Multi-species call-broadcast improved detection of endangered Yuma clapper rail compared to single-species call-broadcast
Christopher P. Nadeau, Courtney J. Conway, Linden Piest, William P. Burger
2013, Wetlands (33) 699-706
Broadcasting calls of marsh birds during point-count surveys increases their detection probability and decreases variation in the number of birds detected across replicate surveys. However, multi-species monitoring using call-broadcast may reduce these benefits if birds are reluctant to call once they hear broadcasted calls of other species. We compared a...
Evidence of territoriality and species interactions from spatial point-pattern analyses of subarctic-nesting geese
Matthew Reiter, David E. Andersen
2013, PLoS ONE (8)
Quantifying spatial patterns of bird nests and nest fate provides insights into processes influencing a species’ distribution. At Cape Churchill, Manitoba, Canada, recent declines in breeding Eastern Prairie Population Canada geese (Branta canadensis interior) has coincided with increasing populations of nesting lesser snow geese (Chen caerulescens caerulescens) and Ross’s geese...
Use of exposure history to identify patterns of immunity to pneumonia in bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis)
Raina K. Plowright, Kezia Manlove, E. Frances Cassirer, Thomas H. Besser, Peter J. Hudson
2013, PLoS ONE (8)
Individual host immune responses to infectious agents drive epidemic behavior and are therefore central to understanding and controlling infectious diseases. However, important features of individual immune responses, such as the strength and longevity of immunity, can be challenging to characterize, particularly if they cannot be replicated or controlled in captive...
At-sea behavior varies with lunar phase in a nocturnal pelagic seabird, the swallow-tailed gull
Sebastian M. Cruz, Mevin Hooten, Kathryn P. Huyvaert, Carolina B. Proano, David J. Anderson, Vsevolod Afanasyev, Martin Wikelski
2013, PLoS ONE (8)
Strong and predictable environmental variability can reward flexible behaviors among animals. We used long-term records of activity data that cover several lunar cycles to investigate whether behavior at-sea of swallow-tailed gulls Creagrus furcatus, a nocturnal pelagic seabird, varied with lunar phase in the Galápagos Islands. A Bayesian hierarchical model showed...
Aggregation of carbon dioxide sequestration storage assessment units
Madalyn S. Blondes, John H. Schuenemeyer, Ricardo A. Olea, Lawrence J. Drew
2013, Stochastic Environmental Research and Risk Assessment (27) 1839-1859
The U.S. Geological Survey is currently conducting a national assessment of carbon dioxide (CO2) storage resources, mandated by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. Pre-emission capture and storage of CO2 in subsurface saline formations is one potential method to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the negative impact of...
One hundred and six years of population and community dynamics of Sonoran Desert Laboratory perennials
Susana Rodriguez-Buritica, Helen Raichle, Robert H. Webb, Raymond M. Turner, Larry Venable
2013, Ecological Archives (94) 976-976
This data set constitutes all information associated with the Spalding-Shreve permanent vegetation plots from 1906 through 2012, which is the longest-running plant monitoring program in the world. The program consists of detailed maps of all Sonoran Desert perennial plants in 30 permanent plots located on Tumamoc Hill, near Tucson, Arizona,...
Improving predictive power of physically based rainfall-induced shallow landslide models: a probablistic approach
S. Raia, M. Alvioli, M. Rossi, R.L. Baum, J. W. Godt, F. Guzzetti
2013, Geoscientific Model Development and Discussions (6) 1367-1426
Distributed models to forecast the spatial and temporal occurrence of rainfall-induced shallow landslides are deterministic. These models extend spatially the static stability models adopted in geotechnical engineering and adopt an infinite-slope geometry to balance the resisting and the driving forces acting on the sliding mass. An infiltration model is used...
Resilience thinking and a decision-analytic approach to conservation: strange bedfellows or essential partners?
Fred A. Johnson, Byron K. Williams, James D. Nichols
2013, Ecology and Society (18)
There has been some tendency to view decision science and resilience theory as opposing approaches, or at least as contending perspectives, for natural resource management. Resilience proponents have been especially critical of optimization in decision science, at least for those cases where it is focused on the aggressive pursuit of...
