Demographic modeling for reintroduction decision-making
Sarah J. Converse, Doug P. Armstrong
2016, Book chapter, Reintroduction of fish and wildlife populations
In this chapter we consider the construction and use of population models to support reintroduction decision making. We begin by reviewing the decision-analytic process, also known as structured decision making. The material on structured decision making builds on the chapter by Chauvenet et al. (This Volume) who focus their attention...
Silicic lunar volcanism: Testing the crustal melting model
Amber Gullikson, Justin Hagerty, Mary R. Reid, Jennifer F. Rapp, David S. Draper
2016, American Mineralogist (101) 2312-2321
Lunar silicic rocks were first identified by granitic fragments found in samples brought to Earth by the Apollo missions, followed by the discovery of silicic domes on the lunar surface through remote sensing. Although these silicic lithologies are thought to make up a small portion of the lunar crust, their...
Understanding environmental DNA detection probabilities: A case study using a stream-dwelling char Salvelinus fontinalis
Taylor Wilcox, Kevin S. Mckelvey, Michael K. Young, Adam J. Sepulveda, Bradley B. Shepard, Stephen F Jane, Andrew R. Whiteley, Winsor H. Lowe, Michael K. Schwartz
2016, Biological Conservation (194) 209-216
Environmental DNA sampling (eDNA) has emerged as a powerful tool for detecting aquatic animals. Previous research suggests that eDNA methods are substantially more sensitive than traditional sampling. However, the factors influencing eDNA detection and the resulting sampling costs are still not well understood. Here we use multiple experiments to derive...
Moss and vascular plant indices in Ohio wetlands have similar environmental predictors
Martin A. Stapanian, William Schumacher, Brian Gara, Jean V. Adams, Nick Viau
2016, Ecological Indicators (62) 138-146
Mosses and vascular plants have been shown to be reliable indicators of wetland habitat delineation and environmental quality. Knowledge of the best ecological predictors of the quality of wetland moss and vascular plant communities may determine if similar management practices would simultaneously enhance both populations. We used Akaike's Information Criterion...
Toward more realistic projections of soil carbon dynamics by Earth system models
Y. Luo, Anders Ahlstrom, Steven D. Allison, Niels H. Batjes, V. Brovkin, Nuno Carvalhais, Adrian Chappell, Philippe Ciais, Eric A. Davidson, Adien Finzi, Katerina Georgiou, Bertrand Guenet, Oleksandra Hararuk, Jennifer Harden, Yujie He, Francesca Hopkins, L. Jiang, Charles Koven, Robert B. Jackson, Chris D. Jones, M. Lara, J. Liang, A. David McGuire, William Parton, Changhui Peng, J. Randerson, Alejandro Salazar, Carlos A. Sierra, Matthew J. Smith, Hanqin Tian, Katherine E. O Todd-Brown, Margaret S. Torn, Kees Jan van Groenigen, Ying Wang, Tristram O. West, Yaxing Wei, William R. Wieder, Jianyang Xia, Xia Xu, Xiaofeng Xu, T. Zhou
2016, Global Biogeochemical Cycles (30) 40-56
Soil carbon (C) is a critical component of Earth system models (ESMs), and its diverse representations are a major source of the large spread across models in the terrestrial C sink from the third to fifth assessment reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Improving soil C projections...
Pre-Mississippian tectonic affinity across the Canada Basin–Arctic margins of Alaska and Canada
David W. Houseknecht, Christopher D. Connors
2016, Geology (44) 507-510
New and reprocessed seismic reflection data on the Alaskan and Canadian Arctic margins of the Canada Basin, together with geologic constraints from exploration wells and outcrops, reveal structural and stratigraphic relationships in pre-Mississippian rocks that constrain models of Canada Basin opening. Lithostratigraphic age and acoustic character indicate that the Devonian...
Slab-rollback ignimbrite flareups in the southern Great Basin and other Cenozoic American arcs: A distinct style of arc volcanism
Myron G. Best, Eric H. Christiansen, Shanaka de Silva, Peter W. Lipman
2016, Geosphere (12) 1097-1135
In continental-margin subduction zones, basalt magmas spawned in the mantle interact with the crust to produce a broad spectrum of volcanic arc associations. A distinct style of very voluminous arc volcanism develops far inland on thick crust over periods of 10–20 m.y. and involves relatively infrequent caldera-forming explosive eruptions of...
Invasive pythons, not anthropogenic stressors, explain the distribution of a keystone species
Adia R. Sovie, Robert A. McCleery, Robert J. Fletcher, Kristen M. Hart
2016, Biological Invasions (18) 3309-3318
Untangling the causes of native species loss in human-modified systems is difficult and often controversial. Evaluating the impact of non-native species in these systems is particularly challenging, as additional human perturbations often precede or accompany introductions. One example is the ongoing debate over whether mammal declines within Everglades National Park...
