Watershed-scale modeling of streamflow change in incised montane meadows
Hedeff I. Essaid, Barry R. Hill
2014, Water Resources Research (50) 2657-2678
Land use practices have caused stream channel incision and water table decline in many montane meadows of the Western United States. Incision changes the magnitude and timing of streamflow in water supply source watersheds, a concern to resource managers and downstream water users. The hydrology of montane meadows under natural...
Statistical evaluation of variables affecting occurrence of hydrocarbons in aquifers used for public supply, California
Matthew K. Landon, Carmen A. Burton, Tracy A. Davis, Kenneth Belitz, Tyler D. Johnson
2014, Journal of the American Water Resources Association (50) 179-195
The variables affecting the occurrence of hydrocarbons in aquifers used for public supply in California were assessed based on statistical evaluation of three large statewide datasets; gasoline oxygenates also were analyzed for comparison with hydrocarbons. Benzene is the most frequently detected (1.7%) compound among 17 hydrocarbons analyzed at generally low...
Predictions of barrier island berm evolution in a time-varying storm climatology
Nathaniel G. Plant, James Flocks, Hilary F. Stockdon, Joseph W. Long, Kristy K. Guy, David M. Thompson, Jamie M. Cormier, Christopher G. Smith, Jennifer L. Miselis, P. Soupy Dalyander
2014, Journal of Geophysical Research F: Earth Surface (119) 300-316
Low-lying barrier islands are ubiquitous features of the world's coastlines, and the processes responsible for their formation, maintenance, and destruction are related to the evolution of smaller, superimposed features including sand dunes, beach berms, and sandbars. The barrier island and its superimposed features interact with oceanographic forces (e.g., overwash) and...
Methods to estimate distribution and range extent of grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem
Mark A. Haroldson, Charles C. Schwartz, Daniel J. Thompson, Daniel D. Bjornlie, Kerry A. Gunther, Steven L. Cain, Daniel B. Tyers, Kevin L. Frey, Bryan C. Aber
2014, Wildlife Society Bulletin (38) 182-187
The distribution of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem grizzly bear (Ursus arctos) population has expanded into areas unoccupied since the early 20th century. Up-to-date information on the area and extent of this distribution is crucial for federal, state, and tribal wildlife and land managers to make informed decisions regarding grizzly bear...
Rapid earthquake characterization using MEMS accelerometers and volunteer hosts following the M 7.2 Darfield, New Zealand, Earthquake
J. F. Lawrence, E.S. Cochran, A. Chung, A. Kaiser, C. M. Christensen, R. Allen, J.W. Baker, B. Fry, T. Heaton, Debi Kilb, M.D. Kohler, M. Taufer
2014, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (104) 184-192
We test the feasibility of rapidly detecting and characterizing earthquakes with the Quake‐Catcher Network (QCN) that connects low‐cost microelectromechanical systems accelerometers to a network of volunteer‐owned, Internet‐connected computers. Following the 3 September 2010 M 7.2 Darfield, New Zealand, earthquake we installed over 180 QCN sensors in the Christchurch region to...
Seismological analyses of the 2010 March 11, Pichilemu, Chile Mw 7.0 and Mw 6.9 coastal intraplate earthquakes
Javier A. Ruiz, Gavin P. Hayes, Daniel Carrizo, Hiroo Kanamori, Anne Socquet, Diana Comte
2014, Geophysical Journal International (196)
On 2010 March 11, a sequence of large, shallow continental crust earthquakes shook central Chile. Two normal faulting events with magnitudes around Mw 7.0 and Mw 6.9 occurred just 15 min apart, located near the town of Pichilemu. These kinds of large intraplate, inland crustal earthquakes are rare above the...
Nitrogen deposition effects on diatom communities in lakes from three National Parks in Washington State
Richard W. Sheibley, Mihaela Enache, Peter W. Swarzenski, Patrick W. Moran, James R. Foreman
2014, Water, Air, & Soil Pollution (225)
The goal of this study was to document if lakes in National Parks in Washington have exceeded critical levels of nitrogen (N) deposition, as observed in other Western States. We measured atmospheric N deposition, lake water quality, and sediment diatoms at our study lakes. Water chemistry showed that our study...
Fishing for resilience
Kevin L. Pope, Craig R. Allen, David G. Angeler
2014, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (143) 467-478
Management approaches that focus on social–ecological systems—systems comprised of ecosystems, landscapes, and humans—are needed to secure the sustainability of inland recreational fisheries without jeopardizing the integrity of the underlying social and ecological components. Resilience management can be useful because it focuses on providing recreational capacity for fishermen under a variety...
