A geostatistical approach to mapping site response spectral amplifications
E.M. Thompson, L.G. Baise, R. E. Kayen, Y. Tanaka, H. Tanaka
2010, Engineering Geology (114) 330-342
If quantitative estimates of the seismic properties do not exist at a location of interest then the site response spectral amplifications must be estimated from data collected at other locations. Currently, the most common approach employs correlations of site class with maps of surficial geology. Analogously, correlations of site class...
Carbon dioxide on the satellites of Saturn: Results from the Cassini VIMS investigation and revisions to the VIMS wavelength scale
D. P. Cruikshank, A.W. Meyer, R. H. Brown, R. N. Clark, R. Jaumann, K. Stephan, C. A. Hibbitts, S.A. Sandford, R.M.E. Mastrapa, G. Filacchione, C.M.D. Ore, P. D. Nicholson, B. J. Buratti, T. B. McCord, R.M. Nelson, J.B. Dalton, K. H. Baines, D. L. Matson
2010, Icarus (206) 561-572
Several of the icy satellites of Saturn show the spectroscopic signature of the asymmetric stretching mode of C-O in carbon dioxide (CO2) at or near the nominal solid-phase laboratory wavelength of 4.2675 ??m (2343.3 cm-1), discovered with the Visible-Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) on the Cassini spacecraft. We report here on...
Measurement of field-saturated hydraulic conductivity on fractured rock outcrops near Altamura (Southern Italy) with an adjustable large ring infiltrometer
Maria C. Caputo, L. de Carlo, C. Masciopinto, J. R. Nimmo
2010, Environmental Earth Sciences (60) 583-590
Up to now, field studies set up to measure field-saturated hydraulic conductivity to evaluate contamination risks, have employed small cylinders that may not be representative of the scale of measurements in heterogeneous media. In this study, a large adjustable ring infiltrometer was designed to be installed on-site directly on rock...
Functional response models to estimate feeding rates of wading birds
J.A. Collazo, J.F. Gilliam, L. Miranda-Castro
2010, Waterbirds (33) 33-40
Forager (predator) abundance may mediate feeding rates in wading birds. Yet, when modeled, feeding rates are typically derived from the purely prey-dependent Holling Type II (HoII) functional response model. Estimates of feeding rates are necessary to evaluate wading bird foraging strategies and their role in food webs; thus, models that...
A shallow subsurface controlled release facility in Bozeman, Montana, USA, for testing near surface CO2 detection techniques and transport models
L.H. Spangler, L.M. Dobeck, K.S. Repasky, A.R. Nehrir, S.D. Humphries, C.J. Keith, J.A. Shaw, J.H. Rouse, A.B. Cunningham, S.M. Benson, C.M. Oldenburg, J.L. Lewicki, A.W. Wells, J.R. Diehl, B.R. Strazisar, J.E. Fessenden, T.A. Rahn, J.E. Amonette, J.L. Barr, W.L. Pickles, J.D. Jacobson, E. A. Silver, E.J. Male, H.W. Rauch, K.S. Gullickson, R. Trautz, Yousif K. Kharaka, J. Birkholzer, L. Wielopolski
2010, Environmental Earth Sciences (60) 227-239
A controlled field pilot has been developed in Bozeman, Montana, USA, to study near surface CO2 transport and detection technologies. A slotted horizontal well divided into six zones was installed in the shallow subsurface. The scale and CO2 release rates were chosen to be relevant to developing monitoring strategies for...
First Results of the Regional Earthquake Likelihood Models Experiment
D. Schorlemmer, J.D. Zechar, M.J. Werner, E. H. Field, D.D. Jackson, T.H. Jordan
2010, Pure and Applied Geophysics (167) 859-876
The ability to successfully predict the future behavior of a system is a strong indication that the system is well understood. Certainly many details of the earthquake system remain obscure, but several hypotheses related to earthquake occurrence and seismic hazard have been proffered, and predicting earthquake behavior is a worthy...
A Bayesian approach to identifying structural nonlinearity using free-decay response: Application to damage detection in composites
J.M. Nichols, W.A. Link, K.D. Murphy, C.C. Olson
2010, Journal of Sound and Vibration (329) 2995-3007
This work discusses a Bayesian approach to approximating the distribution of parameters governing nonlinear structural systems. Specifically, we use a Markov Chain Monte Carlo method for sampling the posterior parameter distributions thus producing both point and interval estimates for parameters. The method is first used to identify both linear and...
