Late Quaternary paleoclimate of western Alaska inferred from fossil chironomids and its relation to vegetation histories
Joshua Kurek, Les C. Cwynar, Thomas A. Ager, Mark B. Abbott, Mary E. Edwards
2009, Quaternary Science Reviews (28) 799-811
Fossil Chironomidae assemblages (with a few Chaoboridae and Ceratopogonidae) from Zagoskin and Burial Lakes in western Alaska provide quantitative reconstructions of mean July air temperatures for periods of the late-middle Wisconsin (~39,000-34,000 cal yr B.P.) to the present. Inferred temperatures are compared with previously analyzed pollen data from each site...
Emissions from the copper-nickel industry on the Kola Peninsula and at Noril'sk, Russia
Ron Boyd, S.-J. Barnes, P. De Caritat, V.A. Chekushin, V.A. Melezhik, C. Reimann, M. L. Zientek
2009, Atmospheric Environment (43) 1474-1480
Published estimates for base metal emissions from the copper-nickel industry on the Kola Peninsula are re-examined in the light of (a) chemical data on the composition of the ores; (b) official emission figures for 1994; and (c) modelled emissions based on dry and wet deposition estimates derived from data for...
Timing and petroleum sources for the Lower Cretaceous Mannville Group oil sands of northern Alberta based on 4-D modeling
D.K. Higley, M. D. Lewan, L. N. R. Roberts, M. Henry
2009, American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin (93) 203-230
The Lower Cretaceous Mannville Group oil sands of northern Alberta have an estimated 270.3 billion m3 (BCM) (1700 billion bbl) of in-place heavy oil and tar. Our study area includes oil sand accumulations and downdip areas that partially extend into the deformation zone in western Alberta. The oil sands are...
Evaluating the validity of using unverified indices of body condition
J.L. Schamber, Daniel Esler, Paul L. Flint
2009, Journal of Avian Biology (40) 49-56
Condition indices are commonly used in an attempt to link body condition of birds to ecological variables of interest, including demographic attributes such as survival and reproduction. Most indices are based on body mass adjusted for structural body size, calculated as simple ratios or residuals from regressions. However, condition indices...
Integrating GIS-based geologic mapping, LiDAR-based lineament analysis and site specific rock slope data to delineate a zone of existing and potential rock slope instability located along the grandfather mountain window-Linville Falls shear zone contact, Southern Appalachian Mountains, Watauga County, North Carolina
K.A. Gillon, R.M. Wooten, R.L. Latham, A.W. Witt, T.J. Douglas, J.B. Bauer, S.J. Fuemmeler
2009, Conference Paper, 43rd U.S. Rock Mechanics Symposium and 4th U.S.-Canada Rock Mechanics Symposium
Landslide hazard maps of Watauga County identify >2200 landslides, model debris flow susceptibility, and evaluate a 14km x 0.5km zone of existing and potential rock slope instability (ZEPRSI) near the Town of Boone. The ZEPRSI encompasses west-northwest trending (WNWT) topographic ridges where 14 active/past-active rock/weathered rock slides occur mainly in...
THEMIS high-resolution digital terrain: Topographic and thermophysical mapping of Gusev Crater, Mars
G.E. Cushing, T.N. Titus, L.A. Soderblom, R. L. Kirk
2009, Journal of Geophysical Research E: Planets (114)
We discuss a new technique to generate high-resolution digital terrain models (DTMs) and to quantitatively derive and map slope-corrected thermophysical properties such as albedo, thermal inertia, and surface temperatures. This investigation is a continuation of work started by Kirk et al. (2005), who empirically deconvolved Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS)...
Dynamics of national forests assessed using the Landsat record: Case studies in eastern United States
C. Huang, S.N. Goward, K. Schleeweis, N. Thomas, J. G. Masek, Z. Zhu
2009, Remote Sensing of Environment (113) 1430-1442
The national forests (NFs) in the United States are protected areas managed for multiple purposes, and therefore are subject to both natural and anthropogenic disturbances. Monitoring forest changes arising from such disturbances and the post-disturbance recovery processes is essential for assessing the conditions of the NFs and the effectiveness...
Ground and surface temperature variability for remote sensing of soil moisture in a heterogeneous landscape
M.A. Giraldo, D. Bosch, M. Madden, L. Usery, M. Finn
2009, Journal of Hydrology (368) 214-223
At the Little River Watershed (LRW) heterogeneous landscape near Tifton Georgia US an in situ network of stations operated by the US Department of Agriculture-Agriculture Research Service-Southeast Watershed Research Lab (USDA-ARS-SEWRL) was established in 2003 for the long term study of climatic and soil biophysical processes. To develop an accurate...
