Review and development of ASABE Engineering Practice 621: “Guidelines for calibrating, validating, and evaluating hydrologic and water quality models”
R. Daren Harmel, Claire Baffaut, Kyle R. Douglas-Mankin
2018, Transactions of the ASABE (61) 1393-1401
In 2010, the Natural Resources and Environmental Systems Hydrology Committee (NRES-21) of ASABE initiated a long-term process to develop guidelines to improve modeling practice through better understanding of the calibration, validation, and evaluation process across applications and more effective interpretation and communication of model performance. This effort generated a compilation...
Patterns of longer-term climate change effects on CO2 efflux from biocrusted soils differ from those observed in the short term
Anthony Darrouzet-Nardi, Sasha C. Reed, Edmund E. Grote, Jayne Belnap
2018, Biogeosciences (15) 4561-4573
Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) are predicted to be sensitive to the increased temperature and altered precipitation associated with climate change. We assessed the effects of these factors on soil carbon dioxide (CO2) balance in biocrusted soils using a sequence of manipulations over a 9-year period. We warmed biocrusted soils by...
Influencia de factores ambientales y biométricos en la capacidad de nado del barbo ibérico (Luciobarbus bocagei Steindachner, 1864), un ciprínido potamódromo endémico de la Península Ibérica
Jorge Ruiz-Legazpi, F.J. Sanz-Ronda, F.J. Bravo-Cordoba, J.F. Fuentes-Perez, Theodore R. Castro-Santos
2018, Limnetica (37) 251-265
El presente trabajo analiza la capacidad voluntaria de nado del barbo ibérico (Luciobarbus bocagei Steindachner, 1864) en un canal abierto durante su época de migración, relacionándola con factores ambientales y biométricos. La temperatura del agua, la velocidad de flujo y la longitud del pez fueron los factores de mayor importancia...
Climate change and future wildfire in the western USA: An ecological approach to nonstationarity
Jeremy S. Littell, Donald McKenzie, Ho Yi Wan, Samuel A. Cushman
2018, Earth's Future (6) 1097-1111
We developed ecologically based climate‐fire projections for the western United States. Using a finer ecological classification and fire‐relevant climate predictors, we created statistical models linking climate and wildfire area burned for ecosections, which are geographic delineations based on biophysical variables. The results indicate a gradient from purely fuel‐limited (antecedent positive...
Applying recreation ecology science to sustainably manage camping impacts: A classification of camping management strategies
Jeffrey L. Marion, Johanna Arredondo, Jeremy Wimpey, Fletcher Meadema
2018, International Journal of Wilderness (24) 1-12
Wilderness and other protected natural areas such as national forests, parks, and refuges are managed to provide high-quality recreational opportunities while preserving natural resource conditions. In managing recreation visitation, land managers could allow visitors to create their own infrastructure of trails and campsites, or they could choose to apply an...
Selective occupancy of a persistent yet variable coastal river plume by two seabird species
Elizabeth M. Phillips, John K. Horne, Josh Adams, Jeannette E. Zamon
2018, Marine Ecology Progress Series (594) 245-261
Advances in telemetry and modeling of physical processes expand opportunities to assess relationships between marine predators and their dynamic habitat. The Columbia River plume (CRP) attracts sooty shearwaters Ardenna grisea and common murres Uria aalge, but how seabirds respond to variability in plume waters is unknown. We characterized seabird distributions in relation to...
A novel high-frequency groundwater quality monitoring system
John Franco Saraceno, Justin T. Kulongoski, Timothy M. Mathany
2018, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment (190) 1-14
High-frequency, long-term monitoring of water quality has revolutionized the study of surface waters in recent years. However, application of these techniques to groundwater has been limited by the ability to remotely pump and analyze groundwater. This paper describes a novel autonomous groundwater quality monitoring system which samples multiple wells to...
Salinity tolerance among three freshwater mussels (Bivalvia: Unionidae) from Gulf Coastal Plain drainages
Nathan A. Johnson, Pamela J. Schofield, James D. Williams, James D. Austin
2018, Florida Scientist (81) 61-69
An important physiological constraint influencing distributions of coastal freshwater organisms is their tolerance for saline conditions. We experimentally evaluated salinity tolerance for three freshwater mussel species (Utterbackia imbecillis, Elliptio jayensis, and Glebula rotundata). Mussels were transferred abruptly from well water to one of five treatments (0 [control], 6, 12, 18...
