Climatic correlates of tree mortality in water- and energy-limited forests
Adrian J. Das, Nathan L. Stephenson, Alan Flint, Tapash Das, Phillip J. van Mantgem
2013, PLoS ONE (8)
Recent increases in tree mortality rates across the western USA are correlated with increasing temperatures, but mechanisms remain unresolved. Specifically, increasing mortality could predominantly be a consequence of temperature-induced increases in either (1) drought stress, or (2) the effectiveness of tree-killing insects and pathogens. Using long-term data from California’s Sierra...
An anti-steroidogenic inhibitory primer pheromone in male sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus)
Yu-Wen Chung-Davidson, Huiyong Wang, Mara B. Bryan, Hong Wu, Nicholas S. Johnson, Weiming Li
2013, General and Comparative Endocrinology (189) 24-31
Reproductive functions can be modulated by both stimulatory and inhibitory primer pheromones released by conspecifics. Many stimulatory primer pheromones have been documented, but relatively few inhibitory primer pheromones have been reported in vertebrates. The sea lamprey male sex pheromone system presents an advantageous model to explore the stimulatory and inhibitory...
Community variations in population exposure to near-field tsunami hazards as a function of pedestrian travel time to safety
Nathan J. Wood, Mathew C. Schmidtlein
2013, Natural Hazards (3) 1603-1628
Efforts to characterize population exposure to near-field tsunami threats typically focus on quantifying the number and type of people in tsunami-hazard zones. To develop and prioritize effective risk-reduction strategies, emergency managers also need information on the potential for successful evacuations and how this evacuation potential varies among communities. To improve...
Appraising options to reduce shallow groundwater tables and enhance flow conditions over regional scales in an irrigated alluvial aquifer system
Eric D. Morway, Timothy K. Gates, Richard G. Niswonger
2013, Journal of Hydrology (495) 216-237
Some of the world’s key agricultural production systems face big challenges to both water quantity and quality due to shallow groundwater that results from long-term intensive irrigation, namely waterlogging and salinity, water losses, and environmental problems. This paper focuses on water quantity issues, presenting finite-difference groundwater models developed to describe...
Some thoughts on the factors that controlled prehistoric maize production in the American Southwest with application to southwestern Colorado
L. V. Benson, D.K. Ramsey, D.W. Stahle, K.L. Petersen
2013, Journal of Archaeological Science (40) 2869-2880
In this paper, we present a model of prehistoric southwestern Colorado maize productivity. The model is based on a tree-ring reconstruction of water-year precipitation for Mesa Verde for the period A.D. 480 to 2011. Correlation of historic Mesa Verde precipitation with historic precipitation at 11 other weather stations enabled the...
The aeromagnetic method as a tool to identify Cenozoic magmatism in the West Antarctic Rift System beneath the West Antarctic Ice Sheet: a review; Thiel subglacial volcano as possible source of the ash layer in the WAISCOR
John C. Behrendt
2013, Tectonophysics (585) 124-136
The West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) flows through the volcanically active West Antarctic Rift System (WARS). The aeromagnetic method has been the most useful geophysical tool for identification of subglacial volcanic rocks, since 1959–64 surveys, particularly combined with 1978 radar ice-sounding. The unique 1991–97 Central West Antarctica (CWA) aerogeophysical survey...
Observations of the northern seasonal polar cap on Mars: I. Spring sublimation activity and processes
C.J. Hansen, Shane Byrne, Ganna Portyankina, Mary C. Bourke, Colin M. Dovichin, Alfred S. McEwen, Michael T. Mellon, Antoine Pommerol, N. Thomas
2013, Icarus (225) 881-897
Spring sublimation of the seasonal CO2 northern polar cap is a dynamic process in the current Mars climate. Phenomena include dark fans of dune material propelled out onto the seasonal ice layer, polygonal cracks in the seasonal ice, sand flow down slipfaces, and outbreaks of gas and sand around the...
Crater-based dating of geological units on Mars: methods and application for the new global geological map
Thomas Platz, Gregory Michael, Kenneth L. Tanaka, James A. Skinner, Corey M. Fortezzo
2013, Icarus (225) 806-827
The new, post-Viking generation of Mars orbital imaging and topographical data provide significant higher-resolution details of surface morphologies, which induced a new effort to photo-geologically map the surface of Mars at 1:20,000,000 scale. Although from unit superposition relations a relative stratigraphical framework can be compiled, it was the ambition of...
