Crop modeling applications in agricultural water management
Isaya Kisekka, Kendall C. DeJonge, Liwang Ma, Joel Paz, Kyle R. Douglas-Mankin
2017, Transactions of the ASABE (60) 1959-1964
This article introduces the fourteen articles that comprise the “Crop Modeling and Decision Support for Optimizing Use of Limited Water” collection. This collection was developed from a special session on crop modeling applications in agricultural water management held at the 2016 ASABE Annual International Meeting (AIM) in Orlando, Florida. In...
Mudflat morphodynamics and the impact of sea level rise in South San Francisco Bay
Mick Van der Wegen, Bruce E. Jaffe, Amy C. Foxgrover, Dano Roelvink
2017, Estuaries and Coasts (40) 37-49
Estuarine tidal mudflats form unique habitats and maintain valuable ecosystems. Historic measurements of a mudflat in San Fancsico Bay over the past 150 years suggest the development of a rather stable mudflat profile. This raises questions on its origin and governing processes as well as on the mudflats’ fate under scenarios...
Understanding the past to interpret the future: Comparison of simulated groundwater recharge in the upper Colorado River basin (USA) using observed and general-circulation-model historical climate data
Fred D. Tillman, Subhrendu Gangopadhyay, Tom Pruitt
2017, Hydrogeology Journal (25) 347-358
In evaluating potential impacts of climate change on water resources, water managers seek to understand how future conditions may differ from the recent past. Studies of climate impacts on groundwater recharge often compare simulated recharge from future and historical time periods on an average monthly or overall average annual basis,...
Mapping tree canopy cover in support of proactive prairie grouse conservation in western North America
Michael J. Falkowski, Jeffrey S. Evans, David E. Naugle, Christian A. Hagen, Scott A. Carleton, Jeremy D. Maestas, Azad Henareh Khalyani, Aaron J. Poznanovic, Andrew J. Lawrence
2017, Rangeland Ecology and Management (70) 15-24
Invasive woody plant expansion is a primary threat driving fragmentation and loss of sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) and prairie habitats across the central and western United States. Expansion of native woody plants, including conifer (primarily Juniperus spp.) and mesquite (Prosopis spp.), over the past century is primarily attributable to wildfire suppression, historic periods of intensive...
Trends in methyl tert-butyl ether concentrations in private wells in southeast New Hampshire: 2005 to 2015
Sarah Flanagan, Joseph P. Levitt, Joseph D. Ayotte
2017, Environmental Science & Technology (51) 1168-1175
In southeast New Hampshire, where reformulated gasoline was used from the 1990s to 2007, methyl tert-butyl ether (MtBE) concentrations ≥0.2 μg/L were found in water from 26.7% of 195 domestic wells sampled in 2005. Ten years later in 2015, and eight years after MtBE was banned, 10.3% continue to have MtBE....
Pathogen transport in groundwater systems: Contrasts with traditional solute transport
Randall J. Hunt, William P. Johnson
2017, Hydrogeology Journal (25) 921-930
Water quality affects many aspects of water availability, from precluding use to societal perceptions of fit-for-purpose. Pathogen source and transport processes are drivers of water quality because they have been responsible for numerous outbreaks resulting in large economic losses due to illness and, in some cases, loss of life. Outbreaks...
Quantifying the relative contribution of an ecological reserve to conservation objectives
Kevin Aagaard, James E. Lyons, Wayne E. Thogmartin
2017, Global Ecology and Conservation (9) 142-147
Evaluating the role public lands play in meeting conservation goals is an essential step in good governance. We present a tool for comparing the regional contribution of each of a suite of wildlife management units to conservation goals. We use weighted summation (simple additive weighting) to compute a Unit Contribution...
Summer habitat selection by Dall’s sheep in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska
Gretchen H. Roffler, Layne G. Adams, Mark Hebblewhite
2017, Journal of Mammalogy (98) 94-105
Sexual segregation occurs frequently in sexually dimorphic species, and it may be influenced by differential habitat requirements between sexes or by social or evolutionary mechanisms that maintain separation of sexes regardless of habitat selection. Understanding the degree of sex-specific habitat specialization is important for management of wildlife populations and the...
