Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Dataset For The Incorporation Of Climate Change Into A Multiple Stressor Risk Assessment For The Chinook Salmon (Oncorhynchus Tshawytscha) Population In The Yakima River, Washington Usa, Wayne Landis, Chelsea J. Mitchell, John D. Hader, Rory Nathan, Emma E. Sharpe

Environmental Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Data files available below

This data set is in support of Landis et al (in press 2024). A key question in understanding the implications of climate change is how to integrate ecological risk assessments that focus on contaminants with the environmental alterations from climate projections. This article summarizes the results of integrating selected direct and indirect effects of climate change into an existing Bayesian network previously used for ecological risk assessment. The existing Bayesian network Relative Risk Model (BN-RRM) integrated the effects of organophosphate pesticides concentrations, water temperature, and dissolved oxygen levels on the Chinook salmon population in the Yakima …

Mussel Squeeze: Dissolved Oxygen And Temperature Can “Squeeze” Zebra Mussels Out Of Invaded Reservoirs, Crysta A. Gantz, Rich Miller, Steve Wells, Mark Sytsma, Angela Lee Strecker

Environmental Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Zebra mussels (Dreissena polymorpha) are an aquatic invasive species that cause extensive economic and ecological impacts and are a management priority in areas outside of their native range. Survivorship and distribution of zebra mussels within a waterbody are thought to be influenced by temperature and dissolved oxygen conditions, but detailed information to confirm the importance of these environmental controls is necessary to inform management efforts. We measured planktonic zebra mussel veliger density and adult survivorship in San Justo Reservoir in central California to determine distribution and timing of spawning in relation to temperature and dissolved oxygen throughout winter, spring, and …

Chromophoric Dissolved Organic Matter And Dissolved Organic Carbon In Lakes Across An Elevational Gradient From The Mountains To The Sea, Kyle Juetten, Angela Lee Strecker, Aaron Harrison, Zachary Landram, Warren J. De Bruyn, Catherine D. Clark

Environmental Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Dissolved organic matter (DOM) in lakes across elevation gradients is a complex function of topography, climate, vegetation coverage, land use, and lake properties. To examine sources and processing of DOM from sea level to mountain lakes (3–1,574 m), we measured dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations and chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) optical properties, lake characteristics, and water quality parameters in 62 freshwater lakes in the Pacific Northwest, USA. Higher elevation lakes had lower DOC concentrations and absorbance. These lakes had higher forest cover and minimal wetlands in their watershed, in addition to low nutrients, water temperatures, and chlorophyll a in …

Zooplankton Recovery From A Whole-Lake Disturbance: Examining Roles Of Abiotic Factors, Biotic Interactions, And Traits, Brian N. Mcgann, Angela L. Strecker

Environmental Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Community assembly following disturbance is a key process in determining the composition and function of the future community. However, replicated studies of community assembly at whole-ecosystem scales are rare. Here, we describe a series of whole-lake experiments, in which the recovery of zooplankton communities was tracked following an ecosystem-scale disturbance, that is, application of the piscicide, rotenone. Using a before-after-control-impact design, 14 lakes in eastern Washington were studied: Seven lakes were treated with rotenone, while seven lakes acted as reference systems. Each lake was monitored up to 6 months before and 1–2 years after the rotenone treatments. Zooplankton samples and …

From Forests To Fish: Mercury In Mountain Lake Food Webs Influenced By Factors At Multiple Scales, Ariana M. Chiapella, Collin A. Eagles-Smith, Angela Strecker

Environmental Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Mountain lakes, while seemingly pristine, have been subjected to historical fish stocking practices and exposure to atmospherically deposited contaminants like mercury. Mercury bioaccumulation in these ecosystems varies widely due to strong environmental gradients, and there are complex, hierarchical factors that affect mercury transport and loading, methylmercury production, and food web biomagnification. We sought to assess how representative variables associated with watershed, lake, and food web-scale processes—specifically, catchment tree cover, lake benthic primary production, and fish diet, respectively—are associated with mercury concentrations in mountain lake fish. Mean fish mercury concentrations varied threefold between lakes, with nearshore tree cover and fish diet …

