Sediment and nutrient accumulation within lowland bottomland ecosystems: An example from the Atchafalaya River Basin, Louisiana
C.R. Hupp, G.B. Noe
2006, Conference Paper, Hydrology and Management of Forested Wetlands - Proceeding of the International Conference
Sediment and nutrient deposition, storage, and transformations are important environmental functions of riverine forested wetland ecosystems, yet documentation and interpretation of sedimentation/nutrient processes remain incomplete. Our studies located in the Coastal Plain of southeastern USA, including the Atchafalaya Basin, La. (a distributary of the Mississippi River) serve as example for...
Effects of human recreation on the incubation behavior of American Oystercatchers
C.P. McGowan, T.R. Simons
2006, Wilson Journal of Ornithology (118) 485-493
Human recreational disturbance and its effects on wildlife demographics and behavior is an increasingly important area of research. We monitored the nesting success of American Oystercatchers (Haematopus palliatus) in coastal North Carolina in 2002 and 2003. We also used video monitoring at nests to measure the response of incubating birds...
The heartbeat of the volcano: The discovery of episodic activity at Prometheus on Io
Ashley G. Davies, Lionel Wilson, Dennis Matson, Giovanni Leone, Laszlo P. Keszthelyi, Windy L. Jaeger
2006, Icarus (184) 460-477
The temporal signature of thermal emission from a volcano is a valuable clue to the processes taking place both at and beneath the surface. The Galileo Near Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (NIMS) observed the volcano Prometheus, on the jovian moon Io, on multiple occasions between 1996 and 2002. The 5 micron (μm) brightness of this volcano shows...
Location and timing of river-aquifer exchanges in six tributaries to the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest of the United States
C.P. Konrad
2006, Journal of Hydrology (329) 444-470
The flow of water between rivers and contiguous aquifers influences the quantity and quality of water resources, particularly in regions where precipitation and runoff are unevenly distributed through the year, such as the Columbia Basin (CB) in northwestern United States. Investigations of basin hydrogeology and gains and losses of streamflow...
A Bayesian random effects discrete-choice model for resource selection: Population-level selection inference
D.L. Thomas, D. Johnson, B. Griffith
2006, Journal of Wildlife Management (70) 404-412
Modeling the probability of use of land units characterized by discrete and continuous measures, we present a Bayesian random-effects model to assess resource selection. This model provides simultaneous estimation of both individual- and population-level selection. Deviance information criterion (DIC), a Bayesian alternative to AIC that is sample-size specific, is used...
The Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative (ARMI): 5-year report
Erin Muths, Alisa L. Gallant, Evan H. Campbell Grant, William A. Battaglin, David E. Green, Jennifer S. Staiger, Susan C. Walls, Margaret S. Gunzburger, Rick F. Kearney
2006, Scientific Investigations Report 2006-5224
The Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative (ARMI) is an innovative, multidisciplinary program that began in 2000 in response to a congressional directive for the Department of the Interior to address the issue of amphibian declines in the United States. ARMI’s formulation was cross-disciplinary, integrating U.S. Geological Survey scientists from Biology,...
Estimation of temporary emigration in male toads
E. Muths, R. D. Scherer, P.S. Corn, B.A. Lambert
2006, Ecology (87) 1048-1056
Male boreal toads (Bufo boreas) are thought to return to the breeding site every year but, if absent in a particular year, will be more likely to return the following year. Using Pollock's robust design we estimated temporary emigration (the probability a male toad is absent from a breeding site...
Warming and earlier spring increase Western U.S. forest wildfire activity
A.L. Westerling, H.G. Hidalgo, D.R. Cayan, T.W. Swetnam
2006, Science (313) 940-943
Western United States forest wildfire activity is widely thought to have increased in recent decades, yet neither the extent of recent changes nor the degree to which climate may be driving regional changes in wildfire has been systematically documented. Much of the public and scientific discussion of changes in western...
Near real-time monitoring and mapping of specific conductivity levels across Lake Texoma, USA
S.F. Atkinson, J.A. Mabe
2006, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment (120) 449-460
A submersible sonde equipped with a specific conductivity probe, linked with a global positioning satellite receiver was developed, deployed on a small boat, and used to map spatial and temporal variations in specific conductivity in a large reservoir. 7,695 sample points were recorded during 8 sampling trips. Specific conductivity ranged...
