Wetland biomass and productivity in Coastal Louisiana: Base line data (1976-2015) and knowledge gaps for the development of spatially explicit models for ecosystem restoration and rehabilitation initiatives
Victor H. Rivera-Monroy, Courtney Elliton, Siddhartha Narra, Ehab Meselhe, Xiaochen Zhao, Eric White, Charles E. Sasser, Jenneke M. Visser, X. Meng, Hongqing Wang, Zuo Xue, Fernando Jaramillo
2019, Water (11)
Coastal Louisiana host 37% of the coastal wetland area in the conterminous US, including one of the deltaic coastal regions more susceptible to the synergy of human and natural impacts causing wetland loss. As a result of the construction of flood protection infrastructure, dredging of channels across wetlands for oil/gas...
Monitoring, forecasting collapse events, and mapping pyroclastic deposits at Sinabung volcano with satellite imagery
John S. Pallister, Rick Wessels, Julia P. Griswold, Wendy A. McCausland, Nugraha Kartadinata, Hendra Gunawan, Agus Budianto, Sofyan Primulyana
2019, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research (382) 149-163
During the ongoing (2013–present) eruption of Sinabung volcano, north Sumatra, we have routinely used a variety of satellite remote sensing data to observe and forecast lava dome and lava flow collapse events, to map the resulting pyroclastic deposits, and to estimate effusion rates. In this paper, we focus on the first two years of the current eruption...
Can geologic factors be predictive for distinguishing between productive and non-productive geothermal wells?
Drew L. Siler, Erick R. Burns, James E Faulds
2019, Geothermal Resources Council Transactions (43) 884-901
Geologic data are examined to evaluate whether certain geologic characteristics occur in higher abundance or higher magnitude along production geothermal wells relative to non-productive wells. We perform 3D geologic mapping, 3D stress modeling, and fault-slip modeling to estimate fourteen different geologic factors that are hypothesized to control or correlate with...
A fuzzy logic approach for estimating recovery factors of miscible CO2-EOR projects in the United States
C. Ozgen Karacan
2019, Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering (184)
"Recovery factor (RF) is one of the most fundamental parameters that define engineering and economical success of any operational phase in oil and gas production. The effectiveness of the operation, e.g. CO2-EOR (enhanced oil recovery with carbon dioxide injection), is usually defined by multiplying the resultant recovery factor by the...
Finding the sweet spot: Shifting climate optima for maple syrup production in North America
Joshua M. Rapp, David A. Lutz, Ryan H. Huish, Boris Dufour, Selena Ahmed, Toni Lyn Morelli, Kristina A. Stinson
2019, Forest Ecology and Management (448) 187-197
Climate change is affecting the benefits society derives from forests. One such forest ecosystem service is maple syrup, which is primarily derived from Acer saccharum (sugar maple), currently an abundant and widespread tree species in eastern North America. Two climate sensitive components of sap affect syrup production: sugar content...
Growth response of the ichthyotoxic haptophyte, Prymnesium parvum Carter, to changes in sulfate and fluoride concentrations
Rakib B. Rashel, Reynaldo Patino
2019, PLoS ONE (14) 1-19
Golden alga Prymnesium parvum Carter is a euryhaline, ichthyotoxic haptophyte (Chromista). Because of its presumed coastal/marine origin where SO42- levels are high, the relatively high SO42- concentration of its brackish inland habitats, and the sensitivity of marine chromists to sulfur deficiency, this study examined whether golden alga growth is sensitive...
Survival and movements of head‐started Mojave desert tortoises
J. A. Daly, K. A. Buhlmann, B. D. Todd, Clinton T. Moore, J. M. Peaden, T. D. Tuberville
2019, Journal of Wildlife Management (83) 1700-1710
Head‐starting is a conservation strategy in which young animals are protected in captivity temporarily before their release into the wild at a larger size, when their survival is presumably increased. The Mojave desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) is in decline, and head‐starting has been identified as one of several conservation measures...
The importance of turtle populations to wetland restoration in the upper Mississippi embayment of the Mississippi Alluvial Valley
Max A Nickerson, Joseph C. Mitchell, Brad Glorioso
2019, Wetlands Ecology and Management (27) 683-692
The Upper Mississippi Embayment (UME) ecoregion covers approximately 141,895 km2 and historically supported 9,712,455 ha of bottomland deciduous forests, swamps, bayous, and rivers. Only about 500 ha (< 0.01%) of pre-settlement bottomland hardwood forest habitat in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley (MAV) in the UME remained by the 1940s because the timber...
