Prediction of pesticide toxicity in Midwest streams
Megan E. Shoda, Wesley W. Stone, Lisa H. Nowell
2016, Journal of Environmental Quality (45) 1856-1864
The occurrence of pesticide mixtures is common in stream waters of the United States, and the impact of multiple compounds on aquatic organisms is not well understood. Watershed Regressions for Pesticides (WARP) models were developed to predict Pesticide Toxicity Index (PTI) values in unmonitored streams in the Midwest and are...
A suspended dive-net technique for catching territorial divers
Brian D. Uher-Koch, Daniel Rizzolo, Kenneth G. Wright, Joel A. Schmutz
2016, Ringing and Migration (31) 19-22
A variety of methods such as night-lighting and lift nets have been used to catch divers (Gavidae), although 24-hour daylight in the Arctic summer and the remote nature of field sites can make the use of these traditional methods impossible. Our research required capture of adult divers at remote locations...
Migratory bird habitat in relation to tile drainage and poorly drained hydrologic soil groups
Brandi Kastner, Victoria G. Christensen, Tanja N. Williamson, Christopher A. Sanocki
2016, Conference Paper, 10th International Drainage Symposium Conference
The Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) is home to more than 50% of the migratory waterfowl in North America. Although the PPR provides an abundance of temporary and permanent wetlands for nesting and feeding, increases in commodity prices and agricultural drainage practices have led to a trend of wetland drainage. The...
Do water level fluctuations influence production of walleye and yellow perch young-of-the-year in large northern lakes?
James H. Larson, David F. Staples, Ryan P. Maki, Jon M. Vallazza, Brent C. Knights, Kevin E. Peterson
2016, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (36) 1425-1436
Many ecological processes depend on the regular rise and fall of water levels (WLs), and artificial manipulations to WL regimes can impair important ecosystem services. Previous research has suggested that differences in WL between late summer and early spring may alter the suitability of shoals used by Walleyes Sander vitreus...
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...
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...
Evaluation of gas production potential from gas hydrate deposits in National Petroleum Reserve Alaska using numerical simulations
Manish S. Nandanwar, Brian J. Anderson, Taiwo Ajayi, Timothy S. Collett, Margarita V. Zyrianova
2016, Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering (36) 760-772
An evaluation of the gas production potential of Sunlight Peak gas hydrate accumulation in the eastern portion of the National Petroleum Reserve Alaska (NPRA) of Alaska North Slope (ANS) is conducted using numerical simulations, as part of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) gas hydrate Life Cycle Assessment program. A field...
Regional meteorological drivers and long term trends of winter-spring nitrate dynamics across watersheds in northeastern North America
Jill Crossman, M Catherine Eimers, Nora J. Casson, Douglas A. Burns, John L. Campbell, Gene E Likens, Myron J Mitchell, Sarah J. Nelson, James B. Shanley, Shaun A. Watmough, Kara L Webster
2016, Biogeochemistry (130) 247-265
This study evaluated the contribution of winter rain-on-snow (ROS) events to annual and seasonal nitrate (N-NO3) export and identified the regional meteorological drivers of inter-annual variability in ROS N-NO3 export (ROS-N) at 9 headwater streams located across Ontario, Canada and the northeastern United States. Although on average only 3.3 %...
Effectiveness of vegetation buffers surrounding playa wetlands at contaminant and sediment amelioration
David A. Haukos, Lacrecia A. Johnson, Loren M. Smith, Scott T. McMurry
2016, Journal of Environmental Management (181) 552-562
Playa wetlands, the dominant hydrological feature of the semi-arid U.S. High Plains providing critical ecosystem services, are being lost and degraded due to anthropogenic alterations of the short-grass prairie landscape. The primary process contributing to the loss of playas is filling of the wetland through accumulation of soil eroded and...
Effects of model complexity and priors on estimation using sequential importance sampling/resampling for species conservation
Kylee Dunham, J. Barry Grand
2016, Ecological Modelling (340) 28-36
We examined the effects of complexity and priors on the accuracy of models used to estimate ecological and observational processes, and to make predictions regarding population size and structure. State-space models are useful for estimating complex, unobservable population processes and making predictions about future populations based on limited data. To...
Organizing environmental flow frameworks to meet hydropower mitigation needs
Ryan A. McManamay, Shannon K. Brewer, Henriette Jager, Matthew J. Troia
2016, Environmental Management (58) 365-385
The global recognition of the importance of natural flow regimes to sustain the ecological integrity of river systems has led to increased societal pressure on the hydropower industry to change plant operations to improve downstream aquatic ecosystems. However, a complete reinstatement of natural flow regimes is often unrealistic when balancing...
