Millennial-scale variability in the local radiocarbon reservoir age of south Florida during the Holocene
Lauren T. Toth, Hai Cheng, R. Lawrence Edwards, Erica Ashe, Julie N. Richey
2017, Quaternary Geochronology (42) 130-143
A growing body of research suggests that the marine environments of south Florida provide a critical link between the tropical and high-latitude Atlantic. Changes in the characteristics of water masses off south Florida may therefore have important implications for our understanding of climatic and oceanographic variability over a broad spatial...
Forest harvest patterns on private lands in the Cascade Mountains, Washington, USA
Christopher E. Soulard, Jessica J. Walker, Glenn E. Griffith
2017, Forests (8) 1-18
Forests in Washington State generate substantial economic revenue from commercial timber harvesting on private lands. To investigate the rates, causes, and spatial and temporal patterns of forest harvest on private tracts throughout the Cascade Mountains, we relied on a new generation of annual land-use/land-cover (LULC) products created from the application...
Ecosystem services from transborder migratory species: Implications for conservation governance
Laura Lopez-Hoffman, Charles C. Chester, Darius J. Semmens, Wayne E. Thogmartin, M. Sofia Rodriguez-McGoffin, Robert W. Merideth, Jay E. Diffendorfer
2017, Annual Review of Environment and Resources (42) 509-539
This article discusses the conservation challenges of volant migratory transborder species and conservation governance primarily in North America. Many migratory species provide ecosystem service benefits to society. For example, insectivorous bats prey on crop pests and reduce the need for pesticides; birds and insects pollinate food plants; and birds afford...
A decade of induced slip on the causative fault of the 2015 Mw 4.0 Venus earthquake, northeast Johnson County, Texas
Monique M. Scales, Heather R. DeShon, M. Beatrice Magnani, Jacob I. Walter, Louis Quinones, Thomas L. Pratt, Matthew J. Hornbach
2017, Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth (122) 7879-7894
On 7 May 2015, a Mw 4.0 earthquake occurred near Venus, northeast Johnson County, Texas, in an area of the Bend Arch-Fort Worth Basin that reports long-term, high-volume wastewater disposal and that has hosted felt earthquakes since 2009. In the weeks following the Mw 4.0 earthquake, we deployed a local seismic network and purchased...
Forecast first: An argument for groundwater modeling in reverse
Jeremy T. White
2017, Groundwater (55) 660-664
Numerical groundwater models are important compo-nents of groundwater analyses that are used for makingcritical decisions related to the management of ground-water resources. In this support role, models are oftenconstructed to serve a specific purpose that is to provideinsights, through simulation, related to a specific func-tion of a complex aquifer system...
Influence of pore pressure change on coseismic volumetric strain
Chi-Yuen Wang, Andrew J. Barbour
2017, Earth and Planetary Science Letters (475) 152-159
Coseismic strain is fundamentally important for understanding crustal response to changes of stress after earthquakes. The elastic dislocation model has been widely applied to interpreting observed shear deformation caused by earthquakes. The application of the same theory to interpreting volumetric strain, however, has met with difficulty, especially in the far...
The importance of parameterization when simulating the hydrologic response of vegetative land-cover change
Jeremy T. White, Victoria G. Stengel, Samuel H. Rendon, John Banta
2017, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (21) 3975-3989
Computer models of hydrologic systems are frequently used to investigate the hydrologic response of land-cover change. If the modeling results are used to inform resource-management decisions, then providing robust estimates of uncertainty in the simulated response is an important consideration. Here we examine the importance of parameterization, a necessarily subjective...
Protected areas as social-ecological systems: perspectives from resilience and social-ecological systems theory
Graeme S. Cumming, Craig R. Allen
2017, Ecological Applications (27) 1709-1717
Conservation biology and applied ecology increasingly recognize that natural resource management is both an outcome and a driver of social, economic, and ecological dynamics. Protected areas offer a fundamental approach to conserving ecosystems, but they are also social-ecological systems whose ecological management and sustainability are heavily influenced by people. This...
Conceptual modeling framework to support development of site-specific selenium criteria for Lake Koocanusa, Montana, U.S.A., and British Columbia, Canada
Karen E. Jenni, David L. Naftz, Theresa S. Presser
2017, Open-File Report 2017-1130
The U.S. Geological Survey, working with the Montana Department of Environmental Quality and the British Columbia Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change Strategy, has developed a conceptual modeling framework that can be used to provide structured and scientifically based input to the Lake Koocanusa Monitoring and Research Working Group...
