Database creation, data quality assessment, and geochemical maps (phase V, deliverable 59)—Final report on compilation and validation of geochemical data
Robert G. Eppinger, Stuart A. Giles, Gregory K. Lee, Steven M. Smith
2015, Open-File Report 2013-1280-D
Under the World Bank-funded Second Projet de Renforcement Institutionnel du Secteur Minier de la Republique Islamique de Mauritanie (PRISM-II), this Phase V geochemistry report follows earlier Phase I and Phase II summary reports on geochemical data (U.S. Geological Survey, 2007 and Eppinger, 2007; respectively). All the reports are based on...
Nutritional stress affects corticosterone deposition in feathers of Caspian tern chicks
Allison G. L. Patterson, Alexander S. Kitaysky, Donald E. Lyons, Daniel D. Roby
2015, Journal of Avian Biology (46) 18-24
Stressful environmental conditions affect the adrenocortical function of developing animals, which can have consequences for their fitness. Discovery of the avian stress hormone corticosterone (CORT) in feathers has the potential to broaden the application of endocrine research in ecological and evolutionary studies of wild birds by providing a long-term measure...
Bayesian models: A statistical primer for ecologists
N. Thompson Hobbs, Mevin Hooten
2015, Book
Bayesian modeling has become an indispensable tool for ecological research because it is uniquely suited to deal with complexity in a statistically coherent way. This textbook provides a comprehensive and accessible introduction to the latest Bayesian methods—in language ecologists can understand. Unlike other books on the subject, this one emphasizes...
Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge: Draft comprehensive conservation plan and environmental impact statement
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Elizabeth Donovan, William Gascoigne, Catherine Cullinane Thomas
2015, Report
The Connecticut River is treasured by all for its majesty and significance in supporting life along its winding 410-mile passage through urban and rural communities in New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. Working with our partners, we are inspired to protect and enhance the natural and cultural richness throughout the...
Duckling survival, fecundity, and habitat selection of mottled duck broods on the upper Texas Gulf Coast
Elizabeth A. Rigby, David A. Haukos
2015, Journal of the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (2) 156-163
Mottled ducks (Anas fulvigula) on the western Gulf Coast have exhibited a steep population decline since the mid 1990s. Low rates of breeding incidence and nest success have been implicated in this decline, but duckling survival and the habitat needs of broods have not been previously investigated in this region....
Copper toxicity and organic matter: Resiliency of watersheds in the Duluth Complex, Minnesota, USA
Nadine M. Piatak, Robert R. Seal, Perry M. Jones, Laurel G. Woodruff
2015, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Acid Rock Drainage and IMWA Annual Conference
We estimated copper (Cu) toxicity in surface water with high dissolved organic matter (DOM) for unmined mineralized watersheds of the Duluth Complex using the Biotic Ligand Model (BLM), which evaluates the effect of DOM, cation competition for biologic binding sites, and metal speciation. A sediment-based BLM was used to estimate...
Contrasting fish assemblages in free-flowing and impounded tributaries to the Upper Delaware River: Implications for conserving biodiversity
Barry P. Baldigo, Mari-Beth Delucia, Walter D. Keller, George E. Schuler, Colin D. Apse, Tara Moberg
2015, Book chapter, Advances in Environmental Research
The Neversink River and the Beaver Kill in southeastern New York are major tributaries to the Delaware River, the longest undammed river east of the Mississippi. While the Beaver Kill is free flowing for its entire length, the Neversink River is subdivided by the Neversink Reservoir, which likely affects the...
Continuous monitoring of meteorological conditions and movement of a deep-seated, persistently moving rockslide along Interstate Route 79 near Pittsburgh
Francis Ashland, Helen L. Delano
2015, Pennsylvania Geology (45) 22-26
A large inventory of landslides exists for Allegheny County, Pa., and historical movement of manyof these has resulted in considerable damage to property, roads, and infrastructure. Along InterstateRoute 79, a subset of the landslide inventory includes deep-seated rockslides, two of which reactivatedduring construction of the highway in the late 1960s...
Twentieth-century shifts in forest structure in California: Denser forests, smaller trees, and increased dominance of oaks
Patrick J. McIntyre, James H. Thorne, Christopher R. Dolanc, Alan L. Flint, Lorraine E. Flint, Maggi Kelly, David D. Ackerly
2015, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (112) 1458-1463
We document changes in forest structure between historical(1930s) and contemporary (2000s) surveys of California vegetation through comparisons of tree abundance and size across the state and within several ecoregions. Across California, tree density in forested regions increased by 30% between the two time periods, whereas forest biomass in the same...
