Birds choose long-term partners years before breeding
Claire S. Teitelbaum, Sarah J. Converse, Thomas Mueller
2017, Animal Behaviour (134) 147-154
Pair bonds can provide social benefits to long-term monogamous species alongside their benefits for reproduction. However, little is known about when these bonds form, in particular how long they are present before breeding. Previous studies of pair formation in long-term monogamous birds have been rather data-limited, but for many migratory...
Meeting the challenge of interacting threats in freshwater ecosystems: A call to scientists and managers
Laura S. Craig, Julian D. Olden, Angela Arthington, Sally Entrekin, Charles P. Hawkins, John J. Kelly, Theodore A. Kennedy, Bryan M. Maitland, Emma J. Rosi, Allison H. Roy, David L. Strayer, Jennifer L. Tank, Amie O. West, Matthew S. Wooten
2017, Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene
Human activities create threats that have consequences for freshwater ecosystems and, in most watersheds, observed ecological responses are the result of complex interactions among multiple threats and their associated ecological alterations. Here we discuss the value of considering multiple threats in research and management, offer suggestions for filling knowledge gaps,...
Multi-level multi-task learning for modeling cross-scale interactions in nested geospatial data
Shuai Yuan, Jiayu Zhou, Pang-Ning Tan, Emi Fergus, Tyler Wagner, Patricia Sorrano
2017, Conference Paper, 2017 IEEE International Conference on Data Mining (ICDM)
Predictive modeling of nested geospatial data is a challenging problem as the models must take into account potential interactions among variables defined at different spatial scales. These cross-scale interactions, as they are commonly known, are particularly important to understand relationships among ecological properties at macroscales. In this paper, we present...
Walleye age estimation using otoliths and dorsal spines: Preparation techniques and sampling guidelines based on sex and total length
Daniel J. Dembkowski, Daniel A. Isermann, Ryan P. Koenigs
2017, Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management (8) 474-486
We used dorsal spines and otoliths from 735 Walleye Sander vitreus collected from 35 Wisconsin water bodies to evaluate whether 1) otolith and dorsal spine cross sections provided age estimates similar to simpler methods of preparation (e.g., whole otoliths and dorsal spines, cracked otoliths); and 2) between-reader precision and differences between spine...
Domestic cat
James E. Diffendorfer
2017, Book chapter, San Diego County Mammal Atlas
The familiar domestic cat is not native to southern California and is considered an invasive spe-cies by biologists and conservation organizations. When owners abandon their cats, wild or feral populations may arise, as they have in San Diego County. Cats’ pelage color, tail length, and hair thickness vary widely, given...
Experimental investigation on thermochemical sulfate reduction in the presence of 1-pentanethiol at 200 and 250 °C: Implications for in situ TSR processes occurring in some MVT deposits
Shunda Yuan, Geoffrey S. Ellis, I-Ming Chou, Robert Burruss
2017, Ore Geology Reviews (91) 57-65
Organic sulfur compounds are ubiquitous in natural oil and gas fields and moderate-low temperature sulfide ore deposits. Previous studies have shown that organic sulfur compounds are important in enhancing the rates of thermochemical sulfate reduction (TSR) reactions, but the details of these reaction mechanisms remain unclear. In order to assess...
An intertebrate ecosystem engineer likely covered under the umbrella of sage-grouse conservation
Jason D. Carlisle, David R. Stewart, Anna D. Chalfoun
2017, Western North American Naturalist (77) 450-463
Conservation practitioners often rely on areas designed to protect species of greatest conservation priority to also conserve co-occurring species (i.e., the umbrella species concept). The extent to which vertebrate species may serve as suitable umbrellas for invertebrate species, however, has rarely been explored. Sage-grouse (Centrocercus spp.) have high conservation priority throughout...
Characters in Arctostaphylos taxonomy
Jon E. Keeley, V. Thomas Parker, Michael C. Vasey
2017, Madroño (64) 138-153
There is value in understanding the past and how it has affected the present. Science focuses on empirical findings, and we know that our prior experiences and those of our predecessors play important roles in determining how we interpret the present. We learn from accomplishments and foibles of predecessors and...
Using carbon dioxide in fisheries and aquatic invasive species management
Hilary B. Treanor, Andrew M. Ray, Megan J. Layhee, Barnaby J. Watten, Jason A. Gross, Robert E. Gresswell, Molly A. H. Webb
2017, Fisheries (42) 621-628
To restore native fish populations, fisheries programs often depend on active removal of aquatic invasive species. Chemical removal can be an effective method of eliminating aquatic invasive species, but chemicals can induce mortality in nontarget organisms and persist in the environment. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is an emerging alternative to traditional...
