Stable-isotope and solute-chemistry approaches to flow characterization in a forested tropical watershed, Luquillo Mountains, Puerto Rico
Martha A. Scholl, James B. Shanley, Sheila F. Murphy, Jane K Willenbring, Marcie Occhi, Grizelle Gonzalez
2015, Applied Geochemistry (63) 484-497
The prospect of changing climate has led to uncertainty about the resilience of forested mountain watersheds in the tropics. In watersheds where frequent, high rainfall provides ample runoff, we often lack understanding of how the system will respond under conditions of decreased rainfall or drought. Factors that govern water supply,...
Early Permian conodont fauna and stratigraphy of the Garden Valley Formation, Eureka County, Nevada
Bruce R. Wardlaw, Dora M. Gallegos, Valery V. Chernykh, Walter S. Snyder
2015, Micropaleontology (61) 369-387
The lower part of the Garden Valley Formation yields two distinct conodont faunas. One of late Asselian age dominated by Mesogondolella and Streptognathodus and one of Artinskian age dominated by Sweetognathus with Mesogondolella. The Asselian fauna contains the same species as those found in the type area of the Asselian...
Twentieth-century shifts in forest structure in California: Denser forests, smaller trees, and increased dominance of oaks
Patrick J. McIntyre, James H. Thorne, Christopher R. Dolanc, Alan L. Flint, Lorraine E. Flint, Maggi Kelly, David D. Ackerly
2015, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (112) 1458-1463
We document changes in forest structure between historical(1930s) and contemporary (2000s) surveys of California vegetation through comparisons of tree abundance and size across the state and within several ecoregions. Across California, tree density in forested regions increased by 30% between the two time periods, whereas forest biomass in the same...
Status of the Topeka shiner in west-central Iowa
Clay Pierce, Bryan D. Bakevich, Michael C. Quist
2015, American Midland Naturalist (174) 350-358
The Topeka shiner Notropis topeka is a federally endangered fish species that is estimated to occupy only 20% of its historic range. In Iowa Topeka shiners have been in decline for decades. Our goal was to determine the present distribution of Topeka shiners in the west-central portion of their range in Iowa...
Suspended-sediment dynamics in the tidal reach of a San Francisco Bay tributary
Gregory Shellenbarger, Maureen A. Downing-Kunz, David H. Schoellhamer
2015, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the 17th physics of estuaries and coastal seas (PECS) conference
To better understand suspended-sediment transport in a tidal slough adjacent to a large wetland restoration project, we deployed continuously-measuring temperature, salinity, depth, turbidity, and velocity sensors since 2010, and added a dissolved-oxygen sensor in 2012, at a near-bottom location in Alviso Slough (Alviso, California USA). Alviso Slough is the downstream...
Correspondence of biological condition models of California streams at statewide and regional scales
Jason T. May, Larry R. Brown, Andrew C. Rehn, Ian R. Waite, Peter R Ode, Raphael D Mazor, Kenneth C Schiff
2015, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment (187)
We used boosted regression trees (BRT) to model stream biological condition as measured by benthic macroinvertebrate taxonomic completeness, the ratio of observed to expected (O/E) taxa. Models were developed with and without exclusion of rare taxa at a site. BRT models are robust, requiring few assumptions compared with traditional modeling...
Fishes of the Blackwater River Drainage, Tucker County, West Virginia
Daniel A. Cincotta, Stuart A. Welsh, Douglas P. Wegman, Thomas E. Oldham, Lara B. Hedrick
2015, Southeastern Naturalist (14) 297-313
The Blackwater River, a tributary of the upper Cheat River of the Monongahela River, hosts a modest fish fauna. This relatively low diversity of fish species is partly explained by its drainage history. The Blackwater was once part of the prehistoric, northeasterly flowing St. Lawrence River. During the Pleistocene Epoch,...
Land use structures fish assemblages in reservoirs of the Tennessee River
Leandro E. Miranda, J. M. Bies, D. A. Hann
2015, Marine and Freshwater Research (66) 526-534
Inputs of nutrients, sediments and detritus from catchments can promote selected components of reservoir fish assemblages, while hindering others. However, investigations linking these catchment subsidies to fish assemblages have generally focussed on one or a handful of species. Considering this paucity of community-level awareness, we sought to explore the association...
A field comparison of multiple techniques to quantify groundwater - surface-water interactions
Ricardo Gonzalez-Pinzon, Adam S Ward, Christine E Hatch, Adam N. Wlostowski, Kamini Singha, Michael N. Gooseff, Roy Haggerty, Judson Harvey, Olaf A Cirpka, James T Brock
2015, Freshwater Science (34) 139-160
Groundwater–surface-water (GW-SW) interactions in streams are difficult to quantify because of heterogeneity in hydraulic and reactive processes across a range of spatial and temporal scales. The challenge of quantifying these interactions has led to the development of several techniques, from centimeter-scale probes to whole-system tracers, including chemical, thermal, and electrical...
