The role of tidal marsh restoration in fish management in the San Francisco Estuary
Bruce Herbold, Donald Baltz, Larry R. Brown, Robin Grossinger, Wim J. Kimmerer, Peggy W. Lehman, Charles A. Simenstad, Carl Wilcox, Matthew L. Nobriga
2015, San Francisco Estuary and Watershed Science (12)
Tidal marsh restoration is an important management issue in the San Francisco Estuary (estuary). Restoration of large areas of tidal marsh is ongoing or planned in the lower estuary (up to 6,000 ha, Callaway et al. 2011). Large areas are proposed for restoration in the upper estuary under the Endangered...
The effect of dilution and the use of a post-extraction nucleic acid purification column on the accuracy, precision, and inhibition of environmental DNA samples
Anna M. Mckee, Stephen F. Spear, Todd W. Pierson
2015, Biological Conservation (183) 70-76
Isolation of environmental DNA (eDNA) is an increasingly common method for detecting presence and assessing relative abundance of rare or elusive species in aquatic systems via the isolation of DNA from environmental samples and the amplification of species-specific sequences using quantitative PCR (qPCR). Co-extracted substances that inhibit qPCR can lead...
How much is new information worth? Evaluating the financial benefit of resolving management uncertainty
Sean L. Maxwell, Jonathan R. Rhodes, Michael C. Runge, Hugh P. Possingham, Chooi Fei Ng, Eve McDonald Madden
2015, Journal of Applied Ecology (52) 12-20
Conservation decision-makers face a trade-off between spending limited funds on direct management action, or gaining new information in an attempt to improve management performance in the future. Value-of-information analysis can help to resolve this trade-off by evaluating how much management performance could improve if new information was gained. Value-of-information analysis...
BET surface area distributions in polar stream sediments: Implications for silicate weathering in a cold-arid environment
Kristen R. Marra, Megan E Elwood Madden, Gerilyn S. Soreghan, Brenda L Hall
2015, Applied Geochemistry (52) 31-42
BET surface area values are critical for quantifying the amount of potentially reactive sediments available for chemical weathering and ultimately, prediction of silicate weathering fluxes. BET surface area values of fine-grained (<62.5 μm) sediment from the hyporheic zone of polar glacial streams in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica (Wright and...
Evaluating changes in stream fish species richness over a 50-year time-period within a landscape context
Stephen R. Midway, Tyler Wagner, Bryn H. Tracy, Gabriela M. Hogue, Wayne C. Starnes
2015, Environmental Biology of Fishes (98) 1295-1309
Worldwide, streams and rivers are facing a suite of pressures that alter water quality and degrade physical habitat, both of which can lead to changes in the composition and richness of fish populations. These potential changes are of particular importance in the Southeast USA, home to one of the richest...
Pesticide concentrations in frog tissue and wetland habitats in alandscape dominated by agriculture
Kelly L. Smalling, Rebecca Reeves, Erin L. Muths, Mark W. Vandever, William A. Battaglin, Michelle Hladik, Clay L. Pierce
2015, Science of the Total Environment (502) 80-90
Habitat loss and exposure to pesticides are likely primary factors contributing to amphibian decline in agricultural landscapes. Conservation efforts have attempted to restore wetlands lost through landscape modifications to reduce contaminant loads in surface waters and providing quality habitat to wildlife. The benefits of this increased wetland area, perhaps especially...
Climate-induced range contraction of a rare alpine aquatic invertebrate
J. Joseph Giersch, Steve Jordan, Gordon Luikart, Leslie A. Jones, F. Richard Hauer, Clint C. Muhlfeld
2015, Freshwater Science (34) 53-65
Climate warming poses a serious threat to alpine-restricted species worldwide, yet few studies have empirically documented climate-induced changes in distributions. The rare stonefly, Zapada glacier (Baumann and Gaufin), endemic to alpine streams of Glacier National Park (GNP), Montana, was recently petitioned for listing under the US Endangered Species Act because of climate-change-induced...
Testing the nutritional-limitation, predator-avoidance, and storm-avoidance hypotheses for restricted sea otter habitat use in the Aleutian Islands, Alaska
Nathan L. Stewart, Brenda Konar, M. Tim Tinker
2015, Oecologia (177) 645-655
Sea otters (Enhydra lutris) inhabiting the Aleutian Islands have stabilized at low abundance levels following a decline and currently exhibit restricted habitat-utilization patterns. Possible explanations for restricted habitat use by sea otters can be classified into two fundamentally different processes, bottom-up and top-down forcing. Bottom-up hypotheses argue that changes in the...
