Ecology and conservation of Lesser Prairie-Chickens
David A. Haukos, Clint W. Boal, editor(s)
2016, Book
Lesser Prairie-Chickens have experienced substantial declines in terms of population and the extent of area that they occupy. While they are an elusive species, making it difficult at times to monitor them, current evidence indicates that they have been persistently decreasing in number since the Dust Bowl of the 1930s...
Prioritizing landscapes for longleaf pine conservation
J. Barry Grand, Kevin J. Kleiner
2016, Cooperator Science Series FWS/CSS-119-2016
We developed a spatially explicit model and map, as a decision support tool (DST), to aid conservation agencies creating or maintaining open pine ecosystems. The tool identified areas that are likely to provide the greatest benefit to focal bird populations based on a comprehensive landscape analysis. We used NLCD 2011,...
2015 status of the Lake Ontario lower trophic levels
Kristen T. Holeck, Lars G. Rudstam, Christopher Hotaling, Russ D. McCullough, Dave Lemon, Web Pearsall, Jana Lantry, Michael J. Connerton, Steve LaPan, Zy Biesinger, Brian F. Lantry, Maureen Walsh, Brian Weidel
2016, NYSDEC Lake Ontario Annual Report 2015-16
Offshore spring total phosphorus (TP) in 2015 was 4.2 μ g/L, the same as in 2014; this is lower than 2001 - 2013, but there is no significant time trend 2001 - 2015. Offshore soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP) was very low in 2015; Apr/May - Oct mean values were <1...
Physical condition and stress levels during early development reflect feeding rates and predict pre- and post-fledging survival in a nearshore seabird
Juliet S. Lamb, Kathleen M. O’Reilly, Patrick G.R. Jodice
2016, Conservation Physiology (4)
The effects of acute environmental stressors on reproduction in wildlife are often difficult to measure because of the labour and disturbance involved in collecting accurate reproductive data. Stress hormones represent a promising option for assessing the effects of environmental perturbations on altricial young; however, it is necessary first to establish...
Trophic overlap between native and invasive stream crayfish
Daniel D. Magoulick, Glenn L. Piercey
2016, Hydrobiologia (766) 237-246
We examined trophic dynamics of a stream food web where invasive Orconectes neglectus appear to be displacing native O. eupunctus in the Spring River drainage of the Ozark Highlands, Missouri and Arkansas, USA. We collected crayfish species and possible food sources seasonally from a site of sympatry on the South Fork Spring River. We...
Dominance of 'Gallionella capsiferriformans' and heavy metal association with Gallionella-like stalks in metal-rich pH 6 mine water discharge
Maria Fabisch, Gina Freyer, Carol A. Johnson, Georg Buchel, Denise M. Akob, Thomas R. Neu, Kirsten Kusel
2016, Geobiology (14) 68-90
Heavy metal-contaminated, pH 6 mine water discharge created new streams and iron-rich terraces at a creek bank in a former uranium-mining area near Ronneburg, Germany. The transition from microoxic groundwater with ~5 mm Fe(II) to oxic surface water may provide a suitable habitat for microaerobic iron-oxidizing bacteria (FeOB). In this study,...
Consequences of seasonal variation in reservoir water level for predatory fishes: linking visual foraging and prey densities
Stephen L. Klobucar, Phaedra E. Budy
2016, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (73) 53-64
In reservoirs, seasonal drawdown can alter the physical environment and may influence predatory fish performance. We investigated the performance of lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) in a western reservoir by coupling field measurements with visual foraging and bioenergetic models at four distinct states (early summer, mid-summer, late summer, and fall). The...
Functional integrity of freshwater forested wetlands, hydrologic alteration, and climate change
Beth A. Middleton, Nicholas J. Souter
2016, Ecosystem Health and Sustainability (2) 1-18
Climate change will challenge managers to balance the freshwater needs of humans and wetlands. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that most regions of the world will be exposed to higher temperatures, CO2, and more erratic precipitation, with some regions likely to have alternating episodes of intense flooding and...
