Strontium isotope systematics of mixing groundwater and oil-field brine at Goose Lake in northeastern Montana, USA
Zell E. Peterman, Joanna N. Thamke, Kiyoto Futa, Todd Preston
2012, Applied Geochemistry (27) 2403-2408
Groundwater, surface water, and soil in the Goose Lake oil field in northeastern Montana have been affected by Cl−-rich oil-field brines during long-term petroleum production. Ongoing multidisciplinary geochemical and geophysical studies have identified the degree and local extent of interaction between brine and groundwater. Fourteen samples representing groundwater, surface water,...
Effects of supplemental feeding and aggregation on fecal glucocorticoid metabolite concentrations in elk
Victoria E. Forristal, Scott Creel, Mark L. Taper, Brandon M. Scurlock, Paul C. Cross
2012, Journal of Wildlife Management (76) 76-4
Habitat modifications and supplemental feeding artificially aggregate some wildlife populations, with potential impacts upon contact and parasite transmission rates. Less well recognized, however, is how increased aggregation may affect wildlife physiology. Crowding has been shown to induce stress responses, and increased glucocorticoid (GC) concentrations can reduce immune function and increase...
Luna B. Leopold--pioneer setting the stage for modern hydrology
Randall J. Hunt, Curt Meine
2012, Ground Water (50) 966-970
In 1986, during the first year of graduate school, the lead author was sampling the water from a pitcher pump in front of “The Shack,” the setting of the opening essays in Aldo Leopold's renowned book A Sand County Almanac. The sampling was part of my Master's work that included...
Explaining reported puma-related behaviors and behavioral intentions among northern Arizona residents
David J. Mattson, Elizabeth J. Ruther
2012, Human Dimensions of Wildlife: An International Journal (17) 91-111
Management of pumas in the American West is typified by conflict among stakeholders plausibly rooted in life experiences and worldviews. We used a mail questionnaire to assess demographics, nature-views, puma-related life experiences and behaviors, and support for puma-related policies among residents of northern Arizona. Data from the questionnaire (n = 693 respondents)...
Conceptual model of sedimentation in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta
David H. Schoellhamer, Scott Wright, Judith Z. Drexler
2012, San Francisco Estuary and Watershed Science (10)
Sedimentation in the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta builds the Delta landscape, creates benthic and pelagic habitat, and transports sediment-associated contaminants. Here we present a conceptual model of sedimentation that includes submodels for river supply from the watershed to the Delta, regional transport within the Delta and seaward exchange, and local...
Arctic shorebirds in North America: A decade of monitoring
Jonathan R. Bart, Victoria H. Johnston, editor(s)
2012, Studies in Avian Biology 44
Each year shorebirds from North and South America migrate thousands of miles to spend the summer in the Arctic. There they feed in shoreline marshes and estuaries along some of the most productive and pristine coasts anywhere. With so much available food they are able to reproduce almost explosively; and...
Hydromechanical effects of continental glaciation on groundwater systems
C. E. Neuzil
2012, Geofluids (12) 22-37
Hydromechanical effects of continental ice sheets may involve considerably more than the widely recognized direct compression of overridden terrains by ice load. Lithospheric flexure, which lags ice advance and retreat, appears capable of causing comparable or greater stress changes. Together, direct and flexural loading may increase fluid pressures by tens...
Geologic isolation of nuclear waste at high latitudes: the role of ice sheets
M. Person, J. McIntosh, N. Iverson, C. E. Neuzil, V. Bense
2012, Geofluids (12) 1-6
Geologic isolation of high-level nuclear waste from the biosphere requires special consideration in countries at high latitudes (>40°N) owing to the possibility of future episodes of continental glaciation (Talbot 1999). It is now widely recognized that Pleistocene continental glaciations have had a profound effect on rates of sediment erosion (Cuffey...
Discussion of “Deglacial paleoclimate in the southwestern United States: an abrupt 18.6 cold event and evidence for a North Atlantic forcing of Termination I” by M.S. Lachniet, Y. Asmerom and V. Polyak
Isaac J. Winograd
2012, Quaternary Science Reviews (45) 126-128
Utilizing a stable isotopic time series obtained from a speleothem (PC-1), which grew between 20.1 and 15.6 ka, Lachniet, Asmeron and Polyak (2011; hereafter LAP) present evidence for a significant cold event in the southern Great Basin at 18.6 ka, a finding that we accept. Supplementing this short record with...
