Accuracy of the Missouri River Least Tern and Piping Plover Monitoring Program: considerations for the future
Terry L. Shaffer, Mark H. Sherfy, Michael J. Anteau, Jennifer H. Stucker, Marsha A. Sovada, Erin A. Roche, Mark T. Wiltermuth, Thomas K. Buhl, Colin M. Dovichin
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1176
The upper Missouri River system provides nesting and foraging habitat for federally endangered least terns (Sternula antillarum; hereafter “terns”) and threatened piping plovers (Charadrius melodus; hereafter “plovers”). These species are the subject of substantial management interest on the Missouri River for several reasons. First, ecosystem recovery is a goal for...
Holocene dynamics of the Florida Everglades with respect to climate, dustfall, and tropical storms
Paul H. Glaser, Barbara C. S. Hansen, Joseph J. Donovan, Thomas J. Givnish, Craig A. Stricker, John C. Volin
2013, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (110) 17211-17216
Aeolian dust is rarely considered an important source for nutrients in large peatlands, which generally develop in moist regions far from the major centers of dust production. As a result, past studies assumed that the Everglades provides a classic example of an originally oligotrophic, P-limited wetland that was subsequently degraded...
Flood-inundation maps for the DuPage River from Plainfield to Shorewood, Illinois, 2013
Elizabeth A. Murphy, Jennifer B. Sharpe
2013, Scientific Investigations Map 3275
Digital flood-inundation maps for a 15.5-mi reach of the DuPage River from Plainfield to Shorewood, Illinois, were created by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the Will County Stormwater Management Planning Committee. The inundation maps, which can be accessed through the USGS Flood Inundation Mapping Science Web site...
Evidence for high salinity of Early Cretaceous sea water from the Chesapeake Bay crater
Ward E. Sanford, Michael W. Doughten, Tyler B. Coplen, Andrew G. Hunt, Thomas D. Bullen
2013, Nature (503) 252-256
High salinity groundwater more than 1000 metres deep in the Atlantic Coastal Plain of the United States has been documented in several locations1,2, most recently within the 35 million-year-old Chesapeake Bay impact crater3,4,5. Suggestions for the origin of increased salinity in the crater have included evaporite dissolution6, osmosis6, and evaporation...
Large dams and alluvial rivers in the Anthropocene: The impacts of the Garrison and Oahe Dams on the Upper Missouri River
Katherine Skalak, Adam J. Benthem, Edward R. Schenk, Cliff R. Hupp, Joel M. Galloway, Rochelle A. Nustad, Gregg J. Wiche
2013, Anthropocene (2) 51-64
The Missouri River has had a long history of anthropogenic modification with considerable impacts on river and riparian ecology, form, and function. During the 20th century, several large dam-building efforts in the basin served the needs for irrigation, flood control, navigation, and the generation of hydroelectric power. The managed flow...
Inundation, sedimentation, and subsidence creates goose habitat along the Arctic coast of Alaska
Ken D. Tape, Paul L. Flint, Brandt W. Meixell, Benjamin V. Gaglioti
2013, Environmental Research Letters (8)
The Arctic Coastal Plain of Alaska is characterized by thermokarst lakes and drained lake basins, and the rate of coastal erosion has increased during the last half-century. Portions of the coast are <1 m above sea level for kilometers inland, and are underlain by ice-rich permafrost. Increased storm surges or...
Users, uses, and value of Landsat satellite imagery: results from the 2012 survey of users
Holly M. Miller, Leslie A. Richardson, Stephen R. Koontz, John Loomis, Lynne Koontz
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1269
Landsat satellites have been operating since 1972, providing a continuous global record of the Earth’s land surface. The imagery is currently available at no cost through the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Social scientists at the USGS Fort Collins Science Center conducted an extensive survey in early 2012 to explore who...
ECALS: Loading studies interim report October 2013
Katy Klymus, Cathy Richter, Duane Chapman, Craig P. Paukert
2013, Report
Here we follow up the loading studies interim report from July 2013 and include results from laboratory studies assessing the effects of diet on eDNA shedding rates by bigheaded carps(silver and bighead carp). In order to understand how eDNA behavesin the environment, we must understand how it enters the system....
Mercury in gray wolves (Canis lupus) in Alaska: Increased exposure through consumption of marine prey
Ashley K. McGrew, Lora R. Ballweber, Sara K. Moses, Craig A. Stricker, Kimberlee B. Beckmen, Mo D. Salman, Todd M. O’Hara
2013, Science of the Total Environment (468-469) 609-613
Mercury (Hg) bioaccumulates in the tissues of organismsand biomagnifies within food-webs. Graywolves (Canis lupus) in Alaska primarily acquire Hg through diet; therefore, comparing the extent of Hg exposure inwolves, in conjunction with stable isotopes, from interior and coastal regions of Alaska offers important insight into their feeding ecology. Liver,...
