Geologic setting and stratigraphy of the Ziegler Reservoir fossil site, Snowmass Village, Colorado
Jeff S. Pigati, Ian M. Miller, Kirk R. Johnson, Jeffrey S. Honke, Paul E. Carrara, Daniel R. Muhs, Gary Skipp, Bruce Bryant
2014, Quaternary Research
The geologic setting of the Ziegler Reservoir fossil site is somewhat unusual – the sediments containing the Pleistocene fossils were deposited in a lake on top of a ridge. The lake basin was formed near the Town of Snowmass Village, Colorado when a glacier flowing down Snowmass Creek Valley...
Contrasting past and current numbers of bears visiting Yellowstone cutthroat trout streams
Mark A. Haroldson, Charles C. Schwartz, Justin E. Teisberg, Kerry A. Gunther, Jennifer K. Fortin, Charles T. Robbins
2014, Journal of Wildlife Management (78) 369-378
Spawning cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii bouvieri) were historically abundant within tributary streams of Yellowstone Lake within Yellowstone National Park and were a highly digestible source of energy and protein for Yellowstone’s grizzly bears (Ursus arctos) and black bears (U. americanus). The cutthroat trout population has subsequently declined since the introduction...
Changing climate and the altitudinal range of avian malaria in the Hawaiian Islands: an ongoing conservation crisis on the island of Kaua'i
Carter T. Atkinson, Ruth B. Utzurrum, Dennis A. LaPointe, Richard J. Camp, Lisa H. Crampton, Jeffrey T. Foster, Thomas W. Giambelluca
2014, Global Change Biology (20) 2426-2436
Transmission of avian malaria in the Hawaiian Islands varies across altitudinal gradients and is greatest at elevations below 1500 m where both temperature and moisture are favorable for the sole mosquito vector, Culex quinquefasciatus, and extrinsic sporogonic development of the parasite, Plasmodium relictum. Potential consequences of global warming on this...
Regional distribution models with lack of proximate predictors: Africanized honeybees expanding north
Catherine S. Jarnevich, Wayne E. Esaias, Peter L.A. Ma, Jeffery T. Morisette, Jaime E. Nickeson, Thomas J. Stohlgren, Tracy R. Holcombe, Joanne M. Nightingale, Robert E. Wolfe, Bin Tan
2014, Diversity and Distributions (20) 193-201
Species distribution models have often been hampered by poor local species data, reliance on coarse-scale climate predictors and the assumption that species–environment relationships, even with non-proximate predictors, are consistent across geographical space. Yet locally accurate maps of invasive species, such as the Africanized honeybee (AHB) in North America, are needed...
Increased flexibility for modeling telemetry and nest-survival data using the multistate framework
Olivier Devineau, William L. Kendall, Paul F. Doherty Jr., Tanya M. Shenk, Gary C. White, Paul M. Lukacs, Kenneth P. Burnham
2014, Journal of Wildlife Management (78) 224-230
Although telemetry is one of the most common tools used in the study of wildlife, advances in the analysis of telemetry data have lagged compared to progress in the development of telemetry devices. We demonstrate how standard known-fate telemetry and related nest-survival data analysis models are special cases of the...
Coupled hydrological and biogeochemical processes controlling variability of nitrogen species in streamflow during autumn in an upland forest
Stephen D. Sebestyen, James B. Shanley, Elizabeth W. Boyer, Carol Kendall, Daniel H. Doctor
2014, Water Resources Research (50) 1569-1591
Autumn is a season of dynamic change in forest streams of the northeastern United States due to effects of leaf fall on both hydrology and biogeochemistry. Few studies have explored how interactions of biogeochemical transformations, various nitrogen sources, and catchment flow paths affect stream nitrogen variation during autumn. To provide...
Colony social structure in native and invasive populations of the social wasp Vespula pensylvanica
Cause Hanna, Erin D. Cook, Ariel R. Thompson, Lyndzey E. Dare, Amanda L. Palaski, David Foote, Michael A. D. Goodisman
2014, Biological Invasions (16) 283-294
Social insects rank among the most invasive of terrestrial species. The success of invasive social insects stems, in part, from the flexibility derived from their social behaviors. We used genetic markers to investigate if the social system of the invasive wasp, Vespula pensylvanica, differed in its introduced and native habitats...
Methylmercury production in and export from agricultural wetlands in California, USA: the need to account for physical transport processes into and out of the root zone
Philip Bachand, Sandra M. Bachand, Jacob A. Fleck, Charles N. Alpers, Mark Stephenson, Lisamarie Windham-Myers
2014, Science of the Total Environment (472) 957-970
Concentration and mass balance analyses were used to quantify methylmercury (MeHg) loads from conventional (white) rice, wild rice, and fallowed fields in northern California's Yolo Bypass. These analyses were standardized against chloride to distinguish transport pathways and net ecosystem production (NEP). During summer, chloride loads were both exported with surface...
