A multi-year comparison of IPCI scores for prairie pothole wetlands: implications of temporal and spatial variation
Ned H. Euliss Jr., David M. Mushet
2011, Wetlands (31) 713-723
In the prairie pothole region of North America, development of Indices of Biotic Integrity (IBIs) to detect anthropogenic impacts on wetlands has been hampered by naturally dynamic inter-annual climate fluctuations. Of multiple efforts to develop IBIs for prairie pothole wetlands, only one, the Index of Plant Community Integrity (IPCI), has...
Impacts of multispecies parasitism on juvenile coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) in Oregon
Jayde A. Ferguson, Jeremy Romer, Jean C. Sifneos, Lisa Madsen, Carl B. Schreck, Michael Glynn, Michael L. Kent
2011, Aquaculture (362-3) 184-192
We are studying the impacts of parasites on threatened stocks of Oregon coastal coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch). In our previous studies, we have found high infections of digeneans and myxozoans in coho salmon parr from the lower main stem of West Fork Smith River (WFSR), Oregon. In contrast parr from...
Carbon gas fluxes in re-established wetlands on organic soils differ relative to plant community and hydrology
Robin L. Miller
2011, Wetlands (31) 1055-1066
We measured CO2 and CH4 fluxes for 6 years following permanent flooding of an agriculturally managed organic soil at two water depths (~25 and ~55 cm standing water) in the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta, California, as part of research studying C dynamics in re-established wetlands. Flooding rapidly reduced gaseous C losses,...
Catch of channel catfish with tandem-set hoop nets and gill nets in lentic systems of Nebraska
Lindsey K. Richters, Kevin L. Pope
2011, American Fisheries Society Symposium (77) 573-580
Twenty-six Nebraska water bodies representing two ecosystem types (small standing waters and large standing waters) were surveyed during 2008 and 2009 with tandem-set hoop nets and experimental gill nets to determine if similar trends existed in catch rates and size structures of channel catfish Ictalurus punctatus captured with these gears....
Are isolated wetlands isolated?
Loren M. Smith, Ned H. Euliss Jr., David A. Haukos
2011, National Wetlands Newsletter (33) 26-27
While federal regulations during the past 10 years have treated isolated wetlands as unconnected to aquatic resources protected by the Clean Water Act, they provide critical ecosystem services to society that extend well beyond their wetland boundaries. The authors offer well-documented examples from the scientific literature on some of the...
Book review: Sandhill and whooping cranes: Ancient voices over America's wetlands
Jane E. Austin
2011, The Prairie Naturalist (43) 131-132
Paul Johnsgard has long been captivated by wild cranes and their unique vocalizations, courtship dances, and wide-ranging migrations. As a scientist and an admirer, Johnsgard has watched their migrations and behaviors for decades as hundreds of thousands of cranes staged each spring by the central Platte River, not far from...
US Topo - A new national map series
Laurence R. Moore
2011, Directions Magazine (2011)
In the second half of the 20th century, the foundation of the U.S. Geological Survey's national map series was the handcrafted 7.5-minute topographic map. Times change, budgets get squeezed and currency expectations become ever more challenging. The USGS's Larry Moore, who oversees data production operations at two National Geospatial Technical...
Estimation of volumetric runoff coefficients for Texas watersheds using land-use and rainfall-runoff data
Nirajan Dhakal, Xing Fang, Theodore G. Cleveland, David B. Thompson, William H. Asquith, Luke J. Marzen
2011, Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering (138) 43-54
The rational method for peak discharge (Qp">Qp) estimation was introduced in the 1880s. Although the rational method is considered simplistic, it remains an effective method for estimating peak discharge for...
Book review: World atlas of mangroves
Ken W. Krauss, Daniel A. Friess
2011, Wetlands (31) 1003-1005
Nearly 14 years have passed since the first atlas, World Mangrove Atlas (Spalding et al. 1997), was published. While scientists throughout the world have shared their insights about these ecosystems from a handful of “classic” mangrove ecology treatises, no book since has provided the same platform for...
