Modelling multi-hazard hurricane damages on an urbanized coast with a Bayesian Network approach
H.C.W. van Verseveld, A. R. Van Dongeren, Nathaniel G. Plant, W.S. Jager, C. den Heijer
2015, Coastal Engineering (103) 1-14
Hurricane flood impacts to residential buildings in coastal zones are caused by a number of hazards, such as inundation, overflow currents, erosion, and wave attack. However, traditional hurricane damage models typically make use of stage-damage functions, where the stage is related to flooding depth only. Moreover, these models are...
Catchment-wide survival of wild- and hatchery-reared Atlantic salmon smolts in a changing system
Daniel S. Stich, Michael M. Bailey, Christopher M. Holbrook, Michael T. Kinnison, Joseph D. Zydlewski
2015, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (72) 1352-1365
We developed a hierarchical multistate model to estimate survival of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) smolts in the Penobscot River, USA, over a decade during which two mainstem dams were removed from the catchment. We investigated effects of (i) environmental factors, (ii) rearing history, and (iii) management actions, including dam removal,...
Temporal variation in viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus antibodies in freshwater drum (Aplodinotus grunniens) indicates cyclic transmission in Lake Winnebago, Wisconsin
Anna Wilson-Rothering, Susan Marcquenski, Ryan P. Koenigs, Ronald Bruch, Kendall Kamke, Daniel A. Isermann, Andrew Thurman, Kathy Toohey-Kurth, Tony Goldberg
2015, Journal of Clinical Microbiology (53) 2889-2894
Viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus (VHSV) is an emerging pathogen that causes mass mortality in multiple fish species. In 2007, the Great Lakes freshwater strain, type IVb, caused a large die-off of freshwater drum (Aplodinotus grunniens) in Lake Winnebago, Wisconsin, USA. To evaluate the persistence and transmission of...
Atypical den use of Carolina Northern Flying Squirrels (Glaucomys sabrinus coloratus) in the southern Appalachian Mountains
Corinne A. Diggins, Christine A. Kelly, W. Mark Ford
2015, Southeastern Naturalist (14) N44-N49
Glaucomys sabrinus coloratus (Carolina Northern Flying Squirrel) is a federally endangered subspecies that occurs in high elevation forests of the southern Appalachian Mountains. Denning sites may be a limiting factor for this subspecies in areas where cavity trees are not abundant or where interspecific competition from other tree squirrels occurs....
Monitoring landscape-level distribution and migration Phenology of Raptors using a volunteer camera-trap network
David S. Jachowski, Todd E. Katzner, Jane L. Rodrigue, W. Mark Ford
2015, Wildlife Society Bulletin (39) 553-563
Conservation of animal migratory movements is among the most important issues in wildlife management. To address this need for landscape-scale monitoring of raptor populations, we developed a novel, baited photographic observation network termed the “Appalachian Eagle Monitoring Program” (AEMP). During winter months of 2008–2012, we partnered with professional and citizen...
Mid-Cretaceous oblique rifting of West Antarctica: Emplacement and rapid cooling of the Fosdick Mountains migmatite-cored gneiss dome
Rory McFadden, Christian Teyssier, Christine Siddoway, Michael A. Cosca, C. Mark Fanning
2015, LITHOS (232) 306-318
In Marie Byrd Land, West Antarctica, the Fosdick Mountains migmatite-cored gneiss dome was exhumed from mid- to lower middle crustal depths during the incipient stage of the West Antarctic Rift system in the mid-Cretaceous. Prior to and during exhumation, major crustal melting and deformation included transfer and emplacement of...
The Centennial Trends Greater Horn of Africa precipitation dataset
Chris Funk, Sharon E. Nicholson, Martin F. Landsfeld, Douglas Klotter, Pete J. Peterson, Laura Harrison
2015, Scientific Data (2)
East Africa is a drought prone, food and water insecure region with a highly variable climate. This complexity makes rainfall estimation challenging, and this challenge is compounded by low rain gauge densities and inhomogeneous monitoring networks. The dearth of observations is particularly problematic over the past decade, since the number...
Heat flux from magmatic hydrothermal systems related to availability of fluid recharge
M. C. Harvey, J.V. Rowland, G. Chiodini, C.F. Rissmann, S. Bloomberg, P.A. Hernandez, A. Mazot, F. Viveiros, Cynthia A. Werner
2015, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research (302) 225-236
Magmatic hydrothermal systems are of increasing interest as a renewable energy source. Surface heat flux indicates system resource potential, and can be inferred from soil CO2 flux measurements and fumarole gas chemistry. Here we compile and reanalyze results from previous CO2 flux surveys worldwide to compare heat flux from a...
