Stable carbon isotope fractionation during bacterial acetylene fermentation: Potential for life detection in hydrocarbon-rich volatiles of icy planet(oid)s
Laurence Miller, Shaun Baesman, Ron Oremland
2015, Astrobiology (15) 977-986
We report the first study of stable carbon isotope fractionation during microbial fermentation of acetylene (C2H2) in sediments, sediment enrichments, and bacterial cultures. Kinetic isotope effects (KIEs) averaged 3.7 ± 0.5‰ for slurries prepared with sediment collected at an intertidal mudflat in San Francisco Bay and 2.7 ± 0.2‰ for a pure culture of Pelobacter sp....
Book review: Large igneous provinces
Edward A. du Bray
2015, Economic Geology (110) 1908-1910
This book presents a comprehensive compilation of all aspects of large igneous provinces (LIPs). Published in 2014, the book is now the definitive source of information on the petrogenesis of this type of globally important, voluminous magmatic activity. In the first few pages, LIPs are characterized as magmatic provinces with...
Landsat science team meeting: Summer 2015
Todd Schroeder, Thomas Loveland, Michael A. Wulder, James R. Irons
2015, The Earth Observer (27) 12-17
The summer meeting of the joint U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)–NASA Landsat Science Team (LST) was held at the USGS’s Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center July 7-9, 2015, in Sioux Falls, SD. The LST co-chairs, Tom Loveland [EROS—Senior Scientist] and Jim Irons [NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)—Landsat 8...
USGS National Wildlife Health Center quarterly wildlife mortality report April 2015 to June 2015
Anne Ballmann, Barbara L. Bodenstein, Robert J. Dusek, Daniel A. Grear, Jennifer G. Chipault
2015, Wildlife Disease Association Newsletter 6-8
No abstract available....
Limited role for thermal erosion by turbulent lava in proximal Athabasca Valles, Mars
Vincenzo Cataldo, David A. Williams, Colin M. Dundas, Laszlo P. Keszthelyi
2015, Journal of Geophysical Research E: Planets (120) 1800-1819
The Athabasca Valles flood lava is among the most recent (<50 Ma) and best preserved effusive lava flows on Mars and was probably emplaced turbulently. The Williams et al. (2005) model of thermal erosion by lava has been applied to what we term “proximal Athabasca,” the 75 km long upstream portion of...
Photoreduction of Hg(II) and photodemethylation of methylmercury: the key role of thiol sites on dissolved organic matter
Jeffrey D. Jeremiason, Joshua C. Portner, George R. Aiken, Amber J. Hiranaka, Michelle T. Dvorak, Khuyen T. Tran, Douglas E. Latch
2015, Environmental Science: Processes and Impacts (17) 1892-1903
This study examined the kinetics of photoreduction of Hg(II) and photodemethylation of methylmercury (MeHg+) attached to, or in the presence of, dissolved organic matter (DOM). Both Hg(II) and MeHg+ are principally bound to reduced sulfur groups associated with DOM in many freshwater systems. We propose that a direct photolysis mechanism is...
North Pacific deglacial hypoxic events linked to abrupt ocean warming
Summer K Praetorius, Alan C. Mix, Maureen H. Davies, Matthew D Wolhowe, Jason A. Addison, Frederick G Prahl
2015, Nature (527) 362-366
Marine sediments from the North Pacific document two episodes of expansion and strengthening of the subsurface oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) accompanied by seafloor hypoxia during the last deglacial transition<a id="ref-link-34" title="Mix, A. C. et al. Rapid climate oscillations in the Northeast Pacific during the last deglaciation reflect Northern and Southern...
The Open Water Data Initiative: Water information for a thirsty nation
Alan Rea, Edward Clark, Angela Adams, William B. Samuels
2015, Water Resources Impact (17) 7-10
Initial efforts of the Open Water Data Initiative have focused on three use cases covering flooding, drought, and contaminant spill response, with a goal of identifying critical water data resources and making them more accessible. Significant progress has been made in the past year, although much remains to be done....
Fire activity as a function of fire–weather seasonal severity and antecedent climate across spatial scales in southern Europe and Pacific western USA
Itziar R. Urbieta, Gonzalo Zavala, Joaquin Bedia, Jose M. Gutierrez, Jesus San Miguel-Ayanz, Andrea Camia, Jon E. Keeley, Jose M. Moreno
2015, Environmental Research Letters (10)
Climate has a strong influence on fire activity, varying across time and space. We analyzed the relationships between fire–weather conditions during the main fire season and antecedent water-balance conditions and fires in two Mediterranean-type regions with contrasted management histories: five southern countries of the European Union (EUMED)(all fires); the Pacific...
