Improved vertical streambed flux estimation using multiple diurnal temperature methods in series
Dylan J. Irvine, Martin A. Briggs, Ian Cartwright, Courtney R. Scruggs, Laura K. Lautz
2017, Groundwater (55) 73-80
Analytical solutions that use diurnal temperature signals to estimate vertical fluxes between groundwater and surface water based on either amplitude ratios (Ar) or phase shifts (Δϕ) produce results that rarely agree. Analytical solutions that simultaneously utilize Ar and Δϕ within a single solution have more recently been derived, decreasing uncertainty...
Fisheries research and monitoring activities of the Lake Erie Biological Station, 2016
Betsy L. Bodamer Scarbro, Richard T. Kraus, Patrick Kocovsky, Christopher Vandergoot
2017, Report
<span data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"We conducted a biomass-based assessment of the Lake Erie Western Basin fish community using data collected from 2013-2016 Western Basin (spring and autumn) bottom trawl surveys. Biomass of total catch per hectare has decreased 75 percent since 2013. Declines were observed across all functional groups, but most notable was...
Large decadal-scale changes in uranium and bicarbonate in groundwater of the irrigated western U.S
Karen R. Burow, Kenneth Belitz, Neil M. Dubrovsky, Bryant C. Jurgens
2017, Science of the Total Environment (586) 87-95
Samples collected about one decade apart from 1105 wells from across the U.S. were compiled to assess whether uranium concentrations in the arid climate are linked to changing bicarbonate concentrations in the irrigated western U.S. Uranium concentrations in groundwater were high in the arid climate in the western U.S, where...
Influence of repeated prescribed fire on tree growth and mortality in Pinus resinosa forests, northern Minnesota
Alessandra Bottero, Anthony W. D’Amato, Brian J. Palik, Christel C. Kern, John B. Bradford, Sawyer S. Scherer
2017, Forest Science (63) 94-100
Prescribed fire is widely used for ecological restoration and fuel reduction in fire-dependent ecosystems, most of which are also prone to drought. Despite the importance of drought in fire-adapted forests, little is known about cumulative effects of repeated prescribed burning on tree growth and related response to drought. Using dendrochronological...
Mudflat morphodynamics and the impact of sea level rise in South San Francisco Bay
Mick Van der Wegen, Bruce E. Jaffe, Amy C. Foxgrover, Dano Roelvink
2017, Estuaries and Coasts (40) 37-49
Estuarine tidal mudflats form unique habitats and maintain valuable ecosystems. Historic measurements of a mudflat in San Fancsico Bay over the past 150 years suggest the development of a rather stable mudflat profile. This raises questions on its origin and governing processes as well as on the mudflats’ fate under scenarios...
Geochemical evidence for a complex origin for the Kelso dunes, Mojave National Preserve, California USA
Daniel R. Muhs, Nicholas Lancaster, Gary L. Skipp
2017, Geomorphology (276) 222-243
The Kelso Dune field in southern California is intriguing because although it is of limited areal extent (~ 100 km2), it has a wide variety of dune forms and contains many active dunes (~ 40 km2), which is unusual in the Mojave Desert. Studies over the past eight decades have concluded that the dunes...
Riparian soil development linked to forest succession above and below dams along the Elwha River, Washington, USA
Laura G Perry, Patrick B. Shafroth, Steven S. Perakis
2017, Ecosystems (20) 104-129
Riparian forest soils can be highly dynamic, due to frequent fluvial disturbance, erosion, and sediment deposition, but effects of dams on riparian soils are poorly understood. We examined soils along toposequences within three river segments located upstream, between, and downstream of two dams on the Elwha River to evaluate relationships...
New techniques to measure cliff change from historical oblique aerial photographs and structure-from-motion photogrammetry
Jonathan A. Warrick, Andy Ritchie, Gabrielle Adelman, Ken Adelman, Patrick W. Limber
2017, Journal of Coastal Research (33) 39-55
Oblique aerial photograph surveys are commonly used to document coastal landscapes. Here it is shown that adequate overlap may exist in these photographic records to develop topographic models with Structure-from-Motion (SfM) photogrammetric techniques. Using photographs of Fort Funston, California, from the California Coastal Records Project, imagery were combined with ground...
Spatio-temporal development of vegetation die-off in a submerging coastal marsh
Lennert Schepers, Matt L. Kirwan, Glenn R. Guntenspergen, Stijn Temmerman
2017, Limnology and Oceanography (62) 137-150
In several places around the world, coastal marsh vegetation is converting to open water through the formation of pools. This is concerning, as vegetation die-off is expected to reduce the marshes' capacity to adapt to sea level rise by vegetation-induced sediment accretion. Quantitative analyses of the spatial and temporal development...
