Sex-specific variation in denning by brown bears
Lindsey Mangipane, Jerrold L. Belant, Buck Mangipane, David Gustine, Grant V. Hilderbrand
2018, Mammalian Biology (93) 38-44
Denning characteristics of brown bears (Ursus arctos) have been described in numerous studies; however, population specific factors (i.e., landscape characteristics and climate) can greatly influence the location and timing of denning. Our objective was to evaluate den-site characteristics and denning chronology for male and female brown bears in Lake Clark National Park...
The confluences of ideas leading to, and the flow of ideas emerging from, individual-based modeling of riverine fishes
Henriette I. Jager, Donald L. DeAngelis
2018, Ecological Modelling (384) 341-352
In this review article, we trace the history of events leading to the development of individual-based models (IBMs) to represent aquatic organisms in rivers and streams. As a metaphor, we present this history as a series of confluences between individual scientists (tributaries) sharing ideas. We describe contributions of these models...
Regional variation in drivers of connectivity for two frog species (Rana pretiosa and R. luteiventris) from the U.S. Pacific Northwest
Jeanne M. Robertson, Melanie A. Murphy, Christopher Pearl, M. J. Adams, Monica I. Paez-Vacas, Susan M. Haig, David S. Pilliod, Andrew Storfer, W. Chris Funk
2018, Molecular Ecology (27) 3242-3256
Comparative landscape genetics has uncovered high levels of variability in which landscape factors affect connectivity among species and regions. However, the relative importance of species traits versus environmental variation for predicting landscape patterns of connectivity is unresolved. We provide evidence from a landscape genetics study of two sister taxa of...
Mapping and measuring aeolian sand dunes with photogrammetry and LiDAR from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and multispectral satellite imagery on the Paria Plateau, AZ, USA
Daniel Solazzo, Joel B. Sankey, Temuulen T. Sankey, Seth M. Munson
2018, Geomorphology (319) 174-185
The Paria Plateau is a potentially important but relatively unstudied aeolian sand source area in the Grand Canyon region of Arizona, USA. This study used unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV) - based LiDAR and structure-from-motion (SfM) photogrammetry to produce high-resolution topographic models of aeolian dunes on the plateau. We combined the dune topography data with...
An exploratory Bayesian network for estimating the magnitudes and uncertainties of selected water-quality parameters at streamgage 03374100 White River at Hazleton, Indiana, from partially observed data
David J. Holtschlag
2018, Scientific Investigations Report 2018-5053
An exploratory discrete Bayesian network (BN) was developed to assess the potential of this type of model for estimating the magnitudes and uncertainties of an arbitrary subset of unmeasured water-quality parameters given the measured complement of parameters historically measured at a U.S. Geological Survey streamgage. Water-quality data for 27 water-quality...
International meeting on sarcoptic mange in wildlife, June 2018, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA
Francisca Astorga, Scott Carver, Emily S. Almberg, Giovane R. Sousa, Kimberly Wingfield, Kevin D. Niedringhaus, Peach Van Wick, Luca Rossi, Yue Xie, Paul C. Cross, Samer Angelone, Christian Gortazar, Luis E. Escobar
2018, Parasites & Vectors (11) 1-10
Sarcoptic mange is a globally distributed disease caused by the burrowing mite Sarcoptes scabiei, which also causes scabies in humans. A wide and increasing number of wild mammal species are reported to be susceptible to mange; however, the impacts of the disease in wildlife populations, mechanisms involved in its eco-epidemiological...
Pliocene erosional pulse and glacier-landscape feedbacks in the western Alaska Range
Richard O. Lease
2018, Earth and Planetary Science Letters (497) 62-68
Pliocene–Pleistocene glaciation modified the topography and erosion of most middle- and high-latitude mountain belts, because the evolution of catchment topography controls long-term glacier mass balance and erosion. Hence, characterizing how erosion rates change during repeated glaciations can help test hypothesized glacier erosion-landscape feedbacks across a range of settings. To better...
Lake levels in a discontinuous permafrost landscape: Late Holocene variations inferred from sediment oxygen isotopes, Yukon Flats, Alaska
Lesleigh Anderson, Bruce P. Finney, Mark D. Shapley
2018, Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research (50)
During recent decades, lake levels in the Yukon Flats region of interior Alaska have fluctuated dramatically. However, prior to recorded observations, no data are available to indicate if similar or more extreme variations occurred during past centuries and millennia. This study explores the history of Yukon Flats lake origins and...
