Aeolian controls of soil geochemistry and weathering fluxes in high-elevation ecosystems of the Rocky Mountains, Colorado
Corey R. Lawrence, Richard L. Reynolds, Michael E. Kettterer, Jason C. Neff
2013, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (107) 27-46
When dust inputs are large or have persisted for long periods of time, the signature of dust additions are often apparent in soils. The of dust will be greatest where the geochemical composition of dust is distinct from local sources of soil parent material. In this study the influence of...
Estimation of submarine mass failure probability from a sequence of deposits with age dates
Eric L. Geist, Jason D. Chaytor, Thomas E. Parsons, Uri S. ten Brink
2013, Geosphere (9) 287-298
The empirical probability of submarine mass failure is quantified from a sequence of dated mass-transport deposits. Several different techniques are described to estimate the parameters for a suite of candidate probability models. The techniques, previously developed for analyzing paleoseismic data, include maximum likelihood and Type II (Bayesian) maximum likelihood methods...
Nature's Notebook 2012: State of the data
Jherime Kellermann, T.M. Crimmins, E.G. Denny, C.A.F. Enquist, K.L. Gerst, A.H. Rosemartin, Jake F. Weltzin
2013, USA-NPN Technical Series 2013-001
In 2012, 2,045 observers contributed 1,592 sites to the NPDb, encompassing all 50 states, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. At the close of 2012 the NPDb contained a total of over 1.6 million phenophase status records. More than half of these records were submitted in 2012. Observers submitted records on 547...
Omnivory and the terrestrial food web: Yellowstone grizzly beard diets
Charles C. Schwartz, Mark A. Haroldson, Kerry A. Gunther, Charles T. Robbins
2013, Book chapter, Yellowstone’s wildlife in transition
No abstract available....
Influences of riparian vegetation on trout stream temperatures in central Wisconsin
Benjamin K. Cross, Michael A. Bozek, Matthew G. Mitro
2013, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (33) 682-692
Summer stream temperatures limit the distribution of Brook Trout Salvelinus fontinalis and are affected by riparian vegetation. We used riparian and instream habitat surveys along with stream temperature loggers placed throughout streams to determine the potential for riparian vegetation shading to increase the length of stream that is thermally suitable for Brook...
Population ecology of polar bears in Davis Strait, Canada and Greenland
Elizabeth L. Peacock, Mitchell K. Taylor, Jeffrey L. Laake, Ian Stirling
2013, Journal of Wildlife Management (77) 463-476
Until recently, the sea ice habitat of polar bears was understood to be variable, but environmental variability was considered to be cyclic or random, rather than progressive. Harvested populations were believed to be at levels where density effects were considered not significant. However, because we now understand that polar bear...
Burrowing, byssus, and biomarkers: behavioral and physiological indicators of sublethal thermal stress in freshwater mussels (Unionidae)
Jennifer M. Archambault, W. Gregory Cope, Thomas J. Kwak
2013, Marine and Freshwater Behaviour and Physiology (46) 229-250
Recent research has elucidated the acute lethal effects of elevated water temperatures to glochidia (larvae), juvenile, and adult life stages of freshwater mussels (Order Unionida), but few studies have focused on sublethal effects of thermal stress. We evaluated the sublethal effects of elevated temperature on burrowing behavior and byssus production...
Water levels shape fishing participation in flood-control reservoirs
Leandro E. Miranda, K. O. Meals
2013, Lake and Reservoir Management (29) 82-86
We examined the relationship between fishing effort (hours fished) and average March–May water level in 3 flood control reservoirs in Mississippi. Fishing effort increased as water level rose, peaked at intermediate water levels, and decreased at high water levels. We suggest that the observed arched-shaped relationship is driven by the...
Potential for bias in using hybrids between common carp (Cyprinus carpio) and goldfish (Carassius auratus) in endocrine studies: a first report of hybrids in Lake Mead, Nevada, U.S.A
Steven L. Goodbred, Reynaldo Patino, Erik Orsak, Prakash Sharma, Shane Ruessler
2013, American Midland Naturalist (169) 426-431
During a 2008 study to assess endocrine and reproductive health of common carp (Cyprinus carpio) in Lake Mead, Nevada (U.S.A.) we identified two fish, one male and one female, as hybrids with goldfish (Carassius auratus) based on morphology, lateral line scale count, and lack of anterior barbels. Gross examination of...
