Drivers of Holocene sea-level change in the Caribbean
Nicole Khan, Erica Ashe, Benjamin P. Horton, Andrea Dutton, Robert E. Kopp, Gilles Brocard, Simon E. Engelhart, David F. Hill, W.R. Peltier, Christopher H. Vane, Fred N. Scatena
2017, Quaternary Science Reviews (155) 13-36
We present a Holocene relative sea-level (RSL) database for the Caribbean region (5°N to 25°N and 55°W to 90°W) that consists of 499 sea-level index points and 238 limiting dates. The database was compiled from multiple sea-level indicators (mangrove peat, microbial mats, beach rock and acroporid and massive corals). We...
Summer habitat selection by Dall’s sheep in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska
Gretchen H. Roffler, Layne G. Adams, Mark Hebblewhite
2017, Journal of Mammalogy (98) 94-105
Sexual segregation occurs frequently in sexually dimorphic species, and it may be influenced by differential habitat requirements between sexes or by social or evolutionary mechanisms that maintain separation of sexes regardless of habitat selection. Understanding the degree of sex-specific habitat specialization is important for management of wildlife populations and the...
Geologic influence on induced seismicity: Constraints from potential field data in Oklahoma
Anjana K. Shah, G. Randy Keller
2017, Geophysical Research Letters (44) 152-161
Recent Oklahoma seismicity shows a regional correlation with increased wastewater injection activity, but local variations suggest that some areas are more likely to exhibit induced seismicity than others. We combine geophysical and drill hole data to map subsurface geologic features in the crystalline basement, where most earthquakes are occurring, and...
Large decadal-scale changes in uranium and bicarbonate in groundwater of the irrigated western U.S
Karen R. Burow, Kenneth Belitz, Neil M. Dubrovsky, Bryant C. Jurgens
2017, Science of the Total Environment (586) 87-95
Samples collected about one decade apart from 1105 wells from across the U.S. were compiled to assess whether uranium concentrations in the arid climate are linked to changing bicarbonate concentrations in the irrigated western U.S. Uranium concentrations in groundwater were high in the arid climate in the western U.S, where...
Accurate aging of juvenile salmonids using fork lengths
Suresh Sethi, Jonathon Gerken, Joshua Ashline
2017, Fisheries Research (185) 161-168
Juvenile salmon life history strategies, survival, and habitat interactions may vary by age cohort. However, aging individual juvenile fish using scale reading is time consuming and can be error prone. Fork length data are routinely measured while sampling juvenile salmonids. We explore the performance of aging juvenile fish based solely...
Influence of repeated prescribed fire on tree growth and mortality in Pinus resinosa forests, northern Minnesota
Alessandra Bottero, Anthony W. D’Amato, Brian J. Palik, Christel C. Kern, John B. Bradford, Sawyer S. Scherer
2017, Forest Science (63) 94-100
Prescribed fire is widely used for ecological restoration and fuel reduction in fire-dependent ecosystems, most of which are also prone to drought. Despite the importance of drought in fire-adapted forests, little is known about cumulative effects of repeated prescribed burning on tree growth and related response to drought. Using dendrochronological...
A 600-year-long stratigraphic record of tsunamis in south-central Chile
Isabel Hong, Tina Dura, Lisa L. Ely, Benajamin P. Horton, Alan R. Nelson, Marco Cisternas, Daria Nikitina, Robert L. Wesson
2017, The Holocene (27) 39-51
The stratigraphy within coastal river valleys in south-central Chile clarifies and extends the region’s history of large, earthquakes and accompanying tsunamis. Our site at Quidico (38.1°S, 73.3°W) is located in an overlap zone between ruptures of magnitude 8–9 earthquakes in 1960 and 2010, and, therefore, records tsunamis originating from subduction-zone...
Improved vertical streambed flux estimation using multiple diurnal temperature methods in series
Dylan J. Irvine, Martin A. Briggs, Ian Cartwright, Courtney R. Scruggs, Laura K. Lautz
2017, Groundwater (55) 73-80
Analytical solutions that use diurnal temperature signals to estimate vertical fluxes between groundwater and surface water based on either amplitude ratios (Ar) or phase shifts (Δϕ) produce results that rarely agree. Analytical solutions that simultaneously utilize Ar and Δϕ within a single solution have more recently been derived, decreasing uncertainty...
