Other Environmental Sciences | Open Access Articles

Possible Impacts Of Early-11th-, Middle-12th-, And Late-13th-Century Droughts On Western Native Americans And The Mississippian Cahokians, Larry V. Benson, Michael S. Berry, Edward A. Jolie, Jerry D. Spangler, David W. Stahle, Eugene M. Hattori

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

One or more of three intense and persistent droughts impacted some Native American cultures in the early-11th, middle-12th and late- 13th centuries, including the Anasazi, Fremont, Lovelock, and Mississippian (Cahokian) prehistorical cultures. Tree-ring-based reconstructions of precipitation and temperature indicate that warm drought periods occurred between AD 990 and 1060, AD 1135 and 1170, and AD 1276 and 1297. These droughts occurred during minima in the Pacific Decadal Oscillation and may have been associated with positive values of the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation. Each of the Native American cultures was supported, to a greater or lesser degree, by precipitation-dependent resources. Both the …

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Hydrologic Connectivity And The Contribution Of Stream Headwaters To Ecological Integrity At Regional Scales1, Mary C. Freeman, Catherine M. Pringle, C. Rhett Jackson

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Cumulatively, headwater streams contribute to maintaining hydrologic connectivity and ecosystem integrity at regional scales. Hydrologic connectivity is the water-mediated transport of matter, energy and organisms within or between elements of the hydrologic cycle. Headwater streams compose over two-thirds of total stream length in a typical river drainage and directly connect the upland and riparian landscape to the rest of the stream ecosystem. Altering headwater streams, e.g., by channelization, diversion through pipes, impoundment and burial, modifies fluxes between uplands and downstream river segments and eliminates distinctive habitats. The large-scale ecological effects of altering headwaters are amplified by land uses that alter …

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Butterfly Responses To Prairie Restoration Through Fire And Grazing, Jennifer A. Vogel, Diane M. Debinski, Rolf R. Koford, James R. Miller

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

The development of land for modern agriculture has resulted in losses of native prairie habitat. The small, isolated patches of prairie habitat that remain are threatened by fire suppression, overgrazing, and invasion by non-native species. We evaluated the effects of three restoration practices (grazing only, burning only, and burning and grazing) on the vegetation characteristics and butterfly communities of remnant prairies. Total butterfly abundance was highest on prairies that were managed with burning and grazing and lowest on those that were only burned. Butterfly species richness did not differ among any of the restoration practices. Butterfly species diversity was highest …

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Evaluation And Comparison Of Gross Primary Production Estimates For The Northern Great Plains Grasslands, Li Zhang, Bruce K. Wylie, Thomas Loveland, Eugene A. Fosnight, Larry L. Tieszen, Lei Ji, Tagir G. Gilmanov

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Two spatially-explicit estimates of gross primary production (GPP) are available for the Northern Great Plains. An empirical piecewise regression (PWR) GPP model was developed from flux tower measurements to map carbon flux across the region. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) GPP model is a process-based model that uses flux tower data to calibrate its parameters. Verification and comparison of the regional PWR GPP and the global MODIS GPP are important for the modeling of grassland carbon flux. This study compared GPP estimates from PWR and MODIS models with five towers in the grasslands. Among them, PWR GPP and MODIS …

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Fundulus As The Premier Teleost Model In Environmental Biology: Opportunities For New Insights Using Genomics, Karen G. Burnett, Lisa J. Bain, William S. Baldwin, Gloria V. Callard, Sarah Cohen, Richard T. Di Giulio, David H. Evans, Marta Gómez-Chiarri, Mark E. Hahn, Cindi A. Hoover, Sibel I. Karchner, Fumi Katoh, Deborah L. Maclatchy, William S. Marshall, Joel N. Meyer, Diane E. Nacci, Marjorie F. Oleksiak, Bernard B. Rees, Thomas D. Singer, John J. Stegeman, David W. Towle, Peter A. Van Veld, Wolfgang K. Vogelbein, Andrew Whitehead, Richard N. Winn, Douglas L. Crawford

