The enigma of the Předmostí protodogs. A comment on Prassack et al. 2020
Luc A. A. Janssens, Myriam Boudadi-Maligne, L. David Mech, Dennis Lawler
2021, Journal of Archaeological Science (126)
Prassack et al. (2020) analyzed dental microwear in a sample of canids from the Gravettian site of Předmostí that had been identified as either Paleolithic dogs or Pleistocene wolves (n = 10 in each group), accepting that the morphological differences between the groups validly distinguished the (self-domesticating) protodogs from wolves. The authors then...
Greenhouse gas emissions from an arid-zone reservoir and their environmental policy significance: Results from existing global models and an exploratory dataset
Sarah Waldo, Bridget R. Deemer, Lucas S. Bair, Jake J. Beaulieu
2021, Environmental Science and Policy (120) 53-62
Reservoirs in arid regions often provide critical water storage but little is known about their greenhouse gas (GHG) footprint. While there is growing appreciation of the role reservoirs play as GHG sources, there is a lack of understanding of GHG emission dynamics from reservoirs in...
Organic petrographic evaluation of carbonaceous material in sediments of the Kinnickinnic River, Milwaukee, WI, U.S.A.
Brett J. Valentine, John H Krahling, Stephen D. Mueller
2021, Science of the Total Environment (782)
This study examines the use of organic petrology techniques to quantify the amount of coal and carbonaceous combustion by-products (i.e., coke, coal tar/pitch, cenospheres) in sediments taken from the Kinnickinnic River adjacent to the former site of the Milwaukee Solvay Coke and Gas Company....
Contrasting patterns of demography and population viability among gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) populations at the species’ northern range edge
Brian Folt, J.M. Goessling, A. M. Tucker, C. Guyer, S. Herman, E. Shelton-Nix, Conor P. McGowan
2021, Journal of Wildlife Management (85) 617-630
Population viability analyses are useful tools to predict abundance and extinction risk for imperiled species. In southeastern North America, the federally threatened gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) is a keystone species in the diverse and imperiled longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) ecosystem, and researchers have suggested that tortoise populations are declining and...
Animal reservoirs and hosts for emerging alphacoronaviruses and betacoronaviruses
Ria R. Ghai, Ann Carpenter, Amanda Y. Liew, Krystalyn B. Martin, Meghan K. Herring, Susan I. Gerber, Aron J. Hall, Jonathan M. Sleeman, Sophie VonDobschuetz, Casey Barton Behravesh
2021, Emerging Infectious Diseases (27) 1015-1022
The ongoing global pandemic caused by coronavirus disease has once again demonstrated the role of the family Coronaviridae in causing human disease outbreaks. Because severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 was first detected in December 2019, information on its tropism, host range, and clinical manifestations in animals is limited. Given the limited...
Geochemical advances in Arctic Alaska oil typing - North Slope oil correlation and charge history
Palma J. Botterell, David W. Houseknecht, Paul G. Lillis, Silvana M. Barbanti, Jeremy E. Dahl, J. Michael Moldowan
2021, Marine and Petroleum Geology (127)
The Arctic Alaska petroleum province is geologically and geochemically complex. Mixed hydrocarbon charge from multiple source rocks and/or levels of thermal maturity is common within an individual oil pool. Biomarker and chemometric statistical analyses were used to correlate twenty-nine oils to five oil families derived from: (1) Triassic Shublik Formation (calcareous...
Forecasting induced earthquake hazard using a hydromechanical earthquake nucleation model
Justin Rubinstein, Andrew J. Barbour, Jack H Norbeck
2021, Seismological Research Letters (92) 2206-2220
In response to the dramatic increase in earthquake rates in the central United States, the U.S Geological Survey began releasing 1 yr earthquake hazard models for induced earthquakes in 2016. Although these models have been shown to accurately forecast earthquake hazard, they rely purely on earthquake...
Evaluation of six methods for correcting bias in estimates from ensemble tree machine learning regression model
Kenneth Belitz, Paul E. Stackelberg
2021, Environmental Modeling and Software (139)
Ensemble-tree machine learning (ML) regression models can be prone to systematic bias: small values are overestimated and large values are underestimated. Additional bias can be introduced if the dependent variable is a transform of the original data. Six methods were evaluated for their ability to correct systematic and introduced bias....
No ring fracture in Mono Basin, California
Edward Hildreth, Judith Fierstein, Juliet Ryan-Davis
2021, Geological Society of America Bulletin (133) 2210-2225
In Mono Basin, California, USA, a near-circular ring fracture 12 km in diameter was proposed by R.W. Kistler in 1966 to have originated as the protoclastic margin of the Cretaceous Aeolian Buttes pluton, to have been reactivated in the middle Pleistocene, and to have influenced the arcuate trend of the...
