Discovering loose group movement patterns from animal trajectories
Yuwei Wang, Ze Luo, Yan Xiong, Diann J. Prosser, Scott H. Newman, John Y. Takekawa, Baoping Yan
2015, Conference Paper, 2015 IEEE 11th International Conference on e-Science
The technical advances of positioning technologies enable us to track animal movements at finer spatial and temporal scales, and further help to discover a variety of complex interactive relationships. In this paper, considering the loose gathering characteristics of the real-life groups' members during the movements, we propose two kinds of...
An overview of the National Earthquake Information Center acquisition software system, Edge/Continuous Waveform Buffer
John M. Patton, David C. Ketchum, Michelle R. Guy
2015, Open-File Report 2015-1174
This document provides an overview of the capabilities, design, and use cases of the data acquisition and archiving subsystem at the U.S. Geological Survey National Earthquake Information Center. The Edge and Continuous Waveform Buffer software supports the National Earthquake Information Center’s worldwide earthquake monitoring mission in direct station data acquisition,...
Incorporating future change into current conservation planning: Evaluating tidal saline wetland migration along the U.S. Gulf of Mexico coast under alternative sea-level rise and urbanization scenarios
Nicholas M. Enwright, Kereen T. Griffith, Michael J. Osland
2015, Data Series 969
In this study, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, quantified the potential for landward migration of tidal saline wetlands along the U.S. Gulf of Mexico coast under alternative future sea-level rise and urbanization scenarios. Our analyses focused exclusively on tidal saline wetlands (that...
Introduction to the focus section on the 2015 Gorkha, Nepal, earthquake
Susan E. Hough
2015, Seismological Research Letters (86) 1502-1505
It has long been recognized that Nepal faces high earthquake hazard, with the most recent large (Mw>7.5) events in 1833 and 1934. When the 25 April 2015Mw 7.8 Gorkha earthquake struck, it appeared initially to be a realization of worst fears. In spite of its large magnitude and proximity to the...
Exploration of the canyon-incised continental margin of the northeastern United States reveals dynamic habitats and diverse communities
Andrea Quattrini, Martha S. Nizinski, Jason Chaytor, Amanda W.J. Demopoulos, E. Brendan Roark, Scott France, Jon A. Moore, Taylor P. Heyl, Peter J. Auster, Carolyn D. Ruppel, Kelley P. Elliott, Brian R. C. Kennedy, Elizabeth A. Lobecker, Adam Skarke, Timothy M. Shank
2015, PLoS ONE (10)
The continental margin off the northeastern United States (NEUS) contains numerous, topographically complex features that increase habitat heterogeneity across the region. However, the majority of these rugged features have never been surveyed, particularly using direct observations. During summer 2013, 31 Remotely-Operated Vehicle (ROV) dives were conducted from 494 to 3271...
Spatially explicit spectral analysis of point clouds and geospatial data
Daniel D. Buscombe
2015, Computers & Geosciences (86) 92-108
The increasing use of spatially explicit analyses of high-resolution spatially distributed data (imagery and point clouds) for the purposes of characterising spatial heterogeneity in geophysical phenomena necessitates the development of custom analytical and computational tools. In recent years, such analyses have become the basis of, for example, automated texture characterisation...
Climate and streamflow characteristics for selected streamgages in eastern South Dakota, water years 1945–2013
Galen K. Hoogestraat, John F. Stamm
2015, Scientific Investigations Report 2015-5146
Upward trends in precipitation and streamflow have been observed in the northeastern Missouri River Basin during the past century, including the area of eastern South Dakota. Some of the identified upward trends were anomalously large relative to surrounding parts of the northern Great Plains. Forcing factors for streamflow trends in...
Extraction of hydrocarbons from high-maturity Marcellus Shale using supercritical carbon dioxide
Palma J. Botterell, Philip A. Candela, Wenlu Zhu, Alan J. Kaufman
2015, Energy & Fuels (29) 7897-7909
Shale is now commonly exploited as a hydrocarbon resource. Due to the high degree of geochemical and petrophysical heterogeneity both between shale reservoirs and within a single reservoir, there is a growing need to find more efficient methods of extracting petroleum compounds (crude oil, natural gas, bitumen) from potential source...
Ribosomal DNA identification of Nosema/Vairimorpha in freshwater polychaete, Manayunkia speciosa, from Oregon/California and the Laurentian Great Lakes
David M. Malakauskas, Emory C. Altman, Sarah J. Malakauskas, Suzanne M. Thiem, Donald W. Schloesser
2015, Journal of Invertebrate Pathology (132) 101-104
We examined Manayunkia speciosa individuals from the Klamath River, Oregon/California and Lake Erie, Michigan, USA for the presence of Microsporidia. We identified microsporidian spores and sequenced their SSU, ITS, and part of the LSU rDNA. Phylogenetic analysis of SSU rDNA indicated spores from both populations belonged to the Nosema/Vairimorpha clade....
