Response of moose to a high‐density road network
David W. Wattles, Katherine A. Zeller, Stephen DeStefano
2018, Journal of Wildlife Management (82) 929-939
Road networks and the disturbance associated with vehicle traffic alter animal behavior, movements, and habitat selection. The response of moose (Alces americanus) to roads has been documented in relatively rural areas, but less is known about moose response to roads in more highly roaded landscapes. We examined road‐crossing frequencies and...
Book review: Handbook of cyanobacterial monitoring and cyanotoxin analysis
Jennifer L. Graham, Keith A. Loftin
2018, Limnology and Oceanography Bulletin (27) 61-62
Review of Meriluoto, Jussi, Lisa Spoof, and GeoffreyA. Codd [eds.]. 2017. Handbook of Cyanobacterial Monitoring and Cyanotoxin Analysis. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.: Chichester, West Sussex, UK, ISBN 978‐1‐119‐06868‐6 (978‐1‐119‐06876‐1 eBook), DOI 10.1002/9781119068761....
A suite of exercises for verifying dynamic earthquake rupture codes
Ruth A. Harris, Michael Barall, Brad T. Aagaard, Shuo Ma, Daniel Roten, Kim Olsen, Benchun Duan, Dunyu Liu, Bin Luo, Kangchen Bai, Jean-Paul Ampuero, Yoshihiro Kaneko, Alice-Agnes Gabriel, Kenneth Duru, Thomas Ulrich, Stephanie Wollherr, Zheqiang Shi, Eric Dunham, Sam Bydlon, Zhenguo Zhang, Xiaofei Chen, Surendra N. Somala, Christian Pelties, Josue Tago, Victor Manuel Cruz-Atienza, Jeremy Kozdon, Eric Daub, Khurram Aslam, Yuko Kase, Kyle Withers, Luis Dalguer
2018, Seismological Research Letters (89) 1146-1162
We describe a set of benchmark exercises that are designed to test if computer codes that simulate dynamic earthquake rupture are working as intended. These types of computer codes are often used to understand how earthquakes operate, and they produce simulation results that include earthquake size, amounts of fault slip,...
Quantifying temporal trends in fisheries abundance using Bayesian dynamic linear models: A case study of riverine Smallmouth Bass populations
Megan K. Schall, Vicki S. Blazer, Robert M. Lorantas, Geoffrey Smith, John E. Mullican, Brandon J. Keplinger, Tyler Wagner
2018, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (38) 493-501
Detecting temporal changes in fish abundance is an essential component of fisheries management. Because of the need to understand short‐term and nonlinear changes in fish abundance, traditional linear models may not provide adequate information for management decisions. This study highlights the utility of Bayesian dynamic linear models (DLMs) as a...
Population dynamics of the northern tamarisk beetle (Diorhabda carinulata) in the Colorado River Basin
Levi R. Jamison, Charles van Riper III
2018, Open-File Report 2018-1070
Throughout the Southwestern United States, riparian systems contain narrow belts of vegetation along streams and rivers. Although only a small percentage of the total land cover, this ecosystem is important for maintaining high species diversity and population densities of birds. Anthropogenic changes to Western riverine systems have enhanced their susceptibility...
A multiscale investigation of habitat use and within-river distribution of sympatric sand darter species
Patricia A. Thompson, Stuart A. Welsh, Michael P. Strager, Austin A. Rizzo
2018, Journal of Geospatial Applications in Natural Resources (2) 1-22
The western sand darter Ammocrypta clara, and eastern sand darter Ammocrypta pellucida, are sand-dwelling fishes of conservation concern. Past research has emphasized the importance of studying individual populations of conservation concern, while recent research has revealed the importance of incorporating landscape scale processes that structure habitat mosaics and local populations....
Irrigated agriculture and future climate change effects on groundwater recharge, northern High Plains aquifer, USA
Zachary H. Lauffenburger, Jason J. Gurdak, Christopher M. Hobza, Duane Woodward, Cassandra Wolf
2018, Agricultural Water Management (204) 69-80
Understanding the controls of agriculture and climate change on recharge rates is critically important to develop appropriate sustainable management plans for groundwater resources and coupled irrigated agricultural systems. In this study, several physical (total potential (ψT) time series) and chemical tracer and dating (3H, Cl−, Br−, CFCs, SF6, and 3H/3He) methods...
