Mapping and monitoring Mount Graham red squirrel habitat with Lidar and Landsat imagery
James R. Hatten
2014, Ecological Modelling (289) 106-123
The Mount Graham red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus grahamensis) is an endemic subspecies located in the Pinaleño Mountains of southeast Arizona. Living in a conifer forest on a sky-island surrounded by desert, the Mount Graham red squirrel is one of the rarest mammals in North America. Over the last two decades,...
The geology and geochemistry of Isla Floreana, Galápagos: A different type of late-stage ocean island volcanism
Karen S. Harpp, Dennis J. Geist, Alison M. Koleszar, Branden Christensen, John J. Lyons, Melissa Sabga, Nathan Rollins
Karen S. Harpp, Eric Mittelstaedt, Noemi d’Ozouville, David W. Graham, editor(s)
2014, Book chapter, The Galápagos: A natural laboratory for the earth sciences
Isla Floreana, the southernmost volcano in the Galápagos Archipelago, has erupted a diverse suite of alkaline basalts continually since 1.5 Ma. Because these basalts have different compositions than xenoliths and older lavas from the deep submarine sector of the volcano, Floreana is interpreted as being in a rejuvenescent or late-stage phase...
The Early Jurassic Bokan Mountain peralkaline granitic complex (southeastern Alaska): geochemistry, petrogenesis and rare-metal mineralization
Jaroslav Dostal, Daniel J. Kontak, Susan M. Karl
2014, LITHOS (202-203) 395-412
The Early Jurassic (ca. 177 Ma) Bokan Mountain granitic complex, located on southern Prince of Wales Island, southernmost Alaska, cross-cuts Paleozoic igneous and metasedimentary rocks of the Alexander terrane of the North American Cordillera and was emplaced during a rifting event. The complex is a circular body (~3 km in...
Nekton community structure varies in response to coastal urbanization near mangrove tidal tributaries
Justin M. Krebs, Carole C. McIvor, Susan S. Bell
2014, Estuaries and Coasts (37) 815-831
To assess the potential influence of coastal development on estuarine-habitat quality, we characterized land use and the intensity of land development surrounding small tidal tributaries in Tampa Bay. Based on this characterization, we classified tributaries as undeveloped, industrial, urban, or man-made (i.e., mosquito-control ditches). Over one third (37 %) of...
Demographic monitoring and population viability analysis of two rare beardtongues from the Uinta Basin
Rebecca M. McCaffery, Rita Reisor, Kathryn M. Irvine, Jessi Brunson
2014, Western North American Naturalist (74) 257-274
Energy development, in combination with other environmental stressors, poses a persistent threat to rare species endemic to energy-producing regions of the western United States. Demographic analyses of monitored populations can provide key information on the natural dynamics of threatened plant and animal populations and how these dynamics might be affected...
Geochemical and Nd-Sr-Pb isotopic evolution of metabasites from rifting of continental lithosphere, Seward Peninsula, Alaska, and implications for paleogeographic reconstruction
Robert A. Ayuso, Alison Till
2014, Book chapter, Reconstruction of a Late Proterozoic to Devonian continental margin sequence, northern Alaska, its paleogeographic significance, and contained base-metal sulfide deposits
The chemical character of mafic rocks from the Arctic Alaska–Chukotka terrane records rifting of continental crust during the early Paleozoic, possibly during the Ordovician. The mafic rocks are part of a metamorphosed...
Shaking up volcanoes
Stephanie G. Prejean, Matthew M. Haney
2014, Science (345) 39-39
Most volcanic eruptions that occur shortly after a large distant earthquake do so by random chance. A few compelling cases for earthquake-triggered eruptions exist, particularly within 200 km of the earthquake, but this phenomenon is rare in part because volcanoes must be poised to erupt in order to be triggered...
Sediment concentrations, flow conditions, and downstream evolution of two turbidity currents, Monterey Canyon, USA
Jingping Xu, Octavio E. Sequeiros, Marlene A. Noble
2014, Deep-Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers (89) 11-34
The capacity of turbidity currents to carry sand and coarser sediment from shallow to deep regions in the submarine environment has attracted the attention of researchers from different disciplines. Yet not only are field measurements of oceanic turbidity currents a rare achievement, but also the data that have been collected...