Granite IP network default route disappearance—Diagnosis and solution
Lawrence M. Baker
2018, Open-File Report 2018-1117
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Strong Motion Project (NSMP) operates numerous strong-motion seismographs to monitor ground shaking and structural response caused by large, nearby earthquakes. This report describes a problem NSMP scientists encountered communicating over the Internet with several Kinemetrics, Inc., Granite strong-motion recorders.The Granite strong-motion recorders (“Granites”) get...
Effects of temperature and precipitation on grassland bird nesting success as mediated by patch size
Benjamin Zuckerberg, Christine Ribic, Lisa A. McCauley
2018, Conservation Biology (32) 872-882
Grassland birds are declining faster than any other bird guild across North America. Shrinking ranges and population declines are attributed to widespread habitat loss and increasingly fragmented landscapes of agriculture and other land uses that are misaligned with grassland bird conservation. Concurrent with habitat loss and degradation, temperate grasslands have...
Sea‐level rise, habitat loss, and potential extirpation of a salt marsh specialist bird in urbanized landscapes
Jordan Rosencranz, Karen M. Thorne, Kevin J. Buffington, John Y. Takekawa, Ryan F. Hechinger, Tara E. Stewart, Richard F. Ambrose, Glen M. MacDonald, Mark A. Holmgren, Jeff A. Crooks, Robert T. Patton, Kevin D. Lafferty
2018, Ecology and Evolution (8) 8115-8125
Sea‐level rise (SLR) impacts on intertidal habitat depend on coastal topology, accretion, and constraints from surrounding development. Such habitat changes might affect species like Belding's savannah sparrows (Passerculus sandwichensis beldingi; BSSP), which live in high‐elevation salt marsh in the Southern California Bight. To predict how BSSP habitat might change under...
Extinction risk and conservation options for Maui Parrotbill, an endangered Hawaiian honeycreeper
Hanna L. Mounce, Christopher C. Warren, Conor P. McGowan, Eben H. Paxton, J.J. Groombridge
2018, Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management (9) 367-382
Extinction rates for island birds around the world have been historically high. For forest passerines, the Hawaiian archipelago has suffered some of the highest extinction rates and reintroduction is a conservation tool that can be used to prevent the extinction of some of the remaining endangered species. Population viability analyses...
Factors influencing fine sediment on stream beds in the Midwestern United States
Christopher P. Konrad, Allen C. Gellis
2018, Journal of Environmental Quality (47) 1214-1222
Fine sediment (particles <2 mm in diameter) in stream beds has wide-ranging effects on hydraulics, geomorphology, and ecology and is a primary focus for stream quality management in many regions. We identify reach- and basin-scale factors associated with fine sediment in the beds of 83 stream reaches in the Midwestern...
Improving understanding of soil organic matter dynamics by triangulating theories, measurements, and models
Joseph C. Blankinship, Susan E. Crow, Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, Jennifer L. Druhan, Katherine A. Heckman, Marco Keiluweit, Corey R. Lawrence, Erika Marin-Spiotta, Alain F. Plante, Craig Rasmussen, Christina Schadel, Joshua P. Schmiel, Carlos A. Sierra, Aaron Thomson, Rota Wagai, William R. Weider
2018, Biogeochemistry (140) 1-13
Soil organic matter (SOM) turnover increasingly is conceptualized as a tension between accessibility to microorganisms and protection from decomposition via physical and chemical association with minerals in emerging soil biogeochemical theory. Yet, these components are missing from the original mathematical models of belowground carbon dynamics and remain underrepresented in more...
Landscape genetics identifies streams and drainage infrastructure as dispersal corridors for an endangered wetland bird
Charles B. van Rees, J. Michael Reed, Robert E. Wilson, Jared G. Underwood, Sarah A. Sonsthagen
2018, Ecology and Evolution (8) 8328-8343
Anthropogenic alterations to landscape structure and composition can have significant impacts on biodiversity, potentially leading to species extinctions. Population‐level impacts of landscape change are mediated by animal behaviors, in particular dispersal behavior. Little is known about the dispersal habits of rails (Rallidae) due to their cryptic behavior and tendency to...
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...
