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...
Predicting outcomes of restored Everglades high flow: A model system for scientifically managed floodplains
Jay Choi, Judson Harvey
2017, Restoration Ecology (25) S39-S47
Restoration of higher flows through the Everglades is intended to reestablish sheetflow to rebuild a well-functioning ridge and slough landscape that supports a productive and diverse ecosystem. Our objective of the study was to use hydrologic simulations and biophysical analysis to predict restoration outcomes for five major subbasins of the...
The response of soil and stream chemistry to decreases in acid deposition in the Catskill Mountains, New York, USA
Michael McHale, Douglas A. Burns, Jason Siemion, Michael R. Antidormi
2017, Environmental Pollution (229) 607-620
The Catskill Mountains have been adversely impacted by decades of acid deposition, however, since the early 1990s, levels have decreased sharply as a result of decreases in emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides. This study examines trends in acid deposition, stream-water chemistry, and soil chemistry in the southeastern Catskill...
The relative effectiveness of empirical and physical models for simulating the dense undercurrent of pyroclastic flows under different emplacement conditions
Sarah E. Ogburn, Eliza S Calder
2017, Frontiers in Earth Science (5) 1-26
High concentration pyroclastic density currents (PDCs) are hot avalanches of volcanic rock and gas and are among the most destructive volcanic hazards due to their speed and mobility. Mitigating the risk associated with these flows depends upon accurate forecasting of possible impacted areas, often using empirical or physical models. TITAN2D,...
Updated polychlorinated biphenyl mass budget for Lake Michigan
Jiehong Guo, Kevin Romanak, Stephen M. Westenbroek, An Li, Russell Kreis, Ronald A. Hites, Marta Venier
2017, Environmental Science & Technology (51) 12455-12465
This study revisits and updates the Lake Michigan Mass Balance Project (LMMBP) for polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) that was conducted in 1994–1995. This work uses recent concentrations of PCBs in tributary and open lake water, air, and sediment to calculate an updated mass budget. Five of the 11 LMMBP tributaries were...
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...
Geochemistry of mercury and other constituents in subsurface sediment—Analyses from 2011 and 2012 coring campaigns, Cache Creek Settling Basin, Yolo County, California
Michelle R. Arias, Charles N. Alpers, Mark C. Marvin-DiPasquale, Christopher C. Fuller, Jennifer L. Agee, Michelle Sneed, Andrew Y. Morita, Antonia Salas
2017, Data Series 1061
Cache Creek Settling Basin was constructed in 1937 to trap sediment from Cache Creek before delivery to the Yolo Bypass, a flood conveyance for the Sacramento River system that is tributary to the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta. Sediment management options being considered by stakeholders in the Cache Creek Settling Basin include...
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...
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...
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 K. 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...
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...
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....
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Compositional variations in sands of the Bagnold Dunes, Gale Crater, Mars, from visible-shortwave infrared spectroscopy and comparison with ground truth from the Curiosity Rover
Mathieu G.A. Lapotre, B. L. Ehlmann, Sarah E. Minson, R. E. Arvidson, F. Ayoub, A. A. Fraeman, R. C. Ewing, N. T. Bridges
2017, Journal of Geophysical Research E: Planets (122) 2489-2509
During its ascent up Mount Sharp, the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover traversed the Bagnold Dune Field. We model sand modal mineralogy and grain size at four locations near the rover traverse, using orbital shortwave infrared single scattering albedo spectra and a Markov-Chain Monte Carlo implementation of Hapke's radiative transfer...
Demographic and temporal variations in immunity and condition of polar bears (Ursus maritimus) from the southern Beaufort Sea
Lorin Neuman-Lee, Patricia Terletzky, Todd C. Atwood, Eric Gese, Geoffrey Smith, Sydney Greenfield, John Pettit, Susannah French
2017, Journal of Experimental Zoology Part A: Ecological Genetics and Physiology (327) 333-346
Assessing the health and condition of animals in their natural environment can be problematic. Many physiological metrics, including immunity, are highly influenced by specific context and recent events to which researchers may be unaware. Thus, using a multifaceted physiological approach and a context-specific analysis encompassing multiple time scales can be...