Implementation and modification of a three-dimensional radiation stress formulation for surf zone and rip-current applications
N. Kumar, G. Voulgaris, John C. Warner
2011, Coastal Engineering (58) 1097-1117
Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS v 3.0), a three-dimensional numerical ocean model, was previously enhanced for shallow water applications by including wave-induced radiation stress forcing provided through coupling to wave propagation models (SWAN, REF/DIF). This enhancement made it suitable for surf zone applications as demonstrated using examples of obliquely incident...
An inexpensive instrument for measuring wave exposure and water velocity
J.D. Figurski, D. Malone, J.R. Lacy, M. Denny
2011, Limnology and Oceanography: Methods (9) 204-214
Ocean waves drive a wide variety of nearshore physical processes, structuring entire ecosystems through their direct and indirect effects on the settlement, behavior, and survivorship of marine organisms. However, wave exposure remains difficult and expensive to measure. Here, we report on an inexpensive and easily constructed instrument for measuring wave-induced...
Loss of volatile hydrocarbons from an LNAPL oil source
Mary Jo Baedecker, Robert P. Eganhouse, Barbara A. Bekins, Geoffrey N. Delin
2011, Journal of Contaminant Hydrology (126) 140-152
The light nonaqueous phase liquid (LNAPL) oil pool in an aquifer that resulted from a pipeline spill near Bemidji, Minnesota, was analyzed for volatile hydrocarbons (VHCs) to determine if the composition of the oil remains constant over time. Oil samples were obtained from wells at five locations in the oil...
Using multi-source satellite data for lake level modelling in ungauged basins: A case study for Lake Turkana, East Africa
N.M. Velpuri, G.B. Senay, K.O. Asante
2011, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Discussions (8) 4851-4890
Managing limited surface water resources is a great challenge in areas where ground-based data are either limited or unavailable. Direct or indirect measurements of surface water resources through remote sensing offer several advantages of monitoring in ungauged basins. A physical based hydrologic technique to monitor lake water levels in ungauged...
Native and exotic plants of fragments of sagebrush steppe produced by geomorphic processes versus land use
N. Huntly, R. Bangert, S.E. Hanser
2011, Plant Ecology (212) 1549-1561
Habitat fragmentation and invasion by exotic species are regarded as major threats to the biodiversity of many ecosystems. We surveyed the plant communities of two types of remnant sagebrush-steppe fragments from nearby areas on the Snake River Plain of southeastern Idaho, USA. One type resulted from land use (conversion to...
Monitoring direct and indirect climate effects on whitebark pine ecosystems at Crater Lake National park
S.B. Smith, D.C. Odion, D.A. Sarr, K.M. Irvine
2011, Park Science (28)
Whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) is the distinctive, often stunted, and picturesque tree line species in the American West. As a result of climate change, mountain pine beetles (Dendroctonus ponderosae) have moved up in elevation, adding to nonnative blister rust (Cronartium ribicola) disease as a major cause of mortality in whitebark...
Sexing young snowy owls
Mathew T. Seidensticker, Denver W. Holt, Jennifer Detienne, Sandra L. Talbot, Kathy Gray
2011, Journal of Raptor Research (45) 281-289
We predicted sex of 140 Snowy Owl (Bubo scandiacus) nestlings out of 34 nests at our Barrow, Alaska, study area to develop a technique for sexing these owls in the field. We primarily sexed young, flightless owls (3844 d old) by quantifying plumage markings on the remiges and tail, predicting...
Incorporating biodiversity into rangeland health: Plant species richness and diversity in great plains grasslands
Amy J. Symstad, Jayne L. Jonas
2011, Rangeland Ecology and Management (64) 555-572
Indicators of rangeland health generally do not include a measure of biodiversity. Increasing attention to maintaining biodiversity in rangelands suggests that this omission should be reconsidered, and plant species richness and diversity are two metrics that may be useful and appropriate. Ideally, their response to a variety of anthropogenic and...
