Recent ecological divergence despite migration in sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka)
Scott A. Pavey, Jennifer L. Nielsen, Troy R. Hamon
2010, Evolution (64) 1773-1783
Ecological divergence may result when populations experience different selection regimes, but there is considerable discussion about the role of migration at the beginning stages of divergence before reproductive isolating mechanisms have evolved. However, detection of past migration is difficult in current populations and tools to differentiate genetic similarities due to...
Reclaiming freshwater sustainability in the Cadillac Desert
John L. Sabo, Tushar Sinha, Laura C. Bowling, Gerrit H.W. Schoups, Wesley W. Wallender, Michael E. Campana, Keith A. Cherkauer, Pam L. Fuller, William L. Graf, Jan W. Hopmans, John S. Kominoski, Carissa Taylor, Stanley W. Trimble, Robert H. Webb, Ellen E. Wohl
2010, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (107) 21263-21269
Increasing human appropriation of freshwater resources presents a tangible limit to the sustainability of cities, agriculture, and ecosystems in the western United States. Marc Reisner tackles this theme in his 1986 classic Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water. Reisner's analysis paints a portrait of region-wide hydrologic dysfunction...
Archive of digital Chirp sub-bottom profile data collected during USGS Cruise 07SCC01 offshore of the Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana, June 2007
Arnell S. Forde, Shawn V. Dadisman, James G. Flocks, Dana S. Wiese
2010, Data Series 553
In June of 2007, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) conducted a geophysical survey offshore of the Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana, in cooperation with the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources (LDNR) as part of the USGS Barrier Island Comprehensive Monitoring (BICM) project. This project is part of a broader study focused on...
Coral calcification in a changing ocean
Ilsa B. Kuffner
2010, Fact Sheet 2010-3098
Animals and plants that live in the ocean form skeletons and other hard parts by combining calcium ions and carbonate ions to create calcium carbonate. This process is called calcification. In tropical and subtropical oceans, the calcification of corals and other organisms creates reefs that protect islands, produce beautiful white-sand...
Detailed seafloor habitat mapping to enhance marine-resource management
David G. Zawada, Kristen M. Hart
2010, Fact Sheet 2010-3090
Pictures of the seafloor capture important information about the sediments, exposed geologic features, submerged aquatic vegetation, and animals found in a given habitat. With the emergence of marine protected areas (MPAs) as a favored tactic for preserving coral reef resources, knowledge of essential habitat components is paramount to designing effective...
Archive of side scan sonar and swath bathymetry data collected during USGS cruise 10CCT01 offshore of Cat Island, Gulf Islands National Seashore, Mississippi, March 2010
Nancy T. DeWitt, James G. Flocks, William R. Pfeiffer, Dana S. Wiese
2010, Data Series 563
In March of 2010, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) conducted geophysical surveys east of Cat Island, Mississippi (fig. 1). The efforts were part of the USGS Gulf of Mexico Science Coordination partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to assist the Mississippi Coastal Improvements Program (MsCIP) and the...
Outdoor water use and water conservation opportunities in Virginia Beach, Virginia
John R. Eggleston
2010, Fact Sheet 2010-3007
How much water do you use to water your lawn, wash your car, or fill your swimming pool? Your answers to these questions have important implications for water supplies in the City of Virginia Beach. To help find the answers, the City cooperated with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and...
Total mercury, methylmercury, and selected elements in soils of the Fishing Brook watershed, Hamilton County, New York, and the McTier Creek watershed, Aiken County, South Carolina, 2008
Laurel G. Woodruff, William F. Cannon, Christopher D. Knightes, Francis H. Chapelle, Paul M. Bradley, Douglas A. Burns, Mark E. Brigham, Mark A. Lowery
2010, Data Series 516
Mercury is an element of on-going concern for human and aquatic health. Mercury sequestered in upland and wetland soils represents a source that may contribute to mercury contamination in sensitive ecosystems. An improved understanding of mercury cycling in stream ecosystems requires identification and quantification of mercury speciation and transport dynamics...
Extreme drought to extreme floods: summary of hydrologic conditions in Georgia, 2009
Andrew E. Knaak, Timothy K. Pojunas, Michael F. Peck
2010, Fact Sheet 2010-3101
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) Georgia Water Science Center (WSC) maintains a long-term hydrologic monitoring network of more than 317 real-time streamgages, more than 180 groundwater wells of which 31 are real-time, and 10 lake-level monitoring stations. One of the many benefits of data collected from this monitoring network...
