Dual-core mass-balance approach for evaluating mercury and210Pb atmospheric fallout and focusing to lakes
P. C. Van Metre, C. C. Fuller
2009, Environmental Science & Technology (43) 26-32
Determining atmospheric deposition rates of mercury and other contaminants using lake sediment cores requires a quantitative understanding of sediment focusing. Here we present a novel approach that solves mass-balance equations for two cores algebraically to estimate contaminant contributions to sediment from direct atmospheric fallout and from watershed and in-lake focusing....
Modeling species occurrence dynamics with multiple states and imperfect detection
D.I. MacKenzie, J.D. Nichols, M.E. Seamans, R. J. Gutierrez
2009, Ecology (90) 823-835
Recent extensions of occupancy modeling have focused not only on the distribution of species over space, but also on additional state variables (e.g., reproducing or not, with or without disease organisms, relative abundance categories) that provide extra information about occupied sites. These biologist-driven extensions are characterized by ambiguity in both...
Russian eruption warning systems for aviation
Christina A. Neal, Olga Girina, Sergey Senyukov, Alexander Rybin, Jeffery M. Osiensky, Pavel Izbekov, Gail Ferguson
2009, Natural Hazards (51) 245-262
More than 65 potentially active volcanoes on the Kamchatka Peninsula and the Kurile Islands pose a substantial threat to aircraft on the Northern Pacific (NOPAC), Russian Trans-East (RTE), and Pacific Organized Track System (PACOTS) air routes. The Kamchatka Volcanic Eruption Response Team (KVERT) monitors and reports on volcanic hazards to...
Features of lava lake filling and draining and their implications for eruption dynamics
W.K. Stovall, Bruce F. Houghton, A.J.L. Harris, D. A. Swanson
2009, Bulletin of Volcanology (71) 767-780
Lava lakes experience filling, circulation, and often drainage depending upon the style of activity and location of the vent. Features formed by these processes have proved difficult to document due to dangerous conditions during the eruption, inaccessibility, and destruction of features during lake drainage. Kilauea Iki lava lake, Kilauea, Hawai'i,...
Modern U-Pb chronometry of meteorites: advancing to higher time resolution reveals new problems
Y. Amelin, J. Connelly, R. E. Zartman, J.-H. Chen, C. Gopel, L.A. Neymark
2009, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (73) 5212-5223
In this paper, we evaluate the factors that influence the accuracy of lead (Pb)-isotopic ages of meteorites, and may possibly be responsible for inconsistencies between Pb-isotopic and extinct nuclide timescales of the early Solar System: instrumental mass fractionation and other possible analytical sources of error, presence of more than one...
A Multi-Level Approach to Outreach for Geologic Sequestration Projects
S.E. Greenberg, H.E. Leetaru, I.G. Krapac, K. Hnottavange-Telleen, R.J. Finley
2009, Conference Paper, Energy Procedia
Public perception of carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) projects represents a potential barrier to commercialization. Outreach to stakeholders at the local, regional, and national level is needed to create familiarity with and potential acceptance of CCS projects. This paper highlights the Midwest Geological Sequestration Consortium (MGSC) multi-level outreach approach which...
Prediction of spectral acceleration response ordinates based on PGA attenuation
V. Graizer, E. Kalkan
2009, Earthquake Spectra (25) 39-69
Developed herein is a new peak ground acceleration (PGA)-based predictive model for 5% damped pseudospectral acceleration (SA) ordinates of free-field horizontal component of ground motion from shallow-crustal earthquakes. The predictive model of ground motion spectral shape (i.e., normalized spectrum) is generated as a continuous function of few parameters. The proposed...
Influence of seasonal, diel, lunar, and other environmental factors on upstream fish passage in the igarapava fish ladder, Brazil
P.M. Bizzotto, Alexandre L. Godinho, V. Vono, B. Kynard, Hugo P. Godinho
2009, Ecology of Freshwater Fish (18) 461-472
Upstream fish passage was evaluated during 12 months in the vertical-slot Igarapava Fish Ladder constructed around Igarapava Dam, in the heavily dammed Grande River, Southeast Brazil. A video monitoring system was used to observe 61,621 fish that passed the ladder, of which 93.5% were identified to 15 taxa. Among the...
