Proportion of calves and adult muskoxen, Ovibos moschatus killed by gray wolves, Canis lupus, in July on Ellesmere Island
L. David Mech
2010, Canadian Field-Naturalist (124) 258-260
Generally Gray Wolves (Canis lupus L., 1758) tend to focus predation on young-of-the-year ungulates during summer, and I hypothesized that wolves preying on Muskoxen (Ovibos moschatus Zimmerman, 1780) in summer would follow that trend. Over 23 July periods observing wolves on Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada, I found that packs of 2-12 adult...
Restricting wolves risks escape
L. David Mech, Warren Ballard, Ed Bangs, Bob Ream
2010, BioScience (60) 485-486
Implementing the proposal set forth by Licht and colleagues (BioScience 60: 147–153) requires restricting wolves to tiny "islands," areas that are magnitudes smaller than the ranges of most wolf populations. Wolves naturally have large ranges; restricting their spatial needs increases the risk of wolves escaping, exacerbating public relations and political...
Detecting temporal trends in species assemblages with bootstrapping procedures and hierarchical models
Nicholas J. Gotelli, Robert M. Dorazio, Aaron M. Ellison, Gary D. Grossman
2010, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (365) 3621-3631
Quantifying patterns of temporal trends in species assemblages is an important analytical challenge in community ecology. We describe methods of analysis that can be applied to a matrix of counts of individuals that is organized by species (rows) and time-ordered sampling periods (columns). We first developed a bootstrapping procedure to...
Can lowland dry forests represent a refuge from avian malaria for native Hawaiian birds?
Katherine Tucker-Mohl, Patrick Hart, Carter T. Atkinson
2010, Pacific Conservation Biology (16) 181-186
Hawaii's native birds have become increasingly threatened over the past century. Introduced mosquito borne diseases such as avian malaria may be responsible for the near absence of endemic Hawaiian forest birds in low-elevation habitats. The recent recognition that some native Hawaiian forest birds may be repopulating moist lowland habitats as...
Surficial geologic map of the Amboy 30' x 60' quadrangle, San Bernardino County, California
David R. Bedford, David M. Miller, Geoffrey A. Phelps
2010, Scientific Investigations Map 3109
The surficial geologic map of the Amboy 30' x 60' quadrangle presents characteristics of surficial materials for an area of approximately 5,000 km2 in the eastern Mojave Desert of southern California. This map consists of new surficial mapping conducted between 2000 and 2007, as well as compilations from previous surficial...
An approach for modeling sediment budgets in supply-limited rivers
Scott Wright, David J. Topping, David M. Rubin, Theodore S. Melis
2010, Water Resources Research (46)
Reliable predictions of sediment transport and river morphology in response to variations in natural and human-induced drivers are necessary for river engineering and management. Because engineering and management applications may span a wide range of space and time scales, a broad spectrum of modeling approaches has been developed, ranging from...
Nitrate in groundwater of the United States, 1991-2003
Karen R. Burow, Bernard T. Nolan, Michael G. Rupert, Neil M. Dubrovsky
2010, Environmental Science & Technology (44) 4988-4997
An assessment of nitrate concentrations in groundwater in the United States indicates that concentrations are highest in shallow, oxic groundwater beneath areas with high N inputs. During 1991-2003, 5101 wells were sampled in 51 study areas throughout the U.S. as part of the U.S. Geological Survey National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA)...
Tapping environmental history to recreate America's colonial hydrology
Christopher L. Pastore, Mark B. Green, Daniel J. Bain, Andrea Munoz-Hernandez, Charles J. Vorosmarty, Jennifer Arrigo, Sara Brandt, Jonathan M. Duncan, Francesca Greco, Hyojin Kim, Sanjiv Kumar, Michael Lally, Anthony J. Parolari, Brian A. Pellerin, Nira Salant, Adam Schlosser, Kate Zalzal
2010, Environmental Science & Technology (44) 8798-8803
Throughout American history water resources have played integral roles in shaping patterns of human settlement and networks of biological and economic exchange. In turn, humans have altered hydrologic systems to meet their needs. A paucity of climate and water discharge data for the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, however, has left...
