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Publications

These publications showcase the significant science conducted in our Science Centers.

Filter Total Items: 16783

Groundwater quality for 75 domestic wells in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, 2014

Groundwater is a major source of drinking water in Lycoming County and adjacent counties in north-central and northeastern Pennsylvania, which are largely forested and rural and are currently undergoing development for hydrocarbon gases. Water-quality data are needed for assessing the natural characteristics of the groundwater resource and the potential effects from energy and mineral extraction,
Authors
Eliza L. Gross, Charles A. Cravotta

Detecting spatial ontogenetic niche shifts in complex dendritic ecological networks

Ontogenetic niche shifts (ONS) are important drivers of population and community dynamics, but they can be difficult to identify for species with prolonged larval or juvenile stages, or for species that inhabit continuous habitats. Most studies of ONS focus on single transitions among discrete habitat patches at local scales. However, for species with long larval or juvenile periods, affinity for
Authors
William R. Fields, Evan H. Campbell Grant, Winsor H. Lowe

Transcriptomic imprints of adaptation to fresh water: parallel evolution of osmoregulatory gene expression in the Alewife

Comparative approaches in physiological genomics offer an opportunity to understand the functional importance of genes involved in niche exploitation. We used populations of Alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus) to explore the transcriptional mechanisms that underlie adaptation to fresh water. Ancestrally anadromous Alewives have recently formed multiple, independently derived, landlocked populations, wh
Authors
Jonathan P. Velotta, Jill L. Wegrzyn, Samuel Ginzburg, Lin Kang, Sergiusz J. Czesny, Rachel J. O'Neill, Stephen D. McCormick, Pawel Michalak, Eric T. Schultz

Re-Os systematics and age of pyrite associated with stratiform Zn-Pb mineralization in the Howards Pass district, Yukon and Northwest Territories, Canada

Stratiform Zn-Pb deposits hosted in unmetamorphosed carbonaceous and siliceous mudstones of the Ordovician to Silurian Duo Lake Formation define the Howards Pass district in Yukon Territory and Northwest Territories, western Canada. Collectively, the deposits are amongst the largest in the world, containing drill-indicated and inferred resources of 423 Mt at 4.84 % Zn and 1.59 % Pb. Sulphide textu
Authors
Karen D. Kelley, David Selby, Hendrik Falck, John F. Slack

Evidence for early life in Earth’s oldest hydrothermal vent precipitates

Although it is not known when or where life on Earth began, some of the earliest habitable environments may have been submarine-hydrothermal vents. Here we describe putative fossilized microorganisms that are at least 3,770 million and possibly 4,280 million years old in ferruginous sedimentary rocks, interpreted as seafloor-hydrothermal vent-related precipitates, from the Nuvvuagittuq belt in Que
Authors
Matthew S. Dodd, Dominic Papineau, Tor Grenne, John F. Slack, Martin Rittner, Franco Pirajno, Jonathan O’Neil, Crispin T.S. Little

Conservation status of the American horseshoe crab, (Limulus polyphemus): A regional assessment

Horseshoe crabs have persisted for more than 200 million years, and fossil forms date to 450 million years ago. The American horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus), one of four extant horseshoe crab species, is found along the Atlantic coastline of North America ranging from Alabama to Maine, USA with another distinct population on the coasts of Campeche, Yucatán and Quintana Roo in the Yucatán Penin
Authors
David R. Smith, H. Jane Brockmann, Mark A. Beekey, Tim L. King, Michael J. Millard, Jaime Zaldívar-Rae

Extended late Holocene relative sea-level histories for North Carolina, USA

We produced ∼3000-year long relative sea-level (RSL) histories for two sites in North Carolina (USA) using foraminifera preserved in new and existing cores of dated salt-marsh sediment. At Cedar Island, RSL rose by ∼2.4 m during the past ∼3000 years compared to ∼3.3 m at Roanoke Island. This spatial difference arises primarily from differential GIA that caused late Holocene RSL rise to be 0.1–0.2 
Authors
Andrew C. Kemp, Jessica J. Kegel, Stephen J. Culver, Donald C. Barber, David J. Mallinson, Eduardo Leorri, Christopher E. Bernhardt, Niamh Cahill, Stanley R. Riggs, Anna L. Woodson, Ryan P. Mulligan, Benjamin P. Horton

Vulnerabilities to climate change of Massachusetts animal species of greatest conservation need

Over the last decade, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has addressed the potential and actual impacts of climate change on state flora and fauna. The state’s involvement began in 2007 when, led by the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (DFW) and assisted by Manomet Center for Con-servation Research, it carried out one of the first habitat vulnerability assessments in North America (Manomet, 2010)
Authors
Hector Galbraith, Toni L. Morelli

Isotopic niches support the resource breadth hypothesis

Because a broad spectrum of resource use allows species to persist in a wide range of habitat types, and thus permits them to occupy large geographical areas, and because broadly distributed species have access to more diverse resource bases, the resource breadth hypothesis posits that the diversity of resources used by organisms should be positively related with the extent of their geographic ran
Authors
Jonathan A. Rader, Seth D. Newsome, Pablo Sabat, R. Terry Chesser, Michael E. Dillon, Carlos Martinez del Rio

Low pathogenic avian influenza viruses in wild migratory waterfowl in a region of high poultry production, Delmarva, Maryland

Migratory waterfowl are natural reservoirs for low pathogenic avian influenza viruses (AIVs) and may contribute to the long-distance dispersal of these pathogens as well as spillover into domestic bird populations. Surveillance for AIVs is critical to assessing risks for potential spread of these viruses among wild and domestic bird populations. The Delmarva Peninsula on the east coast of the Unit
Authors
Diann J. Prosser, Christine L. Densmore, Larry J. Hindman, Deborah D. Iwanowicz, Christopher A. Ottinger, Luke R. Iwanowicz, Cindy P. Driscoll, Jessica L. Nagel

Nocturnal insect availability in bottomland hardwood forests managed for wildlife in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley

Silviculture used to alter forest structure and thereby enhance wildlife habitat has been advocated for bottomland hardwood forest management on public conservation lands in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley. Although some songbirds respond positively to these management actions to attain desired forest conditions for wildlife, the response of other species, is largely unknown. Nocturnal insects are
Authors
Loraine P. Ketzler, Christopher Comer, Daniel J. Twedt

Rapid carbon loss and slow recovery following permafrost thaw in boreal peatlands

Permafrost peatlands store one-third of the total carbon (C) in the atmosphere and are increasingly vulnerable to thaw as high-latitude temperatures warm. Large uncertainties remain about C dynamics following permafrost thaw in boreal peatlands. We used a chronosequence approach to measure C stocks in forested permafrost plateaus (forest) and thawed permafrost bogs, ranging in thaw age from young
Authors
Miriam C. Jones, Jennifer W. Harden, Jonathan A. O'Donnell, Kristen L. Manies, Torre Jorgenson, Claire C. Treat, Stephanie Ewing