Exploring silica stoichiometry on a large floodplain riverscape
Joanna C. Carey, Kathi Jo Jankowski, Paul Julian, Lienne Sethna, Patrick Thomas, Jason J. Rohweder
2019, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution (7)
Freshwater ecosystems are critical zones of nutrient and carbon (C) processing along the land-sea continuum. Relative to our understanding of C, nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) cycling within the freshwater systems, the controls on silicon (Si) cycling and export are less understood. Understanding Si biogeochemistry and its coupled biogeochemical processing...
Variable impacts of contemporary versus legacy agricultural phosphorus on US river water quality
Sarah M. Stackpoole, Edward G. Stets, Lori A. Sprague
2019, PNAS (116) 20562-20567
Phosphorus (P) fertilizer has contributed to the eutrophication of freshwater ecosystems. Watershed-based conservation programs aiming to reduce external P loading to surface waters have not resulted in significant water-quality improvements. One factor that can help explain the lack of water-quality response is remobilization of accumulated legacy (historical) P within the...
Captive-rearing duration may be more important than environmental enrichment for enhancing turtle head-starting success
S.J. Tetzlaff, J.S. Sperry, B.A. Kingsbury, Brett Alexander DeGregorio
2019, Global Ecology and Conservation (20)
Raising captive animals past critical mortality stages for eventual release (head-starting) is a common conservation tactic. Counterintuitively, post-release survival can be low. Post-release behavior affecting survival could be influenced by captive-rearing duration and housing conditions. Practitioners have adopted environmental enrichment to...
Contaminant concentrations in sediments, aquatic invertebrates, and fish in proximity to rail tracks used for coal transport in the Pacific Northwest: A baseline assessment
Whitney B Hapke, Robert W. Black, Collin A. Eagles-Smith, Cassandra Smith, Lyndal Johnson, Gina M Ylitalo, Daryle Boyd, Jay W. Davis, Sara L. Caldwell Eldridge, Elena Nilsen
2019, Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology (77) 549-574
Railway transport of coal poses an environmental risk because coal dust contains polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), mercury (Hg), and other trace metals. In the Pacific Northwest, proposed infrastructure projects could result in an increase in coal transport by train through the Columbia River corridor. Baseline information is needed on current...
Aquatic–terrestrial linkages provide novel opportunities for freshwater ecologists to engage stakeholders and inform riparian management
Jeffrey Muehlbauer, Christina A. Lupoli, Johanna M. Kraus
2019, Freshwater Science (38) 946-952
Studies of aquatic–terrestrial ecosystem linkages explore the mechanisms by which components of one ecosystem, such as the aquatic insect community in a stream, directly affect components of an adjacent ecosystem, such as the density and diversity of riparian predators. On a human level, research into these linkages...
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions of Amazon hydropower with strategic dam planning
Rafael M. Almeida, Qinru Shi, Jonathan M. Gomes-Selman, Xiaojian Wu, Yexiang Xue, Hector Angarita, Nathan Barros, Bruce R. Forsberg, Roosevelt García-Villacorta, Stephen K. Hamilton, John M. Melack, Mariana Montoya, Guillaume Perez, Suresh Sethi, Carla P. Gomes, Alexander S. Flecker
2019, Nature Communications (10)
Hundreds of dams have been proposed throughout the Amazon basin, one of the world’s largest untapped hydropower frontiers. While hydropower is a potentially clean source of renewable energy, some projects produce high greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per unit electricity generated (carbon intensity). Here we show how...
Anticoagulant rodenticides in Strix owls indicate widespread exposure in west coast forests
David Wiens, Krista E. Dilione, Collin A. Eagles-Smith, Garth Herring, Damon B. Lesmeister, Mourad W. Gabriel, Greta Wengert, David C. Simon
2019, Biological Conservation (238)
Exposure of nontarget wildlife to anticoagulant rodenticides (AR) is a global conservation concern typically centered around urban or agricultural areas. Recently, however, the illegal use of ARs in remote forests of California, USA, has exposed sensitive predators, including the federally threatened northern spotted owl (Strix occidentalis caurina). We used congeneric...
Reporting the limits of detection and quantification for environmental DNA assays
Katy E. Klymus, Christopher M. Merkes, Michael J. Allison, Caren S. Goldberg, Caren C. Helbing, Margaret Hunter, Craig Jackson, Richard F. Lance, Anna M. Mangan, Emy M. Monroe, Antoinette J. Piaggio, Joel P. Stokdyk, Chris C. Wilson, Catherine A. Richter
2019, Environmental DNA (2) 271-282
BackgroundEnvironmental DNA (eDNA) analysis is increasingly being used to detect the presence and relative abundance of rare species, especially invasive or imperiled aquatic species. The rapid progress in the eDNA field has resulted in numerous studies impacting conservation and management actions. However, standardization of eDNA...
