Increasing soil water drought in response to altered precipitation timing across the western United States
Fangyue Zhang, Joel A. Biederman, Daniel Rodolphe Schlaepfer, John B. Bradford, Sasha C. Reed, William K. Smith
2024, Ecohydrology (18)
Recent trends of rising temperatures and longer droughts between precipitation events are impacting water-limited dryland ecosystems in the western United States. Although ecosystem drought response depends directly on soil moisture, trends in soil moisture (e.g., edaphic drought) remain more poorly explored than precipitation (e.g., meteorological drought), representing an important knowledge...
Using the horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio method to estimate thickness of the Barry Arm landslide, Prince William Sound, Alaska
Andrew L. Collins, Kate E. Allstadt, Dennis M. Staley
2024, Open-File Report 2024-1071
Conducting detailed investigations of large landslides is difficult, especially in the subsurface, largely due to environmental factors such as steep slopes, difficult access, and numerous objective hazards. These factors have made it challenging to accurately estimate the depth to the failure surface of the Barry Arm landslide, a large (roughly...
Dryland fungi are spatially heterogeneous and resistant to global change drivers
Andrea Lopez, Mark Anthony, Jovani Catalan-Dibene, Scott Ferrenberg, Samuel E. Jordan, Brooke B. Osborne, Sasha C. Reed, Adriana L. Romero-Olivares
2024, Ecosphere (15)
Fungi are considered particularly important in regulating the structure and function of dryland ecosystems, yet the response of dryland fungal communities to global change remains notably understudied. Without a clear understanding of how fungi respond to global change drivers, mitigation plans—required for biodiversity and ecosystem service conservation and restoration—are impossible...
The dynamics of sea otter prey selection under population growth and expansion
Clint Leach, Ben Weitzman, Jim Bodkin, Daniel Esler, George G. Esslinger, Kimberly A. Kloecker, Daniel Monson, Jamie N. Womble, Mevin B. Hooten
2024, Ecosphere (15)
Sea otters (Enhydra lutris) were extirpated from much of their range in the North Pacific by the early 1900s but have made a remarkable recovery in Southeast Alaska. Sea otter populations have been particularly successful in Glacier Bay, Alaska, a protected tidewater glacier fjord with a diverse and productive nearshore...
Influenza A virus antibodies in ducks and introduction of highly pathogenic influenza A(H5N1) virus, Tennessee, USA
David Stallknect, Deborah Carter, Abigail Blake-Bradshaw, Nicholas M. Masto, Cory Highway, Jamie Feddersen, Richard J. Webby, Bradley S. Cohen, Jeffery D. Sullivan, Rebecca L. Poulson
2024, Emerging Infectious Diseases (30) 2647-2650
Testing of ducks in Tennessee, United States, before introduction of highly pathogenic influenza A(H5N1) virus demonstrated a high prevalence of antibodies to influenza A virus but very low prevalence of antibodies to H5 (25%) or H5 and N1 (13%) subtypes. Antibody prevalence increased after H5N1 introduction....
Data and knowledge gaps of a water bottling facility inventory and select water-use dataset, United States
Carol L. Luukkonen, Cheryl A. Buchwald, Gary R. Martin, Allegra E. Johnson Mckee
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5106
In 2023, the U.S. Geological Survey developed a national inventory of water bottling facilities for the United States, including information about locations, water sources, water use, and a collection of other attributes. The purpose of the inventory was to provide information about water bottling facilities needed to assess and improve...
Adaptive capacities of inland fisheries facing anthropogenic pressures
Gretchen L. Stokes, Samuel J. Smidt, Emily L. Tucker, Matteo Cleary, Simon Funge-Smith, John Valbo-Jorgensen, Benjamin S. Lowe, Abigail J. Lynch
2024, Global Environmental Change (90)
Inland fisheries face multiple, intensifying threats (i.e., proximate human pressures causing degraded ecological attributes) from land development, climate change, resource extraction, and competing demands for water resources. Planning for resiliency amidst these pressures requires understanding the factors that influence an inland fishery’s capacity to adapt to system changes under multiple...
Deformation by pressure solution and grain boundary sliding in a retrograde shear zone in southern New England, USA
Robert P. Wintsch, Bryan A. Wathen, Ryan J. McAleer, Jesse Walters, Jessica A. Matthews
2024, American Journal of Science (324)
Alleghanian phyllonites in a shear zone in southern New England were formed by the retrogression and hydration of a high-grade Acadian pelitic schist. The retrogression was locally incomplete, resulting in both heterogeneous mineralogy and mineral compositions, and in many arrested reaction textures. These features, documented by backscattered electron and element...