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

A strong foundation of basic and applied research documents that the estuarine fish Fundulus heteroclitus and related species are unique laboratory and field models for understanding how individuals and populations interact with their environment. In this paper we summarize an extensive body of work examining the adaptive responses of Fundulus species to environmental conditions, and describe how this research has contributed importantly to our understanding of physiology, gene regulation, toxicology, and ecological and evolutionary genetics of teleosts and other vertebrates. These explorations have reached a critical juncture at which advancement is hindered by the lack of genomic resources for these …

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Relationship Between Soil Moisture Of Near Surface And Multiple Depths Of The Root Zone Under Heterogeneous Land Uses And Varying Hydroclimatic Conditions, Rezaul Mahmood

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

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Impacts Of The Agricultural Green Revolution Induced Land Use Changes On Air Temperatures In India, Rezaul Mahmood

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

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Chlorophacinone Baiting For Belding’S Ground Squirrels, Craig A. Ramey, George H. Matschke, Richard M. Engeman

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

The efficacy of using 0.01% chlorophacinone on steam-rolled oat (SRO) groats applied in CA alfalfa by spot-baiting/hand baiting around burrow entrances (~11.5 g) to control free-ranging Belding's ground squirrels (Spermophilus beldingi) were compared in 6 randomly assigned square treatment units (TUs). Four TUs were given the rodenticide and 2 treated with placebo bait. Each TU was a 0.4 ha square surrounded by a similarly treated 5.5 ha square buffer zone. Baits were applied on May 13 and re-applied, on May 20 and May 22, after 7 days of un-forecasted cool wet weather greatly reduced their above ground activity. Pesticide (EPA …

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The Science Of Targeting Within Landscapes And Watersheds To Improve Consevation Effectiveness, Todd Walter, Mike Dosskey, Madhu Khanna, Jim Miller, Mark Tomer, John Wiens

United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Our ernphasis in this chapter has been an the science that underlies efforts to target conservation efforts to enhance the effeciiveness (and cost-effectiveness) of management, mitigation and restoration.

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Conservation Genetics Of Snowy Plovers (Charadrius Alexandrinus) In The Western Hemisphere: Population Genetic Structure And Delineation Of Subspecies, W. Chris Funk, Thomas D. Mullins, Susan M. Haig

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

We examined the genetic structure of snowy plovers (Charadrius alexandrinus) in North America, the Caribbean, and the west coast of South America to quantify variation within and among breeding areas and to test the validity of three previously recognized subspecies. Sequences (676 bp) from domains I and II of the mitochondrial control region were analyzed for 166 snowy plovers from 20 breeding areas. Variation was also examined at 10 microsatellite loci for 144 snowy plovers from 14 breeding areas. The mtDNA and microsatellite data provided strong evidence that the Puerto Rican breeding group is genetically divergent from sites …

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Sexual Selection Drives Speciation In An Amazonian Frog, Kathryn E. Boul, W. Chris Funk, Catherine R. Darst, David C. Cannatella, Michael J. Ryan

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

One proposed mechanism of speciation is divergent sexual selection, whereby divergence in female preferences and male signals results in behavioural isolation. Despite the appeal of this hypothesis, evidence for it remains inconclusive. Here, we present several lines of evidence that sexual selection is driving behavioural isolation and speciation among populations of an Amazonian frog (Physalaemus petersi). First, sexual selection has promoted divergence in male mating calls and female preferences for calls between neighbouring populations, resulting in strong behavioural isolation. Second, phylogenetic analysis indicates that populations have become fixed for alternative call types several times throughout the species’ range, …

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Microsatellite Loci For Distinguishing Spotted Owls (Strix Occidentalis), Barred Owls (Strix Varia), And Their Hybrids, W. Chris Funk, Thomas D. Mullins, Eric D. Forsman, Susan M. Haig

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

We identified four diagnostic microsatellite loci that distinguish spotted owls (Strix occidentalis), barred owls (Strix varia), F₁ hybrids and backcrosses. Thirty-four out of 52 loci tested (65.4%) successfully amplified, and four of these loci (11.8%) had allele sizes that did not overlap between spotted and barred owls. The probability of correctly identifying a backcross with these four loci is 0.875. Genotyping potential hybrid owls with these markers revealed that field identifications were often wrong. Given the difficulty of identifying hybrids in the field, these markers will be useful for hybrid identification, law enforcement and spotted …

