Modeling routes of chronic wasting disease transmission: Environmental prion persistence promotes deer population decline and extinction
Emily S. Almberg, Paul C. Cross, Christopher J. Johnson, Dennis M. Heisey, Bryan J. Richards
2011, PLoS ONE (6)
Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a fatal disease of deer, elk, and moose transmitted through direct, animal-to-animal contact, and indirectly, via environmental contamination. Considerable attention has been paid to modeling direct transmission, but despite the fact that CWD prions can remain infectious in the environment for years, relatively little information...
Mercury trends in fish from rivers and lakes in the United States, 1969-2005
A.T. Chalmers, D.M. Argue, D.A. Gay, M. E. Brigham, C. J. Schmitt, D. L. Lorenz
2011, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment (175) 175-191
A national dataset on concentrations of mercury in fish, compiled mainly from state and federal monitoring programs, was used to evaluate trends in mercury (Hg) in fish from US rivers and lakes. Trends were analyzed on data aggregated by site and by state, using samples of the same fish species...
Experimental and simulation studies of iron oxides for geochemical fixation of CO2-SO2 gas mixtures
Susana Garcia, Robert J. Rosenbauer, James Palandri, M. Mercedes Maroto-Valer
2011, Energy Procedia (4) 5108-5113
Iron-bearing minerals are reactive phases of the subsurface environment and could potentially trap CO2–SO2gas mixtures derived from fossil fuel combustion processes by their conversion to siderite (FeCO3) and dissolved sulfate. Changes in fluid and mineral compositions resulting from reactions, involving the co-injection of SO2 with CO2 were observed both theoretically...
Movement Patterns of American Shad Transported Upstream of Dams on The Roanoke River, North Carolina and Virginia
Julianne E. Harris, J.E. Hightower
2011, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (31) 240-256
American shad Alosa sapidissima are in decline throughout much of their native range as a result of overfishing, pollution, and habitat alteration in coastal rivers where they spawn. One approach to restoration in regulated rivers is to provide access to historical spawning habitat above dams through a trap-and-transport program. We examined the...
Ground settlement monitoring based on temporarily coherent points between two SAR acquisitions
L. Zhang, X. Ding, Z. Lu
2011, ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (66) 146-152
An InSAR analysis approach for identifying and extracting the temporarily coherent points (TCP) that exist between two SAR acquisitions and for determining motions of the TCP is presented for applications such as ground settlement monitoring. TCP are identified based on the spatial characteristics of the range and azimuth offsets of...
Methane hydrate-bearing seeps as a source of aged dissolved organic carbon to the oceans
J. W. Pohlman, J.E. Bauer, W.F. Waite, C.L. Osburn, N.R. Chapman
2011, Nature Geoscience (4) 37-41
Marine sediments contain about 500-10,000 Gt of methane carbon, primarily in gas hydrate. This reservoir is comparable in size to the amount of organic carbon in land biota, terrestrial soils, the atmosphere and sea water combined, but it releases relatively little methane to the ocean and atmosphere. Sedimentary microbes convert...
Factors Controlling Pre-Columbian and Early Historic Maize Productivity in the American Southwest, Part 1: The Southern Colorado Plateau and Rio Grande Regions
L. V. Benson
2011, Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory (18) 1-60
Maize is the New World's preeminent grain crop and it provided the economic basis for human culture in many regions within the Americas. To flourish, maize needs water, sunlight (heat), and nutrients (e. g., nitrogen). In this paper, climate and soil chemistry data are used to evaluate the potential for...
Comparative phylogeography of a coevolved community: Concerted population expansions in Joshua trees and four yucca moths
Christopher Irwin Smith, Shantel Tank, William Godsoe, Jim Levenick, Eva Strand, Todd C. Esque, Olle Pellmyr
2011, PLoS ONE (6)
Comparative phylogeographic studies have had mixed success in identifying common phylogeographic patterns among co-distributed organisms. Whereas some have found broadly similar patterns across a diverse array of taxa, others have found that the histories of different species are more idiosyncratic than congruent. The variation in the results of comparative phylogeographic...
Effects of dams in river networks on fish assemblages in non-impoundment sections of rivers in Michigan and Wisconsin, USA
L. Wang, D. Infante, J. Lyons, J. Stewart, A. Cooper
2011, River Research and Applications (27) 473-487
Regional assessment of cumulative impacts of dams on riverine fish assemblages provides resource managers essential information for dam operation, potential dam removal, river health assessment and overall ecosystem management. Such an assessment is challenging because characteristics of fish assemblages are not only affected by dams, but also influenced by natural...
