The Wetland and Aquatic Research Center strategic science plan
U.S. Geological Survey
2017, Open-File Report 2016-1193
IntroductionThe U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Wetland and Aquatic Research Center (WARC) has two primary locations (Gainesville, Florida, and Lafayette, Louisiana) and field stations throughout the southeastern United States and Caribbean. WARC’s roots are in U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and National Park Service research units that were brought into...
Detecting Renibacterium salmoninarum in wild brown trout by use of multiple organ samples and diagnostic methods
S. Guomundsdottir, Lynn M. Applegate, I.O. Arnason, A. Kristmundsson, Maureen K. Purcell, Diane G. Elliott
2017, Bulletin of the European Association of Fish Pathologists (37) 31-40
Renibacterium salmoninarum, the causative agent of salmonid bacterial kidney disease (BKD), is endemic in many wild trout species in northerly regions. The aim of the present study was to determine the optimal R. salmoninarum sampling/testing strategy for wild brown trout (Salmo trutta L.) populations in Iceland. Fish were netted in...
Resampling of spatially correlated data with preferential sampling for the estimation of frequency distributions and semivariograms
Ricardo A. Olea
2017, Stochastic Environmental Research and Risk Assessment (31) 481-491
Spatial data are commonly minimal and may have been collected in the process of confirming the profitability of a mining venture or investigating a contaminated site. In such situations, it is common to have measurements preferentially taken in the most critical areas (sweet spots, allegedly contaminated areas), thus conditionally biasing...
In situ assessment of lampricide toxicity to age-0 lake sturgeon
Lisa M. O’Connor, Thomas C. Pratt, Todd B. Steeves, Brian Stephens, Michael A. Boogaard, Cheryl Kaye
2017, Journal of Great Lakes Research (43) 189-198
The lampricides 3-trifluoromethyl-4-nitrophenol (TFM) and 2′, 5-dichloro-4′-nitrosalicylanilide (niclosamide) are used to control sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus), an invasive species in the Great Lakes. Age-0 lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens), a species of conservationconcern, share similar stream habitats with larval sea lampreys and these streams can be...
Assessment of transfer patterns and origins of in-channel wood in large rivers using repeated field surveys and wood characterisation (the Isère River upstream of Pontcharra, France)
Herve Piegay, Bertrand Moulin, Cliff R. Hupp
2017, Geomorphology (279) 27-43
When and whence does wood enter large mountain alluvial rivers? How stable through time are characteristics and quantities of wood deposited in a reach? These simple questions related to the complex practice of wood budgeting are explored on the Isère...
Simulation of earthquake ground motions in the eastern United States using deterministic physics‐based and site‐based stochastic approaches
Sanaz Rezaeian, Stephen H. Hartzell, Xiaodan Sun, Carlos Mendoza
2017, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (107) 149-168
Earthquake ground‐motion recordings are scarce in the central and eastern United States (CEUS) for large‐magnitude events and at close distances. We use two different simulation approaches, a deterministic physics‐based method and a site‐based stochastic method, to simulate ground motions over a wide range of magnitudes. Drawing...
Tidal triggering of earthquakes suggests poroelastic behavior on the San Andreas Fault
Andrew Delorey, Nicholas van der Elst, Paul Johnson
2017, Earth and Planetary Science Letters (460) 164-170
Tidal triggering of earthquakes is hypothesized to provide quantitative information regarding the fault's stress state, poroelastic properties, and may be significant for our understanding of seismic hazard. To date, studies of regional or global earthquake catalogs have had only modest successes in identifying tidal triggering. We posit that the smallest...
Terrestrial ecosystem model performance in simulating productivity and its vulnerability to climate change in the northern permafrost region
Jianyang Xia, A. David McGuire, David Lawrence, Eleanor J. Burke, Guangsheng Chen, Xiaodong Chen, Christine Delire, Charles Koven, Andrew MacDougall, Shushi Peng, Annette Rinke, Kazuyuki Saito, Wenxin Zhang, Ramdane Alkama, Theodore J. Bohn, Philippe Ciais, Bertrand Decharme, Isabelle Gouttevin, Tomohiro Hajima, Daniel J. Hayes, Kun Huang, Duoying Ji, Gerhard Krinner, Dennis P. Lettenmaier, Paul A. Miller, John C. Moore, Benjamin Smith, Tetsuo Sueyoshi, Zheng Shi, Liming Yan, Junyi Liang, Lifen Jiang, Qian Zhang, Yiqi Luo
2017, Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences (122) 430-446
Realistic projection of future climate-carbon (C) cycle feedbacks requires better understanding and an improved representation of the C cycle in permafrost regions in the current generation of Earth system models. Here we evaluated 10 terrestrial ecosystem models for their estimates of net primary productivity (NPP) and responses to historical climate...
