The 4.2 ka event, ENSO, and coral reef development
Lauren T. Toth, Richard B. Aronson
2019, Climate of the Past (15) 105-119
Variability of sea-surface temperature related to shifts in the mode of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) has been implicated as a possible forcing mechanism for the global-scale changes in tropical and subtropical precipitation known as the 4.2 ka event. We review records of coral reef development and paleoceanography from the tropical...
Fire legacies in eastern ponderosa pine forests
C. P. Roberts, V. M. Donovan, C. Wonkka, L. Powell, Craig R. Allen, D. G. Angeler, D. Wedin, D. Twidwell
2019, Ecology and Evolution (9) 1869-1879
Disturbance legacies structure communities and ecological memory, but due to increasing changes in disturbance regimes, it is becoming more difficult to characterize disturbance legacies or determine how long they persist. We sought to quantify the characteristics and persistence of material legacies (e.g., biotic residuals of disturbance)...
Absence of PCB hot spot effect in walleye Sander vitreus from lower Green Bay of Lake Michigan
Charles P. Madenjian, Daniel J. Dembkowski, Daniel A. Isermann, Stuart A. Batterman, Sergei C. Chernyak, Stewart F. Cogswell, Mark E. Holey
2019, Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology (76) 442-452
Under certain conditions, polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) concentration in individuals of one sex of an adult fish population may exceed that of the other sex by more than a factor of two. This phenomenon, known as the PCB hot spot effect, has been postulated to be contingent upon the following...
Forecasting for dry and wet avalanches during mixed rain and snow storm events
Scott Savage, Erich H. Peitzsch, Simon Trautman, Benjamin VandenBos
2019, The Avalanche Review 30-33
Professionals in coastal and some inland mountain ranges regularly face mixed rain-snow events. Professionals in inland ranges frequently deal with persistent slab avalanches failing on old faceted layers buried deep within the snowpack. What happens when you combine these snowpack and weather events? Widespread avalanching involving faceted layers during mixed...
Reconstructing precipitation in the tropical South Pacific from dinosterol 2H/1H ratios in lake sediment
Ashley E. Maloney, Daniel B. Nelson, Julie N. Richey, Matthew Prebble, David A. Sear, Jonathan D. Hassall, Peter G. Langdon, Ian W. Croudace, Atun Zawadzki, Julian P. Sachs
2019, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (245) 190-206
The South Pacific Convergence Zone (SPCZ) is the Southern Hemisphere’s largest precipitation feature supplying freshwater to 11 million people. Despite its significance, little is known about the location and intensity of SPCZ precipitation prior to instrumental records, hindering attempts to predict precipitation changes in a warming world. Here we use...
Space use, forays, and habitat selection in California Spotted Owls (Strix occidentalis occidentalis): New insights from high resolution GPS tracking
R. V. Blakey, R. B. Siegel, Elisabeth B. Webb, Colin P. Dillingham, R.L. Bauer, M. Tracy Johnson, Dylan C. Kesler
2019, Forest Ecology and Management (432) 912-922
Our current understanding of the relationship between imperiled species and forest management can benefit from global positioning system (GPS) technologies. Fauna of lateseral stage forests have historically been difficult to detect and track in rugged terrain, leading to challenges in movement...
The Miocene Atastra Creek sinter (Bodie Hills volcanic field, California and Nevada): 4D evolution of a geomorphically intact siliceous hot spring deposit
Kathleen A. Campbell, Diego M. Guido, David A. John, Peter Vikre, David Rhys, Ayrton Hamilton
2019, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research (370) 65-81
The Atastra Creek siliceous hot spring deposit, or sinter, occurs in the Paramount-Bald Peak alteration zone, due north of the Bodie precious metals mining district in the Miocene Bodie Hills volcanic field, California and Nevada, U.S.A. Distinctive features include its geomorphically intact geyser vent mounds, the presence of growth-fault-stepped sinter...
An investigation of seismicity induced by hydraulic fracturing in the Sichuan basin of China based on data from a temporary seismic network
Lingyuan Meng, Arthur F. McGarr, Longquan Zhou, Yang Zang
2019, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (109) 348-357
Hydraulic fracturing has been inferred to trigger the majority of injection‐induced seismicity in the Zhaotong and Changning shale gas field, Sichuan basin of China, in contrast to the Midwestern United States, where massive wastewater disposal has been the dominant triggering mechanism. More than 15,000 earthquakes, with magnitudes ranging up to...
Vertical habitat use of adult Walleye conflicts with expectations from fishery-independent surveys
Ann Marie Gorman, Richard T. Kraus, Lee Gutowsky, Christopher Vandergoot, Yingming Zhao, Carey Knight, Matt Faust, Todd Hayden, Charles Krueger
2019, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (148) 592-604
Stock assessments of Walleyes Sander vitreus in Lake Erie rely on a combination of suspended and bottom overnight gill‐net surveys to provide population and demographic information. However, the assumption that Walleyes undertake diel vertical migrations and become available to the suspended gill nets at night has never been validated. To...
