Estimating the short-term recovery potential of little brown bats in the eastern United States in the face of White-nose syndrome
Robin E. Russell, Wayne E. Thogmartin, Richard A. Erickson, Jennifer A. Szymanski, Karl Tinsley
2015, Ecological Modelling (314) 111-117
White-nose syndrome (WNS) was first detected in North American bats in New York in 2006. Since that time WNS has spread throughout the northeastern United States, southeastern Canada, and southwest across Pennsylvania and as far west as Missouri. Suspect WNS cases have been identified in Minnesota and Iowa, and the...
Water withdrawals in Florida, 2012
Richard L. Marella
2015, Open-File Report 2015-1156
In 2012, the total amount of water withdrawn in Florida was estimated to be 14,237 million gallons per day (Mgal/d). Saline water accounted for 7,855 Mgal/d (55 percent), and freshwater accounted for 6,383 Mgal/d (45 percent). Groundwater accounted for 4,167 Mgal/d (65 percent) of freshwater withdrawals, and surface water accounted...
Photomosaics and event evidence from the Frazier Mountain paleoseismic site, trench 1, cuts 5–24, San Andreas Fault Zone, southern California (2010–2012)
Katherine M. Scharer, Tom E. Fumal, Ray J. Weldon II, Ashley R. Streig
2015, Open-File Report 2015-1147
The Frazier Mountain paleoseismic site is located within the northern Big Bend of the southern San Andreas Fault (lat 34.8122° N., lon 118.9034° W.), in a small structural basin formed by the fault (fig. 1). The site has been the focus of over a decade of paleoseismic study due to...
Wintering Bald Eagle count trends in the conterminous United States, 1986–2010
Wade Eakle, Laura S. Bond, Mark R. Fuller, Richard A Fischer, Karen Steenhof
2015, Journal of Raptor Research (49) 259-268
We analyzed counts from the annual Midwinter Bald Eagle Survey to examine state, regional, and national trends in counts of wintering Bald Eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) within the conterminous 48 United States from 1986 to 2010. Using hierarchical mixed model methods, we report trends in counts...
Unusual behavior in the parental care of a house wren (Troglodytes aedon): Post fledging use of an old nest during cold nights
Micah N. Scholer
2015, Wilson Journal of Ornithology (127) 545-547
I report on the unusual behavior of an adult House Wren (Troglodytes aedon) leading recently fledged young back to the nest for two consecutive nights. The ambient temperature reached below 0°C during both nights. Despite disadvantages associated with remaining in the nest, this observation suggests that adult birds may assess...
Shifts in the eruptive styles at Stromboli in 2010–2014 revealed by ground-based InSAR data
Federico Di Traglia, Maurizio Battaglia, Teresa Nolesini, Daniela Lagomarsino, Nicola Casaglia
2015, Scientific Reports
Ground-Based Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (GBInSAR) is an efficient technique for capturing short, subtle episodes of conduit pressurization in open vent volcanoes like Stromboli (Italy), because it can detect very shallow magma storage, which is difficult to identify using other methods. This technique allows the user to choose the optimal...
Re-colonization by common eiders Somateria mollissima in the Aleutian Archipelago following removal of introduced arctic foxes Vulpes lagopus
Margaret R. Petersen, Sarah A. Sonsthagen, Matthew G. Sexson
2015, Journal of Avian Biology (46) 538-549
Islands provide refuges for populations of many species where they find safety from predators, but the introduction of predators frequently results in elimination or dramatic reductions in island-dwelling organisms. When predators are removed, re-colonization for some species occurs naturally, and inter-island phylogeographic relationships and current movement patterns can illuminate processes...
Factors affecting the thermal environment of Agassiz’s Desert Tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) cover sites in the Central Mojave Desert during periods of temperature extremes
Jeremy S. Mack, Kristin H. Berry, David M. Miller, Andrea S. Carlson
2015, Journal of Herpetology (49) 405-414
Agassiz's Desert Tortoises (Gopherus agassizii) spend >95% of their lives underground in cover sites that serve as thermal buffers from temperatures, which can fluctuate >40°C on a daily and seasonal basis. We monitored temperatures at 30 active tortoise cover sites within the Soda Mountains, San Bernardino County, California, from February...
