Nationwide reconnaissance of contaminants of emerging concern in source and treated drinking waters of the United States
Susan T. Glassmeyer, Edward T. Furlong, Dana W. Kolpin, Angela L. Batt, Robert Benson, J. Scott Boone, Octavia D. Conerly, Maura J. Donohue, Dawn N. King, Mitchell S. Kostich, Heath E. Mash, Stacy Pfaller, Kathleen M. Schenck, Jane Ellen Simmons, Eunice A. Varughese, Stephen J. Vesper, Eric N. Villegas, Vickie S. Wilson
2017, Science of the Total Environment (581-582) 909-922
When chemical or microbial contaminants are assessed for potential effect or possible regulation in ambient and drinking waters, a critical first step is determining if the contaminants occur and if they are at concentrations that may cause human or ecological health concerns. To this end,...
The basis function approach for modeling autocorrelation in ecological data
Trevor J. Hefley, Kristin M. Broms, Brian M. Brost, Frances E. Buderman, Shannon L. Kay, Henry Scharf, John Tipton, Perry J. Williams, Mevin Hooten
2017, Ecology (98) 632-646
Analyzing ecological data often requires modeling the autocorrelation created by spatial and temporal processes. Many seemingly disparate statistical methods used to account for autocorrelation can be expressed as regression models that include basis functions. Basis functions also enable ecologists to modify a wide range of existing ecological models in order...
Mitogenomes and relatedness do not predict frequency of tool-use by sea otters
Katherine Ralls, Nancy Rotzel McInerney, Roderick B. Gagne, Holly B. Ernest, M. Tim Tinker, Jessica Fujii, Jesus Maldonado
2017, Biology Letters (13)
Many ecological aspects of tool-use in sea otters are similar to those in Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins. Within an area, most tool-using dolphins share a single mitochondrial haplotype and are more related to each other than to the population as a whole. We asked whether sea otters in California showed similar...
Trawl-based assessment of Lake Ontario pelagic prey fishes including Alewife and Rainbow Smelt
Brian Weidel, Maureen Walsh, Michael J. Connerton, Jeremy P. Holden
2017, Report, NYSDEC Lake Ontario Annual Report 2016
Managing Lake Ontario fisheries in an ecosystem-context, requires reliable data on the status and trends of prey fishes that support predator populations. We report on the community and population dynamics of Lake Ontario pelagic prey fishes, based on bottom trawl surveys. We emphasize information that supports the international Lake Ontario...
Land-use change and managed aquifer recharge effects on the hydrogeochemistry of two contrasting atoll island aquifers, Roi-Namur Island, Republic of the Marshall Islands
Mehrdad Hejazian, Jason J. Gurdak, Peter W. Swarzenski, Kingsley Odigie, Curt D. Storlazzi
2017, Applied Geochemistry (80) 58-71
Freshwater resources on low-lying atoll islands are highly vulnerable to climate change and sea-level rise. In addition to rainwater catchment, groundwater in the freshwater lens is a critically important water resource on many atoll islands, especially during drought. Although many atolls have high annual rainfall rates, dense natural vegetation...
Autumn olive (Elaeagnus umbellata) presence and proliferation on former surface coal mines in Eastern USA
Adam J. Oliphant, R.H. Wynne, Carl E. Zipper, W. Mark Ford, P. F. Donovan, Jing Li
2017, Biological Invasions (19) 179-195
Invasive plants threaten native plant communities. Surface coal mines in the Appalachian Mountains are among the most disturbed landscapes in North America, but information about land cover characteristics of Appalachian mined lands is lacking. The invasive shrub autumn olive (Elaeagnus umbellata) occurs on these sites and interferes with...
Broadband seismic noise attenuation versus depth at the Albuquerque Seismological Laboratory
Charles R. Hutt, Adam T. Ringler, Lind Gee
2017, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (107) 1402-1412
Seismic noise induced by atmospheric processes such as wind and pressure changes can be a major contributor to the background noise observed in many seismograph stations, especially those installed at or near the surface. Cultural noise such as vehicle traffic or nearby buildings with air handling equipment also contributes to...
Surface geophysical methods for characterising frozen ground in transitional permafrost landscapes
Martin A. Briggs, Seth Campbell, Jay Nolan, Michelle Ann Walvoord, Dimitrios Ntarlagiannis, Frederick D. Day-Lewis, John W. Lane Jr.
2017, Permafrost and Periglacial Processes (28) 52-65
The distribution of shallow frozen ground is paramount to research in cold regions, and is subject to temporal and spatial changes influenced by climate, landscape disturbance and ecosystem succession. Remote sensing from airborne and satellite platforms is increasing our understanding of landscape-scale permafrost distribution, but typically lacks the resolution to...