Oxic to anoxic transition in bottom waters during formation of the Citronen Fjord sediment-hosted Zn-Pb deposit, North Greenland
John F. Slack, Diogo Rosa, Hendrik Falck
2015, Conference Paper, 13th Biennial Meeting of the Society for Geology Applied to Mineral Deposits
Bulk geochemical data acquired for host sedimentary rocks to the Late Ordovician Citronen Fjord sediment-hosted Zn-Pb deposit in North Greenland constrain the redox state of bottom waters prior to and during sulphide mineralization. Downhole profiles for one drill core show trends for redox proxies (MnO, Mo, Ce anomalies) that suggest...
2014 status of the Lake Ontario lower trophic levels
Kristen T. Holeck, Lars G. Rudstam, Christopher Hotaling, Russ D. McCullough, Dave Lemon, Web Pearsall, Jana Lantry, Michael J. Connerton, Steve LaPan, Zy Biesinger, Brian F. Lantry, Maureen Walsh, Brian Weidel
2015, NYSDEC Lake Ontario Annual Report 2014-16
Soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP) concentrations have been stable in nearshore and offshore habitats since 1998 (0.4 – 3.3 μg/L). SRP concentrations were low in 2014; Apr/May – Oct mean values were <1 μg/L at most sites. Spring TP concentrations at individual sites exceeded 10 μg/L on occasion, but spring means...
Ocean minerals
James R. Hein, Kira L. Mizell
Hance D. Smith, Juan Luis Suarez de Vivero, Tundi S. Agardy, editor(s)
2015, Book chapter, Routledge handbook of ocean resources and management
Nearly 71 percent of the Earth is covered by ocean, yet during the entire history of societies, the mineral resources essential for nation building have been acquired solely from the continents. Deep-ocean minerals were discovered over a century ago during the Challenger...
Copper toxicity and organic matter: Resiliency of watersheds in the Duluth Complex, Minnesota, USA
Nadine M. Piatak, Robert R. Seal, Perry M. Jones, Laurel G. Woodruff
2015, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Acid Rock Drainage and IMWA Annual Conference
We estimated copper (Cu) toxicity in surface water with high dissolved organic matter (DOM) for unmined mineralized watersheds of the Duluth Complex using the Biotic Ligand Model (BLM), which evaluates the effect of DOM, cation competition for biologic binding sites, and metal speciation. A sediment-based BLM was used to estimate...
Synopsis of the history of sea otter conservation in the United States
Glenn R. VanBlaricom
2015, Book chapter
In the late 1860s, declining US sea otter populations elicited concern because of prior excessive harvests. Congress mandated protection of Alaskan sea otters in 1868, but hunting continued unrestrained. The Fur Seal Treaty of 1911 (abrogated in 1941) protected sea otters in international waters, but was not applicable to most...
A methodology for quantifying and mapping ecosystem services provided by watersheds
Amy M. Villamagna, Paul L. Angermeier
2015, Book chapter, Ecosystem services and river basin ecohydrology
Watershed processes – physical, chemical, and biological – are the foundation for many benefits that ecosystems provide for human societies. A crucial step toward accurately representing those benefits, so they can ultimately inform decisions about land and water management, is the development of a coherent methodology that can translate available...
Acidic deposition along the Appalachian Trail corridor and its effects on acid-sensitive terrestrial and aquatic resources
Gregory B. Lawrence, Timothy J. Sullivan, Douglas A. Burns, Scott W. Bailey, Bernard J. Cosby, Martin Dovciak, Holly A. Ewing, Todd C. McDonnell, Rakesh Minocha, Rachel Riemann, Juliana Quant, Karen C. Rice, Jason Siemion, Kathleen C. Weathers
2015, Report
The Appalachian National Scenic Trail (AT), a unit of the National Park Service (NPS), spans nearly 2,200 miles from Georgia to Maine, encompassing a diverse range of ecosystems. Acidic deposition (acid rain) threatens the AT’s natural resources. Acid rain is a result of sulfur (S) and nitrogen (N) compounds produced...
Evidence for intercontinental parasite exchange through molecular detection and characterization of haematozoa in northern pintails (Anas acuta) sampled throughout the North Pacific Basin
Andrew M. Ramey, Joel A. Schmutz, John A. Reed, Go Fujita, Bradley D. Scotton, Bruce Casler, Joseph P. Fleskes, Kan Konishi, Kiyoshi Uchida, Michael J. Yabsley
2015, International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife (4) 11-21
Empirical evidence supports wild birds as playing a role in the interhemispheric exchange of bacteria and viruses; however, data supporting the redistribution of parasites among continents are limited. In this study, the hypothesis that migratory birds contribute to the redistribution of parasites between continents was tested by sampling northern pintails...
