Decoupling processes and scales of shoreline morphodynamics
Cheryl J. Hapke, Nathaniel G. Plant, Rachel E. Henderson, William C. Schwab, Timothy R. Nelson
2016, Marine Geology (381) 42-53
Behavior of coastal systems on time scales ranging from single storm events to years and decades is controlled by both small-scale sediment transport processes and large-scale geologic, oceanographic, and morphologic processes. Improved understanding of coastal behavior at multiple time scales is required for refining models that predict potential erosion hazards...
Conserving the Greater Sage-grouse: A social-ecological systems case study from the California-Nevada region
Alison L Duvall, Alexander L. Metcalf, Peter S. Coates
2016, Rangeland Ecology and Management (70) 129-140
The Endangered Species Act (ESA) continues to serve as one of the most powerful and contested federal legislative mandates for conservation. In the midst of heated debates, researchers, policy makers, and conservation practitioners champion the importance of cooperative conservation and social-ecological systems approaches, which forge partnerships at multiple levels and...
Assessing conservation tools for an at-risk shorebird: Feasibility of headstarting for American Oystercatchers Haematopus palliatus
Samantha A. Collins, Felicia J. Sanders, Patrick G.R. Jodice
2016, Bird Conservation International (26) 451-465
Management of threatened and endangered populations of wildlife increasingly relies upon active intervention such as predator control, habitat manipulation, and ex situ breeding or care. One tool that has received consideration for the management of declining or threatened avian populations is headstarting, or the artificial incubation of eggs and...
Extending ordinal regression with a latent zero-augmented beta distribution
Kathryn M. Irvine, T.J. Rodhouse, Ilai. N. Keren
2016, Journal of Agricultural, Biological, and Environmental Statistics (21) 619-640
Ecological abundance data are often recorded on an ordinal scale in which the lowest category represents species absence. One common example is when plant species cover is visually assessedwithin bounded quadrats and then assigned to pre-defined cover class categories.We present an ordinal beta hurdle model that directly models ordinal category probabilitieswith a biologically realistic...
Genetic and phenotypic variation along an ecological gradient in lake trout Salvelinus namaycush
Shauna M. Baillie, Andrew M. Muir, Michael J. Hansen, Charles C. Krueger, Paul Bentzen
2016, BMC Evolutionary Biology (16) 1-16
BackgroundAdaptive radiation involving a colonizing phenotype that rapidly evolves into at least one other ecological variant, or ecotype, has been observed in a variety of freshwater fishes in post-glacial environments. However, few studies consider how phenotypic traits vary with regard to neutral genetic partitioning along...
Probing the volcanic-plutonic connection and the genesis of crystal-rich rhyolite in a deeply dissected supervolcano in the Nevada Great Basin: Source of the late Eocene Caetano Tuff
Kathryn E. Watts, David A. John, Joseph P. Colgan, Christopher D. Henry, Ilya N. Bindeman, Axel K. Schmitt
2016, Journal of Petrology (57) 1599-1644
Late Cenozoic faulting and large-magnitude extension in the Great Basin of the western USA has created locally deep windows into the upper crust, permitting direct study of volcanic and plutonic rocks within individual calderas. The Caetano caldera in north–central Nevada, formed during the mid-Tertiary ignimbrite flare-up, offers one of the...
Recovery of sockeye salmon in the Elwha River, Washington, after dam removal: Dependence of smolt production on the resumption of anadromy by landlocked kokanee
Adam G. Hansen, Jennifer R. Gardner, David A. Beauchamp, Rebecca Paradis, Thomas P. Quinn
2016, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (145) 1303-1317
Pacific salmon Oncorhynchus spp. are adept at colonizing habitat that has been reopened to anadromous passage. Sockeye Salmon O. nerka are unique in that most populations require lakes to fulfill their life history. Thus, for Sockeye Salmon to colonize a system, projects like dam removals must provide access to lakes....
Developments in new fluid rotational seismometers: Instrument performance and future directions
John R. Evans, Jan T. Kozak, Petr Jedlicka
2016, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (106) 2865-2878
In this article we describe prototype designs and tests for low-cost rota- tional medium- and strong-motion seismometers using three types of proof mass (two liquid and one solid) and a number of transducer configurations. This article describes the third set of designs and tests in our development program. The details...
Biomarkers reveal sea turtles remained in oiled areas following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill
Hannah B. Vander Zanden, Alan B. Bolten, Anton D. Tucker, Kristen M. Hart, Margaret M. Lamont, Ikuko Fujisaki, Kimberly J. Reich, David S. Addison, Katherine L. Mansfield, Katrina F. Phillips, Mariela Pajuelo, Karen A. Bjorndal
2016, Ecological Applications (26) 2145-2155
Assessments of large-scale disasters, such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, are problematic because while measurements of post-disturbance conditions are common, measurements of pre-disturbance baselines are only rarely available. Without adequate observations of pre-disaster organismal and environmental conditions, it is impossible to assess the impact of such catastrophes on animal...
