Landscape- and local-scale habitat influences on occupancy and detection probability of stream-dwelling crayfish: Implications for conservation
Daniel D. Magoulick, Robert J. DiStefano, Emily M. Imhoff, Matthew S. Nolen, Brian K. Wagner
2017, Hydrobiologia (799) 217-231
Crayfish are ecologically important in freshwater systems worldwide and are imperiled in North America and globally. We sought to examine landscape- to local-scale environmental variables related to occupancy and detection probability of a suite of stream-dwelling crayfish species. We used a quantitative kickseine method to sample crayfish presence at 102...
Climate change-driven cliff and beach evolution at decadal to centennial time scales
Li H. Erikson, Andrea C. O'Neill, Patrick L. Barnard, Sean Vitousek, Patrick W. Limber
2017, Conference Paper, Proceedings Coastal Dynamics 2017
Here we develop a computationally efficient method that evolves cross-shore profiles of sand beaches with or without cliffs along natural and urban coastal environments and across expansive geographic areas at decadal to centennial time-scales driven by 21st century climate change projections. The model requires projected sea level rise rates, extrema...
Viscoelastic lower crust and mantle relaxation following the 14–16 April 2016 Kumamoto, Japan, earthquake sequence
Frederick Pollitz, Tomokazu Kobayashi, Hiroshi Yarai, Bunichiro Shibazaki, Takumi Matsumoto
2017, Geophysical Research Letters (44) 8795-8803
The 2016 Kumamoto, Japan, earthquake sequence, culminating in the Mw=7.0 16 April 2016 main shock, occurred within an active tectonic belt of central Kyushu. GPS data from GEONET reveal transient crustal motions from several millimeters per year up to ∼3 cm/yr during the first 8.5 months following the sequence. The spatial pattern of...
Diel variation in detection and vocalization rates of king (Rallus elegans) and clapper (Rallus crepitans) rails in intracoastal waterways
Lydia L. Stiffler, James T. Anderson, Amy B. Welsh, Sergio R. Harding, Gary R. Costanzo, Todd E. Katzner
2017, Waterbirds (40) 263-271
Surveys for secretive marsh birds could be improved with refinements to address regional and species-specific variation in detection probabilities and optimal times of day to survey. Diel variation in relation to naïve occupancy, detection rates, and vocalization rates of King (Rallus elegans) and Clapper (R. crepitans) rails were studied in...
Effects of breeder turnover and harvest on group composition and recruitment in a social carnivore
David E. Ausband, Michael S. Mitchell, Lisette P. Waits
2017, Journal of Animal Ecology (86) 1094-1101
Breeder turnover can influence population growth in social carnivores through changes to group size, composition and recruitment.Studies that possess detailed group composition data that can provide insights about the effects of breeder turnover on groups have generally been conducted on species that are not subject to recurrent...
Comparing efficiency of American Fisheries Society standard snorkeling techniques to environmental DNA sampling techniques
Roy M. Ulibarri, Scott A. Bonar, Christopher B. Rees, Jon J. Amberg, Bridget Ladell, Craig Jackson
2017, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (37) 644-651
Analysis of environmental DNA (eDNA) is an emerging technique used to detect aquatic species through water sampling and the extraction of biological material for amplification. Our study compared the efficacy of eDNA methodology to American Fisheries Society (AFS) standard snorkeling surveys with regard to detecting the presence of rare fish...
Modifications to EPA Method 3060A to Improve Extraction of Cr(VI) from Chromium Ore Processing Residue-Contaminated Soils
Christopher T. Mills, Carleton R. Bern, Ruth E. Wolf, Andrea L. Foster, Jean M. Morrison, William Benzel
2017, Environmental Science & Technology (51) 11235-11243
It has been shown that EPA Method 3060A does not adequately extract Cr(VI) from chromium ore processing residue (COPR). We modified various parameters of EPA 3060A toward understanding the transformation of COPR minerals in the alkaline extraction and improving extraction of Cr(VI) from NIST SRM 2701, a standard COPR-contaminated soil....
Evolution of strain localization in variable-width three-dimensional unsaturated laboratory-scale cut slopes
Michael S. Morse, Ning Lu, Alexandra Wayllace, Jonathan W. Godt
2017, Journal of Engineering Mechanics (143)
To experimentally validate a recently developed theory for predicting the stability of cut slopes under unsaturated conditions, the authors measured increasing strain localization in unsaturated slope cuts prior to abrupt failure. Cut slope width and moisture content were controlled and varied in a laboratory, and a sliding door that extended...
Survival of the endangered Pima pineapple cactus: Does clearing before prescribed fire alter survival postfire?