Boa constrictor (Boa constrictor): foraging behavior
G.G. Sorrell, M.S. Boback, R.N. Reed, S. Green, Chad E. Montgomery, L.S. DeSouza, M. Chiaraviglio
2011, Herpetological Review (42) 281-281
Boa constrictor is often referred to as a sit-and-wait or ambush forager that chooses locations to maximize the likelihood of prey encounters (Greene 1983. In Janzen [ed.], Costa Rica Natural History, pp. 380-382. Univ. Chicago Press, Illinois). However, as more is learned about the natural history of snakes in general,...
Notes on the distribution of eastern woodrats and hispid cotton rats in south-central Nebraska
H.D. Wills, Keith Geluso, E.J. Smits, J.T. Springer, W.E. Newton
2011, Prairie Naturalist (43) 127-129
The eastern woodrat (Neotoma floridana) and hispid cotton rat (Sigmodon hispidus) reach distributional limits in southern Nebraska (Jones 1964, Farney 1975). In the last half century, both species have expanded their distributional ranges in the region (Kugler and Geluso 2009, Wright et al. 2010). Herein, we report new localities of...
Nesting success and resource selection of greater sage grouse in South Dakota: Chapter 8
Nicholas W. Kaczor, Kent C. Jensen, Robert W. Klaver, Mark A. Rumble, Katie M. Herman-Brunson, Christopher C. Swanson
Brett K. Sandercock, Kathy Martin, Gernot Segelbacher, editor(s)
2011, Studies in Avian Biology; Ecology, Conservation, and Management of Grouse (39) 107-118
Declines of Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) in South Dakota are a concern because further population declines may lead to isolation from populations in Wyoming and Montana. Furthermore, little information exists about reproductive ecology and resource selection of sage grouse on the eastern edge of their distribution. We investigated Greater Sage-Grouse...
White nose syndrome
Carol U. Meteyer
2011, Book chapter, Infectious disease manual: Infectious diseases of concern to captive and free ranging wildlife in North America
No abstract available....
Vagrant western red-shouldered hawks: origins, natal dispersal patterns, and survival
Peter H. Bloom, J. Michael Scott, Joseph M. Papp, Scott E. Thomas, Jeff W. Kidd
2011, The Condor (113) 538-546
We report the results of a 40-year study of the western Red-shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus elegans) involving the banding of 2742 nestlings in southern California from 1970 to 2009 (this study) plus 127 nestlings banded in other California studies (1956–2008) and the analyses of 119 records of subsequent recovery from...
Predicting breeding habitat for amphibians: a spatiotemporal analysis across Yellowstone National Park
Paul E. Bartelt, Alisa L. Gallant, Robert W. Klaver, Christopher K. Wright, Debra A. Patla, Charles R. Peterson
2011, Ecological Applications (21) 2530-2547
The ability to predict amphibian breeding across landscapes is important for informing land management decisions and helping biologists better understand and remediate factors contributing to declines in amphibian populations. We built geospatial models of likely breeding habitats for each of four amphibian species that breed in Yellowstone National Park (YNP)....
Quantifying the influence of sea ice on ocean microseism using observations from the Bering Sea, Alaska
Victor C. Tsai, Daniel E. McNamara
2011, Geophysical Research Letters (38)
Microseism is potentially affected by all processes that alter ocean wave heights. Because strong sea ice prevents large ocean waves from forming, sea ice can therefore significantly affect microseism amplitudes. Here we show that this link between sea ice and microseism is not only a robust one but can be...
Estimating riparian understory vegetation cover with beta regression and copula models
Bianca Eskelson, Lisa Madsen, Joan C. Hagar, Hailemariam Temesgen
2011, Forest Science (57) 212-221
Understory vegetation communities are critical components of forest ecosystems. As a result, the importance of modeling understory vegetation characteristics in forested landscapes has become more apparent. Abundance measures such as shrub cover are bounded between 0 and 1, exhibit heteroscedastic error variance, and are often subject to spatial dependence. These...
