New insights into the Edwards Aquifer—Brackish-water simulation, drought, and the role of uncertainty analysis
Linzy K. Foster, Jeremy T. White
2016, Fact Sheet 2016-3002
The Edwards aquifer is an important water resource in south-central Texas, providing water for residents, businesses, and ecosystems. The aquifer is a highly complex karst system characterized by areas of rapid groundwater flow, faulted and fractured Cretaceous-age rocks, and multiple water-quality zones. Karst aquifer systems include soluble rocks such as...
Toward a national animal telemetry network for aquatic observations in the United States
Barbara A. Block, Christopher Holbrook, Samantha E. Simmons, Kim N Holland, Jerald S. Ault, Daniel P. Costa, Bruce R Mate, Andrew C. Seitz, Michael D. Arendt, John Payne, Behzad Mahmoudi, Peter L. Moore, James Price, J. J. Levenson, Doug Wilson, Randall E Kochevar
2016, Animal Biotelemetry (4)
Animal telemetry is the science of elucidating the movements and behavior of animals in relation to their environment or habitat. Here, we focus on telemetry of aquatic species (marine mammals, sharks, fish, sea birds and turtles) and so are concerned with animal movements and behavior as they move through and...
Plastic pikas: Behavioural flexibility in low-elevation pikas (Ochotona princeps)
Johanna Varner, Joshua J. Horns, Mallory S. Lambert, Elizabeth Westberg, James Ruff, Katelyn Wolfenberger, Erik A. Beever, M. Denise Dearing
2016, Behavioural Processes (125) 63-71
Behaviour is an important mechanism for accommodating rapid environmental changes. Understanding a species’ capacity for behavioural plasticity is therefore a key, but understudied, aspect of developing tractable conservation and management plans under climate-change scenarios. Here, we quantified behavioural differences between American pikas (Ochotona princeps) living in an atypical, low-elevation habitat...
Quality of surface-water supplies in the Triangle area of North Carolina, water years 2010-11
C.A. Pfeifle, J.L. Cain, R.B. Rasmussen
2016, Open-File Report 2016-1002
Surface-water supplies are important sources of drinking water for residents in the Triangle area of North Carolina, which is located within the upper Cape Fear and Neuse River Basins. Since 1988, the U.S. Geological Survey and a consortium of local governments have tracked water-quality conditions and trends in several of...
Colored dissolved organic matter in shallow estuaries: relationships between carbon sources and light attenuation
W.K. Oestreich, Neil K. Ganju, John W. Pohlman, Steven E. Suttles
2016, Biogeosciences (13) 583-595
Light availability is of primary importance to the ecological function of shallow estuaries. For example, benthic primary production by submerged aquatic vegetation is contingent upon light penetration to the seabed. A major component that attenuates light in estuaries is colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM). CDOM is often measured via...
Life history of the vulnerable endemic crayfish Cambarus (Erebicambarus) maculatus Hobbs and Pflieger, 1988 (Decapoda: Astacoidea: Cambaridae) in Missouri, USA
Robert J. DiStefano, Jacob T. Westhoff, Catlin W. Ames, Amanda E. Rosenberger
2016, Journal of Crustacean Biology (36) 615-627
The vulnerable freckled crayfish, Cambarus maculatus Hobbs and Pflieger, 1988, is endemic to only one drainage in eastern Missouri, USA, which is impacted by heavy metals mining and adjacent to a rapidly-expanding urban area. We studied populations of C. maculatus in...
Rock-avalanche dynamics revealed by large-scale field mapping and seismic signals at a highly mobile avalanche in the West Salt Creek valley, western Colorado
Jeffrey A. Coe, Rex L. Baum, Kate E. Allstadt, Bernard Kochevar, Robert G. Schmitt, Matthew L. Morgan, Jonathan L. White, Benjamin T. Stratton, Timothy A. Hayashi, Jason W. Kean
2016, Geosphere (12) 607-631
On 25 May 2014, a rain-on-snow–induced rock avalanche occurred in the West Salt Creek valley on the northern flank of Grand Mesa in western Colorado (United States). The avalanche mobilized from a preexisting rock slide in the Green River Formation and traveled 4.6 km down the confined valley, killing three...
A replacement name for Asthenes wyatti perijanus Phelps 1977
R. Terry Chesser
2016, Zootaxa (4067) 599
A recent near-complete phylogeny of the avian family Furnariidae (Derryberry et al. 2011) found a number of discrepancies between the phylogeny and the then-current taxonomy of the group, and several changes were proposed to reconcile the taxonomy of the family with the phylogeny. Among these was the merging of the...
From tails to toes: developing nonlethal tissue indicators of mercury exposure in five amphibian species
Adam Z. Pfleeger, Collin A. Eagles-Smith, Brandon M. Kowalski, Garth Herring, James J. Willacker, Allyson K. Jackson, John Pierce
2016, Ecotoxicology (25) 574-583
Exposure to environmental contaminants has been implicated as a factor in global amphibian decline. Mercury (Hg) is a particularly widespread contaminant that biomagnifies in amphibians and can cause a suite of deleterious effects. However, monitoring contaminant exposure in amphibian tissues may conflict with conservation goals if lethal take is required....