Historic and recent nesting records of Turkey Vultures in South Dakota
Lawrence D. Igl, Brian J. Chepulis, Kyle E. McLean
2014, South Dakota Bird Notes (66) 8-17
Present-day vultures are generally classified into two distinct groups: Old World vultures and new World vultures. The two groups share morphological and behavioral characters (e.g. scavenger diet, energy-efficient soaring, mostly featherless head), but historically the two groups were considered phylogenetically distant with long and independent histories (Rich 198., Wink 1995,...
Estrogen and androgen receptor activities of hydraulic fracturing chemicals and surface and ground water in a drilling-dense region
Christopher D. Kassotis, Donald E. Tillitt, J. Wade Davis, Anette M. Hormann, Susan C. Nagel
2014, Endocrinology (155) 897-907
The rapid rise in natural gas extraction using hydraulic fracturing increases the potential for contamination of surface and ground water from chemicals used throughout the process. Hundreds of products containing more than 750 chemicals and components are potentially used throughout the extraction process, including more than 100 known...
Effects of wetland management on carrying capacity of diving ducks and shorebirds in a coastal estuary
L. Arriana Brand, John Y. Takekawa, Joel Shinn, Tanya Graham, Kevin Buffington, K. Benjamin Gustafson, Lacy M. Smith, Sarah E. Spring, A. Keith Miles
2014, Waterbirds (37) 52-67
With global loss of natural wetlands, managed wetlands increasingly support energy requirements for wintering shorebirds and waterfowl. Despite numerous studies of avian bioenergetics in freshwater systems, less is known of the energetic capacity of estuarine systems. In San Francisco Bay, managed saline ponds converted from former commercial salt evaporation ponds...
Assessment of floodplain vulnerability during extreme Mississippi River flood 2011
Allison E. Goodwell, Zhenduo Zhu, Debsunder Dutta, Jonathan A. Greenberg, Praveen Kumar, Marcelo H. Garcia, Bruce L. Rhoads, Robert R. Holmes Jr., Gary Parker, David P. Berretta, Robert B. Jacobson
2014, Environmental Science & Technology (48) 2619-2625
Regional change in the variability and magnitude of flooding could be a major consequence of future global climate change. Extreme floods have the capacity to rapidly transform landscapes and expose landscape vulnerabilities through highly variable spatial patterns of inundation, erosion, and deposition. We use the historic activation of the Birds...
A methodology for adaptable and robust ecosystem services assessment
Ferdinando Villa, Kenneth J. Bagstad, Brian Voigt, Gary W. Johnson, Rosimeiry Portela, Miroslav Honzak, David Batker
2014, PLoS ONE (9)
Ecosystem Services (ES) are an established conceptual framework for attributing value to the benefits that nature provides to humans. As the promise of robust ES-driven management is put to the test, shortcomings in our ability to accurately measure, map, and value ES have surfaced. On the research side, mainstream methods...
Soil-plant-microbial relations in hydrothermally altered soils of Northern California
S.W. Blecker, L.L. Stillings, N.M. DeCrappeo, J.A. Ippolito
2014, Soil Science Society of America Journal (78) 509-519
Soils developed on relict hydrothermally altered soils throughout the Western USA present unique opportunities to study the role of geology on above and belowground biotic activity and composition. Soil and vegetation samples were taken at three unaltered andesite and three hydrothermally altered (acid-sulfate) sites located in and around Lassen VolcanicNational...
Linking bovine tuberculosis on cattle farms to white-tailed deer and environmental variables using Bayesian hierarchical analysis
W. David Walter, Rick Smith, Mike Vanderklok, Kurt C. VerCauterren
2014, PLoS ONE (9)
Bovine tuberculosis is a bacterial disease caused by Mycobacterium bovis in livestock and wildlife with hosts that include Eurasian badgers (Meles meles), brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula), and white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus). Risk-assessment efforts in Michigan have been initiated on farms to minimize interactions of cattle with wildlife hosts but research onM. bovis on...
Can uncertainties in sea ice albedo reconcile patterns of data-model discord for the Pliocene and 20th/21st centuries?
Fergus W. Howell, Alan M. Haywood, Aisling M. Dolan, Harry J. Dowsett, Jane E Francis, Daniel J. Hill, Steven J. Pickering, James O. Pope, Ulrich Salzmann, Bidget S Wade
2014, Geophysical Research Letters (41) 2011-2018
General Circulation Model simulations of the mid-Pliocene warm period (mPWP, 3.264 to 3.025 Myr ago) currently underestimate the level of warming that proxy data suggest existed at high latitudes, with discrepancies of up to 11°C for sea surface temperature estimates and 17°C for surface air temperature estimates. Sea ice has...
