Getting the message across: using ecological integrity to communicate with resource managers
Brian R. Mitchell, Geraldine L. Tierney, E. William Schweiger, Kathryn M. Miller, Don Faber-Langendoen, James B. Grace
2014, Book chapter, Application of threshold concepts in natural resource decision making
This chapter describes and illustrates how concepts of ecological integrity, thresholds, and reference conditions can be integrated into a research and monitoring framework for natural resource management. Ecological integrity has been defined as a measure of the composition, structure, and function of an ecosystem in relation to the system’s natural...
Volcanology: Look up for magma insights
Paul Segall, Kyle Anderson
2014, Nature Geoscience (7) 168-169
Volcanic plumes can be hazardous to aircraft. A correlation between plume height and ground deformation during an eruption of Grímsvötn Volcano, Iceland, allows us to peer into the properties of the magma chamber and may improve eruption forecasts....
Dynamic hyporheic exchange at intermediate timescales: testing the relative importance of evapotranspiration and flood pulses
Laurel G. Larsen, Judson W. Harvey, Morgan M. Maglio
2014, Water Resources Research (50) 318-335
Hyporheic fluxes influence ecological processes across a continuum of timescales. However, few studies have been able to characterize hyporheic fluxes and residence time distributions (RTDs) over timescales of days to years, during which evapotranspiration (ET) and seasonal flood pulses create unsteady forcing. Here we present a data-driven, particle-tracking piston model...
Geospatial optimization of siting large-scale solar projects
Jordan Macknick, Ted Quinby, Emmet Caulfield, Margot Gerritsen, James E. Diffendorfer, Seth S. Haines
2014, Technical Report NREL/TP-6A50-61375
Recent policy and economic conditions have encouraged a renewed interest in developing large-scale solar projects in the U.S. Southwest. However, siting some large-scale solar projects, such as concentrating solar power (CSP), is complex. In addition to the quality of the solar resource, solar developers must take into consideration many environmental, social, and...
Melt inclusions
Audétat A., Jacob B. Lowenstern
2014, Book chapter, Reference module in earth systems and environmental sciences: Treatise on geochemistry
Melt inclusions are small droplets of silicate melt that are trapped in minerals during their growth in a magma. Once formed, they commonly retain much of their initial composition (with some exceptions) unless they are re-opened at some later stage. Melt inclusions thus offer several key advantages over whole rock...
Characteristic length scales and time-averaged transport velocities of suspended sediment in the mid-Atlantic Region, USA
James Pizzuto, Edward R. Schenk, Cliff R. Hupp, Allen Gellis, Greg Noe, Elyse Williamson, Diana L. Karwan, Michael O'Neal, Julia Marquard, Rolf E. Aalto, Denis Newbold
2014, Water Resources Research (50) 790-805
Watershed Best Management Practices (BMPs) are often designed to reduce loading from particle-borne contaminants, but the temporal lag between BMP implementation and improvement in receiving water quality is difficult to assess because particles are only moved downstream episodically, resting for long periods in storage between transport events. A theory is...
Retrospective analysis of associations between water quality and toxic blooms of golden alga (Prymnesium parvum) in Texas reservoirs: Implications for understanding dispersal mechanisms and impacts of climate change
Reynaldo Patino, D. Dawson, Matthew M. VanLandeghem
2014, Harmful Algae (33) 1-11
Toxic blooms of golden alga (GA, Prymnesium parvum) in Texas typically occur in winter or early spring. In North America, they were first reported in Texas in the 1980s, and a marked range expansion occurred in 2001. Although there is concern about the influence of climate change on the future...
Where the bison roam: public-private partnership supports potential restoration
J.T. Wilson, Kate A. Schoenecker
2014, Report
A little over one hundred years ago, plains bison were prolific in the Great American West. Reports describe herds containing thousands of animals migrating through the central and western states, totaling 20–30 million across their entire range. With commercial, unregulated hunting in the late 1800s came the rapid demise of...
Using natural range of variation to set decision thresholds: a case study for great plains grasslands
Amy J. Symstad, Jayne L. Jonas
Glenn R. Guntenspergen, editor(s)
2014, Book chapter, Application of threshold concepts in natural resource decision making
Natural range of variation (NRV) may be used to establish decision thresholds or action assessment points when ecological thresholds are either unknown or do not exist for attributes of interest in a managed ecosystem. The process for estimating NRV involves identifying spatial and temporal scales that adequately capture the heterogeneity...
