Characteristics and 40Ar/39Ar geochronology of the Erdenet Cu-Mo deposit, Mongolia
Imants Kavalieris, Bat-Erdene Khashgerel, Leah E. Morgan, Alexander Undrakhtamir, Adiya Borohul
2017, Economic Geology (112) 1033-1053
The Early to Middle Triassic Erdenet porphyry Cu-Mo deposit, in northern Mongolia, developed in a continent-continent arc collision zone, within the Central Asian orogenic belt. The porphyry system is related to multiple intrusions of crystal-crowded biotite granodiorite porphyry, which formed a composite stock about 900 m in diameter, with...
Loss of ecosystem services due to chronic pollution of forests and surface waters in the Adirondack region (USA)
Colin M. Beier, Jesse Caputo, Gregory B. Lawrence, Timothy J. Sullivan
2017, Journal of Environmental Management (191) 19-27
Sustaining recent progress in mitigating acid pollution could require lower emissions caps that will give rise to real or perceived tradeoffs between healthy ecosystems and inexpensive energy. Because most impacts of acid rain affect ecosystem functions that are poorly understood by policy-makers and the public, an ecosystem services (ES) framework...
Rapid exhumation of Cretaceous arc-rocks along the Blue Mountains restraining bend of the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault, Jamaica, using thermochronometry from multiple closure systems
William J. Cochran, James A. Spotila, Philip S. Prince, Ryan J. McAleer
2017, Tectonophysics (721) 292-309
The effect of rapid erosion on kinematic partitioning along transpressional plate margins is not well understood, particularly in highly erosive climates. The Blue Mountains restraining bend (BMRB) of eastern Jamaica, bound to the south by the left-lateral Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault (EPGF), offers an opportunity to test the effects of highly...
Defining a Safe Operating Space for inland recreational fisheries
Stephen R. Carpenter, William A. Brock, Gretchen J. A. Hansen, Jonathan F. Hansen, Joseph M. Hennessy, Daniel A. Isermann, Eric J. Pedersen, K. Martin Perales, Andrew L. Rypel, Greg G. Sass, Tyler D. Tunney, M. Jake Vander Zanden
2017, Fish and Fisheries (18) 1150-1160
The Safe Operating Space (SOS) of a recreational fishery is the multidimensional region defined by levels of harvest, angler effort, habitat, predation and other factors in which the fishery is sustainable into the future. SOS boundaries exhibit trade-offs such that decreases in harvest can compensate to some degree for losses...
Refined conservation strategies for Golden-winged Warblers in the West Virginia highlands with implications for the broader avian community
Kyle R. Aldinger, Petra B. Wood, Catherine M. Johnson
2017, The Condor (119) 762-786
Golden-winged Warbler (Vermivora chrysoptera) populations in the Appalachian Mountains region of North America are imperiled, warranting species-specific conservation. However, management for Golden-winged Warblers can affect both early-successional and forest species, many of which are also declining in the region. We conducted point counts in sites representing a range of successional...
Dynamic optimization of landscape connectivity embedding spatial-capture-recapture information
Yexiang Xue, Xiaojian Wu, Dana J. Morin, Bistra Dilkina, Angela K. Fuller, J. Andrew Royle, Carla P. Gomes
2017, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the Thirty-First Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-17)
Maintaining landscape connectivity is increasingly important in wildlife conservation, especially for species experiencing the effects of habitat loss and fragmentation. We propose a novel approach to dynamically optimize landscape connectivity. Our approach is based on a mixed integer program formulation, embedding a spatial capture-recapture model that estimates the density, space usage, and landscape connectivity for a given...
Basis function models for animal movement
Mevin Hooten, Devin S. Johnson
2017, Journal of the American Statistical Association (112) 578-589
Advances in satellite-based data collection techniques have served as a catalyst for new statistical methodology to analyze these data. In wildlife ecological studies, satellite-based data and methodology have provided a wealth of information about animal space use and the investigation of individual-based animal–environment relationships. With the technology for data collection...
Estimating the high-arsenic domestic-well population in the conterminous United States
Joseph D. Ayotte, Laura Medalie, Sharon L. Qi, Lorraine C. Backer, Bernard T. Nolan
2017, Environmental Science & Technology (51) 12443-12454
Arsenic concentrations from 20 450 domestic wells in the U.S. were used to develop a logistic regression model of the probability of having arsenic >10 μg/L (“high arsenic”), which is presented at the county, state, and national scales. Variables representing geologic sources, geochemical, hydrologic, and physical features were among the significant...
