Effect of an environmental flow on vegetation growth and health using ground and remote sensing metrics
Martha M. Gomez-Sapiens, Christopher Jarchow, Karl W. Flessa, Patrick B. Shafroth, Edward P. Glenn, Pamela L. Nagler
2020, Hydrological Processes (34) 1682-1696
Understanding the effectiveness of environmental flow deliveries along rivers requires monitoring vegetation. Monitoring data are often collected at multiple spatial scales. For riparian vegetation, optical remote sensing methods can estimate growth responses at the riparian corridor scale, and field‐based measures can quantify species composition; however, the extent to which these...
The effect of sediment cover and female characteristics on the hatching success of walleye
Alex Gatch, S.K. Koenigbauer, Edward F. Roseman, T. Hook
2020, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (40) 293-302
Natural and anthropogenic sources of sedimentation have the potential to degrade spawning habitat and negatively affect incubating fish embryos. Walleye Sander vitreus are lithophilic broadcast spawners that use specific spawning habitats that are vulnerable to degradation caused by deposition of suspended sediments. We measured the effect of different types of sediment cover...
The fate of Madagascar's rainforest habitat
Toni Lyn Morelli, Adam B. Smith, Amanda N. Mancini, Elizabeth A. Balko, Cortni Borgerson, Rainer Dolch, Zachary Farris, Sarah Federman, Christopher Golden, Sheila Holmes, Mitchell Irwin, Rachel Jacobs, Steig Johnson, Tony King, Shawn Lehman, Edward E. Louis Jr., Asia Murphy, Hery N. T. Randriahaingo, H. L. Lucien Randrianarimanana, Jonah Ratsimbazafy, Onja H. Razafindratsima, Andrea Baden
2020, Nature Climate Change (10) 89-96
Madagascar has experienced extensive deforestation and overharvesting, and anthropogenic climate change will compound these pressures. Anticipating these threats to endangered species and their ecosystems requires considering both climate change and habitat loss effects. The genus Varecia (ruffed lemurs), which is composed of two Critically Endangered forest-obligate species, can serve as a status...
Algal toxins in Alaskan seabirds: Evaluating the role of saxitoxin and domoic acid in a large-scale die-off of Common Murres
Caroline R. Van Hemert, Sarah K. Schoen, R. Wayne Litaker, Matthew M. Smith, Mayumi L. Arimitsu, John F. Piatt, William C. Holland, Ransom Hardison, John M. Pearce
2020, Harmful Algae (92)
Elevated seawater temperatures are linked to the development of harmful algal blooms (HABs), which pose a growing threat to marine birds and other wildlife. During late 2015 and early 2016, a massive die-off of Common Murres (Uria algae; hereafter, murres) was observed in the Gulf of Alaska coincident with a...
Environmental tracer evidence for connection between shallow and bedrock aquifers and high intrinsic susceptibility to contamination of the conterminous U.S. glacial aquifer
John E. Solder, Bryant Jurgens, Paul E. Stackelberg, Christopher L. Shope
2020, Journal of Hydrology (583)
Covering a large portion of the northern conterminous United States (1.87 x 106 km2), the glacial aquifer serves as the primary water supply for 39 million public and domestic water users. Mean groundwater age, groundwater age distribution, and susceptibility to land surface contamination, using a new metric (Susceptibility Index; SI)...
An experimental evaluation of the feasibility of inferring concentrations of a visible tracer dye from remotely sensed data in turbid rivers
Carl J. Legleiter, Paul Manley, Susannah O. Erwin, Edward A. Bulliner
2020, Remote Sensing (12)
The movement of contaminants and biota within river channels is influenced by the flow field via various processes of dispersion. Understanding and modeling of these processes thus can facilitate applications ranging from the prediction of travel times for spills of toxic materials to the simulation of larval drift for...