Age, chemistry, and correlations of Neoproterozoic–Devonian igneous rocks of the Arctic Alaska–Chukotka terrane: An overview with new U-Pb ages
Jeffrey M Amato, John N. Aleinikoff, Vyacheslav V Akinin, William C. McClelland, Jaime Toro
Julie A. Dumoulin, Alison B. Till, editor(s)
2014, Book chapter, Reconstruction of a Late Proterozoic to Devonian continental margin sequence, northern Alaska, its paleogeographic significance, and contained base-metal sulfide deposits
The Arctic Alaska–Chukotka terrane is a microcontinent with an origin exotic to Laurentia. We used a sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe (SHRIMP) to date nine samples of Neoproterozoic rock and five samples of Devonian rock from the Brooks Range and Seward Peninsula of Alaska and from the Chukotka Peninsula of northeastern...
Rare Earths in 2013
Joseph Gambogi
2014, Mining Engineering (66) 35-35
No abstract available....
Spatially explicit habitat models for 28 fishes from the Upper Mississippi River System (AHAG 2.0)
Brian S. Ickes, J.S. Sauer, N. Richards, M. Bowler, B. Schlifer
2014, Long Term Resource Monitoring Program Technical Report 2014-T002
Environmental management actions in the Upper Mississippi River System (UMRS) typically require pre-project assessments of predicted benefits under a range of project scenarios. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) now requires certified and peer-reviewed models to conduct these assessments. Previously, habitat benefits were estimated for fish communities...
Strong ground motions generated by earthquakes on creeping faults
Ruth A. Harris, Norman A. Abrahamson
2014, Geophysical Research Letters (41) 3870-3875
A tenet of earthquake science is that faults are locked in position until they abruptly slip during the sudden strain-relieving events that are earthquakes. Whereas it is expected that locked faults when they finally do slip will produce noticeable ground shaking, what is uncertain is how the ground shakes during...
Population trends of smallmouth bass in the upper Colorado River basin with an evaluation of removal effects
André R. Breton, Dana L. Winkelman, John A. Hawkins, Kevin R. Bestgen
2014, Report
Smallmouth bass Micropterus dolomieu were rare in the upper Colorado River basin until the early 1990’s when their abundance dramatically increased in the Yampa River sub-basin. Increased abundance was due primarily to colonization from Elkhead Reservoir, which was rapidly drawn down twice, first to make improvements to the dam (1992)...
Using a network modularity analysis to inform management of a rare endemic plant in the northern Great Plains, USA
Diane L. Larson, Sam Droege, Paul A. Rabie, Jennifer L. Larson, Jelle Devalez, Milton Haar, Margaret McDermott-Kubeczko
2014, Journal of Applied Ecology (51) 1024-1032
1. Analyses of flower-visitor interaction networks allow application of community-level information to conservation problems, but management recommendations that ensue from such analyses are not well characterized. Results of modularity analyses, which detect groups of species (modules) that interact more with each other than with species outside their module, may...
A new clarification method to visualize biliary degeneration during liver metamorphosis in sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus)
Yu-Wen Chung-Davidson, Peter J. Davidson, Anne M. Scott, Erin J. Walaszczyk, Cory O. Brant, Tyler Buchinger, Nicholas S. Johnson, Weiming Li
2014, Journal of Visualized Experiments (88)
Biliary atresia is a rare disease of infancy, with an estimated 1 in 15,000 frequency in the southeast United States, but more common in East Asian countries, with a reported frequency of 1 in 5,000 in Taiwan. Although much is known about the management of biliary atresia, its pathogenesis is...
Channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) leukocytes express estrogen receptor isoforms ERα and ERβ2 and are functionally modulated by estrogens
Luke R. Iwanowicz, James L. Stafford, Reynaldo Patiño, Eva Bengten, Norman W. Miller, Vicki Blazer
2014, Fish & Shellfish Immunology (40) 109-119
Estrogens are recognized as modulators of immune responses in mammals and teleosts. While it is known that the effects of estrogens are mediated via leukocyte-specific estrogen receptors (ERs) in humans and mice, leucocyte-specific estrogen receptor expression and the effects of estrogens on this cell population is less explored and poorly...
Vulnerability of age-0 pallid sturgeon Scaphirhynchus albus to predation; effects of predator type, turbidity, body size, and prey density
William E. French, Brian D. S. Graeb, Steven R. Chipps, Robert A. Klumb
2014, Environmental Biology of Fishes (97) 635-646
Predation can play an important role in the recruitment dynamics of fishes with intensity regulated by behavioral (i.e., prey selectivity) and/or environmental conditions that may be especially important for rare or endangered fishes. We conducted laboratory experiments to quantify prey selection and capture efficiency by three predators employing distinct foraging...
