Benchmarking computational fluid dynamics models of lava flow simulation for hazard assessment, forecasting, and risk management
Hannah R. Dietterich, Einat Lev, Jiangzhi Chen, Jacob A. Richardson, Katharine V. Cashman
2017, Journal of Applied Volcanology (6)
Numerical simulations of lava flow emplacement are valuable for assessing lava flow hazards, forecasting active flows, designing flow mitigation measures, interpreting past eruptions, and understanding the controls on lava flow behavior. Existing lava flow models vary in simplifying assumptions, physics, dimensionality, and the degree to which they have been validated...
The morphology of transverse aeolian ridges on Mars
Paul Geissler, Justin T. Wilgus
2017, Aeolian Research (26) 63-71
A preliminary survey of publicly released high resolution digital terrain models (DTMs) produced by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter identified transverse aeolian ridges (TARs) in 154 DTMs in latitudes from 50°S to 40°N. Consistent with previous surveys, the TARs identified in HiRISE DTMs...
Historical patterns of acidification and increasing CO2 flux associated with Florida springs
Kira E. Barrera, Lisa L. Robbins
2017, Limnology and Oceanography (62) 2404-2417
Florida has one of the highest concentrations of springs in the world, with many discharging into rivers and predominantly into eastern Gulf of Mexico coast, and they likely influence the hydrochemistry of these adjacent waters; however, temporal and spatial trends have not been well studied. We present over 20 yr...
Assessing changes in the physico-chemical properties and fluoride adsorption capacity of activated alumina under varied conditions
Laura Craig, Lisa L. Stillings, David L. Decker
2017, Applied Geochemistry (76) 112-123
Adsorption using activated alumina is a simple method for removing fluoride from drinking water, but to be cost effective the adsorption capacity must be high and effective long-term. The intent of this study was to assess changes in its adsorption capacity under varied conditions. This...
Precision and accuracy of age estimates obtained from anal fin spines, dorsal fin spines, and sagittal otoliths for known-age largemouth bass
Zachary B. Klein, Timothy F. Bonvechio, Bryant R. Bowen, Michael C. Quist
2017, Southeastern Naturalist (16) 225-234
Sagittal otoliths are the preferred aging structure for Micropterus spp. (black basses) in North America because of the accurate and precise results produced. Typically, fisheries managers are hesitant to use lethal aging techniques (e.g., otoliths) to age rare species, trophy-size fish, or when sampling in small impoundments where populations are small. Therefore,...
Assessment of frequency and duration of point counts when surveying for golden eagle presence
Ben R. Skipper, Clint W. Boal, Jo-Szu Tsai, Mark R. Fuller
2017, Wildlife Society Bulletin (41) 212-223
We assessed the utility of the recommended golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) survey methodology in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 2013 Eagle Conservation Plan Guidance. We conducted 800-m radius, 1-hr point-count surveys broken into 20-min segments, during 2 sampling periods in 3 areas within the Intermountain West of the United...
Evaluating species-specific changes in hydrologic regimes: an iterative approach for salmonids in the Greater Yellowstone Area (USA)
Robert K. Al-Chokhachy, Adam J. Sepulveda, Andrew M. Ray, David P. Thoma, Michael T. Tercek
2017, Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries (27) 425-441
Despite the importance of hydrologic regimes to the phenology, demography, and abundance of fishes such as salmonids, there have been surprisingly few syntheses that holistically assess regional, species-specific trends in hydrologic regimes within a framework of climate change. Here, we consider hydrologic regimes within the Greater Yellowstone Area in the...
Effects of temperature, total dissolved solids, and total suspended solids on survival and development rate of larval Arkansas River Shiner
Julia S. Mueller, Timothy B. Grabowski, Shannon K. Brewer, Thomas A. Worthington
2017, Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management (8) 79-88
Decreases in the abundance and diversity of stream fishes in the North American Great Plains have been attributed to habitat fragmentation, altered hydrological and temperature regimes, and elevated levels of total dissolved solids and total suspended solids. Pelagic-broadcast spawning cyprinids, such as the Arkansas River Shiner Notropis girardi, may be particularly vulnerable...
