Leveraging big data towards functionally-based, catchment scale restoration prioritization
John P. Lovette, Jonathan M. Duncan, Lindsey S. Smart, John P. Fay, Dean L. Urban, Nancy Daly, Jamie Blackwell, Anne B. Hoos, Ana M. Garcia, Lawrence E. Band
2018, Environmental Management (62) 1007-1024
The persistence of freshwater degradation has necessitated the growth of an expansive stream and wetland restoration industry, yet restoration prioritization at broad spatial extents is still limited and ad-hoc restoration prevails. The River Basin Restoration Prioritization tool has been developed to incorporate vetted, distributed data models into a catchment scale...
Marine threats overlap key foraging habitat for two imperiled sea turtle species in the Gulf of Mexico
Kristen M. Hart, Autumn R. Iverson, Ikuko Fujisaki, Margaret M. Lamont, David N. Bucklin, Donna J. Shaver
2018, Frontiers in Marine Science (5)
Effective management of human activities affecting listed species requires understanding both threats and animal habitat-use patterns. However, the extent of spatial overlap between high-use foraging areas (where multiple marine species congregate) and anthropogenic threats is not well known. Our modeling approach incorporates data on sea turtle spatial ecology and a...
Social–ecological landscape patterns predict woody encroachment from native tree plantings in a temperate grassland
V.M. Donvan, J.L. Burnett, C.H. Bielski, H.E. Birge, R. Bevans, D. Twidwell, Craig R. Allen
2018, Ecology and Evolution (8) 9624-9632
Afforestation is often viewed as the purposeful planting of trees in historically nonforested grasslands, but an unintended consequence is woody encroachment, which should be considered part of the afforestation process. In North America's temperate grassland biome, Eastern redcedar (Juniperus virginiana L.) is a native species used in tree plantings that aggressively...
The interaction of exposure and warming tolerance determines fish species vulnerability to warming stream temperatures
Annika W. Walters, Caitlin P. Mandeville, Frank J. Rahel
2018, Biology Letters (14)
Species vulnerability to climate change involves an interaction between the magnitude of change (exposure) and a species's tolerance to change. We evaluated fish species vulnerability to predicted stream temperature increases by examining warming tolerances across the Wyoming fish assemblage. Warming tolerance combines stream temperature with a thermal tolerance metric to...
Aerial surveys of sea otters (Enhydra lutris) in Lower Cook Inlet, Alaska, May, 2017
Joel Gerlach-Miller, George G. Esslinger, Ben Weitzman
2018, Report, USFWS Technical Report
Portions of two stocks of northern sea otters (Enhydra lutris kenyoni) occur in Lower Cook Inlet (LCI), Alaska. Sea otters on the west side of LCI are considered part of the southwest Alaska stock; sea otters occupying eastern LCI are considered part of the southcentral Alaska stock. Information...
Behavioral differences following ingestion of large meals and consequences for management of a harmful invasive snake: A field experiment
Shane R. Siers, Amy A. Yackel Adams, Robert Reed
2018, Ecology and Evolution (8) 10075-10093
Many snakes are uniquely adapted to ingest large prey at infrequent intervals. Digestion of large prey is metabolically and aerobically costly, and large prey boluses can impair snake locomotion, increasing vulnerability to predation. Cessation of foraging and use of refugia with microclimates facilitating digestion are expected...
High-water marks from Hurricane Sandy for coastal areas of Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts, October 2012
Lance J. Ostiguy, Timothy C. Sargent, Brittney Izbicki, Gardner C. Bent
2018, Data Series 1094
Because coastal areas in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts were heavily affected by Hurricane Sandy in October 2012, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), under a mission agreement with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, collected storm tide high-water marks in those coastal areas. This effort was undertaken to better understand the...
Quantifying geomorphic and vegetation change at sandbar campsites in response to flow regulation and controlled floods, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona
Daniel R. Hadley, Paul E. Grams, Matthew A. Kaplinski
2018, River Research and Applications (34) 1208-1218
Sandbars along the Colorado River in Grand Canyon National Park, USA, are an important recreational resource used as campsites by over 25,000 river runners and hikers annually. The number and size of campsites decreased following the completion of Glen Canyon Dam in 1963 due to reductions of sediment that replenish...
