Effects of land use and sample location on nitrate-stream flow hysteresis descriptors during storm events
Lawrence S. Feinson, Jacob Gibs, Thomas E. Imbrigiotta, Jessica D. Garrett
2016, Journal of the American Water Resources Association (52) 1493-1508
The U.S. Geological Survey's New Jersey and Iowa Water Science Centers deployed ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometric sensors at water-quality monitoring sites on the Passaic and Pompton Rivers at Two Bridges, New Jersey, on Toms River at Toms River, New Jersey, and on the North Raccoon River near Jefferson, Iowa to continuously measure...
Environmental drivers of differences in microbial community structure in crude oil reservoirs across a methanogenic gradient
Jenna L. Shelton, Denise M. Akob, Jennifer C. McIntosh, Noah Fierer, John R. Spear, Peter D. Warwick, John E. McCray
2016, Frontiers in Microbiology (7)
Stimulating in situ microbial communities in oil reservoirs to produce natural gas is a potentially viable strategy for recovering additional fossil fuel resources following traditional recovery operations. Little is known about what geochemical parameters drive microbial population dynamics in biodegraded, methanogenic oil reservoirs. We investigated if microbial community structure was...
Temperature and hydrology affect methane emissions from Prairie Pothole Wetlands
Sheel Bansal, Brian Tangen, Raymond Finocchiaro
2016, Wetlands (36) 371-381
The Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) in central North America consists of millions of depressional wetlands that each have considerable potential to emit methane (CH4). Changes in temperature and hydrology in the PPR from climate change may affect methane fluxes from these wetlands. To assess the potential effects of changes in...
Filling the interspace—restoring arid land mosses: source populations, organic matter, and overwintering govern success
Lea Condon, David A. Pyke
2016, Ecology and Evolution (6) 7623-7632
Biological soil crusts contribute to ecosystem functions and occupy space that could be available to invasive annual grasses. Given disturbances in the semiarid shrub steppe communities, we embarked on a set of studies to investigate restoration potential of mosses in sagebrush steppe ecosystems. We examined establishment and growth of two...
Effect of land cover change on snow free surface albedo across the continental United States
J. Wickham, M.S. Nash, Christopher A. Barnes
2016, Global and Planetary Change (146) 1-9
Land cover changes (e.g., forest to grassland) affect albedo, and changes in albedo can influence radiative forcing (warming, cooling). We empirically tested albedo response to land cover change for 130 locations across the continental United States using high resolution (30 m-×-30 m) land cover change data and moderate resolution (~ 500 m-×-500 m) albedo data....
Spatial prediction of wheat Septoria leaf blotch (Septoria tritici) disease severity in central Ethiopia
Tewodros Wakie, Sunil Kumar, Gabriel B. Senay, Abera Takele, Alemu Lencho
2016, Ecological Informatics (36) 15-30
A number of studies have reported the presence of wheat septoria leaf blotch (Septoria tritici; SLB) disease in Ethiopia. However, the environmental factors associated with SLB disease, and areas under risk of SLB disease, have not been studied. Here, we tested the hypothesis that environmental variables can adequately explain observed...
New findings of twisted-wing parasites (Strepsiptera) in Alaska
Molly Mcdermott
2016, Newsletter of the Alaska Entomological Society (9) 6-8
Strepsipterans are a group of insects with a gruesome life history and an enigmatic evolutionary past. Called ‘twisted-wing parasites’, they are minute parasitoids with a very distinct morphology (Figure 1). Alternatively thought to be related to ichneumon wasps, Diptera (flies), Coleoptera (beetles), and even Neuroptera (net-winged insects) (Pohl and Beutel,...
A brackish diatom, Pseudofrustulia lancea gen. et sp. nov. (Bacillariophyceae), from the Pacific coast of Oregon (USA)
Yuki Sawai, Tamotsu Nagumo, Alan R. Nelson
2016, Phytotaxa (267) 103-112
Light and electron microscope observations show that a brackish diatom taxon should be classified as a new species of a new genus; Pseudofrustulia lancea gen. et sp. nov. We propose separating Pseudofrustulia from other similar genera such as Frickea, Frustulia, Amphipleura, Muelleria, and Envekadea on the basis of its thickened...