Long term changes in trout numbers following channel reconstruction, instream wood placement, and livestock removal from a spring creek in the Blackfoot Basin, Montana
Ron Pierce, Craig Podner, Leslie A. Jones
2015, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (144) 184-195
To restore habitat for wild trout, Kleinschmidt Creek, a low-gradient, groundwater-dominated stream in the Blackfoot Basin, Montana, was reconstructed using natural channel design principles. Reconstruction increased stream sinuosity from a ratio of 1.1 to 1.6, decreased mean channel width from 14.5 to 2.8 m, and increased sediment transport capacity to reduce...
Tidal and seasonal variations in calving flux observed with passive seismology
T.C. Bartholomaus, Christopher F. Larsen, Michael E. West, Shad O’Neel, Erin C. Pettit, Martin Truffer
2015, Journal of Geophysical Research F: Earth Surface (120) 2318-2337
The seismic signatures of calving events, i.e., calving icequakes, offer an opportunity to examine calving variability with greater precision than is available with other methods. Here using observations from Yahtse Glacier, Alaska, we describe methods to detect, locate, and characterize calving icequakes. We combine these icequake records with a coincident,...
A simplified, data-constrained approach to estimate the permafrost carbon–climate feedback
C.D. Koven, E.A.G. Schuur, C. Schädel, T. J. Bohn, E. J. Burke, G. Chen, X. Chen, P. Ciais, G. Grosse, J.W. Harden, D.J. Hayes, G. Hugelius, Elchin E. Jafarov, G. Krinner, P. Kuhry, D.M. Lawrence, A. H. MacDougall, Sergey S. Marchenko, A. David McGuire, Susan M. Natali, D.J. Nicolsky, David Olefeldt, S. Peng, V.E. Romanovsky, Kevin M. Schaefer, J. Strauss, Claire C. Treat, M. Turetsky
2015, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences (373)
We present an approach to estimate the feedback from large-scale thawing of permafrost soils using a simplified, data-constrained model that combines three elements: soil carbon (C) maps and profiles to identify the distribution and type of C in permafrost soils; incubation experiments to quantify the rates of C lost after...
Evidence for episodic acidification effects on migrating Atlantic salmon Salmo salar smolts
John T. Kelly, Darrren T. Lerner, Michael F. O’Dea, Amy M. Regish, Michelle Y. Monette, J.P. Hawkes, Keith H. Nislow, Stephen D. McCormick
2015, Journal of Fish Biology (87) 1129-1146
Field studies were conducted to determine levels of gill aluminium as an index of acidification effects on migrating Atlantic salmon Salmo salar smolts in the north-eastern U.S.A. along mainstem river migration corridors in several major river basins. Smolts emigrating from the Connecticut River, where most (but not all) tributaries were well buffered,...
Role of ground ice dynamics and ecological feedbacks in recent ice wedge degradation and stabilization
Mark Torre Jorgenson, Mikhail Kanevskiy, Yuri Shur, Natalia Moskalenko, Dana Brown, Kimberly P. Wickland, Robert G. Striegl, Joshua C. Koch
2015, Journal of Geophysical Research F: Earth Surface (120) 2280-2297
Ground ice is abundant in the upper permafrost throughout the Arctic and fundamentally affects terrain responses to climate warming. Ice wedges, which form near the surface and are the dominant type of massive ice in the Arctic, are particularly vulnerable to warming. Yet processes controlling ice wedge degradation and stabilization...
The vulnerability of Indo-Pacific mangrove forests to sea-level rise
Catherine E. Lovelock, Donald R. Cahoon, Daniel A. Friess, Glenn R. Guntenspergen, Ken W. Krauss, Ruth Reef, Kerrylee Rogers, Megan L. Saunders, Frida Sidik, Andrew Swales, Neil Saintilan, Le Xuan Thuyen, Tran Triet
2015, Nature (526) 559-563
Sea-level rise can threaten the long-term sustainability of coastal communities and valuable ecosystems such as coral reefs, salt marshes and mangroves. Mangrove forests have the capacity to keep pace with sea-level rise and to avoid inundation through vertical accretion of sediments, which allows them to maintain wetland soil elevations suitable...
Deer Flat National Wildlife Refuge Comprehensive Conservation Plan
Lynne Koontz, Catherine M. Cullinane Thomas, Erik Larsen
2015, Report
No abstract available....
