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We report here the genome sequence of a circular virus isolated from samples of an Alaskan black-capped chickadee (Poecile atricapillus) gastrointestinal tract. The genome is 2,152 bp in length and is most similar (30 to 44.5% amino acid identity) to the genome sequences of other single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) circular viruses...

An approach is presented for producing the spatiotemporal estimation of leaf area index (LAI) of a highly heterogeneous coastal marsh without reliance on user estimates of marsh leaf-stem orientation. The canopy LAI profile derivation used three years of field measured photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) vertical profiles at seven S. alterniflora...

Recent improvements in online information communication and mobile location-aware technologies have led to the production of large volumes of volunteered geographic information. Widespread, large-scale efforts by volunteers to collect data can inform and drive scientific advances in diverse fields, including ecology and climatology. Traditional workflows to check the quality of...

The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the City of Independence, Missouri, Water Department, has historically collected water-quality samples using the purge and pump method (hereafter referred to as pump method) to identify potential contamination in groundwater supply wells within the Independence well field. If grab sample results are comparable...

Carbon cycling in mangrove forests represents a significant portion of the coastal wetland carbon (C) budget across the latitudes of the tropics and subtropics. Previous research suggests fluctuations in tidal inundation, temperature and salinity can influence forest metabolism and C cycling. Carbon dioxide (CO2) from respiration that occurs from below...

Adaptation to different thermal environments has the potential to cause evolutionary changes that are sufficient to drive ecological speciation. Here, we examine whether climate-based niche divergence in lizards of the Plestiodon skiltonianus species complex is consistent with the outcomes of such a process. Previous work on this group shows that...

Both endangered and non-endangered unionid mussels are heterogeneously distributed within the Allegheny River, Pennsylvania. Mussel populations vary from high to low density downstream of Kinzua Dam, and the direction, amount, and range of hyporheic exchange (seepage) at the sediment–water interface were suspected to influence their distribution and abundance. Nineteen hydrogeomorphic variables, including the...

Fire-induced permafrost degradation is well documented in boreal forests, but the role of fires in initiating thermokarst development in Arctic tundra is less well understood. Here we show that Arctic tundra fires may induce widespread thaw subsidence of permafrost terrain in the first seven years following the disturbance. Quantitative analysis...

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The Chicago Area Waterway System (CAWS) consists of a combination of natural and manmade channels that form an interconnected navigable waterway of approximately 90-plus miles in the metropolitan Chicago area of northeastern Illinois. The CAWS serves the area as the primary drainage feature, a waterway transportation corridor, and recreational waterbody....

About 35 million years ago, a 2-mile-wide meteorite smashed into Earth in what is now the lower Chesapeake Bay in Virginia. The oceanic impact vaporized, melted, fractured, and displaced rocks and sediments and sent billions of tons of water, sediments, and rocks into the air. Glassy particles of solidified melt...

About 35 million years ago, during late Eocene time, a 2-mile-wide asteroid or comet smashed into Earth in what is now the lower Chesapeake Bay in Virginia. The oceanic impact vaporized, melted, fractured, and (or) displaced the target rocks and sediments and sent billions of tons of water, sediments, and...

From October 26-28, 2015, nearly 100 members of the coastal management and research communities met in Kitty Hawk, NC, USA to bridge the apparent gap between the coastal dune research of scientists and engineers and the needs of coastal management practitioners. The workshop aimed to identify the challenges involved in...

The recent commercial availability of in-situ optical sensors, together with new techniques for data collection and analysis, provides the opportunity to monitor a wide range of water-quality constituents over time scales during which environmental conditions actually change. Traditional approaches for data collection (daily to monthly discrete samples) are often limited...

Hawaiian forest birds serve as an ideal group to explore the extent of climate change impacts on at-risk species. Avian malaria constrains many remaining Hawaiian forest bird species to high elevations where temperatures are too cool for malaria's life cycle and its principal mosquito vector. The impact of climate change...

Spatial variability in field soil properties is a challenge for system modelers who use single representative values, such as means, for model inputs, rather than their distributions. In this study, the root zone water quality model (RZWQM2) was first calibrated for 4 yr of maize (Zea mays L.) data at six...

This report, prepared by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the Kansas Department of Agriculture’s Division of Water Resources, presents derivative statistics of water used by Kansas public-supply systems in 2013. The published statistics from the previous 4 years (2009–12) are also shown with the 2013 statistics and are...

The Mariana Common Moorhen (Gallinula chloropus guami) is a highly endangered taxon, with fewer than 300 individuals estimated to occur in the wild. The subspecies is believed to have undergone population declines attributable to loss of wetland habitats on its native islands in the Mariana Islands. We analyzed mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA)...

Decline of sugar maple in North American forests has been attributed to changes in soil calcium (Ca) and nitrogen (N) by acidic precipitation. Although N is an essential and usually a limiting factor in forests, atmospheric N deposition may cause N-saturation leading to loss of soil Ca. Such changes can...

Sugar maple (Acer saccharum Marsh) has experienced poor vigor, regeneration failure, and elevated mortality across much of its range, but there has been relatively little attention to its growth rates. Based on a well-replicated dendrochronological network of range-centered populations in the Adirondack Mountains (USA), which encompassed a wide gradient of soil...

A series of 10 digital flood-inundation maps were developed for a 3.3-mile reach of the North River in Colrain, Charlemont, and Shelburne, Massachusetts, by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The coverage of the maps extends from the confluence of the East and West...

Introduction The National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center (NCCWSC) and the Department of the Interior (DOI) Climate Science Centers (CSCs) had another exciting year in 2014. The NCCWSC moved toward focusing their science funding on several high priority areas and, along with the CSCs, gained new agency partners; contributed to...

Coral reefs rival rainforest in biodiversity, but are declining in part because of disease. Tissue loss lesions, a manifestation of disease, are present in dominant Pocillopora along the Pacific coast of Mexico. We characterized tissue loss in 7 species of Pocillopora from 9 locations (44 sites) spanning southern to northern Mexico. Corals were identified...

Physiological constraints dictate animals’ ability to exploit habitats. For marine mammals, it is important to quantify physiological limits that influence diving and their ability to alter foraging behaviors. We characterized age-specific dive limits of walruses by measuring anaerobic (acid-buffering capacity) and aerobic (myoglobin content) capacities of the muscles that power...

Collecting physical bedload measurements is an expensive and time-consuming endeavor that rarely captures the spatial and temporal variability of sediment transport. Technological advances can improve monitoring of sediment transport by filling in temporal gaps between physical sampling periods. We have developed a low-cost hydrophone recording system designed to record the...