Spatial variation in nutrient and water color effects on lake chlorophyll at macroscales
C. Emi Fergus, Andrew O. Finley, Patricia A. Soranno, Tyler Wagner
2016, PLoS ONE
The nutrient-water color paradigm is a framework to characterize lake trophic status by relating lake primary productivity to both nutrients and water color, the colored component of dissolved organic carbon. Total phosphorus (TP), a limiting nutrient, and water color, a strong light attenuator, influence lake chlorophyll a concentrations (CHL). But,...
Triennial changes in groundwater quality in aquifers used for public supply in California: Utility as indicators of temporal trends
Robert H. Kent, Matthew K. Landon
2016, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment (188)
From 2004 to 2011, the U.S. Geological Survey collected samples from 1686 wells across the State of California as part of the California State Water Resources Control Board’s Groundwater Ambient Monitoring and Assessment (GAMA) Priority Basin Project (PBP). From 2007 to 2013, 224 of these wells were resampled to assess...
Household evacuation characteristics in American Samoa during the 2009 Samoa Islands tsunami
Emma J. I. Apatu, Chris E. Gregg, Nathan J. Wood, Liang Wang
2016, Disasters (40) 779-798
Tsunamis represent significant threats to human life and development in coastal communities. This quantitative study examines the influence of household characteristics on evacuation actions taken by 211 respondents in American Samoa who were at their homes during the 29 September 2009 Mw 8.1 Samoa Islands earthquake and tsunami disaster. Multiple...
Climate change is advancing spring onset across the U.S. national park system
William B. Monahan, Alyssa Rosemartin, Katharine L. Gerst, Nicholas A. Fisichelli, Toby R. Ault, Mark D. Schwartz, John E. Gross, Jake F. Weltzin
2016, Ecosphere (7) 1-17
Many U.S. national parks are already at the extreme warm end of their historical temperature distributions. With rapidly warming conditions, park resource management will be enhanced by information on seasonality of climate that supports adjustments in the timing of activities such as treating invasive species, operating visitor facilities, and scheduling...
Far-field pressurization likely caused one of the largest injection induced earthquakes by reactivating a large pre-existing basement fault structure
William L. Yeck, Matthew Weingarten, Harley M. Benz, Daniel E. McNamara, E. Bergman, R.B Herrmann, Justin L. Rubinstein, Paul S. Earle
2016, Geophysical Research Letters (43) 10,198-10,207
The Mw 5.1 Fairview, Oklahoma, earthquake on 13 February 2016 and its associated seismicity produced the largest moment release in the central and eastern United States since the 2011 Mw 5.7 Prague, Oklahoma, earthquake sequence and is one of the largest earthquakes potentially linked to wastewater injection. This energetic sequence has produced...
Helminth community structure in two species of arctic-breeding waterfowl
Courtney L. Amundson, N.J. Traub, A.J. Smith-Herron, Paul L. Flint
2016, International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife (5) 263-272
Climate change is occurring rapidly at high latitudes, and subsequent changes in parasite communities may have implications for hosts including wildlife and humans. Waterfowl, in particular, harbor numerous parasites and may facilitate parasite movement across broad geographic areas due to migratory movements. However, little is known about helminth community structure...
Results of the eruptive column model inter-comparison study
Antonio Costa, Yujiro Suzuki, M. Cerminara, Ben J. Devenish, T. Esposti Ongaro, Michael Herzog, Alexa R. Van Eaton, L.C. Denby, Marcus Bursik, Mattia de’ Michieli Vitturi, S. Engwell, Augusto Neri, Sara Barsotti, Arnau Folch, Giovanni Macedonio, F. Girault, G. Carazzo, S. Tait, E. Kaminski, Larry G. Mastin, Mark J. Woodhouse, Jeremy C. Phillips, Andrew J. Hogg, Wim Degruyter, Costanza Bonadonna
2016, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research (326) 2-25
This study compares and evaluates one-dimensional (1D) and three-dimensional (3D) numerical models of volcanic eruption columns in a set of different inter-comparison exercises. The exercises were designed as a blind test in which a set of common input parameters was given for two reference eruptions, representing a strong and a...
Forecasting climate change impacts on plant populations over large spatial extents
Andrew T. Tredennick, Mevin Hooten, Cameron L. Aldridge, Collin G. Homer, Andrew R. Kleinhesselink, Peter B. Adler
2016, Ecosphere (7)
Plant population models are powerful tools for predicting climate change impacts in one location, but are difficult to apply at landscape scales. We overcome this limitation by taking advantage of two recent advances: remotely sensed, species-specific estimates of plant cover and statistical models developed for spatiotemporal dynamics of animal populations....
