Targets set to reduce Lake Erie algae
Mary Anne Evans
2016, Report, Michigan State of the Great Lakes
In February 2016, the Great Lakes Executive Committee, which oversees the implementation of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA) between the U.S. and Canada, approved phosphorus loading targets for Lake Erie to reduce the size of harmful algal blooms (HABs), reduce the presence of the low oxygen zone in...
The role of science through a century of elk and habitat management at Rocky Mountain National Park
Therese L. Johnson, Linda Zeigenfuss, N. Thompson Hobbs, John A. Mack
2016, Park Science (32) 70-72
Over the past century elk (Cervus elaphus) management in Rocky Mountain National Park has evolved along with NPS policy, social values, and an improved understanding of the role of elk in the ecosystem. Science has played an important part in shaping management approaches through the application of monitoring and research (Monello...
Estimating abundance
Chris Sutherland, J. Andrew Royle
2016, Book chapter, Reptile ecology and conservation: A handbook of techniques
This chapter provides a non-technical overview of ‘closed population capture–recapture’ models, a class of well-established models that are widely applied in ecology, such as removal sampling, covariate models, and distance sampling. These methods are regularly adopted for studies of reptiles, in order to estimate abundance from counts of marked individuals...
Synthesis of juvenile lamprey migration and passage research and monitoring at Columbia and Snake River Dams
Matthew G. Mesa, Lisa K. Weiland, Helena E. Christiansen
2016, Report
We compiled and summarized previous sources of data and research results related to the presence, numbers, and migration timing characteristics of juvenile (eyed macropthalmia) and larval (ammocoetes) Pacific lamprey Entosphenus tridentatus, in the Columbia River basin (CRB). Included were data from various screw trap collections, data from historic fyke net...
Upper bound of pier scour in laboratory and field data
Stephen Benedict, Andral W. Caldwell
2016, Transportation Research Record (2588) 145-153
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the South Carolina Department of Transportation, conducted several field investigations of pier scour in South Carolina and used the data to develop envelope curves defining the upper bound of pier scour. To expand on this previous work, an additional cooperative investigation was...
Integrated groundwater data management
Peter Fitch, Boyan Brodaric, Matt Stenson, Nathaniel Booth
Anthony J. Jakeman, Olivier Barreteau, Randall J. Hunt, Jean-Daniel Rinaudo, Andrew Ross, editor(s)
2016, Book chapter, Integrated groundwater management
The goal of a data manager is to ensure that data is safely stored, adequately described, discoverable and easily accessible. However, to keep pace with the evolution of groundwater studies in the last decade, the associated data and data management requirements have changed significantly. In particular, there is a growing...
Consequences of seasonal variation in reservoir water level for predatory fishes: linking visual foraging and prey densities
Stephen L. Klobucar, Phaedra E. Budy
2016, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (73) 53-64
In reservoirs, seasonal drawdown can alter the physical environment and may influence predatory fish performance. We investigated the performance of lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) in a western reservoir by coupling field measurements with visual foraging and bioenergetic models at four distinct states (early summer, mid-summer, late summer, and fall). The...
Hydrologic effects on diameter growth phenology for Celtis laevigata and Quercus lyrata in the floodplain of the lower White River, Arkansas
Scott T. Allen, Wesley Cochran, Ken W. Krauss, Richard F. Keim, Sammy L. King
Callie Jo Schweitzer, Wayne K. Clatterbuck, Christopher M. Oswalt, editor(s)
2016, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the 18th Biennial Southern Silvicultural Research Conference: USDA Forest Service General Technical Report SRS-212
Bottomland hardwood (BLH) forests represent an extensive wetland system in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley and southeastern USA, and it is currently undergoing widespread transition in species composition. One such transition involves increased establishment of sugarberry (Celtis laevigata), and decreased establishment of overcup oak (Quercus lyrata). The ecological mechanisms that control...
Wildfire may increase habitat quality for spring Chinook salmon in the Wenatchee River subbasin, WA, USA
Rebecca L. Flitcroft, Jeffrey A. Falke, Gordon H. Reeves, Paul F. Hessburg, Kris M. McNyset, Lee E. Benda
2016, Forest Ecology and Management (359) 126-140
Pacific Northwest salmonids are adapted to natural disturbance regimes that create dynamic habitat patterns over space and through time. However, human land use, particularly long-term fire suppression, has altered the intensity and frequency of wildfire in forested upland and riparian areas. To examine the potential...