Earthquake rupture process recreated from a natural fault surface
Thomas E. Parsons, Diane L. Minasian
2015, Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth (120) 7852-7862
What exactly happens on the rupture surface as an earthquake nucleates, spreads, and stops? We cannot observe this directly, and models depend on assumptions about physical conditions and geometry at depth. We thus measure a natural fault surface and use its 3D coordinates to construct a replica at 0.1 m...
A bootstrap method for estimating uncertainty of water quality trends
Robert M. Hirsch, Stacey A. Archfield, Laura A. DeCicco
2015, Environmental Modelling and Software (73) 148-166
Estimation of the direction and magnitude of trends in surface water quality remains a problem of great scientific and practical interest. The Weighted Regressions on Time, Discharge, and Season (WRTDS) method was recently introduced as an exploratory data analysis tool to provide flexible and robust estimates of water quality trends....
Ancient low–molecular-weight organic acids in permafrost fuel rapid carbon dioxide production upon thaw
Travis W. Drake, Kimberly P. Wickland, Robert G. M. Spencer, Diane M. McKnight, Robert G. Striegl
2015, PNAS (112) 13946-13951
Northern permafrost soils store a vast reservoir of carbon, nearly twice that of the present atmosphere. Current and projected climate warming threatens widespread thaw of these frozen, organic carbon (OC)-rich soils. Upon thaw, mobilized permafrost OC in dissolved and particulate forms can enter streams and rivers, which are important processors...
The surface elevation table and marker horizon technique: A protocol for monitoring wetland elevation dynamics
James C. Lynch, Phillippe Hensel, Donald R. Cahoon
2015, Natural Resource Report NPS/NCBN/NRR—2015/1078
The National Park Service, in response to the growing evidence and awareness of the effects of climate change on federal lands, determined that monitoring wetland elevation change is a top priority in North Atlantic Coastal parks (Stevens et al, 2010). As a result, the NPS Northeast Coastal and Barrier Network...
Interpretation of hydraulic conductivity in a fractured-rock aquifer over increasingly larger length dimensions
Allen M. Shapiro, Jeffery Ladderud, Richard M. Yager
2015, Hydrogeology Journal (23) 1319-1339
A comparison of the hydraulic conductivity over increasingly larger volumes of crystalline rock was conducted in the Piedmont physiographic region near Bethesda, Maryland, USA. Fluid-injection tests were conducted on intervals of boreholes isolating closely spaced fractures. Single-hole tests were conducted by pumping in open boreholes for approximately 30 min, and an...
Decomposition of sea lamprey Petromyzon marinus carcasses: temperature effects, nutrient dynamics, and implications for stream food webs
Daniel M. Weaver, Stephen M. Coghlan Jr., Joseph D. Zydlewski, Robert S. Hogg, Michael Canton
2015, Hydrobiologia (760) 57-67
Anadromous fishes serve as vectors of marine-derived nutrients into freshwaters that are incorporated into aquatic and terrestrial food webs. Pacific salmonines Oncorhynchus spp. exemplify the importance of migratory fish as links between marine and freshwater systems; however, little attention has been given to sea lamprey (Petromyzon...
Widespread occurrence of (per)chlorate in the Solar System
W. Andrew Jackson, Alfonso F Davila, Derek W. G. Sears, John D. Coates, Christopher P. McKay, Meaghan Brundrett, Nubia Estrada, J.K. Bohlke
2015, Earth and Planetary Science Letters (430) 470-476
Perchlorate (ClO− 4 ) and chlorate (ClO− 3 ) are ubiquitous on Earth and ClO− 4 has also been found on Mars. These species can play important roles in geochemical processes such as oxidation of organic matter and as biological electron acceptors, and are also indicators of important photochemical reactions...
LIMS for Lasers 2015 for achieving long-term accuracy and precision of δ2H, δ17O, and δ18O of waters using laser absorption spectrometry
Tyler B. Coplen, Leonard I Wassenaar
2015, Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry (29) 2122-2130
RationaleAlthough laser absorption spectrometry (LAS) instrumentation is easy to use, its incorporation into laboratory operations is not easy, owing to extensive offline manipulation of comma-separated-values files for outlier detection, between-sample memory correction, nonlinearity (δ-variation with water amount) correction, drift correction, normalization to VSMOW-SLAP scales, and difficulty in performing long-term QA/QC...
