Bivalve grazing can shape phytoplankton communities
Lisa Lucas, James E. Cloern, Janet K. Thompson, Mark T. Stacey, Jeffrey K. Koseff
2016, Frontiers in Marine Science (3)
The ability of bivalve filter feeders to limit phytoplankton biomass in shallow waters is well-documented, but the role of bivalves in shaping phytoplankton communities is not. The coupled effect of bivalve grazing at the sediment-water interface and sinking of phytoplankton cells to that bottom filtration zone could influence the relative...
Spatial capture-recapture: a promising method for analyzing data collected using artificial cover objects
Chris Sutherland, David Munoz, David A.W. Miller, Evan H. Campbell Grant
2016, Herpetologica (72) 6-12
Spatial capture–recapture (SCR) is a relatively recent development in ecological statistics that provides a spatial context for estimating abundance and space use patterns, and improves inference about absolute population density. SCR has been applied to individual encounter data collected noninvasively using methods such as camera traps, hair snares, and scat...
Simulating future water temperatures in the North Santiam River, Oregon
Norman L. Buccola, John C. Risley, Stewart A. Rounds
2016, Journal of Hydrology (535) 318-330
A previously calibrated two-dimensional hydrodynamic and water-quality model (CE-QUAL-W2) of Detroit Lake in western Oregon was used in conjunction with inflows derived from Precipitation-Runoff Modeling System (PRMS) hydrologic models to examine in-lake and downstream water temperature effects under future climate conditions. Current and hypothetical operations and structures at Detroit Dam...
Fishing diseased abalone to promote yield and conservation
Tal Ben-Horin, Kevin D. Lafferty, Gorka Bidegain, Hunter S. Lenihan
2016, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (371)
Past theoretical models suggest fishing disease-impacted stocks can reduce parasite transmission, but this is a good management strategy only when the exploitation required to reduce transmission does not overfish the stock. We applied this concept to a red abalone fishery so impacted by an infectious disease (withering syndrome) that stock...
Testing the suitability of geologic frameworks for extrapolating hydraulic properties across regional scales
Benjamin B. Mirus, Keith J. Halford, Donald S. Sweetkind, Joseph M. Fenelon
2016, Hydrogeology Journal (24) 1133-1146
The suitability of geologic frameworks for extrapolating hydraulic conductivity (K) to length scales commensurate with hydraulic data is difficult to assess. A novel method is presented for evaluating assumed relations between K and geologic interpretations for regional-scale groundwater modeling. The approach relies on simultaneous interpretation of...
Book review: Ducks, geese, and swans of North America
Robert E. Wilson
2016, Prairie Naturalist (47) 55-55
As pointed out in the book’s introduction by Richard McCabe, very few books deserve being called a classic. First published in 1942, the various editions of Ducks, Geese, and Swans of North America—authored by Francis K. Kortright (1942), Frank C. Bellrose (1976, 1981), and this new edition by Guy Baldassarre...
Highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses and generation of novel reassortants,United States, 2014–2015
Dong-Hun Lee, Justin Bahl, Mia Kim Torchetti, Mary Lea Killian, S. Ip, David E Swayne
2016, Emerging Infectious Diseases (22) 1283-1285
Asian highly pathogenic avian influenza A(H5N8) viruses spread into North America in 2014 during autumn bird migration. Complete genome sequencing and phylogenetic analysis of 32 H5 viruses identified novel H5N1, H5N2, and H5N8 viruses that emerged in late 2014 through reassortment with North American low-pathogenicity avian influenza viruses....
Cumulative drought and land-use impacts on perennial vegetation across a North American dryland region
Seth M. Munson, A. Lexine Long, Cynthia Wallace, Robert H. Webb
2016, Applied Vegetation Science (19) 430-441
Question The decline and loss of perennial vegetation in dryland ecosystems due to global change pressures can alter ecosystem properties and initiate land degradation processes. We tracked changes of perennial vegetation using remote sensing to address the question of how prolonged drought and land-use intensification have affected perennial...
A review of precipitation and temperature control on seedling emergence and establishment for ponderosa and lodgepole pine forest regeneration
Matthew Petrie, A.M. Wildeman, John B. Bradford, R.M. Hubbard, W.K. Lauenroth
2016, Forest Ecology and Management (361) 328-338
The persistence of ponderosa pine and lodgepole pine forests in the 21st century depends to a large extent on how seedling emergence and establishment are influenced by driving climate and environmental variables, which largely govern forest regeneration. We surveyed the literature, and identified 96 publications that reported data on dependent...
