Riverine discharges to Chesapeake Bay: Analysis of long-term (1927–2014) records and implications for future flows in the Chesapeake Bay basin
Karen C. Rice, Douglas L. Moyer, Aaron L. Mills
2017, Journal of Environmental Management (204) 246-254
The Chesapeake Bay (CB) basin is under a total maximum daily load (TMDL) mandate to reduce nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment loads to the bay. Identifying shifts in the hydro-climatic regime may help explain observed trends in water quality. To identify potential shifts, hydrologic data (1927–2014) for 27 watersheds in the...
A coupled metabolic-hydraulic model and calibration scheme for estimating of whole-river metabolism during dynamic flow conditions
Robert A. Payn, Robert O Hall, Theodore A. Kennedy, Geoff C Poole, Lucy A. Marshall
2017, Limnology and Oceanography: Methods (15) 847-866
Conventional methods for estimating whole-stream metabolic rates from measured dissolved oxygen dynamics do not account for the variation in solute transport times created by dynamic flow conditions. Changes in flow at hourly time scales are common downstream of hydroelectric dams (i.e. hydropeaking), and hydrologic limitations of conventional metabolic models...
Using paired in situ high frequency nitrate measurements to better understand controls on nitrate concentrations and estimate nitrification rates in a wastewater-impacted river
Tamara E. C. Kraus, Katy O’Donnell, Bryan D. Downing, Jon R. Burau, Brian A. Bergamaschi
2017, Water Resources Research (53) 8423-8442
We used paired continuous nitrate ( ) measurements along a tidally affected river receiving wastewater discharge rich in ammonium ( ) to quantify rates of change in <img class="inlineGraphic" src="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/store/10.1002/2017WR020670/asset/equation/wrcr22895-math-0003.png?v=1&s=edd1801396530467a9c1886f4d85f881efc4aa35" alt="math...
Accounting for orphaned aftershocks in the earthquake background rate
Nicholas van der Elst
2017, Geophysical Journal International (211) 1108-1118
Aftershocks often occur within cascades of triggered seismicity in which each generation of aftershocks triggers an additional generation, and so on. The rate of earthquakes in any particular generation follows Omori's law, going approximately as 1/t. This function decays rapidly, but is heavy-tailed, and aftershock sequences may persist for long...
Interannual variation in methane emissions from tropical wetlands triggered by repeated El Niño Southern Oscillation
Qiuan Zhu, Changhui Peng, Philippe Ciais, Hong Jiang, Jinxun Liu, Philippe Bousquet, Shiqin Li, Jie Chang, Xiuqin Fang, Xiaolu Zhou, Huai Chen, Shirong Liu, Guanghui Lin, Peng Gong, Meng Wang, Han Wang, Wenhua Xiang, Jing Chen
2017, Global Change Biology (23) 4706-4716
Methane (CH4) emissions from tropical wetlands contribute 60%–80% of global natural wetland CH4 emissions. Decreased wetland CH4 emissions can act as a negative feedback mechanism for future climate warming and vice versa. The impact of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) on CH4 emissions from wetlands remains poorly quantified at both...
A newly identified role of the deciduous forest floor in the timing of green‐up
Andrei G Lapenis, Gregory B. Lawrence, Alexander Buyantuev, Shiguo Jiang, Timothy J. Sullivan, Todd C. McDonnell, Scott W. Bailey
2017, JGR: Biogeosciences (122) 2876-2891
Plant phenology studies rarely consider controlling factors other than air temperature. We evaluate here the potential significance of physical and chemical properties of soil (edaphic factors) as additional important controls on phenology. More specifically, we investigate causal connections between satellite‐observed green‐up dates of small forest watersheds and soil properties in...
Simulation of groundwater and surface-water flow in the upper Deschutes Basin, Oregon
Marshall W. Gannett, Kenneth E. Lite Jr., John C. Risley, Esther M. Pischel, Jonathan L. La Marche
2017, Scientific Investigations Report 2017-5097
This report describes a hydrologic model for the upper Deschutes Basin in central Oregon developed using the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) integrated Groundwater and Surface-Water Flow model (GSFLOW). The upper Deschutes Basin, which drains much of the eastern side of the Cascade Range in Oregon, is underlain by large...
A comparison of four porewater sampling methods for metal mixtures and dissolved organic carbon and the implications for sediment toxicity evaluations
Danielle M. Cleveland, William G. Brumbaugh, Donald D. MacDonald
2017, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (36) 2906-2915
Evaluations of sediment quality conditions are commonly conducted using whole-sediment chemistry analyses but can be enhanced by evaluating multiple lines of evidence, including measures of the bioavailable forms of contaminants. In particular, porewater chemistry data provide information that is directly relevant for interpreting sediment toxicity data. Various methods for sampling...
