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Stream restoration has received much attention in recent years, yet there has been little effort to evaluate its impacts on physical habitat, stability, and biota. A popular but controversial stream restoration approach is natural channel design (NCD), which cannot be adequately evaluated without a long-term, independent assessment of its effects...

Carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO), and mercury (Hg) emissions were quantified for two eastern Kentucky coal-seam fires, the Truman Shepherd fire in Floyd County and the Ruth Mullins fire in Perry County. This study is one of the first to estimate gas emissions from coal fires using field measurements...

Whereas the primary intent of this document is to provide the science assessment called for under The Saltcedar and Russian Olive Control Demonstration Act (“the Act”), a secondary purpose is to provide a common background for applicants to develop prospective demonstration projects. Conducting demonstration projects is a second phase of...

Mercury (Hg) contamination is widespread in remote areas of the northeastern United States. Forested uplands have accumulated a large reservoir of Hg in soil from decades of elevated anthropogenic deposition that can be released episodically to stream water during high flows. The objective of this study was to evaluate spatial...

Rationales for controlling or eliminating saltcedar and Russian olive from sites, river reaches, or entire streams include implicit or explicit assumptions that natural recovery or applied restoration of native plant communities will follow exotic plant removal (McDaniel and Taylor, 2003; Quimby and others, 2003). The vegetation that replaces saltcedar and...

Climate warming and permafrost degradation at high latitudes will likely impact watershed hydrology, and consequently, alter the concentration and character of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in northern rivers. We examined seasonal variation of DOC chemistry in 16 streams of the Yukon River basin, Alaska. Our primary objective was to evaluate...

Riparian areas of flood plains typically provide a mosaic of productive habitats (Stanford and others, 2005; Latterell and others, 2006) capable of supporting many wildlife species, particularly in the arid and semiarid Western United States. The establishment of nonnative invasive plants can alter riparian habitat by inhibiting native plant recruitment...

This chapter discusses the components of the water budget for a riparian system containing large stands of saltcedar or Russian olive—that is, how water is used by the plant community and how that use affects both streamflow volume and groundwater levels. The relation of water availability to the hydrologic cycle...

We documented changes in plasma levels of estradiol 17-β (E2), progesterone (P), 15α-hydroxytestosterone (15α-T), thyroxine (T4), triiodothyronine (T3), protein, triglycerides (TGs), and glucose in adult Pacific lampreys (Entosphenus tridentatus) held in the laboratory in two different years. Levels of E2 in both sexes ranged from 0.5 to 2 ng/mL from September...

Fifty-six seasonal snowpack samples were collected at remote alpine, subarctic, and arctic sites in eight Western U.S. national parks during three consecutive years (2003−2005). Four current-use pesticides (CUPs) (dacthal (DCPA), chlorpyrifos, endosulfans, and γ-hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH)) and four historic-use pesticides (HUPs) (dieldrin, α-HCH, chlordanes, and hexachlorobenzene (HCB)) were commonly measured at...

Once commonly used in coal and wood-burning stoves, U.S. production of mica has all but ceased....

Drought- and insect-associated tree mortality at low-elevation ecotones is a widespread phenomenon but the underlying mechanisms are uncertain. Enhanced growth sensitivity to climate is widely observed among trees that die, indicating that a predisposing physiological mechanism(s) underlies tree mortality. We tested three, linked hypotheses regarding mortality using a ponderosa pine...

A three-phased study identified one least-impaired (reference) lake for each of four Arkansas lake classifications: three classifications in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain (MAP) ecoregion and a fourth classification in the South Central Plains (SCP) ecoregion. Water quality at three of the least-impaired lakes generally was comparable and also was comparable...

Evaluating the effectiveness of stream restoration is often challenging because of the lack of pre-treatment data, narrow focus on physicochemical measures and insufficient post-restoration monitoring. Even when these fundamental elements are present, quantifying restoration success is difficult because of the challenges associated with distinguishing treatment effects from seasonal variation, episodic...

Recent research has shown that small, mountainous river systems (SMRS) account for a significant fraction of the global flux of sediment and particulate organic carbon (POC) to the ocean. The enormous number of SMRS precludes intensive studies of the sort conducted on large systems, necessitating development of a conceptual framework...

Growing awareness of environmental degradation resulted in stricter environmental regulations and laws for aquatic ecosystems. These regulations were followed by an increase in applied research and monitoring beginning in the early 1970s. The number of applied scientists who were members of the North American Benthological Society grew at a commensurate...

Mineral deposits with large inventories or high grades of silver are found in four genetic groups: (1) volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS), (2) sedimentary exhalative (SEDEX), (3) lithogene, and, (4) magmatichydrothermal. Principal differences between the four groups relate to source rocks and regions, metal associations, process and timing of mineralization, and...

Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis is a fungal pathogen that is receiving attention around the world for its role in amphibian declines. Study of its occurrence patterns is hampered by false negatives: the failure to detect the pathogen when it is present. Occupancy models are a useful but currently underutilized tool for analyzing...

A comprehensive, consistently interpreted new catalog of felt intensities for India (Martin and Szeliga, 2010, this issue) includes intensities for 570 earthquakes; instrumental magnitudes and locations are available for 100 of these events. We use the intensity values for 29 of the instrumentally recorded events to develop new intensity versus...

Thermal maturation patterns of Pennsylvanian strata in the Appalachian basin were determined by compiling and contouring published and unpublished vitrinite reflectance (VR) measurements. VR isograd values range from 0.6% in eastern Ohio and eastern Kentucky (western side of the East Kentucky coal field) to greater than 5.5% in eastern Pennsylvania (Southern Anthracite field,...

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The effects of continued global warming on water resources are a concern for water managers and stake holders. In the western United States, where the combined climatic demand and consumptive use of water is equal to or greater than the natural supply of water for some locations, there is growing...

We used radiotelemetry to evaluate at-sea habitat use by Cassin's Auklets (Ptychoramphus aleuticus) that bred at Prince Island, off southern California, from 1999 through 2001. We used logistic regression to compare paired radiotelemetry (presence) with random (pseudo-absence) location-associated habitat variables derived from (1) satellite remote-sensing of sea surface temperature and...

DNA-based mark-recapture has become a methodological cornerstone of research focused on bear species. The objective of such studies is often to estimate population size; however, doing so is frequently complicated by movement of individual bears. Movement affects the probability of detection and the assumption of closure of the population required...