Spatial variation in risk and consequence of Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans introduction in the USA
Katherine L. D. Richgels, Robin E. Russell, M. J. Adams, C. LeAnn White, Evan H. Campbell Grant
2016, Royal Society Open Science (3)
A newly identified fungal pathogen, Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal), is responsible for mass mortality events and severe population declines in European salamanders. The eastern USA has the highest diversity of salamanders in the world and the introduction of this pathogen is likely to be devastating. Although data are inevitably limited for new pathogens,...
Post-Hurricane Irene coastal oblique aerial photographs collected from Ocracoke Inlet, North Carolina, to Virginia Beach, Virginia, August 30-31, 2011
Karen L. M. Morgan, M. Dennis Krohn
2016, Data Series 979
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), as part of the National Assessment of Coastal Change Hazards project, conducts baseline and storm-response photography missions to document and understand the changes in vulnerability of the Nation's coasts to extreme storms (Morgan, 2009). On August 30-31, 2011, the USGS conducted an oblique aerial...
Developing integrated methods to address complex resource and environmental issues
Kathleen S. Smith, Jeffrey D. Phillips, Anne E. McCafferty, Roger N. Clark, editor(s)
2016, Circular 1413
IntroductionThis circular provides an overview of selected activities that were conducted within the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Integrated Methods Development Project, an interdisciplinary project designed to develop new tools and conduct innovative research requiring integration of geologic, geophysical, geochemical, and remote-sensing expertise. The project was supported by the USGS Mineral...
Reconstruction of late Holocene climate based on tree growth and mechanistic hierarchical models
John Tipton, Mevin Hooten, Neil Pederson, Martin Tingley, Daniel Bishop
2016, Environmetrics (27) 42-54
Reconstruction of pre-instrumental, late Holocene climate is important for understanding how climate has changed in the past and how climate might change in the future. Statistical prediction of paleoclimate from tree ring widths is challenging because tree ring widths are a one-dimensional summary of annual growth that represents a multi-dimensional...
High-resolution seismic reflection imaging of growth folding and shallow faults beneath the Southern Puget Lowland, Washington State
Jackson K. Odum, William J. Stephenson, Thomas L. Pratt, Richard J. Blakely
2016, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (100) 1710-1723
Marine seismic reflection data from southern Puget Sound, Washington, were collected to investigate the nature of shallow structures associated with the Tacoma fault zone and the Olympia structure. Growth folding and probable Holocene surface deformation were imaged within the Tacoma fault zone beneath Case and Carr Inlets. Shallow faults near...
Wetting and drying of soil in response to precipitation: Data analysis, modeling, and forecasting
Aniruddha Basak, Chinmay Kulkarni, Kevin M. Schmidt, Ole Mengshoel
2016, Conference Paper
This paper investigates methods to analyze and forecast soil moisture time series. We extend an existing Antecedent Water Index (AWI) model, which expresses soil moisture as a function of time and rainfall. Unfortunately, the existing AWI model does not forecast effectively for time periods beyond a few hours. To overcome...
Ecology and conservation of Lesser Prairie-Chickens in sand shinnery oak prairies
Blake A. Grisham, Jennifer C. Zavaleta, Adam C. Behney, Philip K. Borsdorf, Duane R. Lucia, Clint W. Boal, David A. Haukos
2016, Book chapter, Ecology and conservation of Lesser Prairie-Chickens
Sand shinnery oak (Quercus havardii) prairies are unique ecosystems endemic to sandy soils of eastern New Mexico, northwestern Texas, and western Oklahoma; the historic and current distribution of the Lesser Prairie-Chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) overlaps these prairie systems. Lesser Prairie-Chicken populations in sand shinnery oak prairies of the Southern Great Plains...
Optimizing available network resources to address questions in environmental biogeochemistry
Eve-Lyn Hinckley, Suzanne Andersen, Jill Baron, Peter Blanken, Gordon Bonan, William Bowman, Sarah Elmendorf, Noah Fierer, Andrew Fox, Keli Goodman, Katherine Jones, Danica Lombardozzi, Claire Lunch, Jason Neff, Michael SanClements, Katherine Suding, Will Wieder
2016, BioScience (66) 317-326
An increasing number of network observatories have been established globally to collect long-term biogeochemical data at multiple spatial and temporal scales. Although many outstanding questions in biogeochemistry would benefit from network science, the ability of the earth- and environmental-sciences community to conduct synthesis studies within and across networks...
