Audiomagnetotelluric investigation of Snake Valley, eastern Nevada and western Utah
Darcy McPhee, Keith Pari, Frank Baird
2009, Geology and Geologic Resources and Issues of Western Utah 287-298
Audiomagnetotelluric (AMT) data along four profiles in western Snake Valley and the corresponding two-dimensional (2-D) inverse models reveal subsurface structures that may be significant to ground-water investigations in the area. The AMT method is a valuable tool for estimating the electrical resistivity of the earth over depth ranges from...
Toward production from gas hydrates: Current status, assessment of resources, and simulation-based evaluation of technology and potential
G. J. Moridis, T. S. Collett, R. Boswell, M. Kurihara, M. T. Reagan, C. Koh, E. D. Sloan
2009, Conference Paper, SPE Reservoir Evaluation and Engineering
Gas hydrates (GHs) are a vast energy resource with global distribution in the permafrost and in the oceans. Even if conservative estimates are considered and only a small fraction is recoverable, the sheer size of the resource is so large that it demands evaluation as a potential energy source. In...
Kootenai River velocities, depth, and white sturgeon spawning site selection – A mystery unraveled?
V.L. Paragamian, R. McDonald, G.J. Nelson, G. Barton
2009, Journal of Applied Ichthyology (25) 640-646
The Kootenai River white sturgeon Acipenser transmontanus population in Idaho, US and British Columbia (BC), Canada became recruitment limited shortly after Libby Dam became fully operational on the Kootenai River, Montana, USA in 1974. In the USA the species was listed under the Endangered Species Act in September of 1994. Kootenai River...
Otters, Marine
James A. Estes, James L. Bodkin, M. Ben-David
William F. Perrin, Bernd Wursing, J.G.M. Thewissen, editor(s)
2009, Book chapter, Encyclopedia of marine mammals (second edition)
The otters (Mustelidae; Lutrinae) provide an exceptional perspective into the evolution of marine living by mammals. Most extant marine mammals (e.g. the cetaceans, pinnipeds, and sirenians) have been so highly modified by long periods of selection for life in the sea that they bear little resemblance to their terrestrial ancestors....
Age, growth, mortality, and reproduction of Roughtongue bass, Pronotogrammus martinicensis 9Serranidae), in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico
Richard S. McBride, Kenneth J. Sulak, Paul E. Thurman, Adam K. Richardson
2009, Gulf of Mexico Science (27) 30-38
The inaccessibility of outer continental shelf reefs has made it difficult to investigate the biology of Pronotogrammus martinicensis, a small sea bass known to be numerous and widely distributed in such habitat. This study takes advantage of a series of cruises in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico that collected 1,485...
Anatomy of the dead sea transform from lithospheric to microscopic scale
M. Weber, K. Abu-Ayyash, A. Abueladas, A. Agnon, Z. Alasonati-Tasarova, H. Al-Zubi, A. Babeyko, Y. Bartov, K. Bauer, M. Becken, P. A. Bedrosian, Z. Ben-Avraham, G. Bock, M. Bohnhoff, J. Bribach, P. Dulski, J. Ebbing, R. El-Kelani, A. Forster, H.-J. Forster, U. Frieslander, Z. Garfunkel, H.J. Goetze, V. Haak, C. Haberland, M. Hassouneh, S. Helwig, A. Hofstetter, A. Hoffmann-Rotrie, K.H. Jackel, C. Janssen, D. Jaser, D. Kesten, M. Khatib, R. Kind, O. Koch, I. Koulakov, Gabi Laske, N. Maercklin, R. Masarweh, A. Masri, A. Matar, J. Mechie, N. Meqbel, B. Plessen, P. Moller, A. Mohsen, R. Oberhansli, S. Oreshin, A. Petrunin, I. Qabbani, I. Rabba, O. Ritter, R.L. Romer, G. Rumpker, M. Rybakov, T. Ryberg, J. Saul, F. Scherbaum, S. Schmidt, A. Schulze, S.V. Sobolev, M. Stiller, D. Stromeyer, K. Tarawneh, C. Trela, U. Weckmann, U. Wetzel, K. Wylegalla
2009, Reviews of Geophysics (47)
Fault zones are the locations where motion of tectonic plates, often associated with earthquakes, is accommodated. Despite a rapid increase in the understanding of faults in the last decades, our knowledge of their geometry, petrophysical properties, and controlling processes remains incomplete. The central questions addressed here in our study of...
Moon meteoritic seismic hum: Steady state prediction
P. Lognonne, M.L. Feuvre, C.L. Johnson, R.C. Weber
2009, Journal of Geophysical Research E: Planets (114)
We use three different statistical models describing the frequency of meteoroid impacts on Earth to estimate the seismic background noise due to impacts on the lunar surface. Because of diffraction, seismic events on the Moon are typically characterized by long codas, lasting 1 h or more. We find that the...
