Biodiversity effects on grape quality depend on variety and management intensity
Magdalena Steiner, James Grace, Sven Bacher
2021, Journal of Applied Ecology (58) 1442-1454
Interactions between plants can be beneficial, detrimental or neutral. In agricultural systems, competition between crop and spontaneous vegetation is a major concern. We evaluated the relative support for three non-exclusive ecological hypotheses about interactions between crop and spontaneous plants based on competition, complementarity or facilitation.The study was conducted in...
Postwildfire soil‐hydraulic recovery and the persistence of debris flow hazards
Matthew A. Thomas, Francis K. Rengers, Jason W. Kean, Luke A. McGuire, Dennis M. Staley, Katherine R. Barnhart, Brian A. Ebel
2021, Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface (126)
Deadly and destructive debris flows often follow wildfire, but understanding of changes in the hazard potential with time since fire is poor. We develop a simulation‐based framework to quantify changes in the hydrologic triggering conditions for debris flows as postwildfire infiltration properties evolve through time. Our approach produces time‐varying rainfall...
Late Pleistocene baldcypress (Taxodium distichum) forest deposit on the continental shelf of the northern Gulf of Mexico
Kristine L. DeLong, Suyapa Gonzalez, Jeffrey B. Obelcz, Jonathan T. Truong, Samuel J. Bentley Sr., Kehui Xu, Carl A. Reese, Grant L. Harley, Alicia Caporaso, Zhixiong Shen, Beth Middleton
2021, Boreas (50) 871-892
Approximately 13 km south of Gulf Shores, Alabama (United States), divers found in situ baldcypress (Taxodium distichum) stumps 18 m below the ocean surface. These trees could have only lived when sea level fell during the Pleistocene subaerially exposing the tectonically stable continental shelf. Here we investigate the geophysical properties along with microfossil and...
Refining the coarse filter approach: Using habitat-based species models to identify rarity and vulnerabilities in the protection of U.S. biodiversity
Anne Davidson, Leah Dunn, Kevin Gergely, Alexa McKerrow, Steven G. Williams, Mackenzie Case
2021, Global Ecology and Conservation (28)
Preserving biodiversity and its many components is a priority of conservation science and how to efficiently allocate resources to preserve healthy populations of as many species, habitats, and ecosystems as possible. We used the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Gap Analysis Project (GAP) species models released in 2018, which identify predicted habitats for...
Lipidomics reveals specific lipid molecules associated with cold stress syndrome in the Florida manatee (Trichechus manatus latirostris)
Emily K. Griffin, Kaylie Anne Costa, Juan J. Aristizabal-Henao, Michael P. Napolitano, Margaret Hunter, Jason Ferrante, John A. Bowden
2021, Marine Biology (168)
Cold stress syndrome (CSS) in the Florida manatee (Trichechus manatus latirostris) results in perturbations to many physiological pathways, often leading to further illness or death. In this study, we applied a non-targeted lipidomics approach with ultra-high performance liquid chromatography and high-resolution tandem mass spectrometry to characterize changes...
Horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratios from California sites: Open-source database and data interpretation to establish site parameters
Pengfei Wang, Paolo Zimmaro, Tatiana Gospe, Sean Kamran Ahdi, Alan Yong, Jonathan P. Stewart
2021, Report, GIRS 2021-06
Frequency-dependent horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratios (HVSR) of Fourier amplitudes from three-component recordings can provide information on one or more site resonant frequencies and relative levels of amplification at those frequencies. Such information is potentially useful for predicting site amplification but is not present in site databases that have been developed...
Relating Tmax and hydrogen index to vitrinite and solid bitumen reflectance in hydrous pyrolysis residues: Comparisons to natural thermal indices
Celeste D. Lohr, Paul C. Hackley
2021, International Journal of Coal Geology (242)
Vitrinite reflectance (VRo; %) generally is considered the most reliable technique to determine the thermal maturity of sedimentary rocks. However, it is a time-consuming process to collect reflectance (Ro; %) measurements and is subjective to the interpretation of each trained technician, who must be...
