Multi-year tracing of spatial and temporal dynamics of post-fire aeolian sediment transport using rare earth elements provide insights into grassland management
William Burger, Robert Van Pelt, David E. Grandstaff, Guan Wang, Temuulen T. Sankey, Junran Li, Joel B. Sankey, Sujith Ravi
2023, JGR Earth Surface (128)
Aeolian sediment transport occurs as a function of, and with feedback to ecosystem changes and disturbances. Many desert grasslands are undergoing rapid changes in vegetation, including the encroachment of woody plants, which alters fire regimes and in turn can change the spatial and temporal patterns of aeolian sediment transport. We...
Evidence for a high-level porphyritic intrusion below the Sunnyside epithermal vein deposit, Colorado
Mario A Guzman, Thomas Monecke, T. James Reynolds, Thomas J. Casadevall
2023, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the 17th SGA biennial meeting
High-temperature quartz veins were identified in drill core at ~600 m below the Sunnyside epithermal base and pre-cious metal deposit in southwestern Colorado. The veins consist of early anhedral quartz that shows a bluish ca-thodoluminescence emission and hosts heterogenous silicate melt inclusions. The early quartz is overgrown by a later...
The Mount Weld rare earth element deposit, Western Australia: A carbonatite-derived laterite
Philip Verplanck, Heather A. Lowers, Adam Boehlke, Jay Michael Thompson, Ganesh Bhat, Cameron Mark Mercer
2023, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the 17th SGA biennial meeting
Carbonatite-hosted rare earth element (REE) deposits are the primary source of the world’s light REEs and have the potential to be a source of heavy REEs. The Mount Weld REE deposit in Western Australia is hosted in a lateritic sequence that reflects supergene enrichment of the underlying carbonatite complex. Similar...
Broad-scale assessment of methylmercury in adult amphibians
Brian J. Tornabene, Blake R. Hossack, Brian J. Halstead, Collin A. Eagles-Smith, Michael J. Adams, Adam R. Backlin, Adrianne Brand, Colleen Emery, Robert N. Fisher, Jillian Elizabeth Fleming, Brad Glorioso, Daniel A. Grear, Evan H. Campbell Grant, Patrick M. Kleeman, David Miller, Erin L. Muths, Christopher Pearl, Jennifer Rowe, Caitlin Teresa Rumrill, J. Hardin Waddle, Megan Winzeler, Kelly L. Smalling
2023, Environmental Science and Technology (57) 17511-17521
Mercury (Hg) is a toxic contaminant that has been mobilized and distributed worldwide and is a threat to many wildlife species. Amphibians are facing unprecedented global declines due to many threats including contaminants. While the biphasic life history of many amphibians creates a potential nexus for methylmercury (MeHg) exposure in...
Stream hydrology and a pulse subsidy shape patterns of fish foraging
Kevin Fitzgerald, J. Ryan Bellmore, Jason B. Fellman, Matthew L. H. Cheng, Claire Delbecq, Jeffrey A. Falke
2023, Journal of Animal Ecology (92) 2386-2398
Pulsed subsidy events create ephemeral fluxes of hyper-abundant resources that can shape annual patterns of consumption and growth for recipient consumers. However, environmental conditions strongly affect local resource availability for much of the year, and can heavily impact consumer foraging and growth patterns prior to pulsed subsidy events. Thus,...
Using high-frequency monitoring data to quantify city-wide suspended-sediment load and evaluate TMDL goals
Samuel Adam Miller, James S. Webber, John D. Jastram, Marcus F Aguilar
2023, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment (195)
Excess sediment is a common reason water bodies in the USA become listed as impaired resulting in total maximum daily loads (TMDL) that require municipalities to invest millions of dollars annually on management practices aimed at reducing suspended-sediment loads (SSLs), yet monitoring data are rarely used...
Landslide initiation thresholds in data-sparse regions: Application to landslide early warning criteria in Sitka, Alaska, USA
Annette Patton, Lisa Luna, Josh J. Roering, Aaron Jacobs, Oliver Korup, Benjamin B. Mirus
2023, Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences (23) 3261-3284
Probabilistic models to inform landslide early warning systems often rely on rainfall totals observed during past events with landslides. However, these models are generally developed for broad regions using large catalogs, with dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of landslide occurrences. This study evaluates strategies for training landslide forecasting models with...
High potential but low achievement: Frequent disturbance constrains the light use efficiency of river ecosystems
Audrey Thellman, Philip Savoy, Emily S. Bernhardt
2023, Ecosphere (14)
We rarely consider light limitation in ecosystem productivity, yet light limitation is a major constraint on river autotrophy. Because the light that reaches benthic autotrophs must first pass through terrestrial vegetation and an overlying water column that can be loaded with sediments or colored organic material, there is strong selection...