Kin encounter rate and inbreeding avoidance in canids
E. Geffen, M. Kam, R. Hefner, P. Hersteinsson, A. Angerbjorn, L. Dalen, E. Fuglei, K. Noren, J.R. Adams, J. Vucetich, T.J. Meier, L.D. Mech, B.M. Vonholdt, D.R. Stahler, R.K. Wayne
2011, Molecular Ecology (20) 5348-5358
Mating with close kin can lead to inbreeding depression through the expression of recessive deleterious alleles and loss of heterozygosity. Mate selection may be affected by kin encounter rate, and inbreeding avoidance may not be uniform but associated with age and social system. Specifically, selection for kin recognition and inbreeding...
Unique geologic insights from "non-unique" gravity and magnetic interpretation
R. W. Saltus, R.J. Blakely
2011, GSA Today (21) 4-11
Interpretation of gravity and magnetic anomalies is mathematically non-unique because multiple theoretical solutions are always possible. The rigorous mathematical label of "nonuniqueness" can lead to the erroneous impression that no single interpretation is better in a geologic sense than any other. The purpose of this article is to present a...
U.S. DOE methodology for the development of geologic storage potential for carbon dioxide at the national and regional scale
Angela Goodman, J. Alexandra Hakala, Grant Bromhal, Dawn Deel, Traci Rodosta, Scott Frailey, Michael Small, Doug Allen, Vyacheslav Romanov, Jim Fazio, Nicolas Huerta, Dustin McIntyre, Barbara Kutchko, George Guthrie
2011, International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control (5) 952-965
A detailed description of the United States Department of Energy (US-DOE) methodology for estimating CO2 storage potential for oil and gas reservoirs, saline formations, and unmineable coal seams is provided. The oil and gas reservoirs are assessed at the field level, while saline formations and unmineable coal seams are assessed...
Evidence for the contemporary magmatic system beneath Long Valley Caldera from local earthquake tomography and receiver function analysis
D. Seccia, C. Chiarabba, P. De Gori, I. Bianchi, D.P. Hill
2011, Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth (116)
We present a new P wave and S wave velocity model for the upper crust beneath Long Valley Caldera obtained using local earthquake tomography and receiver function analysis. We computed the tomographic model using both a graded inversion scheme and a traditional approach. We complement the tomographic I/P model with...
Foaling rates in feral horses treated with the immunocontraceptive porcine zona pellucida
J.I. Ransom, J. E. Roelle, B.S. Cade, L. Coates-Markle, A.J. Kane
2011, Wildlife Society Bulletin (35) 343-352
Locally abundant feral horses (Equus caballus) can rapidly deplete available resources. Fertility control agents present promising nonlethal tools for reducing their population growth rates. We tested the effect of 2 forms of the immunocontraceptive porcine zona pellucida (PZP) on foaling rates in 3 populations of feral horses in the western...
Nocturnal aerosol optical depth measurements with a small-aperture automated photometer using the moon as a light source
T.A. Berkoff, M. Sorokin, T. Stone, T.F. Eck, R. Hoff, E. Welton, B. Holben
2011, Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology (28) 1297-1306
A method is described that enables the use of lunar irradiance to obtain nighttime aerosol optical depth (AOD) measurements using a small-aperture photometer. In this approach, the U.S. Geological Survey lunar calibration system was utilized to provide high-precision lunar exoatmospheric spectral irradiance predictions for a ground-based sensor location, and when...
Migration delays caused by anthropogenic barriers: Modeling dams, temperature, and success of migrating salmon smolts
E.A. Marschall, M. E. Mather, D.L. Parrish, G.W. Allison, J.R. McMenemy
2011, Ecological Applications (21) 3014-3031
Disruption to migration is a growing problem for conservation and restoration of animal populations. Anthropogenic barriers along migration paths can delay or prolong migrations, which may result in a mismatch with migration-timing adaptations. To understand the interaction of dams (as barriers along a migration path), seasonally changing environmental conditions, timing...
Inversion of ground-motion data from a seismometer array for rotation using a modification of Jaeger's method
Wu-Cheng Chi, W.H.K. Lee, J.A.D. Aston, C.J. Lin, C.-C. Liu
2011, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (101) 3105-3109
We develop a new way to invert 2D translational waveforms using Jaeger's (1969) formula to derive rotational ground motions about one axis and estimate the errors in them using techniques from statistical multivariate analysis. This procedure can be used to derive rotational ground motions and strains using arrayed translational data,...
