Seasonality of stable isotope composition of atmospheric water input at the southern slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
Insa Otte, Florian Detsch, Adrian Gutlein, Martha A. Scholl, Ralf Kiese, Tim Appelhans, Thomas Nauss
2017, Hydrological Processes (31) 3932-3947
To understand the moisture regime at the southern slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro, we analysed the isotopic variability of oxygen (δ18O) and hydrogen (δD) of rainfall, throughfall, and fog from a total of 2,140 samples collected weekly over 2 years at 9 study sites along an elevation transect ranging from 950 to...
Accounting for orphaned aftershocks in the earthquake background rate
Nicholas van der Elst
2017, Geophysical Journal International (211) 1108-1118
Aftershocks often occur within cascades of triggered seismicity in which each generation of aftershocks triggers an additional generation, and so on. The rate of earthquakes in any particular generation follows Omori's law, going approximately as 1/t. This function decays rapidly, but is heavy-tailed, and aftershock sequences may persist for long...
Using paired in situ high frequency nitrate measurements to better understand controls on nitrate concentrations and estimate nitrification rates in a wastewater-impacted river
Tamara E. C. Kraus, Katy O’Donnell, Bryan D. Downing, Jon R. Burau, Brian A. Bergamaschi
2017, Water Resources Research (53) 8423-8442
We used paired continuous nitrate ( ) measurements along a tidally affected river receiving wastewater discharge rich in ammonium ( ) to quantify rates of change in <img class="inlineGraphic" src="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/store/10.1002/2017WR020670/asset/equation/wrcr22895-math-0003.png?v=1&s=edd1801396530467a9c1886f4d85f881efc4aa35" alt="math...
Interannual variation in methane emissions from tropical wetlands triggered by repeated El Niño Southern Oscillation
Qiuan Zhu, Changhui Peng, Philippe Ciais, Hong Jiang, Jinxun Liu, Philippe Bousquet, Shiqin Li, Jie Chang, Xiuqin Fang, Xiaolu Zhou, Huai Chen, Shirong Liu, Guanghui Lin, Peng Gong, Meng Wang, Han Wang, Wenhua Xiang, Jing Chen
2017, Global Change Biology (23) 4706-4716
Methane (CH4) emissions from tropical wetlands contribute 60%–80% of global natural wetland CH4 emissions. Decreased wetland CH4 emissions can act as a negative feedback mechanism for future climate warming and vice versa. The impact of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) on CH4 emissions from wetlands remains poorly quantified at both...
A newly identified role of the deciduous forest floor in the timing of green‐up
Andrei G Lapenis, Gregory B. Lawrence, Alexander Buyantuev, Shiguo Jiang, Timothy J. Sullivan, Todd C. McDonnell, Scott W. Bailey
2017, JGR: Biogeosciences (122) 2876-2891
Plant phenology studies rarely consider controlling factors other than air temperature. We evaluate here the potential significance of physical and chemical properties of soil (edaphic factors) as additional important controls on phenology. More specifically, we investigate causal connections between satellite‐observed green‐up dates of small forest watersheds and soil properties in...
The Volcano Disaster Assistance Program—Helping to save lives worldwide for more than 30 years
Jacob B. Lowenstern, David W. Ramsey
2017, Fact Sheet 2017-3071
What do you do when a sleeping volcano roars back to life? For more than three decades, countries around the world have called upon the U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) Volcano Disaster Assistance Program (VDAP) to contribute expertise and equipment in times of crisis. Co-funded by the USGS and the...
Simulation of groundwater and surface-water flow in the upper Deschutes Basin, Oregon
Marshall W. Gannett, Kenneth E. Lite Jr., John C. Risley, Esther M. Pischel, Jonathan L. La Marche
2017, Scientific Investigations Report 2017-5097
This report describes a hydrologic model for the upper Deschutes Basin in central Oregon developed using the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) integrated Groundwater and Surface-Water Flow model (GSFLOW). The upper Deschutes Basin, which drains much of the eastern side of the Cascade Range in Oregon, is underlain by large...
Southern Great Plains Rapid Ecoregional assessment—Volume I. Ecological communities
Gordon C. Reese, Lucy Burris, Natasha B. Carr, Ian I.F. Leinwand, Cynthia P. Melcher
2017, Open-File Report 2017-1100
The Southern Great Plains Rapid Ecoregional Assessment was conducted in partnership with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Great Plains Landscape Conservation Cooperative. The overall goal of the Rapid Ecoregional Assessments (REAs) is to compile and synthesize regional datasets to facilitate evaluation of the cumulative effects of change agents...