Response of Yellowstone grizzly bears to changes in food resources: A synthesis. Final report to the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee and Yellowstone Ecosystem Subcommittee
Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team, Frank T. van Manen, Cecily M. Costello, Mark A. Haroldson, Daniel D. Bjornlie, Michael R. Ebinger, Kerry A. Gunther, Mary Frances Mahalovich, Daniel J. Thompson, Megan D. Higgs, Kathryn M. Irvine, Kristin Legg, Daniel B. Tyers, Lisa Landenburger, Steven L. Cain, Kevin L. Frey, Bryan C. Aber, Charles C. Schwartz
2013, Report
The Yellowstone grizzly bear (Ursus arctos) was listed as a threatened species in 1975 (Federal Register 40 FR:31734-31736). Since listing, recovery efforts have focused on increasing population size, improving habitat security, managing bear mortalities, and reducing bear-human conflicts. The Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee (IGBC; partnership of federal and state agencies...
Intraseasonal variation in survival and probable causes of mortality in greater sage-grouse Centrocercus urophasianus
Erik J. Blomberg, Daniel Gibson, James S. Sedinger, Michael L. Casazza, Peter S. Coates
2013, Wildlife Biology (19) 347-357
The mortality process is a key component of avian population dynamics, and understanding factors that affect mortality is central to grouse conservation. Populations of greater sage-grouse Centrocercus urophasianus have declined across their range in western North America. We studied cause-specific mortality of radio-marked sage-grouse in Eureka County, Nevada, USA, during...
Rodent-Mediated Interactions Among Seed Species of Differing Quality in a Shrubsteppe Ecosystem
Karen H. Beard, Craig A. Faulhaber, Frank P. Howe, Thomas C. Edwards Jr.
2013, Western North American Naturalist (73) 426-441
Interactions among seeds, mediated by granivorous rodents, are likely to play a strong role in shrubsteppe ecosystem restoration. Past studies typically consider only pairwise interactions between preferred and less preferred seed species, whereas rangeland seedings are likely to contain more than 2 seed species, potentially leading to complex interactions. We...
Ground-motion prediction from tremor
Annemarie S. Baltay Sundstrom, Gregory C. Beroza
2013, Geophysical Research Letters (40) 6340-6345
The widespread occurrence of tremor, coupled with its frequency content and location, provides an exceptional opportunity to test and improve strong ground-motion attenuation relations for subduction zones. We characterize the amplitude of thousands of individual 5 min tremor events in Cascadia during three episodic tremor and slip events to constrain the...
Estuarine environments as rearing habitats for juvenile Coho Salmon in contrasting south-central Alaska watersheds
Tammy D. Hoem Neher, Amanda E. Rosenberger, Christian E. Zimmerman, Coowe M. Walker, Steven J. Baird
2013, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (142) 1481-1494
For Pacific salmon, estuaries are typically considered transitional staging areas between freshwater and marine environments, but their potential as rearing habitat has only recently been recognized. The objectives of this study were two-fold: (1) to determine if Coho Salmon Oncorhynchus kisutch were rearing in estuarine habitats, and (2) to characterize...
How to predict community responses to perturbations in the face of imperfect knowledge and network complexity
Helge Aufderheide, Lars Rudolf, Thilo Gross, Kevin D. Lafferty
2013, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (280)
Recent attempts to predict the response of large food webs to perturbations have revealed that in larger systems increasingly precise information on the elements of the system is required. Thus, the effort needed for good predictions grows quickly with the system's complexity. Here, we show that not all elements need...
Urban runoff (URO) process for MODFLOW 2005: simulation of sub-grid scale urban hydrologic processes in Broward County, FL
Jeremy D. Decker, J.D. Hughes
2013, Book, MODFLOW and More 2013: Translating Science into Practice: Conference Proceedings
Climate change and sea-level rise could cause substantial changes in urban runoff and flooding in low-lying coast landscapes. A major challenge for local government officials and decision makers is to translate the potential global effects of climate change into actionable and cost-effective adaptation and mitigation strategies at county and municipal...
Silicate melt inclusion evidence for extreme pre-eruptive enrichment and post-eruptive depletion of lithium in silicic volcanic rocks of the western United States: implications for the origin of lithium-rich brines
Albert H. Hofstra, T.I. Todorov, C.N. Mercer, D.T. Adams, E.E. Marsh
2013, Economic Geology (108) 1691-1701
To evaluate whether anatectic and/or highly fractionated lithophile element-enriched rhyolite tuffs deposited in arid lacustrine basins lose enough lithium during eruption, lithification, and weathering to generate significant Li brine resources, pre-eruptive melt compositions, preserved in inclusions, and the magnitude of post-eruptive Li depletions, evident in host rhyolites, were documented at...
