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To determine the influence of fire and thermokarst in a boreal landscape, we investigated peat cores within and adjacent to a permafrost collapse feature on the Tanana River Floodplain of Interior Alaska. Radioisotope dating, diatom assemblages, plant macrofossils, charcoal fragments, and carbon and nitrogen content of the peat profile indicate...

Background. The Hawaiian honeycreepers (Drepanidinae) are one of the best-known examples of an adaptive radiation, but their persistence today is threatened by the introduction of exotic pathogens and their vector, the mosquito Culex quinquefasciatus. Historically, species such as the amakihi (Hemignathus virens), the apapane (Himatione sanguinea), and the iiwi (Vestiaria...

We used aerial photography and GIS to establish a quantitative baseline of propeller and off-road vehicle (ORV) scarring in seagrass and wind-tidal flats of the upper Laguna Madre in the Padre Island National Seashore (Texas, USA). We also examined scar recovery through comparison of recent (2002, 2005) and historical (1967)...

A prominent unconformity, present across shallow shelf areas of the Euramerican paleoequatorial basins, is used to demark the boundary between the Mississippian and Pennsylvanian subsystems. This unconformity, the mid-Carboniferous eustatic event, is generally attributed to a major glacio-eustatic sea-level fall. Although a Mississippian-Pennsylvanian unconformity is recognized throughout most of the...

Reintroduction is a powerful tool in our conservation toolbox. However, the necessary follow-up, i.e. long-term monitoring, is not commonplace and if instituted may lack rigor. We contend that valid monitoring is possible, even with sparse data. We present a means to monitor based on demographic data and a projection model...

The method of modern analogs is widely used to obtain estimates of past climatic conditions from paleobiological assemblages, and despite its frequent use, this method involved so-far untested assumptions. We applied four analog approaches to a continental-scale set of bioclimatic and plant-distribution presence/absence data for North America to assess how...

Our understanding of how elevated CO2 and interactions with other factors will affect coastal plant communities is limited. Such information is particularly needed for transitional communities where major vegetation types converge. Tropical mangroves (Avicennia germinans) intergrade with temperate salt marshes (Spartina alterniflora) in the northern Gulf of Mexico, and this transitional...

Mercury and organic carbon concentrations vary dynamically in streamwater at the Sleepers River Research Watershed in Vermont, USA. Total mercury (THg) concentrations ranged from 0.53 to 93.8 ng/L during a 3-year period of study. The highest mercury (Hg) concentrations occurred slightly before peak flows and were associated with the highest...

From 1999 to 2006, we sampled >1200 amphibians for the fungal pathogen Batrachochytnum dendrobatidis (Bd) at 30 sites in the southeastern USA. Using histological techniques or PCR assays, we detected chytrid infection in 10 species of aquatic-breeding amphibians in 6 states. The prevalence of chytrid infection was 17.8% for samples...

Products of the 1915 Lassen Peak eruption reveal evidence for a magma recharge–magma mixing event that may have catalyzed the eruption and from which four compositional members were identified: light dacite, black dacite, andesitic inclusion, and dark andesite. Crystal size distribution, textural, and in situ chemical (major and trace element...

[No abstract available]...

With advances in computational capabilities and refinement of seismic wave-propagation models in the past decade large three-dimensional simulations of earthquake ground motion have become possible. The resulting datasets from these simulations are multivariate, temporal and multi-terabyte in size. Past visual representations of results from seismic studies have been largely confined...

Sedimentological analyses of middle Paleozoic epeiric sea successions in North America suggest a hierarchy of discontinuity surfaces and condensed beds of increasing complexity. Simple firmgrounds and hardgrounds, which are comparatively ephemeral features, form the base of the hierarchy. Composite hardgrounds, reworked concretions, authigenic mineral crusts and monomictic intraformational conglomerates indicate...

No abstract available....

Talc, kerolite-smectite, smectite, chlorite-smectite and chlorite samples from sediments, chimneys and massive sulfides from six seafloor hydrothermal areas have been analyzed for mineralogy, chemistry and oxygen isotopes. Samples are from both peridotite- and basalt-hosted hydrothermal systems, and basaltic systems include sediment-free and sediment-covered sites. Mg-phyllosilicates at seafloor hydrothermal sites have...

Regional 3-D seismic velocity models used for broadband strong motion simulations must include compressional-wave velocity (Vp), shear-wave velocity (Vs), intrinsic attenuation (Qp, Qs), and density. Vs and Qs are the most important of these parameters because the strongest ground motions are generated chiefly by shear- and surface-wave arrivals. Because Vp...

American white pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) are colonial-nesting birds and their breeding sites are concentrated in a few small areas, making this species especially vulnerable to factors that can influence productivity, such as disease, disturbance, predation, weather events and loss of nesting habitat. Nearly half of the American white pelican population...

The Huaibei Coalfield, Anhui Province, China, is one of the largest coalfields in China. The coals of Permian age are used mainly for power generation. Coal compositions and 47 trace elements of the No. 10 Coal of the Shanxi Formation, the No. 7, 5, and 4 Coals of the Lower...

In order to evaluate and further constrain models for volatile movement and vapor enrichment of magma stored at shallow levels, amphibole phenocrysts from 2004–2005 Mount St. Helens dacite were analyzed for major and selected trace elements (Li, Cu, Zn, Mn, and REE) and Li isotopes. Several recent studies have examined...

[No abstract available]...

Our understanding of the present forest structure of western North America hinges on our ability to determine antecedent forest conditions. Sedimentary records from lakes and bogs in the southern Rocky Mountains of Colorado and New Mexico provide information on the relationships between climate and vegetation change, and fire history since...

We conducted laboratory experiments to determine the sprint swimming performance of wild juvenile and adult bull trout Salvelinus confluentus. Sprint swimming speeds were estimated using high-speed digital video analysis. Thirty two bull trout were tested in sizes ranging from about 10 to 31 cm. Of these, 14 fish showed at...

Water birds are considered the reservoir for avian influenza viruses. We examined this assumption by sampling and real-time reverse transcription-PCR testing of 939 Asian land birds of 153 species. Influenza A infection was found, particularly among migratory species. Surveillance programs for monitoring spread of these viruses need to be redesigned....

Microbial carbonate precipitation experiments were conducted using the archaeon bacteria Archaeoglobus fulgidus to determine chemical and isotopic fractionation of organic and inorganic carbon into mineral phases. Carbonate precipitation was induced in two different experiments using A. fulgidus to determine the relative abundance of organically derived carbon incorporated into carbonate minerals...

The measurement of short-lived 223Ra often involves a second measurement for supported activities, which represents 227Ac in the sample. Here we exploit this fact, presenting a set of 284 values on the oceanic distribution of 227Ac, which was collected when analyzing water samples for short-lived radium isotopes by the radium...