Elemental mapping by Dawn reveals exogenic H in Vesta's regolith
Thomas H. Prettyman, David W. Mittlefehldt, Naoyuki Yamashita, David J. Lawrence, Andrew W. Beck, William C. Feldman, Timothy J. McCoy, Harry Y. McSween, Michael J. Toplis, Timothy N. Titus, Pasquale Tricarico, Robert C. Reedy, John S. Hendricks, Olivier Forni, Lucille Le Corre, Jian-Yang Li, Hugau Mizzon, Vishnu Reddy, Carol A. Raymond, Christopher T. Russell
2012, Science (338) 242-246
Using Dawn’s Gamma Ray and Neutron Detector, we tested models of Vesta’s evolution based on studies of howardite, eucrite, and diogenite (HED) meteorites. Global Fe/O and Fe/Si ratios are consistent with HED compositions. Neutron measurements confirm that a thick, diogenitic lower crust is exposed in the Rheasilvia basin, which is...
Impacts of rural development on Yellowstone wildlife: linking grizzly bear Ursus arctos demographics with projected residential growth
Charles C. Schwartz, Patricia H. Gude, Lisa Landenburger, Mark A. Haroldson, Shannon Podruzny
2012, Wildlife Biology (18) 246-257
Exurban development is consuming wildlife habitat within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem with potential consequences to the long-term conservation of grizzly bears Ursus arctos. We assessed the impacts of alternative future land-use scenarios by linking an existing regression-based simulation model predicting rural development with a spatially explicit model that predicted bear...
Linking soil moisture balance and source-responsive models to estimate diffuse and preferential components of groundwater recharge
M.O. Cuthbert, R. Mackay, J. R. Nimmo
2012, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (9) 8455-8492
Results are presented of a detailed study into the vadose zone and shallow water table hydrodynamics of a field site in Shropshire, UK. A conceptual model is developed and tested using a range of numerical models, including a modified soil moisture balance model (SMBM) for estimating groundwater recharge in the...
Explaining reported puma-related behaviors and behavioral intentions among northern Arizona residents
David J. Mattson, Elizabeth J. Ruther
2012, Human Dimensions of Wildlife: An International Journal (17) 91-111
Management of pumas in the American West is typified by conflict among stakeholders plausibly rooted in life experiences and worldviews. We used a mail questionnaire to assess demographics, nature-views, puma-related life experiences and behaviors, and support for puma-related policies among residents of northern Arizona. Data from the questionnaire (n = 693 respondents)...
A graphical method to evaluate predominant geochemical processes occurring in groundwater systems for radiocarbon dating
Liang-Feng Han, Niel Plummer, Pradeep Aggarwal
2012, Chemical Geology (318-319) 88-112
A graphical method is described for identifying geochemical reactions needed in the interpretation of radiocarbon age in groundwater systems. Graphs are constructed by plotting the measured 14C, δ13C, and concentration of dissolved inorganic carbon and are interpreted according to specific criteria to recognize water samples that are consistent with a...
Current and potential sustainable corn stover feedstock for biofuel production in the United States
Zhengxi Tan, Shu-Guang Liu, Larry L. Tieszen, Norman Bliss
2012, Biomass and Bioenergy (47) 372-386
Increased demand for corn (Zea mays L.) stover as a feedstock for cellulosic ethanol raises concerns about agricultural sustainability. Excessive corn stover harvesting could have long-term impacts on soil quality. We estimated current and future stover production and evaluated the potential harvestable stover amount (HSA) that could be used for biofuel...
Impact-based earthquake alerts with the U.S. Geological Survey's PAGER system: what's next?
D.J. Wald, K. S. Jaiswal, K. D. Marano, D. Garcia, E. So, M. Hearne
2012, Conference Paper, The 15th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering: September 24-28, 2012, Lisbon, Portugal
In September 2010, the USGS began publicly releasing earthquake alerts for significant earthquakes around the globe based on estimates of potential casualties and economic losses with its Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER) system. These estimates significantly enhanced the utility of the USGS PAGER system which had been,...
Improving PAGER's real-time earthquake casualty and loss estimation toolkit: a challenge
K. S. Jaiswal, D.J. Wald
2012, Conference Paper, The 15th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering: September 24-28, 2012, Lisbon, Portugal
We describe the on-going developments of PAGER’s loss estimation models, and discuss value-added web content that can be generated related to exposure, damage and loss outputs for a variety of PAGER users. These developments include identifying vulnerable building types in any given area, estimating earthquake-induced damage and loss statistics by...
