Geophysical characterization of a Proterozoic REE terrane at Mountain Pass, eastern Mojave Desert, California
Kevin Denton, David A. Ponce, Jared R. Peacock, David M. Miller
2020, Geosphere (16) 456-471
Mountain Pass, California (USA), located in the eastern Mojave Desert, hosts one of the world’s richest rare earth element (REE) deposits. The REE-rich terrane occurs in a 2.5-km-wide, northwest-trending belt of Mesoproterozoic (1.4 Ga) stocks and dikes, which intrude a larger Paleoproterozoic (1.7 Ga) metamorphic block that extends ∼10 km...
Postmortem evaluation of reintroduced migratory whooping cranes (Grus americana) in eastern North America
Taylor J. Yaw, Kimberli J.G. Miller, Julia S. Lankton, Barry K. Hartup
2020, Wildlife Disease (56) 673-678
We reviewed necropsy records of 124 Whooping Cranes (Grus americana) recovered following reintroduction of 268 individuals from 2001 to 2016 in the eastern US. Causes of death were determined in 62% (77/124) of cases facilitated by active monitoring that limited decomposition and scavenging artifact. The greatest proportions of mortality were...
Future losses of playa wetlands decrease network structure and connectivity of the Rainwater Basin, Nebraska
Bram H.F. Verheijen, Dana M. Varner, David A. Haukos
2020, Landscape Ecology (35) 453-467
ContextThe Rainwater Basin in south-central Nebraska once supported a complex network of ~ 12,000 spatially-isolated playa wetlands, but ~ 90% have been lost since European settlement. Future losses are likely and expected reductions in connectivity could further isolate populations, increasing local extinction rates of many wetland species. However, to what extent future...
Variation of annual apparent survival and detection rates with age, year, and individual identity in male Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddellii) from long-term mark-recapture data
Jamie L. Brusa, Jay J. Rotella, Robert A. Garrott, J. Terrill Paterson, William Link
2020, Population Ecology (62) 134-150
Exploring age- and sex-specific survival rates provides insight regarding population behavior and life-history trait evolution, but many population studies exclude males. Accordingly, our understanding of how age-specific patterns of survival, including actuarial senescence, compare between the sexes remains inadequate. Using 35 years of mark-recapture data for 7,516...
Caribou use of habitat near energy development in Arctic Alaska
Heather E. Johnson, Trevor Golden, Layne G. Adams, David Gustine, Elizabeth A. Lenart
2020, Journal of Wildlife Management (84) 401-412
Increasing demands for energy have generated interest in expanding oil and gas production on the North Slope of Alaska, raising questions about the resilience of barren-ground caribou populations to new development. Although the amount of habitat lost directly to energy development in the Arctic will likely be relatively small, there...
Testing reproducibility of vitrinite and solid bitumen reflectance measurements in North American unconventional source-rock reservoir petroleum systems
Paul C. Hackley, Carla V. Araujo, Angeles G. Borrego, Antonis Bouzinos, Brian J. Cardott, H. Carvajal-Ortiz, Martha Rocio Lopez Cely, Vongani Chabalala, Peter J. Crosdale, Thomas D. Demchuk, Cortland F. Eble, Deolinda Flores, Agnieszka Furmann, Thomas Gentzis, Paula Goncalves, Carsten Guvad, M. Hamor-Vido, Iwona Jelonek, M. Johnston, Tatiana Juliao-Lemus, Stavros Kalaitzidis, Wayne Knowles, Jolanta Kus, Zhongsheng Li, Gordon Macleod, Maria Mastalerz, Taissa Rego Menezes, Seare Ocubalidet, Richard Orban, Walter Pickel, Paddy Ranasinghe, Joana Ribeiro, Olga Patricia Gomez Rojas, Ricardo Ruiz-Monroy, Jaques Schmidt, Abbas Seyedolali, Georgios Siavalas, Isabel Suarez-Ruiz, Carlos Vargas Vargas, Brett J. Valentine, Nicola Wagner, Bree Wrolson, Julian Esteban Jaramillo Zapata
2020, Marine and Petroleum Geology (114)
An interlaboratory study (ILS) was conducted to test reproducibility of vitrinite and solid bitumen reflectance measurements in six mudrock samples from United States unconventional source-rock reservoir petroleum systems. Samples selected from the Marcellus, Haynesville, Eagle Ford, Barnett, Bakken and Woodford are...
