The participatory vulnerability scoping diagram - deliberative risk ranking for community water systems
Peter D. Howe, Brent Yarnal, Alex Coletti, Nathan J. Wood
2013, Annals of the Association of American Geographers (2) 343-352
Natural hazards and climate change present growing challenges to community water system (CWS) managers, who are increasingly turning to vulnerability assessments to identify, prioritize, and adapt to risks. Effectively assessing CWS vulnerability requires information and participation from various sources, one of which is stakeholders. In this article, we present a...
Strongly gliding harmonic tremor during the 2009 eruption of Redoubt Volcano
Alicia J. Hotovec, Stephanie G. Prejean, John E. Vidale, Joan S. Gomberg
2013, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research (259) 89-99
During the 2009 eruption of Redoubt Volcano, Alaska, gliding harmonic tremor occurred prominently before six nearly consecutive explosions during the second half of the eruptive sequence. The fundamental frequency repeatedly glided upward from < 1 Hz to as high as 30 Hz in less than 10 min, followed by a...
Strategies for fitting nonlinear ecological models in R, AD Model Builder, and BUGS
Benjamin M. Bolker, Beth Gardner, Mark Maunder, Casper W. Berg, Mollie Brooks, Liza Comita, Elizabeth Crone, Sarah Cubaynes, Trevor Davies, Perry de Valpine, Jessica Ford, Olivier Gimenez, Marc Kéry, Eun Jung Kim, Cleridy Lennert-Cody, Arni Magunsson, Steve Martell, John Nash, Anders Nielson, Jim Regentz, Hans Skaug, Elise Zipkin
2013, Methods in Ecology and Evolution (4) 501-512
1. Ecologists often use nonlinear fitting techniques to estimate the parameters of complex ecological models, with attendant frustration. This paper compares three open-source model fitting tools and discusses general strategies for defining and fitting models. 2. R is convenient and (relatively) easy to learn, AD Model Builder is...
Tallgrass prairie restoration: seeding for success
Diane L. Larson
2013, Fact Sheet 2013-3049
Tallgrass prairie is one of the most imperiled ecosystems on Earth. A 2004 estimate indicated that only 2.4 percent of the original northern tallgrass prairie remained in the United States. If tallgrass prairie and the species dependent on it are to survive, management must include restoration of cropland and degraded...
Spatial education: improving conservation delivery through space-structured decision making
Clinton T. Moore, Terry L. Shaffer, Jill J. Gannon
2013, Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management (4) 199-210
Adaptive management is a form of structured decision making designed to guide management of natural resource systems when their behaviors are uncertain. Where decision making can be replicated across units of a landscape, learning can be accelerated, and biological processes can be understood in a larger spatial context. Broad-based partnerships...
Seismic observations of Redoubt Volcano, Alaska - 1989-2010 and a conceptual model of the Redoubt magmatic system
John A. Power, Scott D. Stihler, Bernard A. Chouet, Matthew M. Haney, D.M. Ketner
2013, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research (259) 31-44
Seismic activity at Redoubt Volcano, Alaska, has been closely monitored since 1989 by a network of five to ten seismometers within 22 km of the volcano's summit. Major eruptions occurred in 1989-1990 and 2009 and were characterized by large volcanic explosions, episodes of lava dome growth and failure, pyroclastic flows,...
River flow changes related to land and water management practices across the conterminous United States
Ken Eng, David M. Wolock, Daren M. Carlisle
2013, Science of the Total Environment (463-464) 414-422
The effects of land and water management practices (LWMP)—such as the construction of dams and roads—on river flows typically have been studied at the scale of single river watersheds or for a single type of LWMP. For the most part, assessments of the relative effects of multiple LWMP within many...
Spatial dynamics of ecosystem service flows: a comprehensive approach to quantifying actual services
Kenneth J. Bagstad, Gary W. Johnson, Brian Voigt, Ferdinando Villa
2013, Ecosystem Services (4) 117-125
Recent ecosystem services research has highlighted the importance of spatial connectivity between ecosystems and their beneficiaries. Despite this need, a systematic approach to ecosystem service flow quantification has not yet emerged. In this article, we present such an approach, which we formalize as a class of agent-based models termed “Service...
Monitoring sea lamprey pheromones and their degradation using rapid stream-side extraction coupled with UPLC-MS/MS
Huiyong Wang, Nicholas Johnson, Jeffrey Bernardy, Terry Hubert, Weiming Li
2013, Journal of Separation Science (36) 1612-1620
Pheromones guide adult sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) to suitable spawning streams and mates, and therefore, when quantified, can be used to assess population size and guide management. Here, we present an efficient sample preparation method where 100 mL of river water was spiked with deuterated pheromone as an internal standard...
