Effects of native herbs and light on garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) invasion
Laura Phillips-Mao, Diane L. Larson, Nicholas R. Jordan
2014, Invasive Plant Science and Management (7) 257-268
The degree to which invasive species drive or respond to environmental change has important implications for conservation and invasion management. Often characterized as a driver of change in North American woodlands, the invasive herb garlic mustard may instead respond to declines in native plant cover and diversity. We tested effects...
Using constructed analogs to improve the skill of National Multi-Model Ensemble March–April–May precipitation forecasts in equatorial East Africa
Shraddhanand Shukla, Christopher C. Funk, Andrew Hoell
2014, Environmental Research Letters (9) 1-9
In this study we implement and evaluate a simple 'hybrid' forecast approach that uses constructed analogs (CA) to improve the National Multi-Model Ensemble's (NMME) March–April–May (MAM) precipitation forecasts over equatorial eastern Africa (hereafter referred to as EA, 2°S to 8°N and 36°E to 46°E). Due to recent declines in MAM...
Survival estimates of wild and captive-bred released Puaiohi, an endangered Hawaiian thrush
Eric VanderWerf, Lisa H. Crampton, Julia Diegmann, Carter T. Atkinson, David L. Leonard
2014, The Condor (116) 609-618
Estimating and monitoring adult and juvenile survival are vital to understanding population status, informing recovery planning for endangered species, and quantifying the success of management. We used mark–recapture models to estimate apparent annual survival of the Puaiohi (Myadestes palmeri), an endangered thrush endemic to the Hawaiian island of Kauai, from...
Reconstructing historical habitat data with predictive models Read More: http://www.esajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1890/13-0327.1
Christa L. Zweig, Wiley M. Kitchens
2014, Ecological Applications (24) 196-203
Historical vegetation data are important to ecological studies, as many structuring processes operate at long time scales, from decades to centuries. Capturing the pattern of variability within a system (enough to declare a significant change from past to present) relies on correct assumptions about the temporal scale of the processes...
A Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network (GLEON) for synthesising high-frequency sensor data for validation of deterministic ecological models
David P. Hamilton, Cayelan C. Carey, Lauri Arvola, Peter Arzberger, Carol A. Brewer, Jon J Cole, Evelyn Gaiser, Paul C. Hanson, Bas W Ibelings, Eleanor Jennings, Tim K Kratz, Fang-Pang Lin, Christopher G. McBride, David de Motta Marques, Kohji Muraoka, Ami Nishri, Boqiang Qin, Jordan S. Read, Kevin C. Rose, Elizabeth Ryder, Kathleen C. Weathers, Guangwei Zhu, Dennis Trolle, Justin D Brookes
2014, Inland Waters (5) 49-56
A Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network (GLEON; www.gleon.org) has formed to provide a coordinated response to the need for scientific understanding of lake processes, utilising technological advances available from autonomous sensors. The organisation embraces a grassroots approach to engage researchers from varying disciplines, sites spanning geographic and ecological gradients, and...
A synoptic examination of causes of land loss in southern Louisiana as related to the exploitation of subsurface geologic resources
Ricardo A. Olea, James L. Coleman
2014, Journal of Coastal Research (30) 1025-1044
During the last 80 years, Louisiana has been losing wetlands at an average rate of 62 km2/y (24 mi2/y) for an accumulated loss of approximately 4900 km2 (1900 mi2). The loss seems to be the combined result of natural and anthropogenic causes that are behind primarily land subsidence averaging about 10...
Managing harvest and habitat as integrated components
Erik E. Osnas, Michael C. Runge, Brady J. Mattsson, Jane E. Austin, G. S. Boomer, R. G. Clark, P. Devers, J. M. Eadie, E. V. Lonsdorf, Brian G. Tavernia
2014, Wildfowl (Special Issue No. 4) 305-328
In 2007, several important initiatives in the North American waterfowl management community called for an integrated approach to habitat and harvest management. The essence of the call for integration is that harvest and habitat management affect the same resources, yet exist as separate endeavours with very different regulatory contexts. A...
Reviving common standards in point-count surveys for broad inference across studies
Steven M. Matsuoka, C. Lisa Mahon, Colleen M. Handel, Peter Solymos, Erin M. Bayne, Patricia C. Fontaine, C.J. Ralph
2014, Condor (116) 599-608
We revisit the common standards recommended by Ralph et al. (1993, 1995a) for conducting point-count surveys to assess the relative abundance of landbirds breeding in North America. The standards originated from discussions among ornithologists in 1991 and were developed so that point-count survey data could be broadly compared and jointly...
