Ecology and control of an introduced population of Southern Watersnakes (Nerodia fasciata) in southern California
Robert Reed, Brian D Todd, Oliver J. Miano, Mark Canfield, Robert N. Fisher, Louanne McMartin
2016, Herpetologica (72) 130-136
Native to the southeastern United States, Southern Watersnakes (Nerodia fasciata) are known from two sites in California, but their ecological impacts are poorly understood. We investigated the ecology of Southern Watersnakes in Machado Lake, Harbor City, Los Angeles County, California, including an assessment of control opportunities. We captured 306 watersnakes...
What do we really know about the role of microorganisms in iron sulfide mineral formation?
Aude A. Picard, Amy Gartman, Peter R. Girguis
2016, Frontiers in Earth Science (4)
Iron sulfide mineralization in low-temperature systems is a result of biotic and abiotic processes, though the delineation between these two modes of formation is not always straightforward. Here we review the role of microorganisms in the precipitation of extracellular iron sulfide minerals. We summarize the evidence that links sulfur-metabolizing microorganisms...
Emerging coral diseases in Kāne'ohe Bay, O'ahu, Hawai'i (USA): two major disease outbreaks of acute Montipora white syndrome
Greta S. Aeby, Sean Callahan, Evelyn F. Cox, Christina M. Runyon, Ashley Smith, Frank G. Stanton, Blake Ushijima, Thierry M. Work
2016, Diseases of Aquatic Organisms (119) 189-198
In March 2010 and January 2012, we documented 2 widespread and severe coral disease outbreaks on reefs throughout Kāne‘ohe Bay, Hawai‘i (USA). The disease, acute Montipora white syndrome (aMWS), manifested as acute and progressive tissue loss on the common reef coral M. capitata. Rapid visual surveys in 2010 revealed 338...
Map visualization of groundwater withdrawals at the sub-basin scale
Daniel J. Goode
2016, Hydrogeology Journal (24) 1057-1065
A simple method is proposed to visualize the magnitude of groundwater withdrawals from wells relative to user-defined water-resource metrics. The map is solely an illustration of the withdrawal magnitudes, spatially centered on wells—it is not capture zones or source areas contributing recharge to wells. Common practice is to...
Book review: New concepts and discoveries: the Geological Society of Nevada 2015 Symposium Proceedings
Warren C. Day
2016, Economic Geology (111) 543-546
The Nevada Geological Society has a long history of convening meetings and workshops focused on the geology and metallogeny of the western United States relevant to the mineral exploration and mining community across the Great Basin. One outgrowth of the Geological Society of Nevada’s 2015 Symposium is a two-volume set,...
Dimmuborgir: a rootless shield complex in northern Iceland
Alasdair Skelton, Erik Sturkell, Martin Jakobsson, Draupnir Einarsson, Elin Tollefsen, Tim R. Orr
2016, Bulletin of Volcanology (78)
The origin of Dimmuborgir, a shield-like volcanic structure within the Younger Laxá lava flow field near Lake Mývatn, in northern Iceland, has long been questioned. New airborne laser mapping (light detection and ranging (LiDAR)), combined with ground-penetrating radar results and a detailed field study, suggests that Dimmuborgir is a complex...
Future land-use related water demand in California
Tamara Wilson, Benjamin M. Sleeter, D. Richard Cameron
2016, Environmental Research Letters (11)
Water shortages in California are a growing concern amidst ongoing drought, earlier spring snowmelt, projected future climate warming, and currently mandated water use restrictions. Increases in population and land use in coming decades will place additional pressure on already limited available water supplies. We used a state-and-transition simulation model to...
Small but tough: What can ecophysiology of croaking gourami Trichopsis vittatus (Cuvier 1831) tell us about invasiveness of non-native fishes in Florida?