High-frequency variability of carbon dioxide fluxes in tidal water over a temperate salt marsh
Shuzhen Song, Zhaohui Aleck Wang, Kevin D. Kroeger, Meagan J. Eagle, Sophie N. Chu, Jianzhong Ge
2023, Limnology & Oceanography (68) 2108-2125
Existing analyses of salt marsh carbon budgets rarely quantify carbon loss as CO2 through the air–water interface in inundated marshes. This study estimates the variability of partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2) and air–water CO2 fluxes over summer and fall of 2014 and 2015 using high-frequency measurements of tidal water pCO2 in a salt marsh of...
Mapping methane reduction potential of tidal wetland restoration in the United States
James Holmquist, Meagan J. Eagle, Rebecca Molinari, Sydney K. Nick, Liana Stachowicz, Kevin D. Kroeger
2023, Communications Earth & Environment (4)
Coastal wetlands can emit excess methane in cases where they are impounded and artificially freshened by structures that impede tidal exchange. We provide a new assessment of coastal methane reduction opportunities for the contiguous United States by combining multiple publicly available map layers, reassessing greenhouse gas emissions datasets, and applying...
Striped bass exploitation in tailwater habitats of east-central Oklahoma
Alex Vaisvil, Daniel Shoup, Shannon K. Brewer
2023, Cooperator Science Series FWS/CSS-152-2023
Striped Bass (Morone saxatilis) is naturally anadromous, but a few land-locked populations have been documented that are self-sustaining, including fish in the Arkansas River, Oklahoma. This rare population is the source of brood stock for the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation hatcheries and is an important sportfish stock. Striped Bass...
Interactions among rainfall, fire, forbs and non-native grasses predict occupancy dynamics for the endangered Pacific pocket mouse (Perognathus longimembris pacificus) in a Mediterranean-type ecosystem
Cheryl S. Brehme, Sarah Kay Thomsen, Devin T. Adsit-Morris, Robert N. Fisher
2023, Global Ecology and Conservation (47)
It is important to understand species-habitat relationships to implement effective adaptive management for rare species. However, it can be challenging to assess habitat associations and their relationships to abiotic stressors in dynamic habitats without the insights that can be gained from long-term monitoring. We...
Stable isotope constraints on the source of ore fluids for the Hicks Dome REE+Y-HFSE-fluorspar deposit
Julia A. McIntosh, Craig A. Johnson, Allen K. Andersen, Albert H. Hofstra
2023, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the 17th SGA biennial meeting
Hicks Dome is comprised of coarse crystalline Mississippi Valley Type deposits at shallow levels and an enigmatic, fine-grained fluorite, rare earth elements, Y, high field strength elements, Be, and Ba rich deposit at deeper levels. Phyllosilicates from a lamprophyre dike and a breccia from two Hicks Dome drill cores were...
Testing the hierarchy of predictability in grassland restoration across a gradient of environmental severity
Diana Bertuol-Garcia, Emma Ladouceur, Lars A. Brudvig, Daniel C. Laughlin, Seth M. Munson, Michael F. Curran, Kirk W. Davies, Lauren N. Svejcar, Nancy Shackelford
2023, Ecological Applications (33)
Ecological restoration is critical for recovering degraded ecosystems but is challenged by variable success and low predictability. Understanding which outcomes are more predictable and less variable following restoration can improve restoration effectiveness. Recent theory asserts that the predictability of outcomes would follow an order from most to least predictable from...
Fecal metabarcoding of the endangered Pacific pocket mouse (Perognathus longimembris pacificus) reveals a diverse and forb rich diet that reflects local habitat availability
Amy G. Vandergast, Cheryl S. Brehme, Deborah D. Iwanowicz, Robert S. Cornman, Devin T. Adsit-Morris, Robert N. Fisher
2023, Ecology and Evolution (13)
Information on diet breadth and preference can assist in understanding links between food resources and population growth and inform habitat restoration for rare herbivores. We assessed the diet of the endangered Pacific pocket mouse using metabarcoding of fecal samples and compared it to plant...
Mangrove forests and climate change: Impacts and interactions
Daniel A. Friess, Luzhen Chen, Nicole Cormier, Ken Krauss, Catherine E. Lovelock, Jacqueline L. Raw, Kerrylee Rogers, Neil Saintilan, Frida Sidik
Michael J. Kennish, Hans W. Paerl, Joseph Crosswell, editor(s)
2023, Book chapter, Climate Change and Estuaries
The position of mangrove forests in the dynamic intertidal zone means that they are expected to be heavily impacted by climate change. Much focus is put on mangroves and their response to sea-level rise, but this ecosystem is exposed to a much broader range of climate change stressors, including increased...
