Mercury exposure in mammalian mesopredators inhabiting a brackish marsh
Sarah H. Peterson, Josh T. Ackerman, C. Alex Hartman, Michael L. Casazza, Cliff L. Feldheim, Mark P. Herzog
2021, Environmental Pollution (273)
Bioaccumulation of environmental contaminants in mammalian predators can serve as an indicator of ecosystem health. We examined mercury concentrations of raccoons (Procyon lotor; n = 37 individuals) and striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis; n = 87 individuals) in Suisun Marsh, California, a large brackish marsh that is characterized...
Groundwater discharges as a source of phytoestrogens and other agriculturally derived contaminants to streams
Tyler J. Thompson, Martin A. Briggs, Patrick J. Phillips, Vicki S. Blazer, Kelly L. Smalling, Dana W. Kolpin, Tyler Wagner
2021, Science of the Total Environment (755)
Groundwater discharge zones in streams are important habitats for aquatic organisms. The use of discharge zones for thermal refuge and spawning by fish and other biota renders them susceptible to potential focused discharge of groundwater contamination. Currently, there is a paucity of information about discharge zones as a potential exposure...
A framework for assessing the ability to detect macroscale effects on fish growth
Danielle L. Massie, Yan Li, Tyler Wagner
2021, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (78) 165-172
Various abiotic and biotic factors affect fish and their habitats at macroscales. For example, changes in global temperatures will likely alter demographic rates, including growth. However, to date, there is no statistical framework for assessing the ability to detect macroscale effects on fish growth under different sampling scenarios. We provide...
Maternal transfer of polychlorinated biphenyls in Pacific sand lance (Ammodytes personatus), Puget Sound, Washington
Theresa L. Liedtke, Kathleen E. Conn
2021, Science of the Total Environment (764)
We measured polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in multiple age and size classes of Pacific sand lance (Ammodytes personatus), including eggs, young-of-the year, and adults to evaluate maternal transfer as a pathway for contaminant uptake and to add to the limited information on the occurrence of...
More than one way to kill a spruce forest: The role of fire and climate in the late-glacial termination of spruce woodlands across the southern Great Lakes
Allison Jensen, David Fastovich, Jacquelyn L. Gill, Stephen Jackson, James M. Russell, Joseph Bevington, Katherine Hayes
2021, Journal of Ecology (109) 459-477
In the southern Great Lakes Region, North America, between 19,000 and 8,000 years ago, temperatures rose by 2.5–6.5°C and spruce Picea forests/woodlands were replaced by mixed-deciduous or pine Pinus forests. The demise of Picea forests/woodlands during the last deglaciation offers a model system for studying how changing climate and disturbance regimes interact to trigger declines of...
Landslide monitoring and runout hazard assessment by integrating multi-source remote sensing and numerical models: An application to the Gold Basin landslide complex, northern Washington
Yuankun Xu, David L. George, Jin-Woo Kim, Zhong Lu, Mark Riley, Todd Griffin, Juan de la Fuente
2021, Landslides (18) 1131-1141
The landslide complex at Gold Basin, Washington, has been drawing considerable attention after a catastrophic runout of the nearby landslide at Oso, Washington, in 2014. To evaluate potential threats of the Gold Basin landslide to the campground down the slope, remote sensing and numerical modeling were integrated to monitor recent landslide...
Remote thermal detection of exfoliation sheet deformation
Antoine Guerin, Michel Jaboyedoff, Brian D. Collins, Greg M. Stock, Marc-Henri Derron, Antonio Abellan, Battista Matasci
2021, Landslides (18) 865-879
A growing body of research indicates that rock slope failures, particularly from exfoliating cliffs, are promoted by rock deformations induced by daily temperature cycles. Although previous research has described how these deformations occur, full three-dimensional monitoring of both the deformations and the associated temperature changes has not yet been performed....
Dendritic reidite from the Chesapeake Bay impact horizon, Ocean Drilling Program Site 1073 (offshore northeastern USA): A fingerprint of distal ejecta?
Aaron J. Cavosie, Marc C Biren, Kip V. Hodges, Jo-Anne Wartho, J. Wright Horton, Jr., Christian Koeberl
2021, Geology (49) 201-205
High-pressure minerals provide records of processes not normally preserved in Earth’s crust. Reidite, a quenchable polymorph of zircon, forms at pressures >20 GPa during shock compression. However, there is no broad consensus among empirical, experimental, and theoretical studies on the nature of the polymorphic transformation. Here we decipher a multistage...
