Marine geophysical data collected in a shallow back-barrier estuary, Barnegat Bay, New Jersey
Brian D. Andrews, Jennifer L. Miselis, William W. Danforth, Barry J. Irwin, Charles R. Worley, Emile M. Bergeron, Dann S. Blackwood
2016, Data Series 937
In 2011, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, began a multidisciplinary research project to better understand the water quality in Barnegat Bay, New Jersey. This back-barrier estuary is experiencing degraded water quality, algal blooms, loss of seagrass, and increases in oxygen stress,...
The influence of a severe reservoir drawdown on springtime zooplankton and larval fish assemblages in Red Willow Reservoir, Nebraska
Jason A. DeBoer, Christa M. Webber, Taylor A. Dixon, Kevin L. Pope
2016, Journal of Freshwater Ecology (31) 131-146
Reservoirs can be dynamic systems, often prone to unpredictable and extreme water-level fluctuations, and can be environments where survival is difficult for zooplankton and larval fish. Although numerous studies have examined the effects of extreme reservoir drawdown on water quality, few have examined extreme drawdown on both abiotic and biotic...
Geologic history of the Black Hills caves, South Dakota
Arthur N. Palmer, Margaret Palmer, James B. Paces
2016, GSA Special Papers (516) 87-101
Cave development in the Madison aquifer of the Black Hills has taken place in several stages. Mississippian carbonates first underwent eogenetic (early diagenetic) reactions with interbedded sulfates to form breccias and solution voids. Later subaerial exposure allowed oxygenated meteoric water to replace sulfates with calcite and to form karst...
Morphological identification and COI barcodes of adult flies help determine species identities of chironomid larvae (Diptera, Chironomidae)
Andrew Joseph Failla, Adrian Amelio Vasquez, Patrick L. Hudson, Masanori Fujimoto, Jeffrey L. Ram
2016, Bulletin of Entomological Research (106) 34-46
Establishing reliable methods for the identification of benthic chironomid communities is important due to their significant contribution to biomass, ecology and the aquatic food web. Immature larval specimens are more difficult to identify to species level by traditional morphological methods than their fully developed adult counterparts, and few keys are...
Modeling habitat connectivity to inform reintroductions: a case study with the Chiricahua Leopard Frog
Christopher J. Jarchow, Blake R. Hossack, Brent H. Sigafus, Cecil R. Schwalbe, Erin L. Muths
2016, Journal of Herpetology (50) 63-69
Managing species with intensive tools such as reintroduction may focus on single sites or entire landscapes. For vagile species, long-term persistence will require colonization and establishment in neighboring habitats. Therefore, both suitable colonization sites and suitable dispersal corridors between sites are required. Assessment of landscapes for both requirements can contribute...
Variability of the carbonate chemistry in a shallow, seagrass-dominated ecosystem: implications for ocean acidification experiments
Roberta Challener, Lisa L. Robbins, James B. Mcclintock
2016, Marine and Freshwater Research (67) 163-172
Open ocean observations have shown that increasing levels of anthropogenically derived atmospheric CO2 are causing acidification of the world's oceans. Yet little is known about coastal acidification and studies are just beginning to characterise the carbonate chemistry of shallow, nearshore zones where many ecologically and economically important organisms occur. We...
Defining the next generation modeling of coastal ecotone dynamics in response to global change
Jiang Jiang, Donald L. DeAngelis, Su-Y Teh, Ken W. Krauss, Hongqing Wang, Li Haidong, Thomas J. Smith, Hock L. Koh
2016, Ecological Modelling (326) 168-176
Coastal ecosystems are especially vulnerable to global change; e.g., sea level rise (SLR) and extreme events. Over the past century, global change has resulted in salt-tolerant (halophytic) plant species migrating into upland salt-intolerant (glycophytic) dominated habitats along major rivers and large wetland expanses along the coast. While habitat transitions can...
Hurricane Sandy beach response and recovery at Fire Island, New York: Shoreline and beach profile data, October 2012 to October 2014
Rachel E. Hehre Henderson, Cheryl J. Hapke, Owen T. Brenner, Billy J. Reynolds
2016, Data Series 931
In response to the forecasted impact of Hurricane Sandy, which made landfall on October 29, 2012, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) began a substantial data-collection effort to assess the morphological impacts to the beach and dune system at Fire Island, New York. Global positioning system (GPS) field surveys of the...
