Circuit theory and model-based inference for landscape connectivity
Ephraim M. Hanks, Mevin Hooten
2013, Journal of the American Statistical Association (108) 22-33
Circuit theory has seen extensive recent use in the field of ecology, where it is often applied to study functional connectivity. The landscape is typically represented by a network of nodes and resistors, with the resistance between nodes a function of landscape characteristics. The effective distance between two locations on...
Spatial occupancy models for large data sets
Devin S. Johnson, Paul B. Conn, Mevin Hooten, Justina C. Ray, Bruce A. Pond
2013, Ecology (94) 801-808
Since its development, occupancy modeling has become a popular and useful tool for ecologists wishing to learn about the dynamics of species occurrence over time and space. Such models require presence–absence data to be collected at spatially indexed survey units. However, only recently have researchers recognized the need to correct...
Geologic map of the Winslow 30’ × 60’ quadrangle, Coconino and Navajo Counties, northern Arizona
George H. Billingsley, Debra L. Block, Margaret Hiza Redsteer
2013, Scientific Investigations Map 3247
The Winslow 30’ × 60’ quadrangle encompasses approximately 5,018 km2 (1,960 mi2) within Coconino and Navajo Counties of northern Arizona. It is characterized by gently dipping Paleozoic and Mesozoic strata that dip 1° to 2° northeastward in the southwestern part of the quadrangle and become nearly flat-lying in the northeastern...
Variation in body mass dynamics among sites in Black Brant Branta bernicla nigricans supports adaptivity of mass loss during moult
Thomas F. Fondell, Paul L. Flint, Joel A. Schmutz, Jason L. Schamber, Christopher A. Nicolai
2013, Ibis (155) 593-604
Birds employ varying strategies to accommodate the energetic demands of moult, one important example being changes in body mass. To understand better their physiological and ecological significance, we tested three hypotheses concerning body mass dynamics during moult. We studied Black Brant in 2006 and 2007 moulting at three sites in...
Concentration, flux, and the analysis of trends of total and dissolved phosphorus, total nitrogen, and chloride in 18 tributaries to Lake Champlain, Vermont and New York, 1990–2011
Laura Medalie
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5021
Annual concentration, flux, and yield for total phosphorus, dissolved phosphorus, total nitrogen, and chloride for 18 tributaries to Lake Champlain were estimated for 1990 through 2011 using a weighted regression method based on time, tributary streamflows (discharges), and seasonal factors. The weighted regression method generated two series of daily estimates...
Improving predictive power of physically based rainfall-induced shallow landslide models: a probablistic approach
S. Raia, M. Alvioli, M. Rossi, R.L. Baum, J. W. Godt, F. Guzzetti
2013, Geoscientific Model Development and Discussions (6) 1367-1426
Distributed models to forecast the spatial and temporal occurrence of rainfall-induced shallow landslides are deterministic. These models extend spatially the static stability models adopted in geotechnical engineering and adopt an infinite-slope geometry to balance the resisting and the driving forces acting on the sliding mass. An infiltration model is used...
An individual-based model for population viability analysis of humpback chub in Grand Canyon
William Pine Pine III, Brian Healy, Emily Omana Smith, Melissa Trammell, Dave Speas, Rich Valdez, Mike Yard, Carl Walters, Rob Ahrens, Randy Vanhaverbeke, Dennis Stone, Wade Wilson
2013, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (33) 626-641
We developed an individual-based population viability analysis model (females only) for evaluating risk to populations from catastrophic events or conservation and research actions. This model tracks attributes (size, weight, viability, etc.) for individual fish through time and then compiles this information to assess the extinction risk of the population across...
The 3D Elevation Program: summary for Wisconsin
William J. Carswell Jr.
2013, Fact Sheet 2013-3032
Elevation data are essential to a broad range of applications, including forest resources management, wildlife and habitat management, national security, recreation, and many others. For the State of Wisconsin, elevation data are critical for agriculture and precision farming, natural resources conservation, flood risk management, infrastructure and construction management, water supply...
Resilience thinking and a decision-analytic approach to conservation: strange bedfellows or essential partners?
Fred A. Johnson, Byron K. Williams, James D. Nichols
2013, Ecology and Society (18)
There has been some tendency to view decision science and resilience theory as opposing approaches, or at least as contending perspectives, for natural resource management. Resilience proponents have been especially critical of optimization in decision science, at least for those cases where it is focused on the aggressive pursuit of...
