Estimating switchgrass productivity in the Great Plains using satellite vegetation index and site environmental variables
Yingxin Gu, Bruce K. Wylie, Daniel M. Howard
2015, Ecological Indicators (48) 472-476
Switchgrass is being evaluated as a potential feedstock source for cellulosic biofuels and is being cultivated in several regions of the United States. The recent availability of switchgrass land cover maps derived from the National Agricultural Statistics Service cropland data layer for the conterminous United States provides an opportunity to...
Optimizing conservation strategies for Mexican freetailed bats: a population viability and ecosystem services approach
Ruscena Wiederholt, Laura Lopez-Hoffman, Colleen Svancara, Gary McCracken, Wayne E. Thogmartin, James E. Diffendorfer, Brady Mattson, Kenneth J. Bagstad, Paul M. Cryan, Amy Russell, Darius J. Semmens, Rodrigo A. Medellin
2015, Biodiversity and Conservation (24) 63-82
Conservation planning can be challenging due to the need to balance biological concerns about population viability with social concerns about the benefits biodiversity provide to society, often while operating under a limited budget. Methods and tools that help prioritize conservation actions are critical for the management of at-risk species. Here,...
Evidence for intercontinental parasite exchange through molecular detection and characterization of haematozoa in northern pintails (Anas acuta) sampled throughout the North Pacific Basin
Andrew M. Ramey, Joel A. Schmutz, John A. Reed, Go Fujita, Bradley D. Scotton, Bruce Casler, Joseph P. Fleskes, Kan Konishi, Kiyoshi Uchida, Michael J. Yabsley
2015, International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife (4) 11-21
Empirical evidence supports wild birds as playing a role in the interhemispheric exchange of bacteria and viruses; however, data supporting the redistribution of parasites among continents are limited. In this study, the hypothesis that migratory birds contribute to the redistribution of parasites between continents was tested by sampling northern pintails...
Experimental infection of meadow voles (Microtus pennsylvanicus) with sheep scrapie
CM Carlson, Jay R. Schneider, Janice C. Pedersen, Dennis M. Heisey, Christopher J. Johnson
2015, Canadian Journal of Veterinary Research (79) 68-73
Meadow voles (Microtus pennsylvanicus) are permissive to chronic wasting disease (CWD) infection, but their susceptibility to other transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) is poorly characterized. In this initial study, we intracerebrally challenged 6 meadow voles with 2 isolates of sheep scrapie. Three meadow voles acquired a TSE after the scrapie challenge...
Understanding the signature of rock coatings in laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy data
Nina L. Lanza, Ann M. Ollila, Agnes Cousin, Roger C. Wiens, Samuel M. Clegg, Nicolas Mangold, Nathan Bridges, Daniel Cooper, Mariek E. Schmidt, Jeffrey Berger, Raymond E. Arvidson, Noureddine Melikechi, Horton E. Newsom, Robert Tokar, Craig Hardgrove, Alissa Mezzacappa, Ryan S. Jackson, Benton C. Clark, Olivier Forni, Sylvestre Maurice, Marion Nachon, Ryan B. Anderson, Jennifer Blank, Matthew Deans, Dorothea Delapp, Richard Léveillé, Rhonda McInroy, Ronald Martinez, Pierre-Yves Meslin, Patrick Pinet
2015, Icarus (249) 62-73
Surface compositional features on rocks such as coatings and weathering rinds provide important information about past aqueous environments and water–rock interactions. The search for these features represents an important aspect of the Curiosity rover mission. With its unique ability to do fine-scale chemical depth profiling, the ChemCam laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy...
The 2008 phreatomagmatic eruption of Okmok volcano, Aleutian Islands, Alaska: Chronology, deposits, and landform changes
Jessica Larsen, Christina A. Neal, Janet R. Schaefer, Max Kaufman, Zhong Lu
2015, Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys Report of Investigation RI 2015-2
Okmok volcano, Aleutian Islands, Alaska, explosively erupted over a five-week period between July 12 and August 23, 2008. The eruption was predominantly phreatomagmatic, producing fine-grained tephra that covered most of northeastern Umnak Island. The eruption had a maximum Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) of 4, with eruption column heights up to...
Chronology and ecology of late Pleistocene megafauna in the northern Willamette Valley, Oregon
Daniel M. Gilmour, Virginia L. Butler, James E. O'Connor, Edward Byrd Davis, Brendan J. Culleton, Douglas J. Kennett, Gregory W. L. Hodgins
2015, Quaternary Research (83) 127-136
Since the mid-19th century, western Oregon's Willamette Valley has been a source of remains from a wide variety of extinct megafauna. Few of these have been previously described or dated, but new chronologic and isotopic analyses in conjunction with updated evaluations of stratigraphic context provide substantial new information on the...
