Analyses of historical and projected climates to support climate adaptation in the northern Rocky Mountains: Chapter 4
John E. Gross, Michael Tercek, Kevin Guay, Tony Chang, Marian Talbert, Ann Rodman, David Thoma, Patrick Jantz, Jeffrey T. Morisette
2016, Book chapter, Climate change in wildlands: Pioneering approaches to science and management
Most of the western United States is experiencing the effects of rapid and directional climate change (Garfin et al. 2013). These effects, along with forecasts of profound changes in the future, provide strong motivation for resource managers to learn about and prepare for future changes. Climate adaptation plans are based...
Variability of surface-water quantity and quality and shallow groundwater levels and quality within the Rio Grande Project Area, New Mexico and Texas, 2009–13
Jessica M. Driscoll, Lauren R. Sherson
2016, Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5006
Drought conditions during the study period of January 1, 2009, to September 30, 2013, caused a reduction in surface-water releases from water-supply storage infrastructure of the Rio Grande Project, which led to changes in surface-water and groundwater (conjunctive) use in downstream agricultural alluvial valleys. Surface water and groundwater in the...
Effects of experimental removal of barred owls on population demography of northern spotted owls in Washington and Oregon—2015 progress report
J. David Wiens, Katie M. Dugger, Krista E. Lewicki, David C. Simon
2016, Open-File Report 2016-1041
Evidence indicates that competition with newly established barred owls (Strix varia) is causing rapid declines in populations of northern spotted owls (Strix occidentalis caurina), and that the longterm persistence of spotted owls may be in question without additional management intervention. A pilot study in California showed that lethal removal of...
Complementary approaches to diagnosing marine diseases: a union of the modern and the classic
Colleen A. Burge, Carolyn S. Friedman, Rodman G. Getchell, Marcia House, Kevin D. Lafferty, Laura D. Mydlarz, Katherine C. Prager, Kathryn P. Sutherland, Tristan Renault, Ikunari Kiryu, Rebecca Vega-Thurber
2016, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (371) 1-11
Linking marine epizootics to a specific aetiology is notoriously difficult. Recent diagnostic successes show that marine disease diagnosis requires both modern, cutting-edge technology (e.g. metagenomics, quantitative real-time PCR) and more classic methods (e.g. transect surveys, histopathology and cell culture). Here, we discuss how this combination of traditional and modern approaches...
What a drag: Quantifying the global impact of chronic bottom trawling on continental shelf sediment
Ferdinand K. J. Oberle, Curt D. Storlazzi, Till J.J. Hanebuth
2016, Journal of Marine Systems (159) 109-119
Continental shelves worldwide are subject to intense bottom trawling that causes sediment to be resuspended. The widely used traditional concepts of modern sedimentary transport systems on the shelf rely only on estimates for naturally driven sediment resuspension such as through storm waves, bottom currents, and gravity-driven flows but they overlook...
Methods to estimate historical daily streamflow for ungaged stream locations in Minnesota
David L. Lorenz, Jeffrey R. Ziegeweid
2016, Scientific Investigations Report 2015-5181
Effective and responsible management of water resources relies on a thorough understanding of the quantity and quality of available water; however, streamgages cannot be installed at every location where streamflow information is needed. Therefore, methods for estimating streamflow at ungaged stream locations need to be developed. This report presents a...
Efficacy of landscape scale woodland and savanna restoration at multiple spatial and temporal scales
H. Tyler Pittman, David G. Krementz
2016, Journal of the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (3) 233-242
The loss of historic ecosystem conditions has led forest managers to implement woodland and savanna ecosystem restoration on a landscape scale (≥10,000 ha) in the Ozark Plateau of Arkansas. Managers are attempting to restore and conserve these ecosystems through the reintroduction of disturbance, mainly short-rotation early-growing-season prescribed fire. Short-rotation early-growing...
Coherent late-Holocene climate-driven shifts in the structure of three Rocky Mountain lakes
Jeffery R. Stone, Jasmine E. Saros, Gregory T. Pederson
2016, The Holocene (26) 1103-1111
Large-scale atmospheric pressure centers, such as the Aleutian and Icelandic Low, have a demonstrated relationship with physical lake characteristics in contemporary monitoring studies, but the responses to these phenomena are rarely observed in lake records. We observe coherent changes in the stratification patterns of three deep (>30 m) lakes inferred from...
Costs of fear: Behavioral and life-history responses to risk and their demographic consequences vary across species
Joseph A. LaManna, Thomas E. Martin
2016, Ecology Letters (19) 403-413
Behavioural responses to reduce predation risk might cause demographic ‘costs of fear’. Costs differ among species, but a conceptual framework to understand this variation is lacking. We use a life-history framework to tie together diverse traits and life stages to better understand interspecific variation in responses and costs. We used...
