Species distribution models for a migratory bird based on citizen science and satellite tracking data
Christopher L. Coxen, Jennifer K. Frey, Scott A. Carleton, Daniel P. Collins
2017, Global Ecology and Conservation (11) 298-311
Species distribution models can provide critical baseline distribution information for the conservation of poorly understood species. Here, we compared the performance of band-tailed pigeon (Patagioenas fasciata) species distribution models created using Maxent and derived from two separate presence-only occurrence data sources in New Mexico: 1) satellite tracked birds and 2) observations...
Species’ traits help predict small mammal responses to habitat homogenization by an invasive grass
Joseph P. Ceradini, Anna D. Chalfoun
2017, Ecological Applications (27) 1451-1465
Invasive plants can negatively affect native species, however, the strength, direction, and shape of responses may vary depending on the type of habitat alteration and the natural history of native species. To prioritize conservation of vulnerable species, it is therefore critical to effectively predict species’ responses to invasive plants, which...
A database and probabilistic assessment methodology for carbon dioxide enhanced oil recovery and associated carbon dioxide retention in the United States
Peter D. Warwick, Mahendra K. Verma, Emil D. Attanasi, Ricardo A. Olea, Madalyn S. Blondes, Philip Freeman, Sean T. Brennan, Matthew D. Merrill, Hossein Jahediesfanjani, Jacqueline Roueche, Celeste D. Lohr
2017, Energy Procedia (114) 7055-7059
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has developed an assessment methodology for estimating the potential incremental technically recoverable oil resources resulting from carbon dioxide-enhanced oil recovery (CO2-EOR) in reservoirs with appropriate depth, pressure, and oil composition. The methodology also includes a procedure for estimating the CO2 that remains in the reservoir after...
Diet composition of age-0 fishes in created habitats of the Lower Missouri River
Trevor A. Starks, James M. Long
2017, The American Midland Naturalist (178) 112-122
Channelization of the Missouri River has greatly reduced the availability of shallow water habitats used by many larval and juvenile fishes and contributed to imperilment of floodplain-dependent biota. Creation of small side channels, or chutes, is being used to restore shallow water habitat and reverse negative environmental effects associated with...
Seasonal fecundity and costs to λ are more strongly affected by direct than indirect predation effects across species
Joseph A. LaManna, Thomas E. Martin
2017, Ecology (98) 1829-1838
Increased perceived predation risk can cause behavioral and physiological responses to reduce direct predation mortality, but these responses can also cause demographic costs through reduced reproductive output. Such indirect costs of predation risk have received increased attention in recent years, but the relative importance of direct vs. indirect predation costs...
Spatiotemporal analysis of changes in lode mining claims around the McDermitt Caldera, northern Nevada and southern Oregon
Joshua A. Coyan, Michael L. Zientek, Mark J. Mihalasky
2017, Natural Resources Research (26) 319-337
Resource managers and agencies involved with planning for future federal land needs are required to complete an assessment of and forecast for future land use every ten years. Predicting mining activities on federal lands is difficult as current regulations do not require disclosure of exploration results. In these cases, historic...
Decadal declines in avian herbivore reproduction: density-dependent nutrition and phenological mismatch in the Arctic
Megan V. Ross, Ray T. Alisaukas, David C. Douglas, Dana K. Kellett
2017, Ecology (98) 1869-1883
A full understanding of population dynamics depends not only on estimation of mechanistic contributions of recruitment and survival, but also knowledge about the ecological processes that drive each of these vital rates. The process of recruitment in particular may be protracted over several years, and can depend on numerous ecological...
Real-time geomagnetic monitoring for space weather-related applications: Opportunities and challenges
Jeffrey J. Love, Carol Finn
2017, Space Weather (15) 820-827
An examination is made of opportunities and challenges for enhancing global, real-time geomagnetic monitoring that would be beneficial for a variety of operational projects. This enhancement in geomagnetic monitoring can be attained by expanding the geographic distribution of magnetometer stations, improving the quality of magnetometer data, increasing acquisition sampling rates,...
Selenium: Mercury molar ratios in freshwater fish in the Columbia River Basin: Potential applications for specific fish consumption advisories
Leanne K. Cusack, Collin A. Eagles-Smith, Anna K. Harding, Molly Kile, Dave Stone
2017, Biological Trace Element Research (178) 136-146
Fish provide a valuable source of beneficial nutrients and are an excellent source of low fat protein. However, fish are also the primary source of methylmercury exposure in humans. Selenium often co-occurs with mercury and there is some evidence that selenium can protect against mercury toxicity yet States issue fish...