Quantifying long-term population growth rates of threatened bull trout: challenges, lessons learned, and opportunities
Phaedra E. Budy, Tracy Bowerman, Robert K. Al-Chokhachy, Mary Conner, Howard Schaller
2017, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (74) 2131-2143
Temporal symmetry models (TSM) represent advances in the analytical application of mark–recapture data to population status assessments. For a population of char, we employed 10 years of active and passive mark–recapture data to quantify population growth rates using different data sources and analytical approaches. Estimates of adult population growth rate...
Endemic chronic wasting disease causes mule deer population decline in Wyoming
Melia DeVivo, David R. Edmunds, Matthew J. Kauffman, Brant A. Schumaker, Justin Binfet, Terry J. Kreeger, Bryan J. Richards, Hermann M. Schatzl, Todd Cornish
2017, PLoS ONE (12)
Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a fatal transmissible spongiform encephalopathy affecting white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), Rocky Mountain elk (Cervus elaphus nelsoni), and moose (Alces alces shirasi) in North America. In southeastern Wyoming average annual CWD prevalence in mule deer exceeds 20% and appears to contribute to regional...
New interventions are needed to save coral reefs
Ken Anthony, Line K. Bay, Robert Costanza, Jennifer Firn, John Gunn, Peter Harrison, Andrew Heyward, Petra Lundgren, David Mead, Tom Moore, Peter J. Mumby, Madeleine J. H. van Oppen, John Robertson, Michael C. Runge, David J. Suggett, Britta Schaffelke, David Wachenfeld, Terry Walshe
2017, Nature Ecology & Evolution (1) 1420-1422
Since 2014, coral reefs worldwide have been subjected to the most extensive, prolonged and damaging heat wave in recorded history1. Large sections of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef (GBR) bleached in response to heat stress in 2016 and 2017 — the first back-to-back event on record. Such severe coral bleaching results...
Proceedings of the 11th United States-Japan natural resources panel for earthquake research, Napa Valley, California, November 16–18, 2016
Shane Detweiler, Frederick Pollitz, editor(s)
2017, Open-File Report 2017-1133
The UJNR Panel on Earthquake Research promotes advanced research toward a more fundamental understanding of the earthquake process and hazard estimation. The Eleventh Joint meeting was extremely beneficial in furthering cooperation and deepening understanding of problems common to both Japan and the United States.The meeting included productive exchanges of information...
Recurrent Holocene movement on the Susitna Glacier Thrust Fault: The structure that initiated the Mw 7.9 Denali Fault earthquake, central Alaska
Stephen Personius, Anthony J. Crone, Patricia A. Burns, Nadine G. Reitman
2017, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (107) 1593-1609
We conducted a trench investigation and analyzed pre‐ and postearthquake topography to determine the timing and size of prehistoric surface ruptures on the Susitna Glacier fault (SGF), the thrust fault that initiated the 2002 Mw 7.9 Denali fault earthquake sequence in central Alaska. In two of our three hand‐excavated trenches, we found...
Shelf evolution along a transpressive transform margin, Santa Barbara Channel, California
Samuel Y. Johnson, Stephen Hartwell, Christopher C. Sorlien, Peter Dartnell, Andrew C. Ritchie
2017, Geosphere (13) 2041-2077
High-resolution bathymetric and seismic reflection data provide new insights for understanding the post–Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, ca. 21 ka) evolution of the ∼120-km-long Santa Barbara shelf, located within a transpressive segment of the transform continental margin of western North America. The goal is to determine how rising sea level, sediment supply,...
Oxygen stable isotopic disparities among sympatric small land snail species from northwest Minnesota, USA
Yurena Yanes, Jeffrey C. Nekola, Jason A. Rech, Jeffery S. Pigati
2017, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology (485) 715-722
The oxygen isotopic composition (δ18O) of land snail shells can be a valuable paleoenvironmental archive if the climatic parameters that influence the isotopic system are fully understood. Previous calibration studies have examined a limited number of species or individuals, and most have focused on larger (> 10 mm) taxa, which do not...
