Induced biological soil crust controls on wind erodibility and dust (PM10) emissions
Stephen E. Fick, Nichole N. Barger, John Tatarko, Michael C. Duniway
2020, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms (45) 224-236
Inducing biological soil crust (biocrust) development is an appealing approach for dust mitigation in drylands due to the resistance biocrusts can provide against erosion. Using a portable device, we evaluated dust emissions from surfaces either inoculated with biocrust, amended with a plant‐based soil stabilizer, or both at varying wind friction...
Effects of climate-related variability in storage on streamwater solute concentrations and fluxes in a small forested watershed in the Southeastern United States
Brent T. Aulenbach
2020, Hydrological Processes (34) 189-208
Streamwater quality can be affected by climate-related variability in hydrologic state, which controls flow paths and affects biogeochemical processes. Thirty-one years of input/output solute fluxes at Panola Mountain Research Watershed, a small, forested, seasonally water-limited watershed near Atlanta, Georgia, were used to quantify the effects of climatic-related variability in storage...
Reproductive ecology and movement of pallid sturgeon in the upper Missouri River, Montana
Luke M. Holmquist, Christopher S. Guy, Anne Tews, David J. Trimpe, Molly A. H. Webb
2020, Article
Successful recruitment of endangered pallid sturgeon has not been documented in the upper Missouri River basin for decades, and research on the reproductive ecology of pallid sturgeon has been hindered by low sample size. A conservation propagation program was initiated in the 1990s, and the oldest age class of hatchery‐origin...
Applying spatially explicit capture–recapture models to estimate black bear density in South Carolina
Shefali Azad, Katherine McFadden, Joseph D. Clark, Tammy Wactor, David S. Jachowski
2020, Wildlife Society Bulletin (43) 500-507
Population density is an important component of wildlife management decisions, but can be difficult to estimate directly for an itinerant, wide‐ranging species such as the American black bear (Ursus americanus ). In South Carolina, USA, where there has been growth in black bear populations and bear–human‐conflict reports during the past several...
Historical changes in fish communities in urban streams of the southeastern U.S. and the relative importance of water-quality stressors
Michael R. Meador
2020, Ecology of Freshwater Fish (29) 156-169
A total of 71 stream sites representing a gradient of urban land use was sampled across the Piedmont of the southeastern U.S. in 2014. Fish data collected (observed) at each site were compared to an expected community based on georeferenced historical (~1950 - ~1990) species occurrence records for stream...
Regional Global Navigation Satellite System networks for crustal deformation monitoring
Jessica R. Murray, Noel Bartlow, Yehuda Bock, Benjamin A. Brooks, James H. Foster, Jeffery T. Freymueller, William C. Hammond, Kathleen Hodgkinson, Ingrid A. Johanson, Alberto Lopez-Venegas, Doerte Mann, Glen Mattioli, Timothy Melbourne, David Mencin, Emily K. Montgomery-Brown, Mark Hunter Murray, Robert Smalley Jr., Valerie Thomas
2020, Seismological Research Letters (91) 552-572
Regional networks of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) stations cover seismically and volcanically active areas throughout the United States. Data from these networks have been used to produce high‐precision, three‐component velocity fields covering broad geographic regions as well as position time series that track time‐varying crustal deformation. This information has...
De facto water reuse: Bioassay suite approach delivers depth and breadth in endocrine active compound detection
Elizabeth K Medlock Kakaley, Brett R. Blackwell, Mary C. Cardon, Justin M. Conley, Nicola Evans, David J. Feifarek, Edward Furlong, Susan T. Glassmeyer, L. Earl Gray, Phillip C. Hartig, Dana W. Kolpin, Marc A. Mills, Laura Rosenblum, Daniel L. Villeneuve, Vickie S. Wilson
2020, Science of the Total Environment (699) 1-12
Although endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) have been detected in wastewater and surface waters worldwide using a variety of in vitro effects-based screening tools, e.g. bioassays, few have examined potential attenuation of environmental contaminants by both natural (sorption, degradation, etc) and anthropogenic (water treatment practices) processes. This study used several bioassays...
A range-wide model of contemporary, omnidirectional connectivity for the threatened Mojave desert tortoise
Miranda E Gray, Brett G. Dickson, Kenneth Nussear, Todd Esque, Tony Chang
2020, Ecosphere (10)
As habitat destruction leads to species extinctions globally, conservation planning that accounts for population-level connectivity and gene flow is an urgent priority. Models that only approximate habitat potential are incomplete because areas of high habitat potential may be isolated, whereas intermixed areas of lower habitat potential may still be critical...