Water quality of streams in Johnson County, Kansas, 2002-07
T. J. Rasmussen
2009, Conference Paper, Proceedings of World Environmental and Water Resources Congress 2009 - World Environmental and Water Resources Congress 2009: Great Rivers
Water quality of streams in Johnson County, Kansas was evaluated from October 2002 through December 2007 in a cooperative study between the U.S. Geological Survey and the Johnson County Stormwater Management Program. Water quality at 42 stream sites, representing urban and rural basins, was characterized by evaluating benthic macroinvertebrates, water...
Assessing the occurrence and distribution of pyrethroids in water and suspended sediments
M.L. Hladik, K.M. Kuivila
2009, Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (57) 9079-9085
The distribution of pyrethroid insecticides in the environment was assessed by separately measuring concentrations in the dissolved and suspended sediment phases of surface water samples. Filtered water was extracted by HLB solid-phase extraction cartridges, while the sediment on the filter was sonicated and cleaned up using carbon and aluminum cartridges....
Identifying and prioritizing ungulate migration routes for landscape-level conservation
H. Sawyer, M. J. Kauffman, R. M. Nielson, J. S. Horne
2009, Ecological Applications (19) 2016-2025
As habitat loss and fragmentation increase across ungulate ranges, identifying and prioritizing migration routes for conservation has taken on new urgency. Here we present a general framework using the Brownian bridge movement model (BBMM) that: (1) provides a probabilistic estimate of the migration routes of a sampled population, (2) distinguishes...
Population variation in isotopic composition of shorebird feathers: Implications for determining molting grounds
J. Torres-Dowdall, A.H. Farmer, E.H. Bucher, R. O. Rye, G. Landis
2009, Waterbirds (32) 300-310
Stable isotope analyses have revolutionized the study of migratory connectivity. However, as with all tools, their limitations must be understood in order to derive the maximum benefit of a particular application. The goal of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of stable isotopes of C, N, H, O and...
Estimation of the tectonic slip-rate from Quaternary lacustrine facies within the intraplate Albacete province (SE of Spain)
M. A. Rodriguez-Pascua, J. Bischoff, Victor H. Garduno-Monroy, R. Perez-Lopez, J. L. Giner-Robles, I. Israde-Alcántara, J. P. Calvo, Ross W. Williams
2009, Sedimentary Geology (222) 89-97
The Quaternary lacustrine basin of Cordovilla (CB) represents one of the most active tectonic areas of the Prebetic Zone (Albacete, SE of Spain). The Quaternary sedimentary deposits of this basin are mainly endoreic lacustrine carbonate and alluvial deposits, developed in a semi-arid climate (Pleistocene-present). The basin is a NW-SE-elongated graben...
Climate, lightning ignitions, and fire severity in Yosemite National Park, California, USA
J.A. Lutz, J. W. van Wagtendonk, A. E. Thode, J.D. Miller, J.F. Franklin
2009, International Journal of Wildland Fire (18) 765-774
Continental-scale studies of western North America have attributed recent increases in annual area burned and fire size to a warming climate, but these studies have focussed on large fires and have left the issues of fire severity and ignition frequency unaddressed. Lightning ignitions, any of which could burn a large...
Identification of CD3+ T lymphocytes in the green turtle Chelonia mydas
F.A. Munoz, S. Estrada-Parra, A. Romero-Rojas, Thierry M. Work, E. Gonzalez-Ballesteros, I. Estrada-Garcia
2009, Veterinary Immunology and Immunopathology (131) 211-217
To understand the role of the immune system with respect to disease in reptiles, there is the need to develop tools to assess the host's immune response. An important tool is the development of molecular markers to identify immune cells, and these are limited for reptiles. We developed a technique...
Impacts of experimentally increased foraging effort on the family: offspring sex matters
Ann Harding, Alexander S. Kitaysky, Keith C. Hamer, Margaret E. Hall, Jorg Welcker, Sandra L. Talbot, Nina J. Karnovsky, Geir W. Gabrielsen, David Gremillet
2009, Animal Behaviour (78) 321-328
We examined how short-term impacts of experimentally increased foraging effort by one parent reverberate around the family in a monomorphic seabird (little auk, Alle alle), and whether these effects depend on offspring sex. In many species, more effort is required to rear sons successfully than daughters. However, undernourishment may have...
