Dynamics of the seasonal migration of Round Goby (Neogobius melanostomus, Pallas 1814) and implications for the Lake Ontario food web
Chris Pennuto, Knut Mehler, Brian Weidel, Brian F. Lantry, Eric Bruestle
2021, Ecology of Freshwater Fish (30) 151-161
Seasonal migrations of fish populations can have large effects on lake nutrient budgets and food web dynamics, but the addition of a migrating non‐native species may alter these dynamics. The Round Goby (Neogobius melanostomus) arrived in Lake Ontario (USA/Canada) about 20 years ago with a documented history of annual offshore–inshore migrations...
Sequestration of microfibers and other microplastics by green algae, Cladophora, in the US Great Lakes
Julie R. Peller, Meredith B. Nevers, Muruleedhara Byappanahalli, Cassie Nelson, Bharath Ganesh Babu, Mary Anne Evans, Eddie Kostelnik, Morgan Keller, Jenna Johnston, Sarah Shidler
2021, Environmental Pollution (276)
Daunting amounts of microplastics are present in surface waters worldwide. A main category of microplastics is synthetic microfibers, which originate from textiles. These microplastics are generated and released in laundering and are discharged by wastewater treatment plants or enter surface waters from other sources. The polymers that constitute many common synthetic...
Climate-mediated changes to linked terrestrial and marine ecosystems across the northeast Pacific coastal temperate rainforest margin
Allison L. Bidlack, Sarah Bisbing, Brian Buma, Heida Diefenderfer, Jason Fellman, William Floyd, Ian Giesbrecht, Amritpal Lally, Ken Lertzman, Steven Perakis, David Butman, David D'Amore, Sean W. Fleming, Eran W. Hood, Brianna K. Hunt, Peter Kiffney, Gavin McNicol, Brian Menounos, Suzanne E. Tank
2021, BioScience
Coastal margins are important areas of materials flux that link terrestrial and marine ecosystems. Consequently, climate-mediated changes to coastal terrestrial ecosystems and hydrologic regimes have high potential to influence nearshore ocean chemistry and food web dynamics. Research from tightly coupled, high-flux coastal ecosystems can advance understanding of terrestrial–marine links...
Microbial pathogens and contaminants of emerging concern in groundwater at an urban subsurface stormwater infiltration site
Jane R. de Lambert, James F. Walsh, Deanna P. Scher, Aaron D. Firnstahl, Mark A. Borchardt
2021, Science of the Total Environment (775)
Urban stormwater may contain a variety of pollutants, including viruses and other pathogens, and contaminants of emerging concern (pharmaceuticals, artificial sweeteners, and personal care products). In vulnerable geologic settings, the potential exists for these contaminants to reach underlying aquifers and contaminate drinking water wells. Viruses and other pathogens, as well...
Computational methodology to analyze the effect of mass transfer rate on attenuation of leaked carbon dioxide in shallow aquifers
Radek Fucik, Jakub Solovsky, Michelle R. Plampin, Hao Wu, Jiri Mikyska, Tissa H. Illangasekare
2021, Acta Polytechnica (61)
Exsolution and re-dissolution of CO2 gas within heterogeneous porous media are investigated using experimental data and mathematical modeling. In a set of bench-scale experiments, water saturated with CO2 under a given pressure is injected into a 2-D water-saturated porous media system, causing CO2 gas to exsolve and migrate upwards. A layer of fine...
Big runs of little fish: First estimates of run size and exploitation in an amphidromous postlarvae fishery
A.C. Engman, Thomas J. Kwak, J.R. Fischer
2021, Canadian Journal Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (78) 905-912
Amphidromous postlarvae fisheries (APFs) constitute a globally widespread and distinctive class of fishery that is largely unknown to fisheries science. APFs harvest ocean-to-river migrating fishes at smaller sizes and younger ages than any other class of fishery. No quantitative estimates of run size and exploitation exist, which are needed to...
Multi-taxa database data dictionary
Elise Watson, Carlton J. Rochester, Chris W. Brown, Donn A. Holmes, Stacie A. Hathaway, Robert N. Fisher
2021, Techniques and Methods 16-B1
The conservation of biological resources relies on the successful management of ecological and physiological research data. The Western Ecological Research Center of the U.S. Geological Survey is working with researchers, land managers, and decision makers from non-government organizations and city, county, state, and federal resource agencies to develop data...
Environmental and anthropogenic drivers of contaminants in agricultural watersheds with implications for land management
Kelly L. Smalling, Olivia Devereux, Stephanie E. Gordon, Patrick J. Phillips, Vicki S. Blazer, Michelle L. Hladik, Dana W. Kolpin, Michael T. Meyer, Adam Sperry, Tyler Wagner
2021, Science of the Total Environment (774)
If not managed properly, modern agricultural practices can alter surface and groundwater quality and drinking water resources resulting in potential negative effects on aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Exposure to agriculturally derived contaminant mixtures has the potential to alter habitat quality and negatively affect fish and other aquatic organisms. Implementation of...
