The Penobscot River and environmental contaminants: Assessment of tribal exposure through sustenance lifeways
Valerie Marshall, Daniel Kusnierz, Robert Hillger, Joseph Ferrario, Thomas Hughes, Janet Diliberto, Carl E. Orazio, Robert W. Dudley, Christian Byrne, Richard Sugatt, Sarah Warren, David DeMarini, Adria Elskus, Steve Stodola, Steve Mierzykowski, Katie Pugh, Charles W. Culbertson
2015, Report
EPA in collaboration with the Penobscot Indian Nation, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USF&WS) collectively embarked on a four year research study to evaluate the environmental health of the riverine system by targeting specific cultural practices...
Spatial scaling patterns and functional redundancies in a changing boreal lake landscape
David G. Angeler, Craig R. Allen, Daniel R. Uden, Richard K. Johnson
2015, Ecosystems (18) 889-902
Global transformations extend beyond local habitats; therefore, larger-scale approaches are needed to assess community-level responses and resilience to unfolding environmental changes. Using longterm data (1996–2011), we evaluated spatial patterns and functional redundancies in the littoral invertebrate communities of 85 Swedish lakes, with the objective of assessing their potential resilience to...
Book review: Biology and conservation of North American tortoises
David Munoz, Christina M. Aiello
2015, Herpetological Review (46) 288-289
The charismatic North American tortoises hold a special place in our culture and natural history. Despite the perseverance of these tortoises over millions of years, biologists now question their ability to persist into the future. In light of documented declines, habitat loss, and numerous threats to tortoise populations, the editors...
A global reference database from very high resolution commercial satellite data and methodology for application to Landsat derived 30 m continuous field tree cover data
Bruce Pengra, Jordan Long, Devendra Dahal, Stephen V. Stehman, Thomas R. Loveland
2015, Remote Sensing of Environment (165) 234-248
The methodology for selection, creation, and application of a global remote sensing validation dataset using high resolution commercial satellite data is presented. High resolution data are obtained for a stratified random sample of 500 primary sampling units (5 km × 5 km sample blocks), where the stratification based on Köppen...
Impact of experimental habitat manipulation on northern bobwhite survival
David C. Peters, Jarred M. Brooke, Evan P. Tanner, Ashley M. Unger, Patrick D. Keyser, Craig A. Harper, Joseph D. Clark, John J. Morgan
2015, Journal of Wildlife Management (79) 605-617
Habitat management for northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) should affect vital rates, but direct linkages with survival are not well documented; therefore, we implemented an experiment to evaluate those responses. We conducted our experiment on a reclaimed surface mine, a novel landscape where conditions were considered sub-optimal because of the dominance...
Accommodation space, relative sea level, and the archiving of paleo-earthquakes along subduction zones
Harvey M. Kelsey, Simon E. Engelhart, Jessica E. Pilarczyk, Benjamin P. Horton, Charles Rubin, Mudrik Daryono, Nazli Ismail, Andrea D. Hawkes, Christopher E. Bernhardt, Niamh Cahill
2015, Geology (43) 675-678
The spatial variability of Holocene relative sea-level (RSL) change influences the capacities of coastal environments to accommodate a sedimentary record of paleoenvironmental change. In this study we couch a specific investigation in more general terms in order to demonstrate the applicability of the relative sea-level history approach to paleoseismic investigations....
Myths and facts on wastewater injection, hydraulic fracturing, enhanced oil recovery, and induced seismicity
Justin L. Rubinstein, Alireza Babaie Mahani
2015, Seismological Research Letters (86) 1060-1067
The central United States has undergone a dramatic increase in seismicity over the past 6 years (Fig. 1), rising from an average of 24 M≥3 earthquakes per year in the years 1973–2008 to an average of 193 M≥3 earthquakes in 2009–2014, with 688 occurring in 2014 alone. Multiple damaging earthquakes have...
Framework for modeling urban restoration resilience time in the aftermath of an extreme event
Varun Ramachandran, Suzanna K. Long, Thomas G. Shoberg, Steven Corns, Héctor Carlo
2015, Natural Hazards Review 1-11
The impacts of extreme events continue long after the emergency response has terminated. Effective reconstruction of supply-chain strategic infrastructure (SCSI) elements is essential for postevent recovery and the reconnectivity of a region with the outside. This study uses an interdisciplinary approach to develop a comprehensive framework to model resilience time....