Words matter: Recommendations for clarifying coral disease nomenclature and terminology
Caroline S. Rogers
2010, Diseases of Aquatic Organisms (91) 167-175
Coral diseases have caused significant losses on Caribbean reefs and are becoming a greater concern in the Pacific. Progress in coral disease research requires collaboration and communication among experts from many different disciplines. The lack of consistency in the use of terms and names in the recent scientific literature reflects...
Winter distribution, movements, and annual survival of radiomarked Vancouver Canada geese in southeast Alaska
Jerry W. Hupp, John I. Hodges Jr., Bruce P. Conant, Brandt W. Meixell, Debbie J. Groves
2010, Journal of Wildlife Management (74) 274-284
Management of Pacific Flyway Canada geese (Branta canadensis) requires information on winter distribution of different populations. Recoveries of tarsus bands from Vancouver Canada geese (B. canadensis fulva) marked in southeast Alaska, USA, ≥4 decades ago suggested that ≥83% of the population was non-migratory and that annual adult survival was high...
Wing pathology of white-nose syndrome in bats suggests life-threatening disruption of physiology
Paul M. Cryan, Carol U. Meteyer, Justin G. Boyles, David S. Blehert
2010, BMC Biology (8) 135
White-nose syndrome (WNS) is causing unprecedented declines in several species of North American bats. The characteristic lesions of WNS are caused by the fungus Geomyces destructans, which erodes and replaces the living skin of bats while they hibernate. It is unknown how this infection kills the bats. We review here...
Visible and infrared remote imaging of hazardous waste: A review
Terrence Slonecker, Gary B. Fisher, Danielle P. Aiello, Barry Haack
2010, Remote Sensing (2) 2474-2508
One of the critical global environmental problems is human and ecological exposure to hazardous wastes from agricultural, industrial, military and mining activities. These wastes often include heavy metals, hydrocarbons and other organic chemicals. Traditional field and laboratory detection and monitoring of these wastes are generally expensive and time consuming. The...
Vegetation index methods for estimating evapotranspiration by remote sensing
Edward P. Glenn, Pamela L. Nagler, Alfredo R. Huete
2010, Surveys in Geophysics (31) 531-555
Evapotranspiration (ET) is the largest term after precipitation in terrestrial water budgets. Accurate estimates of ET are needed for numerous agricultural and natural resource management tasks and to project changes in hydrological cycles due to potential climate change. We explore recent methods that combine vegetation indices (VI) from satellites with...
Variation in δ13C and δ15N diet–vibrissae trophic discrimination factors in a wild population of California sea otters
Seth D. Newsome, Gena B. Bentall, M. Tim Tinker, Olav T. Oftedal, Katherine Ralls, James A. Estes, Marilyn L. Fogel
2010, Ecological Applications (20) 1744-1752
The ability to quantify dietary inputs using stable isotope data depends on accurate estimates of isotopic differences between a consumer (c) and its diet (d), commonly referred to as trophic discrimination factors (TDFs) and denoted by Δc-d. At present, TDFs are available for only a few mammals and are usually...
Application of the control volume mixed finite element method to a triangular discretization
R.L. Naff
2010, Conference Paper, Proceedings XVIII International Conference on Computational Methods in Water Resources
A control volume mixed finite element scheme for a triangular discretization of a 2-D domain is presented; several control-volume scenarios for use with the scheme are explored....
Whole-rock analyses of core samples from the 1988 drilling of Kilauea Iki lava lake, Hawaii
Rosalind Tuthill Helz, Joseph E. Taggart Jr.
2010, Open-File Report 2010-1093
This report presents and evaluates 64 major-element analyses of previously unanalyzed Kilauea Iki drill core, plus three samples from the 1959 and 1960 eruptions of Kilauea, obtained by X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis during the period 1992 to 1995. All earlier major-element analyses of Kilauea Iki core, obtained by classical (gravimetric)...
Using a distribution and conservation status weighted hotspot approach to identify areas in need of conservation action to benefit Idaho bird species
Aaron M. Haines, Matthias Leu, Leona K. Svancara, Gina Wilson, J. Michael Scott
2010, Northwest Science (84) 170-182
Identification of biodiversity hotspots (hereafter, hotspots) has become a common strategy to delineate important areas for wildlife conservation. However, the use of hotspots has not often incorporated important habitat types, ecosystem services, anthropogenic activity, or consistency in identifying important conservation areas. The purpose of this study was to identify hotspots...
