Perceptions of strengths and deficiencies: Disconnects between graduate students and prospective employers
M.D. Sundberg, P. Deangelis, K. Havens, K. Holsinger, K. Kennedy, A.T. Kramer, R. Muir, Peggy Olwell, K. Schierenbeck, L. Stritch, B. Zorn-Arnold
2011, BioScience (61) 133-138
The US Botanical Capacity Assessment Project (BCAP) was initiated as a first step to gauge the nation's collective ability to meet the environmental challenges of the 21st century. The project, in which the authors of this article are involved, specifically aimed to identify multisector contributions to and gaps in botanical...
Are soils of Iowa USA currently a carbon sink or source? Simulated changes in SOC stock from 1972 to 2007
Shuguang Liu, Z. Tan, Z. Li, S. Zhao, W. Yuan
2011, Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment (140) 106-112
Upscaling the spatial and temporal changes in carbon (C) stocks and fluxes from sites to regions is a critical and challenging step toward improving our understanding of the dynamics of C sources and sinks over large areas. This study simulated soil organic C (SOC) dynamics within 0–100 cm depth of soils...
Arsenic species in weathering mine tailings and biogenic solids at the Lava Cap Mine Superfund Site, Nevada City, CA
Andrea L. Foster, Roger P. Ashley, James J. Rytuba
2011, Geochemical Transactions (12)
Background A realistic estimation of the health risk of human exposure to solid-phase arsenic (As) derived from historic mining operations is a major challenge to redevelopment of California's famed "Mother Lode" region. Arsenic, a known carcinogen, occurs in multiple solid forms that vary in bioaccessibility. X-ray absorption fine-structure spectroscopy (XAFS) was...
Method for detecting moment connection fracture using high-frequency transients in recorded accelerations
J.E. Rodgers, Mehmet Celebi
2011, Journal of Constructional Steel Research (67) 293-307
The 1994 Northridge earthquake caused brittle fractures in steel moment frame building connections, despite causing little visible building damage in most cases. Future strong earthquakes are likely to cause similar damage to the many un-retrofitted pre-Northridge buildings in the western US and elsewhere. Without obvious permanent building deformation, costly intrusive...
Examination of core samples from the Mount Elbert Gas Hydrate Stratigraphic Test Well, Alaska North Slope: Effects of retrieval and preservation
T.J. Kneafsey, H. Lu, W. Winters, R. Boswell, R. Hunter, T. S. Collett
2011, Marine and Petroleum Geology (28) 381-393
Collecting and preserving undamaged core samples containing gas hydrates from depth is difficult because of the pressure and temperature changes encountered upon retrieval. Hydrate-bearing core samples were collected at the BPXA-DOE-USGS Mount Elbert Gas Hydrate Stratigraphic Test Well in February 2007. Coring was performed while using a custom oil-based drilling...
Vegetation death and rapid loss of surface elevation in two contrasting Mississippi delta salt marshes: The role of sedimentation, autocompaction and sea-level rise
J.W. Day, G.P. Kemp, D.J. Reed, Donald R. Cahoon, R.M. Boumans, J.M. Suhayda, R. Gambrell
2011, Ecological Engineering (37) 229-240
From 1990 to 2004, we carried out a study on accretionary dynamics and wetland loss in salt marshes surrounding two small ponds in the Mississippi delta; Old Oyster Bayou (OB), a sediment-rich area near the mouth of the Atchafalaya River and Bayou Chitigue (BC), a sediment-poor area about 70 km to the east. The OB site was...
Water chemistry and its effects on the physiology and survival of Atlantic salmon Salmo salar smolts
T. Liebich, S. D. McCormick, D. Kircheis, Kevin Johnson, R. Regal, T. Hrabik
2011, Journal of Fish Biology (79) 502-519
The physiological effects of episodic pH fluctuations on Atlantic salmon Salmo salar smolts in eastern Maine, U.S.A., were investigated. During this study, S. salar smolts were exposed to ambient stream‐water chemistry conditions at nine sites in four catchments for 3 and 6 day intervals during the spring S. salar smolt migration period. Plasma chloride, plasma glucose,...
Hapke modeling of Rhea surface properties through Cassini-VIMS spectra
M. Ciarniello, F. Capaccioni, G. Filacchione, Roger N. Clark, D. P. Cruikshank, P. Cerroni, A. Coradini, R. H. Brown, B. J. Buratti, F. Tosi, K. Stephan
2011, Icarus (214) 541-555
TThe surface properties of the icy bodies in the saturnian system have been investigated by means of the Cassini-VIMS (Visual Infrared Mapping Spectrometer) hyperspectral imager which operates in the 0.35–5.1 μm wavelength range. In particular, we have analyzed 111 full disk hyperspectral images of Rhea ranging in solar phase between 0.08°...
