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...
A field comparison of multiple techniques to quantify groundwater - surface-water interactions
Ricardo Gonzalez-Pinzon, Adam S Ward, Christine E Hatch, Adam N. Wlostowski, Kamini Singha, Michael N. Gooseff, Roy Haggerty, Judson Harvey, Olaf A Cirpka, James T Brock
2015, Freshwater Science (34) 139-160
Groundwater–surface-water (GW-SW) interactions in streams are difficult to quantify because of heterogeneity in hydraulic and reactive processes across a range of spatial and temporal scales. The challenge of quantifying these interactions has led to the development of several techniques, from centimeter-scale probes to whole-system tracers, including chemical, thermal, and electrical...
River corridor science: Hydrologic exchange and ecological consequences from bedforms to basins
Judson Harvey, Michael Gooseff
2015, Water Resources Research (51) 6893-6922
Previously regarded as the passive drains of watersheds, over the past 50 years, rivers have progressively been recognized as being actively connected with off-channel environments. These connections prolong physical storage and enhance reactive processing to alter water chemistry and downstream transport of materials and energy. Here we propose river corridor...
Net ecosystem production and organic carbon balance of U.S. East Coast estuaries: A synthesis approach
Maria Herrmann, Raymond G. Najjar, W. Michael Kemp, Richard B. Alexander, Elizabeth W. Boyer, Wei-Jun Cai, Peter C. Griffith, Kevin D. Kroeger, S. Leigh McCallister, Richard A. Smith
2015, Global Biogeochemical Cycles (29) 96-111
Net ecosystem production (NEP) and the overall organic carbon budget for the estuaries along the East Coast of the United States are estimated. We focus on the open estuarine waters, excluding the fringing wetlands. We developed empirical models relating NEP to loading ratios of dissolved inorganic nitrogen to total organic...
Songbirds as sentinels of mercury in terrestrial habitats of eastern North America
Allyson K. Jackson, David C. Evers, Evan M. Adams, Daniel A. Cristol, Collin A. Eagles-Smith, Samuel T. Edmonds, Carrie E. Gray, Bart Hoskins, Oksana P. Lane, Amy Sauer, Timothy Tear
2015, Ecotoxicology (24) 453-467
Mercury (Hg) is a globally distributed environmental contaminant with a variety of deleterious effects in fish, wildlife, and humans. Breeding songbirds may be useful sentinels for Hg across diverse habitats because they can be effectively sampled, have well-defined and small territories, and can integrate pollutant exposure over time and space....
Ants of the national park of American Samoa
Paul C. Banko, Robert W. Peck
2015, Technical Report HCSU-061
American Samoa makes up the eastern end of the Samoan Archipelago. On the islands of Tutuila, Taʽū and Ofu, the National Park of American Samoa (NPSA) protects about 4,000 ha of coastal, mid-slope and ridge-top forest. While the ant fauna of the Samoan Archipelago is considered relatively well documented, much...
Copper toxicity and organic matter: Resiliency of watersheds in the Duluth Complex, Minnesota, USA
Nadine M. Piatak, Robert R. Seal, Perry M. Jones, Laurel G. Woodruff
2015, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Acid Rock Drainage and IMWA Annual Conference
We estimated copper (Cu) toxicity in surface water with high dissolved organic matter (DOM) for unmined mineralized watersheds of the Duluth Complex using the Biotic Ligand Model (BLM), which evaluates the effect of DOM, cation competition for biologic binding sites, and metal speciation. A sediment-based BLM was used to estimate...
Aftershocks illuminate the 2011 Mineral, Virginia, earthquake causative fault zone and nearby active faults
J. Wright Horton Jr., Anjana K. Shah, Daniel E. McNamara, Stephen L. Snyder, Aina M Carter
2015, Special Paper of the Geological Society of America (509) 253-271
Deployment of temporary seismic stations after the 2011 Mineral, Virginia (USA), earthquake produced a well-recorded aftershock sequence. The majority of aftershocks are in a tabular cluster that delineates the previously unknown Quail fault zone. Quail fault zone aftershocks range from ~3 to 8 km in depth and are in a...
