Thermal structure and dynamics of Saturn's northern springtime disturbance
L.N. Fletcher, B.E. Hesman, P.G.J. Irwin, K. H. Baines, T.W. Momary, A. Sanchez-Lavega, F.M. Flasar, P.L. Read, G.S. Orton, A. Simon-Miller, R. Hueso, G.L. Bjoraker, A. Mamoutkine, Rio-Gaztelurrutia Del, J.M. Gomez, B. Buratti, R. N. Clark, P. D. Nicholson, Christophe Sotin
2011, Science (332) 1413-1417
Saturn’s slow seasonal evolution was disrupted in 2010–2011 by the eruption of a bright storm in its northern spring hemisphere. Thermal infrared spectroscopy showed that within a month, the resulting planetary-scale disturbance had generated intense perturbations of atmospheric temperatures, winds, and composition between 20° and 50°N over an entire hemisphere...
Active aeolian processes on Mars: A regional study in Arabia and Meridiani Terrae
S. Silvestro, D.A. Vaz, L.K. Fenton, Paul E. Geissler
2011, Geophysical Research Letters (38)
We present evidence of widespread aeolian activity in the Arabia Terra/Meridiani region (Mars), where different kinds of aeolian modifications have been detected and classified. Passing from the regional to the local scale, we describe one particular dune field in Meridiani Planum, where two ripple populations are distinguished by means of...
Scale-dependent factors affecting North American river otter distribution in the midwest
Mackenzie R. Jeffress, Craig P. Paukert, Joanna B. Whittier, B. K. Sandercock, P. S. Gipson
2011, American Midland Naturalist (166) 177-193
The North American river otter (Lontra canadensis) is recovering from near extirpation throughout much of its range. Although reintroductions, trapping regulations and habitat improvements have led to the reestablishment of river otters in the Midwest, little is known about how their distribution is influenced by local- and landscape-scale habitat....
Study relationship between inorganic and organic coal analysis with gross calorific value by multiple regression and ANFIS
S.C. Chelgani, B. Hart, W.C. Grady, J.C. Hower
2011, International Journal of Coal Preparation and Utilization (31) 9-19
The relationship between maceral content plus mineral matter and gross calorific value (GCV) for a wide range of West Virginia coal samples (from 6518 to 15330 BTU/lb; 15.16 to 35.66 MJ/kg) has been investigated by multivariable regression and adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS). The stepwise least square mathematical method comparison between...
Independent effects of temperature and precipitation on modeled runoff in the conterminous United States
Gregory J. McCabe, David M. Wolock
2011, Water Resources Research (47)
A water‐balance model is used to simulate time series of water‐year runoff for 4 km × 4 km grid cells for the conterminous United States during the 1900–2008 period. Model outputs are used to examine the separate effects of precipitation and temperature on runoff variability. Overall, water‐year runoff has increased...
Resource selection by black-footed ferrets in South Dakota and Montana
D.S. Jachowski, J.J. Millspaugh, E. Biggins, T.M. Livieri, Marc R. Matchett, C.D. Rittenhouse
2011, Natural Areas Journal (31) 218-225
The black-footed ferret (Mustela nigripes), once extinct in the wild, remains one of the most critically endangered mammals in North America despite 18 years of reintroduction attempts. Because black-footed ferrets are specialized predators of prairie dogs (Cynomys sp.), a better understanding of how black-footed ferrets select resources might provide insight...
Cold-climate slope deposits and landscape modifications of the Mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain, Eastern USA
Wayne L. Newell, B.D. Dejong
2011, Geological Society Special Publication (354) 259-276
The effects of Pleistocene cold-climate geomorphology are distributed across the weathered and eroded Mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain uplands from the Wisconsinan terminal moraine south to Tidewater Virginia. Cold-climate deposits and landscape modifications are superimposed on antecedent landscapes of old, weathered Neogene upland gravels and Pleistocene marine terraces that had been built...
The plight of the bees
M. Spivak, E. Mader, M. Vaughan, Ned H. Euliss Jr.
2011, Environmental Science & Technology (45) 34-38
The loss of biodiversity is a trend that is garnering much concern. As organisms have evolved mutualistic and synergistic relationships, the loss of one or a few species can have a much wider environmental impact. Since much pollination is facilitated by bees, the reported colony collapse disorder...