Modeling species invasions in Ecopath with Ecosim: an evaluation using Laurentian Great Lakes models
Brian J. Langseth, Mark Rogers, Hongyan Zhang
2012, Ecological Modelling (247) 251-261
Invasive species affect the structure and processes of ecosystems they invade. Invasive species have been particularly relevant to the Laurentian Great Lakes, where they have played a part in both historical and recent changes to Great Lakes food webs and the fisheries supported therein. There is increased interest in understanding...
Assessing sloth bears as surrogates for carnivore conservation in Sri Lanka
Shyamala Ratnayeke, Frank T. van Manen
2012, Ursus (23) 206-217
Bears are large, charismatic mammals whose presence often garners conservation attention. Because healthy bear populations typically require large, contiguous areas of habitat, land conservation actions often are assumed to benefit co-occurring species, including other mammalian carnivores. However, we are not aware of an empirical test of this assumption. We used...
Demographics, diet, movements, and survival of an isolated, unmanaged raccoon Procyon lotor (Procyonidae, Carnivora) population on the Outer Banks of North Carolina
Arielle Waldstein Parsons, Theodore R. Simons, Allan F. O’Connell, Michael K. Stoskopf
2012, Mammalia (77) 21-30
Raccoons (Procyon lotor) are highly adaptable meso-carnivores that inhabit many environments, including the Atlantic barrier islands, where their role as predators of declining, beach-nesting bird and turtle species is of particular interest. Population models that improve our understanding of predator-prey dynamics are receiving increasing attention in the literature; however, their...
Exceptional warming in the Western Pacific-Indian Ocean warm pool has contributed to more frequent droughts in eastern Africa
Christopher C. Funk
Thomas C. Peterson, Peter A. Stott, Stephanie Herring, editor(s)
2012, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (93) 1049-1051
In 2011, East Africa faced a tragic food crisis that led to famine conditions in parts of Somalia and severe food shortages in parts of Ethiopia and Somalia. While many nonclimatic factors contributed to this crisis (high global food prices, political instability, and chronic poverty, among others) failed rains in...
Context-dependent planktivory: interacting effects of turbidity and predation risk on adaptive foraging
Kevin L. Pangle, Timothy D. Malinich, David B. Bunnell, Dennis R. DeVries, Stuart A. Ludsin
2012, Ecosphere (3)
By shaping species interactions, adaptive phenotypic plasticity can profoundly influence ecosystems. Predicting such outcomes has proven difficult, however, owing in part to the dependence of plasticity on the environmental context. Of particular relevance are environmental factors that affect sensory performance in organisms in ways that alter the tradeoffs associated with...
Fragilariopsis diatom evolution in Pliocene and Pleistocene Antarctic shelf sediments
Charlotte Sjunneskog, Christina Riesselman, Diane Winter, Reed Scherer
2012, Micropaleontology (58) 273-289
The late Pliocene – early Pleistocene sediment record in the AND-1B core from the McMurdo Sound, Ross Sea, Antarctica, displays a rich diversity and high abundance of diatoms, including several new morphologies within the genus Fragilariopsis. These new morphologies exhibit similarities to the extinct late Miocene/early Pliocene species Fragilariopsis aurica...
Allowable levels of take for the trade in Nearctic songbirds
Fred A. Johnson, Matthew A.H. Walters, G. Scott Boomer
2012, Ecological Applications (22) 1114-1130
The take of Nearctic songbirds for the caged-bird trade is an important cultural and economic activity in Mexico, but its sustainability has been questioned. We relied on the theta-logistic population model to explore options for setting allowable levels of take for 11 species of passerines that were subject to legal...
Effects of low-density feeding on elk–fetus contact rates on Wyoming feedgrounds
Tyler G. Creech, Paul C. Cross, Brandon M. Scurlock, Eric Maichak, Jared D. Rogerson, John C. Henningsen, Scott Creel
2012, Journal of Wildlife Management (76) 877-886
High seroprevalance for Brucella abortus among elk on Wyoming feedgrounds suggests that supplemental feeding may influence parasite transmission and disease dynamics by altering the rate at which elk contact infectious materials in their environment. We used proximity loggers and video cameras to estimate rates of elk-to-fetus contact (the primary source...
Luna B. Leopold--pioneer setting the stage for modern hydrology
Randall J. Hunt, Curt Meine
2012, Ground Water (50) 966-970
In 1986, during the first year of graduate school, the lead author was sampling the water from a pitcher pump in front of “The Shack,” the setting of the opening essays in Aldo Leopold's renowned book A Sand County Almanac. The sampling was part of my Master's work that included...