Pseudasthenes, a new genus of ovenbird (Aves: Passeriformes: Furnariidae)
Elizabeth Derryberry, Santiago Claramunt, Kelly E. O’Quin, Alexandre Aleixo, R. Terry Chesser, J.V. Remsen Jr., Robb T. Brumfield
2010, Zootaxa (2416) 61-68
Phylogenetic analysis of the family Furnariidae (Aves: Passeriformes) indicates that the genus Asthenes is polyphyletic, consisting of two groups that are not sister taxa. Pseudasthenes, a new genus of ovenbird, is described for one of these groups. The four species included in the new genus, formerly placed in Asthenes, are...
Projected climate impacts for the amphibians of the western hemisphere
Joshua J. Lawler, Sarah L. Shafer, Betsy A. Bancroft, Andrew R. Blaustein
2010, Conservation Biology (24) 38-50
Given their physiological requirements, limited dispersal abilities, and hydrologically sensitive habitats, amphibians are likely to be highly sensitive to future climatic changes. We used three approaches to map areas in the western hemisphere where amphibians are particularly likely to be affected by climate change. First, we used bioclimatic models to...
Reduced channel conveyance on the Wichita River at Wichita Falls, Texas, 1900-2009
Karl Winters, Stanley Baldys, Russell Schreiber
2010, Journal of Environmental Hydrology (18) Paper 8
Recent floods on the Wichita River at Wichita Falls, Texas, have reached higher stages compared to historical floods of similar magnitude discharges. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has operated streamflow-gaging station 07312500 Wichita River at Wichita Falls, Tex., since 1938 and flood measurements near the location of the present gage...
Quantifying large-scale historical formation of accommodation in the Mississippi Delta
Robert A. Morton, Julie Bernier, Kyle W. Kelso, John A. Barras
2010, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms (35) 1625-1641
Large volumes of new accommodation have formed within the Mississippi Delta plain since the mid-1950s in association with rapid conversion of coastal wetlands to open water. The three-dimensional aspects and processes responsible for accommodation formation were quantified by comparing surface elevations, water depths, and vertical displacements of stratigraphic contacts that...
Evaluation of geodetic and geologic datasets in the Northern Walker Lane-Summary and recommendations of the Workshop
Richard W. Briggs, William C. Hammond
2010, Open-File Report 2011-1282
The Northern Walker Lane comprises a complex network of active faults in northwestern Nevada and northeastern California bound on the west by the Sierra Nevada and on the east by the extensional Basin and Range Province. Because deformation is distributed across sets of discontinuous faults, it is particularly challenging to...
Prairie wetland complexes as landscape functional units in a changing climate
W. Carter Johnson, Brett Werner, Glenn R. Guntenspergen, Richard A. Voldseth, Bruce Millett, David E. Naugle, Mirela Tulbure, Rosemary W.H. Carroll, John Tracy, Craig Olawsky
2010, BioScience (60) 128-140
The wetland complex is the functional ecological unit of the prairie pothole region (PPR) of central North America. Diverse complexes of wetlands contribute high spatial and temporal environmental heterogeneity, productivity, and biodiversity to these glaciated prairie landscapes. Climatewarming simulations using the new model WETLANDSCAPE (WLS) project major reductions in water...
Predictors of occurrence of the aquatic macrophyte Podostemum ceratophyllum in a southern Appalachian River
Jane E. Argentina, Mary Freeman, Byron J. Freeman
2010, Southeastern Naturalist (9) 465-476
The aquatic macrophyte Podostemum ceratophyllum (Hornleaf Riverweed) commonly provides habitat for invertebrates and fishes in flowing-water portions of Piedmont and Appalachian streams in the eastern US. We quantified variation in percent cover by P. ceratophyllum in a 39-km reach of the Conasauga River, TN and GA, to test the hypothesis...
Simultaneous modeling of habitat suitability, occupancy, and relative abundance: African elephants in Zimbabwe
Julien Martin, Simon Chamaille-Jammes, James D. Nichols, Herve Fritz, James E. Hines, Christopher J. Fonnesbeck, Darryl I. MacKenzie, Larissa L. Bailey
2010, Ecological Applications (20) 1173-1182
The recent development of statistical models such as dynamic site occupancy models provides the opportunity to address fairly complex management and conservation problems with relatively simple models. However, surprisingly few empirical studies have simultaneously modeled habitat suitability and occupancy status of organisms over large landscapes for management purposes. Joint modeling...
