Survivorship and longevity of adult Diamesa mendotae Muttkowski, 1915 (Diptera: Chironomidae) at controlled, sub-freezing temperatures
Jane E. Mazack, Petra Kranzfelder, Alyssa M. Anderson, William Bouchard Jr., James Perry, Bruce C. Vondracek, Leonard C. Ferrington Jr.
2014, Aquatic Insects (36) 35-42
Diamesa mendotae Muttkowski, 1915 is a winter-active species common in groundwater-buffered streams of Minnesota and Wisconsin. This species is capable of surviving under snow cover for at least 28 days. Field collections of adult D. mendotae were used to determine survivorship under long-term exposure to controlled sub-freezing conditions. Specimens were placed into a controlled...
Meteorological variables associated with deep slab avalanches on persistent weak layers
Alex Marienthal, Jordy Hendrikx, Karl Birkeland, Kathryn M. Irvine
2014, Conference Paper, Proceedings, International Snow Science Workshop, Banff, 2014
Deep slab avalanches are a particularly challenging avalanche forecasting problem. These avalanches are typically difficult to trigger, yet when they are triggered they tend to propagate far and result in large and destructive avalanches. For this work we define deep slab avalanches as those that fail on persistent weak layers...
Learning rate and temperament in a high predation risk environment
C. DePasquale, Tyler Wagner, G.A. Archard, B. Ferguson, V.A. Braithwaite
2014, Oecologia (176) 661-667
Living in challenging environments can influence the behavior of animals in a number of ways. For instance, populations of prey fish that experience frequent, nonlethal interactions with predators have a high proportion of individuals that express greater reaction to risk and increased activity and exploration—collectively known as temperament traits. Temperament...
A comparison of two gears for quantifying abundance of lotic-dwelling crayfish
Kristi Williams, Shannon K. Brewer, Mark R. Ellersieck
2014, Journal of Crustacean Biology (34) 54-60
Crayfish (saddlebacked crayfish, Orconectes medius) catch was compared using a kick seine applied two different ways with a 1-m2 quadrat sampler (with known efficiency and bias in riffles) from three small streams in the Missouri Ozarks. Triplicate samples (one of each technique) were taken from two creeks and one headwater...
A new species of freshwater eel-tailed catfish of the genus Tandanus (Teleostei: Plotosidae) from the Wet Tropics Region of Eastern Australia
Stuart A. Welsh, Dean R. Jerry, Damien Burrows
2014, Copeia (2014) 136-142
Tandanus tropicanus, new species, is described based on specimens from streams in the wet tropics region of northeast Queensland. Previously, two species were recognized in the genus Tandanus: T. tandanus of eastern Australia and T. bostocki of Western Australia. A combination of meristic and morphometric characters distinguishes the new species from all congeners. Further, taxonomic...
Carcass analog provides marine subsidies for macroinvertebrates and juvenile Atlantic 8 salmon in temperate oligotrophic streams
Margaret Q. Guyette, Cynthia S. Loftin, Joseph D. Zydlewski, Richard Cunjak
2014, Freshwater Biology (59) 392-406
Anadromous fish populations entering freshwater ecosystems provide organic matter and marine-derived nutrients during spawning and subsequent mortalities of adults. Dams and other impediments to connectivity in rivers and streams have affected anadromous fish populations in many regions and prevented or reduced this influx of organic materials and...
Studying seafloor bedforms using autonomous stationary imaging and profiling sonars
Ellyn T. Montgomery, Christopher R. Sherwood
2014, Conference Paper, OCEANS 2013: Proceedings of a meeting held 23-27 September 2013, San Diego, California, USA
The Sediment Transport Group at the U.S. Geological Survey, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center uses downward looking sonars deployed on seafloor tripods to assess and measure the formation and migration of bedforms. The sonars have been used in three resolution-testing experiments, and deployed autonomously to observe changes in...
Using lead isotopes and trace element records from two contrasting Lake Tanganyika sediment cores to assess watershed – Lake exchange
Kingsley Odigie, A.D. Cohen, Peter W. Swarzenski, R Flegal
2014, Applied Geochemistry (51) 184-190
Lead isotopic and trace element records of two contrasting sediment cores were examined to reconstruct historic, industrial contaminant inputs to Lake Tanganyika, Africa. Observed fluxes of Co, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb, and Zn in age-dated sediments collected from the lake varied both spatially and temporally over the past two to...