Permafrost hydrology drives the assimilation of old carbon by stream food webs in the Arctic
Jonathon A O'Donnell, Michael P. Carey, Joshua C. Koch, Xiaomei Xu, Brett Poulin, Jennifer Walker, Christian E. Zimmerman
2020, Ecosystems (23) 435-453
Permafrost thaw in the Arctic is mobilizing old carbon (C) from soils to aquatic ecosystems and the atmosphere. Little is known, however, about the assimilation of old C by aquatic food webs in Arctic watersheds. Here, we used C isotopes (δ13C, Δ14C) to quantify C assimilation by biota across 12...
Attack of the PCR clones: Rates of clonality have little effect on RAD-seq genotype calls
Peter T. Euclide, Garrett McKinney, Matthew Bootsma, Charlene Tarsa, Mariah Meek, Wesley Larson
2020, Molecular Ecology Resources (20) 66-78
Interpretation of high-throughput sequence data requires an understanding of how decisions made during bioinformatic data processing can influence results. One source of bias that is often cited is PCR clones (or PCR duplicates). PCR clones are common in restriction site-associated sequencing (RAD-seq) data sets, which are...
Influence of a high-head dam as a dispersal barrier to fish community structure of the Upper Mississippi River
Rebekah L. Anderson, Cory A. Anderson, James H. Larson, Brent C. Knights, Jonathan M. Vallazza, Sean E. Jenkins, James T. Lamer
2020, River Research and Applications (36) 47-56
In river systems, high‐head dams may increase the distance‐decay of fish community similarity by creating nearly impermeable dispersal barriers to certain species from upstream reaches. Substantial evidence suggests that migratory species are impacted by dams, and most previous studies in stream/river networks have focused on small streams and headwaters. Here,...
Porphyry copper potential of the U.S. Southern Basin and Range using ASTER data integrated with geochemical and geologic datasets to assess potential near-surface deposits in well-explored permissive tracts
John C. Mars, Robinson Jr., Jane M. Hammarstrom, Lukas Zurcher, Helen A. Whitney, Federico Solano, Mark E. Gettings, Stephen Ludington
2020, Economic Geology (114) 1095-1121
ArcGIS was used to spatially assess and rank potential porphyry copper deposits using Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) data together with geochemical and geologic datasets in order to estimate undiscovered deposits in the southern Basin and Range Province in the southwestern United States. The assessment was done...
Incorporating climate change into invasive species management: Insights from managers
Evelyn M. Beaury, Emily J. Fusco, Michelle R. Jackson, Brittany B. Laginhas, Toni Lyn Morelli, Jenica M. Allen, Valerie J. Pasquarella, Bethany A. Bradley
2020, Biological Invasions (22) 233-252
Invasive alien species are likely to interact with climate change, thus necessitating management that proactively addresses both global changes. However, invasive species managers’ concerns about the effects of climate change, the degree to which they incorporate climate change into their management, and what stops them from doing so remain unknown....
Temporal patterns of induced seismicity in Oklahoma revealed from multi-station template matching
Robert J. Skoumal, Michael R. Brudzinski, Brian S. Currie, Rosamiel Ries
2020, Journal of Seismology (24) 921-935
Over the past decade, Oklahoma became the most seismically active region of the mid-Continental USA as a result of industry operations. However, seismic network limitations and completeness of earthquake catalogs have restricted the types of analyses that can be performed. By applying multi-station template matching on the 23,889 cataloged earthquakes...
A meta-analysis of global crop water productivity of three leading world crops (wheat, corn, and rice) in the irrigated areas over three decades
Daniel J. Foley, Prasad Thenkabail, Itiya Aneece, Pardhasaradhi Teluguntla, Adam Oliphant
2020, International Journal of Digital Earth (13) 939-975
The overarching goal of this study was to perform a comprehensive meta-analysis of irrigated agricultural Crop Water Productivity (CWP) of the world’s three leading crops: wheat, corn, and rice based on three decades of remote sensing and non-remote sensing-based studies. Overall, CWP data from 148 crop growing study sites (60...
Understanding melt evolution and eruption dynamics of the 1666 C.E. eruption of Cinder Cone, Lassen Volcanic National Park, California: Insights from olivine-hosted melt inclusions
Kristina J Walowski, P.J. Wallace, K.V. Cashman, J.K. Marks, Michael A. Clynne, P. Ruprecht
2020, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research (387)
Cinder Cone is the youngest scoria cone volcano in the continental United States. Erupted in 1666 C.E. within what is now Lassen Volcanic National Park, Cinder Cone is an un-vegetated scoria cone with well-preserved lava flows and tephra deposits that display...
