Special flora and vegetation of Indiana Dunes National Park
Noel B. Pavlovic, Barbara Plampin, Gayle S. Tonkovich, David R. Hamilla
2024, Natural Resource Report NPS/INDU/NRR—2024/262
No abstract available. ...
Preliminary observations of the April 5th, 2024, Mw4.8 New Jersey earthquake
Oliver S. Boyd, William D. Barnhart, James Bourke, Martin C. Chapman, Paul S. Earle, Guo-chin Dino Huang, Jessica Ann Thompson Jobe, Won-Young Kim, Frederick Link, Mairi Maclean Litherland, Andrew Lloyd, Maureen Long, Sara K. McBride, Andrew J. Michael, Walter D. Mooney, Gregory Moutain, Sissy Nikolaou, Alexandros Savvaidas, Felix Waldhauser, Cecily J. Wolfe, Clara Yoon
2024, The Seismic Record (4) 240-250
On 5 April 2024, 10:23 a.m. local time, a moment magnitude 4.8 earthquake struck Tewksbury Township, New Jersey, about 65 km west of New York City. Millions of people from Virginia to Maine and beyond felt the ground shaking, resulting in the largest number (>180,000)...
Overcoming low detectability in snake conservation research: Case studies from the Southeast USA
John D. Willson, Jacquelyn C. Guzy, Andrew M. Durso
2024, Book chapter, Strategies for Conservation Success in Herpetology
Goals of conservation research include detecting and monitoring changes in abundance, understanding species interactions, detecting extinction events of imperiled species, and detecting colonization events and spread of non-native species. Achieving these goals is difficult or impossible when the target species is rarely encountered or when the number of individuals detected...
Scale-dependence in elk habitat selection for a reintroduced population in Wisconsin, USA
Jennifer L. Merems, Anna L. Brose, Jennifer Price Tack, Shawn M. Crimmins, Timothy R. Van Deelen
2024, Ecology and Evolution (14)
Habitat selection is a critical aspect of a species' ecology, requiring complex decision-making that is both hierarchical and scale-dependent, since factors that influence selection may be nested or unequal across scales. Elk (Cervus canadensis) ranged widely across diverse ecoregions in North America prior to European settlement and subsequent eastern extirpation....
Adapting standardized trout monitoring to a changing climate for the upper Yellowstone River, Montana, USA
Michelle A. Briggs, Hayley Corrine Glassic, Christopher S. Guy, Scott T. Opitz, Jay J. Rotella, David A. Schmetterling
2024, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (44) 947-961
ObjectiveLong-term standardized monitoring programs are fundamental to assessing how fish populations respond to anthropogenic stressors. Standardized monitoring programs may need to adopt new methods to adapt to rapid environmental changes associated with a changing climate. In the upper Yellowstone River, Montana, biologists have used a standardized, mark-recapture monitoring protocol to...
Effects of recent wildfires on giant sequoia groves were anomalous at millennial timescales: a response to Hanson et al.
Nathan L. Stephenson, David Nicolas Bertil Soderberg, Joshua A. Flickinger, Anthony C. Caprio, Adrian Das
2024, Fire Ecology (20)
BackgroundThe giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum [Lindley] Buchholz) of California’s Sierra Nevada recently suffered historically unprecedented wildfires that killed an estimated 13–19% of seed-bearing sequoias across their native range. Hanson et al. recently sought to characterize post-fire reproduction in two severely burned sequoia groves, but their two papers (1) inaccurately...
Brodifacoum isomer formulations with potentially lower risk to non-target wildlife
Barnett A. Rattner, Richard A. Erickson, Julia S. Lankton, Etienne Benoit, Virginie Lattard
2024, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the 31st vertebrate pest conference
Anticoagulant rodenticides (ARs) have a long history of successful use in controlling vertebrate pest and invasive species. Despite regulatory efforts to mitigate risk, non-target wildlife may be unintentionally exposed to ARs through various trophic pathways, and depending on dose, exposure can result in adverse effects and mortality. Second-generation ARs (SGARs)...
Evaluation of the lakes and impoundments drought index for the Massachusetts Drought Management Plan
Travis L. Smith
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5081
The condition of surface water storage in lakes and impoundments is used as an index of drought in the Massachusetts drought management plan. The U.S. Geological Survey visited 28 of these lakes and impoundments at 14 single and multiple waterbody systems to evaluate their appropriateness for characterizing drought. The data...
