Comparison of DNA preservation methods for environmental bacterial community samples
Michael A. Gray, Zoe A. Pratte, Christina A. Kellogg
2013, FEMS Microbiology Ecology (83) 468-477
Field collections of environmental samples, for example corals, for molecular microbial analyses present distinct challenges. The lack of laboratory facilities in remote locations is common, and preservation of microbial community DNA for later study is critical. A particular challenge is keeping samples frozen in transit. Five nucleic acid preservation methods...
Spatio-temporal dynamics of pneumonia in bighorn sheep
E. Frances Cassirer, Raina K. Plowright, Kezia R. Manlove, Paul C. Cross, Andrew P. Dobson, Kathleen A. Potter, Peter J. Hudson
2013, Journal of Animal Ecology (82) 518-528
Bighorn sheep mortality related to pneumonia is a primary factor limiting population recovery across western North America, but management has been constrained by an incomplete understanding of the disease. We analysed patterns of pneumonia-caused mortality over 14 years in 16 interconnected bighorn sheep populations to gain insights into underlying disease...
Statewide summary for Alabama
Lawrence R. Handley, Kathryn A. Spear, Stephen Jones, Cindy A. Thatcher
2013, Report, Emergent wetlands status and trends in the northern Gulf of Mexico: 1950-2010
Alabama is over 132,000 km2 (51,000 miles2) in area, 483 km (300 miles) long, and 322 km (200 miles) wide (Copeland, 1968). Coastal Alabama comprises Mobile and Baldwin Counties and the surrounding State waters in the Gulf of Mexico (Figure 1; O’Neil and Mettee, 1982). It is part of both...
Mobile Bay
Lawrence R. Handley, Kathryn A. Spear, Stephen Jones, Cindy A. Thatcher
2013, Report, Emergent wetlands status and trends in the northern Gulf of Mexico: 1950-2010
Mobile Bay is the largest bay found in Alabama’s coastal area (Handley et al., 2007). It was named an Estuary of National Significance in 1995 under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) National Estuary Program (NEP), and its Comprehensive Conservation Management Plan was completed in 2002. Mobile Bay is 1,070...
Intrinsic vs. extrinsic influences on life history expression: metabolism and parentally induced temperature influences on embryo development rate
Thomas E. Martin, Riccardo Ton, Alina Nikilson
2013, Ecology Letters (16) 738-745
Intrinsic processes are assumed to underlie life history expression and trade-offs, but extrinsic inputs are theorised to shift trait expression and mask trade-offs within species. Here, we explore application of this theory across species. We do this based on parentally induced embryo temperature as an extrinsic input, and mass-specific embryo...
Priority data on marine and estuarine resources within northeastern National Parks: Inventory and acquisition needs
Tracy E. Hart, Hilary A. Neckles, Blaine S. Kopp
2013, Natural Resource Report NPS/NCBN/NRR—2013/612
The purpose of this project was to guide development of a strategy for the inventory and mapping of submerged natural resources associated within 10 coastal parks of the National Park Service (NPS) Northeast Region (NER; see Table 1). Priority data needs were identified by the NER Ocean Stewardship Task Force....
Climate change has indirect effects on resource use and overlap among coexisting bird species with negative consequences for their reproductive success
Thomas E. Martin, Sonya K. Auer
2013, Global Change Biology (19) 411-419
Climate change can modify ecological interactions, but whether it can have cascading effects throughout ecological networks of multiple interacting species remains poorly studied. Climate-driven alterations in the intensity of plant–herbivore interactions may have particularly profound effects on the larger community because plants provide habitat for a wide diversity of organisms....
Hybrid seine for full fish community collections
James E. McKenna, Emily M. Waldt, Ross Abbett, Anthony David, James Snyder
2013, Journal of Freshwater Ecology (28) 125-131
Seines are simple and effective fish collection gears, but the net mesh size influences how well the catch represents the fish communities. We designed and tested a hybrid seine with a dual-mesh bag (1/4″ and 1/8″) and compared the fish assemblage collected by each mesh. The fine-mesh net retained three...