Hydrologic controls on nitrogen cycling processes and functional gene abundance in sediments of a groundwater flow-through lake
Deborah L. Stoliker, Deborah A. Repert, Richard L. Smith, Bongkeun Song, Denis R. LeBlanc, Timothy D. McCobb, Christopher H. Conaway, Sung Pil Hyun, Dong-Chan Koh, Hee Sun Moon, Douglas B. Kent
2016, Environmental Science & Technology (50) 3649-3657
The fate and transport of inorganic nitrogen (N) is a critically important issue for human and aquatic ecosystem health because discharging N-contaminated groundwater can foul drinking water and cause algal blooms. Factors controlling N-processing were examined in sediments at three sites with contrasting hydrologic regimes at a lake on Cape...
Geologic assessment of undiscovered oil and gas resources in the Albian Clastic and Updip Albian Clastic Assessment Units, U.S. Gulf Coast Region
Matthew D. Merrill
2016, Open-File Report 2016-1026
U.S. Geological Survey National Oil and Gas Assessments (NOGA) of Albian aged clastic reservoirs in the U.S. Gulf Coast region indicate a relatively low prospectivity for undiscovered hydrocarbon resources due to high levels of past production and exploration. Evaluation of two assessment units (AUs), (1) the Albian Clastic AU 50490125,...
Estimation of a Trophic State Index for selected inland lakes in Michigan, 1999–2013
Lori M. Fuller, Richard S. Jodoin
2016, Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5023
A 15-year estimated Trophic State Index (eTSI) for Michigan inland lakes is available, and it spans seven datasets, each representing 1 to 3 years of data from 1999 to 2013. On average, 3,000 inland lake eTSI values are represented in each of the datasets by a process that relates field-measured...
Electronic archival tags provide first glimpse of bathythermal habitat use by free-ranging adult lake sturgeon Acipenser fulvescens
Andrew S. Briggs, Darryl W. Hondorp, Henry R. Quinlan, James C. Boase, Lloyd C. Mohr
2016, Journal of Freshwater Ecology (31) 477-483
Information on lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) depth and thermal habitat use during non-spawning periods is unavailable due to the difficulty of observing lake sturgeon away from shallow water spawning sites. In 2002 and 2003, lake sturgeon captured in commercial trap nets near Sarnia, Ontario were implanted with archival tags and...
GIS representation of coal-bearing areas in Antarctica
Matthew D. Merrill
2016, Open-File Report 2016-1031
Understanding the distribution of coal-bearing geologic units in Antarctica provides information that can be used in sedimentary, geomorphological, paleontological, and climatological studies. This report is a digital compilation of information on Antarctica’s coal-bearing geologic units found in the literature. It is intended to be used in small-scale spatial geographic information...
Paleozoic magmatism and porphyry Cu-mineralization in an evolving tectonic setting in the North Qilian Orogenic Belt, NW China
Kun-Feng Qiu, Jun Deng, Ryan D. Taylor, Kai-Rui Song, Yao-Hui Song, Quan-Zhong Li, Richard J. Goldfarb
2016, Journal of Asian Earth Sciences (122) 20-40
The NWW-striking North Qilian Orogenic Belt records the Paleozoic accretion–collision processes in NW China, and hosts Paleozoic Cu–Pb–Zn mineralization that was temporally and spatially related to the closure of the Paleo Qilian-Qinling Ocean. The Wangdian Cu deposit is located in the eastern part of the North Qilian Orogenic Belt, NW...
Evaluation of air-soil temperature relationships simulated by land surface models during winter across the permafrost region
Wenli Wang, Annette Rinke, John C. Moore, Duoying Ji, Xuefeng Cui, Shushi Peng, David M. Lawrence, A. David McGuire, Eleanor J. Burke, Xiaodong Chen, Christine Delire, Charles Koven, Andrew MacDougall, Kazuyuki Saito, Wenxin Zhang, Ramdane Alkama, Theodore J. Bohn, Philippe Ciais, Bertrand Decharme, Isabelle Gouttevin, Tomohiro Hajima, Gerhard Krinner, Dennis P. Lettenmaier, Paul A. Miller, Benjamin Smith, Tetsuo Sueyoshi
2016, The Cryosphere
A realistic simulation of snow cover and its thermal properties are important for accurate modelling of permafrost. We analyze simulated relationships between air and near-surface (20 cm) soil temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere permafrost region during winter, with a particular focus on snow insulation effects in nine land surface...