Transport and retention of vertically migrating adult mysid and decapod shrimp in the tidal front on Georges Bank
R. Gregory Lough, Alfredo L. Aretxabaleta
2014, Marine Ecology Progress Series (514) 119-135
Vertical profiles of the adult epibenthic shrimp Neomysis americana and Crangon septemspinosus obtained during June 1985 were used to simulate possible rates of ascent from bottom (40 to 50 m) to near surface at night and return by day, and the consequence of these rates on their horizontal distribution. Numerical...
A bootstrap estimation scheme for chemical compositional data with nondetects
Javier Palarea-Albaladejo, J.A Martin-Fernandez, Ricardo A. Olea
2014, Journal of Chemometrics (28) 585-599
The bootstrap method is commonly used to estimate the distribution of estimators and their associated uncertainty when explicit analytic expressions are not available or are difficult to obtain. It has been widely applied in environmental and geochemical studies, where the data generated often represent parts of whole, typically chemical concentrations....
Distribution of soil organic carbon in the conterminous United States
Norman B. Bliss, Sharon Waltman, Larry T. West, Anne Neale, Megan Mehaffey
Alfred E. Hartemink, Kevin M. McSweeney, editor(s)
2014, Book chapter, Soil Carbon
The U.S. Soil Survey Geographic (SSURGO) database provides detailed soil mapping for most of the conterminous United States (CONUS). These data have been used to formulate estimates of soil carbon stocks, and have been useful for environmental models, including plant productivity models, hydrologic models, and ecological models for studies of...
The role of defensible space for residential structure protection during wildfires
Alexandra D. Syphard, Teresa J. Brennan, Jon E. Keeley
2014, International Journal of Wildland Fire (23) 1165-1175
With the potential for worsening fire conditions, discussion is escalating over how to best reduce effects on urban communities. A widely supported strategy is the creation of defensible space immediately surrounding homes and other structures. Although state and local governments publish specific guidelines and requirements, there is little empirical evidence...
Temperature sensitivity of organic-matter decay in tidal marshes
Matthew L. Kirwan, Glenn R. Guntenspergen, J.A. Langley
2014, Biogeosciences (11) 4801-4808
Approximately half of marine carbon sequestration takes place in coastal wetlands, including tidal marshes, where organic matter contributes to soil elevation and ecosystem persistence in the face of sea-level rise. The long-term viability of marshes and their carbon pools depends, in part, on how the balance between productivity and decay...
Southern San Andreas Fault evaluation field activity: approaches to measuring small geomorphic offsets--challenges and recommendations for active fault studies
Katherine M. Scharer, J. Barrett Salisbury, J. Ramon Arrowsmith, Thomas K. Rockwell
2014, Seismological Research Letters (85) 68-76
In southern California, where fast slip rates and sparse vegetation contribute to crisp expression of faults and microtopography, field and high‐resolution topographic data (<1 m/pixel) increasingly are used to investigate the mark left by large earthquakes on the landscape (e.g., Zielke et al., 2010; Zielke et al., 2012; Salisbury, Rockwell, et...
Uranium-series ages of corals, sea level history, and palaeozoogeography, Canary Islands, Spain: an exploratory study for two Quaternary interglacial periods
Daniel R. Muhs, Joaquin Meco, Kathleen R. Simmons
2014, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology (394) 99-118
We present the first U-series ages of corals from emergent marine deposits on the Canary Islands. Deposits at + 20 m are 481 ± 39 ka, possibly correlative to marine isotope stage (or MIS) 11, while those at + 12 and + 8 m are 120.5 ± 0.8 ka and...
Mountain plover nest survival in relation to prairie dog and fire dynamics in shortgrass steppe
David J. Augustine, Susan K. Skagen
2014, Journal of Wildlife Management (78) 595-602
Disturbed xeric grasslands with short, sparse vegetation provide breeding habitat for mountain plovers (Charadrius montanus) across the western Great Plains. Maintaining local disturbance regimes through prairie dog conservation and prescribed fire may contribute to the sustainability of recently declining mountain plover populations, but these management approaches can be controversial. We...
A tetrapod-like repertoire of innate immune receptors and effectors for coelacanths
Pierre Boudinot, Jun Zou, Tatsuya Ota, Francesco Buonocore, Giuseppe Scapigliati, Adriana Canapa, John Cannon, Gary Litman, John D. Hansen
2014, Journal of Experimental Zoology Part B: Molecular and Developmental Evolution (322) 415-437
The recent availability of both robust transcriptome and genome resources for coelacanth (Latimeria chalumnae) has led to unique discoveries for coelacanth immunity such as the lack of IgM, a central component of adaptive immunity. This study was designed to more precisely address the origins and evolution of gene families involved...
