Paleoseismic potential of sublacustrine landslide records in a high-seismicity setting (south-central Alaska)
Nore Praet, Jasper Moernaut, Maarten Van Daele, Evelien Boes, Peter J. Haeussler, Michael Strupler, Sabine Schmidt, Michael G. Loso, Marc De Batist
2017, Marine Geology (384) 103-119
Sublacustrine landslide stratigraphy is considered useful for quantitative paleoseismology in low-seismicity settings. However, as the recharging of underwater slopes with sediments is one of the factors that governs the recurrence of slope failures, it is not clear if landslide deposits can provide continuous paleoseismic records in settings of frequent strong shaking. To...
Multi-year microbial source tracking study characterizing fecal contamination in an urban watershed
Rebecca N. Bushon, Amie M.G. Brady, Eric D. Christensen, Erin A. Stelzer
2017, Water Environment Research (89) 127-143
Microbiological and hydrological data were used to rank tributary stream contributions of bacteria to the Little Blue River in Independence, Missouri. Concentrations, loadings and yields of E. coli and microbial source tracking (MST) markers, were characterized during base flow and storm events in five subbasins within Independence, as well as...
Integration of genetic and demographic data to assess population risk in a continuously distributed species
Bradley C. Fedy, Jeffery R. Row, Sara J. Oyler-McCance
2017, Conservation Genetics (18) 89-104
The identification and demographic assessment of biologically meaningful populations is fundamental to species’ ecology and management. Although genetic tools are used frequently to identify populations, studies often do not incorporate demographic data to understand their respective population trends. We used genetic data to define subpopulations in a continuously distributed...
Relations between some horizontal‐component ground‐motion intensity measures used in practice
David Boore, Tadahiro Kishida
2017, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (107) 334-343
Various measures using the two horizontal components of recorded ground motions have been used in a number of studies that derive ground‐motion prediction equations and construct maps of shaking intensity. We update relations between a number of these measures, including those in Boore et al. (2006) and Boore (2010), using the large...
The invasive ant, Solenopsis invicta, reduces herpetofauna richness and abundance
Craig R. Allen, Hannah E. Birge, J. Slater, E. Wiggers
2017, Biological Invasions (19) 713-722
Amphibians and reptiles are declining globally. One potential cause of this decline includes impacts resulting from co-occurrence with non-native red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta. Although a growing body of anecdotal and observational evidence from laboratory experiments supports this hypothesis, there remains a lack of field scale manipulations testing...
A global probabilistic tsunami hazard assessment from earthquake sources
Gareth Davies, Jonathan Griffin, Finn Lovholt, Sylfest Glimsdal, Carl Harbitz, Hong Kie Thio, Stefano Lorito, Roberto Basili, Jacopo Selva, Eric L. Geist, Maria Ana Baptista
2017, Geological Society, London, Special Publications (456) 219-244
Large tsunamis occur infrequently but have the capacity to cause enormous numbers of casualties, damage to the built environment and critical infrastructure, and economic losses. A sound understanding of tsunami hazard is required to underpin management of these risks, and while tsunami hazard assessments are typically conducted at regional or...
Size and age structure of anadromous and landlocked populations of Rainbow Smelt
Andrew O’Malley, Claire Enterline, Joseph D. Zydlewski
2017, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (37) 326-336
Rainbow Smelt Osmerus mordax are widely distributed in both anadromous and landlocked populations throughout northeastern North America; abundance, size at age, and maximum size vary widely among populations and life histories. In the present study, size at age, von Bertalanffy growth parameters, population age distributions, and precision and bias in age assessment...
Building the vegetation drought response index for Canada (VegDRI-Canada) to monitor agricultural drought: first results
Tsegaye Tadesse, Catherine Champagne, Brian D. Wardlow, Trevor A. Hadwen, Jesslyn F. Brown, Getachew B. Demisse, Yared A. Bayissa, Andrew M. Davidson
2017, GIScience and Remote Sensing (54) 230-257
Drought is a natural climatic phenomenon that occurs throughout the world and impacts many sectors of society. To help decision-makers reduce the impacts of drought, it is important to improve monitoring tools that provide relevant and timely information in support of drought mitigation decisions. Given that drought is a complex...
Generation of 3-D hydrostratigraphic zones from dense airborne electromagnetic data to assess groundwater model prediction error
Nikolaj K Christensen, Burke J. Minsley, Steen Christensen
2017, Water Resources Research (53) 1019-1038
We present a new methodology to combine spatially dense high-resolution airborne electromagnetic (AEM) data and sparse borehole information to construct multiple plausible geological structures using a stochastic approach. The method developed allows for quantification of the performance of groundwater models built from different geological realizations of structure. Multiple structural realizations...