Data quality of seismic records from the Tohoku, Japan earthquake as recorded across the Albuquerque Seismological Laboratory networks
A. T. Ringler, L.S. Gee, B. Marshall, C. R. Hutt, T. Storm
2012, Seismological Research Letters (83) 575-584
Great earthquakes recorded across modern digital seismographic networks, such as the recent Tohoku, Japan, earthquake on 11 March 2011 (Mw = 9.0), provide unique datasets that ultimately lead to a better understanding of the Earth's structure (e.g., Pesicek et al. 2008) and earthquake sources (e.g., Ammon et al. 2011). For...
Effects of climate change and population growth on the transboundary Santa Cruz aquifer
Christopher A. Scott, Sharon Megdal, Lucas Antonio Oroz, James Callegary, Prescott Vandervoet
2012, Climate Research (51) 159-170
The USA and Mexico have initiated comprehensive assessment of 4 of the 18 aquifers underlying their 3000 km border. Binational management of groundwater is not currently proposed. University and agency researchers plus USA and Mexican federal, state, and local agency staff have collaboratively identified key challenges facing the Santa Cruz...
Correlation of resource plays and biodiversity patterns: accumulation of organic-rich shale tracks taxonomic turnover
Jennifer D. Eoff
2012, GCAGS Journal (1) 1-12
Similar paleogeographic and paleotectonic settings characterize most self-sourced shale hydrocarbon plays. Their deposition occurred within similar orders of magnitude of eustatic events and during geologic periods characterized by “warm” (or transitional) climates and calcitic seas. In addition, the stratigraphic occurrence of shale plays parallels certain historical patterns of marine metazoan...
Comparison of soil thickness in a zero-order basin in the Oregon Coast Range using a soil probe and electrical resistivity tomography
Michael S. Morse, Ning Lu, Jonathan W. Godt, André Revil, Jeffrey A. Coe
2012, Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering (138) 1470-1482
Accurate estimation of the soil thickness distribution in steepland drainage basins is essential for understanding ecosystem and subsurface response to infiltration. One important aspect of this characterization is assessing the heavy and antecedent rainfall conditions that lead to shallow landsliding. In this paper, we investigate the direct current (DC) resistivity...
Temporal evolution of stable water isotopologues in cloud droplets in a hill cap cloud in central Europe (HCCT-2010)
J.K. Spiegel, F. Aemisegger, M. Scholl, F.G. Wienhold, J.L. Collett Jr., T. Lee, D. van Pinxteren, S. Mertes, A. Tilgner, H. Herrmann, Roland A. Werner, N. Buchmann, W. Eugster
2012, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (12) 11679-11694
In this work, we present the first study resolving the temporal evolution of δ2H and δ18O values in cloud droplets during 13 different cloud events. The cloud events were probed on a 937 m high mountain chain in Germany in the framework of the Hill Cap Cloud Thuringia 2010 campaign...
Changing restoration rules: exotic bivalves interact with residence time and depth to control phytoplankton productivity
Lisa V. Lucas, Janet K. Thompson
2012, Ecosphere (3)
Non-native species are a prevalent ecosystem stressor that can interact with other stressors to confound resource management and restoration. We examine how interactions between physical habitat attributes and a particular category of non-native species (invasive bivalves) influence primary production in aquatic ecosystems. Using mathematical models, we show how intuitive relationships...
High-frequency remote monitoring of large lakes with MODIS 500 m imagery
Ian M. McCullough, Cynthia S. Loftin, Steven A. Sader
2012, Remote Sensing of Environment (124) 234-241
Satellite-based remote monitoring programs of regional lake water quality largely have relied on Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) owing to its long image archive, moderate spatial resolution (30 m), and wide sensitivity in the visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, despite some notable limitations such as temporal resolution (i.e., 16 days), data pre-processing...
Occupancy rates of primary burrowing crayfish in natural and disturbed large river bottomlands
Zachary J. Loughman, Stuart A. Welsh, Thomas P. Simon
2012, Journal of Crustacean Biology (32) 557-564
Among crayfish, primary burrowing species are the least understood ecologically. Many primary burrowing crayfish inhabit floodplains where forested landscapes have been fragmented by agricultural, industrial, or residential uses. In this study, site occupancy rates (ψ) were modeled for two primary burrowing crayfish, Fallicambarus fodiens (Cottle, 1863) and Cambarus thomai Jezerinac,...
