Comparison of climate envelope models developed using expert-selected variables versus statistical selection
Laura A. Brandt, Allison Benscoter, Rebecca G. Harvey, Carolina Speroterra, David N. Bucklin, Stephanie S. Romanach, James I. Watling, Frank J. Mazzotti
2017, Ecological Modelling (345) 10-20
Climate envelope models are widely used to describe potential future distribution of species under different climate change scenarios. It is broadly recognized that there are both strengths and limitations to using climate envelope models and that outcomes are sensitive to initial assumptions, inputs, and modeling methods Selection of predictor variables,...
Woody encroachment in northern Great Plains grasslands: Perceptions, actions, and needs
Amy J. Symstad, Sherry A. Leis
2017, Natural Areas Journal (37) 118-127
The United States Northern Great Plains (NGP) has a high potential for landscape-scale conservation, but this grassland landscape is threatened by encroachment of woody species. We surveyed NGP land managers to identify patterns in, and illustrate a broad range of, individual managers' perceptions on (1) the threat of woody encroachment...
A carbon balance model for the great dismal swamp ecosystem
Rachel Sleeter, Benjamin M. Sleeter, Brianna Williams, Dianna M. Hogan, Todd Hawbaker, Zhiliang Zhu
2017, Carbon Balance and Management (12) 1-20
BackgroundCarbon storage potential has become an important consideration for land management and planning in the United States. The ability to assess ecosystem carbon balance can help land managers understand the benefits and tradeoffs between different management strategies. This paper demonstrates an application of the Land...
In memoriam - William Toshio (Tosh) Yasutake, 1922-2016
Diane G. Elliott, James R. Winton
2017, Journal of Aquatic Animal Health (29) 57-58
William Toshio (Tosh) Yasutake, 1922-2016 passed away peacefully at home on December 12, 2016, at the age of 94. He is survived by Fumi, his wife of 66 years, as well as four children and six grandchildren. With his death, the fish health community has lost an outstanding scientist as...
Seventy-five years of vegetation treatments on public rangelands in the Great Basin of North America
David S. Pilliod, Justin L. Welty, Gordon Toevs
2017, Rangelands (39) 1-9
On the Ground Land treatments occurring over millions of hectares of public rangelands in the Great Basin over the last 75 years represent one of the largest vegetation manipulation and restoration efforts in the world.The ability to use legacy data from land treatments in adaptive management and ecological research...
Quantifying geomorphic change at ephemeral stream restoration sites using a coupled-model approach
Laura M. Norman, Joel B. Sankey, David J. Dean, Joshua J. Caster, Stephen B. DeLong, Whitney Henderson-DeLong, Jon D. Pelletier
2017, Geomorphology (283) 1-16
Rock-detention structures are used as restoration treatments to engineer ephemeral stream channels of southeast Arizona, USA, to reduce streamflow velocity, limit erosion, retain sediment, and promote surface-water infiltration. Structures are intended to aggrade incised stream channels, yet little quantified evidence of efficacy is available. The goal of this 3-year study...
Using groundwater age distributions to understand changes in methyl tert-butyl ether (MtBE) concentrations in ambient groundwater, northeastern United States
Bruce D. Lindsey, Joseph D. Ayotte, Bryant C. Jurgens, Leslie A. DeSimone
2017, Science of the Total Environment (579) 579-587
Temporal changes in methyl tert-butyl ether (MtBE) concentrations in groundwater were evaluated in the northeastern United States, an area of the nation with widespread low-level detections of MtBE based on a national survey of wells selected to represent ambient conditions. MtBE use in the U.S. peaked in 1999 and was...
Changes in the Chemistry of Groundwater Reacted with CO2: Comparison of Laboratory Results with the ZERT Field Pilot
Yousif K. Kharaka, James J. Thordsen, Atosa A. Abedini, Sarah Beers, Burt Thomas
2017, Procedia Earth and Planetary Science (17) 241-244
As part of the ZERT program, sediments from two wells at the ZERT site, located in Bozeman, Montana, USA were reacted with a solution having the composition of local groundwater. A total of 50 water samples were collected from 7 containers placed for 15 days in a glove box with...
Projected impacts of climate, urbanization, water management, and wetland restoration on waterbird habitat in California’s Central Valley
Elliott Matchett, Joseph P. Fleskes
2017, PLoS ONE (12)
The Central Valley of California is one of the most important regions for wintering waterbirds in North America despite extensive anthropogenic landscape modification and decline of historical wetlands there. Like many other mediterranean-climate ecosystems across the globe, the Central Valley has been subject to a burgeoning human population and expansion...
