Exploration of the canyon-incised continental margin of the northeastern United States reveals dynamic habitats and diverse communities
Andrea Quattrini, Martha S. Nizinski, Jason Chaytor, Amanda W.J. Demopoulos, E. Brendan Roark, Scott France, Jon A. Moore, Taylor P. Heyl, Peter J. Auster, Carolyn D. Ruppel, Kelley P. Elliott, Brian R. C. Kennedy, Elizabeth A. Lobecker, Adam Skarke, Timothy M. Shank
2015, PLoS ONE (10)
The continental margin off the northeastern United States (NEUS) contains numerous, topographically complex features that increase habitat heterogeneity across the region. However, the majority of these rugged features have never been surveyed, particularly using direct observations. During summer 2013, 31 Remotely-Operated Vehicle (ROV) dives were conducted from 494 to 3271...
Now hiring! Empirically testing a three-step intervention to increase faculty gender diversity in STEM
Jessi L. Smith, Ian M. Handley, Alexander V. Zale, Sara Rushing, Martha A. Potvin
2015, BioScience (65) 1084-1087
Workforce homogeneity limits creativity, discovery, and job satisfaction; nonetheless, the vast majority of university faculty in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields are men. We conducted a randomized and controlled three-step faculty search intervention based in self-determination theory aimed at increasing the number of women faculty in STEM at...
Interpretation of hydraulic conductivity in a fractured-rock aquifer over increasingly larger length dimensions
Allen M. Shapiro, Jeffery Ladderud, Richard M. Yager
2015, Hydrogeology Journal (23) 1319-1339
A comparison of the hydraulic conductivity over increasingly larger volumes of crystalline rock was conducted in the Piedmont physiographic region near Bethesda, Maryland, USA. Fluid-injection tests were conducted on intervals of boreholes isolating closely spaced fractures. Single-hole tests were conducted by pumping in open boreholes for approximately 30 min, and an...
A bootstrap method for estimating uncertainty of water quality trends
Robert M. Hirsch, Stacey A. Archfield, Laura A. DeCicco
2015, Environmental Modelling and Software (73) 148-166
Estimation of the direction and magnitude of trends in surface water quality remains a problem of great scientific and practical interest. The Weighted Regressions on Time, Discharge, and Season (WRTDS) method was recently introduced as an exploratory data analysis tool to provide flexible and robust estimates of water quality trends....
Effects and quantification of acid runoff from sulfide-bearing rock deposited during construction of Highway E18, Norway
Atle Hindar, D. Kirk Nordstrom
2015, Applied Geochemistry (62) 150-163
The Highway E18 between the cities of Grimstad and Kristiansand, southern Norway, constructed in the period 2006–2009, cuts through sulfide-bearing rock. The geology of this area is dominated by slowly-weathering gneiss and granites, and oxidation of fresh rock surfaces can result in acidification of surface water. Sulfide-containing rock waste from...
Developing a workflow to identify inconsistencies in volunteered geographic information: a phenological case study
Hamed Mehdipoor, Raul Zurita-Milla, Alyssa Rosemartin, Katharine L. Gerst, Jake F. Weltzin
2015, PLoS ONE (10)
Recent improvements in online information communication and mobile location-aware technologies have led to the production of large volumes of volunteered geographic information. Widespread, large-scale efforts by volunteers to collect data can inform and drive scientific advances in diverse fields, including ecology and climatology. Traditional workflows to check the quality of...
Large-scale range collapse of Hawaiian forest birds under climate change and the need 21st century conservation options
Lucas B. Fortini, Adam E. Vorsino, Fred A. Amidon, Eben H. Paxton, James D. Jacobi
2015, PLoS ONE (10)
Hawaiian forest birds serve as an ideal group to explore the extent of climate change impacts on at-risk species. Avian malaria constrains many remaining Hawaiian forest bird species to high elevations where temperatures are too cool for malaria's life cycle and its principal mosquito vector. The impact of climate change...
Projected future vegetation changes for the northwest United States and southwest Canada at a fine spatial resolution using a dynamic global vegetation model.
Sarah Shafer, Patrick J. Bartlein, Elizabeth M. Gray, Richard T. Pelltier
2015, PLoS ONE (10)
Future climate change may significantly alter the distributions of many plant taxa. The effects of climate change may be particularly large in mountainous regions where climate can vary significantly with elevation. Understanding potential future vegetation changes in these regions requires methods that can resolve vegetation responses to climate change at...
Short-term response of Holcus lanatus L. (Common Velvetgrass) to chemical and manual control at Yosemite National Park, USA
Laura J. Jones, Steven M. Ostoja, Matthew L. Brooks, Martin Hutten
2015, Invasive Plant Science and Management (8) 262-268
One of the highest priority invasive species at both Yosemite and Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks is Holcus lanatus L. (common velvetgrass), a perennial bunchgrass that invades mid-elevation montane meadows. Despite velvetgrass being a high priority species, there is little information available on control techniques. The goal of this project was...
