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Evapotranspiration (ET) is an important component of micro- and macro-scale climatic processes. In agriculture, estimates of ET are frequently used to monitor droughts, schedule irrigation, and assess crop water productivity over large areas. Currently, in situ measurements of ET are difficult to scale up for regional applications, so remote sensing...

The PI3Kinase/Akt/mTOR pathway has important roles in cancer development for multiple tumor types, including UV-induced non-melanoma skin cancer. Immunosuppressed populations are at increased risk of aggressive cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). Individuals who are treated with rapamycin, (sirolimus, a classical mTOR inhibitor) have significantly decreased rates of developing new cutaneous...

Missouri was the leading producer of lead in the United States—as well as the world—for more than a century. One of the lead sources is known as the Old Lead Belt, located in southeast Missouri. The primary ore mineral in the region is galena, which can be found both in...

The recovery of endangered Lost River suckers (Deltistes luxatus) in Upper Klamath Lake is limited by poor juvenile survival and failure to recruit into the adult population. Poor water quality, degradation of rearing habitat, and toxic levels of microcystin are hypothesized to contribute to low juvenile survival. Studies of wild...

During the 1964 Great Alaska earthquake (Mw 9.2), several fjords, straits, and bays throughout southern Alaska experienced significant tsunami runup of localized, but unexplained origin. Dangerous Passage is a glacimarine fjord in western Prince William Sound, which experienced a tsunami that devastated the village of...

Heavily tuberculated glyptosaur osteoderms were collected in an active limestone quarry in northern Berkeley County, South Carolina. The osteoderms are part of a highly diverse late Paleocene vertebrate assemblage that consists of marine, terrestrial, fluvial, and/or brackish water taxa, including chondrichthyan and osteichthyan fish, turtles (chelonioid, trionychid, pelomedusid, emydid), crocodilians,...

We performed toxicity tests with two species of pulmonate snails (Lymnaea stagnalis and Physa gyrina) and four taxa of nonpulmonate snails in the family Hydrobiidae (Pyrgulopsis robusta,Taylorconcha serpenticola, Fluminicola sp., and Fontigens aldrichi). Snails were maintained in static-renewal...

The Bou Jaber Ba-F-Pb-Zn deposit is located at the edge of the Bou Jaber Triassic salt diapir in the Tunisia Salt Diapir Province. The ores are unconformity and fault-controlled and occur as subvertical column-shaped bodies developed in dissolution-collapse breccias and in cavities within the Late Aptian platform carbonate rocks, which...

Water temperature is an important factor in river ecology. Numerous models have been developed to predict river temperature. However, many were not designed to predict thermally stressful periods. Because such events are rare, traditionally applied analyses are inappropriate. Here, we developed two logistic regression models to predict thermally stressful events...

Light availability is an important factor driving primary productivity in benthic ecosystems, but in situ and remote sensing measurements of light quality are limited for coral reefs and seagrass beds. We evaluated the productivity responses of a patch reef and a seagrass site in the Lower Florida Keys to ambient...

The factors that determine plant community resistance to exotic annual Bromus species (Bromus hereafter) are diverse and context specific. They are influenced by the environmental characteristics and attributes of the community, the traits of Bromus species, and the direct and indirect interactions of <i...

Abiotic factors have a strong influence on where annual Bromus species are found. At the large regional scale, temperature and precipitation extremes determine the boundaries of Bromus occurrence. At the more local scale, soil characteristics and climate influence distribution, cover, and performance. In hot, dry, summer-rainfall-dominated...

An understanding of the impacts of exotic plant species on ecosystems is necessary to justify and guide efforts to limit their spread, restore natives, and plan for conservation. Invasive annual grasses such as Bromus tectorum, B. rubens, B. hordeaceus, and B. diandrus (hereafter collectively referred to as <i...

Climate change is driving rapid changes in environmental conditions and affecting population and species’ persistence across spatial and temporal scales. Integrating climate change assessments into biological resource management, such as conserving endangered species, is a substantial challenge, partly due to a mismatch between global climate forecasts and local or regional...

This report delineates the Pahute Mesa–Oasis Valley (PMOV) groundwater basin, where recharge occurs, moves downgradient, and discharges to Oasis Valley, Nevada. About 5,900 acre-feet of water discharges annually from Oasis Valley, an area of springs and seeps near the town of Beatty in southern Nevada. Radionuclides in groundwater beneath Pahute...

Life history traits were compared among four morphs of lake trout at Isle Royale, Lake Superior. Of 738 lake trout caught at Isle Royale, 701 were assigned to a morph (119 humpers, 160 leans, 85 redfins, and 337 siscowets) using a combination of statistical analysis of head and body shape...

The Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) Hinkley compressor station, in the Mojave Desert 80 miles northeast of Los Angeles, is used to compress natural gas as it is transported through a pipeline from Texas to California. Between 1952 and 1964, cooling water used at the compressor station was treated...

Comparison of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) concentrations between the sexes of mature fish may reveal important behavioral and physiological differences between the sexes. We determined whole-fish PCB concentrations in 23 female summer flounder Paralichthys dentatusand 27 male summer flounder from New Jersey coastal waters. To investigate the potential for differences in diet...

Growth in unconventional oil and gas has spurred concerns on environmental impact and interest in beneficial uses of produced water (PW), especially in arid regions such as the Permian Basin, the largest U.S. tight-oil producer. To evaluate environmental impact, treatment, and reuse potential, there is a need to characterize the...

This report documents differences in the mapped spatial extents and physical characteristics of in-channel fish habitat evaluated at the mesohabitat scale during winter 2011–12 (moderate streamflow) and summer 2012 (low streamflow) at 15 sites on the Middle Rio Grande in New Mexico starting about 3 kilometers downstream from Cochiti Dam...

Executive Summary Phytoplankton is an important and limiting food source in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (the Delta) and San Francisco Bay; the decline of phytoplankton biomass is one possible factor in the pelagic organism decline and specifically in the decline of the protected delta smelt. The bivalves Corbicula fluminea andPotamocorbula amurensis...

This report is intended to synthesize the state of the scientific understanding of pallid sturgeon ecological requirements to provide recommendations for future science directions and context for Missouri River restoration and management decisions. Recruitment of pallid sturgeon has been low to non-existent throughout its range. Emerging understanding of the genetic...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Allegheny County Health Department and Allegheny County Sanitary Authority, collected surface-water samples from the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio Rivers and selected tributaries during the period 2001–09 to assess the occurrence and trends in the concentrations of fecal-indicator bacteria during both wet-...

Modeling streamflow is an important approach for understanding landscape-scale drivers of flow and estimating flows where there are no streamgage records. In this study conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with Colorado State University, the objectives were to model streamflow metrics on small, ungaged streams in the Upper...

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of check dam infrastructure on soil and water conservation at the catchment scale using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). This paired watershed study includes a watershed treated with over 2000 check dams and a Control watershed which has...