Hourly storm characteristics along the U.S. West Coast: Role of atmospheric rivers in extreme precipitation
Maryam A. Lamjiri, Michael D. Dettinger, F. Martin Ralph, B. Guan
2017, Geophysical Research Letters (44) 7020-7028
Gridded hourly precipitation observations over the conterminous U.S., from 1948 to 2002, are analyzed to determine climatological characteristics of storm precipitation totals. Despite generally lower hourly intensities, precipitation totals along the U.S. West Coast (USWC) are comparable to those in southeast U.S. (SEUS). Storm durations, more so than hourly intensities,...
Fifty-eighth supplement to the American Ornithologists' Union: Check-list of North American Birds
Terry Chesser, Kevin J Burns, Carla Cicero, Jon L. Dunn, Andrew W. Kratter, Irby J. Lovette, Pamela C. Rasmussen, J.V. Remsen Jr., James D. Rising, Douglas F. Stotz, Kevin Winker
2017, The Auk (134) 751-773
This is the 17th supplement since publication of the 7th edition of the Check-list of North American Birds (American Ornithologists' Union [AOU] 1998). It summarizes decisions made between April 15, 2016, and April 15, 2017, by the AOS's Committee on Classification and Nomenclature—North and Middle America. The Committee has continued...
Acquisition of Borrelia burgdorferi infection by larval Ixodes scapularis (Acari: Ixodidae) associated with engorgement measures
Janelle Couret, M.C. Dyer, T.N. Mather, S. Han, J.I. Tsao, R.A. LeBrun, Howard S. Ginsberg
2017, Journal of Medical Entomology (54) 1055-1060
Measuring rates of acquisition of the Lyme disease pathogen, Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato Johnson, Schmid, Hyde, Steigerwalt & Brenner, by the larval stage of Ixodes scapularis Say is a useful tool for xenodiagnoses of B. burgdorferi in vertebrate hosts. In the nymphal and adult stages of I. scapularis, the duration of attachment to hosts has been shown...
Baseline assessments for coral reef community structure and demographics on West Maui
Bernardo Vargas-Angel, Darla White, Curt D. Storlazzi, Tova Callender, Paulo Maurin
2017, Report
The coastal and upslope terrains of West Maui have had a long history of impacts owing to more than a century of human activities. Resource extraction, agriculture, as well as residential and resort development have caused land-based pollution that impairs water quality and adversely impact the adjacent marine ecosystem. Today,...
Determination of earthquake magnitude for early warning from the time-dependence of P-wave amplitudes
Shunta Noda, William L. Ellsworth
2017, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (107) 1860-1867
We propose a method that utilizes the time dependence of P‐wave displacement amplitudes to estimate the final magnitude (M) for earthquake early warning (EEW) before the arrival of the peak amplitude. A relation between M and P‐wave displacement amplitude is employed for the method. Its value is set as a...
A spatiotemporal clustering model for the Third Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast (UCERF3‐ETAS): Toward an operational earthquake forecast
Edward H. Field, Kevin R. Milner, Jeanne L. Hardebeck, Morgan T. Page, Nicholas van der Elst, Thomas H. Jordan, Andrew J. Michael, Bruce E. Shaw, Maximillan J. Werner
2017, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (107) 1049-1081
We, the ongoing Working Group on California Earthquake Probabilities, present a spatiotemporal clustering model for the Third Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast (UCERF3), with the goal being to represent aftershocks, induced seismicity, and otherwise triggered events as a potential basis for operational earthquake forecasting (OEF). Specifically, we add an epidemic‐type...
Adding a nitrogen footprint to Colorado State University’s sustainability plan
Jacob Kimiecik, Jill Baron, Timothy Weinmann, Emily Taylor
2017, Sustainability (10) 89-95
As a large land grant university with more than 32,000 students, Colorado State University has both on-campus non-agricultural and agricultural sources of nitrogen (N) released to the environment. We used the Nitrogen Footprint Tool to estimate the amount of N released from different sectors of the university for the CSU...
Life history constraints explain negative relationship between fish productivity and dissolved organic carbon in lakes
Nicola Craig, Stuart E. Jones, Brian Weidel, Christopher T. Solomon
2017, Ecology and Evolution (7) 6201-6209
Resource availability constrains the life history strategies available to organisms and may thereby limit population growth rates and productivity. We used this conceptual framework to explore the mechanisms driving recently reported negative relationships between fish productivity and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations in lakes. We studied populations of bluegill (Lepomis...
The difficulty of measuring the absorption of scattered sunlight by H2O and CO2 in volcanic plumes: A comment on Pering et al. “A novel and inexpensive method for measuring volcanic plume water fluxes at high temporal resolution,” Remote Sens. 2017, 9, 146
Christoph Kern
2017, Remote Sensing (9)
In their recent study, Pering et al. (2017) presented a novel method for measuring volcanic water vapor fluxes. Their method is based on imaging volcanic gas and aerosol plumes using a camera sensitive to the near-infrared (NIR) absorption of water vapor. The imaging data are empirically calibrated by comparison with...