Implications of the earthquake cycle for inferring fault locking on the Cascadia megathrust
Frederick Pollitz, Eileen Evans
2017, Geophysical Journal International (209) 167-185
GPS velocity fields in the Western US have been interpreted with various physical models of the lithosphere-asthenosphere system: (1) time-independent block models; (2) time-dependent viscoelastic-cycle models, where deformation is driven by viscoelastic relaxation of the lower crust and upper mantle from past faulting events; (3) viscoelastic block models, a time-dependent...
Mudflat morphodynamics and the impact of sea level rise in South San Francisco Bay
Mick Van der Wegen, Bruce E. Jaffe, Amy C. Foxgrover, Dano Roelvink
2017, Estuaries and Coasts (40) 37-49
Estuarine tidal mudflats form unique habitats and maintain valuable ecosystems. Historic measurements of a mudflat in San Fancsico Bay over the past 150 years suggest the development of a rather stable mudflat profile. This raises questions on its origin and governing processes as well as on the mudflats’ fate under scenarios...
Behavioral connectivity among bighorn sheep suggests potential for disease spread
Nathan Borg, Michael S. Mitchell, Paul M. Lukacs, Curt M. Mack, Lisette P. Waits, Paul R. Krausman
2017, Journal of Wildlife Management (81) 38-45
Connectivity is important for population persistence and can reduce the potential for inbreeding depression. Connectivity between populations can also facilitate disease transmission; respiratory diseases are one of the most important factors affecting populations of bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis). The mechanisms of connectivity in populations of bighorn sheep likely have implications...
Otoliths
James M. Long, Timothy B. Grabowski
Michael C. Quist, Daniel A. Isermann, editor(s)
2017, Book chapter, Age and growth of fishes: Principles and techniques
No abstract available....
The history of late holocene surface-faulting earthquakes on the central segments of the Wasatch fault zone, Utah
Christopher B. DuRoss, Stephen Personius, Susan S Olig, Anthony J. Crone, Michael D. Hylland, William R. Lund, David P. Schwartz
2017, Book chapter, Geology and resources of the Wasatch: Back to front, Utah Geological Association Publication 46
The Wasatch fault (WFZ)—Utah’s longest and most active normal fault—forms a prominent eastern boundary to the Basin and Range Province in northern Utah. To provide paleoseismic data for a Wasatch Front regional earthquake forecast, we synthesized paleoseismic data to define the timing and displacements of late Holocene surface-faulting earthquakes on...
Influence of restored koa in supporting bird communities
Richard J. Camp, Eben H. Paxton, Stephanie G. Yelenik
2017, Conference Paper, Acacia koa in Hawai‘i: facing the future. Proceedings of the 2016 Koa Symposium
Deforestation of Hawaiian forests has adversely impacted native wildlife, including forest birds, bats and arthropods. Restoration activities have included reforestation with the native koa (Acacia koa), a dominant canopy tree species that is easy to propagate, has high survivorship, and has fast growth rates. We review recent research describing the...
Using structural damage statistics to derive macroseismic intensity within the Kathmandu valley for the 2015 M7.8 Gorkha, Nepal earthquake
Sean McGowan, Kishor S. Jaiswal, David J. Wald
2017, Tectonophysics (714-715) 158-172
We make and analyze structural damage observations from within the Kathmandu valley following the 2015 M7.8 Gorkha, Nepal earthquake to derive macroseismic intensities at several locations including some located near ground motion recording sites. The macroseismic intensity estimates supplement the limited strong ground motion data in order to characterize the...
Changes in vocal repertoire of the Hawaiian crow, Corvus hawaiiensis,from past wild to current captive populations
Ann M. Tanimoto, Patrick J. Hart, Adam A. Pack, Richard Switzwer, Paul C. Banko, Donna L. Ball, Esther Sebastian-Gonzalez, Lisa Komarczyk, Miyako H. Warrington
2017, Animal Behaviour (123) 427-432
For most avian species, social behaviour is critically important for survival and reproductive success. Many social behaviours in birds are culturally transmitted, and as bird populations decline across the globe, important elements of these behaviours may be...
Water-level changes in the High Plains aquifer, Republican River Basin in Colorado, Kansas, and Nebraska, 2002 to 2015
V. L. McGuire
2017, Scientific Investigations Map 3373
The High Plains aquifer underlies 111.8 million acres (about 175,000 square miles) in parts of eight States—Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming. More than 95 percent of the water withdrawn from the High Plains aquifer is used for irrigation. Water-level declines began in parts of...