College and university environmental programs as a policy problem (Part 1): Integrating Knowledge, education, and action for a better world?
S.G. Clark, M.B. Rutherford, M.R. Auer, D.N. Cherney, R.L. Wallace, David J. Mattson, D. A. Clark, L. Foote, N. Krogman, P. Wilshusen, T. Steelman
2011, Environmental Management (47) 701-715
The environmental sciences/studies movement, with more than 1000 programs at colleges and universities in the United States and Canada, is unified by a common interest—ameliorating environmental problems through empirical enquiry and analytic judgment. Unfortunately, environmental programs have struggled in their efforts to integrate knowledge across disciplines and educate students to...
Population structure and genetic diversity of greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) in fragmented landscapes at the northern edge of their range
K.L. Bush, C.K. Dyte, B.J. Moynahan, Cameron L. Aldridge, H.S. Sauls, A.M. Battazzo, B.L. Walker, K.E. Doherty, J. Tack, J. Carlson, D. Eslinger, J. Nicholson, M.S. Boyce, D.E. Naugle, C.A. Paszkowski, D.W. Coltman
2011, Conservation Genetics (12) 527-542
Range-edge dynamics and anthropogenic fragmentation are expected to impact patterns of genetic diversity, and understanding the influence of both factors is important for effective conservation of threatened wildlife species. To examine these factors, we sampled greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) from a declining, fragmented region at the northern periphery of the...
Melt fracturing and healing: A mechanism for degassing and origin of silicic obsidian
A. Cabrera, R.F. Weinberg, Heather M. Wright, S. Zlotnik, Ray A.F. Cas
2011, Geology (39) 67-70
We present water content transects across a healed fault in pyroclastic obsidian from Lami pumice cone, Lipari, Italy, using synchrotron Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Results indicate that rhyolite melt degassed through the fault surface. Transects define a trough of low water content coincident with the fault trace, surrounded on either...
Impacts of agricultural land use on biological integrity: A causal analysis
C.M. Riseng, M.J. Wiley, Robert W. Black, M.D. Munn
2011, Ecological Applications (21) 3128-3146
Agricultural land use has often been linked to nutrient enrichment, habitat degradation, hydrologic alteration, and loss of biotic integrity in streams. The U.S. Geological Survey's National Water Quality Assessment Program sampled 226 stream sites located in eight agriculture‐dominated study units across the United States to investigate the geographic variability and...
Genetic discontinuity among regional populations of Lophelia pertusa in the North Atlantic Ocean
C.L. Morrison, Steve W. Ross, M.S. Nizinski, S. Brooke, J. Jarnegren, R.G. Waller, Robin L. Johnson, T.L. King
2011, Conservation Genetics (12) 713-729
Knowledge of the degree to which populations are connected through larval dispersal is imperative to effective management, yet little is known about larval dispersal ability or population connectivity in Lophelia pertusa, the dominant framework-forming coral on the continental slope in the North Atlantic Ocean. Using nine microsatellite DNA markers,...
Fish as major carbonate mud producers and missing components of the tropical carbonate factory
C.T. Perry, M.A. Salter, A.R. Harborne, S.F. Crowley, Howard L. Jelks, R.W. Wilson
2011, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (108) 3865-3869
Carbonate mud is a major constituent of recent marine carbonate sediments and of ancient limestones, which contain unique records of changes in ocean chemistry and climate shifts in the geological past. However, the origin of carbonate mud is controversial and often problematic to resolve. Here we show that tropical marine...
210Po in Nevada groundwater and its relation to gross alpha radioactivity
R. L. Seiler
2011, Ground Water (49) 160-171
Polonium-210 (210Po) is a highly toxic alpha emitter that is rarely found in groundwater at activities exceeding 1 pCi/L. 210Po activities in 63 domestic and public-supply wells in Lahontan Valley in Churchill County in northern Nevada, United States, ranged from 0.01 ± 0.005 to 178 ± 16 pCi/L with a...
Soil clay content underlies prion infection odds
W. David Walter, D.P. Walsh, Matthew L. Farnsworth, Dana L. Winkelman, M.W. Miller
2011, Nature Communications (2)
Environmental factors—especially soil properties—have been suggested as potentially important in the transmission of infectious prion diseases. Because binding to montmorillonite (an aluminosilicate clay mineral) or clay-enriched soils had been shown to enhance experimental prion transmissibility, we hypothesized that prion transmission among mule deer might also be enhanced in ranges with...