Evaluating the dynamics of groundwater, lakebed transport, nutrient inflow and algal blooms in Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon, USA
Hedeff I. Essaid, James S. Kuwabara, Nicholas Corson-Dosch, James L. Carter, Brent R. Topping
2021, Science of the Total Environment (765)
Transport of nutrients to lakes can occur via surface-water inflow, atmospheric deposition, groundwater (GW) inflow and benthic processes. Identifying and quantifying within-lake nutrient sources and recycling processes is challenging. Prior studies in hypereutrophic Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon, USA, indicated that ~60% of the early summer phosphorus (P) load to the...
VS30 and Dominant Site Frequency (fd) as Provisional Station ML Corrections (dML) in California
Alan Yong, Elizabeth S. Cochran, Jennifer Andrews, Kenneth Hudson, Ellen Yu, Antony Martin, Julie A. Herrick, Jessica Dozal
2021, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (111) 61-76
New seismic stations added to a regional seismic network cannot be used to calculate local magnitude (ML">ML) until a revised regionwide amplitude decay function is developed. Each station must record a minimum...
Free-roaming horses disrupt greater sage-grouse lekking activity in the Great Basin
Diana A. Munoz, Peter S. Coates, Mark A. Ricca
2021, Journal of Arid Environments (184)
Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus; hereafter, sage-grouse) and free-roaming horses (Equus caballus) co-occur within large portions of sagebrush ecosystems within the Great Basin of western North America. In recent decades, sage-grouse populations have declined substantially while concomitant free-roaming horse populations have increased drastically....
Simulating strategic implementation of the CRP to increase Greater prairie-chicken abundance
Kalysta Adkins, Charlotte L. Roy, Robert G. Wright, David E. Andersen
2021, Journal of Wildlife Management (85) 27-40
The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) has the potential to influence the distribution and abundance of grasslands in many agricultural landscapes, and thereby provide habitat for grassland-dependent wildlife. Greater prairie-chickens (Tympanuchus cupido pinnatus) are a grassland-dependent species with large area requirements and have been used as an indicator of grassland ecosystem...
Behavioural response of sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) to acoustic stimuli in a small stream
Victoria Heath, Scott M. Miehls, Nicholas S. Johnson, Dennis Higgs
2021, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (78) 341-348
Sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) are invasive in the Laurentian Great Lakes and parasitically feed on valued fishes. Migration barriers and selective pesticides are used to control sea lamprey, but there is a desire to develop additional control tools such as traps with nonphysical deterrents. Sound has been used as a...
A checklist for crisis operations within volcano observatories
Christopher Newhall, John S. Pallister, C. Dan Miller
2021, Book chapter, Forecasting and planning for volcanic hazards, Risks, and disasters
We draw on our experience in assisting with international crises through the volcano disaster assistance program (VDAP) and during the eruptions of Mount St. Helens in 1980–1986 and 2004–2008 to offer recommendations for successful observatory operations during times of crisis. The degree of success in responding to a...
Volcano geodesy: A critical tool for assessing the state of volcanoes and their potential for hazardous eruptive activity
Michael Poland, Elske de Zeeuw-van Dalfsen
2021, Book chapter, Forecasting and planning for volcanic hazards, risks, and disasters
Since the beginning of the 20th century, volcano geodesy has evolved from time- and personnel-intensive methods for collecting discrete measurements to automated and/or remote tools that provide data with exceptional spatiotemporal resolution. By acknowledging and overcoming limitations related to data collection and interpretation, geodesy becomes a powerful tool for forecasting...
Harnessing landscape genomics to identify future climate resilient genotypes in a desert annual
Daniel F. Shryock, Loraine K Washburn, Lesley A. DeFalco, Todd Esque
2021, Molecular Ecology (30) 698-717
Local adaptation features critically in shaping species responses to changing environments, complicating efforts to revegetate degraded areas. Rapid climate change poses an additional challenge that could reduce fitness of even locally sourced seeds in restoration. Predictive restoration strategies that apply seeds with favourable adaptations to future climate may promote long‐term...
Variation of lead isotopic composition and atomic weight in terrestrial materials (IUPAC Technical Report)
Xiang-Kun Zhu, Jacqueline Benefield, Tyler B. Coplen, Zhaofu Gao, Norman E. Holden
2021, Pure and Applied Chemistry (93) 155-166
The isotopic composition and atomic weight of lead are variable in terrestrial materials because its three heaviest stable isotopes are stable end-products of the radioactive decay of uranium (238U to 206Pb; 235U to 207Pb) and thorium (232Th to 208Pb). The lightest stable isotope, 204Pb, is primordial. These variations in isotope...
Changes in ecosystem nitrogen and carbon allocation with black mangrove (Avicennia germinans) encroachment into Spartina alterniflora salt marsh
Aaron Macy, Michael Osland, Julia A Cherry, Just Cebrian
2021, Ecosystems (24) 1007-1023
Increases in temperature are expected to facilitate encroachment of tropical mangrove forests into temperate salt marshes, yet the effects on ecosystem services are understudied. Our work was conducted along a mangrove expansion front in Louisiana (USA), an area where coastal wetlands are in rapid decline due...
