Demographics and run timing of adult Lost River (Deltistes luxatus) and short nose (Chasmistes brevirostris) suckers in Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon, 2012
David A. Hewitt, Eric C. Janney, Brian S. Hayes, Alta C. Harris
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1186
Data from a long-term capture-recapture program were used to assess the status and dynamics of populations of two long-lived, federally endangered catostomids in Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon. Lost River suckers (Deltistes luxatus) and shortnose suckers (Chasmistes brevirostris) have been captured and tagged with passive integrated transponder (PIT) tags during their...
Sea-floor morphology and sedimentary environments of western Block Island Sound, northeast of Gardiners Island, New York
Katherine Y. McMullen, Lawrence J. Poppe, William W. Danforth, Dann S. Blackwood, Andrew R. Clos, Castle E. Parker
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1160
Multibeam-echosounder data, collected during survey H12299 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in a 162-square-kilometer area of Block Island Sound, northeast of Gardiners Island, New York, are used along with sediment samples and bottom photography, collected at 37 stations in this area by the U.S. Geological Survey during cruise...
Incorporating cold-air pooling into downscaled climate models increases potential refugia for snow-dependent species within the Sierra Nevada Ecoregion, CA
Jennifer A. Curtis, Lorraine E. Flint, Alan L. Flint, Jessica D. Lundquist, Brian Hudgens, Erin E. Boydston, Julie K. Young
2014, PLoS ONE (9) 1-13
We present a unique water-balance approach for modeling snowpack under historic, current and future climates throughout the Sierra Nevada Ecoregion. Our methodology uses a finer scale (270 m) than previous regional studies and incorporates cold-air pooling, an atmospheric process that sustains cooler temperatures in topographic depressions thereby mitigating snowmelt. Our...
Do cities simulate climate change? A comparison of herbivore response to urban and global warming
Elsa Youngsteadt, Adam G. Dale, Adam Terando, Robert R. Dunn, Steven D. Frank
2014, Global Change Biology (21) 97-105
Cities experience elevated temperature, CO2, and nitrogen deposition decades ahead of the global average, such that biological response to urbanization may predict response to future climate change. This hypothesis remains untested due to a lack of complementary urban and long-term observations. Here, we examine the response of an herbivore, the...
Ecological risks of shale oil and gas development to wildlife, aquatic resources and their habitats
Margaret C. Brittingham, Kelly O. Maloney, Aida M. Farag, David D. Harper, Zachary H. Bowen
2014, Environmental Science & Technology (48) 11034-11047
Technological advances in hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling have led to the exploration and exploitation of shale oil and gas both nationally and internationally. Extensive development of shale resources has occurred within the United States over the past decade, yet full build out is not expected to occur for years....
Modeling participation duration, with application to the North American Breeding Bird Survey
William A. Link, John R. Sauer
2014, Communications in Statistics - Theory and Methods (45) 6311-6320
We consider “participation histories,” binary sequences consisting of alternating finite sequences of 1s and 0s, ending with an infinite sequence of 0s. Our work is motivated by a study of observer tenure in the North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS). In our analysis, j indexes an observer’s years of service and Xj is an...
Early detection of invasive plants: principles and practices
Bradley A. Welch, Paul H. Geissler, Penelope Latham
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5162
Invasive plants infest an estimated 2.6 million acres of the 83 million acres managed by the National Park Service (NPS) in the United States. The consequences of these invasions present a significant challenge for the NPS to manage the agency’s natural resources “unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.” More...
Hydrogeology, hydraulic characteristics, and water-quality conditions in the surficial, Castle Hayne and Peedee aquifers of the greater New Hanover County area, North Carolina, 2012-13
Kristen Bukowski McSwain, Laura N. Gurley, Dominick J. Antolino
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5169
A major issue facing the greater New Hanover County, North Carolina, area is the increased demand for drinking water resources as a result of rapid growth. The principal sources of freshwater supply in the greater New Hanover County area are withdrawals of surface water from the Cape Fear River and...
Stream seepage and groundwater levels, Wood River Valley, south-central Idaho, 2012-13
James R. Bartolino
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5151
Stream discharge and water levels in wells were measured at multiple sites in the Wood River Valley, south-central Idaho, in August 2012, October 2012, and March 2013, as a component of data collection for a groundwater-flow model of the Wood River Valley aquifer system. This model is a cooperative and...
