The resilience and functional role of moss in boreal and arctic ecosystems
M. Turetsky, B. Bond-Lamberty, E.S. Euskirchen, J. J. Talbot, S. Frolking, A. D. McGuire, E.S. Tuittila
2012, New Phytologist (196) 49-67
Mosses in northern ecosystems are ubiquitous components of plant communities, and strongly influence nutrient, carbon and water cycling. We use literature review, synthesis and model simulations to explore the role of mosses in ecological stability and resilience. Moss community responses to disturbance showed all possible responses (increases, decreases, no change)...
Chapter two: Phenomenology of tsunamis II: Scaling, event statistics, and inter-event triggering
Eric L. Geist
2012, Advances in Geophysics (53) 35-92
Observations related to tsunami catalogs are reviewed and described in a phenomenological framework. An examination of scaling relationships between earthquake size (as expressed by scalar seismic moment and mean slip) and tsunami size (as expressed by mean and maximum local run-up and maximum far-field amplitude) indicates that scaling is significant...
Bathythermal habitat use by strains of Great Lakes- and Finger Lakes-origin lake trout in Lake Huron after a change in prey fish abundance and composition
Roger A. Bergstedt, Ray L. Argyle, Charles C. Krueger, William W. Taylor
2012, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (141) 263-274
A study conducted in Lake Huron during October 1998–June 2001 found that strains of Great Lakes-origin (GLO) lake trout Salvelinus namaycush occupied significantly higher temperatures than did Finger Lakes-origin (FLO; New York) lake trout based on data from archival (or data storage) telemetry tags that recorded only temperature. During 2002...
Using stable isotopes to test for trophic niche partitioning: a case study with stream salamanders and fish
Adam J. Sepulveda, Winsor H. Lowe, Peter P. Marra
2012, Freshwater Biology (57) 1399-1409
1. Stream salamanders and fish often co-occur even though fish prey on and outcompete salamanders. However, the mechanisms that allow palatable salamanders to coexist with fish are unknown. 2. We tested mechanisms in the field that promote coexistence between Idaho giant salamanders (Dicamptodon aterrimus) and stream salmonid fishes in headwater streams. Previous research...
Fixed recurrence and slip models better predict earthquake behavior than the time- and slip-predictable models 1: repeating earthquakes
Justin L. Rubinstein, William L. Ellsworth, Kate Huihsuan Chen, Naoki Uchida
2012, Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth (117)
The behavior of individual events in repeating earthquake sequences in California, Taiwan and Japan is better predicted by a model with fixed inter-event time or fixed slip than it is by the time- and slip-predictable models for earthquake occurrence. Given that repeating earthquakes are highly regular in both inter-event time...
Fundamental questions of earthquake statistics, source behavior, and the estimation of earthquake probabilities from possible foreshocks
Andrew J. Michael
2012, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (102) 2547-2562
Estimates of the probability that an ML 4.8 earthquake, which occurred near the southern end of the San Andreas fault on 24 March 2009, would be followed by an M 7 mainshock over the following three days vary from 0.0009 using a Gutenberg–Richter model of aftershock statistics (Reasenberg and Jones,...
A perspective on modern pesticides, pelagic fish declines, and unknown ecological resilience in highly managed ecosystems
Nathaniel L. Scholz, Erica Fleishman, Larry Brown, Inge Werner, Michael L. Johnson, Marjorie L. Brooks, Carys L. Mitchelmore, Daniel Schlenk
2012, BioScience (62) 428-434
Pesticides applied on land are commonly transported by runoff or spray drift to aquatic ecosystems, where they are potentially toxic to fishes and other nontarget organisms. Pesticides add to and interact with other stressors of ecosystem processes, including surface-water diversions, losses of spawning and rearing habitats, nonnative species, and harmful...
How to overcome inter-electrode variability and instability to quantify dissolved oxygen, Fe(II), mn(II), and S(−II) in undisturbed soils and sediments using voltammetry
Aaron J. Slowey, Mark Marvin-DiPasquale
2012, Geochemical Transactions (13)
Background - Although uniquely capable of measuring multiple redox constituents nearly simultaneously with no or minimal sample pretreatment, voltammetry is currently underutilized in characterizing redox conditions in aquatic and terrestrial systems. Investigation of undisturbed media such as pore water requires a solid-state electrode, and such electrodes can be difficult to fabricate...
