Fluid-faulting interactions: Fracture-mesh and fault-valve behavior in the February 2014 Mammoth Mountain, California, earthquake swarm
David R. Shelly, Taka’aki Taira, Stephanie G. Prejean, David P. Hill, Douglas S. Dreger
2015, Geophysical Research Letters (42) 5803-5812
Faulting and fluid transport in the subsurface are highly coupled processes, which may manifest seismically as earthquake swarms. A swarm in February 2014 beneath densely monitored Mammoth Mountain, California, provides an opportunity to witness these interactions in high resolution. Toward this goal, we employ massive waveform-correlation-based event detection and relative...
Estimating sturgeon abundance in the Carolinas using side-scan sonar
H. Jared Flowers, Joseph E. Hightower
2015, Marine and Coastal Fisheries: Dynamics, Management, and Ecosystem Science (7) 1-9
Sturgeons (Acipenseridae) are one of the most threatened taxa worldwide, including species in North Carolina and South Carolina. Populations of Atlantic Sturgeon Acipenser oxyrinchus in the Carolinas have been significantly reduced from historical levels by a combination of intense fishing and habitat loss. There is a need for estimates of...
Elk habitat suitability map for North Carolina
Steven G. Williams, David T. Cobb, Jaime A. Collazo
2015, Journal of the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (2) 181-186
Although eastern elk (Cervus elaphus canadensis) were extirpated from the eastern United States in the 19th century, they were successfully reintroduced in the North Carolina portion of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in the early 2000s. The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC) is evaluating the prospect of reintroducing...
San Andreas tremor cascades define deep fault zone complexity
David R. Shelly
2015, Nature Geoscience (8) 145-252
Weak seismic vibrations - tectonic tremor - can be used to delineate some plate boundary faults. Tremor on the deep San Andreas Fault, located at the boundary between the Pacific and North American plates, is thought to be a passive indicator of slow fault slip. San Andreas Fault tremor migrates at...
Potential nitrogen critical loads for northern Great Plains grassland vegetation
Amy J. Symstad, Anine T. Smith, Wesley E. Newton, Alan K. Knapp
2015, Natural Resource Report NPS/NGPN/NRR - 2015/989
The National Park Service is concerned that increasing atmospheric nitrogen deposition caused by fossil fuel combustion and agricultural activities could adversely affect the northern Great Plains (NGP) ecosystems in its trust. The critical load concept facilitates communication between scientists and policy makers or land managers by translating the complex effects...
Ways to be different: Foraging adaptations that facilitate higher intake rates in a northerly wintering shorebird compared with a low-latitude conspecific
Daniel R. Ruthrauff, Anne Dekinga, Robert E. Gill Jr., Jan A. van Gils, Theunis Piersma
2015, Journal of Experimental Biology (218) 1188-1197
At what phenotypic level do closely related subspecies that live in different environments differ with respect to food detection, ingestion and processing? This question motivated an experimental study on rock sandpipers (Calidris ptilocnemis). The species' nonbreeding range spans 20 deg of latitude, the extremes of which are inhabited by two subspecies:...
Influence of Smallmouth Bass predation on recruitment of age-0 Yellow Perch in South Dakota glacial lakes
Daniel J. Dembkowski, D.W. Willis, B. G. Blackwell, Steven R. Chipps, T. D. Bacula, M.R. Wuellner
2015, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (35) 736-747
We estimated the influence of predation by Smallmouth Bass Micropterus dolomieu on recruitment of age-0 Yellow Perch Perca flavescens in two northeastern South Dakota glacial lakes. We estimated a likely range in consumption of age-0 Yellow Perch using Smallmouth Bass diet information from two time periods when age-0 Yellow Perch...
A sinuous tumulus over an active lava tube at Kīlauea Volcano: evolution, analogs, and hazard forecasts
Tim R. Orr, Jacob E. Bleacher, Matthew R. Patrick, Kelly M. Wooten
2015, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research (291) 35-48
Inflation of narrow tube-fed basaltic lava flows (tens of meters across), such as those confined by topography, can be focused predominantly along the roof of a lava tube. This can lead to the development of an unusually long tumulus, its shape matching the sinuosity of the underlying lava tube. Such...
Book review: Field guide to the common grasses of Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska
Amy J. Symstad
2015, Prairie Naturalist (47) 53
Grass identification is not for the faint of heart, especially when one has to rely on dichotomous keys using terms like “glume” and “flexuous pedicels.” A good, illustrated field guide that avoids such specialized terms is invaluable for ranchers, amateur naturalists, landscapers, and a variety of grassland professionals that aren’t...
An integrated approach to modeling changes in land use, land cover, and disturbance and their impact on ecosystem carbon dynamics: a case study in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California
Benjamin M. Sleeter, Jinxun Liu, Colin Daniel, Leonardo Frid, Zhiliang Zhu
2015, AIMS Environmental Science (2) 577-606
Increased land-use intensity (e.g. clearing of forests for cultivation, urbanization), often results in the loss of ecosystem carbon storage, while changes in productivity resulting from climate change may either help offset or exacerbate losses. However, there are large uncertainties in how land and climate systems will evolve and interact to...
Geochemical reanalysis of historical U.S. Geological Survey sediment samples from the Zane Hills, Hughes and Shungnak quadrangles, Alaska
Melanie B. Werdon, Matthew Granitto, Jaime S. Azain
2015, Report
The State of Alaska’s Strategic and Critical Minerals (SCM) Assessment project, a State-funded Capital Improvement Project (CIP), is designed to evaluate Alaska’s statewide potential for SCM resources. The SCM Assessment is being implemented by the Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys (DGGS), and involves obtaining new airborne-geophysical, geological, and...