Ground motion in the presence of complex Topography II: Earthquake sources and 3D simulations
Stephen H. Hartzell, Leonardo Ramirez-Guzman, Mark Meremonte, Alena L. Leeds
2017, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (107) 344-358
Eight seismic stations were placed in a linear array with a topographic relief of 222 m over Mission Peak in the east San Francisco Bay region for a period of one year to study topographic effects. Seventy‐two well‐recorded local earthquakes are used to calculate spectral amplitude ratios relative to a reference...
Nationwide reconnaissance of contaminants of emerging concern in source and treated drinking waters of the United States: Pharmaceuticals
Edward T. Furlong, Angela L. Batt, Susan T. Glassmeyer, Mary C. Noriega, Dana W. Kolpin, Heath Mash, Kathleen M. Schenck
2017, Science of the Total Environment (579) 1629-1642
Mobile and persistent chemicals that are present in urban wastewater, such as pharmaceuticals, may survive on-site ormunicipal wastewater treatment and post-discharge environmental processes. These pharmaceuticals have the potential to reach surface and groundwaters, essential drinking-water sources. A joint, two-phase U.S. Geological Survey-U.S. Environmental Protection Agency study examined source and treated waters from 25 drinking-water...
Merging paleobiology with conservation biology to guide the future of terrestrial ecosystems
Anthony D. Barnosky, Elizabeth A. Hadly, Jason Head, Patrick Gonzalez, P. David Polly, A. Michelle Lawing, Jussi T. Eronen, David D. Ackerly, Ken Alex, Eric Biber, Jessica L. Blois, Justin Brashares, Gerardo Ceballos, Edward Davis, Gregory P. Dietl, Rodolfo Dirzo, Holly Doremus, Mikael Fortelius, Harry W. Greene, Jessica Hellmann, Thomas Hickler, Stephen T. Jackson, Melissa Kemp, Paul L. Koch, Claire Kremen, Emily L. Lindsey, Cindy Looy, Charles R. Marshall, Chase Mendenhall, Andreas Mulch, Alexis M. Mychajliw, Carsten Nowak, Uma Ramakrishnan, Jan Schnitzler, Kashish Das Shrestha, Katherine Solari, Lynn Stegner, M. Allison Stegner, Nils Chr. Stenseth, Marvalee H. Wake, Zhibin Zhang
2017, Science (355) 1-10
The current impacts of humanity on nature are rapid and destructive, but species turnover and change have occurred throughout the history of life. Although there is much debate about the best approaches to take in conservation, ultimately, we need to permit or enhance the resilience of natural systems so that...
Relations between some horizontal‐component ground‐motion intensity measures used in practice
David Boore, Tadahiro Kishida
2017, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (107) 334-343
Various measures using the two horizontal components of recorded ground motions have been used in a number of studies that derive ground‐motion prediction equations and construct maps of shaking intensity. We update relations between a number of these measures, including those in Boore et al. (2006) and Boore (2010), using the large...
Annual changes in seasonal river water temperatures in the eastern and western United States
Tyler Wagner, Stephen R. Midway, Joanna B. Whittier, Jefferson T. DeWeber, Craig P. Paukert
2017, Water (9)
Changes in river water temperatures are anticipated to have direct effects on thermal habitat and fish population vital rates, and therefore, understanding temporal trends in water temperatures may be necessary for predicting changes in thermal habitat and how species might respond to such changes. However, many investigations into trends in...
Collar temperature sensor data reveal long-term patterns in southern Beaufort Sea polar bear den distribution on pack ice and land
Jay W Olson, Karyn D. Rode, Dennis L. Eggett, T. S. Smith, R. R. Wilson, George M. Durner, Anthony S. Fischbach, Todd C. Atwood, David C. Douglas
2017, Marine Ecology Progress Series (564) 211-224
In response to a changing climate, many species alter habitat use. Polar bears Ursus maritimus in the southern Beaufort Sea have increasingly used land for maternal denning. To aid in detecting denning behavior, we developed an objective method to identify polar bear denning events using temperature sensor data collected by satellite-linked transmitters...
Assessing conditions influencing the longitudinal distribution of exotic brown trout (Salmo trutta) in a mountain stream: a spatially-explicit modeling approach
Christy S. Meredith, Phaedra E. Budy, Mevin Hooten, Marcos Oliveira Prates
2017, Biological Invasions (19) 503-519
Trout species often segregate along elevational gradients, yet the mechanisms driving this pattern are not fully understood. On the Logan River, Utah, USA, exotic brown trout (Salmo trutta) dominate at low elevations but are near-absent from high elevations with native Bonneville cutthroat trout (Onchorhynchus clarkii utah)....
Rainfall-runoff of anthropogenic waste indicators from agricultural fields applied with municipal biosolids
James L. Gray, Thomas Borch, Edward T. Furlong, Jessica Davis, Tracy Yager, Yun-Ya Yang, Dana W. Kolpin
2017, Science of the Total Environment (580) 83-89
The presence of anthropogenic contaminants such as antimicrobials, flame-retardants, and plasticizers in runoff from agricultural fields applied with municipal biosolids may pose a potential threat to the environment. This study assesses the potential for rainfall-induced runoff of 69 anthropogenic waste indicators (AWIs), widely found in household and industrial products, from...