Energetic fitness: Field metabolic rates assessed via 3D accelerometry complement conventional fitness metrics
David Gremillet, Amelie Lescroel, Grant Ballard, Katie M. Dugger, Melanie Massaro, Elizabeth L. Porzig, David G. Ainley
2018, Functional Ecology (32) 1203-1213
Evaluating the fitness of organisms is an essential step towards understanding their responses to environmental change. Connections between energy expenditure and fitness have been postulated for nearly a century. However, testing this premise among wild animals is constrained by difficulties in measuring energy expenditure while simultaneously monitoring conventional fitness...
Fight and air exposure times of caught and released salmonids from the South Fork Snake River
Curtis J. Roth, Daniel J. Schill, Michael C. Quist
2018, Fisheries Research (201) 38-42
Catch-and-release regulations are among the most common types of fishing regulations. In recent years, concerns have arisen regarding the exposure of fish to air during catch-and-release angling. The purpose of our study was to quantify the length of time angled fish were exposed to air by anglers in a typical...
Co‐occurrence dynamics of endangered Lower Keys marsh rabbits and free‐ranging domestic cats: Prey responses to an exotic predator removal program
Michael V. Cove, Beth Gardner, Theodore R. Simons, Allan F. O’Connell
2018, Ecology and Evolution (8) 4042-4052
The Lower Keys marsh rabbit (Sylvilagus palustris hefneri) is one of many endangered endemic species of the Florida Keys. The main threats are habitat loss and fragmentation from sea‐level rise, development, and habitat succession. Exotic predators such as free‐ranging domestic cats (Felis catus) pose an additional threat to these endangered...
Quantifying salinity and season effects on eastern oyster clearance and oxygen consumption rates
S.M. Casas, Romain Lavaud, Megan K. LaPeyre, L. A. Comeau, R. Filgueira, Jerome F. LaPeyre
2018, Marine Biology (165) 1-13
There are few data on Crassostrea virginica physiological rates across the range of salinities and temperatures to which they are regularly exposed, and this limits the applicability of growth and production models using these data. The objectives of this study were to quantify, in winter (17 °C) and summer (27 °C), the...
Examining natural attenuation and acute toxicity of petroleum-derived dissolved organic matter with optical spectroscopy
David C. Podgorski, Phoebe Zito, Jennifer McGuire, Dalma Martinovic-Weigelt, Isabelle M. Cozzarelli, Barbara A. Bekins, Robert G. M. Spencer
2018, Environmental Science & Technology (52) 6157-6166
Groundwater samples containing petroleum-derived dissolved organic matter (DOMHC) originating from the north oil body within the National Crude Oil Spill Fate and Natural Attenuation Research Site near Bemidji, MN, USA were analyzed by optical spectroscopic techniques (i.e., absorbance and fluorescence) to assess relationships that can be used to examine natural...
Risky behavior and its effect on survival: snowshoe hare behavior under varying moonlight conditions
Laura C. Gigliotti, Duane R. Diefenbach
2018, Journal of Zoology (305) 27-34
Predation and predation risk can exert strong influences on the behavior of prey species. However, risk avoidance behaviors may vary among populations of the same species. We studied a population of snowshoe hares (Lepus americanus) near the southern edge of their range, in Pennsylvania. This population occupies different habitat types,...
Discharge, sediment, and water chemistry in Clear Creek, western Nevada, water years 2013–16
Jena M. Huntington, Daniel J. Riddle, Angela P. Paul
2018, Scientific Investigations Report 2018-5050
Clear Creek is a small stream that drains the eastern Carson Range near Lake Tahoe, flows roughly parallel to the Highway 50 corridor, and discharges to the Carson River near Carson City, Nevada. Historical and ongoing development in the drainage basin is thought to be affecting Clear Creek and...
Estimation of unregulated monthly, annual, and peak streamflows in Forest City Stream and lake levels in East Grand Lake, United States-Canada border between Maine and New Brunswick
Pamela J. Lombard
2018, Scientific Investigations Report 2018-5044
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the International Joint Commission, compiled historical data on regulated streamflows and lake levels and estimated unregulated streamflows and lake levels on Forest City Stream at Forest City, Maine, and East Grand Lake on the United States-Canada border between Maine and New Brunswick to...
Diet of burbot and implications for sampling
Kathryn E. McBaine, Zachary B. Klein, Michael C. Quist, Darren T. Rhea
2018, Intermountain Journal of Sciences (24) 1-13
Burbot (Lota lota) are an apex piscivore that were illegally introduced to the Green River drainage, Wyoming, raising concerns for the conservation and management of fishes throughout the basin. However, relatively little is known about the diet of non-native burbot. The objectives of this research were to characterize diet composition...
