Optimal egg size in a suboptimal environment: reproductive ecology of female Sonora mud turtles (Kinosternon sonoriense) in central Arizona, USA
Jeffrey E. Lovich, Sheila V. Madrak, Charles A. Drost, Anthony J. Monatesti, Dennis Casper, Mohammed Znari
2012, Amphibia-Reptilia (33) 161-170
We studied the reproductive ecology of female Sonora mud turtles (Kinosternon sonoriense) at Montezuma Well, a chemically-challenging natural wetland in central Arizona, USA. Females matured between 115.5 and 125 mm carapace length (CL) and 36-54% produced eggs each year. Eggs were detected in X-radiographs from 23 April-28 September (2007-2008) and...
Using integrated research and interdisciplinary science: Potential benefits and challenges to managers of parks and protected areas
Charles van Riper III, Robert B. Powell, Gary Machlis, Jan W. van Wagtendonk, Carena J. van Riper, Eick von Ruschkowski, Steven E. Schwarzbach, Russell E. Galipeau
2012, The George Wright Forum (29) 216-226
Our purpose in this paper is to build a case for utilizing interdisciplinary science to enhance the management of parks and protected areas. We suggest that interdisciplinary science is necessary for dealing with the complex issues of contemporary resource management, and that using the best available integrated scientific information be...
Persistence and extirpation in invaded landscapes: patch characteristics and connectivity determine effects of non-native predatory fish on native salamanders
David S. Pilliod, Robert S. Arkle, Bryce A. Maxell
2012, Biological Invasions (15) 671-685
Studies have demonstrated negative effects of non-native, predatory fishes on native amphibians, yet it is still unclear why some amphibian populations persist, while others are extirpated, following fish invasion. We examined this question by developing habitat-based occupancy models for the long-toed salamander (Ambystoma macrodactylum) and nonnative fish using survey data...
Using mark-recapture models to estimate survival from telemetry data: Chapter 9.2
Russell W. Perry, Theodore R. Castro-Santos, Christopher M. Holbrook, Benjamin P. Sandford
Noah Adams, John W. Beeman, John H. Eiler, editor(s)
2012, Book chapter, Telemetry techniques: A user guide for fisheries research
Analyzing telemetry data within a mark–recapture framework is a powerful approach for estimating demographic parameters (e.g., survival and movement probabilities) that might otherwise be difficult to measure. Yet many studies using telemetry techniques focus on fish behavior and fail to recognize the potential of telemetry data to provide information about...
Status and limiting factors of two rare plant species in dry montane communities of Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park.
Linda W. Pratt, Joshua R. VanDeMark, Melody Euaparadorn
2012, Technical Report HCSU-030
Two rare plants native to montane dry forests and woodland communities of Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park (HAVO) were studied for more than two years to determine their stand structure, short-term mortality rates, patterns of reproductive phenology, success of fruit production, floral visitor composition, seed germination rates in the greenhouse, and...
Local-area-enhanced, 2.5-meter resolution natural-color and color-infrared satellite-image mosaics of the Khanneshin mineral district in Afghanistan: Chapter A in Local-area-enhanced, high-resolution natural-color and color-infrared satellite-image mosaics of mineral districts in Afghanistan
Philip A. Davis, Laura E. Cagney, Scott A. Arko, Michelle L. Harbin
2012, Data Series 709-A
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Defense Task Force for Business and Stability Operations, prepared databases for mineral-resource target areas in Afghanistan. The purpose of the databases is to (1) provide useful data to ground-survey crews for use in performing detailed assessments of the...
Groundwater-quality data in the Borrego Valley, Central Desert, and Low-Use Basins of the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts study unit, 2008-2010--Results from the California GAMA Program
Timothy M. Mathany, Michael T. Wright, Brandon S. Beuttel, Kenneth Belitz
2012, Data Series 659
Groundwater quality in the 12,103-square-mile Borrego Valley, Central Desert, and Low-Use Basins of the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts (CLUB) study unit was investigated by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) from December 2008 to March 2010, as part of the California State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) Groundwater Ambient Monitoring and...
Time-specific patterns of nest survival for ducks and passerines breeding in North Dakota
Terry L. Shaffer, Todd A. Grant
2012, The Auk (129) 319-328
In many bird species, survival can vary with the age of the nest, with the date a nest was initiated, or among years within the same nesting area. A literature review showed that patterns of survival vary in relation to nest age and date and are often contradictory. Inconsistencies could...
Water quality and landscape processes of four watersheds in eastern Puerto Rico
Sheila F. Murphy, Robert F. Stallard, Heather L. Contributions by Buss, William A. Gould, Matthew C. Larsen, Zhigang Liu, Sebastian Martinuzzi, Isabel K. Pares-Ramos, Arthur F. White, Xiaoming Zou
2012, Professional Paper 1789
Humid tropical regions occupy about a quarter of Earth's land surface, yet they contribute a substantially higher fraction of the water, solutes, and sediment discharged to the world's oceans. Nearly half of Earth's population lives in the tropics, and development stresses can potentially harm soil resources, water quality, and water...
