Upgrade of the New China Digital Seismograph Network
D. Anderson, J. Anderson, D. Ford, Lind S. Gee, G. Gyure, Charles R. Hutt, E. Kromer, B. Marshall, K. Persefield, Adam T. Ringler, M. Sharratt, Tyler Storm, David C. Wilson, D. Yang, Z. Zheng
2015, Seismological Research Letters (86) 1364-1373
No abstract available....
Estimating annualized earthquake losses for the conterminous United States
Kishor S. Jaiswal, Douglas Bausch, Rui Chen, Jawhar Bouabid, Hope Seligson
2015, Earthquake Spectra (31) 221-243
We make use of the most recent National Seismic Hazard Maps (the years 2008 and 2014 cycles), updated census data on population, and economic exposure estimates of general building stock to quantify annualized earthquake loss (AEL) for the conterminous United States. The AEL analyses were performed using the Federal Emergency...
Developing nondestructive techniques for managing conflicts between fisheries and double-crested cormorant colonies
Yasuko Suzuki, Daniel D. Roby, Donald E. Lyons, Karen Courtot, Ken Collis
2015, Wildlife Society Bulletin (39) 764-771
Double-crested cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus) have been identified as the source of significant mortality to juvenile salmonids (Oncorhynchus spp.) in the Columbia River Basin. Management plans for reducing the size of a large colony on East Sand Island (OR, USA) in the Columbia River estuary are currently being developed. We evaluated habitat...
Linking resource selection and mortality modeling for population estimation of mountain lions in Montana
Hugh S. Robinson, Toni K. Ruth, Justin A. Gude, David Choate, Rich DeSimone, Mark Hebblewhite, Marc R. Matchett, Michael S. Mitchell, Kerry Murphy, Jim Williams
2015, Ecological Modelling (312) 11-25
To be most effective, the scale of wildlife management practices should match the range of a particular species’ movements. For this reason, combined with our inability to rigorously or regularly census mountain lion populations, several authors have suggested that mountain lions be managed in a source-sink or metapopulation framework. We...
Magma extrusion during the Ubinas 2013–2014 eruptive crisis based on satellite thermal imaging (MIROVA) and ground-based monitoring
Diego Coppola, Orlando Macedo, Domingo Ramos, Anthony Finizola, Dario Delle Donne, Jose del Carpio, Randall A. White, Wendy McCausland, Riky Centeno, Marco Rivera, Fredy Apaza, Beto Ccallata, Wilmer Chilo, Corrado Cigolini, Marco Laiolo, Ivonne Lazarte, Roger Machaca, Pablo Masias, Mayra Ortega, Nino Puma, Edu Taipe
2015, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research (302) 199-210
After 3 years of mild gases emissions, the Ubinas volcano entered in a new eruptive phase on September 2nd, 2013. The MIROVA system (a space-based volcanic hot-spot detection system), allowed us to detect in near real time the thermal emissions associated with the eruption and provided early evidence of magma...
Model averaging and muddled multimodel inferences
Brian S. Cade
2015, Ecology (96) 2370-7382
Three flawed practices associated with model averaging coefficients for predictor variables in regression models commonly occur when making multimodel inferences in analyses of ecological data. Model-averaged regression coefficients based on Akaike information criterion (AIC) weights have been recommended for addressing model uncertainty but they are not valid, interpretable estimates of...
Legacy effects of no-analogue disturbances alter plant community diversity and composition in semi-arid sagebrush steppe
Julie Ripplinger, Janet Franklin, Thomas C. Edwards Jr.
2015, Journal of Vegetation Science (26) 923-933
Questions(i) What role does the type of managed disturbance play in structuring sagebrush steppe plant communities? (ii) How does the composition of post-disturbance plant communities change with time since disturbance? (iii) Does plant community diversity change over time following managed disturbance?LocationField study within the sagebrush steppe ecosystem. Rich County, Utah,...
The climate space of fire regimes in north-western North America
Ellen Whitman, Enric Batllori, Marc-Andre Parisien, Carol Miller, Jonathan D. Coop, Meg A. Krawchuk, Geneva W. Chong, Sandra L. Haire
2015, Journal of Biogeography (42) 1736-1749
Aim. Studies of fire activity along environmental gradients have been undertaken, but the results of such studies have yet to be integrated with fire-regime analysis. We characterize fire-regime components along climate gradients and a gradient of human influence. Location. We focus on a climatically diverse region of north-western North America...
