Modeling hydraulic and sediment transport processes in white sturgeon spawning habitat on the Kootenai River, Idaho
Richard R. McDonald, Jonathan M. Nelson, Vaughn Paragamian, Gary J. Barton
2017, Journal of Hydraulic Engineering (136) 1077-1092
The Kootenai River white sturgeon currently spawn (2005) in an 18-kilometer reach of the Kootenai River, Idaho. Since completion of Libby Dam upstream from the spawning reach, there has been only one successful year of recruitment of juvenile fish. Where successful in other rivers, white sturgeon spawn over clean coarse...
The removal kinetics of dissolved organic matter and the optical clarity of groundwater
Francis H. Chapelle, Yuan Shen, Eric W. Strom, Ronald Benner
2016, Hydrogeology Journal (24) 1413-1422
Concentrations of dissolved organic matter (DOM) and ultraviolet/visible light absorbance decrease systematically as groundwater moves through the unsaturated zones overlying aquifers and along flowpaths within aquifers. These changes occur over distances of tens of meters (m) implying rapid removal kinetics of the chromophoric DOM that imparts color to groundwater. A...
Downstream passage and impact of turbine shutdowns on survival of silver American Eels at five hydroelectric dams on the Shenandoah River
Sheila Eyler, Stuart A. Welsh, David R. Smith, Mary Rockey
2016, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (145) 964-976
Hydroelectric dams impact the downstream migrations of silver American Eels Anguilla rostrata via migratory delays and turbine mortality. A radiotelemetry study of American Eels was conducted to determine the impacts of five run-of-the-river hydroelectric dams located over a 195-km stretch of the Shenandoah River, Virginia–West Virginia, during fall 2007–summer 2010....
Use of multiple age tracers to estimate groundwater residence times and long-term recharge rates in arid southern Oman
Th. Muller, K. Osenbruck, G. Strauch, S. Pavetich, K.-S. Al-Mashaikhi, C. Herb, S. Merchel, G. Rugel, W. Aeschbach, Ward E. Sanford
2016, Applied Geochemistry (74) 67-83
Multiple age tracers were measured to estimate groundwater residence times in the regional aquifer system underlying southwestern Oman. This area, known as the Najd, is one of the most arid areas in the world and is planned to be the main agricultural center of the Sultanate of Oman in the...
Nature vs. nurture: Evidence for social learning of conflict behaviour in grizzly bears
Andrea T. Morehouse, Tabitha A. Graves, Nathaniel Mikle, Mark S. Boyce
2016, PLoS ONE (11)
The propensity for a grizzly bear to develop conflict behaviours might be a result of social learning between mothers and cubs, genetic inheritance, or both learning and inheritance. Using non-invasive genetic sampling, we collected grizzly bear hair samples during 2011–2014 across southwestern Alberta, Canada. We targeted private agricultural lands for...
Genetic status and conservation of Westslope Cutthroat Trout in Glacier National Park
Clint C. Muhlfeld, Vincent S. D'Angelo, Christopher C. Downs, John D. Powell, Stephen J. Amish, Gordon Luikart, Ryan Kovach, Matthew Boyer, Steven T. Kalinowski
2016, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (145) 1093-1109
Invasive hybridization is one of the greatest threats to the persistence of Westslope Cutthroat Trout Oncorhynchus clarkii lewisi. Large protected areas, where nonhybridized populations are interconnected and express historical life history and genetic diversity, provide some of the last ecological and evolutionary strongholds for conserving this species. Here, we describe the genetic status...
Genetic structure and viability selection in the golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos), a vagile raptor with a Holarctic distribution
Jacqueline M. Doyle, Todd E. Katzner, Gary Roemer, James W. Cain III, Brian Millsap, Carol McIntyre, Sarah A. Sonsthagen, Nadia B. Fernandez, Maria Wheeler, Zafer Bulut, Peter Bloom, J. Andrew DeWoody
2016, Conservation Genetics (17) 1307-1322
Molecular markers can reveal interesting aspects of organismal ecology and evolution, especially when surveyed in rare or elusive species. Herein, we provide a preliminary assessment of golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) population structure in North America using novel single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). These SNPs included one molecular sexing marker,...
Effects of wind energy generation and white-nose syndrome on the viability of the Indiana bat
Richard A. Erickson, Wayne E. Thogmartin, James E. Diffendorfer, Robin E. Russell, Jennifer A. Szymanski
2016, PeerJ 1-19
Wind energy generation holds the potential to adversely affect wildlife populations. Species-wide effects are difficult to study and few, if any, studies examine effects of wind energy generation on any species across its entire range. One species that may be affected by wind energy generation is the endangered Indiana bat...
