Non‐linear effect of sea ice: Spectacled Eider survival declines at both extremes of the ice spectrum
Katherine S. Christie, Tuula E. Hollmen, Paul L. Flint, David C. Douglas
2018, Ecology and Evolution (8) 11808-11818
Understanding the relationship between environmental factors and vital rates is an important step in predicting a species’ response to environmental change. Species associated with sea ice are of particular concern because sea ice is projected to decrease rapidly in polar environments with continued levels of greenhouse gas emissions. The relationship...
Exposure of Alaska brown bears (Ursus arctos) to bacterial, viral, and parasitic agents varies spatiotemporally and may be influenced by age
Andrew M. Ramey, Christopher A. Cleveland, Grant V. Hilderbrand, Kyle Joly, David D. Gustine, Buck Mangipane, William B. Leacock, Anthony P. Crupi, Dolores E. Hill, Jitender P. Dubey, Michael J. Yabsley
William B. Leacock, editor(s)
2018, Journal of Wildlife Diseases (55) 576-588
We collected blood and serum from 155 brown bears (Ursus arctos) inhabiting five locations in Alaska during 2013–16 and tested samples for evidence of prior exposure to a suite of bacterial, viral, and parasitic agents. Antibody seroprevalence among Alaska brown bears was estimated to be 15% for Brucella spp., 10% for Francisella tularensis,...
Flood-inundation maps for Cayuga Inlet, Sixmile Creek, Cascadilla Creek, and Fall Creek at Ithaca, New York
Elizabeth A. Nystrom, Arthur G. Lilienthal III, William F. Coon
2018, Scientific Investigations Report 2018-5167
Digital flood-inundation maps for a 2.9-square-mile area of Ithaca, New York, were created in 2015–18 by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the City of Ithaca, New York, and the New York State Department of State. The flood-inundation maps depict estimates of the maximum areal extent and depth of...
Survival and drifting patterns of grass carp eggs and larvae in response to interactions with flow and sediment in a laboratory flume
Andres F. Prada, Amy E. George, Benjamin H. Stahlschmidt, Duane Chapman, Rafael O. Tinoco
2018, PLoS ONE (13) 1-19
A series of laboratory experiments was conducted to better understand the behavior of grass carp eggs and larvae in moving water in order to develop and implement new strategies for control and prediction of their dispersal and drift at early life stages. Settling velocity and density of a representative sample...
Survey of Arctic Alaskan wildlife for influenza A antibodies: Limited evidence for exposure of mammals
Caroline R. Van Hemert, Timothy J. Spivey, Brian D. Uher-Koch, Todd C. Atwood, David R. Sinnett, Brandt W. Meixell, Jerry W. Hupp, Kaijun Jiang, Layne G. Adams, David D. Gustine, Andrew M. Ramey, Xiu-Feng Wan
2018, Journal of Wildlife Diseases (55) 387-398
Influenza A viruses (IAVs) are maintained in wild waterbirds and have the potential to infect a broad range of species, including wild mammals. The Arctic Coastal Plain of Alaska supports a diverse suite of species, including waterfowl that are common hosts of IAVs. Mammals co-occur with geese and other migratory...
Time-to-detection occupancy modeling: An efficient method for analyzing the occurrence of amphibians and reptiles
Brian J. Halstead, Patrick M. Kleeman, Jonathan P. Rose
2018, Journal of Herpetology (52) 415-424
Occupancy models provide a reliable method of estimating species distributions while accounting for imperfect detectability. The cost of accounting for false absences is that detection and nondetection surveys typically require repeated visits to a site or multiple-observer techniques. More efficient methods of collecting data to estimate detection probabilities would allow...
Quantifying uncertainty in simulated streamflow and runoff from a continental-scale monthly water balance model
Andrew R. Bock, William H. Farmer, Lauren E. Hay
2018, Advances in Water Resources (122) 166-175
One important component of continental-scale hydrologic modeling is quantifying the level of uncertainty in long-term hydrologic simulations and providing a range of possible simulated streamflow and/or runoff values for gaged and ungaged locations. In this paper, uncertainty was quantified for simulated streamflow and runoff generated from a monthly water balance...
Communicating information on nature-related topics: Preferred information channels and trust in sources
Emily J. Wilkins, Holly M. Miller, Elizabeth Tilak, Rudy Schuster
2018, PLoS ONE (13)
How information is communicated influences the public’s environmental perceptions and behaviors. Information channels and sources both play an important role in the dissemination of information. Trust in a source is often used as a proxy for whether a particular piece of information is credible. To determine...
Canid vs. canid: Insights into coyote–dog encounters from social media
Erin E. Boydston, Eric S. Abelson, Ari Kazanjian, Daniel T. Blumstein
2018, Human-Wildlife Interactions (12) 233-242
While the relationship between coyotes (Canis latrans) and house cats (Felis catus) may be characterized as one between predators and their prey, coyote interactions with domestic dogs (C. lupus familiaris) appear to be more varied and may include behaviors associated with canid sociality. While encounters between coyotes and dogs are...
Eco‐evolutionary rescue promotes host–pathogen coexistence
Graziella V. DiRenzo, Elise F. Zipkin, Evan H. Campbell Grant, J. Andrew Royle, Ana V. Longo, Kelly R. Zamudio, Karen R. Lips
2018, Ecological Applications (28) 1948-1962
Emerging infectious pathogens are responsible for some of the most severe host mass mortality events in wild populations. Yet, effective pathogen control strategies are notoriously difficult to identify, in part because quantifying and forecasting pathogen spread and disease dynamics is challenging. Following an outbreak, hosts must cope with the presence...
IUPAC Periodic Table of the Elements and Isotopes (IPTEI) for the education community (IUPAC Technical Report)
Norman E. Holden, Tyler B. Coplen, J.K. Bohlke, Lauren V. Tarbox, Jacqueline Benefield, John R. de Laeter, Peter G. Mahaffy, Glenda O’Connor nee Singleton, Etienne Roth, Dorothy Tepper, Thomas Walczyk, Michael E. Wieser, Shigekazu Yoneda
2018, Pure and Applied Chemistry (90) 1833-2092
The IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry) Periodic Table of the Elements and Isotopes (IPTEI) was created to familiarize students, teachers, and non-professionals with the existence and importance of isotopes of the chemical elements. The IPTEI is modeled on the familiar Periodic Table of the Chemical Elements. The...
Characterizing toxicity of metal‐contaminated sediments from the Upper Columbia River, Washington, USA, to benthic invertebrates
John M. Besser, Jeffery A. Steevens, James L. Kunz, William G. Brumbaugh, Christopher G. Ingersoll, Stephen E. Cox, Christopher A. Mebane, Laurie S. Balistrieri, Jesse A. Sinclair, Donald D. MacDonald
2018, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (37) 3102-3114
Sediments from the Upper Columbia River, Washington, USA, are contaminated with metals from smelting operations. We conducted short‐term and long‐term tests with the midge Chironomus dilutus and the amphipod Hyalella azteca and short‐term tests with the freshwater mussel Lampsilis siliquoidea with 54 sediments from the Upper Columbia River to characterize thresholds for toxicity of metals to...
Twenty-nine years of population dynamics in a small-bodied montane amphibian
Erin L. Muths, R D Scherer, S M Amburgey, PS Corn
2018, Ecosphere (9)
Identifying population declines before they reach crisis proportions is imperative given the current global decline in vertebrate fauna and associated challenges and expense of recovery. Understanding life histories and how the environment influences demography are critical aspects of this challenge, as is determining the biological relevance of covariates that are...
Land mollusks of the California Channel Islands: An overview of diversity, populations, and conservation status
Charles A. Drost, Jeffrey C. Nekola, Barry Roth, Timothy A. Pearce
2018, Western North American Naturalist (78) 799-810
The land snails and slugs have the highest level of endemism among all major animal groups on the California Channel Islands, with nearly 75% of the native terrestrial species confined to one or more of the 8 islands. In spite of this endemism, and in spite of the rarity of...
Building a response network to investigate potential pathogens associated with unionid mortality events
Eric Leis, Diane L. Waller, Susan Knowles, Tony Goldberg, Joel G. Putnam, Jordan Richard, Sarah Erickson, Emilie Blevins, Jesse Weinzinger
2018, Ellipsaria (20) 44-45
Unexplained mortality events have confounded the mussel conservation community for over 30 years. While the effects of chemical pollutants and environmental factors have been examined, few investigations have focused on the identification of potential mussel pathogens. Consequently, very little is known regarding the impact that pathogens have on freshwater mussel...
Hourly analyses of the large storms and atmospheric rivers that provide most of California's precipitation in only 10 to 100 hours per year
Maryam A. Lamjiri, Michael D. Dettinger, F. Martin Ralph, Nina S. Oakley, Jonathan J. Rutz
2018, San Francisco Estuary and Watershed Science (16) 1-17
California is regularly impacted by floods and droughts, primarily as a result of too many or too few atmospheric rivers (ARs). This study analyzes a two-decade-long hourly precipitation dataset from 176 California weather stations and a 3-hourly AR chronology to report variations in rainfall events across California and their association...
Historical patterns of wildfire ignition sources in California ecosystems
Jon E. Keeley, Alexandra D. Syphard
2018, International Journal of Wildland Fire (27) 781-799
State and federal agencies have reported fire causes since the early 1900s, explicitly for the purpose of helping land managers design fire-prevention programs. We document fire-ignition patterns in five homogenous climate divisions in California over the past 98 years on state Cal Fire protected lands and 107 years on federal...