Use and environmental occurrence of pharmaceuticals in freestall dairy farms with manured forage fields
Naoko Watanabe, Brian A. Bergamaschi, Keith A. Loftin, Michael T. Meyer, Thomas Harter
2010, Environmental Science & Technology (44) 6591-6600
Environmental releases of antibiotics from concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) are of increasing regulatory concern. This study investigates the use and occurrence of antibiotics in dairy CAFOs and their potential transport into first-encountered groundwater. On two dairies we conducted four seasonal sampling campaigns, each across 13 animal production and waste...
Update on geographic spread of invasive lionfishes (Pterois volitans [Linnaeus, 1758] and P. miles [Bennett, 1828]) in the Western North Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico
Pamela J. Schofield
2010, Aquatic Invasions (5) S117-S122
The Indo-Pacific lionfishes (Pterois volitans [Linnaeus, 1758] and P. miles [Bennett, 1828]: Family Scorpaenidae) are the first nonnative marine fishes to establish in the Western North Atlantic/Caribbean region. The chronology of the invasion was reported last year (Schofield 2009) using records from the US Geological Survey's Nonindigenous Aquatic Species database....
Unmodeled observation error induces bias when inferring patterns and dynamics of species occurrence via aural detections
Brett T. McClintock, Larissa L. Bailey, Kenneth H. Pollock, Theodore R. Simons
2010, Ecology (91) 2446-2454
The recent surge in the development and application of species occurrence models has been associated with an acknowledgment among ecologists that species are detected imperfectly due to observation error. Standard models now allow unbiased estimation of occupancy probability when false negative detections occur, but this is conditional on no false...
USGS perspectives on an integrated approach to watershed and coastal management
Matthew C. Larsen, Pixie A. Hamilton, John W. Haines, Mason Jr.
2010, Marine Technology Society Journal (44) 18-21
The writers discuss three critically important steps necessary for achieving the goal for improved integrated approaches on watershed and coastal protection and management. These steps involve modernization of monitoring networks, creation of common data and web services infrastructures, and development of modeling, assessment, and research tools. Long-term monitoring is needed...
Uncloaking a cryptic, threatened rail with molecular markers: origins, connectivity and demography of a recently-discovered population
Philippe Girard, John Y. Takekawa, Steven R. Beissinger
2010, Conservation Genetics (11) 2409-2418
The threatened California Black Rail lives under dense marsh vegetation, is rarely observed, flies weakly and has a highly disjunct distribution. The largest population of rails is found in 8–10 large wetlands in San Francisco Bay (SF Bay), but a population was recently discovered in the foothills of the Sierra...
Two-dimensional time dependent hurricane overwash and erosion modeling at Santa Rosa Island
R.T. McCall, J. S. M. Van Theil de Vries, N.G. Plant, A. R. Van Dongeren, J.A. Roelvink, D.M. Thompson, A.J.H.M. Reniers
2010, Coastal Engineering (57) 668-683
A 2DH numerical, model which is capable of computing nearshore circulation and morphodynamics, including dune erosion, breaching and overwash, is used to simulate overwash caused by Hurricane Ivan (2004) on a barrier island. The model is forced using parametric wave and surge time series based on field data and large-scale...
Transcriptome analysis of rainbow trout infected with high and low virulence strains of Infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus
Maureen K. Purcell, Inderjit Singh Marjara, William Batts, Gael Kurath, John D. Hansen
2010, Fish and Shellfish Immunology (30) 84-93
There are three main genetic lineages or genogroups of Infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus (IHNV) in N. America. Strains representing the M genogroup are more virulent in rainbow trout relative to the U genogroup. In this study, we used microarray analysis to evaluate potential mechanisms responsible for host-specific virulence in rainbow...
Traffic effects on bird counts on North American Breeding Bird Survey routes
Emily H. Griffith, John R. Sauer, J. Andrew Royle
2010, The Auk (127) 387-393
The North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) is an annual roadside survey used to estimate population change in >420 species of birds that breed in North America. Roadside sampling has been criticized, in part because traffic noise can interfere with bird counts. Since 1997, data have been collected on the...