Water data to answer urgent water policy questions: Monitoring design, available data, and filling data gaps for determining whether shale gas development activities contaminate surface water or groundwater in the Susquehanna River Basin
Elin A. Betanzo, Erik R. Hagen, John T. Wilson, Kenneth H. Reckhow, Laura Hayes, Denise M. Argue, Allegra A. Cangelosi
2016, Report
Throughout its history, the United States has made major investments in assessing natural resources, such as soils, timber, oil and gas, and water. These investments allow policy makers, the private sector and the American public to make informed decisions about cultivating, harvesting or conserving these resources to maximize their value...
Natural graphite demand and supply - Implications for electric vehicle battery requirements
Donald W. Olson, Robert L. Virta, Mahbood Mahdavi, Elizabeth S. Sangine, Steven M. Fortier
2016, GSA Special Papers (520) 67-77
Electric vehicles have been promoted to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and lessen U.S. dependence on petroleum for transportation. Growth in U.S. sales of electric vehicles has been hindered by technical difficulties and the high cost of the lithium-ion batteries used to power many electric vehicles (more than 50% of the...
Ecological resilience
Craig R. Allen, Ahjond S. Garmestiani, Shana Sundstrom, David G. Angeler
2016, Book chapter, IRGC resource guide on resilience
Resilience is the capacity of complex systems of people and nature to withstand disturbance without shifting into an alternate regime, or a different type of system organized around different processes and structures (Holling, 1973). Resilience theory was developed to explain the non-linear dynamics of complex adaptive systems, like social-ecological systems...
Improved geomagnetic referencing in the Arctic environment
B. Poedjono, N. Beck, A. C. Buchanan, L. Borri, S. Maus, Carol Finn, E. William Worthington, Tim White
2016, Conference Paper
Geomagnetic referencing uses the Earth’s magnetic field to determine accurate wellbore positioning essential for success in today's complex drilling programs, either as an alternative or a complement to north-seeking gyroscopic referencing. However, fluctuations in the geomagnetic field, especially at high latitudes, make the application of geomagnetic referencing in those areas...
Does the stress-gradient hypothesis hold water? Disentangling spatial and temporal variation in plant effects on soil moisture in dryland systems
Bradley J. Butterfield, John B. Bradford, Cristina Armas, Ivan Prieto, Francisco I. Pugnaire
2016, Functional Ecology (30) 10-19
The nature of the relationship between water limitation and facilitation has been one of the most contentious debates surrounding the stress-gradient hypothesis (SGH), which states that plant-plant interactions shift from competition to facilitation with increasing environmental stress. We take a closer look at the potential role of soil...
Urban and suburban areas
Robert N. Fisher
2016, Book chapter, Habitat management guidelines for amphibians and reptiles of the Southwestern United States (PARC Technical Publication HMG-5)
No abstract available....
Photoperiod and nesting phenology of whooping cranes at two captive sites
Glenn H. Olsen
2016, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the North American Crane Workshop
Increasing daylight is known to be a breeding stimulus in many avian species breeding in northern latitudes. This is thought to be true for cranes that breed in such latitudes including the Whooping Crane (Grus americana). For this reason, the captive breeding centers use artificial light to lengthen daylight hours,...
Hematology results from experimental exposure of sandhill cranes to West Nile virus
Glenn H. Olsen
2016, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the North American Crane Workshop
West Nile virus is a deadly virus for young cranes. In testing two different vaccines on both adult sandhill cranes (Grus canadensis), we discovered that some blood parameters are altered by exposure to the virus. White blood cell counts were the most obvious, and may be used as an indicator...
In-air hearing of a diving duck: A comparison of psychoacoustic and auditory brainstem response thresholds
Sara E. Crowell, Alicia M. Wells-Berlin, Ronald E. Therrien, Sally E. Yannuzzi, Catherine E. Carr
2016, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (139) 3001-3008
Auditory sensitivity was measured in a species of diving duck that is not often kept in captivity, the lesser scaup. Behavioral (psychoacoustics) and electrophysiological [the auditory brainstem response (ABR)] methods were used to measure in-air auditory sensitivity, and the resulting audiograms were compared. Both approaches yielded audiograms with similar U-shapes...
Geometallurgy of ironsand from the Waikato North Head deposit, New Zealand
Jeffrey L. Mauk, Helen A Cocker, Harold Rogers, Jamie Ogiliev, Alex B Padya
2016, Book chapter, AusIMM Monograph 31: Mineral Deposits of New Zealand—Exploration and Research
The Waikato North Head deposit produces a magnetic mineral concentrate from Quaternary sands that formed in a coastal setting in the North Island of New Zealand. Detailed examination of the magnetic mineral fraction of the different stratigraphic horizons mined at Waikato North Head shows that the youngest units yield concentrates...