Fatty Acid Stable Isotopes Add Clarity, But Also Complexity, To Tracing Energy Pathways In Aquatic Food Webs, Ariana M. Chiapella, Martin J. Kainz, Angela Strecker

Environmental Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Tracing the flow of dietary energy sources, especially in systems with a high degree of omnivory, is an ongoing challenge in ecology. In aquatic systems, one of the persistent challenges is in differentiating between autochthonous and allochthonous energy sources to top consumers. Bulk carbon stable isotope values of aquatic and terrestrial prey often overlap, making it difficult to delineate dietary energy pathways in food webs with high allochthonous prey subsidies, such as in many northern temperate waterbodies. We conducted a feeding experiment to explore how fatty acid stable isotopes may overcome the challenge of partitioning autochthonous and allochthonous energy pathways …

Quantification And Characterization Of Nanoparticulate Zinc In An Urban Watershed, Shaun Bevers, Manuel David Montaño, Laya Rybicki, Thilo Hofmann, Frank Von Der Kammer, James F. Ranville

Environmental Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

The recent expansion in the use of nanomaterials in consumer and industrial applications has led to a growing concern over their behavior, fate, and impacts in environmental systems. However, engineered nanoparticles comprise only a small fraction of the total nanoparticle mass in aquatic systems. Human activities, particularly in urban watersheds, are increasing the population of incidental nanoparticles and are likely altering the cycling of more abundant natural nanoparticles. Accurate detection, quantification, characterization, and tracking of these different populations is important for assessing both the ecological risks of anthropogenic particles, and their impact on environmental health. The urban portion of the …

Floodplains Provide Important Amphibian Habitat Despite Facing Multiple Ecological Threats, Meredith A. Holgerson, Adam Duarte, Marc P. Hayes, Michael J. Adams, Julie A. Tyson, Keith A. Douville, Angela Strecker

Environmental Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Floodplain ponds and wetlands are productive and biodiverse ecosystems, yet they face multiple threats including altered hydrology, land use change, and non-native species. Protecting and restoring important floodplain ecosystems requires understanding how organisms use these habitats and respond to altered environmental conditions. We developed Bayesian models to evaluate occupancy of six amphibian species across 103 off-channel aquatic habitats in the Chehalis River floodplain, Washington State, USA. The basin has been altered by changes in land use, reduced river–wetland connections, and the establishment of non-native American bullfrogs (Rana catesbeiana = Lithobates catesbeianus) and centrarchid fishes, all of which we …

Dataset For The Environmental Risk Assessment Of Chlorpyrifos To Chinook Salmon In Four Rivers Of Washington State, United States, Wayne G. Landis, Valerie R. Chu, Scarlett Graham, Meagan J. Harris, April J. Markiewicz, Chelsea J. Mitchell, Katherine E. Stackelberg, John Stark

Environmental Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Data files available below.

This data set is in support of Landis et al (in press) The integration of chlorpyrifos acetylcholinesterase inhibition, water temperature and dissolved oxygen concentration into a regional scale multiple stressor risk assessment estimating risk to Chinook salmon in four rivers in Washington State, USA. DOI: 10.1002/ieam.4199. In this research We estimated the risk to populations of Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) due to chlorpyrifos (CH), water temperature (WT) and dissolved oxygen concentrations (DO) in four watersheds in Washington State, USA. The watersheds included the Nooksack and Skagit Rivers in the Northern Puget Sound, the Cedar …

Spatiotemporal Variability In The Climate Growth Response Of High Elevation Bristlecone Pine In The White Mountains Of California, Andrew Godard Bunn, Matthew W. Salzer, Kevin J. Anchukaitis, Jamis M. Bruening, Malcolm K. Hughes

Environmental Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Tree-ring chronologies from bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva) are a unique proxy used to understand climate variability over the middle to late Holocene. The annual rings from trees growing toward the species’ lower elevational range are sensitive to precipitation variability. Interpretation of the ring-width signal at the upper forest border has been more difficult. We evaluate differences in climate induced by topography (topoclimate) to better understand the dual signals of temperature and moisture. We unmix signals from trees growing at and near the upper forest border based on the seasonal mean temperature (SMT) experienced by each tree. We find that trees …

