Invasive plant species
Beth A. Middleton
2019, Book chapter, Encyclopedia of ecology
Invasive species may be one of the worts environmental problems facing the conservation of natural areas, because of their role in changing ecosystem function. At the same time, invasive species cause much human suffering and economic loss. The approach to eliminating invasive species can be improved by a better understanding of the...
Mercury speciation and retention in a salt marsh undergoing long-term fertilization
Carl Lamborg, Tracy Mincer, William Buchanan, Caroline Collins, Gretchen Swarr, Priya M. Ganguli, Kristen Whalen, Michael H. Bothner, Ivan Valiela
2019, Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science (218) 188-196
Experimental plots in Great Sippewissett Marsh (Falmouth, MA USA) have been undergoing long-term (>48 years) fertilization through the application of commercial sewage sludge-based fertilizer. The experimental treatment focuses on the effect of added nitrogen on the salt marsh plots, but also supplies mercury (Hg) and other metals. This experiment provides a unique opportunity to test hypotheses...
Flood-inundation maps for Lake Champlain in Vermont and New York
Robert H. Flynn, Laura Hayes
2019, Scientific Investigations Report 2018-5169
In 2016, digital flood-inundation maps along the shoreline of Lake Champlain in Addison, Chittenden, Franklin, and Grand Isle Counties in Vermont and northern Clinton County in New York were created by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the International Joint Commission (IJC). This report discusses the creation of...
Florida Coastal Mapping Program—Overview and 2018 workshop report
Cheryl J. Hapke, Philip A. Kramer, Elizabeth H. Fetherston-Resch, Rene D. Baumstark, Ryan Druyor, Xan Fredericks, Ekaterina Fitos
2019, Open-File Report 2019-1017
The Florida Coastal Mapping Program is a nascent but highly relevant program that has the potential to greatly enhance the “Blue Economy” of Florida by coordinating and facilitating sea-floor mapping efforts and aligning partner and stakeholder activities for increased efficiency and cost reduction. Sustained acquisition of modern coastal mapping information...
Validating a time series of annual grass percent cover in the sagebrush ecosystem
Stephen P. Boyte, Bruce K. Wylie, Donald J. Major
2019, Rangeland Ecology and Management (72) 347-359
We mapped yearly (2000–2016) estimates of annual grass percent cover for much of the sagebrush ecosystem of the western United States using remotely sensed, climate, and geophysical data in regression-tree models. Annual grasses senesce and cure by early summer and then become beds of fine fuel that easily ignite and spread fire through rangeland systems. Our...
Dark halos produced by current impact cratering on Mars
Gwendolyn D. Bart, Ingrid J. Daubar, Boris A Ivanov, Colin M. Dundas, Alfred S. McEwen
2019, Icarus (328) 45-57
Hundreds of new impact craters have been observed to form on Mars since spacecraft began imaging that planet. New impact craters produced visible ejecta deposits and many of them also have visible rays, similar to lunar and mercurian craters. However, some of the new martian impact craters have a circular feature of relatively low reflectance that...
Evidence for plunging river plume deposits in the Pahrump Hills member of the Murray formation, Gale crater, Mars
Kathryn M. Stack, John P. Grotzinger, Michael P. Lamb, Sanjeev Gupta, David M. Rubin, Linda C. Kah, Lauren A. Edgar, Deirdra M. Fey, Joel A. Hurowitz, Marie J. McBride, Frances Rivera-Hernandez, Dawn Y. Sumner, Jason K. Van Beek, Rebecca M. E. Williams, R. Aileen Yingst
2019, Sedimentology (66) 1768-1801
Recent robotic missions to Mars have offered new insights into the extent, diversity and habitability of the Martian sedimentary rock record. Since the Curiosity rover landed in Gale crater in August 2012, the Mars Science Laboratory Science Team has explored the origins and habitability of ancient fluvial, deltaic, lacustrine and aeolian deposits...
Structure contour and overburden maps of the Niobrara interval of the Upper Cretaceous Cody Shale in the Wind River Basin, Wyoming
Thomas M. Finn
2019, Scientific Investigations Map 3427
The Wind River Basin in central Wyoming is one of many structural and sedimentary basins that formed in the Rocky Mountain foreland during the Laramide orogeny. The basin is bounded by the Washakie, Owl Creek, and southern Bighorn uplifts on the north, the Casper arch on the east, the Granite Mountains uplift on...