The NorWeST summer stream temperature model and scenarios for the western U.S.: A crowd-sourced database and new geospatial tools foster a user-community and predict broad climate warming of rivers and streams
Daniel J. Isaak, Seth J. Wenger, Erin E. Peterson, Jay M Ver Hoef, David E Nagel, Charlie H. Luce, Steven W. Hostetler, Jason B. Dunham, Brett B. Roper, Sherry P Wollrab, Gwynne L Chandler, Dona L Horan, Sharon Parkes-Payne
2017, Water Resources Research (53) 9181-9205
Thermal regimes are fundamental determinants of aquatic ecosystems, which makes description and prediction of temperatures critical during a period of rapid global change. The advent of inexpensive temperature sensors dramatically increased monitoring in recent decades, and although most monitoring is done by individuals for agency‐specific purposes, collectively these efforts constitute...
Volcanic unrest at Mauna Loa, Earth's largest active volcano
Weston Thelen, Asta Mikijus, Christina A. Neal
2017, Eos, American Geophysical Union
Mauna Loa is showing persistent signs of volcanic unrest. Since 2014, increased seismicity and deformation indicate that Mauna Loa, the volcano that dominates more than half of the island of Hawaiʻi, may be building toward its first eruption since 1984.Thousands of residents and key infrastructure are potentially at risk from...
A revised list of the freshwater mussels (Mollusca: Bivalvia: Unionida) of the United States and Canada
James D. Williams, Arthur E. Bogan, Robert S. Butler, Kevin S. Cummings, Jeffrey T. Garner, John L. Harris, Nathan A. Johnson, G. Thomas Watters
2017, Freshwater Mollusk Biology and Conservation (20) 33-58
We present a revised list of freshwater mussels (order Unionida, families Margaritiferidae and Unionidae) of the United States and Canada, incorporating changes in nomenclature and systematic taxonomy since publication of the most recent checklist in 1998. We recognize a total of 298 species in 55 genera in the families Margaritiferidae...
Experimental infection of common eider ducklings with Wellfleet Bay virus, a newly characterized orthomyxovirus
Valerie I. Shearn-Bochsler, S. Ip, Anne Ballmann, Jeffrey S. Hall, Andrew B. Allison, Jennifer R. Ballard, Julie C. Ellis, Robert Cook, Samantha E.J. Gibbs, Chris P. Dwyer
2017, Emerging Infectious Diseases (23) 1974-1981
Wellfleet Bay virus (WFBV), a novel orthomyxovirus in the genus Quaranjavirus, was first isolated in 2006 from carcasses of common eider (Somateria mollissima) during a mortality event in Wellfleet Bay (Barnstable County, Massachusetts, USA) and has since been repeatedly isolated during recurrent mortality events in this location. Hepatic, pancreatic, splenic, and...
Evaluating upstream passage and timing of approach by adult bigheaded carps at a gated dam on the Illinois River
Matthew Lubejko, Greg Whitledge, Alison A. Coulter, Marybeth K. Brey, Devon Oliver, James E. Garvey
2017, River Research and Applications (33) 1268-1278
Dams are a conservation threat because they function as barriers to native fish movement; however, they may prevent the spread of invasive species. Invasive bigheaded carps (Hypophthalmichthys spp.) threaten the Great Lakes ecosystem and are advancing towards Lake Michigan via the Illinois River. Navigation dams on the Illinois River may deter...
Effects of flood inundation and invasion by Phalaris arundinacea on nitrogen cycling in an Upper Mississippi River floodplain forest
Whitney Swanson, Nathan R. De Jager, Eric A. Strauss, Meredith Thomsen
2017, Ecohydrology (10)
Although floodplains are thought to serve as important buffers against nitrogen (N) transport to aquatic systems, frequent flooding and high levels of nutrient availability also make these systems prone to invasion by exotic plant species. Invasive plants could modify the cycling and availability of nutrients within floodplains, with effects that...
Increasing floodplain connectivity through urban stream restoration increases nutrient and sediment retention
Sara K. McMillan, Gregory E. Noe
2017, Ecological Engineering (108) 284-295
Stream restoration practices frequently aim to increase connectivity between the stream channel and its floodplain to improve channel stability and enhance water quality through sediment trapping and nutrient retention. To measure the effectiveness of restoration and to understand the drivers of these functional responses, we monitored five restored urban streams...
Sex difference in PCB concentrations of a catostomid fish
Charles P. Madenjian, Andrew L. Stevens, Martin A. Stapanian, Stuart A. Batterman, Sergei M. Chernyak, Jordan E. Menczer, Peter B. McIntyre
2017, Journal of Environmental & Analytical Toxicology (7)
Unraveling the complexities associated with the relative differences in contaminant concentrations between the sexes of mature fish may provide insights into important behavioral and physiological differences between the sexes of not just fish but higher vertebrates as well. Whole-fish polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) concentrations were determined in 25 mature female white...
