Modeling the complex impacts of timber harvests to find optimal management regimes for Amazon tidal floodplain forests
Lucas B. Fortini, Wendell P. Cropper, Daniel J. Zarin
2015, PLoS ONE (10) 1-17
At the Amazon estuary, the oldest logging frontier in the Amazon, no studies have comprehensively explored the potential long-term population and yield consequences of multiple timber harvests over time. Matrix population modeling is one way to simulate long-term impacts of tree harvests, but this approach has often ignored common impacts...
Late Pleistocene ages for the most recent volcanism and glacial-pluvial deposits at Big Pine volcanic field, California, USA, from cosmogenic 36Cl dating
Jorge A. Vazquez, Jeff M Woolford
2015, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems (16) 1-17
The Big Pine volcanic field is one of several Quaternary volcanic fields that poses a potential volcanic hazard along the tectonically active Owens Valley of east-central California, and whose lavas are interbedded with deposits from Pleistocene glaciations in the Sierra Nevada Range. Previous geochronology indicates an ∼1.2 Ma history of...
Changes in data sharing and data reuse practices and perceptions among scientists worldwide
Carol Tenopir, Elizabeth D. Dalton, Suzie Allard, Mike Frame, Ivanka Pjesivac, Ben Birch, Danielle Pollock, Kristina Dorsett
2015, PLoS ONE (10)
The incorporation of data sharing into the research lifecycle is an important part of modern scholarly debate. In this study, the DataONE Usability and Assessment working group addresses two primary goals: To examine the current state of data sharing and reuse perceptions and practices among research scientists as they compare...
Plugs or flood-makers? the unstable landslide dams of eastern Oregon
Elizabeth B. Safran, Jim E. O'Connor, Lisa L. Ely, Kyle House, Gordon E. Grant, Kelsey Harrity, Kelsey Croall, Emily Jones
2015, Geomorphology (248) 237-251
Landslides into valley bottoms can affect longitudinal profiles of rivers, thereby influencing landscape evolution through base-level changes. Large landslides can hinder river incision by temporarily damming rivers, but catastrophic failure of landslide dams may generate large floods that could promote incision. Dam stability therefore strongly modulates the effects of landslide...
Rethinking the longitudinal stream temperature paradigm: region-wide comparison of thermal infrared imagery reveals unexpected complexity of river temperatures
Aimee H. Fullerton, Christian E. Torgersen, Joshua J. Lawler, Russell N. Faux, E. Ashley Steel, Timothy J. Beechie, Joseph L. Ebersole, Scott J. Leibowitz
2015, Hydrological Processes (29) 4719-4737
Prevailing theory suggests that stream temperature warms asymptotically in a downstream direction, beginning at the temperature of the source in the headwaters and leveling off downstream as it converges to match meteorological conditions. However, there have been few empirical examples of longitudinal patterns of temperature in large rivers due to...
Local variability mediates vulnerability of trout populations to land use and climate change
Brooke E. Penaluna, Jason B. Dunham, Steve F. Railsback, Ivan Arismendi, Sherri L. Johnson, Robert E Bilby, Mohammad Safeeq, Arne E. Skaugset
2015, PLoS ONE (8)
Land use and climate change occur simultaneously around the globe. Fully understanding their separate and combined effects requires a mechanistic understanding at the local scale where their effects are ultimately realized. Here we applied an individual-based model of fish population dynamics to evaluate the role of local stream variability in...
Diet shifts by planktivorous and benthivorous fishes in northern Lake Michigan in response to ecosystem changes
David B. Bunnell, Bruce M. Davis, Margret Ann Chriscinske, Kevin M. Keeler, Justin G. Mychek-Londer
2015, Journal of Great Lakes Research (41) 161-171
In Lake Michigan, diets of planktivorous and benthivorous fishes have varied over the past decades, in part owing to food web changes. To update diet information and compare them to a similar effort in 1994–1995, we analyzed the diets of seven benthivorous and planktivorous fish species collected along two northern...
First national-scale reconnaissance of neonicotinoid insecticides in streams across the USA
Michelle Hladik, Dana W. Kolpin
2015, Environmental Chemistry (13) 12-20
To better understand the fate and transport of neonicotinoid insecticides, water samples were collected from streams across the United States. In a nationwide study, at least one neonicotinoid was detected in 53 % of the samples collected, with imidacloprid detected most frequently (37 %), followed by clothianidin (24 %), thiamethoxam (21 %), dinotefuran (13 %),...