Patterns of lake occupancy by fish indicate different adaptations to life in a harsh Arctic environment
Trevor B. Haynes, Amanda E. Rosenberger, Mark S. Lindberg, Matthew Whitman, Joel A. Schmutz
2014, Freshwater Biology (59) 1884-1896
Summary For six fish species sampled from 86 lakes on the Arctic Coastal Plain, Alaska, we examined whether lake occupancy was related to variables representing lake size, colonisation potential and/or the presence of overwintering habitat. We found the relative importance of each factor for a given species could be related to its...
Resilience and resistance of sagebrush ecosystems: implications for state and transition models and management treatments
Jeanne C. Chambers, Richard F. Miller, David I. Board, David A. Pyke, Bruce A. Roundy, James B. Grace, Eugene W. Schupp, Robin J. Tausch
2014, Rangeland Ecology and Management (67) 440-454
In sagebrush ecosystems invasion of annual exotics and expansion of piñon (Pinus monophylla Torr. and Frem.) and juniper (Juniperus occidentalis Hook., J. osteosperma [Torr.] Little) are altering fire regimes and resulting in large-scale ecosystem transformations. Management treatments aim to increase resilience to disturbance and enhance resistance to invasive species by...
Projections of the Ganges-Brahmaputra precipitation: downscaled from GCM predictors
Md Shahriar Pervez, Geoffrey M. Henebry
2014, Journal of Hydrology (517) 120-134
Downscaling Global Climate Model (GCM) projections of future climate is critical for impact studies. Downscaling enables use of GCM experiments for regional scale impact studies by generating regionally specific forecasts connecting global scale predictions and regional scale dynamics. We employed the Statistical Downscaling Model (SDSM) to downscale 21st century precipitation...
Multiscale habitat selection of wetland birds in the northern Gulf Coast
Bradley A. Pickens, Sammy L. King
2014, Estuaries and Coasts (37) 1301-1311
The spatial scale of habitat selection has become a prominent concept in ecology, but has received less attention in coastal ecology. In coastal marshes, broad-scale marsh types are defined by vegetation composition over thousands of hectares, water-level management is applied over hundreds of hectares, and fine-scale habitat is depicted by...
Integrated conceptual ecological model and habitat indices for the southwest Florida coastal wetlands
G. Lynn Wingard, J. L. Lorenz
2014, Ecological Indicators (44) 92-107
The coastal wetlands of southwest Florida that extend from Charlotte Harbor south to Cape Sable, contain more than 60,000 ha of mangroves and 22,177 ha of salt marsh. These coastal wetlands form a transition zone between the freshwater and marine environments of the South Florida Coastal Marine Ecosystem (SFCME). The coastal wetlands...
Indo-Pacific sea surface temperature influences on failed consecutive rainy seasons over eastern Africa
Andrew Hoell, Christopher C. Funk
2014, Climate Dynamics (43) 1645-1660
Rainfall over eastern Africa (10°S–10°N; 35°E–50°E) is bimodal, with seasonal maxima during the "long rains" of March–April–May (MAM) and the "short rains" of October–November–December (OND). Below average precipitation during consecutive long and short rains seasons over eastern Africa can have devastating long-term impacts on water availability and agriculture. Here, we...
The effect of call libraries and acoustic filters on the identification of bat echolocation
Matthew Clement, Kevin L Murray, Donald I Solick, Jeffrey C Gruver
2014, Ecology and Evolution (4) 3482-3493
Quantitative methods for species identification are commonly used in acoustic surveys for animals. While various identification models have been studied extensively, there has been little study of methods for selecting calls prior to modeling or methods for validating results after modeling. We obtained two call libraries with a combined 1556...
Combining demographic and genetic factors to assess population vulnerability in stream species
Erin L. Landguth, Clint C. Muhlfeld, Leslie W. Jones, Robin S. Waples, Diane Whited, Winsor H. Lowe, John Lucotch, Helen Neville, Gordon Luikart
2014, Ecological Applications (24) 1505-1524
Accelerating climate change and other cumulative stressors create an urgent need to understand the influence of environmental variation and landscape features on the connectivity and vulnerability of freshwater species. Here, we introduce a novel modeling framework for aquatic systems that integrates spatially explicit, individual‐based, demographic and genetic (demogenetic) assessments with...