Viability analysis for multiple populations
Seth J. Wenger, Douglas R. Leasure, Daniel C. Dauwalter, Mary M. Peacock, Jason B. Dunham, Nathan Chelgren, Helen M. Neville
2017, Biological Conservation (216) 69-77
Many species of conservation interest exist solely or largely in isolated populations. Ideally, prioritization of management actions among such populations would be guided by quantitative estimates of extinction risk, but conventional methods of demographic population viability analysis (PVA) model each population separately and require temporally extensive datasets that are rarely...
Simulated effects of Lower Floridan aquifer pumping on the Upper Floridan aquifer at Barbour Pointe, Chatham County, Georgia
Gregory S. Cherry, John S. Clarke
2017, Scientific Investigations Report 2017-5085
Steady-state simulations using a revised regional groundwater-flow model based on MODFLOW were run to assess the potential long-term effects on the Upper Floridan aquifer (UFA) of pumping the Lower Floridan aquifer (LFA) at well 36Q398, located at Barbour Pointe in coastal Georgia near Savannah. Simulated pumping of well 36Q398 at...
Hydraulic and biological analysis of the passability of select fish species at the U.S. Geological Survey streamgaging weir at Blackwells Mills, New Jersey
Alexander J. Haro, Kevin Mulligan, Thomas P. Suro, John Noreika, Amy R. McHugh
2017, Scientific Investigations Report 2017-5103
Recent efforts to advance river connectivity for the Millstone River watershed in New Jersey have led to the evaluation of a low-flow gauging weir that spans the full width of the river. The methods and results of a desktop modelling exercise were used to evaluate the potential ability of three...
Protection of bats (Eptesicus fuscus) against rabies following topical or oronasal exposure to a recombinant raccoon poxvirus vaccine
Ben Stading, James A. Ellison, William C. Carson, Panayampalli Subbian Satheshkumar, Tonie E. Rocke, Jorge E. Osorio
2017, PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases (11)
Rabies is an ancient neglected tropical disease that causes tens of thousands of human deaths and millions of cattle deaths annually. In order to develop a new vaccine for potential use in bats, a reservoir of rabies infection for humans and animals alike, an in silico antigen designer tool was used to...
Revision of the jawfish genus Lonchopisthus with description of a new Atlantic species (Teleostei: Opistognathidae)
William F. Smith-Vaniz, Stephen J. Walsh
2017, Journal of the Ocean Science Foundation (28) 52-89
Synonymies, diagnoses, descriptions, illustrations, an identification key, and meristic frequency tables are provided for all species of Lonchopisthus. Most of the skeletal anatomy of L. higmani is also illustrated. A new jawfish, Lonchopisthus ancistrus n. sp., is described from the Gulf of Mexico and off Honduras based on 21 specimens...
Productivity and CO2 exchange of Great Plains ecoregions. I. Shortgrass steppe: Flux tower estimates
Tagir G. Gilmanov, Jack A. Morgan, Niall P. Hanan, Bruce K. Wylie, Nithya Rajan, David P. Smith, Daniel M. Howard
2017, Rangeland Ecology and Management (70) 700-717
The shortgrass steppe (SGS) occupies the southwestern part of the Great Plains. Half of the land is cultivated, but significant areas remain under natural vegetation. Despite previous studies of the SGS carbon cycle, not all aspects have been completely addressed, including gross productivity, ecosystem respiration, and ecophysiological parameters. Our analysis...
The effects of horizontally and vertically oriented baffles on flow structure andascent performance of upstream-migrating fish
Eva Enders, Theodore R. Castro-Santos, Jay Lacey
2017, Journal of Ecohydraulics (2) 38-52
Considerable effort has been expended to construct culverts and fishways that allow for fish passage. However, the designs have seldom considered behaviour, energetics, and biomechanics of fish. In this study, we performed controlled experiments, in which upstreammigrating Alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus) and Brook Trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) were allowed to volitionally enter either one of two...
Downstream migration and multiple dam passage by Atlantic Salmon smolts
D. Nyqvist, Stephen D. McCormick, L. Greenberg, W.R. Ardren, E. Bergman, O. Calles, Theodore R. Castro-Santos
2017, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (37) 816-828
The purpose of this study was to investigate behavior and survival of radio-tagged wild and hatchery-reared landlocked Atlantic Salmon Salmo salar smolts as they migrated past three hydropower dams equipped with fish bypass solutions in the Winooski River, Vermont. Among hatchery-reared smolts, those released early were more likely to initiate migration and...
