Inter-annual and spatial variability of Hamon potential evapotranspiration model coefficients
Gregory J. McCabe, Lauren E. Hay, Andy Bock, Steven L. Markstrom, R. Dwight Atkinson
2015, Journal of Hydrology (521) 389-394
Monthly calibrated values of the Hamon PET coefficient (C) are determined for 109,951 hydrologic response units (HRUs) across the conterminous United States (U.S.). The calibrated coefficient values are determined by matching calculated mean monthly Hamon PET to mean monthly free-water surface evaporation. For most locations and months the calibrated coefficients...
Genetic diversity and host specificity varies across three genera of blood parasites in ducks of the Pacific Americas Flyway
Andrew B. Reeves, Matthew M. Smith, Brandt W. Meixell, Joseph P. Fleskes, Andrew M. Ramey
2015, PLoS ONE (10)
Birds of the order Anseriformes, commonly referred to as waterfowl, are frequently infected by Haemosporidia of the genera Haemoproteus, Plasmodium, and Leucocytozoon via dipteran vectors. We analyzed nucleotide sequences of the Cytochrome b (Cytb) gene from parasites of these genera detected in six species of ducks from Alaska and California,...
Mineral Resource of the Month: Antimony
David E. Guberman
2015, Earth Magazine (February 2015)
Antimony is a lustrous silvery-white semimetal or metalloid. Archaeological and historical studies indicate that antimony and its mineral sulfides have been used by humans for at least six millennia. The alchemist Basil Valentine is sometimes credited with “discovering” the element; he described the extraction of metallic antimony from stibnite in...
Hillslope run-off thresholds with shrink–swell clay soils
Ryan D. Stewart, Majdi R. Abou Najm, David E. Rupp, John W. Lane Jr., Hamil C. Uribe, Jose Luis Arumi, John S. Selker
2015, Hydrological Processes (29) 557-571
Irrigation experiments on 12 instrumented field plots were used to assess the impact of dynamic soil crack networks on infiltration and run-off. During applications of intensity similar to a heavy rainstorm, water was seen being preferentially delivered within the soil profile. However, run-off was not observed until soil water content...
Reducing nitrogen export from the corn belt to the Gulf of Mexico: agricultural strategies for remediating hypoxia
Eileen McLellan, Dale M. Robertson, Keith Schilling, Mark Tomer, Jill Kostel, Douglas G. Smith, Kevin King
2015, Journal of the American Water Resources Association (51) 263-289
SPAtially Referenced Regression on Watershed models developed for the Upper Midwest were used to help evaluate the nitrogen-load reductions likely to be achieved by a variety of agricultural conservation practices in the Upper Mississippi-Ohio River Basin (UMORB) and to compare these reductions to the 45% nitrogen-load reduction proposed to remediate...
Evaluation of satellite rainfall estimates for drought and flood monitoring in Mozambique
Carolien Tote, Domingos Patricio, Hendrik Boogaard, Raymond van der Wijngaart, Elena Tarnavsky, Christopher C. Funk
2015, Remote Sensing (7) 1758-1776
Satellite derived rainfall products are useful for drought and flood early warning and overcome the problem of sparse, unevenly distributed and erratic rain gauge observations, provided their accuracy is well known. Mozambique is highly vulnerable to extreme weather events such as major droughts and floods and thus, an understanding of...
Time scales of porphyry Cu deposit formation: insights from titanium diffusion in quartz
Celestine N. Mercer, Mark H. Reed, Cameron M. Mercer
2015, Economic Geology (110) 587-602
Porphyry dikes and hydrothermal veins from the porphyry Cu-Mo deposit at Butte, Montana, contain multiple generations of quartz that are distinct in scanning electron microscope-cathodoluminescence (SEM-CL) images and in Ti concentrations. A comparison of microprobe trace element profiles and maps to SEM-CL images shows that the concentration of Ti in...
Temperature effects induced by climate change on the growth and consumption by salmonines in Lakes Michigan and Huron
Yu-Chun Kao, Charles P. Madenjian, David B. Bunnell, Brent M. Lofgren, Marjorie Perroud
2015, Environmental Biology of Fishes (98) 1089-1104
We used bioenergetics models to investigate temperature effects induced by climate change on the growth and consumption by Chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha, lake trout Salvelinus namaycush, and steelhead O. mykiss in Lakes Michigan and Huron. We updated biological inputs to account for recent changes in the food webs and used temperature inputs in response...
