Evolutionary traps as keys to understanding behavioral maladaptation
Bruce A. Robertson, Anna Chalfoun
2016, Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences (12) 12-17
Evolutionary traps are severe cases of behavioral maladaptation that occur when, due to human activity, the cues animals use to guide their behavior become uncoupled from their fitness consequences. The result is that animals can prefer the most dangerous resources or behaviors, even when better options are available. Traps are...
A new strategy for earthquake focal mechanisms using waveform-correlation-derived relative polarities and cluster analysis: Application to the 2014 Long Valley Caldera earthquake swarm
David R. Shelly, Jeanne L. Hardebeck, William L. Ellsworth, David P. Hill
2016, Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth (121) 8622-8641
In microseismicity analyses, reliable focal mechanisms can typically be obtained for only a small subset of located events. We address this limitation here, presenting a framework for determining robust focal mechanisms for entire populations of very small events. To achieve this, we resolve relative P and S wave polarities between...
Hanging out at the airport: Unusual upside-down perching behavior by Eurasian Jackdaws (Corvus monedula) in a human-dominated environment
Todd E. Katzner
2016, Wilson Journal of Ornithology (128) 926-930
Animals occupying human-dominated environments show the capacity for behavioral flexibility. Corvids are among the most intelligent synanthropic bird species. During a layover at Schipol Airport in Amsterdam, Netherlands, I photographically documented Eurasian Jackdaws (Corvus monedula) perching upside down from a building cornice. In contrast to other reports of hanging birds,...
Shallow and deep controls on lava lake surface motion at Kīlauea Volcano
Matthew R. Patrick, Tim R. Orr, Don Swanson, Einat Lev
2016, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research (328) 247-261
Lava lakes provide a rare window into magmatic behavior, and lake surface motion has been used to infer deeper properties of the magmatic system. At Halema'uma'u Crater, at the summit of Kīlauea Volcano, multidisciplinary observations for the past several years indicate that lava lake surface motion can be broadly divided...
Deciduous trees are a large and overlooked sink for snowmelt water in the boreal forest
Jessica Young, W. Robert Bolton, Uma Bhatt, Jordi Cristobal, Richard Thoman
2016, Scientific Reports (6) 1-10
The terrestrial water cycle contains large uncertainties that impact our understanding of water budgets and climate dynamics. Water storage is a key uncertainty in the boreal water budget, with tree water storage often ignored. The goal of this study is to quantify tree water content during the snowmelt and growing...
Managing adaptively for multifunctionality in agricultural systems
Jennifer Hodbod, Olivier Barreteau, Craig R. Allen, Daniele Magda
2016, Journal of Environmental Management (183) 379-388
The critical importance of agricultural systems for food security and as a dominant global landcover requires management that considers the full dimensions of system functions at appropriate scales, i.e. multifunctionality. We propose that adaptive management is the most suitable management approach for such goals, given its ability to reduce uncertainty...
Creating a Coastal National Elevation Database (CoNED) for science and conservation applications
Cindy A. Thatcher, John Brock, Jeffrey J. Danielson, Sandra K. Poppenga, Dean B. Gesch, Monica Palaseanu-Lovejoy, John Barras, Gayla A. Evans, Ann Gibbs
2016, Journal of Coastal Research (Special Issue 76) 64-74
The U.S. Geological Survey is creating the Coastal National Elevation Database, an expanding set of topobathymetric elevation models that extend seamlessly across coastal regions of high societal or ecological significance in the United States that are undergoing rapid change or are threatened by inundation hazards. Topobathymetric elevation models are raster...
Federal collaboration in science for invasive mammal management in U.S. National Parks and Wildlife Refuges of the Pacific Islands
Steven C. Hess, Darcy Hu, Rhonda Loh, Paul C. Banko
L.M. Conner, M. D. Smith, editor(s)
2016, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the 16th Wildlife Damage Management Conference
Some of the most isolated islands in the Pacific Ocean are home to US National Parks and Wildlife Refuges. These islands are known for flora and fauna that occur nowhere else, but also for invasive species and other factors which have resulted in the disproportionate extinction of native species. The...
Modeling and simulation of storm surge on Staten Island to understand inundation mitigation strategies
Michael E. Kress, Alan I. Benimoff, William J. Fritz, Cindy A. Thatcher, Brian O. Blanton, Eugene Dzedzits
2016, Journal of Coastal Research (Special Issue 76) 149-161
Hurricane Sandy made landfall on October 29, 2012, near Brigantine, New Jersey, and had a transformative impact on Staten Island and the New York Metropolitan area. Of the 43 New York City fatalities, 23 occurred on Staten Island. The borough, with a population of approximately 500,000, experienced some of the...