Life history differences between fat and lean morphs of lake charr (Salvelinus namaycush) in Great Slave Lake, Northwest Territories, Canada
Michael J. Hansen, Nancy A. Nate, Louise Chavarie, Andrew M. Muir, Mara S. Zimmerman, Charles C. Krueger
2016, Hydrobiologia (783) 21-35
Life history characteristics (size, age, plumpness, buoyancy, survival, growth, and maturity) were compared between fat and lean morphs of lake charr Salvelinus namaycush in Great Slave Lake, Canada, to determine if differences may reflect effects of resource polymorphism. Lake charr were sampled using graded-mesh gill nets set in three depth...
Identification and dating of indigenous water storage reservoirs along the Rio San José at Laguna Pueblo, western New Mexico, USA
Gary Huckleberry, T.J. Ferguson, Tammy M. Rittenour, Chris Banet, Shannon A. Mahan
2016, Journal of Arid Environments (127) 171-186
An investigation into indigenous water storage on the Rio San José in western New Mexico was conducted in support of efforts by the Pueblo of Laguna to adjudicate their water rights. Here we focus on stratigraphy and geochronology of two Native American-constructed reservoirs. One reservoir located near the community of...
PHT3D-UZF: A reactive transport model for variably-saturated porous media
Ming Zhi Wu, Vincent E. A. Post, S. Ursula Salmon, Eric D. Morway, H. Prommer
2016, Ground Water (54) 23-34
A modified version of the MODFLOW/MT3DMS-based reactive transport model PHT3D was developed to extend current reactive transport capabilities to the variably-saturated component of the subsurface system and incorporate diffusive reactive transport of gaseous species. Referred to as PHT3D-UZF, this code incorporates flux terms calculated by MODFLOW's unsaturated-zone flow (UZF1) package....
Extending the MODPATH algorithm to rectangular unstructured grids
David W. Pollock
2016, Ground Water (54) 121-125
The recent release of MODFLOW-USG, which allows model grids to have irregular, unstructured connections, requires a modification of the particle-tracking algorithm used by MODPATH. This paper describes a modification of the semi-analytical particle-tracking algorithm used by MODPATH that allows it to be extended to rectangular-based unstructured grids by dividing grid...
Climate variables explain neutral and adaptive variation within salmonid metapopulations: The importance of replication in landscape genetics
Brian K. Hand, Clint C. Muhlfeld, Alisa A. Wade, Ryan Kovach, Diane C. Whited, Shawn R. Narum, Andrew P. Matala, Michael W. Ackerman, B. A. Garner, John S Kimball, Jack A. Stanford, Gordon Luikart
2016, Molecular Ecology (25) 689-705
Understanding how environmental variation influences population genetic structure is important for conservation management because it can reveal how human stressors influence population connectivity, genetic diversity and persistence. We used riverscape genetics modelling to assess whether climatic and habitat variables were related to neutral and adaptive patterns of genetic differentiation (population-specific...
Assessment of undiscovered gas resources of the Thrace Basin, Turkey, 2015
Christopher J. Schenk, Timothy R. Klett, Marilyn E. Tennyson, Janet K. Pitman, Stephanie B. Gaswirth, Phuong A. Le, Heidi M. Leathers-Miller, Tracey J. Mercier, Kristen R. Marra, Sarah J. Hawkins, Michael E. Brownfield
2016, Fact Sheet 2016-3001
Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey assessed undiscovered, technically recoverable mean resources of 787 billion cubic feet of conventional gas and 1,630 billion cubic feet of unconventional gas in the Thrace Basin, Turkey....
Thermokarst rates intensify due to climate change and forest fragmentation in an Alaskan boreal forest lowland
M. Lara, Helene Genet, A. David McGuire, Eugénie S. Euskirchen, Yujin Zhang, Dana R. N. Brown, M.T. Jorgenson, V. Romanovsky, Amy L. Breen, W.R. Bolton
2016, Global Change Biology (22) 816-829
Lowland boreal forest ecosystems in Alaska are dominated by wetlands comprised of a complex mosaic of fens, collapse-scar bogs, low shrub/scrub, and forests growing on elevated ice-rich permafrost soils. Thermokarst has affected the lowlands of the Tanana Flats in central Alaska for centuries, as thawing permafrost collapses forests that transition...
Spatial variations in immediate greenhouse gases and aerosol emissions and resulting radiative forcing from wildfires in interior Alaska
Shengli Huang, Heping Liu, Devendra Dahal, Suming Jin, Shuang Li, Shu-Guang Liu
2016, Theoretical and Applied Climatology (123) 581-592
Boreal fires can cool the climate; however, this conclusion came from individual fires and may not represent the whole story. We hypothesize that the climatic impact of boreal fires depends on local landscape heterogeneity such as burn severity, prefire vegetation type, and soil properties. To test this hypothesis, spatially explicit...