Provenance and detrital zircon geochronologic evolution of lower Brookian foreland basin deposits of the western Brooks Range, Alaska, and implications for early Brookian tectonism
Thomas E. Moore, Paul B. O’Sullivan, Christopher J. Potter, Raymond A. Donelick
2015, Geosphere (11) 93-122
The Upper Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous part of the Brookian sequence of northern Alaska consists of syntectonic deposits shed from the north-directed, early Brookian orogenic belt. We employ sandstone petrography, detrital zircon U-Pb age analysis, and zircon fission-track double-dating methods to investigate these deposits in a succession of thin...
Stable-isotope and solute-chemistry approaches to flow characterization in a forested tropical watershed, Luquillo Mountains, Puerto Rico
Martha A. Scholl, James B. Shanley, Sheila F. Murphy, Jane K Willenbring, Marcie Occhi, Grizelle Gonzalez
2015, Applied Geochemistry (63) 484-497
The prospect of changing climate has led to uncertainty about the resilience of forested mountain watersheds in the tropics. In watersheds where frequent, high rainfall provides ample runoff, we often lack understanding of how the system will respond under conditions of decreased rainfall or drought. Factors that govern water supply,...
Observational changes to the natural flow regime in Lee Creek in relation to altered precipitation patterns and its implication for fishes
Michael R. Gatlin, James M. Long, Donald J. Turton
2015, Proceedings of the Oklahoma Academy of Science (95) 135-146
The natural flow regime is important for structuring streams and their resident ichthyofauna and alterations to this regime can have cascading consequences. We sought to determine if changes in hydrology could be attributed to changes in precipitation in a minimally altered watershed (Lee Creek). The stream flow regime was analyzed...
Field trip guidebook for the post-meeting field trip: The Central Appalachians
John F. Taylor, James D. Loch, G. Robert Ganis, John E. Repetski, Charles E. Mitchell, Gale C. Blackmer, David K. Brezinski, Daniel Goldman, Randall C. Orndorff, Bryan K. Sell
2015, Stratigraphy (12) 297-413
The lower Paleozoic rocks to be examined on this trip through the central Appalachians represent an extreme range of depositional environments. The lithofacies we will examine range from pelagic radiolarian chert and interbedded mudstone that originated on the deep floor of the Iapetus Ocean, through mud cracked supratidal dolomitic laminites...
Synoptic evaluation of scale-dependent metrics for hydrographic line feature geometry
Larry V. Stanislawski, Barbara P. Buttenfield, Paulo Raposo, Madeline Cameron, Jeff T. Falgout
2015, Conference Paper, 18th ICA Workshop on Generalisation and Multiple Representation
Methods of acquisition and feature simplification for vector feature data impact cartographic representations and scientific investigations of these data, and are therefore important considerations for geographic information science (Haunert and Sester 2008). After initial collection, linear features may be simplified to reduce excessive detail or to furnish a reduced-scale version...
Combining state-and-transition simulations and species distribution models to anticipate the effects of climate change
Brian W. Miller, Leonardo Frid, Tony Chang, N. B. Piekielek, Andrew J. Hansen, Jeffrey T. Morisette
2015, AIMS Environmental Science (2) 400-426
State-and-transition simulation models (STSMs) are known for their ability to explore the combined effects of multiple disturbances, ecological dynamics, and management actions on vegetation. However, integrating the additional impacts of climate change into STSMs remains a challenge. We address this challenge by combining an STSM with species distribution modeling (SDM)....
Introduction to the special issue on the 2012 Haida Gwaii and 2013 Craig earthquakes at the Pacific–North America plate boundary (British Columbia and Alaska)
Thomas S. James, John F. Cassidy, Garry C. Rogers, Peter J. Haeussler
2015, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (105) 1053-1057
The 27 October 2012 Mw 7.8 Haida Gwaii thrust earthquake and the 5 January 2013 Mw 7.5 Craig strike‐slip earthquake are the focus of this special issue. They occurred along the transform boundary between the Pacific and North American plates (Fig. 1). The most identifiable feature of the plate boundary, the strike‐slip Queen Charlotte fault,...
High-speed limnology: Using advanced sensors to investigate spatial variability in biogeochemistry and hydrology
John T. Crawford, Luke C. Loken, Nora J. Casson, Colin Smith, Amanda G. Stone, Luke A. Winslow
2015, Environmental Science & Technology (49) 442-450
Advanced sensor technology is widely used in aquatic monitoring and research. Most applications focus on temporal variability, whereas spatial variability has been challenging to document. We assess the capability of water chemistry sensors embedded in a high-speed water intake system to document spatial variability. This new sensor platform continuously samples...