Field survey and damage assessment of the Mineral, Virginia, earthquake of August 23, 2011
Helen R. Thomas, Katharine Turkle
2013, Open-File Report 2012-1198
The town of Mineral, Virginia (Va.), underwent an M=5.8 earthquake on August 23, 2011. A U.S. Geological Survey team was sent to visually inspect and document the damage in the cities of Richmond, Charlottesville, Louisa, and Mineral, Va. Our inspection concluded that the Modified Mercalli Intensity rating of moderate (V)...
New perspectives on the geometry of the Albuquerque Basin, Rio Grande rift, New Mexico: Insights from geophysical models of rift-fill thickness
V. J. Grauch, Sean D. Connell
2013, Special Paper of the Geological Society of America (494) 427-462
Discrepancies among previous models of the geometry of the Albuquerque Basin motivated us to develop a new model using a comprehensive approach. Capitalizing on a natural separation between the densities of mainly Neogene basin fill (Santa Fe Group) and those of older rocks, we developed a three-dimensional (3D) geophysical model...
Controls of biological soil crust cover and composition shift with succession in sagebrush shrub-steppe
E. Dettweiler-Robinson, J.D. Bakker, J.B. Grace
2013, Journal of Arid Environments (94) 96-104
Successional stage may determine strength and causal direction of interactions among abiotic and biotic factors; e.g., species that facilitate the establishment of other species may later compete with them. We evaluated multivariate hypotheses about abiotic and biotic factors shaping biological soil crusts (BSCs) in early and late successional stages. We...
Pathophysiology of white-nose syndrome in bats: A mechanistic model linking wing damage to mortality
Lisa Warnecke, James M. Turner, Trent K. Bollinger, Vikram Misra, Paul M. Cryan, David S. Blehert, Gudrun Wibbelt, Craig K. R. Willis
2013, Biology Letters (9)
White-nose syndrome is devastating North American bat populations but we lack basic information on disease mechanisms. Altered blood physiology owing to epidermal invasion by the fungal pathogen Geomyces destructans (Gd) has been hypothesized as a cause of disrupted torpor patterns of affected hibernating bats, leading to mortality. Here, we present data on...
Development of a numerical model to simulate groundwater flow in the shallow aquifer system of Assateague Island, Maryland and Virginia
John P. Masterson, Michael N. Fienen, Dean B. Gesch, Carl S. Carlson
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1111
A three-dimensional groundwater-flow model was developed for Assateague Island in eastern Maryland and Virginia to simulate both groundwater flow and solute (salt) transport to evaluate the groundwater system response to sea-level rise. The model was constructed using geologic and spatial information to represent the island geometry, boundaries, and physical properties...
The storage time, age, and erosion hazard of laterally accreted sediment on the floodplain of a simulated meandering river
D. Nathan Bradley, Gregory E. Tucker
2013, Journal of Geophysical Research F: Earth Surface (118) 1308-1319
A sediment particle traversing the fluvial system may spend the majority of the total transit time at rest, stored in various sedimentary deposits. Floodplains are among the most important of these deposits, with the potential to store large amounts of sediment for long periods of time. The virtual velocity of...
Human and biophysical influences on fire occurrence in the United States
Todd Hawbaker, Volker C. Radeloff, Susan I. Stewart, Roger B. Hammer, Nicholas S. Keuler, Murray K. Clayton
2013, Ecological Applications (23) 565-582
National-scale analyses of fire occurrence are needed to prioritize fire policy and management activities across the United States. However, the drivers of national-scale patterns of fire occurrence are not well understood, and how the relative importance of human or biophysical factors varies across the country is unclear. Our research goal...
Understanding how social networking influences perceived satisfaction with conference experiences
Carena J. van Riper, Charles van Riper III, Gerard T. Kyle, Martha E. Lee
2013, Annals of Leisure Research (16) 103-114
Social networking is a key benefit derived from participation in conferences that bind the ties of a professional community. Building social networks can lead to satisfactory experiences while furthering participants' long- and short-term career goals. Although investigations of social networking can lend insight into how to effectively engage individuals and...