Modelling predation by transient leopard seals for an ecosystem-based management of Southern Ocean fisheries
J. Forcada, D. Malone, J. Andrew Royle, I.J. Staniland
2009, Ecological Modelling (220) 1513-1521
Correctly quantifying the impacts of rare apex marine predators is essential to ecosystem-based approaches to fisheries management, where harvesting must be sustainable for targeted species and their dependent predators. This requires modelling the uncertainty in such processes as predator life history, seasonal abundance and movement, size-based predation, energetic requirements, and...
Two statistics for evaluating parameter identifiability and error reduction
John Doherty, Randall J. Hunt
2009, Journal of Hydrology (366) 119-127
Two statistics are presented that can be used to rank input parameters utilized by a model in terms of their relative identifiability based on a given or possible future calibration dataset. Identifiability is defined here as the capability of model calibration to constrain parameters used by a model. Both statistics...
Shallow water processes govern system-wide phytoplankton bloom dynamics: A modeling study
L.V. Lucas, Jeffrey R. Koseff, Stephen G. Monismith, J.K. Thompson
2009, Journal of Marine Systems (75) 70-86
A pseudo-two-dimensional numerical model of estuarine phytoplankton growth and consumption, vertical turbulent mixing, and idealized cross-estuary transport was developed and applied to South San Francisco Bay. This estuary has two bathymetrically distinct habitat types (deep channel, shallow shoal) and associated differences in local net rates of phytoplankton growth and consumption,...
Elastic wave speeds and moduli in polycrystalline ice Ih, si methane hydrate, and sll methane-ethane hydrate
M.B. Helgerud, W.F. Waite, S. H. Kirby, A. Nur
2009, Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth (114)
We used ultrasonic pulse transmission to measure compressional, P, and shear, S, wave speeds in laboratory-formed polycrystalline ice Ih, si methane hydrate, and sll methane-ethane hydrate. From the wave speed's linear dependence on temperature and pressure and from the sample's calculated density, we derived expressions for bulk, shear, and compressional...
Relationships between nutritional condition of adult females and relative carrying capacity for rocky mountain Elk
J.R. Piasecke, Louis C. Bender
2009, Rangeland Ecology and Management (62) 145-152
Lactation can have significant costs to individual and population-level productivity because of the high energetic demands it places on dams. Because the difference in condition between lactating and dry Rocky Mountain elk (Cervus elaphus nelsoni) cows tends to disappear as nutritional quality rises, the magnitude of that difference could be...
Prediction of spectral acceleration response ordinates based on PGA attenuation
V. Graizer, E. Kalkan
2009, Earthquake Spectra (25) 39-69
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...
Obliquity-paced Pliocene West Antarctic ice sheet oscillations
T. Naish, R. Powell, R. Levy, G. Wilson, R. Scherer, F. Talarico, L. Krissek, F. Niessen, M. Pompilio, T. Wilson, L. Carter, R. DeConto, P. Huybers, R. McKay, D. Pollard, J. Ross, D. Winter, P. Barrett, G. Browne, R. Cody, E. Cowan, J. Crampton, G. Dunbar, N. Dunbar, F. Florindo, C. Gebhardt, I. Graham, M. Hannah, D. Hansaraj, D. Harwood, D. Helling, S. Henrys, L. Hinnov, G. Kuhn, P. Kyle, A. Laufer, P. Maffioli, D. Magens, K. Mandernack, W. McIntosh, C. Millan, R. Morin, C. Ohneiser, T. Paulsen, D. Persico, I. Raine, J. Reed, C. Riesselman, L. Sagnotti, D. Schmitt, C. Sjunneskog, P. Strong, M. Taviani, S. Vogel, T. Wilch, T. Williams
2009, Nature (458) 322-328
Thirty years after oxygen isotope records from microfossils deposited in ocean sediments confirmed the hypothesis that variations in the Earth's orbital geometry control the ice ages1, fundamental questions remain over the response of the Antarctic ice sheets to orbital cycles2. Furthermore, an understanding of the behaviour...