Anthropogenic edge effects in habitat selection by sun bears in a protected area
T. L Tee, Frank T. van Manen, P. Kretzschmar, S. P. Sharp, S. T. Wong, S. Gadas, S. Ratnayeke
2021, Wildlife Biology (2)
Wildlife populations in southeast Asia are increasingly experiencing a broad array of anthropogenic threats, and mammalian carnivores are particularly vulnerable. Populations of the Malayan sun bear Helarctos malayanus are estimated to have declined by 30% over the last 30 years from forest conversion to industrial plantations and...
Understanding sea lamprey populations in the Great Lakes prior to broad implementation of sea lamprey control
Kelly F. Robinson, Scott M. Miehls, Michael J. Siefkes
2021, Journal of Great Lakes Research (47) S328-S334
Control of invasive sea lamprey in the Great Lakes with a selective pesticide (lampricide) that targeted larval sea lamprey began in the late 1950's and continues to be one of the main methods for control. Although the Great Lakes Fishery Commission,...
Effects of prescribed fire timing on vigor of the invasive forb sericea lespedeza (Lespedeza cuneata), total forage biomass accumulation, plant-community composition, and native fauna on tallgrass prairie in the Kansas Flint Hills
Jonathan Alexander, Walter H. Fick, Sarah Ogden, David A. Haukos, Jack Lemmon, Garth A. Gatson, K. C. Olson
2021, Translational Animal Science (5)
The predominant grazing-management practice of the Kansas Flint Hills involves annual prescribed burning in March or April with postfire grazing by yearling beef cattle at a high stocking density from April to August. There has been a dramatic increase in sericea lespedeza (Lespedeza cuneata [Dumont] G. Don) coincident with this temporally...
Intact landscape promotes gene flow and low genetic structuring in the threatened Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake
Nathan Kudla, Eric M. McCluskey, Vijay Lulla, Ralph Grundel, Jennifer A. Moore
2021, Ecology and Evolution (11) 6276-6288
Genetic structuring of wild populations is dependent on environmental, ecological, and life-history factors. The specific role environmental context plays in genetic structuring is important to conservation practitioners working with rare species across areas with varying degrees of fragmentation. We investigated fine-scale genetic patterns of the federally threatened Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake...
Polar bear foraging behavior
Anthony M. Pagano
2021, Book chapter, Ethology and behavioral ecology of sea otters and polar bears
Polar bears forage in the marine environment, primarily on the sea ice over the shallow waters of the continental shelf. They are solitary, ambush hunters that catch ringed and bearded seals when they surface to breathe in ice holes or haul out on the ice to rest and molt. In...
Sea otter predator avoidance behavior
Daniel Monson
2021, Book chapter, Ethology and behavioral ecology of sea otters and polar bears
Predators directly affect their prey as a source of mortality, and prey respond by employing antipredator strategies. Sea otters are a keystone predator within the nearshore community, but higher trophic level avian, terrestrial, and pelagic predators (e.g., bald eagles, brown bears, wolves, white sharks, and killer whales) prey on them....
2020 National Park Visitor Spending Effects Economic Contributions to Local Communities, States,and the Nation
Catherine Cullinane Thomas, Lynne Koontz
2021, Natural Resource Report NPS/NRSS/EQD/NRR--2021/2259
The National Park Service (NPS) manages the Nation’s most iconic destinations that attract millions of visitors from across the Nation and around the world. Trip-related spending by NPS visitors generates and supports economic activity within park gateway communities. This report summarizes the annual economic contribution analysis that measures how NPS...
Measuring coastal acidification using in situ sensors in the National Estuary Program
Holly Galavotti, James Vasslides, Matthew Poach, Curtis Bohlen, Christopher W. Hunt, Matthew Liebman, Xinping Hu, Melissa McCutcheon, Jim O’Donnell, Kay Howard-Strobel, Prassede Vella, John Lehrter, Karina Nielsen, John Largier, Tom Ford, Alex Steele, Kimberly K. Yates, York Johnson, Cheryl Brown, Stephen R. Pacella
2021, EPA Report EPA-842-R-21001
Estuaries and coastal areas are highly vulnerable to the impacts of acidification on shellfish, coral reefs, fisheries, and the commercial and recreational industries that they support. Yet, little is known about the extent of this vulnerability and the estuary-specific drivers that contribute to acidification, such as nutrient enrichment from stormwater,...