Flow-specific trends in river-water quality resulting from the effects of the clean air act in three mesoscale, forested river basins in the northeastern United States through 2002
Peter S. Murdoch, J. B. Shanley
2006, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment (120) 1-25
Two new methods for assessing temporal trends in stream-solute concentrations at specific streamflow ranges were applied to long (40 to 50-year) but sparse (bi-weekly to quarterly sampling) stream-water quality data collected at three forested mesoscale basins along an atmospheric deposition gradient in the northeastern United States (one in north-central Pennsylvania,...
Electrical resistance sensors record spring flow timing, Grand Canyon, Arizona
E.A. Adams, S. A. Monroe, Abraham E. Springer, K.W. Blasch, D. J. Bills
2006, Ground Water (44) 630-641
Springs along the south rim of the Grand Canyon, Arizona, are important ecological and cultural resources in Grand Canyon National Park and are discharge points for regional and local aquifers of the Coconino Plateau. This study evaluated the applicability of electrical resistance (ER) sensors for measuring diffuse, low-stage (<1.0 cm)...
Blood lead levels of wild Steller's eiders (Polysticta stelleri) and black scoters (Melanitta nigra) in Alaska using a portable blood lead analyzer
Corrine S. Brown, Joanne Luebbert, Daniel M. Mulcahy, Jason L. Schamber, Daniel H. Rosenberg
2006, Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine (37) 361-365
Sea duck populations are declining in Alaska. The reasons for the decline are not known; environmental lead exposure is one suspected cause. Thirty wild Steller's eider ducks (Polysticta stelleri) and 40 wild black scoter ducks (Melanitta nigra) were tested for blood lead levels using a portable blood lead analyzer (LeadCare;...
Response of microbial community composition and function to soil climate change
M. P. Waldrop, M.K. Firestone
2006, Microbial Ecology (52) 716-724
Soil microbial communities mediate critical ecosystem carbon and nutrient cycles. How microbial communities will respond to changes in vegetation and climate, however, are not well understood. We reciprocally transplanted soil cores from under oak canopies and adjacent open grasslands in a California oak-grassland ecosystem to determine how microbial communities respond...
Use of plume mapping data to estimate chlorinated solvent mass loss
J.R. Barbaro, P.P. Neupane
2006, Ground Water Monitoring and Remediation (26) 115-127
Results from a plume mapping study from November 2000 through February 2001 in the sand-and-gravel surficial aquifer at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, were used to assess the occurrence and extent of chlorinated solvent mass loss by calculating mass fluxes across two transverse cross sections and by observing changes in...
Modeling decadal timescale interactions between surface water and ground water in the central Everglades, Florida, USA
J. W. Harvey, J.T. Newlin, S.L. Krupa
2006, Journal of Hydrology (320) 400-420
Surface-water and ground-water flow are coupled in the central Everglades, although the remoteness of this system has hindered many previous attempts to quantify interactions between surface water and ground water. We modeled flow through a 43,000 ha basin in the central Everglades called Water Conservation Area 2A. The purpose of...
Distribution and relative abundance of forest birds in relation to burn severity in southeastern Arizona
C. Kirkpatrick, C.J. Conway, P.B. Jones
2006, Journal of Wildlife Management (70) 1005-1012
The frequency of wild and prescribed fires in montane forests of the southwestern United States has increased after a century of fire suppression and subsequent fuels accumulation. To assess the effects of recent fires (median time since fire = 6 yr) on the montane forest bird community, we surveyed birds...
MODFLOW/MT3DMS-based simulation of variable-density ground water flow and transport
C.D. Langevin, W. Guo
2006, Ground Water (44) 339-351
This paper presents an approach for coupling MODFLOW and MT3DMS for the simulation of variable-density ground water flow. MODFLOW routines were modified to solve a variable-density form of the ground water flow equation in which the density terms are calculated using an equation of state and the simulated MT3DMS solute...
A broadscale fish-habitat model development process: Genesee Basin, New York
James E. McKenna Jr., Richard R. McDonald, Chris Castiglione, Sandy S. Morrison, Kurt P. Kowalski, Dora R. May Passino
2006, Book chapter, Landscape influences on stream habitats and biological assemblages
We describe a methodology for developing species-habitat models using available fish and stream habitat data from New York State, focusing on the Genesee basin. Electrofishing data from the New York Department of Environmental Conservation were standardized and used for model development and testing. Four types of predictive models (multiple linear...