A review of single-sample-based models and other approaches for radiocarbon dating of dissolved inorganic carbon in groundwater
L. F Han, Niel Plummer
2016, Earth-Science Reviews (152) 119-142
Numerous methods have been proposed to estimate the pre-nuclear-detonation 14C content of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) recharged to groundwater that has been corrected/adjusted for geochemical processes in the absence of radioactive decay (14C0) - a quantity that is essential for estimation of radiocarbon age of DIC in groundwater. The models/approaches most...
Stronger or longer: Discriminating between Hawaiian and Strombolian eruption styles
Bruce F. Houghton, Jacopo Taddeucci, D. Andronico, H Gonnerman, M Pistolesi, Matthew R. Patrick, Tim R. Orr, Don Swanson, M Edmonds, Rebecca J. Carey, P. Scarlato
2016, Geology (44) 163-166
The weakest explosive volcanic eruptions globally, Strombolian explosions and Hawaiian fountaining, are also the most common. Yet, despite over a hundred years of observations, no classifications have offered a convincing, quantitative way of demarcating these two styles. New observations show that the two styles are distinct in their eruptive timescale,...
Acadia National Park Climate Change Scenario Planning Workshop summary
Jonathan Star, Nicholas Fisichelli, Alexander Bryan, Amanda Babson, Rebecca Cole-Will, Abraham J. Miller-Rushing
2016, Conference Paper
This report summarizes outcomes from a two-day scenario planning workshop for Acadia National Park, Maine (ACAD). The primary objective of the workshop was to help ACAD senior leadership make management and planning decisions based on up-to-date climate science and assessments of future uncertainty. The workshop was also designed as a...
A tube seepage meter for in situ measurement of seepage rate and groundwater sampling
John E. Solder, Troy E. Gilmore, David P. Genereux, D. Kip Solomon
2016, Groundwater (54) 588-595
We designed and evaluated a “tube seepage meter” for point measurements of vertical seepage rates (q), collecting groundwater samples, and estimating vertical hydraulic conductivity (K) in streambeds. Laboratory testing in artificial streambeds show that seepage rates from the tube seepage meter agreed well with expected values. Results of field testing...
LakeMetabolizer: An R package for estimating lake metabolism from free-water oxygen using diverse statistical models
Luke Winslow, Jacob A. Zwart, Ryan D. Batt, Hilary A. Dugan, R. Iestyn Woolway, Jessica Corman, Paul C. Hanson, Jordan S. Read
2016, Inland Waters (6) 622-636
Metabolism is a fundamental process in ecosystems that crosses multiple scales of organization from individual organisms to whole ecosystems. To improve sharing and reuse of published metabolism models, we developed LakeMetabolizer, an R package for estimating lake metabolism from in situ time series of dissolved oxygen, water temperature, and, optionally, additional environmental...
Viral lysis of photosynthesizing microbes as a mechanism for calcium carbonate nucleation in seawater
John T. Lisle, Lisa L. Robbins
2016, Frontiers in Microbiology (7)
Removal of carbon through the precipitation and burial of calcium carbonate in marine sediments constitutes over 70% of the total carbon on Earth and is partitioned between coastal and pelagic zones. The precipitation of authigenic calcium carbonate in seawater, however, has been hotly debated because despite being in a supersaturated...
Integrated modeling approach for fate and transport of submerged oil and oil-particle aggregates in a freshwater riverine environment
Faith A. Fitzpatrick, Rex Johnson, Zhenduo Zhu, David Waterman, Richard D. McCulloch, Earl Hayter, Marcelo H. Garcia, Michel C. Boufadel, Timothy Dekker, Jacob S. Hassan, David T. Soong, Christopher J. Hoard, Kenneth Lee
2016, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the joint federal interagency conference 2015
The Enbridge Line 6B pipeline release of diluted bitumen into the Kalamazoo River downstream of Marshall, Michigan, U.S.A., in July 2010 was one of the largest oil spills into freshwater in North American history. A portion of the oil interacted with river sediment and submerged requiring the development and implementation...