Moving at the speed of flight: Dabbling duck-movement rates and the relationship with electronic tracking interval
Fiona McDuie, Michael L. Casazza, David A. Keiter, Cory T. Overton, Mark P. Herzog, Cliff L. Feldheim, Joshua T. Ackerman
2019, Wildlife Research (46) 533-543
Context. Effective wildlife management requires information on habitat and resource needs, which can be estimated with movement information and modelling energetics. One necessary component of avian models is flight speeds at multiple temporal scales. Technology has limited the ability to accurately assess flight speeds, leading to estimates of questionable accuracy,...
Characterizing large earthquakes before rupture is complete
Diego Melgar, Gavin P. Hayes
2019, Science Advances (5)
Whether large and very large earthquakes are distinguishable from each other early on in the rupture process has been a subject often debated over the past several decades. Studies have shown that the frequency content of radiated seismic energy in the first few seconds of an earthquake scales with the...
A process-based model of pre-eruption seismicity patterns and its use for eruption forecasting at dormant stratovolcanoes
Randall A. White, Wendy A. McCausland
2019, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research (382) 267-297
Using long-term data sets, the eruptive size, timing and style can typically be successfully forecast for dormant volcanoes using current monitoring data and knowledge of precursory eruptive patterns. The USAID-USGS Volcano Disaster Assistance Program (VDAP) utilizes seismic data over multiple eruption cycles and across volcano types to successfully forecast eruption...
Informing sea turtle outreach efforts to maximize effectiveness
Jessica E. Swindall, Holly K. Ober, Margaret M. Lamont, Raymond Carthy
2019, Wildlife Society Bulletin (43) 436-446
Most sea turtle (Cheloniidae) species worldwide are endangered or threatened, with threats causing harm to sea turtles predominantly human‐induced. Thus, prevention of further declines to these imperiled species will require alteration of human behaviors. Regulations, incentives, and environmental education are 3 strategies that could be used to alter human behavior....
Willingness to pay for conservation of transborder migratory species: A case study of the Mexican free-tailed bat in the United States and Mexico
Michelle Haefele, John B. Loomis, Robert W. Merideth, Aaron M. Lien, Darius J. Semmens, Jim Dubovsky, Ruscena Wiederholt, Wayne E. Thogmartin, Ta-Ken Huang, Gary McCracken, Laura Lopez-Hoffman, Rodrigo Medellin, James E. Diffendorfer
2019, Environmental Management (62) 229-240
We estimated U.S. and Mexican citizens’ willingness to pay (WTP) for protecting habitat for a transborder migratory species, the Mexican free-tailed bat (Tadarida brasiliensis mexicana), using the contingent valuation method. Few contingent valuation surveys have evaluated whether households in one country would pay to protect habitat in another...
Drought-mediated extinction of an arid-land amphibian: Insights from a spatially explicit dynamic occupancy model
Erin R Zylstra, Don E. Swann, Blake R. Hossack, Robert J Steidl
Erin L. Muths, editor(s)
2019, Ecological Applications (29)
Understanding how natural and anthropogenic processes affect population dynamics of species with patchy distributions is critical to predicting their responses to environmental changes. Despite considerable evidence that demographic rates and dispersal patterns vary temporally in response to an array of biotic and abiotic processes, few applications of metapopulation theory have...
Laboratory assessment of alternative stream velocity measurement methods
Stephen A. Hundt, Kyle W. Blasch
2019, PLoS ONE (14)
Understanding streamflow in montane watersheds on regional scales is often incomplete due to a lack of data for small-order streams that link precipitation and snowmelt processes to main stem discharge. This data deficiency is attributed to the prohibitive cost of conventional streamflow measurement methods and the remote location of many...
Restoring a forest icon: Could returning the American chestnut remodel our wildlife landscape?
Staci L Clark, Scott E. Schlarbaum, Joseph D. Clark
2019, The Wildlife Professional (13) 52-56
Mother Nature was not making it easy. It was February 18, 2009, and winds were gusting, sleet was falling, and temperatures were hovering around 40° F. Our crew of 9 which consisted of personnel from the USDA Forest Service Southern Research Station, the Cherokee National Forest, and The University of...
Performances of WorldView-3, Sentinel-2, and Landsat-8 data in mapping impervious surface
George Z. Xian, Hua Shi, Jon Dewitz, Zhuoting Wu
2019, Remote Sensing Applications: Society and Environment (15)
Many efforts have been made to map developed impervious surface from remotely sensed information in the last two decades. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) developed the National Land Cover Database (NLCD) to provide consistent land cover and change products for the Nation since 2001. Percent impervious surface area (ISA), one...