Estimating occupancy in large landscapes: evaluation of amphibian monitoring in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem
William R. Gould, Debra A. Patla, Rob Daley, Paul Stephen Corn, Blake R. Hossack, Robert E. Bennetts, Charles R. Peterson
2012, Wetlands (32) 379-389
Monitoring of natural resources is crucial to ecosystem conservation, and yet it can pose many challenges. Annual surveys for amphibian breeding occupancy were conducted in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks over a 4-year period (2006–2009) at two scales: catchments (portions of watersheds) and individual wetland sites. Catchments were selected...
Minimum distribution of subsea ice-bearing permafrost on the US Beaufort Sea continental shelf
Laura L. Brothers, Patrick E. Hart, Carolyn D. Ruppel
2012, Geophysical Research Letters (39)
Starting in Late Pleistocene time (~19 ka), sea level rise inundated coastal zones worldwide. On some parts of the present-day circum-Arctic continental shelf, this led to flooding and thawing of formerly subaerial permafrost and probable dissociation of associated gas hydrates. Relict permafrost has never been systematically mapped along the 700-km-long...
Farallon slab detachment and deformation of the Magdalena Shelf, southern Baja California
Daniel S. Brothers, Alistair J. Harding, Antonio Gonzalez-Fernandez, W.S. Steven Holbrook, Graham M. Kent, Neal W. Driscoll, John M. Fletcher, Daniel Lizarralde, Paul J. Umhoefer, Gary Axen
2012, Geophysical Research Letters (39)
Subduction of the Farallon plate beneath northwestern Mexico stalled by ~12 Ma when the Pacific-Farallon spreading-ridge approached the subduction zone. Coupling between remnant slab and the overriding North American plate played an important role in the capture of the Baja California (BC) microplate by the Pacific Plate. Active-source seismic reflection...
Cui-ui reproductive success from potential egg deposition to larval emigration
G. Gary Scoppettone, Peter H. Rissler
2012, Western North American Naturalist (72) 288-295
From 1985 to 2006, we tracked cui-ui, Chasmistes cujus, survival from potential egg deposition of migrating spawners to emigrating larvae. Tahoe sucker larvae emigrated to Pyramid Lake the same time as cui-ui larvae, but cui-ui was the predominant catostomid larvae we captured. Survival of cui-ui larvae ranged from 0.46% to...
Development of a real-time PCR assay for detection of planktonic red king crab (Paralithodes camtschaticus (Tilesius 1815)) larvae
Pamela C. Jensen, Maureen K. Purcell, J. Frank Morado, Ginny L. Eckert
2012, Journal of Shellfish Research (31) 917-924
The Alaskan red king crab (Paralithodes camtschaticus) fishery was once one of the most economically important single-species fisheries in the world, but is currently depressed. This fishery would benefit from improved stock assessment capabilities. Larval crab distribution is patchy temporally and spatially, requiring extensive sampling efforts to locate and track...
Anisotropic path modeling to assess pedestrian-evacuation potential from Cascadia-related tsunamis in the US Pacific Northwest
Nathan J. Wood, Mathew C. Schmidtlein
2012, Natural Hazards (62) 275-300
Recent disasters highlight the threat that tsunamis pose to coastal communities. When developing tsunami-education efforts and vertical-evacuation strategies, emergency managers need to understand how much time it could take for a coastal population to reach higher ground before tsunami waves arrive. To improve efforts to model pedestrian evacuations from tsunamis,...
Hotspot: the Snake River Geothermal Drilling Project--initial report
J.W. Shervais, D. Nielson, T. Lachmar, E. H. Christiansen, L. Morgan, Wayne C. Shanks, C. Delahunty, D.R. Schmitt, L.M. Liberty, D.D. Blackwell, J. M. Glen, J.A. Kessler, K.E. Potter, M.M. Jean, C.J. Sant, T. Freeman
2012, Geothermal Resources Council Transactions (36) 767-772
The Snake River volcanic province (SRP) overlies a thermal anomaly that extends deep into the mantle; it represents one of the highest heat flow provinces in North America. The primary goal of this project is to evaluate geothermal potential in three distinct settings: (1) Kimama site: inferred high sub-aquifer geothermal...
Drought drove forest decline and dune building in eastern upper Michigan, USA, as the upper Great Lakes became closed basins
Walter L. Loope, Henry M. Loope, Ronald J. Goble, Timothy G. Fisher, David E. Lytle, Robert J. Legg, Douglas A. Wysocki, Paul R. Hanson, Aaron R. Young
2012, Geology (40) 315-318
Current models of landscape response to Holocene climate change in midcontinent North America largely reconcile Earth orbital and atmospheric climate forcing with pollen-based forest histories on the east and eolian chronologies in Great Plains grasslands on the west. However, thousands of sand dunes spread across 12,000 km2 in eastern upper...