Fault fictions: Systematic biases in the conceptualization of fault-zone architecture
Zoe K Shipton, Jennifer J Roberts, Comrie Emma L, Yannick Kremer, Rebecca J Lunn, Jonathan Saul Caine
2020, Special Publications (496) 125-143
Mental models are a human's internal representation of the real world and have an important role in the way we understand and reason about uncertainties, explore potential options and make decisions. Mental models have not yet received much attention in geosciences, yet systematic biases can affect...
UAV-derived estimates of forest structure to inform ponderosa pine forest restoration
Adam Belmonte, Temuulen T. Sankey, Joel A. Biederman, John B. Bradford, Scott J. Goetz, Thomas Kolb, Travis Woolley
2020, Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation (6) 181-197
Restoring forest ecosystems has become an increasingly high priority for land managers across the American West. Millions of hectares of forest are in need of drastic yet strategic reductions in density (e.g., basal area). Meeting the restoration and management goals requires quantifying metrics of vertical and horizontal forest structure, which...
Time scales of arsenic variability and the role of high-frequency monitoring at three water-supply wells in New Hampshire, USA
James R. Degnan, Joseph P. Levitt, Melinda L. Erickson, Bryant C. Jurgens, Bruce D. Lindsey, Joseph D. Ayotte
2020, Science of the Total Environment (709)
Groundwater geochemistry, redox process classification, high-frequency physicochemical and hydrologic measurements, and climate data were analyzed to identify controls on arsenic (As) concentration changes. Groundwater was monitored in two public-supply wells (one glacial aquifer and one bedrock aquifer), and one bedrock-aquifer domestic well in New...
Seismo-acoustic evidence for vent drying during shallow submarine eruptions at Bogoslof volcano, Alaska
David Fee, John J. Lyons, Matthew M. Haney, Aaron Wech, Christopher F. Waythomas, Angela K. Diefenbach, Taryn Lopez, Alexa R. Van Eaton, David J. Schneider
2020, Bulletin of Volcanology Special Issue on the Bogoslof Eruption (82)
Characterizing the state of the volcanic vent is key for interpreting observational datasets and accurately assessing volcanic hazards. This is particularly true for remote, complex eruptions such as the 2016–2017 Bogoslof volcano, Alaska eruption sequence. Bogoslof’s eruptions in this period were either shallow submarine or subaerial, or some combination of...
Not all fuel‐reduction treatments degrade biocrusts: Herbicides cause mostly neutral to positive effects on cover of biocrusts
Lea A. Condon, Margaret L Gray
2020, Land Degradation & Development (31) 1727-1734
In response to increasing fire, fuel‐reduction treatments are being used to minimize large fire risk. Although biocrusts are associated with reduced cover of fire‐promoting, invasive grasses, the impact of fuel‐reduction treatments on biocrusts is poorly understood. We use data from a long‐term experiment, the Sagebrush Steppe Treatment Evaluation Project, testing...
USGS near-real-time products-and their use-for the 2018 Anchorage earthquake
Eric M. Thompson, Sara K. McBride, Gavin P. Hayes, Kate E. Allstadt, Lisa Wald, David J. Wald, Keith L. Knudsen, Charles Worden, Kristin Marano, Randall W. Jibson, Alex R. Grant
2020, Seismological Research Letters (91) 94-113
In the minutes to hours after a major earthquake, such as the recent 2018 Mw">Mw 7.1 Anchorage event, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) produces a suite of interconnected earthquake products that provides diverse information...
