Users' guide to system dynamics model describing Coho salmon survival in Olema Creek, Point Reyes National Seashore, Marin County, California
Andrea Woodward, Alicia A. Torregrosa, Mary Ann Madej, Michael Reichmuth, Darren Fong
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1131
The system dynamics model described in this report is the result of a collaboration between U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists and National Park Service (NPS) San Francisco Bay Area Network (SFAN) staff, whose goal was to develop a methodology to integrate inventory and monitoring data to better understand ecosystem dynamics...
Large-scale climate variation modifies the winter grouping behavior of endangered Indiana bats
Wayne E. Thogmartin, Patrick C. McKann
2014, Journal of Mammalogy (95) 117-127
Power laws describe the functional relationship between 2 quantities, such as the frequency of a group as the multiplicative power of group size. We examined whether the annual size of well-surveyed wintering populations of endangered Indiana bats (Myotis sodalis) followed a power law, and then leveraged this relationship to predict...
Birds of a feather
Steven T. Knick, Carmen Gondhaleker
2014, Fact Sheet 2014-3049
Greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasiunus, hereafter sage-grouse) are broadly distributed, occupy a diversity of sagebrush habitats, and face multiple threats. As a result of these threats, sage-grouse populations are declining and are now absent from almost one-half of their estimated range prior to Euro-American settlement. The risks to sage-grouse are significant...
Scaling up watershed model parameters: flow and load simulations of the Edisto River Basin, South Carolina, 2007-09
Toby D. Feaster, Stephen T. Benedict, Jimmy M. Clark, Paul M. Bradley, Paul Conrads
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5104
As part of an ongoing effort by the U.S. Geological Survey to expand the understanding of relations among hydrologic, geochemical, and ecological processes that affect fish-tissue mercury concentrations within the Edisto River Basin, analyses and simulations of the hydrology of the Edisto River Basin were made using the topography-based hydrological...
Low-flow frequency and flow duration of selected South Carolina streams in the Catawba-Wateree and Santee River Basins through March 2012
Toby D. Feaster, Wladmir B. Guimaraes
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1113
Part of the mission of both the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control and the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources is to protect and preserve South Carolina’s water resources. Doing so requires an ongoing understanding of streamflow characteristics of the rivers and streams in South Carolina. A...
Prioritizing bird conservation actions in the Prairie Hardwood transition of the Midwestern United States
Wayne E. Thogmartin, Shawn M. Crimmins, Jennie Pearce
2014, Biological Conservation (176) 212-223
Large-scale planning for the conservation of species is often hindered by a poor understanding of factors limiting populations. In regions with declining wildlife populations, it is critical that objective metrics of conservation success are developed to ensure that conservation actions achieve desired results. Using spatially explicit estimates of bird abundance,...
Forster's tern chick survival in response to a managed relocation of predatory California gulls
Joshua T. Ackerman, Mark P. Herzog, C. Alex Hartman, Garth Herring
2014, Journal of Wildlife Management (78) 818-829
Gull populations can severely limit the productivity of waterbirds. Relocating gull colonies may reduce their effects on nearby breeding waterbirds, but there are few examples of this management strategy. We examined gull predation and survival of Forster's tern (Sterna forsteri) chicks before (2010) and after (2011) the managed relocation of...
Movement-based estimation and visualization of space use in 3D for wildlife ecology and conservation
Jeff A. Tracey, James Sheppard, Jun Zhu, Fu-Wen Wei, Ronald R. Swaisgood, Robert N. Fisher
2014, PLoS ONE (9)
Advances in digital biotelemetry technologies are enabling the collection of bigger and more accurate data on the movements of free-ranging wildlife in space and time. Although many biotelemetry devices record 3D location data with x, y, and z coordinates from tracked animals, the third z coordinate is typically not integrated...
Status and trends of Caribbean coral reefs: 1970-2012
Jeremy Jackson, Mary Donovan, Katie Cramer, Vivian Lam, editor(s)
2014, Report
This it the 9th status report since the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN) was founded in 1995 was the data arm of the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI) to document the ecological condition or corral reefs, strengthen monitoring efforts, and link existing organizations and people working on reefs worldwide....
