Iron oxide minerals in dust of the Red Dawn event in eastern Australia, September 2009
Richard L. Reynolds, Stephen R. Cattle, Bruce M. Moskowitz, Harland L. Goldstein, Kimberly Yauk, Cody B. Flagg, Thelma S. Berquo, Raymond F. Kokaly, Suzette A. Morman, George N. Breit
2014, Aeolian Research (15) 1-13
Iron oxide minerals typically compose only a few weight percent of bulk atmospheric dust but are important for potential roles in forcing climate, affecting cloud properties, influencing rates of snow and ice melt, and fertilizing marine phytoplankton. Dust samples collected from locations across eastern Australia (Lake Cowal, Orange, Hornsby, and...
Physical properties of the WAIS Divide ice core
Joan J. Fitzpatrick, Donald E. Voigt, John M. Fegyveresi, Nathan T. Stevens, Matthew K. Spencer, Jihong Cole-Dai, Richard B. Alley, Gabriella E. Jardine, Eric Cravens, Lawrence A. Wilen, T. J. Fudge, Joseph R. McConnell
2014, Journal of Glaciology (60) 1181-1198
The WAIS (West Antarctic Ice Sheet) Divide deep ice core was recently completed to a total depth of 3405 m, ending ∼50 m above the bed. Investigation of the visual stratigraphy and grain characteristics indicates that the ice column at the drilling location is undisturbed by any large-scale overturning or...
Freshwater mussels of Florida
James D. Williams, Robert S. Butler, Gary L. Warren, Nathan A. Johnson
2014, Book
An exhaustive guide to all aspects of the freshwater mussel fauna in Florida,Freshwater Mussels of Florida covers the ecology, biology, distribution, and conservation of the many species of bivalve mollusks in the Sunshine State. In the past three decades, researchers, the public, businesses that depend on wildlife, and policy makers have...
Contaminants of emerging concern in fresh leachate from landfills in the conterminous United States
Jason R. Masoner, Dana W. Kolpin, Edward T. Furlong, Isabelle M. Cozzarelli, James L. Gray, Eric A. Schwab
2014, Environmental Science: Processes and Impacts (16) 2335-2354
To better understand the composition of contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) in landfill leachate, fresh leachate from 19 landfills was sampled across the United States during 2011. The sampled network included 12 municipal and 7 private landfills with varying landfill waste compositions, geographic and climatic settings, ages of waste, waste...
Carryover effects and climatic conditions influence the postfledging survival of greater sage-grouse
Erik J. Blomberg, James S. Sedinger, Daniel Gibson, Peter S. Coates, Michael L. Casazza
2014, Ecology and Evolution (4) 4488-4499
Prebreeding survival is an important life history component that affects both parental fitness and population persistence. In birds, prebreeding can be separated into pre- and postfledging periods; carryover effects from the prefledging period may influence postfledging survival. We investigated effects of body condition at fledging, and climatic variation, on postfledging...
Monitoring fish distributions along electrofishing segments
Leandro E. Miranda
2014, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment (186) 8899-8905
Electrofishing is widely used to monitor fish species composition and relative abundance in streams and lakes. According to standard protocols, multiple segments are selected in a body of water to monitor population relative abundance as the ratio of total catch to total sampling effort. The standard protocol provides an assessment of...
Arthropods of Rose Atoll with special reference to ants and Pulvinaria Urbicola Scales (Hempitera Coccidae) on Pisonia Grandis trees
Paul C. Banko, Robert W. Peck, Frank Pendleton, Mark Schmaedick, Kelsie Ernsberger
2014, Technical Report HCSU-057
Rose Atoll, at the eastern end of the Samoan Archipelago, is a small but important refuge for seabirds, shorebirds, and sea turtles. While the vertebrate community is relatively well-studied, the terrestrial arthropod fauna, and its role in ecosystem function, are poorly known. Arthropods may be influencing the decline of Pisonia...
Fitness in animals correlates with proximity to discontinuities in body mass distributions.
David G. Angeler, Craig R. Allen, Anna Vila-Gispert, David Almeida
2014, Ecological Complexity (20) 213-218
Discontinuous structure in landscapes may cause discontinuous, aggregated species body-mass patterns, reflecting the scales of structure available to animal communities within a landscape. Empirical analyses have shown that the location of species within body mass aggregations, which reflect this scale-specific organization, is non-random with regard to several ecological phenomena, including...