Boiling-induced formation of colloidal gold in black smoker hydrothermal fluids
Amy Gartman, Mark Hannington, John W. Jamieson, Ben Peterkin, Dieter Garbe-Schonberg, Alyssa J Findlay, Sebastian Fuchs, Tom Kwasnitschka
2017, Geology (46) 39-42
Gold colloids occur in black smoker fluids from the Niua South hydrothermal vent field, Lau Basin (South Pacific Ocean), confirming the long-standing hypothesis that gold may undergo colloidal transport in hydrothermal fluids. Six black smoker vents, varying in temperature from 250 °C to 325 °C, were sampled; the 325 °C...
Dynamic rupture modeling of the M7.2 2010 El Mayor-Cucapah earthquake: Comparison with a geodetic model
Christos Kyriakopoulos, David D. Oglesby, Gareth J. Funning, Kenneth Ryan
2017, Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth (122) 10263-10279
The 2010 Mw 7.2 El Mayor-Cucapah earthquake is the largest event recorded in the broader Southern California-Baja California region in the last 18 years. Here we try to analyze primary features of this type of event by using dynamic rupture simulations based on a multifault interface and later compare our results with space...
Diurnal feeding behavior of the American Eel Anguilla rostrata
Augustin C. Engman, Jesse R. Fischer, Thomas J. Kwak, Michael J. Walter
2017, Food Webs (13) 27-29
Despite potential to structure ecosystem food webs through top-down effects, the trophic interactions of the American Eel Anguilla rostrata remain largely understudied. All previous research on the trophic ecology of American Eel in inland aquatic ecosystems has been conducted in temperate continental regions of the species' range. These studies have led to...
Investigating seagrass in Toxoplasma gondii transmission in Florida (Trichechus manatus latirostris) and Antillean (T. m. manatus) manatees
Heidi M. Wyrosdick, Richard W. Gerhold, Chunlei Su, Antonio A. Mignucci-Giannoni, Robert K. Bonde, Alycia Chapman, Carla Riviera-Perez, Jessica Martinez, Debra L. Miller
2017, Diseases of Aquatic Organisms (127) 65-69
Toxoplasma gondii is a feline protozoan reported to cause morbidity and mortality in manatees and other marine mammals. Given the herbivorous nature of manatees, ingestion of oocysts from contaminated water or seagrass is presumed to be their primary mode of infection. The objectives of this study were to investigate oocyst contamination...
Probabilistic tsunami hazard analysis: Multiple sources and global applications
Anita Grezio, Andrey Babeyko, Maria Ana Baptista, Jorn Behrens, Antonio Costa, Gareth Davies, Eric L. Geist, Sylfest Glimsdal, Frank I. Gonzalez, Jonathan Griffin, Carl B. Harbitz, Randall J. LeVeque, Stefano Lorito, Finn Løvholt, Rachid Omira, Christof Mueller, Raphael Paris, Thomas E. Parsons, Jascha Polet, William Power, Jacopo Selva, Mathilde B. Sorensen, Hong Kie Thio
2017, Reviews of Geophysics (55) 1158-1198
Applying probabilistic methods to infrequent but devastating natural events is intrinsically challenging. For tsunami analyses, a suite of geophysical assessments should be in principle evaluated because of the different causes generating tsunamis (earthquakes, landslides, volcanic activity, meteorological events, and asteroid impacts) with varying mean recurrence rates. Probabilistic Tsunami Hazard Analyses...
A Bayesian-based system to assess wave-driven flooding hazards on coral reef-lined coasts
S. G. Pearson, Curt D. Storlazzi, A. R. van Dongeren, M. F. S. Tissier, A. J. H. M. Reniers
2017, Journal of Geophysical Research C: Oceans (122) 10099-10117
Many low-elevation, coral reef-lined, tropical coasts are vulnerable to the effects of climate change, sea level rise, and wave-induced flooding. The considerable morphological diversity of these coasts and the variability of the hydrodynamic forcing that they are exposed to make predicting wave-induced flooding a challenge. A process-based wave-resolving hydrodynamic model...
Geochemical and mineralogical characterization of the Eagle Ford Shale: Results from the USGS Gulf Coast #1 West Woodway core
Justin E. Birdwell, Adam Boehlke, Stanley T. Paxton, Katherine J. Whidden, Ofori N. Pearson
2017, Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies Transactions (67) 391-395
The Eagle Ford shale is a major continuous oil and gas resource play in southcentral Texas and a source for other oil accumulations in the East Texas Basin. As part of the U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) petroleum system assessment and research efforts, a coring program to obtain several immature, shallow...
Earthquake early Warning ShakeAlert system: West coast wide production prototype
Monica D. Kohler, Elizabeth S. Cochran, Douglas D. Given, Stephen Guiwits, Doug Neuhauser, Ivan Hensen, J. Renate Hartog, Paul Bodin, Victor Kress, Stephen Thompson, Claude Felizardo, Jeff Brody, Rayo Bhadha, Stan Schwarz
2017, Seismological Research Letters (89) 99-107
Earthquake early warning (EEW) is an application of seismological science that can give people, as well as mechanical and electrical systems, up to tens of seconds to take protective actions before peak earthquake shaking arrives at a location. Since 2006, the U.S. Geological Survey has been working in collaboration with...
