Memorial to Robert Leland Smith 1920-2016
Charles R. Bacon
2016, Geological Society of America Memorials (45) 19-25
Robert L. Smith, renowned volcanologist and distinguished scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), was a world authority on ash-flow tuffs, silicic volcanism, and caldera structures. Bob died peacefully in Sacramento, California, June 17, 2016, a few days short of his ninety-sixth birthday. His publications on ash flows and their...
A novel, non-removal method for closing drainage tile for ecological restorations
Raymond Finocchiaro, Dave A. Azure, Michael A. Vargo
2016, Ecological Restoration (34) 273-276
This article discussing the use of a new method and approach for closing tile for hydrological restorations without removal of the tile pipe and allows for more flexibility in restoration design....
Pan-arctic trends in terrestrial dissolved organic matter from optical measurements
Paul J. Mann, Robert G. M. Spencer, Peter J. Hernes, Johan Six, George R. Aiken, Suzanne E. Tank, James W. McClelland, Kenna D. Butler, Rachael Y. Dyda, Robert M. Holmes
2016, Frontiers in Earth Science (4)
Climate change is causing extensive warming across Arctic regions resulting in permafrost degradation, alterations to regional hydrology and shifting amounts and composition of dissolved organic matter (DOM) transported by streams and rivers. Here, we characterize the DOM composition and optical properties of the six largest Arctic rivers draining into the...
Large-scale recovery of an endangered amphibian despite ongoing exposure to multiple stressors
Roland A. Knapp, Gary M. Fellers, Patrick M. Kleeman, David A. W. Miller, Vance T. Vrendenburg, Erica Bree Rosenblum, Cheryl J. Briggs
2016, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (113) 11889-11894
Amphibians are one of the most threatened animal groups, with 32% of species at risk for extinction. Given this imperiled status, is the disappearance of a large fraction of the Earth’s amphibians inevitable, or are some declining species more resilient than is generally assumed? We address this question in a...
A new biogeographically disjunct giant gecko (Gehyra: Gekkonidae: Reptilia) from the East Melanesian Islands
Paul M. Oliver, Jonathan R. Clegg, Robert N. Fisher, Stephen J. Richards, Peter N. Taylor, Merlijn M. T. Jocque
2016, Zootaxa (4208) 61-76
The East Melanesian Islands have been a focal area for research into island biogeography and community ecology. However, previously undescribed and biogeographically significant new species endemic to this region continue to be discovered. Here we describe a phylogenetically distinct (~20% divergence at the mitochondrial ND2 gene) and biogeographically disjunct new...
Geography and host species shape the evolutionary dynamics of U genogroup infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus
Allison Black, Rachel Breyta, Trevor Bedford, Gael Kurath
2016, Virus Evolution (2)
Infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus (IHNV) is a negative-sense RNA virus that infects wild and cultured salmonids throughout the Pacific Coastal United States and Canada, from California to Alaska. Although infection of adult fish is usually asymptomatic, juvenile infections can result in high mortality events that impact salmon hatchery programs and...
A Tour de Force by Hawaii's invasive mammals: establishment, takeover, ecosystem restoration through eradication
Steve C. Hess
2016, Conference Paper, 27th Vertebrate Pest Conference
Invasive mammals, large and small, have irreversibly altered Hawaii's ecosystems in numerous cases through unnatural herbivory, predation, and the transmission of zoonotic diseases, thereby causing the disproportionate extinction of flora and fauna that occur nowhere else on Earth. The control and eradication of invasive mammals is the single most expensive...
Status of scientific knowledge, recovery progress, and future research directions for the Gulf Sturgeon, Acipenser oxyrinchus desotoi Vladykov, 1955
Kenneth J. Sulak, F Parauka, W. Todd Slack, T Ruth, Michael T. Randall, K Luke, M. F Mette, M. E Price
2016, Journal of Applied Ichthyology (32) 87-161
The Gulf Sturgeon, Acipenser oxyrinchus desotoi, is an anadromous species of Acipenseridae and native to North America. It currently inhabits and spawns in the upper reaches of seven natal rivers along the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico from the Suwannee River, Florida, to the Pearl River, Louisiana, during...
Measuring distance “as the horse runs”: Cross-scale comparison of terrain-based metrics
Barbara P. Buttenfield, M Ghandehari, S Leyk, Larry V. Stanislawski, M E Brantley, Yi Qiang
2016, Conference Paper
Distance metrics play significant roles in spatial modeling tasks, such as flood inundation (Tucker and Hancock 2010), stream extraction (Stanislawski et al. 2015), power line routing (Kiessling et al. 2003) and analysis of surface pollutants such as nitrogen (Harms et al. 2009). Avalanche risk is based on slope, aspect, and...
Environmental variability and population dynamics: Do European and North American ducks play by the same rules?