Diel periodicity and chronology of upstream migration in yellow-phase American eels (Anguilla rostrata)
Joni L. Aldinger, Stuart A. Welsh
2017, Environmental Biology of Fishes (100) 829-838
Yellow-phase American eel (Anguilla rostrata) upstream migration is temporally punctuated, yet migration chronology within diel time periods is not well-understood. This study examined diel periodicity, chronology, and total length (TL) of six multi-day, high-count (285–1,868 eels) passage events of upstream migrant yellow-phase American eels at the Millville Dam...
Remote measurement of high preeruptive water vapor emissions at Sabancaya volcano by passive differential optical absorption spectroscopy
Christoph Kern, Pablo Masias, Fredy Apaza, Kevin Reath, Ulrich Platt
2017, Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth (122) 3540-3564
Water (H2O) is by far the most abundant volcanic volatile species and plays a predominant role in driving volcanic eruptions. However, numerous difficulties associated with making accurate measurements of water vapor in volcanic plumes have limited their use as a diagnostic tool. Here we present the first detection of water...
USGS Integration of New Science and Technology, Appendix A
Marybeth K. Brey, Brent C. Knights, Aaron R. Cupp, Jon Amberg, Duane Chapman, Robin D. Calfee, James J. Duncker
2017, Report, 2017 Asian Carp Monitoring and Response Plan
This product summarizes the USGS plans for integration of new science and technology into Asian Carp control efforts for 2017. This includes the 1) implementation and evaluation of new tactics and behavioral information for monitoring, surveillance, control and containment; 2) understanding behavior and reproduction of Asian carp in established and...
How uncertainty analysis of streamflow data can reduce costs and promote robust decisions in water management applications
Hilary McMilan, Jan Seibert, Asgeir Petersen-Overleir, Michel Lang, Paul White, Ton Snelder, Kit Rutherford, Tobias Krueger, Robert R. Mason, Jr., Julie E. Kiang
2017, Water Resources Research (53) 5220-5228
Streamflow data are used for important environmental and economic decisions, such as specifying and regulating minimum flows, managing water supplies, and planning for flood hazards. Despite significant uncertainty in most flow data, the flow series for these applications are often communicated and used without uncertainty information. In this commentary, we...
Chemical and isotopic evidence for CO2 charge and migration within Bravo Dome and potential CO2 leakage to the southwest
Sean T. Brennan
2017, Energy Procedia (114) 2996-3005
Gas analyses from northeastern New Mexico, USA indicate that previous interpretations of the location of gas charge into the northeastern portion of Bravo Dome are likely correct, and that there may be multiple migration pathways from the same source for different regions in northeastern New Mexico....
Geomorphic processes responsible for decadal-scale arroyo changes, Rio Puerco, New Mexico
Allen C. Gellis, John G. Elliott, Milan Pavich
2017, Geological Society of America Bulletin (129) 1660-1680
The channel and arroyo of the Rio Puerco have continued to evolve since incision in the late 1800s. Resurveys of channel cross sections and aerial imagery over time indicate that between the 1970s and 1990s, the upstream reaches (type 1 morphology) of the Rio Puerco have continued to undergo construction...
Understanding and finding solutions to the problem of sedimentation in the National Wildlife Refuge System
Max Post van der Burg, Karen Jenni, Timothy L. Nieman, Josh D. Eash, Gregory A. Knutsen
2017, Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management (8) 648-660
The National Wildlife Refuge System (Refuge System) is a collection of public lands maintained by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for migratory birds and other wildlife. Wetlands on individual National Wildlife Refuges (Refuges) may be at risk of increased sedimentation because of land use...
A database and probabilistic assessment methodology for carbon dioxide enhanced oil recovery and associated carbon dioxide retention in the United States
Peter D. Warwick, Mahendra K. Verma, Emil D. Attanasi, Ricardo A. Olea, Madalyn S. Blondes, Philip Freeman, Sean T. Brennan, Matthew D. Merrill, Hossein Jahediesfanjani, Jacqueline Roueche, Celeste D. Lohr
2017, Energy Procedia (114) 7055-7059
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has developed an assessment methodology for estimating the potential incremental technically recoverable oil resources resulting from carbon dioxide-enhanced oil recovery (CO2-EOR) in reservoirs with appropriate depth, pressure, and oil composition. The methodology also includes a procedure for estimating the CO2 that remains in the reservoir after...
Tributary use by imperiled Flannelmouth and Bluehead Suckers in the upper Colorado River Basin
Gregory S. Fraser, Dana L. Winkelman, Kevin R. Bestgen, Kevin G. Thompson
2017, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (146) 858-871
Habitat alterations and establishment of nonnative fishes have reduced the distributions of Flannelmouth Sucker Catostomus latipinnis and Bluehead Sucker C. discobolus to less than 50% of their historical ranges in the Colorado River basin. Tributaries are sometimes less altered than main-stem habitat in the basin and may be important to support various life history...