Remote sensing vegetation index methods to evaluate changes in greenness and evapotranspiration in riparian vegetation in response to the Minute 319 environmental pulse flow to Mexico
Pamela L. Nagler, Christopher J. Jarchow, Edward P. Glenn
2018, Proceedings of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (380) 45-54
During the spring of 2014, 130 million m3 of water were released from the United States' Morelos Dam on the lower Colorado River to Mexico, allowing water to reach the Gulf of California for the first time in 13 years. Our study assessed the effects of water transfer or ecological environmental flows from...
Biodiversity of amphibians and reptiles at the Camp Cady Wildlife Area, Mojave Desert, California and comparisons with other desert locations
Kristy L. Cummings, Shellie R. Puffer, Jenny B. Holmen, Jason K. Wallace, Jeffrey E. Lovich, Kathie Meyer-Wilkins, Chris Petersen, Robert E. Lovich
2018, California Fish and Game (104) 129-147
We examined the biodiversity of amphibian and reptile species living in and near constructed ponds in the riparian area at the Camp Cady Wildlife Area (CCWA) in the Mojave Desert of San Bernardino County, California, based on field work from 1998-1999, 2016-2017, review of the literature, and searches for museum...
Zone identification and oil saturation prediction in a waterflooded field: Residual oil zone, East Seminole Field, Texas, Permian Basin
Jacqueline Roueche, C. Ozgen Karacan
2018, Conference Paper
Recently, the miscible CO2-EOR tertiary process used in the main pay zone (MP) of suitable reservoirs has broadened to include exploitation of the underlying residual oil zone (ROZ) where a significant amount of oil may remain. The objective of this study is to identify the ROZ and to assess...
Predicting biological conditions for small headwater streams in the Chesapeake Bay watershed
Kelly O. Maloney, Zachary M. Smith, Claire Buchanan, Andrea Nagel, John A. Young
2018, Freshwater Science (4) 795-809
A primary goal for Chesapeake Bay watershed restoration is to improve stream health and function in 10% of stream miles by 2025. Predictive spatial modeling of stream conditions, when accurate, is one method to fill gaps in monitoring coverage and estimate baseline conditions for restoration goals. Predictive modeling can also...
Comparing growth and body condition of indoor-reared, outdoor-reared, and direct-released juvenile Mojave desert tortoises
J. A. Daly, K. A. Buhlman, B. D. Todd, Clinton T. Moore, J. M. Peaden, T. D. Tuberville
2018, Herpetological Conservation and Biology (13) 622-633
Desert tortoise populations have declined, and head-starting hatchlings in captivity until they are larger and older — and presumably more likely to survive — is one strategy being evaluated for species recovery. Previous studies have reared hatchlings in outdoor, predator-proof pens for 5–9 years before release, in efforts to produce...
Estimating soil respiration in a subalpine landscape using point, terrain, climate and greenness data
Erin Michele Berryman, Melanie K. Vanderhoof, John B. Bradford, Todd Hawbaker, Paul D. Henne, Sean P. Burns, John M. Frank, Richard A. Birdsey, Michael G. Ryan
2018, Journal of Geophysical Research G: Biogeosciences (123) 3231-3249
Landscape carbon (C) flux estimates are necessary for assessing the ability of terrestrial ecosystems to buffer further increases in anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Advances in remote sensing have allowed for coarse-scale estimates of gross primary productivity (GPP) (e.g., MODIS 17), yet efforts to assess spatial patterns in respiration lag...
Sewage loading and microbial risk in urban waters of the Great Lakes
Sandra L. McLellan, Elizabeth P. Sauer, Steven R. Corsi, Melinda J. Bootsma, Alexandria B. Boehm, Susan K. Spencer, Mark A. Borchardt
2018, Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene (6) 1-15
Despite modern sewer system infrastructure, the release of sewage from deteriorating pipes and sewer overflows is a major water pollution problem in US cities, particularly in coastal watersheds that are highly developed with large human populations. We quantified fecal pollution sources and loads entering Lake Michigan from a large watershed...
Groundwater-storage change and land-surface elevation change in Tucson Basin and Avra Valley, south-central Arizona--2003-2016
Robert L. Carruth, Libby M. Wildermuth, Brian D. Conway
2018, Scientific Investigations Report 2018-5154
The U.S. Geological Survey monitors groundwater-storage change and land-surface elevation change caused by groundwater withdrawal in Tucson Basin and Avra Valley—the two most populated alluvial basins within the Tucson Active Management Area. The Tucson Active Management Area is one of five active management areas in Arizona established by the 1980...
