Aquatic invertebrate food base for waterbirds at Wetland Reserve Program easements in the lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley
Jessica L. Tapp, Elisabeth B. Webb
2015, Wetlands (35) 183-192
Migratory waterbirds depend on invertebrates as a key source of dietary protein, but few studies have quantified aquatic invertebrates or their response to management on privately owned wetlands. Our objectives were to quantify the effects of wetland management provided through the Migratory Bird Habitat Initiative (MBHI) on invertebrate biomass, family...
Reducing nitrogen export from the corn belt to the Gulf of Mexico: agricultural strategies for remediating hypoxia
Eileen McLellan, Dale M. Robertson, Keith Schilling, Mark Tomer, Jill Kostel, Douglas G. Smith, Kevin King
2015, Journal of the American Water Resources Association (51) 263-289
SPAtially Referenced Regression on Watershed models developed for the Upper Midwest were used to help evaluate the nitrogen-load reductions likely to be achieved by a variety of agricultural conservation practices in the Upper Mississippi-Ohio River Basin (UMORB) and to compare these reductions to the 45% nitrogen-load reduction proposed to remediate...
Magmatic gas emissions at Holocene volcanic features near Mono Lake, California, and their relation to regional magmatism
D. Bergfeld, William C. Evans, James F. Howle, Andrew G. Hunt
2015, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research (292) 70-83
Silicic lavas have erupted repeatedly in the Mono Basin over the past few thousand years, forming the massive domes and coulees of the Mono Craters chain and the smaller island vents in Mono Lake. We report here on the first systematic study of magmatic CO2 emissions from these features, conducted during...
Vegetation burn severity mapping using Landsat-8 and WorldView-2
Zhuoting Wu, Barry R. Middleton, Robert Hetzler, John M. Vogel, Dennis G. Dye
2015, Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing (2) 143-154
We used remotely sensed data from the Landsat-8 and WorldView-2 satellites to estimate vegetation burn severity of the Creek Fire on the San Carlos Apache Reservation, where wildfire occurrences affect the Tribe's crucial livestock and logging industries. Accurate pre- and post-fire canopy maps at high (0.5-meter) resolution were created from...
Sources of fine sediment stored in agricultural lowland streams, Midwest, USA
Jasmeet Lamba, Anita M. Thompson, K.G. Karthikeyan, Faith A. Fitzpatrick
2015, Geomorphology (236) 44-53
Agricultural activities can accelerate the offsite transport of productive soil from fields leading to stream water quality degradation. Identification of the nature and relative contribution of different sources to fine-grained sediment (e.g., silts, clays) in streams is important to effectively focus agricultural best management...
Advancing the science of microbial symbiosis to support invasive species management: a case study on Phragmites in the Great Lakes
Kurt P. Kowalski, Charles W. Bacon, Wesley A. Bickford, Heather A. Braun, Keith Clay, Michele Leduc-Lapierre, Elizabeth Lillard, Melissa K. McCormick, Eric Nelson, Monica Torres, James W. C. White, Douglas A. Wilcox
2015, Frontiers in Microbiology (6)
A growing body of literature supports microbial symbiosis as a foundational principle for the competitive success of invasive plant species. Further exploration of the relationships between invasive species and their associated microbiomes, as well as the interactions with the microbiomes of native species, can lead to key new insights into...
A method for estimating the diffuse attenuation coefficient (KdPAR)from paired temperature sensors
Jordan S. Read, Kevin C. Rose, Luke A. Winslow, Emily K. Read
2015, Limnology and Oceanography: Methods (13) 53-61
A new method for estimating the diffuse attenuation coefficient for photosynthetically active radiation (KdPAR) from paired temperature sensors was derived. We show that during cases where the attenuation of penetrating shortwave solar radiation is the dominant source of temperature changes, time series measurements of water temperatures at multiple depths (z1 and z2)...
Hillslope run-off thresholds with shrink–swell clay soils
Ryan D. Stewart, Majdi R. Abou Najm, David E. Rupp, John W. Lane Jr., Hamil C. Uribe, Jose Luis Arumi, John S. Selker
2015, Hydrological Processes (29) 557-571
Irrigation experiments on 12 instrumented field plots were used to assess the impact of dynamic soil crack networks on infiltration and run-off. During applications of intensity similar to a heavy rainstorm, water was seen being preferentially delivered within the soil profile. However, run-off was not observed until soil water content...
The role of water in unconventional in situ energy resource extraction technologies
Tanya J. Gallegos, Carleton R. Bern, Justin E. Birdwell, Seth S. Haines, Mark A. Engle
Satinder Ahuja, editor(s)
2015, Book chapter, Food, energy, and water: The chemistry connection
Global trends toward developing new energy resources from lower grade, larger tonnage deposits that are not generally accessible using “conventional” extraction methods involve variations of subsurface in situ extraction techniques including in situ oil shale retorting, hydraulic fracturing of petroleum reservoirs, and in situ recovery of uranium. Although these methods are...