Bald Eagle nestling mortality associated with Argas radiatus and Argas ricei tick infestation and successful management with nest removal in Arizona, USA
Anne Justice-Allen, Kathy Orr, Krysten L. Schuler, Kyle McCarty, Kenneth Jacobson, Carol U. Meteyer
2016, Journal of Wildlife Diseases (52) 940-944
Eight Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) nestlings heavily infested with larval ticks were found in or under a nest near the confluence of the Verde and Salt rivers in Arizona in 2009-11. The 8-12-wk-old nestlings were slow to respond to stimuli and exhibited generalized muscle weakness or paresis of the pelvic...
Spatial and temporal heterogeneity of infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus in Pacific Northwest salmonids
Rachel Breyta, Allison Black, John Kaufman, Gael Kurath
2016, Infection, Genetics and Evolution (45) 347-358
The aquatic rhaboviral pathogen infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus (IHNV) causes acute disease in juvenile fish of a number of populations of Pacific salmonid species. Heavily managed in both marine and freshwater environments, these fish species are cultured during the juvenile stage in freshwater conservation hatcheries, where IHNV is one of...
Large-scale recovery of an endangered amphibian despite ongoing exposure to multiple stressors
Roland A. Knapp, Gary M. Fellers, Patrick M. Kleeman, David A. W. Miller, Vance T. Vrendenburg, Erica Bree Rosenblum, Cheryl J. Briggs
2016, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (113) 11889-11894
Amphibians are one of the most threatened animal groups, with 32% of species at risk for extinction. Given this imperiled status, is the disappearance of a large fraction of the Earth’s amphibians inevitable, or are some declining species more resilient than is generally assumed? We address this question in a...
A cytosolic carbonic anhydrase molecular switch occurs in the gills of metamorphic sea lamprey
D. Ferreira-Martins, Stephen D. McCormick, A. Campos, M. Lopes-Marques, H. Osorio, J. Coimbra, L.F.C. Castro, Jonthan M Wilson
2016, Scientific Reports (6) 1-11
Carbonic anhydrase plays a key role in CO2 transport, acid-base and ion regulation and metabolic processes in vertebrates. While several carbonic anhydrase isoforms have been identified in numerous vertebrate species, basal lineages such as the cyclostomes have remained largely unexamined. Here we investigate the repertoire of cytoplasmic carbonic anhydrases in...
Seismic‐hazard forecast for 2016 including induced and natural earthquakes in the central and eastern United States
Mark D. Petersen, Charles Mueller, Morgan P. Moschetti, Susan M. Hoover, Andrea L. Llenos, William L. Ellsworth, Andrew J. Michael, Justin L. Rubinstein, Arthur F. McGarr, Kenneth S. Rukstales
2016, Seismological Research Letters (87) 1327-1341
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has produced a one‐year (2016) probabilistic seismic‐hazard assessment for the central and eastern United States (CEUS) that includes contributions from both induced and natural earthquakes that are constructed with probabilistic methods using alternative data and inputs. This hazard assessment builds on our 2016 final model...
Are we working towards global research priorities for management and conservation of sea turtles?
A.F. Rees, J. Alfaro-Shigueto, P.C.R. Barata, K.A. Bjorndal, A.B. Bolten, J. Bourjea, A.C. Broderick, L.M. Campbell, L. Cardona, C. Carreras, P. Casale, S.A. Ceriani, P.H. Dutton, T. Eguchi, A. Formia, M.M.P.B. Fuentes, W.J. Fuller, M. Girondot, M.H. Godfrey, M. Hamann, Kristen M. Hart, G.C. Hays, S. Hochscheid, Y. Kaska, M.P. Jensen, J.C. Mangel, J.A. Mortimer, E. Naro-Maciel, C.K.Y. Ng, W.J. Nichols, A.D. Phillott, R.D. Reina, O. Revuelta, G. Schofield, J.A. Seminoff, K. Shanker, J. Tomas, van de Merwe, K.S. Van Houtan, H.B. Vander Zanden, B.P. Wallace, K.R. Wedemeyer-Strombel, Thierry M. Work, B.J. Godley
2016, Endangered Species Research (31) 337-382
In 2010, an international group of 35 sea turtle researchers refined an initial list of more than 200 research questions into 20 metaquestions that were considered key for management and conservation of sea turtles. These were classified under 5 categories: reproductive biology, biogeography, population ecology, threats and conservation strategies. To...
Status of groundwater levels and storage volume in the Equus Beds aquifer near Wichita, Kansas, January 2016
Brian J. Klager
2016, Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5165
The Equus Beds aquifer in south-central Kansas, which is part of the High Plains aquifer, serves as a source of water for municipal and agricultural users in the area. The city of Wichita has used the Equus Beds aquifer as one of its primary water sources since the 1940s. The...
Comment on “The reduction of friction in long-runout landslides as an emergent phenomenon” by Brandon C. Johnson et al.
