The effect of restored and native oxbows on hydraulic loads of nutrients and stream water quality
Stephen J. Kalkhoff, Laura E. Hubbard, Joseph P.Schubauer-Berigan
2016, Report
The use of oxbow wetlands has been identified as a potential strategy to reduce nutrient transport from agricultural drainage tiles to streams in Iowa. In 2013 and 2014, a study was conducted in north-central Iowa in a native oxbow in the Lyons Creek watershed and two restored oxbow wetlands in...
The timing of compositionally-zoned magma reservoirs and mafic 'priming' weeks before the 1912 Novarupta-Katmai rhyolite eruption
Brad S. Singer, Fidel Costa, Jason S. Herrin, Wes Hildreth, Judith Fierstein
2016, Earth and Planetary Science Letters (451) 125-137
The June 6, 1912 eruption of more than 13 km3 of dense rock equivalent (DRE) magma at Novarupta vent, Alaska was the largest of the 20th century. It ejected >7 km3 of rhyolite, ~1.3 km3 of andesite and ~4.6 km3 of dacite. Early ideas about the origin of pyroclastic flows...
Book review: Foundations of wildlife diseases
Charles van Riper III
2016, Journal of Wildlife Diseases (52) 976-979
A new textbook for practitioners and students of wildlife disease is available. Rick Botzler and Richard Brown have provided an excellent addition to the wildlife disease literature with Foundations of Wildlife Diseases. It has been 8 years since the last major wildlife disease book (Wobeser 2006),...
Expert elicitation of population-level effects of disturbance
Erica Fleishman, Mark Burgman, Michael C. Runge, Robert S Schick, Scott Krauss
Arthur N. Popper, Anthony Hawkins, editor(s)
2016, Book chapter, The effects of noise on aquatic life II
Expert elicitation is a rigorous method for synthesizing expert knowledge to inform decision making and is reliable and practical when field data are limited. We evaluated the feasibility of applying expert elicitation to estimate population-level effects of disturbance on marine mammals. Diverse experts estimated parameters related to mortality and sublethal...
Validation of a side-scan sonar method for quantifying walleye spawning habitat availability in the littoral zone of northern Wisconsin Lakes
Jacob T. Richter, Brian L. Sloss, Daniel A. Isermann
2016, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (36) 942-950
Previous research has generally ignored the potential effects of spawning habitat availability and quality on recruitment of Walleye Sander vitreus, largely because information on spawning habitat is lacking for many lakes. Furthermore, traditional transect-based methods used to describe habitat are time and labor intensive. Our objectives were to determine if...
Influence of glacier runoff on ecosystem structure in Gulf of Alaska fjords
Mayumi L. Arimitsu, John F. Piatt, Franz J. Mueter
2016, Marine Ecology Progress Series (560) 19-40
To better understand the influence of glacier runoff on fjord ecosystems, we sampled oceanographic conditions, nutrients, zooplankton, forage fish and seabirds within 4 fjords in coastal areas of the Gulf Alaska. We used generalized additive models and geostatistics to identify the range of glacier runoff influence into coastal waters within...
Late Oligocene to present contractional structure in and around the Susitna basin, Alaska—Geophysical evidence and geological implications
Richard W. Saltus, Richard G. Stanley, Peter J. Haeussler, James V. Jones III, Christopher J. Potter, Kristen A. Lewis
2016, Geosphere (12) 1378-1390
The Cenozoic Susitna basin lies within an enigmatic lowland surrounded by the Central Alaska Range, Western Alaska Range (including the Tordrillo Mountains), and Talkeetna Mountains in south-central Alaska. Some previous interpretations show normal faults as the defining structures of the basin (e.g., Kirschner, 1994). However, analysis of new and existing...
Nannoplankton malformation during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum and its paleoecological and paleoceanographic significance
Timothy J. Bralower, Jean Self-Trail
2016, Paleoceanography (31) 1423-1439
The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) is characterized by a transient group of nannoplankton, belonging to the genus Discoaster. Our investigation of expanded shelf sections provides unprecedented detail of the morphology and phylogeny of the transient Discoasterduring the PETM and their relationship with environmental change. We observe a much larger range...
DOM composition and transformation in boreal forest soils: The effects of temperature and organic-horizon decomposition state
Jonathan A. O’Donnell, George R. Aiken, Kenna D. Butler, Francois Guillemette, David C. Podgorski, Robert G. M. Spencer
2016, Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences (121) 2727-2744
The boreal region stores large amounts of organic carbon (C) in organic-soil horizons, which are vulnerable to destabilization via warming and disturbance. Decomposition of soil organic matter (SOM) contributes to the production and turnover of dissolved organic matter (DOM). While temperature is a primary control on rates of SOM and...