Hydrological mobilization of mercury and dissolved organic carbon in a snow-dominated, forested watershed: Conceptualization and modeling
J. Schelker, Douglas A. Burns, M. Weiler, H. Laudon
2011, Journal of Geophysical Research G: Biogeosciences (116)
The mobilization of mercury and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) during snowmelt often accounts for a major fraction of the annual loads. We studied the role of hydrological connectivity of riparian wetlands and upland/wetland transition zones to surface waters on the mobilization of Hg and DOC in Fishing Brook, a headwater...
Magnitude and timing of downstream channel aggradation and degradation in response to a dome-building eruption at Mount Hood, Oregon
Thomas C. Pierson, Patrick T. Pringle, Kenneth A. Cameron
2011, Geological Society of America Bulletin (123) 3-20
A dome-building eruption at Mount Hood, Oregon, starting in A.D. 1781 and lasting until ca. 1793, produced dome-collapse lithic pyroclastic flows that triggered lahars and intermittently fed 108 m3 of coarse volcaniclastic sediment to sediment reservoirs in headwater canyons of the Sandy River. Mobilization of dominantly sandy sediment from these...
Cruise ships as a source of avian mortality during fall migration
Carol I. Bocetti
2011, Wilson Journal of Ornithology (123) 176-178
AAvian mortality during fall migration has been studied at many anthropogenic structures, most of which share the common feature of bright lighting. An additional, unstudied source of avian mortality during fall migration is recreational cruise ships that are brightly lit throughout the night. I documented a single mortality event of...
Olfactory-mediated stream-finding behavior of migratory adult sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus)
L.A. Vrieze, R.A. Bergstedt, P.W. Sorensen
2011, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (68) 523-533
Stream-finding behavior of adult sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus), an anadromous fish that relies on pheromones to locate spawning streams, was documented in the vicinity of an important spawning river in the Great Lakes. Untreated and anosmic migrating sea lampreys were implanted with acoustic transmitters and then released outside the Ocqueoc...
Estimating earthquake-rupture rates on a fault or fault system
E. H. Field, M.T. Page
2011, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (101) 79-92
Previous approaches used to determine the rates of different earthquakes on a fault have made assumptions regarding segmentation, have been difficult to document and reproduce, and have lacked the ability to satisfy all available data constraints. We present a relatively objective and reproducible inverse methodology for determining the rate of...
San Andreas fault earthquake chronology and Lake Cahuilla history at Coachella, California
B. Philibosian, T. Fumal, R. Weldon
2011, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (101) 13-38
The southernmost ~100 km of the San Andreas fault has not ruptured historically. It is imperative to determine its rupture history to better predict its future behavior. This paleoseismic investigation in Coachella, California, establishes a chronology of at least five and up to seven major earthquakes during the past ~1100...
Neoproterozoic extension in the greater dharwar craton: A reevaluation of the "betsimisaraka suture" in madagascar
R. D. Tucker, J.-Y. Roig, C. Delor, Y. Amlin, P. Goncalves, M.H. Rabarimanana, A.V. Ralison, R.W. Belcher
2011, Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences (48) 389-417
The Precambrian shield of Madagascar is reevaluated with recently compiled geological data and new U-Pb sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe (SHRIMP) geochronology. Two Archean domains are recognized: the eastern Antongil-Masora domain and the central Antananarivo domain, the latter with distinctive belts of metamafic gneiss and schist (Tsaratanana Complex). In the eastern...
Reconciling multiple data sources to improve accuracy of large-scale prediction of forest disease incidence
E.M. Hanks, Mevin Hooten, F.A. Baker
2011, Ecological Applications (21) 1173-1188
Ecological spatial data often come from multiple sources, varying in extent and accuracy. We describe a general approach to reconciling such data sets through the use of the Bayesian hierarchical framework. This approach provides a way for the data sets to borrow strength from one another while allowing for inference...
College and university environmental programs as a policy problem (Part 2): Strategies for improvement
S.G. Clark, M.B. Rutherford, M.R. Auer, D.N. Cherney, R.L. Wallace, David J. Mattson, D. A. Clark, L. Foote, N. Krogman, P. Wilshusen, T. Steelman
2011, Environmental Management (47) 716-726
Environmental studies and environmental sciences programs in American and Canadian colleges and universities seek to ameliorate environmental problems through empirical enquiry and analytic judgment. In a companion article (Part 1) we describe the environmental program movement (EPM) and discuss factors that have hindered its performance. Here, we complete our analysis...