Mass eruption rate, column height, and duration dataset for volcanic eruptions
Natalia I. Deligne
2021, Report
This report describes a dataset assembled and curated as part of a project funded by the Earthquake Commission Biennial Grant 20781, Towards real-time probabilistic ash deposition forecasting for Aotearoa New Zealand. This dataset compiles measured, estimated, and calculated values for volcanic eruption mass eruption rates, column heights, and durations. Data...
Movement, survival, and delays of Atlantic Salmon smolts in the Piscataquis River, Maine, USA
Alejandro Molina-Moctezuma, Erin Peterson, Joseph D. Zydlewski
2021, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (150) 345-360
Movement, delays, and survival of hatchery Atlantic Salmon Salmo salar smolts were evaluated through the Piscataquis River, a tributary of the Penobscot River in Maine, USA. We explored the effects of the river’s four dams (Guilford, Dover, Browns Mill, and Howland dams) from 2005 to 2019. During this period, the downstream-most dam...
Monitoring the recovery of seabirds and forage fish following a major ecosystem disruption in Lower Cook Inlet
Mayumi L. Arimitsu, Sarah K. Schoen, John F. Piatt, Caitlin Elizabeth Marsteller, Gary S. Drew
2021, OCS Study 2021-031
Following the North Pacific marine heatwave of 2014-2016 and associated extreme die-off of seabirds in the winter of 2015-2016, we repeated historical marine bird and forage fish surveys around two seabird colonies (Gull Island, Chisik Island) in lower Cook Inlet during 2016-2019 in order to document immediate and lingering impacts...
Constraints on deep, CO2-rich degassing at arc volcanoes from solubility experiments on hydrous basaltic andesite of Pavlof Volcano, Alaska Peninsula, at 300 to 1200 MPa
Margaret Mangan, Thomas W. Sisson, W. Ben Hankins, Nobumichi Shimizu, Torsten W. Vennemann
2021, American Mineralogist (106) 762-773
The solubility of CO2 in hydrous basaltic andesite was examined in fO2-controlled experiments at a temperature of 1125 °C and pressures between 310–1200 MPa. Concentrations of dissolved H2O and CO2 in experimental glasses were determined by ion microprobe calibrated on a subset of run glasses analyzed by high-temperature vacuum manometry. Assuming that the...
Sedex hydrothermal systems triggered upheavals to marine chemistry and mass extinctions: Applications for ore genesis research and mineral exploration
Poul Emsbo
2021, Newsletter
New USGS research reveals that the discharge of metal-rich brine that formed sedex deposits on ancient seafloors had profound effects on global ocean chemistry and biologic evolution. For example, brine expulsion caused short-duration positive excursions (“spikes”) in the global marine Sr isotope record. While these spikes are unexplained by conventional...
Putting people first: Using social science to reduce risk
Patricia A. Champ, Christopher M. Barth, Hannah Brenkert-Smith, Lilia C. Falk, Jamie Gomez, James Meldrum
2021, Wildfire Magazine
Wildland-urban interface residents, who occupy the areas where wildlands meet and mix with human development, are both contributors to and recipients of the disastrous effects of wildland fires. They contribute through fire starts, flammable homes, unmitigated properties, opposition to mitigation on nearby public lands, and land use planning efforts. We...
USGS 2020 critical minerals review
Steven M. Fortier, Nedal T. Nassar, Karen D. Kelley, Graham W. Lederer, Jeffrey L. Mauk, Jane M. Hammarstrom, Warren C. Day, Robert R. Seal, II
2021, Mining Engineering (73) 32
Concerns about the lack of domestic production and availability of essential mineral raw materials were a recurring theme throughout the 20th century, particularly in the periods around armed conflicts (Congressional Research Service, 2019). These concerns resulted in the designation of particular minerals as “strategic” or “critical,” terms that commonly depend...
