Accounting for multiple climate components when estimating climate change exposure and velocity
Christopher P. Nadeau, Angela K. Fuller
2015, Methods in Ecology and Evolution (6) 697-705
The effect of anthropogenic climate change on organisms will likely be related to climate change exposure and velocity at local and regional scales. However, common methods to estimate climate change exposure and velocity ignore important components of climate that are known to affect the ecology and evolution...
Incidental captures of Eastern Spotted Skunk in a high-elevation Red Spruce forest in Virginia
Corinne A. Diggins, David S. Jachowski, Jay Martin, W. Mark Ford
2015, Northeastern Naturalist (22) N6-N10
Spilogale putorius (Eastern Spotted Skunk) is considered rare in the southern Appalachian Mountains and throughout much of its range. We report incidental captures of 6 Eastern Spotted Skunks in a high-elevation Picea rubens (Red Spruce) forest in southwestern Virginia during late February and March 2014. At 1520 m, these observations...
On a report that the 2012 M 6.0 earthquake in Italy was predicted after seeing an unusual cloud formation
J.N. Thomas, F. Masci, Jeffrey J. Love
2015, Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences (15) 1061-1068
Several recently published reports have suggested that semi-stationary linear-cloud formations might be causally precursory to earthquakes. We examine the report of Guangmeng and Jie (2013), who claim to have predicted the 2012 M 6.0 earthquake in the Po Valley of northern Italy after seeing a satellite photograph (a digital image) showing a...
Applied Geochemistry Special Issue on Environmental geochemistry of modern mining
Robert R. Seal II, D. Kirk Nordstrom
2015, Applied Geochemistry (57) 1-2
Environmental geochemistry is an integral part of the mine-life cycle, particularly for modern mining. The critical importance of environmental geochemistry begins with pre-mining baseline characterization and the assessment of environmental risks related to mining, continues through active mining especially in water and waste management practices, and culminates in mine...
Trophic ontogeny of fluvial Bull Trout and seasonal predation on Pacific Salmon in a riverine food web
Erin D. Lowery, David A. Beauchamp
2015, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (144) 724-741
Bull Trout Salvelinus confluentus are typically top predators in their host ecosystems. The Skagit River in northwestern Washington State contains Bull Trout and Chinook Salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytschapopulations that are among the largest in the Puget Sound region and also contains a regionally large population of steelhead O. mykiss (anadromous Rainbow Trout). All three species are...
Efforts to monitor and characterize the recent increasing seismicity in central Oklahoma
Daniel E. McNamara, Justin L. Rubinstein, Emma Myers, Gregory M. Smoczyk, Harley M. Benz, Robert Williams, Gavin P. Hayes, David C. Wilson, Robert B. Herrmann, Nicole D McMahon, R.C. Aster, E. Bergman, Austin Holland, Paul S. Earle
2015, The Leading Edge (34) 628-639
The sharp increase in seismicity over a broad region of central Oklahoma has raised concerns regarding the source of the activity and its potential hazard to local communities and energy-industry infrastructure. Efforts to monitor and characterize the earthquake sequences in central Oklahoma are reviewed. Since early 2010, numerous organizations have...
Recent changes in annual area burned in interior Alaska: The impact of fire management
M.P. Calef, Anna Varvak, A. David McGuire, F. S. Chapin III, K. B. Reinhold
2015, Earth Interactions (19) 1-17
The Alaskan boreal forest is characterized by frequent extensive wildfires whose spatial extent has been mapped for the past 70 years. Simple predictions based on this record indicate that area burned will increase as a response to climate warming in Alaska. However, two additional factors have affected the area burned...
Bird species turnover is related to changing predation risk along a vegetation gradient
Joseph A. LaManna, Amy B. Hemenway, Vanna Boccadori, Thomas E. Martin
2015, Ecology (96) 1670-1680
Turnover in animal species along vegetation gradients is often assumed to reflect adaptive habitat preferences that are narrower than the full gradient. Specifically, animals may decline in abundance where their reproductive success is low, and these poor-quality locations differ among species. Yet habitat use does not always appear adaptive. The...