Seasonal timing of first rain storms affects rare plant population dynamics
J.M. Levine, A. K. McEachern, C. Cowan
2011, Ecology (92) 2236-2247
A major challenge in forecasting the ecological consequences of climate change is understanding the relative importance of changes to mean conditions vs. changes to discrete climatic events, such as storms, frosts, or droughts. Here we show that the first major storm of the growing season strongly influences the population dynamics...
A heuristic simulation model of Lake Ontario circulation and mass balance transport
J.E. McKenna Jr., M.A. Chalupnicki
2011, Journal of Freshwater Ecology (26) 123-132
The redistribution of suspended organisms and materials by large-scale currents is part of natural ecological processes in large aquatic systems but can contribute to ecosystem disruption when exotic elements are introduced into the system. Toxic compounds and planktonic organisms spend various lengths of time in suspension before settling to the...
Microtopography enhances nitrogen cycling and removal in created mitigation wetlands
K.L. Wolf, C. Ahn, G.B. Noe
2011, Ecological Engineering (37) 1398-1406
Natural wetlands often have a heterogeneous soil surface topography, or microtopography (MT), that creates microsites of variable hydrology, vegetation, and soil biogeochemistry. Created mitigation wetlands are designed to mimic natural wetlands in structure and function, and recent mitigation projects have incorporated MT as one way to attain this goal. Microtopography...
Effects of reduction in porosity and permeability with depth on storage capacity and injectivity in deep saline aquifers: A case study from the Mount Simon Sandstone aquifer
C.R. Medina, J.A. Rupp, D.A. Barnes
2011, International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control (5) 146-156
The Upper Cambrian Mount Simon Sandstone is recognized as a deep saline reservoir that has significant potential for geological sequestration in the Midwestern region of the United States. Porosity and permeability values collected from core analyses in rocks from this formation and its lateral equivalents in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, and...
Evaluation of the Global Multi-Resolution Terrain Elevation Data 2010 (GMTED2010) using ICESat geodetic control
C.C. Carabajal, D.J. Harding, J.-P. Boy, Jeffrey J. Danielson, D.B. Gesch, V.P. Suchdeo
2011, Conference Paper, Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering
Supported by NASA's Earth Surface and Interior (ESI) Program, we are producing a global set of Ground Control Points (GCPs) derived from the Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) altimetry data. From February of 2003, to October of 2009, ICESat obtained nearly global measurements of land topography (+/- 86deg...
Tourmaline as a recorder of ore-forming processes
John F. Slack, Robert B. Trumbull
2011, Elements (7) 321-326
Tourmaline occurs in diverse types of hydrothermal mineral deposits and can be used to constrain the nature and evolution of ore-forming fl uids. Because of its broad range in composition and retention of chemical and isotopic signatures, tourmaline may be the only robust recorder of original mineralizing processes in some...
The effect of structural complexity, prey density, and "predator-free space" on prey survivorship at created oyster reef mesocosms
Austin T. Humphries, Megan La Peyre, Gary A. Decossas
2011, PLoS ONE (6)
Interactions between predators and their prey are influenced by the habitat they occupy. Using created oyster (Crassostrea virginica) reef mesocosms, we conducted a series of laboratory experiments that created structure and manipulated complexity as well as prey density and “predator-free space” to examine the relationship between structural complexity and prey...
Pseudospectral modeling and dispersion analysis of Rayleigh waves in viscoelastic media
K. Zhang, Y. Luo, J. Xia, C. Chen
2011, Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering (31) 1332-1337
Multichannel Analysis of Surface Waves (MASW) is one of the most widely used techniques in environmental and engineering geophysics to determine shear-wave velocities and dynamic properties, which is based on the elastic layered system theory. Wave propagation in the Earth, however, has been recognized as viscoelastic and the propagation of...
Survey of stranded gas and delivered costs to Europe of selected gas resources
Emil D. Attanasi, Philip A. Freeman
2011, Conference Paper
Two important trends affecting the expected growth of global gas markets are (1) the shift by many industrialized countries from coal-fired electricity generation to the use of natural gas to generate electricity and (2) the industrialization of the heavily populated Asian countries of India and China. This paper surveys discovered...
