Patterns of spatial distribution of golden eagles across North America: How do they fit into existing landscape-scale mapping systems?
Jessi L. Brown, Bryan Bedrosian, Douglas A. Bell, Melissa A. Braham, Jeff Cooper, Ross H. Crandall, Joe DiDonato, Robert Domenech, Adam E. Duerr, Todd E. Katzner, Michael J. Lanzone, David W. LaPlante, Carol L. McIntyre, Tricia A. Miller, Robert K. Murphy, Adam Shreading, Steven J. Slater, Jeff P. Smith, Brian W. Smith, James W. Watson, Brian Woodbridge
2017, Journal of Raptor Research (51) 197-215
Conserving wide-ranging animals requires knowledge about their year-round movements and resource use. Golden Eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) exhibit a wide range of movement patterns across North America. We combined tracking data from 571 Golden Eagles from multiple independent satellite-telemetry projects from North America to provide a comprehensive look at the magnitude...
Assessing the risk of non-native marine species in the Bering Sea
Jesika Reimer, Amanda Droghini, Anthony S. Fischbach, Jordan Watson, Bonnie Bernard, Aaron Poe
2017, Report
Invasive species are one of the leading global conservation concerns, which can have strong, negative impacts on ecosystems, vulnerable species, and valuable natural resources. Arctic regions have experienced a relatively low number of biological introductions to date. Their geographical remoteness, cold waters, and presence of sea ice present challenging conditions...
Effects of industrial and investigator disturbance on Arctic-nesting geese
Brandt W. Meixell, Paul L. Flint
2017, Journal of Wildlife Management (81) 1372-1385
Oil and gas development on the Arctic Coastal Plain (ACP) of Alaska, USA may have effects on Arctic-nesting birds. To estimate effects of industrial activity and investigator disturbance on avian productivity, we monitored nests of greater white-fronted geese (Anser albifrons) with digital cameras and periodic nest visits during 2013–2014 at...
Alternative pathways to landscape transformation: Invasive grasses, burn severity and fire frequency in arid ecosystems
Robert C. Klinger, Matthew L. Brooks
2017, Journal of Ecology (105) 1521-1533
Arid ecosystems are often vulnerable to transformation to invasive-dominated states following fire, but data on persistence of these states are sparse. The grass/fire cycle is a feedback process between invasive annual grasses and fire frequency that often leads to the formation of alternative vegetation states dominated by...
Basis function models for animal movement
Mevin Hooten, Devin S. Johnson
2017, Journal of the American Statistical Association (112) 578-589
Advances in satellite-based data collection techniques have served as a catalyst for new statistical methodology to analyze these data. In wildlife ecological studies, satellite-based data and methodology have provided a wealth of information about animal space use and the investigation of individual-based animal–environment relationships. With the technology for data collection...
Environmental niche models for riverine desert fishes and their similarity according to phylogeny and functionality
James E. Whitney, Joanna B. Whittier, Craig P. Paukert
2017, Ecosphere (8) 1-21
Environmental filtering and competitive exclusion are hypotheses frequently invoked in explaining species' environmental niches (i.e., geographic distributions). A key assumption in both hypotheses is that the functional niche (i.e., species traits) governs the environmental niche, but few studies have rigorously evaluated this assumption. Furthermore, phylogeny could be associated with these...
Estimating the high-arsenic domestic-well population in the conterminous United States
Joseph D. Ayotte, Laura Medalie, Sharon L. Qi, Lorraine C. Backer, Bernard T. Nolan
2017, Environmental Science & Technology (51) 12443-12454
Arsenic concentrations from 20 450 domestic wells in the U.S. were used to develop a logistic regression model of the probability of having arsenic >10 μg/L (“high arsenic”), which is presented at the county, state, and national scales. Variables representing geologic sources, geochemical, hydrologic, and physical features were among the significant...
High altitude flights by ruddy shelduck Tadorna ferruginea during trans-Himalayan migrations
N. Parr, S. Bearhop, David C. Douglas, J.Y. Takekawa, Diann J. Prosser, S.H. Newman, W.M. Perry, S. Balachandran, M.J. Witt, Y. Hou, Z. Lu, L.A. Hawkes
2017, Journal of Avian Biology (48) 1310-1315
Birds that migrate across high altitude mountain ranges are faced with the challenge of maintaining vigorous exercise in environments with limited oxygen. Ruddy shelducks are known to use wintering grounds south of the Tibetan Plateau at sea level and breeding grounds north of Himalayan mountain range. Therefore, it is likely...
Distribution and status of five non-native fish species in the Tampa Bay drainage (USA), a hot spot for fish introductions
Katelyn M. Lawson, Quenton M. Tuckett, Jared L. Ritch, Leo Nico, Pam Fuller, Richard E. Matheson, Jeffrey E. Hill
2017, BioInvasions Records (6) 393-406
The Tampa Bay region of Florida (USA) is a hot spot for non-native freshwater fishes. However, published information on most non-native fishes in the basin is not current. Systematic sampling efforts targeting non-native fishes in the region were conducted from 2013–2015 by the University of Florida Tropical Aquaculture Laboratory. Data...