Modeling fire severity in black spruce stands in the Alaskan boreal forest using spectral and non-spectral geospatial data
Kirsten M. Barrett, E.S. Kasischke, A. D. McGuire, M.R. Turetsky, E.S. Kane
2010, Remote Sensing of Environment (114) 1494-1503
Biomass burning in the Alaskan interior is already a major disturbance and source of carbon emissions, and is likely to increase in response to the warming and drying predicted for the future climate. In addition to quantifying changes to the spatial and temporal patterns of burned areas, observing variations in...
Environmental conditions and biotic interactions influence ecosystem structure and function in a drying stream
J.P. Ludlam, D.D. Magoulick
2010, Hydrobiologia (644) 127-137
Benthic consumers influence stream ecosystem structure and function, but these interactions depend on environmental context. We experimentally quantified the effects of central stoneroller minnows (Campostoma anomalum (Rafinesque) and Meek's crayfish (Orconectes meeki meeki (Faxon)) on benthic communities using electric exclusion quadrats in Little Mulberry Creek before (June) and during (August)...
Vadose zone attenuation of organic compounds at a crude oil spill site - Interactions between biogeochemical reactions and multicomponent gas transport
S. Molins, K.U. Mayer, R.T. Amos, Barbara A. Bekins
2010, Journal of Contaminant Hydrology (112) 15-29
Contaminant attenuation processes in the vadose zone of a crude oil spill site near Bemidji, MN have been simulated with a reactive transport model that includes multicomponent gas transport, solute transport, and the most relevant biogeochemical reactions. Dissolution and volatilization of oil components, their aerobic and anaerobic degradation coupled with...
On the composition of earth's short-period seismic noise field
K.D. Koper, K. Seats, H. Benz
2010, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (100) 606-617
In the classic microseismic band of 5-20 sec, seismic noise consists mainly of fundamental mode Rayleigh and Love waves; however, at shorter periods seismic noise also contains a significant amount of body-wave energy and higher mode surface waves. In this study we perform a global survey of Earth's short-period seismic...
A late Miocene-early Pliocene chain of lakes fed by the Colorado River: Evidence from Sr, C, and O isotopes of the Bouse Formation and related units between Grand Canyon and the Gulf of California
J. A. Roskowski, P. J. Patchett, J.E. Spencer, P. A. Pearthree, D. L. Dettman, J. E. Faulds, A. C. Reynolds
2010, Geological Society of America Bulletin (122) 1625-1636
We report strontium isotopic results for the late Miocene Hualapai Limestone of the Lake Mead area (Arizona-Nevada) and the latest Miocene to early Pliocene Bouse Formation and related units of the lower Colorado River trough (Arizona-California-Nevada), together with parallel oxygen and carbon isotopic analyses of Bouse samples, to constrain the...
Fine scale daily movements and habitat use of East Pacific green turtles at a shallow coastal lagoon in Baja California Sur, Mexico
Jesse Senko, Volker Koch, William M. Megill, Raymond R. Carthy, R.obert P. Templeton, Wallace J. Nichols
2010, Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology (391) 92-100
Green turtles spend most of their lives in coastal foraging areas where they face multiple anthropogenic impacts. Therefore, understanding their spatial use in this environment is a priority for conservation efforts. We studied the fine scale daily movements and habitat use of East Pacific green turtles (Chelonia mydas) at Laguna...
The response of stream fish to local and reach-scale variation in the occurrence of a benthic aquatic macrophyte
J.E. Argentina, Mary C. Freeman, B. J. Freeman
2010, Freshwater Biology (55) 643-653
The aquatic macrophyte Podostemum ceratophyllum has been shown to increase stream productivity, abundance and biomass of benthic invertebrates, and local occurrences of some stream fishes. However, experimental evidence that fishes preferentially associate with Podostemum is lacking, and the value of Podostemum as a predictor of stream fish assemblage composition has...
Relevance of risk predictions derived from a chronic species sensitivity distribution with cadmium to aquatic populations and ecosystems
C.A. Mebane
2010, Risk Analysis (30) 203-223
Criteria to protect aquatic life are intended to protect diverse ecosystems, but in practice are usually developed from compilations of single-species toxicity tests using standard test organisms that were tested in laboratory environments. Species sensitivity distributions (SSDs) developed from these compilations are extrapolated to set aquatic ecosystem criteria. The protectiveness...
Multi-species occurrence models to evaluate the effects of conservation and management actions
E.F. Zipkin, Royle J. Andrew, D.K. Dawson, S. Bates
2010, Biological Conservation (143) 479-484
Conservation and management actions often have direct and indirect effects on a wide range of species. As such, it is important to evaluate the impacts that such actions may have on both target and non-target species within a region. Understanding how species richness and composition differ as a result of...