Predictions of future ephemeral springtime waterbird stopover habitat availability under global change
Daniel R. Uden, Craig R. Allen, Andrew A. Bishop, Roger Grosse, Christopher F. Jorgensen, Theodore G. LaGrange, Randy G. Stutheit, Mark P. Vrtiska
2015, Ecosphere (6) 1-26
In the present period of rapid, worldwide change in climate and landuse (i.e., global change), successful biodiversity conservation warrants proactive management responses, especially for long-distance migratory species. However, the development and implementation of management strategies can be impeded by high levels of uncertainty and low levels of control over potentially...
Density of river otters (Lontra canadensis) in relation to energy development in the Green River Basin, Wyoming
B.L. Godwin, S.E. Albeke, H.L. Bergman, Annika W. Walters, M. Ben-David
2015, Science of the Total Environment (532) 780-790
Exploration and extraction of oil and natural gas have increased in recent years and are expected to expand in the future. Reduction in water quality from energy extraction may negatively affect water supply for agriculture and urban use within catchments as well as down river. We used non-invasive genetic techniques...
Imaging the magmatic system of Mono Basin, California with magnetotellurics in three--dimensions
Jared R. Peacock, Margaret T. Mangan, Darcy McPhee, David A. Ponce
2015, Journal of Geophysical Research (120) 7273-7289
A three–dimensional (3D) electrical resistivity model of Mono Basin in eastern California unveils a complex subsurface filled with zones of partial melt, fluid–filled fracture networks, cold plutons, and regional faults. In 2013, 62 broadband magnetotelluric (MT) stations were collected in an array around southeastern Mono Basin from which a 3D...
Nutrient-enhanced decomposition of plant biomass in a freshwater wetland
James E. Bodker, Robert Eugene Turner, Andrew Tweel, Christopher Schulz, Christopher M. Swarzenski
2015, Aquatic Botany (127) 44-52
We studied soil decomposition in a Panicum hemitomon (Schultes)-dominated freshwater marsh located in southeastern Louisiana that was unambiguously changed by secondarily-treated municipal wastewater effluent. We used four approaches to evaluate how belowground biomass decomposition rates vary under different nutrient regimes in this marsh. The results of laboratory experiments demonstrated how nutrient enrichment...
Now hiring! Empirically testing a three-step intervention to increase faculty gender diversity in STEM
Jessi L. Smith, Ian M. Handley, Alexander V. Zale, Sara Rushing, Martha A. Potvin
2015, BioScience (65) 1084-1087
Workforce homogeneity limits creativity, discovery, and job satisfaction; nonetheless, the vast majority of university faculty in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields are men. We conducted a randomized and controlled three-step faculty search intervention based in self-determination theory aimed at increasing the number of women faculty in STEM at...
Mercury in stream water at five Czech catchments across a Hg and S deposition gradient
Tomáš Navrátil, James B. Shanley, Jan Rohovec, Filip Oulehle, Pavel Kram, Sarka Matouskova, Miroslav Tesar, Maria Hojdová
2015, Journal of Geochemical Exploration (158) 201-211
The Czech Republic was heavily industrialized in the second half of the 20th century but the associated emissions of Hg and S from coal burning were significantly reduced since the 1990s. We studied dissolved (filtered) stream water mercury (Hg) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations at five catchments with contrasting...
LiDAR based prediction of forest biomass using hierarchical models with spatially varying coefficients
Chad Babcock, Andrew O. Finley, John B. Bradford, Randall K. Kolka, Richard A. Birdsey, Michael G. Ryan
2015, Remote Sensing of Environment (169) 113-127
Many studies and production inventory systems have shown the utility of coupling covariates derived from Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data with forest variables measured on georeferenced inventory plots through regression models. The objective of this study was to propose and assess the use of a Bayesian hierarchical modeling framework...
Wintering ecology of sympatric subspecies of Sandhill Crane: Correlations between body size, site fidelity, and movement patterns
Gary L. Ivey, Bruce D. Dugger, Caroline P. Herziger, Michael L. Casazza, Joseph P. Fleskes
2015, The Condor (117) 518-529
Body size is known to correlate with many aspects of life history in birds, and this knowledge can be used to manage and conserve bird species. However, few studies have compared the wintering ecology of sympatric subspecies that vary significantly in body size. We used radiotelemetry to examine the relationship...