Responses of macroinvertebrate community metrics to a wastewater discharge in the Upper Blue River of Kansas and Missouri, USA
Barry C. Poulton, Jennifer L. Graham, Teresa J. Rasmussen, Mandy L. Stone
2015, Journal of Water Resource and Protection (7) 1195-1220
The Blue River Main wastewater treatment facility (WWTF) discharges into the upper Blue River (725 km2), and is recently upgraded to implement biological nutrient removal. We measured biotic condition upstream and downstream of the discharge utilizing the macroinvertebrate protocol developed for Kansas streams. We examined responses of 34 metrics to...
Compound-specific sulfur isotope analysis of thiadiamondoids of oils from the Smackover Formation, USA
Zvi Gvirtzman, Ward Said-Ahmad, Geoffrey S. Ellis, Ronald J. Hill, J. Michael Moldowan, Zhibin Wei, Alon Amrani
2015, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (167) 144-161
Thiadiamondoids (TDs) are diamond-like compounds with a sulfide bond located within the cage structure. These compounds were suggested as a molecular proxy for the occurrence and extent of thermochemical sulfate reduction (TSR). Compound-specific sulfur-isotope analysis of TDs may create a multi-parameter system, based on molecular and δ34S values that may...
Translating climate change effects on species into everyday language: an example of more driving and less fishing
Tyler Wagner, Jefferson T. Deweber
2015, Fisheries (40) 395-398
Climate change is expected to result in widespread changes in species distributions (e.g., shifting, shrinking, expanding species ranges; e.g., Parmesan and Yohe, 2003), especially for freshwater fish species (Heino et al. 2009). Although anglers and other resource users could be greatly affected by changes in species distributions, predicted changes...
Bioaccumulation trends of arsenic and antimony in a freshwater ecosystem affected by mine drainage
Meghan A. Dovick, Thomas R. Kulp, Robert S. Arkle, David S. Pilliod
2015, Environmental Chemistry (13) 149-159
We compared As and Sb bioaccumulation and biomagnification when these metalloids co-occurred at varying environmental concentrations in a stream and wetlands near a contaminated mine site in Idaho (USA). We measured As and Sb concentrations in water and substrate samples, and in tissues of organisms representing several trophic levels. Bioaccumulation...
Water availability and subsidence in California's Central Valley
Claudia C. Faunt, Michelle Sneed, Jonathan A. Traum, Justin T. Brandt
2015, San Francisco Estuary and Watershed Science (13)
The Central Valley in California (USA) covers about 52,000 km2 and is one of the most productive agricultural regions in the world. This agriculture relies heavily on surface-water diversions and groundwater pumpage to meet irrigation water demand. Because the valley is semi-arid and surface-water availability varies substantially, agriculture relies heavily on local groundwater. In the southern...
Response of the nitrogen-fixing lichen Lobaria pulmonaria to phosphorus, molybdenum, and vanadium
Jade A Marks, Julie Pett-Ridge, Steven S. Perakis, Jessica L Allen, Bruce McCune
2015, Ecosphere (6)
Nitrogen-fixing lichens (cyanolichens) are an important source of nitrogen (N) in Pacific Northwest forests, but limitation of lichen growth by elements essential for N fixation is poorly understood. To investigate how nutrient limitation may affect cyanolichen growth rates, we fertilized a tripartite cyanobacterial lichen (Lobaria pulmonaria) and a green algal...
Summer of Applied Geophysical Experience (SAGE): Training for our future geoscientists
W.S. Baldridge, Paul A. Bedrosian, Shawn Biehler, L.W. Braile, John Ferguson, Matthew Folsom, G.R. Jiracek, Shari A. Kelley, Darcy McPhee, Louise Pellerin, Catherine M. Snelson
2015, Leading Edge (Tulsa, OK) (34) 1214-1219
Energy and natural resources are crucial to the sustainability of worldwide economies, security, and overall well-being. However, the future workforce in the energy and natural-resources sector is at risk, and meeting the challenges of this dwindling workforce requires well-educated geoscientists in exploration and applied geophysics and related geoscience and technology...
Soil geochemical survey of abandoned mining sites in the Eastern-Central Peloritani Mountains, Sicily, Italy
A. Consenza, A. Lima, Robert A. Ayuso, Nora K. Foley, S. Albanese, A. Messina, B. De Vivo
2015, Geochemistry: Exploration, Environment, Analysis (15) 361-372
This investigation focused on topsoils (n = 122) and vertical profiles (n = 6) distributed over an area of 250 km2 in the eastern-central Peloritani Mountains, northeastern Sicily. Georeferenced concentration of 53 elements (including potentially harmful ones), determined by ICP-MS after an aqua regia leach, were used to produce geochemical maps by means of a...
