The 3D Elevation Program: summary for Tennessee
William J. Carswell Jr.
2014, Fact Sheet 2014-3008
Elevation data are essential to a broad range of applications, including forest resources management, wildlife and habitat management, national security, recreation, and many others. For the State of Tennessee, elevation data are critical for agriculture and precision farming, flood risk management, natural resources conservation, infrastructure and construction management, forest resources...
Ecological feedbacks can reduce population-level efficacy of wildlife fertility control
Jason I. Ransom, Jenny G. Powers, N. Thompson Hobbs, Dan L. Baker
2014, Journal of Applied Ecology (51) 259-269
1. Anthropogenic stress on natural systems, particularly the fragmentation of landscapes and the extirpation of predators from food webs, has intensified the need to regulate abundance of wildlife populations with management. Controlling population growth using fertility control has been considered for almost four decades, but nearly all research has focused...
Diffuse migratory connectivity in two species of shrubland birds: evidence from stable isotopes
Steven T. Knick, Matthias Leu, John T. Rotenberry, Steven E. Hanser, Kurt Fesenmyer
2014, Oecologia (174) 595-608
Connecting seasonal ranges of migratory birds is important for understanding the annual template of stressors that influence their populations. Brewer’s sparrows (Spizella breweri) and sagebrush sparrows (Artemisiospiza nevadensis) share similar sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) habitats for breeding but have different population trends that might be related to winter location. To link...
Detection limits and cost comparisons of human- and gull-associated conventional and quantitative PCR assays in artificial and environmental waters
Timothy E. Riedel, Amity G. Zimmer-Faust, Vanessa Thulsiraj, Tania Madi, Kaitlyn T. Hanley, Darcy L. Ebentier, Muruleedhara N. Byappanahalli, Blythe Layton, Meredith Raith, Alexandria B. Boehm, John F. Griffith, Patricia A. Holden, Orin C. Shanks, Stephen B. Weisberg, Jennifer A. Jay
2014, Journal of Environmental Management (136) 112-120
Some molecular methods for tracking fecal pollution in environmental waters have both PCR and quantitative PCR (qPCR) assays available for use. To assist managers in deciding whether to implement newer qPCR techniques in routine monitoring programs, we compared detection limits (LODs) and costs of PCR and qPCR assays with identical...
Assessment of international reference materials for isotope-ratio analysis (IUPAC Technical Report)
Willi A. Brand, Tyler B. Coplen, Jochen Vogl, Martin Rosner, Thomas Prohaska
2014, Pure and Applied Chemistry (86) 425-467
Since the early 1950s, the number of international measurement standards for anchoring stable isotope delta scales has mushroomed from 3 to more than 30, expanding to more than 25 chemical elements. With the development of new instrumentation, along with new and improved measurement procedures for studying naturally occurring isotopic abundance...
Applying downscaled global climate model data to a hydrodynamic surface-water and groundwater model
Eric Swain, Lydia Stefanova, Thomas Smith
2014, American Journal of Climate Change (3) 33-49
Precipitation data from Global Climate Models have been downscaled to smaller regions. Adapting this downscaled precipitation data to a coupled hydrodynamic surface-water/groundwater model of southern Florida allows an examination of future conditions and their effect on groundwater levels, inundation patterns, surface-water stage and flows, and salinity. The downscaled rainfall data...
Water-quality trends for selected sampling sites in the upper Clark Fork Basin, Montana, water years 1996-2010
Steven K. Sando, Aldo V. Vecchia, David L. Lorenz, Elliott P. Barnhart
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5217
A large-scale trend analysis was done on specific conductance, selected trace elements (arsenic, cadmium, copper, iron, lead, manganese, and zinc), and suspended-sediment data for 22 sites in the upper Clark Fork Basin for water years 1996–2010. Trend analysis was conducted by using two parametric methods: a time-series model (TSM) and...
Soil compaction vulnerability at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, Arizona
Robert H. Webb, Kenneth E. Nussear, Shinji Carmichael, Todd C. Esque
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1048
Compaction vulnerability of different types of soils by hikers and vehicles is poorly known, particularly for soils of arid and semiarid regions. Engineering analyses have long shown that poorly sorted soils (for example, sandy loams) compact to high densities, whereas well-sorted soils (for example, eolian sand) do not compact, and...
Detailed cross sections of the Eocene Green River Formation along the north and east margins of the Piceance Basin, western Colorado, using measured sections and drill hole information
Ronald C. Johnson
2014, Scientific Investigations Map 3276
This report presents two detailed cross sections of the Eocene Green River Formation in the Piceance Basin, northwestern Colorado, constructed from eight detailed measured sections, fourteen core holes, and two rotary holes. The Eocene Green River Formation in the Piceance Basin contains the world’s largest known oil shale deposit with...
