Experimental test of theory for the stability of partially saturated vertical cut slopes
Michael M. Morse, N. Lu, Alexandra Wayllace, Jonathan W. Godt, W.A. Take
2014, Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering (140)
This paper extends Culmann's vertical-cut analysis to unsaturated soils. To test the extended theory, unsaturated sand was compacted to a uniform porosity and moisture content in a laboratory apparatus. A sliding door that extended the height of the free face of the slope was lowered until the vertical cut failed....
Northern bobwhite predator avoidance behavior in response to varying types of threat
R.A. Perkins, Clint W. Boal, Dale Rollins, R. Perez
2014, Journal of Wildlife Management (78) 1272-1281
The flight behavior and cover use of northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) have been examined in several studies, but the current data lack quantitative measures of how bobwhites respond to natural threats. We examined aspects of bobwhite behavior in response to 4 threat categories: researcher, hunter, raptor, and mammal. We found...
Inorganic elements in green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas): relationships among external and internal tissues
Derek R. Faust, Michael J. Hooper, George P. Cobb, Melanie Barnes, Donna Shaver, Shauna Ertolacci, Philip N. Smith
2014, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (33) 2020-2027
Inorganic elements from anthropogenic sources have entered marine environments worldwide and are detectable in marine organisms, including sea turtles. Threatened and endangered classifications of sea turtles have heretofore made assessments of contaminant concentrations difficult because of regulatory restrictions on obtaining samples using nonlethal techniques. In the present study, claw and...
Quaternary ostracode and foraminiferal biostratigraphy and paleoceanography in the western Arctic Ocean
Thomas M. Cronin, Lauren H. DeNinno, L.V. Polyak, Emma K. Caverly, Richard Z. Poore, Alec R. Brenner, J. Rodriguez-Lazaro, R.E. Marzen
2014, Marine Micropaleontology (111) 118-133
The stratigraphic distributions of ostracodes and selected calcareous benthic and planktic foraminiferal species were studied in sediment cores from ~ 700 to 2700 m water depth on the Northwind, Mendeleev, and Lomonosov Ridges in the western Arctic Ocean. Microfaunal records in most cores cover mid- to late Quaternary sediments deposited in the...
Indo-Pacific sea surface temperature influences on failed consecutive rainy seasons over eastern Africa
Andrew Hoell, Christopher C. Funk
2014, Climate Dynamics (43) 1645-1660
Rainfall over eastern Africa (10°S–10°N; 35°E–50°E) is bimodal, with seasonal maxima during the "long rains" of March–April–May (MAM) and the "short rains" of October–November–December (OND). Below average precipitation during consecutive long and short rains seasons over eastern Africa can have devastating long-term impacts on water availability and agriculture. Here, we...
Use of isotopic sulfur to determine whitebark pine consumption by Yellowstone bears: a reassessment
Charles C. Schwartz, Justin E. Teisberg, Jennifer K. Fortin, Mark A. Haroldson, Christopher Servheen, Charles T. Robbins, Frank T. van Manen
2014, Wildlife Society Bulletin (38) 664-670
Use of naturally occurring stable isotopes to estimate assimilated diet of bears is one of the single greatest breakthroughs in nutritional ecology during the past 20 years. Previous research in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE), USA, established a positive relationship between the stable isotope of sulfur (δ34S) and consumption of...
Sampling from living organisms
Christina A. Kellogg
2014, Book chapter, Biofouling methods
Living organisms, unlike inanimate surfaces, seem to exert some control over their surface microbiota, in many cases maintaining conserved, species-specific microbial communities. Microbial ecologists seek to characterize and identify these microbes to understand the roles they are playing in the larger organism's biology....
The effect of call libraries and acoustic filters on the identification of bat echolocation
Matthew Clement, Kevin L Murray, Donald I Solick, Jeffrey C Gruver
2014, Ecology and Evolution (4) 3482-3493
Quantitative methods for species identification are commonly used in acoustic surveys for animals. While various identification models have been studied extensively, there has been little study of methods for selecting calls prior to modeling or methods for validating results after modeling. We obtained two call libraries with a combined 1556...