Predictors of breeding site occupancy by amphibians in montane landscapes
Luke A. Groff, Cynthia S. Loftin, Aram J.K. Calhoun
2017, Journal of Wildlife Management (81) 269-278
Ecological relationships and processes vary across species’ geographic distributions, life stages and spatial, and temporal scales. Montane landscapes are characterized by low wetland densities, rugged topographies, and cold climates. Consequently, aquatic-dependent and low-vagility ectothermic species (e.g., pool-breeding amphibians) may exhibit unique ecological associations in montane landscapes. We evaluated the relative...
Tidal triggering of earthquakes suggests poroelastic behavior on the San Andreas Fault
Andrew Delorey, Nicholas van der Elst, Paul Johnson
2017, Earth and Planetary Science Letters (460) 164-170
Tidal triggering of earthquakes is hypothesized to provide quantitative information regarding the fault's stress state, poroelastic properties, and may be significant for our understanding of seismic hazard. To date, studies of regional or global earthquake catalogs have had only modest successes in identifying tidal triggering. We posit that the smallest...
Pectoral fin contact as a mechanism for social bonding among dolphins
Kathleen Dudzinski, Christine Ribic
2017, Animal Behavior and Cognition (4) 30-48
Bottlenose dolphins are large-brained social mammals residing in a fission-fusion society with relationships that are established and maintained over decades. We examined a decade-long data set of inter-individual pectoral fin contact exchanges to better understand how dolphins share information via tactile contact. Sex and age are significant factors in pectoral...
Nonbreeding isolation and population-specific migration patterns among three populations of Golden-winged Warblers
Gunnar R. Kramer, Henry M. Streby, Sean M. Peterson, Justin A. Lehman, David A. Buehler, Petra B. Wood, Darin J. McNeil Jr., Jeffrey L. Larkin, David E. Andersen
2017, Condor (119) 108-121
Golden-winged Warblers (Vermivora chrysoptera) are Nearctic–Neotropical migrants experiencing varied regional population trends not fully explained by breeding-grounds factors such as nest success. A lack of detailed information on the nonbreeding distributions, migration routes, or timing of migration among populations hampers our ability to identify population processes outside the breeding period....
Modeled ecohydrological responses to climate change at seven small watersheds in the northeastern United States
Afshin Pourmokhtarian, Charles T. Driscoll, John L. Campbell, Katharine Hayhoe, Anne M. K. Stoner, Mary Beth Adams, Douglas A. Burns, Ivan Fernandez, Myron J. Mitchell, James B. Shanley
2017, Global Change Biology (23) 840-856
A cross-site analysis was conducted on seven diverse, forested watersheds in the northeastern United States to evaluate hydrological responses (evapotranspiration, soil moisture, seasonal and annual streamflow, and water stress) to projections of future climate. We used output from four atmosphere–ocean general circulation models (AOGCMs; CCSM4, HadGEM2-CC, MIROC5, and MRI-CGCM3) included...
Using diurnal temperature signals to infer vertical groundwater-surface water exchange
Dylan J. Irvine, Martin A. Briggs, Laura K. Lautz, Ryan P. Gordon, Jeffrey M. McKenzie, Ian Cartwright
2017, Groundwater (55) 10-26
Heat is a powerful tracer to quantify fluid exchange between surface water and groundwater. Temperature time series can be used to estimate pore water fluid flux, and techniques can be employed to extend these estimates to produce detailed plan-view flux maps. Key advantages of heat tracing include cost-effective sensors and...
An integrated data model to estimate spatiotemporal occupancy, abundance, and colonization dynamics
Perry J. Williams, Mevin Hooten, Jamie N. Womble, George G. Esslinger, Michael R. Bower, Trevor J. Hefley
2017, Ecology (98) 328-336
Ecological invasions and colonizations occur dynamically through space and time. Estimating the distribution and abundance of colonizing species is critical for efficient management or conservation. We describe a statistical framework for simultaneously estimating spatiotemporal occupancy and abundance dynamics of a colonizing species. Our method accounts for several issues that are...
Population genetics and demography unite ecology and evolution
Winsor H. Lowe, Ryan Kovach, Fred W. Allendorf
2017, Trends in Ecology and Evolution (32) 141-152
The interplay of ecology and evolution has been a rich area of research for decades. A surge of interest in this area was catalyzed by the observation that evolution by natural selection can operate at the same contemporary timescales as ecological dynamics. Specifically, recent eco-evolutionary...
Evolutionary and functional mitogenomics associated with the genetic restoration of the Florida panther
Alexander Ochoa, David P. Onorato, Robert R. Fitak, Melody Roelke-Parker, Melanie Culver
2017, Journal of Heredity (108) 449-455
Florida panthers are endangered pumas that currently persist in reduced patches of habitat in South Florida, USA. We performed mitogenome reference-based assemblies for most parental lines of the admixed Florida panthers that resulted from the introduction of female Texas pumas into South Florida in 1995. With the addition of 2...