Climate-induced warming of lakes can be either amplified or suppressed by trends in water clarity
Kevin C. Rose, Luke A. Winslow, Jordan S. Read, Gretchen J. A. Hansen
2016, Limnology and Oceanography Letters (1) 44-53
Climate change is rapidly warming aquatic ecosystems including lakes and reservoirs. However, variability in lake characteristics can modulate how lakes respond to climate. Water clarity is especially important both because it influences the depth range over which heat is absorbed, and because it is changing in many lakes. Here, we...
Marine ecoregion and Deepwater Horizon oil spill affect recruitment and population structure of a salt marsh snail
Steven C. Pennings, Scott Zengel, Jacob Oehrig, Merryl Alber, T. Dale Bishop, Donald R. Deis, Donna Devlin, A. Randall Hughes, John J. Hutchens Jr., Whitney M. Kiehn, Caroline R. McFarlin, Clay L. Montague, Sean P. Powers, C. Edward Proffitt, Nicolle Rutherford, Camille L. Stagg, Keith Walters
2016, Ecosphere (7)
Marine species with planktonic larvae often have high spatial and temporal variation in recruitment that leads to subsequent variation in the ecology of benthic adults. Using a combination of published and unpublished data, we compared the population structure of the salt marsh snail, Littoraria irrorata, between the South Atlantic Bight...
Consequences of gas flux model choice on the interpretation of metabolic balance across 15 lakes
Hilary A. Dugan, R. Iestyn Woolway, Arianto Santoso, Jessica Corman, Aline Jaimes, Emily Nodine, Vijay P. Patil, Jacob A. Zwart, Jennifer A. Brentrup, Amy Hetherington, Samantha K. Oliver, Jordan S. Read, Kirsten Winter, Paul Hanson, Emily Read, Luke Winslow, Kathleen Weathers
2016, Inland Waters (6) 581-592
Ecosystem metabolism and the contribution of carbon dioxide from lakes to the atmosphere can be estimated from free-water gas measurements through the use of mass balance models, which rely on a gas transfer coefficient (k) to model gas exchange with the atmosphere. Theoretical and empirically based models of krange in complexity...
The potential of high-frequency profiling to assess vertical and seasonal patterns of phytoplankton dynamics in lakes: An extension of the Plankton Ecology Group (PEG) model
Jennifer A. Brentrup, Craig E. Williamson, William Colom-Montero, Werner Eckert, Elvira de Eyto, Hans-Peter Grossart, Yannick Huot, Peter D. F. Isles, Lesley B. Knoll, Taylor H. Leach, Christopher G. McBride, Don Pierson, Francesco Pomati, Jordan S. Read, Kevin C. Rose, Nihar R. Samal, Peter A. Staehr, Luke A. Winslow
2016, Inland Waters (6) 565-580
The use of high-frequency sensors on profiling buoys to investigate physical, chemical, and biological processes in lakes is increasing rapidly. Profiling buoys with automated winches and sensors that collect high-frequency chlorophyll fluorescence (ChlF) profiles in 11 lakes in the Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network (GLEON) allowed the study of the...
A possible source mechanism of the 1946 Unimak Alaska far-field tsunami, uplift of the mid-slope terrace above a splay fault zone
Roland E. von Huene, John J. Miller, Dirk Klaeschen, Peter Dartnell
2016, Pure and Applied Geophysics (173) 4189-4201
In 1946, megathrust seismicity along the Unimak segment of the Alaska subduction zone generated the largest ever recorded Alaska/Aleutian tsunami. The tsunami severely damaged Pacific islands and coastal areas from Alaska to Antarctica. It is the charter member of “tsunami” earthquakes that produce outsized far-field tsunamis for the recorded magnitude....
Statistically extracted fundamental watershed variables for estimating the loads of total nitrogen in small streams
Scott C. Kronholm, Paul D. Capel, Silvia Terziotti
2016, Environmental Modeling & Assessment (21) 681-690
Accurate estimation of total nitrogen loads is essential for evaluating conditions in the aquatic environment. Extrapolation of estimates beyond measured streams will greatly expand our understanding of total nitrogen loading to streams. Recursive partitioning and random forest regression were used to assess 85 geospatial, environmental, and watershed variables across 636...
Adult nest attendance and diet of nestling Resplendent Quetzals (Pharomachrus mocinno) in the Talamanca Mountains of southern Cosa Rica
Scott A. Carleton
2016, Ornitologia Neotropical (27) 181-188
Resplendent Quetzals (Pharomachrus mocinno) inhabit mid to high elevation forests from southern Mexico to Panama. Lipid rich fruits from the Lauraceae family have been found to account for a large proportion of adult diet across their annual life cycle. To better understand the relationship between quetzals and Lauraceae during the...
Application of activity sensors for estimating behavioral patterns
Caleb P. Roberts, James W. Cain III, Robert D. Cox
2016, Wildlife Society Bulletin (40) 764-771
The increasing use of Global Positioning System (GPS) collars in habitat selection studies provides large numbers of precise location data points with reduced field effort. However, inclusion of activity sensors in many GPS collars also grants the potential to remotely estimate behavioral state. Thus, only using GPS collars to collect...