Age and growth comparisons of Hovsgol grayling (Thymallus nigrescens Dorogostaisky, 1923), Baikal grayling (T. baicalensis Dybowski, 1874), and lenok (Brachymystax lenok Pallas, 1773) in lentic and lotic habitats of Northern Mongolia
Pureviin Tsogtsaikhan, Budiin Mendsaikhan, Ganzorigiin Jargalmaa, Batsaikhanii Ganzorig, Brian Weidel, Christopher Filosa, Christopher Free, Talia Young, Olaf P. Jensen
2017, Journal of Applied Ichthyology (33) 108-115
Despite concern over the conservation status of many Mongolian salmonids and the importance of their ecological role in Mongolia's aquatic ecosystems, little is known about their basic biology. Hovsgol grayling (Thymallus nigrescens) is endemic to Lake Hovsgol, Mongolia and listed as endangered on the Mongolian Red List. Baikal grayling (T. baicalensis)...
The precipitation of indium at elevated pH in a stream influenced by acid mine drainage
Sarah Jane O. White, Fatima A. Hussain, Harold F. Hemond, Sarah A. Sacco, James P. Shine, Robert L. Runkel, Katherine Walton-Day, Briant A. Kimball
2017, Science of the Total Environment (574) 1484-1491
Indium is an increasingly important metal in semiconductors and electronics and has uses in important energy technologies such as photovoltaic cells and light-emitting diodes (LEDs). One significant flux of indium to the environment is from lead, zinc, copper, and tin mining and smelting, but little is known about its aqueous...
Signals of impending change
James B. Grace
2017, Nature Ecology & Evolution (1)
Society has an increasing awareness that there are finite limits to what we can expect the planet to absorb and still provide goods and services at current rates1....
Multinomial N-mixture models improve the applicability of electrofishing for developing population estimates of stream-dwelling Smallmouth Bass
Robert Mollenhauer, Shannon K. Brewer
2017, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (37) 211-224
Failure to account for variable detection across survey conditions constrains progressive stream ecology and can lead to erroneous stream fish management and conservation decisions. In addition to variable detection’s confounding long-term stream fish population trends, reliable abundance estimates across a wide range of survey conditions are fundamental to establishing species–environment...
Timescales of carbon turnover in soils with mixed crystalline mineralogies
Lesego Khomo, Susan E. Trumbore, Carleton R. Bern, Oliver A. Chadwick
2017, SOIL (3) 17-30
Organic matter–mineral associations stabilize much of the carbon (C) stored globally in soils. Metastable short-range-order (SRO) minerals such as allophane and ferrihydrite provide one mechanism for long-term stabilization of organic matter in young soil. However, in soils with few SRO minerals and a predominance of crystalline aluminosilicate or Fe (and...
Uranium delivery and uptake in a montane wetland, north-central Colorado, USA
R. Randall Schumann, Robert A. Zielinski, James K. Otton, Michael P. Pantea, William H. Orem
2017, Applied Geochemistry (78) 363-379
Comprehensive sampling of peat, underlying lakebed sediments, and coexisting waters of a naturally uraniferous montane wetland are combined with hydrologic measurements to define the important controls on uranium (U) supply and uptake. The major source of U to the wetland is groundwater flowing through locally fractured and faulted granite gneiss...
Susceptibility and antibody response of the laboratory model zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata) to West Nile Virus
Erik K. Hofmeister, Melissa Lund, Valerie I. Shearn-Bochsler, Christopher N. Balakrishnan
2017, PLoS ONE (12)
Since the introduction of West Nile virus (WNV) into North America in 1999 a number of passerine bird species have been found to play a role in the amplification of the virus. Arbovirus surveillance, observational studies and experimental studies have implicated passerine birds (songbirds, e.g., crows, American robins, house sparrows,...
Spatial and temporal patterns of dissolved organic matter quantity and quality in the Mississippi River Basin, 1997–2013
Sarah M. Stackpoole, Edward G. Stets, David W. Clow, Douglas A. Burns, George R. Aiken, Brent T. Aulenbach, Irena F. Creed, Robert M. Hirsch, Hjalmar Laudon, Brian A. Pellerin, Robert G. Striegl
2017, Hydrological Processes (31) 902-915
Recent studies have found insignificant or decreasing trends in time-series dissolved organic carbon (DOC) datasets, questioning the assumption that long-term DOC concentrations in surface waters are increasing in response to anthropogenic forcing, including climate change, land use, and atmospheric acid deposition. We used the weighted regressions on time, discharge, and...