Genomics and introgression: Discovery and mapping of thousands of species-diagnostic SNPs using RAD sequencing
Brian K. Hand, Tyler D Hether, Ryan P. Kovach, Clint C. Muhlfeld, Stephen J. Amish, Matthew C. Boyer, Sean M. O’Rourke, Michael R. Miller, Winsor H. Lowe, Paul A. Hohenlohe, Gordon Luikart
2015, Current Zoology (61) 146-154
Invasive hybridization and introgression pose a serious threat to the persistence of many native species. Understanding the effects of hybridization on native populations (e.g., fitness consequences) requires numerous species-diagnostic loci distributed genome-wide. Here we used RAD sequencing to discover thousands of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that are diagnostic between rainbow trout...
Flow cytometric method for measuring chromatin fragmentation in fixed sperm from yellow perch (Perca flavescens)
Jill A. Jenkins, Rassa O. Draugelis-Dale, Alfred E. Pinkney, Luke R. Iwanowicz, Vicki Blazer
2015, Theriogenology (83) 920-931
Declining harvests of yellow perch, Perca flavescens, in urbanized watersheds of Chesapeake Bay have prompted investigations of their reproductive fitness. The purpose of this study was to establish a flow cytometric technique for DNA analysis of fixed samples sent from the field to provide reliable gamete quality measurements. Similar to the...
Mineral Resource of the Month: Antimony
David E. Guberman
2015, Earth Magazine (February 2015)
Antimony is a lustrous silvery-white semimetal or metalloid. Archaeological and historical studies indicate that antimony and its mineral sulfides have been used by humans for at least six millennia. The alchemist Basil Valentine is sometimes credited with “discovering” the element; he described the extraction of metallic antimony from stibnite in...
Microscopical characterization of carbon materials derived from coal and petroleum and their interaction phenomena in making steel electrodes, anodes and cathode blocks for the Microscopy of Carbon Materials Working Group of the ICCP
G. Predeanu, C. Panaitescu, M. Bălănescu, G. Bieg, A.G. Borrego, M. A. Diez, Paul C. Hackley, B. Kwiecinska, M. Marques, Maria Mastalerz, M. Misz-Kennan, S. Pusz, I. Suarez-Ruiz, S. Rodrigues, A. K. Singh, A. K. Varma, A. Zdravkov, D. Zivotić
2015, International Journal of Coal Geology (139) 63-79
This paper describes the evaluation of petrographic textures representing the structural organization of the organic matter derived from coal and petroleum and their interaction phenomena in the making of steel electrodes, anodes and cathode blocks.This work represents the results of the Microscopy of Carbon Materials Working Group in...
The aging of America's reservoirs: In-reservoir and downstream physical changes and habitat implications
Kyle E. Juracek
2015, Journal of the American Water Resources Association (51) 168-184
Reservoirs are important for various purposes including flood control, water supply, power generation, and recreation. The aging of America's reservoirs and progressive loss of water storage capacity resulting from ongoing sedimentation, coupled with increasing societal needs, will cause the social, economic, environmental, and political importance of reservoirs to continually increase....
Development of a new semi-analytical model for cross-borehole flow experiments in fractured media
Delphine Roubinet, James Irving, Frederick D. Day-Lewis
2015, Advances in Water Resources (76) 97-108
Analysis of borehole flow logs is a valuable technique for identifying the presence of fractures in the subsurface and estimating properties such as fracture connectivity, transmissivity and storativity. However, such estimation requires the development of analytical and/or numerical modeling tools that are well adapted to the complexity of the problem....
Ecosystem-atmosphere exchange of CO2 in a temperate herbaceous peatland in the Sanjiang Plain of northeast China
Xiaoyan Zhu, Changchun Song, Christopher M. Swarzenski, Yuedong Guo, Xinhow Zhang, Jiaoyue Wang
2015, Ecological Engineering (75) 16-23
Northern peatlands contain a considerable share of the terrestrial carbon pool, which will be affected by future climatic variability. Using the static chamber technique, we investigated ecosystem respiration and soil respiration over two growing seasons (2012 and 2013) in a Carex lasiocarpa-dominated peatland in the Sanjiang Plain in China. We...
Assessing the likely effectiveness of multispecies management for imperiled desert fishes with niche overlap analysis
P Laub, Phaedra E. Budy
2015, Conservation Biology (29) 1153-1163
A critical decision in species conservation is whether to target individual species or a complex of ecologically similar species. Management of multispecies complexes is likely to be most effective when species share similar distributions, threats, and response to threats. We used niche overlap analysis to assess ecological similarity of...