Arsenic and antimony geochemistry of mine wastes, associated waters and sediments at the Giant Mine, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada
Skya E. Fawcett, Heather E. Jamieson, D. Kirk Nordstrom, R. Blaine McCleskey
2015, Applied Geochemistry (62) 3-17
Elevated levels of arsenic (As) and antimony (Sb) in water and sediments are legacy residues found downstream from gold-mining activities at the Giant Mine in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories (NWT), Canada. To track the transport and fate of As and Sb, samples of mine-waste from the mill, and surface water, sediment,...
Combining state-and-transition simulations and species distribution models to anticipate the effects of climate change
Brian W. Miller, Leonardo Frid, Tony Chang, N. B. Piekielek, Andrew J. Hansen, Jeffrey T. Morisette
2015, AIMS Environmental Science (2) 400-426
State-and-transition simulation models (STSMs) are known for their ability to explore the combined effects of multiple disturbances, ecological dynamics, and management actions on vegetation. However, integrating the additional impacts of climate change into STSMs remains a challenge. We address this challenge by combining an STSM with species distribution modeling (SDM)....
Reaction modeling of drainage quality in the Duluth Complex, northern Minnesota, USA
Robert R. Seal, Kim Lapakko, Nadine M. Piatak, Laurel G. Woodruff
2015, Conference Paper
Reaction modeling can be a valuable tool in predicting the long-term behavior of waste material if representative rate constants can be derived from long-term leaching tests or other approaches. Reaction modeling using the REACT program of the Geochemist’s Workbench was conducted to evaluate long-term drainage quality affected by disseminated Cu-Ni-(Co-)-PGM...
Hydrothermal, biogenic, and seawater components in metalliferous black shales of the Brooks Range, Alaska: Synsedimentary metal enrichment in a carbonate ramp setting
John F. Slack, David Selby, Julie A. Dumoulin
2015, Economic Geology (110) 653-675
Trace element and Os isotope data for Lisburne Group metalliferous black shales of Middle Mississippian (early Chesterian) age in the Brooks Range of northern Alaska suggest that metals were sourced chiefly from local seawater (including biogenic detritus) but also from externally derived hydrothermal fluids. These black shales are interbedded with...
An assessment of sauger population characteristics on two Tennessee River reservoirs
Christy L. Graham, Phillip William Bettoli, Timothy N. Churchill
2015, Journal of the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (2) 101-108
In 1992, a 356-mm minimum length limit (MLL) was enacted on Kentucky Lake and a 381-mm MLL was enacted on Watts Bar Lake, two mainstem reservoirs on the Tennessee River, in an attempt to reduce exploitation and improve the size structure of the sauger (Sander canadensis) populations. The objectives...
Corrigendum to “Comparing activated alumina with indigenous laterite and bauxite as potential sorbents for removing fluoride from drinking water in Ghana” [Appl. Geochem. 56 (2015) 50–66]
Laura Craig, Lisa L. Stillings, David L. Decker, James M. Thomas
2015, Applied Geochemistry (63) 451-451
The authors regret that the application of the t-plot to determine the presence of micropores in the three sorbents needs the following corrections: (1) Fig. 1a, c, e are N2(g) adsorption and desorption isotherms” (remove “BET”). This correction applies to descriptions in the text as well. (2) Table 2, the column titled “Micropores”...
Modifications to risk-targeted seismic design maps for subduction and near-fault hazards
Abbie B. Liel, Nico Luco, Meera Raghunandan, C. Champion
Terje Haukaas, editor(s)
2015, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the 12th international conference on applications of statistics and probability in civil engineering (ICASP12)
ASCE 7-10 introduced new seismic design maps that define risk-targeted ground motions such that buildings designed according to these maps will have 1% chance of collapse in 50 years. These maps were developed by iterative risk calculation, wherein a generic building collapse fragility curve is convolved with the U.S. Geological...
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...
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...
Complex interactions between global change drivers influence mountain forest and slpine GHG sequestration and stream chemistry
Jill Baron, Melannie D. Hartman
2015, Conference Paper, Mountain Views
Many mountain ecosystems are experiencing coincident increases in temperature, levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) and atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition. All are important controls on rates of plant growth, soil microbial activity, nutrient cycling, and stream N export. It is difficult for experimental studies to explore ecosystem responses to more than one or two treatments at...
An updated conceptual model of Delta Smelt biology: Our evolving understanding of an estuarine fish
Randy Baxter, Larry R. Brown, Gonzalo Castillo, Louise Conrad, Steven D. Culberson, Matthew P. Dekar, Melissa Dekar, Frederick Feyrer, Thaddeus Hunt, Kristopher Jones, Joseph Kirsch, Anke Mueller-Solger, Matthew Nobriga, Steven B. Slater, Ted Sommer, Kelly Souza, Gregg Erickson, Stephanie Fong, Karen Gehrts, Lenny Grimaldo, Bruce Herbold
2015, Technical Report 90
The main purpose of this report is to provide an up-to-date assessment and conceptual model of factors affecting Delta Smelt (Hypomesus transpacificus) throughout its primarily annual life cycle and to demonstrate how this conceptual model can be used for scientific and management purposes. The Delta Smelt is a small estuarine...
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....