A Multidecade Experiment Shows That Fertilization By Salmon Carcasses Enhanced Tree Growth In The Riparian Zone, Thomas P. Quinn, Helfield M. James, Catherine S. Austin, Rachel A. Hovel, Andrew Godard Bunn

Environmental Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

As they return to spawn and die in their natal streams, anadromous, semelparous fishes such as Pacific salmon import marine‐derived nutrients to otherwise nutrient‐poor freshwater and riparian ecosystems. Diverse organisms exploit this resource, and previous studies have indicated that riparian tree growth may be enhanced by such marine‐derived nutrients. However, these studies were largely inferential and did not account for all factors affecting tree growth. As an experimental test of the contribution of carcasses to tree growth, for 20 yr, we systematically deposited all sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) carcasses (217,055 individual salmon) in the riparian zone on one …

Carbon Sequestration In A Pacific Northwest Eelgrass (Zostera Marina) Meadow, Katrina L. Poppe, John M. Rybczyk

Environmental Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Coastal wetlands are known to be efficient carbon sinks due to high rates of primary productivity, carbon burial by mineral sediments, and low rates of sediment organic matter decomposition. Of the three coastal wetland types: tidal marshes, tidal forests, and seagrass meadows, carbon burial by seagrasses is relatively under-studied, and reported rates range widely from 45 to 190 g C m^-2 yr^-1. Additionally, most of these seagrass rates are biased toward tropical and subtropical species, particularly Posidonia oceanica, with few focused on Zostera marina, the most widespread species in the northern hemisphere. We measured sediment …

Why Georeferencing Matters: Introducing A Practical Protocol To Prepare Species Occurrence Records For Spatial Analysis, Trevor D.S. Bloom, Aquila Flower, Eric G. Dechaine

Environmental Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Species Distribution Models (SDMs) are widely used to understand environmental controls on species’ ranges and to forecast species range shifts in response to climatic changes. The quality of input data is crucial determinant of the model’s accuracy. While museum records can be useful sources of presence data for many species, they do not always include accurate geographic coordinates. Therefore, actual locations must be verified through the process of georeferencing. We present a practical, standardized manual georeferencing method (the Spatial Analysis Georeferencing Accuracy (SAGA) protocol) to classify the spatial resolution of museum records specifically for building improved SDMs. We used the …

Moderate Increase In Tco2 Enhances Photosynthesis Of Seagrass Zostera Japonica, But Not Zostera Marina: Implications For Acidification Mitigation, Cale A. Miller, Brooke Love, Sylvia Yang

Environmental Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Photosynthesis and respiration are vital biological processes that shape the diurnal variability of carbonate chemistry in nearshore waters, presumably ameliorating (daytime) or exacerbating (nighttime) short-term acidification events, which are expected to increase in severity with ocean acidification (OA). Biogenic habitats such as seagrass beds have the capacity to reduce CO₂ concentration and potentially provide refugia from OA. Further, some seagrasses have been shown to increase their photosynthetic rate in response to enriched total CO₂ (TCO₂). Therefore, the ability of seagrass to mitigate OA may increase as concentrations of TCO₂ increase. In this study, we exposed …

Technical Note: A Minimally-Invasive Experimental System For Pco2 Manipulation In Plankton Cultures Using Passive Gas Exchange (Atmospheric Carbon Control Simulator), Brooke Love, M. Brady (Michael Brady) Olson, Tristen Wuori

Environmental Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

As research into the biotic effects of ocean acidification has increased, the methods for simulating these environmental changes in the laboratory have multiplied. Here we describe the atmospheric carbon control simulator (ACCS) for the maintenance of plankton under controlled pCO2 conditions, designed for species sensitive to the physical disturbance introduced by the bubbling of cultures and for studies involving trophic interaction. The system consists of gas mixing and equilibration components coupled with large volume atmospheric simulation chambers. These chambers allow gas exchange to counteract the changes in carbonate chemistry induced by the metabolic activity of the organisms. The system is …