New insights into nitrate dynamics in a karst groundwater system gained from in situ high-frequency optical sensor measurements
Stephen P. Opsahl, MaryLynn Musgrove, Richard N. Slattery
2017, Journal of Hydrology (546) 179-188
Understanding nitrate dynamics in groundwater systems as a function of climatic conditions, especially during contrasting patterns of drought and wet cycles, is limited by a lack of temporal and spatial data. Nitrate sensors have the capability for making accurate, high-frequency measurements of nitrate in situ, but have not yet been...
Delta-Flux: An eddy covariance network for a climate-smart Lower Mississippi Basin
Benjamin R. K. Runkle, James R. Rigby, Michele L. Reba, Saseendran S. Anapalli, Joydeep Bhattacharjee, Ken W. Krauss, Lu Liang, Martin A. Locke, Kimberly A. Novick, Ruixiu Sui, Kosana Suvocarev, Paul M. White Jr.
2017, Agricultural & Environmental Letters (2)
Networks of remotely monitored research sites are increasingly the tool used to study regional agricultural impacts on carbon and water fluxes. However, key national networks such as the National Ecological Observatory Network and AmeriFlux lack contributions from the Lower Mississippi River Basin (LMRB), a highly productive agricultural area with opportunities...
Hydrological and geophysical investigation of streamflow losses and restoration strategies in an abandoned mine lands setting
Charles A. Cravotta III, Laura Sherrod, Daniel G. Galeone, Wayne G. Lehman, Terry E. Ackman, Alexa Kramer
2017, Environmental & Engineering Geoscience (23) 243-273
Longitudinal discharge and water-quality campaigns (seepage runs) were combined with surface-geophysical surveys, hyporheic-temperature profiling, and watershed-scale hydrological monitoring to evaluate the locations, magnitude, and impact of streamwater losses from the West Creek subbasin of the West West Branch Schuylkill River into the underground Oak Hill Mine complex that extends beneath...
Characterization of the quality of water, bed sediment, and fish in Mittry Lake, Arizona, 2014–15
Edyth Hermosillo, Alissa L. Coes
2017, Scientific Investigations Report 2017-5008
Water, bed-sediment, and fish sampling was conducted in Mittry Lake, Arizona, in 2014–15 to establish current water-quality conditions of the lake. The parameters of temperature, dissolved-oxygen concentration, specific conductance, and alkalinity were measured in the field. Water samples were collected and analyzed for dissolved major ions, dissolved trace elements, dissolved...
Isotopic niches support the resource breadth hypothesis
Jonathan A. Rader, Seth D. Newsome, Pablo Sabat, R. Terry Chesser, Michael E. Dillon, Carlos Martinez del Rio
2017, Journal of Animal Ecology (86) 405-413
Because a broad spectrum of resource use allows species to persist in a wide range of habitat types, and thus permits them to occupy large geographical areas, and because broadly distributed species have access to more diverse resource bases, the resource breadth hypothesis posits that the diversity...
In-well time-of-travel approach to evaluate optimal purge duration during low-flow sampling of monitoring wells
Philip T. Harte
2017, Environmental Earth Sciences (76) 1-13
A common assumption with groundwater sampling is that low (<0.5 L/min) pumping rates during well purging and sampling captures primarily lateral flow from the formation through the well-screened interval at a depth coincident with the pump intake. However, if the intake is adjacent to a low hydraulic conductivity part of the...
South Polar Skua breeding populations in the Ross Sea assessed from demonstrated relationship with Adélie Penguin numbers
Deborah J. Wilson, Phil O’B. Lyver, Terry C. Greene, Amy L. Whitehead, Katie M. Dugger, Brian J. Karl, James R. F. Barringer, Roger McGarry, Annie M. Pollard, David G. Ainley
2017, Polar Biology (40) 577-592
In the Ross Sea region, most South Polar Skuas (Stercorarius maccormicki) nest near Adélie Penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) colonies, preying and scavenging on fish, penguins, and other carrion. To derive a relationship to predict skua numbers from better-quantified penguin numbers, we used distance sampling to estimate breeding...
Relations of alpine plant communities across environmental gradients: Multilevel versus multiscale analyses
George P. Malanson, Dale L. Zimmerman, Mitch Kinney, Daniel B. Fagre
2017, Annals of the Association of American Geographers (107) 41-53
Alpine plant communities vary, and their environmental covariates could influence their response to climate change. A single multilevel model of how alpine plant community composition is determined by hierarchical relations is compared to a separate examination of those relations at different scales. Nonmetric multidimensional scaling of species cover for plots...
