Synthesis centers as critical research infrastructure
Jill Baron, Alison Specht, Eric Garnier, Pamela Bishop, C. Andrew Campbell, Frank W. Davis, Bruno Fady, Dawn Field, Louis J. Gross, Siddeswara M. Guru, Benjamin S Halpern, Stephanie E. Hampton, Peter R. Leavitt, Thomas R. Meagher, Jean Ometto, John N. Parker, Richard Price, Casey H. Rawson, Allen Rodrigo, Laura A. Sheble, Marten Winter
2017, BioScience (67) 750-759
Demand for the opportunity to participate in a synthesis-center activity has increased in the years since the US National Science Foundation (NSF)–funded National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) opened its doors in 1995 and as more scientists across a diversity of scientific disciplines have become aware of what synthesis...
Duckling survival of mallards in Southland, New Zealand
Erin Garrick, Courtney L. Amundson, Phillip J. Seddon
2017, Journal of Wildlife Management (81) 858-867
The southern portion of New Zealand's South Island is a productive area for mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) despite a notable lack of permanent or semi-permanent wetlands. Most broods are reared in pastures that may or may not be flooded with ephemeral water. In recent years, there has been an increased conversion...
Perturbational and nonperturbational inversion of Rayleigh-wave velocities
Matthew M. Haney, Victor C. Tsai
2017, Geophysics (82) F15-F28
The inversion of Rayleigh-wave dispersion curves is a classic geophysical inverse problem. We have developed a set of MATLAB codes that performs forward modeling and inversion of Rayleigh-wave phase or group velocity measurements. We describe two different methods of inversion: a perturbational method based on finite elements and a nonperturbational...
Nest-site selection and nest success of an Arctic-breeding passerine, Smith's Longspur, in a changing climate
Heather R. McFarland, Steve J. Kendall, Abby Powell
2017, The Condor (119) 85-97
Despite changes in shrub cover and weather patterns associated with climate change in the Arctic, little is known about the breeding requirements of most passerines tied to northern regions. We investigated the nesting biology and nest habitat characteristics of Smith's Longspurs (Calcarius pictus) in 2 study areas in the Brooks...
Efficacy of SpayVac® as a contraceptive in feral horses
James E. Roelle, Stephen S. Germaine, Albert J. Kane, Brian S. Cade
2017, Wildlife Society Bulletin (41) 107-115
ABSTRACT We tested the efficacy of 2 formulations of the immunocontraceptive SpayVac1, which packages the immunogen porcine zona pellucida (PZP) and an adjuvant in multilamellar liposomes, as a contraceptive in captive feral horses (Equus caballus) for 3 consecutive breeding seasons (Pauls Valley, OK, USA; 2012–2014) following a single inoculation. Annual...
Repeatability of testing a small broadband sensor in the Albuquerque Seismological Laboratory Underground Vault
Adam T. Ringler, Austin Holland, David C. Wilson
2017, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (107) 1557-1563
Variability in seismic instrumentation performance plays a fundamental role in our ability to carry out experiments in observational seismology. Many such experiments rely on the assumed performance of various seismic sensors as well as on methods to isolate the sensors from nonseismic noise sources. We look at the repeatability of...
The 2008 Wells, Nevada earthquake sequence: Source constraints using calibrated multiple event relocation and InSAR
Jennifer Nealy, Harley M. Benz, Gavin P. Hayes, Eric Berman, William D. Barnhart
2017, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (107) 1107-1117
The 2008 Wells, NV earthquake represents the largest domestic event in the conterminous U.S. outside of California since the October 1983 Borah Peak earthquake in southern Idaho. We present an improved catalog, magnitude complete to 1.6, of the foreshock-aftershock sequence, supplementing the current U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Preliminary Determination of...
Climate change-induced vegetation shifts lead to more ecological droughts despite projected rainfall increases in many global temperate drylands
Britta Tietjen, Daniel R. Schlaepfer, John B. Bradford, William K. Laurenroth, Sonia A. Hall, Michael C. Duniway, Tamara Hochstrasser, Gensuo Jia, Seth M. Munson, David A. Pyke, Scott D. Wilson
2017, Global Change Biology (23) 2743-2754
Drylands occur world-wide and are particularly vulnerable to climate change since dryland ecosystems depend directly on soil water availability that may become increasingly limited as temperatures rise. Climate change will both directly impact soil water availability, and also change plant biomass, with resulting indirect feedbacks on soil moisture. Thus, the...