Water-level and recoverable water in storage changes, High Plains aquifer, predevelopment to 2015 and 2013–15
Virginia L. McGuire
2017, Scientific Investigations Report 2017-5040
The High Plains aquifer underlies 111.8 million acres (about 175,000 square miles) in parts of eight States—Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming. Water-level declines began in parts of the High Plains aquifer soon after the beginning of substantial irrigation with groundwater in the aquifer area...
Projecting community changes in hazard exposure to support long-term risk reduction: A case study of tsunami hazards in the U.S. Pacific Northwest
Benjamin M. Sleeter, Nathan J. Wood, Christopher E. Soulard, Tamara Wilson
2017, International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction (22) 10-22
Tsunamis have the potential to cause considerable damage to communities along the U.S. Pacific Northwest coastline. As coastal communities expand over time, the potential societal impact of tsunami inundation changes. To understand how community exposure to tsunami hazards may change in coming decades, we projected future development (i.e. urban, residential,...
Mangrove species' responses to winter air temperature extremes in China
Luzhen Chen, Wenqing Wang, Qingshun Q. Li, Yihui Zhang, Shengchang Yang, Michael J. Osland, Jinliang Huang, Congjiao Peng
2017, Ecosphere (8)
The global distribution and diversity of mangrove forests is greatly influenced by the frequency and intensity of winter air temperature extremes. However, our understanding of how different mangrove species respond to winter temperature extremes has been lacking because extreme freezing and chilling events are, by definition, relatively uncommon and also...
A decade of boreal rich fen greenhouse gas fluxes in response to natural and experimental water table variability
David Olefeldt, Eugénie S. Euskirchen, Jennifer W. Harden, Evan S. Kane, A. David McGuire, Mark P. Waldrop, Merritt R. Turetsky
2017, Global Change Biology (23) 2428-2440
Rich fens are common boreal ecosystems with distinct hydrology, biogeochemistry and ecology that influence their carbon (C) balance. We present growing season soil chamber methane emission (FCH4), ecosystem respiration (ER), net ecosystem exchange (NEE) and gross primary production (GPP) fluxes from a 9-years water table manipulation experiment in an Alaskan...
Reflected stochastic differential equation models for constrained animal movement
Ephraim M. Hanks, Devin S. Johnson, Mevin Hooten
2017, Journal of Agricultural, Biological, and Environmental Statistics (22) 353-372
Movement for many animal species is constrained in space by barriers such as rivers, shorelines, or impassable cliffs. We develop an approach for modeling animal movement constrained in space by considering a class of constrained stochastic processes, reflected stochastic differential equations. Our approach generalizes existing methods for modeling unconstrained animal...
Lizard activity and abundance greater in burned habitat of a xeric montane forest
Kevin L. Fouts, Clinton T. Moore, Kristine D. Johnson, John C. Maerz
2017, Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management (8) 181-192
Restoring the natural or historical state of ecosystems is a common objective among resource managers, but determining whether desired system responses to management actions are occurring is often protracted and challenging. For wildlife, the integration of mechanistic habitat modeling with population monitoring may provide expedited measures of management effectiveness and...
Dynamic oceanography determines fine scale foraging behavior of Masked Boobies in the Gulf of Mexico
Caroline L. Poli, Autumn-Lynn Harrison, Adriana Vallarino, Patrick D. Gerard, Patrick G.R. Jodice
2017, PLoS ONE (12)
During breeding, foraging marine birds are under biological, geographic, and temporal constraints. These contraints require foraging birds to efficiently process environmental cues derived from physical habitat features that occur at nested spatial scales. Mesoscale oceanography in particular may change rapidly within and between breeding seasons, and findings from well-studied systems...
The recent warming trend in North Greenland
Anais J. Orsi, Kenji Kawamura, Valerie Masson-Delmotte, Xavier Fettweis, Jason E. Box, Dorthe Dahl-Jensen, Gary D. Clow, Amaelle Landais, Jeffrey P. Severinghaus
2017, Geophysical Research Letters (44) 6235-6243
The Arctic is among the fastest warming regions on Earth, but it is also one with limited spatial coverage of multidecadal instrumental surface air temperature measurements. Consequently, atmospheric reanalyses are relatively unconstrained in this region, resulting in a large spread of estimated 30 year recent warming trends, which limits their use...
