Zinc isotopic signatures in eight lake sediment cores from across the United States
Anita Thapalia, David Borrok, Peter C. Van Metre, Jennifer T. Wilson
2015, Environmental Science and Technology (49) 132-140
Zinc is an important trace element pollutant in urban environments; however, the extent of Zn contamination and the sources of urban Zn pollution are often unclear. We measured Zn concentrations and isotopes in sediment cores collected from eight lakes or reservoirs across the United States. We paired these data with...
Predicting Brook Trout occurrence in stream reaches throughout their native range in the eastern United States
Jefferson Tyrell DeWeber, Tyler Wagner
2015, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (144) 11-24
The Brook Trout Salvelinus fontinalis is an important species of conservation concern in the eastern USA. We developed a model to predict Brook Trout population status within individual stream reaches throughout the species’ native range in the eastern USA. We utilized hierarchical logistic regression with Bayesian estimation to predict Brook...
The effect of dilution and the use of a post-extraction nucleic acid purification column on the accuracy, precision, and inhibition of environmental DNA samples
Anna M. Mckee, Stephen F. Spear, Todd W. Pierson
2015, Biological Conservation (183) 70-76
Isolation of environmental DNA (eDNA) is an increasingly common method for detecting presence and assessing relative abundance of rare or elusive species in aquatic systems via the isolation of DNA from environmental samples and the amplification of species-specific sequences using quantitative PCR (qPCR). Co-extracted substances that inhibit qPCR can lead...
The role of tidal marsh restoration in fish management in the San Francisco Estuary
Bruce Herbold, Donald Baltz, Larry R. Brown, Robin Grossinger, Wim J. Kimmerer, Peggy W. Lehman, Charles A. Simenstad, Carl Wilcox, Matthew L. Nobriga
2015, San Francisco Estuary and Watershed Science (12)
Tidal marsh restoration is an important management issue in the San Francisco Estuary (estuary). Restoration of large areas of tidal marsh is ongoing or planned in the lower estuary (up to 6,000 ha, Callaway et al. 2011). Large areas are proposed for restoration in the upper estuary under the Endangered...
BET surface area distributions in polar stream sediments: Implications for silicate weathering in a cold-arid environment
Kristen R. Marra, Megan E Elwood Madden, Gerilyn S. Soreghan, Brenda L Hall
2015, Applied Geochemistry (52) 31-42
BET surface area values are critical for quantifying the amount of potentially reactive sediments available for chemical weathering and ultimately, prediction of silicate weathering fluxes. BET surface area values of fine-grained (<62.5 μm) sediment from the hyporheic zone of polar glacial streams in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica (Wright and...
Evaluating changes in stream fish species richness over a 50-year time-period within a landscape context
Stephen R. Midway, Tyler Wagner, Bryn H. Tracy, Gabriela M. Hogue, Wayne C. Starnes
2015, Environmental Biology of Fishes (98) 1295-1309
Worldwide, streams and rivers are facing a suite of pressures that alter water quality and degrade physical habitat, both of which can lead to changes in the composition and richness of fish populations. These potential changes are of particular importance in the Southeast USA, home to one of the richest...
Pesticide concentrations in frog tissue and wetland habitats in alandscape dominated by agriculture
Kelly L. Smalling, Rebecca Reeves, Erin L. Muths, Mark W. Vandever, William A. Battaglin, Michelle Hladik, Clay L. Pierce
2015, Science of the Total Environment (502) 80-90
Habitat loss and exposure to pesticides are likely primary factors contributing to amphibian decline in agricultural landscapes. Conservation efforts have attempted to restore wetlands lost through landscape modifications to reduce contaminant loads in surface waters and providing quality habitat to wildlife. The benefits of this increased wetland area, perhaps especially...
Climate-induced range contraction of a rare alpine aquatic invertebrate
J. Joseph Giersch, Steve Jordan, Gordon Luikart, Leslie A. Jones, F. Richard Hauer, Clint C. Muhlfeld
2015, Freshwater Science (34) 53-65
Climate warming poses a serious threat to alpine-restricted species worldwide, yet few studies have empirically documented climate-induced changes in distributions. The rare stonefly, Zapada glacier (Baumann and Gaufin), endemic to alpine streams of Glacier National Park (GNP), Montana, was recently petitioned for listing under the US Endangered Species Act because of climate-change-induced...