A ternary age-mixing model to explain contaminant occurrence in a deep supply well
Bryant C. Jurgens, Laura M. Bexfield, Sandra M. Eberts
2014, Groundwater (52) 25-39
The age distribution of water from a public-supply well in a deep alluvial aquifer was estimated and used to help explain arsenic variability in the water. The age distribution was computed using a ternary mixing model that combines three lumped parameter models of advection-dispersion transport of environmental tracers, which represent...
Tidal and seasonal effects on survival rates of the endangered California clapper rail: Does invasive Spartina facilitate greater survival in a dynamic environment?
Cory T. Overton, Michael L. Casazza, John Y. Takekawa, Donald R. Strong, Marcel Holyoak
2014, Biological Invasions (16) 1897-1914
Invasive species frequently degrade habitats, disturb ecosystem processes, and can increase the likelihood of extinction of imperiled populations. However, novel or enhanced functions provided by invading species may reduce the impact of processes that limit populations. It is important to recognize how invasive species benefit endangered species to determine overall...
Partitioning the non‑consumptive effects of predators on preywith complex life histories
Jon M. Davenport, Blake R. Hossack, Winsor H. Lowe
2014, Oecologia (176) 149-155
Non-consumptive effects (NCEs) of predators on prey can be as strong as consumptive effects (CEs) and may be driven by numerous mechanisms, including predator characteristics. Previous work has highlighted the importance of predator characteristics in predicting NCEs, but has not addressed how complex life histories of prey could mediate predator...
Cross-scale assessment of potential habitat shifts in a rapidly changing climate
Catherine S. Jarnevich, Tracy R. Holcombe, Elizabeth Bell, Matthew L. Carlson, Gino Graziano, Melinda Lamb, Steven S. Seefeldt, Jeffrey T. Morisette
2014, Invasive Plant Science and Management (7) 491-502
We assessed the ability of climatic, environmental, and anthropogenic variables to predict areas of high-risk for plant invasion and consider the relative importance and contribution of these predictor variables by considering two spatial scales in a region of rapidly changing climate. We created predictive distribution models, using Maxent, for three...
Analysis of regional scale risk to whirling disease in populations of Colorado and Rio Grande cutthroat trout using Bayesian belief network model
Kimberley Kolb Ayre, Colleen A. Caldwell, Jonah Stinson, Wayne G. Landis
2014, Risk Analysis (34) 1589-1605
Introduction and spread of the parasite Myxobolus cerebralis, the causative agent of whirling disease, has contributed to the collapse of wild trout populations throughout the intermountain west. Of concern is the risk the disease may have on conservation and recovery of native cutthroat trout. We employed a Bayesian belief network to...
Development and characterization of microsatellite markers for the Hawaiian coot, Fulica alai, and Hawaiian gallinule, Gallinula galeata sandvicensis, through next-generation sequencing
Sarah A. Sonsthagen, Robert E. Wilson, Jared G. Underwood
2014, Conservation Genetics Resources (6) 765-767
We used next generation shotgun sequencing to develop novel microsatellite markers for two endangered waterbirds; the Hawaiian coot (Fulica alai) and Hawaiian gallinule (Gallinula galeata sandvicensis). The 20 loci polymorphic in the Hawaiian coot displayed moderate allelic diversity (average 3.8 alleles/locus) and heterozygosity (average 59.5 %). The 12 loci variable for...
Age-specific survival of male golden-cheeked warblers on the Fort Hood Military Reservation, Texas
Adam Duarte, James E. Hines, James D. Nichols, Jeffrey S. Hatfield, Floyd W. Weckerly
2014, Avian Conservation and Ecology (9)
Population models are essential components of large-scale conservation and management plans for the federally endangered Golden-cheeked Warbler (Setophaga chrysoparia; hereafter GCWA). However, existing models are based on vital rate estimates calculated using relatively small data sets that are now more than a decade old. We estimated more current, precise adult...
Evaluation of a regional monitoring program's statistical power to detect temporal trends in forest health indicators
Stephanie J. Perles, Tyler Wagner, Brian J. Irwin, Douglas R. Manning, Kristina K. Callahan, Matthew R. Marshall
2014, Environmental Management (54) 641-655
Forests are socioeconomically and ecologically important ecosystems that are exposed to a variety of natural and anthropogenic stressors. As such, monitoring forest condition and detecting temporal changes therein remain critical to sound public and private forestland management. The National Parks Service’s Vital Signs monitoring program collects information on many...