Nest visits and capture events affect breeding success of Yellow-billed and Pacific loons
Brian D. Uher-Koch, Joel A. Schmutz, Kenneth G. Wright
2015, Condor (7) 121-129
Accurate estimates of breeding success are essential for understanding population dynamics and for managing populations. Unfortunately, research activities to collect these data can negatively impact the breeding success of the study species and bias estimates of breeding success. Despite the potential for negative impacts, few studies have documented the effect...
The cost of reproduction: differential resource specialization in female and male California sea otters
Emma A. Elliott Smith, Seth D. Newsome, James A. Estes, M. Tim Tinker
2015, Oecologia (178) 17-29
Intraspecific variation in behavior and diet can have important consequences for population and ecosystem dynamics. Here, we examine how differences in reproductive investment and spatial ecology influence individual diet specialization in male and female southern sea otters (Enhydra lutris nereis). We hypothesize that greater reproductive constraints and smaller home...
Sources of fine sediment stored in agricultural lowland streams, Midwest, USA
Jasmeet Lamba, Anita M. Thompson, K.G. Karthikeyan, Faith A. Fitzpatrick
2015, Geomorphology (236) 44-53
Agricultural activities can accelerate the offsite transport of productive soil from fields leading to stream water quality degradation. Identification of the nature and relative contribution of different sources to fine-grained sediment (e.g., silts, clays) in streams is important to effectively focus agricultural best management...
The aging of America's reservoirs: In-reservoir and downstream physical changes and habitat implications
Kyle E. Juracek
2015, Journal of the American Water Resources Association (51) 168-184
Reservoirs are important for various purposes including flood control, water supply, power generation, and recreation. The aging of America's reservoirs and progressive loss of water storage capacity resulting from ongoing sedimentation, coupled with increasing societal needs, will cause the social, economic, environmental, and political importance of reservoirs to continually increase....
Aeolian responses to climate variability during the past century on Mesquite Lake Playa, Mojave Desert
John W. Whitney, George N. Breit, S.E. Buckingham, Richard L. Reynolds, Rian C. Bogle, Lifeng Luo, Harland L. Goldstein, John M. Vogel
2015, Geomorphology (230) 13-25
The erosion and deposition of sediments by wind from 1901 to 2013 have created large changes in surface features of Mesquite Lake playa in the Mojave Desert. The decadal scale recurrence of sand-sheet development, migration, and merging with older dunes appears related to decadal climatic changes of drought and wetness...
The role of water in unconventional in situ energy resource extraction technologies
Tanya J. Gallegos, Carleton R. Bern, Justin E. Birdwell, Seth S. Haines, Mark A. Engle
Satinder Ahuja, editor(s)
2015, Book chapter, Food, energy, and water: The chemistry connection
Global trends toward developing new energy resources from lower grade, larger tonnage deposits that are not generally accessible using “conventional” extraction methods involve variations of subsurface in situ extraction techniques including in situ oil shale retorting, hydraulic fracturing of petroleum reservoirs, and in situ recovery of uranium. Although these methods are...
A method for estimating the diffuse attenuation coefficient (KdPAR)from paired temperature sensors
Jordan S. Read, Kevin C. Rose, Luke A. Winslow, Emily K. Read
2015, Limnology and Oceanography: Methods (13) 53-61
A new method for estimating the diffuse attenuation coefficient for photosynthetically active radiation (KdPAR) from paired temperature sensors was derived. We show that during cases where the attenuation of penetrating shortwave solar radiation is the dominant source of temperature changes, time series measurements of water temperatures at multiple depths (z1 and z2)...
Flow cytometric method for measuring chromatin fragmentation in fixed sperm from yellow perch (Perca flavescens)
Jill A. Jenkins, Rassa O. Draugelis-Dale, Alfred E. Pinkney, Luke R. Iwanowicz, Vicki Blazer
2015, Theriogenology (83) 920-931
Declining harvests of yellow perch, Perca flavescens, in urbanized watersheds of Chesapeake Bay have prompted investigations of their reproductive fitness. The purpose of this study was to establish a flow cytometric technique for DNA analysis of fixed samples sent from the field to provide reliable gamete quality measurements. Similar to the...
Assessing the likely effectiveness of multispecies management for imperiled desert fishes with niche overlap analysis
P Laub, Phaedra E. Budy
2015, Conservation Biology (29) 1153-1163
A critical decision in species conservation is whether to target individual species or a complex of ecologically similar species. Management of multispecies complexes is likely to be most effective when species share similar distributions, threats, and response to threats. We used niche overlap analysis to assess ecological similarity of...