Nutrient And Phytoplankton Dynamics On The Inner Shelf Of The Eastern Bering Sea, Calvin W. Mordy, Allan H. (Allan Houston) Devol, Lisa B. Eisner, Nancy Kachel, Carol A. Ladd, Michael W. Lomas, Peter Proctor, Raymond Nicholas Sambrotto, David Shull, Phyllis Jean Stabeno, Eric Wisegarver

Environmental Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

In the Bering Sea, the nitrogen cycle near Nunivak Island is complicated due to limited nutrient replenishment across this broad shelf, and substantial nitrogen loss through sedimentary processes. While diffusion at the inner front may periodically support new production, the inner shelf in this region is generally described as a regenerative system. This study combines hydrographic surveys with measurements of nitrogen assimilation and benthic fluxes to examine nitrogen cycling on the inner shelf, and connectivity between the middle and inner shelves of the southern and central Bering Sea. Results establish the inner shelf as primarily a regenerative system even in …

Rapid Variations In Fluid Chemistry Constrain Hydrothermal Phase Separation At The Main Endeavour Field, Brooke Love, Marvin Douglas Lilley, David Allen Butterfield, Eric J. Olson, Benjamin Isaac Larson

Environmental Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Previous work at the Main Endeavour Field (MEF) has shown that chloride concentration in high-temperature vent fluids has not exceeded 510 mmol/kg (94% of seawater), which is consistent with brine condensation and loss at depth, followed by upward flow of a vapor phase toward the seafloor. Magmatic and seismic events have been shown to affect fluid temperature and composition and these effects help narrow the possibilities for sub-surface processes. However, chloride-temperature data alone are insufficient to determine details of phase separation in the upflow zone. Here we use variation in chloride and gas content in a set of fluid samples …

Cluster Analysis And Topoclimate Modeling To Examine Bristlecone Pine Tree-Ring Growth Signals In The Great Basin, Usa, Tyler J. Tran, Jamis M. Bruening, Andrew Godard Bunn, Matthew W. Salzer, Stuart B. Weiss

Environmental Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Tree rings have long been used to make inferences about the environmental factors that influence tree growth. Great Basin bristlecone pine is a long-lived species and valuable dendroclimatic resource, but often with mixed growth signals; in many cases, not all trees at one location are limited by the same environmental variable. Past work has identified an elevational threshold below the upper treeline above which trees are limited by temperature, and below which trees tend to be moisture limited. This study identifies a similar threshold in terms of temperature instead of elevation through fine-scale topoclimatic modeling, which uses a suite of …

Fine-Scale Modeling Of Bristlecone Pine Treeline Position In The Great Basin, Usa, Jamis M. Bruening, Tyler J. Tran, Andrew Godard Bunn, Stuart B. Weill, Matthew W. Salzer

Environmental Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Great Basin bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva) and foxtail pine (Pinus balfouriana) are valuable paleoclimate resources due to their longevity and climatic sensitivity of their annually-resolved rings. Treeline research has shown that growing season temperatures limit tree growth at and just below the upper treeline. In the Great Basin, the presence of precisely dated remnant wood above modern treeline shows that the treeline ecotone shifts at centennial timescales tracking long-term changes in climate; in some areas during the Holocene climatic optimum treeline was 100 meters higher than at present. Regional treeline position models built exclusively from climate …

Predicting Landscape Effects Of Mississippi River Diversions On Soil Organic Carbon Sequestration, Hongqing Wang, Gregory D. Steyer, Brady R. (Brady Randall) Couvillion, Holly Beck, John M. Rybczyk, Victor H. Rivera-Monroy, Ken W. Krauss, Jenneke M. (Jenneke Maria) Visser