Using structural damage statistics to derive macroseismic intensity within the Kathmandu valley for the 2015 M7.8 Gorkha, Nepal earthquake
Sean McGowan, Kishor S. Jaiswal, David J. Wald
2017, Tectonophysics (714-715) 158-172
We make and analyze structural damage observations from within the Kathmandu valley following the 2015 M7.8 Gorkha, Nepal earthquake to derive macroseismic intensities at several locations including some located near ground motion recording sites. The macroseismic intensity estimates supplement the limited strong ground motion data in order to characterize the...
Influence of restored koa in supporting bird communities
Richard J. Camp, Eben H. Paxton, Stephanie G. Yelenik
2017, Conference Paper, Acacia koa in Hawai‘i: facing the future. Proceedings of the 2016 Koa Symposium
Deforestation of Hawaiian forests has adversely impacted native wildlife, including forest birds, bats and arthropods. Restoration activities have included reforestation with the native koa (Acacia koa), a dominant canopy tree species that is easy to propagate, has high survivorship, and has fast growth rates. We review recent research describing the...
Changes in vocal repertoire of the Hawaiian crow, Corvus hawaiiensis,from past wild to current captive populations
Ann M. Tanimoto, Patrick J. Hart, Adam A. Pack, Richard Switzwer, Paul C. Banko, Donna L. Ball, Esther Sebastian-Gonzalez, Lisa Komarczyk, Miyako H. Warrington
2017, Animal Behaviour (123) 427-432
For most avian species, social behaviour is critically important for survival and reproductive success. Many social behaviours in birds are culturally transmitted, and as bird populations decline across the globe, important elements of these behaviours may be...
Water-level changes in the High Plains aquifer, Republican River Basin in Colorado, Kansas, and Nebraska, 2002 to 2015
V. L. McGuire
2017, Scientific Investigations Map 3373
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. More than 95 percent of the water withdrawn from the High Plains aquifer is used for irrigation. Water-level declines began in parts of...
Temporary wetlands: Challenges and solutions to conserving a ‘disappearing’ ecosystem
Aram J.K. Calhoun, David M. Mushet, Kathleen P. Bell, Dani Boix, James A. Fitzsimons, Francis Isselin-Nondedeu
2017, Biological Conservation (211) 3-11
Frequent drying of ponded water, and support of unique, highly specialized assemblages of often rare species, characterize temporary wetlands, such as vernal pools, gilgais, and prairie potholes. As small aquatic features embedded in a terrestrial landscape, temporary wetlands enhance biodiversity and provide aesthetic, biogeochemical, and hydrologic functions. Challenges to conserving...
Warming and provenance limit tree recruitment across and beyond the elevation range of subalpine forest
Lara M. Kueppers, Erin Conlisk, Cristina Castanha, Andrew B. Moyes, Matthew J. Germino, Perry de Valpine, Margaret S. Torn, Jeffry B. Mitton
2017, Global Change Biology (23) 2383-2395
Climate niche models project that subalpine forest ranges will extend upslope with climate warming. These projections assume that the climate suitable for adult trees will be adequate for forest regeneration, ignoring climate requirements for seedling recruitment, a potential demographic bottleneck. Moreover, local genetic adaptation is expected to facilitate range expansion,...
Challenges with secondary use of multi-source water-quality data in the United States
Lori A. Sprague, Gretchen P. Oelsner, Denise M. Argue
2017, Water Research (110) 252-261
Combining water-quality data from multiple sources can help counterbalance diminishing resources for stream monitoring in the United States and lead to important regional and national insights that would not otherwise be possible. Individual monitoring organizations understand their own data very well, but issues can arise when their data are combined...
The practice of prediction: What can ecologists learn from applied, ecology-related fields?
Frank Pennekamp, Matthew Adamson, Owen L Petchey, Jean-Christophe Poggiale, Maira Aguiar, Bob W. Kooi, Daniel B. Botkin, Donald L. DeAngelis
2017, Ecological Complexity (32) 156-167
The pervasive influence of human induced global environmental change affects biodiversity across the globe, and there is great uncertainty as to how the biosphere will react on short and longer time scales. To adapt to what the future holds and to manage the impacts of global change, scientists need to...