Characterization of a novel hepadnavirus in the white sucker (Catostomus commersonii) from the Great Lakes Region of the USA
Cassidy M. Hahn, Luke R. Iwanowicz, Robert S. Cornman, Carla M. Conway, James R. Winton, Vicki S. Blazer
2015, Journal of Virology (89) 11801-11811
The white sucker Catostomus commersonii is a freshwater teleost often utilized as a resident sentinel. Here, we sequenced the full genome of a hepatitis B-like virus that infects white suckers from the Great Lakes Region of the USA. Dideoxysequencing confirmed the white sucker hepatitis B virus (WSHBV) has a circular...
Wetland occupancy of pond-breeding amphibians in Yosemite National Park, USA
Gary M. Fellers, Patrick M. Kleeman, David A.W. Miller
2015, Journal of North American Herpetology (2015) 22-33
We estimated wetland occupancy and population trends for three species of pond-breeding anurans in Yosemite National Park from 2007-2011. We used a double survey technique in which two observers independently surveyed each site on the same day. Double surveys allowed us to calculate detectability for the three most common anurans...
The climate space of fire regimes in north-western North America
Ellen Whitman, Enric Batllori, Marc-Andre Parisien, Carol Miller, Jonathan D. Coop, Meg A. Krawchuk, Geneva W. Chong, Sandra L. Haire
2015, Journal of Biogeography (42) 1736-1749
Aim. Studies of fire activity along environmental gradients have been undertaken, but the results of such studies have yet to be integrated with fire-regime analysis. We characterize fire-regime components along climate gradients and a gradient of human influence. Location. We focus on a climatically diverse region of north-western North America...
Defining conservation targets on a landscape-scale
A.M. Benscoter, Stephanie S. Romanach, Laura A. Brandt
2015, Report
Conservation planning, the process of deciding how to protect, conserve, enhance and(or) minimize loss of natural and cultural resources, is a fundamental process to achieve conservation success in a time of rapid environmental change. Conservation targets, the measurable expressions of desired resource conditions, are an important tool in biological planning...
A critical assessment of the ecological assumptions underpinning compensatory mitigation of salmon-derived nutrients
Scott F. Collins, Amy M. Marcarelli, Colden V. Baxter, Mark S. Wipfli
2015, Environmental Management (56) 571-586
We critically evaluate some of the key ecological assumptions underpinning the use of nutrient replacement as a means of recovering salmon populations and a range of other organisms thought to be linked to productive salmon runs. These assumptions include: (1) nutrient mitigation mimics the ecological roles of salmon, (2) mitigation...
The forcing of monthly precipitation variability over Southwest Asia during the Boreal cold season
Andrew Hoell, Shraddhanand Shukla, Mathew Barlow, Forest Cannon, Colin Kelley, Christopher C. Funk
2015, Journal of Climate (28) 7038-7056
Southwest Asia, deemed as the region containing the countries of Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Pakistan, is water scarce and receives nearly 75% of its annual rainfall during8 the boreal cold season of November-April. The forcing of Southwest Asia precipitation has been previously examined for the entire boreal cold season from...
Mid-Cretaceous oblique rifting of West Antarctica: Emplacement and rapid cooling of the Fosdick Mountains migmatite-cored gneiss dome
Rory McFadden, Christian Teyssier, Christine Siddoway, Michael A. Cosca, C. Mark Fanning
2015, LITHOS (232) 306-318
In Marie Byrd Land, West Antarctica, the Fosdick Mountains migmatite-cored gneiss dome was exhumed from mid- to lower middle crustal depths during the incipient stage of the West Antarctic Rift system in the mid-Cretaceous. Prior to and during exhumation, major crustal melting and deformation included transfer and emplacement of...
Sediment yields from small, steep coastal watersheds of California
Jonathan A. Warrick, John M. Melack, Blair M. Goodridge
2015, Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies (4) 516-534
Global inventories of sediment discharge to the ocean highlight the importance of small, steep watersheds (i.e., those having drainage areas less than 100,000 km2 and over 1000 m of relief) that collectively provide a dominant flux of sediment. The smallest of these coastal watersheds (e.g., those that have drainage areas...
Catchment-wide survival of wild- and hatchery-reared Atlantic salmon smolts in a changing system
Daniel S. Stich, Michael M. Bailey, Christopher M. Holbrook, Michael T. Kinnison, Joseph D. Zydlewski
2015, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (72) 1352-1365
We developed a hierarchical multistate model to estimate survival of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) smolts in the Penobscot River, USA, over a decade during which two mainstem dams were removed from the catchment. We investigated effects of (i) environmental factors, (ii) rearing history, and (iii) management actions, including dam removal,...
