Multi-year data from satellite- and ground-based sensors show details and scale matter in assessing climate’s effects on wetland surface water, amphibians, and landscape conditions
Walter Sadinski, Alisa L. Gallant, Mark Roth, Jesslyn F. Brown, Gabriel B. Senay, Wayne L. Brininger, Perry M. Jones, Jason M. Stoker
2018, PLoS ONE (13)
Long-term, interdisciplinary studies of relations between climate and ecological conditions on wetland-upland landscapes have been lacking, especially studies integrated across scales meaningful for adaptive resource management. We collected data in situ at individual wetlands, and via satellite for surrounding 4-km2 landscape blocks, to assess relations between annual weather dynamics, snow duration, phenology, wetland...
Spring temperature, migration chronology, and nutrient allocation to eggs in three species of arctic‐nesting geese: Implications for resilience to climate warming
Jerry W. Hupp, David H. Ward, David X. Soto, Keith A. Hobson
2018, Global Change Biology (24) 5056-5071
The macronutrients that Arctic herbivores invest in their offspring are derived from endogenous reserves of fat and protein (capital) that females build prior to the period of investment or from foods they consume concurrently with investment (income). The relative contribution from each source can be influenced by temporal and environmental...
Genetic evidence supports sporadic and independent introductions of subtype H5 low pathogenic avian influenza A viruses from wild birds to domestic poultry in North America
Lei Li, Andrew S. Bowman, Thomas J. DeLiberto, Mary L. Killian, Scott Krauss, Jacqueline M. Nolting, Mia Kim Torchetti, Andrew M. Ramey, Andrew B. Reeves, David E. Stallknecht, Richard J. Webby, Xiu-Feng Wan
2018, Journal of Virology (92) 1-16
Wild bird–origin influenza A viruses (IAVs or avian influenza) have led to sporadic outbreaks among domestic poultry in the United States (US) and Canada, resulting in economic losses through the implementation of costly containment practices and destruction of birds. We used evolutionary analyses of virus sequence data to determine that...
Introduction of Eurasian-origin H8N4 influenza A virus into North America via migratory birds
Andrew M. Ramey, Andrew B. Reeves, Tyrone F. Donnelly, Rebecca L. Poulson, David E. Stallknecht
2018, Emerging Infectious Diseases (24) 1950-1953
We identified a Eurasian-origin influenza A(H8N4) virus in North America by sampling wild birds in western Alaska, USA. Evidence for repeated introductions of influenza A viruses into North America by migratory birds suggests that intercontinental dispersal might not be exceedingly rare and that our understanding of viral establishment is incomplete....
Impacts of tidal road-stream crossings on aquatic organism passage
Sarah Becker, Scott Jackson, Adrian Jordaan, Allison H. Roy
2018, Cooperator Science Series 131-2018
ivers and streams are highly vulnerable to fragmentation from roads due to their prevalence in the landscape. Road-stream crossings are far more numerous than other anthropogenic barriers such as dams; these crossing structures (culverts, bridges, fords, and tide gates) have been demonstrated to impede the passage of aquatic organisms. However,...
Spatially explicit patterns in a dryland's soil respiration and relationships with climate, whole plant photosynthesis and soil fertility
Timothy M. Wertin, Kristina E. Young, Sasha C. Reed
2018, Oikos (127) 1280-1290
Arid and semiarid ecosystems play a significant role in regulating global carbon cycling, yet our understanding of the controls over the dominant pathways of dryland CO2exchange remains poor. Substantial amounts of dryland soil are not covered by vascular plants and this patchiness in cover has important implications for spatial patterns...
Advantages and limitations to the use of optical measurements to study sediment properties
Emmanuel Boss, Christopher R. Sherwood, Paul Hill, Tim Milligan
2018, MDPI - Applied Sciences (8) 1-19
Measurements of optical properties have been used for decades to study particle distributions in the ocean. They are useful for estimating suspended mass concentration as well as particle-related properties such as size, composition, packing (particle porosity or density), and settling velocity. Measurements of optical properties are, however, biased, as certain...
Patterns of host-associated fecal indicators driven by hydrology, precipitation, and land use attributes in Great Lakes watersheds
Deborah K. Dila, Steven R. Corsi, Peter L. Lenaker, Austin K. Baldwin, Melinda J. Bootsma, Sandra L. McLellan
2018, Environmental Science & Technology (52) 11500-11509
Fecal contamination from sewage and agricultural runoff is a pervasive problem in Great Lakes watersheds. Most work examining fecal pollution loads relies on discrete samples of fecal indicators and modeling land use. In this study, we made empirical measurements of human and ruminant-associated fecal indicator bacteria and combined these with...