Paleozoic and mesozoic GIS data from the Geologic Atlas of the Rocky Mountain Region: Volume 1
Aimee Graeber, Gregory L. Gunther, editor(s)
2017, Book
The Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists (RMAG) is, once again, publishing portions of the 1972 Geologic Atlas of the Rocky Mountain Region (Mallory, ed., 1972) as a geospatial map and data package. Georeferenced tiff (Geo TIFF) images of map figures from this atlas has served as the basis for these...
Flood of July 2016 in northern Wisconsin and the Bad River Reservation
Faith A. Fitzpatrick, Eric D. Dantoin, Naomi Tillison, Kara M. Watson, Robert J. Waschbusch, James D. Blount
2017, Scientific Investigations Report 2017-5029
Heavy rain fell across northern Wisconsin and the Bad River Reservation on July 11, 2016, as a result of several rounds of thunderstorms. The storms caused major flooding in the Bad River Basin and nearby tributaries along the south shore of Lake Superior. Rainfall totals were 8–10 inches or more...
Effects of changes in pumping on regional groundwater-flow paths, 2005 and 2010, and areas contributing recharge to discharging wells, 1990–2010, in the vicinity of North Penn Area 7 Superfund site, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania
Lisa A. Senior, Daniel J. Goode
2017, Scientific Investigations Report 2017-5014
A previously developed regional groundwater flow model was used to simulate the effects of changes in pumping rates on groundwater-flow paths and extent of recharge discharging to wells for a contaminated fractured bedrock aquifer in southeastern Pennsylvania. Groundwater in the vicinity of the North Penn Area 7 Superfund site, Montgomery...
Comparison of benthos and plankton for Waukegan Harbor Area of Concern, Illinois, and Burns Harbor-Port of Indiana non-Area of Concern, Indiana, in 2015
Barbara C. Scudder Eikenberry, Hayley T. Olds, Daniel J. Burns, Edward G. Dobrowolski, Kurt L. Schmude
2017, Scientific Investigations Report 2017-5039
During two seasonal sampling events in spring (June) and fall (August) of 2015, the U.S. Geological Survey collected benthos (benthic invertebrates) and plankton (zooplankton and phytoplankton) at three sites each in the Waukegan Harbor Area of Concern (AOC) in Illinois and in Burns Harbor-Port of Indiana, a non-AOC comparison site...
System identification based on deconvolution and cross correlation: An application to a 20‐story instrumented building in Anchorage, Alaska
Weiping Wen, Erol Kalkan
2017, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (107) 718-740
Deconvolution and cross‐correlation techniques are used for system identification of a 20‐story steel, moment‐resisting frame building in downtown Anchorage, Alaska. This regular‐plan midrise structure is instrumented with a 32‐channel accelerometer array at 10 levels. The impulse response functions (IRFs) and correlation functions (CFs) are computed based on waveforms recorded from...
Regional and temporal variability of melts during a Cordilleran magma pulse: Age and chemical evolution of the jurassic arc, eastern mojave desert, California
A.P. Barth, J.L. Wooden, David M. Miller, Keith A. Howard, Lydia Fox, Elizabeth R. Schermer, C.E. Jacobson
2017, Geological Society of America Bulletin (129) 429-448
Intrusive rock sequences in the central and eastern Mojave Desert segment of the Jurassic Cordilleran arc of the western United States record regional and temporal variations in magmas generated during the second prominent pulse of Mesozoic continental arc magmatism. U/Pb zircon ages provide temporal control for describing variations in rock...
Bioenergetics models to estimate numbers of larval lampreys consumed by smallmouth bass in Elk Creek, Oregon
Luke Schultz, Michael Heck, Brandon M Kowalski, Collin A. Eagles-Smith, Kelly C. Coates, Jason B. Dunham
2017, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (37) 714-723
Nonnative fishes have been increasingly implicated in the decline of native fishes in the Pacific Northwest. Smallmouth Bass Micropterus dolomieu were introduced into the Umpqua River in southwest Oregon in the early 1960s. The spread of Smallmouth Bass throughout the basin coincided with a decline in counts of upstream-migrating Pacific...
Coastal circulation and water-column properties in the National Park of American Samoa, February–July 2015
Curt D. Storlazzi, Olivia Cheriton, Kurt J. Rosenberger, Joshua B. Logan, Timothy B. Clark
2017, Open-File Report 2017-1060
There is little information on the oceanography in the National Park of American Samoa (NPSA). The transport pathways for potentially harmful constituents of land-derived runoff, as well as larvae and other planktonic organisms, are driven by nearshore circulation patterns. To evaluate the processes affecting coral reef ecosystem health, it is...
Unusual population attributes of invasive red-eared slider turtles (Trachemys scripta elegans) in Japan: do they have a performance advantage?
