Evaluating the status of individuals and populations: Advantages of multiple approaches and time scales
Daniel H. Monson, Lizabeth Bowen
2015, Book chapter, Sea Otter Conservation
The assessment of population status is a central goal of applied wildlife research and essential to the field of wildlife conservation. “Population status” has a number of definitions, the most widely used having to do with the current trajectory of the population (i.e., growing, stable, or declining), or the...
A Laurentian margin back-arc: the Ordovician Wedowee-Emuckfaw-Dahlonega basin
Clinton I. Barineau, James F. Tull, Christopher S. Holm-Denoma
2015, GSA Field Guides (39) 21-78
Independent researchers working in the Talladega belt, Ashland-Wedowee-Emuckfaw belt, and Opelika Complex of Alabama, as well as the Dahlonega gold belt and western Inner Piedmont of Alabama, Georgia, and the Carolinas, have mapped stratigraphic sequences unique to each region. Although historically considered distinct terranes of disparate origin, a synthesis of...
Urgent need for warming experiments in tropical forests
Molly A. Calaveri, Sasha C. Reed, W. Kolby Smith, Tana E. Wood
2015, Global Change Biology (21) 2111-2121
Although tropical forests account for only a fraction of the planet's terrestrial surface, they exchange more carbon dioxide with the atmosphere than any other biome on Earth, and thus play a disproportionate role in the global climate. In the next 20 years, the tropics will experience unprecedented warming, yet there...
Workgroup for Hydraulic laboratory Testing and Verification of Hydroacoustic Instrumentation
Janice M. Fulford, Brandy N. Armstrong, Kirk G. Thibodeaux
2015, Conference Paper, Proceedings of eleventh current, waves and turbulence measurement workshop
An international workgroup was recently formed for hydraulic laboratory testing and verification of hydroacoustic instrumentation used for water velocity measurements. The activities of the workgroup have included one face to face meeting, conference calls and an inter-laboratory exchange of two acoustic meters among participating laboratories. Good agreement was found among...
Heterogeneous movement of insectivorous Amazonian birds through primary and secondary forest: A case study using multistate models with radiotelemetry data
James E. Hines, Luke L. Powell, Jared D. Wolfe, Erik l. Johnson, James D. Nichols, Phillip C. Stouffer
2015, Biological Conservation (188) 100-108
Given rates of deforestation, disturbance, and secondary forest accumulation in tropical rainforests, there is a great need to quantify habitat use and movement among different habitats. This need is particularly pronounced for animals most sensitive to disturbance, such as insectivorous understory birds. Here we use multistate capture–recapture models with radiotelemetry...
The Mw6.0 24 August 2014 South Napa earthquake
Thomas M. Brocher, Annemarie S. Baltay Sundstrom, Jeanne L. Hardebeck, Fred F. Pollitz, Jessica R. Murray, Andrea L. Llenos, David P. Schwartz, J. Luke Blair, Daniel J. Ponti, James J. Lienkaemper, Victoria E. Langenheim, Timothy E. Dawson, Kenneth W. Hudnut, David R. Shelly, Douglas S. Dreger, John Boatwright, Brad T. Aagaard, David J. Wald, Richard M. Allen, William D. Barnhart, Keith L. Knudsen, Benjamin A. Brooks, Katherine M. Scharer
2015, Seismological Research Letters (86) 309-326
The Mw 6.0 South Napa earthquake, which occurred at 10:20 UTC 24 August 2014 was the largest earthquake to strike the greater San Francisco Bay area since the Mw 6.9 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. The rupture from this right‐lateral earthquake propagated mostly unilaterally to the north and up‐dip, directing the strongest shaking toward the...
Laboratory electrical resistivity analysis of geologic samples from Fort Irwin, California
Benjamin R. Bloss, Paul A. Bedrosian
David C. Buesch, editor(s)
2015, Open-File Report 2013-1024-E
Correlating laboratory resistivity measurements with geophysical resistivity models helps constrain these models to the geology and lithology of an area. Throughout the Fort Irwin National Training Center area, 111 samples from both cored boreholes and surface outcrops were collected and processed for laboratory measurements. These samples represent various lithologic types...
Buried particulate organic carbon stimulates denitrification and nitrate retention in stream sediments at the groundwater-surface water interface
Robert S. Stelzer, J. Thad Scott, Lynn Bartsch
2015, Freshwater Science (34) 161-171
The interface between ground water and surface water in streams is a hotspot for N processing. However, the role of buried organic C in N transformation at this interface is not well understood, and inferences have been based largely on descriptive studies. Our main objective was to determine how buried...