Effects of lake trout refuges on lake whitefish and cisco in the Apostle Islands Region of Lake Superior
Chiara M. Zuccarino-Crowe, William W. Taylor, Michael J. Hansen, Michael J. Seider, Charles C. Krueger
2016, Journal of Great Lakes Research (42) 1092-1101
Lake trout refuges in the Apostle Islands region of Lake Superior are analogous to the concept of marine protected areas. These refuges, established specifically for lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) and closed to most forms of recreational and commercial fishing, were implicated as one of several management actions leading to successful...
Trends in mercury wet deposition and mercury air concentrations across the U.S. and Canada
Peter S. Weiss-Penzias, David A. Gay, Mark E. Brigham, Matthew T. Parsons, Mae S. Gustin, Arnout ter Shure
2016, Science of the Total Environment (568) 546-556
This study examined the spatial and temporal trends of mercury (Hg) in wet deposition and air concentrations in the United States (U.S.) and Canada between 1997 and 2013. Data were obtained from the National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP) and Environment Canada monitoring networks, and other...
Blood serum chemistry of wild Alaskan Black-capped Chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) with avian keratin disorder
Caroline R. Van Hemert, Colleen M. Handel
2016, Journal of Wildlife Diseases (52) 927-930
We measured serum chemistries in wild Black-capped Chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) from Alaska to test for potential differences associated with beak deformities characteristic of avian keratin disorder. Lower uric acid in affected birds was the only difference detected between groups, although sample sizes were small. This difference could be associated with...
Species traits and catchment-scale habitat factors influence the occurrence of freshwater mussel populations and assemblages
Tamara J. Pandolfo, Thomas J. Kwak, W. Gregory Cope, Ryan J. Heise, Robert B. Nichols, Krishna Pacifici
2016, Freshwater Biology (61) 1671-1684
Conservation of freshwater unionid mussels presents unique challenges due to their distinctive life cycle, cryptic occurrence and imperilled status. Relevant ecological information is urgently needed to guide their management and conservation.We adopted a modelling approach, which is a novel application to freshwater mussels to enhance inference on...
Determining the flux of methane into Hudson Canyon at the edge of methane clathrate hydrate stability
A. Weinsten, L Navarrete, Carolyn D. Ruppel, T.C. Weber, M. Leonte, M. Kellermann, E. Arrington, D.L. Valentine, M.L Scranton, John D. Kessler
2016, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems (17) 3882-3892
Methane seeps were investigated in Hudson Canyon, the largest shelf-break canyon on the northern US Atlantic Margin. The seeps investigated are located at or updip of the nominal limit of methane clathrate hydrate stability. The acoustic identification of bubble streams was used to guide water column sampling in a 32...
Potential interactions among disease, pesticides, water quality and adjacent land cover in amphibian habitats in the United States
William A. Battaglin, Kelly L. Smalling, Chauncey W. Anderson, Daniel L. Calhoun, Tara E. Chestnut, Erin L. Muths
2016, Science of the Total Environment (566-567) 320-332
To investigate interactions among disease, pesticides, water quality, and adjacent land cover, we collected samples of water, sediment, and frog tissue from 21 sites in 7 States in the United States (US) representing a variety of amphibian habitats. All samples were analyzed for > 90 pesticides and pesticide degradates, and...
Climate change and indigenous peoples: A synthesis of current impacts and experiences
Kathryn Norton-Smith, Kathy Lynn, Karletta Chief, Karen Cozetto, Jamie Donatuto, Margaret Hiza, Linda Kruger, Julie Maldonado, Carson Viles, Kyle P. Whyte
2016, General Technical Report PNW-GTR-944
A growing body of literature examines the vulnerability, risk, resilience, and adaptation of indigenous peoples to climate change. This synthesis of literature brings together research pertaining to the impacts of climate change on sovereignty, culture, health, and economies that are currently being experienced by Alaska Native and American Indian tribes...
Estimating mercury emissions resulting from wildfire in forests of the Western United States
Jackson P. Webster, Tyler J. Kane, Daniel Obrist, Joseph N. Ryan, George R. Aiken
2016, Science of Total Environment (568) 578-586
Understanding the emissions of mercury (Hg) from wildfires is important for quantifying the global atmospheric Hg sources. Emissions of Hg from soils resulting from wildfires in the Western United States was estimated for the 2000 to 2013 period, and the potential emission of Hg from forest soils was assessed as...