Development of twelve microsatellite loci in the red tree corals Primnoa resedaeformis and Primnoa pacifica
Cheryl L. Morrison, Marcus J. Springmann, Kelsey Shroades, Robert P. Stone
2015, Conservation Genetics Resources (7) 763-765
A suite of tetra-, penta-, and hexa-nucleotide microsatellite loci were developed from Roche 454 pyrosequencing data for the cold-water octocorals Primnoa resedaeformis and P. pacifica. Twelve of 98 primer sets tested consistently amplified in 30 P. resedaeformis samples from Baltimore...
Global patterns and environmental controls of perchlorate and nitrate co-occurrence in arid and semi-arid environments
W Andrew Jackson, J.K. Bohlke, Brian J. Andraski, Lynne S. Fahlquist, Laura M. Bexfield, Frank D. Eckardt, John B. Gates, Alfonso F. Davila, Christopher P. McKay, Balaji Rao, Ritesh Sevanthi, Srinath Rajagopalan, Nubia Estrada, Neil C. Sturchio, Paul B. Hatzinger, Todd A. Anderson, Greta J. Orris, Julio L. Betancourt, David A. Stonestrom, Claudio Latorre, Yanhe Li, Gregory J. Harvey
2015, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (164) 502-522
Natural perchlorate (ClO4−) is of increasing interest due to its wide-spread occurrence on Earth and Mars, yet little information exists on the relative abundance of ClO4− compared to other major anions, its stability, or long-term variations in production that may impact the observed distributions. Our objectives were to evaluate the...
Mineral Resource of the Month: Bromine
Emily Schnebele
2015, Earth (September 2015)
Bromine, along with mercury, is one of only two elements that are liquid at room temperature. Bromine is a highly volatile and corrosive reddish-brown liquid that evaporates easily and converts to a metal at extreme pressures — above about 540,000 times atmospheric pressure. Bromine occurs in seawater, evaporitic (salt) lakes...
A food web modeling analysis of a Midwestern, USA eutrophic lake dominated by non-native Common Carp and Zebra Mussels
Michael E. Colvin, Clay Pierce, Timothy W. Stewart
2015, Ecological Modelling (312) 26-40
Food web modeling is recognized as fundamental to understanding the complexities of aquatic systems. Ecopath is the most common mass-balance model used to represent food webs and quantify trophic interactions among groups. We constructed annual Ecopath models for four consecutive years during the first half-decade of a zebra mussel invasion...
Estimating annualized earthquake losses for the conterminous United States
Kishor S. Jaiswal, Douglas Bausch, Rui Chen, Jawhar Bouabid, Hope Seligson
2015, Earthquake Spectra (31) 221-243
We make use of the most recent National Seismic Hazard Maps (the years 2008 and 2014 cycles), updated census data on population, and economic exposure estimates of general building stock to quantify annualized earthquake loss (AEL) for the conterminous United States. The AEL analyses were performed using the Federal Emergency...
Wetland occupancy of pond-breeding amphibians in Yosemite National Park, USA
Gary M. Fellers, Patrick M. Kleeman, David A.W. Miller
2015, Journal of North American Herpetology (2015) 22-33
We estimated wetland occupancy and population trends for three species of pond-breeding anurans in Yosemite National Park from 2007-2011. We used a double survey technique in which two observers independently surveyed each site on the same day. Double surveys allowed us to calculate detectability for the three most common anurans...
High mercury wet deposition at a “clean Air” site in Puerto Rico
James B. Shanley, Mark A. Engle, Martha A. Scholl, David P. Krabbenhoft, Robert Brunette, Mark L. Olson, Mary E. Conroy
2015, Environmental Science & Technology (49) 12474-12482
Atmospheric mercury deposition measurements are rare in tropical latitudes. Here we report on seven years (April 2005 to April 2012, with gaps) of wet Hg deposition measurements at a tropical wet forest in the Luquillo Mountains, northeastern Puerto Rico, U.S. Despite receiving unpolluted air off the Atlantic Ocean from northeasterly...
Factors affecting the thermal environment of Agassiz’s Desert Tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) cover sites in the Central Mojave Desert during periods of temperature extremes
Jeremy S. Mack, Kristin H. Berry, David M. Miller, Andrea S. Carlson
2015, Journal of Herpetology (49) 405-414
Agassiz's Desert Tortoises (Gopherus agassizii) spend >95% of their lives underground in cover sites that serve as thermal buffers from temperatures, which can fluctuate >40°C on a daily and seasonal basis. We monitored temperatures at 30 active tortoise cover sites within the Soda Mountains, San Bernardino County, California, from February...