Character, distribution, and ecological significance of storm wave-induced scour in Rhode Island Sound, USA
Katherine Y. McMullen, Lawrence J. Poppe, Castle E. Parker
2015, Geo-Marine Letters (35) 135-144
Multibeam bathymetry, collected during NOAA hydrographic surveys in 2008 and 2009, is coupled with USGS data from sampling and photographic stations to map the seabed morphology and composition of Rhode Island Sound along the US Atlantic coast, and to provide information on sediment transport and benthic habitats. Patchworks of scour...
Assessing the impacts of climate and land use and land cover change on the freshwater availability in the Brahmaputra River basin
Md Shahriar Pervez, Geoffrey M. Henebry
2015, Journal of Hydrology (3) 285-311
Study Region: Brahmaputra River basin in South Asia. Study Focus: The Soil and Water Assessment Tool was used to evaluate sensitivities and patterns in freshwater availability due to projected climate and land use changes in the Brahmaputra basin. The daily observed discharge at Bahadurabad station in Bangladesh was used to calibrate and validate...
Spatial and seasonal responses of precipitation in the Ganges and Brahmaputra river basins to ENSO and Indian Ocean dipole modes: Implications for flooding and drought
Md Shahriar Pervez, Geoffry M. Henebry
2015, Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences (2) 147-162
We evaluated the spatial and seasonal responses of precipitation in the Ganges and Brahmaputra basins as modulated by the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) modes using Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC) full data reanalysis of monthly global land-surface precipitation data from 1901 to 2010...
Vegetation controls on weathering intensity during the last deglacial transition in southeast Africa
Sarah J. Ivory, Michael M. McGlue, Geoffrey S. Ellis, Anne-Marie Lézine, Andrew S. Cohen, Annie Vincens
2015, PLoS ONE (9)
Tropical climate is rapidly changing, but the effects of these changes on the geosphere are unknown, despite a likelihood of climatically-induced changes on weathering and erosion. The lack of long, continuous paleo-records prevents an examination of terrestrial responses to climate change with sufficient detail to answer questions about how systems...
Pronounced chemical response of Subarctic lakes to climate-driven losses in surface area
Tyler L. Lewis, Mark S. Lindberg, Joel A. Schmutz, Patricia J. Heglund, Jennifer R. Rover, Joshua C. Koch, Mark R. Bertram
2015, Global Change Biology (21) 1140-1152
Losses in lake area have been observed for several Arctic and Subarctic regions in recent decades, with unknown consequences for lake ecosystems. These reductions are primarily attributed to two climate-sensitive mechanisms, both of which may also cause changes in water chemistry: (i) increased imbalance of evaporation relative to inflow, whereby...
The 3D Elevation Program: summary for Wyoming
William J. Carswell Jr.
2015, Fact Sheet 2014-3108
Elevation data are essential to a broad range of applications, including forest resources management, wildlife and habitat management, national security, recreation, and many others. For the State of Wyoming, elevation data are critical for geologic resource assessment and hazard mitigation, flood risk management, water supply an quality, natural resources conservation,...
Quality and age of shallow groundwater in the Bakken Formation production area, Williston Basin, Montana and North Dakota
Peter B. McMahon, Rodney R. Caldwell, Joel M. Galloway, Joshua F. Valder, Andrew G. Hunt
2015, Groundwater (53) 81-94
The quality and age of shallow groundwater in the Bakken Formation production area were characterized using data from 30 randomly distributed domestic wells screened in the upper Fort Union Formation. Comparison of inorganic and organic chemical concentrations to health based drinking-water standards, correlation analysis of concentrations with oil and gas...
Testing the use of bulk organic δ13C, δ15N, and Corg:Ntot ratios to estimate subsidence during the 1964 great Alaska earthquake
Adrian M. Bender, Robert C. Witter, Matthew Rogers
2015, Quaternary Science Reviews (113) 134-146
During the Mw 9.2 1964 great Alaska earthquake, Turnagain Arm near Girdwood, Alaska subsided 1.7 ± 0.1 m based on pre- and postearthquake leveling. The coseismic subsidence in 1964 caused equivalent sudden relative sea-level (RSL) rise that is stratigraphically preserved as mud-over-peat contacts where intertidal silt buried peaty marsh surfaces. Changes in intertidal microfossil...