Spatial data analytics on heterogeneous multi- and many-core parallel architectures using python
Jason R. Laura, Sergio J. Rey
2017, Book chapter, Encyclopedia of GIS
Parallel vector spatial analysis concerns the application of parallel computational methods to facilitate vector-based spatial analysis. The history of parallel computation in spatial analysis is reviewed, and this work is placed into the broader context of high-performance computing (HPC) and parallelization research. The rise of cyber infrastructure and its manifestation...
Overview of avian toxicity studies for the Deepwater Horizon Natural Resource Damage Assessment
Steven J. Bursian, C. R. Alexander, Dave Cacela, Fred L. Cunningham, Karen M. Dean, Brian S. Dorr, Christine K. Ellis, Celine A.J. Godard-Codding, Christopher G. Guglielmo, Katie C. Hanson-Dorr, Kendall E. Harr, Katherine A. Healy, Michael J. Hooper, Katherine E. Horak, John P. Isanhart, Lisa V. Kennedy, Jane E. Link, Ivan Maggini, John K. Moye, Christina R. Perez, Chris A. Pritsos, Susan A. Shriner, Kinberly A. Trust, Peter L. Tuttle
2017, Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety (146) 4-10
The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 establishes liability for injuries to natural resources because of the release or threat of release of oil. Assessment of injury to natural resources resulting from an oil spill and development and implementation of a plan for the restoration, rehabilitation, replacement or acquisition of natural...
Detrital zircon geochronology of quartzose metasedimentary rocks from parautochthonous North America, east-central Alaska
Cynthia Dusel-Bacon, Christopher S. Holm-Denoma, James V. Jones III, John N. Aleinikoff, James K. Mortensen
2017, Lithosphere (9) 927-952
We report eight new U-Pb detrital zircon ages for quartzose metasedimentary rocks from four lithotectonic units of parautochthonous North America in east-central Alaska: the Healy schist, Keevy Peak Formation, and Sheep Creek Member of the Totatlanika Schist in the northern Alaska Range, and the Butte assemblage in the northwestern Yukon-Tanana...
Interactive effects of water temperature and salinity on growth and mortality of eastern oysters, Crassostrea virginica: A meta-analysis using 40 years of monitoring data
Michael R. Lowe, Troy Sehlinger, Thomas M. Soniat, Megan K. LaPeyre
2017, Journal of Shellfish Research (36) 683-697
Despite nearly a century of exploitation and scientific study, predicting growth and mortality rates of the eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) as a means to inform local harvest and management activities remains difficult. Ensuring that models reflect local population responses to varying salinity and temperature combinations requires locally appropriate models. Using...
Evaluating factors driving population densities of mayfly nymphs in Western Lake Erie
Martin A. Stapanian, Patrick Kocovsky, Betsy L. Bodamer Scarbro
2017, Journal of Great Lakes Research (43) 1111-1118
Mayfly (Hexagenia spp.) nymphs have been widely used as indicators of water and substrate quality in lakes. Thermal stratification and the subsequent formation of benthic hypoxia may result in nymph mortality. Our goal was to identify potential associations between recent increases in temperature and eutrophication, which exacerbate hypoxic events in lakes,...
Estimating thermal maturity in the Eagle Ford Shale petroleum system using gas gravity data
Justin E. Birdwell, Scott A. Kinney
2017, Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies Transactions (67) 397-403
Basin-wide datasets that provide information on the geochemical properties of petroleum systems, such as source rock quality, product composition, and thermal maturity, are often difficult to come by or assemble from publicly available data. When published studies are available and include these kinds of properties, they generally have few sampling...
Developing enterprise tools and capacities for large-scale natural resource monitoring: A visioning workshop
Jennifer M. Bayer, Jake Weltzin, Rebecca A. Scully
2017, Report
In October 2016, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in collaboration with the Pacific Northwest Aquatic Monitoring Partnership (PNAMP, www.pnamp.org), convened a 30-person workshop, https://www.pnamp.org/event/5509, to identify and prioritize development of enterprise systems for programs that monitor the status and trends of species populations and their terrestrial, aquatic, and marine habitats....
The effect of beaver ponds on water quality in rural coastal plain streams
Christopher W. Bason, Daniel Kroes, Mark M. Brinson
2017, Southeastern Naturalist (16) 584-602
We compared water-quality effects of 13 beaver ponds on adjacent free-flowing control reaches in the Coastal Plain of rural North Carolina. We measured concentrations of nitrate, ammonium, soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP), and suspended sediment (SS) upstream and downstream of paired ponds and control reaches. Nitrate and SS concentrations decreased, ammonium...
