Moisture and temperature controls on nitrification differ among ammonia oxidizer communities from three alpine soil habitats
Brooke B. Osborne, Jill Baron, Matthew D. Wallenstein
2016, Frontiers of Earth Science (10) 1-12
Climate change is altering the timing and magnitude of biogeochemical fluxes in many high elevation ecosystems. The consequent changes in alpine nitrification rates have the potential to influence ecosystem scale responses. In order to better understand how changing temperature and moisture conditions may influence ammonia oxidizers and nitrification activity, we...
Aquatic pollution increases use of terrestrial prey subsidies by stream fish
Johanna M. Kraus, Justin F. Pomeranz, Andrew S. Todd, David M. Walters, Travis S. Schmidt, Richard B. Wanty
2016, Journal of Applied Ecology (53) 44-53
Stream food webs are connected with their riparian zones through cross-ecosystem movements of energy and nutrients. The use and impact of terrestrial subsidies on aquatic consumers is determined in part by in situ biomass of aquatic prey. Thus, stressors such as aquatic pollutants that greatly reduce aquatic secondary production could increase...
Evidence that sea lampreys (Petromyzon marinus) complete their life cycle within a tributary of the Laurentian Great Lakes by parasitizing fishes in inland lakes
Nicholas S. Johnson, Michael B. Twohey, Scott M. Miehls, Tim A Cwalinski, Neal A Godby, Aude Lochet, Jeffrey W. Slade, Aaron K. Jubar, Michael J. Siefkes
2016, Journal of Great Lakes Research (42) 90-98
The sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) invaded the upper Laurentian Great Lakes and feeds on valued fish. The Cheboygan River, Michigan, USA, is a large sea lamprey producing tributary to Lake Huron and despite having a renovated dam 2 km from the river mouth that presumably blocks sea lamprey spawning migrations,...
Implications of climate change on the heat budget of lentic systems used for power station cooling: Case study Clinton Lake, Illinois
Juan C Quijano, P. Ryan Jackson, Santiago Santacruz, Viviana M Morales, Marcelo H. Garcia
2016, Environmental Science & Technology (50) 478-488
We use a numerical model to analyze the impact of climate change--in particular higher air temperatures--on a nuclear power station that recirculates the water from a reservoir for cooling. The model solves the hydrodynamics, the transfer of heat in the reservoir, and the energy balance at the surface. We use...
Towards understanding resprouting at the global scale
Juli G. Pausas, R. Brandon Pratt, Jon E. Keeley, Anna L. Jacobsen, Aaron R. Ramirez, Alberto Vilagrosa, Susana Paula, Iolana N. Kanekua-Pia, Stephen D. Davis
2016, New Phytologist (209) 945-954
Understanding and predicting plant response to disturbance is of paramount importance in our changing world. Resprouting ability is often considered a simple qualitative trait and used in many ecological studies. Our aim is to show some of the complexities of resprouting while highlighting cautions that need be taken in using...
Effects of dam removal on Tule Fall Chinook salmon spawning habitat in the White Salmon River, Washington
James R. Hatten, Thomas R. Batt, Joseph J. Skalicky, Rod Engle, Gary J. Barton, Ryan L. Fosness, Joe Warren
2016, River Research and Applications (32) 1481-1492
Condit Dam is one of the largest hydroelectric dams ever removed in the USA. Breached in a single explosive event in October 2011, hundreds-of-thousands of cubic metres of sediment washed down the White Salmon River onto spawning grounds of a threatened species, Columbia River tule fall Chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha....
A quantitative framework for estimating risk of collision between marine mammals and boats
Julien Martin, Quentin Sabatier, Timothy A. Gowan, Christophe Giraud, Eliezer Gurarie, Scott Calleson, Joel G. Ortega-Ortiz, Charles J. Deutsch, Athena Rycyk, Stacie M. Koslovsky
2016, Methods in Ecology and Evolution (7) 42-50
Speed regulations of watercraft in protected areas are designed to reduce lethal collisions with wildlife but can have economic consequences. We present a quantitative framework for investigating the risk of deadly collisions between boats and wildlife. We apply encounter rate theory to demonstrate how marine mammal-boat encounter rate can be used...
A generalizable energetics-based model of avian migration to facilitate continental-scale waterbird conservation
Eric V. Lonsdorf, Wayne E. Thogmartin, Sarah Jacobi, Jorge Coppen, Amelie Y. Davis, Timothy J. Fox, Patricia J. Heglund, Rex Johnson, Tim Jones, Kevin P. Kenow, James E. Lyons, Kirsten E. Luke, Shannon Still, Brian G. Tavernia
2016, Ecological Applications (26) 1136-1153
Conserving migratory birds is made especially difficult because of movement among spatially disparate locations across the annual cycle. In light of challenges presented by the scale and ecology of migratory birds, successful conservation requires integrating objectives, management, and monitoring across scales, from local management units to ecoregional and flyway administrative...
