Projecting impacts of climate change on water availability using artificial neural network techniques
Eric D. Swain, Julieta Gomez-Fragoso, Sigfredo Torres-Gonzalez
2017, Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management (143)
Lago Loíza reservoir in east-central Puerto Rico is one of the primary sources of public water supply for the San Juan metropolitan area. To evaluate and predict the Lago Loíza water budget, an artificial neural network (ANN) technique is trained to predict river inflows. A method is...
Using models to identify the best data: An example from northern Wisconsin
Andrew T. Leaf
2017, Groundwater (55) 641-645
Linear-based data-worth analysis is an efficient and straightforward method for identifying the most important data for model forecasts....
Structural equation model of total phosphorus loads in the Red River of the North Basin, USA and Canada
Karen R. Ryberg
2017, Journal of Environmental Quality (46) 1072-1080
Attribution of the causes of trends in nutrient loading is often limited to correlation, qualitative reasoning, or references to the work of others. This paper represents efforts to improve causal attribution of water-quality changes. The Red River of the North basin provides a regional test case because of international interest...
Refining fault slip rates using multiple displaced terrace risers-An example from the Honey Lake fault, NE California, USA
Ryan D. Gold, Richard W. Briggs, Anthony J. Crone, Christopher DuRoss
2017, Earth and Planetary Science Letters (477) 134-146
Faulted terrace risers are semi-planar features commonly used to constrain Quaternary slip rates along strike-slip faults. These landforms are difficult to date directly and therefore their ages are commonly bracketed by age estimates of the adjacent upper and lower terrace surfaces. However, substantial differences in the ages of the upper and lower terrace...
Holocene earthquakes of magnitude 7 during westward escape of the Olympic Mountains, Washington
Alan R. Nelson, Stephen Personius, Ray E. Wells, Elizabeth R. Schermer, Lee-Ann Bradley, Jason Buck, Nadine G. Reitman
2017, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (107) 2394-2415
The Lake Creek–Boundary Creek fault, previously mapped in Miocene bedrock as an oblique thrust on the north flank of the Olympic Mountains, poses a significant earthquake hazard. Mapping using 2015 light detection and ranging (lidar) confirms 2004 lidar mapping of postglacial (<<mn...
Do you hear what I see? Vocalization relative to visual detection rates of Hawaiian hoary bats (Lasiurus cinereus semotus)
P. Marcos Gorresen, Paul M. Cryan, Kristina Montoya-Aiona, Frank Bonaccorso
2017, Ecology and Evolution (7) 6669-6679
Bats vocalize during flight as part of the sensory modality called echolocation, but very little is known about whether flying bats consistently call. Occasional vocal silence during flight when bats approach prey or conspecifics has been documented for relatively few species and situations. Bats flying alone in clutter-free airspace are...
Assessment of critical minerals: Updated application of an early-warning screening methodology
Erin A. McCullough, Nedal Nassar
2017, Mineral Economics (30) 257-272
Increasing reliance on non-renewable mineral resources reinforces the need for identifying potential supply constraints before they occur. The US National Science and Technology Council recently released a report that outlines a methodology for screening potentially critical minerals based on three indicators: supply risk (R), production growth (<i class="EmphasisTypeItalic...
Pitted terrains on (1) Ceres and implications for shallow subsurface volatile distribution
H.G. Sizemore, Thomas Platz, Norbert Schorghofer, Thomas Prettyman, Maria Christina De Sanctis, David A. Crown, Nico Schmedemann, Andeas Nessemann, Thomas Kneissl, Simone Marchi, Paul M. Schenk, Michael T. Bland, B.E. Schmidt, Kynan H.G. Hughson, F. Tosi, F Zambon, S.C. Mest, R.A. Yingst, D.A. Williams, C.T. Russell, C.A. Raymond
2017, Geophysical Research Letters (44) 6570-6578
Prior to the arrival of the Dawn spacecraft at Ceres, the dwarf planet was anticipated to be ice-rich. Searches for morphological features related to ice have been ongoing during Dawn's mission at Ceres. Here we report the identification of pitted terrains associated with fresh Cerean impact craters. The Cerean pitted...
Multiple-source tracking: Investigating sources of pathogens, nutrients, and sediment in the Upper Little River Basin, Kentucky, water years 2013–14
Angela S. Crain, Mac A. Cherry, Tanja N. Williamson, Aubrey R. Bunch
2017, Scientific Investigations Report 2017-5086
The South Fork Little River (SFLR) and the North Fork Little River (NFLR) are two major headwater tributaries that flow into the Little River just south of Hopkinsville, Kentucky. Both tributaries are included in those water bodies in Kentucky and across the Nation that have been reported with declining water...