A refined index of model performance: a rejoinder
David R. Legates, Gregory J. McCabe
2013, International Journal of Climatology (33) 1053-1056
Willmott et al. [Willmott CJ, Robeson SM, Matsuura K. 2012. A refined index of model performance. International Journal of Climatology, forthcoming. DOI:10.1002/joc.2419.] recently suggest a refined index of model performance (dr) that they purport to be superior to other methods. Their refined index ranges from − 1.0 to 1.0 to resemble a correlation...
Advantages of geographically weighted regression for modeling benthic substrate in two Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem streams
Kenneth R. Sheehan, Michael P. Strager, Stuart A. Welsh
2013, Environmental Modeling & Assessment (18) 209-219
Stream habitat assessments are commonplace in fish management, and often involve nonspatial analysis methods for quantifying or predicting habitat, such as ordinary least squares regression (OLS). Spatial relationships, however, often exist among stream habitat variables. For example, water depth, water velocity, and benthic substrate sizes within streams are often spatially...
Contrasting patterns of vesiculation in low, intermediate, and high Hawaiian fountains: A case study of the 1969 Mauna Ulu eruption
Carolyn E. Parcheta, Bruce F. Houghton, Donald A. Swanson
2013, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research (255) 79-89
Hawaiian-style eruptions, or Hawaiian fountains, typically occur at basaltic volcanoes and are sustained, weakly explosive jets of gas and dominantly coarse, juvenile ejecta (dense spatter to delicate reticulite). Almost the entire range of styles and mass eruption rates within Hawaiian fountaining occurred during twelve fountaining episodes recorded at Mauna Ulu,...
Comment on “Apatite 4He/3He and (U-Th)/He Evidence for an Ancient Grand Canyon”
Karl E. Karlstrom, John P. Lee, Shari A. Kelley, Ryan S. Crow, Richard A. Young, Ivo Lucchitta, L. Sue Beard, Rebecca Dorsey, Jason Ricketts, William R. Dickinson, Laura Crossey
2013, Science (340) 143-143
Flowers and Farley (Reports, 21 December 2012, p. 1616; published online 29 November 2012) propose that the Grand Canyon is 70 million years old. Starkly contrasting models for the age of the Grand Canyon—70 versus 6 million years—can be reconciled by a shallow paleocanyon that was carved in the eastern...
The effects of increased stream temperatures on juvenile steelhead growth in the Yakima River Basin based on projected climate change scenarios
Jill M. Hardiman, Matthew G. Mesa
2013, Climate Change (124) 413-426
Stakeholders within the Yakima River Basin expressed concern over impacts of climate change on mid-Columbia River steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss), listed under the Endangered Species Act. We used a bioenergetics model to assess the impacts of changing stream temperatures—resulting from different climate change scenarios—on growth of juvenile steelhead...
Mineral resource of the month: tellurium
Water Resources Division, U.S. Geological Survey
2013, Earth (58) 57-57
The article offers information on tellerium, a rare and expensive metal. Tellerium is considered the 71st most abundant element in Earth's crust, along with platinum and palladium. The element belongs to the chalcogen chemical family, and is recovered as a byproduct of nonferrous metal mining. The global demand for tellerium...
Effects of equipment performance on data quality from the National Atmospheric Deposition Program/National Trends Network and the Mercury Deposition Network
Gregory A. Wetherbee, Mark F. Rhodes
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1031
The U.S. Geological Survey Branch of Quality Systems operates the Precipitation Chemistry Quality Assurance project (PCQA) to provide independent, external quality-assurance for the National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP). NADP is composed of five monitoring networks that measure the chemical composition of precipitation and ambient air. PCQA and the NADP Program...
Change in the length of the northern section of the Chandeleur Islands oil berm, September 5, 2010, through September 3, 2012
N.G. Plant, K. K. Guy
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1074
On April 20, 2010, an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig drilling at the Macondo Prospect site in the Gulf of Mexico resulted in a marine oil spill that continued to flow through July 15, 2010. One of the affected areas was the Breton National Wildlife Refuge, which consists...