Kathryn A. Thomas, Christopher Jarchow, Julie A. Crawford
2017, Southwestern Naturalist (62) 200-206
Federal land managers and ranchers often use prescribed fire as a tool to reduce invading woody plants within desert grasslands of the arid southwestern United States. Managers must evaluate the threat of the burn toward the health and survival of plants of concern including how preemptive clearing before prescribed fire...
A framework for modeling connections between hydraulics, water surface roughness, and surface reflectance in open channel flows
Carl J. Legleiter, Curtis D. Mobley, Brandon Overstreet
2017, Journal of Geophysical Research F: Earth Surface (122) 1715-1741
This paper introduces a framework for examining connections between the flow field, the texture of the air-water interface, and the reflectance of the water surface and thus evaluating the potential to infer hydraulic information from remotely sensed observations of surface reflectance. We used a spatial correlation model describing water surface...
Climate-driven variability in the occurrence of major floods across North America and Europe
Glenn A. Hodgkins, Paul H. Whitfield, Donald H. Burn, Jamie Hannaford, Benjamin Renard, Kerstin Stahl, Anne K. Fleig, Henrik Madsen, Luis Mediero, Johanna Korhonen, Conor Murphy, Donna Wilson
2017, Journal of Hydrology (552) 704-717
Concern over the potential impact of anthropogenic climate change on flooding has led to a proliferation of studies examining past flood trends. Many studies have analysed annual-maximum flow trends but few have quantified changes in major (25–100 year return period) floods, i.e. those that have the greatest societal impacts. Existing major-flood...
Rock friction under variable normal stress
Brian D. Kilgore, Nicholas M. Beeler, Julian C. Lozos, David Oglesby
2017, Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth (122) 7042-7075
This study is to determine the detailed response of shear strength and other fault properties to changes in normal stress at room temperature using dry initially bare rock surfaces of granite at normal stresses between 5 and 7 MPa. Rapid normal stress changes result in gradual, approximately exponential changes in shear...
Optimization of human, animal, and environmental health by using the One Health approach
Jonathan M. Sleeman, Thomas J. DeLiberto, Natalie T. Nguyen
2017, Journal of Veterinary Science (18) 263-268
Emerging diseases are increasing burdens on public health, negatively affecting the world economy, causing extinction of species, and disrupting ecological integrity. One Health recognizes that human, domestic animal, and wildlife health are interconnected within ecosystem health and provides a framework for the development of multidisciplinary solutions to global health challenges....
Comparing automated classification and digitization approaches to detect change in eelgrass bed extent during restoration of a large river delta
Anna Elizabeth Davenport, Jerry D. Davis, Isa Woo, Eric E. Grossman, Jesse B. Barham, Christopher S. Ellings, John Y. Takekawa
2017, Northwest Science (91) 272-282
Native eelgrass (Zostera marina) is an important contributor to ecosystem services that supplies cover for juvenile fish, supports a variety of invertebrate prey resources for fish and waterbirds, provides substrate for herring roe consumed by numerous fish and birds, helps stabilize sediment, and sequesters organic carbon. Seagrasses are in decline...
A comment on “temporal variation in survival and recovery rates of lesser scaup”
Mark S. Lindberg, G. Scott Boomer, Joel A. Schmutz, Johann A. Walker
2017, Journal of Wildlife Management (81) 1138-1141
Concerns about declines in the abundance of lesser scaup (Aythya affinis) have promoted a number of analyses to understand reasons for this decline. Unfortunately, most of these analyses, including that of Arnold et al. (2016 Journal of Wildlife Management 80: 850–861), are based on observational studies leading to weak inference....
It is the time for oceanic seabirds: Tracking year-round distribution of gadfly petrels across the Atlantic Ocean
Raul Ramos, Nicholas Carlile, Jeremy Madeiros, Ivan Ramirez, Vitor H. Paiva, Herculano A. Dinis, Francis Zino, Manuel Biscoito, Gustavo R. Leal, Leandro Bugoni, Patrick G.R. Jodice, Peter G. Ryan, Jacob Gonzalez-Solis
2017, Diversity and Distributions (23) 794-805
AimAnthropogenic activities alter and constrain the structure of marine ecosystems with implications for wide-ranging marine vertebrates. In spite of the environmental importance of vast oceanic ecosystems, most conservation efforts mainly focus on neritic areas. To identify relevant oceanic areas for conservation, we assessed the year-round spatial distribution and spatio-temporal overlap...