Drought and land-cover conditions in the Great Plains
Heather J. Tollerud, Jesslyn F. Brown, Thomas Loveland, Rezaul Mahmood, Norman B. Bliss
2018, Earth Interactions (22) 1-25
Land–atmosphere interactions play a critical role in the Earth system, and a better understanding of these interactions could improve weather and climate models. The interaction among drought, vegetation productivity, and land cover is of particular significance. In a semiarid environment, such as the U.S. Great Plains, droughts can have a...
Spatial sampling bias in the Neotoma paleoecological archives affects species paleo-distribution models
Richard D. Inman, Janet Franklin, Todd Esque, Kenneth E. Nussear
2018, Journal of Quaternary Science Reviews (198) 115-125
The ability to infer paleo-distributions with limited knowledge of absence makes species distribution modeling (SDM) a useful tool for exploring paleobiogeographic questions. Spatial sampling bias is a known issue when modeling extant species. Here we quantify the spatial sampling bias in a North American packrat midden archive and explore its impact on...
Tidal flushing of mercury from the Bremerton Naval Complex through the PSNS015 stormwater drain system to Sinclair Inlet, Kitsap County, Washington, 2011 -12
Kathleen E. Conn, Anthony J. Paulson, Richard S. Dinicola, John F. DeWild
2018, Scientific Investigations Report 2018-5087
The sediments of Sinclair Inlet, in Puget Sound, Washington, have elevated levels of contaminants including mercury. The Bremerton Naval Complex is adjacent to Sinclair Inlet, and has known areas of historical soil mercury contamination. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the U.S. Navy, has been investigating the potential for...
Habitat overlap between Asiatic black bear Ursus thibetanus and red panda Ailurus fulgens in Himalaya
Manjit Bista, Saroj Panthi, Sarah R. Weiskopf
2018, PLoS ONE (13)
Studying habitat overlap between sympatric species is one of the best ways to identify interspecies relationships and to direct conservation efforts so that multiple species can benefit. However, studies exploring interspecies relationships are very limited in Nepal, making it difficult for the government of Nepal and conservation partners to manage...
Experimental infection of Tadarida brasiliensis with Pseudogymnoascus destructans, the fungus that causes white-nose syndrome
Michelle Verant, Carol U. Meteyer, Benjamin Stading, David S. Blehert
2018, mSphere (3)
White-nose syndrome (WNS) is causing significant declines in populations of North American hibernating bats, and recent western and southern expansions of the disease have placed additional species at risk. Understanding differences in species susceptibility and identifying management actions to reduce mortality of bats from WNS are top research priorities. However,...
The 2015 landslide and tsunami in Taan Fiord, Alaska
Brentwood Higman, Dan H. Shugar, Colin P. Stark, Goran Ekstrom, Michele N Koppes, Patrick Lynett, Anja Dufresne, Peter J. Haeussler, Marten Geertsema, Sean P.S. Gulick, Andrew Mattox, Jeremy G. Venditti, Maureen A. L. Walton, Naoma McCall, Erin Mckittrick, Breanyn MacInnes, Eric L. Bilderback, Hui Tang, Micheal Willis, Bruce Richmond, Bobby Reece, Christopher F. Larsen, Bjorn Olson, James Capra, Aykut Ayca, Colin K Bloom, Haley Williams, Doug Bonno, Robert Weiss, Adam Keen, Vassilios Skanavis, Micheal Loso
2018, Scientific Reports (8)
Glacial retreat in recent decades has exposed unstable slopes and allowed deep water to extend beneath some of those slopes. Slope failure at the terminus of Tyndall Glacier on 17 October 2015 sent 180 million tons of rock into Taan Fiord, Alaska. The resulting tsunami reached elevations as high as...
A 42 year inference of cloud base height trends in the Luquillo Mountains of northeastern Puerto Rico
Paul W. Miller, Thomas L. Mote, C.A. Ramseyer, Ashley E. Van Beusekom, Martha A. Scholl, Grizelle Gonzalez
2018, Climate Research (76) 87-94
The Luquillo Mountains of eastern Puerto Rico are home to the only tropical rainforest managed by the United States Forest Service, with cloud-immersed forests historically occupying the highest elevations. However, within the past 50 yr, studies of the Luquillo cloud forest have suggested an increase in cloud base heights (CBH), although...
U.S. Landsat Analysis Ready Data
U.S. Geological Survey
2018, Fact Sheet 2018-3053
U.S. Landsat Analysis Ready Data (ARD) are a revolutionary new U.S. Geological Survey science product that allows the Landsat archive to be more accessible and easier to analyze and reduces the amount of time users spend on data processing for monitoring and assessing landscape change. U.S. Landsat ARD are Level-2 products derived...