Reproductive frequency and size-dependence of fecundity in the Giant Gartersnake (Thamnophis gigas)
Jonathan P. Rose, Julia Ersan, Glenn D. Wylie, Michael L. Casazza, Brian J. Halstead
2018, Herpetological Conservation and Biology (13) 80-90
How reproductive output changes with age or size is a key life-history trait that can affect which demographic rates most influence population growth. Although many studies have investigated the reproductive ecology of gartersnakes, we know little about reproduction in the threatened Giant Gartersnake, Thamnophis gigas. We used X-radiography to determine reproductive status and...
Associations between urban sprawl and life expectancy in the United States
Shima Hamidi, Reid Ewing, Zaria Tatalovich, James B. Grace, David Berrigan
2018, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (15) 1-11
In recent years, the United States has had a relatively poor performance with respect to life expectancy compared to the other developed nations. Urban sprawl is one of the potential causes of the high rate of mortality in the United States. This study investigated cross-sectional associations between sprawl and life...
Biology and impacts of Pacific Islands invasive species. 14. Sus scrofa the feral pig (Artiodactyla: Suidae)
Nathaniel H. Wehr, Steven C. Hess, Creighton M. Litton
2018, Pacific Science (72) 177-198
Feral pigs (Sus scrofa L.) are perhaps the most abundant, widespread, and economically significant large introduced vertebrate across the Pacific island region. Unlike many other nonnative invasive species, feral pigs have both cultural and recreational importance in the region, complicating their management. Today, Pacific island feral pigs are a mixture of...
The widespread influence of Great Lakes microseisms across the United States revealed by the 2014 polar vortex
Robert Anthony, Adam T. Ringler, David C. Wilson
2018, Geophysical Research Letters (45) 3436-3444
During the winter of 2014, a weak polar vortex brought record cold temperatures to the north‐central (“Midwest”) United States, and the Great Lakes reached the highest extent of ice coverage (92.5%) since 1979. This event shut down the generation of seismic signals caused by wind‐driven wave action within the lakes...
Laboratory observations of artificial sand and oil agglomerates
Robert L. Jenkins III, P. Soupy Dalyander, Allison Penko, Joseph W. Long
2018, Open-File Report 2018-1010
Sand and oil agglomerates (SOAs) form when weathered oil reaches the surf zone and combines with suspended sediments. The presence of large SOAs in the form of thick mats (up to 10 centimeters [cm] in height and up to 10 square meters [m2] in area) and smaller SOAs, sometimes referred...
A metabolism-based whole lake eutrophication model to estimate the magnitude and time scales of the effects of restoration in Upper Klamath Lake, south-central Oregon
Susan A. Wherry, Tamara M. Wood
2018, Scientific Investigations Report 2018-5042
A whole lake eutrophication (WLE) model approach for phosphorus and cyanobacterial biomass in Upper Klamath Lake, south-central Oregon, is presented here. The model is a successor to a previous model developed to inform a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) for phosphorus in the lake, but is based on net...
Factors influencing elk recruitment across ecotypes in the Western United States
Paul M. Lukacs, Michael S. Mitchell, Mark Hebblewhite, Bruce K. Johnson, Heather E. Johnson, Matthew J. Kauffman, Kelly M. Proffitt, Peter Zager, Jedediah Brodie, Kent Hersey, A. Andrew Holland, Mark Hurley, Scott McCorquodale, Arthur Middleton, Matthew Nordhagen, J. Joshua Nowak, Daniel P. Walsh, P.J. White
2018, Journal of Wildlife Management (82) 698-710
Ungulates are key components in ecosystems and economically important for sport and subsistence harvest. Yet the relative importance of the effects of weather conditions, forage productivity, and carnivores on ungulates are not well understood. We examined changes in elk (Cervus canadensis) recruitment (indexed as age ratios) across 7 states and...
Modeling and simulation of emergent behavior in transportation infrastructure restoration
Akhilesh Ojha, Steven Corns, Thomas G. Shoberg, Ruwen Qin, Suzanna K. Long
2018, Book chapter, Emergent behavior in complex systems engineering: A modeling and simulation approach
The objective of this chapter is to create a methodology to model the emergent behavior during a disruption in the transportation system and that calculates economic losses due to such a disruption, and to understand how an extreme event affects the road transportation network. The chapter discusses a system dynamics...
Measurements of erosion potential using Gust chamber in Yolo Bypass near Sacramento, California
Paul A. Work, David H. Schoellhamer
2018, Open-File Report 2018-1062
This report describes work performed to quantify the erodibility of surface soils in the Yolo Bypass (Bypass) near Sacramento, California, for use in the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) Yolo Bypass D-MCM mercury model. The Bypass, when not serving as a floodway, is heavily utilized for agriculture. During flood events, surface water flows over the...