Colony-forming unit spreadplate assay versus liquid culture enrichment-polymerase chain reaction assay for the detection of Bacillus Endospores in soils
Dale W. Griffin, John T. Lisle, David Feldhake, Erin E. Silvestri
2020, Geosciences (1)
A liquid culture enrichment-polymerase chain reaction (E-PCR) assay was investigated as a potential tool to overcome inhibition by chemical component, debris, and background biological impurities in soil that were affecting detection assay performance for soil samples containing Bacillus atrophaeus subsp. globigii (a surrogate for B. anthracis). To evaluate this assay,...
A hydrologic landscapes perspective on groundwater connectivity of depressional wetlands
Brian P. Neff, Donald O. Rosenberry, Scott G. Leibowitz, David M. Mushet, Heather E. Golden, Mark C. Rains, Renee Brooks, Charles R. Lane
2020, Water (12)
Research into processes governing the hydrologic connectivity of depressional wetlands has advanced rapidly in recent years. Nevertheless, a need persists for broadly applicable, non-site-specific guidance to facilitate further research. Here, we explicitly use the hydrologic landscapes theoretical framework to develop broadly applicable conceptual knowledge of depressional-wetland hydrologic...
Post-12 Ma deformation of the lower Colorado River corridor, southwestern USA: Implications for diffuse transtension and the Bouse Formation
Jacob Thacker, Karl Karlstrom, Laura Crossey, Ryan S. Crow, Colleen Cassidy, L. Sue Beard, John Singleton, Evan Strickland, Nikki Seymour, Michael Wyatt
2020, Geosphere (16) 111-135
Structural evidence presented here documents that deformation was ongoing within the lower Colorado River corridor (southwestern USA) during and after the latest Miocene Epoch, postdating large-magnitude extension and metamorphic core complex formation. Geometric and kinematic data collected on faults in key geologic units constrain the timing of deformation in relation...
Invertebrate communities of Prairie-Pothole wetlands in the age of the aquatic Homogenocene
Kyle McLean, David M. Mushet, Jon N. Sweetman, Michael J. Anteau, Mark T. Wiltermuth
2020, Hydrobiologia (847) 3773-3793
Simplification of communities is a common consequence of anthropogenic modification. However, the prevalence and mechanisms of biotic homogenization among wetland systems require further examination. Biota of wetlands in the North American Prairie Pothole Region are adapted to high spatial and temporal variability in ponded-water duration and salinity. Recent climate change,...
Alternative stable states in inherently unstable systems
David M. Mushet, Owen P. McKenna, Kyle McLean
2020, Ecology and Evolution (10) 843-850
Alternative stable states are nontransitory states within which communities can exist. However, even highly dynamic communities can be viewed within the framework of stable‐state theory if an appropriate “ecologically relevant” time scale is identified. The ecologically relevant time scale for dynamic systems needs to conform to the amount of time...
From theory to experiments for testing the proximate mechanisms of mast seeding: An agenda for an experimental ecology
M. Bogdziewicz, Davide Ascoli, Andrew Hacket-Pain, W. D. Koenig, Ian Pearse, Mario B. Pesendorfer, A. Satake, P. Thomas, Giorgio Vacchiano, T. Wohlgemuth, A. Tanentzap
2020, Ecology Letters (23) 210-220
Highly variable and synchronised production of seeds by plant populations is called masting and is implicated in many important ecological processes, but how it arises remains poorly understood. The lack of experimental studies prevents underlying mechanisms from being explicitly tested, and thereby precludes meaningful predictions on the consequences of changing...
Geophysical characterization of a Proterozoic REE terrane at Mountain Pass, eastern Mojave Desert, California
Kevin Denton, David A. Ponce, Jared R. Peacock, David M. Miller
2020, Geosphere (16) 456-471
Mountain Pass, California (USA), located in the eastern Mojave Desert, hosts one of the world’s richest rare earth element (REE) deposits. The REE-rich terrane occurs in a 2.5-km-wide, northwest-trending belt of Mesoproterozoic (1.4 Ga) stocks and dikes, which intrude a larger Paleoproterozoic (1.7 Ga) metamorphic block that extends ∼10 km...