Rising methane emissions from northern wetlands associated with sea ice decline
Frans-Jan W. Parmentier, Wenxin Zhang, Xudong Zhu, Jacobus van Huissteden, Daniel J. Hayes, Qianlai Zhuang, Torben R. Christensen, A. David McGuire
2015, Geophysical Research Letters (42) 7214-7222
The Arctic is rapidly transitioning toward a seasonal sea ice-free state, perhaps one of the most apparent examples of climate change in the world. This dramatic change has numerous consequences, including a large increase in air temperatures, which in turn may affect terrestrial methane emissions. Nonetheless, terrestrial and marine environments...
Amphibole reaction rims as a record of pre-eruptive magmatic heating: An experimental approach
S. H. De Angelis, J. Larsen, Michelle L. Coombs, A. Dunn, Leslie A. Hayden
2015, Earth and Planetary Science Letters (426) 235-245
Magmatic minerals record the pre-eruptive timescales of magma ascent and mixing in crustal reservoirs and conduits. Investigations of the mineral records of magmatic processes are fundamental to our understanding of what controls eruption style, as ascent rates and magma mixing processes are well known to control and/or trigger potentially hazardous...
Re-colonization by common eiders Somateria mollissima in the Aleutian Archipelago following removal of introduced arctic foxes Vulpes lagopus
Margaret R. Petersen, Sarah A. Sonsthagen, Matthew G. Sexson
2015, Journal of Avian Biology (46) 538-549
Islands provide refuges for populations of many species where they find safety from predators, but the introduction of predators frequently results in elimination or dramatic reductions in island-dwelling organisms. When predators are removed, re-colonization for some species occurs naturally, and inter-island phylogeographic relationships and current movement patterns can illuminate processes...
Global patterns and environmental controls of perchlorate and nitrate co-occurrence in arid and semi-arid environments
W Andrew Jackson, J.K. Bohlke, Brian J. Andraski, Lynne S. Fahlquist, Laura M. Bexfield, Frank D. Eckardt, John B. Gates, Alfonso F. Davila, Christopher P. McKay, Balaji Rao, Ritesh Sevanthi, Srinath Rajagopalan, Nubia Estrada, Neil C. Sturchio, Paul B. Hatzinger, Todd A. Anderson, Greta J. Orris, Julio L. Betancourt, David A. Stonestrom, Claudio Latorre, Yanhe Li, Gregory J. Harvey
2015, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (164) 502-522
Natural perchlorate (ClO4−) is of increasing interest due to its wide-spread occurrence on Earth and Mars, yet little information exists on the relative abundance of ClO4− compared to other major anions, its stability, or long-term variations in production that may impact the observed distributions. Our objectives were to evaluate the...
Mineral Resource of the Month: Bromine
Emily Schnebele
2015, Earth (September 2015)
Bromine, along with mercury, is one of only two elements that are liquid at room temperature. Bromine is a highly volatile and corrosive reddish-brown liquid that evaporates easily and converts to a metal at extreme pressures — above about 540,000 times atmospheric pressure. Bromine occurs in seawater, evaporitic (salt) lakes...
The forcing of monthly precipitation variability over Southwest Asia during the Boreal cold season
Andrew Hoell, Shraddhanand Shukla, Mathew Barlow, Forest Cannon, Colin Kelley, Christopher C. Funk
2015, Journal of Climate (28) 7038-7056
Southwest Asia, deemed as the region containing the countries of Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Pakistan, is water scarce and receives nearly 75% of its annual rainfall during8 the boreal cold season of November-April. The forcing of Southwest Asia precipitation has been previously examined for the entire boreal cold season from...
Improving efficiency and reliability of environmental DNA analysis for silver carp
Jon J. Amberg, S. Grace McCalla, Emy Monroe, Richard Lance, Kelly Baerwaldt, Mark P. Gaikowski
2015, Journal of Great Lakes Research (41) 367-373
Natural resource agencies have established surveillance programs which use environmental DNA (eDNA) for the early detection of bighead carp Hypophthalmichthys nobilis and silver carp Hypophthalmichthys molitrix before they establish populations within the Great Lakes. This molecular monitoring technique must be highly accurate and precise for confident interpretation and also efficient,...
Mid-Cretaceous oblique rifting of West Antarctica: Emplacement and rapid cooling of the Fosdick Mountains migmatite-cored gneiss dome
Rory McFadden, Christian Teyssier, Christine Siddoway, Michael A. Cosca, C. Mark Fanning
2015, LITHOS (232) 306-318
In Marie Byrd Land, West Antarctica, the Fosdick Mountains migmatite-cored gneiss dome was exhumed from mid- to lower middle crustal depths during the incipient stage of the West Antarctic Rift system in the mid-Cretaceous. Prior to and during exhumation, major crustal melting and deformation included transfer and emplacement of...