Integrating climate change into northeast and midwest State Wildlife Action Plans
Michelle D. Staudinger, Toni L. Morelli, Alexander Bryan, editor(s)
2015, Report
The Department of Interior Northeast Climate Science Center (NE CSC) conducts research that responds to the regional natural resource management community’s needs to anticipate, monitor, and adapt to climate change. The NE CSC is supported by a consortium of partners that includes the University of Massachusetts Amherst, College of Menominee...
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...
Ordovician of Germany Valley, West Virginia
John T. Haynes, Keith E. Goggin, Randall C. Orndorff, Lisa R. Goggin
2015, Stratigraphy (12) 1-45
This trip will consist of stops at five locations (Fig. 1) that provide a detailed look at the strata in a major part of the Ordovician section in Germany Valley, Pendleton County, West Virginia. At these stops, we will highlight a varied sequence of carbonate and siliciclastic strata that accumulated during the...
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...
Atmospheric particulate matter in proximity to mountaintop coal mines: Sources and potential environmental and human health impacts
Laura Kurth, Allan Kolker, Mark A. Engle, Nicholas J. Geboy, Michael Hendryx, William H. Orem, Michael McCawley, Lynn M. Crosby, Calin A. Tatu, Matthew S. Varonka, Christina A. DeVera
2015, Environmental Geochemistry and Health (37) 529-544
Mountaintop removal mining (MTM) is a widely used approach to surface coal mining in the US Appalachian region whereby large volumes of coal overburden are excavated using explosives, removed, and transferred to nearby drainages below MTM operations. To investigate the air quality impact of MTM, the geochemical characteristics of atmospheric...
Joint inversion of seismic and magnetotelluric data in the Parkfield Region of California using the normalized cross-gradient constraint
Ninfa L. Bennington, Haijiang Zhang, Cliff Thurber, Paul A. Bedrosian
2015, Pure and Applied Geophysics (172) 1033-1052
We present jointly inverted models of P-wave velocity (Vp) and electrical resistivity for a two-dimensional profile centered on the San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD). Significant structural similarity between main features of the separately inverted Vp and resistivity models is exploited by carrying out a joint inversion of the...
Stafford fault system: 120 million year fault movement history of northern Virginia
David S. Powars, Rufus D. Catchings, J. Wright Horton Jr., J. Stephen Schindler, Milan J. Pavich
2015, GSA Special Papers (509) 407-431
The Stafford fault system, located in the mid-Atlantic coastal plain of the eastern United States, provides the most complete record of fault movement during the past ~120 m.y. across the Virginia, Washington, District of Columbia (D.C.), and Maryland region, including displacement of Pleistocene terrace gravels. The Stafford fault system is...
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...
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...
Late Holocene sea- and land-level change on the U.S. southeastern Atlantic Coast
Andrew C. Kemp, Christopher E. Bernhardt, Benjamin P. Horton, Robert E. Kopp, Christopher H. Vane, W. Richard Peltier, Andrea D. Hawkes, Jeffrey P. Donnelly, Andrew C. Parnell, Niamh Cahill
2015, Marine Geology (357) 90-100
Late Holocene relative sea-level (RSL) reconstructions can be used to estimate rates of land-level (subsidence or uplift) change and therefore to modify global sea-level projections for regional conditions. These reconstructions also provide the long-term benchmark against which modern trends are compared and an opportunity to understand the response of sea...
