Evaluating the role of land cover and climate uncertainties in computing gross primary production in Hawaiian Island ecosystems
Heather L. Kimball, Paul Selmants, Alvaro Moreno, Running Steve W, Christian P. Giardina
2017, PLoS ONE (12)
Gross primary production (GPP) is the Earth’s largest carbon flux into the terrestrial biosphere and plays a critical role in regulating atmospheric chemistry and global climate. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS)-MOD17 data product is a widely used remote sensing-based model that provides global estimates of spatiotemporal trends in GPP....
No evidence for ecological segregation protecting native trout from invasive hybridization
Ryan Kovach, Clint C. Muhlfeld, Robert K. Al-Chokhachy, Stephen J. Amish, Jeffrey L. Kershner, Robb F. Leary, Winsor H. Lowe, Gordon Luikart, Phil Matson, David Schmetterling, Bradley Shepard, Peter A. H. Westley, Diane Whited, Andrew R. Whiteley, Fred W. Allendorf
2017, Global Change Biology (23) e11-e12
We appreciate the comments of Young et al. (2017) on our recent paper (Muhlfeld et al., 2017) concerning spatiotemporal dynamics of hybridization between native westslope cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii lewisi; WCT) and introduced coastal rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss irideus; RBT). Nevertheless, we believe there is no evidence for “ecological segregation”...
Glacial conditioning of stream position and flooding in the braid plain of the Exit Glacier foreland, Alaska
Janet H. Curran, Michael G. Loso, Haley B. Williams
2017, Geomorphology (293 ) 272-288
Flow spilling out of an active braid plain often signals the onset of channel migration or avulsion to previously occupied areas. In a recently deglaciated environment, distinguishing between shifts in active braid plain location, considered reversible by fluvial processes at short timescales, and more permanent glacier-conditioned changes in stream position can be critical to...
Observations of raccoon (Procyon lotor) predation on the invasive Maculata apple snail (Pomacea maculata) in southern Louisiana
Jacoby Carter, Sergio Merino, Drew Prejean, Gary LaFleur
2017, Southeastern Naturalist (16) N14-N18
We used camera traps to determine which predators were responsible for depredated Pomacea maculata (Maculata Apple Snail) shells at 2 different study sites. Evidence of predation at these sites included operculums near the shells with a small amount of flesh attached and shells accumulating a meter or more from the...
Sensitivity of the downward to sweeping velocity ratio to the bypass flow percentage along a guide wall for downstream fish passage
Kevin Mulligan, Brett Towler, Alexander J. Haro, David P. Ahlfeld
2017, Ecological Engineering (109) 10-14
Partial-depth impermeable guidance structures (or guide walls) are used as a method to assist in the downstream passage of fish at a hydroelectric facility. However, guide walls can result in a strong downward velocity causing the approaching fish to pass below the wall and into the direction of the turbine...
Sediment unmixing using detrital geochronology
Glenn R. Sharman, Samuel Johnstone
2017, Earth and Planetary Science Letters (477) 183-194
Sediment mixing within sediment routing systems can exert a strong influence on the preservation of provenance signals that yield insight into the influence of environmental forcings (e.g., tectonism, climate) on the earth’s surface. Here we discuss two approaches to unmixing detrital geochronologic data in an effort to characterize complex changes...
A rare and cryptic endemic of the Central Rocky Mountains, U.S.A: The distribution of the Arapahoe snowfly, Arsapnia arapahoe (Nelson & Kondratieff, 1988) (Plecoptera: Capniidae)
Matthew P. Fairchild, Thomas P. Belcher III, Robert E. Zuellig, Nicole M. K. Vieira, Boris C. Kondratieff
2017, Illiesia (13) 50-58
The Arapahoe snowfly, Arsapnia arapahoe (Nelson & Kondratieff, 1988) (Plecoptera: Capniidae) is a candidate species warranted for listing under the Endangered Species Act. Prior to this study, A. arapahoe was known from only two tributaries of the Cache la Poudre River in Larimer...
A reference landform ontology for automated delineation of depression landforms from DEMs
Gaurav Sinha, Samantha T. Arundel, Torsten Hahmann, E. Lynn Usery, Kathleen C. Stewart, David Mark
2017, Conference Paper, COSIT 2017: Proceedings of workshops and posters at the 13th international conference on spatial information theory
Abstract The landform reference ontology (LFRO) is being developed to formalize ontological distinctions underlying naïve geographic cognition and reasoning about landforms. The LFRO taxonomy is currently based only on form-based distinctions. In this significantly revised version, several new categories have been added to explicate ontological distinctions related to...
Investigating the landscape of Arroyo Seco—Decoding the past—A teaching guide to climate-controlled landscape evolution in a tectonically active region
Emily M. Taylor, Donald S. Sweetkind, Jeremy C. Havens
2017, Circular 1425
IntroductionArroyo Seco is a river that flows eastward out of the Santa Lucia Range in Monterey County, California. The Santa Lucia Range is considered part of the central California Coast Range. Arroyo Seco flows out of the Santa Lucia Range into the Salinas River valley, near the town of Greenfield,...
