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This paper describes a new divide and conquer approach that leverages big environmental data, utilizing all available categorical and time-series data without subjectivity, to empirically model hydrologic and water-quality behaviors across expansive regions. The approach decomposes large, intractable problems into smaller ones that are optimally solved; decomposes complex signals into...

Determining atmospheric deposition rates of mercury and other contaminants using lake sediment cores requires a quantitative understanding of sediment focusing. Here we present a novel approach that solves mass-balance equations for two cores algebraically to estimate contaminant contributions to sediment from direct atmospheric fallout and from watershed and in-lake focusing....

Recent extensions of occupancy modeling have focused not only on the distribution of species over space, but also on additional state variables (e.g., reproducing or not, with or without disease organisms, relative abundance categories) that provide extra information about occupied sites. These biologist-driven extensions are characterized by ambiguity in both...

More than 65 potentially active volcanoes on the Kamchatka Peninsula and the Kurile Islands pose a substantial threat to aircraft on the Northern Pacific (NOPAC), Russian Trans-East (RTE), and Pacific Organized Track System (PACOTS) air routes. The Kamchatka Volcanic Eruption Response Team (KVERT) monitors and reports on volcanic hazards to...

The significant impact of extant carnivores, particularly spotted hyenas, on the depo-sitional history and physical characteristics of archaeofaunal and paleontological assemblages is well recognized. We focus on the behavioral ecology of extant spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) in relation to bone accumulations produced by one East African clan at communal dens....

 Changes beneath a volcano can be observed through position changes in a GPS network, but distinguishing the source of site motion is not always straightforward. The records of continuous GPS sites provide a favorable data set for tracking magma migration. Dense campaign observations usually provide a better spatial picture...

Projections of polar bear (Ursus maritimus) sea ice habitat distribution in the polar basin during the 21st century were developed to understand the consequences of anticipated sea ice reductions on polar bear populations. We used location data from satellitecollared polar bears and environmental data (e.g., bathymetry, distance to coastlines, and...

An ensemble of 10 hydrological models was applied to the same set of land use change scenarios. There was general agreement about the direction of changes in the mean annual discharge and 90% discharge percentile predicted by the ensemble members, although a considerable range in the magnitude of predictions for...

Developed herein is a new peak ground acceleration (PGA)-based predictive model for 5% damped pseudospectral acceleration (SA) ordinates of free-field horizontal component of ground motion from shallow-crustal earthquakes. The predictive model of ground motion spectral shape (i.e., normalized spectrum) is generated as a continuous function of few parameters. The proposed...

As habitat loss and fragmentation increase across ungulate ranges, identifying and prioritizing migration routes for conservation has taken on new urgency. Here we present a general framework using the Brownian bridge movement model (BBMM) that: (1) provides a probabilistic estimate of the migration routes of a sampled population, (2) distinguishes...

The Quaternary lacustrine basin of Cordovilla (CB) represents one of the most active tectonic areas of the Prebetic Zone (Albacete, SE of Spain). The Quaternary sedimentary deposits of this basin are mainly endoreic lacustrine carbonate and alluvial deposits, developed in a semi-arid climate (Pleistocene-present). The basin is a NW-SE-elongated graben...

A field facility has been developed to allow controlled studies of near surface CO2 transport and detection technologies. The key component of the facility is a shallow, slotted horizontal well divided into six zones. The scale and fluxes were designed to address large scale CO2 storage projects and desired retention...

Members of the bacterial genus Francisella are highly virulent and infectious pathogens. New models to study Francisella pathogenesis in evolutionarily distinct species are needed to provide comparative insight, as the mechanisms of host resistance and pathogen virulence are not well understood. We took advantage of the recent discovery of a...

We present a resolution analysis of an inversion of GPS data from the 2004 Mw 6.0 Parkfield earthquake. This earthquake was recorded at thirteen 1-Hz GPS receivers, which provides for a truly coseismic data set that can be used to infer the static slip field. We find that the resolution...

We present a three-dimensional (3D) tomographic model of the P wave velocity (Vp) structure of northern California. We employed a regional-scale double-difference tomography algorithm that incorporates a finite-difference travel time calculator and spatial smoothing constraints. Arrival times from earthquakes and travel times from controlled-source explosions, recorded at network and/or temporary...

A one-dimensional heat-transport model for conduit flow in karst aquifers is presented as an alternative to two or three-dimensional distributed-parameter models, which are data intensive and require knowledge of conduit locations. This model can be applied for cases where water temperature in a well or spring receives all or part...

Remotely sensed data represents key information for character-izing and estimating biodiversity. Spectral distance among sites has proven to be a powerful approach for detecting species composition variability. Regression analysis of species similarity versus spectral distance may allow us to quantitatively estimate how beta-diversity in species changes with respect to spectral...

This paper reports on a project to compare predictions from a range of catchment models applied to a mesoscale river basin in central Germany and to assess various ensemble predictions of catchment streamflow. The models encompass a large range in inherent complexity and input requirements. In approximate order of decreasing...

We evaluate the fine-grain age patch model of fire regimes in southern California shrublands. Proponents contend that the historical condition was characterized by frequent small to moderate size, slow-moving smoldering fires, and that this regime has been disrupted by fire suppression activities that have caused unnatural fuel accumulation and anomalously...

Using heat as a tracer, quantitative estimates of streambed fluxes and the critical stage for flow reversal were calculated for high‐flow events that occurred on the Bogue Phalia (a tributary of the Mississippi River) following the 2005 Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. In June 2005, piezometers were installed in the Bogue...

The ridge and slough landscape of the Florida Everglades consists of a mosaic of linear sawgrass ridges separated by deeper-water sloughs with tree islands interspersed throughout the landscape. We used pollen assemblages from transects of sediment cores spanning sawgrass ridges, sloughs, and ridge-slough transition zones to determine the timing of...

The U. S. Geological Survey (USGS) ShakeCast system is a freely-available, post-earthquake situational awareness application that automatically retrieves earthquake shaking data from ShakeMap, compares intensity measures against users' facilities, sends notifications of potential damage to responsible parties, and generates facility damage assessment maps and other Web-based products for emergency managers...

We refined the three-dimensional (3-D) Vp, Vs and Vp/Vs models around the San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD) site using a new double-difference (DD) seismic tomography code (tomoDDPS) that simultaneously solves for earthquake locations and all three velocity models using both absolute and differential P, S, and S-P times....

Juvenile pallid sturgeon Scaphirhynchus albus raised in hatcheries and stocked in the wild are used to augment critically imperiled populations of this federally endangered species in the United States. For pallid sturgeon in recovery priority management area 2 (RPMA 2) of the Missouri River and lower Yellowstone River where natural...

Seepage water and drainage water geochemistry (pH, EC, O2, redox, alkalinity, dissolved cations and trace metals, major anions, total element concentrations) were studied at two active sulphide mine tailings impoundments in Finland (the Hitura Ni mine and Luikonlahti Cu mine/talc processing plant). The data were used to assess the factors...