User guide to Exploration and Graphics for RivEr Trends (EGRET) and dataRetrieval: R packages for hydrologic data
Robert M. Hirsch, Laura A. De Cicco
2015, Techniques and Methods 4-A10
Evaluating long-term changes in river conditions (water quality and discharge) is an important use of hydrologic data. To carry out such evaluations, the hydrologist needs tools to facilitate several key steps in the process: acquiring the data records from a variety of sources, structuring it in ways that facilitate the...
Development of a spatially universal framework for classifying stream assemblages with application to conservation planning for Great Lakes lotic fish communities
James E. McKenna Jr., Jeffrey S. Schaeffer, Jana S. Stewart, Michael T. Slattery
2015, Restoration Ecology (23) 167-178
Classifications are typically specific to particular issues or areas, leading to patchworks of subjectively defined spatial units. Stream conservation is hindered by the lack of a universal habitat classification system and would benefit from an independent hydrology-guided spatial framework of units encompassing all aquatic habitats at multiple spatial scales within...
Detection of Ichthyophonus by chromogenic in situ hybridization
Carla M. Conway, Maureen K. Purcell, Diane G. Elliott, Paul K. Hershberger
2015, Journal of Fish Diseases (38) 853-857
Ichthyophonus hoferi (Plehn & Mulsow 1911) is a protistan parasite in the class Mesomycetozoea that infects a large range of marine and freshwater fish (Mendoza, Taylor & Ajello 2002; McVicar 2011). The broad...
Rangewide climate vulnerability assessment for threatened Bull Trout
Jason B. Dunham
2015, Report
The bull trout, listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, is well adapted to the cold waters of the Northwest. Recent changes in climate have caused winter flooding and warmer summer water temperatures in the region, reducing the cold-water habitats that bull trout depend on. The southernmost bull trout...
Data worth and prediction uncertainty for pesticide transport and fate models in Nebraska and Maryland, United States
Bernard T. Nolan, Robert W. Malone, John E. Doherty, Jack E. Barbash, Liwang Ma, Dale L. Shaner
2015, Pest Management Science (71) 972-985
BACKGROUND Complex environmental models are frequently extrapolated to overcome data limitations in space and time, but quantifying data worth to such models is rarely attempted. The authors determined which field observations most informed the parameters of agricultural system models applied to field sites in Nebraska (NE) and...
Understanding heat and groundwater flow through continental flood basalt provinces: insights gained from alternative models of permeability/depth relationships for the Columbia Plateau, USA
Erick R. Burns, Colin F. Williams, Steven E. Ingebritsen, Clifford I. Voss, Frank A. Spane, Jacob DeAngelo
2015, Geofluids (15) 120-138
Heat-flow mapping of the western USA has identified an apparent low-heat-flow anomaly coincident with the Columbia Plateau Regional Aquifer System, a thick sequence of basalt aquifers within the Columbia River Basalt Group (CRBG). A heat and mass transport model (SUTRA) was used to evaluate the potential impact of groundwater flow...
Long-term decrease in satellite vegetation indices in response to environmental variables in an iconic desert riparian ecosystem: the Upper San Pedro, Arizona, United States
Uyen Nguyen, Edward P. Glenn, Pamela L. Nagler, Russell L. Scott
2015, Ecohydrology (8) 610-625
The Upper San Pedro River is one of the few remaining undammed rivers that maintain a vibrant riparian ecosystem in the southwest United States. However, its riparian forest is threatened by diminishing groundwater and surface water inputs, due to either changes in watershed characteristics such as changes in riparian and...
MODFLOW-based coupled surface water routing and groundwater-flow simulation
Joseph D. Hughes, Christian D. Langevin, Jeremy T. White
2015, Groundwater (53) 452-463
In this paper, we present a flexible approach for simulating one- and two-dimensional routing of surface water using a numerical surface water routing (SWR) code implicitly coupled to the groundwater-flow process in MODFLOW. Surface water routing in SWR can be simulated using a diffusive-wave approximation of the Saint-Venant equations and/or...
Dietary mercury exposure to endangered California Clapper Rails in San Francisco Bay
Michael L. Casazza, Mark A. Ricca, Cory T. Overton, John Y. Takekawa, Angela Merritt, Joshua T. Ackerman
2015, Marine Pollution Bulletin (86) 254-260
California Clapper Rails (Rallus longirostris obsoletus) are an endangered waterbird that forage in tidal-marsh habitats that pose risks from mercury exposure. We analyzed total mercury (Hg) in six macro-invertebrate and one fish species representing Clapper Rail diets from four tidal-marshes in San Francisco Bay, California. Mercury concentrations among individual taxa...
