Quantifying the influence of sea ice on ocean microseism using observations from the Bering Sea, Alaska
V.C. Tsai, D.E. McNamara
2011, Geophysical Research Letters (38)
Microseism is potentially affected by all processes that alter ocean wave heights. Because strong sea ice prevents large ocean waves from forming, sea ice can therefore significantly affect microseism amplitudes. Here we show that this link between sea ice and microseism is not only a robust one but can be...
Tourmaline as a recorder of ore-forming processes
John F. Slack, Robert B. Trumbull
2011, Elements (7) 321-326
Tourmaline occurs in diverse types of hydrothermal mineral deposits and can be used to constrain the nature and evolution of ore-forming fl uids. Because of its broad range in composition and retention of chemical and isotopic signatures, tourmaline may be the only robust recorder of original mineralizing processes in some...
Water and heat transport in boreal soils: Implications for soil response to climate change
Z. Fan, J. C. Neff, J.W. Harden, T. Zhang, H. Veldhuis, C.I. Czimczik, G.C. Winston, J. A. O'Donnell
2011, Science of the Total Environment (409) 1836-1842
Soil water content strongly affects permafrost dynamics by changing the soil thermal properties. However, the movement of liquid water, which plays an important role in the heat transport of temperate soils, has been under-represented in boreal studies. Two different heat transport models with and without convective heat transport were compared...
The magnitude distribution of earthquakes near Southern California faults
M.T. Page, D. Alderson, J. Doyle
2011, Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth (116)
We investigate seismicity near faults in the Southern California Earthquake Center Community Fault Model. We search for anomalously large events that might be signs of a characteristic earthquake distribution. We find that seismicity near major fault zones in Southern California is well modeled by a Gutenberg-Richter distribution, with no evidence...
Field tracer investigation of unsaturated zone flow paths and mechanisms in agricultural soils of northwestern Mississippi, USA
K. S. Perkins, J. R. Nimmo, C.E. Rose, R.H. Coupe
2011, Journal of Hydrology (396) 1-11
In many farmed areas, intensive application of agricultural chemicals and withdrawal of groundwater for irrigation have led to water quality and supply issues. Unsaturated-zone processes, including preferential flow, play a major role in these effects but are not well understood. In the Bogue Phalia basin, an intensely agricultural area in...
On the use of the beta distribution in probabilistic resource assessments
Ricardo A. Olea
2011, Natural Resources Research (20) 377-388
The triangular distribution is a popular choice when it comes to modeling bounded continuous random variables. Its wide acceptance derives mostly from its simple analytic properties and the ease with which modelers can specify its three parameters through the extremes and the mode. On the negative side, hardly any real...
Sexing young snowy owls
Mathew T. Seidensticker, Denver W. Holt, Jennifer Detienne, Sandra L. Talbot, Kathy Gray
2011, Journal of Raptor Research (45) 281-289
We predicted sex of 140 Snowy Owl (Bubo scandiacus) nestlings out of 34 nests at our Barrow, Alaska, study area to develop a technique for sexing these owls in the field. We primarily sexed young, flightless owls (3844 d old) by quantifying plumage markings on the remiges and tail, predicting...
Scattered P'P' waves observed at short distances
Paul S. Earle, Sebastian Rost, Peter M. Shearer, Christine Thomas
2011, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (101) 2843-2854
We detect previously unreported 1 Hz scattered waves at epicentral distances between 30° and 50° and at times between 2300 and 2450 s after the earthquake origin. These waves likely result from off-azimuth scattering of PKPbc to PKPbc in the upper mantle and crust and provide a new tool for...
Late Pleistocene dune activity in the central Great Plains, USA
J.A. Mason, J. B. Swinehart, P.R. Hanson, D.B. Loope, R.J. Goble, X. Miao, R.L. Schmeisser
2011, Quaternary Science Reviews (30) 3858-3870
Stabilized dunes of the central Great Plains, especially the megabarchans and large barchanoid ridges of the Nebraska Sand Hills, provide dramatic evidence of late Quaternary environmental change. Episodic Holocene dune activity in this region is now well-documented, but Late Pleistocene dune mobility has remained poorly documented, despite early interpretations of...