Inferring spatial and temporal behavioral patterns of free-ranging manatees using saltwater sensors of telemetry tags
Delma Nataly Castelblanco-Martinez, Benjamin Morales-Vela, Daniel H. Slone, Janneth Adriana Padilla-Saldivar, James P. Reid, Hector Abuid Hernandez-Arana
2015, Mammalian Biology (80) 21-30
Diving or respiratory behavior in aquatic mammals can be used as an indicator of physiological activity and consequently, to infer behavioral patterns. Five Antillean manatees, Trichechus manatus manatus, were captured in Chetumal Bay and tagged with GPS tracking devices. The radios were equipped with a micropower saltwater sensor (SWS), which...
Annual Report: 2014: Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation (PARC)
Linda A. Weir, P. Nanjappa, J.J. Apodaca, J. Williams
2015, Report
Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation (PARC) was established in 1999 to address the widespread declines, extinctions, and range reductions of amphibians and reptiles, with a focus on conservation of taxa and habitats in North America. Amphibians and reptiles are affected by a broad range of human activities, both as...
Wolves on the hunt: The behavior of wolves hunting wild prey
L. David Mech, Douglas W. Smith, Daniel R. MacNulty
2015, Book
The interactions between apex predators and their prey are some of the most awesome and meaningful in nature—displays of strength, endurance, and a deep coevolutionary history. And there is perhaps no apex predator more impressive and important in its hunting—or more infamous, more misjudged—than the wolf. Because of wolves’ habitat,...
Terrestrial Carbon Sequestration in National Parks: Values for the Conterminous United States
Leslie A. Richardson, Christopher Huber, Zhi-Liang Zhu, Lynne Koontz
2015, Natural Resource Report NPS/NRSS/EQD/NRR-2014/880
Lands managed by the National Park Service (NPS) provide a wide range of beneficial services to the American public. This study quantifies the ecosystem service value of carbon sequestration in terrestrial ecosystems within NPS units in the conterminous United States for which data were available. Combining annual net carbon balance...
Towards sustainable management of huntable migratory waterbirds in Europe
Jesper Madsen, Matthieu Guillemain, Szabolcs Nagy, Pierre Defos du Rau, Jean-Yves Mondain-Monval, Cy Griffin, James Henty Williams, Nils Bunnefeld, Alexandre Czajkowski, Richard Hearn, Andreas Grauer, Mikko Alhainen, Angus Middleton, Fred A. Johnson
2015, Report
The EU Birds Directive and the African-Eurasian Waterbird Agreement provide an adequate legal framework for sustainable management of migratory waterbird populations. The main shortcoming of both instruments is that it leaves harvest decisions of a shared resource to individual Member States and Contracting Parties without providing a shared information base...
Fishes of the Blackwater River Drainage, Tucker County, West Virginia
Daniel A. Cincotta, Stuart A. Welsh, Douglas P. Wegman, Thomas E. Oldham, Lara B. Hedrick
2015, Southeastern Naturalist (14) 297-313
The Blackwater River, a tributary of the upper Cheat River of the Monongahela River, hosts a modest fish fauna. This relatively low diversity of fish species is partly explained by its drainage history. The Blackwater was once part of the prehistoric, northeasterly flowing St. Lawrence River. During the Pleistocene Epoch,...
Designation of a neotype for brook trout, Salvelinus fontinalis
Jay R Stauffer, Tim L. King
2015, Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington (127) 557-567
The taxonomic status of Salvelinus fontinalis (Mitchill) is problematic. Difficulties in comparison of populations are exacerbated by the lack of type material. Here we designate a neotype from Connetquot River, Long Island, New York. We provide genetic and morphological data for the neotype, conspecifics, and other populations (Swan Creek, Nissequogue Creek) from...
Tsunami geology in paleoseismology
Yuichi Nishimura, Bruce E. Jaffe
2015, Report, The Contribution of Palaeoseismology to Seismic Hazard Assessment in Site Evaluation for Nuclear Installations
The 2004 Indian Ocean and 2011 Tohoku-oki disasters dramatically demonstrated the destructiveness and deadliness of tsunamis. For the assessment of future risk posed by tsunamis it is necessary to understand past tsunami events. Recent work on tsunami deposits has provided new information on paleotsunami events, including their recurrence interval and...
Examining the utility of bulk otolith δ13C to describe diet in wild-caught black rockfish Sebastes melanops
Vanessa R. von Biela, Seth D. Newsome, Christian E. Zimmerman
2015, Aquatic Biology (23) 201-208
Otolith carbon isotope δ13C values may provide temporally resolved diet proxies in fish. If otolith δ13C values reflect diet, isotope values from recent otolith and muscle tissue should correlate and known ontogenetic diet shifts should be reflected in comparisons between otolith material deposited during different life history stages. We analyzed...
