Biological soil crusts: Diminutive communities of potential global importance
Scott Ferrenberg, Colin Tucker, Sasha C. Reed
2017, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment (15) 160-167
Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) are widespread, diverse communities of cyanobacteria, fungi, lichens, and mosses living on soil surfaces, primarily in drylands. Biocrusts can locally govern primary production, soil fertility, hydrology, and surface energy balance, with considerable variation in these functions across alternate community states. Further, these communities have been implicated...
Spatial and temporal variability in the effects of wildfire and drought on thermal habitat for a desert trout
Luke Schultz, Michael Heck, David Hockman-Wert, T Allai, Seth J. Wenger, Cook, Jason B. Dunham
2017, Journal of Arid Environments (145) 60-68
We studied how drought and an associated stressor, wildfire, influenced stream flow permanence and thermal regimes in a Great Basin stream network. We quantified these responses by collecting information with a spatially extensive network of data loggers. To understand the effects of wildfire specifically, we used data from 4 additional...
Earthquake source properties from instrumented laboratory stick-slip
Brian D. Kilgore, Arthur F. McGarr, Nicholas M. Beeler, David A. Lockner
Marion Y. Thomas, Thomas M. Mitchell, Harsha S. Bhat, editor(s)
2017, Book chapter, Fault zone dynamic processes: Evolution of fault properties during seismic rupture
Stick-slip experiments were performed to determine the influence of the testing apparatus on source properties, develop methods to relate stick-slip to natural earthquakes and examine the hypothesis of McGarr [2012] that the product of stiffness, k, and slip duration, Δt, is scale-independent and the same order as for earthquakes....
Geophysics- and geochemistry-based assessment of the geochemical characteristics and groundwater-flow system of the U.S. part of the Mesilla Basin/Conejos-Médanos aquifer system in Doña Ana County, New Mexico, and El Paso County, Texas, 2010–12
Andrew P. Teeple
2017, Scientific Investigations Report 2017-5028
One of the largest rechargeable groundwater systems by total available volume in the Rio Grande/Río Bravo Basin (hereinafter referred to as the “Rio Grande”) region of the United States and Mexico, the Mesilla Basin/Conejos-Médanos aquifer system, supplies water for irrigation as well as for cities of El Paso, Texas; Las...
Large carnivore science: non-experimental studies are useful, but experiments are better
Benjamin L. Allen, Lee R. Allen, Henrik Andren, Guy Ballard, Luigi Boitani, Richard M. Engeman, Peter J. S. Fleming, Adam T. Ford, Peter M. Haswell, Rafal Kowalczyk, John D. C. Linnell, L. David Mech, Daniel M. Parker
2017, Food Webs (13) 49-50
We recently described the following six interrelated issues that justify questioning some of the discourse about the reliability of the literature on the ecological roles of large carnivores (Allen et al. In press): 1. The overall paucity of available data, 2. The reliability of carnivore population sampling techniques, 3. The general disregard for alternative hypotheses...
Elevation Difference and Bouguer Anomaly Analysis Tool (EDBAAT) User's Guide
Aaron M. Smittle, Thomas G. Shoberg
2017, Open-File Report 2017-1036
This report describes a software tool that imports gravity anomaly point data from the Gravity Database of the United States (GDUS) of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and University of Texas at El Paso along with elevation data from The National Map (TNM) of the U.S. Geological Survey that lie within...
Shifting brucellosis risk in livestock coincides with spreading seroprevalence in elk
Angela Brennan, Paul C. Cross, Katie Portacci, Brandon M. Scurlock, William H. Edwards
2017, PLoS ONE (12)
Tracking and preventing the spillover of disease from wildlife to livestock can be difficult when rare outbreaks occur across large landscapes. In these cases, broad scale ecological studies could help identify risk factors and patterns of risk to inform management and reduce incidence of disease. Between 2002 and 2014, 21...
The finite, kinematic rupture properties of great-sized earthquakes since 1990
Gavin P. Hayes
2017, Earth and Planetary Science Letters (468) 94-100
Here, I present a database of >160 finite fault models for all earthquakes of M 7.5 and above since 1990, created using a consistent modeling approach. The use of a common approach facilitates easier comparisons between models, and reduces uncertainties that arise when comparing models generated by different authors,...