Shift in the Raman symmetric stretching band of N2, CO2, and CH4 as a function of temperature, pressure, and density
D. Matthew Sublett, Eszter Sendula, Hector Lamadrid, Matthew Steele-MacInnis, Georg Spiekermann, Robert Burruss, Robert J. Bodnar
2020, Journal of Raman Spectroscopy (51) 555-568
The Raman spectra of pure N2, CO2, and CH4 were analyzed over the range 10 to 500 bars and from −160°C to 200°C (N2), 22°C to 350°C (CO2), and −100°C to 450°C (CH4). At constant temperature, Raman peak position, including the more intense CO2 peak (ν+), decreases (shifts to lower wave number)...
Postmortem evaluation of reintroduced migratory whooping cranes (Grus americana) in eastern North America
Taylor J. Yaw, Kimberli J.G. Miller, Julia S. Lankton, Barry K. Hartup
2020, Wildlife Disease (56) 673-678
We reviewed necropsy records of 124 Whooping Cranes (Grus americana) recovered following reintroduction of 268 individuals from 2001 to 2016 in the eastern US. Causes of death were determined in 62% (77/124) of cases facilitated by active monitoring that limited decomposition and scavenging artifact. The greatest proportions of mortality were...
The method controls the story - Sampling method impacts on the detection of pore-water nitrogen concentrations in streambeds
Sophie Comer-Warner, Julia LA Knapp, Phillip J Blaen, Megan Klaar, Felicity Shelley, Jay P. Zarnetske, Joseph Lee-Cullen, Silvia Folegot, Marie Kurz, Jorg Lewandowski, Judson Harvey, Adam Ward, Clara Mendoza-Lera, Sami Ullah, Thibault Datry, Nicholas Kettridge, Daren Gooddy, Jennifer Drummond, Eugenia Marti, Alexander Milner, David Hannah, Stefan Krause
2020, Science of the Total Environment (709)
Biogeochemical gradients in streambeds are steep and can vary over short distances often making adequate characterisation of sediment biogeochemical processes challenging. This paper provides an overview and comparison of streambed pore-water sampling methods, highlighting their capacity to address gaps in our understanding of streambed biogeochemical processes. This work reviews...
The relative importance of wetland area versus habitat heterogeneity for promoting species richness and abundance of wetland birds in the Prairie Pothole Region, USA
Lisa H. Elliott, Lawrence Igl, Douglas H. Johnson
2020, The Condor (122)
Recent work has suggested that a tradeoff exists between habitat area and habitat heterogeneity, with a moderate amount of heterogeneity supporting greatest species richness. Support for this unimodal relationship has been mixed and has differed among habitats and taxa. We examined the relationship between habitat heterogeneity and species richness after...
Future losses of playa wetlands decrease network structure and connectivity of the Rainwater Basin, Nebraska
Bram H.F. Verheijen, Dana M. Varner, David A. Haukos
2020, Landscape Ecology (35) 453-467
ContextThe Rainwater Basin in south-central Nebraska once supported a complex network of ~ 12,000 spatially-isolated playa wetlands, but ~ 90% have been lost since European settlement. Future losses are likely and expected reductions in connectivity could further isolate populations, increasing local extinction rates of many wetland species. However, to what extent future...
Variation of annual apparent survival and detection rates with age, year, and individual identity in male Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddellii) from long-term mark-recapture data
Jamie L. Brusa, Jay J. Rotella, Robert A. Garrott, J. Terrill Paterson, William Link
2020, Population Ecology (62) 134-150
Exploring age- and sex-specific survival rates provides insight regarding population behavior and life-history trait evolution, but many population studies exclude males. Accordingly, our understanding of how age-specific patterns of survival, including actuarial senescence, compare between the sexes remains inadequate. Using 35 years of mark-recapture data for 7,516...
Simulation of post-hurricane impact on invasive species with biological control management
Linhao Xu, Marya Claire Zdechlik, Melissa C. Smith, Min B. Rayamajhi, Don DeAngelis, Bo Zhang
2020, Discrete & Continuous Dynamical Systems-A (40) 4059-4071
Understanding the effects of hurricanes and other large storms on ecological communities and the post-event recovery in these communities can guide management and ecosystem restoration. This is particularly important for communities impacted by invasive species, as the hurricane may affect control efforts. Here we consider the effect of a hurricane...
