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...
Scale-dependent feedbacks between patch size and plant reproduction in desert grassland
Lauren N. Svejcar, Brandon T. Bestelmeyer, Michael C. Duniway, Darren K. James
2015, Ecosystems (18) 146-153
Theoretical models suggest that scale-dependent feedbacks between plant reproductive success and plant patch size govern transitions from highly to sparsely vegetated states in drylands, yet there is scant empirical evidence for these mechanisms. Scale-dependent feedback models suggest that an optimal patch size exists for growth and reproduction of plants and...
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...
Cyclic avian mass mortality in the northeastern United States is associated with a novel orthomyxovirus
Andrew B. Allison, Jennifer R. Ballard, Robert B. Tesh, Justin D. Brown, Mark G. Ruder, M. Kevin Keel, Brandon A. Munk, Randall M. Mickley, Samantha E.J. Gibbs, Julie C. Ellis, Amelia P.A. Travassos da Rosac, S. Ip, Valerie I. Shearn-Bochsler, Matthew B. Rogers, Elodie Gheldin, Edward C. Holmes, Colin R. Parrish, Chris P. Dwyer
2015, Journal of Virology (89) 1389-1403
Since 1998, cyclic mortality events in common eiders (Somateria mollissima), numbering in the hundreds to thousands of dead birds, have been documented along the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA. Although longitudinal disease investigations have uncovered potential contributing factors responsible for these outbreaks, detecting a primary etiological agent has proven...
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,...
Using scenario planning to evaluate the impacts of climate change on wildlife populations and communities in the Florida Everglades
Christopher P. Catano, Stephanie S. Romañach, James M. Beerens, Leonard G. Pearlstine, Laura A. Brandt, Kristen M. Hart, Frank J. Mazzotti, Joel C. Trexler
2015, Environmental Management (55) 807-823
It is uncertain how climate change will impact hydrologic drivers of wildlife population dynamics in freshwater wetlands of the Florida Everglades, or how to accommodate this uncertainty in restoration decisions. Using projections of climate scenarios for the year 2060, we evaluated how several possible futures could affect wildlife populations (wading...
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...
Late Holocene sea- and land-level change on the U.S. southeastern Atlantic Coast
Andrew C. Kemp, Christopher E. Bernhardt, Benjamin P. Horton, Robert E. Kopp, Christopher H. Vane, W. Richard Peltier, Andrea D. Hawkes, Jeffrey P. Donnelly, Andrew C. Parnell, Niamh Cahill
2015, Marine Geology (357) 90-100
Late Holocene relative sea-level (RSL) reconstructions can be used to estimate rates of land-level (subsidence or uplift) change and therefore to modify global sea-level projections for regional conditions. These reconstructions also provide the long-term benchmark against which modern trends are compared and an opportunity to understand the response of sea...
Uncertainty estimates in broadband seismometer sensitivities using microseisms
Adam T. Ringler, Tyler L. Storm, Lind S. Gee, Charles R. Hutt, David C. Wilson
2015, Journal of Seismology (19) 317-327
The midband sensitivity of a seismic instrument is one of the fundamental parameters used in published station metadata. Any errors in this value can compromise amplitude estimates in otherwise high-quality data. To estimate an upper bound in the uncertainty of the midband sensitivity for modern broadband instruments, we compare daily...
Permafrost-associated gas hydrate: is it really approximately 1% of the global system?
Carolyn Ruppel
2015, Journal of Chemical & Engineering Data (60) 429-436
Permafrost-associated gas hydrates are often assumed to contain ∼1 % of the global gas-in-place in gas hydrates based on a study26 published over three decades ago. As knowledge of permafrost-associated gas hydrates has grown, it has become clear that many permafrost-associated gas hydrates are inextricably linked to an associated conventional...
Machine learning for predicting soil classes in three semi-arid landscapes
Colby W. Brungard, Janis L. Boettinger, Michael C. Duniway, Skye A. Wills, Thomas C. Edwards Jr.
2015, Geoderma (239-240) 68-83
Mapping the spatial distribution of soil taxonomic classes is important for informing soil use and management decisions. Digital soil mapping (DSM) can quantitatively predict the spatial distribution of soil taxonomic classes. Key components of DSM are the method and the set of environmental covariates used to predict soil classes. Machine...