Pamela J. Schofield, Jessica Schulte
2016, NeoBiota (28) 51-65
Trichopsis vittata (Cuvier, 1831) is a small, freshwater gourami (Fam: Osphronemidae) native to southeast Asia. It was first detected in Florida in the 1970s and seems to have persisted for decades in a small area. In this study, we documented T. <span...
Tools for automated acoustic monitoring within the R package monitoR
Jonathan Katz, Sasha D. Hafner, Therese Donovan
2016, Bioacoustics: The International Journal of Animal Sound and its Recording (25) 197-210
The R package monitoR contains tools for managing an acoustic-monitoring program including survey metadata, template creation and manipulation, automated detection and results management. These tools are scalable for use with small projects as well as larger long-term projects and those with expansive spatial extents. Here, we describe typical workflow when...
Optical properties of dissolved organic matter (DOM): Effects of biological and photolytic degradation
Angela Hansen, Tamara E. C. Kraus, Brian A. Pellerin, Jacob Fleck, Bryan D. Downing, Brian A. Bergamaschi
2016, Limnology and Oceanography (61) 1015-1032
Advances in spectroscopic techniques have led to an increase in the use of optical properties (absorbance and fluorescence) to assess dissolved organic matter (DOM) composition and infer sources and processing. However, little information is available to assess the impact of biological and photolytic processing on the optical properties of original...
Number of genera as a potential screening tool for assessing quality of bryophyte communities in Ohio wetlands
William Schumacher, Martin A. Stapanian, Barbara Andreas, Brian Gara
2016, Wetlands (36) 771-778
Bryophytes (mosses, liverworts, and hornworts) have numerous advantages as indicators of environmental quality. A quality assessment index for bryophyte species assemblages (BQAI) was developed for the State of Ohio, USA. Reliable identification of bryophytes to species often requires considerable training, practice, and time. In contrast, reliable identification to genera for...
Differences in coastal subsidence in southern Oregon (USA) during at least six prehistoric megathrust earthquakes
Yvonne Milker, Alan R. Nelson, Benjamin P. Horton, Simon E. Engelhart, Lee-Ann Bradley, Robert C. Witter
2016, Quaternary Science Reviews (142) 143-163
Stratigraphic, sedimentologic (including CT 3D X-ray tomography scans), foraminiferal, and radiocarbon analyses show that at least six of seven abrupt peat-to-mud contacts in cores from a tidal marsh at Talbot Creek (South Slough, Coos Bay), record sudden subsidence (relative sea-level rise) during great megathrust earthquakes at the Cascadia subduction zone....
Mixed stock analysis of Lake Michigan's Lake Whitefish Coregonus clupeaformis commercial fishery
Ryan Andvik, Brian L. Sloss, Justin A. VanDeHey, Randall M. Claramunt, Scott P. Hansen, Daniel A. Isermann
2016, Journal of Great Lakes Research (42) 660-667
Lake whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis) support the primary commercial fishery in Lake Michigan. Discrete genetic stocks of lake whitefish have been identified and tagging data suggest stocks are mixed throughout much of the year. Our objectives were to determine if (1) differential stock harvest occurs in the commercial catch, (2) spatial...
Geologic and geochemical results from boreholes drilled in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, 2007 and 2008
Cheryl Jaworowski, David Susong, Henry Heasler, David Mencin, Wade Johnson, Rick Conrey, Jennipher Von Stauffenberg
2016, Open-File Report 2016-1028
Between 2007 and 2008, seven Earthscope Plate Boundary Observatory (PBO) boreholes ranging in depth from about 200 to 800 feet deep were drilled in and adjacent to the Yellowstone caldera in Yellowstone National Park, for the purpose of installing volcano monitoring instrumentation. Five of the seven boreholes were equipped...