Restoration of contaminated ecosystems: adaptive management in a changing climate
Aida Farag, Diane L. Larson, Jenny Stauber, Ralph Stahl, John Isanhart, Kevin T. McAbee, Christopher J. Walsh
2017, Restoration Ecology (25) 884-893
Three case studies illustrate how adaptive management (AM) has been used in ecological restorations that involve contaminants. Contaminants addressed include mercury, selenium, and contaminants and physical disturbances delivered to streams by urban stormwater runoff. All three cases emphasize the importance of broad stakeholder input early and consistently throughout decision analysis...
Use of swabs for sampling epithelial cells for molecular genetics analyses in Enteroctopus
Nathan Hollenback, David Scheel, Megan C. Gravley, George K. Sage, Rebecca K. Toussaint, Sandra L. Talbot
2017, American Malacological Bulletin (35) 145-157
We evaluated the efficacy of using swabs to collect cells from the epidermis of octopus as a non-invasive DNA source for classical genetic studies, and demonstrated value of the technique by incorporating it into an effort to determine, within a day, the lineage of captured, live Enteroctopus (E. dofleini or a cryptic lineage)....
Rapid exhumation of Cretaceous arc-rocks along the Blue Mountains restraining bend of the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault, Jamaica, using thermochronometry from multiple closure systems
William J. Cochran, James A. Spotila, Philip S. Prince, Ryan J. McAleer
2017, Tectonophysics (721) 292-309
The effect of rapid erosion on kinematic partitioning along transpressional plate margins is not well understood, particularly in highly erosive climates. The Blue Mountains restraining bend (BMRB) of eastern Jamaica, bound to the south by the left-lateral Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault (EPGF), offers an opportunity to test the effects of highly...
Tools to minimize interlaboratory variability in vitellogenin gene expression monitoring programs
Aaron Jastrow, Denise A. Gordon, Kasie M. Auger, Elizabeth C. Punska, Kathleen F. Arcaro, Kristen Keteles, Dana L. Winkelman, David Lattier, Adam Biales, James M. Lazorchak
2017, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (36) 3102-3107
The egg yolk precursor protein vitellogenin is widely used as a biomarker of estrogen exposure in male fish. However, standardized methodology is lacking and little is known regarding the reproducibility of results among laboratories using different equipment, reagents, protocols, and data analysis programs. To address this data gap we tested...
Mediterranean California’s water use future under multiple scenarios of developed and agricultural land use change
Tamara Wilson, Benjamin M. Sleeter, D. Richard Cameron
2017, PLoS ONE (12) 1-21
With growing demand and highly variable inter-annual water supplies, California’s water use future is fraught with uncertainty. Climate change projections, anticipated population growth, and continued agricultural intensification, will likely stress existing water supplies in coming decades. Using a state-and-transition simulation modeling approach, we examine a broad suite of spatially explicit...
The relative effectiveness of empirical and physical models for simulating the dense undercurrent of pyroclastic flows under different emplacement conditions
Sarah E. Ogburn, Eliza S Calder
2017, Frontiers in Earth Science (5) 1-26
High concentration pyroclastic density currents (PDCs) are hot avalanches of volcanic rock and gas and are among the most destructive volcanic hazards due to their speed and mobility. Mitigating the risk associated with these flows depends upon accurate forecasting of possible impacted areas, often using empirical or physical models. TITAN2D,...
Suspended sediment, turbidity, and stream water temperature in the Sauk River Basin, western Washington, water years 2012-16
Kristin L. Jaeger, Christopher A. Curran, Scott W. Anderson, Scott T. Morris, Patrick W. Moran, Katherine A. Reams
2017, Scientific Investigations Report 2017-5113
The Sauk River is a federally designated Wild and Scenic River that drains a relatively undisturbed landscape along the western slope of the North Cascade Mountain Range, Washington, which includes the glaciated volcano, Glacier Peak. Naturally high sediment loads characteristic of basins draining volcanoes like Glacier Peak make the...
Potential for spatial displacement of Cook Inlet beluga whales by anthropogenic noise in critical habitat
Robert J. Small, Brian M. Brost, Mevin Hooten, Manuel Castellote, Jeffrey Mondragon
2017, Endangered Species Research (32) 43-57
The population of beluga whales in Cook Inlet, Alaska, USA, declined by nearly half in the mid-1990s, primarily from an unsustainable harvest, and was listed as endangered in 2008. In 2014, abundance was ~340 whales, and the population trend during 1999-2014 was -1.3% yr-1. Cook Inlet beluga whales are...