Statistical analysis of Lake Tahoe secchi depth data
Ramon C. Naranjo
2024, Report
Secchi depth measurements in Lake Tahoe have been collected at a Long-Term Profile (LTP) monitoring site since 1968. Periodic updates in Secchi trend analysis are needed to understand changes in the long-term record, changes in seasonal pattern, and to provide insight into the progress of restoration efforts in improving lake...
Microplastic and associated black particles from road-tire wear: Implications for radiative effects across the cryosphere and in the atmosphere
Richard L. Reynolds, Heather A. Lowers, George N. Breit, Harland L. Goldstein, Elizabeth Kellisha Williams, Corey Lawrence, Raymond F. Kokaly, Jeff Derry
2024, JGR - Atmospheres (129)
The environmental effects of airborne micro- and nano-size plastic particles are poorly understood. Microscopy and chemical analyses of atmospherically deposited particles on snow surfaces at high elevation (2,865–3,690 m) in the Upper Colorado River basin (UCRB; Colorado Rocky Mountains) revealed the presence of black substances intimately associated with...
How to reduce the risks of introducing and spreading invasive species in a major disaster
Invasive Species Council
2024, Report
Disaster impacts are exacerbated by invasive species, which are harmful, non-native organisms that can be introduced and spread by disasters, including disaster response and recovery operations. Mechanisms are available to reduce risks from invasive species in a disaster, but those mechanisms are rarely used because invasive species experts and emergency...
Elemental composition and potential toxicity of the riverine macrophyte Podostemum ceratophyllum Michx. reflects land use in eastern North America
James Wood, Lee H. Dietterich, Douglas R. Leasure, Sarah Jantzi, Thomas Maddox, Seth J. Wenger, Jonathan Skaggs, Amy D. Rosemond, Mary Freeman
2024, Science of the Total Environment (954)
Land use influences surface water quality, often alleviating stoichiometric constraints on primary production and altering biogeochemical cycling. However, land use effects on nutrient content and potential trace metal accumulation in aquatic plants remain unclear, and high concentrations of metals and altered nutrient ratios could impact the health of herbivores and...
Fish health altered by contaminants and low water temperatures compounded by prolonged regional drought in the Lower Colorado River Basin, USA
Steven L Goodbred, Reynaldo Patino, David A. Alvarez, Darren Johnson, Deena Hannoun, Kathy R. Echols, Jill Jenkins
2024, Toxics (12)
The goal of this study was to assess health of male Common Carp (carp, Cyprinus carpio) at four sites with a wide range in environmental organic contaminant (EOC) concentrations and water temperatures in Lake Mead National Recreation Area NV/AZ, US, and the potential influence of regional drought. Histological and reproductive...
The Khonkho tephra: A large-magnitude volcanic eruption coincided with the rise of Tiwanaku in the Andes
Erik J. Marsh, Christopher Harpel, David Damby
2024, The Holocene (34) 1865-1874
We report a tephra deposit in the southern Lake Titicaca Basin, Bolivia, which was deposited by a major, previously unrecognized eruption sometime between AD 400 and 720. Archaeological data suggest these centuries were characterized by a substantial community migration to Tiwanaku, where social interaction networks gave birth to one of...
Estimating groundwater level records using MOVE.1 and computing monthly percentiles from estimated groundwater records in Massachusetts
Elizabeth A. Ahearn, Dee-Ann E. Crozier
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5080
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, performed record extensions on groundwater levels at select wells using the Maintenance of Variance Extension type 1 (MOVE.1) method. The groundwater levels estimated from these record extensions were used to compute monthly percentiles to improve future determinations...
Rare Earth Elements in coal fly ash and their potential recovery
James Hower, Allan Kolker, Heileen Hsu-Kim, Desiree Platta
Athanasios Karamalidis, Roderick Eggert, editor(s)
2024, Book chapter, Rare Earth Elements: Sustainable recovery, processing, and purification
Coal fly ash is a potential resource of valuable elements, such as rare earth elements (REEs), which are retained and concentrated upon combustion. Understanding REE occurrence within fly ash is vital to developing recovery methods. Some of the highest REE contents occur in fly ash derived from U.S. Appalachian Basin...
