Inner-shelf ocean dynamics and seafloor morphologic changes during Hurricane Sandy
John C. Warner, William C. Schwab, Jeffrey H. List, Ilgar Safak, Maria Liste, Wayne E. Baldwin
2017, Continental Shelf Research (138) 1-18
Hurricane Sandy was one of the most destructive hurricanes in US history, making landfall on the New Jersey coast on Oct 30, 2012. Storm impacts included several barrier island breaches, massive coastal erosion, and flooding. While changes to the subaerial landscape are relatively easily observed, storm-induced changes to the adjacent...
Using diets of Canis breeding pairs to assess resource partitioning between sympatric red wolves and coyotes
Joseph W. Hinton, Annaliese K. Ashley, Justin A. Dellinger, John L. Gittleman, Frank T. van Manen, Michael J. Chamberlain
2017, Journal of Mammalogy (98) 475-488
Foraging behaviors of red wolves (Canis rufus) and coyotes (Canis latrans) are complex and their ability to form congeneric breeding pairs and hybridize further complicates our understanding of factors influencing their diets. Through scat analysis, we assessed prey selection of red wolf, coyote, and congeneric breeding pairs formed by red...
The future demographic niche of a declining grassland bird fails to shift poleward in response to climate change
Lisa A. McCauley, Christine Ribic, Lars Y. Pomara, Benjamin Zuckerberg
2017, Landscape Ecology (32) 807-821
ContextTemperate grasslands and their dependent species are exposed to high variability in weather and climate due to the lack of natural buffers such as forests. Grassland birds are particularly vulnerable to this variability, yet have failed to shift poleward in response to recent climate change...
Estimating occupancy probability of moose using hunter survey data
Nathan J. Crum, Angela K. Fuller, Christopher S. Sutherland, Evan G. Cooch, Jeremy E. Hurst
2017, Journal of Wildlife Management (81) 521-534
Monitoring rare species can be difficult, especially across large spatial extents, making conventional methods of population monitoring costly and logistically challenging. Citizen science has the potential to produce observational data across large areas that can be used to monitor wildlife distributions using occupancy models. We used citizen science (i.e., hunter...
Book review: Bovids of the World: Antelopes, gazelles, cattle, goats, sheep, and relatives
David Leslie
2017, Journal of Wildlife Management (81) 554-554
No abstract available.Book info: Bovids of the World: Antelopes, Gazelles, Cattle, Goats, Sheep, and Relatives. José R. Castelló. 2016. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, USA. 664 pp. ISBN 978-0-691-16717-6....
The 3.6 ka Aniakchak tephra in the Arctic Ocean: A constraint on the Holocene radiocarbon reservoir age in the Chukchi Sea
Christof Pearce, Aron Varhelyi, Stefan Wastegard, Francesco Muschitiello, Natalia Barrientos Macho, Matt O’Regan, Thomas M. Cronin, Laura Gemery, Igor Semiletov, Jan Backman, Martin Jakobsson
2017, Climate of the Past (13) 303-316
The caldera-forming eruption of the Aniakchak volcano in the Aleutian Range on the Alaskan Peninsula at 3.6 cal kyr BP was one of the largest Holocene eruptions worldwide. The resulting ash is found as a visible sediment layer in several Alaskan sites and as a cryptotephra on Newfoundland and Greenland. This large...
Coupling ecological and social network models to assess “transmission” and “contagion” of an aquatic invasive species
Danielle M. Haak, Brian D. Fath, Valery E. Forbes, Dustin R. Martin, Kevin L. Pope
2017, Journal of Environmental Management (190) 243-251
Network analysis is used to address diverse ecological, social, economic, and epidemiological questions, but few efforts have been made to combine these field-specific analyses into interdisciplinary approaches that effectively address how complex systems are interdependent and connected to one another. Identifying and understanding these cross-boundary connections improves natural resource management...
A 130,000-year-old archaeological site in southern California, USA
Steven R. Holen, Thomas A. Deméré, Daniel C. Fisher, Richard Fullagar, James B. Paces, George T. Jefferson, Jared M. Beeton, Richard A. Cerutti, Adam N. Rountrey, Lawrence Vescera, Kathleen A. Holen
2017, Nature (544) 479-483
The earliest dispersal of humans into North America is a contentious subject, and proposed early sites are required to meet the following criteria for acceptance: (1) archaeological evidence is found in a clearly defined and undisturbed geologic context; (2) age is determined by reliable radiometric dating; (3) multiple lines of...
Temporospatial dynamics and public health significance of bacterial flora identified on a major leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) nesting beach in the Southern Caribbean
Ayanna Carla N. Phillips, Johanna Couteau, Stacy Rajh, Neville Stewart, Antonio Watson, Adam Jehu, Hamish Asmath, Chandrashekhar Unakal, Francis Dziva, Ridley Holder, Raymond R. Carthy
2017, Marine Ecology (38)
Grande Riviere beach, on the island of Trinidad, supports the largest nesting population of leatherback turtles in the Caribbean region. Throughout the nesting season, nests are naturally disturbed by newly nesting females, resulting in egg breakage and loss of some nest viability. This environment is ideal for the growth and...