The concept of evanescent microbial ecosystems in Earth's atmosphere
Dale W. Griffin
2021, Book chapter, Microbes: The foundation stone of the biosphere
This essay presents the hypothesis that short-lived or evanescent microbial ecosystems exist in Earth’s lower troposphere (~ < 4 km). This hypothesis is supported by culture- and molecular-based studies that have shown diverse, viable, and metabolically active microbial communities within Earth’s atmospheric boundary layer. Surprisingly, microorganisms are routinely recovered in samples collected at...
Conservation status of the world’s skinks (Scincidae): Taxonomic and geographic patterns in extinction risk
David G. Chapple, Uri Roll, Monika Böhm, Rocio Aguilar, Andrew P. Amey, Chris C. Austin, Maureen Baling, Anthony J. Barley, Michael F. Bates, Aaron M. Bauer, Daniel G. Blackburn, Phil Bowles, Rafe M. Brown, S. R. Chandramouli, Laurent Chirio, Hal Cogger, Guarino R. Colli, Werner Conradie, Patrick J. Couper, Mark A. Cowan, Michael D. Craig, Indraneil Das, Aniruddha Datta-Roy, Chris R. Dickman, Ryan J. Ellis, Aaron L. Fenner, Stewart Ford, S. R. Ganesh, Michael G. Gardner, Peter Geissler, Graeme R. Gillespie, Frank Glaw, Matthew J. Greenlees, Oliver W. Griffith, L. Lee Grismer, Margaret L. Haines, D. James Harris, S. Blair Hedges, Rod A. Hitchmough, Conrad J. Hoskin, Mark N. Hutchinson, Ivan Ineich, Jordi Janssen, Gregory R. Johnston, Benjamin R. Karin, J. Scott Keogh, Frederick Kraus, Matthew LeBreton, Petros Lymberakis, Rafaqat Masroor, Peter J. McDonald, Sven Mecke, Jane Melville, Sabine Melzer, Damian R. Michael, Aurelien Miralles, Nicola J. Mitchell, Nicola J. Nelson, Truong Q. Nguyen, Cristiano de Campos Nogueira, Hidetoshi Ota, Panayiotis Pafilis, Olivier S. G. Pauwels, Ana Perera, Daniel Pincheira-Donoso, Robert Reed, Marco A. Ribeiro-Junior, Julia L. Riley, Sara Rocha, Pamela L. Rutherford, Ross A. Sadlier, Boaz Shacham, Glenn M. Shea, Richard Shine, Alex Slavenko, Adam Stow, Joanna Sumner, Oliver J. S. Tallowin, Roy Teale, Omar Torres-Carvajal, Jean-Francois Trape, Peter Uetz, Kanishka D. B. Ukuwela, Leonie E. Valentine, James U. Van Dyke, Dylan van Winkel, Raquel Vasconcelos, Miguel Vences, Philipp Wagner, Erik Wapstra, Geoffrey M. While, Martin J. Whiting, Camilla M. Whittington, Steve Wilson, Thomas Ziegler, Reid Tingley, Shai Meiri
2021, Biological Conservation (257)
Our knowledge of the conservation status of reptiles, the most diverse group of terrestrial vertebrates, has improved dramatically over the past decade, but still lags behind that of the other tetrapod groups. Here, we conduct the first comprehensive assessment (~92% of the world’s ~1,714 described species) of the conservation status...
Nocturnal incubation recess and flushing behavior by duck hens
Rebecca Croston, Sarah H. Peterson, C. Alex Hartman, Mark P. Herzog, Cliff L. Feldheim, Michael L. Casazza, Josh T. Ackerman
2021, Ecology and Evolution (11) 7292-7301
Incubating birds must balance the needs of their developing embryos with their own physiological needs, and many birds accomplish this by taking periodic breaks from incubation. Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) and gadwall (Mareca strepera) hens typically take incubation recesses in the early morning and late afternoon, but recesses can also take...