A reverse genetics system for the Great Lakes strain of viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus: the NV gene is required for pathogenicity
Arun Ammayappan, Gael Kurath, Tarin M. Thompson, Vikram N. Vakharia
2011, Marine Biotechnology (13) 672-683
Viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus (VHSV), belonging to the genus Novirhabdovirus in the family of Rhabdoviridae, causes a highly contagious disease of fresh and saltwater fish worldwide. Recently, a novel genotype of VHSV, designated IVb, has invaded the Great Lakes in North America, causing large-scale epidemics in wild fish. An efficient...
Fish community and bioassessment responses to stream network position
N.P. Hitt, P. L. Angermeier
2011, Journal of the North American Benthological Society (30) 296-309
If organisms move beyond the boundaries of local sampling units, regional metacommunity dynamics could undermine the ability of bioassessment studies to characterize local environmental quality. We tested the prediction that fish dispersal influences local fish community structure and bioassessment metrics as a function of site position within stream networks. We...
Environmental controls of wood entrapment in upper Midwestern streams
Eric C. Merten, Jacques Finlay, Lucinda Johnson, Raymond Newman, Heinz Stefan, Bruce C. Vondracek
2011, Hydrological Processes (25) 593-602
Wood deposited in streams provides a wide variety of ecosystem functions, including enhancing habitat for key species in stream food webs, increasing geomorphic and hydraulic heterogeneity and retaining organic matter. Given the strong role that wood plays in streams, factors that influence wood inputs, retention and transport are critical to...
Development of an aquatic pathogen database (AquaPathogen X) and its utilization in tracking emerging fish virus pathogens in North America
E.J. Emmenegger, E. Kentop, T.M. Thompson, S. Pittam, A. Ryan, D. Keon, J.A. Carlino, J. Ranson, R.B. Life, R.M. Troyer, K.A. Garver, Gael Kurath
2011, Journal of Fish Diseases (34) 579-587
The AquaPathogen X database is a template for recording information on individual isolates of aquatic pathogens and is freely available for download (http://wfrc.usgs.gov). This database can accommodate the nucleotide sequence data generated in molecular epidemiological studies along with the myriad of abiotic and biotic traits associated with isolates of various...
Accelerated construction of a regional DNA-barcode reference library: Caddisflies (Trichoptera) in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park
X. Zhou, J.L. Robinson, C.J. Geraci, C.R. Parker, O.S. Flint Jr., D.A. Etnier, D. Ruiter, R.E. DeWalt, L.M. Jacobus, P.D.N. Hebert
2011, Journal of the North American Benthological Society (30) 131-162
Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) barcoding is an effective tool for species identification and lifestage association in a wide range of animal taxa. We developed a strategy for rapid construction of a regional DNA-barcode reference library and used the caddisflies (Trichoptera) of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP) as a model....
Mapping the distribution of materials in hyperspectral data using the USGS Material Identification and Characterization Algorithm (MICA)
Raymond F. Kokaly, T. V. V. King, Todd M. Hoefen
2011, Conference Paper, International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS)
Identifying materials by measuring and analyzing their reflectance spectra has been an important method in analytical chemistry for decades. Airborne and space-based imaging spectrometers allow scientists to detect materials and map their distributions across the landscape. With new satellite-borne hyperspectral sensors planned for the future, for example, HYSPIRI (HYPerspectral InfraRed...
The application of prototype point processes for the summary and description of California wildfires
K. Nichols, F.P. Schoenberg, Jon E. Keeley, A. Bray, D. Diez
2011, Journal of Time Series Analysis (32) 420-429
A method for summarizing repeated realizations of a space‐time marked point process, known as prototyping, is discussed and applied to catalogues of wildfires in California. Prototype summaries are constructed for varying time intervals using California wildfire data from 1990 to 2006. Previous work on prototypes for temporal and space‐time point...
Evaluation of a black-footed ferret resource utilization function model
D.A. Eads, J.J. Millspaugh, Dean E. Biggins, D.S. Jachowski, T.M. Livieri
2011, Journal of Wildlife Management (75) 1155-1163
Resource utilization function (RUF) models permit evaluation of potential habitat for endangered species; ideally such models should be evaluated before use in management decision‐making. We evaluated the predictive capabilities of a previously developed black‐footed ferret (Mustela nigripes) RUF. Using the population‐level RUF, generated from ferret observations at an adjacent yet...
