investigates future changes to southern Santa Barbara County climate, beaches, watersheds, wetland habitats and beach ecosystems. The target audience is local land use planners and decision makers. The main objective is to provide information that assists the Cities...