Characterization of a novel hepadnavirus in the white sucker (Catostomus commersonii) from the Great Lakes Region of the USA
Cassidy M. Hahn, Luke R. Iwanowicz, Robert S. Cornman, Carla M. Conway, James R. Winton, Vicki S. Blazer
2015, Journal of Virology (89) 11801-11811
The white sucker Catostomus commersonii is a freshwater teleost often utilized as a resident sentinel. Here, we sequenced the full genome of a hepatitis B-like virus that infects white suckers from the Great Lakes Region of the USA. Dideoxysequencing confirmed the white sucker hepatitis B virus (WSHBV) has a circular...
Demersal fish distribution and habitat use within and near Baltimore and Norfolk Canyons, U.S. Middle Atlantic Slope
Steve W. Ross, Mike Rhode, Andrea M. Quattrini
2015, Deep-Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers (103) 137-154
Numerous submarine canyons along the United States middle Atlantic continental margin support enhanced productivity, diverse and unique habitats, active fisheries, and are vulnerable to various anthropogenic disturbances. During two cruises (15 Aug–2 Oct 2012 and 30 Apr–27 May 2013), Baltimore and Norfolk canyons and nearby areas (including two cold seeps)...
Effects of elevated water temperature on physiological responses in adult freshwater mussels
Alissa M. Ganser, Teresa J. Newton, Roger J. Haro
2015, Freshwater Biology (60) 1705-1715
Freshwater mussels (order Unionoida) face multiple environmental stressors, which pose serious conservation challenges to this diverse assemblage of aquatic invertebrates. Of these stressors, elevated water temperature from global climate change and other anthropogenic sources may be the most ubiquitous and could be placing many mussel populations dangerously close...
Shifts in the eruptive styles at Stromboli in 2010–2014 revealed by ground-based InSAR data
Federico Di Traglia, Maurizio Battaglia, Teresa Nolesini, Daniela Lagomarsino, Nicola Casaglia
2015, Scientific Reports
Ground-Based Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (GBInSAR) is an efficient technique for capturing short, subtle episodes of conduit pressurization in open vent volcanoes like Stromboli (Italy), because it can detect very shallow magma storage, which is difficult to identify using other methods. This technique allows the user to choose the optimal...
The forcing of monthly precipitation variability over Southwest Asia during the Boreal cold season
Andrew Hoell, Shraddhanand Shukla, Mathew Barlow, Forest Cannon, Colin Kelley, Christopher C. Funk
2015, Journal of Climate (28) 7038-7056
Southwest Asia, deemed as the region containing the countries of Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Pakistan, is water scarce and receives nearly 75% of its annual rainfall during8 the boreal cold season of November-April. The forcing of Southwest Asia precipitation has been previously examined for the entire boreal cold season from...
Spring plant phenology and false springs in the conterminous US during the 21st century
Andrew J. Allstadt, Stephen J. Vavrus, Patricia J. Heglund, Anna M. Pidgeon, Wayne E. Thogmartin, Volker C. Radeloff
2015, Geophysical Research Letters (10)
The onset of spring plant growth has shifted earlier in the year over the past several decades due to rising global temperatures. Earlier spring onset may cause phenological mismatches between the availability of plant resources and dependent animals, and potentially lead to more false springs, when subsequent freezing temperatures damage...
Re-colonization by common eiders Somateria mollissima in the Aleutian Archipelago following removal of introduced arctic foxes Vulpes lagopus
Margaret R. Petersen, Sarah A. Sonsthagen, Matthew G. Sexson
2015, Journal of Avian Biology (46) 538-549
Islands provide refuges for populations of many species where they find safety from predators, but the introduction of predators frequently results in elimination or dramatic reductions in island-dwelling organisms. When predators are removed, re-colonization for some species occurs naturally, and inter-island phylogeographic relationships and current movement patterns can illuminate processes...
Improving efficiency and reliability of environmental DNA analysis for silver carp
Jon J. Amberg, S. Grace McCalla, Emy Monroe, Richard Lance, Kelly Baerwaldt, Mark P. Gaikowski
2015, Journal of Great Lakes Research (41) 367-373
Natural resource agencies have established surveillance programs which use environmental DNA (eDNA) for the early detection of bighead carp Hypophthalmichthys nobilis and silver carp Hypophthalmichthys molitrix before they establish populations within the Great Lakes. This molecular monitoring technique must be highly accurate and precise for confident interpretation and also efficient,...
Groundwater availability in the United States: the value of quantitative regional assessments
Kevin F. Dennehy, Thomas E. Reilly, William L. Cunningham
2015, Hydrogeology Journal (23) 1629-1632
The sustainability of water resources is under continued threat from the challenges associated with a growing population, competing demands, and a changing climate. Freshwater scarcity has become a fact in many areas. Much of the United States surface-water supplies are fully apportioned for use; thus, in some areas the only...