Using high resolution satellite and telemetry data to track flooded habitats, their use by waterfowl, and evaluate effects of drought on waterfowl and shorebird bioenergetics in California
Elliott Matchett, Matthew Reiter, Cory T. Overton, Dennis Jongsomjit, Michael L. Casazza
2021, Open-File Report 2020-1102
Wetland managers in the Central Valley of California, a dynamic hydrological landscape, require information regarding the amount and location of existing wetland habitat to make decisions on how to best use water resources to support multiple wildlife objectives, particularly during drought. Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey Western Ecological...
The application of ensemble wave forcing to quantify uncertainty of shoreline change predictions
Sean Vitousek, Laura Cagigal, Jennifer Montano, Ana Rueda, Fernando Mendez, Giovanni Coco, Patrick L. Barnard
2021, JGR Earth Surface (126)
Reliable predictions and accompanying uncertainty estimates of coastal evolution on decadal to centennial time scales are increasingly sought. So far, most coastal change projections rely on a single, deterministic realization of the unknown future wave climate, often derived from a global climate model. Yet, deterministic projections do not account for...
Export of photolabile and photoprimable dissolved organic carbon from the Connecticut River
B. Yoon, Jacob D. Hosen, Ethan Kyzivat, Jennifer H Fair, Lisa C. Weber, Kelly S. Aho, Rachel Lowenthal, Serena Matt, W. V. Sobczak, James B. Shanley, Jonathan Morrison, James E. Saiers, Aron Stubbins, Peter A. Raymond
2021, Aquatic Sciences (83)
Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) impacts water quality, the carbon cycle, and the ecology of aquatic systems. Understanding what controls DOC is therefore critical for improving large-scale models and best management practices for aquatic ecosystems. The two main processes of DOC transformation and removal, photochemical and microbial DOC degradation, work in...
Enhancing the application of Earth observations for improved environmental decision-making using the Early Warning eXplorer (EWX)
Shraddhanand Shukla, Martin Landsfeld, Michelle Anthony, Michael Budde, Greg Husak, James Rowland, Chris Funk
2021, Frontiers in Climate (2)
The mitigation of losses due to extreme climate events and long-term climate adaptation requires climate informed decision-making. In the past few decades, several remote sensing and modeled-based Earth observations (EOs) have been developed to provide an unprecedented global overview and routine monitoring of climate and its impacts on vegetation and...
Understanding metrics of stress in the context of invasion history: The case of the brown treesnake (Boiga irregularis)
N Claunch, I. Moore, H Waye, L Schoenle, S Oakey, Robert Reed, Christina Romagosa
2021, Conservation Physiology (9)
Invasive species can exert rapid depletion of resources after introduction and, in turn, affect their own population density. Additionally, management actions can have direct and indirect effects on demography. Physiological variables can predict demographic change but are often restricted to snapshots-in-time and delayed confirmation of changes in population density...
Observations of acrobat ants (Crematogaster sp.) preying on the eggs of the invasive giant applesnail (Pomacea maculata)
Jacoby Carter, Jennifer Wilson, Susan Mopper
2021, Southeastern Naturalist (1) N15-N18
Herein we provide direct evidence for the consumption of Pomacea maculata (Giant Applesnail) eggs by ants in the genus Crematogaster. The observations were made during removal of snail egg masses at the Hudson Woods Unit of the Texas Mid-Coast National Wildlife Refuge, TX. We observed acrobat ants (Crematogaster sp.) removing snail eggs from an...
Seasonal impoundment alters patterns of tidal wetland plant diversity across spatial scales
Scott Jones, Christopher N. Janousek, Michael L. Casazza, John Y. Takekawa, Karen M. Thorne
2021, Ecosphere (12)
Understanding patterns of biodiversity is a key goal of ecology and is especially pressing in the current human‐caused biodiversity crisis. In wetland ecosystems, human impacts are centered around hydrologic manipulation including the common practice of wetland diking and impoundment. Constraining how wetland management influences plant biodiversity patterns across spatial scales...
Microbial and viral indicators of pathogens and human health risks from recreational exposure to waters impaired by fecal contamination
Anna M. McKee, Marcella A. Cruz
2021, Journal of Sustainable Water in the Built Environment (7)
Fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) (e.g., fecal coliforms, Escherichia coli, and enterococci) have been used for decades to monitor for and protect the public from waterborne pathogens from fecal contamination. However, FIB may not perform well at predicting the presence of waterborne pathogens or human health outcomes from recreational exposure...
