Publications
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Pluvial lakes in the Great Basin of the western United States: a view from the outcrop
Paleo-lakes in the western United States provide geomorphic and hydrologic records of climate and drainage-basin change at multiple time scales extending back to the Miocene. Recent reviews and studies of paleo-lake records have focused on interpretations of proxies in lake sediment cores from the northern and central parts of the Great Basin. In this review, emphasis is placed on equally importan
Authors
Marith C. Reheis, Kenneth D. Adams, Charles G. Oviatt, Steven N. Bacon
Methodological developments in US state-level Genuine Progress Indicators: toward GPI 2.0
The Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) has emerged as an important monetary measure of economic well-being. Unlike mainstream economic indicators, primarily Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the GPI accounts for both the benefits and costs of economic production across diverse economic, social, and environmental domains in a more comprehensive manner. Recently, the GPI has gained traction in subnational
Authors
Kenneth J. Bagstad, Günseli Berik, Erica J. Brown Gaddis
Natural uranium and strontium isotope tracers of water sources and surface water-groundwater interactions in arid wetlands: Pahranagat Valley, Nevada, USA
Near-surface physical and chemical process can strongly affect dissolved-ion concentrations and stable isotope compositions of water in wetland settings, especially under arid climate conditions. In contrast, heavy radiogenic isotopes of strontium (87Sr/86Sr) and uranium (234U/238U) remain largely unaffected and can be used to help identify unique signatures from different sources and quantify en
Authors
James B. Paces, Frederic C. Wurster
Loess records
Loess is aeolian sediment, dominated by silt-sized particles, that is identifiable in the field as a distinct sedimentary body. It covers a significant portion of the land surface of the Earth and as such constitutes one of the most important archives of long-term dust deposition. Large tracts of loess cover Europe, Asia, South America, and North America, and smaller loess bodies are found coverin
Authors
Daniel R. Muhs, Stephen R. Cattle, Onn Crouvi, Denis-Didier Rousseau, Jiimin Sun, Marcelo A. Zárate
Ecological change on California's Channel Islands from the Pleistocene to the Anthropocene
Historical ecology is becoming an important focus in conservation biology and offers a promising tool to help guide ecosystem management. Here, we integrate data from multiple disciplines to illuminate the past, present, and future of biodiversity on California's Channel Islands, an archipelago that has undergone a wide range of land-use and ecological changes. Our analysis spans approximately 20,
Authors
Torben C. Rick, T. Scott Sillett, Cameron K. Ghalambor, Courtney A. Hofman, Katherine Ralls, R. Scott Anderson, Christina L. Boser, Todd J. Braje, Daniel R. Cayan, R. Terry Chesser, Paul W. Collins, Jon M. Erlandson, Kate R. Faulkner, Robert C. Fleischer, W. Chris Funk, Russell Galipeau, Ann Huston, Julie King, Lyndal L. Laughrin, Jesus Maldonado, Kathryn McEachern, Daniel R. Muhs, Seth D. Newsome, Leslie Reeder-Myers, Christopher Still, Scott A. Morrison
Temperature data acquired from the DOI/GTN-P Deep Borehole Array on the Arctic Slope of Alaska, 1973-2013
A homogeneous set of temperature measurements obtained from the DOI/GTN-P Deep Borehole Array between 1973 and 2013 is presented; DOI/GTN-P is the US Department of the Interior contribution to the Global Terrestrial Network for Permafrost (GTN-P). The 23-element array is located on the Arctic Slope of
Alaska, a region of cold continuous permafrost. Most of the monitoring wells are situated on the
Authors
Gary D. Clow
Effect of sulfate and carbonate minerals on particle-size distributions in arid soils
Arid soils pose unique problems during measurement and interpretation of particle-size distributions (PSDs) because they often contain high concentrations of water-soluble salts. This study investigates the effects of sulfate and carbonate minerals on grain-size analysis by comparing analyses in water, in which the minerals dissolve, and isopropanol (IPA), in which they do not. The presence of gyp
Authors
Dirk Goossens, Brenda J. Buck, Yuazxin Teng, Colin Robins, Harland L. Goldstein
From theoretical to actual ecosystem services: mapping beneficiaries and spatial flows in ecosystem service assessments
Ecosystem services mapping and modeling has focused more on supply than demand, until recently. Whereas the potential provision of economic benefits from ecosystems to people is often quantified through ecological production functions, the use of and demand for ecosystem services has received less attention, as have the spatial flows of services from ecosystems to people. However, new modeling app
Authors
Kenneth J. Bagstad, Ferdinando Villa, David Batker, Jennifer Harrison-Cox, Brian Voigt, Gary W. Johnson
Desert wetlands in the geologic record
Desert wetlands support flora and fauna in a variety of hydrologic settings, including seeps, springs, marshes, wet meadows, ponds, and spring pools. Over time, eolian, alluvial, and fluvial sediments become trapped in these settings by a combination of wet ground conditions and dense plant cover. The result is a unique combination of clastic sediments, chemical precipitates, and organic matter th
Authors
Jeff S. Pigati, Jason A. Rech, Jay Quade, Jordon Bright
Three-dimensional geologic mapping of the Cenozoic basin fill, Amargosa Desert basin, Nevada and California
Understanding the subsurface geologic framework of the Cenozoic basin fill that underlies the Amargosa Desert in southern Nevada and southeastern California has been improved by using borehole data to construct three-dimensional lithologic and interpreted facies models. Lithologic data from 210 boreholes from a 20-kilometer (km) by 90-km area were reduced to a limited suite of descriptors based on
Authors
Emily M. Taylor, Donald S. Sweetkind
Neotectonics and geomorphic evolution of the northwestern arm of the Yellowstone Tectonic Parabola: Controls on intra-cratonic extensional regimes, southwest Montana
The catastrophic Hebgen Lake earthquake of 18 August 1959 (MW 7.3) led many geoscientists to develop new methods to better understand active tectonics in extensional tectonic regimes that address seismic hazards. The Madison Range fault system and adjacent Hebgen Lake–Red Canyon fault system provide an intermountain active tectonic analog for regional analyses of extensional crustal deformation. T
Authors
Chester A. Ruleman, Mort Larsen, Michael C. Stickney
Biological effects of desert dust in respiratory epithelial cells and a murine model
As a result of the challenge of recent dust storms to public health, we tested the postulate that desert dust collected in the southwestern United States imparts a biological effect in respiratory epithelial cells and an animal model. Two samples of surface sediment were collected from separate dust sources in northeastern Arizona. Analysis of the PM20 fraction demonstrated that the majority of bo
Authors
Andrew J. Ghio, Suryanaren T. Kummarapurugu, Haiyan Tong, Joleen M. Soukup, Lisa A. Dailey, Elizabeth Boykin, M. Ian Gilmour, Peter Ingram, Victor L. Roggli, Harland L. Goldstein, Richard L. Reynolds