Hannu Poysa, Jukka Rintala, Douglas H. Johnson, Jukka Kauppinen, Esa Lammi, Thomas D. Nudds, Veli-Matti Vaananen
2016, Ecology and Evolution (6) 7004-7014
Density dependence, population regulation, and variability in population size are fundamental population processes, the manifestation and interrelationships of which are affected by environmental variability. However, there are surprisingly few empirical studies that distinguish the effect of environmental variability from the effects of population processes. We took advantage of a unique...
Aging and sexing guide to the forest birds of Hawai‘i Island
Eben H. Paxton, Rachelle McLaughlin, Stephanie Levins, Eric VanderWerf, Nolan Lancaster
2016, Technical Report HCSU-079
We banded birds in Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge from 2012 to 2016, collecting photographs of birds and making detailed observations on coloration, morphology, and molting patterns. While we believe the criteria in this guide are applicable to forest birds across Hawai’i Island, as well as on other Hawaiian islands...
A cytosolic carbonic anhydrase molecular switch occurs in the gills of metamorphic sea lamprey
D. Ferreira-Martins, Stephen D. McCormick, A. Campos, M. Lopes-Marques, H. Osorio, J. Coimbra, L.F.C. Castro, Jonthan M Wilson
2016, Scientific Reports (6) 1-11
Carbonic anhydrase plays a key role in CO2 transport, acid-base and ion regulation and metabolic processes in vertebrates. While several carbonic anhydrase isoforms have been identified in numerous vertebrate species, basal lineages such as the cyclostomes have remained largely unexamined. Here we investigate the repertoire of cytoplasmic carbonic anhydrases in...
Populations of concern
Janet Gamble, John Balbus, Martha Berger, Karen Bouye, Vince Campbell, Karletta Chief, K. Conlon, Allison Crimmins, Barry Flanagan, C. Gonzalez-Maddux, E. Hallisey, S. Hutchins, L. Jantarasami, S. Khoury, M. Kiefer, J. Kolling, K. Lynn, A. Manangan, M. McDonald, R. Morello-Frosch, Margaret Hiza, P. Sheffield, K. Thigpen Tart, J. Watson, K.P. Whyte, A.F. Wolkin
2016, Report, The impacts of climate change on human health in the Untited States: A scientific assessment
Climate change is already causing, and is expected to continue to cause, a range of health impacts that vary across different population groups in the United States. The vulnerability of any given group is a function of its sensitivity to climate change related health risks, its exposure to those risks,...
Mapping presence and predicting phenological status of invasive buffelgrass in southern Arizona using MODIS, climate and citizen science observation data
Cynthia S.A. Wallace, Jessica J. Walker, Susan M. Skirvin, Caroline Patrick-Birdwell, Jake F. Weltzin, Helen Raichle
2016, Remote Sensing (8) 1-24
The increasing spread and abundance of an invasive perennial grass, buffelgrass (Pennisetum ciliare), represents a critical threat to the native vegetation communities of the Sonoran desert in southern Arizona, USA, where buffelgrass eradication is a high priority for resource managers. Herbicidal treatment of buffelgrass is most effective when the vegetation...
Landslide hazards and climate change: A perspective from the United States
Jeffrey A. Coe
2016, Book chapter, Slope safety preparedness for impact of climate change
No abstract available. ...
Protecting national parks from air pollution effects: Making sausage from science and policy
Jill S. Baron, Tamara Blett, William C. Malm, Ruth Alexander, Holly Doremus
2016, Book chapter
The story of air pollution research, policy development, and management in national parks is a fascinating blend of cultural change, vision, interdisciplinary and interagency collaboration, and science-policy-management-stakeholder collaborations. Unable to ignore the loss of iconic vistas from regional haze and loss of fish from acid rain in the 1980s, the...
Arctic Research Plan: FY2017-2021
Sandy Starkweather, Martin O Jeffries, Simon Stephenson, Rebecca Anderson, Benjamin M. Jones, Rachel A. Loehman, Vanessa R. von Biela
2016, Report
The United States is an Arctic nation—Americans depend on the Arctic for biodiversity and climate regulation and for natural resources. America’s Arctic—Alaska—is at the forefront of rapid climate, environmental, and socio-economic changes that are testing the resilience and sustainability of communities and ecosystems. Research to increase fundamental understanding of these...
Novel picornavirus associated with avian keratin disorder in Alaskan birds
Maxine Zylberberg, Caroline R. Van Hemert, John P. Dumbacher, Colleen M. Handel, Tarik Tihan, Joseph L. DeRisi
2016, mBio (7) 1-10
Avian keratin disorder (AKD), characterized by debilitating overgrowth of the avian beak, was first documented in black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) in Alaska. Subsequently, similar deformities have appeared in numerous species across continents. Despite the widespread distribution of this emerging pathology, the cause of AKD remains elusive. As a result, it...