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New Insights Into Marine Migration And Winter Habitat Of Gulf Sturgeon, Randy E. Edwards, Frank M. Parauka, Kenneth J. Sulak

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Migrations and movements of Gulf sturgeon Acipenser oxyrinchus desotoi were determined using satellite pop-up archival transmitting (PAT) tags and acoustic telemetry. Adult Gulf sturgeon from four rivers in northwestern Florida were caught with gill nets and were tagged with PAT and acoustic tags in the fall of 2001 and 2002. PAT tags were programmed to release in early February 2002 and 2003 to provide information about location of late-winter marine habitats. However, only 5 of 25 provided meaningful location information. Three of the PAT-tagged fish were relocated acoustically near the PAT tag pop-up locations, one of which was in Choctawhatchee …

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Dune Fields: Mid-Latitudes, J. Sun, Daniel R. Muhs

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Large dune fields, or sand seas, are landscapes often thought to be found only in deserts beneath the great, subtropical high-pressure zones, where subsiding air suppresses rainfall. Dune fields are also quite common in mid-latitude regions, to the north and south of subtropical deserts (Fig. 1). Two major characteristics distinguish many mid-latitude dune fields from the sand seas of lower latitudes. One difference is that many of those in mid-latitudes are in semiarid, rather than arid climates, and therefore are not presently active. In this article, ‘active’ refers to eolian sand bodies that are not covered with vegetation, and where …

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Other Environmental Sciences Commons^™

Full-Text Articles in Other Environmental Sciences

Possible Impacts Of Early-11th-, Middle-12th-, And Late-13th-Century Droughts On Western Native Americans And The Mississippian Cahokians, Larry V. Benson, Michael S. Berry, Edward A. Jolie, Jerry D. Spangler, David W. Stahle, Eugene M. Hattori

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Hydrologic Connectivity And The Contribution Of Stream Headwaters To Ecological Integrity At Regional Scales1, Mary C. Freeman, Catherine M. Pringle, C. Rhett Jackson

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Butterfly Responses To Prairie Restoration Through Fire And Grazing, Jennifer A. Vogel, Diane M. Debinski, Rolf R. Koford, James R. Miller

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Evaluation And Comparison Of Gross Primary Production Estimates For The Northern Great Plains Grasslands, Li Zhang, Bruce K. Wylie, Thomas Loveland, Eugene A. Fosnight, Larry L. Tieszen, Lei Ji, Tagir G. Gilmanov

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

Relationship Between Soil Moisture Of Near Surface And Multiple Depths Of The Root Zone Under Heterogeneous Land Uses And Varying Hydroclimatic Conditions, Rezaul Mahmood

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Impacts Of The Agricultural Green Revolution Induced Land Use Changes On Air Temperatures In India, Rezaul Mahmood

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Chlorophacinone Baiting For Belding’S Ground Squirrels, Craig A. Ramey, George H. Matschke, Richard M. Engeman

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

The Science Of Targeting Within Landscapes And Watersheds To Improve Consevation Effectiveness, Todd Walter, Mike Dosskey, Madhu Khanna, Jim Miller, Mark Tomer, John Wiens

United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Conservation Genetics Of Snowy Plovers (Charadrius Alexandrinus) In The Western Hemisphere: Population Genetic Structure And Delineation Of Subspecies, W. Chris Funk, Thomas D. Mullins, Susan M. Haig

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Sexual Selection Drives Speciation In An Amazonian Frog, Kathryn E. Boul, W. Chris Funk, Catherine R. Darst, David C. Cannatella, Michael J. Ryan

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Microsatellite Loci For Distinguishing Spotted Owls (Strix Occidentalis), Barred Owls (Strix Varia), And Their Hybrids, W. Chris Funk, Thomas D. Mullins, Eric D. Forsman, Susan M. Haig

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

New Insights Into Marine Migration And Winter Habitat Of Gulf Sturgeon, Randy E. Edwards, Frank M. Parauka, Kenneth J. Sulak

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Dune Fields: Mid-Latitudes, J. Sun, Daniel R. Muhs

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications