Will changes in phenology track climate change? A study of growth initiation timing in coast Douglas-fir
Kevin R. Ford, Constance A. Harrington, Sheel Bansal, Petter J. Gould, Bradley St. Clair
2016, Global Change Biology (22) 3712-3723
Under climate change, the reduction of frost risk, onset of warm temperatures and depletion of soil moisture are all likely to occur earlier in the year in many temperate regions. The resilience of tree species will depend on their ability to track these changes in climate with shifts in phenology...
Fluctuating water depths affect American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) body condition in the Everglades, Florida, USA
Laura A. Brandt, Jeffrey S. Beauchamp, Brian M. Jeffery, Michael S. Cherkiss, Frank J. Mazzotti
2016, Ecological Indicators (67) 441-450
Successful restoration of wetland ecosystems requires knowledge of wetland hydrologic patterns and an understanding of how those patterns affect wetland plant and animal populations.Within the Everglades, Florida, USA restoration, an applied science strategy including conceptual ecological models linking drivers to indicators is being used to organize current scientific understanding to...
Longitudinal evaluation of leukocyte transcripts in killer whales (Orcinus Orca)
Tatjana Sitt, Lizabeth Bowen, Chia-Shan Lee, Myra Blanchard, James McBain, Christopher Dold, Jeffrey L. Stott
2016, Veterinary Immunology and Immunopathology (175) 7-15
Early identification of illness and/or presence of environmental and/or social stressors in free-ranging and domestic cetaceans is a priority for marine mammal health care professionals. Incorporation of leukocyte gene transcript analysis into the diagnostic tool kit has the potential to augment classical diagnostics based upon ease of sample storage and...
Numerical experiments to explain multiscale hydrological responses to mountain pine beetle tree mortality in a headwater watershed
Colin A. Penn, Lindsay A. Bearup, Reed M. Maxwell, David W. Clow
2016, Water Resources Research (52) 3143-3161
The effects of mountain pine beetle (MPB)-induced tree mortality on a headwater hydrologic system were investigated using an integrated physical modeling framework with a high-resolution computational grid. Simulations of MPB-affected and unaffected conditions, each with identical atmospheric forcing for a normal water year, were compared at multiple scales to evaluate...
Impacts of climate change on mangrove ecosystems: A region by region overview
Raymond D. Ward, Daniel A. Friess, Richard H. Day, Richard A. MacKenzie
2016, Ecosystem Health and Sustainability (2)
Inter-related and spatially variable climate change factors including sea level rise, increased storminess, altered precipitation regime and increasing temperature are impacting mangroves at regional scales. This review highlights extreme regional variation in climate change threats and impacts, and how these factors impact the structure of mangrove communities, their biodiversity and...
Modeling flow, sediment transport and morphodynamics in rivers
Jonathan M. Nelson, Richard R. McDonald, Yasuyuki Shimizu, Ichiro Kimura, Mohamed Nabi, Kazutake Asahi
2016, Book chapter
Predicting the response of natural or man-made channels to imposed supplies of water and sediment is one of the difficult practical problems commonly addressed by fluvial geomorphologists. This problem typically arises in three situations. In the first situation, geomorphologists are attempting to understand why a channel or class of channels...
The source of groundwater and solutes to Many Devils Wash at a former uranium mill site in Shiprock, New Mexico
Andrew J. Robertson, Anthony J. Ranalli, Stephen A. Austin, Bryan R. Lawlis
2016, Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5031
The Shiprock Disposal Site is the location of the former Navajo Mill (Mill), a uranium ore-processing facility, located on a terrace overlooking the San Juan River in the town of Shiprock, New Mexico. Following the closure of the Mill, all tailings and associated materials were encapsulated in a disposal cell...
“One Health” or three? Publication silos among the One Health disciplines
Kezia Manlove, Josephine G Walker, Meggan E. Craft, Kathryn P. Huyvaert, Maxwell B. Joseph, Ryan S. Miller, Pauline Nol, Kelly A. Patyk, Daniel O’Brian, Daniel P. Walsh, Paul C. Cross
2016, PLoS Biology (14)
The One Health initiative is a global effort fostering interdisciplinary collaborations to address challenges in human, animal, and environmental health. While One Health has received considerable press, its benefits remain unclear because its effects have not been quantitatively described. We systematically surveyed the published literature and used social network analysis...