Arsenite as an electron donor for anoxygenic photosynthesis: Description of three strains of Ectothiorhodospria from Mono Lake, California, and Big Soda Lake, Nevada
Shelley McCann, Alison Boren, Jaime Hernandez-Maldonado, Brendon Stoneburner, Chad W Saltikov, John F. Stolz, Ronald S. Oremland
2017, Life Sciences (7)
Three novel strains of photosynthetic bacteria from the family Ectothiorhodospiraceae were isolated from soda lakes of the Great Basin Desert, USA by employing arsenite (As(III)) as the sole electron donor in the enrichment/isolation process. Strain PHS-1 was previously isolated from a hot spring in Mono Lake, while strain MLW-1 was...
Excursions in fluvial (dis)continuity
Gordon E. Grant, James E. O'Connor, Elizabeth Safran
2017, Geomorphology (277) 145-153
Lurking below the twin concepts of connectivity and disconnectivity are their first, and in some ways, richer cousins: continuity and discontinuity. In this paper we explore how continuity and discontinuity represent fundamental and complementary perspectives in fluvial geomorphology, and how these perspectives inform and underlie our conceptions of connectivity...
Riparian spiders as sentinels of polychlorinated biphenyl contamination across heterogeneous aquatic ecosystems
Johanna M. Kraus, Polly P. Gibson, David M. Walters, Marc A. Mills
2017, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (36) 1278-1286
Riparian spiders are being used increasingly to track spatial patterns of contaminants in and fluxing from aquatic ecosystems.However, our understanding of the circumstances under which spiders are effective sentinels of aquatic pollution is limited. The present study tests the...
Hydrologic and geomorphic changes resulting from episodic glacial lake outburst floods: Rio Colonia, Patagonia, Chile
J. Jacquet, S.W. McCoy, Daniel Mcgrath, David Nimick, Mark Fahey, J. O’kuinghttons, B.A. Friesen, J. Leidich
2017, Geophysical Research Letters (44) 854-864
Glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) are a prominent but poorly understood cryospheric hazard in a warming climate. We quantify the hydrologic and geomorphic response to 21 episodic GLOFs that began in April 2008 using multitemporal satellite imagery and field observations. Peak discharge exiting the source lake became progressively muted downstream....
Genetic and grade and tonnage models for sandstone-hosted roll-type uranium deposits, Texas Coastal Plain, USA
Susan M. Hall, Mark J. Mihalasky, Kathleen Tureck, Jane M. Hammarstrom, Mark Hannon
2017, Ore Geology Reviews (80) 716-753
The coincidence of a number of geologic and climatic factors combined to create conditions favorable for the development of mineable concentrations of uranium hosted by Eocene through Pliocene sandstones in the Texas Coastal Plain. Here 254 uranium occurrences, including 169 deposits, 73 prospects, 6 showings and 4 anomalies, have been...
Spatiotemporal patterns of duck nest density and predation risk: a multi-scale analysis of 18 years and more than 10,000 nests
Kevin M. Ringelman, John M. Eadie, Joshua T. Ackerman, Andrew Sih, Daniel L. Loughman, Gregory S. Yarris, Shaun L. Oldenburger, M. Robert McLandress
2017, Oikos (126) 332-338
Many avian species are behaviorally-plastic in selecting nest sites, and may shift to new locations or habitats following an unsuccessful breeding attempt. If there is predictable spatial variation in predation risk, the process of many individuals using prior experience to adaptively change nest sites may scale up to create shifting...
Effects of thermal maturation and thermochemical sulfate reduction on compound-specific sulfur isotopic compositions of organosulfur compounds in Phosphoria oils from the Bighorn Basin, USA
Geoffrey S. Ellis, Ward Said-Ahamed, Paul G. Lillis, Lubna Shawar, Alon Amrani
2017, Organic Geochemistry (103) 63-78
Compound-specific sulfur isotope analysis was applied to a suite of 18 crude oils generated from the Permian Phosphoria Formation in the Bighorn Basin, western USA. These oils were generated at various levels of thermal maturity and some experienced thermochemical sulfate reduction (TSR). This is the first study to examine the...
Mercury contamination and stable isotopes reveal variability in foraging ecology of generalist California gulls
Sarah H. Peterson, Joshua T. Ackerman, Collin A. Eagles-Smith
2017, Ecological Indicators (74) 205-215
Environmental contaminants are a concern for animal health, but contaminant exposure can also be used as a tracer of foraging ecology. In particular, mercury (Hg) concentrations are highly variable among aquatic and terrestrial food webs as a result of habitat- and site-specific biogeochemical processes that produce the bioaccumulative form, methylmercury...