Evaluation of ground‐motion models for U.S. Geological Survey seismic hazard models: 2018 Anchorage, Alaska, Mw 7.1 subduction zone earthquake sequence
Daniel E. McNamara, Emily Wolin, Peter M. Powers, Allison Shumway, Morgan P. Moschetti, John Rekoske, Eric M. Thompson, Charles Mueller, Mark D. Petersen
2020, Seismological Research Letters (91) 183-194
Instrumental ground‐motion recordings from the 2018 Anchorage, Alaska (Mw">Mw 7.1), earthquake sequence provide an independent data set allowing us to evaluate the predictive power of ground‐motion models (GMMs) for...
Geochronology of the Oliverian Plutonic Suite and the Ammonoosuc Volcanics in the Bronson Hill arc: Western New Hampshire, USA
Peter M. Valley, Gregory J. Walsh, Arthur J. Merschat, Ryan J. McAleer
2020, Geosphere (16) 229-257
U-Pb zircon geochronology by sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe–reverse geometry (SHRIMP-RG) on 11 plutonic rocks and two volcanic rocks from the Bronson Hill arc in western New Hampshire yielded Early to Late Ordovician ages ranging from 475 to 445 Ma. Ages from Oliverian Plutonic Suite rocks that intrude a largely mafic...
Successful molecular detection studies require clear communication among diverse research partners
B. A. Mosher, R. F. Bernard, Jeffrey M. Lorch, D. A. W. Miller, Katherine L. D. Richgels, C. LeAnn White, Evan H. Campbell Grant
2020, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment (18) 43-51
Molecular detection techniques are powerful tools used in ecological applications ranging from diet analyses to pathogen surveillance. Research partnerships that use these tools often involve collaboration among professionals with expertise in field biology, laboratory techniques, quantitative modeling, wildlife disease, and natural resource management. However, in many cases, each of these...
Dimensional effects of inter-phase mass transfer on attenuation of structurally trapped gaseous carbon dioxide in shallow aquifers
Jakub Solovsky, Radek Fucik, Michelle R. Plampin, Tissa H. Illangasekare, Jiri Mikyska
2020, Journal of Computational Physics (405)
Based on experimental evidence and using mathematical modeling, inter-phase mass transfer processes of CO2 exsolving from and dissolving into water in heterogeneous porous media are investigated under two fundamentally different flow conditions: in a quasi one dimensional vertical column and in a two-dimensional tank with a lateral background water flow, both...
Toward ecosystem accounts for Rwanda: Tracking 25 years of change in potential supply and flows of ecosystem services
Kenneth J. Bagstad, Jane Carter Ingram, Glenn-Marie Lange, Michel K. Masozera, Zachary H. Ancona, Mediatrice Bana, Desire Kabogo, Bernard Musana, Nsharwasi Leon Nabahungu, Emmanuel Rukundo, Evariste Rutebuka, Stephen Polasky, Denis Rugege, Claudine Uwera
2020, People and Nature (1) 163-188
1. Rwanda, a small but rapidly developing central African nation, has undertaken development of natural capital accounts to better inform its economic development through the World Bank’s Wealth Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services (WAVES) Partnership. In this paper, we develop ecosystem service (ES) models to quantify the physical supply...
Roosting habitat use by sandhill cranes and waterfowl on the North and South Platte Rivers in Nebraska
Dana M Varner, Aaron T. Pearse, Andrew Bishop, Jonas Davis, John Denton, Roger Grosse, Heather M. Johnson, Emily Munter, Kirk D Schroeder, Robert E. Spangler, Mark P. Vrtiska, Angelina Wright
2020, Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management (11) 56-67
Migration ecology and habitat use of spring migrating birds using the Central Platte River is a well-explored topic, yet less is known about use of the North and South Platte rivers (NSPR) in western Nebraska. The efficiency and effectiveness of conservation efforts in the NSPR could be greatly improved with...
