Climate changes and wildfire alter vegetation of Yellowstone National Park, but forest cover persists
Jason A. Clark, Rachel A. Loehman, Robert E. Keane
2017, Ecosphere (8)
We present landscape simulation results contrasting effects of changing climates on forest vegetation and fire regimes in Yellowstone National Park, USA, by mid-21st century. We simulated potential changes to fire dynamics and forest characteristics under three future climate projections representing a range of potential future conditions using the FireBGCv2 model....
Low thinning and crown thinning of two severities as restoration tools at Redwood National Park
Jason R Teraoka, Phillip J. van Mantgem, Christopher R. Keyes
2017, General Technical Report PSW-GTR-258
Interest in the restoration of second-growth forests has continued to increase in the redwood region, which has further increased the importance of evaluating restoration-based silvicultural strategies. This study assessed the short-term effectiveness of four silvicultural treatments (two silvicultural thinning methods, low thinning and crown thinning, and two basal area retentions,...
Post-9.45 Ma depositional and structural history of the Bear Canyon conglomerate between Indian Pass and Picacho State Recreation Area, southeastern California
Jason Ricketts, L. Sue Beard, Ryan S. Crow, Kevin Coffey, Gordon B. Haxel
2017, Conference Paper, ECSZ Does It: Revisiting the Eastern California Shear Zone: Desert Symposium Field Guide and Proceedings
No abstract available....
Riparian soil development linked to forest succession above and below dams along the Elwha River, Washington, USA
Laura G Perry, Patrick B. Shafroth, Steven Perakis
2017, Ecosystems (20) 104-129
Riparian forest soils can be highly dynamic, due to frequent fluvial disturbance, erosion, and sediment deposition, but effects of dams on riparian soils are poorly understood. We examined soils along toposequences within three river segments located upstream, between, and downstream of two dams on the Elwha River to evaluate relationships...
New techniques to measure cliff change from historical oblique aerial photographs and structure-from-motion photogrammetry
Jonathan A. Warrick, Andy Ritchie, Gabrielle Adelman, Ken Adelman, Patrick W. Limber
2017, Journal of Coastal Research (33) 39-55
Oblique aerial photograph surveys are commonly used to document coastal landscapes. Here it is shown that adequate overlap may exist in these photographic records to develop topographic models with Structure-from-Motion (SfM) photogrammetric techniques. Using photographs of Fort Funston, California, from the California Coastal Records Project, imagery were combined with ground...
Beaver colony density trends on the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest, 1987 – 2013
Christine Ribic, Deahn M. Donner, Albert J. Beck, David J. Rugg, Sue Reinecke, Dan Eklund
2017, PLoS ONE (12) 1-15
The North American beaver (Castor canadensis) is a managed species in the United States. In northern Wisconsin, as part of the state-wide beaver management program, the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest removes beavers from targeted trout streams on U.S. Forest Service lands. However, the success of this management program has not been...
Dissolution of fluorapatite by Pseudomonas fluorescens P35 resulting in fluorine release
Jianping Zhou, Hongmei Wang, Charles A. Cravotta III, Qiang Dong, Xing Xiang
2017, Geomicrobiology Journal (34) 421-433
Chemical weathering of fluorine-bearing minerals is widely accepted as the main mechanism for the release of fluorine (F) to groundwater. Here, we propose a potential mechanism of F release via microbial dissolution of fluorapatite (Ca5(PO4)3F), which has been neglected previously. Batch culture experiments were conducted at 30°C with a phosphate-solubilizing...
Differences in flood hazard projections in Europe – their causes and consequences for decision making
Z. W. Kundzewicz, V. Krysanova, R. Dankers, Y. Hirabayashi, S. Kanae, F. F. Hattermann, S. Huang, Paul C.D. Milly, M. Stoffel, P.P.J. Driessen, P. Matczak, P. Quevauviller, H.-J. Schellnhuber
2017, Hydrological Sciences Journal (62) 1-14
This paper interprets differences in flood hazard projections over Europe and identifies likely sources of discrepancy. Further, it discusses potential implications of these differences for flood risk reduction and adaptation to climate change. The discrepancy in flood hazard projections raises caution, especially among decision makers in charge of water resources...