Niobium and tantalum: indispensable twins
Klaus Schulz, John Papp
2014, Fact Sheet 2014-3054
Niobium and tantalum are transition metals almost always paired together in nature. These “twins” are difficult to separate because of their shared physical and chemical properties. In 1801, English chemist Charles Hatchett uncovered an unknown element in a mineral sample of columbite; John Winthrop found the sample in a Massachusetts...
Geochemical and Nd-Sr-Pb isotopic evolution of metabasites from rifting of continental lithosphere, Seward Peninsula, Alaska, and implications for paleogeographic reconstruction
Robert A. Ayuso, Alison Till
2014, Book chapter, Reconstruction of a Late Proterozoic to Devonian continental margin sequence, northern Alaska, its paleogeographic significance, and contained base-metal sulfide deposits
The chemical character of mafic rocks from the Arctic Alaska–Chukotka terrane records rifting of continental crust during the early Paleozoic, possibly during the Ordovician. The mafic rocks are part of a metamorphosed...
Assessing potential effects of highway runoff on receiving-water quality at selected sites in Oregon with the Stochastic Empirical Loading and Dilution Model (SELDM)
John C. Risley, Gregory E. Granato
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5099
In 2012, the U.S. Geological Survey and the Oregon Department of Transportation began a cooperative study to demonstrate use of the Stochastic Empirical Loading and Dilution Model (SELDM) for runoff-quality analyses in Oregon. SELDM can be used to estimate stormflows, constituent concentrations, and loads from the area upstream of a...
Improving the precision of lake ecosystem metabolism estimates by identifying predictors of model uncertainty
Kevin C. Rose, Luke A. Winslow, Jordan S. Read, Emily K. Read, Christopher T. Solomon, Rita Adrian, Paul C. Hanson
2014, Limnology and Oceanography: Methods (12) 303-312
Diel changes in dissolved oxygen are often used to estimate gross primary production (GPP) and ecosystem respiration (ER) in aquatic ecosystems. Despite the widespread use of this approach to understand ecosystem metabolism, we are only beginning to understand the degree and underlying causes of uncertainty for metabolism model parameter estimates....
Maps showing seismic landslide hazards in Anchorage, Alaska
Randall W. Jibson
2014, Conference Paper
The devastating landslides that accompanied the great 1964 Alaska earthquake showed that seismically triggered landslides are one of the greatest geologic hazards in Anchorage. Maps quantifying seismic landslide hazards are therefore important for planning, zoning, and emergency-response preparation. The accompanying maps portray seismic landslide hazards for the following...
Methane oxidation linked to chlorite dismutation
Laurence G. Miller, Shaun M. Baesman, Charlotte I. Carlstrom, John D. Coates, Ronald S. Oremland
2014, Frontiers in Microbiology (5)
We examined the potential for CH4 oxidation to be coupled with oxygen derived from the dissimilatory reduction of perchlorate, chlorate, or via chlorite (ClO−2) dismutation. Although dissimilatory reduction of ClO−4 and ClO−3 could be inferred from the accumulation of chloride ions either in spent media or in soil slurries prepared...
Shaking up volcanoes
Stephanie G. Prejean, Matthew M. Haney
2014, Science (345) 39-39
Most volcanic eruptions that occur shortly after a large distant earthquake do so by random chance. A few compelling cases for earthquake-triggered eruptions exist, particularly within 200 km of the earthquake, but this phenomenon is rare in part because volcanoes must be poised to erupt in order to be triggered...
Seismic‐wave attenuation determined from tectonic tremor in multiple subduction zones
Suguru Yabe, Annemarie S. Baltay Sundstrom, Satoshi Ide, Gregory C. Beroza
2014, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (104) 2043-2059
Tectonic tremor provides a new source of observations that can be used to constrain the seismic attenuation parameter for ground‐motion prediction and hazard mapping. Traditionally, recorded earthquakes of magnitude ∼3–8 are used to develop ground‐motion prediction equations; however, typical earthquake records may be sparse in areas of high hazard. In...