Undergraduate research projects help promote diversity in the geosciences
De’Etra Young, Shannon Trimboli, Rick S. Toomey, Thomas D. Byl
2016, Conference Paper, Proceedings for Celebrating the Diversity of Research in the Mammoth Cave Region: 11th Research Symposium at Mammoth Cave National Park
A workforce that draws from all segments of society and mirrors the ethnic, racial, and gender diversity of the United States population is important. The geosciences (geology, hydrology, geospatial sciences, environmental sciences) continue to lag far behind other science, technology, engineering and mathematical (STEM) disciplines in recruiting and retaining minorities (Valsco and Valsco, 2010)....
Integrating seasonal information on nutrients and benthic algal biomass into stream water quality monitoring
Christopher P. Konrad, Mark D. Munn
2016, Journal of the American Water Resources Association (52) 1223-1237
Benthic chlorophyll a (BChl a) and environmental factors that influence algal biomass were measured monthly from February through October in 22 streams from three agricultural regions of the United States. At-site maximum BChl a ranged from 14 to 406 mg/m2 and generally varied with dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN): 8 out of...
Long-term deer exclusion has complex effects on a suburban forest understory
Edward K. Faison, David R. Foster, Stephen DeStefano
2016, Rhodora (118) 382-402
Herbivory by deer is one of the leading biotic disturbances on forest understories (i.e., herbs, small shrubs, and small tree seedlings). A large body of research has reported declines in height, abundance, and reproductive capacity of forbs and woody plants coupled with increases in abundance of graminoids, ferns, and exotic...
Transformative environmental governance
Brian C. Chaffin, Ahjond S. Garmestani, Lance H. Gunderson, Melinda Harm Benson, David G. Angeler, Craig Anthony Arnold, Barbara Cosens, Robin Kundis Craig, J.B. Ruhl, Craig R. Allen
2016, Annual Review of Environment and Resources (41) 399-423
Transformative governance is an approach to environmental governance that has the capacity to respond to, manage, and trigger regime shifts in coupled social-ecological systems (SESs) at multiple scales. The goal of transformative governance is to actively shift degraded SESs to alternative, more desirable, or more functional regimes by altering the...
Linking field-based metabolomics and chemical analyses to prioritize contaminants of emerging concern in the Great Lakes basin
John M. Davis, Drew R. Ekman, Quincy Teng, Gerald T. Ankley, Jason P. Berninger, Jenna E. Cavallin, Kathleen M. Jensen, Michael D. Kahl, Anthony L. Schroeder, Daniel L. Villeneuve, Zachary G. Jorgenson, Kathy Lee, Timothy W. Collette
2016, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (35) 2493-2502
The ability to focus on the most biologically relevant contaminants affecting aquatic ecosystems can be challenging because toxicity-assessment programs have not kept pace with the growing number of contaminants requiring testing. Because it has proven effective at assessing the biological impacts of potentially toxic contaminants, profiling of endogenous metabolites (metabolomics)...
Inter-comparison of three-dimensional models of volcanic plumes
Yujiro Suzuki, Antonio Costa, Matteo Cerminara, Tomaso Esposti Ongaro, Michael Herzog, Alexa R. Van Eaton, Leif Denby
2016, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research (326) 26-42
We performed an inter-comparison study of three-dimensional models of volcanic plumes. A set of common volcanological input parameters and meteorological conditions were provided for two kinds of eruptions, representing a weak and a strong eruption column. From the different models, we compared the maximum plume height, neutral buoyancy level (where...
Forecasting climate change impacts on plant populations over large spatial extents
Andrew T. Tredennick, Mevin Hooten, Cameron L. Aldridge, Collin G. Homer, Andrew R. Kleinhesselink, Peter B. Adler
2016, Ecosphere (7)
Plant population models are powerful tools for predicting climate change impacts in one location, but are difficult to apply at landscape scales. We overcome this limitation by taking advantage of two recent advances: remotely sensed, species-specific estimates of plant cover and statistical models developed for spatiotemporal dynamics of animal populations....
A Lota lota consumption: Trophic dynamics of nonnative Burbot in a valuable sport fishery
Stephen L. Klobucar, W. Carl Saunders, Phaedra E. Budy
2016, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (145) 1386-1398
Unintentional and illegal introductions of species disrupt food webs and threaten the success of managed sport fisheries. Although many populations of Burbot Lota lota are declining in the species’ native range, a nonnative population recently expanded into Flaming Gorge Reservoir (FGR), Wyoming–Utah, and threatens to disrupt predator–prey interactions within this popular sport...