Inhibition of an aquatic rhabdovirus demonstrates promise of a broad-spectrum antiviral for use in aquaculture
Bethany F. Balmer, Rachel L. Powers, Ting-Hu Zhang, Jihye Lee, Frederic Vigant, Benhur Lee, Michael E. Jung, Maureen K. Purcell, Kevin Snekvik, Hector C. Aguilar
2017, Journal of Virology (91)
Many enveloped viruses cause devastating disease in aquaculture, resulting in significant economic impact. LJ001 is a broad-spectrum antiviral compound that inhibits enveloped virus infections by specifically targeting phospholipids in the lipid bilayer via the production of singlet oxygen (1O2). This stabilizes positive curvature and decreases membrane fluidity, which inhibits virus-cell...
Book review: Karst without boundaries
Daniel H. Doctor
2017, Groundwater (54) 6-7
No abstract available....
Confirmation of the southwest continuation of the Cat Square terrane, southern Appalachian Inner Piedmont, with implications for middle Paleozoic collisional orogenesis
Matthew T. Huebner, Robert D. Hatcher Jr., Arthur J. Merschat
2017, American Journal of Science (317) 95-176
Detailed geologic mapping, U-Pb zircon geochronology and whole-rock geochemical analyses were conducted to test the hypothesis that the southwestern extent of the Cat Square terrane continues from the northern Inner Piedmont (western Carolinas) into central Georgia. Geologic mapping revealed the Jackson Lake fault, a ∼15 m-thick, steeply dipping sillimanite-grade...
The Chief Joseph Hatchery Program 2014 Annual Report
Andrea Pearl, Matthew Laramie, Casey Baldwin, John Rohrback, Pat Phillips
2017, Report
The Chief Joseph Hatchery Program is comprised of both operations and maintenance of the Chief Joseph Hatchery, located near Bridgeport, Washington and the monitoring and evaluation of natural- and hatchery-origin Chinook salmon in the Okanogan Subbasin. In 2014, the Chief Joseph Hatchery released 44,267 yearling and 186,050 subyearling integrated Chinook...
Identifying movement patterns and spawning areas of Lake Trout in Yellowstone Lake
Robert E. Gresswell, Nicholas A. Heredia, Jason G. Romine, Lee F. G. Gutowsky, Phillip T. Sandstrom, Michael J. Parsley, Patricia E. Bigelow, C. D. Suski, Brian D. Ertel
2017, Yellowstone Science (25) 66-69
No abstract available....
Critical zone properties control the fate of nitrogen during experimental rainfall in montane forests of the Colorado Front Range
Eve-Lyn S. Hinckley, Brian A. Ebel, Rebecca T. Barnes, Sheila F. Murphy, Suzanne P. Anderson
2017, Biogeochemistry (132) 213-231
Several decades of research in alpine ecosystems have demonstrated links among the critical zone, hydrologic response, and the fate of elevated atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition. Less research has occurred in mid-elevation forests, which may be important for retaining atmospheric N deposition. To explore the fate of N in the montane...
Integration of genetic and demographic data to assess population risk in a continuously distributed species
Bradley C. Fedy, Jeffery R. Row, Sara J. Oyler-McCance
2017, Conservation Genetics (18) 89-104
The identification and demographic assessment of biologically meaningful populations is fundamental to species’ ecology and management. Although genetic tools are used frequently to identify populations, studies often do not incorporate demographic data to understand their respective population trends. We used genetic data to define subpopulations in a continuously distributed...
Evaluating simplistic methods to understand current distributions and forecast distribution changes under climate change scenarios: An example with coypu (Myocastor coypus)
Catherine S. Jarnevich, Nicholas E. Young, Trevor R. Sheffels, Jacoby Carter, Mark D. Systma, Colin Talbert
2017, NeoBiota (32) 107-125
Invasive species provide a unique opportunity to evaluate factors controlling biogeographic distributions; we can consider introduction success as an experiment testing suitability of environmental conditions. Predicting potential distributions of spreading species is not easy, and forecasting potential distributions with changing climate is even more difficult. Using the globally invasive coypu...
Multi-year microbial source tracking study characterizing fecal contamination in an urban watershed
Rebecca N. Bushon, Amie M.G. Brady, Eric D. Christensen, Erin A. Stelzer
2017, Water Environment Research (89) 127-143
Microbiological and hydrological data were used to rank tributary stream contributions of bacteria to the Little Blue River in Independence, Missouri. Concentrations, loadings and yields of E. coli and microbial source tracking (MST) markers, were characterized during base flow and storm events in five subbasins within Independence, as well as...