Experimental determination of the phase boundary between kornelite and pentahydrated ferric sulfate at 0.1MPa
W.G. Kong, A. Wang, I.-M. Chou
2011, Chemical Geology (284) 333-338
Recent findings of various ferric sulfates on Mars emphasize the importance of understanding the fundamental properties of ferric sulfates at temperatures relevant to that of Martian surface. In this study, the phase boundary between kornelite (Fe2(SO4)3.7H2O) and pentahydrated ferric sulfate (Fe2(SO4)3.5H2O) was experimentally determined using the humidity-buffer technique together with...
Temperature, hydric environment, and prior pathogen exposure alter the experimental severity of chytridiomycosis in boreal toads
Peter J. Murphy, Sophie St-Hilaire, Paul Stephen Corn
2011, Diseases of Aquatic Organisms (95) 31-42
Prevalence of the pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), implicated in amphibian population declines worldwide, is associated with habitat moisture and temperature, but few studies have varied these factors and measured the response to infection in amphibian hosts. We evaluated how varying humidity, contact with water, and temperature affected the manifestation of...
Status and distribution of the Kittlitz's Murrelet Brachyramphus brevirostris along the Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak and Aleutian Islands, Alaska
Erica N. Madison, John F. Piatt, Mayumi L. Arimitsu, Marc D. Romano, Thomas I. van Pelt, S. Kim Nelson, Jeffrey C. Williams, Anthony R. DeGange
2011, Marine Ornithology: Journal of Seabird Research and Conservation (39) 111-122
The Kittlitz's Murrelet Brachyramphus brevirostris is adapted for life in glacial-marine ecosystems, being concentrated in the belt of glaciated fjords in the northern Gulf of Alaska from Glacier Bay to Cook Inlet. Most of the remaining birds are scattered along coasts of the Alaska Peninsula and Aleutian Islands, where they...
Leaders' perspectives in the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative
D.J. Mattson, S.G. Clark, K.L. Byrd, S.R. Brown, B. Robinson
2011, Policy Sciences (44) 103-133
The Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative (Y2Y) was created in 1993 to advance conservation in a 1.2 million km2 portion of the North American Rocky Mountains. We assembled 21 people with influence over Y2Y in a workshop to elucidate perspectives on challenges and solutions for this organization at a key...
Structural stability of methane hydrate at high pressures
J. Shu, X. Chen, I-Ming Chou, W. Yang, Jiawen Hu, R.J. Hemley, Ho-kwang Mao
2011, Geoscience Frontiers (2) 93-100
The structural stability of methane hydrate under pressure at room temperature was examined by both in-situ single-crystal and powder X-ray diffraction techniques on samples with structure types I, II, and H in diamond-anvil cells. The diffraction data for types II (sII) and H (sH) were refined to the known structures...
Multi-channel analysis of surface waves MASW of models with high shear-wave velocity contrast
J. Ivanov, R. D. Miller, S. Peterie, C. Zeng, J. Xia, T. Schwenk
2011, SEG Technical Program Expanded Abstracts (30) 1384-1390
We use the multi-channel analysis of surface waves MASW method to analyze synthetic seismic data calculated using models with high shear-wave velocity Vs contrast. The MASW dispersion-curve images of the Rayleigh wave are obtained using various sets of source-offset and spread-size configurations from the synthetic seismic data and compared with...
Rangewide phylogeography and landscape genetics of the Western U.S. endemic frog Rana boylii (Ranidae): Implications for the conservation of frogs and rivers
A.J. Lind, P.Q. Spinks, G. M. Fellers, H.B. Shaffer
2011, Conservation Genetics (12) 269-284
Genetic data are increasingly being used in conservation planning for declining species. We sampled both the ecological and distributional limits of the foothill yellow-legged frog, Rana boylii to characterize mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variation in this declining, riverine amphibian. We evaluated 1525 base pairs (bp) of cytochrome b and ND2 fragments...
