A new species of small-eared shrew (Mammalia, Eulipotyphla, Cryptotis) from the Lacandona rain forest, Mexico
Lazaro Guevara, Víctor Sánchez-Cordero, Livia Leon-Paniagua, Neal Woodman
2014, Journal of Mammalogy (95) 739-753
The diversity and distribution of mammals in the American tropics remain incompletely known. We describe a new species of small-eared shrew (Soricidae, Cryptotis) from the Lacandona rain forest, Chiapas, southern Mexico. The new species is distinguished from other species of Cryptotis on the basis of a unique combination of pelage...
Can nitrogen fertilization aid restoration of mature tree productivity in degraded dryland riverine ecosystems?
Douglas C. Andersen, Elizabeth Carol Adair, Sigfrid Mark Nelson, Dan Binkley
2014, Restoration Ecology (22) 582-589
Restoration of riparian forest productivity lost as a consequence of flow regulation is a common management goal in dryland riverine ecosystems. In the northern hemisphere, dryland river floodplain trees often include one or another species of Populus, which are fast-growing, nutrient-demanding trees. Because the trees are phreatophytic in drylands, and...
Landscape consequences of natural gas extraction in Cameron, Clarion, Elk, Forest, Jefferson, McKean, Potter, and Warren Counties, Pennsylvania, 2004-2010
L. E. Milheim, E. T. Slonecker, C. M. Roig-Silva, S. G. Winters, J. R. Ballew
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1152
Increased demands for cleaner burning energy, coupled with the relatively recent technological advances in accessing hydrocarbon-rich geologic formations, have led to an intense effort to find and extract unconventional natural gas from various underground sources around the country. One of these sources, the Marcellus Shale, located in the Allegheny Plateau,...
InSAR imaging of aleutian volcanoes: Monitoring a volcanic arc from space
Zhong Lu, Daniel Dzurisin
2014, Book
Interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) is a relatively new remote sensing tool that is capable of measuring ground-surface deformation with centimeter-to-subcentimeter precision at a spatial resolution of tens of meters over an area of hundreds to thousands of square kilometers. With its global coverage and all-weather imaging capability, InSAR has...
An integrated modeling approach to estimating Gunnison Sage-Grouse population dynamics: Combining index and demographic data
Amy J. Davis, Mevin B. Hooten, Michael L. Phillips, Paul F. Doherty Jr.
2014, Ecology and Evolution (4) 4247-2457
Evaluation of population dynamics for rare and declining species is often limited to data that are sparse and/or of poor quality. Frequently, the best data available for rare bird species are based on large‐scale, population count data. These data are commonly based on sampling methods that lack consistent sampling effort,...
Comparative mineral chemistry and textures of SAFOD fault gouge and damage-zone rocks
Diane E. Moore
2014, Journal of Structural Geology (68) 82-96
Creep in the San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD) drillhole is localized to two foliated gouges, the central deforming zone (CDZ) and southwest deforming zone (SDZ). The gouges consist of porphyroclasts of serpentinite and sedimentary rock dispersed in a foliated matrix of Mg-smectite clays that formed as a result...
A multi-scale assessment of animal aggregation patterns to understand increasing pathogen seroprevalence
Angela K. Brennan, Paul C. Cross, Megan D. Higgs, W. Henry Edwards, Brandon M. Scurlock, Scott Creel
2014, Ecosphere (5)
Understanding how animal density is related to pathogen transmission is important to develop effective disease control strategies, but requires measuring density at a scale relevant to transmission. However, this is not straightforward or well-studied among large mammals with group sizes that range several orders of magnitude or aggregation patterns that...
Loess as a Quaternary paleoenvironmental indicator
Daniel R. Muhs, M.A. Prins, B. Machalett
2014, Past Global Changes (22) 84-85
Loess is aeolian sediment that is dominated by silt-sized particles. Unlike either coarser dune sand or finer-grained, long-range-transported dust, loess is relatively poorly sorted, reflecting a combination of transport processes, including saltation, low suspension, and high suspension. Loess can be readily identified in the field; deposits range in thickness from...