Ecology of potential West Nile virus vectors in southeastern Louisiana: enzootic transmission in the relative absence of Culex quinquefasciatus
Marvin S. Godsey Jr., Raymond J. King, Kristen Burkhalter, Mark Delorey, Leah Colton, Dawn Charnetzky, Genevieve Sutherland, Vanessa O. Ezenwa, Lawrence A. Wilson, Michelle Coffey, Lesley E. Milheim, Viki G. Taylor, Charles Palmisano, Dawn M. Wesson, Stephen C. Guptill
2013, American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (88) 986-996
A study of West Nile virus (WNV) ecology was conducted in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, from 2002 to 2004. Mosquitoes were collected weekly throughout the year using Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) light traps placed at 1.5 and 6 m above the ground and gravid traps. A total...
Conservation of avian diversity in the Sierra Nevada: moving beyond a single-species management focus
Angela M. White, Elise F. Zipkin, Patricia N. Manley, Matthew D. Schlesinger
2013, PLoS ONE (8)
Background: As a result of past practices, many of the dry coniferous forests of the western United States contain dense, even-aged stands with uncharacteristically high levels of litter and downed woody debris. These changes to the forest have received considerable attention as they elevate concerns regarding the outcome of...
The timing of scour and fill in a gravel-bedded river measured with buried accelerometers
Andrew S. Gendaszek, Christopher S. Magirl, Christiana R. Czuba, Christopher P. Konrad
2013, Journal of Hydrology (495) 186-196
A device that measures the timing of streambed scour and the duration of sediment mobilization at specific depths of a streambed was developed using data-logging accelerometers placed within the gravel substrate of the Cedar River, Washington, USA. Each accelerometer recorded its orientation every 20 min and remained stable until the...
The influence of vegetation on the hydrodynamics and geomorphology of a tree island in Everglades National Park (Florida, United States)
Pamela L. Sullivan, Victor C. Engel, Michael S. Ross, Rene M. Price
2013, Ecohydrology (7) 727-744
Transpiration-driven nutrient accumulation has been identified as a potential mechanism governing the creation and maintenance of wetland vegetation patterning. This process may contribute to the formation of nutrient-rich tree islands within the expansive oligotrophic marshes of the Everglades (Florida, United States). This study presents hydrogeochemical data indicating that tree root...
Effects of sex pheromones and sexual maturation on locomotor activity in female sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus)
Erin J. Walaszczyk, Nicholas S. Johnson, Juan Pedro Steibel, Weiming Li
2013, Journal of Biological Rhythms (28) 218-226
Synchronization of male and female locomotor rhythmicity can play a vital role in ensuring reproductive success. Several physiological and environmental factors alter these locomotor rhythms. As sea lamprey, Petromyzon marinus, progress through their life cycle, their locomotor activity rhythm changes multiple times. The goal of this study was to elucidate...
Pyroclastic density currents associated with the 2008-2009 eruption of Chaitén Volcano (Chile): forest disturbances, deposits, and dynamics
Jon J. Major, Thomas C. Pierson, Richard P. Hoblitt, Hugo Moreno
2013, Andean Geology (40) 324-358
Explosive activity at Chaitén Volcano in May 2008 and subsequent dome collapses over the following nine months triggered multiple, small-volume pyroclastic density currents (PDCs). The explosive activity triggered PDCs to the north and northeast, which felled modest patches of forest as far as 2 km from the caldera rim....
A Unified Flash Flood Database across the United States
Jonathan J. Gourley, Yang Hong, Zachary L. Flamig, Ami Arthur, Robert Clark, Martin Calianno, Isabelle Ruin, Terry W. Ortel, Michael Wieczorek, Pierre-Emmanuel Kirstetter, Edward Clark, Witold F. Krajewski
2013, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (94) 799-805
Despite flash flooding being one of the most deadly and costly weather-related natural hazards worldwide, individual datasets to characterize them in the United States are hampered by limited documentation and can be difficult to access. This study is the first of its kind to assemble, reprocess, describe, and disseminate a...
Redd dewatering effects on hatching and larval survival of the robust redhorse
J. M. Fisk III, Thomas J. Kwak, R. J. Heise, F. W. Sessions
2013, River Research and Applications (29) 574-581
Riverine habitats have been altered and fragmented from hydroelectric dams and change spatially and temporally with hydropower flow releases. Hydropeaking flow regimes for electrical power production inundate areas that create temporary suitable habitat for fish that may be rapidly drained. Robust redhorse Moxostoma robustum, an imperiled, rare fish species, uses...
The silent threat of low genetic diversity
Margaret E. Hunter
2013, livebetter Magazine
Across the Caribbean, protected coastal waters have served as primary feeding and breeding grounds for the endangered Antillean manatee. Unfortunately, these same coastal waters are also a popular “habitat” for humans. In the past, the overlap between human and manatee habitat allowed for manatee hunting and threatened the survival of...
