Supply and dispersal of flood sediment from a steep, tropical watershed: Hanalei Bay, Kauai, Hawaii, USA
A.E. Draut, Michael H. Bothner, M.E. Field, Richard L. Reynolds, S.A. Cochran, J.B. Logan, C. D. Storlazzi, C.J. Berg
2009, Geological Society of America Bulletin (121) 574-585
In contrast to many small, mountainous watersheds in temperate coastal regions, where fluvial discharge and wave energy commonly coincide, deposition and reworking of tropical flood sediment can be seasonally decoupled, and this has important implications for coral-reef ecosystems. An understanding of the interaction between tropical flood sedimentation and wave climate...
A proposed origin for fossilized Pennsylvanian plant cuticles by pyrite oxidation (Sydney Coalfield, Nova Scotia, Canada)
E.L. Zodrow, Maria Mastalerz
2009, Bulletin of Geosciences (84) 227-240
Fossilized cuticles, though rare in the roof rocks of coal seam in the younger part of the Pennsylvanian Sydney Coalfield, Nova Scotia, represent nearly all of the major plant groups. Selected for investigation, by methods of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and elemental analysis, are fossilized cuticles (FCs) and cuticles...
Estimating 3D variation in active-layer thickness beneath arctic streams using ground-penetrating radar
T.R. Brosten, J.H. Bradford, J. P. McNamara, M.N. Gooseff, J.P. Zarnetske, W.B. Bowden, M.E. Johnston
2009, Journal of Hydrology (373) 479-486
We acquired three-dimensional (3D) ground-penetrating radar (GPR) data across three stream sites on the North Slope, AK, in August 2005, to investigate the dependence of thaw depth on channel morphology. Data were migrated with mean velocities derived from multi-offset GPR profiles collected across a stream section within each of the...
Retention of riverine sediment and nutrient loads by coastal plain floodplains
G.B. Noe, C.R. Hupp
2009, Ecosystems (12) 728-746
Despite the frequent citation of wetlands as effective regulators of water quality, few quantitative estimates exist for their cumulative retention of the annual river loads of nutrients or sediments. Here we report measurements of sediment accretion and associated carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus accumulation as sedimentation over feldspar marker horizons placed...
Ecological risk of heavy metals in sediments of the Luan river source water
Jingling Liu, Yongli Li, Bao Zhang, Jinling Cao, Zhiguo Cao, Joseph L. Domagalski
2009, Ecotoxicology (18) 748-758
Distribution and characteristics of heavy metals enrichment in sediment were surveyed including the bio-available form analyzed for assessment of the Luan River source water quality. The approaches of sediment quality guidelines (SQG), risk assessment code and Hakanson potential ecological risk index were used for the ecological risk assessment. According to...
Evidence that pairing with genetically similar mates is maladaptive in a monogamous bird
Herve Mulard, E. Danchin, Sandra L. Talbot, Andrew M. Ramey, Scott A. Hatch, J.F. White, F. Helfenstein, R.H. Wagner
2009, BMC Evolutionary Biology (9)
BackgroundEvidence of multiple genetic criteria of mate choice is accumulating in numerous taxa. In many species, females have been shown to pair with genetically dissimilar mates or with extra-pair partners that are more genetically compatible than their social mates, thereby increasing their offsprings' heterozygosity which often correlates with...
Interactions between soil thermal and hydrological dynamics in the response of Alaska ecosystems to fire disturbance
Shuhua Yi, A. David McGuire, Jennifer Harden, Eric Kasischke, Kristen L. Manies, Larry Hinzman, Anna K. Liljedahl, J. Randerson, Heping Liu, Vladimir E. Romanovsky, Sergey S. Marchenko, Yongwon Kim
2009, Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences (114)
Soil temperature and moisture are important factors that control many ecosystem processes. However, interactions between soil thermal and hydrological processes are not adequately understood in cold regions, where the frozen soil, fire disturbance, and soil drainage play important roles in controlling interactions among these processes. These interactions were investigated with...
On selecting a prior for the precision parameter of Dirichlet process mixture models
R.M. Dorazio
2009, Journal of Statistical Planning and Inference (139) 3384-3390
In hierarchical mixture models the Dirichlet process is used to specify latent patterns of heterogeneity, particularly when the distribution of latent parameters is thought to be clustered (multimodal). The parameters of a Dirichlet process include a precision parameter ?? and a base probability measure G0. In problems where ?? is...
