Nest site selection by greater sage-grouse in Mono County, California
Eric J. Kolada, James S. Sedinger, Michael L. Casazza
2009, Journal of Wildlife Management (73) 1333-1340
Loss of nesting habitat is believed to be a factor in the decline of greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) throughout its range. Few data are available for sage-grouse in Mono County, California, USA, in the most southwestern portion of the species' range. We studied habitat selection of nesting sage-grouse in Mono...
The effect of off-road vehicles on barrier beach invertebrates at Cape Cod and Fire Island National Seashores
J. M. Kluft, Howard S. Ginsberg
2009, Technical Report NPS/NER/NRTR--2009/138
The effects of off-road vehicles (ORVS) on invertebrates inhabiting seaweed debris (wrack) and supratidal sands on energetic beaches in the northeastern United States were studied at Cape Cod National Seashore, MA, and Fire Island, NY. Cores, wrack quadrats, and pitfall traps were used to sample four beaches, which all had...
Cascading effects of fishing on Galapagos rocky reef communities: reanalysis using corrected data
Jorge I. Sonnenholzner, Lydia B. Ladah, Kevin D. Lafferty
2009, Marine Ecology Progress Series (375) 209-218
This article replaces Sonnenholzner et al. (2007; Mar Ecol Prog Ser 343:77–85), which was retracted on September 19, 2007, due to errors in entry of data on sea urchins. We sampled 10 highly fished and 10 (putatively) lightly fished shallow rocky reefs in the southeastern area of the...
Selected achievements, science directions, and new opportunities for the WEBB small watershed research program
Pierre D. Glynn, Matthew C. Larsen, Earl A. Greene, Heather L. Buss, David W. Clow, Randall J. Hunt, M. Alisa Mast, Sheila F. Murphy, Norman E. Peters, Stephen D. Sebestyen, James B. Shanley, John F. Walker
2009, Conference Paper, Planning for an uncertain future - Monitoring, integration, and adaptation (SIR 2009-5049)
Over nearly two decades, the Water, Energy, and Biogeochemical Budgets (WEBB) small watershed research program of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has documented how water and solute fluxes, nutrient, carbon, and mercury dynamics, and weathering and sediment transport respond to natural and humancaused drivers, including climate, climate change, and atmospheric...
Modeling individual animal histories with multistate capture–recapture models
Jean-Dominique Lebreton, James D. Nichols, Richard J. Barker, Roger Pradel, Jeffrey A. Spendelow
2009, Advances in Ecological Research (41) 87-173
Many fields of science begin with a phase of exploration and description, followed by investigations of the processes that account for observed patterns. The science of ecology is no exception, and recent decades have seen a focus on understanding key processes underlying the dynamics of ecological systems. In population ecology,...
Integrating toxicity risk in bird eggs and chicks: Using chick down feathers to estimate mercury concentrations in eggs
Joshua T. Ackerman, Collin A. Eagles-Smith
2009, Environmental Science & Technology (43) 2166-2172
The concentration of mercury (Hg) in eggs that causes reduced hatching success is regarded as a critical end point for Hg toxicity in birds. However, incorporating effects of in ovo mercury exposure on chick health and survival could improve risk assessment. We developed equations to predict Hg in eggs using...
Survival and migration behavior of subyearling Chinook salmon at Lower Granite Dam
A.L. Puls, T.D. Counihan, C. E. Walker, J.M. Hardiman, I.N. Duran
2009, Report
n/a...
Pilot study to access the role of Ceratomyxa shasta infection in mortality of fall-run Chinook smolts migrating through the lower Klamath River in 2008
Scott Foott, Greg Stutzer, R. Fogerty, Hal Hansel, Steven Juhnke, John W. Beeman
2009, Report
Apparent survival and migration rate of radio-tagged hatchery subyearling Chinook salmon released at Iron Gate Hatchery was monitored in the Klamath River to see if the timing of mortality coincided with observations of ceratomyxosis in re-captured coded wire tag cohorts. Despite rapid emigration, these relatively large (mean fork length 92...