A nitrifier-enriched microbial community contributes to the degradation of environmental DNA
Rachelle Elaine Beattie, Caren C. Helbing, Jacob J. Imbery, Katy E. Klymus, Jonathan Lopez Duran, Cathy A. Richter, Anita A. Thambirajah, Nathan Thompson, Thea M. Edwards
2023, Environmental DNA (5) 1473-1483
Environmental DNA (eDNA) surveys are a promising alternative to traditional monitoring of invasive species, rare species, and biodiversity. Detecting organism-specific eDNA reduces the need to collect physical specimens for population estimates, and the high sensitivity of eDNA assays may improve detection of rare or cryptic species. However, correlating estimated concentrations...
USGS installs 2022 high-water markers to provide flood information
Daniel W. Armstrong
2023, Newsletter
Historic flooding on June 12-13, 2022 occurred in the Gallatin, Absaroka and Beartooth Mountains of Montana and Wyoming, near Yellowstone National Park. The flooding was initiated by rainstorms that produced between 1-5 inches of rain on top of an above-average snowpack, causing the snow to melt faster and rush...
Macroscale analyses suggest invasive plant impacts depend more on the composition of invading plants than on environmental context
Evelyn M. Beaury, Helen Sofaer, Regan Early, Ian Pearse, Dana M. Blumenthal, Jeffrey Corbin, Jeffrey M. Diez, Jeffrey Dukes, David Barnett, Ines Ibanez, Laís Petri, Montserrat Vilà, Bethany A. Bradley
2023, Global Ecology and Biogeography (23) 1964-1976
AimNative biodiversity is threatened by the spread of non-native invasive species. Many studies demonstrate that invasions reduce local biodiversity but we lack an understanding of how impacts vary across environments at the macroscale. Using ~11,500 vegetation surveys from ecosystems across the United States, we quantified how the...
Genetic structure of the Silver Chub indicates distinctiveness of Lake Erie population
Ahmed Elbassiouny, Joao Pedro Fontenelle, Patrick M. Kocovsky, Nicholas E. Mandrak, Nathan R Lovejoy
2023, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (43) 1180-1189
ObjectiveSilver Chub Macrhybopsis storeriana is a small riverine minnow endemic to North American fresh waters. Its range extends from the southern USA to southcentral Canada; the latter includes a rare lacustrine population in Lake Erie. Anthropogenic activities pose an immediate threat to several Silver Chub populations, currently categorized from...
Mechanisms of water-rock interaction and implications for remediating flooded mine workings elucidated from environmental tracers, stable isotopes, and rare earth elements
Connor P. Newman, Katherine Walton-Day, Robert L. Runkel, Richard Wilkin
2023, Applied Geochemistry (157)
Contamination from acid mine drainage affects ecosystems and usability of groundwater for domestic and municipal purposes. The Captain Jack Superfund Site outside of Ward, Boulder County, Colorado, USA, hosts a draining mine adit that was remediated through emplacement of a hydraulic bulkhead to preclude acid mine drainage from entering...
Conservation decision support for Silver Chub habitat in Lake Erie
James E. McKenna Jr.
2023, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (43) 1151-1165
ObjectiveConservation and restoration of aquatic species is difficult, especially for rare species, because their habitats are typically disturbed, obscuring the natural ability of the habitat to support each species. The Lake Erie population of Silver Chub Macrhybopsis storeriana struggles to sustain itself in a habitat disturbed by a wide...
Why are larger fish farther upstream? Testing multiple hypotheses using Silver Chub in two Midwestern United States riverscapes
Joshuah S. Perkin, Patrick M. Kocovsky, Zachary D Steffensmeier, Keith B. Gido
2023, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (43) 1225-1245
ObjectiveThree competing hypotheses might explain the widely documented intrapopulation larger-fish-upstream phenomenon. The age-phased recruitment hypothesis posits that fish spawn downstream and move upstream as they age and grow, the static population with growth and mortality gradients hypothesis posits that fish spawn throughout a riverscape and growth is...
Urban stream restorations increase floodplain soil carbon and nutrient retention along a chronosequence
Katrina Nicole Napora, Gregory E. Noe, Changwoo Ahn, Meghan Q.N. Fellows
2023, Ecological Engineering (195)
Stream restoration is a common management practice to meet regulatory or voluntary efforts to improve water quality via nutrient and carbon (C) retention, including in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. However, most restoration projects have few quantifiable measures of project success, no standard metrics, and rarely collect pre-restoration data. Storage of...
Contemporary record and photographs of the rarely seen and poorly known Mona Blindsnake, Antillotyphlops monensis (Schmidt, 1926), with comments on its ecology and conservation
Danielle Rivera, Jan P. Zegarra, Cielo E. Figuerola-Hernandez, Nahira Arocho-Hernandez, Nathan J. Hostetter, Jaime A. Collazo, Rayna C. Bell
2023, Herpetology Notes (16) 915-918
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