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MAHLI (Mars Hand Lens Imager) is a 2-megapixel, Bayer pattern color CCD camera with a macro lens mounted on a rotatable turret at the end of the 2-meters-long robotic arm aboard the Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity. The camera includes white and longwave ultraviolet LEDs to illuminate targets at night....

In this study we first summarize the constraints that on the Cascadia subduction thrust, there is a 70 km gap downdip between the megathrust seismogenic zone and the Episodic Tremor and Slip (ETS) that lies further landward; there is not a continuous transition from unstable to conditionally stable sliding. Seismic rupture...

We conducted a survey of an endangered and cryptic forest grouse, the capercaillie Tetrao urogallus, based on droppings collected on two sampling occasions in eight forest fragments in central Switzerland in early spring 2009. We used genetic analyses to sex and individually identify birds. We estimated sex-dependent detection probabilities and population...

Local adaptation influences plant species’ responses to climate change and their performance in ecological restoration. Fine-scale physiological or phenological adaptations that direct demographic processes may drive intraspecific variability when baseline environmental conditions change. Landscape genomics characterize adaptive differentiation by identifying environmental drivers of adaptive genetic variability and mapping the associated...

Individual great earthquakes are posited to release the elastic strain energy that has accumulated over centuries by the gradual movement of tectonic plates1, <a id="ref-link-3" title="Savage, J. C. A dislocation...

This report contains a descriptive model of sediment-hosted stratabound copper (SSC) deposits that supersedes the model of Cox and others (2003). This model is for use in assessments of mineral resource potential. SSC deposits are the second most important sources of copper in the world behind porphyry copper deposits. Around...

Most of the seismicity in the Los Angeles Basin (LA Basin) occurs at depth below the sediments and is caused by transpressional tectonics related to the big bend in the San Andreas fault. However, some of the seismicity could be associated with fluid extraction or injection in oil fields that...

Over the past two decades, there have been several initiatives to create volunteer‐based seismic networks. The Personal Seismic Network, proposed around 1990, used a short‐period seismograph to record earthquake waveforms using existing phone lines (Cranswick and Banfill, 1990; Cranswicket al., 1993). NetQuakes (Luetgert et al.,...

Immediately following the Mw 7.2 Darfield, New Zealand, earthquake, over 180 Quake‐Catcher Network (QCN) low‐cost micro‐electro‐mechanical systems accelerometers were deployed in the Canterbury region. Using data recorded by this dense network from 2010 to 2013, we significantly improved the QCN rapid magnitude estimation relationship. The previous scaling relationship (Lawrence...

State-and-transition simulation modeling relies on knowledge of vegetation composition and structure (states) that describe community conditions, mechanistic feedbacks such as fire that can affect vegetation establishment, and ecological processes that drive community conditions as well as the transitions between these states. However, as the need for modeling larger and more...

A soil geochemical study in northern California was done to investigate the role that weathering and transport play in the regional distribution and mobility of geogenic Cr and Ni, which are both potentially toxic and carcinogenic. These elements are enriched in ultramafic rocks (primarily serpentinite) and the soils derived from...

Identifying links between micro-habitat selection and wildlife reproduction is imperative to population persistence and recovery. This information is particularly important for landscape species such as greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus; sage-grouse). Although this species has been widely studied, because environmental factors can affect sage-grouse populations, local and regional studies are crucial...

Prior to 2010, mountain lions (Puma concolor) have rarely been documented in Marin County, California. Although there are reports of sightings of mountain lions or observations of mountain lion sign, most have not been verified by photographs or physical samples. Beginning in 2010, we conducted a pilot study of mountain lions...

A combination of petrographic observations, laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS), and statistical data exploration was used in this study to determine compositional variations in hydrothermal and igneous magnetite from five porphyry Cu–Mo and skarn deposits in the southwestern United States, and igneous magnetite from the unmineralized, granodioritic...

The Global Invasive Species Information Network (GISIN) was conceptualized in 2004 to aggregate and disseminate invasive species data in a standardized way. A decade later the GISIN community has implemented a data portal and three of six GISIN data aggregation models in the GISIN data exchange Protocol, including invasive species...

No abstract available....

The demand for timely monetary estimates of the economic value of nonmarket ecosystem goods and services has steadily increased over the last few decades. This article describes the use of benefit transfer to generate monetary value estimates of ecosystem services specifically. The article provides guidance for conducting such benefit transfers...

Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), including the mass-produced component of plastics, bisphenol A (BPA) are widely prevalent in aquatic and terrestrial habitats. Many aquatic species, such as fish, amphibians, aquatic reptiles and mammals, are exposed daily to high concentrations of BPA and ethinyl estradiol (EE2), estrogen in birth control pills. In this review, we will predominantly...

Climate change and associated changes in streamflow may alter riparian habitats substantially in coming decades. Riparian restoration provides opportunities to respond proactively to projected climate change effects, increase riparian ecosystem resilience to climate change, and simultaneously address effects of both climate change and other human disturbances. However, climate change...

The Hawaiian islands are an extremely isolated oceanic archipelago, and their fauna has long served as models of dispersal in island biogeography. While molecular data have recently been applied to investigate the timing and origin of dispersal events for several animal groups including birds, insects, and snails, these questions have...

Drought and heat-induced tree mortality is accelerating in many forest biomes as a consequence of a warming climate, resulting in a threat to global forests unlike any in recorded history. Forests store the majority of terrestrial carbon, thus their loss may have significant and sustained impacts on the global carbon...

“Unconventional reservoirs” for carbon dioxide (CO2) storage—that is, geologic reservoirs in which changes to the rock trap CO2 and therefore contribute to CO2 storage—including coal, shale, basalt, and ultramafic rocks, were the focus of a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) workshop held March 28 and 29, 2012, at the National Conservation Training Center...

Many climate-related hydrologic variables in New England have changed in the past century, and many are expected to change during the next century. It is important to understand and monitor these changes because they can affect human water supply, hydroelectric power generation, transportation infrastructure, and stream and riparian ecology. This...

 Accumulating evidence, although still strongly spatially aliased, indicates that although remote dynamic triggering of small-to-moderate (Mw<5) earthquakes can occur in all tectonic settings, transtensional stress regimes with normal and subsidiary strike-slip faulting seem to be more susceptible to dynamic triggering than transpressional regimes with reverse and subsidiary strike-slip faulting. Analysis...

In 2007, the California Ocean Protection Council initiated the California Seafloor Mapping Program (CSMP), designed to create a comprehensive seafloor map of high-resolution bathymetry, marine benthic habitats, and geology within the 3-nautical-mile limit of California’s State Waters. The CSMP approach is to create highly detailed seafloor maps through collection, integration,...