Landsat 8 thermal infrared sensor scene select mechanism open loop operations
Michael J. Choate, R. Rengarajan, James C. Storey, Tim Beckmann
2021, MDPI Remote Sensing (13)
The Landsat 8 (L8) spacecraft and its two instruments, the operational land imager (OLI) and thermal infrared sensor (TIRS), have been consistently characterized and calibrated since its launch in February 2013. These performance metrics and calibration updates are determined through the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Landsat image assessment system...
Improving remotely sensed river bathymetry by image-averaging
Carl J. Legleiter, Paul J. Kinzel
2021, Water Resources Research (57)
Basic data on river bathymetry is critical for numerous applications in river research and management and is increasingly obtained via remote sensing, but the noisy, pixelated appearance of image‐derived depth maps can compromise subsequent analyses. We hypothesized that this noise originates from reflectance from an irregular...
Enzootic plague reduces survival of Mexican woodrats (Neotoma mexicana) in Colorado
Dean E. Biggins, Shantini Ramakrishnan, Tonie E. Rocke, Judy L. Williamson, Jeffrey Wimsatt
2021, Ecosphere (12)
Plague is a flea-vectored disease introduced to North America c. 1900. It is lethal to many American mammal species, causes major die-offs (epizootics) in some populations, and may be ecologically disruptive even at lower interepizootic (enzootic) levels of transmission. We sought to determine the effects of...
Winter roost selection of Lasiurine tree bats in a pyric landscape
Marcelo H. Jorge, W. Mark Ford, Sara E. Sweeten, Samuel R. Freeze, Michael C. TRUE, Michael J. St. Germain, Hila Taylor, Katherine M. Gorman, Michael J. Cherry, Elina P. Garrison
2021, PLoS ONE (16)
Day-roost selection by Lasiurine tree bats during winter and their response to dormant season fires is unknown in the southeastern United States where dormant season burning is widely applied. Although fires historically were predominantly growing season, they now occur in the dormant season in this part...
Estimation of suspended sediment at a discontinued streamgage on the lower Minnesota River at Fort Snelling State Park, Minnesota
Joel T. Groten, Jon S. Hendrickson, Linda R. Loomis
2021, Open-File Report 2021-1005
In the spring of 2019, ice sheets transported down-stream during a large streamflow rise event in the lower Minnesota River destroyed an index-velocity streamgage at the Minnesota River at Fort Snelling State Park, Minnesota (U.S. Geological Survey station 05330920; hereafter referred to as “Ft. Snelling”). The streamgage previously used an...
Book review: Replacing GDP by 2030: Towards a common language for the well-being and sustainability community, Rutger Hoekstra, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2019)
Kenneth J. Bagstad, Mairi-Jane Fox
2021, Ecological Economics (183)
Critiques of gross domestic product (GDP) as the economy's primary measuring stick have emanated from the feminist and ecological economics communities for decades (Kubiszewski et al., 2013) and have grown to include mainstream economists (Stiglitz, Sen, and Fitousi, 2009) and national accountants...
The critical minerals initiative of the U.S. Geological Survey’s mineral deposit database project: USMIN
Jeffrey L. Mauk, Nick A Karl, Carma A. San Juan, Liam Dandurand Knudsen, German Schmeda, Clayton Robert Forbush, Bradley S. Van Gosen, Morgan Mullins, Patrick Christopher Scott
2021, Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration (MME) (38) 775-797
The objective of the US Geological Survey’s mineral deposit database project (USMIN) is to develop a comprehensive twenty-first century geospatial database that is the authoritative source of the most important mines, mineral deposits, and mineral districts of the US. Since May 2017, the project has focused...
Forecasting the frequency and magnitude of postfire debris flows across southern California
Jason W. Kean, Dennis M. Staley
2021, Earth's Future (9)
Southern California has a long history of damaging debris flows after wildfire. Despite recurrent loss, forecasts of the frequency and magnitude of postfire debris flows are not available for the region like they are for earthquakes. Instead, debris flow hazards are typically assessed in a reactive manner after wildfires. Such...
Integrating sequence capture and restriction-site associated DNA sequencing to resolve recent radiations of pelagic seabirds
Joan Ferrer Obiol, Helen F. James, R. Terry Chesser, Vincent Bretagnolle, Jacob Gonzalez-Solis, Julio Rozas, Marta Riutort, Andreanna J. Welch
2021, Systematic Biology (70) 976-996
The diversification of modern birds has been shaped by a number of radiations. Rapid diversification events make reconstructing the evolutionary relationships among taxa challenging due to the convoluted effects of incomplete lineage sorting (ILS) and introgression. Phylogenomic data sets have the potential to detect patterns of phylogenetic incongruence, and to...