2014 National Park visitor spending effects: economic contributions to local communities, states, and the nation
Catherine Cullinane Thomas, Christopher Huber, Lynne Koontz
2015, Natural Resource Report NPS/NRSS/EQD/NRR—2015/947
The National Park System covers more than 84 million acres and is comprised of more than 401 sites across the Nation. These lands managed by the National Park Service (NPS) serve as recreational destinations for visitors from across the Nation and around the world. On vacations or on day trips,...
Status of the Topeka shiner in west-central Iowa
Clay Pierce, Bryan D. Bakevich, Michael C. Quist
2015, American Midland Naturalist (174) 350-358
The Topeka shiner Notropis topeka is a federally endangered fish species that is estimated to occupy only 20% of its historic range. In Iowa Topeka shiners have been in decline for decades. Our goal was to determine the present distribution of Topeka shiners in the west-central portion of their range in Iowa...
Characterizing toxicity of metal-contaminated sediments from mining areas
John M. Besser, William G. Brumbaugh, Christopher G. Ingersoll
2015, Applied Geochemistry (57) 73-84
This paper reviews methods for testing the toxicity of metals associated with freshwater sediments, linking toxic effects with metal exposure and bioavailability, and developing sediment quality guidelines. The most broadly applicable approach for characterizing metal toxicity is whole-sediment toxicity testing, which attempts to simulate natural exposure conditions in the laboratory....
North Cascades National Park Service Complex
Robert Hoffman, Andrea Woodward, Patricia K. Haggerty, Kurt J. Jenkins, Paul C. Griffin, M. J. Adams, Joan Hagar, Tonnie Cummings, Dan Duriscoe, Karen Kopper, Jon Riedel, Lelaina Marin, Guillaume S. Mauger, Karen Bumbaco, Jeremy S. Littell
2015, Report
Natural Resource Condition Assessments (NRCAs) evaluate current conditions for a subset of natural resources and resource indicators in national parks. NRCAs also report on trends in resource condition (when possible), identify critical data gaps, and characterize a general level of confidence for study findings. The resources and indicators emphasized in...
Sea lamprey mark type, wounding rate, and parasite-host preference and abundance relationships for lake trout and other species in Lake Ontario
Brian F. Lantry, Jean Adams, Gavin Christie, Teodore Schaner, James Bowlby, Michael Keir, Jana Lantry, Paul Sullivan, Daniel Bishop, Ted Treska, Bruce Morrison
2015, Report
We examined how the frequency of attacks by Sea Lamprey on fishes in Lake Ontario varied in response to Sea Lamprey abundance and preferred host abundance (Lake Trout >432mm). For this analysis we assembled seven data sets. Two fishery independent surveys for Lake Trout: US Geological Survey (USGS)/New York State...
Discrete-storm water-table fluctuation method to estimate episodic recharge.
John R. Nimmo, Charles Horowittz, Lara Mitchell
2015, Groundwater (53) 282-292
We have developed a method to identify and quantify recharge episodes, along with their associated infiltration-related inputs, by a consistent, systematic procedure. Our algorithm partitions a time series of water levels into discrete recharge episodes and intervals of no episodic recharge. It correlates each recharge episode with a specific interval...
Validation of the SCEC broadband platform V14.3 simulation methods using pseudo spectral acceleration data
Douglas S. Dreger, Gregory C. Beroza, Steven M. Day, Christine A. Goulet, Thomas H Jordan, Paul A. Spudich, Jonathan P. Stewart
2015, Seismological Research Letters (86) 39-47
This paper summarizes the evaluation of ground motion simulation methods implemented on the SCEC Broadband Platform (BBP), version 14.3 (as of March 2014). A seven-member panel, the authorship of this article, was formed to evaluate those methods for the prediction of pseudo-‐spectral accelerations (PSAs) of ground motion. The panel’s mandate...
From icefield to ocean - Explore the many ways that glaciers influence Alaska's Coastal Ecosystems.
Shad O’Neel, Eran Hood, Kristin Timm
2015, Report
No abstract available....
Geology and neotectonism in the epicentral area of the 2011 M5.8 Mineral, Virginia, earthquake
William C. Burton, David B. Spears, Richard W. Harrison, Nicholas H. Evans, J. Stephen Schindler, Ronald C. Counts
2015, Field Guides (35) 103-127
This fi eld guide covers a two-day west-to-east transect across the epicentral region of the 2011 M5.8 Mineral, Virginia, earthquake, the largest ever recorded in the Central Virginia seismic zone. The fi eld trip highlights results of recent bedrock and surficial geologic mapping in two adjoining 7.5-min quadrangles, the Ferncliff...