Numerical simulation of large-scale bed load particle tracer advection-dispersion in rivers with free bars
Toshiki Iwasaki, Jonathan M. Nelson, Yasuyuki Shimizu, Gary Parker
2017, Journal of Geophysical Research F: Earth Surface (122) 847-874
Asymptotic characteristics of the transport of bed load tracer particles in rivers have been described by advection-dispersion equations. Here we perform numerical simulations designed to study the role of free bars, and more specifically single-row alternate bars, on streamwise tracer particle dispersion. In treating the conservation of tracer particle mass,...
Tree mortality across biomes is promoted by drought intensity, lower wood density and higher specific leaf area
Sarah Greenwood, Paloma Ruiz-Benito, Jordi Martínez-Vilalta, Francisco Lloret, Thomas Kitzberger, Craig D. Allen, Rod Fensham, Daniel C. Laughlin, Jens Kattge, Gerhard Bonisch, Nathan J. B. Kraft, Alistair S. Jump
2017, Ecology Letters (20) 539-553
Drought events are increasing globally, and reports of consequent forest mortality are widespread. However, due to a lack of a quantitative global synthesis, it is still not clear whether drought-induced mortality rates differ among global biomes and whether functional traits influence the risk of drought-induced mortality. To address these uncertainties,...
Urbanization may limit impacts of an invasive predator on native mammal diversity
Brian E. Reichert, Adia R. Sovie, Brad J. Udell, Kristen M. Hart, Rena R. Borkhataria, Mathieu Bonneau, Robert Reed, Robert A. McCleery
2017, Diversity and Distributions (23) 355-367
AimOur understanding of the effects of invasive species on faunal diversity is limited in part because invasions often occur in modified landscapes where other drivers of community diversity can exacerbate or reduce the net impacts of an invader. Furthermore, rigorous assessments of the effects of invasive species on native communities...
Inter-nesting movements and habitat-use of adult female Kemp’s ridley turtles in the Gulf of Mexico
Donna J. Shaver, Kristen M. Hart, Ikuko Fujisaki, David N. Bucklin, Autumn Iverson, Cynthia Rubio, Thomas F. Backof, Patrick M. Burchfield, Raul de Jesus Gonzales Diaz Miron, Peter H. Dutton, Amy Frey, Jaime Peña, Daniel Gomez Gamez, Hector J. Martinez, Jaime Ortiz
2017, PLoS ONE (12)
Species vulnerability is increased when individuals congregate in restricted areas for breeding; yet, breeding habitats are not well defined for many marine species. Identification and quantification of these breeding habitats are essential to effective conservation. Satellite telemetry and switching state-space modeling (SSM) were used to define inter-nesting habitat of endangered...
A comparison of age, size, and fecundity of harvested and reference White Sucker populations
Meg Begley, Stephen M. Coghlan Jr., Joseph D. Zydlewski
2017, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (37) 510-523
White Suckers Catostomus commersonii are an important source of fresh bait for the Maine lobster fishery. The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife began issuing commercial harvest permits in 1991, without reporting requirements or limits on the number of permits. There is recent concern that overfishing may be occurring. To infer...
Contrasting latitudinal patterns of life-history divergence in two genera of new world thrushes (Turdinae)
Andy J. Boyce, Thomas E. Martin
2017, Journal of Avian Biology (48) 581-590
Several long-standing hypotheses have been proposed to explain latitudinal patterns of life-history strategies. Here, we test predictions of four such hypotheses (seasonality, food limitation, nest predation and adult survival probability) by examining life-history traits and age-specific mortality rates of several species of thrushes (Turdinae) based on field studies at temperate...
Grand challenges in understanding the interplay of climate and land changes
Shuguang Liu, Ben Bond-Lamberty, Lena R. Boysen, James D. Ford, Andrew Fox, Kevin Gallo, Jerry L. Hatfield, Geoffrey M. Henebry, Thomas G. Huntington, Zhihua Liu, Thomas R. Loveland, Richard J. Norby, Terry L. Sohl, Allison L. Steiner, Wenping Yuan, Zhao Zhang, Shuqing Zhao
2017, Earth Interactions (21) 1-43
Half of Earth’s land surface has been altered by human activities, creating various consequences on the climate and weather systems at local to global scales, which in turn affect a myriad of land surface processes and the adaptation behaviors. This study reviews the status and major knowledge gaps in the...
Comparative life history of the south temperate Cape Penduline Tit (Anthoscopus minutus) and north temperate Remizidae species
Penn Lloyd, Bernhard D. Frauenknecht, Morne A. du Plessis, Thomas E. Martin
2017, Journal of Ornithology (158) 569-577
We studied the breeding biology of the south temperate Cape Penduline Tit (Anthoscopus minutus) in order to compare its life history traits with those of related north temperate members of the family Remizidae, namely the Eurasian Penduline Tit (Remiz pendulinus) and the Verdin (Auriparus...