Did the Middlesboro, Kentucky, bolide impact event influence coal rank?
J.C. Hower, S.F. Greb, K.W. Kuehn, C.F. Eble
2009, International Journal of Coal Geology (79) 92-96
The Middlesboro Basin, southeastern Kentucky, occurs on the Cumberland Overthrust Sheet and includes a ca. 5.5-km diameter impact structure. The Lower and Middle Pennsylvanian coal-bearing strata are faulted, with some evidence for shock metamorphism. The event post-dated the latest-Pennsylvanian-early-Permian thrusting and was likely prior to late-Mesozoic entrenchment of drainages. The...
Recent land cover history and nutrient retention in riparian wetlands
D.M. Hogan, M.R. Walbridge
2009, Environmental Management (44) 62-72
Wetland ecosystems are profoundly affected by altered nutrient and sediment loads received from anthropogenic activity in their surrounding watersheds. Our objective was to compare a gradient of agricultural and urban land cover history during the period from 1949 to 1997, with plant and soil nutrient concentrations in, and sediment deposition...
Laboratory and field testing of commercial rotational seismometers
R.L. Nigbor, J.R. Evans, C. R. Hutt
2009, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (99) 1215-1227
There are a small number of commercially available sensors to measure rotational motion in the frequency and amplitude ranges appropriate for earthquake motions on the ground and in structures. However, the performance of these rotational seismometers has not been rigorously and independently tested and characterized for earthquake monitoring purposes as...
USGS: Science at the intersection of land and ocean
M.D. Myers
2009, Sea Technology (50) 18-21
The US Geological Survey (USGS) conducts an ongoing national assessment of coastal change hazards in order to help protect lives and support management of coastal infrastructure and resources. The research group rapidly gathers to investigate coastal changes along the Gulf Coast's sandy beaches after each hurricane to examine the magnitude...
Modeling utilization distributions in space and time
K.A. Keating, S. Cherry
2009, Ecology (90) 1971-1980
W. Van Winkle defined the utilization distribution (UD) as a probability density that gives an animal's relative frequency of occurrence in a two-dimensional (x, y) plane. We extend Van Winkle's work by redefining the UD as the relative frequency distribution of an animal's occurrence in all four dimensions of space...
Estimating avian population size using Bowden's estimator
Duane R. Diefenbach
2009, The Auk (126) 211-217
Avian researchers often uniquely mark birds, and multiple estimators could be used to estimate population size using individually identified birds. However, most estimators of population size require that all sightings of marked birds be uniquely identified, and many assume homogeneous detection probabilities. Bowden's estimator can incorporate sightings of marked birds...
Pilot- and bench-scale testing of faecal indicator bacteria survival in marine beach sand near point sources
K.B. Mika, G. Imamura, C. Chang, V. Conway, G. Fernandez, J.F. Griffith, R.A. Kampalath, C.M. Lee, C.-C. Lin, R. Moreno, S. Thompson, R.L. Whitman, J.A. Jay
2009, Journal of Applied Microbiology (107) 72-84
Aim: Factors affecting faecal indicator bacteria (FIB) and pathogen survival/persistence in sand remain largely unstudied. This work elucidates how biological and physical factors affect die-off in beach sand following sewage spills. Methods and Results: Solar disinfection with mechanical mixing was pilot-tested as a disinfection procedure after a large sewage spill...
EMAG2: A 2-arc min resolution Earth Magnetic Anomaly Grid compiled from satellite, airborne, and marine magnetic measurements
S. Maus, U. Barckhausen, H. Berkenbosch, N. Bournas, J. Brozena, V. Childers, F. Dostaler, J.D. Fairhead, Carol A. Finn, Ralph R. B. von Frese, C. Gaina, S. Golynsky, R. Kucks, Hai Lu, P. Milligan, S. Mogren, R.D. Muller, O. Olesen, M. Pilkington, R. Saltus, B. Schreckenberger, E. Thebault, F.C. Tontini
2009, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems (10)
A global Earth Magnetic Anomaly Grid (EMAG2) has been compiled from satellite, ship, and airborne magnetic measurements. EMAG2 is a significant update of our previous candidate grid for the World Digital Magnetic Anomaly Map. The resolution has been improved from 3 arc min to 2 arc min, and the altitude...