Benthic prey fish assessment, Lake Ontario 2013
Brian Weidel, Maureen Walsh, Michael J. Connerton
2014, NYSDEC Lake Ontario Annual Report 2013-12
The 2013 benthic fish assessment was delayed and shortened as a result of the U.S. Government shutdown, however the assessment collected 51 of the 62 planned bottom trawls. Over the past 34 years, Slimy Sculpin abundance in Lake Ontario has fluctuated, but ultimately decreased by two orders of magnitude, with...
Volcanic tremor masks its seismogenic source: Results from a study of noneruptive tremor recorded at Mount St. Helens, Washington
Roger P. Denlinger, Seth C. Moran
2014, Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth (119) 2230-2251
On 2 October 2004, a significant noneruptive tremor episode occurred during the buildup to the 2004–2008 eruption of Mount St. Helens (Washington). This episode was remarkable both because no explosion followed, and because seismicity abruptly stopped following the episode. This sequence motivated us to consider a model for volcanic tremor...
Double-crested Cormorant studies at Little Galloo Island, Lake Ontario in 2013: Diet composition, fish consumption and the efficacy of management activities in reducing fish predation
James H. Johnson, Russ D. McCullough, Irene Mazzocchi
2014, NYSDEC Lake Ontario Annual Report 2013-14
For almost two decades Little Galloo Island (LGI) has supported a large colony of Double-crested Cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus) in the eastern basin of Lake Ontario. Cormorant nest counts on the island since the early 1990's have averaged 4,297 per year. However, less than 2,000 pairs have nested on the island...
Optical sensors for water quality
Brian A. Pellerin, Brian A. Bergamaschi
2014, Lakeline 13-17
Shifts in land use, population, and climate have altered hydrologic systems in the United States in ways that affect water quality and ecosystem function. Water diversions, detention in reservoirs, increased channelization, and changes in rainfall and snowmelt are major causes, but there are also more subtle causes such as changes...
Wildland fire ash: Production, composition and eco-hydro-geomorphic effects
Merche B. Bodi, Deborah A. Martin, Victoria N. Balfour, Cristina Santin, Stefan H. Doerr, Paulo Pereira, Artemi Cerda, Jorge Mataix-Solera
2014, Earth-Science Reviews (130) 103-127
Fire transforms fuels (i.e. biomass, necromass, soil organic matter) into materials with different chemical and physical properties. One of these materials is ash, which is the particulate residue remaining or deposited on the ground that consists of mineral materials and charred organic components. The quantity and characteristics of ash...
Soil criteria to protect terrestrial wildlife and open-range livestock from metal toxicity at mining sites
Karl L Ford, W. Nelson Beyer
2014, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment (186) 1899-1905
Thousands of hard rock mines exist in the western USA and in other parts of the world as a result of historic and current gold, silver, lead, and mercury mining. Many of these sites in the USA are on public lands. Typical mine waste associated with these sites are tailings...
The profound reach of the 11 April 2012 M 8.6 Indian Ocean earthquake: Short‐term global triggering followed by a longer‐term global shadow
Frederick Pollitz, Roland Burgmann, Ross S. Stein, Volkan Sevilgen
2014, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (104) 972-984
The 11 April 2012 M 8.6 Indian Ocean earthquake was an unusually large intraoceanic strike‐slip event. For several days, the global M≥4.5 and M≥6.5 seismicity rate at remote distances (i.e., thousands of kilometers from the mainshock) was elevated. The strike‐slip mainshock appears through its Love waves to have triggered a global...
Reservoir floodplains support distinct fish assemblages
Leandro E. Miranda, S. L. Wigen, Jonah D. Dagel
2014, River Research and Applications (30) 338-346
Reservoirs constructed on floodplain rivers are unique because the upper reaches of the impoundment may include extensive floodplain environments. Moreover, reservoirs that experience large periodic water level fluctuations as part of their operational objectives seasonally inundate and dewater floodplains in their upper reaches, partly mimicking natural inundations of river floodplains....
Fish depth distributions in the Lower Mississippi River
K. J. Killgore, Leandro E. Miranda
2014, River Research and Applications (30) 347-359
A substantial body of literature exists about depth distribution of fish in oceans, lakes and reservoirs, but less is known about fish depth distribution in large rivers. Most of the emphasis on fish distributions in rivers has focused on longitudinal and latitudinal spatial distributions. Knowledge on depth distribution is necessary...