Species-specific responses to wetland mitigation among amphibians in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem
LK Swartz, WH Lowe, Erin L. Muths, Blake R. Hossack
2020, Restoration Ecology (28) 206-214
Habitat loss and degradation are leading causes of biodiversity declines, therefore assessing the capacity of created mitigation wetlands to replace habitat for wildlife has become a management priority. We used single season occupancy models to compare the occurrence of larvae of four species of pond‐breeding amphibians in wetlands created for...
Maximum entropy derived statistics of sound speed structure in a fine-grained sediment inferred from sparse broadband acoustic measurements on the New England continental shelf
David P. Knobles, Preston S. Wilson, J.A. Goff, L. Wan, M.J. Buckingham, Jason Chaytor, Mohsen Badiey
2020, IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering (45) 161-173
Marginal probability distributions for parameters representing an effective sound-speed structure of a fine-grained sediment are inferred from a data ensemble maximum entropy method that utilizes a sparse spatially distributed set of received pressure time series resulting from multiple explosive sources in a shallow-water ocean environment possessing significant spatial variability of...
Social attraction used to establish Caspian tern nesting colonies in San Francisco Bay
C. Alex Hartman, Joshua T. Ackerman, Mark P. Herzog, Cheryl Strong, David A Trachtenbarg
2020, Global Ecology and Conservation (20)
Conservation of colonial waterbird breeding populations often includes restoring historic nesting habitat or establishing new nesting habitat in protected areas. However, colonization of new or restored nesting habitat may be hindered by the lack of social cues from nesting conspecifics to attract prospecting birds. Social attraction, whereby decoys and colony...
Relevance of individual and environmental drivers of movement of Golden Eagles
Maitreyi Sur, Adam E. Duerr, Doug A. Bell, Robert N. Fisher, Jeff A. Tracey, Peter H. Bloom, Trish Miller, Todd E. Katzner
2020, Ibis (162) 381-399
An animal's movement is expected to be governed by an interplay between goals determined by its internal state and energetic costs associated with navigating through the external environment. Understanding this ecological process is challenging when an animal moves in two dimensions and even more difficult for birds that move in...
Genetic mark‐recapture analysis of winter faecal pellets allows estimation of population size in Sage Grouse Centrocercus urophasianus
Jessica E Shyvers, Brett L Walker, Sara J. Oyler-McCance, Jennifer A. Fike, Barry R. Noon
2020, Ibis (162) 749-765
The Sage Grouse Centrocercus urophasianus is a species of conservation concern throughout its range in western North America. Since the 1950s, the high count of males at leks has been used as an index for monitoring populations. However, the relationship between this lek‐count index and population size is unclear,...
Different management strategies are optimal for combating disease in East Texas cave versus culvert hibernating bat populations
Riley Fehr Bernard, Jonah Evans, Nathan W. Fuller, Jonathan D. Reichard, Jeremy T. H. Coleman, Christina J. Kocer, Evan H. Campbell Grant
2020, Conservation Science and Practice (1)
Management decisions for species impacted by emerging infectious diseases are challenging when there are uncertainties in the effectiveness of management actions. Wildlife managers must balance trade‐offs between mitigating the effects of the disease and the associated consequences on other aspects of the managed system. An example of this challenge is...
Global change-driven use of onshore habitat impacts polar bear faecal microbiota
Sophie Watson, Heidi Hauffe, Matthew Bull, Todd C. Atwood, Melissa McKinney, Massimo Pindo, Sarah Perkins
2020, ISME Journal (13) 2916-2926
The gut microbiota plays a critical role in host health, yet remains poorly studied in wild species. Polar bears (Ursus maritimus), key indicators of Arctic ecosystem health and environmental change, are currently affected by rapid shifts in habitat that may alter gut homeostasis. Declining sea ice has led to...
Passive restoration of vegetation and biological soil crusts following 80 years of exclusion from grazing across the Great Basin
Lea A. Condon, Nicole Pietrasiak, Roger Rosentreter, David A. Pyke
2020, Restoration Ecology (28) S75-S85
Restoration targets for biological soil crusts are largely unknown. We surveyed seven 80‐year‐old grazing exclosures across northern Nevada for biocrusts to quantify reference conditions at relatively undisturbed sites. Exclosures were associated with the following plant communities: Wyoming big sagebrush, black sagebrush, and areas co‐dominated by winterfat...
Sampling and analysis frameworks for inference in ecology
Byron K. Williams, Ellie Brown
2020, Methods in Ecology and Evolution (11) 1832-1842
1. Reliable statistical inference is central to ecological research, much of which seeks to estimate population attributes and their interactions. The issue of sampling design and its relationship to inference has become increasingly important due to rapid proliferation of modeling methodology (line transect modeling, capture-recapture, estimation of occurrence, model selection...