Character, distribution, and ecological significance of storm wave-induced scour in Rhode Island Sound, USA
Katherine Y. McMullen, Lawrence J. Poppe, Castle E. Parker
2015, Geo-Marine Letters (35) 135-144
Multibeam bathymetry, collected during NOAA hydrographic surveys in 2008 and 2009, is coupled with USGS data from sampling and photographic stations to map the seabed morphology and composition of Rhode Island Sound along the US Atlantic coast, and to provide information on sediment transport and benthic habitats. Patchworks of scour...
Scale-dependent feedbacks between patch size and plant reproduction in desert grassland
Lauren N. Svejcar, Brandon T. Bestelmeyer, Michael C. Duniway, Darren K. James
2015, Ecosystems (18) 146-153
Theoretical models suggest that scale-dependent feedbacks between plant reproductive success and plant patch size govern transitions from highly to sparsely vegetated states in drylands, yet there is scant empirical evidence for these mechanisms. Scale-dependent feedback models suggest that an optimal patch size exists for growth and reproduction of plants and...
Assessing the impacts of climate and land use and land cover change on the freshwater availability in the Brahmaputra River basin
Md Shahriar Pervez, Geoffrey M. Henebry
2015, Journal of Hydrology (3) 285-311
Study Region: Brahmaputra River basin in South Asia. Study Focus: The Soil and Water Assessment Tool was used to evaluate sensitivities and patterns in freshwater availability due to projected climate and land use changes in the Brahmaputra basin. The daily observed discharge at Bahadurabad station in Bangladesh was used to calibrate and validate...
Spatial and seasonal responses of precipitation in the Ganges and Brahmaputra river basins to ENSO and Indian Ocean dipole modes: Implications for flooding and drought
Md Shahriar Pervez, Geoffry M. Henebry
2015, Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences (2) 147-162
We evaluated the spatial and seasonal responses of precipitation in the Ganges and Brahmaputra basins as modulated by the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) modes using Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC) full data reanalysis of monthly global land-surface precipitation data from 1901 to 2010...
Vegetation controls on weathering intensity during the last deglacial transition in southeast Africa
Sarah J. Ivory, Michael M. McGlue, Geoffrey S. Ellis, Anne-Marie Lézine, Andrew S. Cohen, Annie Vincens
2015, PLoS ONE (9)
Tropical climate is rapidly changing, but the effects of these changes on the geosphere are unknown, despite a likelihood of climatically-induced changes on weathering and erosion. The lack of long, continuous paleo-records prevents an examination of terrestrial responses to climate change with sufficient detail to answer questions about how systems...
Pronounced chemical response of Subarctic lakes to climate-driven losses in surface area
Tyler L. Lewis, Mark S. Lindberg, Joel A. Schmutz, Patricia J. Heglund, Jennifer R. Rover, Joshua C. Koch, Mark R. Bertram
2015, Global Change Biology (21) 1140-1152
Losses in lake area have been observed for several Arctic and Subarctic regions in recent decades, with unknown consequences for lake ecosystems. These reductions are primarily attributed to two climate-sensitive mechanisms, both of which may also cause changes in water chemistry: (i) increased imbalance of evaporation relative to inflow, whereby...
Migratory behavior of Chinook salmon microjacks reared in artificial and natural environments
Michael C. Hayes, Steve P. Rubin, Reginald R. Reisenbichler, Lisa A. Wetzel
2015, Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management (6) 176-186
Emigration was evaluated for hatchery Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) microjacks (age-1 mature males) and immature parr (age-1 juveniles, both sexes) released from both a hatchery and a natural stream (fish released as fry). In the hatchery, volitional releases (∼14 to 15 months post-fertilization) to an adjacent river occurred during October–November....
Cyclic avian mass mortality in the northeastern United States is associated with a novel orthomyxovirus
Andrew B. Allison, Jennifer R. Ballard, Robert B. Tesh, Justin D. Brown, Mark G. Ruder, M. Kevin Keel, Brandon A. Munk, Randall M. Mickley, Samantha E.J. Gibbs, Julie C. Ellis, Amelia P.A. Travassos da Rosac, S. Ip, Valerie I. Shearn-Bochsler, Matthew B. Rogers, Elodie Gheldin, Edward C. Holmes, Colin R. Parrish, Chris P. Dwyer
2015, Journal of Virology (89) 1389-1403
Since 1998, cyclic mortality events in common eiders (Somateria mollissima), numbering in the hundreds to thousands of dead birds, have been documented along the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA. Although longitudinal disease investigations have uncovered potential contributing factors responsible for these outbreaks, detecting a primary etiological agent has proven...