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...
King Rail (Rallus elegans) Nesting and Brood Rearing Ecology at Red Slough WMA, SE Oklahoma
David G. Krementz, Karen L. Willard, M. Carroll, Katie M. Dugger
2016, Waterbirds (39) 241-249
Phenology of the adult angel lichen moth (Cisthene angelus) in Grand Canyon, USA
Anya N. Metcalfe, Theodore A. Kennedy, Jeffrey D. Muehlbauer
2016, Southwestern Naturalist (61) 233-240
We investigated the phenology of adult angel lichen moths (Cisthene angelus) along a 364-km long segment of the Colorado River in Grand Canyon, Arizona, USA, using a unique data set of 2,437 light-trap samples collected by citizen scientists. We found that adults of C. angelus were bivoltine from 2012 to...
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...
Direct photolysis rates and transformation pathways of the lampricides TFM and niclosamide in simulated sunlight
Megan B. McConville, Terrance D. Hubert, Christina K. Remucal
2016, Environmental Science & Technology (50) 9998-10006
The lampricides 3-trifluoromethyl-4-nitrophenol (TFM) and 2′,5-dichloro-4′-nitrosalicylanilide (niclosamide) are directly added to many tributaries of the Great Lakes that harbor the invasive parasitic sea lamprey. Despite their long history of use, the fate of lampricides is not well understood. This study evaluates the rate and pathway of direct photodegradation of both...
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....
Analyses of infrequent (quasi-decadal) large groundwater recharge events in the northern Great Basin: Their importance for groundwater availability, use, and management
Melissa D. Masbruch, Christine Rumsey, Subhrendu Gangopadhyay, David D. Susong, Tom Pruitt
2016, Water Resources Research (52) 7819-7836
There has been a considerable amount of research linking climatic variability to hydrologic responses in the western United States. Although much effort has been spent to assess and predict changes in surface water resources, little has been done to understand how climatic events and changes affect groundwater resources. This study...
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...
Water clarity of the Colorado River—Implications for food webs and fish communities
Nicholas Voichick, Theodore A. Kennedy, David J. Topping, Ronald E. Griffiths, Kyrie Fry
2016, Fact Sheet 2016-3053
The closure of Glen Canyon Dam in 1963 resulted in drastic changes to water clarity, temperature, and flow of the Colorado River in Glen, Marble, and Grand Canyons. The Colorado River is now much clearer, water temperature is less variable throughout the year, and the river is much colder in...
Bedrock morphology and structure, upper Santa Cruz Basin, south-central Arizona, with transient electromagnetic survey data
Mark W. Bultman, William R. Page
2016, Open-File Report 2016-1152
The upper Santa Cruz Basin is an important groundwater basin containing the regional aquifer for the city of Nogales, Arizona. This report provides data and interpretations of data aimed at better understanding the bedrock morphology and structure of the upper Santa Cruz Basin study area which encompasses the Rio Rico...
Time-lapse gravity data for monitoring and modeling artificial recharge through a thick unsaturated zone
Jeffrey R. Kennedy, Ty P.A. Ferre, Benjamin Creutzfeldt
2016, Water Resources Research (52) 7244-7261
Groundwater-level measurements in monitoring wells or piezometers are the most common, and often the only, hydrologic measurements made at artificial recharge facilities. Measurements of gravity change over time provide an additional source of information about changes in groundwater storage, infiltration, and for model calibration. We demonstrate that for an artificial...
Bayesian cross-validation for model evaluation and selection, with application to the North American Breeding Bird Survey
William A. Link, John R. Sauer
2016, Ecology (97) 1746-1758
The analysis of ecological data has changed in two important ways over the last 15 years. The development and easy availability of Bayesian computational methods has allowed and encouraged the fitting of complex hierarchical models. At the same time, there has been increasing emphasis on acknowledging and accounting for model uncertainty....
Uncertainty in biological monitoring: a framework for data collection and analysis to account for multiple sources of sampling bias
Viviana Ruiz-Gutierrez, Melvin B. Hooten, Evan H. Campbell Grant
2016, Methods in Ecology and Evolution (7) 900-909
Biological monitoring programmes are increasingly relying upon large volumes of citizen-science data to improve the scope and spatial coverage of information, challenging the scientific community to develop design and model-based approaches to improve inference.Recent statistical models in ecology have been developed to accommodate false-negative errors, although current...
A downstream voyage with mercury
Gary Heinz
2016, Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology (97) 591-592
Retrospective essay for the Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology.As I look back on my paper, “Effects of Low Dietary Levels of Methyl Mercury on Mallard Reproduction,” published in 1974 in the Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, a thought sticks in my mind. I realize just how much...