Interactive effects of deer exclusion and exotic plant removal on deciduous forest understory communities
Norman Bourg, William J. McShea, Valentine Herrmann, Chad M. Stewart
2017, AoB PLANTS (9) 1-16
Mammalian herbivory and exotic plant species interactions are an important ongoing research topic, due to their presumed impacts on native biodiversity. The extent to which these interactions affect forest understory plant community composition and persistence was the subject of our study. We conducted a 5-year, 2 × 2 factorial experiment...
Comparison of acoustic recorders and field observers for monitoring tundra bird communities
Skyler T. Vold, Colleen M. Handel, Lance B. McNew
2017, Wildlife Society Bulletin (41) 566-576
Acoustic recorders can be useful for studying bird populations but their efficiency and accuracy should be assessed in pertinent ecological settings before use. We investigated the utility of an acoustic recorder for monitoring abundance of tundra‐breeding birds relative to point‐count surveys in northwestern Alaska, USA, during 2014. Our objectives were...
Satellite monitoring of cyanobacterial harmful algal bloom frequency in recreational waters and drinking water sources
John M. Clark, Blake A. Schaeffer, John A. Darling, Erin A. Urquhart, John M. Johnston, Amber R. Ignatius, Mark H. Myer, Keith A. Loftin, P. Jeremy Werdell, Richard P. Stumpf
2017, Ecological Indicators (80) 84-95
Cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms (cyanoHAB) cause extensive problems in lakes worldwide, including human and ecological health risks, anoxia and fish kills, and taste and odor problems. CyanoHABs are a particular concern in both recreational waters and drinking water sources because of their dense biomass and the risk of exposure to...
Volcano Geodesy: Recent developments and future challenges
Jose F. Fernandez, Antonio Pepe, Michael P. Poland, Freysteinn Sigmundsson
2017, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research (344) 1-12
Ascent of magma through Earth's crust is normally associated with, among other effects, ground deformation and gravity changes. Geodesy is thus a valuable tool for monitoring and hazards assessment during volcanic unrest, and it provides valuable data for exploring the geometry and volume of magma plumbing systems. Recent decades have...
Application and evaluation of a rapid response earthquake-triggered landslide model to the 25 April 2015 Mw 7.8 Gorkha earthquake, Nepal
Sean F. Gallen, Marin K. Clark, Jonathan W. Godt, Kevin Roback, Nathan A Niemi
2017, Tectonophysics (714-715) 173-187
The 25 April 2015 Mw 7.8 Gorkha earthquake produced strong ground motions across an approximately 250 km by 100 km swath in central Nepal. To assist disaster response activities, we modified an existing earthquake-triggered landslide model based on a Newmark sliding block analysis to estimate the extent and intensity of landsliding and landslide...
Results of hydrologic monitoring on landslide-prone coastal bluffs near Mukilteo, Washington
Joel B. Smith, Rex L. Baum, Benjamin B. Mirus, Abigail R. Michel, Ben Stark
2017, Open-File Report 2017-1095
A hydrologic monitoring network was installed to investigate landslide hazards affecting the railway corridor along the eastern shore of Puget Sound between Seattle and Everett, near Mukilteo, Washington. During the summer of 2015, the U.S. Geological Survey installed monitoring equipment at four sites equipped with instrumentation to measure rainfall and...
Increasing rock-avalanche size and mobility in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Alaska detected from 1984 to 2016 Landsat imagery
Jeffrey A. Coe, Erin Bessette-Kirton, M. Geertsema
2017, Landslides (15) 393-407
In the USA, climate change is expected to have an adverse impact on slope stability in Alaska. However, to date, there has been limited work done in Alaska to assess if changes in slope stability are occurring. To address this issue, we used 30-m Landsat imagery acquired from 1984 to...
Extension of the analytical window for characterizing aromatic compounds in oils using a comprehensive suite of high-resolution mass spectrometry techniques and double bond equivalence versus carbon number plot
Yunju Cho, Justin E. Birdwell, Manhoi Hur, Joonhee Lee, Byungjoo Kim, Sunghwan Kim
2017, Energy & Fuels (31) 7874-7883
In this study, comprehensive two-dimensional (2D) gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS), atmospheric pressure photoionization (APPI) quadrupole-Orbitrap mass spectrometry (MS), and Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR MS) were used to study the aromatic fractions of crude oil and oil shale pyrolysates (shale oils). The collected data were compared and...
Long-term dynamics and characteristics of snags created for wildlife habitat
Amy M. Barry, Joan Hagar, James W. Rivers
2017, Forest Ecology and Management (403) 145-151
Snags provide essential habitat for numerous organisms and are therefore critical to the long-term maintenance of forest biodiversity. Resource managers often use snag creation to mitigate the purposeful removal of snags at the time of harvest, but information regarding how created snags change over long timescales (>20 y) is absent from...