Results of hydrologic monitoring of a landslide-prone hillslope in Portland’s West Hills, Oregon, 2006–2017
Joel B. Smith, Jonathan W. Godt, Rex L. Baum, Jeffrey A. Coe, William L. Ellis, Eric S. Jones, Scott F. Burns
2017, Data Series 1050
The West Hills of Portland, in the southern Tualatin Mountains, trend northwest along the west side of Portland, Oregon. These silt-mantled mountains receive significant wet-season precipitation and are prone to sliding during wet conditions, occasionally resulting in property damage or casualties. In an effort to develop a baseline for interpretive...
Estimated fecal coliform bacteria concentrations using near real-time continuous water-quality and streamflow data from five stream sites in Chester County, Pennsylvania, 2007–16
Lisa A. Senior
2017, Scientific Investigations Report 2017-5075
Several streams used for recreational activities, such as fishing, swimming, and boating, in Chester County, Pennsylvania, are known to have periodic elevated concentrations of fecal coliform bacteria, a type of bacteria used to indicate the potential presence of fecally related pathogens that may pose health risks to humans exposed through...
Documentation of a daily mean stream temperature module—An enhancement to the Precipitation-Runoff Modeling System
Michael J. Sanders, Steven L. Markstrom, R. Steven Regan, R. Dwight Atkinson
2017, Techniques and Methods 6-D4
A module for simulation of daily mean water temperature in a network of stream segments has been developed as an enhancement to the U.S. Geological Survey Precipitation Runoff Modeling System (PRMS). This new module is based on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Stream Network Temperature model, a mechanistic, one-dimensional...
Mantle and crustal gases of the Colorado Plateau: Geochemistry, sources, and migration pathways
William H. Craddock, Madalyn S. Blondes, Christina A. DeVera, Andrew G. Hunt
2017, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (213) 346-374
The Colorado Plateau hosts several large accumulations of naturally occurring, non-hydrocarbon gases, including CO2, N2, and the noble gases, making it a good field location to study the fluxes of these gases within the crust and to the atmosphere. In this study, we present...
Channel response to sediment release: insights from a paired analysis of dam removal
Mathias J. Collins, Noah P. Snyder, Graham Boardman, William S. Banks, Mary Andrews, Matthew E. Baker, Maricate Conlon, Allen C. Gellis, Serena McClain, Andrew Miller, Peter Wilcock
2017, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms (42) 1636-1651
Dam removals with unmanaged sediment releases are good opportunities to learn about channel response to abruptly increased bed material supply. Understanding these events is important because they affect aquatic habitats and human uses of floodplains. A longstanding paradigm in geomorphology holds that response rates to landscape disturbance exponentially decay through...
U.S. Geological Survey geohydrologic studies and monitoring at the Idaho National Laboratory, southeastern Idaho
Roy C. Bartholomay
2017, Fact Sheet 2017-3070
BackgroundThe U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) geohydrologic studies and monitoring at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) is an ongoing, long-term program. This program, which began in 1949, includes hydrologic monitoring networks and investigative studies that describe the effects of waste disposal on water contained in the eastern Snake River Plain (ESRP)...
Effects of surgically implanted transmitters on reproduction and survival in mallards
Jennifer Sheppard, Todd W. Arnold, Courtney L. Amundson, David Klee
2017, Wildlife Society Bulletin (41) 597-604
Abdominally implanted radiotransmitters have been widely used in studies of waterbird ecology; however, the longer handling times and invasiveness of surgical implantation raise important concerns about animal welfare and potential effects on data quality. Although it is difficult to assess effects of handling and marking wild animals by comparing them...
Assessing coastal wetland vulnerability to sea-level rise along the northern Gulf of Mexico coast: Gaps and opportunities for developing a coordinated regional sampling network
Michael J. Osland, Kereen T. Griffith, Jack C. Larriviere, Laura C. Feher, Donald R. Cahoon, Nicholas M. Enwright, David A. Oster, John M. Tirpak, Mark S. Woodrey, Renee C. Collini, Joseph J. Baustian, Joshua L. Breithaupt, Julia A Cherry, Jeremy R. Conrad, Nicole Cormier, Carlos A. Coronado-Molina, Joseph F. Donoghue, Sean A. Graham, Jennifer W. Harper, Mark W. Hester, Rebecca J. Howard, Ken W. Krauss, Daniel Kroes, Robert R. Lane, Karen L. McKee, Irving A. Mendelssohn, Beth A. Middleton, Jena A. Moon, Sarai Piazza, Nicole M. Rankin, Fred H. Sklar, Gregory D. Steyer, Kathleen M. Swanson, Christopher M. Swarzenski, William Vervaeke, Jonathan M Willis, K. Van Wilson
2017, PLoS ONE (12)
Coastal wetland responses to sea-level rise are greatly influenced by biogeomorphic processes that affect wetland surface elevation. Small changes in elevation relative to sea level can lead to comparatively large changes in ecosystem structure, function, and stability. The surface elevation table-marker horizon (SET-MH) approach is being used globally to quantify...