Dry years decrease abundance of American alligators in the Florida Everglades
J. Hardin Waddle, Laura A. Brandt, Brian M. Jeffery, Frank J. Mazzotti
2015, Wetlands (35) 865-875
The Everglades has been greatly reduced and is threatened by land use change and altered hydrology. The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan calls for monitoring and assessment of key ecosystem attributes, one of which is abundance of American alligators. We examined 10 years of alligator night spotlight counts from Arthur R. Marshall...
Source mechanism of small long-period events at Mount St. Helens in July 2005 using template matching, phase-weighted stacking, and full-waveform inversion
Robin S. Matoza, Bernard A. Chouet, Phillip B. Dawson, Peter M. Shearer, Matthew M. Haney, Gregory P. Waite, Seth C. Moran, T. Dylan Mikesell
2015, Journal of Geophysical Research (120) 6351-6364
Long-period (LP, 0.5-5 Hz) seismicity, observed at volcanoes worldwide, is a recognized signature of unrest and eruption. Cyclic LP “drumbeating” was the characteristic seismicity accompanying the sustained dome-building phase of the 2004–2008 eruption of Mount St. Helens (MSH), WA. However, together with the LP drumbeating was a near-continuous, randomly occurring series...
Key seabird areas in southern New England identified using a community occupancy model
Allan F. O’Connell, Nicholas P. Flanders, Beth Gardner, Kristopher J. Winiarski, Peter W. C. Paton, Taber Allison
2015, Marine Ecology Progress Series (533) 277-290
Seabirds are of conservation concern, and as new potential risks to seabirds are arising, the need to provide unbiased estimates of species’ distributions is growing. We applied community occupancy models to detection/non-detection data collected from repeated aerial strip-transect surveys conducted in 2 large study plots off southern New England, USA;...
Evaluating the importance of abiotic and biotic drivers on Bythotrephes biomass in Lakes Superior and Michigan
Kevin M. Keeler, David B. Bunnell, James S. Diana, Jean V. Adams, Justin G. Mychek-Londer, David M. Warner, Daniel Yule, Mark R. Vinson
2015, Journal of Great Lakes Research (41) 150-160
The ability of planktivorous fishes to exert top-down control on Bythotrephes potentially has far-reaching impacts on aquatic food-webs, given previously described effects of Bythotrephes on zooplankton communities. We estimated consumption of Bythotrephes by planktivorous and benthivorous fishes, using bioenergetics and daily ration models at nearshore (18 m), intermediate (46 m),...
Dust control products at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge, Texas: environmental safety and performance
Bethany K. Kunz, Edward E. Little
2015, Transportation Research Record 64-71
Controlling fugitive dust while protecting natural resources is a challenge faced by all managers of unpaved roads. Unfortunately, road managers choosing between dust control products often have little objective environmental information to aid their decisions. To address this information gap, the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife...
Peclet number as affected by molecular diffusion controls transient anomalous transport in alluvial aquifer-aquitard complexes
Yong Zhang, Christopher T. Green, Geoffrey R. Tick
2015, Journal of Contaminant Hydrology (177-178) 220-238
This study evaluates the role of the Peclet number as affected by molecular diffusion in transient anomalous transport, which is one of the major knowledge gaps in anomalous transport, by combining Monte Carlo simulations and stochastic model analysis. Two alluvial settings containing either short- or long-connected hydrofacies are generated and...
Landscapes for energy and wildlife: conservation prioritization for golden eagles across large spatial scales
Jason D. Tack, Bradley C. Fedy
2015, PLoS ONE (10)
Proactive conservation planning for species requires the identification of important spatial attributes across ecologically relevant scales in a model-based framework. However, it is often difficult to develop predictive models, as the explanatory data required for model development across regional management scales is rarely available. Golden eagles are a large-ranging predator...
Organic and inorganic composition and microbiology of produced waters from Pennsylvania shale gas wells
Denise M. Akob, Isabelle M. Cozzarelli, Darren S. Dunlap, Elisabeth L. Rowan, Michelle M. Lorah
2015, Applied Geochemistry (60) 116-125
Hydraulically fractured shales are becoming an increasingly important source of natural gas production in the United States. This process has been known to create up to 420 gallons of produced water (PW) per day, but the volume varies depending on the formation, and the characteristics of individual hydraulic fracture. PW...
Normalization of stable isotope data for carbonate minerals: implementation of IUPAC guideline
Sang-Tae Kim, Tyler B. Coplen, Juske Horita
2015, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (158) 276-289
Carbonate minerals provide a rich source of geochemical information because their δ13C and δ18O values provide information about surface and subsurface Earth processes. However, a significant problem is that the same δ18O value is not reported for the identical carbonate sample when analyzed in different isotope laboratories in spite...