What mediates tree mortality during drought in the southern Sierra Nevada?
Tarin Paz-Kagan, Philip Brodrick, Nicholas R. Vaughn, Adrian J. Das, Nathan L. Stephenson, Koren R. Nydick, Gregory P. Asner
2017, Ecological Applications (27) 2443-2457
Severe drought has the potential to cause selective mortality within a forest, thereby inducing shifts in forest species composition. The southern Sierra Nevada foothills and mountains of California have experienced extensive forest dieback due to drought stress and insect outbreak. We used high-fidelity imaging spectroscopy (HiFIS) and light detection and...
Food abundance, prey morphology, and diet specialization influence individual sea otter tool use
Jessica A. Fujii, Katherine Ralls, M. Tim Tinker
2017, Behavioral Ecology (28) 1206-1216
Sea otters are well-known tool users, employing objects such as rocks or shells to break open invertebrate prey. We used a series of generalized linear mixed effect models to examine observational data on prey capture and tool use from 211 tagged individuals from 5 geographically defined study areas throughout the...
Ancient lakes, Pleistocene climates and river avulsions structure the phylogeography of a large but little-known rock scorpion from the Mojave and Sonoran deserts
Matthew R. Graham, Dustin A. Wood, Jonathan A. Henault, Zachary J. Valois, Paula E. Cushing
2017, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society (122) 133-146
Recent syntheses of phylogeographical data from terrestrial animals in the Mojave and Sonoran deserts have revealed a complex history of geologic and climatic vicariance events. We studied the phylogeography of Smeringurus vachoni to see how vicariance events may have impacted a large, endemic rock scorpion. Additionally, we used the phylogeographical data to...
The Great Acceleration and the disappearing surficial geologic record
Jason A. Rech, Kathleen B. Springer, Jeffrey S. Pigati
2017, GSA Today (27) 8-9
The surficial geologic record is the relatively thin veneer of young (<~1 Ma) and mostly unconsolidated sediments that cover portions of Earth’s terrestrial surface (Fig. 1). Once largely ignored as “overburden” by geologists, surficial deposits are now studied to address a wide range of issues related to the sustainability of...
Restoring tides to reduce methane emissions in impounded wetlands: A new and potent Blue Carbon climate change intervention
Kevin D. Kroeger, Stephen Crooks, Serena Moseman-Valtierra, Jianwu Tang
2017, Scientific Reports (7)
Coastal wetlands are sites of rapid carbon (C) sequestration and contain large soil C stocks. Thus, there is increasing interest in those ecosystems as sites for anthropogenic greenhouse gas emission offset projects (sometimes referred to as “Blue Carbon”), through preservation of existing C stocks or creation of new wetlands to...
Geospatial tools effectively estimate nonexceedance probabilities of daily streamflow at ungauged and intermittently gauged locations in Ohio
William H. Farmer, G. F. Koltun
2017, Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies (13) 208-221
Study regionThe state of Ohio in the United States, a humid, continental climate.Study focusThe estimation of nonexceedance probabilities of daily streamflows as an alternative means of establishing the relative magnitudes of streamflows associated with hydrologic and water-quality observations.New hydrological insights for the regionSeveral methods...
Fatal attraction? Intraguild facilitation and suppression among predators
Kelly J. Sivy, Casey B. Pozzanghera, James B. Grace, Laura R. Prugh
2017, The American Naturalist (190) 663-679
Competition and suppression are recognized as dominant forces that structure predator communities. Facilitation via carrion provisioning, however, is a ubiquitous interaction among predators that could offset the strength of suppression. Understanding the relative importance of these positive and negative interactions is necessary to anticipate community-wide responses to apex predator declines...
Morphologic evolution of the wilderness area breach at Fire Island, New York—2012–15
Cheryl J. Hapke, Timothy R. Nelson, Rachel E. Henderson, Owen T. Brenner, Jennifer L. Miselis
2017, Open-File Report 2017-1116
IntroductionHurricane Sandy, which made landfall on October 29, 2012, near Atlantic City, New Jersey, had a significant impact on the coastal system along the south shore of Long Island, New York. A record significant wave height of 9.6 meters (m) was measured at wave buoy 44025, approximately 48...
Evaluating the role of land cover and climate uncertainties in computing gross primary production in Hawaiian Island ecosystems
Heather L. Kimball, Paul Selmants, Alvaro Moreno, Running Steve W, Christian P. Giardina
2017, PLoS ONE (12)
Gross primary production (GPP) is the Earth’s largest carbon flux into the terrestrial biosphere and plays a critical role in regulating atmospheric chemistry and global climate. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS)-MOD17 data product is a widely used remote sensing-based model that provides global estimates of spatiotemporal trends in GPP....