Patterns in species richness and assemblage structure of native mussels in the Upper Mississippi River
Steven J. Zigler, Teresa J. Newton, Mike Davis, James T. Rogala
2012, Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems (22) 577-587
1. To evaluate patterns in mussel assemblages in the Upper Mississippi River (UMR), data from systematic surveys of mussels conducted in three large reaches (Navigation Pools 5, 6, and 18) from 2005–2007 were analysed. 2. Nonmetric multi-dimensional scaling analyses and permutation tests indicated that assemblages differed among reaches. The mussel...
Natural-channel-design restorations that changed geomorphology have little effect on macroinvertebrate communities in headwater streams
Anne G. Ernst, Dana R. Warren, Barry P. Baldigo
2012, Restoration Ecology (20) 532-540
Stream restorations that increase geomorphic stability can improve habitat quality, which should benefit selected species and local aquatic ecosystems. This assumption is often used to define primary restoration goals; yet, biological responses to restoration are rarely monitored or evaluated methodically. Macroinvertebrate communities were inventoried at 6 study reaches within 5...
A collaborative approach for estimating terrestrial wildlife abundance
Jason I. Ransom, Petra Kaczensky, Bruce C. Lubow, Oyunsaikhan Ganbaatar, Nanjid Altansukh
2012, Biological Conservation (153) 219-226
Accurately estimating abundance of wildlife is critical for establishing effective conservation and management strategies. Aerial methodologies for estimating abundance are common in developed countries, but they are often impractical for remote areas of developing countries where many of the world's endangered and threatened fauna exist. The alternative terrestrial methodologies can...
Chronostratigraphic framework for the IODP Expedition 318 cores from the Wilkes Land Margin: Constraints for paleoceanographic reconstruction
L. Tauxe, C.E. Stickley, S. Sugisaki, P.K. Bijl, S. M. Bohaty, H. Brinkhuis, C. Escutia, J.A. Flores, A.J.P. Houben, M. Iwai, F. Jimenez-Espejo, R. McKay, S. Passchier, J. Pross, Christina Riesselman, U. Röhl, F. Sangiorgi, K. Welsh, A. Klaus, A. Fehr, J.A.P. Bendle, R. Dunbar, J. Gonzalez, T. Hayden, K. Katsuki, M.P. Olney, S.F. Pekar, P.K. Shrivastava, T. van de Flierdt, T. Williams, M. Yamane
2012, Paleoceanography (27)
The Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 318 to the Wilkes Land margin of Antarctica recovered a sedimentary succession ranging in age from lower Eocene to the Holocene. Excellent stratigraphic control is key to understanding the timing of paleoceanographic events through critical climate intervals. Drill sites recovered the lower and middle...
Turbidite event history—Methods and implications for Holocene paleoseismicity of the Cascadia subduction zone
Chris Goldfinger, C. Hans Nelson, Ann E. Morey, Joel E. Johnson, Jason R. Patton, Eugene B. Karabanov, Julia Gutierrez-Pastor, Andrew T. Eriksson, Eulalia Gracia, Gita Dunhill, Randolph J. Enkin, Audrey Dallimore, Tracy Vallier
Robert Kayen, editor(s)
2012, Professional Paper 1661-F
Turbidite systems along the continental margin of Cascadia Basin from Vancouver Island, Canada, to Cape Mendocino, California, United States, have been investigated with swath bathymetry; newly collected and archive piston, gravity, kasten, and box cores; and accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon dates. The purpose of this study is to test the...
Estimating the Cumulative Ecological Effect of Local Scale Landscape Changes in South Florida
Dianna M. Hogan, William Labiosa, Leonard Pearlstine, David Hallac, David Strong, Paul Hearn, Richard Bernknopf
2012, Environmental Management (49) 502-515
Ecosystem restoration in south Florida is a state and national priority centered on the Everglades wetlands. However, urban development pressures affect the restoration potential and remaining habitat functions of the natural undeveloped areas. Land use (LU) planning often focuses at the local level, but a better understanding of the cumulative...
Dealing with incomplete and variable detectability in multi-year, multi-site monitoring of ecological populations
Sarah J. Converse, J. Andrew Royle
Robert A. Gitzen, Joshua J. Millspaugh, Andrew B. Cooper, Daniel S. Licht, editor(s)
2012, Book chapter, Design and analysis of long-term ecological monitoring studies
An ecological monitoring program should be viewed as a component of a larger framework designed to advance science and/or management, rather than as a stand-alone activity. Monitoring targets (the ecological variables of interest; e.g. abundance or occurrence of a species) should be set based on the needs of that framework...