Evaluating the effects of downscaled climate projections on groundwater storage and simulated base-flow contribution to the North Fork Red River and Lake Altus, southwest Oklahoma (USA)
L.G. Labriola, J.H. Ellis, Subhrendu Gangopadhyay, Tom Pruitt, Pierre Kirstetter, Yang Hong
2021, Hydrogeology Journal (28) 2903-2916
Potential effects of projected climate variability on base flow and groundwater storage in the North Fork Red River aquifer, Oklahoma (USA), were estimated using downscaled climate model data coupled with a numerical groundwater-flow model. The North Fork Red River aquifer discharges groundwater to the North Fork Red River, which provides...
Direct and indirect effects of a keystone engineer on a shrubland-prairie food web
Courtney J. Duchardt, Lauren M. Porensky, Ian S. Pearse
2021, Ecology (102)
Keystone engineers are critical drivers of biodiversity throughout ecosystems worldwide. Within the North American Great Plains, the black‐tailed prairie dog is an imperiled ecosystem engineer and keystone species with well‐documented impacts on the flora and fauna of rangeland systems. However, because this species affects ecosystem structure and function in myriad...
Select techniques for detecting and quantifying seepage from unlined canals
Evan J. Lindenbach, Jong Beom Kang, Justin B. Rittgers, Ramon C. Naranjo
2021, Final Report ST-2020-19144-01
Canal seepage losses affect the ability of water conveyance structures to maximize efficiency and can be a precursor to canal failure. Identification and quantification of canal seepage out of unlined canals is a complex interaction affected by geology, canal stage, operations, embankment geometry, siltation, animal burrows, structures, and other physical...
A multiproxy database of western North American Holocene paleoclimate records
Cody C. Routson, Darrell S. Kaufman, Nicholas P. McKay, Michael Erb, S. H. Arcusa, Kendrick Brown, Matthew E. Kirby, Jeremiah Marsicek, R. Scott Anderson, Gonzalo Jimenez-Moreno, Jessica R. Rodysill, M. S. Lachniet, Sherilyn C. Fritz, Joseph Bennett, Michelle F. Goman, Sarah E. Metcalfe, J. M. Galloway, G. Schoups, David Wahl, Jesse L. Morris, F. Staines-Urias, A. Dawson, B. N. Shuman, Daniel G. Gavin, Jeffrey S. Munroe, Brian F. Cumming
2021, Earth System Science Data (13) 1613-1632
Holocene climate reconstructions are useful for understanding the diverse features and spatial heterogeneity of past and future climate change. Here we present a database of western North American Holocene paleoclimate records. The database gathers paleoclimate time series from 184 terrestrial and marine sites, including 381 individual proxy records. The records...
Moderate susceptibility to subcutaneous plague (Yersinia pestis) challenge in vaccine-treated and untreated Sonoran deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus sonoriensis) and northern grasshopper mice (Onychomys leucogaster)
Gebbiena Bron, Susan Smith, Judy L. Williamson, Daniel W. Tripp, Tonie E. Rocke
2021, Journal of Wildlife Diseases (57) 632-636
The variable response of wild mice to Yersinia pestis infection, the causative agent of plague, has generated much speculation concerning their role in the ecology of this potentially lethal disease. Researchers have questioned the means by which Y. pestis is maintained in nature and also sought methods for managing the disease. Here we assessed...
The influence of legacy contamination on the transport and bioaccumulation of mercury within the Mobile River Basin
Sarah E. Janssen, Michael T. Tate, David P. Krabbenhoft, John F. DeWild, Jacob M. Ogorek, Christopher L. Babiarz, Anthony Sowers, Peter L. Tuttle
2021, Journal of Hazardous Materials (404)
Past industrial use and subsequent release of mercury (Hg) into the environment have resulted in severe cases of legacy contamination that still influence contemporary Hg levels in biota. While the bioaccumulation of legacy Hg is commonly assessed via concentration measurements within fish tissue, this practice...
Elucidating controls on cyanobacteria bloom timing and intensity via Bayesian mechanistic modeling
Dario Del Giudice, Shiqi Fang, Donald Scavia, Timothy W. Davis, Mary Anne Evans, Daniel R Obenour
2021, Science of the Total Environment (755)
The adverse impacts of harmful algal blooms (HABs) are increasing worldwide. Lake Erie is a North American Great Lake highly affected by cultural eutrophication and summer cyanobacterial HABs. While phosphorus loading is a known driver of bloom size, more nuanced yet crucial questions remain. For...