Physical properties of sidewall cores from Decatur, Illinois
Carolyn A. Morrow, J. Ole Kaven, Diane E. Moore, David A. Lockner
2017, Open-File Report 2017-1094
To better assess the reservoir conditions influencing the induced seismicity hazard near a carbon dioxide sequestration demonstration site in Decatur, Ill., core samples from three deep drill holes were tested to determine a suite of physical properties including bulk density, porosity, permeability, Young’s modulus, Poisson’s ratio, and failure strength....
Multistressor predictive models of invertebrate condition in the Corn Belt, USA
Ian R. Waite, Peter C. Van Metre
2017, Freshwater Science (36) 901-914
Understanding the complex relations between multiple environmental stressors and ecological conditions in streams can help guide resource-management decisions. During 14 weeks in spring/summer 2013, personnel from the US Geological Survey and the US Environmental Protection Agency sampled 98 wadeable streams across the Midwest Corn Belt region of the USA for...
Linking functional response and bioenergetics to estimate juvenile salmon growth in a reservoir food web
Craig A. Haskell, David A. Beauchamp, Stephen M. Bollens
2017, PLoS ONE (10) 1-21
Juvenile salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) use of reservoir food webs is understudied. We examined the feeding behavior of subyearling Chinook salmon (O. tshawytscha) and its relation to growth by estimating the functional response of juvenile salmon to changes in the density of Daphnia, an important component of reservoir food webs. We then estimated salmon...
Epicormic resprouting in fire-prone ecosystems
Juli G. Pausas, Jon E. Keeley
2017, Trends in Plant Science (22) 1008-1015
Many plants resprout from basal buds after disturbance, and this is common in shrublands subjected to high-intensity fires. However, resprouting after fire from epicormic (stem) buds is globally far less common. Unlike basal resprouting, post-fire epicormic resprouting is a key plant adaptation for retention of the arborescent skeleton after fire,...
Characterizing interactions between fire and other disturbances and their impacts on tree mortality in western U.S. Forests
Jeffrey M. Kane, J. Morgan Varner, Margaret R. Metz, Phillip J. van Mantgem
2017, Forest Ecology and Management (405) 188-199
Increasing evidence that pervasive warming trends are altering disturbance regimes and their interactions with fire has generated substantial interest and debate over the implications of these changes. Previous work has primarily focused on conditions that promote non-additive interactions of linked and compounded disturbances,...
Millennial-scale variability in the local radiocarbon reservoir age of south Florida during the Holocene
Lauren T. Toth, Hai Cheng, R. Lawrence Edwards, Erica Ashe, Julie N. Richey
2017, Quaternary Geochronology (42) 130-143
A growing body of research suggests that the marine environments of south Florida provide a critical link between the tropical and high-latitude Atlantic. Changes in the characteristics of water masses off south Florida may therefore have important implications for our understanding of climatic and oceanographic variability over a broad spatial...
FinDer v.2: Improved real-time ground-motion predictions for M2-M9 with seismic finite-source characterization
Maren Boese, Deborah Smith, Claude Felizardo, Men-Andrin Meier, Thomas H. Heaton, J.F. Clinton
2017, Geophysical Journal International (212) 725-742
Recent studies suggest that small and large earthquakes nucleate similarly, and that they often have indistinguishable seismic waveform onsets. The characterization of earthquakes in real time, such as for earthquake early warning, therefore requires a flexible modeling approach that allows a small earthquake to become large as fault rupture evolves...
Influence of pore pressure change on coseismic volumetric strain
Chi-Yuen Wang, Andrew J. Barbour
2017, Earth and Planetary Science Letters (475) 152-159
Coseismic strain is fundamentally important for understanding crustal response to changes of stress after earthquakes. The elastic dislocation model has been widely applied to interpreting observed shear deformation caused by earthquakes. The application of the same theory to interpreting volumetric strain, however, has met with difficulty, especially in the far...
Forecast first: An argument for groundwater modeling in reverse
Jeremy T. White
2017, Groundwater (55) 660-664
Numerical groundwater models are important compo-nents of groundwater analyses that are used for makingcritical decisions related to the management of ground-water resources. In this support role, models are oftenconstructed to serve a specific purpose that is to provideinsights, through simulation, related to a specific func-tion of a complex aquifer system...
The importance of parameterization when simulating the hydrologic response of vegetative land-cover change
Jeremy T. White, Victoria G. Stengel, Samuel H. Rendon, John Banta
2017, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (21) 3975-3989
Computer models of hydrologic systems are frequently used to investigate the hydrologic response of land-cover change. If the modeling results are used to inform resource-management decisions, then providing robust estimates of uncertainty in the simulated response is an important consideration. Here we examine the importance of parameterization, a necessarily subjective...
