Controls of biological soil crust cover and composition shift with succession in sagebrush shrub-steppe
E. Dettweiler-Robinson, J.D. Bakker, J.B. Grace
2013, Journal of Arid Environments (94) 96-104
Successional stage may determine strength and causal direction of interactions among abiotic and biotic factors; e.g., species that facilitate the establishment of other species may later compete with them. We evaluated multivariate hypotheses about abiotic and biotic factors shaping biological soil crusts (BSCs) in early and late successional stages. We...
Conservation of avian diversity in the Sierra Nevada: moving beyond a single-species management focus
Angela M. White, Elise F. Zipkin, Patricia N. Manley, Matthew D. Schlesinger
2013, PLoS ONE (8)
Background: As a result of past practices, many of the dry coniferous forests of the western United States contain dense, even-aged stands with uncharacteristically high levels of litter and downed woody debris. These changes to the forest have received considerable attention as they elevate concerns regarding the outcome of...
Habitat use and diet composition of juvenile Atlantic salmon in a tributary of Lake Ontario
James H. Johnson
2013, Journal of Great Lakes Research (39) 162-167
The habitat use and diet of juvenile Atlantic salmon Salmo salar was examined in the South Sandy Creek drainage that discharges into eastern Lake Ontario. Subyearling salmon were stocked in early May during two consecutive years, and habitat and diet evaluations were made in mid-July and mid-October in 2005 and...
Heterogeneous rupture in the great Cascadia earthquake of 1700 inferred from coastal subsidence estimates
Pei-Ling Wang, Simon E. Engelhart, Kelin Wang, Andrea D. Hawkes, Benjamin P. Horton, Alan R. Nelson, Robert C. Witter
2013, Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth (118) 2460-2473
Past earthquake rupture models used to explain paleoseismic estimates of coastal subsidence during the great A.D. 1700 Cascadia earthquake have assumed a uniform slip distribution along the megathrust. Here we infer heterogeneous slip for the Cascadia margin in A.D. 1700 that is analogous to slip distributions during instrumentally recorded great...
UNLV’s environmentally friendly Science and Engineering Building is monitored for earthquake shaking
Erol Kalkan, Woody Savage, Shahneam Reza, Eric Knight, Ying Tian
2013, Fact Sheet 2013-3022
The University of Nevada Las Vegas’ (UNLV) Science and Engineering Building is at the cutting edge of environmentally friendly design. As the result of a recent effort by the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Strong Motion Project in cooperation with UNLV, the building is now also in the forefront of buildings...
Mercury in wetlands at the Glacial Ridge National Wildlife Refuge, northwestern Minnesota, 2007-9
Timothy K. Cowdery, Mark E. Brigham
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5068
The Glacial Ridge National Wildlife Refuge was established in 2004 on land in northwestern Minnesota that had previously undergone extensive wetland and prairie restorations. About 7,000 acres of drained wetlands were restored to their original hydrologic function and aquatic ecosystem. During 2007–9, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the...
Documenting the stages and streamflows associated with the 2011 activation of the New Madrid Floodway, Missouri
Todd A. Koenig, Robert R. Holmes Jr.
2013, Professional Paper 1798-E
The U.S. Geological Survey initiated a substantial effort in the summer of 2011 to measure and document the record-setting floods of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, including the reach in and near the New Madrid Floodway. The activation of the floodway, which had not occurred since 1937, provided a rare...
Landscape consequences of natural gas extraction in Fayette and Lycoming Counties, Pennsylvania, 2004–2010
E.T. Slonecker, L.E. Milheim, C.M. Roig-Silva, A.R. Malizia, B.H. Gillenwater
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1119
Increased demands for cleaner burning energy, coupled with the relatively recent technological advances in accessing unconventional hydrocarbon-rich geologic formations, have led to an intense effort to find and extract natural gas from various underground sources around the country. One of these sources, the Marcellus Shale, located in the Allegheny Plateau,...
Summary of science, activities, programs, and policies that influence the rangewide conservation of Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus)
D.J. Manier, David J.A. Wood, Z.H. Bowen, R.M. Donovan, M.J. Holloran, L.M. Juliusson, K.S. Mayne, S.J. Oyler-McCance, F.R. Quamen, D.J. Saher, A.J. Titolo
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1098
The Greater Sage-Grouse, has been observed, hunted, and counted for decades. The sagebrush biome, home to the Greater Sage-Grouse, includes sagebrush-steppe and Great Basin sagebrush communities, interspersed with grasslands, salt flats, badlands, mountain ranges, springs, intermittent creeks and washes, and major river systems, and is one of the most widespread...