Evaluation of targeted and untargeted effects-based monitoring tools to assess impacts of contaminants of emerging concern on fish in the South Platte River, CO
Drew R. Ekman, Kristen Keteles, Jon Beihoffer, Jenna E. Cavallin, Kenneth Dahlin, John M. Davis, Aaron Jastrow, James M. Lazorchak, Marc A. Mills, Mark Murphy, David Nguyen, Alan M. Vajda, Daniel L. Villeneuve, Dana L. Winkelman, Timothy W. Collette
2018, Environmental Pollution (239) 706-713
Rivers in the arid Western United States face increasing influences from anthropogenic contaminants due to population growth, urbanization, and drought. To better understand and more effectively track the impacts of these contaminants, biologically-based monitoring tools are increasingly being used to complement routine chemical monitoring. This study was initiated to assess the...
Hydrothermal discharge from the El Tatio basin, Atacama, Chile
Carolina Munoz-Saez, Michael Manga, Shaul Hurwitz
2018, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research (361) 25-35
El Tatio in northern Chile is one of the best-studied geothermal fields in South America. However, there remain open questions about the mass and energy budgets, water recharge rates and residence time in the subsurface, origin of dissolved solutes, and processes affecting the phase and chemical composition of groundwater and...
A new tool for studying waterfowl immune and metabolic responses: Molecular level analysis using kinome profiling
Giovanni Pagano, Casey Johnson, Caldwell Hahn, Ryan J. Arsenault
2018, Ecology and Evolution (8) 8537-8546
Here, we describe the design of an Anas‐specific kinome peptide array that can be used to study the immunometabolic responses of mallard and American black duck to pathogens, contaminants, and environmental stress. The peptide arrays contain 2,642 unique phosphorylate‐able peptide sequences representing 1,900 proteins. These proteins cover a wide array of...
Food web contaminant dynamics of a large Atlantic Slope river: Implications for common and imperiled species
Thomas J. Kwak, Tiffany N. Penland, Casey A. Grieshaber, W. Gregory Cope, Ryan J. Heise, Forrest W. Sessions
2018, Science of the Total Environment (633) 1062-1077
Persistent and bioaccumulative contaminants often reach concentrations that threaten aquatic life by causing alterations in organism behavior and development, disruption of biological processes, reproductive abnormalities, and mortality. The objectives of this research were to determine the aquatic food web structure and trophic transfer and accumulation of contaminants within a riverine...
Paleoclimate Records: Providing context and understanding of current Arctic change
Emily Osborne, Thomas M. Cronin, Jesse Farmer
2018, Bulletin American Meteorological Society (99) s150-s152
At present, the Arctic Ocean is experiencing changes in ocean surface temperature and sea ice extent that are unprecedented in the era of satellite observations, which extend from the 1980s to the present (see sections 5c,d). To provide context for current changes, scientists turn to paleoclimate records to document and...
Dynamic modeling of barrier island response to hurricane storm surge under future sea level rise
Davina Passeri, Matthew V. Bilskie, Nathaniel G. Plant, Joseph W. Long, Scott C. Hagen
2018, Climatic Change (149) 413-425
Sea level rise (SLR) has the potential to exacerbate the impacts of extreme storm events on the coastal landscape. This study examines the coupled interactions of SLR on storm-driven hydrodynamics and barrier island morphology. A numerical model is used to simulate the hydrodynamic and morphodynamic impacts of two Gulf of...
A case study and a meta-analysis of seasonal variation in fish mercury concentrations
Nathan Mills, Darcy Cashatt, Michael Weber, Clay Pierce
2018, Ecotoxicology (27) 641-649
Mercury contamination in aquatic ecosystems is a concern due to health risks of consuming fish. Fish mercury concentrations are highly variable and influenced by a range of environmental factors. However, seasonal variation in mercury levels are typically overlooked when monitoring fish mercury concentrations, establishing consumption advisories, or creating accumulation models....
Evaluating and managing environmental water regimes in a water-scarce and uncertain future
Jonathan Kennen, Eric D. Stein, J. Angus Webb
2018, Freshwater Biology (63) 733-737
While the number of environmental flows and water science programmes continues to grow across the globe, there remains a critical need to better balance water availability in support of human and ecological needs and to recognise the environment as a legitimate user of water. In water‐stressed areas, this recognition...
Quantifying population-level effects of water temperature, flow velocity and chemical-induced reproduction depression: A simulation study with smallmouth bass
Tyler Wagner, Vicki S. Blazer, Yan Li
2018, Ecological Modelling (384) 63-74
Evaluating stochastic abiotic factors and their combined effects on fish and wildlife populations have been challenging in environmental sciences. Contributing to this challenge is the paucity of data describing how observations made on individuals related to exposure to chemical compounds ultimately effect population vital rates, and how this exposure interacts...