Evaluation of fisher (Pekania pennanti) restoration in Olympic National Park and the Olympic Recovery Area: 2015 final annual progress report
Patricia J. Happe, Kurt J. Jenkins, Thomas J. Kay, Kristie Pilgrim, Michael K. Schwartz, Jeffrey C. Lewis, Keith B. Aubry
2016, Natural Resource Report NPS/OLYM/NRR—2016/1274
With the translocation and release of 90 fishers (Pekania pennanti) from British Columbia to Olympic National Park during 2008–2010, the National Park Service (NPS) and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) accomplished the first phase of fisher restoration in Washington State. Beginning in 2013, we initiated a new research...
Microrefuges and the occurrence of thermal specialists: implications for wildlife persistence amidst changing temperatures
L. Embere Hall, Anna D. Chalfoun, Erik A. Beever, Anne E. Loosen
2016, Climate Change Responses (3) 1-12
BackgroundContemporary climate change is affecting nearly all biomes, causing shifts in animal distributions, phenology, and persistence. Favorable microclimates may buffer organisms against rapid changes in climate, thereby allowing time for populations to adapt. The degree to which microclimates facilitate the local persistence of climate-sensitive species,...
Static and dynamic controls on fire activity at moderate spatial and temporal scales in the Alaskan boreal forest
Kirsten Barrett, Tatiana Loboda, A. David McGuire, Hélène Genet, Elizabeth Hoy, Eric Kasischke
2016, Ecosphere (7) 1-21
Wildfire, a dominant disturbance in boreal forests, is highly variable in occurrence and behavior at multiple spatiotemporal scales. New data sets provide more detailed spatial and temporal observations of active fires and the post-burn environment in Alaska. In this study, we employ some of these new data to analyze variations...
Chemical and isotopic changes in Williston Basin brines during long-term oil production: An example from the Poplar dome, Montana
Zell E. Peterman, Joanna N. Thamke
2016, AAPG Bulletin (100) 1619-1632
Brine samples were collected from 30 conventional oil wells producing mostly from the Charles Formation of the Madison Group in the East and Northwest Poplar oil fields on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, Montana. Dissolved concentrations of major ions, trace metals, Sr isotopes, and stable isotopes (oxygen and hydrogen) were...
Application of decision science to resilience management in Jamaica Bay
Mitchell J. Eaton, Angela K. Fuller, Fred A. Johnson, M. P. Hare, Richard C. Stedman
E.W. Sanderson, W. D. Solecki, J.R. Waldman, A. S. Paris, editor(s)
2016, Book chapter, Prospects for resilience: Insights from New York City's Jamaica Bay
This book highlights the growing interest in management interventions designed to enhance the resilience of the Jamaica Bay socio-ecological system. Effective management, whether the focus is on managing biological processes or human behavior or (most likely) both, requires decision makers to anticipate how the managed system will respond to...
Past and predicted future effects of housing growth on open space conservation opportunity areas and habitat connectivity around National Wildlife Refuges
Christopher M. Hamilton, Matthias Baumann, Anna M. Pidgeon, David P. Helmers, Wayne E. Thogmartin, Patricia J. Heglund, Volker C. Radeloff
2016, Landscape Ecology (31) 2175-2186
ContextHousing growth can alter suitability of matrix habitats around protected areas, strongly affecting movements of organisms and, consequently, threatening connectivity of protected area networks.ObjectivesOur goal was to quantify distribution and growth of housing around the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service...
Sagebrush, greater sage-grouse, and the occurrence and importance of forbs
Victoria E. Pennington, Daniel R. Schlaepfer, Jeffrey L. Beck, John B. Bradford, Kyle A. Palmquist, William K. Lauenroth
2016, Western North American Naturalist (76) 298-312
Big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata Nutt.) ecosystems provide habitat for sagebrush-obligate wildlife species such as the Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus). The understory of big sagebrush plant communities is composed of grasses and forbs that are important sources of cover and food for wildlife. The grass component is well described in the...
Do rivermouths alter nutrient and seston delivery to the nearshore?
James H. Larson, Paul C. Frost, Jon M. Vallazza, John C. Nelson, William B. Richardson
2016, Freshwater Biology (61) 1935-1949
Tributary inputs to lakes and seas are often measured at riverine gages, upstream of lentic influence. Between these riverine gages and the nearshore zones of large waterbodies lie rivermouths, which may retain, transform and contribute materials to the nearshore zone. However, the magnitude and timing of these...