Controls on debris‐flow initiation on burned and unburned hillslopes during an exceptional rainstorm in southern New Mexico, USA
Anne C. Tillery, Francis K. Rengers
2020, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms (45) 1051-1066
AbstractUsing observations from 688 debris flows, we analyse the hydrologic and landscape characteristics that influenced debris‐flow initiation mechanisms and locations in a watershed that had been partially burned by the 2012 Whitewater‐Baldy Complex Fire in the Gila Mountains, southern New Mexico. Debris flows can initiate due...
Parsing the effects of demography, climate, and management on recurrent brucellosis outbreaks in elk
Gavin G. Cotterill, Paul C. Cross, Jerod Merkle, JD Rogerson, BM Scurlock, Johan T. Du Toit
2020, Journal of Applied Ecology (2) 379-389
1. Zoonotic pathogens can harm human health and well-being directly or by impacting livestock. Pathogens that spillover from wildlife can also impair conservation efforts if humans perceive wildlife as pests. Brucellosis, caused by the bacterium Brucella abortus, circulates in elk and bison herds of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and poses...
Predicting wildlife distribution patterns in New England USA with expert elicitation techniques
Schuyler B. Pearman-Gillman, Jonathan E. Katz, Ruth M. Mickey, James D. Murdoch, Therese M. Donovan
2020, Global Ecology and Conservation (21)
Understanding the impacts of landscape change on species distributions can help inform decision-making and conservation planning. Unfortunately, empirical data that span large spatial extents across multiple taxa are limited. In this study, we used expert elicitation techniques to develop species distribution models (SDMs) for harvested wildlife species (n = 10) in the New England region...
Antibiotic resistant bacteria in wildlife: Perspectives on trends, acquisitions and dissemination, data gaps, and future directions
Andrew M. Ramey, Christina Ahlstrom
2020, Journal of Wildlife Diseases (56) 1-15
The proliferation of antibiotic resistant bacteria in the environment has potential negative economic and health consequences. Thus, previous investigations have targeted wild animals to understand the occurrence of antibiotic resistance in diverse environmental sources. In this critical review and synthesis, we summarize important concepts learned through the sampling...
Agricultural cropland extent and areas of South Asia derived using Landsat satellite 30-m time-series big-data using random forest machine learning algorithms on the Google Earth Engine cloud
Murali Krishna Gumma, Prasad Thenkabail, Pardhasaradhi Teluguntla, Adam Oliphant
2020, GIScience and Remote Sensing (57) 302-322
The South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bhutan) has a staggering 900 million people (~43% of the population) who face food insecurity or severe food insecurity as per United Nations, Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES). The existing coarse-resolution (>250-m) cropland maps...
The ecology of chronic wasting disease in wildlife
Luis E. Escobar, Sandra Pritzkow, Steven N Winter, Daniel A. Grear, Megan S. Kirchgessner, Ernesto Dominguez-Villegas, Gustavo Machado, A Townsend Peterson, Claudio Soto
2020, Biological Reviews (95) 393-408
Prions are misfolded infectious proteins responsible for a group of fatal neurodegenerative diseases termed transmissible spongiform encephalopathy or prion diseases. Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) is the prion disease with the highest spillover potential, affecting at least seven Cervidae (deer) species. The zoonotic potential of CWD is inconclusive and cannot be...
Nonlinear patterns in mercury bioaccumulation in American alligators are a function of predicted age
A.J. Lawson, Clinton T. Moore, T.R. Rainwater, F.M. Nilsen, P.M. Wilkinson, R.H. Lowers, L.J. Jr Guillett, Katherine W. McFadden, Patrick G.R. Jodice
2020, Science of the Total Environment (707)
Mercury is a widespread, naturally occurring contaminant that biomagnifies in wetlands due to the methylation of this element by sulfate-reducing bacteria. Species that feed at the top <a class="topic-link" title="Learn more about trophic level from...