Geochemical conditions and the occurrence of selected trace elements in groundwater basins used for public drinking-water supply, Desert and Basin and Range hydrogeologic provinces, 2006-11: California GAMA Priority Basin Project
Michael T. Wright, Miranda S. Fram, Kenneth Belitz
2015, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5173
The geochemical conditions, occurrence of selected trace elements, and processes controlling the occurrence of selected trace elements in groundwater were investigated in groundwater basins of the Desert and Basin and Range (DBR) hydrogeologic provinces in southeastern California as part of the Priority Basin Project (PBP) of the Groundwater Ambient Monitoring...
Geomorphology and flood-plain vegetation of the Sprague and lower Sycan Rivers, Klamath Basin, Oregon
James E. O'Connor, Patricia F. McDowell, Pollyanna Lind, Christine G. Rasmussen, Mackenzie K. Keith
2015, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5223
This study provides information on channel and flood-plain processes and historical trends to guide effective restoration and monitoring strategies for the Sprague River Basin, a primary tributary (via the lower Williamson River) of Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon. The study area covered the lower, alluvial segments of the Sprague River system,...
Data Collection and Simulation of Ecological Habitat and Recreational Habitat in the Shenandoah River, Virginia
Jennifer L. Krstolic
2015, Scientific Investigations Report 2015-5005
This report presents updates to methods, describes additional data collected, documents modeling results, and discusses implications from an updated habitat-flow model that can be used to predict ecological habitat for fish and recreational habitat for canoeing on the main stem Shenandoah River in Virginia. Given a 76-percent increase in population...
Characterizing the distribution of an endangered salmonid using environmental DNA analysis
Matthew B. Laramie, David S. Pilliod, Caren S. Goldberg
2015, Biological Conservation (183) 29-37
Determining species distributions accurately is crucial to developing conservation and management strategies for imperiled species, but a challenging task for small populations. We evaluated the efficacy of environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis for improving detection and thus potentially refining the known distribution of Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) in the Methow and...
Quantification of eDNA shedding rates from invasive bighead carp Hypophthalmichthys nobilis and silver carp Hypophthalmichthys molitrix
Katy E. Klymus, Cathy A. Richter, Duane Chapman, Craig P. Paukert
2015, Biological Conservation (183) 77-84
Wildlife managers can more easily mitigate the effects of invasive species if action takes place before a population becomes established. Such early detection requires sensitive survey tools that can detect low numbers of individuals. Due to their high sensitivity, environmental DNA (eDNA) surveys hold promise as an early detection method...
Geographically isolated wetlands: Rethinking a misnomer
David M. Mushet, Aram J.K. Calhoun, Laurie C. Alexander, Matthew J. Cohen, Edward S. DeKeyser, Laurie G. Fowler, Charles R. Lane, Megan W. Lang, Mark C. Rains, Susan C. Walls
2015, Wetlands (35) 423-431
We explore the category “geographically isolated wetlands” (GIWs; i.e., wetlands completely surrounded by uplands at the local scale) as used in the wetland sciences. As currently used, the GIW category (1) hampers scientific efforts by obscuring important hydrological and ecological differences among multiple wetland functional types, (2) aggregates wetlands in...
The influence of disturbed habitat on the spatial ecology of Argentine black and white tegu (Tupinambis merianae), a recent invader in the Everglades ecosystem (Florida, USA)
Page E. Klug, Robert N. Reed, Frank J. Mazzotti, Michelle A. McEachern, Joy J. Vinci, Katelin K. Craven, Amy A. Yackel Adams
2015, Biological Invasions (17) 1785-1797
The threat of invasive species is often intensified in disturbed habitat. To optimize control programs, it is necessary to understand how degraded habitat influences the behavior of invasive species. We conducted a radio telemetry study to characterize movement and habitat use of introduced male Argentine black and white tegus (Tupinambis...
Intercontinental genetic structure and gene flow in Dunlin (Calidris alpina), a potential vector of avian influenza
Mark P. Miller, Susan M. Haig, Thomas D. Mullins, Luzhang Ruan, Bruce Casler, Alexei Dondua, H. River Gates, J. Matthew Johnson, Steven J. Kendall, Pavel S. Tomkovich, Diane Tracy, Olga P. Valchuk, Richard B. Lanctot
2015, Evolutionary Applications (8) 149-171
Waterfowl (Anseriformes) and shorebirds (Charadriiformes) are the most common wild vectors of influenza A viruses. Due to their migratory behavior, some may transmit disease over long distances. Migratory connectivity studies can link breeding and nonbreeding grounds while illustrating potential interactions among populations that may spread diseases. We investigated Dunlin (Calidris...