Moving beyond too little, too late: managing emerging infectious diseases in wild populations requires international policy and partnerships
Jamie Voyles, A. Marm Kilpatrick, James P. Collins, Matthew C. Fisher, Winifred F. Frick, Hamish I. McCallum, Craig K. R. Willis, David S. Blehert, Kris A. Murray, Robert Puschendorf, Erica Bree Rosenblum, Benjamin M. Bolker, Tina L. Cheng, Kate E. Langwig, Daniel L. Linder, Mary Toothman, Mark Q. Wilber, Cheryl J. Briggs
2015, EcoHealth (12) 404-407
Emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) are on the rise due to multiple factors, including human facilitated movement of pathogens, broad-scale landscape changes, and perturbations to ecological systems (Jones et al. 2008; Fisher et al. 2012). Epidemics in wildlife are problematic because they can lead to pathogen spillover to new host organisms,...
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...
Threshold-dependent sample sizes for selenium assessment with stream fish tissue
Nathaniel P. Hitt, David R. Smith
2015, Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management (11) 143-149
Natural resource managers are developing assessments of selenium (Se) contamination in freshwater ecosystems based on fish tissue concentrations. We evaluated the effects of sample size (i.e., number of fish per site) on the probability of correctly detecting mean whole-body Se values above a range of potential management thresholds. We modeled...
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...
Development of ten microsatellite loci in the invasive giant African land snail, Achatina (=Lissachatina) fulica Bowdich, 1822
Cheryl L. Morrison, Marcus J. Springmann, Deborah D. Iwanowicz, Christopher M. Wade
2015, Conservation Genetics Resources (7) 201-202
A suite of tetra-nucleotide microsatellite loci were developed for the invasive giant African land snail, Achatina (=Lissachatina) fulica Bowdich, 1822, from Ion Torrent next-generation sequencing data. Ten of the 96 primer sets tested amplified consistently in 30 snails from Miami, Florida, plus 12 individuals representative of their native East Africa,...
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...
Demography of the Pacific walrus (Odobenus rosmarus divergens): 1974-2006
Rebecca L. Taylor, Mark S. Udevitz
2015, Marine Mammal Science (31) 231-254
Global climate change may fundamentally alter population dynamics of many species for which baseline population parameter estimates are imprecise or lacking. Historically, the Pacific walrus is thought to have been limited by harvest, but it may become limited by global warming-induced reductions in sea ice. Loss of sea ice, on...
The unseen iceberg: Plant roots in arctic tundra
Colleen M. Iverson, Victoria L. Sloan, Patrick F. Sullivan, E.S. Euskirchen, A. David McGuire, Richard J. Norby, Anthony P. Walker, Jeffrey M. Warren, Stan D. Wullschleger
2015, New Phytologist (205) 34-58
Plant roots play a critical role in ecosystem function in arctic tundra, but root dynamics in these ecosystems are poorly understood. To address this knowledge gap, we synthesized available literature on tundra roots, including their distribution, dynamics and contribution to ecosystem carbon and nutrient fluxes, and highlighted key aspects of...
Assessing the magnitude and timing of anthropogenic warming of a shallow aquifer: example from Virginia Beach, USA
John R. Eggleston, Kurt J. McCoy
2015, Hydrogeology Journal (23) 105-120
Groundwater temperature measurements in a shallow coastal aquifer in Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA, suggest groundwater warming of +4.1 °C relative to deeper geothermal gradients. Observed warming is related to timing and depth of influence of two potential thermal drivers—atmospheric temperature increases and urbanization. Results indicate that up to 30 % of groundwater...
Variations in population vulnerability to tectonic and landslide-related tsunami hazards in Alaska
Nathan J. Wood, Jeff Peters
2015, Natural Hazards (75) 1811-1831
Effective tsunami risk reduction requires an understanding of how at-risk populations are specifically vulnerable to tsunami threats. Vulnerability assessments primarily have been based on single hazard zones, even though a coastal community may be threatened by multiple tsunami sources that vary locally in terms of inundation extents and wave arrival...
Incorporating climate change and morphological uncertainty into coastal change hazard assessments
Heather M. Baron, Peter Ruggiero, Nathan J. Wood, Erica L. Harris, Jonathan Allan, Paul D. Komar, Patrick Corcoran
2015, Natural Hazards (75) 2081-2102
Documented and forecasted trends in rising sea levels and changes in storminess patterns have the potential to increase the frequency, magnitude, and spatial extent of coastal change hazards. To develop realistic adaptation strategies, coastal planners need information about coastal change hazards that recognizes the dynamic temporal and spatial scales of...
Comparing methods for estimating larval sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) density in the St. Marys River for the purposes of control
Jason M. Robinson, Michael J. Wilberg, Jean V. Adams, Michael L. Jones
2015, Journal of Great Lakes Research (40) 739-747
The St. Marys River is a major producer of parasitic sea lampreys (Petromyzon marinus) to Lake Huron making it an important area for larval control. Bayluscide treatments are conducted in areas of high larval density requiring density estimation at fine spatial scales to inform treatment...
