Winter distribution of willow flycatcher subspecies
Eben H. Paxton, Philip Unitt, Mark K. Sogge, Mary Whitfield, Paul Keim
2011, The Condor (113) 608-618
Documenting how different regions across a species' breeding and nonbreeding range are linked via migratory movements is the first step in understanding how events in one region can influence events in others and is critical to identifying conservation threats throughout a migratory animal's annual cycle. We combined two studies that...
Wind Turbines as Landscape Impediments to the Migratory Connectivity of Bats
Paul M. Cryan
2011, Environmental Law (41) 355-370
Unprecedented numbers of migratory bats are found dead beneath industrial-scale wind turbines during late summer and autumn in both North America and Europe. Prior to the wide-scale deployment of wind turbines, fatal collisions of migratory bats with anthropogenic structures were rarely reported and likely occurred very infrequently. There are no...
Wildlife conservation and solar energy development in the Desert Southwest, United States
Jeffrey E. Lovich, Josua R. Ennen
2011, BioScience (61) 982-992
Large areas of public land are currently being permitted or evaluated for utility-scale solar energy development (USSED) in the southwestern United States, including areas with high biodiversity and protected species. However, peer-reviewed studies of the effects of USSED on wildlife are lacking. The potential effects of the construction and the...
Wildfires alter rodent community structure across four vegetation types in southern California, USA
Cheryl S. Brehme, Denise R. Clark, Carlton J. Rochester, Robert N. Fisher
2011, Fire Ecology (7) 81-98
We surveyed burned and unburned plots across four habitat reserves in San Diego County, California, USA, in 2005 and 2006, to assess the effects of the 2003 wildfires on the community structure and relative abundance of rodent species. The reserves each contained multiple vegetation types (coastal sage scrub, chaparral, woodland,...
Who's your momma? Recognizing maternal origin of juvenile steelhead using injections of strontium chloride to create transgenerational marks
Gene E. Shippentower, Carl B. Schreck, Scott A. Heppell
2011, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (140) 1330-1339
We sought to determine whether a strontium chloride injection could be used to create a transgenerational otolith mark in steelhead Oncorhynchus mykiss. Two strontium injection trials and a survey of strontium: calcium (Sr:Ca) ratios in juvenile steelhead from various steelhead hatcheries were conducted to test the feasibility of the technique....
Investigating and managing the rapid emergence of white-nose syndrome, a novel, fatal, infectious disease of hibernating bats
Janet Foley, Deana Clifford, Kevin Castle, Paul M. Cryan, Richard S. Ostfeld
2011, Conservation Biology (25) 223-231
White-nose syndrome (WNS) is a fatal disease of bats that hibernate. The etiologic agent of WNS is the fungus Geomyces destructans, which infects the skin and wing membranes. Over 1 million bats in six species in eastern North America have died from WNS since 2006, and as a result several...
West Nile virus: North American experience
Erik K. Hofmeister
2011, Integrative Zoology (6) 279-289
West Nile virus, a mosquito-vectored flavivirus of the Japanese encephalitis serogroup, was first detected in North America following an epizootic in the New York City area in 1999. In the intervening 11 years since the arrival of the virus in North America, it has crossed the contiguous USA, entered the...
Weapons testing and endangered fish coexist in Florida
Howard Jelks, Bill Tate, Frank Jordan
2011, Endangered Species Bulletin (36) 46-47
Okaloosa darters (Etheostoma okaloosae) are small fish found only in a few streams in the Florida panhandle. This species has been listed since 1973 as endangered due to habitat alteration resulting from erosion, the potential competition from brown darters (E. edwini), and a limited geographic distribution. In recent years, however,...
Using remote sensing and imagery exploitation to monitor the dynamics of East Timbalier Island, LA: 2000-2010
James P. Thomas, Gary B. Fisher, Lisbeth A. Chandler, Kim M. Angeli, Douglas J. Wheeler, Robert P. Glover, Elizabeth J. Schenck-Gardner, Steve E. Wiles, Carolyn F. Lindley, Michael B. Peccini
2011, Geocarto International (26) 613-632
In 1999, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration-National Marine Fisheries Service and the State of Louisiana jointly undertook the restoration of East Timbalier, a barrier island along a sediment-starved portion of the Gulf of Mexico coast of Louisiana. High-resolution overhead imagery was used to monitor the course of this restoration...
