Amino acid specific stable nitrogen isotope values in avian tissues: Insights from captive American kestrels and wild herring gulls
Craig E. Hebert, B.N. Popp, K.J. Fernie, C. Ka'apu-Lyons, Barnett A. Rattner, N. Wallsgrove
2016, Environmental Science & Technology (50) 12928-12937
Through laboratory and field studies, the utility of amino acid compound-specific nitrogen isotope analysis (AA-CSIA) in avian studies is investigated. Captive American kestrels (Falco sparverius) were fed an isotopically characterized diet and patterns in δ15N values of amino acids (AAs) were compared to those in their tissues (muscle and red...
Helium as a tracer for fluids released from Juan de Fuca lithosphere beneath the Cascadia forearc
Patricia A. McCrory, James E. Constantz, Andrew G. Hunt, J. Luke Blair
2016, Geochemistry International (17) 2423-2449
The ratio between helium isotopes (3He/4He) provides an excellent geochemical tracer for investigating the sources of fluids sampled at the Earth's surface. 3He/4He values observed in 25 mineral springs and wells above the Cascadia forearc document a significant component of mantle-derived helium above Juan de Fuca lithosphere, as well as...
An investigation of soil-structure interaction effects observed at the MIT Green Building
Ertugrul Taciroglu, Mehmet Çelebi, S. Farid Ghahari, Fariba Abazarsa
2016, Earthquake Spectra (32) 2425-2448
The soil-foundation impedance function of the MIT Green Building is identified from its response signals recorded during an earthquake. Estimation of foundation impedance functions from seismic response signals is a challenging task, because: (1) the foundation input motions (FIMs) are not directly measurable, (2) the as-built properties of the super-structure...
PhasePApy: A robust pure Python package for automatic identification of seismic phases
Chen Chen, Austin Holland
2016, Seismological Research Letters (87) 1384-1396
We developed a Python phase identification package: the PhasePApy for earthquake data processing and near‐real‐time monitoring. The package takes advantage of the growing number of Python libraries including Obspy. All the data formats supported by Obspy can be supported within the PhasePApy. The PhasePApy has two subpackages: the PhasePicker and...
Modeling the geographic distribution of Ixodes scapularis and Ixodes pacificus (Acari: Ixodidae) in the contiguous United States
Micah Hahn, Catherine S. Jarnevich, Andrew J. Monaghan, Rebecca J. Eisen
2016, Journal of Medical Entomology (53) 1176-1191
In addition to serving as vectors of several other human pathogens, the black-legged tick, Ixodes scapularis Say, and western black-legged tick, Ixodes pacificus Cooley and Kohls, are the primary vectors of the spirochete (Borrelia burgdorferi ) that causes Lyme disease, the most common vector-borne disease in the United States. Over...
Multiscale perspectives of fire, climate and humans in western North America and the Jemez Mountains, USA
Thomas W. Swetnam, Joshua Farella, Christopher I. Roos, Matthew J. Liebmann, Donald A. Falk, Craig D. Allen
2016, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (371)
Interannual climate variations have been important drivers of wildfire occurrence in ponderosa pine forests across western North America for at least 400 years, but at finer scales of mountain ranges and landscapes human land uses sometimes over-rode climate influences. We reconstruct and analyse effects of high human population densities...
Transformational principles for NEON sampling of mammalian parasites and pathogens: A response to Springer and colleagues
Joseph A. Cook, Stephen E. Greiman, Salvatore J. Agosta, Robert P. Anderson, B. S. Arbogast, Robert J. Baker, Walter Boeger, Robert D. Bradley, Daniel R. Brooks, Rebecca A. Cole, John R. Demboski, Andrew P. Dobson, Jonathan L. Dunnum, Ralph P. Eckerlin, Jacob A. Esselstyn, Kurt E. Galbreath, John Hawdon, Hopi E. Hoekstra, Susan J. Kutz, Jessica E. Light, Link E. Olson, Bruce D. Patterson, James L. Patton, Anna J. Phillips, Eric Rickart, Duke S. Rogers, Mark E. Siddall, Vasyl V. Tkach, Eric P. Hoberg
2016, BioScience (66) 917-919
No abstract available....
Hydrologic exchange flows and their ecological consequences in river corridors
Judson Harvey
2016, Book chapter, Stream ecosystems in a changing environment
The actively flowing waters of streams and rivers remain in close contact with surrounding off-channel and subsurface environments. These hydrologic linkages between relatively fast flowing channel waters, with more slowly flowing waters off-channel and in the subsurface, are collectively referred to as hydrologic exchange flows (HEFs). HEFs include surface exchange...