USGS Field Activities 11CEV01 and 11CEV02 on the West Florida Shelf, Gulf of Mexico, in January and February 2011
Lisa L. Robbins, Paul O. Knorr, Kendra L. Daly, Carl A. Taylor
2014, Data Series 711
During January and February 2011 the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the University of South Florida (USF), conducted geochemical surveys on the west Florida Shelf. Data collected will allow USGS and USF scientists to investigate the effects of climate change on ocean acidification within the northern Gulf of...
Genetic variation in bacterial kidney disease (BKD) susceptibility in Lake Michigan Chinook Salmon and its progenitor population from the Puget Sound
Maureen K. Purcell, Jeffrey J. Hard, Kathleen G. Neely, Linda K. Park, James R. Winton, Diane G. Elliott
2014, Journal of Aquatic Animal Health (26) 9-18
Mass mortality events in wild fish due to infectious diseases are troubling, especially given the potential for long-term, population-level consequences. Evolutionary theory predicts that populations with sufficient genetic variation will adapt in response to pathogen pressure. Chinook Salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha were introduced into Lake Michigan in the late 1960s from...
Antecedent flow conditions and nitrate concentrations in the Mississippi River basin
Jennifer C. Murphy, Robert M. Hirsch, Lori A. Sprague
2014, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 967-979
The relationship between antecedent flow conditions and nitrate concentrations was explored at eight sites in the 2.9 million square kilometers (km2) Mississippi River basin, USA. Antecedent flow conditions were quantified as the ratio between the mean daily flow of the previous year and the mean daily flow from the period...
Sampling strategies and biodiversity of influenza A subtypes in wild birds
Sarah H. Olson, Jane Parmley, Catherine Soos, Martin Gilbert, Neus Latore-Margalef, Jeffrey S. Hall, Phillip M. Hansbro, Frank Leighton, Vincent Munster, Damien Joly
2014, PLoS ONE (9)
Wild aquatic birds are recognized as the natural reservoir of avian influenza A viruses (AIV), but across high and low pathogenic AIV strains, scientists have yet to rigorously identify most competent hosts for the various subtypes. We examined 11,870 GenBank records to provide a baseline inventory and insight into patterns...
Geologic map of the Kechumstuk fault zone in the Mount Veta area, Fortymile mining district, east-central Alaska
Warren C. Day, J. Michael O’Neill, Cynthia Dusel-Bacon, John N. Aleinikoff, Christopher R. Siron
2014, Scientific Investigations Map 3291
This map was developed by the U.S. Geological Survey Mineral Resources Program to depict the fundamental geologic features for the western part of the Fortymile mining district of east-central Alaska, and to delineate the location of known bedrock mineral prospects and their relationship to rock types and structural features.This geospatial...
An analysis of monthly home range size in the critically endangered California Condor Gymnogyps californianus
James W. Rivers, Matthew J. Johnson, Susan M. Haig, Carl J. Schwarz, Joseph Burnett, Joseph Brandt, Daniel George, Jesse Grantham
2014, Bird Conservation International (24) 492-504
Condors and vultures comprise the only group of terrestrial vertebrates in the world that are obligate scavengers, and these species move widely to locate ephemeral, unpredictable, and patchily-distributed food resources. In this study, we used high-resolution GPS location data to quantify monthly home range size of the critically endangered California...
Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) as a model system in community, landscape and ecosystem ecology
Matthew A. Bowker, Fernando T. Maestre, David Eldridge, Jayne Belnap, Andrea Castillo-Monroy, Cristina Escolar, Santiago Soliveres
2014, Biodiversity and Conservation (23) 1619-1637
Model systems have had a profound influence on the development of ecological theory and general principles. Compared to alternatives, the most effective models share some combination of the following characteristics: simpler, smaller, faster, general, idiosyncratic or manipulable. We argue that biological soil crusts (biocrusts) have unique combinations of these features...
Evaluation of the expected moments algorithm and a multiple low-outlier test for flood frequency analysis at streamgaging stations in Arizona
Nicholas V. Paretti, Jeffrey R. Kennedy, Timothy A. Cohn
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5026
Flooding is among the costliest natural disasters in terms of loss of life and property in Arizona, which is why the accurate estimation of flood frequency and magnitude is crucial for proper structural design and accurate floodplain mapping. Current guidelines for flood frequency analysis in the United States are described...
Fishing for resilience
Kevin L. Pope, Craig R. Allen, D.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...
