Understanding protected area resilience: a multi-scale, social-ecological approach
Graeme S. Cumming, Craig R. Allen, Natalie C. Ban, Duan Biggs, Harry C. Biggs, David H.M Cumming, Alta De Vos, Graham Epstein, Michel Etienne, Kristine Maciejewski, Raphael Mathevet, Christine Moore, Mateja Nenadovic, Michael Schoon
2015, Ecological Applications (25) 299-319
Protected areas (PAs) remain central to the conservation of biodiversity. Classical PAs were conceived as areas that would be set aside to maintain a natural state with minimal human influence. However, global environmental change and growing cross-scale anthropogenic influences mean that PAs can no longer be thought of as ecological...
Broadening the regulated-river management paradigm: A case study of the forgotten dead zone hindering Pallid Sturgeon recovery
Christopher S. Guy, Hilary B. Treanor, Kevin M. Kappenman, Eric A. Scholl, Jason E. Ilgen, Molly A. H. Webb
2015, Fisheries (40) 6-14
The global proliferation of dams within the last half century has prompted ecologists to understand the effects of regulated rivers on large-river fishes. Currently, much of the effort to mitigate the influence of dams on large-river fishes has been focused on downriver effects, and little attention has been given to...
A comparison of survey methods for documenting presence of Myotis leibii (Eastern Small-Footed Bats) at roosting areas in Western Virginia
John K. Huth, Alexander Silvis, Paul R. Moosman Jr., W. Mark Ford, Sara E. Sweeten
2015, Virginia Journal of Science (66) 413-425
Many aspects of foraging and roosting habitat of Myotis leibii (Eastern Small-Footed Bat), an emergent rock roosting-obligate, are poorly described. Previous comparisons of effectiveness of acoustic sampling and mist-net captures have not included Eastern Small-Footed Bat. Habitat requirements of this species differ from congeners in the region, and it is...
Ursus maritimus
Oystein Wiig, Steven C. Amstrup, Todd C. Atwood, Kristin L Kaidre, Nicholas J Lunn, Martyn E. Obbard, Eric V. Regehr, Gregory W. Thiemann
2015, Book chapter, The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2015
No abstract available....
Phenological response of an Arizona dryland forest to short-term climatic extremes
Jessica J. Walker, Kirsten de Beurs, Randolph Wynne
2015, Remote Sensing (7) 10832-10855
Baseline information about dryland forest phenology is necessary to accurately anticipate future ecosystem shifts. The overarching goal of our study was to investigate the variability of vegetation phenology across a dryland forest landscape in response to climate alterations. We analyzed the influence of site characteristics and climatic conditions on the...
Robust global ocean cooling trend for the pre-industrial Common Era
Helen V. McGregor, Michael N. Evans, Hugues Goosse, Guillaume Leduc, Belen Martrat, Jason A. Addison, P. Graham Mortyn, Delia W. Oppo, Marit-Solveig Seidenkrantz, Marie-Alexandrine Sicre, Steven J. Phipps, Kandasamy Selvaraj, Kaustubh Thirumalai, Helena L. Filipsson, Vasile Ersek
2015, Nature Geoscience (8) 671-677
The oceans mediate the response of global climate to natural and anthropogenic forcings. Yet for the past 2,000 years — a key interval for understanding the present and future climate response to these forcings — global sea surface temperature changes and the underlying driving mechanisms are poorly constrained. Here we...
Origins and bioavailability of dissolved organic matter in groundwater
Yuan Shen, Francis H. Chapelle, Eric W. Strom, Ronald Benner
2015, Biogeochemistry (122) 61-78
Dissolved organic matter (DOM) in groundwater influences water quality and fuels microbial metabolism, but its origins, bioavailability and chemical composition are poorly understood. The origins and concentrations of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and bioavailable DOM were monitored during a long-term (2-year) study of groundwater in a fractured-rock aquifer in the...
Ground-based thermal imaging of stream surface temperatures: Technique and evaluation
Scott A. Bonar, Sally J. Petre
2015, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (35) 1209-1218
We evaluated a ground-based handheld thermal imaging system for measuring water temperatures using data from eight southwestern USA streams and rivers. We found handheld thermal imagers could provide considerably more spatial information on water temperature (for our unit one image = 19,600 individual temperature measurements) than traditional methods could supply...