Implications for late Grenvillian (Rigolet phase) construction of Rodinia using new U-Pb data from the Mars Hill terrane, Tennessee and North Carolina, United States
John N. Aleinikoff, Scott Southworth, Arthur J. Merschat
2013, Geology (41) 1087-1090
New data for zircon (external morphology, cathodoluminescence zoning, and sensitive high resolution ion microprobe [SHRIMP] U-Pb ages) from the Carvers Gap granulite gneiss of the Mars Hill terrane (Tennessee and North Carolina, United States) require reevaluation of interpretations of the age and origin of this rock. The new results indicate...
Seasonal changes in peatland surface elevation recorded at GPS stations in the Red Lake Peatlands, northern Minnesota, USA
A.S. Reeve, P.H. Glaser, Donald O. Rosenberry
2013, Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences (118) 1616-1626
Northern peatlands appear to hold large volumes of free‐phase gas (e.g., CH4 and CO2), which has been detected by surface deformations, pore pressure profiles, and electromagnetic surveys. Determining the gas content and its impact in peat is challenging because gas storage depends on both the elastic properties of the peat...
Parasitic infection by larval helminths in Antarctic fishes: pathological changes and impact on the host body condition index
Mario Santoro, Simonetta Mattiucci, Thierry M. Work, Roberta Cimmaruta, Valentina Nardi, Paolo Cipriani, Bruno Bellisario, Giuseppe Nascetti
2013, Diseases of Aquatic Organisms (105) 139-148
We examined pathological changes and relationship between body condition index (BCI) and parasitic infection in 5 species of fish, including 42 icefish Chionodraco hamatus (Channichtyidae), 2 dragonfish Cygnodraco mawsoni (Bathydraconidae), 30 emerald rock cod Trematomus bernacchii, 46 striped rock cod T. hansoni and 9 dusty rock cod T. newnesi (Nototheniidae)...
EAARL coastal topography and imagery–Western Louisiana, post-Hurricane Rita, 2005: First surface
Jamie M. Bonisteel-Cormier, Wayne C. Wright, Xan Fredericks, Emily S. Klipp, Doug B. Nagle, Asbury H. Sallenger Jr., John Brock
2013, Data Series 720
These remotely sensed, geographically referenced color-infrared (CIR) imagery and elevation measurements of lidar-derived first-surface (FS) topography datasets were produced by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center, St. Petersburg, Florida, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia. This project...
Thermokarst and thaw-related landscape dynamics -- an annotated bibliography with an emphasis on potential effects on habitat and wildlife
Benjamin M. Jones, Courtney L. Amundson, Joshua C. Koch, Guido Grosse
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1161
Permafrost has warmed throughout much of the Northern Hemisphere since the 1980s, with colder permafrost sites warming more rapidly (Romanovsky and others, 2010; Smith and others, 2010). Warming of the near-surface permafrost may lead to widespread terrain instability in ice-rich permafrost in the Arctic and the Subarctic, and may result...
Quality-assurance plan for groundwater activities, U.S. Geological Survey, Washington Water Science Center
Mark D. Kozar, Sue C. Kahle
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1151
This report documents the standard procedures, policies, and field methods used by the U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) Washington Water Science Center staff for activities related to the collection, processing, analysis, storage, and publication of groundwater data. This groundwater quality-assurance plan changes through time to accommodate new methods and requirements developed...
Modeling prey consumption by native and non-native piscivorous fishes: implications for competition and impacts on shared prey in an ultraoligotrophic lake in Patagonia
Romina Juncos, David A. Beauchamp, Pablo H. Viglianoc
2013, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (142) 268-281
We examined trophic interactions of the nonnative salmonids Rainbow Trout Oncorhynchus mykiss, Brown Trout Salmo trutta, and Brook Trout Salvelinus fontinalisand the main native predator Creole Perch Percichthys trucha in Lake Nahuel Huapi (Patagonia, Argentina) to determine the relative impact of each predator on their forage base and to evaluate...
Applying UV cameras for SO2 detection to distant or optically thick volcanic plumes
Christoph Kern, Cynthia Werner, Tamar Elias, A. Jeff Sutton, Peter Lübcke
2013, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research (262) 80-89
Ultraviolet (UV) camera systems represent an exciting new technology for measuring two dimensional sulfur dioxide (SO2) distributions in volcanic plumes. The high frame rate of the cameras allows the retrieval of SO2 emission rates at time scales of 1 Hz or higher, thus allowing the investigation of high-frequency signals and...