Richard M. Iverson
2016, Journal of Geophysical Research F: Earth Surface (121) 2238-2242
Results from a highly idealized, 2-D computational model indicate that dynamic normal-stress rarefactions might cause friction reduction in long-runout landslides, but the physical relevance of the idealized dynamics has not been confirmed by experimental tests. More importantly, the model results provide no evidence that refutes alternative hypotheses about friction reduction...
Overcoming challenges to the recovery of declining amphibian populations in the United States
Susan C. Walls, Lianne C. Ball, William J. Barichivich, Kenneth Dodd, Kevin M Enge, Thomas A. Gorman, Katherine M. O’Donnell, John G Palis, Raymond D. Semlitsch
2016, BioScience
The US Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA) affords many potential benefits to species threatened with extinction. However, most at-risk amphibians—one of the most imperiled vertebrate groups—remain unlisted under the provisions of the ESA, and many impediments to recovery exist for those species that have been listed. Of the 35...
Designing occupancy studies when false-positive detections occur
Matthew Clement
2016, Methods in Ecology and Evolution (7) 1529-1547
1.Recently, estimators have been developed to estimate occupancy probabilities when false-positive detections occur during presence-absence surveys. Some of these estimators combine different types of survey data to improve estimates of occupancy. With these estimators, there is a tradeoff between the number of sample units surveyed, and the number and type...
Space use and habitat selection by resident and transient red wolves (Canis rufus)
Joseph W. Hinton, Christine Proctor, Marcella J. Kelly, Frank T. van Manen, Michael R. Vaughan, Michael J. Chamberlain
2016, PLoS ONE (11)
Recovery of large carnivores remains a challenge because complex spatial dynamics that facilitate population persistence are poorly understood. In particular, recovery of the critically endangered red wolf (Canis rufus) has been challenging because of its vulnerability to extinction via human-caused mortality and hybridization with coyotes (Canis latrans). Therefore,...
Twitter predicts citation rates of ecological research
Brandon K. Peoples, Stephen R. Midway, Dana K. Sackett, Abigail Lynch, Patrick B. Cooney
2016, PLoS ONE (11)
The relationship between traditional metrics of research impact (e.g., number of citations) and alternative metrics (altmetrics) such as Twitter activity are of great interest, but remain imprecisely quantified. We used generalized linear mixed modeling to estimate the relative effects of Twitter activity, journal impact factor, and time since publication on...
Plague cycles in two rodent species from China: Dry years might provide context for epizootics in wet years
David A. Eads, Dean E. Biggins, Lei Xu, Qiyong Liu
2016, Ecosphere (7)
Plague, a rodent-associated, flea-borne zoonosis, is one of the most notorious diseases in history. Rates of plague transmission can increase when fleas are abundant. Fleas commonly desiccate and die when reared under dry conditions in laboratories, suggesting fleas will be suppressed during droughts in the wild, thus reducing the rate...
Changing agricultural practices: Potential consequences to aquatic organisms
Peter J. Lasier, Matthew L. Urich, Sayed M. Hassan, Whitney N. Jacobs, Robert B. Bringolf, Kathleen M. Owens
2016, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment (188) 1-17
Agricultural practices pose threats to biotic diversity in freshwater systems with increasing use of glyphosate-based herbicides for weed control and animal waste for soil amendment becoming common in many regions. Over the past two decades, these particular agricultural trends have corresponded with marked declines in populations of fish and mussel...
Ground squirrel shooting and potential lead exposure in breeding avian scavengers
Garth Herring, Collin A. Eagles-Smith, Mason T. Wagner
2016, PLoS ONE (11)
Recreational ground squirrel shooting is a popular activity throughout the western United States and serves as a tool for managing ground squirrel populations in agricultural regions. Belding’s ground squirrels (Spermophilus beldingi) are routinely shot in California, Nevada, and Oregon across habitats that overlap with breeding avian scavengers. Ground squirrels shot...
Predictors of current and longer-term patterns of abundance of American pikas (Ochotona princeps) across a leading-edge protected area
Lucas Moyer-Horner, Erik A. Beever, Douglas H. Johnson, Mark Beil, Jami Belt
2016, PLoS ONE (11)
American pikas (Ochotona princeps) have been heralded as indicators of montane-mammal response to contemporary climate change. Pikas no longer occupy the driest and lowest-elevation sites in numerous parts of their geographic range. Conversely, pikas have exhibited higher rates of occupancy and persistence in Rocky Mountain and Sierra Nevada montane ‘mainlands’....
Survival estimates for reintroduced populations of the Chiricahua Leopard Frog (Lithobates chiricahuensis)
Paige E. Howell, Blake R. Hossack, Erin L. Muths, Brent H. Sigafus, Richard B. Chandler
2016, Copeia (104) 824-830
Global amphibian declines have been attributed to a number of factors including disease, invasive species, habitat degradation, and climate change. Reintroduction is one management action that is commonly used with the goal of recovering imperiled species. The success of reintroductions varies widely, and evaluating their efficacy requires estimates of population...