Top-down control of invertebrates by Ninespine Stickleback in Arctic ponds
Sarah M. Laske, Amanda E. Rosenberger, William J. Kane, Mark S. Wipfli, Christian E. Zimmerman
2017, Freshwater Science (36) 124-137
Despite their widespread presence in northern-latitude ecosystems, the ecological role of Ninespine Stickleback Pungitius pungitius is not well understood. Ninespine Stickleback can occupy both top and intermediate trophic levels in freshwater ecosystems, so their role in food webs as a predator on invertebrates and as a forage fish for upper level consumers...
Extended late Holocene relative sea-level histories for North Carolina, USA
Andrew C. Kemp, Jessica J. Kegel, Stephen J. Culver, Donald C. Barber, David J. Mallinson, Eduardo Leorri, Christopher E. Bernhardt, Niamh Cahill, Stanley R. Riggs, Anna L. Woodson, Ryan P. Mulligan, Benjamin P. Horton
2017, Quaternary Science Reviews (160) 13-30
We produced ∼3000-year long relative sea-level (RSL) histories for two sites in North Carolina (USA) using foraminifera preserved in new and existing cores of dated salt-marsh sediment. At Cedar Island, RSL rose by ∼2.4 m during the past ∼3000 years compared to ∼3.3 m at Roanoke Island. This spatial difference arises primarily from...
When perception reflects reality: Non-native grass invasion alters small mammal risk landscapes and survival
Joseph P. Ceradnini, Anna D. Chalfoun
2017, Ecology and Evolution (7) 1823-1835
Modification of habitat structure due to invasive plants can alter the risk landscape for wildlife by, for example, changing the quality or availability of refuge habitat. Whether perceived risk corresponds with actual fitness outcomes, however, remains an important open question. We simultaneously measured how habitat changes due to a common...
Effects of CFT Legumine (5% Rotenone) on tadpole survival and metamorphosis of Chiricahua leopard frogs Lithobates chiricahuensis, Northern leopard frogs L. pipiens, and American bullfrogs L. catesbeianus
Guillermo Alvarez, Colleen A. Caldwell, Carter G. Kruse
2017, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (146) 512-522
Amphibians may experience collateral effects if exposed to CFT Legumine (5% rotenone), a piscicide that is used to remove invasive fish. A series of 48-h static toxicity tests assessed the acute effects of CFT Legumine on multi-aged tadpoles of the federally listed Chiricahua leopard frog Lithobates chiricahuensis, the widespread northern leopard...
Intraspecific functional diversity of common species enhances community stability
Connor M. Wood, Shawn T. McKinney, Cynthia S. Loftin
2017, Ecology and Evolution (7) 1553-1560
Common species are fundamental to the structure and function of their communities and may enhance community stability through intraspecific functional diversity (iFD). We measured among-habitat and within-habitat iFD (i.e., among- and within-plant community types) of two common small mammal species using stable isotopes and functional trait dendrograms, determined whether iFD...
Assessment of contemporary genetic diversity and inter-taxa/inter-region exchange of avian paramyxovirus serotype 1 in wild birds sampled in North America
Andrew M. Ramey, Iryna V. Goraichuk, Joseph T. Hicks, Kiril M. Dimitrov, Rebecca L. Poulson, David E. Stallknecht, Justin Bahl, Claudio L. Afonso
2017, Virology Journal (14) 1-12
BackgroundAvian paramyxovirus serotype 1 (APMV-1) viruses are globally distributed, infect wild, peridomestic, and domestic birds, and sometimes lead to outbreaks of disease. Thus, the maintenance, evolution, and spread of APMV-1 viruses are relevant to avian health.MethodsIn this study we sequenced...
Role of raptors in contaminant research
Charles J. Henny
2017, Book chapter, The history of Patuxent: America’s wildlife research story (U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1422)
This chapter reviews the history of and approaches used in studies focused on the effects of contaminants on raptors and raptor populations at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center (Patuxent) in Laurel, MD. Worldwide raptor declines following World War II were unprecedented and resulted in a sequence of major efforts at...
Toppling analysis of the Echo Cliffs precariously balanced rock
Swetha Veeraraghavan, Kenneth W. Hudnut, Swaminathan Krishnan
2017, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (107) 72-84
Toppling analysis of a precariously balanced rock (PBR) can provide insight into the nature of ground motion that has not occurred at that location in the past and, by extension, can constrain peak ground motions for use in engineering design. Earlier approaches have targeted 2D models of the rock or...
Winter 2016, Part B—Coastal oblique aerial photographs collected from Assateague Island, Virginia, to Montauk Point, New York, March 8–9, 2016
Karen L. M. Morgan
2017, Data Series 1030
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), as part of the National Assessment of Coastal Change Hazards project, conducts baseline and storm-response photography missions to document and understand the changes in the vulnerability of the Nation's coasts to extreme storms. On March 8–9, 2016, the USGS conducted an oblique aerial photographic survey...
