Mortality patterns in endangered Hawaiian geese (Nene; Branta sandvicensis)
Thierry M. Work, Julie Dagenais, Robert Rameyer, Renee Breeden
2015, Journal of Wildlife Diseases (51) 688-695
Understanding causes of death can aid management and recovery of endangered bird populations. Toward those ends, we systematically examined 300 carcasses of endangered Hawaiian Geese (Nene; Branta sandvicensis) from Hawaii, Maui, Molokai, and Kauai between 1992 and 2013. The most common cause of death was emaciation, followed by trauma (vehicular strikes...
Increased land use by Chukchi Sea polar bears in relation to changing sea ice conditions
Karyn D. Rode, Ryan H. Wilson, Eric V. Regehr, Michelle St. Martin, David C. Douglas, Jay Olson
2015, PLoS ONE (10)
Recent observations suggest that polar bears (Ursus maritimus) are increasingly using land habitats in some parts of their range, where they have minimal access to their preferred prey, likely in response to loss of their sea ice habitat associated with climatic warming. We used location data from female polar bears...
Evaluation of the U.S. Geological Survey standard elevation products in a two-dimensional hydraulic modeling application for a low relief coastal floodplain
Emitt C. Witt III
2015, Journal of Hydrology (531) 759-767
Growing use of two-dimensional (2-D) hydraulic models has created a need for high resolution data to support flood volume estimates, floodplain specific engineering data, and accurate flood inundation scenarios. Elevation data are a critical input to these models that guide the flood-wave across the landscape allowing the computation of valuable...
Probabilistic 3-D time-lapse inversion of magnetotelluric data: Application to an enhanced geothermal system
Marina Rosas-Carbajal, Nicolas Linde, Jared R. Peacock, F. I. Zyserman, Thomas Kalscheuer, Stephan Thiel
2015, Geophysical Journal International (203) 1946-1960
Surface-based monitoring of mass transfer caused by injections and extractions in deep boreholes is crucial to maximize oil, gas and geothermal production. Inductive electromagnetic methods, such as magnetotellurics, are appealing for these applications due to their large penetration depths and sensitivity to changes in fluid conductivity and fracture connectivity. In...
Validation of mercury tip-switch and accelerometer activity sensors for identifying resting and active behavior in bears
Jasmine Ware, Karyn D. Rode, Anthony M. Pagano, Jeffrey F. Bromaghin, Charles T. Robbins, Joy Erlenbach, Shannon Jensen, Amy Cutting, Nicole Nicassio-Hiskey, Amy Hash, Megan A. Owen, Heiko Jansen
2015, Ursus (26) 8-18
Activity sensors are often included in wildlife transmitters and can provide information on the behavior and activity patterns of animals remotely. However, interpreting activity-sensor data relative to animal behavior can be difficult if animals cannot be continuously observed. In this study, we examined the performance of a mercury tip-switch and...
Alpine biodiversity and assisted migration: The case of the American pika (Ochotona princeps)
Jennifer L. Wilkening, Chris Ray, Nathan G. Ramsay, Kelly Klingler
2015, Biodiversity (16) 1-13
Alpine mammals are predicted to be among the species most threatened by climate change, due to the projected loss and further fragmentation of alpine habitats. As temperature or precipitation regimes change, alpine mammals may also be faced with insurmountable barriers to dispersal. The slow rate or inability to adjust to...
White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) fawn risk from Gray Wolf (Canis lupus) predation during summer
L. David Mech, Aaron Morris, Shannon M. Barber-Meyer
2015, Canadian Field-Naturalist (129) 368-373
Little is known about how often various prey animals are at risk of predation by Gray Wolves (Canis lupus). We used a system to monitor the presence during the day of two radio-collared Gray Wolves within 2 km of a radio-collared White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) with a fawn or fawns...
On the prediction of threshold friction velocity of wind erosion using soil reflectance spectroscopy
Junran Li, Cody B. Flagg, Gregory S. Okin, Thomas H. Painter, Kebonye Dintwe, Jayne Belnap
2015, Aeolian Research (19) 129-136
Current approaches to estimate threshold friction velocity (TFV) of soil particle movement, including both experimental and empirical methods, suffer from various disadvantages, and they are particularly not effective to estimate TFVs at regional to global scales. Reflectance spectroscopy has been widely used to obtain TFV-related soil properties (e.g., moisture, texture,...