Distribution and transmission of the highly pathogenic parasite Ichthyophonus in marine fishes of Alaska
Jacob L. Gregg, Courtney A. Grady, Rachel L. Thompson, Maureen K. Purcell, Carolyn S. Friedman, Paul K. Hershberger
2014, Report
A combination of field surveys, molecular typing, and laboratory experiments were used to improve our understanding of the distribution and transmission mechanisms of fish parasites in the genus Ichthyophonus. Ichthyophonus spp. infections were detected from the Bering Sea to the coast of Oregon in 10 of 13 host species surveyed....
Plants in alpine environments
Matthew J. Germino
2014, Book chapter, Ecology and the environment
Alpine and subalpine plant species are of special interest in ecology and ecophysiology because they represent life at the climate limit and changes in their relative abundances can be a bellwether for climate-change impacts. Perennial life forms dominate alpine plant communities, and their form and function reflect various avoidance, tolerance, or...
A Bayesian network approach to predicting nest presence of thefederally-threatened piping plover (Charadrius melodus) using barrier island features
Katherina D. Gieder, Sarah M. Karpanty, James D. Fraser, Daniel H. Catlin, Benjamin T. Gutierrez, Nathaniel G. Plant, Aaron M. Turecek, E. Robert Thieler
2014, Ecological Modelling (276) 38-50
Sea-level rise and human development pose significant threats to shorebirds, particularly for species that utilize barrier island habitat. The piping plover (Charadrius melodus) is a federally-listed shorebird that nests on barrier islands and rapidly responds to changes in its physical environment, making it an excellent species with which to...
Influence of landscape characteristics on retention of expandable radiocollars on young ungulates
Troy W. Grovenburg, Robert W. Klaver, Christopher N. Jacques, Todd J. Brinkman, Christopher C. Swanson, Christopher S. DePerno, Kevin L. Monteith, Jaret D. Sievers, Vernon C. Bleich, John G. Kie, Jonathan A. Jenks
2014, Wildlife Society Bulletin (38) 89-95
One tool used for wildlife management is the deployment of radiocollars to gain knowledge of animal populations. Understanding the influence of individual factors (e.g., species, collar characteristics) and landscape characteristics (e.g., forested cover, shrubs, and fencing) on retention of expandable radiocollars for ungulates is important for obtaining empirical data on...
Survival and metamorphosis of low-density populations of larval sea lampreys (Petromyzon marinus) in streams following lampricide treatment
Nicholas S. Johnson, William D. Swink, Travis O. Brenden, Jeffrey W. Slade, Todd B. Steeves, Michael F. Fodale, Michael L. Jones
2014, Journal of Great Lakes Research (40) 155-163
Sea lamprey Petromyzon marinus control in the Great Lakes primarily involves application of lampricides to streams where larval production occurs to kill larvae prior to their metamorphosing and entering the lakes as parasites (juveniles). Because lampricides are not 100% effective, larvae that survive treatment maymetamorphose before streams are again treated....
Geochemical fingerprinting of Wilson Creek formation tephra layers (Mono Basin, California) using titanomagnetite compositions
Mae Marcaida, Margaret T. Mangan, Jorge A. Vazquez, Marcus Bursik, Marsha I. Lidzbarski
2014, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research (273) 1-14
Nineteen tephra layers within the Wilson Creek formation near Mono Lake provide a record of late Pleistocene to early Holocene volcanic activity from the nearby Mono Craters and are important chronostratigraphic markers for paleomagnetic, paleoclimatic, and paleoecologic studies. These stratigraphically important tephra deposits can be geochemically identified using compositions of...
A conceptual framework for clutch size evolution in songbirds
Thomas E. Martin
2014, American Naturalist (183) 313-324
Causes of evolved differences in clutch size among songbird species remain debated. I propose a new conceptual framework that integrates aspects of traditional life history theory, while including novel elements, to explain evolution of clutch size among songbirds. I review evidence that selection by nest predation on length of time...