Diamond dissolution and the production of methane and other carbon-bearing species in hydrothermal diamond-anvil cells
I-Ming Chou, Alan J. Anderson
2009, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (73) 6360-6366
Raman analysis of the vapor phase formed after heating pure water to near critical (355–374 °C) temperatures in a hydrothermal diamond-anvil cell (HDAC) reveals the synthesis of abiogenic methane. This unexpected result demonstrates the chemical reactivity of diamond at relatively low temperatures. The rate of methane production from the reaction between...
Osprey: Worldwide sentinel species for assessing and monitoring environmental contamination in rivers, lakes, reservoirs, and estuaries
Robert A. Grove, Charles J. Henny, James L. Kaiser
2009, Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part B: Critical Reviews (12) 25-44
In the United States, many fish and wildlife species have been used nationwide to monitor environmental contaminant exposure and effects, including carcasses of the bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), the only top avian predator regularly used in the past. Unfortunately, bald eagles are sensitive to investigator intrusion at the nest. Thus,...
Wide-area estimates of saltcedar (Tamarix spp.) evapotranspiration on the lower Colorado River measured by heat balance and remote sensing methods
Pamela L. Nagler, Kiyomi Morino, Kamel Didan, J. Erker, John Osterberg, Kevin R. Hultine, Edward P. Glenn
2009, Ecohydrology (2) 18-33
In many places along the lower Colorado River, saltcedar (Tamarix spp) has replaced the native shrubs and trees, including arrowweed, mesquite, cottonwood and willows. Some have advocated that by removing saltcedar, we could save water and create environments more favourable to these native species. To test these assumptions we compared sap...
Mapping and monitoring Mt. Graham Red Squirrel habitat with GIS and thematic mapper imagery
James R. Hatten, John L. Koprowski
H. Reed Sanderson, John L. Koprowski, editor(s)
2009, Book chapter, The Last Refuge of the Mt. Graham Red Squirrel
To estimate the Mt. Graham red squirrel (MGRS) population, personnel visit a proportion of middens each year to determine their occupancy (Snow in this vol.). The method results in very tight confidence intervals (high precision), but the accuracy of the population estimate is dependent upon knowing where all the middens...
A Miocene to Pleistocene climate and elevation record of the Sierra Nevada (California)
A. Mulch, Andrei M. Sarna-Wojcicki, M. E. Perkins, C. P. Chamberlain
2009, PNAS (105) 6819-6824
Orographic precipitation of Pacific-sourced moisture creates a rain shadow across the central part of the Sierra Nevada (California) that contrasts with the southern part of the range, where seasonal monsoonal precipitation sourced to the south obscures this rain shadow effect. Orographic rainout systematically lowers the hydrogen isotope composition of precipitation...
Analysis of vegetation changes in Rock Creek Park, 1991-2007
Jeff S. Hatfield, Cairn Krafft
2009, Natural Resource Technical Report NPS/NCR/NCRO/NRTR--2009/001
Vegetation data collected at Rock Creek Park every 4 years during 1991-2007 were analyzed for differences among 3 regions within the park and among years. The variables measured and analyzed were percentage of twigs browsed, percentage of canopy cover, species richness of herbaceous plants, number of tree seedlings in each...
Partners in Flight research needs assessment summary
Janet M. Ruth, Kenneth V. Rosenberg
2009, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the 4th International Partners in Flight Conference
An important component of the PIF International Conference in McAllen, TX in February 2008 was the incorporation of a Needs Assessment Process in all of the conference sessions. Throughout the McAllen sessions, a number of critical information gaps were identified, pointing to future research that will be needed to establish...
Effects of urbanization on the chemical, physical, and biological characteristics of small Blackland Prairie streams in and near the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area, Texas
J. Bruce Moring
2009, Scientific Investigations Report 2006-5101-C
In 2001, the U.S. Geological Survey National Water Quality Assessment Program began a series of studies in the contiguous United States to examine the effects of urbanization on the chemical, physical, and biological characteristics of streams. Small streams in the Texas Blackland Prairie level III ecoregion in and near the...
Bedrock geology of the Montpelier area, central Vermont
Gregory J. Walsh, Jonathan Kim, Marjorie H. Gale
2009, Conference Paper, Guidebook to the northeast kingdom, Vermont and surrounding regions
No abstract available....