Continuing evolution of the Pacific-Juan de Fuca-North America slab window system-A trench-ridge-transform example from the Pacific Rim
P.A. McCrory, D.S. Wilson, R. G. Stanley
2009, Tectonophysics (464) 30-42
Many subduction margins that rim the Pacific Ocean contain complex records of Cenozoic slab-window volcanism combined with tectonic disruption of the continental margin. The series of slab windows that opened beneath California and Mexico starting about 28.5 Ma resulted from the death of a series of spreading ridge segments and...
Characterizing and predicting species distributions across environments and scales: Argentine ant occurrences in the eye of the beholder
S.B. Menke, D.A. Holway, Robert N. Fisher, W. Jetz
2009, Global Ecology and Biogeography (18) 50-63
Aim: Species distribution models (SDMs) or, more specifically, ecological niche models (ENMs) are a useful and rapidly proliferating tool in ecology and global change biology. ENMs attempt to capture associations between a species and its environment and are often used to draw biological inferences, to predict potential occurrences in unoccupied...
Effect of species rarity on the accuracy of species distribution models for reptiles and amphibians in southern California
J. Franklin, K.E. Wejnert, S.A. Hathaway, C.J. Rochester, Robert N. Fisher
2009, Diversity and Distributions (15) 167-177
Aim: Several studies have found that more accurate predictive models of species' occurrences can be developed for rarer species; however, one recent study found the relationship between range size and model performance to be an artefact of sample prevalence, that is, the proportion of presence versus absence observations in the...
Invasive species information networks: Collaboration at multiple scales for prevention, early detection, and rapid response to invasive alien species
Annie Simpson, Catherine S. Jarnevich, John Madsen, Randy G. Westbrooks, Christine Fournier, Les Mehrhoff, Michael Browne, Jim Graham, Elizabeth A. Sellers
2009, Biodiversity (10) 5-13
Accurate analysis of present distributions and effective modeling of future distributions of invasive alien species (IAS) are both highly dependent on the availability and accessibility of occurrence data and natural history information about the species. Invasive alien species monitoring and detection networks (such as the Invasive Plant Atlas of New...
Recent developments in understanding the tectonic evolution of the Southern California offshore area: Implications for earthquake-hazard analysis
M. A. Fisher, V.E. Langenheim, C. Nicholson, H. F. Ryan, R. W. Sliter
2009, Special Paper of the Geological Society of America 229-250
During late Mesozoic and Cenozoic time, three main tectonic episodes affected the Southern California offshore area. Each episode imposed its unique structural imprint such that early-formed structures controlled or at least influenced the location and development of later ones. This cascaded structural inheritance greatly complicates analysis of the extent, orientation,...
U.S. Geological Survey research in Handcart Gulch, Colorado—An alpine watershed with natural acid-rock drainage
Andrew H. Manning, Jonathan S. Caine, Philip L. Verplanck, Dana J. Bove, Katherine G. Kahn
2009, Conference Paper, Planning for an uncertain future - Monitoring, integration, and adaptation (SIR 2009-5049)
Handcart Gulch is an alpine watershed along the Continental Divide in the Colorado Rocky Mountain Front Range. It contains an unmined mineral deposit typical of many hydrothermal mineral deposits in the intermountain west, composed primarily of pyrite with trace metals including copper and molybdenum. Springs and the trunk stream have...
Characterization of the interferon genes in homozygous rainbow trout reveals two novel genes, alternate splicing and differential regulation of duplicated genes
M. K. Purcell, K.J. Laing, J.C. Woodson, G.H. Thorgaard, J.D. Hansen
2009, Fish and Shellfish Immunology (26) 293-304
The genes encoding the type I and type II interferons (IFNs) have previously been identified in rainbow trout and their proteins partially characterized. These previous studies reported a single type II IFN (rtIFN-??) and three rainbow trout type I IFN genes that are classified into either group I (rtIFN1, rtIFN2)...
Do fish benefit from stream restoration in the Catskill Mountains?
Barry P. Baldigo, Anne G. Ernst
2009, Clear Waters (39) 54-59
Many streams across North America have been modified or restored in order to stabilize channel banks and beds; however, the effects of stream restoration on fish assemblages and stream habitat are seldom monitored, evaluated, or published. Because the impacts on ecosystems are poorly understood, subsequent restoration projects cannot build upon...
Fragmentary evidence of great-earthquake subsidence during holocene emergence, Valdivia estuary, South Central Chile
A.R. Nelson, K. Kashima, L. A. Bradley
2009, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (99) 71-86
A reconnaissance of Holocene stratigraphy beneath fringing marshes of the Valdivia estuary, where an M 9.5 earthquake caused 1-2 m of regional coseismic subsidence in 1960, shows only fragmentary evidence of prehistoric coseismic subsidence. In most of the 150 hand-driven cores that were examined, a distinct unconformity separates 0.5-1.5 m...