The Centennial Trends Greater Horn of Africa precipitation dataset
Chris Funk, Sharon E. Nicholson, Martin F. Landsfeld, Douglas Klotter, Pete J. Peterson, Laura Harrison
2015, Scientific Data (2)
East Africa is a drought prone, food and water insecure region with a highly variable climate. This complexity makes rainfall estimation challenging, and this challenge is compounded by low rain gauge densities and inhomogeneous monitoring networks. The dearth of observations is particularly problematic over the past decade, since the number...
Developing nondestructive techniques for managing conflicts between fisheries and double-crested cormorant colonies
Yasuko Suzuki, Daniel D. Roby, Donald E. Lyons, Karen Courtot, Ken Collis
2015, Wildlife Society Bulletin (39) 764-771
Double-crested cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus) have been identified as the source of significant mortality to juvenile salmonids (Oncorhynchus spp.) in the Columbia River Basin. Management plans for reducing the size of a large colony on East Sand Island (OR, USA) in the Columbia River estuary are currently being developed. We evaluated habitat...
A food web modeling analysis of a Midwestern, USA eutrophic lake dominated by non-native Common Carp and Zebra Mussels
Michael E. Colvin, Clay Pierce, Timothy W. Stewart
2015, Ecological Modelling (312) 26-40
Food web modeling is recognized as fundamental to understanding the complexities of aquatic systems. Ecopath is the most common mass-balance model used to represent food webs and quantify trophic interactions among groups. We constructed annual Ecopath models for four consecutive years during the first half-decade of a zebra mussel invasion...
Model averaging and muddled multimodel inferences
Brian S. Cade
2015, Ecology (96) 2370-7382
Three flawed practices associated with model averaging coefficients for predictor variables in regression models commonly occur when making multimodel inferences in analyses of ecological data. Model-averaged regression coefficients based on Akaike information criterion (AIC) weights have been recommended for addressing model uncertainty but they are not valid, interpretable estimates of...
Estimating annualized earthquake losses for the conterminous United States
Kishor S. Jaiswal, Douglas Bausch, Rui Chen, Jawhar Bouabid, Hope Seligson
2015, Earthquake Spectra (31) 221-243
We make use of the most recent National Seismic Hazard Maps (the years 2008 and 2014 cycles), updated census data on population, and economic exposure estimates of general building stock to quantify annualized earthquake loss (AEL) for the conterminous United States. The AEL analyses were performed using the Federal Emergency...
On critiques of “Stationarity is dead: Whither water management?”
Paul C.D. Milly, Julio L. Betancourt, Malin Falkenmark, Robert M. Hirsch, Zbigniew W. Kundzewicz, Dennis P. Lettenmaier, Ronald J. Stouffer, Michael D. Dettinger, Valentina Krysanova
2015, Water Resources Research (51) 7785-7789
We review and comment upon some themes in the recent stream of critical commentary on the assertion that “stationarity is dead,” attempting to clear up some misunderstandings; to note points of agreement; to elaborate on matters in dispute; and to share further relevant thoughts....
Improving efficiency and reliability of environmental DNA analysis for silver carp
Jon J. Amberg, S. Grace McCalla, Emy Monroe, Richard Lance, Kelly Baerwaldt, Mark P. Gaikowski
2015, Journal of Great Lakes Research (41) 367-373
Natural resource agencies have established surveillance programs which use environmental DNA (eDNA) for the early detection of bighead carp Hypophthalmichthys nobilis and silver carp Hypophthalmichthys molitrix before they establish populations within the Great Lakes. This molecular monitoring technique must be highly accurate and precise for confident interpretation and also efficient,...
Demersal fish distribution and habitat use within and near Baltimore and Norfolk Canyons, U.S. Middle Atlantic Slope
Steve W. Ross, Mike Rhode, Andrea M. Quattrini
2015, Deep-Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers (103) 137-154
Numerous submarine canyons along the United States middle Atlantic continental margin support enhanced productivity, diverse and unique habitats, active fisheries, and are vulnerable to various anthropogenic disturbances. During two cruises (15 Aug–2 Oct 2012 and 30 Apr–27 May 2013), Baltimore and Norfolk canyons and nearby areas (including two cold seeps)...