Examining change detection approaches for tropical mangrove monitoring
Soe W. Myint, Janet Franklin, Michaela Buenemann, Won Kim, Chandra Giri
2014, Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing (10) 983-993
This study evaluated the effectiveness of different band combinations and classifiers (unsupervised, supervised, object-oriented nearest neighbor, and object-oriented decision rule) for quantifying mangrove forest change using multitemporal Landsat data. A discriminant analysis using spectra of different vegetation types determined that bands 2 (0.52 to 0.6 μm), 5 (1.55 to 1.75...
Stitching the western Piedmont of Virginia: Early Paleozoic tectonic history of the Ellisville Pluton and the Potomac and Chopawamsic Terranes
K. S. Hughes, J. P. Hibbard, R.T. Sauer, William C. Burton
2014, Book
The theme of the 2014 Virginia Geological Field Conference is the tectonic development, economic geology, and seismicity of the western Piedmont of Louisa County, Virginia. It is timely for the conference to turn its attention here, for during the past decade these aspects of western Piedmont geology have garnered the...
210Pb dating
Peter W. Swarzenski
2014, Book chapter, Encyclopedia of Scientific Dating Methods
Roughly fifty years ago, a small group of scientists from Belgium and the United States, trying to better constrain ice sheet accumulation rates, attempted to apply what was then know about environmental lead as a potential geochronometer. Thus Goldberg (1963) developed the first principles of the 210Pb dating method, which...
Temporal changes in lithology and radiochemistry from the back-barrier environments along the Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana: March 2012-July 2013
Marci E. Marot, C. Scott Adams, Kathryn A. Richwine, Christopher G. Smith, Lisa E. Osterman, Julie Bernier
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1079
Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey, St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center conducted a time-series collection of shallow sediment cores from the back-barrier environments along the Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana from March 2012 through July 2013. The sampling efforts were part of a larger USGS study to evaluate effects on...
Pharmaceutical compounds in shallow groundwater in non-agricultural areas of Minnesota: study design, methods, and data, 2013
Sarah M. Elliott, Melinda L. Erickson
2014, Data Series 878
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, completed a study on the occurrence of pharmaceutical compounds and other contaminants of emerging concern in shallow groundwater in non-agricultural areas of Minnesota during 2013. This report describes the study design and methods for the study on the...
Changing Arctic ecosystems: resilience of caribou to climatic shifts in the Arctic
David D. Gustine, Layne G. Adams, Mary E. Whalen, John M. Pearce
2014, Fact Sheet 2014-3103
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Changing Arctic Ecosystems (CAE) initiative strives to inform key resource management decisions for Arctic Alaska by providing scientific information and forecasts for current and future ecosystem response to a warming climate. Over the past 5 years, a focal area for the USGS CAE initiative has...
The story of invasive algae, arginine, and turtle tumors does not make sense
Thierry M. Work, Mathias Ackermann, James W. Casey, Milani Chaloupka, Lawrence Herbst, Jennifer M. Lynch, Brian A. Stacy
2014, PeerJ Preprints
We are presenting a rebuttal letter to the following article that appeared recently on PeerJ: Van Houtan KS, Smith CM, Dailer ML, and Kawachi M. 2014. Eutrophication and the dietary promotion of sea turtle tumors. PeerJ 2:e602. This article is available at the following URL: https://peerj.com/articles/602/. We argue that the...
Hyporheic flow and transport processes: mechanisms, models, and biogeochemical implications
Fulvio Boano, Judson W. Harvey, Andrea Marion, Aaron I. Packman, Roberto Revelli, Luca Ridolfi, Worman Anders
2014, Reviews of Geophysics (52) 603-679
Fifty years of hyporheic zone research have shown the important role played by the hyporheic zone as an interface between groundwater and surface waters. However, it is only in the last two decades that what began as an empirical science has become a mechanistic science devoted to modeling studies of...
Potential population and assemblage influences of non-native trout on native nongame fish in Nebraska headwater streams
Kelly C. Turek, Mark A. Pegg, Kevin L. Pope, Steve Schainost
2014, Ecology of Freshwater Fish (25) 99-108
Non-native trout are currently stocked to support recreational fisheries in headwater streams throughout Nebraska. The influence of non-native trout introductions on native fish populations and their role in structuring fish assemblages in these systems is unknown. The objectives of this study were to determine (i) if the size structure or...