Environmental Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Large Mississippi River (MR) diversions (peak water flow >1416 m³/s and sediment loads >165 kg/s) have been proposed as part of a suite of coastal restoration projects and are expected to rehabilitate and rebuild wetlands to alleviate the significant historic wetland loss in coastal Louisiana. These coastal wetlands are undergoing increasing eustatic sea-level rise, land subsidence, climate change, and anthropogenic disturbances. However, the effect of MR diversions on wetland soil organic carbon (SOC)

sequestration in receiving basins remains unknown. The rate of SOC sequestration or carbon burial in wetlands is one of the variables used to assess the …

Western Spruce Budworm And Wildfire: Is There A Connection?, Daniel G. Gavin, Aquila Flower, Greg M. Cohn, Russell A. Parsons, Emily K. Heyerdahl

Environmental Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

In the interior Pacific Northwest, extensive defoliation of mixed conifer forests during outbreaks of western spruce budworm (WSB) may leave the visual impression of a tinderbox with trees primed to burst into flame. But is this the case?

We addressed this question with funding from the USDA/U.S. Department of the Interior Joint Fire Science Program (project 09– 1–06–5). Here we summarize our three recent publications exploring the potential relationship between WSB outbreaks and fire. We used a multimethod approach to explore potential disturbance interactions that might cause one disturbance to change the occurrence or severity of the other. We used …

Landscape-Level Analysis Of Mountain Goat Population Connectivity In Washington And Southern British Columbia, David O. Wallin, Leslie C. (Leslie Claire) Parks, Samuel A. Cushman, Brad H. Mcrae

Environmental Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Habitat fragmentation and habitat loss diminish population connectivity, reducing genetic diversity and increasing extinction risk over time. Improving connectivity is widely recommended to preserve the long-term viability of populations, but this requires accurate knowledge of how landscapes influence connectivity. Detectability of landscape effects on gene flow is highly dependent on landscape context, and drawing conclusions from single landscape studies may lead to ineffective management strategies. We present a novel approach to elucidate regional variation in the relative importance of landscape variable effects on gene flow. We demonstrate this approach by evaluating gene flow between isolated, genetically impoverished mountain goat ( …

Climate Response In Near-Treeline Bristlecone Pine, Matthew W. Salzer, Evan R. Larson, Andrew Godard Bunn, Malcolm Kenneth Hughes

Environmental Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

In the White Mountains of California, eight bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva) tree-ring width chronologies were developed from trees at upper treeline and just below upper treeline along North- and South-facing elevational transects from treeline to ~90 m below. There is evidence for a climate-response threshold between approximately 60–80 vertical m below treeline, above which trees have shown a positive growth-response to temperature and below which they do not. Chronologies from 80 m or more below treeline show a change in climate response and do not correlate strongly with temperature-sensitive chronologies developed from trees growing at upper treeline. Rather, they more …

Five Millennia Of Paleotemperature From Tree-Rings In The Great Basin, Usa, Matthew W. Salzer, Andrew Godard Bunn, Nicholas E. (Nicholas Earl) Graham, Malcolm Kenneth Hughes

Environmental Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

The instrumental temperature record is of insufficient length to fully express the natural variability of past temperature. High elevation tree-ring widths from Great Basin bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva) are a particularly useful proxy to infer temperatures prior to the instrumental record in that the tree-rings are annually dated and extend for millennia. From ring-width measurements integrated with past treeline elevation data we infer decadal- to millennial-scale temperature variability over the past 4,500 years for the Great Basin, USA. We find that twentieth century treeline advances are greater than in at least 4,000 years. There is also evidence for …

Comparing Forest Measurements From Tree Rings And A Space-Based Index Of Vegetation Activity In Siberia, Andrew Godard Bunn, Malcolm Kenneth Hughes, Alexander V. Kirdyanov, Mark Losleben, Vladimir V. Shishov, Logan T. Berner, Alexander Oltchev, E. A. (Evgeniĭ Aleksandrovich) Vaganov

Environmental Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Different methods have been developed for measuring carbon stocks and fluxes in the northern high latitudes, ranging from intensively measured small plots to space-based methods that use reflectance data to drive production efficiency models. The field of dendroecology has used samples of tree growth from radial increments to quantify long-term variability in ecosystem productivity, but these have very limited spatial domains. Since the cambium material in tree cores is itself a product of photosynthesis in the canopy, it would be ideal to link these two approaches. We examine the associations between the normalized differenced vegetationindex (NDVI) and tree growth using …

