Guideline for assessing the performance of electric power systems in natural hazard and human threat events
W.U. Savage, S.P. Nishenko, D.G. Honegger, L. Kempner Jr.
2006, Conference Paper, Electrical Transmission Line and Substation Structures: Structural Reliability in a Changing World - Proceedings of the 2006 Electrical Transmission Conference
Electric power utilities are familiar with and skilled in preparing for and responding to almost-routine natural hazard events such as strong wind and ice storms and seasonal floods, as well as intentional human acts such as vandalism. Recent extreme weather (hurricanes Katrina and Rita), extremely destructive international earthquakes (in Sumatra...
Testing the concept of drift shadow at Yucca Mountain, Nevada
J.B. Paces, L.A. Neymark, T. Ghezzehei, P.F. Dobson
2006, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the 11th International High Level Radioactive Waste Management Conference, IHLRWM
If proven, the concept of drift shadow, a zone of reduced water content and slower ground-water travel time beneath openings in fractured rock of the unsaturated zone, may increase performance of a proposed geologic repository for high-level radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain, To test this concept under natural-flow conditions present...
Improving the precision of otolith-based age estimates for Greenland halibut (Reinhardtius hippoglossoides) with preparation methods adapted for fragile sagittae
J.L. Gregg, D.M. Anderl, D.K. Kimura
2006, Fishery Bulletin (104) 643-648
[No abstract available]...
Fault dating in the Canadian Rocky Mountains: Evidence for late Cretaceous and early Eocene orogenic pulses
B.A. van der Pluijm, P.J. Vrolijk, D.R. Pevear, C.M. Hall, J. Solum
2006, Geology (34) 837-840
Fault rocks from the classic Rocky Mountain foreland fold-and-thrust belt in south-western Canada were dated by Ar analysis of clay grain-size fractions. Using X-ray diffraction quantification of the detrital and authigenic component of each fraction, these determinations give ages for individual faults in the area (illite age analysis). The resulting...
Environmental contaminants in fish and their associated risk to piscivorous wildlife in the Yukon River Basin, Alaska
J.E. Hinck, C. J. Schmitt, K. R. Echols, T.W. May, C.E. Orazio, D. E. Tillitt
2006, Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology (51) 661-672
Organochlorine chemical residues and elemental contaminants were measured in northern pike (Esox lucius), longnose sucker (Catostomus catostomus), and burbot (Lota lota) from 10 sites in the Yukon River Basin (YRB) during 2002. Contaminant concentrations were compared to historical YRB data and to toxicity thresholds for fish and piscivorous wildlife from...
Life history, ecology and population viability analysis of the Independence Lake strain Lahontan Cutthroat trout
P.H. Rissler, G.G. Scoppettone, S. Shea
2006, Report
n/a...
A survey of chemical constituents in National Fish Hatchery fish feed
Alec G. Maule, Ann Gannam, Jay Davis
2006, Report
Recent studies have demonstrated that various fish feeds contain significant concentrations of contaminants, many of which can bioaccumulate and bioconcentrate in fish. It appears that numerous organochlorine (OC) contaminants are present in the fish oils and fish meals used in feed manufacture, and some researchers speculate that all fish feeds...
National Institute of Invasive Species Science (NIISS)
Tom Stohlgren
2006, Fact Sheet 2006-3036
The National Institute of Invasive Species Science (www.NIISS.org) is a consortium of governmental and nongovernmental partners, led by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), whose aim is to provide reliable information and advanced decision support tools for documenting, understanding, predicting, assessing, and addressing the threat of invasive species in the United...
Disease emergence and resurgence—the wildlife-human connection
Milton Friend, James W. Hurley, Pauline Nol, Katherine E. Wesenberg
2006, Circular 1285
In 2000, the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) was organized as a global disease watchdog group to coordinate disease outbreak information and health crisis response. The World Health Organization (WHO) is the headquarters for this network. Understandably, the primary focus for WHO is human health. However, diseases such...
Tamarisk control, water salvage, and wildlife habitat restoration along rivers in the western United States
Patrick B. Shafroth
2006, Fact Sheet 2006-3071
In the latter part of the 19th century, species of the nonnative shrub tamarisk (also called saltcedar; for example, Tamarix ramosissima, T. chinensis) were introduced to the United States for use as ornamental plants for erosion control. By 1877, some naturalized populations had become established, and by the 1960s, tamarisk...