Temporary wetlands: Challenges and solutions to conserving a ‘disappearing’ ecosystem
Aram J.K. Calhoun, David M. Mushet, Kathleen P. Bell, Dani Boix, James A. Fitzsimons, Francis Isselin-Nondedeu
2017, Biological Conservation (211) 3-11
Frequent drying of ponded water, and support of unique, highly specialized assemblages of often rare species, characterize temporary wetlands, such as vernal pools, gilgais, and prairie potholes. As small aquatic features embedded in a terrestrial landscape, temporary wetlands enhance biodiversity and provide aesthetic, biogeochemical, and hydrologic functions. Challenges to conserving...
Warming and provenance limit tree recruitment across and beyond the elevation range of subalpine forest
Lara M. Kueppers, Erin Conlisk, Cristina Castanha, Andrew B. Moyes, Matthew J. Germino, Perry de Valpine, Margaret S. Torn, Jeffry B. Mitton
2017, Global Change Biology (23) 2383-2395
Climate niche models project that subalpine forest ranges will extend upslope with climate warming. These projections assume that the climate suitable for adult trees will be adequate for forest regeneration, ignoring climate requirements for seedling recruitment, a potential demographic bottleneck. Moreover, local genetic adaptation is expected to facilitate range expansion,...
Challenges with secondary use of multi-source water-quality data in the United States
Lori A. Sprague, Gretchen P. Oelsner, Denise M. Argue
2017, Water Research (110) 252-261
Combining water-quality data from multiple sources can help counterbalance diminishing resources for stream monitoring in the United States and lead to important regional and national insights that would not otherwise be possible. Individual monitoring organizations understand their own data very well, but issues can arise when their data are combined...
The practice of prediction: What can ecologists learn from applied, ecology-related fields?
Frank Pennekamp, Matthew Adamson, Owen L Petchey, Jean-Christophe Poggiale, Maira Aguiar, Bob W. Kooi, Daniel B. Botkin, Donald L. DeAngelis
2017, Ecological Complexity (32) 156-167
The pervasive influence of human induced global environmental change affects biodiversity across the globe, and there is great uncertainty as to how the biosphere will react on short and longer time scales. To adapt to what the future holds and to manage the impacts of global change, scientists need to...
Arsenite as an electron donor for anoxygenic photosynthesis: Description of three strains of Ectothiorhodospria from Mono Lake, California, and Big Soda Lake, Nevada
Shelley McCann, Alison Boren, Jaime Hernandez-Maldonado, Brendon Stoneburner, Chad W Saltikov, John F. Stolz, Ronald S. Oremland
2017, Life Sciences (7)
Three novel strains of photosynthetic bacteria from the family Ectothiorhodospiraceae were isolated from soda lakes of the Great Basin Desert, USA by employing arsenite (As(III)) as the sole electron donor in the enrichment/isolation process. Strain PHS-1 was previously isolated from a hot spring in Mono Lake, while strain MLW-1 was...
Excursions in fluvial (dis)continuity
Gordon E. Grant, James E. O'Connor, Elizabeth Safran
2017, Geomorphology (277) 145-153
Lurking below the twin concepts of connectivity and disconnectivity are their first, and in some ways, richer cousins: continuity and discontinuity. In this paper we explore how continuity and discontinuity represent fundamental and complementary perspectives in fluvial geomorphology, and how these perspectives inform and underlie our conceptions of connectivity...
Riparian spiders as sentinels of polychlorinated biphenyl contamination across heterogeneous aquatic ecosystems
Johanna M. Kraus, Polly P. Gibson, David M. Walters, Marc A. Mills
2017, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (36) 1278-1286
Riparian spiders are being used increasingly to track spatial patterns of contaminants in and fluxing from aquatic ecosystems.However, our understanding of the circumstances under which spiders are effective sentinels of aquatic pollution is limited. The present study tests the...
Hydrologic and geomorphic changes resulting from episodic glacial lake outburst floods: Rio Colonia, Patagonia, Chile
J. Jacquet, S.W. McCoy, Daniel Mcgrath, David Nimick, Mark Fahey, J. O’kuinghttons, B.A. Friesen, J. Leidich
2017, Geophysical Research Letters (44) 854-864
Glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) are a prominent but poorly understood cryospheric hazard in a warming climate. We quantify the hydrologic and geomorphic response to 21 episodic GLOFs that began in April 2008 using multitemporal satellite imagery and field observations. Peak discharge exiting the source lake became progressively muted downstream....