A 600-year-long stratigraphic record of tsunamis in south-central Chile
Isabel Hong, Tina Dura, Lisa L. Ely, Benajamin P. Horton, Alan R. Nelson, Marco Cisternas, Daria Nikitina, Robert L. Wesson
2017, The Holocene (27) 39-51
The stratigraphy within coastal river valleys in south-central Chile clarifies and extends the region’s history of large, earthquakes and accompanying tsunamis. Our site at Quidico (38.1°S, 73.3°W) is located in an overlap zone between ruptures of magnitude 8–9 earthquakes in 1960 and 2010, and, therefore, records tsunamis originating from subduction-zone...
Lake Ontario benthic prey fish assessment, 2016
Brian Weidel, Maureen Walsh, Jeremy P. Holden, Michael J. Connerton
2017, NYSDEC Lake Ontario Annual Report 2016-12b
Benthic prey fishes are a critical component of the Lake Ontario food web, serving as energy vectors from benthic invertebrates to native and introduced piscivores. Beginning in 1978, Lake Ontario benthic prey fishes were assessed using bottom trawls collected from the lake’s south shore (depth range: 8 – 150 m)....
An integrated moral obligation model for landowner conservation norms
Amit K. Pradhananga, Mae A. Davenport, David C. Fulton, Geoffrey M. Maruyama, Dean Current
2017, Society & Natural Resources: An International Journal (30) 212-227
This study applies an integrated moral obligation model to examine the role of environmental and cultural values, and beliefs in the activation of landowner conservation norms. Data for this study were collected through a self-administered survey of riparian landowners in two Minnesota watersheds: Sand Creek and Vermillion River watersheds. Study...
Geologic influence on induced seismicity: Constraints from potential field data in Oklahoma
Anjana K. Shah, G. Randy Keller
2017, Geophysical Research Letters (44) 152-161
Recent Oklahoma seismicity shows a regional correlation with increased wastewater injection activity, but local variations suggest that some areas are more likely to exhibit induced seismicity than others. We combine geophysical and drill hole data to map subsurface geologic features in the crystalline basement, where most earthquakes are occurring, and...
Status and trends in the Lake Superior fish community, 2016
Mark R. Vinson, Lori M. Evrard, Owen T. Gorman, Daniel L. Yule
2017, Report, Compiled reports to the Great Lakes Fishery Commission of the annual bottom trawl and acoustics surveys for 2016
In 2016, the Lake Superior fish community was sampled with daytime bottom trawls at 76 nearshore and 35 offshore stations. Spring and summer water temperatures in 2016 were warmer than average and considerably warmer than observed in 2014 and 2015. In the nearshore zone, a total of 17,449 individuals from...
Fisheries research and monitoring activities of the Lake Erie Biological Station, 2016
Betsy L. Bodamer Scarbro, Richard T. Kraus, Patrick Kocovsky, Christopher Vandergoot
2017, Report
<span data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"We conducted a biomass-based assessment of the Lake Erie Western Basin fish community using data collected from 2013-2016 Western Basin (spring and autumn) bottom trawl surveys. Biomass of total catch per hectare has decreased 75 percent since 2013. Declines were observed across all functional groups, but most notable was...
Improved vertical streambed flux estimation using multiple diurnal temperature methods in series
Dylan J. Irvine, Martin A. Briggs, Ian Cartwright, Courtney R. Scruggs, Laura K. Lautz
2017, Groundwater (55) 73-80
Analytical solutions that use diurnal temperature signals to estimate vertical fluxes between groundwater and surface water based on either amplitude ratios (Ar) or phase shifts (Δϕ) produce results that rarely agree. Analytical solutions that simultaneously utilize Ar and Δϕ within a single solution have more recently been derived, decreasing uncertainty...
The response of arid soil communities to climate change: Chapter 8
Blaire Steven, Theresa Ann McHugh, Sasha C. Reed
2017, Book chapter, The biology of arid soils
Arid and semiarid ecosystems cover approximately 40% of Earth’s terrestrial surface and are present on each of the planet’s continents [1]. Drylands are characterized by their aridity, but there is substantial geographic, edaphic, and climatic variability among these vast ecosystems, and these differences underscore substantial variation in dryland soil microbial...