Foreward
James L. Coleman, Paul J. Post, David E. Brown
2015, Conference Paper
No abstract available....
Western water and climate change
Michael D. Dettinger, Bradley Udall, Aris P. Georgakakos
2015, Ecological Applications (25) 2069-2093
The western United States is a region long defined by water challenges. Climate change adds to those historical challenges, but does not, for the most part, introduce entirely new challenges; rather climate change is likely to stress water supplies and resources already in many cases stretched to, or beyond, natural...
A practical guide to the use of major elements, trace elements, and isotopes in compositional data analysis: Applications for deep formation brine geochemistry
Madalyn S. Blondes, Mark A. Engle, Nicholas Geboy
2015, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the International Workshop on Compositional Data Analysis
In the geosciences, isotopic ratios and trace element concentrations are often used along with major element concentrations to help determine sources of and processes affecting geochemical variation. Compositional Data Analysis (CoDA) is a set of tools, generally attuned to major element data, concerned with the proper statistical treatment and removal...
Current land bird distribution and trends in population abundance between 1982 and 2012 on Rota, Mariana Islands
Richard J. Camp, Kevin W. Brinck, P. Marcos Gorresen, Fred A. Amidon, Paul M. Radley, S. Paul Berkowitz, Paul C. Banko
2015, Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management (6) 511-540
The western Pacific island of Rota is the fourth largest human-inhabited island in the Mariana archipelago and designated an Endemic Bird Area. Between 1982 and 2012, 12 point-transect distance-sampling surveys were conducted to assess bird population status. Surveys did not consistently sample the entire island; thus, we used a ratio...
Meteorological variables to aid forecasting deep slab avalanches on persistent weak layers
Alex Marienthal, Jordy Hendrikx, Karl W. Birkeland, Kathryn M. Irvine
2015, Cold Regions Science and Technology (120) 227-236
Deep slab avalanches are particularly challenging to forecast. These avalanches are difficult to trigger, yet when they release they tend to propagate far and can result in large and destructive avalanches. We utilized a 44-year record of avalanche control and meteorological data from Bridger Bowl ski area in southwest Montana...
Assessment of environmental DNA for detecting presence of imperiled aquatic amphibian species in isolated wetlands
Anna M. McKee, Daniel L. Calhoun, William J. Barichivich, Stephen F. Spear, Caren S. Goldberg, Travis C Glenn
2015, Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management (6) 498-510
Environmental DNA (eDNA) is an emerging tool that allows low-impact sampling for aquatic species by isolating DNA from water samples and screening for DNA sequences specific to species of interest. However, researchers have not tested this method in naturally acidic wetlands that provide breeding habitat for a number of imperiled...
Changes in depth occupied by Great Lakes lake whitefish populations and the influence of survey design
Michael D. Rennie, Brian Weidel, Randall M. Claramunt, Erin S. Dunlob
2015, Journal of Great Lakes Research (41) 1150-1161
Understanding fish habitat use is important in determining conditions that ultimately affect fish energetics, growth and reproduction. Great Lakes lake whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis) have demonstrated dramatic changes in growth and life history traits since the appearance of dreissenid mussels in the Great Lakes, but the role of habitat occupancy in...
Seismic hazard in the Nation's breadbasket
Oliver S. Boyd, Kathleen Haller, Nico Luco, Morgan P. Moschetti, Charles Mueller, Mark D. Petersen, Sanaz Rezaeian, Justin L. Rubinstein
2015, Earthquake Spectra (S1) 109-130
The USGS National Seismic Hazard Maps were updated in 2014 and included several important changes for the central United States (CUS). Background seismicity sources were improved using a new moment-magnitude-based catalog; a new adaptive, nearest-neighbor smoothing kernel was implemented; and maximum magnitudes for background sources were updated. Areal source zones...
Hybridization between Dusky Grouse and Sharp-tailed Grouse
Ryan P. O’Donnell
2015, Western Birds (46) 351-352
Cache County, Utah, 7 April 2013: rare hybrid combination of grouse noted. Hybridization between Dusky Grouse (Dendragapus obscurus) and Sharp-tailed Grouse (Tympanuchus phasianellus) has been rarely documented in the wild. The only published record was of one collected from Osoyoos, British Columbia, in 1906 (Brooks 1907, Lincoln 1950). There is...