Aluminosilicate melts and glasses at 1 to 3 GPa: Temperature and pressure effects on recovered structural and density changes
S Bista, Jonathan Stebbins, William B. Hankins, Thomas W. Sisson
2015, American Mineralogist (100) 2298-2307
In the pressure range in the Earth’s mantle where many basaltic magmas are generated (1 to 3 GPa) (Stolper et al. 1981), increases in the coordination numbers of the network-forming cations in aluminosilicate melts have generally been considered to be minor, although effects on silicon and particularly on aluminum coordination...
Stable carbon isotope fractionation during bacterial acetylene fermentation: Potential for life detection in hydrocarbon-rich volatiles of icy planet(oid)s
Laurence Miller, Shaun Baesman, Ron Oremland
2015, Astrobiology (15) 977-986
We report the first study of stable carbon isotope fractionation during microbial fermentation of acetylene (C2H2) in sediments, sediment enrichments, and bacterial cultures. Kinetic isotope effects (KIEs) averaged 3.7 ± 0.5‰ for slurries prepared with sediment collected at an intertidal mudflat in San Francisco Bay and 2.7 ± 0.2‰ for a pure culture of Pelobacter sp....
Book review: Large igneous provinces
Edward A. du Bray
2015, Economic Geology (110) 1908-1910
This book presents a comprehensive compilation of all aspects of large igneous provinces (LIPs). Published in 2014, the book is now the definitive source of information on the petrogenesis of this type of globally important, voluminous magmatic activity. In the first few pages, LIPs are characterized as magmatic provinces with...
Landsat Science Team meeting: Winter 2015
Todd A. Schroeder, Thomas Loveland, Michael A. Wulder, James R. Irons
2015, The Earth Observer (27) 12-17
The summer meeting of the joint U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)–NASA Landsat Science Team (LST) was held at the USGS’s Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center July 7-9, 2015, in Sioux Falls, SD. The LST co-chairs, Tom Loveland [EROS—Senior Scientist] and Jim Irons [NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)—Landsat 8...
Growth responses of five desert plants as influenced by biological soil crusts from a temperate desert, China
Yuanming Zhang, Jayne Belnap
2015, Ecological Research (30) 1037-1045
In almost all dryland systems, biological soil crusts (biocrusts) coexist alongside herbaceous and woody vegetation, creating landscape mosaics of vegetated and biocrusted patches. Results from past studies on the interaction between biocrusts and vascular plants have been contradictory. In the Gurbantunggut desert, a large temperate desert in northwestern China, well-developed...
Density of river otters (Lontra canadensis) in relation to energy development in the Green River Basin, Wyoming
B.L. Godwin, S.E. Albeke, H.L. Bergman, Annika W. Walters, M. Ben-David
2015, Science of the Total Environment (532) 780-790
Exploration and extraction of oil and natural gas have increased in recent years and are expected to expand in the future. Reduction in water quality from energy extraction may negatively affect water supply for agriculture and urban use within catchments as well as down river. We used non-invasive genetic techniques...
Predictions of future ephemeral springtime waterbird stopover habitat availability under global change
Daniel R. Uden, Craig R. Allen, Andrew A. Bishop, Roger Grosse, Christopher F. Jorgensen, Theodore G. LaGrange, Randy G. Stutheit, Mark P. Vrtiska
2015, Ecosphere (6) 1-26
In the present period of rapid, worldwide change in climate and landuse (i.e., global change), successful biodiversity conservation warrants proactive management responses, especially for long-distance migratory species. However, the development and implementation of management strategies can be impeded by high levels of uncertainty and low levels of control over potentially...
Imaging the magmatic system of Mono Basin, California with magnetotellurics in three--dimensions
Jared R. Peacock, Margaret T. Mangan, Darcy McPhee, David A. Ponce
2015, Journal of Geophysical Research (120) 7273-7289
A three–dimensional (3D) electrical resistivity model of Mono Basin in eastern California unveils a complex subsurface filled with zones of partial melt, fluid–filled fracture networks, cold plutons, and regional faults. In 2013, 62 broadband magnetotelluric (MT) stations were collected in an array around southeastern Mono Basin from which a 3D...
In Response: Biological arguments for selecting effect sizes in ecotoxicological testing—A governmental perspective
Christopher A. Mebane
2015, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (34) 2440-2442
Criticisms of the uses of the no-observed-effect concentration (NOEC) and the lowest-observed-effect concentration (LOEC) and more generally the entire null hypothesis statistical testing scheme are hardly new or unique to the field of ecotoxicology [1-4]. Among the criticisms of...