The value of earth observations: methods and findings on the value of Landsat imagery
Holly M. Miller, Larisa O. Serbina, Leslie A. Richardson, Sarah J. Ryker, Timothy R. Newman
2016, Book chapter, Communicating climate-change and natural hazard risk and cultivating resilience
Data from Earth observation systems are used extensively in managing and monitoring natural resources, natural hazards, and the impacts of climate change, but the value of such data can be difficult to estimate, particularly when it is available at no cost. Assessing the socioeconomic and scientific value of these data...
Photoperiod and nesting phenology of whooping cranes at two captive sites
Glenn H. Olsen
2016, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the North American Crane Workshop
Increasing daylight is known to be a breeding stimulus in many avian species breeding in northern latitudes. This is thought to be true for cranes that breed in such latitudes including the Whooping Crane (Grus americana). For this reason, the captive breeding centers use artificial light to lengthen daylight hours,...
Hematology results from experimental exposure of sandhill cranes to West Nile virus
Glenn H. Olsen
2016, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the North American Crane Workshop
West Nile virus is a deadly virus for young cranes. In testing two different vaccines on both adult sandhill cranes (Grus canadensis), we discovered that some blood parameters are altered by exposure to the virus. White blood cell counts were the most obvious, and may be used as an indicator...
In-air hearing of a diving duck: A comparison of psychoacoustic and auditory brainstem response thresholds
Sara E. Crowell, Alicia M. Wells-Berlin, Ronald E. Therrien, Sally E. Yannuzzi, Catherine E. Carr
2016, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (139) 3001-3008
Auditory sensitivity was measured in a species of diving duck that is not often kept in captivity, the lesser scaup. Behavioral (psychoacoustics) and electrophysiological [the auditory brainstem response (ABR)] methods were used to measure in-air auditory sensitivity, and the resulting audiograms were compared. Both approaches yielded audiograms with similar U-shapes...
Nutrient dynamics of the Delta: Effects on primary producers
Clifford N. Dahm, Alexander E. Parker, Anne E. Adelson, Mairgareth A. Christman, Brian A. Bergamaschi
2016, San Francisco Estuary and Watershed Science (14)
Increasing clarity of Delta waters, the emergence of harmful algal blooms, the proliferation of aquatic water weeds, and the altered food web of the Delta have brought nutrient dynamics to the forefront. This paper focuses on the sources of nutrients, the transformation and uptake of nutrients, and the links of...
Louisiana waterthrush and benthic macroinvertebrate response to shale gas development
Petra Wood, Mack W. Frantz, Douglas A. Becker
2016, Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management (7) 423-433
Because shale gas development is occurring over large landscapes and consequently is affecting many headwater streams, an understanding of its effects on headwater-stream faunal communities is needed. We examined effects of shale gas development (well pads and associated infrastructure) on Louisiana waterthrush Parkesia motacilla and benthic macroinvertebrate communities in 12...
Conflation and integration of archived geologic maps and associated uncertainties
Thomas G. Shoberg
2016, Journal of Geography and Geology (8) 28-40
Old, archived geologic maps are often available with little or no associated metadata. This creates special problems in terms of extracting their data to use with a modern database. This research focuses on some problems and uncertainties associated with conflating older geologic maps in regions where modern geologic maps are,...
The swing of it: Hammock camping
Jeffrey L. Marion
2016, A.T. Journeys (Spring 2016) 12-18
Hammock camping is dramatically expanding along the Appalachian Trail and raising both questions and concerns among Trail land managers, club members, and backpackers. This article examines some of the advantages and disadvantages of hammock camping, including resource and social impacts. Some Leave No Trace hammock camping practices are included for...
Forest structure of oak plantations after silvicultural treatment to enhance habitat for wildlife
Daniel J. Twedt, Cherrie-Lee P. Phillip, Michael P. Guilfoyle, R. Randy Wilson
Callie Jo Schweitzer, Wayne K. Clatterbuck, Christopher M. Oswalt, editor(s)
2016, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the 18th Biennial Southern Silvicultural Research Conference
During the past 30 years, thousands of hectares of oak-dominated bottomland hardwood plantations have been planted on agricultural fields in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley. Many of these plantations now have closed canopies and sparse understories. Silvicultural treatments could create a more heterogeneous forest structure, with canopy gaps and...