The role of the Everglades Mangrove Ecotone Region (EMER) in regulating nutrient cycling and wetland productivity in South Florida
Victor H. Rivera-Monroy, Robert R. Twilley, Stephen E. Davis III, Daniel L. Childers, Marc Simard, Randolph Chambers, Rudolf Jaffe, Joseph N. Boyer, David T. Rudnick, Keqi Zhang, Edward Castañeda-Moya, Sharon M. L. Ewe, Rene M. Price, Carlos Coronado-Molina, Michael Ross, Thomas J. Smith III, Beatrice Michot, Ehab Meselhe, William Nuttle, Tiffany G. Troxler, Gregory B. Noe
2011, Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology (41) 633-669
The authors summarize the main findings of the Florida Coastal Everglades Long-Term Ecological Research (FCE-LTER) program in the EMER, within the context of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP), to understand how regional processes, mediated by water flow, control population and ecosystem dynamics across the EMER landscape. Tree canopies with...
Wild bird migration across the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau: A transmission route for highly pathogenic H5N1
Diann J. Prosser, Peng Cui, John Y. Takekawa, Mingjie Tang, Yuansheng Hou, Bridget M. Collins, Baoping Yan, Nichola J. Hill, Tianxian Li, Yongdong Li, Fumin Lei, Shan Guo, Zhi Xing, Yubang He, Yuanchun Zhou, David C. Douglas, William M. Perry, Scott H. Newman
2011, PLoS ONE (6)
Background Qinghai Lake in central China has been at the center of debate on whether wild birds play a role in circulation of highly pathogenic avian influenza virus H5N1. In 2005, an unprecedented epizootic at Qinghai Lake killed more than 6000 migratory birds including over 3000 bar-headed geese (Anser indicus). H5N1...
Wolves, Canis lupus, carry and cache the collars of radio-collared White-tailed Deer, Odocoileus virginianus, they killed
Michael E. Nelson, L. David Mech
2011, Canadian Field-Naturalist (125) 67-68
Wolves (Canis lupus) in northeastern Minnesota cached six radio-collars (four in winter, two in spring-summer) of 202 radio-collared White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) they killed or consumed from 1975 to 2010. A Wolf bedded on top of one collar cached in snow. We found one collar each at a Wolf den...
Book review: Bayesian analysis for population ecology
William A. Link
2011, American Statistician (65) 61-62
Brian Dennis described the field of ecology as “fertile, uncolonized ground for Bayesian ideas.” He continued: “The Bayesian propagule has arrived at the shore. Ecologists need to think long and hard about the consequences of a Bayesian ecology. The Bayesian outlook is a successful competitor, but is it a weed?...
What makes a natural clay antibacterial?
Lynda B. Williams, David W. Metge, Dennis D. Eberl, Ronald W. Harvey, Amanda G. Turner, Panjai Prapaipong, Amisha T. Port-Peterson
2011, Environmental Science & Technology (45) 3768-3773
Natural clays have been used in ancient and modern medicine, but the mechanism(s) that make certain clays lethal against bacterial pathogens has not been identified. We have compared the depositional environments, mineralogies, and chemistries of clays that exhibit antibacterial effects on a broad spectrum of human pathogens including antibiotic resistant...
Studying geodesy and earthquake hazard in and around the New Madrid Seismic Zone
Oliver Salz Boyd, Harold Magistrale
2011, Eos, Transactions, American Geophysical Union (92) 317-317
Workshop on New Madrid Geodesy and the Challenges of Understanding Intraplate Earthquakes; Norwood, Massachusetts, 4 March 2011 Twenty-six researchers gathered for a workshop sponsored by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and FM Global to discuss geodesy in and around the New Madrid seismic zone (NMSZ) and its relation to earthquake...
Mountain goat abundance and population trends in the Olympic Mountains, Washington, 2011
Kurt Jenkins, Patricia Happe, Paul C. Griffin, Katherine Beirne, Roger Hoffman, William Baccus
2011, Open-File Report 2011-1313
We conducted an aerial helicopter survey between July 18 and July 25, 2011, to estimate abundance and trends of introduced mountain goats (Oreamnos americanus) in the Olympic Mountains. The survey was the first since we developed a sightability correction model in 2008, which provided the means to estimate the number...
Assessment of potential migration of radionuclides and trace elements from the White Mesa uranium mill to the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation and surrounding areas, southeastern Utah
David L. Naftz, Anthony J. Ranalli, Ryan C. Rowland, Thomas M. Marston
2011, Scientific Investigations Report 2011-5231
In 2007, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe requested that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Geological Survey conduct an independent evaluation of potential offsite migration of radionuclides and selected trace elements associated with the ore storage and milling process at an active uranium mill site near White Mesa, Utah....
