Densovirus associated with sea-star wasting disease and mass mortality
Ian Hewson, Jason B. Button, Brent M. Gudenkauf, Benjamin Miner, Alisa L. Newton, Joseph K. Gaydos, Janna Wynne, Cathy L. Groves, Gordon Hendler, Michael Murray, Steven Fradkin, Mya Breitbart, Elizabeth Fahsbender, Kevin D. Lafferty, A. Marm Kilpatrick, C. Melissa Miner, Peter T. Raimondi, Lesanna L. Lahner, Carolyn S. Friedman, Stephen D. Danielson, Martin Haulena, Jeffrey Marliave, Colleen A. Burge, Morgan E. Eisenlord, C. Drew Harvell
2015, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (111) 17278-17283
Populations of at least 20 asteroid species on the Northeast Pacific Coast have recently experienced an extensive outbreak of sea-star (asteroid) wasting disease (SSWD). The disease leads to behavioral changes, lesions, loss of turgor, limb autotomy, and death characterized by rapid degradation (“melting”). Here, we present evidence from experimental challenge...
The effect of weather on morphometric traits of juvenile cliff swallows
Erin A. Roche, Mary Bomberger Brown, Charles R. Brown
2015, The Prairie Naturalist (46) 76-87
Episodes of food deprivation may change how nestling birds allocate energy to the growth of skeletal and feather morphological traits during development. Cliff swallows (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota) are colonial, insectivorous birds that regularly experience brief periods of severe weather-induced food deprivation during the nesting season which may affect offspring development. We...
Predicting Brook Trout occurrence in stream reaches throughout their native range in the eastern United States
Jefferson Tyrell DeWeber, Tyler Wagner
2015, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (144) 11-24
The Brook Trout Salvelinus fontinalis is an important species of conservation concern in the eastern USA. We developed a model to predict Brook Trout population status within individual stream reaches throughout the species’ native range in the eastern USA. We utilized hierarchical logistic regression with Bayesian estimation to predict Brook...
Remote sensing of Sonoran Desert vegetation structure and phenology with ground-based LiDAR
Joel B. Sankey, Seth M. Munson, Robert H. Webb, Cynthia S.A. Wallace, Cesar M. Duran
2015, Remote Sensing (7) 342-359
Long-term vegetation monitoring efforts have become increasingly important for understanding ecosystem response to global change. Many traditional methods for monitoring can be infrequent and limited in scope. Ground-based LiDAR is one remote sensing method that offers a clear advancement to monitor vegetation dynamics at high spatial and temporal resolution. We...
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...
Mycoplasma agassizii in Morafka's desert tortoise (Gopherus morafkai) in Mexico
Kristin H. Berry, Mary B. Brown, Mercy Vaughn, Timothy A. Gowan, Mary Ann Hasskamp, Ma. Cristina Melendez Torres
2015, Journal of Wildlife Diseases (51) 89-100
We conducted health evaluations of 69 wild and 22 captive Morafka's desert tortoises (Gopherus morafkai) in Mexico between 2005 and 2008. The wild tortoises were from 11 sites in the states of Sonora and Sinaloa, and the captive tortoises were from the state-managed Centro Ecológico de Sonora Zoo in Hermosillo...
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...
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...
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...