Conservation of avian diversity in the Sierra Nevada: moving beyond a single-species management focus
Angela M. White, Elise F. Zipkin, Patricia N. Manley, Matthew D. Schlesinger
2013, PLoS ONE (8)
Background: As a result of past practices, many of the dry coniferous forests of the western United States contain dense, even-aged stands with uncharacteristically high levels of litter and downed woody debris. These changes to the forest have received considerable attention as they elevate concerns regarding the outcome of...
The timing of scour and fill in a gravel-bedded river measured with buried accelerometers
Andrew S. Gendaszek, Christopher S. Magirl, Christiana R. Czuba, Christopher P. Konrad
2013, Journal of Hydrology (495) 186-196
A device that measures the timing of streambed scour and the duration of sediment mobilization at specific depths of a streambed was developed using data-logging accelerometers placed within the gravel substrate of the Cedar River, Washington, USA. Each accelerometer recorded its orientation every 20 min and remained stable until the...
Heterogeneous rupture in the great Cascadia earthquake of 1700 inferred from coastal subsidence estimates
Pei-Ling Wang, Simon E. Engelhart, Kelin Wang, Andrea D. Hawkes, Benjamin P. Horton, Alan R. Nelson, Robert C. Witter
2013, Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth (118) 2460-2473
Past earthquake rupture models used to explain paleoseismic estimates of coastal subsidence during the great A.D. 1700 Cascadia earthquake have assumed a uniform slip distribution along the megathrust. Here we infer heterogeneous slip for the Cascadia margin in A.D. 1700 that is analogous to slip distributions during instrumentally recorded great...
Grizzly bear predation links the loss of native trout to the demography of migratory elk in Yellowstone
Arthur D. Middleton, Thomas A. Morrison, Jennifer K. Fortin, Charles T. Robbins, Kelly M. Proffitt, P.J. White, Douglas E. McWhirter, Todd M. Koel, Douglas G. Brimeyer, W. Sue Fairbanks, Matthew J. Kauffman
2013, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (280)
The loss of aquatic subsidies such as spawning salmonids is known to threaten a number of terrestrial predators, but the effects on alternative prey species are poorly understood. At the heart of the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem, an invasion of lake trout has driven a dramatic decline of native cutthroat trout...
Variations in surface water-ground water interactions along a headwater mountain stream : comparisons between transient storage and water balance analyses
Adam S. Ward, Robert A. Payn, Michael N. Gooseff, Brian L. McGlynn, Kenneth E. Bencala, Christa A. Kelleher, Steven M. Wondzell, Thorsten Wagener
2013, Water Resources Research (49) 3359-3374
The accumulation of discharge along a stream valley is frequently assumed to be the primary control on solute transport processes. Relationships of both increasing and decreasing transient storage, and decreased gross losses of stream water have been reported with increasing discharge; however, we have yet to validate these relationships with...
Hydrodynamics of spur and groove formations on a coral reef
Justin S. Rogers, Stephen G. Monismith, Falk Feddersen, Curt D. Storlazzi
2013, Journal of Geophysical Research C: Oceans (118) 3059-3073
Spur and groove (SAG) formations are found on the fore reefs of many coral reefs worldwide. Although these formations are primarily present in wave‐dominated environments, their effect on wave‐driven hydrodynamics is not well understood. A two‐dimensional, depth‐averaged, phase‐resolving nonlinear Boussinesq model (funwaveC) was used to model hydrodynamics...
The influence of sea level rise and changes in fringing reef morphology on gradients in alongshore sediment transport
A. E. Grady, L. J. Moore, Curt D. Storlazzi, E. Elias, M. A. Reidenbach
2013, Geophysical Research Letters (40) 3096-3101
Climate‐change‐induced alterations to coral reef ecosystems, in combination with sea level rise, have the potential to significantly alter wave dissipation across reefs, leading to shifts in alongshore sediment transport gradients and alterations to tropical coastlines. We used Delft3D to model schematized profiles of two reef flat widths based on the...
Effects of sex pheromones and sexual maturation on locomotor activity in female sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus)
Erin J. Walaszczyk, Nicholas S. Johnson, Juan Pedro Steibel, Weiming Li
2013, Journal of Biological Rhythms (28) 218-226
Synchronization of male and female locomotor rhythmicity can play a vital role in ensuring reproductive success. Several physiological and environmental factors alter these locomotor rhythms. As sea lamprey, Petromyzon marinus, progress through their life cycle, their locomotor activity rhythm changes multiple times. The goal of this study was to elucidate...
