Smokey comes of age: Unmanned aerial systems for fire management
Dirac Twidwell, Craig R. Allen, Carrick Detweiler, James Higgins, Christian Laney, Sebastian Elbaum
2016, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment (14) 333-339
During the past century, fire management has focused on techniques both to protect human communities from catastrophic wildfire and to maintain fire-dependent ecological systems. However, despite a large and increasing allocation of resources and personnel to achieve these goals, fire management objectives at regional to global scales are not being...
Using the North American Breeding Bird Survey to assess broad-scale response of the continent's most imperiled avian community, grassland birds, to weather variability
Jessica Gorzo, Anna M. Pidgeon, Wayne E. Thogmartin, Andrew J. Allstadt, Volker C. Radeloff, Patricia J. Heglund, Stephen J. Vavrus
2016, The Condor (118) 502-512
Avian populations can respond dramatically to extreme weather such as droughts and heat waves, yet patterns of response to weather at broad scales remain largely unknown. Our goal was to evaluate annual variation in abundance of 14 grassland bird species breeding in the northern mixed-grass prairie in relation to annual...
Comment on “Geochemistry of buried river sediments from Ghaggar Plains, NW India: Multi-proxy records of variations in provenance, paleoclimate, and paleovegetation patterns in the late quaternary” by Ajit Singh, Debajyoti Paul, Rajiv Sinha, Kristina J. Thomsen, Sanjeev Gupta
Peter D. Clift, Liviu Giosan, Amy E. East
2016, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology (455) 65-67
Singh et al. (2016) published a geochemical record of sediment compositions from the flood plain of the Ghaggar River in western India and use the changing provenance, particularly as traced by Nd isotope composition, to reconstruct how erosion patterns have changed over the past 100 k.y. In doing so they...
The influence of vegetation cover on debris-flow density during an extreme rainfall in the northern Colorado Front Range
Francis K. Rengers, Luke McGuire, Jeffrey A. Coe, Jason W. Kean, Rex L. Baum, Dennis M. Staley, Jonathan W. Godt
2016, Geology (44) 823-826
We explored regional influences on debris-flow initiation throughout the Colorado Front Range (Colorado, USA) by exploiting a unique data set of more than 1100 debris flows that initiated during a 5 day rainstorm in 2013. Using geospatial data, we examined the influence of rain, hillslope angle, hillslope aspect, and vegetation...
Novel cell-based assay for detection of thyroid receptor beta-interacting environmental contaminants
Diana A. Stavreva, Lyuba Varticovski, Ludmila Levkova, Anuja A. George, Luke Davis, Gianluca Pegoraro, Vicki S. Blazer, Luke R. Iwanowicz, Gordon L. Hager
2016, Toxicology (368-369) 69-79
Even though the presence of endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) with thyroid hormone (TH)-like activities in the environment is a major health concern, the methods for their efficient detection and monitoring are still limited. Here we describe a novel cell assay, based on the translocation of a green fluorescent protein (GFP)—tagged...
Comparisons between vs30 and spectral response for 30 sites in Newcastle, Australia from collocated seismic cone penetrometer, active- and passive-source vs data
Theodora Volti, David Burbidge, Clive Collins, Michael W. Asten, Jackson K. Odum, William J. Stephenson, Chris Pascal, Josef Holzschuh
2016, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (106) 1690-1709
Although the time‐averaged shear‐wave velocity down to 30 m depth (VS30) can be a proxy for estimating earthquake ground‐motion amplification, significant controversy exists about its limitations when used as a single parameter for the prediction of amplification. To examine this question in absence of relevant strong‐motion records, we use a range...
Development and assessment of indices to determine stream fish vulnerability to climate change and habitat alteration
Nicholas A. Sievert, Craig P. Paukert, Yin-Phan Tsang, Dana M. Infante
2016, Ecological Indicators (67) 403-416
Understanding the future impacts of climate and land use change are critical for long-term biodiversity conservation. We developed and compared two indices to assess the vulnerability of stream fish in Missouri, USA based on species environmental tolerances, rarity, range size, dispersal ability and on the average connectivity of the streams...
Responses of a tall building in Los Angeles, California as inferred from local and distant earthquakes
Mehmet Çelebi, Hasan Ulusoy, Nori Nakata
2016, Earthquake Spectra (32) 1821-1843
Increasing inventory of tall buildings in the United States and elsewhere may be subjected to motions generated by near and far seismic sources that cause long-period effects. Multiple sets of records that exhibited such effects were retrieved from tall buildings in Tokyo and Osaka ~ 350 km and 770 km...
