Effectiveness of vegetation buffers surrounding playa wetlands at contaminant and sediment amelioration
David A. Haukos, Lacrecia A. Johnson, Loren M. Smith, Scott T. McMurry
2016, Journal of Environmental Management (181) 552-562
Playa wetlands, the dominant hydrological feature of the semi-arid U.S. High Plains providing critical ecosystem services, are being lost and degraded due to anthropogenic alterations of the short-grass prairie landscape. The primary process contributing to the loss of playas is filling of the wetland through accumulation of soil eroded and...
Metabarcoding of fecal samples to determine herbivore diets: A case study of the endangered Pacific pocket mouse
Deborah D. Iwanowicz, Amy G. Vandergast, Robert S. Cornman, Cynthia R. Adams, Joshua R. Kohn, Robert N. Fisher, Cheryl S. Brehme
2016, PLoS ONE (11) 1-23
Understanding the diet of an endangered species illuminates the animal’s ecology, habitat requirements, and conservation needs. However, direct observation of diet can be difficult, particularly for small, nocturnal animals such as the Pacific pocket mouse (Heteromyidae: Perognathus longimembris pacificus). Very little is known of the dietary habits of this federally endangered...
Assessing the role of climate and resource management on groundwater dependent ecosystem changes in arid environments with the Landsat archive
Justin Huntington, Kenneth C. McGwire, Charles Morton, Keirith A. Snyder, Sarah Peterson, Tyler Erickson, Richard G. Niswonger, Rosemary W.H. Carroll, Guy Smith, Richard Allen
2016, Remote Sensing of Environment (185) 186-197
Groundwater dependent ecosystems (GDEs) rely on near-surface groundwater. These systems are receiving more attention with rising air temperature, prolonged drought, and where groundwater pumping captures natural groundwater discharge for anthropogenic use. Phreatophyte shrublands, meadows, and riparian areas are GDEs that provide critical habitat for many sensitive species, especially in arid...
Evaluation of fisher (Pekania pennanti) restoration in Olympic National Park and the Olympic Recovery Area: 2015 final annual progress report
Patricia J. Happe, Kurt J. Jenkins, Thomas J. Kay, Kristie Pilgrim, Michael K. Schwartz, Jeffrey C. Lewis, Keith B. Aubry
2016, Natural Resource Report NPS/OLYM/NRR—2016/1274
With the translocation and release of 90 fishers (Pekania pennanti) from British Columbia to Olympic National Park during 2008–2010, the National Park Service (NPS) and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) accomplished the first phase of fisher restoration in Washington State. Beginning in 2013, we initiated a new research...
Response of imperiled Okaloosa darters to stream restoration
David B. Reeves, William B. Tate, Howard L. Jelks, Frank Jordan
2016, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (36) 1375-1385
The Okaloosa Darter Etheostoma okaloosae is a small percid endemic to six stream drainages in northwestern Florida. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed Okaloosa Darters as endangered in 1973 and downlisted them to threatened in 2011 because of habitat improvements and increasing abundance across much of their geographic range....
A glacier runoff extension to the Precipitation Runoff Modeling System
Ashley E. Van Beusekom, Roland J. Viger
2016, Journal of Geophysical Research F: Earth Surface (121) 2001-2021
A module to simulate glacier runoff, PRMSglacier, was added to PRMS (Precipitation Runoff Modeling System), a distributed-parameter, physical-process hydrological simulation code. The extension does not require extensive on-glacier measurements or computational expense but still relies on physical principles over empirical relations as much as is feasible while maintaining model usability....
Calibrated acoustic emission system records M -3.5 to M -8 events generated on a saw-cut granite sample
Gregory C. McLaskey, David A. Lockner
2016, Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering (49) 4527-4536
Acoustic emission (AE) analyses have been used for decades for rock mechanics testing, but because AE systems are not typically calibrated, the absolute sizes of dynamic microcrack growth and other physical processes responsible for the generation of AEs are poorly constrained. We describe a calibration technique for the AE recording...
Responses of a 58-story RC dual core shear wall and outrigger frame building inferred from two earthquakes
Mehmet Çelebi
2016, Earthquake Spectra (32) 2449-2471
Responses of a dual core shear-wall and outrigger-framed 58-story building recorded during the Mw6.0 Napa earthquake of 24 August 2014 and the Mw3.8 Berkeley earthquake of 20 October 2011 are used to identify its dynamic characteristics and behavior. Fundamental frequencies are 0.28 Hz (NS), 0.25 Hz (EW), and 0.43 Hz...