Selenium mass balance in the Great Salt Lake, Utah
X. Diaz, W.P. Johnson, D. L. Naftz
2009, Science of the Total Environment (407) 2333-2341
A mass balance for Se in the south arm of the Great Salt Lake was developed for September 2006 to August 2007 of monitoring for Se loads and removal flows. The combined removal flows (sedimentation and volatilization) totaled to a geometric mean value of 2079??kg Se/yr, with the estimated low...
Megascale processes: Natural disasters and human behavior
S. W. Kieffer, P. Barton, W. Chesworth, A. R. Palmer, P. Reitan, E-An Zen
2009, Special Paper of the Geological Society of America 77-86
Megascale geologic processes, such as earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, floods, and meteoritic impacts have occurred intermittently throughout geologic time, and perhaps on several planets. Unlike other catastrophes discussed in this volume, a unique process is unfolding on Earth, one in which humans may be the driving agent of megadisasters. Although...
A simulation of historic hydrology and salinity in Everglades National Park: Coupling paleoecologic assemblage data with regression models
Frank E. Marshall, G. Lynn Wingard, Patrick A. Pitts
2009, Estuaries and Coasts (32) 37-53
Restoration of Florida’s Everglades requires scientifically supportable hydrologic targets. This study establishes a restoration baseline by developing a method to simulate hydrologic and salinity conditions prior to anthropogenic changes. The method couples paleoecologic data on long-term historic ecosystem conditions with statistical models derived from observed meteorologic and hydrologic data that...
Deformation of the late Miocene to Pliocene Inyo Surface, eastern Sierra region, California
A. S. Jayko
2009, Special Paper of the Geological Society of America 313-350
A middle and late Miocene erosion surface, the Inyo Surface, underlies late Miocene mafic flows in the White Mountains and late Miocene and (or) early Pliocene flows elsewhere in the eastern Sierra region. The Inyo Surface is correlated with an erosion surface that underlies late Miocene mafic flows in the...
Estimating survival of precocial chicks during the prefledging period using a catch-curve analysis and count-based age-class data
C.P. McGowan, J.J. Millspaugh, M.R. Ryan, C.D. Kruse, G. Pavelka
2009, Journal of Field Ornithology (80) 79-87
Estimating reproductive success for birds with precocial young can be difficult because chicks leave nests soon after hatching and individuals or broods can be difficult to track. Researchers often turn to estimating survival during the prefledging period and, though effective, mark-recapture based approaches are not always feasible due to cost,...
Effects of spatial heterogeneity on butterfly species richness in Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, USA
S. Kumar, S.E. Simonson, T.J. Stohlgren
2009, Biodiversity and Conservation (18) 739-763
We investigated butterfly responses to plot-level characteristics (plant species richness, vegetation height, and range in NDVI [normalized difference vegetation index]) and spatial heterogeneity in topography and landscape patterns (composition and configuration) at multiple spatial scales. Stratified random sampling was used to collect data on butterfly species richness from seventy-six 20...
Trends in concentrations and use of agricultural herbicides for Corn Belt rivers, 1996-2006
Aldo V. Vecchia, Robert J. Gilliom, Daniel J. Sullivan, David L. Lorenz, Jeffrey D. Martin
2009, Environmental Science & Technology (43) 9096-9102
Trends in the concentrations and agricultural use of four herbicides (atrazine, acetochlor, metolachlor, and alachlor) were evaluated for major rivers of the Corn Belt for two partially overlapping time periods: 1996-2002 and 2000-2006. Trends were analyzed for 11 sites on the mainstems and selected tributaries in the Ohio, Upper Mississippi,...
Assessing the response of area burned to changing climate in western boreal North America using a Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines (MARS) approach
M. S. Balshi, A. D. McGuire, P. Duffy, M. Flannigan, J. Walsh, J. Melillo
2009, Global Change Biology (15) 578-600
Fire is a common disturbance in the North American boreal forest that influences ecosystem structure and function. The temporal and spatial dynamics of fire are likely to be altered as climate continues to change. In this study, we ask the question: how will area burned in boreal North America by...
Geology and geomorphology of Bear Lake Valley and upper Bear River, Utah and Idaho
M.C. Reheis, B.J.C. Laabs, D. S. Kaufman
2009, Special Paper of the Geological Society of America 15-48
Bear Lake, on the Idaho-Utah border, lies in a fault-bounded valley through which the Bear River flows en route to the Great Salt Lake. Surficial deposits in the Bear Lake drainage basin provide a geologic context for interpretation of cores from Bear Lake deposits. In addition to groundwater discharge, Bear...
