Nesting ecology of Whimbrels in boreal Alaska
Christopher M. Harwood, Robert E. Gill Jr., Abby Powell
2016, Wader Study (123) 99-113
Breeding ecology studies of boreal waders have been relatively scarce in North America. This paucity is due in part to boreal habitats being difficult to access, and boreal waders being widely dispersed and thus difficult to monitor. Between 2008 and 2014 we studied the nesting ecology of Whimbrels Numenius phaeopus hudsonicus in...
Synthesis and revision of the lithostratigraphic groups and formations in the Upper Permian?–Lower Jurassic Newark Supergroup of eastern North America
Robert E. Weems, Lawrence H. Tanner, Spencer G. Lucas
2016, Stratigraphy (13) 111-153
The Upper Permian? - Lower Jurassic Newark Supergroup of eastern North America has a strikingly uniform succession of lithologic units. This uniformity is seen regardless of whether these units are characterized on the basis of their lithostratigraphy, allostratigraphy, biostratigraphy, or chemostratigraphy. After deposition, these units were broken up tectonically and...
Accommodation space in a high-wave-energy inner-shelf during the Holocene marine transgression: Correlation of onshore and offshore inner-shelf deposits (0–12 ka) in the Columbia River littoral cell system, Washington and Oregon, USA
C. D. Peterson, D. C. Twichell, M. C. Roberts, S. Vanderburgh, Steven W. Hostetler
2016, Marine Geology (379) 140-156
The Columbia River Littoral Cell (CRLC), a high-wave-energy littoral system, extends 160 km alongshore, generally north of the large Columbia River, and 10–15 km in across-shelf distance from paleo-beach backshores to about 50 m present water depths. Onshore drill holes (19 in number and 5–35 m in subsurface depth) and offshore vibracores (33 in...
First steps for mitigating bycatch of Pink-footed Shearwaters Ardenna creatopus: Identifying overlap of foraging areas and fisheries in Chile
Ryan Carle, Jonathan J. Felis, Verónica López, Josh Adams, Peter Hodum, Jessie Beck, Valentina Colodro, Rodrigo Vega, Andres Gonzalez
2016, Conference Paper, Seventh Meeting of the Seabird Bycatch Working Group
The Pink-footed Shearwater, Ardenna creatopus, is listed as in danger of extinction by Chile and under Annex 1 of ACAP, with an estimated global population of approximately 56,000 individuals. Incidental bycatch of this species in fisheries is thought to be an important cause in population decline (i.e. annual estimated mortality...
Allometric and temporal scaling of movement characteristics in Galapagos tortoises
Guillaume Bastille-Rousseau, Charles B. Yackulic, Jacqueline L. Frair, Freddy Cabrera, Stephen Blake
2016, Journal of Animal Ecology (85) 1171-1181
Understanding how individual movement scales with body size is of fundamental importance in predicting ecological relationships for diverse species. One-dimensional movement metrics scale consistently with body size yet vary over different temporal scales. Knowing how temporal scale influences the relationship between animal body size and movement would...
Niche shifts and energetic condition of songbirds in response to phenology of food-resource availability in a high-elevation sagebrush ecosystem
Kyle A. Cutting, Michelle L. Anderson, Erik A. Beever, Sean Schroff, Nathan Korb, Eric Klaphake, Scott R. McWilliams
2016, The Auk (133) 685-697
Seasonal fluctuations in food availability can affect diets of consumers, which in turn may influence the physiological state of individuals and shape intra- and inter-specific patterns of resource use. High-elevation ecosystems often exhibit a pronounced seasonal “pulse” in productivity, although few studies document how resource use and energetic condition by...
Seasonal variation exceeds effects of salmon carcass additions on benthic food webs in the Elwha River
S.A. Morley, H.J. Coe, J.J. Duda, L.S. Dunphy, M.L. McHenry, B.R. Beckman, M. Elofson, E. M. Sampson, L. Ward
2016, Ecosphere (7) article e01422
Dam removal and other fish barrier removal projects in western North America are assumed to boost freshwater productivity via the transport of marine-derived nutrients from recolonizing Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.). In anticipation of the removal of two hydroelectric dams on the Elwha River in Washington State, we tested this hypothesis...
The Eastern California Shear Zone as the northward extension of the southern San Andreas Fault
Wayne R. Thatcher, James C. Savage, Robert W. Simpson
2016, Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth (121) 2904-2914
Cluster analysis offers an agnostic way to organize and explore features of the current GPS velocity field without reference to geologic information or physical models using information only contained in the velocity field itself. We have used cluster analysis of the Southern California Global Positioning System (GPS) velocity field to...
Climate warming reduces fish production and benthic habitat in Lake Tanganyika, one of the most biodiverse freshwater ecosystems
Andrew S. Cohen, Elizabeth L. Gergurich, Benjamin M. Kraemer, Michael M. McGlue, Peter B. McIntyre, James M. Russell, Jack D. Simmons, Peter W. Swarzenski
2016, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (113) 9563-9568
Warming climates are rapidly transforming lake ecosystems worldwide, but the breadth of changes in tropical lakes is poorly documented. Sustainable management of freshwater fisheries and biodiversity requires accounting for historical and ongoing stressors such as climate change and harvest intensity. This is problematic in tropical Africa, where records of ecosystem...