Openness to the unexpected: Our Pathways to Careers in a Federal Research Laboratory.
Kurt R. Newman, David B. Bunnell, Darryl W. Hondorp
William W. Taylor, Abigail J. Lynch, Nancy J. Leonard, editor(s)
2014, Book chapter, Future of fisheries: Perspectives for emerging professionals
Many fisheries professionals may not be in the job they originally envisioned for themselves when they began their undergraduate studies. Rather, their current positions could be the result of unexpected, opportunistic, or perhaps even “lucky” open doors that led them down an unexpected path. In many cases, a mentor helped...
Stream water temperature limits occupancy of salamanders in mid-Atlantic protected areas
Evan H. Campbell Grant, Amber N. M. Wiewel, Karen C. Rice
2014, Journal of Herpetology (48) 45-50
Stream ecosystems are particularly sensitive to urbanization, and tolerance of water-quality parameters is likely important to population persistence of stream salamanders. Forecasted climate and landscape changes may lead to significant changes in stream flow, chemical composition, and temperatures in coming decades. Protected areas where landscape alterations are minimized will therefore...
Locking horns with Hawai‘i’s non-native ungulate issues
Steve C. Hess
2014, Proceedings of the Vertebrate Pest Conference (26) 21-25
Conservation and management interests for sustained-yield hunting of non-native ungulates in Hawai‘i have conflicted with the conservation of native biota for several decades. Hawaiian ecosystems evolved in the absence of large mammals and all currently hunted animals in Hawai‘i are non-native species. The best-studied aspects of Hawai‘i’s ungulates have dealt...
The environmental geochemistry of Arsenic – An overview
Robert J. Bowell, Charles N. Alpers, Heather E. Jamieson, D. Kirk Nordstrom, Juraj Majzlan
2014, Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry (79) 1-16
Arsenic is one of the most prevalent toxic elements in the environment. The toxicity, mobility, and fate of arsenic in the environment are determined by a complex series of controls dependent on mineralogy, chemical speciation, and biological processes. The element was first described by Theophrastus in 300 B.C. and named...
Evidence of natural reproduction by Muskellunge in middle Tennessee rivers
Lila H. Warren, Phillip William Bettoli
2014, Southeastern Naturalist (13) 506-514
Native Esox masquinongy (Muskellunge) in the Cumberland River drainage, TN, were nearly extirpated in the 1970s due to decades of over-fishing and habitat degradation from coal mining, logging, and other land-use practices. In an effort to preserve the species in that drainage, a stocking program began in 1976 in the upper Caney...
Forest ecosystem reorganization underway in the Southwestern US: A preview of widespread forest changes in the Anthropocene
Craig D. Allen
V. Alaric Sample, R. Patrick Bixler, editor(s)
2014, Proceedings RMRS-P-71
No abstract available....
Distributed Evaluation of Local Sensitivity Analysis (DELSA), with application to hydrologic models
O. Rakovec, Mary C. Hill, M.P. Clark, A. H. Weerts, A. J. Teuling, R. Uijlenhoet
2014, Water Resources Research (50) 409-426
This paper presents a hybrid local-global sensitivity analysis method termed the Distributed Evaluation of Local Sensitivity Analysis (DELSA), which is used here to identify important and unimportant parameters and evaluate how model parameter importance changes as parameter values change. DELSA uses derivative-based “local” methods to obtain the distribution of parameter...
Predicting connectivity of green turtles at Palmyra Atoll, central Pacific: a focus on mtDNA and dispersal modelling
Eugenia Naro-Maciel, Stephen J. Gaughran, Nathan Freeman Putman, George Amato, Felicity Arengo, Peter H. Dutton, Katherine W. McFadden, Erin C. Vintinner, Eleanor J. Sterling
2014, Journal of the Royal Society Interface (11)
Population connectivity and spatial distribution are fundamentally related to ecology, evolution and behaviour. Here, we combined powerful genetic analysis with simulations of particle dispersal in a high-resolution ocean circulation model to investigate the distribution of green turtles foraging at the remote Palmyra Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, central Pacific. We analysed...
Seismometer Self-Noise and Measuring Methods
Adam T. Ringler, R. Sleeman, Charles R. Hutt, Lind S. Gee
2014, Book chapter, Encyclopedia of Earthquake Engineering
Seismometer self-noise is usually not considered when selecting and using seismic waveform data in scientific research as it is typically assumed that the self-noise is negligibly small compared to seismic signals. However, instrumental noise is part of the noise in any seismic record, and in particular, at frequencies below a...