On estimating the economic value of insectivorous bats: Prospects and priorities for biologists
Justin G. Boyles, Catherine L. Sole, Paul M. Cryan, Gary F. McCracken
2013, Book chapter, Bat evolution, ecology, and conservation
Bats are among the most economically important nondomesticated mammals in the world. They are well-known pollinators and seed dispersers, but crop pest suppression is probably the most valuable ecosystem service provided by bats. Scientific literature and popular media often include reports of crop pests in the diet of bats and...
Geologic map of the Topock 7.5’ quadrangle, Arizona and California
Keith A. Howard, Barbara E. John, Jane E. Nielson, Julia M. G. Miller, Joseph L. Wooden
2013, Scientific Investigations Map 3236
The Topock quadrangle exposes a structurally complex part of the Colorado River extensional corridor and also exposes deposits that record landscape evolution during the history of the Colorado River. Paleoproterozoic gneisses and Mesoproterozoic granitoids and intrusive sheets are exposed through tilted cross-sectional thicknesses of many kilometers. Intruding them are a...
Choosing a DIVA: a comparison of emerging digital imagery vegetation analysis techniques
Christopher F. Jorgensen, Ryan J. Stutzman, Lars C. Anderson, Suzanne E. Decker, Larkin A. Powell, Walter H. Schacht, Joseph J. Fontaine
2013, Applied Vegetation Science (16) 552-560
Question: What is the precision of five methods of measuring vegetation structure using ground-based digital imagery and processing techniques? Location: Lincoln, Nebraska, USA Methods: Vertical herbaceous cover was recorded using digital imagery techniques at two distinct locations in a mixed-grass prairie. The precision of five ground-based digital imagery vegetation analysis...
Freshwater and drought on Pacific Islands
Scot K. Izuka, Victoria Keener
2013, Book chapter, Climate Change and Pacific Islands: Indicators and Impacts: Report for the 2012 Pacific Islands Regional Climate Assessment
Deep-ocean mineral deposits as a source of critical metals for high- and green-technology applications: Comparison with land-based deposits
James R. Hein, Kira Mizell, Andrea Koschinsky, Tracey Conrad
2013, Ore Geology Reviews (51) 1-14
Review of oil families and their petroleum systems of the Williston Basin
Paul G. Lillis
2013, Mountain Geologist (50) 5-31
The petroleum system concept was first applied in 1974 (Dow/Williams) to identify three oil systems in the Williston Basin, and recent studies have expanded the number to at least nine. This paper reviews the petroleum geochemistry, oil-oil, and oil-source correlations of the oil systems of the Williston Basin, providing...
Reactivation of the Archean-Proterozoic suture along the southern margin of Laurentia during the Mazatzal orogeny: Petrogenesis and tectonic implications of ca. 1.63 Ga granite in southeastern Wyoming
Daniel S. Jones, Calvin G. Barnes, Wayne R. Premo, Arthur W. Snoke
2013, Geological Society of America Bulletin (125) 164-183
The presence of ca. 1.63 Ga monzogranite (the “white quartz monzonite”) in the southern Sierra Madre, southeastern Wyoming, is anomalous given its distance from the nearest documented plutons of similar age (central Colorado) and the nearest contemporaneous tectonic margin (New Mexico). It is located immediately south of the Cheyenne belt—a...
Effects of canopy tree species on belowground biogeochemistry in a lowland wet tropical forest
Adrienne B. Keller, Sasha C. Reed, Alan R. Townsend, Cory C. Cleveland
2013, Soil Biology and Biochemistry (58) 61-69
Tropical rain forests are known for their high biological diversity, but the effects of plant diversity on important ecosystem processes in this biome remain unclear. Interspecies differences in both the demand for nutrients and in foliar and litter nutrient concentrations could drive variations in both the pool sizes and fluxes...
Adaptive strategies and life history characteristics in a warming climate: salmon in the Arctic?
Jennifer L. Nielsen, Gregory T. Ruggerone, Christian E. Zimmerman
2013, Environmental Biology of Fishes (96) 1187-1226
In the warming Arctic, aquatic habitats are in flux and salmon are exploring their options. Adult Pacific salmon, including sockeye (Oncorhynchus nerka), coho (O. kisutch), Chinook (O. tshawytscha), pink (O. gorbuscha) and chum (O. keta) have been captured throughout the Arctic. Pink and chum salmon are the most common species...