A pelagic outbreak of avian cholera in North American gulls: Scavenging as a primary mechanism for transmission?
Michelle Wille, Scott McBurney, Gregory J. Robertson, Sabine Wilhelm, David S. Blehert, Catherine Soos, Ron Dunphy, Hugh Whitney
2016, Journal of Wildlife Diseases (52) 793-802
Avian cholera, caused by the bacterium Pasteurella multocida, is an endemic disease globally, often causing annual epizootics in North American wild bird populations with thousands of mortalities. From December 2006 to March 2007, an avian cholera outbreak caused mortality in marine birds off the coast of Atlantic Canada, largely centered...
Predicting the occurrence of cave-inhabiting fauna based on features of the earth surface environment
Mary C. Christman, Daniel H. Doctor, Matthew L. Niemiller, David J. Weary, John A. Young, Kirk S. Zigler, David C. Culver
2016, PLoS ONE (11)
One of the most challenging fauna to study in situ is the obligate cave fauna because of the difficulty of sampling. Cave-limited species display patchy and restricted distributions, but it is often unclear whether the observed distribution is a sampling artifact or a true restriction in range. Further, the drivers...
Environmental change makes robust ecological networks fragile
Giovanni Strona, Kevin D. Lafferty
2016, Nature Communications (7)
Complex ecological networks appear robust to primary extinctions, possibly due to consumers’ tendency to specialize on dependable (available and persistent) resources. However, modifications to the conditions under which the network has evolved might alter resource dependability. Here, we ask whether adaptation to historical conditions can increase community robustness, and whether...
Diversity of fungal endophytes in non-native Phragmites australis in the Great Lakes
Keith Clay, Zachery Shearin, Kimberly Bourke, Wesley A. Bickford, Kurt P. Kowalski
2016, Biological Invasions (18) 2703-2716
Plant–microbial interactions may play a key role in plant invasions. One common microbial interaction takes place between plants and fungal endophytes when fungi asymptomatically colonize host plant tissues. The objectives of this study were to isolate and sequence fungal endophytes colonizing non-native Phragmites australis in the Great Lakes...
Functional role of bacteria from invasive Phragmites australis in promotion of host growth
M. A. Soares, H-Y Li, Kurt P. Kowalski, M. Bergen, M. S. Torres, J. F. White
2016, Microbial Ecology (72) 407-417
We hypothesize that bacterial endophytes may enhance the competitiveness and invasiveness of Phragmites australis. To evaluate this hypothesis, endophytic bacteria were isolated from P. australis. The majority of the shoot meristem isolates represent species from phyla Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, and Actinobacteria. We chose one species from each phylum to characterize further...
Relations between continuous real-time physical properties and discrete water-quality constituents in the Little Arkansas River, south-central Kansas, 1998-2014
Patrick P. Rasmussen, Patrick J. Eslick, Andrew C. Ziegler
2016, Open-File Report 2016-1057
Water from the Little Arkansas River is used as source water for artificial recharge of the Equus Beds aquifer, one of the primary water-supply sources for the city of Wichita, Kansas. The U.S. Geological Survey has operated two continuous real-time water-quality monitoring stations since 1995 on the Little Arkansas River...
Determining CO2 storage potential during miscible CO2 enhanced oil recovery: Noble gas and stable isotope tracers
Jenna L. Shelton, Jennifer C. McIntosh, Andrew G. Hunt, Thomas L Beebe, Andrew D Parker, Peter D. Warwick, Ronald M. Drake II, John E. McCray
2016, International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control (51) 239-253
Rising atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations are fueling anthropogenic climate change. Geologic sequestration of anthropogenic CO2 in depleted oil reservoirs is one option for reducing CO2 emissions to the atmosphere while enhancing oil recovery. In order to evaluate the feasibility of using enhanced oil recovery (EOR) sites in the United States for...
Inter-annual variability of area-scaled gaseous carbon emissions from wetland soils in the Liaohe Delta, China
Siyuan Ye, Ken W. Krauss, Hans Brix, Mengjie Wei, Linda Olsson, Xueyang Yu, Yueying Ma, Jin Wang, Hongming Yuan, Guangming Zhao, Xigui Ding, Rebecca Moss
2016, PLoS ONE (11)
Global management of wetlands to suppress greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, facilitate carbon (C) sequestration, and reduce atmospheric CO2 concentrations while simultaneously promoting agricultural gains is paramount. However, studies that relate variability in CO2 and CH4 emissions at large spatial scales are limited. We investigated three-year emissions of soil CO2 and CH4 from the primary wetland...