Pacific sea surface temperature linkages with Tanzania’s multi-season drying trends
Laura Harrison, Chris Funk, Amy McNally, Shraddhanand Shukla, Gregory Husak
2019, International Journal of Climate Change: Impacts and Responses (39) 3057-3075
Droughts in Tanzania pose challenges to agriculture, water resources, and hydropower production, all of which impact livelihoods. Tanzania experienced below average precipitation during 1999-2014 during two important seasons: December to February (DJF) in the south and during March to June (MAMJ) in the northeast. We explore DJF and...
The Laurentian Great Lakes: A case study in ecological disturbance and climate change
James E. McKenna Jr.
2019, Fisheries Management and Ecology 1-14
Climate change effects are already significant, but can also magnify other ecological problems. This can be clearly seen in the Laurentian Great Lakes, which have suffered habitat degradation, fishery overharvest and dramatic alterations by invasive species. Thermal changes are expected to cause extensive loss of suitable...
Survival of Bristle-thighed Curlews equipped with externally mounted transmitters
Daniel R. Ruthrauff, T. Lee Tibbitts, Vijay P. Patil
2019, Wader Study (126) 109-115
Telemetry devices are widely used in avian research, but the degree to which the deployment of such devices affects the survival of study subjects is often not addressed. It is generally assumed that such effects are less pronounced in large-bodied species that conduct relatively short migrations and carry relatively light...
Simulating runoff quality with the highway-runoff database and the Stochastic Empirical Loading and Dilution Model
Gregory E. Granato, Susan C. Jones
2019, Transportation Research Record (2673) 136-142
Stormwater practitioners need quantitative information about the quality and volume of highway runoff to assess and mitigate potential adverse effects of runoff on the Nation’s receiving waters. The U.S. Geological Survey developed the Highway Runoff Database (HRDB) in cooperation with the FHWA to provide practice-ready information to...
The expectations and challenges of wildlife disease research in the era of genomics: Forecasting with a horizon scan-like exercise
Robert R. Fitak, Jennifer D. Antonides, Eric J. Baitchman, Elisa Bonaccorso, Josephine Braun, Steven Kubiski, Elliott Chiu, Anna C. Fagre, Roderick B. Gagne, Justin S. Lee, Jennifer L. Malmberg, Mark D. Stenglein, Robert J. Dusek, David Forgacs, Nicholas M. Fountain-Jones, Marie L. J. Gilbertson, Katherine E. L. Worsley-Tonks, W. Chris Funk, Daryl R. Trumbo, Bruno M. Ghersi, Wray Grimaldi, Sara E. Heisel, Claire M. Jardine, Pauline L. Kamath, Dibesh Karmacharya, Christopher P. Kozakiewicz, Simona Kraberger, Dagan A. Loisel, Cait McDonald, Steven Miller, Devon O’Rourke, Caitlin N. Ott-Conn, Mónica Páez-Vacas, Alison J. Peel, Wendy C. Turner, Meredith C. VanAcker, Sue VandeWoude, Jill Pecon-Slattery
2019, Journal of Heredity (110) 261-274
The outbreak and transmission of disease-causing pathogens are contributing to the unprecedented rate of biodiversity decline. Recent advances in genomics have coalesced into powerful tools to monitor, detect, and reconstruct the role of pathogens impacting wildlife populations. Wildlife researchers are thus uniquely positioned to merge ecological and evolutionary studies with...
Insights into the mechanisms of phreatic eruptions from continuous high frequency volcanic gas monitoring: Rincón de la Vieja volcano, Costa Rica
Angelo Battaglia, J. Maarten de Moor, Alessandro Aiuppa, Geoffroy Avard, Henriette Bakkar, Marcello Bitetto, M. M. Mora Fernandez, Peter J. Kelly, Gaetano Giudice, Dario Delle Donne, Hairo Villalobos
2019, Frontiers in Earth Science (6) 1-20
Understanding the trigger mechanisms of phreatic eruptions is key to mitigating the effects of these hazardous but poorly forecastable volcanic events. It has recently been established that high-rate volcanic gas observations are potentially very suitable to identifying the source processes driving phreatic eruptions, and to eventually detecting precursory changes prior...
Distribution of modern salt-marsh Foraminifera from the eastern Mississippi Sound, U.S.A.
Christian Haller, Christopher G. Smith, Pamela Hallock, Albert C. Hine, Lisa Osterman, Terrence McCloskey
2019, Journal of Foraminiferal Research (49) 29-47
This study documented surface distributions of live and dead foraminiferal assemblages in the low-gradient tidal marshes of the barrier island and estuarine complex of the eastern Mississippi Sound (Grand Bay, Pascagoula River, Fowl River, Dauphin Island). A total of 71,833 specimens representing 38 species were identified from a gradient of...
Patterning emergent marsh vegetation assemblages in coastal Louisiana, USA, with unsupervised artificial neural networks
Gregg A. Snedden
2019, Applied Vegetation Science (22) 213-229
QuestionAre self‐organizing maps (SOMs) useful for patterning coastal wetland vegetation communities? Do SOMs provide robust alternatives to traditional classification methods, particularly when underlying species response functions are unknown or difficult to approximate, or when a need exists to continuously classify new samples obtained under ongoing long‐term...