Spatiotemporal ecology of Apalone spinifera in a large, Great Plains river ecosystem
Brian J. Tornabene, Robert G. Bramblett, Alexander V. Zale, Stephen A. Leathe
2017, Herpetological Conservation and Biology (12) 252-271
Sparse information exists about the ecology of Spiny Softshell Turtles (Apalone spinifera) in large rivers, at the northwestern extent of their natural range, and in Montana, where they are disjunct from downstream populations and a State Species of Concern. We determined spatiotemporal ecology of 47 female and 12 male turtles...
Proximate effects of temperature versus evolved intrinsic constraints for embryonic development times among temperate and tropical songbirds
Riccardo Ton, Thomas E. Martin
2017, Scientific Reports (7) 1-9
The relative importance of intrinsic constraints imposed by evolved physiological trade-offs versus the proximate effects of temperature for interspecific variation in embryonic development time remains unclear. Understanding this distinction is important because slow development due to evolved trade-offs can yield phenotypic benefits, whereas slow development from low temperature can yield...
Multiple models guide strategies for agricultural nutrient reductions
Donald Scavia, Margaret Kalcic, Rebecca Logsdon Muenich, Jennifer Read, Noel Aloysius, Isabella Bertani, Chelsie Boles, Remegio Confesor, Joseph DePinto, Marie Gildow, Jay Martin, Todd Redder, Dale M. Robertson, Scott P. Sowa, Yu-Chen Wang, Haw Yen
2017, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment (15) 126-132
In response to degraded water quality, federal policy makers in the US and Canada called for a 40% reduction in phosphorus (P) loads to Lake Erie, and state and provincial policy makers in the Great Lakes region set a load-reduction target for the year 2025. Here, we configured five separate...
Field-scale observations of a transient geobattery resulting from natural attenuation of a crude oil spill
Jeffrey Heenan, Dimitris Ntarlagiannis, Lee Slater, Carol Beaver, S. Rossbach, A. Revil, E.A. Atekwana, Barbara A. Bekins
2017, Journal of Geophysical Research G: Biogeosciences (122) 918-929
We present evidence of a geobattery associated with microbial degradation of a mature crude oil spill. Self-potential measurements were collected using a vertical array of nonpolarizing electrodes, starting at the land surface and passing through the smear zone where seasonal water table fluctuations have resulted in the coating of hydrocarbons...
Groundwater conditions in Utah, Spring of 2017
Carole B. Burden
2017, Cooperative Investigations Report 58
This is the fifty-fourth in a series of annual reports that describe groundwater conditions in Utah. Reports in this series, published cooperatively by the U.S. Geological Survey and the Utah Department of Natural Resources, Division of Water Rights, and the Utah Department of Environmental Quality, Division of Water Quality, provide...
Standard methods for sampling freshwater fishes: Opportunities for international collaboration
Scott A. Bonar, Norman Mercado-Silva, Wayne A. Hubert, Beard Jr., Goran Dave, Jan Kubecka, Brian D. S. Graeb, Nigel P. Lester, Mark T. Porath, Ian J. Winfield
2017, Fisheries (42) 150-156
With publication of Standard Methods for Sampling North American Freshwater Fishes in 2009, the American Fisheries Society (AFS) recommended standard procedures for North America. To explore interest in standardizing at intercontinental scales, a symposium attended by international specialists in freshwater fish sampling was convened at the 145th Annual AFS Meeting in Portland,...
Methodological considerations for detection of terrestrial small-body salamander eDNA and implications for biodiversity conservation
Donald M. Walker, Jacob E. Leys, Kelly E. Dunham, Joshua C. Oliver, Emily E. Schiller, Kelsey S. Stephenson, John T. Kimrey, Jessica Wooten, Mark W. Rogers
2017, Molecular Ecology Resources (17) 1223-1230
Environmental DNA (eDNA) can be used as an assessment tool to detect populations of threatened species and provide fine-scale data required to make management decisions. The objectives of this project were to use quantitative PCR (qPCR) to: (i) detect spiked salamander DNA in soil, (ii) quantify eDNA degradation over time,...
Geologic evidence for catastrophic marine inundation in 1200–1480 C.E. near the Puerto Rico Trench at Anegada, British Virgin Islands
Brian F. Atwater, Uri S. ten Brink, Anna Lisa Cescon, Nathalie Feuillet, Zamara Fuentes, Robert B. Halley, Carlos Nunez, Eduard G. Reinhardt, Jean Roger, Yuki Sawai, Michaela Spiske, Martitia P. Tuttle, Yong Wei, Jennifer Weil-Accardo
2017, Geosphere (13) 301-368
Extraordinary marine inundation scattered clasts southward on the island of Anegada, 120 km south of the Puerto Rico Trench, sometime between 1200 and 1480 calibrated years (cal yr) CE. Many of these clasts were likely derived from a fringing reef and from the sandy flat that separates the reef...