Parasite manipulation of brain monoamines in California killifish (Fundulus parvipinnis) by the trematode Euhaplorchis californiensis
J.C. Shaw, W.J. Korzan, R.E. Carpenter, A. M. Kuris, K. D. Lafferty, C.H. Summers, O. Overli
2009, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (276) 1137-1146
California killifish (Fundulus parvipinnis) infected with the brain-encysting trematode Euhaplorchis californiensis display conspicuous swimming behaviours rendering them more susceptible to predation by avian final hosts. Heavily infected killifish grow and reproduce normally, despite having thousands of cysts inside their braincases. This suggests that E. californiensis affects only specific locomotory behaviours....
Structured decision making as a conceptual framework to identify thresholds for conservation and management
J. Martin, M.C. Runge, J.D. Nichols, B. C. Lubow, W. L. Kendall
2009, Ecological Applications (19) 1079-1090
Thresholds and their relevance to conservation have become a major topic of discussion in the ecological literature. Unfortunately, in many cases the lack of a clear conceptual framework for thinking about thresholds may have led to confusion in attempts to apply the concept of thresholds to conservation decisions. Here, we...
Environmental correlates of breeding in the Crested Caracara (Caracara cheriway)
J. L. Morrison, Kyle E. Pias, J.B. Cohen, D.H. Catlin
2009, The Auk (126) 755-764
We evaluated the influence of weather on reproduction of the Crested Caracara (Caracara cheriway) in an agricultural landscape in south-central Florida. We used a mixed logistic-regression modeling approach within an information-theoretic framework to examine the influence of total rainfall, rainfall frequency, and temperature on the number of breeding pairs, timing...
Phenologically-tuned MODIS NDVI-based production anomaly estimates for Zimbabwe
Chris Funk, Michael E. Budde
2009, Remote Sensing of Environment (113) 115-125
For thirty years, simple crop water balance models have been used by the early warning community to monitor agricultural drought. These models estimate and accumulate actual crop evapotranspiration, evaluating environmental conditions based on crop water requirements. Unlike seasonal rainfall totals, these models take into account the phenology of the crop,...
Hydrograph separation for karst watersheds using a two-domain rainfall-discharge model
Andrew J. Long
2009, Journal of Hydrology (364) 249-256
Highly parameterized, physically based models may be no more effective at simulating the relations between rainfall and outflow from karst watersheds than are simpler models. Here an antecedent rainfall and convolution model was used to separate a karst watershed hydrograph into two outflow components: one originating from focused recharge in...
Wildland-urban interface maps vary with purpose and context
S. I. Stewart, B. Wilmer, R. B. Hammer, G. H. Aplet, T. J. Hawbaker, C. Miller, V. C. Radeloff
2009, Journal of Forestry (107) 78-83
Maps of the wildland-urban interface (WUI) are both policy tools and powerful visual images. Although the growing number of WUI maps serve similar purposes, this article indicates that WUI maps derived from the same data sets can differ in important ways related to their original intended application. We discuss the...
Characterization of Mars' seasonal caps using neutron spectroscopy
T.H. Prettyman, W. C. Feldman, T.N. Titus
2009, Journal of Geophysical Research E: Planets (114)
Mars' seasonal caps are characterized during Mars years 26 and 27 (April 2002 to January 2006) using data acquired by the 2001 Mars Odyssey Neutron Spectrometer. Time-dependent maps of the column abundance of seasonal CO 2 surface ice poleward of 60?? latitude in both hemispheres are determined from spatially deconvolved,...
Sensitivity of system stability to model structure
G.R. Hosack, H.W. Li, P.A. Rossignol
2009, Ecological Modelling (220) 1054-1062
A community is stable, and resilient, if the levels of all community variables can return to the original steady state following a perturbation. The stability properties of a community depend on its structure, which is the network of direct effects (interactions) among the variables within the community. These direct effects...
Russian eruption warning systems for aviation
Christina A. Neal, Olga Girina, Sergey Senyukov, Alexander Rybin, Jeffery M. Osiensky, Pavel Izbekov, Gail Ferguson
2009, Natural Hazards (51) 245-262
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...
Sedimentary basin effects in Seattle, Washington: Ground-motion observations and 3D simulations
Arthur Frankel, William Stephenson, David Carver
2009, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (99) 1579-1611
Seismograms of local earthquakes recorded in Seattle exhibit surface waves in the Seattle basin and basin-edge focusing of S waves. Spectral ratios of Swaves and later arrivals at 1 Hz for stiff-soil sites in the Seattle basin show a dependence on the direction to the earthquake, with earthquakes to the...