Dietary mercury exposure to endangered California Clapper Rails in San Francisco Bay
Michael L. Casazza, Mark A. Ricca, Cory T. Overton, John Y. Takekawa, Angela Merritt, Joshua T. Ackerman
2015, Marine Pollution Bulletin (86) 254-260
California Clapper Rails (Rallus longirostris obsoletus) are an endangered waterbird that forage in tidal-marsh habitats that pose risks from mercury exposure. We analyzed total mercury (Hg) in six macro-invertebrate and one fish species representing Clapper Rail diets from four tidal-marshes in San Francisco Bay, California. Mercury concentrations among individual taxa...
Potential future land use threats to California's protected areas
Tamara Sue Wilson, Benjamin Michael Sleeter, Adam Wilkinson Davis
2015, Regional Environmental Change (15) 1051-1064
Increasing pressures from land use coupled with future changes in climate will present unique challenges for California’s protected areas. We assessed the potential for future land use conversion on land surrounding existing protected areas in California’s twelve ecoregions, utilizing annual, spatially explicit (250 m) scenario projections of land use for...
Pore characteristics of Wilcox Group Coal, U.S. Gulf Coast Region: Implications for the occurrence of coalbed gas
Sharon M. Swanson, Maria D. Mastalerz, Mark Engle, Brett J. Valentine, Peter D. Warwick, Paul C. Hackley, Harvey E. Belkin
2015, International Journal of Coal Geology (139) 80-94
Pore characteristics of 27 subbituminous coal samples (16 mesh splits) from the Paleocene–Eocene Wilcox Group of north Louisiana (Ouachita and Caldwell Parishes) and south Texas (Zavala County) were examined in relation to desorbed gas content. Coal gas of the Wilcox Group is primarily biogenic in origin; thermogenic gas also may be present...
Models of invasion and establishment of African Mustard (Brassica tournefortii)
Kristin H. Berry, Timothy A. Gowan, David M. Miller, Matthew L. Brooks
2015, Invasive Plant Science and Management (7) 599-616
Introduced exotic plants can drive ecosystem change. We studied invasion and establishment ofBrassica tournefortii (African mustard), a noxious weed, in the Chemehuevi Valley, western Sonoran Desert, California. We used long-term data sets of photographs, transects for biomass of annual plants, and densities of African mustard collected at irregular intervals between 1979...
The 2011 Mineral, Virginia, earthquake and its significance for seismic hazards in eastern North America: overview and synthesis
J. Wright Horton Jr., Martin C. Chapman, Russell A. Green
2015, Special Paper of the Geological Society of America (509) 1-25
The 23 August 2011 Mw (moment magnitude) 5.7 ± 0.1, Mineral, Virginia, earthquake was the largest and most damaging in the central and eastern United States since the 1886 Mw 6.8–7.0, Charleston, South Carolina, earthquake. Seismic data indicate that the earthquake rupture occurred on a southeast-dipping reverse fault and consisted of three...
East versus West: organic contaminant differences in brown pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis) eggs from South Carolina, USA and the Gulf of California, Mexico
Stacy S. Vander Pol, Daniel W. Anderson, Patrick G.R. Jodice, Joyce E. Stuckey
2015, Science of the Total Environment (438) 527-532
Brown pelicans (Pelecanus occidentalis) were listed as endangered in the United States in 1970, largely due to reproductive failure and mortality caused by organochlorine contaminants, such as DDT. The southeast population, P.o. carolinensis, was delisted in 1985, while the west coast population, P.o. californicus, was not delisted until 2009. As fish-eating coastal...
The 17 May 2012 M4.8 earthquake near Timpson, East Texas: An event possibly triggered by fluid injection
Cliff Frohlich, William L. Ellsworth, Wesley Brown, Michael Brunt, James Luetgert, Tim G. MacDonald, Steven Walters
2014, Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth (119) 581-593
This study summarizes our investigation of the 17 May 2012 MW-RMT4.8 earthquake near Timpson, Texas, the largest earthquake recorded historically in eastern Texas. To identify preshocks and aftershocks of the 17 May event we examined the arrivals recorded at Nacogdoches (NATX) 30 km from the 17 May epicenter, at nearby...