Mapping informal small-scale mining features in a data-sparse tropical environment with a small UAS
Peter G. Chirico, Jessica D. Dewitt
2017, Journal of Unmanned Vehicle Systems (5) 69-91
This study evaluates the use of a small unmanned aerial system (UAS) to collect imagery over artisanal mining sites in West Africa. The purpose of this study is to consider how very high-resolution imagery and digital surface models (DSMs) derived from structure-from-motion (SfM) photogrammetric techniques from a small UAS can...
Geomagnetically induced currents: Science, engineering, and applications readiness
Antti Pulkkinen, E. Bernabeu, A. Thomson, A. Viljanen, R. Pirjola, D. Boteler, J. Eichner, P.J. Cilliers, D. Welling, N.P. Savani, R.S. Weigel, Jeffrey J. Love, Christopher Balch, C.M. Ngwira, G. Crowley, Adam Schultz, R. Kataoka, B. Anderson, D. Fugate, J.J. Simpson, M. MacAlester
2017, Space Weather (15) 828-856
This paper is the primary deliverable of the very first NASA Living With a Star Institute Working Group, Geomagnetically Induced Currents (GIC) Working Group. The paper provides a broad overview of the current status and future challenges pertaining to the science, engineering, and applications of the GIC problem. Science is...
Gradients in Catostomid assemblages along a reservoir cascade
Leandro E. Miranda, Kevin R. Keretz, Chelsea R. Gilliland
2017, River Research and Applications (33) 983-990
Serial impoundment of major rivers leads to alterations of natural flow dynamics and disrupts longitudinal connectivity. Catostomid fishes (suckers, family Catostomidae) are typically found in riverine or backwater habitats yet are able to persist in impounded river systems. To the detriment of conservation, there is limited information about distribution of...
A proposal for amending administrative law to facilitate adaptive management
Robin K. Craig, J.B. Ruhl, Ellie Brown, Byron K. Williams
2017, Environmental Research Letters (12) 1-17
In this article we examine how federal agencies use adaptive management. In order for federal agencies to implement adaptive management more successfully, administrative law must adapt to adaptive management, and we propose changes in administrative law that will help to steer the current process out of a dead end. Adaptive...
Estimating the number of recreational anglers for a given waterbody
Kevin L. Pope, Larkin A. Powell, Brian S. Harmon, Mark A. Pegg, Christopher J. Chizinski
2017, Fisheries Research (191) 69-75
Knowing how many anglers use a given body of water is paramount for understanding components of a fishery related to angling pressure and harvest, yet no study has attempted to provide an estimate of the population size of anglers for a given waterbody. Here, we use information from creel surveys...
Comparison of American Fisheries Society (AFS) standard fish sampling techniques and environmental DNA for characterizing fish communities in a large reservoir
Christina R. Perez, Scott A. Bonar, Jon J. Amberg, Bridget Ladell, Christopher B. Rees, William T. Stewart, Curtis J. Gill, Chris Cantrell, Anthony Robinson
2017, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (37) 1010-1027
Recently, methods involving examination of environmental DNA (eDNA) have shown promise for characterizing fish species presence and distribution in waterbodies. We evaluated the use of eDNA for standard fish monitoring surveys in a large reservoir. Specifically, we compared the presence, relative abundance, biomass, and relative percent composition of Largemouth Bass Micropterus...
Tributary use by imperiled Flannelmouth and Bluehead Suckers in the upper Colorado River Basin
Gregory S. Fraser, Dana L. Winkelman, Kevin R. Bestgen, Kevin G. Thompson
2017, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (146) 858-871
Habitat alterations and establishment of nonnative fishes have reduced the distributions of Flannelmouth Sucker Catostomus latipinnis and Bluehead Sucker C. discobolus to less than 50% of their historical ranges in the Colorado River basin. Tributaries are sometimes less altered than main-stem habitat in the basin and may be important to support various life history...
Geomorphology of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko
Samuel P. D. Birch, Y. Tang, A. G. Hayes, Randolph L. Kirk, D. Bodewitz, H. Campins, Y. Fernandez, R. de Freitas Bart, N. W. Kutsop, H. Sierks, J. M. Soderblom, S. W. Squyres, J.-B. Vincent
2017, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (469) S50-S67
We present a global geomorphological map of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko (67P/C-G) using data acquired by the Rosetta Orbiter’s OSIRIS Narrow Angle Camera. The images used in our study were acquired between 2014 August and 2015 May, before 67P/C-G passed through perihelion. Imagery of the Southern hemisphere was included in our study, allowing us...