Population viability of Arctic grayling in the Gibbon River, Yellowstone National Park
Amber C. Steed, Alexander V. Zale, Todd M. Koel, Steven T. Kalinowski
2010, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (30) 1582-1590
The fluvial Arctic grayling Thymallus arcticus is restricted to less than 5% of its native range in the contiguous United States and was relisted as a category 3 candidate species under the U.S. Endangered Species Act in 2010. Although fluvial Arctic grayling of the lower Gibbon River, Yellowstone National Park,...
Potential nitrogen fixation activity of different aged biological soil crusts from rehabilitated grasslands of the hilly Loess Plateau, China
Y. Zhao, M. Xu, J. Belnap
2010, Journal of Arid Environments (74) 1186-1191
Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) cover up to 60–70% of the soil surface in grasslands rehabilitated during the "Grain for Green" project implemented in the hilly Loess Plateau region in 1999. As biocrusts fix nitrogen (N), they are an important part of restoring soil fertility. We measured nitrogenase activity (NA) in...
Porosity and grain size controls on compaction band formation in Jurassic Navajo Sandstone
Richard A. Schultz, Chris H. Okubo, Haakon Fossen
2010, Geophysical Research Letters (37)
Determining the rock properties that permit or impede the growth of compaction bands in sedimentary sequences is a critical problem of importance to studies of strain localization and characterization of subsurface geologic reservoirs. We determine the porosity and average grain size of a sequence of stratigraphic layers of Navajo Sandstone...
Potential spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 by wildfowl: dispersal ranges and rates determined from large-scale satellite telemetry
Nicolas Gaidet, Julien Cappelle, John Y. Takekawa, Diann J. Prosser, Samuel A. Iverson, David C. Douglas, William M. Perry, Taej Mundkur, Scott H. Newman
2010, Journal of Applied Ecology (47) 1147-1157
1. Migratory birds are major candidates for long-distance dispersal of zoonotic pathogens. In recent years, wildfowl have been suspected of contributing to the rapid geographic spread of the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 virus. Experimental infection studies reveal that some wild ducks, geese and swans shed this virus asymptomatically...
Applying dispersive changes to Lagrangian particles in groundwater transport models
Leonard F. Konikow
2010, Transport in Porous Media (85) 437-449
Method-of-characteristics groundwater transport models require that changes in concentrations computed within an Eulerian framework to account for dispersion be transferred to moving particles used to simulate advective transport. A new algorithm was developed to accomplish this transfer between nodal values and advecting particles more precisely and realistically compared to currently...
Zn and Cu isotopes as tracers of anthropogenic contamination in a sediment core from an urban lake
Anita Thapalia, David M. Borrok, Peter C. Van Metre, MaryLynn Musgrove, Edward R. Landa
2010, Environmental Science & Technology (44) 1544-1550
In this work, we use stable Zn and Cu isotopes to identify the sources and timing of the deposition of these metals in a sediment core from Lake Ballinger near Seattle, Washington, USA. The base of the Lake Ballinger core predates settlement in the region, while the upper sections record...
Satellite tracking reveals habitat use by juvenile green sea turtles Chelonia mydas in the Everglades, Florida, USA
Kristen M. Hart, Ikuko Fujisaki
2010, Endangered Species Research (11)
We tracked the movements of 6 juvenile green sea turtles captured in coastal areas of southwest Florida within Everglades National Park (ENP) using satellite transmitters for periods of 27 to 62 d in 2007 and 2008 (mean ± SD: 47.7 ± 12.9 d). Turtles ranged in size from 33.4 to...
Introduction - The impacts of the 2008 eruption of Kasatochi Volcano on terrestrial and marine ecosystems in the Aleutian Islands, Alaska
Anthony R. DeGange, G. Vernon Byrd, Lawrence R. Walker, C. F. Waythomas
2010, Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research (42) 245-249
The Aleutian Islands are situated on the northern edge of the so-called “Pacific Ring of Fire,” a 40,000-km-long horseshoe-shaped assemblage of continental landmasses and islands bordering the Pacific Ocean basin that contains many of the world's active and dormant volcanoes. Schaefer et al. (2009) listed 27 historically active volcanoes in...