Methodological considerations of terrestrial laser scanning for vegetation monitoring in the sagebrush steppe
Kyle E. Anderson, Nancy Glenn, Lucas Spaete, Douglas J. Shinneman, David S. Pilliod, Robert Arkle, Susan K. McIlroy, DeWayne R. Derryberry
2017, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment (189) 1-12
Terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) provides fast collection of high-definition structural information, making it a valuable field instrument to many monitoring applications. A weakness of TLS collections, especially in vegetation, is the occurrence of unsampled regions in point clouds where the sensor’s line-of-sight is blocked by intervening material. This problem, referred...
Detecting spatial patterns of rivermouth processes using a geostatistical framework for near-real-time analysis
Wenzhao Xu, Paris D. Collingsworth, Barbara Bailey, Martha L. Carlson Mazur, Jeff Schaeffer, Barbara Minsker
2017, Environmental Modelling and Software (97) 72-85
This paper proposes a geospatial analysis framework and software to interpret water-quality sampling data from towed undulating vehicles in near-real time. The framework includes data quality assurance and quality control processes, automated kriging interpolation along undulating paths, and local hotspot and cluster analyses. These methods are implemented in an interactive...
Simulation of groundwater flow and pumping scenarios for 1900–2050 near Mount Pleasant, South Carolina
Jason M. Fine, Matthew D. Petkewich, Bruce G. Campbell
2017, Scientific Investigations Report 2017-5128
Groundwater withdrawals from the Upper Cretaceous-age Middendorf aquifer in South Carolina have created a large, regional cone of depression in the potentiometric surface of the Middendorf aquifer in Charleston and Berkeley Counties, South Carolina. Groundwater-level declines of as much as 249 feet have been observed in wells over the past...
Deglacial sea level history of the East Siberian Sea and Chukchi Sea margins
Thomas M. Cronin, Matt O’Regan, Christof Pearce, Laura Gemery, Michael Toomey, Igor Semiletov
2017, Climate of the Past (13) 1097-1110
Deglacial (12.8–10.7 ka) sea level history on the East Siberian continental shelf and upper continental slope was reconstructed using new geophysical records and sediment cores taken during Leg 2 of the 2014 SWERUS-C3 expedition. The focus of this study is two cores from Herald Canyon, piston core SWERUS-L2-4-PC1 (4-PC1) and...
Geochemistry of mercury and other constituents in subsurface sediment—Analyses from 2011 and 2012 coring campaigns, Cache Creek Settling Basin, Yolo County, California
Michelle R. Arias, Charles N. Alpers, Mark C. Marvin-DiPasquale, Christopher C. Fuller, Jennifer L. Agee, Michelle Sneed, Andrew Y. Morita, Antonia Salas
2017, Data Series 1061
Cache Creek Settling Basin was constructed in 1937 to trap sediment from Cache Creek before delivery to the Yolo Bypass, a flood conveyance for the Sacramento River system that is tributary to the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta. Sediment management options being considered by stakeholders in the Cache Creek Settling Basin include...
Origin of discrepancies between crater size-frequency distributions of coeval lunar geologic units via target property contrasts
Carolyn H. Van der Bogert, Harald Hiesinger, Colin M. Dundas, T. Kruger, Alfred S. McEwen, Michael Zanetti, Mark S. Robinson
2017, Icarus (298) 49-63
Recent work on dating Copernican-aged craters, using Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) Camera data, re-encountered a curious discrepancy in crater size-frequency distribution (CSFD) measurements that was observed, but not understood, during the Apollo era. For example, at Tycho, Copernicus, and Aristarchus craters, CSFDs of impact melt deposits give significantly younger relative...
Relative influences of climate change and human activity on the onshore distribution of polar bears
Ryan H. Wilson, Eric V. Regehr, Michelle St. Martin, Todd C. Atwood, Elizabeth L. Peacock, Susanne Miller, George J. Divoky
2017, Biological Conservation (214) 288-294
Climate change is altering habitat for many species, leading to shifts in distributions that can increase levels of human-wildlife conflict. To develop effective strategies for minimizing human-wildlife conflict, we must understand the relative influences that climate change and other factors have on wildlife distributions. Polar bears (Ursus maritimus) are increasingly...
Database for geologic maps of pyroclastic-flow and related deposits of the 1980 eruptions of Mount St. Helens, Washington
Andrew J. Furze, Joseph A. Bard, Joel Robinson, David W. Ramsey, Mel A. Kuntz, Peter D. Rowley, Norman S. MacLeod
2017, Data Series 1054
This publication releases digital versions of the geologic maps in U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Investigations Map 1950 (USGS I-1950), “Geologic maps of pyroclastic-flow and related deposits of the 1980 eruptions of Mount St. Helens, Washington” (Kuntz, Rowley, and MacLeod, 1990) (https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/i1950). The 1980 Mount St. Helens eruptions...