Onset of a basaltic explosive eruption from Kīlauea’s summit in 2008
Rebecca J. Carey, Lauren Swavely, Don Swanson, Bruce F. Houghton, Tim R. Orr, Tamar Elias, Andrew Sutton
Rebecca Carey, Valerie Cayol, Michael P. Poland, Dominique Weis, editor(s)
2015, Book chapter, Hawaiian volcanoes: From source to surface
The onset of a basaltic eruption at the summit of Kīlauea volcano in 2008 is recorded in the products generated during the first three weeks of the eruption and suggests an evolution of both the physical properties of the magma and also lava lake levels and vent wall stability. Ash...
High‐resolution trench photomosaics from image‐based modeling: Workflow and error analysis
Nadine G. Reitman, Scott E.K. Bennett, Ryan D. Gold, Richard W. Briggs, Christopher B. DuRoss
2015, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (105) 2354-2366
Photomosaics are commonly used to construct maps of paleoseismic trench exposures, but the conventional process of manually using image‐editing software is time consuming and produces undesirable artifacts and distortions. Herein, we document and evaluate the application of image‐based modeling (IBM) for creating photomosaics and 3D models of paleoseismic trench exposures,...
Validation of geometric accuracy of Global Land Survey (GLS) 2000 data
Rajagopalan Rengarajan, Aparajithan Sampath, James C. Storey, Mike Choate
2015, Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing (2) 131-141
The Global Land Survey (GLS) 2000 data were generated from Geocover™ 2000 data with the aim of producing a global data set of accuracy better than 25 m Root Mean Square Error (RMSE). An assessment and validation of accuracy of GLS 2000 data set, and its co-registration with Geocover™ 2000...
Determination of (4-methylcyclohexyl)methanol isomers by heated purge-and-trap GC/MS in water samples from the 2014 Elk River, West Virginia, chemical spill
William T. Foreman, Donna L. Rose, Douglas B. Chambers, Angela S. Crain, Lucinda K. Murtagh, Haresh Thakellapalli, Kung K. Wang
2015, Chemosphere (131) 217-224
A heated purge-and-trap gas chromatography/mass spectrometry method was used to determine the cis- and trans-isomers of (4-methylcyclohexyl)methanol (4-MCHM), the reported major component of the Crude MCHM/Dowanol™ PPh glycol ether material spilled into the Elk River upriver from Charleston, West Virginia, on January 9, 2014. The trans-isomer eluted first and method...
Kinematics of shallow backthrusts in the Seattle fault zone, Washington State
Thomas L. Pratt, K.G. Troost, Jackson K. Odum, William J. Stephenson
2015, Geosphere (11) 1948-1974
Near-surface thrust fault splays and antithetic backthrusts at the tips of major thrust fault systems can distribute slip across multiple shallow fault strands, complicating earthquake hazard analyses based on studies of surface faulting. The shallow expression of the fault strands forming the Seattle fault zone of Washington State shows the...
Structural superposition in fault systems bounding Santa Clara Valley, California
Russell W. Graymer, Richard G. Stanley, David A. Ponce, Robert C. Jachens, Robert W. Simpson, Carl M. Wentworth
2015, Geosphere (11) 63-75
Santa Clara Valley is bounded on the southwest and northeast by active strike-slip and reverse-oblique faults of the San Andreas fault system. On both sides of the valley, these faults are superposed on older normal and/or right-lateral normal oblique faults. The older faults comprised early components of the San Andreas...
An assessment of arthropod prey resources at Nakula Natural Area Reserve, a potential site of reintroduction for Kiwikiu (Pseudonestor xanthophrys) and Maui `Alauahio (Parareomyza montana)
Paul C. Banko, Robert W. Peck, Justin Cappadonna, Claire Steele, David L. Leonard, Hanna L. Mounce, Dusti Becker, Kirsty Swinnerton
2015, Technical Report HCSU-059
Hawaiian forest birds have declined dramatically since humans arrived in the archipelago. Birds from all foraging guilds have been affected but insectivorous species are currently at greatest risk of extinction. On the island of Maui, populations and ranges of the insectivorous kiwikiu (Maui parrotbill; Pseudonestor xanthophrys) and Maui ‘alauahio (Maui...
The Yellowstone “hot spot” track results from migrating basin-range extension
Gillian R. Foulger, Robert L. Christiansen, Don L. Anderson
Gillian R. Foulger, Michele Lustrino, Scott D. King, editor(s)
2015, Book chapter, The interdisciplinary earth: A volume in honor of Don L. Anderson (GSA Special Papers volume 514)
Whether the volcanism of the Columbia River Plateau, eastern Snake River Plain, and Yellowstone (western U.S.) is related to a mantle plume or to plate tectonic processes is a long-standing controversy. There are many geological mismatches with the basic plume model as well as logical flaws, such as citing data...