Wintering Sandhill Crane exposure to wind energy development in the central and southern Great Plains, USA
Aaron T. Pearse, David A. Brandt, Gary Krapu
2016, The Condor (118) 391-401
Numerous wind energy projects have been constructed in the central and southern Great Plains, USA, the main wintering area for midcontinental Sandhill Cranes (Grus canadensis). In an initial assessment of the potential risks of wind towers to cranes, we estimated spatial overlap, investigated potential avoidance behavior, and determined the habitat...
Potential effects of sea-level rise on plant productivity: Species-specific responses in northeast Pacific tidal marshes
Christopher Janousek, Kevin J. Buffington, Karen M. Thorne, Glenn R. Guntenspergen, John Y. Takekawa, Bruce D. Dugger
2016, Marine Ecology Progress Series (548) 111-125
Coastal wetland plants are adapted to varying degrees of inundation. However, functional relationships between inundation and productivity are poorly characterized for most species. Determining species-specific tolerances to inundation is necessary to evaluate sea-level rise (SLR) effects on future marsh plant community composition, quantify organic matter inputs to marsh accretion,...
The Point Sal–Point Piedras Blancas correlation and the problem of slip on the San Gregorio–Hosgri fault, central California Coast Ranges
Joseph P. Colgan, Richard G. Stanley
2016, Geosphere (12) 971-984
Existing models for large-magnitude, right-lateral slip on the San Gregorio–Hosgri fault system imply much more deformation of the onshore block in the Santa Maria basin than is supported by geologic data. This problem is resolved by a model in which dextral slip on this fault system increases gradually from 0–10...
Effects of lek count protocols on greater sage-grouse population trend estimates
Adrian P. Monroe, David R. Edmunds, Cameron L. Aldridge
2016, Journal of Wildlife Management (80) 667-678
Annual counts of males displaying at lek sites are an important tool for monitoring greater sage-grouse populations (Centrocercus urophasianus), but seasonal and diurnal variation in lek attendance may increase variance and bias of trend analyses. Recommendations for protocols to reduce observation error have called for restricting lek counts to within...
Biogeographical history and coalescent species delimitation of Pacific island skinks (Squamata: Scincidae: Emoia cyanura species group)
Elaine Klein, Rebecca Harris, Robert N. Fisher, Tod Reeder
2016, Journal of Biogeography (43) 1917-1929
Aim A prevailing hypothesis for how Pacific islands organisms have obtained their extant distributions is that of a stepping-stone model, in which populations originate from Papua New Guinea in the western Pacific and gradually disperse eastward. Here, we test this model using a spatiotemporal framework for Emoia cyanura and E. impar, two species within...
Effect of cysteine and humic acids on bioavailability of Ag from Ag nanoparticles to a freshwater snail
Samuel N. Luoma, Tasha Stoiber, Marie Noele Croteau, Isabelle Romer, Ruth Merrifeild, Jamie Lead
2016, NanoImpact (2) 61-69
Metal-based engineered nanoparticles (NPs) will undergo transformations that will affect their bioavailability, toxicity and ecological risk when released to the environment, including interactions with dissolved organic material. The purpose of this paper is to determine how interactions with two different types of organic material affect the bioavailability of silver nanoparticles...
Avian mercury exposure and toxicological risk across western North America: A synthesis
Joshua T. Ackerman, Collin A. Eagles-Smith, Mark P. Herzog, C. Alex Hartman, Sarah H. Peterson, David C. Evers, Allyson K. Jackson, John E. Elliott, Stacy S. Vander Pol, Colleen E. Bryan
2016, Science of the Total Environment (568) 749-769
Methylmercury contamination of the environment is an important issue globally, and birds are useful bioindicators for mercury monitoring programs. The available data on mercury contamination of birds in western North America were synthesized. Original data from multiple databases were obtained and a literature review was...
Simulation of streamflow and the effects of brush management on water yields in the Double Mountain Fork Brazos River watershed, western Texas 1994–2013
Glenn R. Harwell, Victoria G. Stengel, Johnathan R. Bumgarner
2016, Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5032
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the City of Lubbock and the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board, developed and calibrated a Soil and Water Assessment Tool watershed model of the Double Mountain Fork Brazos River watershed in western Texas to simulate monthly mean streamflow and to evaluate...
Analysis of shoreline and geomorphic change for Breton Island, Louisiana, from 1869 to 2014
Joseph F. Terrano, James G. Flocks, Kathryn E. L. Smith
2016, Open-File Report 2016-1039
Many barrier islands in the United States are eroding and losing elevation substantively because of storm surge, waves, and sea-level changes. This is particularly true for the deltaic barrier system in Louisiana. Breton Island is near the mouth of the Mississippi River at the southern end of the Chandeleur barrier...