Earth system sensitivity inferred from Pliocene modelling and data
D.J. Lunt, A.M. Haywood, G.A. Schmidt, U. Salzmann, P.J. Valdes, H.J. Dowsett
2010, Nature Geoscience (3) 60-64
Quantifying the equilibrium response of global temperatures to an increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations is one of the cornerstones of climate research. Components of the Earths climate system that vary over long timescales, such as ice sheets and vegetation, could have an important effect on this temperature sensitivity, but...
Controls of suspended sediment concentration, nutrient content, and transport in a subtropical wetland
G.B. Noe, J. W. Harvey, R.W. Schaffranek, L. G. Larsen
2010, Wetlands (30) 39-54
Redistribution of largely organic sediment from low elevation sloughs to higher elevation ridges is a leading hypothesis for the formation and maintenance of the native ridge and slough landscape pattern found in peat wetlands of the Florida Everglades. We tested this redistribution hypothesis by measuring the concentration and characteristics of...
Predicting the retreat and migration of tidal forests along the northern Gulf of Mexico under sea-level rise
T.W. Doyle, K. W. Krauss, W.H. Conner, A.S. From
2010, Forest Ecology and Management (259) 770-777
Tidal freshwater forests in coastal regions of the southeastern United States are undergoing dieback and retreat from increasing tidal inundation and saltwater intrusion attributed to climate variability and sea-level rise. In many areas, tidal saltwater forests (mangroves) contrastingly are expanding landward in subtropical coastal reaches succeeding freshwater marsh and forest...
A spatial resolution threshold of land cover in estimating terrestrial carbon sequestration in four counties in Georgia and Alabama, USA
S.Q. Zhao, S. Liu, Z. Li, Terry L. Sohl
2010, Biogeosciences (7) 71-80
Changes in carbon density (i.e., carbon stock per unit area) and land cover greatly affect carbon sequestration. Previous studies have shown that land cover change detection strongly depends on spatial scale. However, the influence of the spatial resolution of land cover change information on the estimated terrestrial carbon sequestration is...
Environmental controls on drainage behavior of an ephemeral stream
K.W. Blasch, T.P.A. Ferre, J.A. Vrugt
2010, Stochastic Environmental Research and Risk Assessment (24) 1077-1087
Streambed drainage was measured at the cessation of 26 ephemeral streamflow events in Rillito Creek, Tucson, Arizona from August 2000 to June 2002 using buried time domain reflectometry (TDR) probes. An unusual drainage response was identified, which was characterized by sharp drainage from saturation to near field capacity at each...
Influence of organic carbon loading, sediment associated metal oxide content and sediment grain size distributions upon Cryptosporidium parvum removal during riverbank filtration operations, Sonoma County, CA
D.W. Metge, R.W. Harvey, G. R. Aiken, R. Anders, G. Lincoln, James Jasperse
2010, Water Research (44) 1126-1137
This study assessed the efficacy for removing Cryptosporidium parvum oocysts of poorly sorted, Fe- and Al-rich, subsurface sediments collected from 0.9 to 4.9 and 1.7–13.9 m below land surface at an operating riverbank filtration (RBF) site (Russian River, Sonoma County, CA). Both formaldehyde-killed oocysts and oocyst-sized (3 μm) microspheres were employed in sediment-packed flow-through...
Evaluating the spatiotemporal variations of water budget across China over 1951-2006 using IBIS model
Q. Zhu, H. Jiang, J. Liu, X. Wei, C. Peng, X. Fang, S. Liu, G. Zhou, S. Yu, W. Ju
2010, Hydrological Processes (24) 429-445
The Integrated Biosphere Simulator is used to evaluate the spatial and temporal patterns of the crucial hydrological variables [run-off and actual evapotranspiration (AET)] of the water balance across China for the period 1951–2006 including a precipitation analysis. Results suggest three major findings. First, simulated run-off captured 85% of the spatial...
Modelling detection probabilities to evaluate management and control tools for an invasive species
M.T. Christy, A. A. Yackel Adams, G.H. Rodda, J. A. Savidge, C.L. Tyrrell
2010, Journal of Applied Ecology (47) 106-113
For most ecologists, detection probability (p) is a nuisance variable that must be modelled to estimate the state variable of interest (i.e. survival, abundance, or occupancy). However, in the realm of invasive species control, the rate of detection and removal is the rate-limiting step for management of this pervasive environmental...
A rain splash transport equation assimilating field and laboratory measurements
T. Dunne, D.V. Malmon, S.M. Mudd
2010, Journal of Geophysical Research F: Earth Surface (115)
Process-based models of hillslope evolution require transport equations relating sediment flux to its major controls. An equation for rain splash transport in the absence of overland flow was constructed by modifying an approach developed by Reeve (1982) and parameterizing it with measurements from single-drop laboratory experiments and simulated rainfall on...