Behavioral connectivity among bighorn sheep suggests potential for disease spread
Nathan Borg, Michael S. Mitchell, Paul M. Lukacs, Curt M. Mack, Lisette P. Waits, Paul R. Krausman
2017, Journal of Wildlife Management (81) 38-45
Connectivity is important for population persistence and can reduce the potential for inbreeding depression. Connectivity between populations can also facilitate disease transmission; respiratory diseases are one of the most important factors affecting populations of bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis). The mechanisms of connectivity in populations of bighorn sheep likely have implications...
Disentangling the complexities of how legumes and their symbionts regulate plant nitrogen access and storage
Sasha C. Reed
2017, New Phytologist (213) 478-480
Nitrogen (N) availability strongly influences the structure and function of ecosystems (e.g. Vitousek & Howarth, 1991), but only a relatively small number of microbial groups have the ability to convert the N2 in our atmosphere into biologically available forms.This process,...
Extreme geomagnetic storms: Probabilistic forecasts and their uncertainties
Pete Riley, Jeffrey J. Love
2017, Space Weather (15) 53-64
Extreme space weather events are low-frequency, high-risk phenomena. Estimating their rates of occurrence, as well as their associated uncertainties, is difficult. In this study, we derive statistical estimates and uncertainties for the occurrence rate of an extreme geomagnetic storm on the scale of the Carrington event (or worse) occurring within...
Beaver colony density trends on the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest, 1987 – 2013
Christine Ribic, Deahn M. Donner, Albert J. Beck, David J. Rugg, Sue Reinecke, Dan Eklund
2017, PLoS ONE (12) 1-15
The North American beaver (Castor canadensis) is a managed species in the United States. In northern Wisconsin, as part of the state-wide beaver management program, the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest removes beavers from targeted trout streams on U.S. Forest Service lands. However, the success of this management program has not been...
Differences in flood hazard projections in Europe – their causes and consequences for decision making
Z. W. Kundzewicz, V. Krysanova, R. Dankers, Y. Hirabayashi, S. Kanae, F. F. Hattermann, S. Huang, Paul C.D. Milly, M. Stoffel, P.P.J. Driessen, P. Matczak, P. Quevauviller, H.-J. Schellnhuber
2017, Hydrological Sciences Journal (62) 1-14
This paper interprets differences in flood hazard projections over Europe and identifies likely sources of discrepancy. Further, it discusses potential implications of these differences for flood risk reduction and adaptation to climate change. The discrepancy in flood hazard projections raises caution, especially among decision makers in charge of water resources...
Impacts of mesquite distribution on seasonal space use of lesser prairie-chickens
Matthew A. Boggie, Cody R. Strong, Daniel Lusk, Scott A. Carleton, William R. Gould, Randy L. Howard, Clay T. Nichols, Michael J. Falkowski, Christian A. Hagen
2017, Rangeland Ecology and Management (70) 68-77
Loss of native grasslands by anthropogenic disturbances has reduced availability and connectivity of habitat for many grassland species. A primary threat to contiguous grasslands is the encroachment of woody vegetation, which is spurred by disturbances that take on many forms from energy development, fire suppression, and grazing. These disturbances are...
Reconstruction of spatio-temporal temperature from sparse historical records using robust probabilistic principal component regression
John Tipton, Mevin Hooten, Simon Goring
2017, Advances in Statistical Climatology, Meteorology and Oceanography (3) 1-16
Scientific records of temperature and precipitation have been kept for several hundred years, but for many areas, only a shorter record exists. To understand climate change, there is a need for rigorous statistical reconstructions of the paleoclimate using proxy data. Paleoclimate proxy data are often sparse, noisy, indirect measurements of...
Investigating impacts of oil and gas development on greater sage-grouse
Adam Green, Cameron L. Aldridge, Michael S. O’Donnell
2017, Journal of Wildlife Management (81) 46-57
The sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) ecosystem is one of the largest ecosystems in western North America providing habitat for species found nowhere else. Sagebrush habitats have experienced dramatic declines since the 1950s, mostly due to anthropogenic disturbances. The greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) is a sagebrush-obligate species that has experienced population declines over...