Reevaluation of the Crooked Ridge River- Early Pleistocene (ca. 2 Ma) age and origin of the White Mesa Alluvium, northeastern Arizona
Richard Hereford, Sue Beard, William R. Dickinson, Karl E. Karlstrom, Matthew T. Heizler, Laura J. Crossey, Lee Amoroso, Kyle House, Mark Pecha
2016, Geosphere (12) 768-789
Essential features of the previously named and described Miocene Crooked Ridge River in northeastern Arizona (USA) are reexamined using new geologic and geochronologic data. Previously it was proposed that Cenozoic alluvium at Crooked Ridge and southern White Mesa was pre–early Miocene, the product of a large, vigorous late Paleogene river...
Seasonal changes in atmospheric noise levels and the annual variation in pigeon homing performance
Jonathan T. Hagstrum, Hugh P. McIsaac, Douglas P. Drob
2016, Journal of Comparative Physiology A (202) 413-424
Repeated releases of experienced homing pigeons from single sites were conducted between 1972 and 1974 near Cornell University in upstate New York and between 1982 and 1983 near the University of Pittsburgh in western Pennsylvania, USA. No annual variation in homing performance was observed at these sites in eastern North...
Patch occupancy of stream fauna across a land cover gradient in the southern Appalachians, USA
John R. Frisch, James T. Peterson, Kristen K. Cecala, John C. Maerz, C. Rhett Jackson, Ted L. Gragson, Catherine M. Pringle
2016, Hydrobiologia (773) 163-175
We modeled patch occupancy to examine factors that best predicted the prevalence of four functionally important focal stream consumers (Tallaperla spp., Cambarus spp.,Pleurocera proxima, and Cottus bairdi) among 37 reaches within the Little Tennessee River basin of the southern Appalachian Mountains, USA. We compared 34 models...
Where the wild things are: A research agenda for studying wildlife-wilderness relationship
Michael K. Schwartz, Beth Hahn, Blake R. Hossack
2016, Journal of Forestry (114) 311-319
We explore the connection between US designated wilderness areas and wildlife with the goal of establishing a research agenda for better understanding this complex relationship. Our research agenda has two components. The first, “wildlife for wilderness,” considers the impact of wildlife on wilderness character. Whereas studies show that wildlife is...
The plant phenology monitoring design for the National Ecological Observatory Network
Sarah C Elmendorf, Katherine D. Jones, Benjamin I. Cook, Jeffrey M. Diez, Carolyn A.F. Enquist, Rebecca A. Hufft, Matthew O. Jones, Susan J. Mazer, Abraham J. Miller-Rushing, David J. P. Moore, Mark D. Schwartz, Jake F. Weltzin
2016, Ecosphere (7)
Phenology is an integrative science that comprises the study of recurring biological activities or events. In an era of rapidly changing climate, the relationship between the timing of those events and environmental cues such as temperature, snowmelt, water availability or day length are of particular interest. This article provides an...
Somatic growth dynamics of West Atlantic hawksbill sea turtles: a spatio-temporal perspective
Karen A. Bjorndal, Milani Chaloupka, Vincent S. Saba, Carlos E. Diez, Robert P. van Dam, Barry H. Krueger, Julia A. Horrocks, Armando J.B. Santos, Claudio Bellini, Maria A.G. Marcovaldi, Mabel Nava, Sue Willis, Brendan J. Godley, Shannon Gore, Lucy A. Hawkes, Andrew McGowan, Matthew J. Witt, Thomas B. Stringell, Amdeep Sanghera, Peter B. Richardson, Annette C. Broderick, Quinton Phillips, Marta C. Calosso, John A.B. Claydon, Janice Blumenthal, Felix Moncada, Gonzalo Nodarse, Yosvani Medina, Stephen G. Dunbar, Lawrence D. Wood, Cynthia J. Lagueux, Cathi L. Campbell, Anne B. Meylan, Peter A. Meylan, Virginia R. Burns Perez, Robin A. Coleman, Samantha Strindberg, Vicente Guzman-H, Kristen M. Hart, Michael S. Cherkiss, Zandy Hillis-Starr, Ian Lundgren, Ralf H. Boulon Jr., Stephen Connett, Mark E. Outerbridge, Alan B. Bolten
2016, Ecosphere (7) e01279
Somatic growth dynamics are an integrated response to environmental conditions. Hawksbill sea turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata) are long-lived, major consumers in coral reef habitats that move over broad geographic areas (hundreds to thousands of kilometers). We evaluated spatio-temporal effects on hawksbill growth dynamics over a 33-yr period and 24 study sites...