Microhabitat selection of the Virginia Northern Flying Squirrel (Glaucomys sabrinus fuscus Miller) in the central Appalachians
Corinne A. Diggins, W. Mark Ford
2017, Northeastern Naturalist (24) 173-190
Glaucomys sabrinus fuscus (Virginia Northern Flying Squirrel; VNFS) is a rare Sciurid that occurrs in the Allegheny Mountains of eastern West Virginia and northwest Virginia. Previous work on this subspecies has confirmed close associations with Picea rubens (Red Spruce) at the landscape and stand levels in the region. However, ongoing Red Spruce restoration...
Reexamining ultrafiltration and solute transport in groundwater
Christopher E. Neuzil, Mark Person
2017, Water Resources Research (53) 4922-4941
Geologic ultrafiltration—slowing of solutes with respect to flowing groundwater—poses a conundrum: it is consistently observed experimentally in clay-rich lithologies, but has been difficult to identify in subsurface data. Resolving this could be important for clarifying clay and shale transport properties at large scales as well as interpreting solute and isotope...
Sources and ages of fine-grained sediment to streams using fallout radionuclides in the Midwestern United States
Allen C. Gellis, Christopher C. Fuller, Peter C. Van Metre
2017, Journal of Environmental Management (194) 73-85
Fallout radionuclides, 7Be and 210Pbex, sampled in bed sediment for 99 watersheds in the Midwestern region of the United States and in 15 samples of suspended sediment from 3 of these watersheds were used to partition upland from channel sources and to estimate the age or the time since the surface-derived portion...
Behavioral responses of Pacific lamprey to alarm cues
Laurie L. Porter, Michael C. Hayes, Aaron D. Jackson, Brian J. Burke, Mary L. Moser, R. Steven Wagner
2017, Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management (8) 101-113
Pacific lamprey (Entosphenus tridentatus), an anadromous ectoparasite, faces several challenges during adult migration to spawning grounds. Developing methods to address these challenges is critical to the success of ongoing conservation efforts. The challenges are diverse, and include anthropogenic alterations to the ecosystem resulting in loss of habitat, impassable barriers such...
Is motivation important to brook trout passage through culverts?
Elsa Goerig, Theodore R. Castro-Santos
2017, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (74) 885-893
Culverts can restrict movement of stream-dwelling fish. Motivation to enter and ascend these structures is an essential precursor for successful passage. However, motivation is challenging to quantify. Here, we use attempt rate to assess motivation of 447 brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) entering three culverts under a range of hydraulic, environmental,...
Analyzing cloud base at local and regional scales to understand tropical montane cloud forest vulnerability to climate change
Ashley E. Van Beusekom, Grizelle Gonzalez, Martha A. Scholl
2017, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (17) 7245-7259
The degree to which cloud immersion provides water in addition to rainfall, suppresses transpiration, and sustains tropical montane cloud forests (TMCFs) during rainless periods is not well understood. Climate and land use changes represent a threat to these forests if cloud base altitude rises as a result of regional warming...
Daily survival rate and habitat characteristics of nests of Wilson's Plover
Elizabeth Zinsser, Felicia J. Sanders, Patrick D. Gerard, Patrick G.R. Jodice
2017, Southeastern Naturalist (16) 149-156
We assessed habitat characteristics and measured daily survival rate of 72 nests of Charadrius wilsonia (Wilson's Plover) during 2012 and 2013 on South Island and Sand Island on the central coast of South Carolina. At both study areas, nest sites were located at slightly higher elevations (i.e., small platforms of...
Uncertainties in forecasting the response of polar bears to global climate change
David C. Douglas, Todd C. Atwood
Andy Butterworth, editor(s)
2017, Book chapter, Marine animal welfare
Several sources of uncertainty affect how precisely the future status of polar bears (Ursus maritimus) can be forecasted. Foremost are unknowns about the future levels of global greenhouse gas emissions, which could range from an unabated increase to an aggressively mitigated reduction. Uncertainties also arise because different climate...
Sediment source fingerprinting as an aid to catchment management: A review of the current state of knowledge and a methodological decision-tree for end-users
A.L Collins, S. Pulley, I.D.L Foster, Allen C. Gellis, P. Porto, A.J. Horowitz
2017, Journal of Environmental Management (194) 86-108
The growing awareness of the environmental significance of fine-grained sediment fluxes through catchment systems continues to underscore the need for reliable information on the principal sources of this material. Source estimates are difficult to obtain using traditional monitoring techniques, but sediment source fingerprinting or tracing procedures, have emerged as a...