The Mississippi River: A place for fish
Harold Schramm, Brian Ickes
Yushun Chen, Duane Chapman, John Jackson, Daqing Chen, Zhongjie Li, Jack Kilgore, Quinton E. Phelps, Michael Eggleton, editor(s)
2016, Book chapter, Fishery Resources, Environment, and Conservation in the Mississippi and Yangtze (Changjiang) River Basins
The Mississippi River flows 3,734 km from its source at Lake Itasca, Minnesota to its outlet at the Gulf of Mexico. Along its course, it collects water from portions of two Canadian provinces and 41 % of the conterminous United States. Although greatly altered for navigation and flood control throughout...
Complex explosive volcanic activity on the Moon within Oppenheimer crater
Kristen A Bennett, Briony H. N. Horgan, Lisa R. Gaddis, Benjamin T Greenhagen, Carlton C. Allen, Paul O. Hayne, James F. Bell, David A. Paige
2016, Icarus (273) 296-314
Oppenheimer Crater is a floor-fractured crater located within the South Pole-Aitken basin on the Moon, and exhibits more than a dozen localized pyroclastic deposits associated with the fractures. Localized pyroclastic volcanism on the Moon is thought to form as a result of intermittently explosive Vulcanian eruptions under low effusion rates,...
Geochemistry, petrologic evolution, and ore deposits of the Miocene Bodie Hills Volcanic Field, California and Nevada
Edward A. du Bray, David A. John, Brian L. Cousens, Leslie A. Hayden, Peter G. Vikre
2016, American Mineralogist (101) 644-677
The southern segment of the ancestral Cascades magmatic arc includes numerous volcanic fields; among these, the Bodie Hills volcanic field (BHVF), astride the California-Nevada border north of Mono Lake, is one of the largest (>700 km2) and most well studied. Episodic magmatism in the BHVF spanned about 9 million years...
On the deterministic and stochastic use of hydrologic models
William H. Farmer, Richard M. Vogel
2016, Water Resources Research (52) 5619-5633
Environmental simulation models, such as precipitation-runoff watershed models, are increasingly used in a deterministic manner for environmental and water resources design, planning, and management. In operational hydrology, simulated responses are now routinely used to plan, design, and manage a very wide class of water resource systems. However, all such models...
First record of the common sandpiper for the Hawaiian Islands
Thane K. Pratt
2016, Western Birds (47) 167-169
With a breeding range spanning Eurasia and a winter range extending from Africa to Australasia, the Common Sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos) is indeed the common and familiar sandpiper of the Old World. It is the Old World counterpart of the Spotted Sandpiper (A. macularius) of the Americas and its only congener....
Managing water and riparian habitats on the Bill Williams River with scientific benefit for other desert river systems
John Hickey, Woodrow Fields, Andrew Hautzinger, Steven Sesnie, Patrick B. Shafroth, Dick Gilbert
2016, Report
This report details modeling to: 1) codify flow-ecology relationships for riparian species of the Bill Williams River as operational guidance for water managers, 2) test the guidance under different climate scenarios, and 3) revise the operational guidance as needed to address the effects of climate change. Model applications detailed herein...
Budgets and chemical characterization of groundwater for the Diamond Valley flow system, central Nevada, 2011–12
David L. Berger, C. Justin Mayers, C. Amanda Garcia, Susan G. Buto, Jena M. Huntington
2016, Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5055
The Diamond Valley flow system consists of six hydraulically connected hydrographic areas in central Nevada. The general down-gradient order of the areas are southern and northern Monitor Valleys, Antelope Valley, Kobeh Valley, Stevens Basin, and Diamond Valley. Groundwater flow in the Diamond Valley flow system terminates at a large playa...
Observations of cocooned Hydrobaenus (Diptera: Chironomidae) larvae in Lake Michigan
Taaja R. Tucker, Patrick L. Hudson, Stephen Riley
2016, Journal of Great Lakes Research (42) 1129-1135
Larvae of the family Chironomidae have developed a variety of ways to tolerate environmental stress, including the formation of cocoons, which allows larvae to avoid unfavorable temperature conditions, drought, or competition with other chironomids. Summer cocoon formation by younger instars of the genus Hydrobaenus Fries allows persistence through increased temperatures and/or intermittent...
Hydrogeologic investigations of the Miocene Nogales Formation in the Nogales Area, Upper Santa Cruz Basin, Arizona
William R. Page, Floyd Gray, Mark W. Bultman, Christopher M. Menges
2016, Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5087
Hydrogeologic investigations were conducted to evaluate the groundwater resource potential for the Miocene Nogales Formation in the Nogales area, southern Arizona. Results indicate that parts of the formation may provide new, deeper sources of groundwater for the area. Geologic mapping determined the hydrogeologic framework of the formation by defining lithologic,...