Simulation of groundwater flow and pumping scenarios for 1900–2050 near Mount Pleasant, South Carolina
Jason M. Fine, Matthew D. Petkewich, Bruce G. Campbell
2017, Scientific Investigations Report 2017-5128
Groundwater withdrawals from the Upper Cretaceous-age Middendorf aquifer in South Carolina have created a large, regional cone of depression in the potentiometric surface of the Middendorf aquifer in Charleston and Berkeley Counties, South Carolina. Groundwater-level declines of as much as 249 feet have been observed in wells over the past...
Environmental and behavioral changes may influence the exposure of an Arctic apex predator to pathogens and contaminants
Todd C. Atwood, Colleen G. Duncan, Kelly A. Patyk, Pauline Nol, Jack Rhyan, Matthew McCollum, Melissa A. McKinney, Andrew M. Ramey, Camila Cerqueira-Cezar, Oliver C H Kwok, Jitender P Dubey, S.G. Hennager
2017, Scientific Reports (7)
Recent decline of sea ice habitat has coincided with increased use of land by polar bears (Ursus maritimus) from the southern Beaufort Sea (SB), which may alter the risks of exposure to pathogens and contaminants. We assayed blood samples from SB polar bears to assess prior exposure to the pathogens...
Database for geologic maps of pyroclastic-flow and related deposits of the 1980 eruptions of Mount St. Helens, Washington
Andrew J. Furze, Joseph A. Bard, Joel Robinson, David W. Ramsey, Mel A. Kuntz, Peter D. Rowley, Norman S. MacLeod
2017, Data Series 1054
This publication releases digital versions of the geologic maps in U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Investigations Map 1950 (USGS I-1950), “Geologic maps of pyroclastic-flow and related deposits of the 1980 eruptions of Mount St. Helens, Washington” (Kuntz, Rowley, and MacLeod, 1990) (https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/i1950). The 1980 Mount St. Helens eruptions...
High-resolution seismic characterization of the gas and gas hydrate system at Green Canyon 955, Gulf of Mexico, USA
Seth S. Haines, Patrick E. Hart, Timothy S. Collett, William Shedd, Matthew Frye, Paul Weimer, Ray Boswell
2017, Marine and Petroleum Geology (82) 220-237
The Pliocene and Pleistocene sediments at lease block Green Canyon 955 (GC955) in the Gulf of Mexico include sand-rich strata with high saturations of gas hydrate; these gas hydrate accumulations and the associated geology have been characterized over the past decade using conventional industry three-dimensional (3D) seismic data and dedicated...
Small high-definition video cameras as a tool to resight uniquely marked Interior Least Terns (Sternula antillarum athalassos)
Dustin L. Toy, Erin Roche, Colin M. Dovichin
2017, Waterbirds (40) 180-186
Many bird species of conservation concern have behavioral or morphological traits that make it difficult for researchers to determine if the birds have been uniquely marked. Those traits can also increase the difficulty for researchers to decipher those markers. As a result, it is a priority for field biologists to...
Examining spatial patterns of selection and use for an altered predator guild
John F. Organ, Matthew Mumma, Joseph D. Holbrook, Nathaniel D. Rayl, Christopher J. Zieminski, Todd K. Fuller, Shane P. Mahoney, Lisette P. Waits
2017, Oecologia (185) 725-735
Anthropogenic disturbances have altered species’ distributions potentially impacting interspecific interactions. Interference competition is when one species denies a competing species access to a resource. One mechanism of interference competition is aggression, which can result in altered space-use of a subordinate species due to the threat of harm, otherwise known as a ‘landscape of fear’. Alternatively, subordinates might...
Lidar aboveground vegetation biomass estimates in shrublands: Prediction, uncertainties and application to coarser scales
Aihua Li, Shital Dhakal, Nancy F. Glenn, Luke P. Spaete, Douglas J. Shinneman, David S. Pilliod, Robert Arkle, Susan McIlroy
2017, Remote Sensing (9)
Our study objectives were to model the aboveground biomass in a xeric shrub-steppe landscape with airborne light detection and ranging (Lidar) and explore the uncertainty associated with the models we created. We incorporated vegetation vertical structure information obtained from Lidar with ground-measured biomass data, allowing us to scale shrub biomass...
Hydrological responses to channelization and the formation of valley plugs and shoals
Aaron R. Pierce, Sammy L. King
2017, Wetlands (37) 513-523
Rehabilitation of floodplain systems focuses on restoring interactions between the fluvial system and floodplain, however, there is a paucity of information on the effects of valley plugs and shoals on floodplain hydrological processes. We investigated hydrologic regimes in floodplains at three valley plug sites, two shoal sites, and three unchannelized...