Water masses, ocean fronts, and the structure of Antarctic seabird communities: putting the eastern Bellingshausen Sea in perspective
Christine A. Ribic, David G. Ainley, R. Glenn Ford, William R. Fraser, Cynthia T. Tynan, Eric J. Woehler
2015, Deep-Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography (58) 1695-1709
Waters off the western Antarctic Peninsula (i.e., the eastern Bellingshausen Sea) are unusually complex owing to the convergence of several major fronts. Determining the relative influence of fronts on occurrence patterns of top-trophic species in that area, therefore, has been challenging. In one of the few ocean-wide seabird data syntheses,...
Impact of fishing and stocking practices on Coregonid diversity
Orlane Anneville, Emilien Lasne, Jean Guillard, Reiner Eckmann, Jason D. Stockwell, Christian Gillet, Daniel L. Yule
2015, Food and Nutrition Sciences (6) 1045-1055
Fish species diversity can be lost through interacting stressors including habitat loss, stocking and overfishing. Although a multitude of stressors have played a role in the global decline of coregonid (Coregonus spp.) diversity, a number of contemporary studies have identified habitat loss stemming from eutrophication as the primary cause. Unfortunately,...
Holocene variability in the intensity of wind-gap upwelling in the tropical eastern Pacific
Lauren T. Toth, Richard B. Aronson, Hai Cheng, R. Lawrence Edwards
2015, Paleoceanography (30) 1113-1131
Wind-driven upwelling in Pacific Panamá is a significant source of oceanographic variability in the tropical eastern Pacific. This upwelling system provides a critical teleconnection between the Atlantic and tropical Pacific that may impact climate variability on a global scale. Despite its importance to oceanographic circulation, ecology, and climate, little is...
Metallogeny, exploitation and environmental impact of the Mt. Amiata mercury ore district (Southern Tuscany, Italy)
V. Rimondi, L. Chiarantini, P. Lattanzi, M. Benvenuti, M. Beutel, A. Colica, P. Costagliola, F. Di Benedetto, G. Gabbani, John E. Gray, E. Pandeli, G. Pattelli, M. Paolieri, G. Ruggieri
2015, Italian Journal of Geosciences (134) 323-336
The Mt. Amiata mining district (Southern Tuscany, Italy) is a world class Hg district, with a cumulate production of more than 100,000 tonnes of Hg, mostly occurring between 1870 and 1980. The Hg mineralization at Mt. Amiata is younger than 0.3 Ma, and is directly related to shallow hydrothermal...
Valuing geospatial information: Using the contingent valuation method to estimate the economic benefits of Landsat satellite imagery
John B. Loomis, Steve Koontz, Holly M. Miller, Leslie A. Richardson
2015, Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing (81) 647-656
While the U.S. government does not charge for downloading Landsat images, the images have value to users. This paper demonstrates a method that can value Landsat and other imagery to users. A survey of downloaders of Landsat images found: (a) established US users have a mean value of $912 USD...
Limits to benthic feeding by eiders in a vital Arctic migration corridor due to localized prey and changing sea ice
James R. Lovvorn, Aariel R. Rocha, Stephen C. Jewett, Douglas Dasher, Steffen Oppel, Abby Powell
2015, Progress in Oceanography (136) 162-174
Four species of threatened or declining eider ducks that nest in the Arctic migrate through the northeast Chukchi Sea, where anticipated industrial development may require prioritizing areas for conservation. In this nearshore corridor (10–40 m depth), the eiders’ access to benthic prey during the spring is restricted to variable areas of...
Oyster reef restoration supports increased nekton biomass and potential commercial fishery value
Austin T. Humphries, Megan K. LaPeyre
2015, PeerJ (3) 1-19
Across the globe, discussions centered on the value of nature drive many conservation and restoration decisions. As a result, justification for management activities increasingly asks for two lines of evidence: (1) biological proof of augmented ecosystem function or service, and (2) monetary valuation of these services. For oyster reefs, which...
Ground-truthing electrical resistivity methods in support of submarine groundwater discharge studies: Examples from Hawaii, Washington, and California
Cordell Johnson, Peter W. Swarzenski, Christina M. Richardson, Christopher G. Smith, Kevin D. Kroeger, Priya M. Ganguli
2015, Journal of Environmental & Engineering Geophysics (20) 81-87
Submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) is an important conduit that links terrestrial and marine environments. SGD conveys both water and water-borne constituents into coastal waters, where these inflows may impact near-shore ecosystem health and sustainability. Multichannel electrical resistivity techniques have proven to be a powerful tool to examine scales and...