Facilitating adaptive management in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed through the use of online decision support tools
Cassandra Mullinx, Scott Phillips, Kelly Shenk, Paul Hearn, Olivia Devereux
2009, Conference Paper, Planning for an uncertain future - Monitoring, integration, and adaptation (SIR 2009-5049)
The Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) is attempting to more strategically implement management actions to improve the health of the Nation’s largest estuary. In 2007 the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) CBP office began a joint effort to develop a suite of Internetaccessible decision-support tools and...
Survival and migration behavior of juvenile salmonids at McNary Dam, 2007
N.S. Adams, T.D. Counihan
2009, Report
n/a ...
Evaluation of strobe lights to reduce turbine entrainment of juvenile steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss) at Cowlitz Falls Dam, Washington
Tobias J. Kock, Scott D. Evans, Theresa L. Liedtke, Dennis W. Rondorf, Mike Kohn
2009, Northwest Science (83) 308-314
We conducted a radiotelemetry evaluation to determine if strobe lights could be used to decrease turbine entrainment of juvenile steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss) at Cowlitz Falls Dam, Washington. We found that radio-tagged juvenile steelhead approached and entered two spillbays (one lighted, one unlighted) in equal proportions. However, the presence of strobe...
U.S. Geological Survey research in Handcart Gulch, Colorado—An alpine watershed with natural acid-rock drainage
Andrew H. Manning, Jonathan S. Caine, Philip L. Verplanck, Dana J. Bove, Katherine G. Kahn
2009, Conference Paper, Planning for an uncertain future - Monitoring, integration, and adaptation (SIR 2009-5049)
Handcart Gulch is an alpine watershed along the Continental Divide in the Colorado Rocky Mountain Front Range. It contains an unmined mineral deposit typical of many hydrothermal mineral deposits in the intermountain west, composed primarily of pyrite with trace metals including copper and molybdenum. Springs and the trunk stream have...
Markov decision processes in natural resources management: Observability and uncertainty
B. Kenneth Williams
2009, Ecological Modelling (220) 830-840
The breadth and complexity of stochastic decision processes in natural resources presents a challenge to analysts who need to understand and use these approaches. The objective of this paper is to describe a class of decision processes that are germane to natural resources conservation and management, namely Markov decision processes,...
Dipping-interface mapping using mode-separated Rayleigh waves
Y. Luo, J. Xia, Y. Xu, C. Zeng, R. D. Miller, Q. Liu
2009, Pure and Applied Geophysics (166) 353-374
Multichannel analysis of surface waves (MASW) method is a non-invasive geophysical technique that uses the dispersive characteristic of Rayleigh waves to estimate a vertical shear (S)-wave velocity profile. A pseudo-2D S-wave velocity section is constructed by aligning 1D S-wave velocity profiles at the midpoint of each receiver spread that are...
Hydrologic characterization of desert soils with varying degrees of pedogenesis: 1. field experiments evaluating plant-relevant soil water behavior
John R. Nimmo, Kim S. Perkins, Kevin M. Schmidt, David M. Miller, Jonathan D. Stock, Kamini Singha
2009, Vadose Zone Journal (8) 480-495
To assess the eff ect of pedogenesis on the soil moisture dynamics infl uencing the character and quality of ecological habitat, we conducted infi ltration and redistribution experiments on three alluvial deposits in the Mojave National Preserve: (i) recently deposited active wash sediments, (ii) a soil of early Holocene age,...
Assessing rates of forest change and fragmentation in Alabama, USA, using the vegetation change tracker model
Mingshi Li, Chengquan Huang, Zhiliang Zhu, Hua Shi, Heng Lu, Shikui Peng
2009, Forest Ecology and Management (257) 1480-1488
Forest change is of great concern for land use decision makers and conservation communities. Quantitative and spatial forest change information is critical for addressing many pressing issues, including global climate change, carbon budgets, and sustainability. In this study, our analysis focuses on the differences in geospatial patterns and their changes...
Comparison of recharge estimates at a small watershed in east-central Pennsylvania, USA
D. W. Risser, W.J. Gburek, G.J. Folmar
2009, Hydrogeology Journal (17) 287-298
The common recommendation that recharge should be estimated from multiple methods is sound, but the inherent differences of the methods make it difficult to assess the accuracy of differing results. In this study, four methods for estimating groundwater recharge and two methods for estimating base flow (as a proxy for...