A comparison of four porewater sampling methods for metal mixtures and dissolved organic carbon and the implications for sediment toxicity evaluations
Danielle M. Cleveland, William G. Brumbaugh, Donald D. MacDonald
2017, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (36) 2906-2915
Evaluations of sediment quality conditions are commonly conducted using whole-sediment chemistry analyses but can be enhanced by evaluating multiple lines of evidence, including measures of the bioavailable forms of contaminants. In particular, porewater chemistry data provide information that is directly relevant for interpreting sediment toxicity data. Various methods for sampling...
New interventions are needed to save coral reefs
Ken Anthony, Line K. Bay, Robert Costanza, Jennifer Firn, John Gunn, Peter Harrison, Andrew Heyward, Petra Lundgren, David Mead, Tom Moore, Peter J. Mumby, Madeleine J. H. van Oppen, John Robertson, Michael C. Runge, David J. Suggett, Britta Schaffelke, David Wachenfeld, Terry Walshe
2017, Nature Ecology & Evolution (1) 1420-1422
Since 2014, coral reefs worldwide have been subjected to the most extensive, prolonged and damaging heat wave in recorded history1. Large sections of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef (GBR) bleached in response to heat stress in 2016 and 2017 — the first back-to-back event on record. Such severe coral bleaching results...
Endemic chronic wasting disease causes mule deer population decline in Wyoming
Melia DeVivo, David R. Edmunds, Matthew J. Kauffman, Brant A. Schumaker, Justin Binfet, Terry J. Kreeger, Bryan J. Richards, Hermann M. Schatzl, Todd Cornish
2017, PLoS ONE (12)
Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a fatal transmissible spongiform encephalopathy affecting white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), Rocky Mountain elk (Cervus elaphus nelsoni), and moose (Alces alces shirasi) in North America. In southeastern Wyoming average annual CWD prevalence in mule deer exceeds 20% and appears to contribute to regional...
Seismic velocity site characterization of 10 Arizona strong-motion recording stations by spectral analysis of surface wave dispersion
Robert E. Kayen, Brad A. Carkin, Skye C. Corbett
2017, Open-File Report 2016-1208
Vertical one-dimensional shear wave velocity (VS) profiles are presented for strong-motion sites in Arizona for a suite of stations surrounding the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station. The purpose of the study is to determine the detailed site velocity profile, the average velocity in the upper 30 meters of the profile...
Quantifying long-term population growth rates of threatened bull trout: challenges, lessons learned, and opportunities
Phaedra E. Budy, Tracy Bowerman, Robert K. Al-Chokhachy, Mary Conner, Howard Schaller
2017, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (74) 2131-2143
Temporal symmetry models (TSM) represent advances in the analytical application of mark–recapture data to population status assessments. For a population of char, we employed 10 years of active and passive mark–recapture data to quantify population growth rates using different data sources and analytical approaches. Estimates of adult population growth rate...
At the forefront: evidence of the applicability of using environmental DNA to quantify the abundance of fish populations in natural lentic waters with additional sampling considerations
Stephen L. Klobucar, Torrey W. Rodgers, Phaedra E. Budy
2017, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (74) 2030-2034
Environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling has proven to be a valuable tool for detecting species in aquatic ecosystems. Within this rapidly evolving field, a promising application is the ability to obtain quantitative estimates of relative species abundance based on eDNA concentration rather than traditionally labor-intensive methods. We investigated the relationship between...
Health and condition of endangered young-of-the-year Lost River and Shortnose suckers relative to water quality in Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon, 2014–2015
Summer M. Burdick, Carla M. Conway, Diane G. Elliott, Marshal S. Hoy, Amari Dolan-Caret, Carl O. Ostberg
2017, Open-File Report 2017-1134
Most mortality of endangered Lost River (Deltistes luxatus) and shortnose (Chasmistes brevirostris) suckers in Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon, occurs within the first year of life. Juvenile suckers in Clear Lake Reservoir, California, survive longer and may even recruit to the spawning populations. In a previous (2013–2014) study, the health and...
Design and methods of the Midwest Stream Quality Assessment (MSQA), 2013
Jessica D. Garrett, Jeffrey W. Frey, Peter C. Van Metre, Celeste A. Journey, Naomi Nakagaki, Daniel T. Button, Lisa H. Nowell
2017, Open-File Report 2017-1073
During 2013, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water-Quality Assessment Project (NAWQA), in collaboration with the USGS Columbia Environmental Research Center, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) National Rivers and Streams Assessment (NRSA), and the EPA Office of Pesticide Programs assessed stream quality across the Midwestern United States. This Midwest...