A combined microbial and ecosystem metric of carbon retention efficiency explains land cover-dependent soil microbial biodiversity–ecosystem function relationships
Jessica G. Ernakovich, Jeffrey R Baldock, Courtney Creamer, Jonathan Sanderman, Karsten Kalbitz, Mark Farrell
2021, Biogeochemistry Letters (153) 1-15
While soil organic carbon (C) is the foundation of productive and healthy ecosystems, the impact of the ecology of microorganisms on C-cycling remains unknown. We manipulated the diversity, applied here as species richness, of the microbial community present in similar soils on two contrasting land-covers—an adjacent pasture and forest—and observed...
Gulf of Mexico blue hole harbors high levels of novel microbial lineages
N.V. Patin, Z.A. Dietrich, A. Stancil, M. Quinan, J.S. Beckler, E. R. Hall, J Culter, Christopher G. Smith, Martial Taillefert, F.J. Stewart
2021, Interational Society of Microbial Ecology (ISME) Journal (15) 2206-2232
Exploration of oxygen-depleted marine environments has consistently revealed novel microbial taxa and metabolic capabilities that expand our understanding of microbial evolution and ecology. Marine blue holes are shallow karst formations characterized by low oxygen and high organic matter content. They are logistically challenging to sample, and thus our understanding of...
Detecting shrub recovery in sagebrush steppe: Comparing Landsat-derived maps with field data on historical wildfires
Cara Applestein, Matthew J. Germino
2021, Fire Ecology (17)
BackgroundThe need for basic information on spatial distribution and abundance of plant species for research and management in semiarid ecosystems is frequently unmet. This need is particularly acute in the large areas impacted by megafires in sagebrush steppe ecosystems, which require frequently updated information about increases in exotic...
Production of haploid gynogens to inform genomic resource development in the paleotetraploid pallid sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus albus)
Richard Flamio Jr., Kimberly Chojnacki, Aaron J. DeLonay, Marlene J Dodson, Rachel M. Gocker, Jill Jenkins, Jeffrey Powell, Edward J. Heist
2021, Aquaculture (538)
Order Acipenseriformes (sturgeons and paddlefishes) is an ancient lineage of osteichthyan fishes (>200 million years old) with most extant species at conservation risk. A relatively basal species, the pallid sturgeon, Scaphirhynchus albus, is a federally endangered species native to the Mississippi and Missouri River basins. Hybridization with sympatric shovelnose sturgeon,...
A 100-km wide slump along the upper slope of the Canadian Arctic was likely preconditioned for failure by brackish pore water flushing
C. K. Paull, S.R. Dallimore, D.W. Caress, R. Gwiazda, E. Lundsten, K. Anderson, H. Melling, Y.K. Jin, M.J. Duchesne, Kang S-G., S. Kim, M. Riedel, E.L. King, Thomas Lorenson
2021, Marine Geology (435)
Exploration of the continental slope of the Canadian Beaufort Sea has revealed a remarkable coalescence of slide scars with headwalls between 130 and 1100 m water depth (mwd). With increased depth, the scars widen and merge into one gigantic regional slide...
Retreat, detour or advance? Understanding the movements of birds confronting the Gulf of Mexico
Theodore J. Zenzal Jr., Michael P. Ward, Robert H. Diehl, Jeffrey J. Buler, Jaclyn Ann Smolinsky, Jill L. Deppe, Rachel T Bolus, Antonio Celis-Murillo, Frank R. Moore
2021, Oikos (130) 739-752
During migration, birds must locate stopover habitats that provide sufficient resources to rest and refuel while en route to the breeding or non-breeding area. Long-distance migrants invariably encounter inhospitable geographic features, the edges of which are often characterized by habitat limited in food and safety. In response, they often depart...
Shade, light, and stream temperature responses to riparian thinning in second-growth redwood forests of northern California
David Roon, Jason B. Dunham, Jeremiah D Groom
2021, PLoS ONE (16)
Resource managers in the Pacific Northwest (USA) actively thin second-growth forests to accelerate the development of late-successional conditions and seek to expand these restoration thinning treatments into riparian zones. Riparian forest thinning, however, may impact stream temperatures–a key water quality parameter often regulated to protect stream habitat and aquatic organisms....
Uncovering process domains in large rivers: Patterns and potential drivers of benthic substrate heterogeneity in two North American riverscapes
E.A Scholl, W. F. Cross, C. V. Baxter, Christopher S. Guy
2021, Geomorphology (375) 1-15
Identifying and understanding functional process domains (sensu Montgomery, 1999) in rivers is paramount for linking the physical habitat template to ecosystem structure and function. To date, efforts to do this have been rare, especially in large rivers, as they require appropriate tools for quantifying habitat heterogeneity with fine-scale resolution across...
