Equation-free modeling unravels the behavior of complex ecological systems
Donald L. DeAngelis, Simeon Yurek
2015, PNAS (112) 3856-3857
Ye et al. (1) address a critical problem confronting the management of natural ecosystems: How can we make forecasts of possible future changes in populations to help guide management actions? This problem is especially acute for marine and anadromous fisheries, where the large interannual fluctuations of populations, arising from complex...
Revisions to some parameters used in stochastic-method simulations of ground motion
David Boore, Eric M. Thompson
2015, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (105) 1029-1041
The stochastic method of ground‐motion simulation specifies the amplitude spectrum as a function of magnitude (M) and distance (R). The manner in which the amplitude spectrum varies with M and R depends on physical‐based parameters that are often constrained by recorded motions for a particular region (e.g., stress parameter, geometrical spreading, quality factor, and...
Catalog of type specimens of recent mammals: orders Didelphimorpha through Chiroptera (Excluding Rodentia) in the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution
Robert D. Fisher, Craig A. Ludwig
2015, Book
The type collection of Recent Mammals in the Division of Mammals, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, contains 820 specimens bearing names of 809 species-group taxa of Didelphimorphia through Chiroptera, excluding Rodentia, as of June 2014. This catalog presents an annotated list of these holdings comprised of 788 holotypes,...
Using an experimental manipulation to determine the effectiveness of a stock enhancement program
David R. Stewart, James M. Long
2015, Freshwater Ecology
We used an experimental manipulation to determine the impact of stocking 178 mm channel catfish Ictalurus punctatus in six impoundments. The study design consisted of equal numbers (two) of control, ceased-stock, and stocked treatments that were sampled one year before and two years after stocking. Relative abundance, growth, size structure, and average...
Revision of Tympanopleura Eigenmann (Siluriformes: Auchenipteridae) with description of two new species
Stephen J. Walsh, Frank Ribeiro, Lucia H. Rapp Py-Daniel
2015, Neotropical Ichthyology (13) 1-46
The Neotropical catfish genus Tympanopleura, previously synonymized within Ageneiosus, is revalidated and included species are reviewed. Six species are recognized, two of which are described as new. Tympanopleura is distinguished from Ageneiosus by having an enlarged gas bladder not strongly encapsulated in bone; a prominent pseudotympanum consisting of an area on the side of the body...
Monitoring and modeling wetland chloride concentrations in relationship to oil and gas development
Max Post van der Burg, Brian A. Tangen
2015, Journal of Environmental Management (150) 120-127
Extraction of oil and gas via unconventional methods is becoming an important aspect of energy production worldwide. Studying the effects of this development in countries where these technologies are being widely used may provide other countries, where development may be proposed, with some insight in terms of concerns associated with...
Turbidity, light, temperature, and hydropeaking control primary productivity in the Colorado River, Grand Canyon
Robert O. Hall Jr., Charles B. Yackulic, Theodore A. Kennedy, Michael D. Yard, Emma J. Rosi-Marshall, Nicholas Voichick, Kathrine E. Behn
2015, Limnology and Oceanography (60) 512-516
Dams and river regulation greatly alter the downstream environment for gross primary production (GPP) because of changes in water clarity, flow, and temperature regimes. We estimated reach-scale GPP in five locations of the regulated Colorado River in Grand Canyon using an open channel model of dissolved oxygen. Benthic GPP dominates...
Proposed best modeling practices for assessing the effects of ecosystem restoration on fish
Kenneth A Rose, Shaye Sable, Donald L. DeAngelis, Simeon Yurek, Joel C. Trexler, William L. Graf, Denise J. Reed
2015, Ecological Modelling (300) 12-29
Large-scale aquatic ecosystem restoration is increasing and is often controversial because of the economic costs involved, with the focus of the controversies gravitating to the modeling of fish responses. We present a scheme for best practices in selecting, implementing, interpreting, and reporting of fish modeling designed to assess the effects...
Behavioral responses of freshwater mussels to experimental dewatering
Heather S. Galbraith, Carrie J. Blakeslee, William A. Lellis
2015, Freshwater Science (34) 42-52
Understanding the effects of flow alteration on freshwater ecosystems is critical for predicting species responses and restoring appropriate flow regimes. We experimentally evaluated the effects of 3 dewatering rates on behavior of 6 freshwater mussel species in the context of water-removal rates observed in 21 Atlantic Coast rivers. Horizontal movement...