HIF evaluation of In-Situ Aqua TROLL 400
Evan F. Tillman
2017, Open-File Report 2017-1086
The In-Situ Aqua TROLL 400 (Aqua TROLL 400) was tested at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Hydrologic Instrumentation Facility (HIF) against known standards over the Aqua TROLL 400’s operating temperature to verify the manufacturer’s stated accuracy specifications and the USGS recommendations for pH, dissolved oxygen (DO), and specific conductance (SC)....
Epicormic resprouting in fire-prone ecosystems
Juli G. Pausas, Jon E. Keeley
2017, Trends in Plant Science (22) 1008-1015
Many plants resprout from basal buds after disturbance, and this is common in shrublands subjected to high-intensity fires. However, resprouting after fire from epicormic (stem) buds is globally far less common. Unlike basal resprouting, post-fire epicormic resprouting is a key plant adaptation for retention of the arborescent skeleton after fire,...
Ephemeral seafloor sedimentation during dam removal: Elwha River, Washington
Melissa M. Foley, Jonathan A. Warrick
2017, Continental Shelf Research (150) 36-47
The removal of the Elwha and Glines Canyon dams from the Elwha River in Washington, USA, resulted in the erosion and transport of over 10 million m3 of sediment from the former reservoirs and into the river during the first two years of the dam removal process. Approximately 90% of this...
Phylogenetic distribution of a male pheromone that may exploit a nonsexual preference in lampreys
Tyler J. Buchinger, Ugo Bussy, Ke Li, Huiyong Wang, Mar Huertas, Cindy F. Baker, Liang Jia, Michael C. Hayes, Weiming Li, Nicholas S. Johnson
2017, Journal of Evolutionary Biology (30) 2244-2254
Pheromones are among the most important sexual signals used by organisms throughout the animal kingdom. However, few are identified in vertebrates, leaving the evolutionary mechanisms underlying vertebrate pheromones poorly understood. Pre-existing biases in receivers’ perceptual systems shape visual and auditory signaling systems, but studies on how receiver biases influence the...
U.S. Geological Survey experience with the residual absolutes method
E. William Worthington, Jurgen Matzka
2017, Geoscientific Instrumentation, Methods and Data Systems (6) 419-427
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Geomagnetism Program has developed and tested the residual method of absolutes, with the assistance of the Danish Technical University's (DTU) Geomagnetism Program. Three years of testing were performed at College Magnetic Observatory (CMO), Fairbanks, Alaska, to compare the residual method with the null method. Results show that the two...
Proceedings of the 11th United States-Japan natural resources panel for earthquake research, Napa Valley, California, November 16–18, 2016
Shane Detweiler, Frederick Pollitz, editor(s)
2017, Open-File Report 2017-1133
The UJNR Panel on Earthquake Research promotes advanced research toward a more fundamental understanding of the earthquake process and hazard estimation. The Eleventh Joint meeting was extremely beneficial in furthering cooperation and deepening understanding of problems common to both Japan and the United States.The meeting included productive exchanges of information...
Recurrent Holocene movement on the Susitna Glacier Thrust Fault: The structure that initiated the Mw 7.9 Denali Fault earthquake, central Alaska
Stephen Personius, Anthony J. Crone, Patricia A. Burns, Nadine G. Reitman
2017, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (107) 1593-1609
We conducted a trench investigation and analyzed pre‐ and postearthquake topography to determine the timing and size of prehistoric surface ruptures on the Susitna Glacier fault (SGF), the thrust fault that initiated the 2002 Mw 7.9 Denali fault earthquake sequence in central Alaska. In two of our three hand‐excavated trenches, we found...
Linking functional response and bioenergetics to estimate juvenile salmon growth in a reservoir food web
Craig A. Haskell, David A. Beauchamp, Stephen M. Bollens
2017, PLoS ONE (10) 1-21
Juvenile salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) use of reservoir food webs is understudied. We examined the feeding behavior of subyearling Chinook salmon (O. tshawytscha) and its relation to growth by estimating the functional response of juvenile salmon to changes in the density of Daphnia, an important component of reservoir food webs. We then estimated salmon...
Oxygen stable isotopic disparities among sympatric small land snail species from northwest Minnesota, USA
Yurena Yanes, Jeffrey C. Nekola, Jason A. Rech, Jeffery S. Pigati
2017, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology (485) 715-722
The oxygen isotopic composition (δ18O) of land snail shells can be a valuable paleoenvironmental archive if the climatic parameters that influence the isotopic system are fully understood. Previous calibration studies have examined a limited number of species or individuals, and most have focused on larger (> 10 mm) taxa, which do not...