Accumulation of pesticides in pacific chorus frogs (Pseudacris regilla) from California's Sierra Nevada Mountains, USA
Kelly L. Smalling, Gary M. Fellers, Patrick M. Kleeman, Kathryn Kuivila
2013, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (32) 2026-2034
Pesticides are receiving increasing attention as potential causes of amphibian declines, acting singly or in combination with other stressors, but limited information is available on the accumulation of current-use pesticides in tissue. The authors examined potential exposure and accumulation of currently used pesticides in pond-breeding frogs (Pseudacris regilla) collected from...
Serious games experiment toward agent-based simulation
Anne Wein, William Labiosa
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1152
We evaluate the potential for serious games to be used as a scientifically based decision-support product that supports the United States Geological Survey’s (USGS) mission--to provide integrated, unbiased scientific information that can make a substantial contribution to societal well-being for a wide variety of complex environmental challenges. Serious or pedagogical...
Derivation of soil screening thresholds to protect chisel-toothed kangaroo rat from uranium mine waste in northern Arizona
Jo Ellen Hinck, Greg L. Linder, James K. Otton, Susan E. Finger, Edward E. Little, Donald E. Tillitt
2013, Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology (65) 332-344
Chemical data from soil and weathered waste material samples collected from five uranium mines north of the Grand Canyon (three reclaimed, one mined but not reclaimed, and one never mined) were used in a screening-level risk analysis for the Arizona chisel-toothed kangaroo rat (Dipodomys microps leucotis); risks from radiation exposure...
Climatic stress increases forest fire severity across the western United States
Philip J. van Mantgem, Jonathan C. B. Nesmith, MaryBeth Keifer, Eric E. Knapp, Alan Flint, Lorraine Flint
2013, Ecology Letters (16) 1151-1156
Pervasive warming can lead to chronic stress on forest trees, which may contribute to mortality resulting from fire-caused injuries. Longitudinal analyses of forest plots from across the western US show that high pre-fire climatic water deficit was related to increased post-fire tree mortality probabilities. This relationship between climate and fire...
Evaluation of the rhenium-osmium geochronometer in the Phosphoria petroleum system, Bighorn Basin of Wyoming and Montana, USA
Paul G. Lillis, David Selby
2013, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (118) 312-330
Rhenium-osmium (Re-Os) geochronometry is applied to crude oils derived from the Permian Phosphoria Formation of the Bighorn Basin in Wyoming and Montana to determine whether the radiogenic age reflects the timing of petroleum generation, timing of migration, age of the source rock, or the timing of thermochemical sulfate reduction (TSR)....
A comparison of models for estimating potential evapotranspiration for Florida land cover types
Ellen M. Douglas, Jennifer M. Jacobs, David M. Sumner, Ram L. Ray
2013, Journal of Hydrology (373) 366-376
We analyzed observed daily evapotranspiration (DET) at 18 sites having measured DET and ancillary climate data and then used these data to compare the performance of three common methods for estimating potential evapotranspiration (PET): the Turc method (Tc), the Priestley-Taylor method (PT) and the Penman-Monteith method (PM). The sites were...
Roman, Visigothic and Islamic evidence of earthquakes recorded in the archaeological site of “El Tolmo de Minateda” (Prebetic Zone, southeast of Spain)
M.A. Rodriguez-Pascua, L. Abad Casal, R. Perez-Lopez, B. Gamo Parra, P.G. Silva, V.H. Garduño-Monroy, J. L. Giner-Robles, M.A. Perucha, I. Israde-Alcántara, J. Bischoff, J. P. Calvo
2013, Cuaternario y Geomorfologia (27) 83-90
The archaeological site of “El Tolmo de Minateda” is located within the Albacete province (SE of Spain) and shows a continuous time record of ancient civilizations from 3500 yr BP onwards. However, three temporal gaps were identified in this archaeological record, all of them in relationship with a sudden and...
Combined ESR/U-series chronology of Acheulian hominid-bearing layers at Trinchera Galería site, Atapuerca, Spain
Christophe Falguères, Jean-Jacques Bahain, James L. Bischoff, Alfredo Perez-Gonzalez, Ana Isabel Ortega, Andreu Olle, Anita Quilles, Bassam Ghaleb, Davinia Moreno, Jean-Michel Dolo, Qingfeng Shao, Josep Vallverdu, Eudald Carbonell, Jose Maria Bermudez de Castro, Juan Luis Arsuaga
2013, Journal of Human Evolution (65) 168-184
The Sierra de Atapuerca, northern Spain, is known from many prehistoric and palaeontological sites documenting human prehistory in Europe. Three major sites, Gran Dolina, Galería and Sima del Elefante, range in age from the oldest hominin of Western Europe dated to 1.1 to 1.3 Ma (millions of years ago) at...