Demographic response of northern spotted owls to barred owl removal
V. Lowell Diller, Keith A. Hamm, Desiree A Early, David W Lamphear, Katie M. Dugger, Charles B. Yackulic, Carl J. Schwarz, Peter C. Carlson, Trent L. McDonald
2016, Journal of Wildlife Management (80) 691-707
Federally listed as threatened in 1990 primarily because of habitat loss, the northern spotted owl (Strix occidentalis caurina) has continued to decline despite conservation efforts resulting in forested habitat being reserved throughout its range. Recently, there is growing evidence the congeneric invasive barred owl (Strix varia) may be...
Mountains, glaciers, and mines—The geological story of the Blue River valley, Colorado, and its surrounding mountains
Karl S. Kellogg, Bruce Bryant, Ralph R. Shroba
2016, Circular 1400
This report describes, in a nontechnical style, the geologic history and mining activity in the Blue River region of Colorado, which includes all of Summit County. The geologic story begins with the formation of ancient basement rocks, as old as about 1700 million years, and continues with the deposition of...
Baseline glucocorticoids are drivers of body mass gain in a diving seabird
Holly Hennin, Alicia Berlin, Oliver P. Love
2016, Ecology and Evolution (6) 1702-1711
Life-history trade-offs are influenced by variation in individual state, with individuals in better condition often completing life-history stages with greater success. Although resource accrual significantly impacts key life-history decisions such as the timing of reproduction, little is known about the underlying mechanisms driving resource accumulation. Baseline corticosterone (CORT, the primary...
Development of a bioenergetics model for the threespine stickleback Gasterosteus aculeatus
Rachel A. Hovel, David A. Beauchamp, Adam G. Hansen, Mark H. Sorel
2016, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (144) 1311-1321
The Threespine Stickleback Gasterosteus aculeatus is widely distributed across northern hemisphere ecosystems, has ecological influence as an abundant planktivore, and is commonly used as a model organism, but the species lacks a comprehensive model to describe bioenergetic performance in response to varying environmental or ecological conditions. This study parameterized a bioenergetics model...
Population connectivity and genetic structure of burbot (Lota lota) populations in the Wind River Basin, Wyoming
Zachary E. Underwood, Elizabeth G. Mandeville, Annika W. Walters
2016, Hydrobiologia (765) 329-342
Burbot (Lota lota) occur in the Wind River Basin in central Wyoming, USA, at the southwestern extreme of the species’ native range in North America. The most stable and successful of these populations occur in six glacially carved mountain lakes on three different tributary streams and one large...
Spatial and temporal trends of drought effects in a heterogeneous semi-arid forest ecosystem
Timothy J. Assal, Patrick J. Anderson, Jason Sibold
2016, Forest Ecology and Management (365) 137-151
Drought has long been recognized as a driving mechanism in the forests of western North America and drought-induced mortality has been documented across genera in recent years. Given the frequency of these events are expected to increase in the future, understanding patterns of mortality and plant response to severe drought...
Normalized burn ratios link fire severity with patterns of avian occurrence
Eli T. Rose, Theodore R. Simons, Rob Klein, Alexa McKerrow
2016, Landscape Ecology (31) 1537-1550
ContextRemotely sensed differenced normalized burn ratios (DNBR) provide an index of fire severity across the footprint of a fire. We asked whether this index was useful for explaining patterns of bird occurrence within fire adapted xeric pine-oak forests of the southern Appalachian Mountains.<h5...
Body size and condition influence migration timing of juvenile Arctic grayling
Kurt C. Heim, Mark S. Wipfli, Matthew S. Whitman, Andrew C. Seitz
2016, Ecology of Freshwater Fish (25) 156-166
Freshwater fishes utilising seasonally available habitats within annual migratory circuits time movements out of such habitats with changing hydrology, although individual attributes of fish may also mediate the behavioural response to environmental conditions. We tagged juvenile Arctic grayling in a seasonally flowing stream on the Arctic Coastal Plain in Alaska...