Months-long spike in aqueous Arsenic following domestic well installation and disinfection: Short- and long-term drinking water quality implications
Melinda L. Erickson, Elizabeth D. Swanner, Brady A. Ziegler, Jeffrey R. Havig
2021, Journal of Hazardous Materials (414)
Exposure to high concentration geogenic arsenic via groundwater is a worldwide health concern. Well installation introduces oxic drilling fluids and hypochlorite (a strong oxidant) for disinfection, thus inducing geochemical disequilibrium. Well installation causes changes in geochemistry lasting 12 + months, as illustrated in a recent study of 250 new...
Indicators of volcanic eruptions revealed by global M4+ earthquakes
Jeremy D. Pesicek, Sarah E. Ogburn, Stephanie Prejean
2021, Journal of Geophysical Research (126)
Determining whether seismicity near volcanoes is due primarily to tectonic or magmatic processes is a challenging but critical endeavor for volcanic eruption forecasting and detection, especially at poorly monitored volcanoes. Global statistics on the occurrence and timing of earthquakes near volcanoes both within and outside of eruptive periods reveal patterns...
Winter roost selection of Lasiurine tree bats in a pyric landscape
Marcelo H. Jorge, W. Mark Ford, Sara E. Sweeten, Samuel R. Freeze, Michael C. TRUE, Michael J. St. Germain, Hila Taylor, Katherine M. Gorman, Michael J. Cherry, Elina P. Garrison
2021, PLoS ONE (16)
Day-roost selection by Lasiurine tree bats during winter and their response to dormant season fires is unknown in the southeastern United States where dormant season burning is widely applied. Although fires historically were predominantly growing season, they now occur in the dormant season in this part...
Duration of hydrothermal alteration and mineralization of the Don Manuel porphyry copper system, central Chile
Amy K. Gilmer, R. Stephen J. Sparks, Dan N. Barfod, Emily Brugge, Catherine Annen, Ian Parkinson
2021, Minerals (11)
The Don Manuel porphyry copper system, located in the Miocene–Pliocene metallogenic belt of central Chile, contains spatially zoned alteration styles common to other porphyry copper deposits including extensive potassic alteration, propylitic alteration, localized sericite-chlorite alteration and argillic alteration but lacks pervasive hydrolytic alteration typical of some deposits. It is one...
Intraspecific variation in incubation behaviors along a latitudinal gradient is driven by nest microclimate and selection on neonate quality
Carl G. Lunblad, Courtney J. Conway
2021, Functional Ecology (35) 1028-1040
The strategies by which animals allocate reproductive effort across their lifetimes vary, and the causes of variation in those strategies are actively debated. In birds, most research has focused heavily on variation in clutch size and fecundity, but incubation behaviour and other functionally related traits have received less attention....
Culturally diverse expert teams have yet to bring comprehensive linguistic diversity to intergovernmental ecosystem assessments
Abigail J. Lynch, Alvaro Fernandez-Llamazares, Ignacio Palomo, Pedro Jaureguiberry, Tatsuya Amano, Zeenatul Basher, Michelle Lim, Tuyeni H. Mwampamba, Aibek Samakov, Odirilwe Selomane
2021, One Earth (4) 269-278
Multicultural representation is a stated goal of many global scientific assessment processes. These processes aim to mobilize a broader, more diverse knowledge base and increase legitimacy and inclusiveness of these assessment processes. Often, enhancing cultural diversity is encouraged through involvement of diverse expert teams and...
Songbird use of interior and edge floodplain forest sites along the Upper Mississippi River, USA, during spring migration and breeding seasons
Eileen M. Kirsch, Brian R. Gray
2021, Wilson Journal of Ornithology (132) 355-378
Floodplain forests of large rivers in the midwestern United States are naturally fragmented by sloughs, backwaters, wetlands, and shrub carr. On the highly altered Upper Mississippi River (UMR), resource managers want to protect and manage floodplain forests to benefit forest “interior” bird species. To discover bird relations with interior and...
Divergent species‐specific impacts of whole ecosystem warming and elevated CO2 on vegetation water relations in an ombrotrophic peatland
Jeffrey M . Warren, Anna M Jensen, Eric Ward, Anirban Guha, Joanne Childs, Stan D. Wullschleger, Paul J Hanson
2021, Global Change Biology (27) 1820-1835
Boreal peatland forests have relatively low species diversity and thus impacts of climate change on one or more dominant species could shift ecosystem function. Despite abundant soil water availability, shallowly rooted vascular plants within peatlands may not be able to meet foliar demand for water under drought or heat events...