Caribou use of habitat near energy development in Arctic Alaska
Heather E. Johnson, Trevor Golden, Layne G. Adams, David Gustine, Elizabeth A. Lenart
2020, Journal of Wildlife Management (84) 401-412
Increasing demands for energy have generated interest in expanding oil and gas production on the North Slope of Alaska, raising questions about the resilience of barren-ground caribou populations to new development. Although the amount of habitat lost directly to energy development in the Arctic will likely be relatively small, there...
An assessment of the representation of ecosystems in global protected areas using new maps of World Climate Regions and World Ecosystems
Roger Sayre, Deniz Karagulle, Charlie Frye, Timothy Boucher, Nicholas Wolff, Sean Breyer, Dawn Wright, Madeline T. Martin, Kevin Butler, Keith Van Graafeiland, Jerry Touval, Leonardo Sotomayor, Jennifer McGowan, Edward T. Game, Hugh P. Possingham
2020, Global Ecology and Conservation (21)
Representation of ecosystems in protected area networks and conservation strategies is a core principle of global conservation priority setting approaches and a commitment in Aichi Target 11 of the Convention on Biological Diversity. The 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) explicitly call for the conservation of terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems....
Testing reproducibility of vitrinite and solid bitumen reflectance measurements in North American unconventional source-rock reservoir petroleum systems
Paul C. Hackley, Carla V. Araujo, Angeles G. Borrego, Antonis Bouzinos, Brian J. Cardott, H. Carvajal-Ortiz, Martha Rocio Lopez Cely, Vongani Chabalala, Peter J. Crosdale, Thomas D. Demchuk, Cortland F. Eble, Deolinda Flores, Agnieszka Furmann, Thomas Gentzis, Paula Goncalves, Carsten Guvad, M. Hamor-Vido, Iwona Jelonek, M. Johnston, Tatiana Juliao-Lemus, Stavros Kalaitzidis, Wayne Knowles, Jolanta Kus, Zhongsheng Li, Gordon Macleod, Maria Mastalerz, Taissa Rego Menezes, Seare Ocubalidet, Richard Orban, Walter Pickel, Paddy Ranasinghe, Joana Ribeiro, Olga Patricia Gomez Rojas, Ricardo Ruiz-Monroy, Jaques Schmidt, Abbas Seyedolali, Georgios Siavalas, Isabel Suarez-Ruiz, Carlos Vargas Vargas, Brett J. Valentine, Nicola Wagner, Bree Wrolson, Julian Esteban Jaramillo Zapata
2020, Marine and Petroleum Geology (114)
An interlaboratory study (ILS) was conducted to test reproducibility of vitrinite and solid bitumen reflectance measurements in six mudrock samples from United States unconventional source-rock reservoir petroleum systems. Samples selected from the Marcellus, Haynesville, Eagle Ford, Barnett, Bakken and Woodford are...
Traversing the wasteland: A framework for assessing ecological threats to drylands
David L. Hoover, Brandon T. Bestelmeyer, Nancy B. Grimm, Travis E. Huxman, Sasha C. Reed, Osvaldo E. Sala, Timothy Seastedt, Hailey Wilmer, Scott Ferrenberg
2020, BioScience (70) 35-47
Drylands cover 41% of the Earth's terrestrial surface, play a critical role in global ecosystem function, and are home to over two billion people. Like other biomes, drylands face increasing pressure from global change, but many of these ecosystems are close to tipping points, which, if crossed, can lead...
Rapid early development and feeding benefits an invasive population of lake trout
Lee G. Simard, J Ellen Marsden, Robert E. Gresswell, Megan Euclide
2020, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (77) 496-504
Lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) were discovered in Yellowstone Lake in 1994 and their population expanded dramatically despite intensive suppression. The lake is species-depauperate, with no major lake trout embryo predators. We hypothesized that without this predation threat, lake trout free embryo feeding and growth may be greater than in their...