Managed flood effects on beaver pond habitat in a desert riverine ecosystem, bill williams river, Arizona USA
D.C. Andersen, P.B. Shafroth, C.M. Pritekel, M. W. O’Neill
2011, Wetlands (31) 195-206
The ecological effects of beaver in warm-desert streams are poorly documented, but potentially significant. For example, stream water and sediment budgets may be affected by increased evaporative losses and sediment retention in beaver ponds. We measured physical attributes of beaver pond and adjacent lotic habitats on a regulated Sonoran Desert...
Probabilistic fault displacement hazards for the southern san andreas fault using scenarios and empirical slips
R. Chen, M.D. Petersen
2011, Earthquake Spectra (27) 293-313
We apply a probabilistic method to develop fault displacement hazard maps and profiles for the southern San Andreas Fault. Two slip models are applied: (1) scenario slip, defined by the ShakeOut rupture model, and (2) empirical slip, calculated using regression equations relating global slip to earthquake magnitude and distance along...
Adaptive management in the U.S. National Wildlife Refuge System: Science-management partnerships for conservation delivery
C. T. Moore, E. V. Lonsdorf, M. G. Knutson, H. P. Laskowski, S. K. Lor
2011, Journal of Environmental Management (92) 1395-1402
Adaptive management is an approach to recurrent decision making in which uncertainty about the decision is reduced over time through comparison of outcomes predicted by competing models against observed values of those outcomes. The National Wildlife Refuge System (NWRS) of the...
Characteristics, distribution, origin, and significance of opaline silica observed by the Spirit rover in Gusev crater, Mars
S. W. Ruff, J.D. Farmer, W. M. Calvin, Kenneth E. Herkenhoff, J. R. Johnson, R.V. Morris, M.S. Rice, R. E. Arvidson, J.F. Bell III, P. R. Christensen, S. W. Squyres
2011, Journal of Geophysical Research E: Planets (116)
The presence of outcrops and soil (regolith) rich in opaline silica (∼65–92 wt % SiO2) in association with volcanic materials adjacent to the “Home Plate” feature in Gusev crater is evidence for hydrothermal conditions. The Spirit rover has supplied a diverse set of observations that are used here to better...
What's new in well logging and formation evaluation
S. Prensky
2011, World Oil (232) 85-95
A number of significant new developments is emerging in well logging and formation evaluation. Some of the new developments include an ultrasonic wireline imager, an electromagnetic free-point indicator, wired and fiber-optic coiled tubing systems, and extreme-temperature logging-while-drilling (LWD) tools. The continued consolidation of logging and petrophysical service providers in 2010...
Behavioral response of manatees to variations in environmental sound levels
Jennifer L. Miksis-Olds, Tyler Wagner
2011, Marine Mammal Science (27) 130-148
Florida manatees (Trichechus manatus latirostris) inhabit coastal regions because they feed on the aquatic vegetation that grows in shallow waters, which are the same areas where human activities are greatest. Noise produced from anthropogenic and natural sources has the potential to affect these animals by eliciting responses ranging from mild...
Factors Controlling Pre-Columbian and Early Historic Maize Productivity in the American Southwest, Part 2: The Chaco Halo, Mesa Verde, Pajarito Plateau/Bandelier, and Zuni Archaeological Regions
L. V. Benson
2011, Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory (18) 61-109
Chemical and nutrient analyses of 471 soil samples from 161 sites within four archaeological regions (Pajarito Plateau/Bandelier, Zuni, Mesa Verde, and the Chaco Halo) were combined with historical climate data in order to evaluate the agricultural productivity of each region. In addition, maize productivity and field-life calculations were performed using...
Transfer and transformation of soil iron and implications for hydrogeomorpholocial changes in Naoli River catchment, sanjiang plain, Northeast China
J. Ming, L. Xianguo, W. Hongqing, Z. Yuanchun, W. Haitao
2011, Chinese Geographical Science (21) 149-158
Wetland soils are characterized by alternating redox process due to the fluctuation of waterlogged conditions. Iron is an important redox substance, and its transfer and transformation in the wetland ecosystem could be an effective indicator for the environment changes. In this paper, we selected the Naoli River catchment in the...
Adaptive management for a turbulent future
Craig R. Allen, J.J. Fontaine, K.L. Pope, A.S. Garmestani
2011, Journal of Environmental Management (92) 1339-1345
The challenges that face humanity today differ from the past because as the scale of human influence has increased, our biggest challenges have become global in nature, and formerly local problems that could be addressed by shifting populations or switching resources, now aggregate (i.e., "scale up") limiting potential management options....