Inferring tidal wetland stability from channel sediment fluxes: observations and a conceptual model
Neil K. Ganju, Nicholas J. Nidzieko, Matthew L. Kirwan
2013, Journal of Geophysical Research F: Earth Surface (118) 2045-2058
Anthropogenic and climatic forces have modified the geomorphology of tidal wetlands over a range of timescales. Changes in land use, sediment supply, river flow, storminess, and sea level alter the layout of tidal channels, intertidal flats, and marsh plains; these elements define wetland complexes. Diagnostically, measurements of net sediment fluxes...
Atmospheric rivers as drought busters on the U.S. west coast
Michael D. Dettinger
2013, Journal of Hydrometeorology (14) 1721-1732
Atmospheric rivers (ARs) have, in recent years, been recognized as the cause of the large majority of major floods in rivers all along the U.S. West Coast and as the source of 30%–50% of all precipitation in the same region. The present study surveys the frequency with which ARs have...
Controls on ecosystem and root respiration across a permafrost and wetland gradient in interior Alaska
Nicole A. McConnell, Merritt R. Turetsky, A. David McGuire, Evan S. Kane, Mark P. Waldrop, Jennifer W. Harden
2013, Environmental Research Letters (8)
Permafrost is common to many northern wetlands given the insulation of thick organic soil layers, although soil saturation in wetlands can lead to warmer soils and increased thaw depth. We analyzed five years of soil CO2 fluxes along a wetland gradient that varied in permafrost and soil moisture conditions. We...
Predicting the effects of proposed Mississippi River diversions on oyster habitat quality; application of an oyster habitat suitability index model
Thomas M. Soniat, Craig P. Conzelmann, Jason D. Byrd, Dustin P. Roszell, Joshua L. Bridevaux, Kevin J. Suir, Susan B. Colley
2013, Journal of Shellfish Research (32) 629-638
In an attempt to decelerate the rate of coastal erosion and wetland loss, and protect human communities, the state of Louisiana developed its Comprehensive Master Plan for a Sustainable Coast. The master plan proposes a combination of restoration efforts including shoreline protection, marsh creation, sediment diversions, and ridge, barrier island,...
Use of seeded exotic grasslands by wintering birds
Andrew D. George, Timothy J. O’Connell, Karen R. Hickman, David M. Leslie Jr.
2013, The Prairie Naturalist (45) 77-83
Despite widespread population declines of North American grassland birds, effects of anthropogenic disturbance on wintering habitat of this guild remain poorly understood. We compared avian abundance and habitat structure in fields planted to the exotic grass Old World bluestem (Bothriochloa ischaemum; OWB) to that in native mixed-grass prairie. During winters...
Seismic Station Installation Orientation Errors at ANSS and IRIS/USGS Stations
Adam T. Ringler, Charles R. Hutt, K. Persfield, Lind S. Gee
2013, Seismological Research Letters (84) 926-931
Many seismological studies depend on the published orientations of sensitive axes of seismic instruments relative to north (e.g., Li et al., 2011). For example, studies of the anisotropic structure of the Earth’s mantle through SKS‐splitting measurements (Long et al., 2009), constraints on core–mantle electromagnetic coupling from torsional normal‐mode measurements (Dumberry...
American badgers selectively excavate burrows in areas used by black-footed ferrets: implications for predator avoidance
David A. Eads, Dean E. Biggins, Travis M. Livieri, Joshua J. Millspaugh
2013, Journal of Mammalogy (94) 1364-1370
We evaluated how American badgers (Taxidea taxus) might exert selective pressure on black-footed ferrets (Mustela nigripes) to develop antipredator defenses. In a colony of black-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus) in South Dakota, badgers concentrated their activities where burrow openings and prairie dogs were abundant, a selective behavior that was exhibited...
Detecting short-term responses to weekend recreation activity: desert bighorn sheep avoidance of hiking trails
Kathleen M. Longshore, Chris Lowrey, Daniel B. Thompson
2013, Wildlife Society Bulletin (37) 698-706
To study potential effects of recreation activity on habitat use of desert bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis nelsoni), we placed Global Positioning System collars on 10 female bighorn sheep within the Wonderland of Rocks–Queen Mountain region of Joshua Tree National Park (JOTR), California, USA, from 2002 to 2004. Recreation use was...