Discussion of “Case study: Oso, Washington, landslide of March 22, 2014-Material properties and failure mechanism” by Timothy D. Stark, Ahmed K. Baghdady, Oldrich Hungr, and Jordan Aaron
Richard M. Iverson
2018, Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering (144)
The original paper discusses factors that may have contributed to the occurrence and long runout of a disastrous landslide near the community of Oso, Washington, on March 22, 2014. The paper reinforces a prior finding that the long runout likely resulted from liquefaction of wet colluvium that was...
Documentation of single-well aquifer tests and integrated borehole analyses, Pahute Mesa and Vicinity, Nevada
Rebecca J. Frus, Keith J. Halford
2018, Scientific Investigations Report 2018-5096
Single-well aquifer testing has been carried out at Pahute Mesa in southern Nevada since 1962. These tests include single-well pumping and slug tests to estimate geologic formation hydraulic properties. Initially, aquifer tests focused on identifying low-permeability rocks suitable for testing large-yield nuclear devices, whereas later hydrologic investigations focused on potential...
The influence of tectonic environment on dynamic earthquake triggering: A review and case study on Alaskan volcanoes
Stephanie Prejean, David P. Hill
2018, Tectonophysics (745) 293-304
The phenomenon of dynamic earthquake triggering, when seismic waves from an earthquake trigger seismicity at distant sites, has been recognized for over 25 years, yet knowledge of the global distribution of dynamic triggering remains far from complete. Because occurrences...
Conservation Tools and Strategies
Jeffrey R. Walters, Dylan C. Kesler, Elisabeth B. Webb
2018, Book chapter, Ornithology: Foundation, analysis, and application
Geomorphometry in landscape ecology: Issues of scale, physiography, and application
Kirsten E. Ironside, David J. Mattson, Terence R. Arundel, Tad Theimer, Brandon Holton, Michael Peters, Thomas C. Edwards Jr., Jered R. Hansen
2018, Environment and Ecology Research (6) 397-412
Topographic measures are frequently used in a variety of landscape ecology applications, in their simplest form as elevation, slope, and aspect, but increasingly more complex measures are being employed. We explore terrain metric similarity with changes in scale, both grain and extent, and examine how selecting the best measures is...
Effects of formaldehyde on nitrification in biofilters of small‐scale recirculating systems
Kim T. Fredricks, Aaron R. Cupp, Susan M. Schleis, Richard A. Erickson, Mark P. Gaikowski
2018, Aquaculture Research (49) 3207-3217
Florfenicol (Aquaflor®) is the only U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved drug for treating diseased fish reared in recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS). Treating diseased fish in RAS is challenging because of the potential to damage nitrifying bacteria in the biofilters. Impaired nitrification can lead to concentrations of ammonia and...
Similarity assessment of linear hydrographic features using high performance computing
Larry V. Stanislawski, Jeffrey Wendel, Ethan J. Shavers, Ting Li
2018, Conference Paper
This work discusses a current open source implementation of a line similarity assessment workflow to compare elevation-derived drainage lines with the high-resolution National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) surface-water flow network. The process identifies matching and mismatching lines in each dataset to help focus subsequent validation procedures to areas of the NHD...
Thermally induced fracture of macroscale surficial granite sheets
Brian D. Collins, Greg M. Stock, Martha C. Eppes
2018, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the 52nd U.S. Rock Mechanics/Geomechanics Symposium
Geologically diverse landforms around the world show indications of energetic macroscale fracture. These fractures are sometimes displayed dramatically as so-called “A-tents”, whereby relatively thin rock sheets push upwards and fracture, forming tent-like voids beneath the ruptured sheets. The origin and formation of such features has been a topic of considerable...
Genetic diversity and structure from Antillean manatee (Trichechus manatus manatus) in the southern Gulf of Mexico: Comparison between connected and isolated populations
Guadalupe Gomez-Carrasco, Julia Maria Lesher-Gordillo, Leon David Olivera-Gomez, Robert K. Bonde, Stefan Arriaga-Weiss, Raymundo Hernandez-Martinez, Guillermo Castanon-Najera, Darwin Jimenez-Dominguez, Armando Romo-Lopez, Alberto Delgado-Estrella
2018, Tropical Conservation Science (11) 1-10
Antillean manatees (Trichechus manatus manatus), a subspecies of the West Indian manatee, is listed as endangered species in the Red List of Threatened Species of the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The aims of this research were to survey on the possible regional genetic structure in the southern Gulf...