Synthesis of nearshore recovery following the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill: sea otter liver pathology and survival in Western Prince William Sound, 2001 – 2008
Brenda E. Ballachey, Daniel H. Monson, Kimberly A. Kloecker, George G. Esslinger, F.C. Mohr, T.P. Lipscomb, M.J. Murray, S. Howlin
2014, Report
We examined livers and liver biopsies collected from captured sea otters in WPWS, 2001–2008, to determine whether indicators of liver health correlated with history of oil contamination from the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. Sea otters captured in oiled areas had a significantly higher proportion of livers with gross pathological...
Quantifying the predictive consequences of model error with linear subspace analysis
Jeremy T. White, John E. Doherty, Joseph D. Hughes
2014, Water Resources Research (50) 1152-1173
All computer models are simplified and imperfect simulators of complex natural systems. The discrepancy arising from simplification induces bias in model predictions, which may be amplified by the process of model calibration. This paper presents a new method to identify and quantify the predictive consequences of calibrating a simplified computer...
Wildlife connectivity approaches and best practices in U.S. state wildlife action plans
Iara Lacher, Marit L. Wilkerson
2014, Conservation Biology (28) 13-21
As habitat loss and fragmentation threaten biodiversity on large geographic scales, creating and maintaining connectivity of wildlife populations is an increasingly common conservation objective. To assess the progress and success of large-scale connectivity planning, conservation researchers need a set of plans that cover large geographic areas and can be analyzed...
Temporal variation in development of ecosystem services from oyster reef restoration
Megan K. LaPeyre, Austin T. Humphries, Sandra M. Casas, Jerome F. La Peyre
2014, Ecological Engineering (63) 34-44
Restoration ecology relies heavily on ecosystem development theories that generally assume development of fully functioning natural systems over time, but often fail to identify the time-frame required for provision of desired functions, or acknowledge different pathways of functional development. In estuaries, a decline of overall habitat quality and functioning has...
Disease and predation: Sorting out causes of a bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) decline
Joshua B. Smith, Jonathan A. Jenks, Troy W. Grovenburg, Robert W. Klaver
2014, PLoS ONE (9) 1-9
Estimating survival and documenting causes and timing of mortality events in neonate bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) improves understanding of population ecology and factors influencing recruitment. During 2010–2012, we captured and radiocollared 74 neonates in the Black Hills, South Dakota, of which 95% (70) died before 52 weeks of age. Pneumonia...
Maximum magnitude earthquakes induced by fluid injection
Arthur F. McGarr
2014, Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth (119) 1008-1019
Analysis of numerous case histories of earthquake sequences induced by fluid injection at depth reveals that the maximum magnitude appears to be limited according to the total volume of fluid injected. Similarly, the maximum seismic moment seems to have an upper bound proportional to the total volume of injected fluid....
Cross-scale interactions: Quantifying multi-scaled cause–effect relationships in macrosystems
Patricia A. Soranno, Kendra S. Cheruvelil, Edward G. Bissell, Mary T. Bremigan, John A. Downing, Carol E. Fergus, Christopher T. Filstrup, Emily N. Henry, Noah R. Lottig, Emily H. Stanley, Craig A. Stow, Pang-Ning Tan, Tyler Wagner, Katherine E. Webster
2014, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment (12) 65-73
Ecologists are increasingly discovering that ecological processes are made up of components that are multi-scaled in space and time. Some of the most complex of these processes are cross-scale interactions (CSIs), which occur when components interact across scales. When undetected, such interactions may cause errors in extrapolation from one region...
Evaluation of wastewater contaminant transport in surface waters using verified Lagrangian sampling
Ronald C. Antweiler, Jeffrey H. Writer, Sheila F. Murphy
2014, Science of the Total Environment (470-471) 551-558
Contaminants released from wastewater treatment plants can persist in surface waters for substantial distances. Much research has gone into evaluating the fate and transport of these contaminants, but this work has often assumed constant flow from wastewater treatment plants. However, effluent discharge commonly varies widely over a 24-hour period, and...