Activity center selection by northern spotted owls
Stan G. Sovern, Damon B. Lesmeister, Katie M. Dugger, M. Shane Pruett, Raymond J. Davis, Julianna M. Jenkins
2019, Journal of Wildlife Management (83) 714-727
The federally threatened northern spotted owl (Strix occidentalis caurina) has been intensively studied across its range, and habitat needs for the species have influenced forest management in northwestern North America for decades. Dense forest canopies are often reported in the scientific literature and agency management plans as an important habitat...
How physics‐based earthquake simulators might help improve earthquake forecasts
Edward H. Field
2019, Seismological Research Letters (90) 467-472
Questions have persisted on the usefulness of physics‐based earthquake simulators with respect to forecasting earthquakes, due mostly to the inevitable assumptions, approximations, and uncertainties. Whether any model is reliable or trustworthy depends entirely on what questions we are asking of it, so the point of this article is to outline...
Assessment of operational and structural factors influencing performance of fish collectors in forebays of high-head dams
Tobias J. Kock, Nicholas E Verretto, Nicklaus K Ackerman, Russell W. Perry, John W Beeman, Michael C Garello, Scott D Fielding
2019, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (148) 464-479
Providing efficient downstream passage is critical for improving populations of migratory fishes in impounded river systems. High‐head dams, such as those used for water storage or flood‐risk management, pose unique passage challenges requiring unique solutions. Systems to collect fish in dam forebays (“forebay collectors”) for transport to downstream release locations...
Modeling effects of crop production, energy development and conservation-grassland loss on avian habitat
Jill A. Shaffer, Cali L. Roth, David M. Mushet
2019, PLoS ONE (14) 1-17
Birds are essential components of most ecosystems and provide many services valued by society. However, many populations have undergone striking declines as their habitats have been lost or degraded by human activities. Terrestrial grasslands are vital habitat for birds in the North American Prairie Pothole Region (PPR), but grassland conversion...
To what extent is drought-induced tree mortality a natural phenomenon?
R. Fensham, Boris Laffineur, Craig D. Allen
2019, Global Ecology and Biogeography (287) 365-373
AimCatastrophic forest mortality due to more extreme rainfall deficits and higher temperatures under future climate scenarios has been predicted. The aim of this study is to explore the magnitude of historical drought-induced tree mortality under pre-warming conditions.LocationNorth-eastern Australia.Time period1845–2017.<h3 id="geb12858-sec-0004-title" class="article-section__sub-title...
A seascape-scale habitat model to support management of fishing impacts on benthic ecosystems
T. Scott Smeltz, Bradley Harris, John Olson, Suresh Sethi
2019, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (76) 1836-1844
Minimizing fishing impacts on seafloor ecosystems is a growing focus of ocean management; however, few quantitative tools exist to guide seascape-scale habitat management. To meet these needs, we developed a model to assess benthic ecosystem impacts from fishing gear contact. The habitat impacts model is cast in discrete time and...
Improving estimates and forecasts of lake carbon dynamics using data assimilation
Jacob Aaron Zwart, Oleksandra Hararuk, Yves Prairie, Stuart E. Jones, Christopher T. Solomon
2019, Limnology and Oceanography: Methods (17) 97-111
Lakes are biogeochemical hotspots on the landscape, contributing significantly to the global carbon cycle despite their small areal coverage. Observations and models of lake carbon pools and fluxes are rarely explicitly combined through data assimilation despite successful use of this technique in other fields. Data assimilation...
Early-warning signals of individual tree mortality based on annual radial growth
Maxime Cailleret, Vasilis Dakos, Steven Jansen, Elisabeth M. R. Robert, Tuomas Aakala, Mariano M. Amoroso, Joe A. Antos, Christof Bigler, Harald Bugmann, Marco Caccianaga, Jesus-Julio Camarero, Paolo Cherubini, Marie R. Coyea, Katarina Cufar, Adrian J. Das, Hendrik Davi, Guillermo Gea-Izquierdo, Sten Gillner, Laurel J. Haavik, Henrik Hartmann, Ana-Maria Heres, Kevin R. Hultine, Pavel Janda, Jeffrey M. Kane, Viachelsav I. Kharuk, Thomas Kitzberger, Tamir Klein, Tom Levanic, Juan-Carlos Linares, Fabio Lombardi, Harri Makinen, Ilona Mészáros, Juha M. Metsaranta, Walter Oberhuber, Andreas Papadopoulos, Any Mary Petritan, Brigitte Rohner, Gabriel Sanguesa-Barreda, Jeremy M. Smith, Amanda B. Stan, Dejan B. Stojanovic, Maria-Laura Suarez, Miroslav Svoboda, Volodymyr Trotsiuk, Ricardo Villalba, Alana R. Westwood, Peter H. Wyckoff, Jordi Martínez-Vilalta
2019, Frontiers in Plant Science (9) 1-14
Tree mortality is a key driver of forest dynamics and its occurrence is projected to increase in the future due to climate change. Despite recent advances in our understanding of the physiological mechanisms leading to death, we still lack robust indicators of mortality risk that could be applied at the...