Combining demographic and genetic factors to assess population vulnerability in stream species
Erin L. Landguth, Clint C. Muhlfeld, Leslie W. Jones, Robin S. Waples, Diane Whited, Winsor H. Lowe, John Lucotch, Helen Neville, Gordon Luikart
2014, Ecological Applications (24) 1505-1524
Accelerating climate change and other cumulative stressors create an urgent need to understand the influence of environmental variation and landscape features on the connectivity and vulnerability of freshwater species. Here, we introduce a novel modeling framework for aquatic systems that integrates spatially explicit, individual‐based, demographic and genetic (demogenetic) assessments with...
A ternary age-mixing model to explain contaminant occurrence in a deep supply well
Bryant C. Jurgens, Laura M. Bexfield, Sandra M. Eberts
2014, Groundwater (52) 25-39
The age distribution of water from a public-supply well in a deep alluvial aquifer was estimated and used to help explain arsenic variability in the water. The age distribution was computed using a ternary mixing model that combines three lumped parameter models of advection-dispersion transport of environmental tracers, which represent...
Temporal changes in taxonomic and functional diversity of fish assemblages downstream from mountaintop mining
Nathaniel P. Hitt, Douglas B. Chambers
2014, Freshwater Science (33) 915-926
Mountaintop mining (MTM) affects chemical, physical, and hydrological properties of receiving streams, but the long-term consequences for fish-assemblage structure and function are poorly understood. We sampled stream fish assemblages using electrofishing techniques in MTM exposure sites and reference sites within the Guyandotte River basin, USA, during 2010–2011. We calculated indices...
Tidal and seasonal effects on survival rates of the endangered California clapper rail: Does invasive Spartina facilitate greater survival in a dynamic environment?
Cory T. Overton, Michael L. Casazza, John Y. Takekawa, Donald R. Strong, Marcel Holyoak
2014, Biological Invasions (16) 1897-1914
Invasive species frequently degrade habitats, disturb ecosystem processes, and can increase the likelihood of extinction of imperiled populations. However, novel or enhanced functions provided by invading species may reduce the impact of processes that limit populations. It is important to recognize how invasive species benefit endangered species to determine overall...
In situ and laboratory toxicity of coalbed natural gas produced waters with elevated sodium bicarbonate
Aida M. Farag, David D. Harper, Don Skaar
2014, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (33) 2086-2093
Some tributaries in the Powder River Structural Basin, USA, were historically ephemeral, but now contain water year round as a result of discharge of coalbed natural gas (CBNG)-produced waters. This presented the opportunity to study field sites with 100% effluent water with elevated concentrations of sodium bicarbonate. In situ experiments,...
Revised Wonoka isotopic anomaly in South Australia and Late Ediacaran mass extinction
Gregory J. Retallack, Andre Marconato, Jeffery T. Osterhout, Kathryn E. Watts, Ilya N. Bindeman
2014, Journal of the Geological Society (171) 709-722
The global Late Ediacaran Shuram–Wonoka carbon isotope anomaly has been regarded as the largest and longest known isotopic anomaly in the ocean, assuming that all Ediacaran carbonate is marine. Disregarding carbonate in South Australia shown here to be palaeosol or palaeokarst, the synchronous marine organic–carbonate excursion is only −8‰ for...
Succession of Laramide magmatic and magmatic-hydrothermal events in the Patagonia Mountains, Santa Cruz County, Arizona
Peter Vikre, Frederick T. Graybeal, Robert J. Fleck, Mark D. Barton, Eric Seedorff
2014, Economic Geology (109) 1667-1704
This investigation of the space-time progression of magmatism and hydrothermal activity in the Patagonia Mountains of southern Arizona is based on field and paragenetic relationships, and on U-Pb and 40Ar/39Ar geochronology of igneous and hydrothermal minerals. The Patagonia Mountains consist of Precambrian, Paleozoic, and Mesozoic sedimentary, granitic, and volcanic rocks, Laramide...
Partitioning the non‑consumptive effects of predators on preywith complex life histories
Jon M. Davenport, Blake R. Hossack, Winsor H. Lowe
2014, Oecologia (176) 149-155
Non-consumptive effects (NCEs) of predators on prey can be as strong as consumptive effects (CEs) and may be driven by numerous mechanisms, including predator characteristics. Previous work has highlighted the importance of predator characteristics in predicting NCEs, but has not addressed how complex life histories of prey could mediate predator...