Along-strike variations in fault frictional properties along the San Andreas Fault near Cholame, California from joint earthquake and low-frequency earthquake relocations
Rebecca M. Harrington, Elizabeth S. Cochran, Emily M. Griffiths, Xiangfang Zeng, Clifford H. Thurber
2016, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (106) 319-326
Recent observations of low‐frequency earthquakes (LFEs) and tectonic tremor along the Parkfield–Cholame segment of the San Andreas fault suggest slow‐slip earthquakes occur in a transition zone between the shallow fault, which accommodates slip by a combination of aseismic creep and earthquakes (<15 km depth), and the deep fault, which accommodates slip...
Management-driven science synthesis: An evaluation of Everglades restoration trajectories
Stephen E Davis, James M. Beerens, Rena R. Borkhataria, Daniel L. Childers, Jay Choi, Steven M Davis, Carl Fitz, Evelyn Gaiser, Hiram Henriquez, Thomas E. Lodge, Judson Harvey, Frank Marshall, Bobby McCormick, Melodie Naja, Todd Osborne, Michael S. Ross, Jay Sah, Joel C. Trexler, Thomas Van Lent, Paul R. Wetzel
2016, Report
The Synthesis of Everglades Restoration andEcosystem Services (SERES) Project was funded in 2010 by the U.S. Department of Interior (DOI) through the Critical Ecosystem Studies Initiative (CESI) and established to synthesize the ever-growing body of Everglades scientific information with the goal of addressing topics that have hampered restoration since the...
Earthquake probabilities for the Wasatch front region in Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming
Ivan G. Wong, William R. Lund, Christopher DuRoss, Patricia Thomas, Walter Arabasz, Anthony J. Crone, Michael D. Hylland, Nico Luco, Susan S. Olig, James C. Pechmann, Stephen Personius, Mark D. Petersen, David P. Schwartz, Robert B. Smith, Steve Rowman
2016, Report
In a letter to The Salt Lake Daily Tribune in September 1883, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) geologist G.K. Gilbert warned local residents about the implications of observable fault scarps along the western base of the Wasatch Range. The scarps were evidence that large surface-rupturing earthquakes had occurred in the past...
Modelling with stakeholders - Next generation
Alexey Voinov, Nagesh Kolagani, Michael K McCall, Pierre D. Glynn, Marit E Kragt, Frank O Ostermann, Suzanne A Pierce, Palaniappan Ramu
2016, Environmental Modelling and Software (77) 196-220
This paper updates and builds on ‘Modelling with Stakeholders’ Voinov and Bousquet, 2010 which demonstrated the importance of, and demand for, stakeholder participation in resource and environmental modelling. This position paper returns to the concepts of that publication and reviews the progress made since 2010. A new development is the...
Hydropedology: Synergistic integration of soil science and hydrology in the Critical Zone
H.S. Lin, J.J. McDonnell, John R. Nimmo, Y. A. Pachepsky
2016, Hydrological Processes (29) 4559-4561
Soil and water are the two critical components of theEarth’s Critical Zone (Figure 1): Soil modulates the connection between bedrock and the atmospheric boundary layer and water is a major driving force and transport agent between these two zones....
A GIS model of habitat suitability for Solanum conocarpum (Solanaceae) in St. John, US Virgin Islands
Matthew D. Palumbo, Jonathan P. Fleming, Omar A. Monsegur, Francisco Vilella
2016, Caribbean Naturalist (36) 1-10
Solanum conocarpum (Solanaceae) (Marron Bacora) is a rare, dry-forest shrub endemic to the island of St. John, US Virgin Islands, considered for listing under the Endangered Species Act. Given its status as a species of conservation concern, we incorporated environmental characteristics of 3 observed populations and 5 additional known locations...
Status of alewife and rainbow smelt in U.S. waters of Lake Ontario, 2015
Maureen Walsh, Brian Weidel, Michael J. Connerton, Jeremy P. Holden
2016, NYSDEC Lake Ontario Annual Report 2015-12a
In 2015 the joint USGS and NYSDEC surveys for Alewife and Rainbow Smelt were combined for the first time into a comprehensive spring pelagic prey fish survey. The adult Alewife abundance and weight indices in 2015 increased slightly from 2014 levels, and adult Alewife abundance has remained relatively stable for...
Consequences of seasonal variation in reservoir water level for predatory fishes: linking visual foraging and prey densities
Stephen L. Klobucar, Phaedra E. Budy
2016, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (73) 53-64
In reservoirs, seasonal drawdown can alter the physical environment and may influence predatory fish performance. We investigated the performance of lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) in a western reservoir by coupling field measurements with visual foraging and bioenergetic models at four distinct states (early summer, mid-summer, late summer, and fall). The...