Distribution and habitat associations of juvenile Common Snook in the lower Rio Grande, Texas
Caleb G. Huber, Timothy B. Grabowski, Reynaldo Patino, Kevin L. Pope
2014, Marine and Coastal Fisheries: Dynamics, Management, and Ecosystem Science (6) 170-180
Common Snook Centropomus undecimalis were once abundant off the Texas coast, but these populations are now characterized by low abundance and erratic recruitment. Most research concerning Common Snook in North America has been conducted in Florida and very little is known about the specific biology and habitat needs of Common Snook in...
Predicting Impacts of tropical cyclones and sea-Level rise on beach mouse habitat
Q. Chen, Hongqing Wang, Lixia Wang, Robert Tawes, Drew Rollman
2014, Journal of Coastal Research (68) 12-19
Alabama beach mouse (ABM) (Peromyscus polionotus ammobates) is an important component of the coastal dune ecosystem along the Gulf of Mexico. Due to habitat loss and degradation, ABM is federally listed as an endangered species. In this study, we examined the impacts of storm surge and wind waves, which are...
Ground-motion site effects from multimethod shear-wave velocity characterization at 16 seismograph stations deployed for aftershocks of the August 2011 Mineral, Virginia earthquake
William J. Stephenson, Jackson K. Odum, Daniel E. McNamara, Robert A. Williams, Stephen J Angster
2014, GSA Special Papers (509) 47-65
We characterize shear-wave velocity versus depth (Vs profile) at 16 portable seismograph sites through the epicentral region of the 2011 Mw 5.8 Mineral (Virginia, USA) earthquake to investigate ground-motion site effects in the area. We used a multimethod acquisition and analysis approach, where active-source horizontal shear (SH) wave reflection and refraction...
Thermodynamic properties for arsenic minerals and aqueous species
D. Kirk Nordstrom, Juraj Majzlan, Erich Konigsberger
Robert J. Bowell, Charles N. Alpers, Heather E. Jamieson, D. Kirk Nordstrom, Juraj Majzlan, editor(s)
2014, Book chapter, Arsenic: Environmental geochemistry, mineralogy, and microbiology (Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry no. 79)
Quantitative geochemical calculations are not possible without thermodynamic databases and considerable advances in the quantity and quality of these databases have been made since the early days of Lewis and Randall (1923), Latimer (1952), and Rossini et al. (1952). Oelkers et al. (2009) wrote, “The creation...
The temperature-productivity squeeze: Constraints on brook trout growth along an Appalachian river continuum
J. Todd Petty, David Thorne, Brock M. Huntsman, Patricia M. Mazik
2014, Hydrobiologia (727) 151-166
We tested the hypothesis that brook trout growth rates are controlled by a complex interaction of food availability, water temperature, and competitor density. We quantified trout diet, growth, and consumption in small headwater tributaries characterized as cold with low food and high trout density, larger tributaries characterized as cold with...
Incorporating detection probability into northern Great Plains pronghorn population estimates
Christopher N. Jacques, Jonathan A. Jenks, Troy W. Grovenburg, Robert W. Klaver, Christopher S. DePerno
2014, Journal of Wildlife Management (78) 164-174
Pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) abundances commonly are estimated using fixed-wing surveys, but these estimates are likely to be negatively biased because of violations of key assumptions underpinning line-transect methodology. Reducing bias and improving precision of abundance estimates through use of detection probability and mark-resight models may allow for more responsive pronghorn...
Changes in vegetation and biological soil crust communities on sand dunes stabilizing after a century of grazing on San Miguel Island, Channel Island National Park, California
Kristine L. Zellman
2014, Monographs of the Western North American Naturalist (7) 225-245
San Miguel Island is the westernmost of the California Channel Islands and one of the windiest areas on the west coast of North America. The majority of the island is covered by coastal sand dunes, which were stripped of vegetation and subsequently mobilized due to droughts and sheep ranching during...
Science is the first step to siting nuclear waste repositories
Christopher E. Neuzil
2014, Eos, Earth and Space Science News (95) 71-71
As Shaw [2014] notes, U.S. research on shale as a repository host was halted before expending anything close to the effort devoted to studying crystalline rock, salt, and - most notably - tuff at Yucca Mountain. The new political reality regarding Yucca Mountain may allow reconsideration of the decision to...