Editors are editors, not oracles
Dave Schimel, Donald R. Strong, Aaron M. Ellison, Debra P. C. Peters, Sue Silver, Edward A. Johnson, Jayne Belnap, Aimee T. Classen, Timothy E. Essington, Andrew O. Finley, Brian D. Inouye, Emily H. Stanley
2014, Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America (95) 342-346
Farji-Brener and Kitzberger (2014; hereafter FBK) resurrect the issues of Farji-Brener (2007) concerning manuscripts that are submitted to journals but that are not sent out for peer review: a process we call “reject following editorial review” (RFER). We thank FBK for reviving discussion about this important topic as new challenges,...
Formation of fine sediment deposit from a flash flood river in the Mediterranean Sea
Manel Grifoll, Vicenc Gracia, Alfredo L. Aretxabaleta, Jorge Guillen, Manuel Espino, John C. Warner
2014, Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans (119) 5837-5853
We identify the mechanisms controlling fine deposits on the inner-shelf in front of the Besòs River, in the northwestern Mediterranean Sea. This river is characterized by a flash flood regime discharging large amounts of water (more than 20 times the mean water discharge) and sediment in very short periods lasting...
Evidence for seasonal patterns in the relative abundance of avian influenza virus subtypes in blue-winged teal (Anas discors)
Andrew M. Ramey, Rebecca L. Poulson, Ana S. González-Reiche, Benjamin R. Wilcox, Patrick Walther, Paul Link, Deborah L. Carter, George M. Newsome, Maria L. Muller, Roy D. Berghaus, Daniel R. Perez, Jeffrey S. Hall, David E. Stallknecht
2014, Journal of Wildlife Diseases (50) 916-922
Seasonal dynamics of influenza A viruses (IAVs) are driven by host density and population immunity. Through an analysis of subtypic data for IAVs isolated from Blue-winged Teal (Anas discors), we present evidence for seasonal patterns in the relative abundance of viral subtypes in spring and summer/autumn....
Radiocarbon age-offsets in an arctic lake reveal the long-term response of permafrost carbon to climate change
Benjamin V. Gaglioti, Daniel H. Mann, Benjamin M. Jones, John W. Pohlman, Michael L. Kunz, Matthew J. Wooller
2014, Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences (119) 1630-1651
Continued warming of the Arctic may cause permafrost to thaw and speed the decomposition of large stores of soil organic carbon (OC), thereby accentuating global warming. However, it is unclear if recent warming has raised the current rates of permafrost OC release to anomalous levels or to what extent soil...
Spatio-temporal analysis of gyres in oriented lakes on the Arctic Coastal Plain of northern Alaska based on remotely sensed images
Shengan Zhan, Richard A. Beck, Kenneth M. Hinkel, Hongxing Liu, Benjamin M. Jones
2014, Remote Sensing (6) 9170-9193
The formation of oriented thermokarst lakes on the Arctic Coastal Plain of northern Alaska has been the subject of debate for more than half a century. The striking elongation of the lakes perpendicular to the prevailing wind direction has led to the development of a preferred wind-generated gyre hypothesis, while...
Water temperature differences by plant community and location in re-established wetlands in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, California, July 2005 to February 2008
Kathryn L. Crepeau, Robin L. Miller
2014, Data Series 882
Rates of carbon storage in wetlands are determined by the balance of its inputs and losses, both of which are affected by environmental factors such as water temperature and depth. In the autumn of 1997, the U.S. Geological Survey re-established two wetlands with different shallow water depths—about 25 and 55...
Water chemistry, seepage investigation, streamflow, reservoir storage, and annual availability of water for the San Juan-Chama Project, northern New Mexico, 1942-2010
Sarah E. McKean, Scott K. Anderholm
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5155
The Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority supplements the municipal water supply for the Albuquerque metropolitan area, in central New Mexico, with surface water diverted from the Rio Grande. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority, undertook this study in which water-chemistry data...
Using surface creep rate to infer fraction locked for sections of the San Andreas fault system in northern California from alignment array and GPS data
James J. Lienkaemper, Forrest S. McFarland, Robert W. Simpson, S. John Caskey
2014, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (104) 3094-3114
Surface creep rate, observed along five branches of the dextral San Andreas fault system in northern California, varies considerably from one section to the next, indicating that so too may the depth at which the faults are locked. We model locking on 29 fault sections using each section’s mean long‐term...