Mineral resources: Reserves, peak production and the future
Lawrence D. Meinert, Gilpin Robinson, Nedal T. Nassar
2016, Resources (5)
The adequacy of mineral resources in light of population growth and rising standards of living has been a concern since the time of Malthus (1798), but many studies erroneously forecast impending peak production or exhaustion because they confuse reserves with “all there is”. Reserves are formally defined as a subset...
Prospects and limitations of citizen science in invasive species management: A case study with Burmese pythons in Everglades National Park
Bryan Falk, Raymond W. Snow, Robert Reed
2016, Southeastern Naturalist (15) 89-102
Citizen-science programs have the potential to contribute to the management of invasive species, including Python molurus bivittatus (Burmese Python) in Florida. We characterized citizen-science–generated Burmese Python information from Everglades National Park (ENP) to explore how citizen science may be useful in this effort. As an initial step, we compiled and...
Alternative source models of very low frequency events
Joan S. Gomberg, D.C. Agnew, S.Y. Schwartz
2016, Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth (121) 6722-6740
We present alternative source models for very low frequency (VLF) events, previously inferred to be radiation from individual slow earthquakes that partly fill the period range between slow slip events lasting thousands of seconds and low-frequency earthquakes (LFE) with durations of tenths of a second. We show that VLF events...
The integrated rangeland fire management strategy actionable science plan
Cameron L. Aldridge, Ken Berg, Chad S. Boyd, Stephen P. Boyte, John B. Bradford, Ed Brunson, John H. Cissel, Courtney J. Conway, Anna D. Chalfoun, Jeanne C. Chambers, Patrick Clark, Peter S. Coates, Michele R. Crist, Dawn M. Davis, Nicole DeCrappeo, Patricia A. Deibert, Kevin E. Doherty, Louisa B. Evers, Deborah M. Finch, Sean P. Finn, Matthew J. Germino, Nancy F. Glenn, Corey Gucker, John A. Hall, Steven E. Hanser, Douglas W. Havlina, Julie A. Heinrichs, Matt Heller, Collin G. Homer, Molly E. Hunter, Ruth W. Jacobs, Jason W. Karl, Richard Kearney, Susan K Kemp, Francis F. Kilkenny, Steven T. Knick, Karen Launchbaugh, Daniel J. Manier, Kenneth E. Mayer, Susan E. Meyer, Adrian P. Monroe, Eugenie MontBlanc, Beth A. Newingham, Michael L. Pellant, Susan L. Phillips, David S. Pilliod, Mark A. Ricca, Bryce A. Richardson, Jeffrey A. Rose, Nancy Shaw, Roger L. Sheley, Douglas J. Shinneman, Lief A. Wiechman, Bruce K. Wylie
2016, Report
The Integrated Rangeland Fire Management Strategy (hereafter Strategy, DOI 2015) outlined the need for coordinated, science-based adaptive management to achieve long-term protection, conservation, and restoration of the sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) ecosystem. A key component of this management approach is the identification of knowledge gaps that limit implementation of effective strategies...
Whitebark pine mortality related to white pine blister rust, mountain pine beetle outbreak, and water availability
Erin Shanahan, Kathryn M. Irvine, David P. Thoma, Siri K. Wilmoth, Andrew Ray, Kristin Legg, Henry Shovic
2016, Ecosphere (7)
Whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) forests in the western United States have been adversely affected by an exotic pathogen (Cronartium ribicola, causal agent of white pine blister rust), insect outbreaks (Dendroctonus ponderosae, mountain pine beetle), and drought. We monitored individual trees from 2004 to 2013 and characterized stand-level biophysical conditions through...
Dissolved organic matter composition of Arctic rivers: Linking permafrost and parent material to riverine carbon
Jonathan A. O’Donnell, George R. Aiken, David K. Swanson, Panda Santosh, Kenna D. Butler, Andrew P. Baltensperger
2016, Global Biogeochemical Cycles (30) 1811-1826
Recent climate change in the Arctic is driving permafrost thaw, which has important implications for regional hydrology and global carbon dynamics. Permafrost is an important control on groundwater dynamics and the amount and chemical composition of dissolved organic matter (DOM) transported by high-latitude rivers. The consequences of permafrost thaw for...
Space and habitat use by breeding Golden-winged Warblers in the central Appalachian Mountains
Mack W. Frantz, Kyle R. Aldinger, Petra Wood, Joseph Duchamp, Timothy Nuttle, Andrew Vitz, Jeffrey L. Larkin
2016, Book chapter, Golden-winged Warbler ecology, conservation, and habitat management (Studies in Avian Biology, volume 49)
Spot-mapping, or recording locations of observed use by territorial songbirds, is often used to delineate core breeding territories. However, a recent radiotelemetry study in Minnesota found that male Golden-winged Warblers (Vermivora chrysoptera) occurring in high-density populations used resources outside their spot-mapped territories. We compared differences in space use and quantified...