Assessing and managing freshwater ecosystems vulnerable to global change
David G. Angeler, Craig R. Allen, Hannah E. Birge, Stina Drakare, Brendan G. McKie, Richard K. Johnson
2014, Ambio (43) 113-125
Freshwater ecosystems are important for global biodiversity and provide essential ecosystem services. There is consensus in the scientific literature that freshwater ecosystems are vulnerable to the impacts of environmental change, which may trigger irreversible regime shifts upon which biodiversity and ecosystem services may be lost. There are profound uncertainties regarding...
Ecohydrology of dry regions: storage versus pulse soil water dynamics
William K. Lauenroth, Daniel R. Schlaepfer, John B. Bradford
2014, Ecosystems (17) 1469-1479
Although arid and semiarid regions are defined by low precipitation, the seasonal timing of temperature and precipitation can influence net primary production and plant functional type composition. The importance of precipitation seasonality is evident in semiarid areas of the western U.S., which comprise the Intermountain (IM) zone, a region that...
Pollutant sensitivity of the endangered Tar River Spinymussel as assessed by single chemical and effluent toxicity tests
Thomas P. Augspurger, Ning Wang, James L. Kunz, Christopher G. Ingersoll
2014, Report
The federally endangered Tar River spinymussel (Elliptio steinstansana) is endemic to the Tar River and Neuse River systems in North Carolina. The extent to which water quality limits Tar River spinymussels’ recovery is important to establish, and one aspect of that is understanding the species’ pollutant sensitivity. The primary objectives...
Mineral resource of the month: Mica
Jason C. Willett
2014, Earth (December 2014)
The mica mineral group includes 34 phyllosilicate minerals, all with a layered, platy texture. The mineral has been known for millennia: Mica was first mined in India about 4,000 years ago, where it was used primarily in medicines. The Mayans used it for decorative effect in stucco to...
Characterizing riverbed sediment using high-frequency acoustics 2: scattering signatures of Colorado River bed sediment in Marble and Grand Canyons
Daniel D. Buscombe, Paul E. Grams, Matthew A. Kaplinski
2014, Journal of Geophysical Research F: Earth Surface (119) 2692-2710
In this, the second of a pair of papers on the statistical signatures of riverbed sediment in high-frequency acoustic backscatter, spatially explicit maps of the stochastic geometries (length- and amplitude-scales) of backscatter are related to patches of riverbed surfaces composed of known sediment types, as determined by geo-referenced underwater video...
Coastal fog, climate change, and the environment
Alicia A. Torregrosa, Travis A. O’Brien, Ian C. Faloona
2014, Eos, Transactions, American Geophysical Union (95) 473-474
Coastal marine fog, a characteristic feature of climates generated at the eastern boundaries of ocean basins worldwide, evokes different feelings in those who experience it (see Figure 1). Authors and poets use fog to represent mystery, bleakness, and confusion. Film directors seek out fog to shroud scenes in eerie gloominess. Tourists...
Using the USGS Seismic Risk Web Application to estimate aftershock damage
Sean M. McGowan, Nicolas Luco
2014, Conference Paper
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Engineering Risk Assessment Project has developed the Seismic Risk Web Application to combine earthquake hazard and structural fragility information in order to calculate the risk of earthquake damage to structures. Enabling users to incorporate their own hazard and fragility information into the calculations will make...
Comprehensive framework for ecological assessment of the Migratory Bird Habitat Initiative following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill
J. Brian Davis, Elisabeth B. Webb, Richard M. Kaminski, Philip J. Barbour, Francisco Vilella
2014, Southeastern Naturalist (13) G66-G81
Following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010, the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) established and funded the Migratory Bird Habitat Initiative (MBHI), with the goal of improving and increasing wetland habitats on private lands to benefit wintering and migrating waterbirds displaced from...
Widespread gas hydrate instability on the upper U.S. Beaufort margin
Benjamin J. Phrampus, Matthew J. Hornbach, Carolyn D. Ruppel, Patrick E. Hart
2014, Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth (119) 8594-8609
The most climate-sensitive methane hydrate deposits occur on upper continental slopes at depths close to the minimum pressure and maximum temperature for gas hydrate stability. At these water depths, small perturbations in intermediate ocean water temperatures can lead to gas hydrate dissociation. The Arctic Ocean has experienced more dramatic warming...