Presence of indicator plant species as a predictor of wetland vegetation integrity
Martin A. Stapanian, Jean V. Adams, Brian Gara
2013, Plant Ecology (214) 291-302
We fit regression and classification tree models to vegetation data collected from Ohio (USA) wetlands to determine (1) which species best predict Ohio vegetation index of biotic integrity (OVIBI) score and (2) which species best predict high-quality wetlands (OVIBI score >75). The simplest regression tree model predicted OVIBI score based...
Reappraisal of the relationship between the northern Nevada rift and Miocene extension in the northern Basin and Range Province
Joseph P. Colgan
2013, Geology (41) 211-214
The northern Nevada rift is a prominent mafic dike swarm and magnetic anomaly in north-central Nevada inferred to record the Middle Miocene (16.5-15.0 Ma) extension direction in the northern Basin and Range province in the western United States. From the 245°-250° rift direction, Basin and Range extension is inferred to...
Superimposed extension and shortening in the southern Salinas Basin and La Panza Range, California: A guide to Neogene deformation in the Salinian block of the central California Coast Ranges
Joseph P. Colgan, Darcy McPhee, Kristin McDougall, Jeremy K. Hourigan
2013, Lithosphere (4) 29-48
We synthesized data from geologic maps, wells, seismic-reflection profiles, potential-field interpretations, and low-temperature thermochronology to refine our understanding of late Cenozoic extension and shortening in the Salinian block of the central California Coast Ranges. Data from the La Panza Range and southern Salinas Basin document early to middle Miocene extension,...
Modeling variably saturated multispecies reactive groundwater solute transport with MODFLOW-UZF and RT3D
Ryan T. Bailey, Eric D. Morway, Richard G. Niswonger, Timothy K. Gates
2013, Ground Water (51) 752-761
A numerical model was developed that is capable of simulating multispecies reactive solute transport in variably saturated porous media. This model consists of a modified version of the reactive transport model RT3D (Reactive Transport in 3 Dimensions) that is linked to the Unsaturated-Zone Flow (UZF1) package and MODFLOW. Referred to...
Potentially induced earthquakes in Oklahoma, USA: links between wastewater injection and the 2011 Mw 5.7 earthquake sequence
Katie M. Keranen, Heather M. Savage, Geoffrey A. Abers, Elizabeth S. Cochran
2013, Geology (41) 699-702
Significant earthquakes are increasingly occurring within the continental interior of the United States, including five of moment magnitude (Mw) ≥ 5.0 in 2011 alone. Concurrently, the volume of fluid injected into the subsurface related to the production of unconventional resources continues to rise. Here we identify the largest earthquake potentially...
Predicting the likelihood of altered streamflows at ungauged rivers across the conterminous United States
Ken Eng, Daren M. Carlisle, David M. Wolock, James A. Falcone
2013, River Research and Applications (29) 781-791
An approach is presented in this study to aid water-resource managers in characterizing streamflow alteration at ungauged rivers. Such approaches can be used to take advantage of the substantial amounts of biological data collected at ungauged rivers to evaluate the potential ecological consequences of altered streamflows. National-scale random forest statistical...
Correlating multispectral imaging and compositional data from the Mars Exploration Rovers and implications for Mars Science Laboratory
Ryan B. Anderson, James F. Bell III
2013, Icarus (223) 157-180
In an effort to infer compositional information about distant targets based on multispectral imaging data, we investigated methods of relating Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Pancam multispectral remote sensing observations to in situ alpha particle X-ray spectrometer (APXS)-derived elemental abundances and Mössbauer (MB)-derived abundances of Fe-bearing phases at the MER field...
Plot- and landscape-level changes in climate and vegetation following defoliation of exotic saltcedar (Tamarix sp.) from the biocontrol agent Diorhabda carinulata along a stream in the Mojave Desert (USA)
H.L. Bateman, Pamela L. Nagler, E. P. Glenn
2013, Journal of Arid Environments (89) 16-20
The biocontrol agent, northern tamarisk beetle (Diorhabda carinulata), has been used to defoliate non-native saltcedar (Tamarix spp.) in USA western riparian systems since 2001. Biocontrol has the potential to impact biotic communities and climatic conditions in affected riparian areas. To determine the relationships between biocontrol establishment and effects on vegetation...
Petroleum system analysis of the Hunton Group in West Edmond field, Oklahoma
Stephanie B. Gaswirth, Debra K. Higley
2013, American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin (97) 1163-1179
West Edmond field, located in central Oklahoma, is one of the largest oil accumulations in the Silurian–Devonian Hunton Group in this part of the Anadarko Basin. Production from all stratigraphic units in the field exceeds 170 million barrels of oil (MMBO) and 400 billion cubic feet of gas (BCFG),...