What it is to be established: policy and management implications for non-native and invasive species
Patrick Kocovsky, Rochelle Sturtevant, James Schardt
2018, Management of Biological Invasions (9) 177-185
Management of invasive species, whether prevention, population reduction, or eradication, requires assessment of the invasive species’ population status and an assessment of the probability of success of management options. Perceptions of a species’ permanence in an environment or lack thereof frequently drives how limited time, financial, and personnel resources are...
New methods for predicting and measuring dispersion in rivers
Jonathan M. Nelson, Richard R. McDonald, Carl J. Legleiter, Paul J. Kinzel, Travis Terrell Ramos, Yutaka Higashi, Il Won Seo, Donghae Baek, Du Han Lee, Yonguk Ryu
2018, Conference Paper, E3S Web of Conferences
To develop a better predictive tool for dispersion in rivers over a range of temporal and spatial scales, our group has developed a simple Lagrangian model that is applicable for a wide range of coordinate systems and flow modeling methodologies. The approach allows dispersion computations for a large suite of...
Evaluating time-removal models for estimating availability of boreal birds during point count surveys: Sample size requirements and model complexity
Peter Solymos, Steven M. Matsuoka, Steven G. Cumming, Diana Stralberg, Patricia C. Fontaine, Fiona K. A. Schmiegelow, Samantha J. Song, Erin M. Bayne
2018, Condor (120) 765-786
We used conventional and finite mixture removal models with and without time-varying covariates to evaluate availability given presence for 152 bird species using data from point counts in boreal North America. We found that the choice of model had an impact on the estimability of unknown model parameters and affected...
Controls on submarine channel-modifying processes identified through morphometric scaling relationships
Lauren E. Shumaker, Zane R. Jobe, Samuel Johnstone, Luke A. Pettinga, Dingxin Cai, Jeremiah D. Moody
2018, Geosphere (14) 2171-2187
Submarine channels share morphological similarities with rivers, but observations from modern and ancient systems indicate they are formed under processes and controls unique to submarine settings. Morphologic characteristics of channels—e.g., width, depth, slope, and the relationships among them—can constrain interpretations of channel-forming processes. This work uses morphometric scaling relationships extracted...
Leveraging big data towards functionally-based, catchment scale restoration prioritization
John P. Lovette, Jonathan M. Duncan, Lindsey S. Smart, John P. Fay, Dean L. Urban, Nancy Daly, Jamie Blackwell, Anne B. Hoos, Ana M. Garcia, Lawrence E. Band
2018, Environmental Management (62) 1007-1024
The persistence of freshwater degradation has necessitated the growth of an expansive stream and wetland restoration industry, yet restoration prioritization at broad spatial extents is still limited and ad-hoc restoration prevails. The River Basin Restoration Prioritization tool has been developed to incorporate vetted, distributed data models into a catchment scale...
Marine threats overlap key foraging habitat for two imperiled sea turtle species in the Gulf of Mexico
Kristen M. Hart, Autumn R. Iverson, Ikuko Fujisaki, Margaret M. Lamont, David N. Bucklin, Donna J. Shaver
2018, Frontiers in Marine Science (5)
Effective management of human activities affecting listed species requires understanding both threats and animal habitat-use patterns. However, the extent of spatial overlap between high-use foraging areas (where multiple marine species congregate) and anthropogenic threats is not well known. Our modeling approach incorporates data on sea turtle spatial ecology and a...
Social–ecological landscape patterns predict woody encroachment from native tree plantings in a temperate grassland
V.M. Donvan, J.L. Burnett, C.H. Bielski, H.E. Birge, R. Bevans, D. Twidwell, Craig R. Allen
2018, Ecology and Evolution (8) 9624-9632
Afforestation is often viewed as the purposeful planting of trees in historically nonforested grasslands, but an unintended consequence is woody encroachment, which should be considered part of the afforestation process. In North America's temperate grassland biome, Eastern redcedar (Juniperus virginiana L.) is a native species used in tree plantings that aggressively...
The interaction of exposure and warming tolerance determines fish species vulnerability to warming stream temperatures
Annika W. Walters, Caitlin P. Mandeville, Frank J. Rahel
2018, Biology Letters (14)
Species vulnerability to climate change involves an interaction between the magnitude of change (exposure) and a species's tolerance to change. We evaluated fish species vulnerability to predicted stream temperature increases by examining warming tolerances across the Wyoming fish assemblage. Warming tolerance combines stream temperature with a thermal tolerance metric to...
Aerial surveys of sea otters (Enhydra lutris) in Lower Cook Inlet, Alaska, May, 2017
Joel Gerlach-Miller, George G. Esslinger, Ben Weitzman
2018, Report, USFWS Technical Report
Portions of two stocks of northern sea otters (Enhydra lutris kenyoni) occur in Lower Cook Inlet (LCI), Alaska. Sea otters on the west side of LCI are considered part of the southwest Alaska stock; sea otters occupying eastern LCI are considered part of the southcentral Alaska stock. Information...