Oil detection in the coastal marshes of Louisiana using MESMA applied to band subsets of AVIRIS data
Seth H. Peterson, Dar A. Roberts, Michael Beland, Raymond F. Kokaly, Susan L. Ustin
2015, Remote Sensing of Environment (159) 222-231
We mapped oil presence in the marshes of Barataria Bay, Louisiana following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill using Airborne Visible InfraRed Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) data. Oil and non-photosynthetic vegetation (NPV) have very similar spectra, differing only in two narrow hydrocarbon absorption regions around 1700 and 2300 nm. Confusion between NPV and...
On formally integrating science and policy: walking the walk
James D. Nichols, Fred A. Johnson, Byron K. Williams, G. Scott Boomer
2015, Journal of Applied Ecology (52) 539-543
The contribution of science to the development and implementation of policy is typically neither direct nor transparent. In 1995, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) made a decision that was unprecedented in natural resource management, turning to an unused and unproven decision process to carry out trust responsibilities mandated...
Improved arrival-date estimates of Arctic-breeding Dunlin (Calidris alpina arcticola)
Andrew C. Doll, Richard B. Lanctot, Craig A. Stricker, Stephen M. Yezerinac, Michael B. Wunder
2015, The Auk (132) 408-421
The use of stable isotopes in animal ecology depends on accurate descriptions of isotope dynamics within individuals. The prevailing assumption that laboratory-derived isotopic parameters apply to free-living animals is largely untested. We used stable carbon isotopes (δ13C) in whole blood from migratory Dunlin (Calidris alpina arcticola) to estimate an in situ...
Multiple regression and inverse moments improve the characterization of the spatial scaling behavior of daily streamflows in the Southeast United States
William H. Farmer, Thomas M. Over, Richard M. Vogel
2015, Water Resources Research (51) 1775-1796
Understanding the spatial structure of daily streamflow is essential for managing freshwater resources, especially in poorly-gaged regions. Spatial scaling assumptions are common in flood frequency prediction (e.g., index-flood method) and the prediction of continuous streamflow at ungaged sites (e.g. drainage-area ratio), with simple scaling by drainage area being the most...
A new approach for continuous estimation of baseflow using discrete water quality data: Method description and comparison with baseflow estimates from two existing approaches
Matthew P. Miller, Henry M. Johnson, David D. Susong, David M. Wolock
2015, Journal of Hydrology (522) 203-210
Understanding how watershed characteristics and climate influence the baseflow component of stream discharge is a topic of interest to both the scientific and water management communities. Therefore, the development of baseflow estimation methods is a topic of active research. Previous studies have demonstrated that graphical hydrograph separation (GHS) and conductivity...
Life history strategies of fish species and biodiversity in eastern USA streams
Michael R. Meador, Larry M. Brown
2015, Environmental Biology of Fishes (98) 663-677
Predictive models have been used to determine fish species that occur less frequently than expected (decreasers) and those that occur more frequently than expected (increasers) in streams in the eastern U.S. Coupling life history traits with 51 decreaser and 38 increaser fish species provided the opportunity to examine potential mechanisms...
Geotechnical aspects in the epicentral region of the 2011, Mw5.8 Mineral, Virginia earthquake
Russell A. Green, Samuel Lasley, Mark W. Carter, Jeffrey W. Munsey, Brett W. Maurer, Martitia P. Tuttle
2015, GSA Special Papers (509) 151-172
A reconnaissance team documented the geotechnical and geological aspects in the epicentral region of the Mw (moment magnitude) 5.8 Mineral, Virginia (USA), earthquake of 23 August 2011. Tectonically and seismically induced ground deformations, evidence of liquefaction, rock slides, river bank slumps, ground subsidence, performance of earthen dams, damage to public infrastructure...
Fire history of Everglades National Park and Big Cypress National Preserve, southern Florida
Thomas J. Smith III, Ann M. Foster, John Jones
2015, Open-File Report 2015-1034
Fire occurs naturally in the environment on most continents, including Africa (Ryan and Williams, 2011), Asia (Kauhanen, 2008), Australia (Kutt and Woinarski, 2007), Europe (Eshel and others, 2000), South America (Fidelis and others, 2010), and North America (Van Auken, 2000). Antarctica appears to be the only continent that has no...