Coastal habitat change and marine megafauna behavior: Florida manatees encountering reduced food provisions in a prominent winter refuge
Chanda J. Littles, Robert K. Bonde, Susan M. Butler, Charles A. Jacoby, Sky K. Notestein, James P. Reid, Daniel H. Slone, Thomas K. Frazer
2019, Endangered Species Research (38) 29-43
A decline in submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) within Florida’s spring-fed thermal refuges raises questions about how these systems support winter foraging of Florida manatees Trichechus manatus latirostris. We analyzed telemetry data for 12 manatees over 7 yr to assess their use of Kings Bay, a winter refuge with diminished SAV. After...
The past and future roles of competition and habitat in the range‐wide occupancy dynamics of Northern Spotted Owls
Charles B. Yackulic, Larissa L. Bailey, Katie Dugger, Raymond J. Davis, Alan B. Franklin, Eric D. Forsman, Steven H. Ackers, Lawrence S. Andrews, Lowell V. Diller, Scott A. Gremel, Keith A. Hamm, Dale R. Herter, J. Mark Higley, Rob B. Horn, Christopher McCafferty, Janice A. Reid, Jeremy T. Rockweit, Stan G. Sovern
2019, Ecological Applications (29)
Slow ecological processes challenge conservation. Short‐term variability can obscure the importance of slower processes that may ultimately determine the state of a system. Furthermore, management actions with slow responses can be hard to justify. One response to slow processes is to explicitly concentrate analysis on state dynamics. Here, we focus...
Spatial distribution of nutrients, chloride, and suspended sediment concentrations and loads determined by using different sampling methods in a cross section of the Trenton Channel of the Detroit River, Michigan, November 2014–November 2015
Alexander R. Totten, Joseph W. Duris
2019, Scientific Investigations Report 2018-5141
The Detroit River separates the United States and Canada as it flows from Lake St. Clair to Lake Erie. The Trenton Channel is a 13-kilometer-long branch of the Detroit River that flows to the west of Grosse Ile before rejoining the Detroit River near its mouth, just before the Detroit...
Where has turtle ecology been, and where is it going?
J. Whitfield Gibbons, Jeffrey E. Lovich
2019, Herpetologica (75) 4-20
Over 9000 articles have been published on turtles and tortoises (excluding sea turtles) since 1950 according to the Web of Science, including over 8000 contained in a personal bibliography that we analyze in this paper. Research had a slow start from 1900 to 1950, with mostly anecdotal additions to our...
Age of the dacite of Sunset Amphitheater, a voluminous Pleistocene tephra from Mount Rainier (USA), and implications for Cascade glacial stratigraphy
Thomas W. Sisson, Axel K. Schmitt, Martin Danisik, Andrew T. Calvert, Napoleon Pempena, Chun-Yuan Huang, Chuan-Chou Shen
2019, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research (376) 27-43
The dacite of Sunset Amphitheater, Mount Rainier (USA), illustrates the difficulties in establishing accurate ages of Pleistocene tephra eruptions. Nearly uniform whole-rock, glass,...
The glycoprotein, non-virion protein, and polymerase of viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus are not determinants of host-specific virulence in rainbow trout
Shamila Yusuff, Gael Kurath, Min Sun Kim, Tarin M Tesfaye, Jie Liu, Douglas Mckenney, Vikram N Vakharia
2019, Virology Journal (16) 1-16
Viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus (VHSV), a fish rhabdovirus belonging to the Novirhabdovirus genus, causes severe disease and mortality in many marine and freshwater fish species worldwide. VHSV isolates are classified into four genotypes and each group is endemic to specific geographic regions in the north Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Most...
Modelling sea lice control by lumpfish on Atlantic salmon farms: interactions with mate limitation, temperature, and treatment rules
Gregor F. McEwan, Maya L. Groner, Allegra A. B. Cohen, Albert K. D. Imsland, Crawford W. Revie
2019, Diseases of Aquatic Organisms (133) 69-82
Atlantic salmon farming is one of the largest aquaculture sectors in the world. A major impact on farm economics, fish welfare, and potentially nearby wild salmonid populations, is the sea louse ectoparasite Lepeophtheirus salmonis. Sea louse infestations are most often controlled through application of chemicals, but in most farming regions sea...
Not so normal normals: Species distribution model results are sensitive to choice of climate normals and model type
Catherine S. Jarnevich, Nicholas E. Young
2019, Climate (7) 1-15
Species distribution models have many applications in conservation and ecology, and climate data are frequently a key driver of these models. Often, correlative modeling approaches are developed with readily available climate data; however, the impacts of the choice of climate normals is rarely considered. Here, we produced species distribution models...