Ratios of total suspended solids to suspended sediment concentrations by particle size
W.R. Selbig, R.T. Bannerman
2011, Journal of Environmental Engineering (137) 1075-1081
Wet-sieving sand-sized particles from a whole storm-water sample before splitting the sample into laboratory-prepared containers can reduce bias and improve the precision of suspended-sediment concentrations (SSC). Wet-sieving, however, may alter concentrations of total suspended solids (TSS) because the analytical method used to determine TSS may not have included the sediment...
Reassessment of stable continental regions of Southeast Asia
R. L. Wheeler
2011, Seismological Research Letters (82) 971-983
Probabilistic seismic-hazard assessments of the central and eastern United States (CEUS) require estimates of the size of the largest possible earthquake (Mmax). In most of the CEUS, sparse historical seismicity does not provide a record of moderate and large earthquakes that is sufficient to constrain Mmax. One remedy for the...
Effects of planting method and seed mix richness on the early stages of tallgrass prairie restoration
D.L. Larson, J.B. Bright, P. Drobney, J.L. Larson, N. Palaia, P.A. Rabie, S. Vacek, D. Wells
2011, Biological Conservation (144) 3127-3139
Tallgrass prairie restoration has been practiced for more than 75. years, yet few studies have systematically tested restoration methods over large geographic regions with the intent of refining methodology. In this study, we used three planting methods (dormant-season broadcast, growing-season broadcast and growing-season drill) fully crossed with three levels of...
Use of cranial characters in taxonomy of the Minnesota wolf (Canis sp.)
L.D. Mech, R. M. Nowak, S. Weisberg
2011, Canadian Journal of Zoology (89) 1188-1194
Minnesota wolves (Canis sp.) sometimes are reported to have affinity to a small, narrow-skulled eastern form (Canis lupus lycaon Schreber, 1775) and sometimes to a larger, broader western form (Canis lupus nubilus Say, 1823). We found that pre-1950 Minnesota wolf skulls were similar in size to those of wolves from...
Data logging of body temperatures provides precise information on phenology of reproductive events in a free-living arctic hibernator
C. T. Williams, M.J. Sheriff, Joel A. Schmutz, F. Kohl, O. Toien, C.L. Buck, B.M. Barnes
2011, Journal of Comparative Physiology B: Biochemical, Systemic, and Environmental Physiology (181) 1101-1109
Precise measures of phenology are critical to understanding how animals organize their annual cycles and how individuals and populations respond to climate-induced changes in physical and ecological stressors. We show that patterns of core body temperature (T b) can be used to precisely determine the timing of...
Competitive interactions between walleye (Sander vitreus) and smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieu) under various controlled conditions
M.R. Wuellner, B. D. S. Graeb, D.W. Willis, B.J. Galster, T.M. Selch, S. R. Chipps
2011, Journal of Freshwater Ecology (26) 299-314
The range of smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieu) is expanding northward, creating new interactions with native predators, including walleye (Sander vitreus). We used a series of experiments to investigate competition between walleye (WAE) and smallmouth bass (SMB) at different life stages and light conditions, identified behaviors that allowed one fish to...
Preening behavior of adult gyrfalcons tagged with backpack transmitters
T.L. Booms, P.F. Schempf, M.R. Fuller
2011, Journal of Raptor Research (45) 264-267
Radio transmitters provide data that enhance understanding of raptor biology (Walls and Kenward 2007) and are now used to answer a multitude of research questions (Meyburg and Fuller 2007). However, transmitters affect the birds that carry them (Barron et al. 2010), and it is important to document and evaluate such...
Assessing the detail needed to capture rainfall-runoff dynamics with physics-based hydrologic response simulation
B.B. Mirus, B.A. Ebel, C.S. Heppner, K. Loague
2011, Water Resources Research (47)
Concept development simulation with distributed, physics-based models provides a quantitative approach for investigating runoff generation processes across environmental conditions. Disparities within data sets employed to design and parameterize boundary value problems used in heuristic simulation inevitably introduce various levels of bias. The objective was to evaluate the impact of boundary...