An integrated approach to modeling changes in land use, land cover, and disturbance and their impact on ecosystem carbon dynamics: a case study in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California
Benjamin M. Sleeter, Jinxun Liu, Colin Daniel, Leonardo Frid, Zhiliang Zhu
2015, AIMS Environmental Science (2) 577-606
Increased land-use intensity (e.g. clearing of forests for cultivation, urbanization), often results in the loss of ecosystem carbon storage, while changes in productivity resulting from climate change may either help offset or exacerbate losses. However, there are large uncertainties in how land and climate systems will evolve and interact to...
Plague bacterium as a transformer species in prairie dogs and the grasslands of western North America
David A. Eads, Dean E. Biggins
2015, Conservation Biology (29) 1086-1093
Invasive transformer species change the character, condition, form, or nature of ecosystems and deserve considerable attention from conservation scientists. We applied the transformer species concept to the plague bacterium Yersinia pestis in western North America, where the pathogen was introduced around 1900. Y. pestis transforms grassland ecosystems by severely depleting the abundance...
2014-2015 Partnership accomplishments report on joint activities: National Gap Analysis Program and LANDFIRE
Anne Davidson, Alexa McKerrow, Don Long, Todd Earnhardt
2015, Report
The intended target audience for this document initially is management and project technical specialist and scientists involved in the Gap Analysis Program (GAP) and the Landscape Fire and Resource Management Planning Tools - (LANDFIRE) program to help communicate coordination activities to all involved parties. This document is also intended to...
Non-perturbational surface-wave inversion: A Dix-type relation for surface waves
Matthew M. Haney, Victor C. Tsai
2015, Geophysics (80) EN167-EN177
We extend the approach underlying the well-known Dix equation in reflection seismology to surface waves. Within the context of surface wave inversion, the Dix-type relation we derive for surface waves allows accurate depth profiles of shear-wave velocity to be constructed directly from phase velocity data, in contrast to perturbational methods....
Groundwater conditions in Utah, spring of 2015
Carole B. Burden
2015, Cooperative Investigations Report 56
This is the fifty-second in a series of annual reports that describe groundwater conditions in Utah. Reports in this series, published cooperatively by the U.S. Geological Survey and the Utah Department of Natural Resources, Division of Water Rights, and the Utah Department of Environmental Quality, Division of Water Quality, provide...
Field trip guidebook for the post-meeting field trip: The Central Appalachians
John F. Taylor, James D. Loch, G. Robert Ganis, John E. Repetski, Charles E. Mitchell, Gale C. Blackmer, David K. Brezinski, Daniel Goldman, Randall C. Orndorff, Bryan K. Sell
2015, Stratigraphy (12) 297-413
The lower Paleozoic rocks to be examined on this trip through the central Appalachians represent an extreme range of depositional environments. The lithofacies we will examine range from pelagic radiolarian chert and interbedded mudstone that originated on the deep floor of the Iapetus Ocean, through mud cracked supratidal dolomitic laminites...
Continuous monitoring of meteorological conditions and movement of a deep-seated, persistently moving rockslide along Interstate Route 79 near Pittsburgh
Francis Ashland, Helen L. Delano
2015, Pennsylvania Geology (45) 22-26
A large inventory of landslides exists for Allegheny County, Pa., and historical movement of manyof these has resulted in considerable damage to property, roads, and infrastructure. Along InterstateRoute 79, a subset of the landslide inventory includes deep-seated rockslides, two of which reactivatedduring construction of the highway in the late 1960s...
Duckling survival, fecundity, and habitat selection of mottled duck broods on the upper Texas Gulf Coast
Elizabeth A. Rigby, David A. Haukos
2015, Journal of the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (2) 156-163
Mottled ducks (Anas fulvigula) on the western Gulf Coast have exhibited a steep population decline since the mid 1990s. Low rates of breeding incidence and nest success have been implicated in this decline, but duckling survival and the habitat needs of broods have not been previously investigated in this region....
Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge: Draft comprehensive conservation plan and environmental impact statement
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Elizabeth Donovan, William Gascoigne, Catherine Cullinane Thomas
2015, Report
The Connecticut River is treasured by all for its majesty and significance in supporting life along its winding 410-mile passage through urban and rural communities in New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. Working with our partners, we are inspired to protect and enhance the natural and cultural richness throughout the...
Combining state-and-transition simulations and species distribution models to anticipate the effects of climate change
Brian W. Miller, Leonardo Frid, Tony Chang, N. B. Piekielek, Andrew J. Hansen, Jeffrey T. Morisette
2015, AIMS Environmental Science (2) 400-426
State-and-transition simulation models (STSMs) are known for their ability to explore the combined effects of multiple disturbances, ecological dynamics, and management actions on vegetation. However, integrating the additional impacts of climate change into STSMs remains a challenge. We address this challenge by combining an STSM with species distribution modeling (SDM)....
Mottled duck (Anas fulvigula) movements in the Texas Chenier Plain Region
Jena A. Moon, David A. Haukos, Warren C. Conway
2015, Journal of the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (2) 255-267
As a surrogate species for Strategic Habitat Conservation, the mottled duck (Anas fulgivula) is an indicator species to coastal marsh health and function. Currently, biologists have a relatively poor understanding of regional mottled duck movements. We outfitted adult female mottled ducks with solar satellite transmitters during summer 2009–2011. Movement patterns...
An assessment of sauger population characteristics on two Tennessee River reservoirs
Christy L. Graham, Phillip William Bettoli, Timothy N. Churchill
2015, Journal of the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (2) 101-108
In 1992, a 356-mm minimum length limit (MLL) was enacted on Kentucky Lake and a 381-mm MLL was enacted on Watts Bar Lake, two mainstem reservoirs on the Tennessee River, in an attempt to reduce exploitation and improve the size structure of the sauger (Sander canadensis) populations. The objectives...
Observational changes to the natural flow regime in Lee Creek in relation to altered precipitation patterns and its implication for fishes
Michael R. Gatlin, James M. Long, Donald J. Turton
2015, Proceedings of the Oklahoma Academy of Science (95) 135-146
The natural flow regime is important for structuring streams and their resident ichthyofauna and alterations to this regime can have cascading consequences. We sought to determine if changes in hydrology could be attributed to changes in precipitation in a minimally altered watershed (Lee Creek). The stream flow regime was analyzed...
Viewing the status of Virginia’s environment through the lens of freshwater fishes
Paul L. Angermeier, M. J. Pinder
2015, Virginia Journal of Science (66) 147-169
No abstract available....
Application and utility of a low-cost unmanned aerial system to manage and conserve aquatic resources in four Texas rivers
Timothy W. Birdsong, Megan Bean, Timothy B. Grabowski, Thomas B. Hardy, Thomas Heard, Derrick Holdstock, Kristy Kollaus, Stephan J. Magnelia, Kristina Tolman
2015, Journal of the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (2015) 80-85
Low-cost unmanned aerial systems (UAS) have recently gained increasing attention in natural resources management due to their versatility and demonstrated utility in collection of high-resolution, temporally-specific geospatial data. This study applied low-cost UAS to support the geospatial data needs of aquatic resources management projects in four Texas rivers. Specifically,...
Seasonal variability in benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages in the southwest Virginia coalfields
Sara E. Sweeten, Alexander Silvis, W. Mark Ford
2015, Conference Paper, 2nd Proceedings of Environmental Considerations in Energy Production
No abstract available....
Composite Sunrise Butte pluton: Insights into Jurassic–Cretaceous collisional tectonics and magmatism in the Blue Mountains Province, northeastern Oregon
Kenneth H. Johnson, J.J. Schwartz, Jiri Zak, Krystof Verner, Calvin G. Barnes, Clay Walton, Joseph L. Wooden, James E. Wright, Ronald W. Kistler
2015, GSA Special Papers (513) 377-398
The composite Sunrise Butte pluton, in the central part of the Blue Mountains Province, northeastern Oregon, preserves a record of subduction-related magmatism, arc-arc collision, crustal thickening, and deep-crustal anatexis. The earliest phase of the pluton (Desolation Creek unit) was generated in a subduction zone environment, as the oceanic lithosphere between the...