Fire reinforces structure of pondcypress (Taxodium distichum var. imbricarium) domes in a wetland landscape
Adam C. Watts, Leda N. Kobziar, James R. Snyder
2012, Wetlands (32) 439-448
Fire periodically affects wetland forests, particularly in landscapes with extensive fire-prone uplands. Rare occurrence and difficulty of access have limited efforts to understand impacts of wildfires fires in wetlands. Following a 2009 wildfire, we measured tree mortality and structural changes in wetland forest patches. Centers of these circular landscape features...
Nutrient concentrations and loads in the northeastern United States - Status and trends, 1975-2003
Elaine C. Todd Trench, Richard B. Moore, Elizabeth A. Ahearn, John R. Mullaney, R. Edward Hickman, Gregory E. Schwarz
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2011-5114
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water-Quality Assessment Program (NAWQA) began regional studies in 2003 to synthesize information on nutrient concentrations, trends, stream loads, and sources. In the northeastern United States, a study area that extends from Maine to central Virginia, nutrient data were evaluated for 130 USGS water-quality monitoring...
Field evaluation of distance-estimation error during wetland-dependent bird surveys
Christopher P. Nadeau, Courtney J. Conway
2012, Wildlife Research (39) 311-320
Context: The most common methods to estimate detection probability during avian point-count surveys involve recording a distance between the survey point and individual birds detected during the survey period. Accurately measuring or estimating distance is an important assumption of these methods; however, this assumption is rarely tested in the context...
Explaining differences between bioaccumulation measurements in laboratory and field data through use of a probabilistic modeling approach
Henriette Selck, Ken Drouillard, Karen Eisenreich, Albert A. Koelmans, Annemette Palmqvist, Anders Ruus, Daniel Salvito, Irv Schultz, A. Robin Stewart, Annie Weisbrod, Nico W. van den Brink, Martine van den Heuvel-Greve
2012, Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management (8) 42-63
In the regulatory context, bioaccumulation assessment is often hampered by substantial data uncertainty as well as by the poorly understood differences often observed between results from laboratory and field bioaccumulation studies. Bioaccumulation is a complex, multifaceted process, which calls for accurate error analysis. Yet, attempts to quantify and compare propagation...
Effects of trophic level and metamorphosis on discrimination of hydrogen isotopes in a plant-herbivore system
Jacob M. Peters, Nathan Wolf, Craig A. Stricker, Timothy R. Collier, Carlos Martinez del Rio
2012, PLoS ONE (7)
The use of stable isotopes in ecological studies requires that we know the magnitude of discrimination factors between consumer and element sources. The causes of variation in discrimination factors for carbon and nitrogen have been relatively well studied. In contrast, the discrimination factors for hydrogen have rarely been measured. We...
Effects of capture by trammel net on Colorado River native fishes
Teresa A. Hunt, David L. Ward, Catherine R. Propper, Alice C. Gibb
2012, Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management (3) 133-141
Trammel nets are commonly used to sample rare fishes; however, little research has assessed delayed mortality associated with this capture technique. We conducted laboratory experiments to evaluate the effects of capture by trammel net on bonytail Gila elegans, razorback sucker Xyrauchen texanus, and roundtail chub Gila robusta, at 15, 20,...
Exploring changes in the spatial distribution of stream baseflow generation during a seasonal recession
R.A. Payn, M.N. Gooseff, B.L. McGlynn, K.E. Bencala, S.M. Wondzell
2012, Water Resources Research (48)
Relating watershed structure to streamflow generation is a primary focus of hydrology. However, comparisons of longitudinal variability in stream discharge with adjacent valley structure have been rare, resulting in poor understanding of the distribution of the hydrologic mechanisms that cause variability in streamflow generation along valleys. This study explores detailed...
Distribution and geochemistry of selected trace elements in the Sacramento River near Keswick Reservoir
Ronald C. Antweiler, Howard E. Taylor, Charles N. Alpers
2012, Chemical Geology (298-9) 70-78
The effect of heavy metals from the Iron Mountain Mines (IMM) Superfund site on the upper Sacramento River is examined using data from water and bed sediment samples collected during 1996-97. Relative to surrounding waters, aluminum, cadmium, cobalt, copper, iron, lead, manganese, thallium, zinc and the rare-earth elements (REE) were...
Population size of snowy plovers breeding in North America
Susan M. Thomas, James E. Lyons, Brad A. Andres, Elise Elliot T-Smith, Eduardo Palacios, John F. Cavitt, J. Andrew Royle, Suzanne D. Fellows, Kendra Maty, William H. Howe, Eric Mellink, Stefani Melvin, Tara Zimmerman
2012, Waterbirds (35) 1-14
Snowy Plovers (Charadrius nivosus) may be one of the rarest shorebirds in North America yet a comprehensive assessment of their abundance and distribution has not been completed. During 2007 and 2008, 557 discrete wetlands were surveyed and nine additional large wetland complexes sampled in México and the USA. From these...