Bedrock morphology and structure, upper Santa Cruz Basin, south-central Arizona, with transient electromagnetic survey data
Mark W. Bultman, William R. Page
2016, Open-File Report 2016-1152
The upper Santa Cruz Basin is an important groundwater basin containing the regional aquifer for the city of Nogales, Arizona. This report provides data and interpretations of data aimed at better understanding the bedrock morphology and structure of the upper Santa Cruz Basin study area which encompasses the Rio Rico...
Time-lapse gravity data for monitoring and modeling artificial recharge through a thick unsaturated zone
Jeffrey R. Kennedy, Ty P.A. Ferre, Benjamin Creutzfeldt
2016, Water Resources Research (52) 7244-7261
Groundwater-level measurements in monitoring wells or piezometers are the most common, and often the only, hydrologic measurements made at artificial recharge facilities. Measurements of gravity change over time provide an additional source of information about changes in groundwater storage, infiltration, and for model calibration. We demonstrate that for an artificial...
Persistence and diversity of directional landscape connectivity improves biomass pulsing in expanding and contracting wetlands
Simeon Yurek, Donald L. DeAngelis, Joel C. Trexler, Stephen Klassen, Laurel G. Larsen
2016, Ecological Complexity (28) 1-11
In flood-pulsed ecosystems, hydrology and landscape structure mediate transfers of energy up the food chain by expanding and contracting in area, enabling spatial expansion and growth of fish populations during rising water levels, and subsequent concentration during the drying phase. Connectivity of flooded areas is dynamic as waters rise and...
Bayesian cross-validation for model evaluation and selection, with application to the North American Breeding Bird Survey
William A. Link, John R. Sauer
2016, Ecology (97) 1746-1758
The analysis of ecological data has changed in two important ways over the last 15 years. The development and easy availability of Bayesian computational methods has allowed and encouraged the fitting of complex hierarchical models. At the same time, there has been increasing emphasis on acknowledging and accounting for model uncertainty....
Uncertainty in biological monitoring: a framework for data collection and analysis to account for multiple sources of sampling bias
Viviana Ruiz-Gutierrez, Melvin B. Hooten, Evan H. Campbell Grant
2016, Methods in Ecology and Evolution (7) 900-909
Biological monitoring programmes are increasingly relying upon large volumes of citizen-science data to improve the scope and spatial coverage of information, challenging the scientific community to develop design and model-based approaches to improve inference.Recent statistical models in ecology have been developed to accommodate false-negative errors, although current...
Nuclear and mitochondrial DNA analyses of golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos canadensis) from three areas in western North America; initial results and conservation implications
Erica H. Craig, Jennifer R. Adams, Lisette P. Waits, Mark R. Fuller, Diana M. Whittington
2016, PLoS ONE (11)
Understanding the genetics of a population is a critical component of developing conservation strategies. We used archived tissue samples from golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos canadensis) in three geographic regions of western North America to conduct a preliminary study of the genetics of the North American subspecies, and to provide data...
A downstream voyage with mercury
Gary Heinz
2016, Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology (97) 591-592
Retrospective essay for the Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology.As I look back on my paper, “Effects of Low Dietary Levels of Methyl Mercury on Mallard Reproduction,” published in 1974 in the Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, a thought sticks in my mind. I realize just how much...
Sedimentation survey of Lago La Plata, Toa Alta, Puerto Rico, March–April 2015
Julieta Gómez-Fragoso
2016, Scientific Investigations Map 3369
IntroductionLago La Plata is operated by the Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority (PRASA) and is part of the San Juan Metropolitan Water District. The reservoir serves a population of about 425,000 people. During 2013 the reservoir provided 0.307 million cubic meters (Mm3 ) of water per day (about 81...
Differential heating in the Indian Ocean differentially modulates precipitation in the Ganges and Brahmaputra basins
Md Shahriar Pervez, Geoffrey M. Henebry
2016, Remote Sensing (8) 1-16
Indo-Pacific sea surface temperature dynamics play a prominent role in Asian summer monsoon variability. Two interactive climate modes of the Indo-Pacific—the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Indian Ocean dipole mode—modulate the amount of precipitation over India, in addition to precipitation over Africa, Indonesia, and Australia. However, this modulation is...
Is consolidation drainage an indirect mechanism for increased abundance of cattail in northern prairie wetlands?