A formalized approach to making effective natural resource management decisions for Alaska National Parks
Margaret C. MacCluskie, Angela Romito, James T. Peterson, James P. Lawler
2015, Alaska Park Science (14) 9-13
A fundamental goal of the National Park Service (NPS) is the long-term protection and management of resources in the National Park System. Reaching this goal requires multiple approaches, including the conservation of essential habitats and the identification and elimination of potential threats to biota and habitats. To accomplish these goals,...
Spatial and temporal use of a prairie dog colony by coyotes and rabbits: Potential indirect effects on endangered black-footed ferrets
David A. Eads, Dean E. Biggins, Travis M. Livieri
2015, Journal of Zoology (296) 146-152
In western North America, endangered black-footed ferrets Mustela nigripes are conserved via reintroduction to colonies of prairie dogs Cynomys spp., their primary prey. Predation is an important source of mortality; coyotes Canis latrans appear to be the most problematic predator, accounting for 67% of known predation events on radio-tagged ferrets. Little is known about what factors...
Application of science-based restoration planning to a desert river system
Brian G. Laub, Justin Jimenez, Phaedra E. Budy
2015, Environmental Management (55) 1246-1261
Persistence of many desert river species is threatened by a suite of impacts linked to water infrastructure projects that provide human water security where water is scarce. Many desert rivers have undergone regime shifts from spatially and temporally dynamic ecosystems to more stable systems dominated by homogenous physical habitat. Restoration...
Pressure disequilibria induced by rapid valve closure in noble gas extraction lines
Leah E. Morgan, Brett Davidheiser-Kroll
2015, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems (16) 1923-1931
Pressure disequilibria during rapid valve closures can affect calculated molar quantities for a range of gas abundance measurements (e.g., K-Ar geochronology, (U-Th)/He geochronology, noble gas cosmogenic chronology). Modeling indicates this effect in a system with a 10 L reservoir reaches a bias of 1% before 1000 pipette aliquants have been...
Testing hypotheses on distribution shifts and changes in phenology of imperfectly detectable species
Thierry A. Chambert, William L. Kendall, James E. Hines, James D. Nichols, Paolo Pedrini, J. Hardin Waddle, Giacomo Tavecchia, Susan C. Walls, Simone Tenan
2015, Methods in Ecology and Evolution (6) 638-647
With ongoing climate change, many species are expected to shift their spatial and temporal distributions. To document changes in species distribution and phenology, detection/non-detection data have proven very useful. Occupancy models provide a robust way to analyse such data, but inference is usually focused on species spatial...
Biogeochemical aspects of uranium mineralization, mining, milling, and remediation
Kate M. Campbell, Tanya J. Gallegos, Edward R. Landa
2015, Applied Geochemistry (57) 206-235
Natural uranium (U) occurs as a mixture of three radioactive isotopes: 238U, 235U, and 234U. Only 235U is fissionable and makes up about 0.7% of natural U, while 238U is overwhelmingly the most abundant at greater than 99% of the total mass of U. Prior to the 1940s, U...
Sediment source apportionment in Laurel Hill Creek, PA, using Bayesian chemical mass balance and isotope fingerprinting
Heather Stewart, Arash Massoudieh, Allen C. Gellis
2015, Hydrological Processes (29) 2545-2560
A Bayesian chemical mass balance (CMB) approach was used to assess the contribution of potential sources for fluvial samples from Laurel Hill Creek in southwest Pennsylvania. The Bayesian approach provides joint probability density functions of the sources' contributions considering the uncertainties due to source and fluvial sample heterogeneity and measurement...
Newberry Volcano's youngest lava flows
Joel E. Robinson, Julie M. Donnelly-Nolan, Robert A. Jensen
2015, Scientific Investigations Map 3329
Most of Newberry Volcano's youngest lava flows are found within the Newberry National Volcanic Monument in central Oregon. Established November 5, 1990, the monument is managed by the U.S. Forest Service as part of the Deschutes National Forest. Since 2011, a series of aerial surveys over the monument collected elevation...