Coastal tectonics on the eastern margin of the Pacific Rim: Late Quaternary sea-level history and uplift rates, Channel Islands National Park, California, USA
Daniel R. Muhs, Kathleen R. Simmons, R. Randall Schumann, Lindsey T. Groves, Stephen B. DeVogel, Scott A. Minor, Deanna Laurel
2014, Quaternary Science Reviews (105) 209-238
The Pacific Rim is a region where tectonic processes play a significant role in coastal landscape evolution. Coastal California, on the eastern margin of the Pacific Rm, is very active tectonically and geomorphic expressions of this include uplifted marine terraces. There have been, however, conflicting estimates of the rate of...
Fate of injected CO2 in the Wilcox Group, Louisiana, Gulf Coast Basin: Chemical and isotopic tracers of microbial–brine–rock–CO2 interactions
Jenna L. Shelton, Jennifer C. McIntosh, Peter D. Warwick, Amelia Lee Zhi Yi
2014, Applied Geochemistry (51) 155-169
The “2800’ sandstone” of the Olla oil field is an oil and gas-producing reservoir in a coal-bearing interval of the Paleocene–Eocene Wilcox Group in north-central Louisiana, USA. In the 1980s, this producing unit was flooded with CO2 in an enhanced oil recovery (EOR) project, leaving ∼30% of the injected CO2 in the...
Soil CO2 emissions as a proxy for heat and mass flow assessment, Taupō Volcanic Zone, New Zealand
S. Bloomberg, Cynthia A. Werner, C.F. Rissmann, A. Mazot, Travis B. Horton, D Gravley, B. Kennedy, C Oze
2014, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems (15) 4885-4904
The quantification of heat and mass flow between deep reservoirs and the surface is important for understanding magmatic and hydrothermal systems. Here, we use high-resolution measurement of carbon dioxide flux (φCO2) and heat flow at the surface to characterize the mass (CO2 and steam) and heat released to the atmosphere from...
Cogenetic late Pleistocene rhyolite and cumulate diorites from Augustine Volcano revealed by SIMS 238U-230Th dating of zircon, and implications for silicic magma generation by extraction from mush
Michelle L. Coombs, Jorge A. Vazquez
2014, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems (15) 4846-4865
Augustine Volcano, a frequently active andesitic island stratocone, erupted a late Pleistocene rhyolite pumice fall that is temporally linked through zircon geochronology to cumulate dioritic blocks brought to the surface in Augustine's 2006 eruption. Zircon from the rhyolite yield a 238U-230Th age of ∼25 ka for their unpolished rims, and their...
The effects of changing land cover on streamflow simulation in Puerto Rico
Ashley E. Van Beusekom, Lauren E. Hay, Roland J. Viger, William A. Gould, Jaime Collazo, Azad Henareh Khalyani
2014, Journal of the American Water Resources Association (50) 1575-1593
This study quantitatively explores whether land cover changes have a substantive impact on simulated streamflow within the tropical island setting of Puerto Rico. The Precipitation Runoff Modeling System (PRMS) was used to compare streamflow simulations based on five static parameterizations of land cover with those based on dynamically varying parameters...
Geomorphological Fieldwork
Mary J Thornbush, Casey D Allen, Faith A. Fitzpatrick
2014, Book
Geomorphological Fieldwork addresses a topic that always remains popular within the geosciences and environmental science. More specifically, the volume conveys a growing legacy of field-based learning for young geomorphologists that can be used as a student book for field-based university courses and postgraduate research requiring fieldwork or field schools. The...
Relationships between land cover and dissolved organic matter change along the river to lake transition
James H. Larson, Paul C. Frost, Marguerite A. Xenopoulos, Clayton J. Williams, Ana M. Morales-Williams, Jonathan M. Vallazza, J. C. Nelson, William B. Richardson
2014, Ecosystems (17) 1413-1425
Dissolved organic matter (DOM) influences the physical, chemical, and biological properties of aquatic ecosystems. We hypothesized that controls over spatial variation in DOM quantity and composition (measured with DOM optical properties) differ based on the source of DOM to aquatic ecosystems. DOM quantity and composition should be better predicted by...
Layered hydrothermal barite-sulfide mound field, East Diamante Caldera, Mariana volcanic arc
James R. Hein, Cornel E. J. de Ronde, Randolph A. Koski, Robert G. Ditchburn, Kira Mizell, Yoshihiko Tamura, Robert J. Stern, Tracey Conrad, Osamu Ishizuka, Matthew I. Leybourne
2014, Economic Geology (109) 2179-2206
East Diamante is a submarine volcano in the southern Mariana arc that is host to a complex caldera ~5 × 10 km (elongated ENE-WSW) that is breached along its northern and southwestern sectors. A large field of barite-sulfide mounds was discovered in June 2009 and revisited in July 2010 with...