Mark T. Wiltermuth, Michael J. Anteau
2016, Wetlands Ecology and Management (24) 533-544
In the Prairie Pothole Region of North America, disturbances to wetlands that disrupt water-level fluctuations in response to wet–dry climatic conditions have the potential to alter natural vegetative communities in favor of species that proliferate in stable environments, such as cattail (Typha spp.). We evaluated the effect of water-level dynamics...
Three ingredients for Improved global aftershock forecasts: Tectonic region, time-dependent catalog incompleteness, and inter-sequence variability
Morgan T. Page, Nicholas van der Elst, Jeanne L. Hardebeck, Karen Felzer, Andrew J. Michael
2016, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (106) 2290-2301
Following a large earthquake, seismic hazard can be orders of magnitude higher than the long‐term average as a result of aftershock triggering. Because of this heightened hazard, emergency managers and the public demand rapid, authoritative, and reliable aftershock forecasts. In the past, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) aftershock forecasts following large...
Large along-strike variations in the onset of Subandean exhumation: Implications for Central Andean orogenic growth
Richard O. Lease, T.A. Ehlers, E. Enkelmann
2016, Earth and Planetary Science Letters (451) 62-76
Plate tectonics drives mountain building in general, but the space-time pattern and style of deformation is influenced by how climate, geodynamics, and basement structure modify the orogenic wedge. Growth of the Subandean thrust belt, which lies at the boundary between the arid, high-elevation Central Andean Plateau and its humid, low-elevation...
Spatiotemporal variability of inorganic nutrients during wastewater effluent dominated streamflow conditions in Indian Creek, Johnson County, Kansas, 2012–15
Guy M. Foster, Jennifer L. Graham, Thomas J. Williams, Lindsey R. King
2016, Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5147
Nutrients, particularly nitrogen and phosphorus, are a leading cause of water-quality impairment in Kansas and the Nation. Indian Creek is one of the most urban drainage basins in Johnson County, Kansas, and environmental and biological conditions are affected by contaminants from point and other urban sources. The Johnson County Douglas...
Recurrent hybridization and recent origin obscure phylogenetic relationships within the ‘white-headed’ gull (Larus sp.) complex
Sarah A. Sonsthagen, Robert E. Wilson, Terry Chesser, Jean-Marc Pons, Pierre-Andre Crochet, Amy Driscoll, Carla Dove
2016, Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution (103) 41-54
Species complexes that have undergone recent radiations are often characterized by extensive allele sharing due to recent ancestry and (or) introgressive hybridization. This can result in discordant evolutionary histories of genes and heterogeneous genomes, making delineating species limits difficult. Here we examine the phylogenetic relationships among a complex group of...
Continental rupture and the creation of new crust in the Salton Trough rift, southern California and northern Mexico: Results from the Salton Seismic Imaging Project
Liang Han, John A. Hole, Joann M. Stock, Gary S. Fuis, Annie Kell, Neal W. Driscoll, Graham M. Kent, Michael J. Rymer, Antonio Gonzalez-Fernandez, Octavio Aburto-Oropeza
2016, Journal of Geophysical Research (121) 7469-7489
A refraction and wide-angle reflection seismic profile along the axis of the Salton Trough, California and Mexico, was analyzed to constrain crustal and upper mantle seismic velocity structure during active continental rifting. From the northern Salton Sea to the southern Imperial Valley, the crust is 17-18 km thick and approximately...
Loads of nitrate, phosphorus, and total suspended solids from Indiana watersheds
Aubrey R. Bunch
2016, Proceedings of the Indiana Academy of Science (125) 137-150
Transport of excess nutrients and total suspended solids (TSS) such as sediment by freshwater systems has led to degradation of aquatic ecosystems around the world. Nutrient and TSS loads from Midwestern states to the Mississippi River are a major contributor to the Gulf of Mexico Hypoxic Zone, an area of...
Sedimentary exhalative (sedex) zinc-lead-silver deposit model
Poul Emsbo, Robert R. Seal, George N. Breit, Sharon F. Diehl, Anjana K. Shah
2016, Scientific Investigations Report 2010-5070-N
This report draws on previous syntheses and basic research studies of sedimentary exhalative (sedex) deposits to arrive at the defining criteria, both descriptive and genetic, for sedex-type deposits. Studies of the tectonic, sedimentary, and fluid evolution of modern and ancient sedimentary basins have also been used to select defining criteria....