Alpine plant community trends on the elk summer range of Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado: An analysis of existing data
Linda Zeigenfuss
2006, Open-File Report 2006-1122
The majority of the elk (Cervus elaphus) population of Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado summer in the park’s high-elevation alpine and subalpine meadows and willow krummholz. The park’s population of white-tailed ptarmigan (Lagopus leucurus altipetens) depends on both dwarf and krummholz willows for food and cover. Concern about the...
Hindcasting nitrogen deposition to determine an ecological critical load
Jill Baron
2006, Ecological Applications (16) 433-439
Using an estimated background nitrogen (N) deposition value of 0.5 kg N·ha−1·yr−1 in 1900, and a 19-year record of measured values from Loch Vale (Colorado, USA; NADP site CO98), I reconstructed an N-deposition history using exponential equations that correlated well with EPA-reported NOx emissions from Colorado and from the sum...
Application of random effects to the study of resource selection by animals
C.S. Gillies, M. Hebblewhite, S.E. Nielsen, M.A. Krawchuk, Cameron L. Aldridge, J.L. Frair, D.J. Saher, C.E. Stevens, C.L. Jerde
2006, Journal of Animal Ecology (75) 887-898
1. Resource selection estimated by logistic regression is used increasingly in studies to identify critical resources for animal populations and to predict species occurrence.2. Most frequently, individual animals are monitored and pooled to estimate population-level effects without regard to group or individual-level variation. Pooling assumes that both observations...
Rank score and permutation testing alternatives for regression quantile estimates
B.S. Cade, J.D. Richards, P.W. Mielke Jr.
2006, Journal of Statistical Computation and Simulation (76) 331-355
Performance of quantile rank score tests used for hypothesis testing and constructing confidence intervals for linear quantile regression estimates (0 ≤ τ ≤ 1) were evaluated by simulation for models with p = 2 and 6 predictors, moderate collinearity among predictors, homogeneous and hetero-geneous errors, small to moderate samples (n = 20–300), and central to upper quantiles (0.50–0.99)....
Novel ecosystems: Theoretical and management aspects of the new ecological world order
R.J. Hobbs, S. Arico, J. Aronson, Jill Baron, P. Bridgewater, V.A. Cramer, P.R. Epstein, J.J. Ewel, C.A. Klink, A.E. Lugo, D. Norton, D. Ojima, D.M. Richardson, E.W. Sanderson, F. Valladares, M. Vila, R. Zamora, M. Zobel
2006, Global Ecology and Biogeography (15) 1-7
We explore the issues relevant to those types of ecosystems containing new combinations of species that arise through human action, environmental change, and the impacts of the deliberate and inadvertent introduction of species from other regions. Novel ecosystems (also termed ‘emerging ecosystems’) result when species occur in combinations and relative...
Evaluating dominance as a component of non-native species invasions
A.W. Crall, G.J. Newman, T.J. Stohlgren, C. S. Jarnevich, P. Evangelista, D. Guenther
2006, Diversity and Distributions (12) 195-204
Many studies have quantified plant invasions by determining patterns of non-native species establishment (i.e. richness and absolute cover). Until recently, dominance has been largely overlooked as a significant component of invasion. Therefore, we re-examined a 6-year data set of 323 0.1 ha plots within 18 vegetation types collected in the Grand...
Grenvillian magmatism in the northern Virginia Blue Ridge: Petrologic implications of episodic granitic magma production and the significance of postorogenic A-type charnockite
R.P. Tollo, J. N. Aleinikoff, E.A. Borduas, A.P. Dickin, R.H. McNutt, C.M. Fanning
2006, Precambrian Research (151) 224-264
Grenvillian (1.2 to 1.0 Ga) plutonic rocks in northern Virginia preserve evidence of episodic, mostly granitic magmatism that spanned more than 150 million years (m.y.) of crustal reworking. Crystallization ages determined by sensitive high resolution ion microprobe (SHRIMP) U-Pb isotopic analyses of zircon and monazite, combined with results from previous...