Emissions of carbon dioxide and methane from a headwater stream network of interior Alaska
John T. Crawford, Robert G. Striegl, Kimberly P. Wickland, Mark M. Dornblaser, Emily H. Stanley
2013, Journal of Geophysical Research G: Biogeosciences (118) 482-494
Boreal ecosystems store significant quantities of organic carbon (C) that may be vulnerable to degradation as a result of a warming climate. Despite their limited coverage on the landscape, streams play a significant role in the processing, gaseous emission, and downstream export of C, and small streams are thought to...
Volcano–ice interactions precursory to the 2009 eruption of Redoubt Volcano, Alaska
Heather A. Bleick, Michelle L. Coombs, Peter F. Cervelli, Katharine F. Bull, Rick Wessels
2013, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research (259) 373-388
In late summer of 2008, after nearly 20 years of quiescence, Redoubt Volcano began to show signs of abnormal heat flow in its summit crater. In the months that followed, the excess heat triggered melting and ablation of Redoubt's glaciers, beginning at the summit and propagating to lower elevations as the...
Temporal variability of exchange between groundwater and surface water based on high-frequency direct measurements of seepage at the sediment-water interface
Donald O. Rosenberry, Rich W. Sheibley, Stephen E. Cox, Frederic W. Simonds, David L. Naftz
2013, Water Resources Research (49) 2975-2986
Seepage at the sediment-water interface in several lakes, a large river, and an estuary exhibits substantial temporal variability when measured with temporal resolution of 1 min or less. Already substantial seepage rates changed by 7% and 16% in response to relatively small rain events at two lakes in the northeastern...
Tectonic setting of the pebble and other copper-gold-molybdenum porphyry deposits within the evolving middle cretaceous continental margin of Northwestern North America
Richard J. Goldfarb, Eric D. Anderson, Craig J. Hart
2013, Economic Geology (108) 405-419
The Pebble Cu-Au-Mo deposit in southwestern Alaska, containing the largest gold resource of any known porphyry in the world, developed in a tectonic setting significantly different from that of the present-day. It is one of a series of metalliferous middle Cretaceous porphyritic granodiorite, quartz monzonite, and diorite bodies, evolved...
Efficacy of trap modifications for increasing capture rates of aquatic snakes in floating aquatic funnel traps
Brian J. Halstead, Glenn D. Wylie, Michael L. Casazza
2013, Herpetological Conservation and Biology (8) 65-74
Increasing detection and capture probabilities of rare or elusive herpetofauna of conservation concern is important to inform the scientific basis for their management and recovery. The Giant Gartersnake (Thamnophis gigas) is an example of a secretive, wary, and generally difficult-to-sample species about which little is known regarding its patterns of...
A USANS/SANS study of the accessibility of pores in the Barnett Shale to methane and water
Leslie F. Ruppert, Richard Sakurovs, Tomasz P. Blach, Lilin He, Yuri B. Melnichenko, David F. Mildner, Leo Alcantar-Lopez
2013, Energy & Fuels (27) 772-779
Shale is an increasingly important source of natural gas in the United States. The gas is held in fine pores that need to be accessed by horizontal drilling and hydrofracturing techniques. Understanding the nature of the pores may provide clues to making gas extraction more efficient. We have investigated two...
Trends in amphibian occupancy in the United States
M. J. Adams, David A.W. Miller, Erin Muths, Paul Stephen Corn, Evan H. Campbell Grant, Larissa L. Bailey, Gary M. Fellers, Robert N. Fisher, Walter J. Sadinski, Hardin Waddle, Susan C. Walls
2013, PLoS ONE (8)
Though a third of amphibian species worldwide are thought to be imperiled, existing assessments simply categorize extinction risk, providing little information on the rate of population losses. We conducted the first analysis of the rate of change in the probability that amphibians occupy ponds and other comparable habitat features across...
Chemical transfers along slowly eroding catenas developed on granitic cratons in southern Africa
Lesego Khomo, Carleton R. Bern, Anthony S. Hartshorn, Kevin H. Rogers, Oliver A. Chadwick
2013, Geoderma (202-203) 192-202
A catena is a series of distinct but co-evolving soils arrayed along a slope. On low-slope, slowly eroding catenas the redistribution of mass occurs predominantly as plasma, the dissolved and suspended constituents in soil water. We applied mass balance methods to track how redistribution via plasma contributed to physical and...