Trends in mercury wet deposition and mercury air concentrations across the U.S. and Canada
Peter S. Weiss-Penzias, David A. Gay, Mark E. Brigham, Matthew T. Parsons, Mae S. Gustin, Arnout ter Shure
2016, Science of the Total Environment (568) 546-556
This study examined the spatial and temporal trends of mercury (Hg) in wet deposition and air concentrations in the United States (U.S.) and Canada between 1997 and 2013. Data were obtained from the National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP) and Environment Canada monitoring networks, and other...
Consequences of changes in vegetation and snow cover for climate feedbacks in Alaska and northwest Canada
Eugénie S. Euskirchen, A. P. Bennett, Amy L. Breen, Helene Genet, Michael A. Lindgren, Tom Kurkowski, A. David McGuire, T. Scott Rupp
2016, Environmental Research Letters (11) 1-19
Changes in vegetation and snow cover may lead to feedbacks to climate through changes in surface albedo and energy fluxes between the land and atmosphere. In addition to these biogeophysical feedbacks, biogeochemical feedbacks associated with changes in carbon (C) storage in the vegetation and soils may also influence climate. Here,...
Comparative use of side and main channels by small-bodied fish in a large, unimpounded river
Ann Marie Reinhold, Robert G. Bramblett, Alexander V. Zale, David W. Roberts, Geoffrey C. Poole
2016, Freshwater Biology (61) 1611-1626
Ecological theory and field studies suggest that lateral floodplain connectivity and habitat heterogeneity provided by side channels impart favourable habitat conditions for lotic fishes, especially fluvial fishes dependent on large patches of shallow, slow velocity habitats for some portion of their life cycle. However, anthropogenic modification of...
Walleye population and fishery responses after elimination of legal harvest on Escanaba Lake, Wisconsin
Justin M. Haglund, Daniel A. Isermann, Greg G. Sass
2016, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (36) 1315-1324
Implementing harvest regulations to eliminate or substantially reduce (≥90%) the exploitation of Walleyes Sander vitreus in recreational fisheries may increase population size structure, but these measures also could reduce angler effort because many Walleye anglers are harvest oriented. We analyzed data collected during 1995–2015 to determine whether Walleye population and fishery metrics...
Use of Atlantic Forest protected areas by free-ranging dogs: estimating abundance and persistence of use
Ana Maria Paschoal, Rodrigo Massara, Larissa L. Bailey, William L. Kendall, Paul F. Doherty Jr., Andre Hirsch, Adriano Chiarello, Adriano Paglia
2016, Ecosphere (7) 1-15
Worldwide, domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) are one of the most common carnivoran species in natural areas and their populations are still increasing. Dogs have been shown to impact wildlife populations negatively, and their occurrence can alter the abundance, behavior, and activity patterns of native species. However, little is known about...
How well are you teaching one of the most important biological concepts for humankind? A call to action
Scott A. Bonar, Deanna A. Fife, John S. Bonar
2016, The American Biology Teacher (78) 623-623
We represent several generations of biology educators – with teaching experiences beginning in the 1940s and continuing to the present, from elementary school to graduate-level programs. We find the vast array of subjects that biology teachers can now cover both thrilling and mind-boggling. Depending on the grade level, units...
Geologic history of Martian regolith breccia Northwest Africa 7034: Evidence for hydrothermal activity and lithologic diversity in the Martian crust
Francis M. McCubbin, Jeremy W. Boyce, Timea Novak-Szabo, Alison Santos, Romain Tartese, Nele Muttik, Gabor Domokos, Jorge A. Vazquez, Lindsay P. Keller, Desmond E. Moser, Douglas J. Jerolmack, Charles K. Shearer, Andrew Steele, Stephen M. Elardo, Zia Rahman, Mahesh Anand, Thomas Delhaye, Carl B. Agee
2016, Journal of Geophysical Research E: Planets (121) 2120-2149
The timing and mode of deposition for Martian regolith breccia Northwest Africa (NWA) 7034 were determined by combining petrography, shape analysis, and thermochronology. NWA 7034 is composed of igneous, impact, and brecciated clasts within a thermally annealed submicron matrix of pulverized crustal rocks and devitrified impact/volcanic glass. The brecciated clasts...
First direct evidence of long-distance seasonal movements and hibernation in a migratory bat
Theodore J. Weller, Kevin T. Castle, Felix Liechti, Cris D. Hein, Michael R. Schirmacher, Paul M. Cryan
2016, Scientific Reports (6)
Understanding of migration in small bats has been constrained by limitations of techniques that were labor-intensive, provided coarse levels of resolution, or were limited to population-level inferences. Knowledge of movements and behaviors of individual bats have been unknowable because of limitations in size of tracking devices and methods to attach...