Complementarity of ResourceSat-1 AWiFS and Landsat TM/ETM+ sensors
S.N. Goward, G. Chander, M. Pagnutti, A. Marx, R. Ryan, N. Thomas, R. Tetrault
2012, Remote Sensing of Environment (123) 41-56
Considerable interest has been given to forming an international collaboration to develop a virtual moderate spatial resolution land observation constellation through aggregation of data sets from comparable national observatories such as the US Landsat, the Indian ResourceSat and related systems. This study explores the complementarity of India's ResourceSat-1 Advanced Wide...
Quality of streams in Johnson County, Kansas, 2002--10
Teresa J. Rasmussen, Mandy S. Stone, Barry C. Poulton, Jennifer L. Graham
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5279
Stream quality in Johnson County, northeastern Kansas, was assessed on the basis of land use, hydrology, stream-water and streambed-sediment chemistry, riparian and in-stream habitat, and periphyton and macroinvertebrate community data collected from 22 sites during 2002 through 2010. Stream conditions at the end of the study period are evaluated and...
Exploring the Earth's crust: History and results of controlled-source seismology
Claus Prodehl, Walter D. Mooney
2012, GSA Memoir 208
This volume contains a comprehensive, worldwide history of seismological studies of the Earth’s crust using controlled sources from 1850 to 2005. Essentially all major seismic projects on land and the most important oceanic projects are covered. The time period 1850 to 1939 is presented as a general synthesis, and from...
Evidence of cryptic individual specialization in an opportunistic insectivorous bat
Paul M. Cryan, Craig A. Stricker, Michael B. Wunder
2012, Journal of Mammalogy (93) 381-389
Habitat use and feeding behaviors of cryptic animals are often poorly understood. Analyses of stable isotope ratios in animal body tissues can help reveal an individual's location and resource use during tissue growth. We investigated variation in stable isotope ratios of 4 elements (H, C, N, and S) in the...
Using cluster analysis to organize and explore regional GPS velocities
Robert W. Simpson, Wayne Thatcher, James C. Savage
2012, Geophysical Research Letters (39)
Cluster analysis offers a simple visual exploratory tool for the initial investigation of regional Global Positioning System (GPS) velocity observations, which are providing increasingly precise mappings of actively deforming continental lithosphere. The deformation fields from dense regional GPS networks can often be concisely described in terms of relatively coherent blocks...
Why the 2002 Denali fault rupture propagated onto the Totschunda fault: implications for fault branching and seismic hazards
David P. Schwartz, Peter J. Haeussler, Gordon G. Seitz, Timothy E. Dawson
2012, Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth (117)
The propagation of the rupture of the Mw7.9 Denali fault earthquake from the central Denali fault onto the Totschunda fault has provided a basis for dynamic models of fault branching in which the angle of the regional or local prestress relative to the orientation of the main fault and branch...
Evaluation of carbon fluxes and trends (2000-2008) in the Greater Platte River Basin: a sustainability study on the potential biofuel feedstock development
Yingxin Gu, Bruce K. Wylie, Li Zhang, Tagir G. Gilmanov
2012, Biomass and Bioenergy (47) 145-152
This study evaluates the carbon fluxes and trends and examines the environmental sustainability (e.g., carbon budget, source or sink) of the potential biofuel feedstock sites identified in the Greater Platte River Basin (GPRB). A 9-year (2000–2008) time series of net ecosystem production (NEP), a measure of net carbon absorption or...
A prototype splitter apparatus for dividing large catches of small fish
Martin A. Stapanian, William H. Edwards
2012, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (32) 1033-1038
Due to financial and time constraints, it is often necessary in fisheries studies to divide large samples of fish and estimate total catch from the subsample. The subsampling procedure may involve potential human biases or may be difficult to perform in rough conditions. We present a prototype gravity-fed splitter apparatus...
Enterococci in the environment
Muruleedhara N. Byappanahalli, Meredith B. Nevers, Asja Korajkic, Zachery R. Staley, Valerie J. Harwood
2012, Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews (76) 685-706
Enterococci are common, commensal members of gut communities in mammals and birds, yet they are also opportunistic pathogens that cause millions of human and animal infections annually. Because they are shed in human and animal feces, are readily culturable, and predict human health risks from exposure to polluted recreational waters,...