The timing of scour and fill in a gravel-bedded river measured with buried accelerometers
Andrew S. Gendaszek, Christopher S. Magirl, Christiana R. Czuba, Christopher P. Konrad
2013, Journal of Hydrology (495) 186-196
A device that measures the timing of streambed scour and the duration of sediment mobilization at specific depths of a streambed was developed using data-logging accelerometers placed within the gravel substrate of the Cedar River, Washington, USA. Each accelerometer recorded its orientation every 20 min and remained stable until the...
Grizzly bear predation links the loss of native trout to the demography of migratory elk in Yellowstone
Arthur D. Middleton, Thomas A. Morrison, Jennifer K. Fortin, Charles T. Robbins, Kelly M. Proffitt, P.J. White, Douglas E. McWhirter, Todd M. Koel, Douglas G. Brimeyer, W. Sue Fairbanks, Matthew J. Kauffman
2013, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (280)
The loss of aquatic subsidies such as spawning salmonids is known to threaten a number of terrestrial predators, but the effects on alternative prey species are poorly understood. At the heart of the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem, an invasion of lake trout has driven a dramatic decline of native cutthroat trout...
Animal migration amid shifting patterns of phenology and predation: Lessons from a Yellowstone elk herd
Arthur D. Middleton, Matthew J. Kauffman, Douglas E. McWhirter, John G. Cook, Rachel C. Cook, Abigail A. Nelson, Michael D. Jimenez, Robert W. Klaver
2013, Ecology (94) 1245-1256
Migration is a striking behavioral strategy by which many animals enhance resource acquisition while reducing predation risk. Historically, the demographic benefits of such movements made migration common, but in many taxa the phenomenon is considered globally threatened. Here we describe a long-term decline in the productivity of elk (Cervus...
Variations in surface water-ground water interactions along a headwater mountain stream : comparisons between transient storage and water balance analyses
Adam S. Ward, Robert A. Payn, Michael N. Gooseff, Brian L. McGlynn, Kenneth E. Bencala, Christa A. Kelleher, Steven M. Wondzell, Thorsten Wagener
2013, Water Resources Research (49) 3359-3374
The accumulation of discharge along a stream valley is frequently assumed to be the primary control on solute transport processes. Relationships of both increasing and decreasing transient storage, and decreased gross losses of stream water have been reported with increasing discharge; however, we have yet to validate these relationships with...
Hydrodynamics of spur and groove formations on a coral reef
Justin S. Rogers, Stephen G. Monismith, Falk Feddersen, Curt D. Storlazzi
2013, Journal of Geophysical Research C: Oceans (118) 3059-3073
Spur and groove (SAG) formations are found on the fore reefs of many coral reefs worldwide. Although these formations are primarily present in wave‐dominated environments, their effect on wave‐driven hydrodynamics is not well understood. A two‐dimensional, depth‐averaged, phase‐resolving nonlinear Boussinesq model (funwaveC) was used to model hydrodynamics...
The influence of vegetation on the hydrodynamics and geomorphology of a tree island in Everglades National Park (Florida, United States)
Pamela L. Sullivan, Victor C. Engel, Michael S. Ross, Rene M. Price
2013, Ecohydrology (7) 727-744
Transpiration-driven nutrient accumulation has been identified as a potential mechanism governing the creation and maintenance of wetland vegetation patterning. This process may contribute to the formation of nutrient-rich tree islands within the expansive oligotrophic marshes of the Everglades (Florida, United States). This study presents hydrogeochemical data indicating that tree root...
Hydrologic controls on the transport and cycling of carbon and nitrogen in a boreal catchment underlain by continuous permafrost
Joshua C. Koch, Robert L. Runkel, Robert G. Striegl, Diane M. McKnight
2013, Journal of Geophysical Research G: Biogeosciences (118) 698-712
Boreal ecosystems represent a large carbon (C) reservoir and a substantial source of greenhouse gases. Hydrologic conditions dictate whether C leached from boreal soils is processed in catchments or flushed to less productive environments via the stream. This study quantified hydrologic and biogeochemical C loss from a boreal catchment underlain...
The influence of sea level rise and changes in fringing reef morphology on gradients in alongshore sediment transport
A. E. Grady, L. J. Moore, Curt D. Storlazzi, E. Elias, M. A. Reidenbach
2013, Geophysical Research Letters (40) 3096-3101
Climate‐change‐induced alterations to coral reef ecosystems, in combination with sea level rise, have the potential to significantly alter wave dissipation across reefs, leading to shifts in alongshore sediment transport gradients and alterations to tropical coastlines. We used Delft3D to model schematized profiles of two reef flat widths based on the...