Obituary: Graham W. Smith (1950-2015)
Allan F. O’Connell
2016, The Wildlife Society Technical Review
Variations in water temperature and implications for trout populations in the Upper Schoharie Creek and West Kill, New York, USA
Scott D. George, Barry P. Baldigo, Martyn J. Smith, Donald M Mckeown, Jason Faulringer
2016, Journal of Freshwater Ecology (31) 93-108
Water temperature is a key component of aquatic ecosystems because it plays a pivotal role in determining the suitability of stream and river habitat to most freshwater fish species. Continuous temperature loggers and airborne thermal infrared (TIR) remote sensing were used to assess temporal and spatial temperature patterns on the...
Persistence of external signs in Pacific herring Clupea pallasii Valenciennes with ichthyophoniasis
Lucas M. Hart, Carla M. Conway, Diane G. Elliott, Paul K. Hershberger
2016, Journal of Fish Diseases (39) 429-440
The progression of external signs of Ichthyophonus infection in Pacific herring Clupea pallasii Valenciennes was highly variable and asynchronous after intraperitoneal injection with pure parasite preparations; however, external signs generally persisted through the end of the study (429 days post-exposure). Observed signs included papules, erosions and ulcers. The prevalence of...
Habitat suitability criteria via parametric distributions: estimation, model selection and uncertainty
Nicholas A. Som, Damon H. Goodman, Russell W. Perry, Thomas B. Hardy
2016, River Research and Applications (32) 1128-1137
Previous methods for constructing univariate habitat suitability criteria (HSC) curves have ranged from professional judgement to kernel-smoothed density functions or combinations thereof. We present a new method of generating HSC curves that applies probability density functions as the mathematical representation of the curves. Compared with previous approaches, benefits of our...
The parasite Ichthyophonus sp. in Pacific herring from the coastal NE Pacific
Paul K. Hershberger, Jacob L. Gregg, Lucas M. Hart, Steve Moffitt, Richard L. Brenner, K. Stick, Eric Coonradt, E. O. Otis, Johanna J. Vollenweider, Kyle A. Garver, Jan Lovy, T.R. Meyers
2016, Journal of Fish Diseases (39) 395-410
The protistan parasite Ichthyophonus occurred in populations of Pacific herring Clupea pallasii Valenciennes throughout coastal areas of the NE Pacific, ranging from Puget Sound, WA north to the Gulf of Alaska, AK. Infection prevalence in local Pacific herring stocks varied seasonally and annually, and a general pattern of increasing prevalence...
Hydrologic response of streams restored with check dams in the Chiricahua Mountains, Arizona
Laura M. Norman, Fletcher C. Brinkerhoff, Evan Gwilliam, D. Phillip Guertin, James B. Callegary, David C. Goodrich, Pamela L. Nagler, Floyd Gray
2016, River Research and Applications (32) 519-527
In this study, hydrological processes are evaluated to determine impacts of stream restoration in the West Turkey Creek, Chiricahua Mountains, southeast Arizona, during a summer-monsoon season (June–October of 2013). A paired-watershed approach was used to analyze the effectiveness of check dams to mitigate high flows and impact long-term maintenance of...
Sediment budgets, transport, and depositional trends in a large tidal delta
Tara Morgan, Scott Wright
2016, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the Joint Federal Interagency Conference
The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is the largest delta on the west coast of the United States. It is formed where the confluence of California’s two largest rivers (the Sacramento and San Joaquin) meet the ocean tides and has a significant physical gradient from fluvial to tidal. It is a semidiurnal...
Synergistic and singular effects of river discharge and lunar illumination on dam passage of upstream migrant yellow-phase American eels
Stuart A. Welsh, Joni L. Aldinger, Melissa A. Braham, Jennifer L. Zimmerman
2016, ICES Journal of Marine Science (73) 33-42
Monitoring of dam passage can be useful for management and conservation assessments of American eel, particularly if passage counts can be examined over multiple years. During a 7-year study (2007–2013) of upstream migration of American eels within the lower Shenandoah River (Potomac River drainage), we counted and measured...
Water-quality assessment of the Lower Grand River Basin, Missouri and Iowa, USA, in support of integrated conservation practices
Donald H. Wilkison, Daniel J. Armstrong
2016, River Research and Applications (32) 583-596
The effectiveness of agricultural conservation programmes to adequately reduce nutrient exports to receiving streams and to help limit downstream hypoxia issues remains a concern. Quantifying programme success can be difficult given that short-term basin changes may be masked by long-term water-quality shifts. We evaluated nutrient export at stream sites in...