Monitoring animal populations with cameras using open, multistate, N-mixture models
Alexej P.K. Siren, Michael T. Hallworth, Jillian R. Kilborn, Chris A. Bernier, Nicholas L. Fortin, Katherina D. Geider, Riley K. Patry, Rachel M. Cliche, Leighlan S. Prout, Suzanne J. Gifford, Scott Wixsom, Toni Lyn Morelli, Tammy L. Wilson
2024, Ecology and Evolution (14)
Remote cameras have become a mainstream tool for studying wildlife populations. For species whose developmental stages or states are identifiable in photographs, there are opportunities for tracking population changes and estimating demographic rates. Recent developments in hierarchical models allow for the estimation of ecological states and rates over time for...
Assessment of the interconnection between Tampa Bay and the Floridan aquifer system: Historical groundwater data compilation and analysis, 1976–2022
Jeremy D. Decker
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5073
The U.S. Geological Survey used existing data collected after the last major navigational channel modification in the mid-1980s to investigate groundwater levels and chloride concentrations in wells in the Floridan aquifer system and other aquifers beneath and near Tampa Bay. Tampa Bay is located on the west-central coast of Florida...
Facilitating psychological safety in science and research teams
Megan Siobhan Jones, Amanda E. Cravens, Jill Zarestky, Courtney Ngai, Hannah B. Love
2024, Humanities and Social Sciences Communications (11)
Science is increasingly dependent on large teams working well together. Co-creating knowledge in this way, usually across disciplines and institutions, requires team members to feel comfortable taking interpersonal risks with each other; in other words, to have what is known as “psychological safety”. Although the importance of psychological safety for...
The U.S. Geological Survey National Water Quality Network—Groundwater—2023
Bruce D. Lindsey, James A. Kingsbury
2024, General Information Product 247
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) operates a National Water Quality Network (NWQN) to monitor trends in groundwater quality and assess emerging contaminants of concern. It is a “network of networks” with 81 subnetworks being sampled on a decadal time scale. Each year, eight of the subnetworks are sampled. Subnetworks have...
New methodology for assessing underground natural gas storage resources – Example from Michigan Basin, United States
Marc L. Buursink, Ashton M. Wiens, Brian A. Varela, Matthew M. Jones, Philip A. Freeman
2024, Conference Paper
Energy consumption in the United States (U.S.) and across the world is shifting away from traditional fossil fuels like coal and oil, and towards natural gas and renewable sources, including hydrogen. Because gas demand is typically greatest during cold seasons and renewable sources sometimes produce variable supplies, it is important...
A partially nonergodic ground-motion model for Fourier amplitude spectra for the San Francisco Bay area, California, USA
Morgan P. Moschetti, Eric M. Thompson, Ryan Peterson, James Andrew Smith, Brad T. Aagaard
2024, Conference Paper
We develop a partially nonergodic ground-motion model (GMM) for Fourier amplitude spectra for the San Francisco Bay Area, California, USA, using the Bayless and Abrahamson (2019) GMM as a reference ergodic GMM and developing location-dependent adjustments to the predicted median and variance. We compile regional ground-motion data from moment magnitude (𝑀w)...
New developments at the Center for Engineering Strong-Motion Data (CESMD)
Lijam Hagos, Hamid Haddadi, Lisa Sue Schleicher, Jamison Haase Steidl, Eric M. Thompson, Heather Crume, M. Dhar, N. Leue
2024, Conference Paper
The Center for Engineering Strong-Motion Data (CESMD), an internationally utilized joint center of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the California Geological Survey (CGS), provides a single access point for earthquake strong-motion records and station metadata from the CGS California Strong-Motion Instrumentation Program (CSMIP), the USGS National Strong-Motion Project (NSMP),...
Natural resource management confronts the growing scale and severity of ecosystem responses to drought and wildfire
Seth M. Munson, Anna L. Vaughn, Brian Petersen, John B. Bradford, Michael C. Duniway
2024, Ecology and Society (29)
Intensification of drought and wildfire associated with climate change has triggered widespread ecosystem stress and transformation. Natural resource managers are on the frontline of these changes, yet their perspectives on whether management actions match the scale and align with the severity of ecosystem responses to improve outcomes are not well...