Limits to ponderosa pine regeneration following large high-severity forest fires in the United States Southwest
Collin Haffey, Thomas D. Sisk, Craig D. Allen, Andrea E. Thode, Ellis Q. Margolis
2018, Fire Ecology (14) 143-163
High-severity fires in dry conifer forests of the United States Southwest have created large (>1000 ha) treeless areas that are unprecedented in the regional historical record. These fires have reset extensive portions of Southwestern ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Lawson & C. Lawson var. scopulorum Engelm.) forest landscapes. At least two...
The influence of nutrients from carcasses of sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) on larval growth and spawner abundance
Daniel M. Weaver, Stephen M. Coghlan Jr., Joseph D. Zydlewski
2018, Fishery Bulletin (116) 142-152
Migrations of anadromous sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) from marine ecosystems serve as vectors of nutrients into freshwater food webs. Larval sea lamprey reside in streams for 6–8 years as deposit feeders before metamorphosing into juveniles and migrating to the ocean. Previous work has shown that carcass nutrients, which result from...
Drivers and mechanisms of tree mortality in moist tropical forests
Nate G. McDowell, Craig D. Allen, Kristina Anderson‐Teixeira, Paulo M. Brando, Roel Brienen, Jeff Chambers, Brad Christoffersen, Stuart J. Davies, Chris Doughty, Alvaro Duque, Fernando Espirito-Santo, Rosie A. Fisher, Clarissa G. Fontes, David Galbraith, Devin Goodsman, Charlotte Grossiord, Henrik Hartmann, Jennifer Holm, Daniel J. Johnson, Abd. Rahman Kassim, Michael Keller, Charles Koven, Lara Kueppers, Tomo’omi Kumagai, Yadvinder Malhi, Sean M. McMahon, Maurizio Mencuccini, Patrick Meir, Paul R. Moorcroft, Helene C. Muller-Landau, Oliver L. Phillips, Thomas M. Powell, Carlos A. Sierra, John Sperry, Jeff Warren, Chonggang Xu, Xiangtao Xu
2018, New Phytologist (219) 851-869
Tree mortality rates appear to be increasing in moist tropical forests (MTFs) with significant carbon cycle consequences. Here, we review the state of knowledge regarding MTF tree mortality, create a conceptual framework with testable hypotheses regarding the drivers, mechanisms and interactions that may underlie increasing MTF mortality rates, and identify...
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...
Assessing and communicating the impacts of climate change on the Southern California coast
Li H. Erikson, Patrick L. Barnard, Andrea C. O'Neill, Patrick Limber, Sean Vitousek, Juliette Finzi Hart, Maya Hayden, Jeanne M. Jones, Nathan J. Wood, Michael Fitzgibbon, Amy C. Foxgrover, Jessica Lovering
2018, Report
Over the course of this and the next century, the combination of rising sea levels, severe storms, and coastal erosion will threaten the sustainability of coastal communities, development, and ecosystems as we currently know them. To clearly identify coastal vulnerabilities and develop appropriate adaptation strategies for projected increased levels of...
Gas emissions, tars, and secondary minerals at the Ruth Mullins and Tiptop coal mine fires
Jennifer M. K. O’Keefe, Erika R. Neace, Maxwell L. Hammond III, James C. Hower, Mark A. Engle, Joseph A. East, Nicholas J. Geboy, Ricardo A. Olea, Kevin R. Henke, Gregory C. Copley, Edward W. Lemley, Rachel S. Hatch Nally, Antonia E. Hansen, Allison R. Richardson, Anne B. Satterwhite, Glenn B. Stracher, Larry F. Radke, Charles Smeltzer, Christopher Romanek, Donald R. Blake, Paul A. Schroeder, Stephen D. Emsbo-Mattingly, Scott A. Stout
2018, International Journal of Coal Geology (195) 304-316
Both the Tiptop and Ruth Mullins coal fires, Kentucky, were reinvestigated in 2009 and 2010. The Tiptop fire was not as active in 2009 and may have been on the path to burning out at the time of the 2009 visit. The Ruth Mullins coal mine fire, Perry County, Kentucky, has been the subject of several...
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...
Reproductive response of Arizona Grasshopper Sparrows to weather patterns and habitat structure
Janet M. Ruth, Susan K. Skagen
2018, The Condor (120) 596-616
Avian species endemic to desert grasslands of North America contend with significant ecological challenges, including monsoonal rains, droughts, and variable temperatures. These birds have evolved physiological and behavioral means of coping with such extremes, but ongoing changes to temperature and precipitation patterns are affecting their breeding phenology, reproductive success, and...