Bidirectional recovery patterns of Mojave Desert vegetation in an aqueduct pipeline corridor after 36 years: I. Perennial shrubs and grasses
Kristin H. Berry, James F. Weigand, Timothy A. Gowan, Jeremy S. Mack
2015, Journal of Arid Environments (124) 413-425
We studied recovery of 21 perennial plant species along a severely disturbed aqueduct corridor in a Larrea tridentata-Ambrosia dumosa plant alliance in the Mojave Desert 36 years after construction. The 97-m wide corridor contained a central dirt road and buried aqueduct pipeline. We established transects at 0 m (road verge), 20 m and 40 m...
Ahead of his time: Jacob Lipman's 1930 estimate of atmospheric sulfur deposition for the conterminous United States
Edward R. Landa, James B. Shanley
2015, Soil Science (180) 87-89
A 1936 New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin provided an early quantitative assessment of atmospheric deposition of sulfur for the United States that has been compared in this study with more recent assessments. In the early 20th century, anthropogenic sulfur additions from the atmosphere to the soil by the combustion...
Robust estimates of environmental effects on population vital rates: an integrated capture–recapture model of seasonal brook trout growth, survival and movement in a stream network
Benjamin H. Letcher, Paul Schueller, Ronald D. Bassar, Keith H. Nislow, Jason A. Coombs, Krzysztof Sakrejda, Michael Morrissey, Douglas B. Sigourney, Andrew R. Whiteley, Matthew J. O'Donnell, Todd L. Dubreuil
2015, Journal of Animal Ecology (84) 337-352
Modelling the effects of environmental change on populations is a key challenge for ecologists, particularly as the pace of change increases. Currently, modelling efforts are limited by difficulties in establishing robust relationships between environmental drivers and population responses.We developed an integrated capture–recapture state-space model to estimate the...
Advances in interpretation of subsurface processes with time-lapse electrical imaging
Kaminit Singha, Frederick D. Day-Lewis, Tim B. Johnson, Lee D. Slater
2015, Hydrological Processes (29) 1549-1576
Electrical geophysical methods, including electrical resistivity, time-domain induced polarization, and complex resistivity, have become commonly used to image the near subsurface. Here, we outline their utility for time-lapse imaging of hydrological, geochemical, and biogeochemical processes, focusing on new instrumentation, processing, and analysis techniques specific to monitoring. We review data collection...
Distribution and floral hosts of Anthophorula micheneri ( Timberlake, 1947) and Hylaeus sparsus (Cresson, 1869), (Insecta: Hymenoptera: Apoidea: Anthophila), with new staterecords in Giles and Loudoun counties, Virginia, eastern USA
Elizabeth A. Sellers, David McCarthy
2015, Check List (11)
New collection records for Anthophorula micheneri (Timberlake, 1947) from Loudoun County and other locations in Virginia, USA document an approximately 1,350 km extension of its previously recorded geographic range. New state records for the rarely seen Hylaeus sparsus (Cresson, 1869) collected in Giles County and from a blue vane trap in Loudoun County, Virginia...
The importance of scaling for detecting community patterns: success and failure in assemblages of introduced species
Craig R. Allen, David G. Angeler, Michael P. Moulton, Crawford S. Holling
2015, Diversity (7) 229-241
Community saturation can help to explain why biological invasions fail. However, previous research has documented inconsistent relationships between failed invasions (i.e., an invasive species colonizes but goes extinct) and the number of species present in the invaded community. We use data from bird communities of the Hawaiian island of Oahu,...
Quantitative attribution of major driving forces on soil organic carbon dynamics
Yiping Wu, Shuguang Liu, Zhengxi Tan
2015, Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems (7) 21-34
Soil organic carbon (SOC) storage plays a major role in the global carbon cycle and is affected by many factors including land use/management changes (e.g., biofuel production-oriented changes). However, the contributions of various factors to SOC changes are not well understood and quantified. This study was designed to investigate the...
An assessment of fish assemblage structure in a large river
Ian A. Kiraly, S.M. Coghlan Jr., Joseph D. Zydlewski, D. Hayes
2015, River Research and Applications (31) 301-312
The Penobscot River drains the largest watershed in Maine and once provided spawning and rearing habitats to 11 species of diadromous fishes. The construction of dams blocked migrations of these fishes and likely changed the structure and function of fish assemblages throughout the river. The proposed removal of two main-stem...
Multiscale geophysical imaging of the critical zone
Andy Parsekian, Kamini Singha, Burke J. Minsley, W. Steven Holbrook, Lee Slater
2015, Reviews of Geophysics (53) 1-26
Details of Earth's shallow subsurface—a key component of the critical zone (CZ)—are largely obscured because making direct observations with sufficient density to capture natural characteristic spatial variability in physical properties is difficult. Yet this inaccessible region of the CZ is fundamental to processes that support ecosystems, society, and the environment....