Heat as a groundwater tracer in shallow and deep heterogeneous media: Analytical solution, spreadsheet tool, and field applications
Barret L. Kurylyk, Dylan J. Irvine, Sean K. Carey, Martin A. Briggs, Dale D. Werkema, Mariah Bonham
2017, Hydrological Processes (31) 2648-2661
Groundwater flow advects heat, and thus, the deviation of subsurface temperatures from an expected conduction‐dominated regime can be analysed to estimate vertical water fluxes. A number of analytical approaches have been proposed for using heat as a groundwater tracer, and these have typically assumed a homogeneous medium. However, heterogeneous thermal...
Puffins reveal contrasting relationships between forage fish and ocean climate in the North Pacific
William J. Sydeman, John F. Piatt, Sarah Ann Thompson, Marisol Garcia-Reyes, Scott A. Hatch, Mayumi L. Arimitsu, Leslie Slater, Jeffrey C. Williams, Nora A. Rojek, Stephani G. Zador, Heather M. Renner
2017, Fisheries Oceanography (26) 379-395
Long-term studies of predator food habits (i.e., ‘predator-based sampling’) are useful for identifying patterns of spatial and temporal variability of forage nekton in marine ecosystems. We investigated temporal changes in forage fish availability and relationships to ocean climate by analyzing diet composition of three puffin species (horned puffin Fratercula corniculata, tufted...
Landform features and seasonal precipitation predict shallow groundwater influence on temperature in headwater streams
Zachary C. Johnson, Craig D. Snyder, Nathaniel P. Hitt
2017, Water Resources Research (53) 5788-5812
Headwater stream responses to climate change will depend in part on groundwater‐surface water exchanges. We used linear modeling techniques to partition likely effects of shallow groundwater seepage and air temperature on stream temperatures for 79 sites in nine focal watersheds using hourly air and water temperature measurements collected during summer...
The interacting roles of climate, soils, and plant production on soil microbial communities at a continental scale
Mark P. Waldrop, JoAnn M. Holloway, David B. Smith, Martin B. Goldhaber, R. E. Drenovsky, K. M. Scow, R. Dick, Daniel M. Howard, Bruce K. Wylie, James B. Grace
2017, Ecology (98) 1957-1967
Soil microbial communities control critical ecosystem processes such as decomposition, nutrient cycling, and soil organic matter formation. Continental scale patterns in the composition and functioning of microbial communities are related to climatic, biotic, and edaphic factors such as temperature and precipitation, plant community composition, and soil carbon, nitrogen, and pH....
Challenges to oil spill assessment for seabirds in the deep ocean
J. Christopher Haney, Patrick G.R. Jodice, William Montevecchi, David C. Evers
2017, Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology (73) 33-39
We synthesize impediments for evaluating effects to seabirds from open ocean hydrocarbon releases. Effects on seabirds from ship discharges, spills, and well blowouts often are poorly detected and monitored far from land. Regulatory regimes for ocean spills can result in monitoring efforts that are not entirely transparent. We illustrate how...
Physical response of a back-barrier estuary to a post-tropical cyclone
Alexis Beudin, Neil Kamal Ganju, Zafer Defne, Alfredo Aretxabaleta
2017, Journal of Geophysical Research C: Oceans (122) 5888-5904
This paper presents a modeling investigation of the hydrodynamic and sediment transport response of Chincoteague Bay (VA/MD, USA) to Hurricane Sandy using the Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere-Wave-Sediment-Transport (COAWST) modeling system. Several simulation scenarios with different combinations of remote and local forces were conducted to identify the dominant physical processes. While 80% of...
Seasonal movements and multiscale habitat selection of Whooping Crane (Grus americana) in natural and agricultural wetlands
Bradley A. Pickens, Sammy L. King, Phillip L. Vasseur, Sara E. Zimorski, Will Selman
2017, Waterbirds (40) 322-333
Eleven of 15 species of cranes (family: Gruidae) are considered vulnerable or endangered, and the increase of agriculture and aquaculture at the expense of natural wetlands and grasslands is a threat to Gruidae worldwide. A reintroduced population of Whooping Crane (Grus americana) was studied in coastal and agricultural wetlands of...
10Be dating of late Pleistocene megafloods and Cordilleran Ice Sheet retreat in the northwestern United States
Andrea M. Balbas, Aaron M. Barth, Peter U. Clark, Jorie Clark, Marc A. Caffee, Jim E. O'Connor, Victor R. Baker, Kevin Konrad, Bruce Bjornstad
2017, Geology (45) 583-586
During the late Pleistocene, multiple floods from drainage of glacial Lake Missoula further eroded a vast anastomosing network of bedrock channels, coulees, and cataracts, forming the Channeled Scabland of eastern Washington State (United States). However, the timing and exact pathways of these Missoula floods remain poorly constrained, thereby limiting our...