Rapid isolation of microsatellite DNAs and identification of polymorphic mitochondrial DNA regions in the fish rotan (Perccottus glenii) invading European Russia
Tim L. King, Michael S. Eackles, Andrey N. Reshetnikov
2015, Conservation Genetics Resources (7) 363-368
Human-mediated translocations and subsequent large-scale colonization by the invasive fish rotan (Perccottus glenii Dybowski, 1877; Perciformes, Odontobutidae), also known as Amur or Chinese sleeper, has resulted in dramatic transformations of small lentic ecosystems. However, no detailed genetic information exists on population structure, levels of effective movement, or relatedness among geographic...
Fine root productivity varies along nitrogen and phosphorus gradients in high-rainfall mangrove forests of Micronesia
Nicole Cormier, Robert R. Twilley, Katherine C. Ewel, Ken W. Krauss
2015, Hydrobiologia (750) 69-87
Belowground biomass is thought to account for much of the total biomass in mangrove forests and may be related to soil fertility. The Yela River and the Sapwalap River, Federated States of Micronesia, contain a natural soil resource gradient defined by total phosphorus (P) density ranging from 0.05 to 0.42 mg cm<span...
Unusually loud ambient noise in tidewater glacier fjords: a signal of ice melt
Erin C. Pettit, Kevin M. Lee, Joel P. Brann, Jeffrey A. Nystuen, Preston S. Wilson, Shad O’Neel
2015, Geophysical Research Letters (42) 2309-2316
In glacierized fjords, the ice-ocean boundary is a physically and biologically dynamic environment that is sensitive to both glacier flow and ocean circulation. Ocean ambient noise offers insight into processes and change at the ice-ocean boundary. Here we characterize fjord ambient noise and show that the average noise levels are...
Stochastic reservoir simulation for the modeling of uncertainty in coal seam degasification
C. Özgen Karacan, Ricardo A. Olea
2015, Fuel (148) 87-97
Coal seam degasification improves coal mine safety by reducing the gas content of coal seams and also by generating added value as an energy source. Coal seam reservoir simulation is one of the most effective ways to help with these two main objectives. As in all modeling and simulation...
Simulation of groundwater flow and streamflow depletion in the Branch Brook, Merriland River, and parts of the Mousam River watersheds in southern Maine
Martha G. Nielsen, Daniel B. Locke
2015, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5235
Watersheds of three streams, the Mousam River, Branch Brook, and Merriland River in southeastern Maine were investigated from 2010 through 2013 under a cooperative project between the U.S. Geological Survey and the Maine Geological Survey. The Branch Brook watershed previously had been deemed “at risk” by the Maine Geological Survey...
Estimation of occupancy, breeding success, and predicted abundance of golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) in the Diablo Range, California, 2014
J. David Wiens, Patrick S. Kolar, Mark R. Fuller, W. Grainger Hunt, Teresa Hunt
2015, Open-File Report 2015-1039
We used a multistate occupancy sampling design to estimate occupancy, breeding success, and abundance of territorial pairs of golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) in the Diablo Range, California, in 2014. This method uses the spatial pattern of detections and non-detections over repeated visits to survey sites to estimate probabilities of occupancy...
Evaluation of a five-year shoal bass conservation-stocking program in the upper Chattahoochee River, Georgia: Chapter 16
Michael J. Porta, James M. Long
Michael D. Tringali, James M. Long, Timothy W. Birdsong, Micheal S. Allen, editor(s)
2015, Book chapter, Black bass diversity: Multidisciplinary science for conservation
This work demonstrates the utility of restoration stocking to restore an endemic species....
Effects of effects of suspended sediment on early-life stage survival of Yaqui chub, an endangered USA–Mexico borderlands cyprinid
Stephani L. Clark Barkalow, Scott A. Bonar
2015, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (144) 345-351
High levels of total suspended sediment (TSS) can have negative consequences on fishes, such as altering food supply, lowering food acquisition, clogging gills, and disrupting reproduction. While effects of TSS on salmonids and estuarine fish are well studied, less is known about possible negative impacts of suspended sediment on desert...
Empirical evaluation of the conceptual model underpinning a regional aquatic long-term monitoring program using causal modelling
Kathryn M. Irvine, Scott Miller, Robert K. Al-Chokhachy, Erik Archer, Brett B. Roper, Jeffrey L. Kershner
2015, Ecological Indicators (50) 8-23
Conceptual models are an integral facet of long-term monitoring programs. Proposed linkages between drivers, stressors, and ecological indicators are identified within the conceptual model of most mandated programs. We empirically evaluate a conceptual model developed for a regional aquatic and riparian monitoring program using causal models (i.e., Bayesian path analysis)....