Land–atmosphere feedbacks amplify aridity increase over land under global warming
Alexis Berg, Kirsten Findell, Benjamin Lintner, Alessandra Giannini, Sonia I. Seneviratne, Bart van den Hurk, Ruth Lorenz, Andy Pitman, Stefan Hagemann, Arndt Meier, Frederique Cheruy, Agnes Ducharne, Sergey Malyshev, Paul C. D. Milly
2016, Nature Climate Change (6) 869-874
The response of the terrestrial water cycle to global warming is central to issues including water resources, agriculture and ecosystem health. Recent studies indicate that aridity, defined in terms of atmospheric supply (precipitation, P) and demand (potential evapotranspiration, Ep) of water at the land surface, will increase globally in a...
Chronic wasting disease in white-tailed deer: Infection, mortality, and implications for heterogeneous transmission
Michael D. Samuel, Daniel J. Storm
2016, Ecology (97) 3195-3205
Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease affecting free-ranging and captive cervids that now occurs in 24 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces. Despite the potential threat of CWD to deer populations, little is known about the rates of infection and mortality caused by this disease. We used...
Calibrated acoustic emission system records M -3.5 to M -8 events generated on a saw-cut granite sample
Gregory C. McLaskey, David A. Lockner
2016, Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering (49) 4527-4536
Acoustic emission (AE) analyses have been used for decades for rock mechanics testing, but because AE systems are not typically calibrated, the absolute sizes of dynamic microcrack growth and other physical processes responsible for the generation of AEs are poorly constrained. We describe a calibration technique for the AE recording...
Mid-21st-century climate changes increase predicted fire occurrence and fire season length, Northern Rocky Mountains, United States
Karin L. Riley, Rachel A. Loehman
2016, Ecosphere (7)
Climate changes are expected to increase fire frequency, fire season length, and cumulative area burned in the western United States. We focus on the potential impact of mid-21st-century climate changes on annual burn probability, fire season length, and large fire characteristics including number and size for a study area in...
A glacier runoff extension to the Precipitation Runoff Modeling System
Ashley E. Van Beusekom, Roland J. Viger
2016, Journal of Geophysical Research F: Earth Surface (121) 2001-2021
A module to simulate glacier runoff, PRMSglacier, was added to PRMS (Precipitation Runoff Modeling System), a distributed-parameter, physical-process hydrological simulation code. The extension does not require extensive on-glacier measurements or computational expense but still relies on physical principles over empirical relations as much as is feasible while maintaining model usability....
Annual elk calf survival in a multiple carnivore system
Daniel R. Eacker, Mark Hebblewhite, Kelly M. Proffitt, Benjamin S. Jimenez, Michael S. Mitchell, Hugh S. Robinson
2016, Journal of Wildlife Management (80) 1345-1359
The realized effect of multiple carnivores on juvenile ungulate recruitment may depend on the carnivore assemblage as well as compensation from forage and winter weather severity, which may mediate juvenile vulnerability to predation in ungulates. We used a time-to-event approach to test for the effects of risk factors on annual...
Active faulting on the Wallula fault zone within the Olympic-Wallowa lineament, Washington State, USA
Brian L. Sherrod, Richard J. Blakely, John P. Lasher, Andrew P. Lamb, Shannon A. Mahan, Franklin F. Foit, Elizabeth Barnett
2016, GSA Bulletin (128) 1636-1659
The Wallula fault zone is an integral feature of the Olympic-Wallowa lineament, an ∼500-km-long topographic lineament oblique to the Cascadia plate boundary, extending from Vancouver Island, British Columbia, to Walla Walla, Washington. The structure and past earthquake activity of the Wallula fault zone are important because of nearby infrastructure, and...
Age, distribution and style of deformation in Alaska north of 60°N: Implications for assembly of Alaska
Thomas E. Moore, Stephen E. Box
2016, Tectonophysics (691) 133-170
The structural architecture of Alaska is the product of a complex history of deformation along both the Cordilleran and Arctic margins of North America involving oceanic plates, subduction zones and strike-slip faults and with continental elements of Laurentia, Baltica, and Siberia. We use geological constraints to assign regions of deformation...
Estimation of time-variable fast flow path chemical concentrations for application in tracer-based hydrograph separation analyses
Scott C. Kronholm, Paul D. Capel
2016, Water Resources Research (52) 6881-6896
Mixing models are a commonly used method for hydrograph separation, but can be hindered by the subjective choice of the end-member tracer concentrations. This work tests a new variant of mixing model that uses high-frequency measures of two tracers and streamflow to separate total streamflow into water from slowflow and...