Heterogeneous occupancy and density estimates of the pathogenic fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis in waters of North America
Tara E. Chestnut, Chauncey W. Anderson, Radu Popa, Andrew R. Blaustein, Mary Voytek, Deanna H. Olson, Julie Kirshtein
2014, PLoS ONE (9)
Biodiversity losses are occurring worldwide due to a combination of stressors. For example, by one estimate, 40% of amphibian species are vulnerable to extinction, and disease is one threat to amphibian populations. The emerging infectious disease chytridiomycosis, caused by the aquatic fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), is a contributor to amphibian declines worldwide. Bd research...
Evaluation of a regional monitoring program's statistical power to detect temporal trends in forest health indicators
Stephanie J. Perles, Tyler Wagner, Brian J. Irwin, Douglas R. Manning, Kristina K. Callahan, Matthew R. Marshall
2014, Environmental Management (54) 641-655
Forests are socioeconomically and ecologically important ecosystems that are exposed to a variety of natural and anthropogenic stressors. As such, monitoring forest condition and detecting temporal changes therein remain critical to sound public and private forestland management. The National Parks Service’s Vital Signs monitoring program collects information on many...
Analysis of regional scale risk to whirling disease in populations of Colorado and Rio Grande cutthroat trout using Bayesian belief network model
Kimberley Kolb Ayre, Colleen A. Caldwell, Jonah Stinson, Wayne G. Landis
2014, Risk Analysis (34) 1589-1605
Introduction and spread of the parasite Myxobolus cerebralis, the causative agent of whirling disease, has contributed to the collapse of wild trout populations throughout the intermountain west. Of concern is the risk the disease may have on conservation and recovery of native cutthroat trout. We employed a Bayesian belief network to...
Development and characterization of microsatellite markers for the Hawaiian coot, Fulica alai, and Hawaiian gallinule, Gallinula galeata sandvicensis, through next-generation sequencing
Sarah A. Sonsthagen, Robert E. Wilson, Jared G. Underwood
2014, Conservation Genetics Resources (6) 765-767
We used next generation shotgun sequencing to develop novel microsatellite markers for two endangered waterbirds; the Hawaiian coot (Fulica alai) and Hawaiian gallinule (Gallinula galeata sandvicensis). The 20 loci polymorphic in the Hawaiian coot displayed moderate allelic diversity (average 3.8 alleles/locus) and heterozygosity (average 59.5 %). The 12 loci variable for...
If groundwater is contaminated, will water from the well be contaminated?
Sandra M. Eberts
2014, Groundwater (52) 3-7
No abstract available....
Genetic tools for wildlife management
Emily Latch, Rachel S. Crowhurst, Sara J. Oyler-McCance, Stacie Robinson
2014, The Wildlife Professional (8) 58-59
Granted interim status in November, 2013, The Wildlife Society’s (TWS) Molecular Ecology Working Group aims to promote scientific advancement by applying molecular techniques to wildlife ecology, management, and conservation. The working group—composed of sci - entists from diverse backgrounds—met for the first time in Pittsburgh at the TWS Annual Conference...
Daily survival rates for nests of Black Skimmers from a core breeding area of the Southeastern USA
Gillian L. Brooks, Felicia J. Sanders, Patrick D. Gerard, Patrick G.R. Jodice
2014, Wilson Journal of Ornithology (126) 443-450
Little is known about the reproductive success of Black Skimmers (Rynchops niger) throughout the southeastern USA where availability of undisturbed beaches for nesting is limited. Daily survival rates (DSR) of nests were examined at three nesting sites in Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge (CRNWR), South Carolina, USA, 2009–2010. The percent...
Structure and tectonics of the northwestern United States from EarthScope USArray magnetotelluric data
Paul A. Bedrosian, Daniel W. Feucht
2014, Earth and Planetary Science Letters (402) 275-289
The magnetotelluric component of the EarthScope USArray program has covered over 35% of the continental United States. Resistivity tomography models derived from these data image lithospheric structure and provide constraints on the distribution of fluids and melt within the lithosphere. We present a three-dimensional resistivity model of the northwestern United...
Lake Ontario zooplankton in 2003 and 2008: Community changes and vertical redistribution
Lars G. Rudstam, Kristen T. Holeck, Kelly L. Bowen, James M. Watkins, Brian Weidel, Frederick J. Luckey
2014, Aquatic Ecosystem Health & Management (18) 43-62
Lake-wide zooplankton surveys are critical for documenting and understanding food web responses to ecosystem change. Surveys in 2003 and 2008 during the binational intensive field year in Lake Ontario found that offshore epilimnetic crustacean zooplankton declined by a factor of 12 (density) and factor of 5 (biomass) in the summer...