Mari Taniguchi, Jeffrey E. Lovich, Kanako Mine, Shintaro Ueno, Naoki Kamezaki
2017, Aquatic Invasions (12) 97-108
The slider turtle (Trachemys scripta Thunberg in Schoepff, 1792) is native to the USA and Mexico. Due to the popularity of their colorful hatchlings as pets, they have been exported worldwide and are now present on all continents, except Antarctica. Slider turtles are well-established in Japan and occupy aquatic habitats...
A note on adding viscoelasticity to earthquake simulators
Frederick Pollitz
2017, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (107) 468-474
Here, I describe how time‐dependent quasi‐static stress transfer can be implemented in an earthquake simulator code that is used to generate long synthetic seismicity catalogs. Most existing seismicity simulators use precomputed static stress interaction coefficients to rapidly implement static stress transfer in fault networks with typically tens of thousands of...
Using a gradient in food quality to infer drivers of fatty acid content in two filter-feeding aquatic consumers
James H. Larson, William B. Richardson, Jonathan M. Vallazza, Lynn A. Bartsch, Michelle R. Bartsch
2017, Aquatic Sciences (79) 855-865
Inferences about ecological structure and function are often made using elemental or macromolecular tracers of food web structure. For example, inferences about food chain length are often made using stable isotope ratios of top predators and consumer food sources are often inferred from both stable isotopes and fatty acid (FA)...
Geologic map of the Beacon Rock quadrangle, Skamania County, Washington
Russell C. Evarts, Robert J. Fleck
2017, Scientific Investigations Map 3367
The Beacon Rock 7.5′ quadrangle is located approximately 50 km east of Portland, Oregon, on the north side of the Columbia River Gorge, a scenic canyon carved through the axis of the Cascade Range by the Columbia River. Although approximately 75,000 people live within the gorge, much of the region...
How misapplication of the hydrologic unit framework diminishes the meaning of watersheds
James M. Omernik, Glenn E. Griffith, Robert M. Hughes, James B. Glover, Marc H. Weber
2017, Environmental Management (60) 1-11
Hydrologic units provide a convenient but problematic nationwide set of geographic polygons based on subjectively determined subdivisions of land surface areas at several hierarchical levels. The problem is that it is impossible to map watersheds, basins, or catchments of relatively equal size and cover the whole country. The hydrologic unit...
Application of an unstructured 3D finite volume numerical model to flows and salinity dynamics in the San Francisco Bay-Delta
R.C. Martyr-Koller, H.W.J. Kernkamp, Anne A. Van Dam, Mick van der Wegen, Lisa Lucas, N. Knowles, B. Jaffe, T.A. Fregoso
2017, Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science (192) 86-107
A linked modeling approach has been undertaken to understand the impacts of climate and infrastructure on aquatic ecology and water quality in the San Francisco Bay-Delta region. The Delft3D Flexible Mesh modeling suite is used in this effort for its 3D hydrodynamics, salinity, temperature and sediment dynamics, phytoplankton and...
Demographic consequences of nest box use for Red-footed Falcons Falco vespertinus in Central Asia
Evgeny A. Bragin, Alexander E. Bragin, Todd E. Katzner
2017, Ibis (159) 841-853
Nest box programs are frequently implemented for the conservation of cavity-nesting birds, but their effectiveness is rarely evaluated in comparison to birds not using nest boxes. In the European Palearctic, Red-footed Falcon Falco vespertinus populations are both of high conservation concern and are strongly associated with nest box programs in...
Spatio-temporal mapping of plate boundary faults in California using geodetic imaging
Andrea Donnellan, Ramon Arrowsmith, Stephen B. DeLong
2017, Geosciences (7) 1-26
The Pacific–North American plate boundary in California is composed of a 400-km-wide network of faults and zones of distributed deformation. Earthquakes, even large ones, can occur along individual or combinations of faults within the larger plate boundary system. While research often focuses on the primary and secondary faults, holistic study...
Variability of dissolved organic carbon in precipitation during storms at the Shale Hills Critical Zone Observatory
Lidiia Iavorivska, Elizabeth W. Boyer, Jeffrey W. Grimm, Matthew P. Miller, David R. DeWalle, Kenneth J. Davis, Margot W. Kaye
2017, Hydrological Processes (31) 2935-2950
Organic compounds are removed from the atmosphere and deposited to the earth's surface via precipitation. In this study, we quantified variations of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in precipitation during storm events at the Shale Hills Critical Zone Observatory, a forested watershed in central Pennsylvania (USA). Precipitation samples were collected consecutively...