Constraints on the long-period moment-dip tradeoff for the Tohoku earthquake
V.C. Tsai, Gavin P. Hayes, Z. Duputel
2011, Geophysical Research Letters (38)
Since the work of Kanamori and Given (1981), it has been recognized that shallow, pure dip‐slip earthquakes excite long‐period surface waves such that it is difficult to independently constrain the moment (M0) and the dip (δ) of the source mechanism, with only the product M0 sin(2δ) being well constrained. Because of this,...
Cougar survival and source-sink structure on Greater Yellowstone's Northern Range
T.K. Ruth, M.A. Haroldson, K.M. Murphy, P.C. Buotte, M.G. Hornocker, H.B. Quigley
2011, Journal of Wildlife Management (75) 1381-1398
We studied survival and causes of mortality of radiocollared cougars (Puma concolor) on the Greater Yellowstone Northern Range (GYNR) prior to (1987–1994) and after wolf (Canis lupus) reintroduction (1998–2005) and evaluated temporal, spatial, and environmental factors that explain variation in adult, subadult, and kitten survival. Using Program MARK and multimodel...
Fire, grazing history, lichen abundance, and winter distribution of caribou in Alaska's taiga
William B. Collins, Bruce W. Dale, Layne G. Adams, Darien E. McElwain, Kyle Joly
2011, Journal of Wildlife Management (75) 369-377
In the early 1990s the Nelchina Caribou (Rangifer tarandus) Herd (NCH) began a dramatic shift to its current winter range, migrating at least an additional 100 km beyond its historic range. We evaluated the impacts of fire and grazing history on lichen abundance and subsequent use and distribution by the NCH....
Thorium abundances of basalt ponds in South Pole-Aitken basin: Insights into the composition and evolution of the far side lunar mantle
Justin Hagerty, D. J. Lawrence, B. R. Hawke
2011, Journal of Geophysical Research E: Planets (116) 1-23
Imbrian-aged basalt ponds, located on the floor of South Pole-Aitken (SPA) basin, are used to provide constraints on the composition and evolution of the far side lunar mantle. We use forward modeling of the Lunar Prospector Gamma Ray Spectrometer thorium data, to suggest that at least five different and distinct...
Watershed morphology of highland and mountain ecoregions in eastern Oklahoma
D. K. Splinter, Daniel C. Dauwalter, R. A. Marston, William Fisher
2011, Professional Geographer (63) 131-143
The fluvial system represents a nested hierarchy that reflects the relationship among different spatial and temporal scales. Within the hierarchy, larger scale variables influence the characteristics of the next lower nested scale. Ecoregions represent one of the largest scales in the fluvial hierarchy and are defined by recurring patterns of...
A novel approach for direct estimation of fresh groundwater discharge to an estuary
Neil K. Ganju
2011, Geophysical Research Letters (38)
Coastal groundwater discharge is an important source of freshwater and nutrients to coastal and estuarine systems. Directly quantifying the spatially integrated discharge of fresh groundwater over a coastline is difficult due to spatial variability and limited observational methods. In this study, I applied a novel approach to estimate net freshwater...
Tsunami inundation and sediment transport in a sediment-limited embayment on American Samoa
A. Apotsos, G. Gelfenbaum, B. Jaffe, Sebastian Watt, B. Peck, M. Buckley, A. Stevens
2011, Earth-Science Reviews (107) 1-11
Field observations and numerical simulations are used to explore tsunami inundation and sediment transport in an embayment (Fagafue Bay) on the north side of Tutuila, American Samoa during the 29 September 2009 South Pacific tsunami. Field observations of the nearshore bathymetry and topography, tsunami flow depth and sediment deposition, and...
In vitro antioxidant activity of polysaccharide from Gardenia jasminoides ellis
Y. Fan, Z. Ge, A. Luo
2011, Journal of Medicinal Plant Research (5) 2963-2968
A water-soluble polysaccharide, GP, was isolated from Gardenia jasminoides Ellis through hot water extraction followed by ethanol precipitation. The in vitro free radicals scavenging tests exhibited that GP has significant scavenging abilities especially for ABTS, DPPH, and hydroxyl radicals, which suggests that the polysaccharide GP is a novel antioxidant....
Infectious diseases: Surveillance, genetic modification and simulation
H. L. Koh, S.Y. Teh, D. L. De Angelis, J. Jiang
2011, Conference Paper, WIT Transactions on the Built Environment
Infectious diseases such as influenza and dengue have the potential of becoming a worldwide pandemic that may exert immense pressures on existing medical infrastructures. Careful surveillance of these diseases, supported by consistent model simulations, provides a means for tracking the disease evolution. The integrated surveillance and simulation program is essential...