Vegetation response to invasive Tamarix control in southwestern U.S. rivers: A collaborative study including 416 sites
Eduardo González, Anna A Sher, Robert M. Anderson, Robin F. Bay, Daniel W. Bean, Gabriel J. Bissonnete, Berenger Bourgeois, David J. Cooper, Kara Dohrenwend, Kim D. Eichhorst, Hisham El Waer, Deborah K. Kennard, Rebecca Harms-Weissinger, Annie L. Henry, Lori J. Makarick, Steven M. Ostoja, Lindsay V. Reynolds, W. Wright Robinson, Patrick B. Shafroth
2017, Ecological Applications (27) 1789-1804
Most studies assessing vegetation response following control of invasive Tamarix trees along southwestern U.S. rivers have been small in scale (e.g., river reach), or at a regional scale but with poor spatial-temporal replication, and most have not included testing the effects of a now widely used biological control. We monitored plant composition...
Secondary invasions of noxious weeds associated with control of invasive Tamarix are frequent, idiosyncratic and persistent
Eduardo González, Anna A. Sher, Robert M. Anderson, Robin F. Bay, Daniel W. Bean, Gabriel J. Bissonnete, David J. Cooper, Kara Dohrenwend, Kim D. Eichhorst, Hisham El Waer, Deborah K. Kennard, Rebecca Harms-Weissinger, Annie L. Henry, Lori J. Makarick, Steven M. Ostoja, Lindsay V. Reynolds, W. Wright Robinson, Patrick B. Shafroth, Erich Tabacchi
2017, Biological Conservation (213) 106-114
Control of invasive species within ecosystems may induce secondary invasions of non-target invaders replacing the first alien. We used four plant species listed as noxious by local authorities in riparian systems to discern whether 1) the severity of these secondary invasions was related to the control method applied to the...
Holistic assessment of occurrence and fate of metolachlor within environmental compartments of agricultural watersheds
Claire E. Rose, Richard H. Coupe, Paul D. Capel, Richard M. Webb
2017, Science of the Total Environment (612) 708-719
Background: Metolachlor [(RS)-2-Chloro-N-(2-ethyl-6-methyl-phenyl)-N-(1-methoxypropan-2-yl)acetamide] and two degradates (metolachlor ethane-sulfonic acid and metolachlor oxanilic acid) are commonly observed in surface and groundwater. The behavior and fate of these compounds were examined over a 12-year period in seven agricultural watersheds in the United States. They were quantified in air, rain, streams, overland flow,...
The state of the world’s mangroves in the 21st century under climate change
Ilka C. Feller, Daniel A. Friess, Ken W. Krauss, Roy R. Lewis III
2017, Hydrobiologia (803) 1-12
Concerted mangrove research and rehabilitation efforts over the last several decades have prompted a better understanding of the important ecosystem attributes worthy of protection and a better conservation ethic toward mangrove wetlands globally. While mangroves continue to be degraded and lost in specific regions, conservation initiatives, rehabilitation efforts, natural regeneration,...
Novel analyses of long-term data provide a scientific basis for chlorophyll-a thresholds in San Francisco Bay
Martha Sutula, Raphael Kudela, James Hagy, Lawrence W. Harding Jr., David Senn, James E. Cloern, Suzanne B. Bricker, Gry Mine Berg, Marcus W. Beck
2017, Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science (197) 107-118
San Francisco Bay (SFB), USA, is highly enriched in nitrogen and phosphorus, but has been resistant to the classic symptoms of eutrophication associated with over-production of phytoplankton. Observations in recent years suggest that this resistance may be weakening, shown by: significant increases of chlorophyll-a (chl-a) and...
A reservoir morphology database for the conterminous United States
Kirk D. Rodgers
2017, Data Series 1062
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Reservoir Fisheries Habitat Partnership, combined multiple national databases to create one comprehensive national reservoir database and to calculate new morphological metrics for 3,828 reservoirs. These new metrics include, but are not limited to, shoreline development index, index of basin permanence, development of...
Hydrologic impacts of landslide disturbances: Implications for remobilization and hazard persistence
Benjamin B. Mirus, Joel B. Smith, Rex L. Baum
2017, Water Resources Research (53) 8250-8265
Landslides typically alter hillslope topography, but may also change the hydrologic connectivity and subsurface water-storage dynamics. In settings where mobile materials are not completely evacuated from steep slopes, influences of landslide disturbances on hillslope hydrology and susceptibility to subsequent failures remain poorly characterized. Since landslides often recur at the site...
A digital reference collection for aquatic macroinvertebrates of North America
David Walters, Morgan A Ford, Robert E. Zuellig
2017, Freshwater Science (36) 693-697
Aquatic invertebrates are a key component of freshwater ecosystems, and understanding aquatic invertebrate taxonomy is a cornerstone of freshwater science. Physical reference collections of expertly identified voucher specimens are the ‘gold-standard’ used to confirm specimen identifications. However, most biologists lack access to such collections, which themselves tend to be highly...