Origin of discrepancies between crater size-frequency distributions of coeval lunar geologic units via target property contrasts
Carolyn H. Van der Bogert, Harald Hiesinger, Colin M. Dundas, T. Kruger, Alfred S. McEwen, Michael Zanetti, Mark S. Robinson
2017, Icarus (298) 49-63
Recent work on dating Copernican-aged craters, using Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) Camera data, re-encountered a curious discrepancy in crater size-frequency distribution (CSFD) measurements that was observed, but not understood, during the Apollo era. For example, at Tycho, Copernicus, and Aristarchus craters, CSFDs of impact melt deposits give significantly younger relative...
Crotalus oreganus lutosus (Great Basin Rattlesnake). Defensive behavior/head hiding and tongue display
Alexander K. Johnson, Phil A. Medica
2017, Herpetological Review (48) 209-210
A variety of snake species employ head hiding as defensive behavior (Greene 1973. J. Herpetol. 7:143–161), but such behavior seems to be rarely observed in rattlesnakes. A recent report (Medica 2009. Herpetol. Rev. 40:95–97) presented observations on Crotalus scutulatus scutulatus and cited cases of similar behavior involving C. atrox, C....
Local-scale habitat associations of grassland birds in southwestern Minnesota
Lisa H. Elliott, Douglas H. Johnson
2017, American Midland Naturalist (178) 165-188
Conservation of obligate grassland species requires not only the protection of a sufficiently large area of habitat but also the availability of necessary vegetation characteristics for particular species. As a result land managers must understand which habitat characteristics are important for their target species. To identify the habitat associations of...
Flow and residence times of dynamic river bank storage and sinuosity-driven hyporheic exchange
J.D. Gomez-Velez, J.L. Wilson, M.B. Cardenas, Judson Harvey
2017, Water Resources Research (53) 8572-8595
Hydrologic exchange fluxes (HEFs) vary significantly along river corridors due to spatiotemporal changes in discharge and geomorphology. This variability results in the emergence of biogeochemical hot-spots and hot-moments that ultimately control solute and energy transport and ecosystem services from the local to the watershed scales. In this work, we use...
Deglacial sea level history of the East Siberian Sea and Chukchi Sea margins
Thomas M. Cronin, Matt O’Regan, Christof Pearce, Laura Gemery, Michael Toomey, Igor Semiletov
2017, Climate of the Past (13) 1097-1110
Deglacial (12.8–10.7 ka) sea level history on the East Siberian continental shelf and upper continental slope was reconstructed using new geophysical records and sediment cores taken during Leg 2 of the 2014 SWERUS-C3 expedition. The focus of this study is two cores from Herald Canyon, piston core SWERUS-L2-4-PC1 (4-PC1) and...
The magnitude and origin of groundwater discharge to eastern U.S. and Gulf of Mexico coastal waters
Kevin Befus, Kevin D. Kroeger, Christopher G. Smith, Peter W. Swarzenski
2017, Geophysical Research Letters (44) 10396-10406
Fresh groundwater discharge to coastal environments contributes to the physical and chemical conditions of coastal waters, but the role of coastal groundwater at regional to continental scales remains poorly defined due to diverse hydrologic conditions and the difficulty of tracking coastal groundwater flow paths through heterogeneous subsurface materials. We use...
Temporal complexity of southern Beaufort Sea polar bear diets during a period of increasing land use
Melissa A. McKinney, Todd C. Atwood, Sara J. Iverson, Elizabeth L. Peacock
2017, Ecosphere (8)
From 2000 to 2013, use of land as a seasonal habitat by polar bears (Ursus maritimus) of the southern Beaufort Sea (SB) subpopulation substantially increased. This onshore use has been linked to reduced spatial and temporal availability of sea ice, as well as to the availability of subsistence‐harvested bowhead whale...
Polar bear attacks on humans: Implications of a changing climate
James Wilder, Dag Vongraven, Todd C. Atwood, Bob Hansen, Amalie Jessen, Anatoly A. Kochnev, Geoff York, Rachel Vallender, Daryll Hedman, Melissa Gibbons
2017, Wildlife Society Bulletin (41) 537-547
Understanding causes of polar bear (Ursus maritimus) attacks on humans is critical to ensuring both human safety and polar bear conservation. Although considerable attention has been focused on understanding black (U. americanus) and grizzly (U. arctos) bear conflicts with humans, there have been few attempts to systematically collect, analyze, and...
Relative influences of climate change and human activity on the onshore distribution of polar bears
Ryan H. Wilson, Eric V. Regehr, Michelle St. Martin, Todd C. Atwood, Elizabeth L. Peacock, Susanne Miller, George J. Divoky
2017, Biological Conservation (214) 288-294
Climate change is altering habitat for many species, leading to shifts in distributions that can increase levels of human-wildlife conflict. To develop effective strategies for minimizing human-wildlife conflict, we must understand the relative influences that climate change and other factors have on wildlife distributions. Polar bears (Ursus maritimus) are increasingly...