Climate, water use, and land surface transformation in an irrigation intensive watershed - streamflow responses from 1950 through 2010
Joseph Dale, Chris B. Zou, William J. Andrews, James M. Long, Ye Liang, Lei Qiao
2015, Agricultural Water Management (160) 144-152
Climatic variability and land surface change have a wide range of effects on streamflow and are often difficult to separate. We analyzed long-term records of climate, land use and land cover, and re-constructed the water budget based on precipitation, groundwater levels, and water use from 1950 through 2010 in the...
Development of the Global Earthquake Model’s neotectonic fault database
Annemarie Christophersen, Nicola Litchfield, Kelvin Berryman, Richard Thomas, Roberto Basili, Laura Wallace, William Ries, Gavin P. Hayes, Kathleen M. Haller, Toshikazu Yoshioka, Richard D. Koehler, Dan Clark, Monica Wolfson-Schwehr, Margaret S. Boettcher, Pilar Villamor, Nick Horspool, Teraphan Ornthammarath, Ramon Zuniga, Robert M. Langridge, Mark W. Stirling, Tatiana Goded, Carlos Costa, Robert Yeats
2015, Natural Hazards (79) 111-135
The Global Earthquake Model (GEM) aims to develop uniform, openly available, standards, datasets and tools for worldwide seismic risk assessment through global collaboration, transparent communication and adapting state-of-the-art science. GEM Faulted Earth (GFE) is one of GEM’s global hazard module projects. This paper describes GFE’s development of a modern neotectonic...
Temperature and depth mediate resource competition and apparent competition between Mysis diluviana and kokanee
Erik R. Schoen, David A. Beauchamp, Anna R. Buettner, Nathanael C. Overman
2015, Ecological Applications (25) 1962-1975
In many food webs, species in similar trophic positions can interact either by competing for resources or boosting shared predators (apparent competition), but little is known about how the relative strengths of these interactions vary across environmental gradients. Introduced Mysis diluviana shrimp interact with planktivorous fishes such as kokanee salmon (lacustrine Oncorhynchus nerka)...
Impact of wastewater infrastructure upgrades on the urban water cycle: Reduction in halogenated reaction byproducts following conversion from chlorine gas to ultraviolet light disinfection
Larry B. Barber, Michelle Hladik, Alan M. Vajda, Kevin C. Fitzgerald, Chris Douville
2015, Science of the Total Environment (529) 264-274
The municipal wastewater treatment facility (WWTF) infrastructure of the United States is being upgraded to expand capacity and improve treatment, which provides opportunities to assess the impact of full-scale operational changes on water quality. Many WWTFs disinfect their effluent prior to discharge using chlorine gas,...
Localization and seasonal variation of blue pigment (sandercyanin) in walleye (Sander vitreus)
Wayne Schaefer, Mark Schmitz, Vicki S. Blazer, Tim Ehlinger, John Berges
2015, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (72) 281-289
Several fish species, including the walleye (Sander vitreus), have “yellow” and “blue” color morphs. In S. vitreus, one source of the blue color has been identified as a bili-binding protein pigment (sandercyanin), found in surface mucus of the fish. Little is known about the production of the pigment or about its functions....
Preface to the special issue on gas hydrate drilling in the Eastern Nankai Trough
Koji Yamamoto, Carolyn D. Ruppel
2015, Marine and Petroleum Geology (66) 295-295
Methane hydrate traps enormous amounts of methane in frozen deposits in continental margin sediments, and these deposits have long been targeted for studies investigating their potential as an energy resource. As a concentrated form of methane that occurs at shallower depths than conventional and most unconventional gas reservoirs, methane hydrates...
Geochemical legacies and the future health of cities: A tale of two neurotoxins in urban soils
Gabriel M. Fillipelli, Martin R. Risch, Mark A. S. Laidlaw, Deborah E. Nichols, Julie Crewe
2015, Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene
The past and future of cities are inextricably linked, a linkage that can be seen clearly in the long-term impacts of urban geochemical legacies. As loci of population as well as the means of employment and industry to support these populations, cities have a long history of co-locating contaminating practices...
Long-term trends in reservoir water quality and quantity in two major river basins of the southern Great Plains
D. Dawson, Matthew M. VanLandeghem, William H. Asquith, Reynaldo Patino
2015, Land and Reservoir Management (31) 254-279
Trends in water quality and quantity were assessed for 11 major reservoirs of the Brazos and Colorado river basins in the southern Great Plains (maximum period of record, 1965–2010). Water quality, major contributing-stream inflow, storage, local precipitation, and basin-wide total water withdrawals were analyzed. Inflow and storage decreased and total...