Spatial and ecological variation in dryland ecohydrological responses to climate change: implications for management
Kyle A. Palmquist, Daniel R. Schlaepfer, John B. Bradford, William K. Lauenroth
2016, Ecosphere (7)
Ecohydrological responses to climate change will exhibit spatial variability and understanding the spatial pattern of ecological impacts is critical from a land management perspective. To quantify climate change impacts on spatial patterns of ecohydrology across shrub steppe ecosystems in North America, we asked the following question: How will climate change...
Complete genome sequence of a novel aquareovirus that infects the endangered fountain darter, Etheostoma fonticola
Luke R. Iwanowicz, Deborah D. Iwanowicz, Cynthia R. Adams, Teresa D. Lewis, Thomas M. Brandt, Robert S. Cornman, Lakyn R. Sanders
2016, Genome Announcements (4)
Here, we report the complete genome of a novel aquareovirus isolated from clinically normal fountain darters, Etheostoma fonticola, inhabiting the San Marcos River, Texas, USA. The complete genome consists of 23,958 bp consisting of 11 segments that range from 783 bp (S11) to 3,866 bp (S1)....
Rare alluvial sands of El Monte Valley, California (San Diego County), support high herpetofaunal species richness and diversity, despite severe habitat disturbance
Jonathan Q. Richmond, Carlton J. Rochester, Nathan W. Smith, Jeffrey A. Nordland, Robert N. Fisher
2016, Southwestern Naturalist (61) 294-306
We characterized the species richness, diversity, and distribution of amphibians and reptiles inhabiting El Monte Valley, a heavily disturbed, alluvium-filled basin within the lower San Diego River in Lakeside, California. This rare habitat type in coastal southern California is designated as a critical sand resource by the state of California...
Status of knowledge of the Pallid Sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus albus Forbes and Richardson, 1905)
G. R. Jordan, E.J. Heist, Patrick Braaten, Aaron J. DeLonay, P. Hartfield, D.P. Herzog, K.M. Kappenman, M.A.H. Web
2016, Journal of Applied Ichthyology (32) 191-207
The Pallid Sturgeon is listed as federally endangered under the Endangered Species Act in the United States. When the species was listed in 1990 it was considered extremely rare and was poorly understood. Habitat alteration, commercial harvest, environmental contaminants, and other factors were identified as threats. Today our scientific understanding...
Trading shallow safety for deep sleep: Juvenile green turtles select deeper resting sites as they grow
Kristen M. Hart, Connor F. White, Autumn R. Iverson, Nick Whitney
2016, Endangered Species Research (31) 61-73
To better protect endangered green sea turtles Chelonia mydas, a more thorough understanding of the behaviors of each life stage is needed. Although dive profile analyses obtained using time-depth loggers have provided some insights into habitat use, recent work has shown that more fine-scale monitoring of body movements is needed...
Assessment of trace element accumulation by earthworms in an orchard soil remediation study using soil amendments
Tiziana Centofantia, Rufus L. Chaney, W. Nelson Beyer, Laura L. McConnell, A. P. Davis, Dana Jackson
2016, Water, Air, & Soil Pollution (227)
This study assessed potential bioaccumulation of various trace elements in grasses and earthworms as a consequence of soil incorporation of organic amendments for in situ remediation of an orchard field soil contaminated with organochlorine and Pb pesticide residues. In this experiment, four organic amendments of differing total organic carbon content...
Use of repeat surveys and flow and sediment transport modeling to support fish spawning reef placement in the Detroit River, MI
Paul J. Kinzel, Jonathan M. Nelson, Gregory W. Kennedy, David Bennion
2016, Conference Paper, Proceedings of River Flow 2016
The introduction of rock-rubble substrate in rivers, to enhance fish spawning habitat, represents a significant investment in planning, permitting and construction. Where river processes deposit sediment and cover the substrate, its value as fish spawning habitat can be diminished. Therefore, it is crucial in the site se-lection process, that substrate...
Avoiding decline: Fostering resilience and sustainability in midsize cities
Craig R. Allen, Hannah E. Birge, Shannon Bartelt-Hunt, Rebecca A. Bevans, Jessica Burnett, Barbara Cosens, Ximing Cai, Ahjond S. Garmestani, Igor Linkov, Elizabeth A. Scott, Mark D. Solomon, Daniel R. Uden
2016, Sustainability (8)
Eighty-five percent of United States citizens live in urban areas. However, research surrounding the resilience and sustainability of complex urban systems focuses largely on coastal megacities (>1 million people). Midsize cities differ from their larger counterparts due to tight urban-rural feedbacks with their immediate natural environments that result from heavy...