Measuring spatial patterns in floodplains: A step towards understanding the complexity of floodplain ecosystems: Chapter 6
Murray W. Scown, Martin C. Thoms, Nathan R. De Jager
David J. Gilvear, Malcolm T. Greenwood, Martin C. Thoms, Paul J. Wood, editor(s)
2016, Book chapter, River science: Research and management for the 21st century
Floodplains can be viewed as complex adaptive systems (Levin, 1998) because they are comprised of many different biophysical components, such as morphological features, soil groups and vegetation communities as well as being sites of key biogeochemical processing (Stanford et al., 2005). Interactions and feedbacks among the biophysical components often result...
Illuminating wildfire erosion and deposition patterns with repeat terrestrial lidar
Francis K. Rengers, G.E. Tucker, J. A. Moody, Brian Ebel
2016, Journal of Geophysical Research F: Earth Surface (121) 588-608
Erosion following a wildfire is much greater than background erosion in forests because of wildfire-induced changes to soil erodibility and water infiltration. While many previous studies have documented post-wildfire erosion with point and small plot-scale measurements, the spatial distribution of post-fire erosion patterns at the watershed scale remains largely unexplored....
Assessing the socioeconomic impact and value of open geospatial information
Francoise Pearlman, Jay Pearlman, Richard Bernknopf, Andrew Coote, Massimo Craglia, Lawrence Friedl, Jason Gallo, Henry Hertzfeld, Claire Jolly, Molly K. Macauley, Carl Shapiro, Alan Smart
2016, Open-File Report 2016-1036
The production and accessibility of geospatial information including Earth observation is changing greatly both technically and in terms of human participation. Advances in technology have changed the way that geospatial data are produced and accessed, resulting in more efficient processes and greater accessibility than ever before. Improved technology has also...
Application of effective discharge analysis to environmental flow decision-making
S. Kyle McKay, Mary Freeman, A.P. Covich
2016, Environmental Management (575) 1153-1165
Well-informed river management decisions rely on an explicit statement of objectives, repeatable analyses, and a transparent system for assessing trade-offs. These components may then be applied to compare alternative operational regimes for water resource infrastructure (e.g., diversions, locks, and dams). Intra- and inter-annual hydrologic variability further complicates these already complex...
Study of biological communities subject to imperfect detection: Bias and precision of community N-mixture abundance models in small-sample situations
Yuichi Yamaura, Marc Kery, J. Andrew Royle
2016, Ecological Research (31) 289-305
Community N-mixture abundance models for replicated counts provide a powerful and novel framework for drawing inferences related to species abundance within communities subject to imperfect detection. To assess the performance of these models, and to compare them to related community occupancy models in situations with marginal information, we used...
Prebreeding survival of Roseate Terns Sterna dougallii varies with sex, hatching order and hatching date
Ian C. T. Nisbet, David Monticelli, Jeffrey A. Spendelow, Patricia Szczys
2016, Ibis (158) 327-334
Unequal sex ratios can reduce the productivity of animal populations and are especially prevalent among endangered species. A cohort of 333 Roseate Tern Sterna dougallii chicks at a site where the adult sex ratio was skewed towards females was sexed at hatching and followed through fledging and return to the breeding area,...
Ecology, distribution, and predictive occurrence modeling of Palmers chipmunk (Tamias palmeri): a high-elevation small mammal endemic to the Spring Mountains in southern Nevada, USA
Chris E. Lowrey, Kathleen M. Longshore, Brett R. Riddle, Stacy Mantooth
2016, Journal of Mammalogy (97) 1033-1043
Although montane sky islands surrounded by desert scrub and shrub steppe comprise a large part of the biological diversity of the Basin and Range Province of southwestern North America, comprehensive ecological and population demographic studies for high-elevation small mammals within these areas are rare. Here, we examine the ecology and...
Prioritizing avian species for their risk of population-level consequences from wind energy development
Julie A. Beston, James E. Diffendorfer, Scott Loss, Douglas H. Johnson
2016, PLoS ONE (11) Article e0150813
Recent growth in the wind energy industry has increased concerns about its impacts on wildlife populations. Direct impacts of wind energy include bird and bat collisions with turbines whereas indirect impacts include changes in wildlife habitat and behavior. Although many species may withstand these effects, species that are long-lived with...
Stress in mangrove forests: early detection and preemptive rehabilitation are essential for future successful worldwide mangrove forest management
Roy R Lewis, Eric C Milbrandt, Benjamin Brown, Ken W. Krauss, Andre S. Rovai, James W. Beever, Laura L Flynn
2016, Marine Pollution Bulletin (109) 764-771
Mangrove forest rehabilitation should begin much sooner than at the point of catastrophic loss. We describe the need for “mangrove forest heart attack prevention”, and how that might be accomplished in a general sense by embedding plot and remote sensing monitoring within coastal management plans. The major cause of mangrove...