Phytoplankton blooms in estuarine and coastal waters: Seasonal patterns and key species
Jacob Carstensen, Riina Klais, James E. Cloern
2015, Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science (162) 98-109
Phytoplankton blooms are dynamic phenomena of great importance to the functioning of estuarine and coastal ecosystems. We analysed a unique (large) collection of phytoplankton monitoring data covering 86 coastal sites distributed over eight regions in North America and Europe, with the aim of investigating common patterns in the seasonal timing...
When Siberia came to the Netherlands: The response of continental black-tailed godwits to a rare spring weather event
Nathan R. Senner, Mo A. Verhoeven, Jose M. Abad-Gomez, Jorge S. Gutierrez, Jos C. E. W. Hooijmeijer, Rosemarie Kentie, Jose A. Masero, T. Lee Tibbitts, Theunis Piersma
2015, Journal of Animal Ecology (84) 1164-1176
Summary Extreme weather events have the potential to alter both short- and long-term population dynamics as well as community- and ecosystem-level function. Such events are rare and stochastic, making it difficult to fully document how organisms respond to them and predict the repercussions of similar events in...
The 3D Elevation Program: summary for Connecticut
William J. Carswell Jr.
2015, Fact Sheet 2015-3036
Elevation data are essential to a broad range of applications, including forest resources management, wildlife and habitat management, national security, recreation, and many others. For the State of Connecticut, elevation data are critical for coastal zone management, flood risk management, natural resources conservation, agriculture and precision farming, sea level rise...
Continuous monitoring of sediment and nutrients in the Illinois River at Florence, Illinois, 2012-13
Paul J. Terrio, Timothy D. Straub, Marian M. Domanski, Nicholas A. Siudyla
2015, Scientific Investigations Report 2015-5040
The Illinois River is the largest river in Illinois and is the primary contributing watershed for nitrogen, phosphorus, and suspended-sediment loading to the upper Mississippi River from Illinois. In addition to streamflow, the following water-quality constituents were monitored at the Illinois River at Florence, Illinois (U.S. Geological Survey station number...
Water resources of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana
Vincent E. White, Lawrence B. Prakken
2015, Fact Sheet 2015-3001
Information concerning the availability, use, and quality of water in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, is critical for proper water-supply management. The purpose of this fact sheet is to present information that can be used by water managers, parish residents, and others for stewardship of this vital resource. Information on...
Soil- and groundwater-quality data for petroleum hydrocarbon compounds within Fuels Area C, Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota, 2014
David A. Bender, Barbara L. Rowe
2015, Data Series 939
Ellsworth Air Force Base is an Air Combat Command located approximately 10 miles northeast of Rapid City, South Dakota. Ellsworth Air Force Base occupies about 6,000 acres within Meade and Pennington Counties, and includes runways, airfield operations, industrial areas, housing, and recreational facilities. Fuels Area C within Ellsworth Air Force...
Integrated Environmental Modelling: Human decisions, human challenges
Pierre D. Glynn
2015, Geological Society of London Special Publications (408)
Integrated Environmental Modelling (IEM) is an invaluable tool for understanding the complex, dynamic ecosystems that house our natural resources and control our environments. Human behaviour affects the ways in which the science of IEM is assembled and used for meaningful societal applications. In particular, human biases and heuristics reflect adaptation...
The 3D Elevation Program: summary for Delaware
William J. Carswell Jr.
2015, Fact Sheet 2015-3031
Elevation data are essential to a broad range of applications, including forest resources management, wildlife and habitat management, national security, recreation, and many others. For the State of Delaware, elevation data are critical for agriculture and precision farming, river and stream resource management, natural resources conservation, flood risk management, coastal...
Fundamentals of carbon dioxide-enhanced oil recovery (CO2-EOR): a supporting document of the assessment methodology for hydrocarbon recovery using CO2-EOR associated with carbon sequestration
Mahendra K. Verma
2015, Open-File Report 2015-1071
The objective of this report is to provide basic technical information regarding the CO2-EOR process, which is at the core of the assessment methodology, to estimate the technically recoverable oil within the fields of the identified sedimentary basins of the United States. Emphasis is on CO2-EOR because this is currently...