Macroinvertebrate diets reflect tributary inputs and turbidity-driven changes in food availability in the Colorado River downstream of Glen Canyon Dam
Holly A. Wellard Kelly, Emma J. Rosi-Marshall, Theodore A. Kennedy, Robert O. Hall Jr., Wyatt F. Cross, Colden V. Baxter
2013, Freshwater Science (32) 397-410
Physical changes to rivers associated with large dams (e.g., water temperature) directly alter macroinvertebrate assemblages. Large dams also may indirectly alter these assemblages by changing the food resources available to support macroinvertebrate production. We examined the diets of the 4 most common macroinvertebrate taxa in the Colorado River through Glen...
Estimating wildfire risk on a Mojave Desert landscape using remote sensing and field sampling
Peter F. Van Linn III, Kenneth E. Nussear, Todd C. Esque, Lesley A. DeFalco, Richard D. Inman, Scott R. Abella
2013, International Journal of Wildland Fire (22) 770-779
Predicting wildfires that affect broad landscapes is important for allocating suppression resources and guiding land management. Wildfire prediction in the south-western United States is of specific concern because of the increasing prevalence and severe effects of fire on desert shrublands and the current lack of accurate fire prediction tools. We...
Pyroclastic density currents associated with the 2008-2009 eruption of Chaitén Volcano (Chile): forest disturbances, deposits, and dynamics
Jon J. Major, Thomas C. Pierson, Richard P. Hoblitt, Hugo Moreno
2013, Andean Geology (40) 324-358
Explosive activity at Chaitén Volcano in May 2008 and subsequent dome collapses over the following nine months triggered multiple, small-volume pyroclastic density currents (PDCs). The explosive activity triggered PDCs to the north and northeast, which felled modest patches of forest as far as 2 km from the caldera rim....
Doppler weather radar observations of the 2009 eruption of Redoubt Volcano, Alaska
David J. Schneider, Richard P. Hoblitt
2013, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research (259) 133-144
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) deployed a transportable Doppler C-band radar during the precursory stage of the 2009 eruption of Redoubt Volcano, Alaska that provided valuable information during subsequent explosive events. We describe the capabilities of this new monitoring tool and present data captured during the Redoubt eruption. The MiniMax...
A Unified Flash Flood Database across the United States
Jonathan J. Gourley, Yang Hong, Zachary L. Flamig, Ami Arthur, Robert Clark, Martin Calianno, Isabelle Ruin, Terry W. Ortel, Michael Wieczorek, Pierre-Emmanuel Kirstetter, Edward Clark, Witold F. Krajewski
2013, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (94) 799-805
Despite flash flooding being one of the most deadly and costly weather-related natural hazards worldwide, individual datasets to characterize them in the United States are hampered by limited documentation and can be difficult to access. This study is the first of its kind to assemble, reprocess, describe, and disseminate a...
Global climate change impacts on coastal ecosystems in the Gulf of Mexico: Considerations for integrated coastal management
John W. Day, Alejandro Yáñez-Arancibia, James H. Cowan, Richard H. Day, Robert R. Twilley, John R. Rybczyk
2013, Book chapter, Gulf of Mexico origin, waters, and biota, volume 4: Ecosystem-based management
Global climate change is important in considerations of integrated coastal management in the Gulf of Mexico. This is true for a number of reasons. Climate in the Gulf spans the range from tropical to the lower part of the temperate zone. Thus, as climate warms, the tropical temperate interface, which...
Rejoinder: Challenge and opportunity in the study of ungulate migration amid environmental change
Arthur D. Middleton, Matthew J. Kauffman, Douglas E. McWhirter, John G. Cook, Rachel C. Cook, Abigail A. Nelson, Michael D. Jimenez, Robert W. Klaver
2013, Ecology (94) 1280-1286
Increasingly, animals that migrate long distances to exploit seasonal habitats must traverse political boundaries capable of altering the very ecological gradients that promote migratory behavior. This transboundary aspect of migration presents many new challenges and opportunities for research and conservation (e.g., Bolger et al. 2008, Taillon et al. 2012). Work to...
Use of soil-streamwater relationships to assess regional patterns of acidic deposition effects in the northeastern USA
Jason Siemion, Gregory B. Lawrence, Peter S. Murdoch
2013, Hydrological Processes (28) 3615-3626
Declines of acidic deposition levels by as much as 50% since 1990 have led to partial recovery of surface waters in the northeastern USA but continued depletion of soil calcium through this same period suggests a disconnection between soil and surface water chemistry. To investigate the role of soil-surface water...