Geochemical conditions and the occurrence of selected trace elements in groundwater basins used for public drinking-water supply, Desert and Basin and Range hydrogeologic provinces, 2006-11: California GAMA Priority Basin Project
Michael T. Wright, Miranda S. Fram, Kenneth Belitz
2015, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5173
The geochemical conditions, occurrence of selected trace elements, and processes controlling the occurrence of selected trace elements in groundwater were investigated in groundwater basins of the Desert and Basin and Range (DBR) hydrogeologic provinces in southeastern California as part of the Priority Basin Project (PBP) of the Groundwater Ambient Monitoring...
Geomorphology and flood-plain vegetation of the Sprague and lower Sycan Rivers, Klamath Basin, Oregon
James E. O'Connor, Patricia F. McDowell, Pollyanna Lind, Christine G. Rasmussen, Mackenzie K. Keith
2015, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5223
This study provides information on channel and flood-plain processes and historical trends to guide effective restoration and monitoring strategies for the Sprague River Basin, a primary tributary (via the lower Williamson River) of Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon. The study area covered the lower, alluvial segments of the Sprague River system,...
Data Collection and Simulation of Ecological Habitat and Recreational Habitat in the Shenandoah River, Virginia
Jennifer L. Krstolic
2015, Scientific Investigations Report 2015-5005
This report presents updates to methods, describes additional data collected, documents modeling results, and discusses implications from an updated habitat-flow model that can be used to predict ecological habitat for fish and recreational habitat for canoeing on the main stem Shenandoah River in Virginia. Given a 76-percent increase in population...
Characterizing the distribution of an endangered salmonid using environmental DNA analysis
Matthew B. Laramie, David S. Pilliod, Caren S. Goldberg
2015, Biological Conservation (183) 29-37
Determining species distributions accurately is crucial to developing conservation and management strategies for imperiled species, but a challenging task for small populations. We evaluated the efficacy of environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis for improving detection and thus potentially refining the known distribution of Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) in the Methow and...
Quantification of eDNA shedding rates from invasive bighead carp Hypophthalmichthys nobilis and silver carp Hypophthalmichthys molitrix
Katy E. Klymus, Cathy A. Richter, Duane Chapman, Craig P. Paukert
2015, Biological Conservation (183) 77-84
Wildlife managers can more easily mitigate the effects of invasive species if action takes place before a population becomes established. Such early detection requires sensitive survey tools that can detect low numbers of individuals. Due to their high sensitivity, environmental DNA (eDNA) surveys hold promise as an early detection method...
Geographically isolated wetlands: Rethinking a misnomer
David M. Mushet, Aram J.K. Calhoun, Laurie C. Alexander, Matthew J. Cohen, Edward S. DeKeyser, Laurie G. Fowler, Charles R. Lane, Megan W. Lang, Mark C. Rains, Susan C. Walls
2015, Wetlands (35) 423-431
We explore the category “geographically isolated wetlands” (GIWs; i.e., wetlands completely surrounded by uplands at the local scale) as used in the wetland sciences. As currently used, the GIW category (1) hampers scientific efforts by obscuring important hydrological and ecological differences among multiple wetland functional types, (2) aggregates wetlands in...
Intercontinental genetic structure and gene flow in Dunlin (Calidris alpina), a potential vector of avian influenza
Mark P. Miller, Susan M. Haig, Thomas D. Mullins, Luzhang Ruan, Bruce Casler, Alexei Dondua, H. River Gates, J. Matthew Johnson, Steven J. Kendall, Pavel S. Tomkovich, Diane Tracy, Olga P. Valchuk, Richard B. Lanctot
2015, Evolutionary Applications (8) 149-171
Waterfowl (Anseriformes) and shorebirds (Charadriiformes) are the most common wild vectors of influenza A viruses. Due to their migratory behavior, some may transmit disease over long distances. Migratory connectivity studies can link breeding and nonbreeding grounds while illustrating potential interactions among populations that may spread diseases. We investigated Dunlin (Calidris...
The influence of disturbed habitat on the spatial ecology of Argentine black and white tegu (Tupinambis merianae), a recent invader in the Everglades ecosystem (Florida, USA)
Page E. Klug, Robert N. Reed, Frank J. Mazzotti, Michelle A. McEachern, Joy J. Vinci, Katelin K. Craven, Amy A. Yackel Adams
2015, Biological Invasions (17) 1785-1797
The threat of invasive species is often intensified in disturbed habitat. To optimize control programs, it is necessary to understand how degraded habitat influences the behavior of invasive species. We conducted a radio telemetry study to characterize movement and habitat use of introduced male Argentine black and white tegus (Tupinambis...