Prototypic automated continuous recreational water quality monitoring of nine Chicago beaches
Dawn Shively, Meredith Nevers, Cathy Breitenbach, Mantha S. Phanikumar, Kasia Przybyla-Kelly, Ashley M. Spoljaric, Richard L. Whitman
2016, Journal of Environmental Management (166) 285-293
Predictive empirical modeling is used in many locations worldwide as a rapid, alternative recreational water quality management tool to eliminate delayed notifications associated with traditional fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) culturing (referred to as the persistence model, PM) and to prevent errors in releasing swimming advisories. The goal of this study...
Effects of harvesting forest biomass on water and climate regulation services: A synthesis of long-term ecosystem experiments in eastern North America
Jesse Caputo, Colin D Beier, Peter M Groffman, Douglas A. Burns, Frederick D Beall, Paul W. Hazlett, Thad E Yorks
2016, Ecosystems (19) 271-283
Demand for woody biomass fuels is increasing amidst concerns about global energy security and climate change, but there may be negative implications of increased harvesting for forest ecosystem functions and their benefits to society (ecosystem services). Using new methods for assessing ecosystem services based on long-term experimental research,...
Mycobacterial infection in Northern snakehead (Channa argus) from the Potomac River catchment
Christine L. Densmore, Luke R. Iwanowicz, Anne Henderson, Deborah D. Iwanowicz, J.S. Odenkirk
2016, Journal of Fish Diseases (39) 771-775
The Northern snakehead, Channa argus (Cantor), is a non-native predatory fish that has become established regionally in some temperate freshwater habitats within the United States. Over the past decade, Northern snakehead populations have developed within aquatic ecosystems throughout the eastern USA, including the Potomac River system within Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C....
Relating mesocarnivore relative abundance to anthropogenic land-use with a hierarchical spatial count model
Shawn M. Crimmins, Liza R. Walleser, Dan R. Hertel, Patrick C. McKann, Jason J. Rohweder, Wayne E. Thogmartin
2016, Ecography (39) 524-532
There is growing need to develop models of spatial patterns in animal abundance, yet comparatively few examples of such models exist. This is especially true in situations where the abundance of one species may inhibit that of another, such as the intensively-farmed landscape of the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) of...
Effects of temperature on Renibacterium salmoninarum infection and transmission potential in Chinook salmon, Oncorhynchus tshawytscha (Walbaum)
Maureen K. Purcell, Constance L. McKibben, Schuyler Pearman-Gillman, Diane G. Elliott, James R. Winton
2016, Journal of Fish Diseases (39) 787-798
Renibacterium salmoninarum is a significant pathogen of salmonids and the causative agent of bacterial kidney disease (BKD). Water temperature affects the replication rate of pathogens and the function of the fish immune system to influence the progression of disease. In addition, rapid shifts in temperature may serve as stressors that reduce...
Measuring spatial variation in secondary production and food quality using a common consumer approach in Lake Erie
James H. Larson, William B. Richardson, Mary Anne Evans, Jeff Schaeffer, Timothy Wynne, Michelle Bartsch, Lynn Bartsch, J. C. Nelson, Jon M. Vallazza
2016, Ecological Applications (26) 873-885
Lake Erie is a large lake straddling the border of the U.S. and Canada that has become increasingly eutrophic in recent years. Eutrophication is particularly focused in the shallow western basin. The western basin of Lake Erie is hydrodynamically similar to a large estuary, with riverine inputs from the Detroit...
An evaluation of unsupervised and supervised learning algorithms for clustering landscape types in the United States
Jochen Wendel, Barbara P. Buttenfield, Larry V. Stanislawski
2016, Cartography and Geographic Information Science (43) 233-249
Knowledge of landscape type can inform cartographic generalization of hydrographic features, because landscape characteristics provide an important geographic context that affects variation in channel geometry, flow pattern, and network configuration. Landscape types are characterized by expansive spatial gradients, lacking abrupt changes between adjacent classes; and as having a limited number...
Human activities cause distinct dissolved organic matter composition across freshwater ecosystems
Clayton J. Williams, Paul C. Frost, Ana M. Morales-Williams, James H. Larson, William B. Richardson, Aisha S. Chiandet, Marguerite A. Xenopoulos
2016, Global Change Biology (22) 613-626
Dissolved organic matter (DOM) composition in freshwater ecosystems is influenced by interactions between physical, chemical, and biological processes that are controlled, at one level, by watershed landscape, hydrology, and their connections. Against this environmental template, humans may strongly influence DOM composition. Yet, we lack a comprehensive understanding of DOM composition...