High resolution measurement of levee subsidence related to energy infrastructure in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta
Benjamin A. Brooks, Jennifer Telling, Todd Leroy Ericksen, Craig L. Glennie, Noah Knowles, Daniel Cayan, Darren L. Hauser, Adam LeWinter
2018, Report, California’s fourth climate change assessment
We assess flood overtopping potential (when flood water elevation exceeds levee elevation) to the levees surrounding the islands in the interior of California's Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Because critical natural gas infrastructure is susceptible to overtopping-related disruption, we focus our analysis on regions that are crossed by the network of the...
Patterns and magnitude of flow alteration in California, USA
Julie Zimmerman, Daren M. Carlisle, Jason May, Kirk Klausmeyer, Theodore E. Grantham, Larry R. Brown, Jeanette K. Howard
2018, Freshwater Biology (63) 859-873
Quantifying the natural flow regime is essential for management of water resources and conservation of aquatic ecosystems. Understanding the degree to which anthropogenic activities have altered flows is critical for developing effective conservation strategies. Assessing flow alteration requires estimates of flows expected in the absence of human influence and...
Impacts of hatchery-reared mandarin fish Siniperca chuatsi stocking on wild fish community and water quality in a shallow Yangtze lake
Wei Li, Brendan J. Hicks, Mingli Lin, Chuanbo Guo, Tanglin Zhang, Jiashou Liu, Zhongjie Li, David A. Beauchamp
2018, Scientific Reports (8) 1-11
Mandarin fish Siniperca chuatsi, a valuable piscivorous fish, have been stocked into many lakes in China since the 1990s. This study did the first attempt to evaluate the ecological effects of hatchery-reared mandarin fish stocking in the Yangtze River basin lakes. Our study demonstrated a significant change in fish community composition...
Flow hydraulics and mixing characteristics in and downstream from Brandon Road Lock, Joliet, Illinois
Frank L. Engel, P. Ryan Jackson, Elizabeth A. Murphy
2018, Scientific Investigations Report 2018-5094
The Brandon Road Lock and Dam on the Des Plaines River near Joliet, Illinois, has been identified for potential implementation of aquatic nuisance species (ANS) control measures. To provide additional information concerning the flow hydraulics and mixing characteristics of the lock and downstream approach channel, the U.S. Geological Survey performed...
What can trees tell us about the air we breathe at home?
Jordan L. Wilson, V.A. Samaranayake, Matthew A. Limmer, Joel Burken
2018, Science Journal for Kids (July 2018)
The air in houses can be affected by bad stuff, called contaminants. Sometimes harmful chemicals enter the air in buildings from nearby contaminated soil and groundwater through cracks or gaps in the foundation – a process known as vapor intrusion. This poses some risk to our health because we spend...
Post-breeding movement and habitat use by wood frogs along an Arctic–Subarctic ecotone
Stephanie Bishir, Blake R. Hossack, LeeAnn Fishback, J. M. Davenport
2018, Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research (50)
By altering essential micro- and macrohabitat conditions for many organisms, climate change is already causing disproportionately greater impacts on Arctic and Subarctic ecosystems. Yet there is a lack of basic information about many species in northern latitudes, including amphibians. We used radio telemetry to study the post-breeding movements and habitat...
Simulation of zones of groundwater contribution to wells south of the Naval Weapons Industrial Reserve Plant in Bethpage, New York
Paul E. Misut
2018, Scientific Investigations Report 2017-5161
A steady-state three-dimensional groundwater-flow model that simulates present conditions was coupled with the particle-tracking program MODPATH to delineate zones of contribution to wells pumping from the Magothy aquifer near a chlorinated volatile organic compound (VOC) plume. This modeling was part of a study by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation...
Snowmelt timing regulates community composition, phenology, and physiological performance of alpine plants
Daniel E. Winkler, Ramona J. Butz, Matthew J. Germino, Keith Reinhardt, Lara M. Kueppers
2018, Frontiers in Plant Science (9) 1-13
The spatial patterning of alpine plant communities is strongly influenced by the variation in physical factors such as temperature and moisture, which are strongly affected by snow depth and snowmelt patterns. Earlier snowmelt timing and greater soil-moisture limitations may favor wide-ranging species adapted to a broader set of ecohydrological conditions...