Effects of radiomarking on prairie falcons: Attachment failures provide insights about survival
Karen Steenhof, Kirk K. Bates, Mark R. Fuller, Michael N. Kochert, James O. McKinley, Paul M. Lukacs
2006, Wildlife Society Bulletin (34) 116-126
From 1999–2002, we attached satellite-received platform transmitter terminals (PTTs) to 40 adult female prairie falcons (Falco mexicanus) on their nesting grounds in the Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area (NCA) in southwest Idaho. We used 3 variations of a backpack harness design that had been used previously on...
Titan: Preliminary results on surface properties and photometry from VIMS observations of the early flybys
B. J. Buratti, Christophe Sotin, R. H. Brown, M.D. Hicks, R. N. Clark, J. A. Mosher, T. B. McCord, R. Jaumann, K. H. Baines, P. D. Nicholson, T. Momary, D.P. Simonelli, B. Sicardy
2006, Planetary and Space Science (54) 1498-1509
Cassini observations of the surface of Titan offer unprecedented views of its surface through atmospheric windows in the 1-5 ??m region. Images obtained in windows for which the haze opacity is low can be used to derive quantitative photometric parameters such as albedo and albedo distribution, and physical properties such...
Aqueous processes at Gusev crater inferred from physical properties of rocks and soils along the Spirit traverse
N.A. Cabrol, J.D. Farmer, E.A. Grin, L. Ritcher, L. Soderblom, R. Li, Kenneth E. Herkenhoff, G. A. Landis, R. E. Arvidson
2006, Journal of Geophysical Research E: Planets (111)
Gusev crater was selected as the landing site for Spirit on the basis of morphological evidence of long-lasting water activity, including possibly fluvial and lacustrine episodes. From the Columbia Memorial Station to the Columbia Hills, Spirit's traverse provides a journey back in time, from relatively recent volcanic plains showing little...
Improving data analysis in herpetology: Using Akaike's information criterion (AIC) to assess the strength of biological hypotheses
M. J. Mazerolle
2006, Amphibia-Reptilia (27) 169-180
In ecology, researchers frequently use observational studies to explain a given pattern, such as the number of individuals in a habitat patch, with a large number of explanatory (i.e., independent) variables. To elucidate such relationships, ecologists have long relied on hypothesis testing to include or exclude variables in regression models,...
Interaction Assessment: A modeling tool for predicting population dynamics from field data
John M. Emlen, Jeffrey J. Duda, Matt D. Kirchhoff, D. Carl Freeman
2006, Ecological Modelling (192) 557-570
Interaction Assessment (INTASS) is a field and analytic methodology for constructing population dynamics models. Because data collected in generating a model for one species comprise much of the information needed for other species, a small increase in effort can result in simultaneous expressions for the dynamics of multiple species. These...
Age-structured mark-recapture analysis: A virtual-population-analysis-based model for analyzing age-structured capture-recapture data
L.G. Coggins Jr., William E. Pine III, C.J. Walters, S.J.D. Martell
2006, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (26) 201-205
We present a new model to estimate capture probabilities, survival, abundance, and recruitment using traditional Jolly-Seber capture-recapture methods within a standard fisheries virtual population analysis framework. This approach compares the numbers of marked and unmarked fish at age captured in each year of sampling with predictions based on estimated vulnerabilities...
Groundwater-supported evapotranspiration within glaciated watersheds under conditions of climate change
D. Cohen, M. Person, R. Daannen, S. Locke, D. Dahlstrom, V. Zabielski, T. C. Winter, D.O. Rosenberry, H. Wright, E. Ito, J.L. Nieber, W.J. Gutowski Jr.
2006, Conference Paper, Journal of Hydrology
This paper analyzes the effects of geology and geomorphology on surface-water/-groundwater interactions, evapotranspiration, and recharge under conditions of long-term climatic change. Our analysis uses hydrologic data from the glaciated Crow Wing watershed in central Minnesota, USA, combined with a hydrologic model of transient coupled unsaturated/saturated flow (HYDRAT2D). Analysis of historical...