Change in the length of the middle section of the Chandeleur Islands oil berm, November 17, 2010, through September 6, 2011
N.G. Plant, K. K. Guy
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1075
On April 20, 2010, an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig drilling at the Macondo Prospect site in the Gulf of Mexico resulted in a marine oil spill that continued to flow through July 15, 2010. One of the affected areas was the Breton National Wildlife Refuge, which consists...
Source mechanisms of persistent shallow earthquakes during eruptive and non-eruptive periods between 1981 and 2011 at Mount St. Helens, Washington
Heather L. Lehto, Diana C. Roman, Seth C. Moran
2013, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research (256) 1-15
Shallow seismicity between 0 and 3-km depth has persisted at Mount St. Helens, Washington (MSH) during both eruptive and non-eruptive periods for at least the past thirty years. In this study we investigate the source mechanisms of shallow volcano-tectonic (VT) earthquakes at MSH by calculating high-quality hypocenter locations and fault...
Terrestrial movement patterns of western pond turtles (Actinemys marmorata) in central California
David S. Pilliod, Justin L. Welty, Robert Stafford
2013, Herpetological Conservation and Biology (8) 207-221
We used radio telemetry to track the terrestrial movements and seasonal habitat use patterns of Western Pond Turtles (Actinemys marmorata) near two ponds in the Carrizo Plain Ecological Reserve, California, USA. We captured 93 turtles in September 2005 and, of these, we tagged three males and six females(weighing > 300...
Sequential Gaussian co-simulation of rate decline parameters of longwall gob gas ventholes
C. Özgen Karacan, Ricardo A. Olea
2013, International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences (59) 1-14
Gob gas ventholes (GGVs) are used to control methane inflows into a longwall mining operation by capturing the gas within the overlying fractured strata before it enters the work environment. Using geostatistical co-simulation techniques, this paper maps the parameters of their rate decline behaviors across the study area, a longwall...
Variability of displacement at a point: Implications for earthquake‐size distribution and rupture hazard on faults
Suzanne Hecker, N. A. Abrahamson, Kathryn Wooddell
2013, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (103) 651-674
To investigate the nature of earthquake‐magnitude distributions on faults, we compare the interevent variability of surface displacement at a point on a fault from a composite global data set of paleoseismic observations with the variability expected from two prevailing magnitude–frequency distributions: the truncated‐exponential model and the characteristic‐earthquake model. We use...
Development and application of a soil organic matter-based soil quality index in mineralized terrane of the Western US
S.W. Blecker, Lisa L. Stillings, M.C. Amacher, J.A. Ippolito, N.M. DeCrappeo
2013, Environmental Earth Sciences (68) 1887-1901
Soil quality indices provide a means of distilling large amounts of data into a single metric that evaluates the soil’s ability to carry out key ecosystem functions. Primarily developed in agroecosytems, then forested ecosystems, an index using the relation between soil organic matter and other key soil properties in more...
White-nose syndrome is likely to extirpate the endangered Indiana bat over large parts of its range
Wayne E. Thogmartin, Carol A. Sanders-Reed, Jennifer A. Szymanski, Patrick C. McKann, Lori Pruitt, R. Andrew King, Michael C. Runge, Robin E. Russell
2013, Biological Conservation (160) 162-172
White-nose syndrome, a novel fungal pathogen spreading quickly through cave-hibernating bat species in east and central North America, is responsible for killing millions of bats. We developed a stochastic, stage-based population model to forecast the population dynamics of the endangered Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis) subject to white-nose syndrome. Our population...
The feasibility of producing adequate feedstock for year–round cellulosic ethanol production in an intensive agricultural fuelshed
Daniel R. Uden, Rob B. Mitchell, Craig R. Allen, Qingfeng Guan, Tim D. McCoy
2013, BioEnergy Research (6) 930-938
To date, cellulosic ethanol production has not been commercialized in the United States. However, government mandates aimed at increasing second-generation biofuel production could spur exploratory development in the cellulosic ethanol industry. We conducted an in-depth analysis of the fuelshed surrounding a starch-based ethanol plant near York, Nebraska that has the...