Characterization of the interferon genes in homozygous rainbow trout reveals two novel genes, alternate splicing and differential regulation of duplicated genes
M. K. Purcell, K.J. Laing, J.C. Woodson, G.H. Thorgaard, J.D. Hansen
2009, Fish and Shellfish Immunology (26) 293-304
The genes encoding the type I and type II interferons (IFNs) have previously been identified in rainbow trout and their proteins partially characterized. These previous studies reported a single type II IFN (rtIFN-??) and three rainbow trout type I IFN genes that are classified into either group I (rtIFN1, rtIFN2)...
Arctic lake physical processes and regimes with implications for winter water availability and management in the national petroleum reserve alaska
Benjamin M. Jones, C.D. Arp, Kenneth M. Hinkel, R.A. Beck, Joel A. Schmutz, B. Winston
2009, Environmental Management (43) 1071-1084
Lakes are dominant landforms in the National Petroleum Reserve Alaska (NPRA) as well as important social and ecological resources. Of recent importance is the management of these freshwater ecosystems because lakes deeper than maximum ice thickness provide an important and often sole source of liquid water for aquatic biota, villages,...
Newly recognized hosts for uranium in the Hanford Site vadose zone
J.E. Stubbs, L.A. Veblen, D.C. Elbert, J.M. Zachara, J.A. Davis, D.R. Veblen
2009, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (73) 1563-1576
Uranium contaminated sediments from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Hanford Site have been investigated using electron microscopy. Six classes of solid hosts for uranium were identified. Preliminary sediment characterization was carried out using optical petrography, and electron microprobe analysis (EMPA) was used to locate materials that host uranium. All of...
Evaluating the validity of using unverified indices of body condition
J.L. Schamber, Daniel Esler, Paul L. Flint
2009, Journal of Avian Biology (40) 49-56
Condition indices are commonly used in an attempt to link body condition of birds to ecological variables of interest, including demographic attributes such as survival and reproduction. Most indices are based on body mass adjusted for structural body size, calculated as simple ratios or residuals from regressions. However, condition indices...
New permian fusulinids from conglomerate mesa, southeastern inyo Mountains, east-central california
C.H. Stevens, P. Stone
2009, Journal of Paleontology (83) 9-29
In the Conglomerate Mesa area in the southeastern Inyo Mountains, east-central California, a series of distinctive fusulinid assemblages ranging in age from late Artinskian to Kungurian or Roadian was developed in units 7-10 of the sedimentary rocks of Santa Rosa Flat (part of the Owens Valley Group). The fauna of...
Halogen degassing during ascent and eruption of water-poor basaltic magma
M. Edmonds, T.M. Gerlach, Richard A. Herd
2009, Chemical Geology (263) 122-130
A study of volcanic gas composition and matrix glass volatile concentrations has allowed a model for halogen degassing to be formulated for K??lauea Volcano, Hawai'i. Volcanic gases emitted during 2004-2005 were characterised by a molar SO2/HCl of 10-64, with a mean of 33; and a molar HF/HCl of 0-5, with...
Broadening our approaches to studying dispersal in raptors
J. L. Morrison, P.B. Wood
2009, Journal of Raptor Research (43) 81-89
Dispersal is a behavioral process having consequences for individual fitness and population dynamics. Recent advances in technology have spawned new theoretical examinations and empirical studies of the dispersal process in birds, providing opportunities for examining how this information may be applied to studies of the dispersal process in raptors. Many...
Characterisation of carbon nanotubes in the context of toxicity studies
D. Berhanu, A. Dybowska, S.K. Misra, C.J. Stanley, P. Ruenraroengsak, A.R. Boccaccini, T.D. Tetley, S. N. Luoma, J.A. Plant, E. Valsami-Jones
2009, Environmental Health (8)
Nanotechnology has the potential to revolutionise our futures, but has also prompted concerns about the possibility that nanomaterials may harm humans or the biosphere. The unique properties of nanoparticles, that give them novel size dependent functionalities, may also have the potential to cause harm. Discrepancies in existing human health...