Challenges in developing vertical hazard for seismic analysis of concrete dams
N. Simon Kwong, Sanaz Rezaeian, Andrew James Makdisi, Nico Luco
2024, Conference Paper
The seismic response of concrete dams depends on both the horizontal (H) and vertical (V) components of ground motion (GM), and excluding the V components when conducting response history analyses (RHAs) may underestimate the seismic fragility. Although V components of GM time series could be selected to be consistent with...
Perspectives on equitable co-production workshop report
Kristin Timm, K. Akerlof, Aparna Bamzai-Dodson, G. Bogard, A. Chase, R. Cloyd, J. Garron, M. Gavazzi, E. Heath, M. Labriole, M. Madajewicz, J. L. Sheats, Carol Simpson, Ryan C. Toohey, N. Udu-gama
2024, Report
The co-production of knowledge is increasingly recognized as an approach to conducting research intended to achieve a societal impact. In this study, we used a broad definition of co-production, defining it as “a process that brings together diverse groups to iteratively create new knowledge and practices (1).” However, co-production has...
Development of USGS NSHMs: Do small changes in hazard imply small changes in risk?
N. Simon Kwong, Kishor S. Jaiswal
2024, Conference Paper
One of the flagship products from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is the National Seismic Hazard Model (NSHM). Since 1976, the NSHM has been periodically updated to reflect newly published earthquake science and provide probabilistic estimates of seismic hazard for the United States. During each update cycle, alternative models are...
Geophysical modeling of a possible blind geothermal system near Battle Mountain, NV
Tait E. Earney, Jonathan M.G. Glen, Jared R. Peacock, James Faulds, William D. Schermerhorn, Grant Harold Rea-Downing, Jacob Elliott Anderson, Cary R. Lindsey, Maria Richards
2024, Conference Paper, Using the Earth to save the Earth
The northeastern portion of the Reese River basin in north-central Nevada is the focus of detailed geophysical and geological studies as part of the INGENIOUS project, which aims to identify new, commercially viable hidden geothermal systems in the Great Basin region of the western U.S. This location, herein referred to...
Reconciling bias in moderate magnitude earthquake ground motions predicted by numerical simulations
K. C. Sajan, Chukwuebuka C. Nweke, Jonathon P. Stewart, Robert Graves
2024, Conference Paper
Recent studies found a significant underprediction in ground motion intensity measures for finite-fault simulations of moderate magnitude events in southern California relative to established ground motion models. This study aims to understand the source(s) of this bias by evaluating ground motion residuals. For this, simulations have been performed for a...
The advantages of electric-grade heat storage in long closed-loop wells
Junyuan Zhang, Erick R. Burns, Hongbin Zhan
2024, Conference Paper, Geothermal Rising Conference Transactions
Though long (e.g., tens of kilometers) closed-loop geothermal wells are under consideration for the extraction of subsurface heat, these wells might also serve as an efficient energy storage mechanism for electricity generation. Using a semi-analytic model solution, the potential for electric-grade heat storage as a function of ambient temperature (e.g.,...
Predicting hydrothermal reservoir depth from chemical geothermometers using a three-dimensional temperature model in the Great Basin, USA
Jacob DeAngelo, Erick R. Burns, Stanley Paul Mordensky
2024, Conference Paper, Geothermal Rising Conference transactions
Recent work in the Great Basin region of the western United States has made it possible to predict the depth of hydrothermal reservoirs (i.e., the depth at which heat is accumulated prior to ascent via hydrothermal upflow) identified through geochemistry and to contextualize the spatial patterns of these reservoir depths....
Investigating the influence of forest disturbance on grizzly bear habitat ecology and fitness in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem
Milan V. Vinks, Sarah Nelson Sells, Cecily M. Costello
2024, Report
No abstract available....
A regional synthesis of climate data to inform the 2025 State Wildlife Action Plans in the Northeast U.S.
Michelle Staudinger, Ambarish Karmalkar, Karen Terwilliger, Kevin Burgio, Alice Lubeck, Hanusia Higgins, Tracy Rice, Toni Lyn Morelli, Anthony D’Amato
2024, Report
The State Wildlife Action Plans (SWAPs) are proactive planning documents, known as “comprehensive wildlife conservation strategies,” that assess the health of each state’s wildlife and habitats, identify current management and conservation challenges, and outline needed actions to conserve natural resources over the long term. SWAPs are revised every 10 years,...