Aeromagnetic and aeromagnetic-based geologic maps of the Coastal Belt, Franciscan Complex, northern California
V.E. Langenheim, R.C. Jachens, R. J. McLaughlin
2011, Scientific Investigations Map 3188
The Coastal belt of the Franciscan Complex represents a Late Cretaceous to Miocene accretionary prism and overlying slope deposits. Its equivalents may extend from the offshore outer borderland of southern California to north of the Mendocino Triple Junction under the Eel River Basin and in the offshore of Cascadia. The...
Newberry Volcano—Central Oregon’s sleeping giant
Julie M. Donnelly-Nolan, Wendy K. Stovall, David W. Ramsey, John W. Ewert, Robert A. Jensen
2011, Fact Sheet 2011-3145
Hidden in plain sight, Oregon's massive Newberry Volcano is the largest volcano in the Cascades volcanic arc and covers an area the size of Rhode Island. Unlike familiar cone-shaped Cascades volcanoes, Newberry was built into the shape of a broad shield by repeated eruptions over 500,000 years. About 65,000 years...
Gas hydrate prospecting using well cuttings and mud-gas geochemistry from 35 wells, North Slope, Alaska
T.D. Lorenson, Timothy S. Collett
2011, Scientific Investigations Report 2011-5195
Gas hydrate deposits are common on the North Slope of Alaska around Prudhoe Bay; however, the extent of these deposits is unknown outside of this area. As part of a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and Bureau of Land Management gas hydrate research collaboration, well-cutting and mud-gas samples have been collected...
Wastewater dilution index partially explains observed polybrominated diphenyl ether flame retardant concentrations in osprey eggs from Columbia River Basin, 2008-2009
Charles J. Henny, Robert A. Grove, James L. Kaiser, Branden L. Johnson, Chad V. Furl, Robert J. Letcher
2011, Ecotoxicology (20) 682-697
Several polybrominated biphenyl ether (PBDE) congeners were found in all 175 osprey (Pandion haliaetus) eggs collected from the Columbia River Basin between 2002 and 2009. ΣPBDE concentrations in 2008–2009 were highest in osprey eggs from the two lowest flow rivers studied; however, each river flowed through relatively large and populous...
Geophysical, stratigraphic, and flow-zone logs of selected wells in Cayuga County, New York, 2001–2011
David A.V. Eckhardt, John Williams, J. Alton Anderson
2011, Open-File Report 2011-1319
Geophysical logs were collected and analyzed along with bedrock core samples and bedrock outcrops to define the bedrock stratigraphy and flow zones penetrated by 93 monitor and water-supply wells in Cayuga County, New York. The work was completed from 2001 through 2011 as part of an investigation of volatile-organic compound...
Valuing ecosystem and economic services across land-use scenarios in the Prairie Pothole Regions of the Dakotas, USA
William R. Gascoigne, Dana Hoag, Lynne Koontz, Brian A. Tangen, Terry L. Shaffer, Robert A. Gleason
2011, Ecological Economics (70) 1715-1725
This study uses biophysical values derived for the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) of North and South Dakota, in conjunction with value transfer methods, to assess environmental and economic tradeoffs under different policy-relevant land-use scenarios over a 20-year period. The ecosystem service valuation is carried out by comparing the biophysical and...
An exploratory investigation of polar organic compounds in waters from a lead–zinc mine and mill complex
Colleen E. Rostad, Christopher J. Schmitt, John G. Schumacher, Thomas J. Leiker
2011, Water, Air, & Soil Pollution (217) 431-443
Surface water samples were collected in 2006 from a lead mine-mill complex in Missouri to investigate possible organic compounds coming from the milling process. Water samples contained relatively high concentrations of dissolved organic carbon (DOC; greater than 20 mg/l) for surface waters but were colorless, implying a lack of naturally...
Vertebrate species introductions in the United States and its territories
Gary W. Witmer, Pam L. Fuller
2011, Current Zoology (57) 559-567
At least 1,065 introduced vertebrate species have been introduced in the United States and its territories, including at least 86 mammalian, 127 avian, 179 reptilian/amphibian, and 673 fish species. Examples in each major taxonomic group include domestic cat, small Indian mongoose, red fox, goat, pig, rabbit, rats, house mouse, gray...