Evidence for deposition of 10 million tonnes of impact spherules across four continents 12,800 y ago
James H. Wittke, James C. Weaver, Ted E. Bunch, James P. Kennett, Douglas J. Kennett, Andrew Moore, Gordon C. Hillman, Kenneth B. Tankersly, Albert C. Goodyear, Christopher R. Moore, I. Randolph Daniel Jr., Jack H. Ray, Neal H. Lopinot, David Ferraro, Isabel Israde-Alcantara, James L. Bischoff, Paul S. DeCarli, Robert E. Hermes, Johan B. Kloosterman, Zsolt Revay, George A. Howard, David R. Kimbel, Gunther Kletetschka, Ladislav Nabelek, Carl P. Lipo, Sachiko Sakai, Allen West, Richard B. Firestone
2013, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (110) E2088-E2097
Airbursts/impacts by a fragmented comet or asteroid have been proposed at the Younger Dryas onset (12.80 ± 0.15 ka) based on identification of an assemblage of impact-related proxies, including microspherules, nanodiamonds, and iridium. Distributed across four continents at the Younger Dryas boundary (YDB), spherule peaks have been independently confirmed in...
Climatic correlates of tree mortality in water- and energy-limited forests
Adrian J. Das, Nathan L. Stephenson, Alan Flint, Tapash Das, Phillip J. van Mantgem
2013, PLoS ONE (8)
Recent increases in tree mortality rates across the western USA are correlated with increasing temperatures, but mechanisms remain unresolved. Specifically, increasing mortality could predominantly be a consequence of temperature-induced increases in either (1) drought stress, or (2) the effectiveness of tree-killing insects and pathogens. Using long-term data from California’s Sierra...
Community variations in population exposure to near-field tsunami hazards as a function of pedestrian travel time to safety
Nathan J. Wood, Mathew C. Schmidtlein
2013, Natural Hazards (3) 1603-1628
Efforts to characterize population exposure to near-field tsunami threats typically focus on quantifying the number and type of people in tsunami-hazard zones. To develop and prioritize effective risk-reduction strategies, emergency managers also need information on the potential for successful evacuations and how this evacuation potential varies among communities. To improve...
Environmental, depositional and cultural changes in the upper Pleistocene and early Holocene; the Cinglera del Capello Sequence (Capellades, Spain)
Manuel Vaquero, Ethel Allue, James L. Bischoff, Francesc Burjachs, Josep Vallverdu
2013, Quaternaire (24) 49-64
The correlation between environmental and cultural changes is one of the primary archeological and paleoanthropological research topics. Analysis of ice and marine cores has yielded a high-resolution record of millennial-scale changes during the Late Pleistocene and Holocene eras. However, cultural changes are documented in low-resolution continental deposits; thus, their correlation...
Appraising options to reduce shallow groundwater tables and enhance flow conditions over regional scales in an irrigated alluvial aquifer system
Eric D. Morway, Timothy K. Gates, Richard G. Niswonger
2013, Journal of Hydrology (495) 216-237
Some of the world’s key agricultural production systems face big challenges to both water quantity and quality due to shallow groundwater that results from long-term intensive irrigation, namely waterlogging and salinity, water losses, and environmental problems. This paper focuses on water quantity issues, presenting finite-difference groundwater models developed to describe...
Some thoughts on the factors that controlled prehistoric maize production in the American Southwest with application to southwestern Colorado
L. V. Benson, D.K. Ramsey, D.W. Stahle, K.L. Petersen
2013, Journal of Archaeological Science (40) 2869-2880
In this paper, we present a model of prehistoric southwestern Colorado maize productivity. The model is based on a tree-ring reconstruction of water-year precipitation for Mesa Verde for the period A.D. 480 to 2011. Correlation of historic Mesa Verde precipitation with historic precipitation at 11 other weather stations enabled the...
Insights from a synthesis of old and new climate-proxy data from the Pyramid and Winnemucca lake basins for the period 48 to 11.5 cal ka
Larry Benson, J. P. Smoot, S.P. Lund, S.A. Mensing, F.F. Foit Jr., R. O. Rye
2013, Quaternary International (310) 62-82
A synthesis of old and new paleoclimatic data from the Pyramid and Winnemucca lake basins indicates that, between 48.0 and 11.5·103 calibrated years BP (hereafter ka), the climate of the western Great Basin was, to a degree, linked with the climate of the North Atlantic. Paleomagnetic secular variation (PSV) records...
Dating North America's oldest petroglyphs, Winnemucca Lake subbasin, Nevada
Larry V. Benson, E.M. Hattori, J. Southon, B. Aleck
2013, Journal of Archaeological Science (40) 4466-4476
On the west side of the Winnemucca Lake subbasin, Nevada, distinctive deeply carved meter-scale petroglyphs are closely spaced, forming panels on boulder-sized surfaces of a partially collapsed tufa mound. The large, complex motifs at this side are formed by deeply carved lines and cupules. A carbonate crust deposited between 10...