Estimating global natural wetland methane emissions using process modelling: spatio-temporal patterns and contributions to atmospheric methane fluctuations
Qiuan Zhu, Changhui Peng, Huai Chen, Xiuqin Fang, Jinxun Liu, Hong Jiang, Yanzheng Yang, Gang Yang
2015, Global Ecology and Biogeography (24) 959-972
Aim The fluctuations of atmospheric methane (CH4) that have occurred in recent decades are not fully understood, particularly with regard to the contribution from wetlands. The application of spatially explicit parameters has been suggested as an effective method for reducing uncertainties in bottom-up approaches to wetland CH4 emissions,...
Adult mortality probability and nest predation rates explain parental effort in warming eggs with consequences for embryonic development time
Thomas E. Martin, Juan C. Oteyza, Andy J. Boyce, Penn Lloyd, Riccardo Ton
2015, The American Naturalist (186) 223-236
Parental behavior and effort vary extensively among species. Life-history theory suggests that age-specific mortality could cause this interspecific variation, but past tests have focused on fecundity as the measure of parental effort. Fecundity can cause costs of reproduction that confuse whether mortality is the cause or the consequence of parental...
Floodplain complexity and surface metrics: influences of scale and geomorphology
Murray W. Scown, Martin C. Thoms, Nathan R. De Jager
2015, Geomorphology (245) 102-116
Many studies of fluvial geomorphology and landscape ecology examine a single river or landscape, thus lack generality, making it difficult to develop a general understanding of the linkages between landscape patterns and larger-scale driving variables. We examined the spatial complexity of eight floodplain surfaces in widely different geographic settings and...
Unifying research on the fragmentation of terrestrial and aquatic habitats: patches, connectivity and the matrix in riverscapes
Tibor Eros, Evan H. Campbell Grant
2015, Freshwater Biology (60) 1487-1501
While there is an increasing emphasis in terrestrial ecology on determining the influence of the area that surrounds habitat patches (the landscape ‘matrix’) relative to the characteristics of the patches themselves, research on these aspects in running waters is still rather underrepresented. Here we outline conceptual foundations of matrix...
Annual growth patterns of baldcypress (Taxodium distichum) along salinity gradients
Brenda L. Thomas, Thomas W. Doyle, Ken W. Krauss
2015, Wetlands (35) 831-839
The effects of salinity on Taxodium distichum seedlings have been well documented, but few studies have examined mature trees in situ. We investigated the environmental drivers of T. distichum growth along a salinity gradient on the Waccamaw (South Carolina) and Savannah (Georgia) Rivers. On each river, T. distichum increment cores were collected from...
Frac sand in the United States: a geological and industry overview
Mary Ellen Benson, Anna B. Wilson, Donald I. Bleiwas
2015, Open-File Report 2015-1107
A new mineral rush is underway in the upper Midwest of the United States, especially in Wisconsin and Minnesota, for deposits of high-quality frac sand that the mining industry calls “Northern White” sand or “Ottawa” sand. Frac sand is a specialized type of sand that is added to fracking fluids...
U.S. Geological Survey science for the Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative—2014 annual report
Zachary H. Bowen, Cameron L. Aldridge, Patrick J. Anderson, Timothy J. Assal, Timothy T. Bartos, Laura R Biewick, Gregory K. Boughton, Anna D. Chalfoun, Geneva W. Chong, Marie K. Dematatis, Cheryl A. Eddy-Miller, Steven L. Garman, Steve Germaine, Collin G. Homer, Christopher Huber, Matthew J. Kauffman, Natalie Latysh, Daniel J. Manier, Cynthia P. Melcher, Alexander Miller, Kirk A. Miller, Edward M. Olexa, Spencer Schell, Annika W. Walters, Anna B. Wilson, Teal B. Wyckoff
2015, Open-File Report 2015-1091
This is the seventh report produced by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) for the Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative (WLCI) to detail annual activities conducted by the USGS for addressing specific management needs identified by WLCI partners. In FY2014, there were 26 projects, including a new one that was completed, two...
StreamStats in Georgia: a water-resources web application
Anthony J. Gotvald, Jonathan W. Musser
2015, Fact Sheet 2014-3027
Summary Part of the mission of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is to provide information on streamflow in the Nation's streams to help understand the Nation's water resources. Streamflow statistics are used by water managers, engineers, scientists, and others to protect people and property during floods and droughts, and to manage,...
Mapping surficial minerals at high latitudes: The USGS 2014 imaging spectrometer data collection in Alaska
Raymond F. Kokaly, Todd M. Hoefen, Garth Graham, Karen Kelly, Michaela Johnson, Bernard Hubbard, Richard Goldfarb
2015, Conference Paper
Passive optical remote sensing of high latitude regions faces many challenges including a short acquisition season and poor illumination due to low solar elevation. Additional complications are encountered in the identification of surface minerals for mineral resource characterization because minerals of interest commonly are exposed on steep terrain, further challenging...