Patterns of mercury and selenium exposure in Minnesota common loons
Kevin P. Kenow, Steven C. Houdek, Luke J. Fara, Richard A. Erickson, Brian R. Gray, Travis J. Harrison, Bruce Monson, Carrol L. Henderson
2019, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (38) 524-532
Common loons (Gavia immer) are at risk of elevated dietary mercury (Hg) exposure in portions of their breeding range. To assess the level of risk among loons in Minnesota (USA), we investigated loon blood Hg concentrations in breeding lakes across Minnesota. Loon blood Hg concentrations were regressed on predicted Hg...
The area under the precision‐recall curve as a performance metric for rare binary events
Helen Sofaer, Jennifer A. Hoeting, Catherine S. Jarnevich
2019, Methods in Ecology and Evolution (10) 565-577
Species distribution models are used to study biogeographic patterns and guide decision‐making. The variable quality of these models makes it critical to assess whether a model's outputs are suitable for the intended use, but commonly used evaluation approaches are inappropriate for many ecological contexts. In particular, unrealistically high performance...
Distant neighbors: recent wildfire patterns of the Madrean Sky Islands of southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico
Miguel L. Villarreal, Sandra L. Haire, Jose M. Iniguez, Citlali Cortes Montano, Travis B. Poitras
2019, Fire Ecology (15) 1-20
BackgroundInformation about contemporary fire regimes across the Sky Island mountain ranges of the Madrean Archipelago Ecoregion in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico can provide insight into how historical fire management and land use have influenced fire regimes, and can be used to guide...
Historical background and current developments for mapping burned area from satellite Earth observation
Emilio Chuvieco, Flourent Mouillot, Guido R. van der Werf, Jesus San Miguel, Mihai Tanasse, Nikos Koutsias, Mariano Garcia, Marta Yebra, Marc Padilla, Angelika Heil, Todd Hawbaker, Louis Giglio
2019, Remote Sensing of Environment (225) 45-64
Fire has a diverse range of impacts on Earth's physical and social systems. Accurate and up to date information on areas affected by fire is critical to better understand drivers of fire activity, as well as its relevance for biogeochemical cycles, climate, air quality, and to aid fire management. Mapping burned...
Managing dams for energy and fish tradeoffs: What does a win-win solution take?
Cuihong Song, Andrew O’Malley, Samuel G. Roy, Joseph D. Zydlewski, Betsy L. Barber, Weiwei Mo
2019, Science of the Total Environment (669) 833-843
Management activities to restore endangered fish species, such as dam removals, fishway installations, and periodic turbine shutdowns, usually decrease hydropower generation capacities at dams. Quantitative analysis of the tradeoffs between energy production and fish population recovery related to dam decision-making...
Spatial and temporal variability of harmful algal blooms in Milford Lake, Kansas, May through November 2016
Guy M. Foster, Jennifer L. Graham, Lindsey R. King
2019, Scientific Investigations Report 2018-5166
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE), completed a study to quantify the spatial and temporal variability of cyanobacterial blooms in Milford Lake, Kansas, over a range of environmental conditions at various time scales (hours to months). A better understanding of the...
Characterizing the influence of fire on hydrology in southern California
Lorraine E. Flint, Emma C Underwood, Alan L. Flint, Allan Hollander
2019, Natural Areas Journal (39) 108-121
The chaparral-dominated national forests of southern California were in part established to provide water provision services to the surrounding urban populations and irrigation for agriculture. However, water provision in the form of groundwater recharge and surface runoff depends on the climatological conditions of any given...
Fungicides: An overlooked pesticide class?
Jochen Zubrod, Micro Bundschuh, Gertie Arts, Carsten Bruhl, Gwenael Imfeld, Anja Knabel, Sylvain Payraudeau, Jes J Rasmussen, Jason Rohr, Andreas Scharmuller, Kelly L. Smalling, Sebastian Stehle, Ralf B. Schäfer, Ralf Schulz
2019, Environmental Science & Technology (53) 3347-3365
Fungicides are indispensable to global food security and their use is forecasted to intensify. Fungicides can reach aquatic ecosystems and occur in surface water bodies in agricultural catchments throughout the whole growing season due to their frequent, prophylactic application. However, in comparison to herbicides and insecticides, the exposure to and...
Assessing the lead solubility potential of untreated groundwater of the United States
Bryant Jurgens, David L. Parkhurst, Kenneth Belitz
2019, Environmental Science & Technology (53) 3095-3103
In the U.S., about 44 million people rely on self-supplied groundwater for drinking water. Because most self-supplied homeowners do not treat their water to control corrosion, drinking water can be susceptible to lead (Pb) contamination from metal plumbing. To assess the types and locations of susceptible groundwater, a geochemical reaction...