Subsurface geometry of the San Andreas fault in southern California: Results from the Salton Seismic Imaging Project (SSIP) and strong ground motion expectations
Gary S. Fuis, Klaus Bauer, Mark R. Goldman, Trond Ryberg, Victoria E. Langenheim, Daniel S. Scheirer, Michael J. Rymer, Joann M. Stock, John A. Hole, Rufus D. Catchings, Robert Graves, Brad T. Aagaard
2017, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (107) 1642-1662
The San Andreas fault (SAF) is one of the most studied strike‐slip faults in the world; yet its subsurface geometry is still uncertain in most locations. The Salton Seismic Imaging Project (SSIP) was undertaken to image the structure surrounding the SAF and also its subsurface geometry. We present SSIP studies...
Fine particle retention within stream storage areas at base flow and in response to a storm event
J. D. Drummond, L. G. Larsen, R. González-Pinzón, A. I. Packman, Judson Harvey
2017, Water Resources Research (53) 5690-5705
Fine particles (1–100 µm), including particulate organic carbon (POC) and fine sediment, influence stream ecological functioning because they may contain or have a high affinity to sorb nitrogen and phosphorus. These particles are immobilized within stream storage areas, especially hyporheic sediments and benthic biofilms. However, fine particles are also known...
Downscaling wind and wavefields for 21st century coastal flood hazard projections in a region of complex terrain
Andrea C. O'Neill, Li H. Erikson, Patrick L. Barnard
2017, Earth and Space Science (4) 314-334
While global climate models (GCMs) provide useful projections of near-surface wind vectors into the 21st century, resolution is not sufficient enough for use in regional wave modeling. Statistically downscaled GCM projections from Multivariate Adaptive Constructed Analogues provide daily averaged near-surface winds at an appropriate spatial resolution for wave modeling within...
Comparison of American Fisheries Society (AFS) standard fish sampling techniques and environmental DNA for characterizing fish communities in a large reservoir
Christina R. Perez, Scott A. Bonar, Jon J. Amberg, Bridget Ladell, Christopher B. Rees, William T. Stewart, Curtis J. Gill, Chris Cantrell, Anthony Robinson
2017, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (37) 1010-1027
Recently, methods involving examination of environmental DNA (eDNA) have shown promise for characterizing fish species presence and distribution in waterbodies. We evaluated the use of eDNA for standard fish monitoring surveys in a large reservoir. Specifically, we compared the presence, relative abundance, biomass, and relative percent composition of Largemouth Bass Micropterus...
Plant diversity increases with the strength of negative density dependence at the global scale
Joseph A. LaManna, Scott A. Mangan, Alfonso Alonso, Norman Bourg, Warren Y. Brockelman, Sarayudh Bunyavejchewin, Li-Wan Chang, Jyh-Min Chiang, George B. Chuyong, Keith Clay, Richard Condit, Susan Cordell, Stuart J. Davies, Tucker J. Furniss, Christian P. Giardina, I.A.U. Nimal Gunatilleke, C.V. Savitri Gunatilleke, Fangliang He, Robert W. Howe, Stephen P. Hubbell, Chang-Fu Hsieh, Faith M. Inman-Narahari, David Janik, Daniel J. Johnson, David Kenfack, Lisa Korte, Kamil Kral, Andrew J. Larson, James A. Lutz, Sean M. McMahon, William J. McShea, Herve R. Memiaghe, Anuttara Nathalang, Vojtech Novotny, Perry S. Ong, David A. Orwig, Rebecca Ostertag, Geoffrey G. Parker, Richard P. Phillips, Lawren Sack, I-Fang Sun, J. Sebastian Tello, Duncan W. Thomas, Benjamin L. Turner, Dilys M. Vela Diaz, Tomas Vrska, George D. Weiblen, Amy Wolf, Sandra Yap, Jonathan A. Myers
2017, Science (356) 1389-1392
Theory predicts that higher biodiversity in the tropics is maintained by specialized interactions among plants and their natural enemies that result in conspecific negative density dependence (CNDD). By using more than 3000 species and nearly 2.4 million trees across 24 forest plots worldwide, we show that global patterns in tree...
Species’ traits help predict small mammal responses to habitat homogenization by an invasive grass
Joseph P. Ceradini, Anna D. Chalfoun
2017, Ecological Applications (27) 1451-1465
Invasive plants can negatively affect native species, however, the strength, direction, and shape of responses may vary depending on the type of habitat alteration and the natural history of native species. To prioritize conservation of vulnerable species, it is therefore critical to effectively predict species’ responses to invasive plants, which...
A new species of freshwater eel-tailed catfish of the genus Tandanus (Teleostei: Plotosidae) from coastal rivers of mid-northern New South Wales, Australia
Stuart A. Welsh, Dean R. Jerry, Damien Burrows, Meaghan L. Rourke
2017, Copeia (105) 229-236
Tandanus bellingerensis, new species, is described based on specimens from four river drainages (Bellinger, Macleay, Hastings, and Manning rivers) of the mid-northern coast of New South Wales, Australia. Previously, three species were recognized in the genus Tandanus: T. tropicanus of the wet tropics region of northeast Queensland, T. tandanus of the Murray-Darling drainage and coastal...