Users and uses of Landsat 8 satellite imagery—2014 survey results
Holly M. Miller
2016, Open-File Report 2016-1032
Executive Summary In 2013, Landsat 8 began adding high quality, global, moderate-resolution imagery to the more than 40-year archive of Landsat imagery. To assess the potential effects of the availability of Landsat 8 imagery on users and their work, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Land Remote Sensing Program (LRS) initiated a...
Magma transport and olivine crystallization depths in Kīlauea’s East Rift Zone inferred from experimentally rehomogenized melt inclusions
Robin M Tuohy, Paul J. Wallace, Matthew W. Loewen, Don Swanson, Adam J R Kent
2016, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (185) 232-250
Concentrations of H2O and CO2 in olivine-hosted melt inclusions can be used to estimate crystallization depths for the olivine host. However, the original dissolved CO2concentration of melt inclusions at the time of trapping can be difficult to measure directly because in many cases substantial CO2 is transferred...
Tree island pattern formation in the Florida Everglades
Joel A. Carr, P. D’Odorico, Victor C. Engel, Jed Redwine
2016, Ecological Complexity (26) 37-44
The Florida Everglades freshwater landscape exhibits a distribution of islands covered by woody vegetation and bordered by marshes and wet prairies. Known as “tree islands”, these ecogeomorphic features can be found in few other low gradient, nutrient limited freshwater wetlands. In the last few decades, however, a large percentage of...
A revised surface age for the North Polar Layered Deposits of Mars
Margaret E. Landis, Shane Byrne, Ingrid J. Daubar, Kenneth E. Herkenhoff, Colin M. Dundas
2016, Geophysical Research Letters (43) 3060-3068
The North Polar Layered Deposits (NPLD) of Mars contain a complex stratigraphy that has been suggested to retain a record of past eccentricity- and obliquity-forced climate changes. The surface accumulation rate in the current climate can be constrained by the crater retention age. We scale NPLD crater diameters to account...
Estimates of lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) diet in Lake Ontario using two and three isotope mixing models
Scott F. Colborne, Scott A. Rush, Gordon Paterson, Timothy B. Johnson, Brian F. Lantry, Aaron T. Fisk
2016, Journal of Great Lakes Research (42) 695-702
Recent development of multi-dimensional stable isotope models for estimating both foraging patterns and niches have presented the analytical tools to further assess the food webs of freshwater populations. One approach to refine predictions from these analyses is to include a third isotope to the more common two-isotope carbon and nitrogen...
Volcanic lightning and plume behavior reveal evolving hazards during the April 2015 eruption of Calbuco volcano, Chile
Alexa R. Van Eaton, Alvaro Amigo, Daniel Bertin, Larry G. Mastin, Raul E Giacosa, Jeronimo Gonzalez, Oscar Valderrama, Karen Fontijn, Sonja A Behnke
2016, Geophysical Research Letters (43) 3563-3571
Soon after the onset of an eruption, model forecasts of ash dispersal are used to mitigate the hazards to aircraft, infrastructure and communities downwind. However, it is a significant challenge to constrain the model inputs during an evolving eruption. Here we demonstrate that volcanic lightning may be used in tandem...
Postseismic gravity change after the 2006–2007 great earthquake doublet and constraints on the asthenosphere structure in the central Kuril Islands
Shin-Chan Han, Jeanne Sauber, Frederick Pollitz
2016, Geophysical Research Letters (43) 3169-3177
Large earthquakes often trigger viscoelastic adjustment for years to decades depending on the rheological properties and the nature and spatial extent of coseismic stress. The 2006 Mw8.3 thrust and 2007 Mw8.1 normal fault earthquakes of the central Kuril Islands resulted in significant postseismic gravity change in Gravity Recovery and Climate...
Fish community response to dam removal in a Maine coastal river tributary
Joseph D. Zydlewski, Robert S. Hogg, Stephen M. Coghlan Jr., Cory Gardner
2016, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (144) 445-455
Sedgeunkedunk Stream, a third-order tributary to the Penobscot River in Maine, historically has supported several anadromous fishes including Atlantic Salmon Salmo salar, Alewife Alosa pseudoharengus, and Sea Lamprey Petromyzon marinus. Two small dams constructed in the 1800s reduced or eliminated spawning runs entirely. In 2009, efforts to restore marine–freshwater connectivity...