Predictive habitat models derived from nest-box occupancy for the endangered Carolina northern flying squirrel in the southern Appalachians
W. Mark Ford, A.M. Evans, Richard H. Odom, Jane L. Rodrigue, C.A. Kelly, Nicole Abaid, Corinne A. Diggins, Doug Newcomb
2016, Endangered Species Research (27) 131-140
In the southern Appalachians, artificial nest-boxes are used to survey for the endangered Carolina northern flying squirrel (CNFS; Glaucomys sabrinus coloratus), a disjunct subspecies associated with high elevation (>1385 m) forests. Using environmental parameters diagnostic of squirrel habitat, we created 35 a priori occupancy models in the program PRESENCE for boxes surveyed in...
Wildfire may increase habitat quality for spring Chinook salmon in the Wenatchee River subbasin, WA, USA
Rebecca L. Flitcroft, Jeffrey A. Falke, Gordon H. Reeves, Paul F. Hessburg, Kris M. McNyset, Lee E. Benda
2016, Forest Ecology and Management (359) 126-140
Pacific Northwest salmonids are adapted to natural disturbance regimes that create dynamic habitat patterns over space and through time. However, human land use, particularly long-term fire suppression, has altered the intensity and frequency of wildfire in forested upland and riparian areas. To examine the potential...
Stratigraphic architecture of a fluvial-lacustrine basin-fill succession at Desolation Canyon, Uinta Basin, Utah: Reference to Walthers’ Law and implications for the petroleum industry
Grace L. Ford, David R. Pyles, Marieke Dechesne
2016, Mountain Geologist (53) 5-28
A continuous window into the fluvial-lacustrine basin-fill succession of the Uinta Basin is exposed along a 48-mile (77-kilometer) transect up the modern Green River from Three Fords to Sand Wash in Desolation Canyon, Utah. In ascending order the stratigraphic units are: 1) Flagstaff Limestone, 2) lower Wasatch member of...
Establishing a baseline of estuarine submerged aquatic vegetation resources across salinity zones within coastal areas of the northern Gulf of Mexico
Eva R. Hillmann, Kristin DeMarco, Megan K. LaPeyre
2016, Journal of the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (3) 25-32
Coastal ecosystems are dynamic and productive areas that are vulnerable to effects of global climate change. Despite their potentially limited spatial extent, submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) beds function in coastal ecosystems as foundation species, and perform important ecological services. However, limited understanding of the factors controlling SAV distribution and abundance...
Dispersal and spatial heterogeneity: Single species
Donald L. DeAngelis, Wei-Ming Ni, Bo Zhang
2016, Journal of Mathematical Biology (72) 239-254
A recent result for a reaction-diffusion equation is that a population diffusing at any rate in an environment in which resources vary spatially will reach a higher total equilibrium biomass than the population in an environment in which the same total resources are distributed homogeneously. This has so far been...
Fire in the Earth System: Bridging data and modeling research
Srijn Hantson, Silvia Kloster, Michael Coughlan, Anne-Laure Daniau, Boris Vanniere, Tim Bruecher, Natalie M. Kehrwald, Brian I. Magi
2016, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (97) 1069-1072
Significant changes in wildfire occurrence, extent, and severity in areas such as western North America and Indonesia in 2015 have made the issue of fire increasingly salient in both the public and scientific spheres. Biomass combustion rapidly transforms land cover, smoke pours into the atmosphere, radiative heat from fires initiates...
San Pedro River Aquifer Binational Report
James B. Callegary, Ismael Minjarez Sosa, Elia Maria Tapia Villasenor, Placido dos Santos, Rogelio Monreal Saavedra, Franciso Javier Grijalva Noriega, A. K. Huth, Floyd Gray, C. A. Scott, Sharon Megdal, L. A. Oroz Ramos, Miguel Rangel Medina, James M. Leenhouts
2016, Report
The United States and Mexico share waters in a number of hydrological basins and aquifers that cross the international boundary. Both countries recognize that, in a region of scarce water resources and expanding populations, a greater scientific understanding of these aquifer systems would be beneficial. In light of this, the...
Estimating black bear density in New Mexico using noninvasive genetic sampling coupled with spatially explicit capture-recapture methods
Matthew J. Gould, James W. Cain III, Gary W. Roemer, William R. Gould
2016, Cooperator Science Series FWS/CSS-120-2016
During the 2004–2005 to 2015–2016 hunting seasons, the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish (NMDGF) estimated black bear abundance (Ursus americanus) across the state by coupling density estimates with the distribution of primary habitat generated by Costello et al. (2001). These estimates have been used to set harvest limits....
A simple prioritization tool to diagnose impairment of stream temperature for coldwater fishes in the Great Basin
Jeffrey A. Falke, Jason B. Dunham, David Hockman-Wert, Randy A. Pahl
2016, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (36) 147-160
We provide a simple framework for diagnosing the impairment of stream water temperature for coldwater fishes across broad spatial extents based on a weight-of-evidence approach that integrates biological criteria, species distribution models, and geostatistical models of stream temperature. As a test case, we applied our approach to identify stream reaches...