Quantifying stream thermal regimes at management-pertinent scales: combining thermal infrared and stationary stream temperature data in a novel modeling framework.
Shane J. Vatland, Robert E. Gresswell, Geoffrey C. Poole
2015, Water Resources Research (51) 31-46
Accurately quantifying stream thermal regimes can be challenging because stream temperatures are often spatially and temporally heterogeneous. In this study, we present a novel modeling framework that combines stream temperature data sets that are continuous in either space or time. Specifically, we merged the fine spatial resolution of thermal infrared...
Towards sustainable management of huntable migratory waterbirds in Europe
Jesper Madsen, Matthieu Guillemain, Szabolcs Nagy, Pierre Defos du Rau, Jean-Yves Mondain-Monval, Cy Griffin, James Henty Williams, Nils Bunnefeld, Alexandre Czajkowski, Richard Hearn, Andreas Grauer, Mikko Alhainen, Angus Middleton, Fred A. Johnson
2015, Report
The EU Birds Directive and the African-Eurasian Waterbird Agreement provide an adequate legal framework for sustainable management of migratory waterbird populations. The main shortcoming of both instruments is that it leaves harvest decisions of a shared resource to individual Member States and Contracting Parties without providing a shared information base...
Application and utility of a low-cost unmanned aerial system to manage and conserve aquatic resources in four Texas rivers
Timothy W. Birdsong, Megan Bean, Timothy B. Grabowski, Thomas B. Hardy, Thomas Heard, Derrick Holdstock, Kristy Kollaus, Stephan J. Magnelia, Kristina Tolman
2015, Journal of the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (2015) 80-85
Low-cost unmanned aerial systems (UAS) have recently gained increasing attention in natural resources management due to their versatility and demonstrated utility in collection of high-resolution, temporally-specific geospatial data. This study applied low-cost UAS to support the geospatial data needs of aquatic resources management projects in four Texas rivers. Specifically,...
Shoreface response and recovery to Hurricane Sandy: Fire Island, NY
Timothy R. Nelson, Cheryl J. Hapke
Ping Wang, Julie D. Rosati, Jun Cheng, editor(s)
2015, Conference Paper, The proceedings of the coastal sediments 2015
The shoreface of Fire Island was extensively modified by Hurricane Sandy and subsequent storms in the following winter months. The changes were evaluated using various morphometrics of the shoreface from four bathymetric surveys, one prior to Hurricane Sandy, and three over the course of twenty months following Sandy. The datasets...
Status and trends in the Lake Superior fish community, 2014
Mark R. Vinson, Lori M. Evrard, Owen T. Gorman, Daniel L. Yule
2015, Report, Compiled reports to the Great Lakes Fishery Commission of the annual bottom trawl and acoustics surveys, 2014
In 2014, the Lake Superior fish community was sampled with daytime bottom trawls at 73 nearshore and 30 offshore stations. Spring and summer water temperatures were the coldest measured for the period of records for the surveys. In the nearshore zone, a total of 15,372 individuals from 28 species or...
Origins and bioavailability of dissolved organic matter in groundwater
Yuan Shen, Francis H. Chapelle, Eric W. Strom, Ronald Benner
2015, Biogeochemistry (122) 61-78
Dissolved organic matter (DOM) in groundwater influences water quality and fuels microbial metabolism, but its origins, bioavailability and chemical composition are poorly understood. The origins and concentrations of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and bioavailable DOM were monitored during a long-term (2-year) study of groundwater in a fractured-rock aquifer in the...
Chronology and ecology of late Pleistocene megafauna in the northern Willamette Valley, Oregon
Daniel M. Gilmour, Virginia L. Butler, James E. O'Connor, Edward Byrd Davis, Brendan J. Culleton, Douglas J. Kennett, Gregory W. L. Hodgins
2015, Quaternary Research (83) 127-136
Since the mid-19th century, western Oregon's Willamette Valley has been a source of remains from a wide variety of extinct megafauna. Few of these have been previously described or dated, but new chronologic and isotopic analyses in conjunction with updated evaluations of stratigraphic context provide substantial new information on the...
Mobilization of microspheres from a fractured soil during intermittent infiltration events
Sanjay Mohanty, Mark Bulicek, David W. Metge, Ronald W. Harvey, Joseph N. Ryan, Alexandria B. Boehm
2015, Vadose Zone Journal (14)
Pathogens or biocolloids mobilized in the vadose zone may consequently contaminate groundwater. We found that microspheres were mobilized from a fractured soil during intermittent rainfall and the mobilization was greater when the microsphere size was larger and when the soil had greater water permeability.The vadose zone filters pathogenic microbes from...