Formation of the Isthmus of Panama
Aaron O’Dea, Orangel Aguilera, Marie-Pierre Aubry, William A. Berggren, Alberto L. Cione, Anthony G. Coates, Laurel S. Collins, Simon E. Coppard, Mario A. Cozzuol, Alan de Queiroz, Herman Duque-Caro, Ron I. Eytan, David W. Farris, German M. Gasparini, Ethan L. Grosmman, Jeremy B. C. Jackson, Kenneth G. Johnson, Lloyd D. Keigwin, Nancy Knowlton, Egbert G. Leigh, Jill S. Leonard-Pingel, Hailaos A. Lessios, Peter B. Marko, Richard D. Norris, Paola G. Rachello-Dolmen, Sergio A. Restrepo-Moreno, Leopoldo Soibelzon, Robert F. Stallard, Jonathan A. Todd, Geerat J. Vermeiju, Michael O. Woodburne
2016, Science Advances (2) 1-11
The formation of the Isthmus of Panama stands as one of the greatest natural events of the Cenozoic, driving profound biotic transformations on land and in the oceans. Some recent studies suggest that the Isthmus formed many millions of years earlier than the widely recognized age of approximately 3 million...
Ectoparasitism on deep-sea fishes in the western North Atlantic: In situ observations from ROV surveys
Andrea Quattrini, Amanda W.J. Demopoulos
2016, International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife (5) 217
A complete understanding of how parasites influence marine ecosystem functioning requires characterizing a broad range of parasite-host interactions while determining the effects of parasitism in a variety of habitats. In deep-sea fishes, the prevalence of parasitism remains poorly understood. Knowledge of ectoparasitism, in particular, is limited because collection methods often...
Barriers to and opportunities for landward migration of coastal wetlands with sea-level rise
Nicholas M. Enwright, Kereen T. Griffith, Michael J. Osland
2016, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment (14) 307-316
In the 21st century, accelerated sea-level rise and continued coastal development are expected to greatly alter coastal landscapes across the globe. Historically, many coastal ecosystems have responded to sea-level fluctuations via horizontal and vertical movement on the landscape. However, anthropogenic activities, including urbanization and the construction of flood-prevention infrastructure, can...
The international river interface cooperative: Public domain flow and morphodynamics software for education and applications
Jonathan M. Nelson, Yasuyuki Shimizu, Takaaki Abe, Kazutake Asahi, Mineyuki Gamou, Takuya Inoue, Toshiki Iwasaki, Takaharu Kakinuma, Satomi Kawamura, Ichiro Kimura, Tomoko Kyuka, Richard R. McDonald, Mohamed Nabi, Makoto Nakatsugawa, Francisco J. Simoes, Hiroshi Takebayashi, Yasunori Watanabe
2016, Advances in Water Resources (93) 62-74
This paper describes a new, public-domain interface for modeling flow, sediment transport and morphodynamics in rivers and other geophysical flows. The interface is named after the International River Interface Cooperative (iRIC), the group that constructed the interface and many of the current solvers included in iRIC. The interface is entirely...
Development and assessment of indices to determine stream fish vulnerability to climate change and habitat alteration
Nicholas A. Sievert, Craig P. Paukert, Yin-Phan Tsang, Dana M. Infante
2016, Ecological Indicators (67) 403-416
Understanding the future impacts of climate and land use change are critical for long-term biodiversity conservation. We developed and compared two indices to assess the vulnerability of stream fish in Missouri, USA based on species environmental tolerances, rarity, range size, dispersal ability and on the average connectivity of the streams...
Microbial pathogens in source and treated waters from drinking water treatment plants in the United States and implications for human health
Dawn N. King, Maura J. Donohue, Stephen J. Vesper, Eric N. Villegas, Michael W. Ware, Megan E. Vogel, Edward Furlong, Dana W. Kolpin, Susan T. Glassmeyer, Stacy Pfaller
2016, Science of the Total Environment (562) 987-995
An occurrence survey was conducted on selected pathogens in source and treated drinking water collected from 25 drinking water treatment plants (DWTPs) in the United States. Water samples were analyzed for the protozoa Giardia and Cryptosporidium (EPA Method 1623); the fungi Aspergillus fumigatus, Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus terreus (quantitative PCR...
Geochemistry, petrologic evolution, and ore deposits of the Miocene Bodie Hills Volcanic Field, California and Nevada
Edward A. du Bray, David A. John, Brian L. Cousens, Leslie A. Hayden, Peter G. Vikre
2016, American Mineralogist (101) 644-677
The southern segment of the ancestral Cascades magmatic arc includes numerous volcanic fields; among these, the Bodie Hills volcanic field (BHVF), astride the California-Nevada border north of Mono Lake, is one of the largest (>700 km2) and most well studied. Episodic magmatism in the BHVF spanned about 9 million years...
Evaluation of leaf removal as a means to reduce nutrient concentrations and loads in urban stormwater
William R. Selbig
2016, Science of the Total Environment (571) 124-133
While the sources of nutrients to urban stormwater are many, the primary contributor is often organic detritus, especially in areas with dense overhead tree canopy. One way to remove organic detritus before it becomes entrained in runoff is to implement a city-wide leaf collection and...