Monitoring subsurface hydrologic response for precipitation-induced shallow landsliding in the San Francisco Bay area, California, USA
Brian D. Collins, Jonathan D. Stock, Lisa C. Weber, K. Whitman, N. Knepprath
2012, Conference Paper, Landslides and engineered slopes: Protecting society through improved understanding, Proceedings of the 11th International Symposium on Landslides
Intense winter storms in the San Francisco Bay area (SFBA) of California, USA often trigger shallow landslides. Some of these landslides mobilize into potentially hazardous debris flows. A growing body of research indicates that rainfall intensity-duration thresholds are insufficient for accurate prediction of landslide occurrence. In response, we have begun...
High-density polyethylene pipe: A new material for pass-by passive integrated transponder antennas
David C. Kazyak, Joseph D. Zydlewski
2012, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (32) 49-52
Pass-by passive integrated transponder (PIT) antennas are widely used to study the movements of fish in streams. At many sites, stream conditions make it difficult to maintain antennas and obtain a continuous record of movement. We constructed pass-by PIT antennas by using high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and found them to be...
Occupancy rates of primary burrowing crayfish in natural and disturbed large river bottomlands
Zachary J. Loughman, Stuart A. Welsh, Thomas P. Simon
2012, Journal of Crustacean Biology (32) 557-564
Among crayfish, primary burrowing species are the least understood ecologically. Many primary burrowing crayfish inhabit floodplains where forested landscapes have been fragmented by agricultural, industrial, or residential uses. In this study, site occupancy rates (ψ) were modeled for two primary burrowing crayfish, Fallicambarus fodiens (Cottle, 1863) and Cambarus thomai Jezerinac,...
Golden Gate Bridge response: a study with low-amplitude data from three earthquakes
Mehmet Çelebi
2012, Earthquake Spectra (28) 487-510
The dynamic response of the Golden Gate Bridge, located north of San Francisco, CA, has been studied previously using ambient vibration data and finite element models. Since permanent seismic instrumentation was installed in 1993, only small earthquakes that originated at distances varying between ~11 to 122 km have been recorded....
Morphological evidence for discrete stocks of yellow perch in Lake Erie
Patrick M. Kocovsky, Carey T. Knight
2012, Journal of Great Lakes Research (38) 534-539
Identification and management of unique stocks of exploited fish species are high-priority management goals in the Laurentian Great Lakes. We analyzed whole-body morphometrics of 1430 yellow perch Perca flavescens captured during 2007–2009 from seven known spawning areas in Lake Erie to determine if morphometrics vary among sites and management units...
Mapping critical loads of nitrogen deposition for aquatic ecosystems in the Rocky Mountains, USA
Leora Nanus, David W. Clow, Jasmine E. Saros, Verlin C. Stephens, Donald H. Campbell
2012, Environmental Pollution (166) 125-135
Spatially explicit estimates of critical loads of nitrogen (N) deposition (CLNdep) for nutrient enrichment in aquatic ecosystems were developed for the Rocky Mountains, USA, using a geostatistical approach. The lowest CLNdep estimates (−1 yr−1) occurred in high-elevation basins with steep slopes, sparse vegetation, and abundance...
Radiometric calibration of the Landsat MSS sensor series
Dennis L. Helder, Sadhana Karki, Rajendra Bhatt, Esad Micijevik, David Aaron, Benjamin Jasinski
2012, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing (50) 2380-2399
Multispectral remote sensing of the Earth using Landsat sensors was ushered on July 23, 1972, with the launch of Landsat-1. Following that success, four more Landsat satellites were launched, and each of these carried the Multispectral Scanner System (MSS). These five sensors provided the only consistent multispectral space-based imagery of...
High-frequency remote monitoring of large lakes with MODIS 500 m imagery
Ian M. McCullough, Cynthia S. Loftin, Steven A. Sader
2012, Remote Sensing of Environment (124) 234-241
Satellite-based remote monitoring programs of regional lake water quality largely have relied on Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) owing to its long image archive, moderate spatial resolution (30 m), and wide sensitivity in the visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, despite some notable limitations such as temporal resolution (i.e., 16 days), data pre-processing...