Monitoring plant tissue nitrogen isotopes to assess nearshore inputs of nitrogen to Lake Crescent, Olympic National Park, Washington
Stephen E. Cox, Patrick W. Moran, Raegan L. Huffman, Steven C. Fradkin
2016, Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5054
Mats of filamentous-periphytic algae present in some nearshore areas of Lake Crescent, Olympic National Park, Washington, may indicate early stages of eutrophication from nutrient enrichment of an otherwise highly oligotrophic lake. Natural abundance ratios of stable isotopes of nitrogen (δ15N) measured in plant tissue growing in nearshore areas of...
Yucca brevifolia fruit production, predispersal seed predation, and fruit removal by rodents during two years of contrasting reproduction
Mark I. Borchert, Lesley DeFalco
2016, American Journal of Botany (103) 830-836
PREMISE OF THE STUDY: The distribution of Yucca brevifolia, a keystone species of the Mojave Desert, may contract with climate change, yet reproduction and dispersal are poorly understood. We tracked reproduction, seed predation, and fruit dispersal for two years and discuss whether Y. brevifolia is a masting species. METHODS: Fruit...
The National Wind Erosion Research Network: Building a standardized long-term data resource for aeolian research, modeling and land management
Nicholas P. Webb, Jeffrey E. Herrick, Justin W. Van Zee, Ericha M. Courtright, Ted M Hugenholtz, Ted M Zobeck, Gregory S. Okin, Thomas E Barchyn, Benjamin J Billings, Robert A. Boyd, Scott D Clingan, Brad F Cooper, Michael C. Duniway, Justin D. Derner, Fred A Fox, Kris M. Havstad, Philip Heilman, Valerie LaPlante, Noel A Ludwig, Loretta J Metz, Mark A Nearing, M Lee Norfleet, Frederick B Pierson, Matt A Sanderson, Brenton S Sharrat, Jean L Steiner, John Tatarko, Negussie H Tedela, David Todelo, Robert S Unnasch, R Scott Van Pelt, Larry Wagner
2016, Aeolian Research (22) 23-36
The National Wind Erosion Research Network was established in 2014 as a collaborative effort led by the United States Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service and Natural Resources Conservation Service, and the United States Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management, to address the need for a long-term research...
Physiological comparisons of plasma and tissue metrics of selected inland and coastal steelhead kelts.
Zachary L. Penney, Christine M. Moffitt, Bryan Jones, Brian Marston
2016, Environmental Biology of Fishes (99) 487-498
The physiological status of migrating steelhead kelts (Oncorhynchus mykiss) from the Situk River, Alaska, and two tributaries of the Clearwater River, Idaho, was evaluated to explore potential differences in post-spawning survival related to energy reserves. Blood plasma samples were analyzed for metrics related to nutritional and osmotic status,...
Immunoglobulin detection in wild birds: Effectiveness of three secondary anti-avian IgY antibodies in direct ELISAs in 41 avian species
Carol A. Fassbinder-Orth, Travis E. Wilcoxen, Tiffany Tran, Raoul K. Boughton, Jeanne M. Fair, Erik K. Hofmeister, Jennifer L. Grindstaff, Jen C. Owen
2016, Methods in Ecology and Evolution (7) 1174-1181
1.Immunological reagents for wild, non-model species are limited or often non-existent for many species. 2. In this study, we compare the reactivity of a new anti-passerine IgY secondary antibody with existing secondary antibodies developed for use with birds. Samples from 41 species from the following six avian orders were analysed: Anseriformes...