Advances in carbonate exploration and reservoir analysis
J. Garland, J.E. Neilson, S.E. Laubach, Katherine J. Whidden, editor(s)
2012, Book
Carbonate reservoirs contain an increasingly important percentage of the world’s hydrocarbon reserves. This volume presents key recent advances in carbonate exploration and reservoir analysis. As well as a comprehensive overview of the trends in carbonate over the years, the volume focuses on four key areas: (1) emerging plays and techniques with...
Increased temperature and altered summer precipitation have differential effects on biological soil crusts in a dryland ecosystem
Shannon L. Johnson, Cheryl R. Kuske, Travis D. Carney, David C. Housman, La Verne Gallegos-Graves, Jayne Belnap
2012, Global Change Biology (18) 2583-2593
Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) are common and ecologically important members of dryland ecosystems worldwide, where they stabilize soil surfaces and contribute newly fixed C and N to soils. To test the impacts of predicted climate change scenarios on biocrusts in a dryland ecosystem, the effects of a 2–3 °C increase...
Introduced and invasive species in novel rangeland ecosystems: friends or foes?
Jayne Belnap, John A. Ludwig, Bradford P. Wilcox, Julio L. Betancourt, W. Richard J. Dean, Benjamin D. Hoffmann, Sue J. Milton
2012, Rangeland Ecology and Management (65) 569-578
Globally, new combinations of introduced and native plant and animal species have changed rangelands into novel ecosystems. Whereas many rangeland stakeholders (people who use or have an interest in rangelands) view intentional species introductions to improve forage and control erosion as beneficial, others focus on unintended costs, such as increased...
Lichens: Unexpected anti-prion agents?
Cynthia M. Rodriguez, James P. Bennett, Christopher J. Johnson
2012, Prion (6) 11-16
The prion diseases sheep scrapie and cervid chronic wasting disease are transmitted, in part, via an environmental reservoir of infectivity; prions released from infected animals persist in the environment and can cause disease years later. Central to controlling disease transmission is the identification of methods capable of inactivating these agents...
A national geographic framework for guiding conservation on a landscape scale
Michael J. Millard, Craig A. Czarnecki, John M. Morton, Laura A. Brandt, Jennifer S. Briggs, Frank S. Shipley, Roger G. Sayre, Pamela J. Sponholtz, David Perkins, Darin G. Simpkins, Janith Taylor
2012, Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management (3) 175-183
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, along with the global conservation community, has recognized that the conservation challenges of the 21st century far exceed the responsibilities and footprint of any individual agency or program. The ecological effects of climate change and other anthropogenic stressors do not recognize geopolitical boundaries and,...
Discovering shared segments on the migration route of the bar-headed goose by time-based plane-sweeping trajectory clustering
Ze Luo, Yan Baoping, John Y. Takekawa, Diann J. Prosser
2012, Journal of Information and Computational Science (9) 5093-5100
We propose a new method to help ornithologists and ecologists discover shared segments on the migratory pathway of the bar-headed geese by time-based plane-sweeping trajectory clustering. We present a density-based time parameterized line segment clustering algorithm, which extends traditional comparable clustering algorithms from temporal and spatial dimensions. We present a...
Applications of science and engineering to quantify and control the Deepwater Horizon oil spill
Marcia K. McNutt, Steven Chu, Jane Lubchenco, Tom Hunter, Gabrielle Dreyfus, Steven A. Murawski, David M. Kennedy
2012, PNAS (109) 20222-20228
The unprecedented engagement of scientists from government, academia, and industry enabled multiple unanticipated and unique problems to be addressed during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. During the months between the initial blowout on April 20, 2010, and the final well kill on September 19, 2010, researchers prepared options, analyses of...
Demographics, diet, movements, and survival of an isolated, unmanaged raccoon Procyon lotor (Procyonidae, Carnivora) population on the Outer Banks of North Carolina
Arielle Waldstein Parsons, Theodore R. Simons, Allan F. O’Connell, Michael K. Stoskopf
2012, Mammalia (77) 21-30
Raccoons (Procyon lotor) are highly adaptable meso-carnivores that inhabit many environments, including the Atlantic barrier islands, where their role as predators of declining, beach-nesting bird and turtle species is of particular interest. Population models that improve our understanding of predator-prey dynamics are receiving increasing attention in the literature; however, their...