Vesta surface thermal properties map
Maria Teresa Capria, F. Tosi, Maria Cristina De Santis, F. Capaccioni, E. Ammannito, A. Frigeri, F Zambon, S. Fonte, E. Palomba, D. Turrini, T.N. Titus, S.E. Schroder, M.J. Toplis, J.Y. Liu, J. #NAME? Combe, C.A. Raymond, C.T. Russell
2014, Geophysical Research Letters (41) 1438-1443
The first ever regional thermal properties map of Vesta has been derived from the temperatures retrieved by infrared data by the mission Dawn. The low average value of thermal inertia, 30 ± 10 J m−2 s−0.5 K−1, indicates a surface covered by a fine regolith. A range of thermal inertia values suggesting terrains with...
Vaccination against bacterial kidney disease
Diane G. Elliott, Gregory D. Wiens, K. Larry Hammell, Linda D. Rhodes
Roar Gudding, Atle Lillehaug, Oystein Evensen, editor(s)
2014, Book chapter, Fish vaccination
Bacterial kidney disease (BKD) of salmonid fishes, caused by Renibacterium salmoninarum, has been recognized as a serious disease in salmonid fishes since the 1930s. This chapter discusses the occurrence and significance, etiology, and pathogenesis of BKD. It then describes the different vaccination procedures and the effects and side-effects of vaccination. Despite...
Semi-automated identification of leopard frogs
Dijana Petrovska-Delacretaz, Aaron Edwards, John Chiasson, Gerard Chollet, David S. Pilliod
2014, Book, International Conference on Pattern Recognition Applications and Methods
Principal component analysis is used to implement a semi-automatic recognition system to identify recaptured northern leopard frogs (Lithobates pipiens). Results of both open set and closed set experiments are given. The presented algorithm is shown to provide accurate identification of 209 individual leopard frogs from a total set of 1386...
Development and evaluation of a blocking enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and virus neutralization assay to detect antibodies to viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus
Anna Wilson, Tony Goldberg, Susan Marcquenski, Wendy Olson, Frederick Goetz, Paul Hershberger, Lucas M. Hart, Kathy Toohey-Kurth
2014, Clinical and Vaccine Immunology (21) 435-442
Viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus (VHSV) is a target of surveillance by many state and federal agencies in the United States. Currently, the detection of VHSV relies on virus isolation, which is lethal to fish and indicates only the current infection status. A serological method is required to ascertain prior exposure....
Wetland Reserve Program enhances site occupancy and species richness in assemblages of anuran amphibians in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley, USA
Susan C. Walls, J. Hardin Waddle, Stephen P. Faulkner
2014, Wetlands (34) 197-207
We measured amphibian habitat use to quantify the effectiveness of conservation practices implemented under the Wetland Reserve Program (WRP), an initiative of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. From February to June 2007, we quantified calling male anurans in cultivated cropland, former cultivated cropland restored through the...
A missing dimension in measures of vaccination impacts
M. Gabriela M. Gomes, Andrew Wargo, Marc Lipsitch, Gael Kurath, Carlota Rebelo, Graham F. Medley, Antonio Coutinho
2014, PLoS Pathogens (10)
Immunological protection, acquired from either natural infection or vaccination, varies among hosts, reflecting underlying biological variation and affecting population-level protection. Owing to the nature of resistance mechanisms, distributions of susceptibility and protection entangle with pathogen dose in a way that can be decoupled by adequately representing the dose dimension. Any...
Rate of tree carbon accumulation increases continuously with tree size
N.L. Stephenson, A.J. Das, R. Condit, S.E. Russo, P.J. Baker, N.G. Beckman, D.A. Coomes, E.R. Lines, W.K. Morris, N. Rüger, E. Alvarez, C. Blundo, S. Bunyavejchewin, G. Chuyong, S.J. Davies, A. Duque, C.N. Ewango, O. Flores, J.F. Franklin, H.R. Grau, Z. Hao, M. E. Harmon, S.P. Hubbell, D. Kenfack, Y. Lin, J.-R. Makana, A. Malizia, L.R. Malizia, R.J. Pabst, N. Pongpattananurak, S.-H. Su, I-F. Sun, S. Tan, D. Thomas, P. J. van Mantgem, X. Wang, S.K. Wiser, M.A. Zavala
2014, Nature (507) 90-93
Forests are major components of the global carbon cycle, providing substantial feedback to atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations. Our ability to understand and predict changes in the forest carbon cycle—particularly net primary productivity and carbon storage - increasingly relies on models that represent biological processes across several scales of biological organization,...