Ecosystem extent and fragmentation
Roger Sayre, Matt Hansen
2017, Report, A sourcebook of methods and procedures for monitoring essential biodiversity variables in tropical forests with remote sensing
One of the candidate essential biodiversity variable (EBV) groups described in the seminal paper by Pereira et al. (2014) concerns Ecosystem Structure. This EBV group is distinguished from another EBV group which encompasses aspects of Ecosystem Function. While the Ecosystem Function EBV treats ecosystem processes like nutrient cycling, primary production,...
Forest restoration at Redwood National Park: exploring prescribed fire alternatives to second-growth management: a case study
Eamon Engber, Jason Teraoka, Phillip J. van Mantgem
2017, General Technical Report PSW-GTR-258
Almost half of Redwood National Park is comprised of second-growth forests characterized by high stand density, deficient redwood composition, and low understory biodiversity. Typical structure of young redwood stands impedes the recovery of old-growth conditions, such as dominance of redwood (Sequoia sempervirens (D. Don) Endl.), distinct canopy layers and diverse...
A global analysis of traits predicting species sensitivity to habitat fragmentation
Douglas Keinath, Daniel F. Doak, Karen E. Hodges, Laura R. Prugh, William F. Fagan, Cagan H. Sekercioglu, Stuart H. M. Buchart, Matthew J. Kauffman
2017, Global Ecology and Biogeography (26) 115-127
AimElucidating patterns in species responses to habitat fragmentation is an important focus of ecology and conservation, but studies are often geographically restricted, taxonomically narrow or use indirect measures of species vulnerability. We investigated predictors of species presence after fragmentation using data from studies around the world that included all four...
Validation of daily increments periodicity in otoliths of spotted gar
Richard A. Snow, James M. Long, Bryan D. Frenette
2017, Journal of the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (4) 60-65
Accurate age and growth information is essential in successful management of fish populations and for understanding early life history. We validated daily increment deposition, including the timing of first ring formation, for spotted gar (Lepisosteus oculatus) through 127 days post hatch. Fry were produced from hatchery-spawned specimens, and up to...
Understanding the past to interpret the future: Comparison of simulated groundwater recharge in the upper Colorado River basin (USA) using observed and general-circulation-model historical climate data
Fred D. Tillman, Subhrendu Gangopadhyay, Tom Pruitt
2017, Hydrogeology Journal (25) 347-358
In evaluating potential impacts of climate change on water resources, water managers seek to understand how future conditions may differ from the recent past. Studies of climate impacts on groundwater recharge often compare simulated recharge from future and historical time periods on an average monthly or overall average annual basis,...
Model-based estimators of density and connectivity to inform conservation of spatially structured populations
Dana J. Morin, Angela K. Fuller, J. Andrew Royle, Chris Sutherland
2017, Ecosphere (8) 1-16
Conservation and management of spatially structured populations is challenging because solutions must consider where individuals are located, but also differential individual space use as a result of landscape heterogeneity. A recent extension of spatial capture–recapture (SCR) models, the ecological distance model, uses spatial encounter histories of individuals (e.g., a record...
State of Great Lakes 2017 Technical Report: Indicators to assess the status and trends of the Great Lakes ecosystem
Dale Van Stempvoort, George Zhang, Christopher J. Hoard, John Spoelstra, Norman Granneman, Scott MacRitchie, Stacey Cherwaty
2017, Report
No abstract available....
Social-ecological outcomes in recreational fisheries: The interaction of lakeshore development and stocking
Jacob P. Ziegler, Elizabeth J. Golebie, Stuart E. Jones, Brian Weidel, Christopher T. Solomon
2017, Ecological Applications (27) 56-65
Many ecosystems continue to experience rapid transformations due to processes like land use change and resource extraction. A systems approach to maintaining natural resources focuses on how interactions and feedbacks among components of complex social‐ecological systems generate social and ecological outcomes. In recreational fisheries, residential shoreline development and fish stocking...