Understanding and mitigating wilderness therapy impacts: The Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument case study
Amelia Romo, Jeffrey L. Marion, Jeremy Wimpey, Derrick Taff, Forrest Schwartz
2018, International Journal of Wilderness (24)
Studies demonstrate that wilderness therapy programs can be beneficial for participants; however, little research has explored the ecological impacts of these programs. A prominent wilderness therapy organization utilizes vast tracts of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (GSENM) for programming. This study examines the specific ecological impacts stemming from the program...
The distribution and role of functional abundance in cross‐scale resilience
S. M. Sundstrom, D. G. Angeler, C. Barichievy, T. N. Eason, A. S. Garmestani, L. Gunderson, M. Knutson, K.L. Nash, T. L. Spanbauer, C.A. Stow, Craig R. Allen
2018, Ecology (99) 2421-2432
The cross‐scale resilience model suggests that system‐level ecological resilience emerges from the distribution of species’ functions within and across the spatial and temporal scales of a system. It has provided a quantitative method for calculating the resilience of a given system and so has been a valuable contribution to a...
When oil and water mix: Understanding the environmental impacts of shale development
Daniel J. Soeder, Douglas B. Kent
2018, GSA Today (28) 4-10
Development of shale gas and tight oil, or unconventional oil and gas (UOG), has dramatically increased domestic energy production in the U.S. UOG resources are typically developed through the use of hydraulic fracturing, which creates high-permeability flow paths into large volumes of tight rocks to provide a means for hydrocarbons...
Short-term forecasting and detection of explosions during the 2016–2017 eruption of Bogoslof volcano, Alaska
Michelle L. Coombs, Aaron Wech, Matthew M. Haney, John J. Lyons, David J. Schneider, Hans Schwaiger, Kristi L. Wallace, David Fee, Jeffrey T. Freymueller, Janet Schaefer, Gabrielle Tepp
2018, Frontiers in Earth Science (6)
We describe a multidisciplinary approach to forecast, rapidly detect, and characterize explosive events during the 2016–2017 eruption of Bogoslof volcano, a back-arc shallow submarine volcano in Alaska’s Aleutian arc. The eruptive sequence began in December 2016 and included about 70 discrete explosive events. Because the volcano has no local monitoring...
Magma supply to Kīlauea Volcano, Hawai‘i, from inception to now: Historical perspective, current state of knowledge, and future challenges
Daniel Dzurisin, Michael P. Poland
2018, Geological Society of America Special Papers (538) 275-295
Meticulous field observations are a common underpinning of two landmark studies conducted by Don Swanson dealing with the rate at which magma is supplied to Kīlauea Volcano, Hawai‘i. The first combined effusion rate and ground deformation observations to show that the supply rate to Kīlauea was constant at ~0.11 km3/yr...
Phenology and abundance of Northern Tamarisk Beetle, Diorhabda carinulata affecting defoliation of Tamarix
Levi R. Jamison, Matthew J. Johnson, Dan W. Bean, Charles van Riper III
2018, Southwestern Entomologist (43) 571-584
Timing and spatial dynamics of tamarisk (Tamarix spp. L.) defoliation by the biological control agent Diorhabda carinulata (Desbrochers) were evaluated. Relative abundance of D. carinulata and the phenology of tamarisk along the San Juan and Colorado rivers were recorded in 2011–2012. D. carinulata began reproducing in the spring when temperatures were >15°C. Variation in spring temperature-rise affected...
Crustal inheritance and a top-down control on arc magmatism at Mount St Helens
Paul A. Bedrosian, Jared R. Peacock, Esteban Bowles-Martinez, Adam Schultz, Graham Hill
2018, Nature Geoscience (11) 865-870
In a subduction zone, the volcanic arc marks the location where magma, generated via flux melting in the mantle wedge, migrates through the crust and erupts. While the location of deep magma broadly defines the arc position, here we argue that crustal structures, identified in geophysical data from the Washington...
Exploring the impacts of seagrass on coupled marsh-tidal flat morphodynamics
Joel A. Carr, Giulio Mariotti, Sergio Fahgerazzi, Karen McGlathery, Patricia Wiberg
2018, Frontiers in Environmental Science (6) 1-16
Intertidal coastal environments are prone to changes induced by sea level rise, increases in storminess, temperature, and anthropogenic disturbances. It is unclear how changes in external drivers may affect the dynamics of low energy coastal environments because their response is non-linear, and characterized by many thresholds and discontinuities. As such,...