Non-invasive method to obtain DNA from freshwater mussels (Bivalvia: Unionidae)
W.F. Henley, P.J. Grobler, R. J. Neves
2006, Journal of Shellfish Research (25) 975-977
To determine whether DNA could be isolated from tissues obtained by brush-swabbing the mantle, viscera and foot, mantle-clips and swabbed cells were obtained from eight Quadrula pustulosa (Lea, 1831). DNA yields from clips and swabbings were 447.0 and 975.3 ??g/??L, respectively. Furthermore, comparisons of sequences from the ND-1 mitochondrial gene...
Soil grain analyses at Meridiani Planum, Mars
C.M. Weitz, R. C. Anderson, J.F. Bell III, W. H. Farrand, Kenneth E. Herkenhoff, J. R. Johnson, B.L. Jolliff, R.V. Morris, S. W. Squyres, R.J. Sullivan
2006, Journal of Geophysical Research E: Planets (111)
Grain‐size analyses of the soils at Meridiani Planum have been used to identify rock sources for the grains and provide information about depositional processes under past and current conditions. Basaltic sand, dust, millimeter‐size hematite‐rich spherules interpreted as concretions, spherule fragments, coated partially buried spherules, basalt fragments, sedimentary outcrop fragments, and...
Evaluation of aerial survey methods for Dall's sheep
Mark S. Udevitz, Brad S. Shults, Layne G. Adams, Christopher Kleckner
2006, Wildlife Society Bulletin (34) 732-740
Most Dall's sheep (Ovis dalli dalli) population-monitoring efforts use intensive aerial surveys with no attempt to estimate variance or adjust for potential sightability bias. We used radiocollared sheep to assess factors that could affect sightability of Dall's sheep in standard fixed-wing and helicopter surveys and to evaluate feasibility of methods...
Concentration and dry deposition of mercury species in arid south central New Mexico (2001-2002)
Colleen A. Caldwell, Philip Swartzendruber, Eric Prestbo
2006, Environmental Science & Technology (40) 7535-7540
This research was initiated to characterize atmospheric deposition of reactive gaseous mercury (RGM), particulate mercury (HgP; <2.5 μm), and gaseous elemental mercury (Hg0) in the arid lands of south central New Mexico. Two methods were field-tested to estimate dry deposition of three mercury species. A manual speciation sampling train consisting...
The influence of aridity and fire on Holocene prairie communities in the eastern Prairie Peninsula
D.M. Nelson, S.H. Feng, E.C. Grimm, B. Brandon Curry, J.E. Slate
2006, Ecology (87) 2523-2536
The role of climate and fire in the development, maintenance, and species composition of prairie in the eastern axis of the tallgrass Prairie Peninsula intrigued early North American ecologists. However, evaluation of the long-standing hypotheses about the region's environmental history has been hampered by the scarcity of paleorecords. We conducted...
Survival and growth of age-0 steelhead after surgical implantation of 23-mm passive integrated transponders
D.S. Bateman, R. E. Gresswell
2006, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (26) 545-550
Little information is available on the effects of implanting 23-mm passive integrated transponder (PIT) tags in salmonids less than 90 mm fork length (FL). Using juvenile steelhead Oncorhynchus mykiss (range, 73–97 mm FL), we compared instantaneous growth rates and survival among three experimental groups: control, surgery with no tag, and surgery with...
Effects of increased feeding frequency on growth of hybrid bluegill in ponds
C.R. Sager, D.L. Winkelman
2006, North American Journal of Aquaculture (68) 313-316
Increased feeding frequency has been used in aquaculture to increase growth and food conversion efficiency, and recent laboratory studies have indicated that feeding frequency could be used to reduce the size variation within groups of hybrid bluegills (F1: male bluegill Lepomis macrochirus x female green sunfish L. cyanellus). Our experiment...
Ecology of a population of subsidized predators: Common ravens in the central Mojave Desert, California
W.I. Boarman, M.A. Patten, R.J. Camp, S.J. Collis
2006, Journal of Arid Environments (67) 248-261
Human subsidies have resulted in the rapid growth of populations of common ravens (Corvus corax) in the Mojave Desert. This is a management concern because ravens prey on threatened desert tortoises (Gopherus agassizii). We conducted weekly counts for 29 months at 10 sites on the US Army's National Training Center,...