Assessing the seismic risk potential of South America
Kishor S. Jaiswal, Mark D. Petersen, Stephen Harmsen, Gregory M. Smoczyk
2016, Conference Paper
We present here a simplified approach to quantifying regional seismic risk. The seismic risk for a given region can be inferred in terms of average annual loss (AAL) that represents long-term value of earthquake losses in any one year caused from a long-term seismic hazard. The AAL are commonly measured...
Foreword: The dynamics of change in Alaska’s boreal forests: Resilience and vulnerability in response to climate warming
A. David McGuire, F. Stuart Chapin III, Roger W. Ruess
2016, Canadian Journal of Forest Research (40) 1195-1196
Long-term research by the Bonanza Creek (BNZ) Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) program has documented natural patterns of interannual and successional variability of the boreal forest in interior Alaska against which we can detect changes in system behavior. Between 2004 and 2010 the BNZ LTER program focused on understanding the...
Glacial Lake Hitchcock and the sea: Fieldtrip Guidebook for the 78th Annual Reunion of the Northeast Friends of the Pleistocene
Janet Radway Stone, J.C. Ridge, Ralph S. Lewis, Mary L. DiGiacomo-Cohen
Margaret A. Thomas, editor(s)
2016, Book
The fieldtrip will demonstrate the evidence for a close connection of Lake Hitchcock levels with lake levels and the position of sea level in Long Island Sound via a channel cut into glacial lake deposits in the lower Connecticut River valley, which issuperposed on a bedrock ridge at the mouth of the Connecticut...
Contributions of moderately low flows and large floods to geomorphic change in the Rio Puerco Arroyo, New Mexico
Eleanor R. Griffin, Jonathan M. Friedman
2016, Conference Paper, New Mexico Fall Field Conference Guidebook
Abstract—From the mid-1800s to around 1930, monsoonal floods incised an arroyo roughly 100 m wide and 10 m deep along the lower Rio Puerco, NM, from the confluence with the Rio San Jose downstream to the mouth at the Rio Grande, causing sedimentation and flooding downstream. Since the 1930s, the...
South Park, Colorado: The interplay of tectonics and sedimentation creates one of Colorado’s crown jewels
Peter E Barkmann, Edward J Sterne, Marieke Dechesne, Karen J. Houck
S.M. Keller, Matthew L. Morgan, editor(s)
2016, Book chapter, Unfolding the Geology of the West: Geological Society of America Field Guide
Recent mapping efforts and hydrocarbon exploration in the South Park Basin have brought to light the magnitude in complexity of a structural basin already recognized for its unique sedimentary and tectonic setting. This fi eld trip to one of Colorado’s scenic gems will examine how Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic strata record the tectonic signatures...
Review of suspended sediment in lower South Bay relevant to light attenuation and phytoplankton blooms
David H. Schoellhamer, Gregory Shellenbarger, Maureen A. Downing-Kunz, Andrew J. Manning
2016, Report, Lower South Bay Nutrient Synthesis
Lower South Bay (LSB), a shallow subembayment of San Francisco Bay (SFB), is situated south of the Dumbarton Bridge, and is surrounded by, and interconnected with, a network of sloughs, marshes, and former salt ponds undergoing restoration (Figure ES.1). LSB receives 120 million gallons per day of treated wastewater effluent...
The Impacts of flow alterations to crayfishes in Southeastern Oklahoma, with an emphasis on the mena crayfish (orconectes menae)
Shannon K. Brewer, Joseph J. Dyer
2016, Report
Human activities can alter the environment to the point that it is unsuitable to the native species resulting in a loss of biodiversity. Ecologists understand the importance of biodiversity and the conservation of vulnerable species. Species that are narrowly endemic are considered to be particularly vulnerable because they often use...
Northeast and Midwest regional species and habitats at greatest risk and most vulnerable to climate impacts
Michelle D. Staudinger, Laura Hilberg, Maria Janowiak, C.O. Swanton
2016, Report, Integrating climate change into the state wildlife action plans
The objectives of this Chapter are to describe climate change vulnerability, it’s components, the range of assessment methods being implemented regionally, and examples of training resources and tools. Climate Change Vulnerability Assessments (CCVAs) have already been conducted for numerous Regional Species of Greatest Conservation Need and their dependent 5 habitats...
Regional geophysics of western Utah and eastern Nevada, with emphasis on the Confusion Range
Edward A. Mankinen, Peter D. Rowley, Gary L. Dixon, Edwin H. McKee
2016, Book
As part of a long term geologic and hydrologic study of several regional groundwater flow systems in western Utah and eastern Nevada, the U.S. Geological Survey was contracted by the Southern Nevada Water Authority to provide geophysical data. The primary object of these data was to enable construction of the...