Nearly 400 million people are at higher risk of schistosomiasis because dams block the migration of snail-eating river prawns
Susanne H. Sokolow, Isabel J. Jones, Merlijn M. T. Jocque, Diana La, Olivia Cords, Anika Knight, Andrea Lund, Chelsea L. Wood, Kevin D. Lafferty, Christopher M. Hoover, Phillip A. Collender, Justin V. Remais, David Lopez-Carr, Jonathan J. Fisk, Armand M. Kuris, Giulio A. De Leo
2017, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (372)
Dams have long been associated with elevated burdens of human schistosomiasis, but how dams increase disease is not always clear, in part because dams have many ecological and socio-economic effects. A recent hypothesis argues that dams block reproduction of the migratory river prawns that eat the snail hosts of schistosomiasis....
Season, molt, and body size influence mercury concentrations in grebes
C. Alex Hartman, Joshua T. Ackerman, Mark P. Herzog, Collin A. Eagles-Smith
2017, Environmental Pollution (229) 29-39
We studied seasonal and physiological influences on mercury concentrations in western grebes (Aechmophorus occidentalis) and Clark's grebes (A. occidentalis) across 29 lakes and reservoirs in California, USA. Additionally, at three of these lakes, we conducted a time series study, in which we repeatedly sampled grebe blood mercury concentrations during the...
Groundwater resources of the Devils Postpile National Monument—Current conditions and future vulnerabilities
William C. Evans, Deborah Bergfeld
2017, Scientific Investigations Report 2017-5048
This study presents an extensive database on groundwater conditions in and around Devils Postpile National Monument. The database contains chemical analyses of springs and the monument water-supply well, including major-ion chemistry, trace element chemistry, and the first information on a list of organic compounds known as emerging contaminants. Diurnal, seasonal,...
Continuity of the Reelfoot fault across the Cottonwood Grove and Ridgely faults of the New Madrid Seismic Zone
M.L. Greenwood, Edward W Woolery, R. B. Van Arsdale, William J. Stephenson, Gary L. Patterson
2017, BSSA (106) 2674-2685
Previous investigators have argued that the northwest-striking Reelfoot fault of northwest Tennessee and southeastern Missouri is segmented. One segment boundary is at the intersection of the northeast-striking Cottonwood Grove and Ridgely strike-slip faults with the Reelfoot fault. We use seismic reflection and geologic mapping to locate and determine the history of the Reelfoot South...
Inter-annual variability in apparent relative production, survival, and growth of juvenile Lost River and shortnose suckers in Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon, 2001–15
Summer M. Burdick, Barbara A. Martin
2017, Open-File Report 2017-1069
Executive SummaryPopulations of the once abundant Lost River (Deltistes luxatus) and shortnose suckers (Chasmistes brevirostris) of the Upper Klamath Basin, decreased so substantially throughout the 20th century that they were listed under the Endangered Species Act in 1988. Major landscape alterations, deterioration of water quality, and competition with and...
Quantifying drivers of wild pig movement across multiple spatial and temporal scales
Shannon L. Kay, Justin W. Fischer, Andrew J. Monaghan, James C Beasley, Raoul Boughton, Tyler A Campbell, Susan M Cooper, Stephen S. Ditchkoff, Stephen B. Hartley, John C Kilgo, Samantha M Wisely, A Christy Wyckoff, Kurt C. Vercauteren, Kim M Pipen
2017, Movement Ecology (5) 1-15
Background The movement behavior of an animal is determined by extrinsic and intrinsic factors that operate at multiple spatio-temporal scales, yet much of our knowledge of animal movement comes from studies that examine only one or two scales concurrently. Understanding the drivers of animal movement across multiple scales is crucial for...
Relationship between water and aragonite barium concentrations in aquaria reared juvenile corals
Meagan Gonneea Eagle, Anne L. Cohen, Thomas M. DeCarlo, Matthew A. Charette
2017, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (209) 123-134
Coral barium to calcium (Ba/Ca) ratios have been used to reconstruct records of upwelling, river and groundwater discharge, and sediment and dust input to the coastal ocean. However, this proxy has not yet been explicitly tested to determine if Ba inclusion in the coral skeleton is directly proportional to seawater...
Response of bird community structure to habitat management in piñon-juniper woodland-sagebrush ecotones
Steven T. Knick, Steve E. Hanser, James B. Grace, Jeff P. Hollenbeck, Matthias Leu
2017, Forest Ecology and Management (400) 256-268
Piñon (Pinus spp.) and juniper (Juniperus spp.) woodlands have been expanding their range across the intermountain western United States into landscapes dominated by sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) shrublands. Management actions using prescribed fire and mechanical cutting to reduce woodland cover and control expansion provided opportunities to understand how environmental structure and...