Fish And Shellfish Consumption: Traditions, Regulations, And A Cleaner Environment In The Us Pacific Northwest, Jennifer Stiles, Ruth M. Sofield

Environmental Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

When discussing the benefits of fish consumption, we typically focus on the health benefits such as Omega‐3 fatty acids and their implications for heart health. However, nonhealth related benefits of fish consumption are important to consider. With Washington State's broad coastline, fish consumption is abundant and plays an integral role in the traditions of the Native Americans in the state. Fish and shellfish are an important part of the daily diet. There is also spiritual significance with traditions that include the “First Salmon Ceremony,” where the first salmon of the year is honored to ensure that its spirit is released …

Multi-Year Lags Between Forest Browning And Soil Respiration At High Northern Latitudes, Ben Bond-Lamberty, Andrew Godard Bunn, Allison M. Thomson

Environmental Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

High-latitude northern ecosystems are experiencing rapid climate changes, and represent a large potential climate feedback because of their high soil carbon densities and shifting disturbance regimes. A significant carbon flow from these ecosystems is soil respiration (RS, the flow of carbon dioxide, generated by plant roots and soil fauna, from the soil surface to atmosphere), and any change in the high-latitude carbon cycle might thus be reflected in RSobserved in the field. This study used two variants of a machine-learning algorithm and least squares regression to examine how remotely-sensed canopy greenness (NDVI), climate, and other variables are …

Multi Scale Habitat Relationships Of Martes Americana In Northern Idaho, U.S.A, Tzeidle N. (Tzeidle Nicole) Wasserman, Samuel A. Cushman, David O. Wallin, Jim Hayden

Environmental Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

We used bivariate scaling and logistic regression to investigate multiple-scale habitat selection by American marten (Martes americana). Bivariate scaling reveals dramatic differences in the apparent nature and strength of relationships between marten occupancy and a number of habitat variables across a range of spatial scales. These differences include reversals in the direction of an observed association from positive to negative and frequent dramatic changes in the apparent importance of a habitat variable as a predictor of marten occurrence. Logistic regression on the optimally scaled input variables suggests that at the scale of home ranges, marten select landscapes with …

Numerical Models Of Salt Marsh Evolution: Ecological, Geomorphic, And Climatic Factors, Sergio Fagherazzi, Matthew Lynn Kirwan, Simon Marius Mudd, Glenn R. Guntenspergen, Stijn Temmerman, Andrea D'Alpaos, Johan Van De Koppel, John M. Rybczyk, Enrique Reyes, Christopher B. Craft, Jonathan Clough

Environmental Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Salt marshes are delicate landforms at the boundary between the sea and land. These ecosystems support a diverse biota that modifies the erosive characteristics of the substrate and mediates sediment transport processes. Here we present a broad overview of recent numerical models that quantify the formation and evolution of salt marshes under different physical and ecological drivers. In particular, we focus on the coupling between geomorphological and ecological processes and on how these feedbacks are included in predictive models of landform evolution. We describe in detail models that simulate fluxes of water, organic matter, and sediments in salt marshes. The …

Seasonal Stability Of A Flexible Algal-Cnidarian Symbiosis In A Highly Variable Temperate Environment, James L. Dimond, Brian L. Bingham, GisèLe Muller-Parker, Kaela Wuesthoff, Lisbeth Francis

Environmental Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

We evaluated the seasonal stability of two algal symbiont populations in the temperate intertidal sea anemone Anthopleura elegantissima on San Juan Island, Washington, where the relatively thermally tolerant dinoflagellate Symbiodinium muscatinei coexists with the less thermally tolerant chlorophyte Elliptochloris marina. Random collection of anemones along repeatedly sampled transects over four seasons and three shore heights revealed S. muscatinei to be the dominant symbiont, with E. marina mostly limited to anemones in the lower intertidal zone. At the lowest shore height sampled (+0.2 m), the proportion of E. marina was between 40% and 50% of the total symbiont population throughout …