An evaluation of fin ray microchemistry to describe movement of White Sturgeon in the Kootenai River basin: Insights and limitations
Courtnie Ghere, Michael Quist, Ryan S. Hardy, Malte Willmes, Levi Lewis, Sean Wilson, Troy Smith
2024, Frontiers in Freshwater Science (2)
Introduction: White Sturgeon Acipenser transmontanus in the Kootenai River basin is listed as endangered in the United States and Canada. Declines have been mainly attributed to poor recruitment exacerbated by the environmental effects of Libby Dam in Montana. Reduced primary production downstream of Libby Dam has been identified as one factor limiting...
Extending the Boore and Abrahamson (2023) modified square-root-impedance method for the development of site amplifications consistent with the full-resonance approach to a range of VS30 values
Linda Al Atik, David Boore
2024, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (114) 3093-3102
The square-root-impedance (SRI) method is commonly used to approximate the seismic site amplifications computed using the full-resonance (FR) method for gradient shear-wave velocity (VS) profiles that are smoothly varying with depth. The SRI site amplifications have been observed to systematically underpredict the FR site amplifications by a ratio of FR/SRI...
Evaluation of the lithium resource in the Smackover Formation brines of southern Arkansas using machine learning
Katherine J. Knierim, Madalyn S. Blondes, Andrew Laurence Masterson, Philip A. Freeman, Bonnie McDevitt, Amanda Sha Herzberg, Peng Li, Ciara Mills, Colin A. Doolan, Aaron M. Jubb, Scott Ausbrooks, Jessica Chenault
2024, Science Advances (10)
Global demand for lithium, the primary component of lithium-ion batteries, greatly exceeds known supplies, and this imbalance is expected to increase as the world transitions away from fossil fuel energy sources. High concentrations of lithium in brines have been observed in the Smackover Formation in southern Arkansas (>400 milligrams per...
Length-weight relationships of native and non-native fishes in the lower Red River catchment, USA
Mariaguadalupe Vilchez, John Dattilo, Shannon K. Brewer
2024, Journal of Applied Ichthyology (2024)
Length-weight relationships are useful for stock assessments and modeling alternative conservation and management strategies for both native and non-native fishes. We developed length-weight relationships for 18 native and non-native riverine fishes in the lower Red River catchment. Fishes were sampled in the summer and autumn seasons between May 2021 and...
Framework for mapping liquefaction hazard–Targeted design ground motions
Andrew James Makdisi, Steven L. Kramer
2024, Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering (150)
Liquefaction-induced ground failure poses substantial challenges to geotechnical earthquake engineering design. Current approaches for designing against liquefaction hazards, as specified in most seismic provisions, focus on estimating a liquefaction factor of safety (𝐹𝑆𝐿) and typically characterize earthquake loading using design parameters based on probabilistic or deterministic ground...
Transdisciplinary research supports the sustainability of barrier island systems threatened by climate change
Patrick L. Barnard, Davina Passeri
2024, Earth's Future (12)
The management of developed barrier islands is often piece-meal and reactionary despite the complex, dynamic nature of these systems, and sustainable practices will become increasingly difficult due to heightened pressures of climate change. Adaptation actions, including nature-based solutions, need to be thoroughly evaluated prior to implementation to...
Trace organic contaminants in U.S. national park surface waters: Prevalence and ecological context☆
Sarah M. Elliott, Kerensa A. King, Aliesha L. Krall, David D. VanderMeulen
2024, Environmental Pollution (362) 125006
Surface water samples were collected from 264 sites across 46 U.S national parks during the period of 2009–2019. The number of sites within each park ranged from 1 to 31 and the number of samples collected within each park ranged from 1 to...
Vegetation community recovery on restored bottomland hardwood forests in northeast Indiana, USA
Matthew Struckhoff, Keith Grabner, Janice L. Albers, Michael J. Hooper
2024, Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management (20) 1917-1938
Vegetation communities in restored bottomland hardwood forests in northeast Indiana were studied 6–21 years after restoration to assess progress toward restoration objectives. The study focused on four sites that were restored to compensate for resource injuries after contaminant releases. The restored sites were compared...
Beyond the wedge: Impact of tidal streams on salinization of groundwater in a coastal aquifer stressed by pumping and sea-level rise
Mary C. Hingst, R.M. Housego, C. He, Burke J. Minsley, Lyndsay B. Ball, Holly A. Michael
2024, Water Resources Research (60)
Saltwater intrusion (SWI) is a well-studied phenomenon that threatens the freshwater supplies of coastal communities around the world. The development and advancement of numerical models has led to improved assessment of the risk of salinization. However, these studies often fail to include the impact of surface waters...