Environmental effects on the aquatic system and metal discharge to the Mediterranean Sea from a near-neutral zinc-ferrous sulfate mine drainage
Franco Frau, Daniela Medas, Stefania Da Pelo, Richard B. Wanty, Rosa Cidu
2015, Water, Air, & Soil Pollution (226) 1-17
After mine closure in the 1980s and subsequent shutdown of the dewatering system, groundwater rebound led to drainage outflow from the Casargiu gallery (Montevecchio mine, SW Sardinia, Italy) beginning in 1997. Mine drainage had pH 6.0 and dissolved concentrations of sulfate (5000 mg/L) and metals (e.g., 1000 mg/L Zn, 230 mg/L Fe, 150 mg/L...
Characterizing Congo Basin rainfall and climate using Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite data and limited rain gauge ground observations
Yolande A. Munzimi, Matthew C. Hansen, Bernard Adusei, Gabriel B. Senay
2015, Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology (54) 541-555
Quantitative understanding of Congo River basin hydrological behavior is poor because of the basin’s limited hydrometeorological observation network. In cases such as the Congo basin where ground data are scarce, satellite-based estimates of rainfall, such as those from the joint NASA/JAXA Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), can be used to...
Next-generation genomic shotgun sequencing indicates greater genetic variability in the mitochondria of Hypophthalmichthys molitrix relative to H. nobilis from the Mississippi River, USA and provides tools for research and detection
John J Miller, Michael S. Eackles, Jay R Stauffer, Tim L. King
2015, Conservation Genetics Resources (7) 9-11
We characterized variation within the mitochondrial genomes of the invasive silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix) and bighead carp (H. nobilis) from the Mississippi River drainage by mapping our Next-Generation sequences to their publicly available genomes. Variant detection resulted in 338 single-nucleotide polymorphisms for H. molitrix and 39...
Thermal maturity of Tasmanites microfossils from confocal laser scanning fluorescence microscopy
Paul C. Hackley, Jolanta Kus
2015, Fuel (143) 343-350
We report here, for the first time, spectral properties of Tasmanites microfossils determined by confocal laser scanning fluorescence microscopy (CLSM, using Ar 458 nm excitation). The Tasmanites occur in a well-characterized natural maturation sequence (Ro 0.48–0.74%) of Devonian shale (n = 3 samples) from the Appalachian Basin. Spectral property λmax shows excellent agreement...
Mechanisms of nutrient retention and its relation to flow connectivity in river-floodplain corridors
Laurel Larsen, Judson Harvey, Morgan M. Maglio
2015, Freshwater Science (34) 187-205
Understanding heterogeneity or patchiness in the distribution of vegetation and retention of C and nutrients in river corridors is critical for setting priorities for river management and restoration. Several mechanisms of spatial differentiation in nutrient retention in river and floodplain corridors have been recognized, but few studies have distinguished their...
Lapland longspur mortality at an oil well drilling rig site, Laramie County, Wyoming
Pedro Ramirez Jr., Kimberly K. Dickerson, Jim Lindstrom, Carol U. Meteyer, Scott Darrah
2015, Wildlife Society Bulletin (39) 165-168
Two hundred fifty-one Lapland longspur (Calcarius lapponicus) carcasses were recovered around an oil well drilling rig in Laramie County, Wyoming, USA, on December 13–14, 2010, apparent victims of a winter storm and “light entrapment” from the lights on the drilling rig during foggy conditions. We found Lapland longspur carcasses distributed...
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Opportunity observations of the Burns formation: crater hopping at Meridiani Planum
R.E. Arvidson, J.F. Bell III, J.G. Catalano, B. C. Clark, V.K. Fox, Ralf Gellert, J.P. Grotzinger, E.A. Guinness, Kenneth E. Herkenhoff, A.H. Knoll, M.G.A. Lapotre, S. M. McLennan, D. W. Ming, R.V. Morris, S.L. Murchie, K. E. Powell, M. D. Smith, S. W. Squyres, M.J. Wolff, J.J. Wray
2015, Journal of Geophysical Research E: Planets (120) 429-451
Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars hyperspectral (1.0–2.65 µm) along-track oversampled observations covering Victoria, Santa Maria, Endeavour, and Ada craters were processed to 6 m/pixel and used in combination with Opportunity observations to detect and map hydrated Mg and Ca sulfate minerals in the Burns formation. The strongest spectral absorption features were...