Sediment unmixing using detrital geochronology
Glenn R. Sharman, Samuel Johnstone
2017, Earth and Planetary Science Letters (477) 183-194
Sediment mixing within sediment routing systems can exert a strong influence on the preservation of provenance signals that yield insight into the influence of environmental forcings (e.g., tectonism, climate) on the earth’s surface. Here we discuss two approaches to unmixing detrital geochronologic data in an effort to characterize complex changes...
Investigating the landscape of Arroyo Seco—Decoding the past—A teaching guide to climate-controlled landscape evolution in a tectonically active region
Emily M. Taylor, Donald S. Sweetkind, Jeremy C. Havens
2017, Circular 1425
IntroductionArroyo Seco is a river that flows eastward out of the Santa Lucia Range in Monterey County, California. The Santa Lucia Range is considered part of the central California Coast Range. Arroyo Seco flows out of the Santa Lucia Range into the Salinas River valley, near the town of Greenfield,...
Estimated fecal coliform bacteria concentrations using near real-time continuous water-quality and streamflow data from five stream sites in Chester County, Pennsylvania, 2007–16
Lisa A. Senior
2017, Scientific Investigations Report 2017-5075
Several streams used for recreational activities, such as fishing, swimming, and boating, in Chester County, Pennsylvania, are known to have periodic elevated concentrations of fecal coliform bacteria, a type of bacteria used to indicate the potential presence of fecally related pathogens that may pose health risks to humans exposed through...
Documentation of a daily mean stream temperature module—An enhancement to the Precipitation-Runoff Modeling System
Michael J. Sanders, Steven L. Markstrom, R. Steven Regan, R. Dwight Atkinson
2017, Techniques and Methods 6-D4
A module for simulation of daily mean water temperature in a network of stream segments has been developed as an enhancement to the U.S. Geological Survey Precipitation Runoff Modeling System (PRMS). This new module is based on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Stream Network Temperature model, a mechanistic, one-dimensional...
Mantle and crustal gases of the Colorado Plateau: Geochemistry, sources, and migration pathways
William H. Craddock, Madalyn S. Blondes, Christina A. DeVera, Andrew G. Hunt
2017, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (213) 346-374
The Colorado Plateau hosts several large accumulations of naturally occurring, non-hydrocarbon gases, including CO2, N2, and the noble gases, making it a good field location to study the fluxes of these gases within the crust and to the atmosphere. In this study, we present...
Channel response to sediment release: insights from a paired analysis of dam removal
Mathias J. Collins, Noah P. Snyder, Graham Boardman, William S. Banks, Mary Andrews, Matthew E. Baker, Maricate Conlon, Allen C. Gellis, Serena McClain, Andrew Miller, Peter Wilcock
2017, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms (42) 1636-1651
Dam removals with unmanaged sediment releases are good opportunities to learn about channel response to abruptly increased bed material supply. Understanding these events is important because they affect aquatic habitats and human uses of floodplains. A longstanding paradigm in geomorphology holds that response rates to landscape disturbance exponentially decay through...
Assessing coastal wetland vulnerability to sea-level rise along the northern Gulf of Mexico coast: Gaps and opportunities for developing a coordinated regional sampling network
Michael J. Osland, Kereen T. Griffith, Jack C. Larriviere, Laura C. Feher, Donald R. Cahoon, Nicholas M. Enwright, David A. Oster, John M. Tirpak, Mark S. Woodrey, Renee C. Collini, Joseph J. Baustian, Joshua L. Breithaupt, Julia A Cherry, Jeremy R. Conrad, Nicole Cormier, Carlos A. Coronado-Molina, Joseph F. Donoghue, Sean A. Graham, Jennifer W. Harper, Mark W. Hester, Rebecca J. Howard, Ken W. Krauss, Daniel Kroes, Robert R. Lane, Karen L. McKee, Irving A. Mendelssohn, Beth A. Middleton, Jena A. Moon, Sarai Piazza, Nicole M. Rankin, Fred H. Sklar, Gregory D. Steyer, Kathleen M. Swanson, Christopher M. Swarzenski, William Vervaeke, Jonathan M Willis, K. Van Wilson
2017, PLoS ONE (12)
Coastal wetland responses to sea-level rise are greatly influenced by biogeomorphic processes that affect wetland surface elevation. Small changes in elevation relative to sea level can lead to comparatively large changes in ecosystem structure, function, and stability. The surface elevation table-marker horizon (SET-MH) approach is being used globally to quantify...