Soil data for a vegetation gradient located at Bonanza Creek Long Term Ecological Research Site, interior Alaska
Kristen L. Manies, Jennifer W. Harden, Christopher C. Fuller, Xiaomei Xu, John P. McGeehin
2016, Open-File Report 2016-1034
Boreal soils play an important role in the global carbon cycle owing to the large amount of carbon stored within this northern region. To understand how carbon and nitrogen storage varied among different ecosystems, a vegetation gradient was established in the Bonanza Creek Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) site,...
Seasonal flux and assemblage composition of planktic foraminifera from the northern Gulf of Mexico, 2008–14
Caitlin E. Reynolds, Julie N. Richey
2016, Open-File Report 2016-1115
The U.S. Geological Survey anchored a sediment trap in the northern Gulf of Mexico in January 2008 to collect seasonal time-series data on the flux and assemblage composition of live planktic foraminifers. This report provides an update of the previous time-series data to include continuous results from January 2013 through...
ChemCam activities and discoveries during the nominal mission of the Mars Science Laboratory in Gale crater, Mars
Sylvestre Maurice, Samuel M. Clegg, Roger C. Wiens, O. Gasnault, W. Rapin, O. Forni, Agnes Cousin, V. Sautter, Nicolas Mangold, L. Le Deit, Marion Nachon, Ryan B. Anderson, Nina Lanza, Cecile Fabre, Valerie Payre, Jeremie Lasue, Pierre-Yves Meslin, Richard A. LeVeille, Bruce Barraclough, Pierre Beck, Steven C. Bender, Gilles Berger, John C. Bridges, Nathan Bridges, Gilles Dromert, M. Darby Dyar, Raymond Francis, Jens Frydenvang, B. Gondet, Bethany L. Ehlmann, Kenneth E. Herkenhoff, Jeffrey R. Johnson, Yves Langevin, Madsen Morten B., N. Melikechi, J.-L. Lacour, Stephane Le Mouelic, Eric Lewin, Horton E. Newsom, Ann M. Ollila, Patrick Pinet, S. Schroder, Jean-Baptiste Sirven, Robert L. Tokar, M.J. Toplis, Claude d’Uston, David Vaniman, Ashwin R. Vasavada
2016, Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry (31) 863-889
At Gale crater, Mars, ChemCam acquired its first laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) target on Sol 13 of the landed portion of the mission (a Sol is a Mars day). Up to Sol 800, more than 188 000 LIBS spectra were acquired on more than 5800 points distributed over about 650 individual...
Osmoregulatory physiology and rapid evolution of salinity tolerance in threespine stickleback recently introduced to fresh water
Jeffrey N Divino, Michelle Y. Monette, Stephen D. McCormick, Paul H. Yancey, Kyle G. Flannery, Michael A. Bell, Jennifer L. Rollins, Frank A. von Hippel, Eric T. Schultz
2016, Evolutionary Ecology Research (17) 179-201
Background: Post-Pleistocene diversification of threespine stickleback in fresh water offers a valuable opportunity to study how changes in environmental salinity shape physiological evolution in fish. In Alaska, the presence of both ancestral oceanic populations and derived landlocked populations, including recent lake introductions, allows us to examine rates and direction of evolution...
Ordinary kriging as a tool to estimate historical daily streamflow records
William H. Farmer
2016, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (20) 2721-2735
Efficient and responsible management of water resources relies on accurate streamflow records. However, many watersheds are ungaged, limiting the ability to assess and understand local hydrology. Several tools have been developed to alleviate this data scarcity, but few provide continuous daily streamflow records at individual streamgages within an entire region....
Agricultural irrigated land-use inventory for the counties in the Suwannee River Water Management District in Florida, 2015
Richard L. Marella, Joann F. Dixon, Darbi R. Berry
2016, Open-File Report 2016-1111
A detailed inventory of irrigated crop acreage is not available at the level of resolution needed to accurately estimate agricultural water use or to project future water demands in many Florida counties. A detailed digital map and summary of irrigated acreage during the 2015 growing season was developed for 13...
Regional flow duration curves: Geostatistical techniques versus multivariate regression
Alessio Pugliese, William H. Farmer, Attilio Castellarin, Stacey A. Archfield, Richard M. Vogel
2016, Advances in Water Resources (96) 11-22
A period-of-record flow duration curve (FDC) represents the relationship between the magnitude and frequency of daily streamflows. Prediction of FDCs is of great importance for locations characterized by sparse or missing streamflow observations. We present a detailed comparison of two methods which are capable of predicting an FDC at ungauged...
Evaluation of leaf removal as a means to reduce nutrient concentrations and loads in urban stormwater
William R. Selbig
2016, Science of the Total Environment (571) 124-133
While the sources of nutrients to urban stormwater are many, the primary contributor is often organic detritus, especially in areas with dense overhead tree canopy. One way to remove organic detritus before it becomes entrained in runoff is to implement a city-wide leaf collection and...