Assessing juvenile native fish demographic responses to a steady flow experiment in a large regulated river
Colton G. Finch, William E. Pine III, Charles B. Yackulic, Michael J. Dodrill, Michael D. Yard, Brandon S. Gerig, Coggins Jr., Josh Korman
2016, River Research and Applications (32) 763-775
The Colorado River below Glen Canyon Dam, Arizona, is part of an adaptive management programme which optimizes dam operations to improve various resources in the downstream ecosystem within Grand Canyon. Understanding how populations of federally endangered humpback chub Gila cypha respond to these dam operations is a high priority. Here,...
Diel activity patterns of juvenile late fall-run Chinook salmon with implications for operation of a gated water diversion in the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta
John M. Plumb, Noah S. Adams, Russell W. Perry, Christopher M. Holbrook, Jason G. Romine, Aaron R. Blake, Jon R. Burau
2016, River Research and Applications (32) 711-720
In the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, California, tidal forces that reverse river flows increase the proportion of water and juvenile late fall-run Chinook salmon diverted into a network of channels that were constructed to support agriculture and human consumption. This area is known as the interior delta, and it has...
Nest predation research: Recent findings and future perspectives
Anna D. Chalfoun, J. D. Ibanez-Alamo, R. D. Magrath, Kenneth A. Schmidt, R. L. Thomson, Juan C. Oteyza, T. M. Haff, T. E. Martin
2016, Journal of Ornithology (156) 247-262
Nest predation is a key source of selection for birds that has attracted increasing attention from ornithologists. The inclusion of new concepts applicable to nest predation that stem from social information, eavesdropping or physiology has expanded our knowledge considerably. Recent methodological advancements now allow focus on all three players...
Community structure of age-0 fishes in paired mainstem and created shallow-water habitats in the Lower Missouri River
Trevor A. Starks, James M. Long, Andrew R. Dzialowski
2016, River Research and Applications (32) 753-762
Anthropogenic alterations to aquatic ecosystems have greatly reduced and homogenized riverine habitat, especially those used by larval and juvenile fishes. Creation of shallow-water habitats is used as a restoration technique in response to altered conditions in several studies globally, but only recently in the USA. In the summer of 2012,...
Economic consequence analysis of the Arkstorm scenario
Ian Sue Wing, Adam Rose, Anne M. Wein
2016, National Hazards Review (17)
The business interruption (BI) impacts of ARkStorm, a severe winter storm scenario developed by the U.S. Geological Survey and partners, is estimated. BI stems from losses of building function, productivity of agricultural land, and lifeline services. A dynamic computable general equilibrium model of the California economy is developed to perform...
If Arctic charr Salvelinus alpinus is “the most diverse vertebrate,” what is the lake charr Salvelinus namaycush?
Andrew M. Muir, Michael J. Hansen, Charles R. Bronte, Charles C. Krueger
2016, Fish and Fisheries (17) 1194-1207
Teleost fishes are prominent vertebrate models of evolution, illustrated among old-world radiations by the Cichlidae of East African Great Lakes and new-world radiations by the circumpolar Arctic charr Salvelinus alpinus. Herein, we describe variation in lake charr S. namaycush morphology, life history, physiology, and ecology, as another example of radiation....
Linking biophysical models and public preferences for ecosystem service assessments: a case study for the Southern Rocky Mountains
Kenneth J. Bagstad, James Reed, Darius J. Semmens, Benson C. Sherrouse, Austin Troy
2016, Regional Environmental Change (16) 2005-2018
Through extensive research, ecosystem services have been mapped using both survey-based and biophysical approaches, but comparative mapping of public values and those quantified using models has been lacking. In this paper, we mapped hot and cold spots for perceived and modeled ecosystem services by synthesizing results from a social-values mapping...
Arsenic cycling in hydrocarbon plumes: secondary effects of natural attenuation
Isabelle M. Cozzarelli, Madeline E. Schreiber, Melinda L. Erickson, Brady A. Ziegler
2016, Groundwater Monitoring & Remediation (54) 35-45
Monitored natural attenuation is widely applied as a remediation strategy at hydrocarbon spill sites. Natural attenuation relies on biodegradation of hydrocarbons coupled with reduction of electron acceptors, including solid phase ferric iron (Fe(III)). Because arsenic (As) adsorbs to Fe-hydroxides, a potential secondary effect of natural attenuation of hydrocarbons coupled with...