Origins of geothermal gases at Yellowstone
Jacob B. Lowenstern, Deborah Bergfeld, William C. Evans, Andrew G. Hunt
2015, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research (302) 87-101
Gas emissions at the Yellowstone Plateau Volcanic Field (YPVF) reflect open-system mixing of gas species originating from diverse rock types, magmas, and crustal fluids, all combined in varying proportions at different thermal areas. Gases are not necessarily in chemical equilibrium with the waters through which they vent, especially in acid...
Community clusters of tsunami vulnerability in the US Pacific Northwest
Nathan J. Wood, Jeanne M. Jones, Seth Spielman, Mathew C. Schmidtlein
2015, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (112) 5354-5359
Many coastal communities throughout the world are threatened by local (or near-field) tsunamis that could inundate low-lying areas in a matter of minutes after generation. Although the hazard and sustainability literature often frames vulnerability conceptually as a multidimensional issue involving exposure, sensitivity, and resilience to a hazard, assessments often focus...
A comparison of auditory brainstem responses across diving bird species
Sara E. Crowell, Alicia Berlin, Catherine E. Carr, Glenn H. Olsen, Ronald E. Therrien, Sally E. Yannuzzi, Darlene R. Ketten
2015, Journal of Comparative Physiology A (201) 803-815
There is little biological data available for diving birds because many live in hard-to-study, remote habitats. Only one species of diving bird, the black-footed penguin (Spheniscus demersus), has been studied in respect to auditory capabilities (Wever et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 63:676–680, 1969). We, therefore, measured in-air auditory...
Water masses, ocean fronts, and the structure of Antarctic seabird communities: putting the eastern Bellingshausen Sea in perspective
Christine A. Ribic, David G. Ainley, R. Glenn Ford, William R. Fraser, Cynthia T. Tynan, Eric J. Woehler
2015, Deep-Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography (58) 1695-1709
Waters off the western Antarctic Peninsula (i.e., the eastern Bellingshausen Sea) are unusually complex owing to the convergence of several major fronts. Determining the relative influence of fronts on occurrence patterns of top-trophic species in that area, therefore, has been challenging. In one of the few ocean-wide seabird data syntheses,...
Preserved filamentous microbial biosignatures in the Brick Flat gossan, Iron Mountain, California
Amy J. Williams, Dawn Y. Sumner, Charles N. Alpers, Suniti Karunatillake, Beda A Hofmann
2015, Astrobiology (15) 637-668
A variety of actively precipitating mineral environments preserve morphological evidence of microbial biosignatures. One such environment with preserved microbial biosignatures is the oxidized portion of a massive sulfide deposit, or gossan, such as that at Iron Mountain, California. This gossan may serve as a mineralogical analogue to some ancient martian...
Evaluating a satellite-based seasonal evapotranspiration product and identifying its relationship with other satellite-derived products and crop yield: A case study for Ethiopia
Tsegaye Tadesse, Gabriel B. Senay, Getachew Berhan, Teshome Regassa, Shimelis Beyene
2015, International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation (40) 39-54
Satellite-derived evapotranspiration anomalies and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) products from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data are currently used for African agricultural drought monitoring and food security status assessment. In this study, a process to evaluate satellite-derived evapotranspiration (ETa) products with a geospatial statistical exploratory technique that uses NDVI,...
Oyster reef restoration supports increased nekton biomass and potential commercial fishery value
Austin T. Humphries, Megan K. LaPeyre
2015, PeerJ (3) 1-19
Across the globe, discussions centered on the value of nature drive many conservation and restoration decisions. As a result, justification for management activities increasingly asks for two lines of evidence: (1) biological proof of augmented ecosystem function or service, and (2) monetary valuation of these services. For oyster reefs, which...
U.S. Geological Survey science for the Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative—2014 annual report
Zachary H. Bowen, Cameron L. Aldridge, Patrick J. Anderson, Timothy J. Assal, Timothy T. Bartos, Laura R Biewick, Gregory K. Boughton, Anna D. Chalfoun, Geneva W. Chong, Marie K. Dematatis, Cheryl A. Eddy-Miller, Steven L. Garman, Steve Germaine, Collin G. Homer, Christopher Huber, Matthew J. Kauffman, Natalie Latysh, Daniel J. Manier, Cynthia P. Melcher, Alexander Miller, Kirk A. Miller, Edward M. Olexa, Spencer Schell, Annika W. Walters, Anna B. Wilson, Teal B. Wyckoff
2015, Open-File Report 2015-1091
This is the seventh report produced by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) for the Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative (WLCI) to detail annual activities conducted by the USGS for addressing specific management needs identified by WLCI partners. In FY2014, there were 26 projects, including a new one that was completed, two...