Approaches for advancing scientific understanding of macrosystems
Ofir Levy, Becky A. Ball, Ben Bond-Lamberty, Kendra S. Cheruvelil, Andrew O. Finley, Noah R. Lottig, Surangi W. Punyasena, Jingfeng Xiao, Jizhong Zhou, Lauren B. Buckley, Christopher T. Filstrup, Tim H. Keitt, James R. Kellner, Alan K. Knapp, Andrew D. Richardson, David Tcheng, Michael Toomey, Rodrigo Vargas, James W. Voordeckers, Tyler Wagner, John W. Williams
2014, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment (12) 15-23
The emergence of macrosystems ecology (MSE), which focuses on regional- to continental-scale ecological patterns and processes, builds upon a history of long-term and broad-scale studies in ecology. Scientists face the difficulty of integrating the many elements that make up macrosystems, which consist of hierarchical processes at interacting spatial and temporal...
Effects of woody vegetation on overbank sand transport during a large flood, Rio Puerco, New Mexico
Eleanor R. Griffin, Mariela C. Perignon, Jonathan M. Friedman, Gregory E. Tucker
2014, Geomorphology (207) 30-50
Distributions of woody vegetation on floodplain surfaces affect flood-flow erosion and deposition processes. A large flood along the lower Rio Puerco, New Mexico, in August 2006 caused extensive erosion in a reach that had been sprayed with herbicide in September 2003 for the purpose of saltcedar (Tamarix spp.) control. Large...
Effect of passive acoustic sampling methodology on detecting bats after declines from white nose syndrome
Laci S. Coleman, W. Mark Ford, Christopher A. Dobony, Eric R. Britzke
2014, Journal of Ecology and the Natural Environment (6) 56-64
Concomitant with the emergence and spread of white-nose syndrome (WNS) and precipitous decline of many bat species in North America, natural resource managers need modified and/or new techniques for bat inventory and monitoring that provide robust occupancy estimates. We used Anabat acoustic detectors to determine the most efficient passive acoustic...
Distinguishing high surf from volcanic long-period earthquakes
John J. Lyons, Matthew M. Haney, David Fee, John F. Paskievitch
2014, Geophysical Research Letters (41) 1171-1178
Repeating long-period (LP) earthquakes are observed at active volcanoes worldwide and are typically attributed to unsteady pressure fluctuations associated with fluid migration through the volcanic plumbing system. Nonvolcanic sources of LP signals include ice movement and glacial outburst floods, and the waveform characteristics and frequency content of these events often...
Africa-wide monitoring of small surface water bodies using multisource satellite data: A monitoring system for FEWS NET
Naga Manohar Velpuri, Gabriel B. Senay, James Rowland, James P. Verdin, Henok Alemu
Assefa M. Melesse, Wossenu Abtew, Shimelis G. Setegn, editor(s)
2014, Book chapter, Nile River Basin
Continental Africa has the highest volume of water stored in wetlands, large lakes, reservoirs, and rivers, yet it suffers from problems such as water availability and access. With climate change intensifying the hydrologic cycle and altering the distribution and frequency of rainfall, the problem of water availability and access will...
Thermal-maturity limit for primary thermogenic-gas generation from humic coals as determined by hydrous pyrolysis
Michael Lewan, M.J. Kotarba
2014, AAPG Bulletin (98) 2581-2610
Hydrous-pyrolysis experiments at 360°C (680°F) for 72 h were conducted on 53 humic coals representing ranks from lignite through anthracite to determine the upper maturity limit for hydrocarbon-gas generation from their kerogen and associated bitumen (i.e., primary gas generation). These experimental conditions are below those needed for oil cracking to ensure...
Mineral resource of the month: Iron and steel
Michael D. Fenton
2014, Earth (February 2014)
Iron is one of the most abundant elements on Earth, but it does not occur in nature in a useful metallic form. Although ancient people may have recovered some iron from meteorites, it wasn’t until smelting was invented that iron metal could be derived from iron oxides. After the beginning...
Compilation of hydrologic data for White Sands pupfish habitat and nonhabitat areas, northern Tularosa Basin, White Sands Missile Range and Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico, 1911-2008
C.A. Naus, R. G. Myers, D.K. Saleh, N. C. Myers
2014, Data Series 810
The White Sands pupfish (Cyprinodon tularosa), listed as threatened by the State of New Mexico and as a Federal species of concern, is endemic to the Tularosa Basin, New Mexico. Because water quality can affect pupfish and the environmental conditions of their habitat, a comprehensive compilation of hydrologic data for...
Flood-tracking chart for the Withlacoochee and Little River Basins in south-central Georgia and northern Florida
Anthony J. Gotvald, Brian E. McCallum, Jaime A. Painter
2014, General Information Product 155
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with other Federal, State, and local agencies, operates a flood-monitoring system in the Withlacoochee and Little River Basins. This system is a network of automated river stage stations (ten are shown on page 2 of this publication) that transmit stage data through satellite...
