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We provide diagnostic morphological characters to help distinguish males and females of the following species of Nomada: N. augustiana Mitchell, N. bethunei Cockerell, N. fervida Smith, N. fragariae Mitchell, N. lehighensis Cockerell, N. texana Cresson, and N. tiftonensis Cockerell. Based on morphological and DNA barcoding evidence we newly synonymize the...

Complex ecosystems, such as the Upper Mississippi River (UMR), present major management challenges. Such systems often provide a range of ecosystem services that are differentially valued by stakeholders representing distinct interests (e.g., agriculture, conservation, navigation) or institutions (e.g., federal and state agencies). When no single entity has the knowledge or...

Potential effects of acid mine drainage (AMD) and thermal enrichment on the reproduction of fishes were investigated through a larval-trapping survey in the Stony River watershed, Grant County, WV. Trapping was conducted at seven sites from 26 March to 2 July 2004. Overall larval catch was low (379 individuals in...

Combined petrographic and geochemical methods are used to investigate the microfabrics present in thin sections prepared from representative organic carbon-rich mudstones collected from three successions (the Kimmeridge Clay Formation, the Jet Rock Member of the Whitby Mudstone Formation, and the pebble shale and Hue Shale). This study was initiated...

A new ion chromatography electrospray tandem mass spectrometry (IC-ESI/MS/MS) method has been developed for quantification and confirmation of chlorate (ClO3−) in environmental samples. The method involves the electro-chemical generation of isotopically labeled chlorate internal standard (Cl18O3−) using 18O water (H218O). The standard was added to all samples prior to analysis...

The origin of the combustible gases in groundwater from glacial-outwash and fractured-bedrock aquifers was investigated in northern Tioga County, Pennsylvania. Thermogenic methane (CH4) and ethane (C2H6) and microbial CH4 were found. Microbial CH4 is from natural in situ processes in the shale bedrock and occurs chiefly in the bedrock aquifer....

New optically stimulated and radiocarbon ages for alluvial fan and lake deposits in the Mojave Desert are presented, which greatly improves the temporal resolution of surface processes. The new Mojave Desert climate-landscape record is particularly detailed for the late Holocene. Evidence from...

A water budget is an accounting of water movement into and out of, and storage change within, some control volume. Universal and adaptable are adjectives that reflect key features of water-budget methods for estimating recharge. The universal concept of mass conservation of water implies that water-budget methods are...

Spatial variation of habitat and food web structure of the fish community was investigated at three reaches in the Kansas River, USA to determine if ??13C variability and ??15N values differ longitudinally and are related to urbanization and instream habitat. Fish and macroinvertebrates were collected at three river reaches in...

Stream metabolism was measured in 33 streams across a gradient of nutrient concentrations in four agricultural areas of the USA to determine the relative influence of nutrient concentrations and habitat on primary production (GPP) and respiration (CR-24). In conjunction with the stream metabolism estimates, water quality and algal biomass samples...

We report here on a survey of distal fine-grained ejecta deposits on the Moon, Mars, and Venus. On all three planets, fine-grained ejecta form circular haloes that extend beyond the continuous ejecta and other types of distal deposits such as run-out lobes or ramparts. Using Earth-based radar images, we find...

Studies have repeatedly shown that agricultural and urban areas export considerably more nitrogen to streams than forested counterparts, yet it is difficult to identify and quantify nitrogen sources to streams due to complications associated with terrestrial and in-stream biogeochemical processes. In this study, we used the isotopic composition of nitrate...

Ground motion records of local and regional events from a portable array are used to investigate the structural causes of variations in ground motion over distances of a few hundred meters to a few kilometers in the sedimentary basin environment of the Santa Clara Valley, California, and its margins. Arrays...

In Canada's Sydney Coalfield, specimens of the extinct Carboniferous seed fern Macroneuropteris macrophylla (Brongniart) invariably show preservation stages intermediate between compression and fossilized-cuticle, even concerning a single pinnule. In this interdisciplinary approach, we study a ca. 300 to 350 mm long fossilized-cuticle-preserved frond section of M. macrophylla (Brongniart) that represents...

The structural geology of an outcropping of layered sedimentary deposits in southwest Candor Chasma is mapped using two adjacent high-resolution (1 m/pixel) HiRISE digital elevation models and orthoimagery. Analysis of these structural data yields new insight into the depositional and deformational history of these deposits. Bedding in non-deformed areas generally...

Gas hydrate was discovered in the Krishna-Godavari (KG) Basin during the India National Gas Hydrate Program (NGHP) Expedition 1 at Site NGHP-01-10 within a fractured clay-dominated sedimentary system. Logging-while-drilling (LWD), coring, and wire-line logging confirmed gas hydrate dominantly in fractures at four borehole sites spanning a 500m transect. Three-dimensional (3D)...

This work examines the simulation of stream–aquifer interactions as grids are refined vertically and horizontally and suggests that traditional methods for calculating conductance can produce inappropriate values when the grid size is changed. Instead, different grid resolutions require different estimated values. Grid refinement strategies considered include global refinement of the...

Mechanisms to explain swarms of shallow seismicity and inflation-deflation cycles at Yellowstone caldera (western United States) commonly invoke episodic escape of magma-derived brines or gases from the ductile zone, but no correlative changes in the surface efflux of magmatic constituents have ever been documented. Our analysis of individual growth rings...

In recent decades, intense droughts, insect outbreaks, and wildfires have led to decreasing tree growth and increasing mortality in many temperate forests. We compared annual tree-ring width data from 1,097 populations in the coterminous United States to climate data and evaluated site-specific tree responses to climate variations throughout the 20th...

Question: Can field measurements of stress hormones help us to assess the prudent parent hypothesis in a long-lived seabird?Organism: Black-legged kittiwake, Rissa tridactyla.Location: Duck and Gull Islands, Cook Inlet, Alaska, USA.Methods: We examined the statistical relationship between the stress hormone corticosterone and mortality in black-legged kittiwakes. We built a demographic model of the kittiwake life...

The effects of injecting oxic water from the New York city (NYC) drinking-water supply and distribution system into a nearby anoxic coastal plain aquifer for later recovery during periods of water shortage (aquifer storage and recovery, or ASR) were simulated by a 3-dimensional, reactive-solute transport model. The Cretaceous aquifer system...

This 2 1/2 day field trip will present an overview of a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) project whose objective was to estimate pre-mining groundwater chemistry at the Questa molybdenum mine, New Mexico. Because of intense debate among stakeholders regarding pre-mining groundwater chemistry standards, the New Mexico Environment Department and Chevron...

Glacial cycles in the late Pleistocene played a dominant role in sculpting the evolutionary histories of many high-latitude organisms. The refugial hypothesis argues that populations retracted during glacial maxima and were isolated in separate refugia. One prediction of this hypothesis is that populations inhabiting different refugia diverged and then, during...

This is the first part of a study that evaluates the influence of nonpoint-source contaminants on the sediment quality of five streams within the metropolitan Kansas City area, central United States. Surficial sediment was collected in 2003 from 29 sites along five streams with watersheds that extend from the core...

Laboratory stick-slip friction experiments indicate that peak slip rates increase with the stresses loading the fault to cause rupture. If this applies also to earthquake fault zones, then the analysis of rupture processes is simplified inasmuch as the slip rates depend only on the local yield stress and are independent...