Shoal basses: A clade of cryptic identity
Byron J. Freeman, Andrew T. Taylor, Kenneth J. Oswald, John Wares, Mary Freeman, Joseph M. Quattro, Jean Leitner
2015, Conference Paper, Black bass diversity: Multidisciplinary science for conservation
Shoal basses are a cryptic clade composed of Micropterus spp. restricted to the Apalachicola River system and three southeastern Atlantic slope river drainages in the southeastern United States. This reciprocally monophyletic clade includes the Shoal Bass M. cataractae (endemic to the Apalachicola River system), the Chattahoochee Bass M. chattahoochae, and two...
Conodont faunas from a complete basinal succession of the upper part of the Wordian (Middle Permian, Guadalupian, West Texas)
Bruce R. Wardlaw, Merlynd K. Nestell
2015, Micropaleontology (61) 257-292
In the southern part of the Patterson Hills just to the west of the Guadalupe Mountains escarpment ofWest Texas, a 29m outcrop of alternating calcareous siltstone and silty limestone with a few thin fine sandstone interbeds displays the overlap occurrence of a narrowmorphotype of Jinogondolella nankingensis (herein named J. nankingensis...
Conodont biostratigraphy of the Permian-Triassic boundary sequence at Lung Cam, Vietnam
Bruce R. Wardlaw, Merlynd K. Nestell, Galina P. Nestell, Brooks B. Ellwood, Luu Thi Phuong Lan
2015, Micropaleontology (61) 313-334
The occurrences of a few specimens of Clarkina and many specimens of Hindeodus at the Permian-Triassic boundary section at Lung Cam, Vietnam allow accurate graphic correlation to the P-T boundary stratotype at Meishan, China. One species of Clarkina, ten species and two subspecies of Hindeodus, and the apparatuses of Hindeodus...
Determining climate change management priorities: A case study from Wisconsin
Olivia E. LeDee, Christine Ribic
2015, Journal of Conservation Planning (11) 1-12
A burgeoning dialogue exists regarding how to allocate resources to maximize the likelihood of long-term biodiversity conservation within the context of climate change. To make effective decisions in natural resource management, an iterative, collaborative, and learning-based decision process may be more successful than a strictly consultative approach. One important, early...
Estimating the risks for adverse effects of total phosphorus in receiving streams with the Stochastic Empirical Loading and Dilution Model (SELDM)
Gregory E. Granato, Susan C. Jones
2015, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the 2015 International Conference on Ecology and Transportation (ICOET 2015)
Studies from North Carolina (NC) indicate that increasing concentrations of total phosphorus (TP) and other constituents are correlated to adverse effects on stream ecosystems as evidenced by differences in benthic macroinvertebrate populations in streams across the state. As a result, stringent in-stream criteria based on the Water Quality Assessed by...
Interpretation of S waves generated by near-surface chemical explosions at SAFOD
Fred F. Pollitz, William L. Ellsworth, Justin L. Rubinstein
2015, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (105) 2835-2851
A series of near-surface chemical explosions conducted at the San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD) were recorded by high-frequency downhole receiver arrays in separate experiments in November 2003 and May 2005. The 2003 experiment involved ∼100 kg shots detonated along a 46-km-long line (Hole–Ryberg line) centered on SAFOD and recorded...
Quantifying the adaptive cycle
David G. Angeler, Craig R. Allen, Ahjond S. Garmestani, Lance H. Gunderson, Olle Hjerne, Monika Winder
2015, PLoS ONE (10)
The adaptive cycle was proposed as a conceptual model to portray patterns of change in complex systems. Despite the model having potential for elucidating change across systems, it has been used mainly as a metaphor, describing system dynamics qualitatively. We use a quantitative approach for testing premises (reorganisation, conservatism, adaptation)...
Large-scale control site selection for population monitoring: an example assessing Sage-grouse trends
Bradley C. Fedy, Michael S. O’Donnell, Zachary H. Bowen
2015, Wildlife Society Bulletin (39) 700-712
Human impacts on wildlife populations are widespread and prolific and understanding wildlife responses to human impacts is a fundamental component of wildlife management. The first step to understanding wildlife responses is the documentation of changes in wildlife population parameters, such as population size. Meaningful assessment of population changes in potentially...