Integrating count and detection–nondetection data to model population dynamics
Elise F. Zipkin, Sam Rossman, Charles B. Yackulic, David Wiens, James T. Thorson, Raymond J. Davis, Evan H. Campbell Grant
2017, Ecology (98) 1640-1650
There is increasing need for methods that integrate multiple data types into a single analytical framework as the spatial and temporal scale of ecological research expands. Current work on this topic primarily focuses on combining capture–recapture data from marked individuals with other data types into integrated population models. Yet, studies...
The role of paleoecology in restoration and resource management—The past as a guide to future decision-making: Review and example from the Greater Everglades Ecosystem, U.S.A
G. Lynn Wingard, Christopher E. Bernhardt, Anna Wachnicka
2017, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution (5)
Resource managers around the world are challenged to develop feasible plans for sustainable conservation and/or restoration of the lands, waters, and wildlife they administer—a challenge made greater by anticipated climate change and associated effects over the next century. Increasingly, paleoecologic and geologic archives are being used to extend the period...
Climate change may restrict dryland forest regeneration in the 21st century
M.D. Petrie, John B. Bradford, R.M. Hubbard, W.K. Lauenroth, Caitlin M. Andrews, D.R. Schlaepfer
2017, Ecology (98) 1548-1559
The persistence and geographic expansion of dryland forests in the 21st century will be influenced by how climate change supports the demographic processes associated with tree regeneration. Yet, the way that climate change may alter regeneration is unclear. We developed a quantitative framework that estimates forest regeneration potential (RP) as...
UAV lidar and hyperspectral fusion for forest monitoring in the southwestern USA
Temuulen T. Sankey, Jonathon Donager, Jason L. McVay, Joel B. Sankey
2017, Remote Sensing of Environment (195) 30-43
Forest vegetation classification and structure measurements are fundamental steps for planning, monitoring, and evaluating large-scale forest changes including restoration treatments. High spatial and spectral resolution remote sensing data are critically needed to classify vegetation and measure their 3-dimensional (3D) canopy structure at the level of individual species. Here we test...
A genetic signature of the evolution of loss of flight in the Galapagos cormorant
Alejandro Burga, Weiguang Wang, Eyal Ben-David, Paul C. Wolf, Andrew M. Ramey, Claudio Verdugo, Karen Lyons, Patricia G. Parker, Leonid Kruglyak
2017, Science (356)
INTRODUCTIONChanges in the size and proportion of limbs and other structures have played a key role in the evolution of species. One common class of limb modification is recurrent wing reduction and loss of flight in birds. Indeed, Darwin used the occurrence of flightless birds as an...
Hydrologic characterization of Bushy Park Reservoir, South Carolina, 2013–15
Paul Conrads, Matthew D. Petkewich, W. Fred Falls, Timothy H. Lanier
2017, Scientific Investigations Report 2017-5050
The Bushy Park Reservoir is a relatively shallow impoundment in a semi-tropical climate and is the principal water supply for the 400,000 people of the city of Charleston, South Carolina, and the surrounding areas including the Bushy Park Industrial Complex. Although there is an adequate supply of freshwater in the...
Soils as relative-age dating tools
Helaine W. Markewich, Milan J. Pavich, Douglas A. Wysocki
2017, Book chapter, The International Encyclopedia of Geography
Soils develop at the earth's surface via multiple processes that act through time. Precluding burial or disturbance, soil genetic horizons form progressively and reflect the balance among formation processes, surface age, and original substrate composition. Soil morphology provides a key link between process and time (soil age), enabling soils to...
Olivine-melt relationships and syneruptive redox variations in the 1959 eruption of Kīlauea Volcano as revealed by XANES
Rosalind L. Helz, Elizabeth Cottrell, Maryjo N. Brounce, Katherine A. Kelley
2017, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research (333-334) 1-14
The 1959 summit eruption of Kīlauea Volcano exhibited high lava fountains of gas-rich, primitive magma, containing olivine + chromian spinel in highly vesicular brown glass. Microprobe analysis of these samples shows that euhedral rims on olivine phenocrysts, in direct contact with glass, vary significantly in forsterite (Fo) content, at constant major-element...
Prehistoric floods on the Tennessee River—Assessing the use of stratigraphic records of past floods for improved flood-frequency analysis
Tessa M. Harden, Jim E. O'Connor
2017, Scientific Investigations Report 2017-5052
Stratigraphic analysis, coupled with geochronologic techniques, indicates that a rich history of large Tennessee River floods is preserved in the Tennessee River Gorge area. Deposits of flood sediment from the 1867 peak discharge of record (460,000 cubic feet per second at Chattanooga, Tennessee) are preserved at many locations throughout...