Modelling with stakeholders - Next generation
Alexey Voinov, Nagesh Kolagani, Michael K McCall, Pierre D. Glynn, Marit E Kragt, Frank O Ostermann, Suzanne A Pierce, Palaniappan Ramu
2016, Environmental Modelling and Software (77) 196-220
This paper updates and builds on ‘Modelling with Stakeholders’ Voinov and Bousquet, 2010 which demonstrated the importance of, and demand for, stakeholder participation in resource and environmental modelling. This position paper returns to the concepts of that publication and reviews the progress made since 2010. A new development is the...
Consistent and efficient processing of ADCP streamflow measurements
David S. Mueller
George Constantinescu, Marcelo H. Garcia, Dan Hanes, editor(s)
2016, Conference Paper, River Flow 2016: Proceedings of the international conference on fluvial hydraulics
The use of Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers (ADCPs) from a moving boat is a commonly used method for measuring streamflow. Currently, the algorithms used to compute the average depth, compute edge discharge, identify invalid data, and estimate velocity and discharge for invalid data vary among manufacturers. These differences could result...
The potential carbon benefit of reforesting Hawai‘i Island non-native grasslands with endemic Acacia koa trees
Paul C. Selmants, Benjamin M. Sleeter, Nicholas Koch, James B. Friday
Rebekah Dickens Ohara, James B. Friday, editor(s)
2016, Conference Paper, Acacia koa in Hawaiʻi: Facing the future: 2016 Koa symposium proceedings
Large areas of forest in the tropics have been cleared and converted to pastureland. Hawai‘i Island is no exception, with over 100,000 ha of historically forested land now dominated by non-native grasses. Passive forest restoration has been unsuccessful because these grasslands tend to persist even after grazers have been removed,...
Rare earth element deposits in China
Yu-Ling Xie, Zeng-qian Hou, Richard J. Goldfarb, Xiang Guo, Lei Wang
2016, Book chapter, Reviews in Economic Geology
China is the world’s leading rare earth element (REE) producer and hosts a variety of deposit types. Carbonatite- related REE deposits, the most significant deposit type, include two giant deposits presently being mined in China, Bayan Obo and Maoniuping, the first and third largest deposits of this type in the...
Louisiana waterthrush and benthic macroinvertebrate response to shale gas development
Petra Wood, Mack W. Frantz, Douglas A. Becker
2016, Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management (7) 423-433
Because shale gas development is occurring over large landscapes and consequently is affecting many headwater streams, an understanding of its effects on headwater-stream faunal communities is needed. We examined effects of shale gas development (well pads and associated infrastructure) on Louisiana waterthrush Parkesia motacilla and benthic macroinvertebrate communities in 12...
Earthquake probabilities for the Wasatch front region in Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming
Ivan G. Wong, William R. Lund, Christopher B. DuRoss, Patricia Thomas, Walter Arabasz, Anthony J. Crone, Michael D. Hylland, Nico Luco, Susan S. Olig, James C. Pechmann, Stephen Personius, Mark D. Petersen, David P. Schwartz, Robert B. Smith, Steve Rowman
2016, Report
In a letter to The Salt Lake Daily Tribune in September 1883, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) geologist G.K. Gilbert warned local residents about the implications of observable fault scarps along the western base of the Wasatch Range. The scarps were evidence that large surface-rupturing earthquakes had occurred in the past...
Site effects in Port-au-Prince (Haiti) from the analysis of spectral ratio and numerical simulations.
Sadrac St. Fleur, Etienne Bertrand, Francoise Courboulex, Bernard Mercier de Lepinay, Anne Deschamps, Susan E. Hough, Giovanna Cultrera, Dominique Boisson, Claude Prepetit
2016, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (106) 1298-1315
To provide better insight into seismic ground motion in the Port‐au‐Prince metropolitan area, we investigate site effects at 12 seismological stations by analyzing 78 earthquakes with magnitude smaller than 5 that occurred between 2010 and 2013. Horizontal‐to‐vertical spectral ratio on earthquake recordings and a standard spectral ratio were applied to...