USGS "Did You Feel It?" internet-based macroseismic intensity maps
D.J. Wald, V. Quitoriano, B. Worden, M. Hopper, J. W. Dewey
2011, Annals of Geophysics (54) 688-707
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) "Did You Feel It?" (DYFI) system is an automated approach for rapidly collecting macroseismic intensity data from Internet users' shaking and damage reports and generating intensity maps immediately following earthquakes; it has been operating for over a decade (1999-2011). DYFI-based intensity maps made rapidly available...
Three-dimensional surface deformation mapping by convensional interferometry and multiple aperture interferometry
H.-S. Jung, Z. Lu, C.-W. Lee
2011, Conference Paper, 2011 3rd International Asia-Pacific Conference on Synthetic Aperture Radar, APSAR 2011
Interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) technique has been successfully used for mapping surface deformations [1-2], but it has been normally limited to a measurement along the radar line-of-sight (LOS) direction. For this reason, it is impossible to determine the north (N-S) component of surface deformation because of using data from...
Inversion of ground-motion data from a seismometer array for rotation using a modification of Jaeger's method
Wu-Cheng Chi, W.H.K. Lee, J.A.D. Aston, C.J. Lin, C.-C. Liu
2011, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (101) 3105-3109
We develop a new way to invert 2D translational waveforms using Jaeger's (1969) formula to derive rotational ground motions about one axis and estimate the errors in them using techniques from statistical multivariate analysis. This procedure can be used to derive rotational ground motions and strains using arrayed translational data,...
Interactions between natural-occurring landscape conditions and land use influencing the abundance of riverine smallmouth bass, micropterus dolomieu
S.K. Brewer, C.F. Rabeni
2011, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (68) 1922-1933
This study examined how interactions between natural landscape features and land use influenced the abundance of smallmouth bass, Micropterus dolomieu, in Missouri, USA, streams. Stream segments were placed into one of four groups based on natural-occurring watershed characteristics (soil texture and soil permeability) predicted to relate to smallmouth bass abundance....
A heuristic simulation model of Lake Ontario circulation and mass balance transport
J.E. McKenna Jr., M.A. Chalupnicki
2011, Journal of Freshwater Ecology (26) 123-132
The redistribution of suspended organisms and materials by large-scale currents is part of natural ecological processes in large aquatic systems but can contribute to ecosystem disruption when exotic elements are introduced into the system. Toxic compounds and planktonic organisms spend various lengths of time in suspension before settling to the...
Constraints on Lake Agassiz discharge through the late-glacial Champlain Sea (St. Lawrence Lowlands, Canada) using salinity proxies and an estuarine circulation model
Brian Katz, R.G. Najjar, T. Cronin, J. Rayburn, M. E. Mann
2011, Quaternary Science Reviews (30) 3248-3257
During the last deglaciation, abrupt freshwater discharge events from proglacial lakes in North America, such as glacial Lake Agassiz, are believed to have drained into the North Atlantic Ocean, causing large shifts in climate by weakening the formation of North Atlantic Deep Water and decreasing ocean heat transport to high...
Water storage at the Panola Mountain Research Watershed, Georgia, USA
N.E. Peters, Brent T. Aulenbach
2011, Hydrological Processes (25) 3878-3889
Storage is a major component of a catchment water balance particularly when the water balance components are evaluated on short time scales, that is, less than annual. We propose a method of determining the storage-discharge relation using an exponential function and daily precipitation, potential evapotranspiration (PET) and baseflow during the...
The effects of myxobolus cerebralis on the physiological performance of whirling disease resistant and susceptible strains of rainbow trout
E.R. Fetherman, Christopher A. Myrick, D.L. Winkelman, G.J. Schisler
2011, Journal of Aquatic Animal Health (23) 169-177
The development of rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss strains that are resistant to whirling disease has shown promise as amanagement tool for populationsin areas where Myxobolus cerebralisis present. However, the physiological effects of the disease on characteristics necessary for fish survival in natural river conditions have not been tested in many...