The 2011 Virginia M5.8 earthquake: Insights from seismic reflection imaging into the influence of older structures on eastern U.S. seismicity
Thomas L. Pratt, J. Wright Horton Jr., D.B. Spear, A.K. Gilmer, Daniel E. McNamara
2015, Geological Society of America Special Papers (509) 285-294
The Mineral, Virginia (USA), earthquake of 23 August 2011 occurred at 6– 8 km depth within the allochthonous terranes of the Appalachian Piedmont Province, rupturing an ~N36°E striking reverse fault dipping ~50° southeast. This study used the Interstate Highway 64 seismic refl ection profi le acquired ~6 km southwest of...
The 3D Elevation Program: summary for Wyoming
William J. Carswell Jr.
2015, Fact Sheet 2014-3108
Elevation data are essential to a broad range of applications, including forest resources management, wildlife and habitat management, national security, recreation, and many others. For the State of Wyoming, elevation data are critical for geologic resource assessment and hazard mitigation, flood risk management, water supply an quality, natural resources conservation,...
Timing of spring surveys for midcontinent sandhill cranes
Aaron T. Pearse, Gary L. Krapu, David A. Brandt, Glen A. Sargeant
2015, Wildlife Society Bulletin (39) 87-93
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has used spring aerial surveys to estimate numbers of migrating sandhill cranes (Grus canadensis) staging in the Platte River Valley of Nebraska, USA. Resulting estimates index the abundance of the midcontinent sandhill crane population and inform harvest management decisions. However, annual changes in the...
Sea-level rise and refuge habitats for tidal marsh species: Can artificial islands save the California Ridgway's rail?
Cory T. Overton, John Y. Takekawa, Michael L. Casazza, Thuy-Vy D. Bui, Marcel Holyoak, Donald R. Strong
2015, Ecological Engineering (74) 337-344
Terrestrial species living in intertidal habitats experience refuge limitation during periods of tidal inundation, which may be exacerbated by seasonal variation in vegetation structure, tidal cycles, and land-use change. <a class="topic-link" title="Learn more about Sea Level Rise from ScienceDirect's...
Using scenario planning to evaluate the impacts of climate change on wildlife populations and communities in the Florida Everglades
Christopher P. Catano, Stephanie S. Romañach, James M. Beerens, Leonard G. Pearlstine, Laura A. Brandt, Kristen M. Hart, Frank J. Mazzotti, Joel C. Trexler
2015, Environmental Management (55) 807-823
It is uncertain how climate change will impact hydrologic drivers of wildlife population dynamics in freshwater wetlands of the Florida Everglades, or how to accommodate this uncertainty in restoration decisions. Using projections of climate scenarios for the year 2060, we evaluated how several possible futures could affect wildlife populations (wading...
Crustal permeability: Introduction to the special issue
Steven E. Ingebritsen, Tom Gleeson
2015, Geofluids (15) 1-10
The topic of crustal permeability is of broad interest in light of the controlling effect of permeability on diverse geologic processes and also timely in light of the practical challenges associated with emerging technologies such as hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas production (‘fracking’), enhanced geothermal systems, and geologic carbon...
Testing the use of bulk organic δ13C, δ15N, and Corg:Ntot ratios to estimate subsidence during the 1964 great Alaska earthquake
Adrian M. Bender, Robert C. Witter, Matthew Rogers
2015, Quaternary Science Reviews (113) 134-146
During the Mw 9.2 1964 great Alaska earthquake, Turnagain Arm near Girdwood, Alaska subsided 1.7 ± 0.1 m based on pre- and postearthquake leveling. The coseismic subsidence in 1964 caused equivalent sudden relative sea-level (RSL) rise that is stratigraphically preserved as mud-over-peat contacts where intertidal silt buried peaty marsh surfaces. Changes in intertidal microfossil...
Spatiotemporal variation of surface shortwave forcing from fire-induced albedo change in interior Alaska
Shengli Huang, Devendra Dahal, Heping Liu, Suming Jin, Claudia J. Young, Shuang Liu, Shu-Guang Liu
2015, Canadian Journal of Forest Research (45) 276-285
The albedo change caused by both fires and subsequent succession is spatially heterogeneous, leading to the need to assess the spatiotemporal variation of surface shortwave forcing (SSF) as a component to quantify the climate impacts of high-latitude fires. We used an image reconstruction approach to compare postfire albedo with the...
Quality and age of shallow groundwater in the Bakken Formation production area, Williston Basin, Montana and North Dakota
Peter B. McMahon, Rodney R. Caldwell, Joel M. Galloway, Joshua F. Valder, Andrew G. Hunt
2015, Groundwater (53) 81-94
The quality and age of shallow groundwater in the Bakken Formation production area were characterized using data from 30 randomly distributed domestic wells screened in the upper Fort Union Formation. Comparison of inorganic and organic chemical concentrations to health based drinking-water standards, correlation analysis of concentrations with oil and gas...