Temperate and boreal forest mega-fires: characteristics and challenges
Scott L. Stephens, Neil Burrows, Alexander Buyantuyev, Robert W. Gray, Robert E. Keane, Rick Kubian, Shirong Liu, Francisco Seijo, Lifu Shu, Kevin G. Tolhurst, Jan W. Van Wagtendonk
2014, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment (12) 115-122
Mega-fires are often defined according to their size and intensity but are more accurately described by their socioeconomic impacts. Three factors – climate change, fire exclusion, and antecedent disturbance, collectively referred to as the “mega-fire triangle” – likely contribute to today's mega-fires. Some characteristics of mega-fires may emulate historical fire...
Survival and behaviour of juvenile unionid mussels exposed to thermal stress and dewatering in the presence of a sediment temperature gradient
L. Archambault, W. Gregory Cope, Thomas J. Kwak
2014, Freshwater Biology (59) 601-613
Freshwater mussels (Unionidae) are a highly imperilled faunal group. One critical threat is thermal sensitivity, because global climate change and other anthropogenic activities contribute to increasing stream temperature and altered hydrologic flow that may be detrimental to freshwater mussels. We incorporated four benthic environmental components - temperature, sediment, water...
InSAR imaging of Aleutian volcanoes: Monitoring a volcanic arc from space
Zhong Lu, Daniel Dzurisin
2014, Book
No abstract available....
Wetland Accretion Rate Model of Ecosystem Resilience (WARMER) and its application to habitat sustainability for endangered species in the San Francisco Estuary
Kathleen M. Swanson, Judith Z. Drexler, David H. Schoellhamer, Karen M. Thorne, Michael L. Casazza, Cory T. Overton, John C. Callaway, John Y. Takekawa
2014, Estuaries and Coasts (37) 476-492
Salt marsh faunas are constrained by specific habitat requirements for marsh elevation relative to sea level and tidal range. As sea level rises, changes in relative elevation of the marsh plain will have differing impacts on the availability of habitat for marsh obligate species. The Wetland Accretion Rate Model for...
How much land is needed for feral pig hunting in Hawai'i?
Steven C. Hess, James D. Jacobi
2014, Pacific Conservation Biology (30) 54-56
Hunting is often considered to be incompatible with conservation of native biota and watershed functions in Hawai'i. Management actions for conservation generally exclude large non-native mammals from natural areas, thereby reducing the amount of land area available for hunting activities and the maintenance of sustainable game populations. An approach which...
The key role of dry days in changing regional climate and precipitation regimes
Suraj Polade, David W. Pierce, Daniel R. Cayan, Alexander Gershunov, Michael D. Dettinger
2014, Scientific Reports (4)
Future changes in the number of dry days per year can either reinforce or counteract projected increases in daily precipitation intensity as the climate warms. We analyze climate model projected changes in the number of dry days using 28 coupled global climate models from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project, version...
Aspidoscelis deppii (black-bellied racerunner). Predation by turkey vulture.
Robert P. Reynolds, Christina A. Gebhard
2014, Herpetological Review (45) 124-124
Aspidoscelis deppii is widely distributed from Veracruz and Michoacan, Mexico, to Costa Rica (Köhler et al. 2006. The Amphibians and Reptiles of El Salvador, Krieger Publishing Company, Malabar, Florida. 238 pp.). Neotropical lizards are abundant and common prey to all classes of terrestrial vertebrates, and bird predation of lizards is...
Toxicity and accumulation of silver nanoparticles during development of the marine polychaete Platynereis dumerilii
Javier Garcia-Alonso, Neus Rodriguez-Sanchez, Superb K. Misra, Eugenia Valsami-Jones, Marie-Noële Croteau, Samuel N. Luoma, Philip S. Rainbow
2014, Science of the Total Environment (476-477) 688-695
Pollutants affecting species at the population level generate ecological instability in natural systems. The success of early life stages, such as those of aquatic invertebrates, is highly affected by adverse environmental conditions. Silver released into the environment from emerging nanotechnology represents such a threat. Sediments are sinks for numerous pollutants,...
Water resources management in the Ganges Basin: a comparison of three strategies for conjunctive use of groundwater and surface water
Mahfuzur R. Khan, Clifford I. Voss, Winston Yu, Holly A. Michael
2014, Water Resources Management (28) 1235-1250
The most difficult water resources management challenge in the Ganges Basin is the imbalance between water demand and seasonal availability. More than 80 % of the annual flow in the Ganges River occurs during the 4-month monsoon, resulting in widespread flooding. During the rest of the year, irrigation, navigation, and...