A comparison of NLCD 2011 and LANDFIRE EVT 2010: Regional and national summaries.
Alexa McKerrow, Jon Dewitz, Donald G. Long, Kurtis Nelson, Joel A. Connot, Jim Smith
2016, Report
In order to provide the land cover user community a summary of the similarity and differences between the 2011 National Land Cover Dataset (NLCD) and the Landscape Fire and Resource Management Planning Tools Program Existing Vegetation 2010 Data (LANDFIRE EVT), the two datasets were compared at a national (conterminous U.S.)...
Prediction of lake depth across a 17-state region in the United States
Samantha K. Oliver, Patricia A. Soranno, C. Emi Fergus, Tyler Wagner, Luke A. Winslow, Caren E. Scott, Katherine E. Webster, John A. Downing, Emily H. Stanley
2016, Inland Waters (6) 314-324
Lake depth is an important characteristic for understanding many lake processes, yet it is unknown for the vast majority of lakes globally. Our objective was to develop a model that predicts lake depth using map-derived metrics of lake and terrestrial geomorphic features. Building on previous models that use local topography...
Regional water table (2014) in the Mojave River and Morongo Groundwater Basins, southwestern Mojave Desert, California
Nick F. Teague, Meghan C. Dick, Sally F. House, Dennis A. Clark
2016, Open-File Report 2016-1105
Data for static water-levels measured in about 610 wells during March-April 2014 by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the Mojave Water Agency (MWA), and other local water districts were compiled to construct a regional water-table map. This map shows the...
A comparison of observed and predicted ground motions from the 2015 MW7.8 Gorkha, Nepal, earthquake
Susan E. Hough, Stacey S. Martin, V. Gahalaut, A. Joshi, M. Landes, R. Bossu
2016, Natural Hazards (84) 1661-1684
We use 21 strong motion recordings from Nepal and India for the 25 April 2015 moment magnitude (MW) 7.8 Gorkha, Nepal, earthquake together with the extensive macroseismic intensity data set presented by Martin et al. (Seism Res Lett 87:957–962, 2015) to analyse the distribution of...
Use of multiple age tracers to estimate groundwater residence times and long-term recharge rates in arid southern Oman
Th. Muller, K. Osenbruck, G. Strauch, S. Pavetich, K.-S. Al-Mashaikhi, C. Herb, S. Merchel, G. Rugel, W. Aeschbach, Ward E. Sanford
2016, Applied Geochemistry (74) 67-83
Multiple age tracers were measured to estimate groundwater residence times in the regional aquifer system underlying southwestern Oman. This area, known as the Najd, is one of the most arid areas in the world and is planned to be the main agricultural center of the Sultanate of Oman in the...
Downstream passage and impact of turbine shutdowns on survival of silver American Eels at five hydroelectric dams on the Shenandoah River
Sheila Eyler, Stuart A. Welsh, David R. Smith, Mary Rockey
2016, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (145) 964-976
Hydroelectric dams impact the downstream migrations of silver American Eels Anguilla rostrata via migratory delays and turbine mortality. A radiotelemetry study of American Eels was conducted to determine the impacts of five run-of-the-river hydroelectric dams located over a 195-km stretch of the Shenandoah River, Virginia–West Virginia, during fall 2007–summer 2010....
Adjusting particle-size distributions to account for aggregation in tephra-deposit model forecasts
Larry G. Mastin, Alexa R. Van Eaton, A.J. Durant
2016, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (16) 9399-9420
Volcanic ash transport and dispersion (VATD) models are used to forecast tephra deposition during volcanic eruptions. Model accuracy is limited by the fact that fine-ash aggregates (clumps into clusters), thus altering patterns of deposition. In most models this is accounted for by ad hoc changes to model input, representing...
Interactions of landscape disturbances and climate change dictate ecological pattern and process: spatial modeling of wildfire, insect, and disease dynamics under future climates
Rachel A. Loehman, Robert E. Keane, Lisa M. Holsinger, Zhiwei Wu
2016, Landscape Ecology (32) 1447-1459
ContextInteractions among disturbances, climate, and vegetation influence landscape patterns and ecosystem processes. Climate changes, exotic invasions, beetle outbreaks, altered fire regimes, and human activities may interact to produce landscapes that appear and function beyond historical analogs.ObjectivesWe used the mechanistic ecosystem-fire...