Coastal marsh response to historical and future sea-level acceleration
M. Kirwan, S. Temmerman
2009, Quaternary Science Reviews (28) 1801-1808
We consider the response of marshland to accelerations in the rate of sea-level rise by utilizing two previously described numerical models of marsh elevation. In a model designed for the Scheldt Estuary (Belgium-SW Netherlands), a feedback between inundation depth and suspended sediment concentrations allows marshes to quickly adjust their elevation...
Effect of time dependence on probabilistic seismic-hazard maps and deaggregation for the central Apennines, Italy
A. Akinci, F. Galadini, D. Pantosti, Mark D. Petersen, L. Malagnini, D. Perkins
2009, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (99) 585-610
We produce probabilistic seismic-hazard assessments for the central Apennines, Italy, using time-dependent models that are characterized using a Brownian passage time recurrence model. Using aperiodicity parameters, ?? of 0.3, 0.5, and 0.7, we examine the sensitivity of the probabilistic ground motion and its deaggregation to these parameters. For the seismic...
Links between fluid circulation, temperature, and metamorphism in subducting slabs
G.A. Spinelli, K. Wang
2009, Geophysical Research Letters (36)
The location and timing of metamorphic reactions in subducting lithosph??re are influenced by thermal effects of fluid circulation in the ocean crust aquifer. Fluid circulation in subducting crust extracts heat from the Nankai subduction zone, causing the crust to pass through cooler metamorphic faci??s than if no fluid circulation occurs....
Satellite-marked waterfowl reveal migratory connection between H5N1 outbreak areas in China and Mongolia
D.J. Prosser, John Y. Takekawa, S. H. Newman, B. Yan, David C. Douglas, Y. Hou, Z. Xing, Dongxiao Zhang, T. Li, Y. Li, D. Zhao, W.M. Perry, E.C. Palm
2009, Ibis (151) 568-576
The role of wild birds in the spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 has been greatly debated and remains an unresolved question. However, analyses to determine involvement of wild birds have been hindered by the lack of basic information on their movements in central Asia. Thus, we initiated a...
Accelerated weathering of limestone for CO2 mitigation: Opportunities for the stone and cement industries
William H. Langer, Carma A. San Juan, Greg H. Rau, Ken Caldeira
2009, Mining Engineering (61) 27-32
Large amounts of limestone fines co-produced during the processing of crushed limestone may be useful in the sequestration of carbon dioxide (CO2). Accelerated weathering of limestone (AWL) is proposed as a low-tech method to capture and sequester CO2 from fossil fuel-fired power plants and other point sources such as cement manufacturing....
Effects of geolocation archival tags on reproduction and adult body mass of sooty shearwaters (Puffinus griseus)
J. Adams, D. Scott, S. McKechnie, G. Blackwell, S.A. Shaffer, H. Moller
2009, New Zealand Journal of Ecology (36) 355-366
We attached 11 g (1.4% body-mass equivalent) global location sensing (GLS) archival tag packages to tarsi of 25 breeding sooty shearwaters (Puffinus griseus, titi) on Whenua Hou (Codfish Island), New Zealand during the chick-rearing period in 2005. Compared with chicks reared by non-handled adults that did not carry tags, deployment...
Modeled ground water age distributions
Linda R. Woolfenden, Timothy R. Ginn
2009, Ground Water (47) 547-557
The age of ground water in any given sample is a distributed quantity representing distributed provenance (in space and time) of the water. Conventional analysis of tracers such as unstable isotopes or anthropogenic chemical species gives discrete or binary measures of the presence of water of a given age. Modeled...
U-Pb zircon ages from the southwestern Karoo Basin, South Africa - Implications for the Permian-Triassic boundary
A. Fildani, A. Weislogel, N.J. Drinkwater, T. McHargue, A. Tankard, J. Wooden, D. Hodgson, S. Flint
2009, Geology (37) 719-722
U-Pb ages determined using sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe-reverse geometry on 205 single-grain zircons from 16 ash beds within submarine fan deposits of the Ecca Group provide the first evidence of a marine Permian-Triassic (P-T) boundary in the Karoo Basin of South Africa. These U-Pb ages provide an objective basis for...
Predicting dietborne metal toxicity from metal influxes
M.-N. Croteau, S. N. Luoma
2009, Environmental Science & Technology (43) 4915-4921
Dietborne metal uptake prevails for many species in nature. However, the links between dietary metal exposure and toxicity are not well understood. Sources of uncertainty include the lack of suitable tracers to quantify exposure for metals such as copper, the difficulty to assess dietary processes such as food ingestion rate,...