Diverse rupture modes for surface-deforming upper plate earthquakes in the southern Puget Lowland of Washington State
Alan R. Nelson, Stephen F. Personius, Brian L. Sherrod, Harvey M. Kelsey, Samuel Y. Johnson, Lee-Ann Bradley, Ray E. Wells
2014, Geosphere (10) 769-796
Earthquake prehistory of the southern Puget Lowland, in the north-south compressive regime of the migrating Cascadia forearc, reflects diverse earthquake rupture modes with variable recurrence. Stratigraphy and Bayesian analyses of previously reported and new 14C ages in trenches and cores along backthrust scarps in the Seattle fault zone restrict a large...
The geobiology of sediment-hosted mineral deposits
Clint Scott, Karen D. Kelley, John F. Slack
2014, Book chapter, Building exploration capability for the 21st century
The role of biological processes in the formation of sediment-hosted ore deposits has long been recognized. In this review, we focus on the biogeochemical cycling of C, Mn, Fe, and S as they relate to the formation of sediment-hosted Mn and Fe deposits, metalliferous black shales, clastic-dominated (CD) Pb-Zn deposits,...
Segmentation of plate coupling, fate of subduction fluids, and modes of arc magmatism in Cascadia, inferred from magnetotelluric resistivity
Philip E. Wannamaker, Rob L. Evans, Paul A. Bedrosian, Martyn J. Unsworth, Virginie Maris, R. Shane McGary
2014, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems (15) 4230-4253
Five magnetotelluric (MT) profiles have been acquired across the Cascadia subduction system and transformed using 2-D and 3-D nonlinear inversion to yield electrical resistivity cross sections to depths of ∼200 km. Distinct changes in plate coupling, subduction fluid evolution, and modes of arc magmatism along the length of Cascadia are...
Adult survival, apparent lamb survival, and body condition of desert bighorn sheep in relation to habitat and precipitation on the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge, Arizona
Matthew Overstreet, Colleen A. Caldwell, James W. Cain III
2014, Cooperator Science Series 109-2014
The decline of desert bighorn sheep on the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge (KNWR) beginning in 2003 stimulated efforts to determine the factors limiting survival and recruitment. We 1) determined pregnancy rates, body fat, and estimated survival rates of adults and lambs; 2) investigated the relationship between precipitation, forage conditions, previous...
Hillslope-scale experiment demonstrates role of convergence during two-step saturation
A. I. Gevaert, A. J. Teuling, R. Uijlenhoet, Stephen B. DeLong, T. E. Huxman, L. A. Pangle, David D. Breshears, J. Chorover, John D. Pelletier, S. R. Saleska, X. Zeng, Peter A. Troch
2014, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (18) 3681-1692
Subsurface flow and storage dynamics at hillslope scale are difficult to ascertain, often in part due to a lack of sufficient high-resolution measurements and an incomplete understanding of boundary conditions, soil properties, and other environmental aspects. A continuous and extreme rainfall experiment on an artificial hillslope at Biosphere 2's Landscape...
Stratigraphy, structure and regional correlation of eastern Blue Ridge sequences in southern Virginia and northwestern North Carolina: an interim report from new USGS mapping
Mark W. Carter, Arthur J. Merschat
2014, GSA Field Guides (35) 215-241
Examination of key outcrops in the eastern Blue Ridge in southern Virginia and northwestern North Carolina is used to evaluate existing stratigraphic and structural models. Recent detailed mapping along the Blue Ridge Parkway and the eastern flank of the Mount Rogers massif provides the opportunity to (1) evaluate legacy...
CyberShake-derived ground-motion prediction models for the Los Angeles region with application to earthquake early warning
Maren Bose, Robert Graves, David Gill, Scott Callaghan, Phillip J. Maechling
2014, Geophysical Journal International (198) 1438-1457
Real-time applications such as earthquake early warning (EEW) typically use empirical ground-motion prediction equations (GMPEs) along with event magnitude and source-to-site distances to estimate expected shaking levels. In this simplified approach, effects due to finite-fault geometry, directivity and site and basin response are often generalized, which may lead to a...
An ecological response model for the Cache la Poudre River through Fort Collins
Jennifer Shanahan, Daniel Baker, Brian P. Bledsoe, LeRoy Poff, David M. Merritt, Kevin R. Bestgen, Gregor T. Auble, Boris C. Kondratieff, John Stokes, Mark Lorie, John Sanderson
2014, Report
The Poudre River Ecological Response Model (ERM) is a collaborative effort initiated by the City of Fort Collins and a team of nine river scientists to provide the City with a tool to improve its understanding of the past, present, and likely future conditions of the Cache la Poudre River...