Factors influencing detection of the federally endangered Diamond Darter Crystallaria cincotta: Implications for long-term monitoring strategies
Austin A. Rizzo, Donald J. Brown, Stuart A. Welsh, Patricia A. Thompson
2017, The American Midland Naturalist (178) 123-131
Population monitoring is an essential component of endangered species recovery programs. The federally endangered Diamond Darter Crystallaria cincotta is in need of an effective monitoring design to improve our understanding of its distribution and track population trends. Because of their small size, cryptic coloration, and nocturnal behavior, along with limitations associated with...
Annual changes in seasonal river water temperatures in the eastern and western United States
Tyler Wagner, Stephen R. Midway, Joanna B. Whittier, Jefferson T. DeWeber, Craig P. Paukert
2017, Water (9)
Changes in river water temperatures are anticipated to have direct effects on thermal habitat and fish population vital rates, and therefore, understanding temporal trends in water temperatures may be necessary for predicting changes in thermal habitat and how species might respond to such changes. However, many investigations into trends in...
Ca isotopic geochemistry of an Antarctic aquatic system
W. Berry Lyons, Thomas D. Bullen, Kathleen A. Welch
2017, Geophysical Research Letters (44) 882-891
The McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica, are a polar desert ecosystem. The hydrologic system of the dry valleys is linked to climate with ephemeral streams that flow from glacial melt during the austral summer. Past climate variations have strongly influenced the closed-basin, chemically stratified lakes on the valley floor. Results of...
Prior knowledge-based approach for associating contaminants with biological effects: A case study in the St. Croix River basin, MN, WI, USA
Anthony L. Schroeder, Dalma Martinovic-Weigelt, Gerald T. Ankley, Kathy Lee, Natalia Garcia-Reyero, Edward J. Perkins, Heiko L. Schoenfuss, Daniel L. Villeneuve
2017, Environmental Pollution (221) 427-436
Evaluating potential adverse effects of complex chemical mixtures in the environment is challenging. One way to address that challenge is through more integrated analysis of chemical monitoring and biological effects data. In the present study, water samples from five locations near two municipal wastewater treatment plants in the St. Croix...
Terrestrial ecosystem model performance in simulating productivity and its vulnerability to climate change in the northern permafrost region
Jianyang Xia, A. David McGuire, David Lawrence, Eleanor J. Burke, Guangsheng Chen, Xiaodong Chen, Christine Delire, Charles Koven, Andrew MacDougall, Shushi Peng, Annette Rinke, Kazuyuki Saito, Wenxin Zhang, Ramdane Alkama, Theodore J. Bohn, Philippe Ciais, Bertrand Decharme, Isabelle Gouttevin, Tomohiro Hajima, Daniel J. Hayes, Kun Huang, Duoying Ji, Gerhard Krinner, Dennis P. Lettenmaier, Paul A. Miller, John C. Moore, Benjamin Smith, Tetsuo Sueyoshi, Zheng Shi, Liming Yan, Junyi Liang, Lifen Jiang, Qian Zhang, Yiqi Luo
2017, Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences (122) 430-446
Realistic projection of future climate-carbon (C) cycle feedbacks requires better understanding and an improved representation of the C cycle in permafrost regions in the current generation of Earth system models. Here we evaluated 10 terrestrial ecosystem models for their estimates of net primary productivity (NPP) and responses to historical climate...
Quaternary displacement rates on the Meeman‐Shelby fault and Joiner ridge horst, eastern Arkansas: Results from coring Mississippi River alluvium
Alex Ward, Ronald C. Counts, Roy Van Arsdale, Daniel Larsen, Shannon A. Mahan
2017, Seismological Research Letters (88) 442-455
This research used coring and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating of displaced, deeply buried Quaternary alluvium to determine vertical displacement rates for the Meeman‐Shelby fault and the Joiner ridge horst, two structures in northeastern Arkansas that have no modern seismicity associated with them. We drilled continuous cores of the entire...
Fish and invertebrate flow-biology relationships to support the determination of ecological flows for North Carolina
Jennifer Phelan, Thomas F. Cuffney, Lauren A. Patterson, Michele Eddy, Robert Dykes, Sam Pearsall, Chris Goudreau, Jim Mead, Fred Tarver
2017, Journal of the American Water Resources Association (53) 42-55
A method was developed to characterize fish and invertebrate responses to flow alteration in the state of North Carolina. This method involved using 80th percentile linear quantile regressions to relate six flow metrics to the diversity of riffle-run fish and benthic Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, and Trichoptera (EPT) richness. All twelve flow-biology...