Large-scale flow experiments for managing river systems
Christopher P. Konrad, Julian D. Olden, David A. Lytle, Theodore S. Melis, John C. Schmidt, Erin N. Bray, Mary Freeman, Keith B. Gido, Nina P. Hemphill, Mark J. Kennard, Laura E. McMullen, Meryl C. Mims, Mark Pyron, Christopher T. Robinson, John G. Williams
2011, BioScience (61) 948-959
Experimental manipulations of streamflow have been used globally in recent decades to mitigate the impacts of dam operations on river systems. Rivers are challenging subjects for experimentation, because they are open systems that cannot be isolated from their social context. We identify principles to address the challenges of conducting effective...
A methodology for post-mainshock probabilistic assessment of building collapse risk
N. Luco, M.C. Gerstenberger, S.R. Uma, H. Ryu, A.B. Liel, M. Raghunandan
2011, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the Ninth Pacific Conference on Earthquake Engineering: Building an earthquake resilient society
This paper presents a methodology for post-earthquake probabilistic risk (of damage) assessment that we propose in order to develop a computational tool for automatic or semi-automatic assessment. The methodology utilizes the same so-called risk integral which can be used for pre-earthquake probabilistic assessment. The risk integral couples (i) ground motion...
The Nene: Hawaii's iconic goose: a mixed bag of successes, setbacks, and uncertainty
S.C. Hess
2011, The Wildlife Professional (5) 56-59
New research with satellite telemetry shows that the endangered Hawaiian goose, or nene (Branta sandvicensis), appears to be making a comeback&mdsah;and a puzzling one at that....
Timing of seasonal migration in mule deer: effects of climate, plant phenology, and life-history characteristics
Kevin L. Monteith, Vernon C. Bleich, Thomas R. Stephenson, Beck M. Pierce, Mary M. Conner, Robert W. Klaver, R. Terry Bowyer
2011, Ecosphere (2)
Phenological events of plants and animals are sensitive to climatic processes. Migration is a life-history event exhibited by most large herbivores living in seasonal environments, and is thought to occur in response to dynamics of forage and weather. Decisions regarding when to migrate, however, may be affected by differences in...
Definition of potential unconventional oil and gas resource accumulations, onshore Thailand
Christopher J. Schenk
2011, PTIT Focus (25) 38-42
Conventional accumulations represent oil and gas accumulations that are buoyant upon a water column, whereas unconventional accumulations generally do not rely on buoyancy....
The dispersion of fibrous amphiboles by glacial processes in the area surrounding Libby, Montana, USA
William H. Langer, Bradley S. Van Gosen, Gregory P. Meeker, David T. Adams, Todd M. Hoefen
2011, Environmental Earth Sciences (64) 157-168
Mining operations began at a world-class vermiculite deposit at Vermiculite Mountain near Libby, Montana, circa 1920 and ended in 1990. Fibrous and asbestiform amphiboles intergrown with vermiculite ore are suspected to be a causative factor in an abnormally high number of cases of respiratory diseases in former mine and mill...
Review of concepts useful for maintaining quality of male reproductive field samples for laboratory study
Jill A. Jenkins
2011, Conference Paper, 3rd International Workshop on the Biology of Fish Gametes, Budapest, Hungary, 7-9 September 2011
Investigations into cellular and molecular characteristics of male gametes obtained from fish in natural ecosystems require careful sample handling and shipping in order to minimize artifacts. Maintaining sample integrity engenders confident assessments of ecosystem health, whereby animal condition is often reflected by gamete biomarkers - indicators that respond in measurable...
Role of biofilms in sorptive removal of steroidal hormones and 4-nonylphenol compounds from streams
Jeffrey H. Writer, Joseph N. Ryan, Larry B. Barber
2011, Environmental Science & Technology (45) 7275-7283
Stream biofilms play an important role in geochemical processing of organic matter and nutrients, however, the significance of this matrix in sorbing trace organic contaminants is less understood. This study focused on the role of stream biofilms in sorbing steroidal hormones and 4-nonylphenol compounds from surface waters using biofilms colonized...