Sub-indicator: Prey fish
Brian Weidel, Erin Dunlop
2017, Report, Sate of the Great Lakes 2017 Technical Report
Prey fish communities across the Great Lakes continue to change, although the direction and magnitude of those changes are not consistent across the lakes. The metrics used to categorize prey fish status in this and previous periods are based on elements that are common among each of the lake’s Fish...
Effects of topographic data quality on estimates of shallow slope stability using different regolith depth models
Rex L. Baum
2017, Conference Paper, Landslides: Putting Experience, Knowledge and Emerging Technologies into Practice--Proceedings of the 3rd North American Symposium on Landslides: Association of Environmental and Engineering Geologists Special Publication 27
Thickness of colluvium or regolith overlying bedrock or other consolidated materials is a major factor in determining stability of unconsolidated earth materials on steep slopes. Many efforts to model spatially distributed slope stability, for example to assess susceptibility to shallow landslides, have relied on estimates of constant thickness, constant depth,...
Investigating impacts of oil and gas development on greater sage-grouse
Adam Green, Cameron L. Aldridge, Michael S. O’Donnell
2017, Journal of Wildlife Management (81) 46-57
The sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) ecosystem is one of the largest ecosystems in western North America providing habitat for species found nowhere else. Sagebrush habitats have experienced dramatic declines since the 1950s, mostly due to anthropogenic disturbances. The greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) is a sagebrush-obligate species that has experienced population declines over...
Human footprint affects US carbon balance more than climate change
Dominique Bachelet, Ken Ferschweiler, Tim Sheehan, Barry Baker, Benjamin M. Sleeter, Zhiliang Zhu
2017, Book chapter, Reference Module in Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences
The MC2 model projects an overall increase in carbon capture in conterminous United States during the 21st century while also simulating a rise in fire causing much carbon loss. Carbon sequestration in soils is critical to prevent carbon losses from future disturbances, and we show that natural ecosystems store more...
Arsenic hazard and associated health risks: New England, USA aquifers
Joseph D. Ayotte
2017, Book chapter, Best practice guide on the control of arsenic in drinking water
No abstract available....
Ecological risk assessment of Grass Carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) for the Great Lakes Basin
Cynthia S. Kolar, Becky Cudmore
2017, Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat Central and Arctic Region Science Advisory Report 2016/057
Grass Carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) is an herbivorous, freshwater fish that was first introduced in the United States in the early 1960s for use in biological control of aquatic vegetation. It has since escaped and dispersed through the Mississippi River basin towards the Great Lakes. To characterize the risk of Grass...
State of Great Lakes 2017 Technical Report: Indicators to assess the status and trends of the Great Lakes ecosystem
Dale Van Stempvoort, George Zhang, Christopher J. Hoard, John Spoelstra, Norman Granneman, Scott MacRitchie, Stacey Cherwaty
2017, Report
No abstract available....
What can volunteer angler tagging data tell us about the status of the Giant Trevally (ulua aukea) Caranx ignobilis fishery in Hawaii: revisiting data collected during Hawaii’s Ulua and Papio Tagging Project 2000-2016
Timothy B. Grabowski, Erik C. Franklin
2017, Cooperator Science Series FWS/CSS-126-2017
Giant Trevally (ulua aukea) Caranx ignobilis is one of the most highly prized and frequentlytargeted nearshore species. However, there is very little information on its current status inHawaiian waters. This study uses mark-recapture data collected as part of recreational anglertagging program conducted by the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural...
Model-based estimators of density and connectivity to inform conservation of spatially structured populations
Dana J. Morin, Angela K. Fuller, J. Andrew Royle, Chris Sutherland
2017, Ecosphere (8) 1-16
Conservation and management of spatially structured populations is challenging because solutions must consider where individuals are located, but also differential individual space use as a result of landscape heterogeneity. A recent extension of spatial capture–recapture (SCR) models, the ecological distance model, uses spatial encounter histories of individuals (e.g., a record...