Mercury and selenium concentrations in biofilm, macroinvertebrates, and fish collected in the Yankee Fork of the Salmon River, Idaho, USA, and their potential effects on fish health
Darren T. Rhea, Aida M. Farag, David D. Harper, Elizabeth McConnell, William G. Brumbaugh
2013, Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology (64) 130-139
The Yankee Fork is a large tributary of the Salmon River located in central Idaho, USA, with an extensive history of placer and dredge-mining activities. Concentrations of selenium (Se) and mercury (Hg) in various aquatic trophic levels were measured in the Yankee Fork during 2001 and 2002. Various measurements of...
Strategies for rapid global earthquake impact estimation: the Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER) system
Kishor Jaiswal, D.J. Wald
2013, Book chapter, Handbook of seismic risk analysis and management of civil infrastructure systems
This chapter summarizes the state-of-the-art for rapid earthquake impact estimation. It details the needs and challenges associated with quick estimation of earthquake losses following global earthquakes, and provides a brief literature review of various approaches that have been used in the past. With this background, the chapter introduces the operational...
Modern salt-marsh and tidal-flat foraminifera from Sitkinak and Simeonof Islands, southwestern Alaska
Andrew C. Kemp, Simon E. Engelhart, Stephen J. Culver, Alan R. Nelson, Richard W. Briggs, Peter J. Haeussler
2013, Journal of Foraminiferal Research (43) 88-98
We describe the modern distribution of salt-marsh and tidal-flat foraminifera from Sitkinak Island (Trinity Islands) and Simeonof Island (Shumagin Islands), Alaska, to begin development of a dataset for later use in reconstructing relative sea-level changes caused by great earthquakes along the Alaska-Aleutian subduction zone. Dead foraminifera...
Vegetation ecogeomorphology, dynamic equilibrium, and disturbance
Cliff R. Hupp, W. R. Osterkamp
2013, Book chapter, Ecogeomorphology: Volume 12 in Treatise in Geomorphology
Early ecologists understood the need to document geomorphic form and process to explain plant species distributions. Although this relationship has been acknowledged for over a century, with the exception of a few landmark papers, only the past few decades have experienced intensive research on this interdisciplinary topic. Here the authors...
Watering the forest for the trees: An emerging priority for managing water in forest landscapes
Gordon E. Grant, Christina L. Tague, Craig D. Allen
2013, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment (11) 314-321
Widespread threats to forests resulting from drought stress are prompting a re-evaluation of priorities for water management on forest lands. In contrast to the widely held view that forest management should emphasize providing water for downstream uses, we argue that maintaining forest health in the context of a changing climate...
Trends in landscape and vegetation change and implications for the Santa Cruz Watershed
Miguel L. Villarreal, Laura M. Norman, Robert H. Webb, Raymond M. Turner
2013, Book, Proceedings of the Science on the Sonoita Plain Symposium
Monitoring and characterizing the interactive effects of land use and climate on land surface processes is a primary focus of land change science, and of particular concern in arid Wells Distribution in Shallow Groundwater Areas Pumping Trends Increase Streamflow Extent Declines 27 environments where both landscapes and livelihoods can be...
Northern Great Plains Network water quality monitoring design for tributaries to the Missouri National Recreational River
Barbara L. Rowe, Stephen K. Wilson, Lisa Yager, Marcia H. Wilson
2013, Natural Resource Technical Report NPS/NGPN/NRTR-2013/783
The National Park Service (NPS) organized more than 270 parks with important natural resources into 32 ecoregional networks to conduct Inventory and Monitoring (I&M) activities for assessment of natural resources within park units. The Missouri National Recreational River (NRR) is among the 13 parks in the NPS Northern Great Plain...
Biochar effect on maize yield and soil characteristics in five conservation farming sites in Zambia
Gerard Cornelissen, Vegard Martinsen, Victor Shitumbanuma, Vanja Alling, Gijs D. Breedveld, David W. Rutherford, Magnus Sparrevik, Sarah E. Hale, Alfred Obia, Jan Mulder
2013, Agronomy Journal (3) 256-274
Biochar addition to agricultural soils can improve soil fertility, with the added bonus of climate change mitigation through carbon sequestration. Conservation farming (CF) is precision farming, often combining minimum tillage, crop rotation and residue retention. In the present farmer-led field trials carried out in Zambia, the use of a low...