Behavioural response of adult sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) to predator and conspecific alarm cues: evidence of additive effects
Richard T. Di Rocco, Istvan Imre, Nicholas S. Johnson, Grant B Brown
2016, Hydrobiologia (767) 279-287
Sea lampreys Petromyzon marinus, an invasive pest in the Upper Great Lakes, avoid odours that represent danger in their habitat. These odours include conspecific alarm cues and predator cues, like 2-phenylethylamine hydrochloride (PEA HCl), which is found in the urine of mammalian predators. Whether conspecific alarm cues and predator cues...
Evaluating the adequacy of a reference site pool for ecological assessments in environmentally complex regions
Peter R. Ode, Andrew C. Rehn, Raphael D. Mazor, Kenneth C. Schiff, Eric D. Stein, Jason May, Larry R. Brown, David B. Herbst, D.D. Gillette, Kevin Lunde, Charles P. Hawkins
2016, Freshwater Science (35) 237-248
Many advances in the field of bioassessment have focused on approaches for objectively selecting the pool of reference sites used to establish expectations for healthy waterbodies, but little emphasis has been placed on ways to evaluate the suitability of the reference-site pool for its intended applications (e.g., compliance assessment vs...
Copahue volcano and its regional magmatic setting
J. C. Varekamp, J. E. Zareski, L. M. Camfield, Erin Todd
2016, Book chapter, Copahue Volcano
Copahue volcano (Province of Neuquen, Argentina) has produced lavas and strombolian deposits over several 100,000s of years, building a rounded volcano with a 3 km elevation. The products are mainly basaltic andesites, with the 2000–2012 eruptive products the most mafic. The geochemistry of Copahue products is compared with those of the...
Prediction of plant vulnerability to salinity increase in a coastal ecosystem by stable isotopic composition (δ18O) of plant stem water: a model study
Lu Zhai, Jiang Jiang, Donald L. DeAngelis, Leonel d.S.L Sternberg
2016, Ecosystems (19) 32-49
Sea level rise and the subsequent intrusion of saline seawater can result in an increase in soil salinity, and potentially cause coastal salinity-intolerant vegetation (for example, hardwood hammocks or pines) to be replaced by salinity-tolerant vegetation (for example, mangroves or salt marshes). Although the vegetation shifts can be easily monitored...
Dramatic increase in sea otter mortality from white sharks in California
M. Tim Tinker, Brian B. Hatfield, Michael D. Harris, Jack A. Ames
2016, Marine Mammal Science (32) 309-326
Although southern sea otters (Enhydra lutris nereis) are not considered prey for white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias), sharks do nonetheless bite sea otters. We analyzed spatial and temporal trends in shark bites on sea otters in California, assessing the frequency of shark bite wounds in 1,870 carcasses collected since 1985. The...
Experimental infection of six North American fish species with the North Carolina strain of spring Viremia of Carp Virus
Eveline J. Emmenegger, George E. Sanders, Carla M. Conway, Fred P. Binkowski, James R. Winton, Gael Kurath
2016, Aquaculture (450) 273-282
Spring viremia of carp virus (SVCV) is a rhabdoviral pathogen associated with disease outbreaks in cultured and wild fish worldwide. Common carp (Cyprinus carpio carp), and koi (C. carpio koi) suffer the highest mortalities from SVCV infections, while other cyprinid fish species have varying susceptibility. Although salmonid fish typically...
Detecting significant change in stream benthic macroinvertebrate communities in wilderness areas
Alexander M. Milner, Andrea Woodward, Jerome E. Freilich, Robert W. Black, Vincent H. Resh
2016, Ecological Indicators (60) 524-537
A major challenge in the biological monitoring of stream ecosystems in protected wilderness areas is discerning whether temporal changes in community structure are significantly outside of a reference condition that represents natural or acceptable annual variation in population cycles. Otherwise sites could erroneously be classified as impaired. Long-term datasets...
Chemical considerations for an updated National assessment of brackish groundwater resources
Peter B. McMahon, John Karl Bohlke, Katharine Dahm, David L. Parkhurst, David W. Anning, Jennifer S. Stanton
2016, Groundwater (54) 464-475
Brackish groundwater (BGW) is increasingly used for water supplies where fresh water is scarce, but the distribution and availability of such resources have not been characterized at the national scale in the United States since the 1960s. Apart from its distribution and accessibility, BGW usability is a function of the...
Endocrine-disrupting chemicals and oil and natural gas operations: Potential environmental contamination and recommendations to assess complex environmental mixtures
Christopher D. Kassotis, Donald E. Tillitt, Chung-Ho Lin, Jane A. McElroy, Susan C. Nagel
2016, Environmental Health Perspectives (124) 256-264
Background: Hydraulic fracturing technologies, developed over the last 65 years, have only recently been combined with horizontal drilling to unlock oil and gas reserves previously deemed inaccessible. While these technologies have dramatically increased domestic oil and natural gas production, they have also raised concerns for the potential contamination of local...