Ecological change on California's Channel Islands from the Pleistocene to the Anthropocene
Torben C. Rick, T. Scott Sillett, Cameron K. Ghalambor, Courtney A. Hofman, Katherine Ralls, R. Scott Anderson, Christina L. Boser, Todd J. Braje, Daniel R. Cayan, R. Terry Chesser, Paul W. Collins, Jon M. Erlandson, Kate R. Faulkner, Robert C. Fleischer, W. Chris Funk, Russell Galipeau, Ann Huston, Julie King, Lyndal L. Laughrin, Jesus Maldonado, Kathryn McEachern, Daniel R. Muhs, Seth D. Newsome, Leslie Reeder-Myers, Christopher Still, Scott A. Morrison
2014, BioScience
Historical ecology is becoming an important focus in conservation biology and offers a promising tool to help guide ecosystem management. Here, we integrate data from multiple disciplines to illuminate the past, present, and future of biodiversity on California's Channel Islands, an archipelago that has undergone a wide range of land-use...
Landscape selection by piping plovers has implications for measuring habitat and population size
Michael J. Anteau, Terry L. Shaffer, Mark T. Wiltermuth, Mark H. Sherfy
2014, Landscape Ecology (29) 1033-1044
How breeding birds distribute in relation to landscape-scale habitat features has important implications for conservation because those features may constrain habitat suitability. Furthermore, knowledge of these associations can help build models to improve area-wide demographic estimates or to develop a sampling stratification for research and monitoring. This is particularly important...
Impacts of white-tailed deer on red trillium (Trillium recurvatum): defining a threshold for deer browsing pressure at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore
Noel B. Pavlovic, Stacey A. Leicht-Young, Ralph Grundel
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5070
Overabundant white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) have been a concern for land managers in eastern North America because of their impacts on native forest ecosystems. Managers have sought native plant species to serve as phytoindicators of deer impacts to supplement deer surveys. We analyzed experimental data about red trillium (Trillium recurvatum),...
Water level response in back-barrier bays unchanged following Hurricane Sandy
Alfredo L. Aretxabaleta, Bradford Butman, Neil K. Ganju
2014, Geophysical Research Letters (41) 3163-3171
On 28–30 October 2012, Hurricane Sandy caused severe flooding along portions of the northeast coast of the United States and cut new inlets across barrier islands in New Jersey and New York. About 30% of the 20 highest daily maximum water levels observed between 2007 and 2013 in Barnegat and...
Using cumulative diet data and stable isotope analysis to determine trophic position of walleye Sander vitreus in a large, complex system
Mark J. Fincel, Daniel A. James, Steven R. Chipps, Blake A. Davis
2014, Journal of Freshwater Ecology (29) 441-447
Diet studies have traditionally been used to determine prey use and food web dynamics, while stable isotope analysis provides for a time-integrated approach to evaluate food web dynamics and characterize energy flow in aquatic systems. Direct comparison of the two techniques is rare and difficult to conduct in large, species...
Suitability of coastal marshes as Whooping Crane (Grus americana) foraging habitat in southwest Louisiana, USA
Sung-Ryong Kang, Sammy L. King
2014, Waterbirds (37) 254-263
Foraging habitat conditions (i.e., water depth, prey biomass, digestible energy density) can be a significant predictor of foraging habitat selection by wading birds. Potential foraging habitats of Whooping Cranes (Grus americana) using marshes include ponds and emergent marsh, but the potential prey and energy availability in these habitat types have...
Assessment of endocrine-disrupting chemicals attenuation in a coastal plain stream prior to wastewater treatment plant closure
Paul M. Bradley, Celeste A. Journey
2014, Journal of the American Water Resources Association (50) 388-400
The U.S. Geological Survey is conducting a combined pre/post-closure assessment at a long-term wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) site at Fort Gordon near Augusta, Georgia. Here, we assess select endocrine-active chemicals and benthic macroinvertebrate community structure prior to closure of the WWTP. Substantial downstream transport and limited instream attenuation of endocrine-disrupting...
Persistent organic contaminants in Saharan dust air masses in West Africa, Cape Verde and the eastern Caribbean
Virginia H. Garrison, Michael S. Majewski, William T. Foreman, Susan A. Genualdi, Azad Mohammed, Stacy L. Massey Simonich
2014, Science of the Total Environment (468-469) 530-543
Anthropogenic semivolatile organic compounds (SOCs) that persist in the environment, bioaccumulate, are toxic at low concentrations, and undergo long-range atmospheric transport (LRT) were identified and quantified in the atmosphere of a Saharan dust source region (Mali) and during Saharan dust incursions at downwind sites in the eastern Caribbean (U.S. Virgin...