Residual shear strength variability as a primary control on movement of landslides reactivated by earthquake-induced ground motion: Implications for coastal Oregon, U.S.
William H. Schulz, Gonghui Wang
2014, Journal of Geophysical Research F: Earth Surface (119) 1617-1635
Most large seismogenic landslides are reactivations of preexisting landslides with basal shear zones in the residual strength condition. Residual shear strength often varies during rapid displacement, but the response of residual shear zones to seismic loading is largely unknown. We used a ring shear apparatus to perform simulated seismic loading...
Climate change and plant community composition in national parks of the southwestern US: forecasting regional, long-term effects to meet management needs
Seth M. Munson, Jayne Belnap, Robert H. Webb, J. Andrew Hubbard, M. Hildegard Reiser, Kirsten Gallo
2014, The George Wright Forum (31) 137-148
The National Park Service (NPS) faces tremendous management challenges in the future as climates alter the abundance and distribution of plant species. These challenges will be especially daunting in the southwestern U.S., where large increases in aridity are forecasted. The expected reduction in water availability will negatively affect plant growth...
Modeling vegetation heights from high resolution stereo aerial photography: an application for broad-scale rangeland monitoring
Jeffrey K. Gillan, Jason W. Karl, Michael Duniway, Ahmed Elaksher
2014, Journal of Environmental Management (144) 226-235
Vertical vegetation structure in rangeland ecosystems can be a valuable indicator for assessing rangeland health and monitoring riparian areas, post-fire recovery, available forage for livestock, and wildlife habitat. Federal land management agencies are directed to monitor and manage rangelands at landscapes scales, but traditional field methods for measuring vegetation heights...
Thresholds for protecting Pacific Northwest ecosystems from atmospheric deposition of nitrogen: state of knowledge report
Tonnie Cummings, Tamara Blett, Ellen Porter, Linda Geiser, Rick Graw, Jill McMurray, Steven S. Perakis, Regina Rochefort
2014, Natural Resource Report NPS/PWRO/NRR--2014/823
The National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service manage areas in the states of Idaho, Oregon, and Washington – collectively referred to in this report as the Pacific Northwest - that contain significant natural resources and provide many recreational opportunities. The agencies are mandated to protect the air quality...
Barcodes are a useful tool for labeling and tracking ecological samples
Adam J. Copp, Theodore A. Kennedy, Jeffrey D. Muehlbauer
2014, Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America (95) 293-300
Barcodes are used to label and track just about everything these days. Look around your office, in your medicine cabinet, at the package you just received in the mail, or on the shelves of any shop in town, and you will immediately grasp the ubiquity of their use. Interestingly, railroads...
Importance of biogeomorphic and spatial properties in assessing a tidal salt marsh vulnerability to sea-level rise
Karen M. Thorne, Deborah L. Elliott-Fisk, Glenn D. Wylie, William M. Perry, John Y. Takekawa
2014, Estuaries and Coasts (37) 941-951
We evaluated the biogeomorphic processes of a large (309 ha) tidal salt marsh and examined factors that influence its ability to keep pace with relative sea-level rise (SLR). Detailed elevation data from 1995 and 2008 were compared with digital elevation models (DEMs) to assess marsh surface elevation change during this...
Methylmercury-induced changes in gene transcription associated with neuroendocrine disruption in largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides)
Catherine A. Richter, Christopher J. Martyniuk, Mandy L. Annis, William G. Brumbaugh, Lia C. Chasar, Nancy D. Denslow, Donald E. Tillitt
2014, General and Comparative Endocrinology (203) 215-224
Methyl-mercury (MeHg) is a potent neuroendocrine disruptor that impairs reproductive processes in fish. The objectives of this study were to (1) characterize transcriptomic changes induced by MeHg exposure in the female largemouth bass (LMB) hypothalamus under controlled laboratory conditions, (2) investigate the health and reproductive impacts of MeHg exposure on...
Three papers that influenced the direction of my career
Jon E. Keeley
2014, Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America (95) 216-217
No abstract available....