The family Rhabdoviridae: Mono- and bipartite negative-sense RNA viruses with diverse genome organization and common evolutionary origins
Ralf G. Dietzgen, Hideki Kondo, Michael M. Goodin, Gael Kurath, Nikos Vasilakis
2017, Virus Research (227) 158-170
The family Rhabdoviridae consists of mostly enveloped, bullet-shaped or bacilliform viruses with a negative-sense, single-stranded RNA genome that infect vertebrates, invertebrates or plants. This ecological diversity is reflected by the diversity and complexity of their genomes. Five canonical structural protein genes are conserved in all rhabdoviruses, but may be overprinted, overlapped or...
Geology along the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia
Mark W. Carter, C. Scott Southworth, Richard P. Tollo, Arthur J. Merschat, Sara Wagner, Ava Lazor, John N. Aleinikoff
2017, Book chapter, From the Blue Ridge to the beach: Geological field excursions across Virginia
Detailed geologic mapping and new SHRIMP (sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe) U-Pb zircon, Ar/Ar, Lu-Hf, 14C, luminescence (optically stimulated), thermochronology (fission-track), and palynology reveal the complex Mesoproterozoic to Quaternary geology along the ~350 km length of the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia. Traversing the boundary of the central and southern Appalachians, rocks...
Geology of the Petersburg batholith, eastern Piedmont, Virginia
Brent E. Owens, Mark W. Carter, Christopher M. Bailey
2017, Book chapter, From the Blue Ridge to the beach Geological field excursions across Virginia
The 295-300 Ma Petersburg batholith in east-central Virginia forms one of the largest and northernmost of the Alleghanian plutonic complexes in the southern Appalachian Piedmont. The batholith is primarily composed of granite including massive and foliated (both magmatic and solid-state fabrics) varieties. The plutonic complex intruded medium-grade metamorphosed volcanic/plutonic rocks...
Diet patterns of island foxes on San Nicolas Island relative to feral cat removal
Brian L. Cypher, Erica C. Kelly, Francesca J. Ferrara, Charles A. Drost, Tory L. Westall, Brian Hudgens
2017, Pacific Conservation Biology (23) 180-188
Island foxes (Urocyon littoralis) are a species of conservation concern that occur on six of the Channel Islands off the coast of southern California. We analysed island fox diet on San Nicolas Island during 2006–12 to assess the influence of the removal of feral cats (Felis catus) on the food...
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...
The waterfall paradox: How knickpoints disconnect hillslope and channel processes, isolating salmonid populations in ideal habitats
Christine May, Joshua J. Roering, Kyle Snow, Kitty Griswold, Robert E. Gresswell
2017, Geomorphology (277) 228-236
Waterfalls create barriers to fish migration, yet hundreds of isolated salmonid populations exist above barriers and have persisted for thousands of years in steep mountainous terrain. Ecological theory indicates that small isolated populations in disturbance-prone landscapes are at greatest risk of extirpation because immigration and recolonization are not possible. On...
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...
Evaluation of modeled bacteria loads along an impaired stream reach receiving discharge from a municipal separate storm sewer system in Independence, Mo.
Allison Flickinger, Eric D. Christensen
2017, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the Water Environment Federation, WEFTEC 2017
The Little Blue River in Jackson County, Missouri, was listed as impaired in 2012 due to Escherichia coli (E. coli) from urban runoff and storm sewers. A study was initiated to characterize E. coli concentrations and loads to aid in the development of a total maximum daily load implementation plan. Longitudinal sampling along the...
Disentangling the complexities of how legumes and their symbionts regulate plant nitrogen access and storage
Sasha C. Reed
2017, New Phytologist (213) 478-480
Nitrogen (N) availability strongly influences the structure and function of ecosystems (e.g. Vitousek & Howarth, 1991), but only a relatively small number of microbial groups have the ability to convert the N2 in our atmosphere into biologically available forms.This process,...