Wetland occupancy of pond-breeding amphibians in Yosemite National Park, USA
Gary M. Fellers, Patrick M. Kleeman, David A.W. Miller
2015, Journal of North American Herpetology (2015) 22-33
We estimated wetland occupancy and population trends for three species of pond-breeding anurans in Yosemite National Park from 2007-2011. We used a double survey technique in which two observers independently surveyed each site on the same day. Double surveys allowed us to calculate detectability for the three most common anurans...
Grasshopper sparrow reproductive success and habitat use on reclaimed surface mines varies by age of reclamation
Petra Wood, Frank K. Ammer
2015, Wildlife Society Bulletin (39) 512-520
We studied 3 mountaintop mining–valley fill (MTMVF) complexes in southern West Virginia, USA to examine grasshopper sparrow (Ammodramus savannarum pratensis) demographic response to different age classes of mine land reclamation. For 71 nests monitored during the 2001–2002 breeding seasons, overall nest success (36%) was within the range of nest success...
Aquaculture disturbance impacts the diet but not ecological linkages of a ubiquitous predatory fish
Kathleen C. McPeek, P. Sean McDonald, Glenn VanBlaricom
2015, Estuaries and Coasts (38) 1520-1534
Aquaculture operations are a frequent and prominent cause of anthropogenic disturbance to marine and estuarine communities and may alter species composition and abundance. However, little is known about how such disturbances affect trophic linkages or ecosystem functions. In Puget Sound, Washington, aquaculture of the Pacific geoduck clam (Panopea...
Linking magma transport structures at Kīlauea volcano
Aaron G. Wech, Weston A. Thelen
2015, Geophysical Research Letters (42) 7090-7097
Identifying magma pathways is important for understanding and interpreting volcanic signals. At Kīlauea volcano, seismicity illuminates subsurface plumbing, but the broad spectrum of seismic phenomena hampers event identification. Discrete, long-period events (LPs) dominate the shallow (5-10 km) plumbing, and deep (40+ km) tremor has been observed offshore. However, our inability...
Sediment yields from small, steep coastal watersheds of California
Jonathan A. Warrick, John M. Melack, Blair M. Goodridge
2015, Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies (4) 516-534
Global inventories of sediment discharge to the ocean highlight the importance of small, steep watersheds (i.e., those having drainage areas less than 100,000 km2 and over 1000 m of relief) that collectively provide a dominant flux of sediment. The smallest of these coastal watersheds (e.g., those that have drainage areas...
An evaluation of a bed instability index as an indicator of habitat quality in mountain streams of the northwestern United States
Paul C. Kusnierz, Christopher M. Holbrook, David L. Feldman
2015, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment
Managers of aquatic resources benefit from indices of habitat quality that are reproducible and easy to measure, demonstrate a link between habitat quality and biota health, and differ between human-impacted (i.e., managed) and reference (i.e., nonimpacted or minimally impacted) conditions. The instability index (ISI) is an easily measured index that...
Groundwater quality data in 15 GAMA study units: results from the 2006–10 Initial sampling and the 2009–13 resampling of wells, California GAMA Priority Basin Project
Robert Kent
2015, Data Series 919
The Priority Basin Project (PBP) of the Groundwater Ambient Monitoring and Assessment (GAMA) program was developed in response to the Groundwater Quality Monitoring Act of 2001 and is being conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the California State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB). From May...
Soil carbon storage following road removal and timber harvesting in redwood forests
Joseph Seney, Mary Ann Madej
2015, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms (40) 2084-2092
Soil carbon storage plays a key role in the global carbon cycle and is important for sustaining forest productivity. Removal of unpaved forest roads has the potential for increasing carbon storage in soils on forested terrain as treated sites revegetate and soil properties improve on the previously compacted road surfaces....
Tree mortality from drought, insects, and their interactions in a changing climate
William R.L. Anderegg, Jeffrey A. Hicke, Rosie A. Fisher, Craig D. Allen, Juliann E. Aukema, Barbara Bentz, Sharon Hood, Jeremy W. Lichstein, Alison K. Macalady, Nate G. McDowell, Yude Pan, Kenneth Raffa, Anna Sala, John D. Shaw, Nathan L. Stephenson, Christina L. Tague, Melanie Zeppel
2015, New Phytologist (208) 674-683
Climate change is expected to drive increased tree mortality through drought, heat stress, and insect attacks, with manifold impacts on forest ecosystems. Yet, climate-induced tree mortality and biotic disturbance agents are largely absent from process-based ecosystem models. Using data sets from the western USA and associated studies, we present a...