Dome growth at Mount Cleveland, Aleutian Arc, quantified by time-series TerraSAR-X imagery
Teng Wang, Michael P. Poland, Zhong Lu
2016, Geophysical Research Letters (42) 10614-10621
Synthetic aperture radar imagery is widely used to study surface deformation induced by volcanic activity; however, it is rarely applied to quantify the evolution of lava domes, which is important for understanding hazards and magmatic system characteristics. We studied dome formation associated with eruptive activity at Mount Cleveland, Aleutian Volcanic...
Post-eruptive inflation of Okmok Volcano, Alaska, from InSAR, 2008–2014
Feifei Qu, Zhong Lu, Michael P. Poland, Jeffrey T. Freymueller, Qin Zhang, Hyung-Sup Jung
2016, Remote Sensing (7) 16778-16794
Okmok, a ~10-km wide caldera that occupies most of the northeastern end of Umnak Island, is one of the most active volcanoes in the Aleutian arc. The most recent eruption at Okmok during July-August 2008 was by far its largest and most explosive since at least the early 19th century....
The 2014-2015 Pāhoa lava flow crisis at Kīlauea Volcano, Hawai‘i: Disaster avoided and lessons learned
Michael P. Poland, Tim R. Orr, James P. Kauahikaua, Steven R. Brantley, Janet L. Babb, Matthew R. Patrick, Christina A. Neal, Kyle R. Anderson, Loren Antolik, Matthew K. Burgess, Tamar Elias, Steven Fuke, Pauline Fukunaga, Ingrid A. Johanson, Marian Kagimoto, Kevan P. Kamibayashi, Lopaka Lee, Asta Miklius, William Million, Cyril J. Moniz, Paul G. Okubo, Andrew Sutton, T. Jane Takahashi, Weston A. Thelen, Willam Tollett, Frank A. Trusdell
2016, GSA Today (26) 4-10
Lava flow crises are nothing new on the Island of Hawai‘i, where their destructive force has been demonstrated repeatedly over the past several hundred years. The 2014–2015 Pāhoa lava flow crisis, however, was unique in terms of its societal impact and volcanological characteristics. Despite low effusion rates, a long-lived lava...
Conifer density within lake catchments predicts fish mercury concentrations in remote subalpine lakes
Collin A. Eagles-Smith, Garth Herring, Branden L. Johnson, Rick Graw
2016, Environmental Pollution (212) 279-289
Remote high-elevation lakes represent unique environments for evaluating the bioaccumulation of atmospherically deposited mercury through freshwater food webs, as well as for evaluating the relative importance of mercury loading versus landscape influences on mercury bioaccumulation. The increase in mercury deposition to these systems over the past century, coupled with their...
Physical and chemical constraints limit the habitat window for an endangered mussel
Cara Campbell, Karen L. Prestegaard
2016, Hydrobiologia (772) 77-91
Development of effective conservation and restoration strategies for freshwater pearly mussels requires identification of environmental constraints on the distributions of individual mussel species. We examined whether the spatial distribution of the endangered Alasmidonta heterodon in Flat Brook, a tributary of the upper Delaware River, was constrained by water chemistry (i.e.,...
Endangered species management and ecosystem restoration: Finding the common ground
Michael L. Casazza, Cory T. Overton, Thuy-Vy D. Bui, Joshua M. Hull, Joy D. Albertson, Valary K. Bloom, Steven Bobzien, Jennifer McBroom, Marilyn Latta, Peggy Olofson, Tobias M. Rohmer, Steven E. Schwarzbach, Donald R. Strong, Erik Grijalva, Julian K. Wood, Shannon Skalos, John Y. Takekawa
2016, Ecology and Society (21)
Management actions to protect endangered species and conserve ecosystem function may not always be in precise alignment. Efforts to recover the California Ridgway’s Rail (Rallus obsoletus obsoletus; hereafter, California rail), a federally and state-listed species, and restoration of tidal marsh ecosystems in the San Francisco Bay estuary provide a prime...
Reflectance spectroscopy (0.35–8 μm) of ammonium-bearing minerals and qualitative comparison to Ceres-like asteroids
Breanne L. Berg, Edward A. Cloutis, P. Beck, P. Vernazza, Janice L Bishop, Driss Takir, V. Reddy, D. Applin, Paul Mann
2016, Icarus (265) 218-237
Ammonium-bearing minerals have been suggested to be present on Mars, Ceres, and various asteroids and comets. We undertook a systematic study of the spectral reflectance properties of ammonium-bearing minerals and compounds that have possible planetary relevance (i.e., ammonium carbonates, chlorides, nitrates, oxalates, phosphates, silicates, and sulfates). Various synthetic and natural...
Does biodiversity protect humans against infectious disease? Reply
Chelsea L. Wood, Kevin D. Lafferty, Giulio DeLeo, Hillary S. Young, Peter J. Hudson, Armand M. Kuris
2016, Ecology (97) 543-546
The dilution effect is the sort of idea that everyone wants to be true. If nature protects humans against infectious disease, imagine the implications: nature's value could be tallied in terms of human suffering avoided. This makes a potent argument for conservation, convincing even to those who would otherwise be disinclined...
