Modeling the spatial dynamics of marsh ponds in New England salt marshes
G. Mariotti, A. Spivak, S.Y. Luk, G. Ceccherini, M. Tyrrell, Meagan Gonneea Eagle
2020, Geomorphology (365)
Ponds are common features on salt marshes, yet it is unclear how they affect large-scale marsh evolution. We developed a spatially explicit model that combines cellular automata for pond formation, expansion, and drainage, and partial differential equations for elevation dynamics. We...
Scenarios for valuing sample information in natural resources
Byron K. Williams, Ellie Brown
2020, Methods in Ecology and Evolution (11) 1534-1549
Uncertainty is ubiquitous in natural resource systems, science and management. Sample data are obtained in order to reduce uncertainty, thereby increasing knowledge and improving resource management, but sampling always comes at a cost of some sort. Is that cost worthwhile? Analysis of the value of sample information (VSI) addresses...
Development and validation of the CHIRTS-daily quasi-global high-resolution daily temperature data set
Andrew Verdin, Chris Funk, Pete Peterson, Martin Landsfeld, Cascade Tuholske, Kathryn Grace
2020, Scientific Data (7)
We present a high-resolution daily temperature data set, CHIRTS-daily, which is derived by merging the monthly Climate Hazards center InfraRed Temperature with Stations climate record with daily temperatures from version 5 of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Re-Analysis. We demonstrate that remotely sensed temperature estimates may more closely...
Land-use change and future water demand in California’s central coast
Tamara Wilson, Nathan D. Van Schmidt, Ruth Langridge
2020, Land (9) 322-343
Understanding future land-use related water demand is important for planners and resource managers in identifying potential shortages and crafting mitigation strategies. This is especially the case for regions dependent on limited local groundwater supplies. For the groundwater dependent Central Coast of California, we developed two scenarios of future land use...
Using boosted regression tree models to predict salinity in Mississippi embayment aquifers, central United States
Katherine J. Knierim, James A. Kingsbury, Connor J. Haugh, Katherine Marie Ransom
2020, Journal of American Water Resources Association (56) 1029
High salinity limits groundwater use in parts of the Mississippi embayment. Machine learning was used to create spatially continuous and three‐dimensional predictions of salinity across drinking‐water aquifers in the embayment. Boosted regression tree (BRT) models, a type of machine learning, were used to predict specific conductance (SC) and chloride (Cl),...
The roles of storminess and sea level rise in decadal barrier island evolution
Davina Passeri, P. Soupy Dalyander, Joseph W. Long, Rangley C. Mickey, Robert L. Jenkins III, David M. Thompson, Nathaniel G. Plant, Elizabeth Godsey, Victor Gonzalez
2020, Geophysical Research Letters (47)
Models of alongshore sediment transport during quiescent conditions, storm‐driven barrier island morphology, and poststorm dune recovery are integrated to assess decadal barrier island evolution under scenarios of increased sea levels and variability in storminess (intensity and frequency). Model results indicate barrier island response regimes of keeping pace, narrowing, flattening, deflation...
Hydro-climatic drought in the Delaware River Basin
Gregory J. McCabe, David M. Wolock
2020, Journal of the American Water Resources Association (56) 981-994
The Delaware River Basin (DRB) supplies water to approximately 15 million people and is essential to agriculture and industry. In this study, a monthly water balance model is used to compute monthly water balance components (i.e., potential evapotranspiration, actual evapotranspiration, and runoff [R]) for the DRB...
Geomagnetism Program research plan, 2020–2024
Jeffrey J. Love, Anna Kelbert, Benjamin S. Murphy, E. Joshua Rigler, Kristen A. Lewis
2020, Circular 1469
The Geomagnetism Program of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) monitors geomagnetic field variation through operation of a network of observatories across the United States and its territories, and it pursues scientific research needed to estimate and assess geomagnetic and geoelectric hazards. Over the next five years (2020–2024 inclusive) and in...
Habitat suitability and ecological associations of two non-native ungulate species on the Hawaiian island of Lanai
Steve C. Hess, Lucas Fortini, Christina Leopold, Jacob Muise, Jonathan Sprague
2020, Hawaii Cooperative Studies Unit Technical Report Series 91
The ability to effectively manage game species for specific conservation objectives is often limited by the scientific understanding of their distribution and abundance. This is especially true in Hawai‘i where introduced game mammals are poorly studied and have low value relative to native species in other states. We modeled the...
Testing a new passive acoustic recording unit to monitor wolves
Shannon Barber-Meyer, Vicente Palacios, Barbara Marti‐Domken, Lori Schmidt
2020, Wildlife Society Bulletin (44) 590-598
As part of a broader trial of noninvasive methods to research wild wolves (Canis lupus) in Minnesota, USA, we explored whether wolves could be remotely monitored using a new, inexpensive, remotely deployable, noninvasive, passive acoustic recording device, the AudioMoth. We tested the efficacy of AudioMoths in detecting wolf howls and...
What are the effects of climate variability and change on ungulate life-histories, population dynamics, and migration in western North America? A systematic map protocol
Kate Malpeli, Sarah R. Weiskopf, Laura Thompson, Amanda R. Hardy
2020, Environmental Evidence (9)
Climate is an important driver of ungulate life-histories, population dynamics, and migratory behaviors, and can affect the growth, development, fecundity, dispersal, and demographic trends of populations. Changes in temperature and precipitation, and resulting shifts in plant phenology, winter severity, drought and wildfire conditions, invasive species distribution and abundance, predation, and...
Transcriptomic response to elevated water temperatures in adult migrating Yukon River Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha)
Lizabeth Bowen, Vanessa R. von Biela, Stephen D. McCormick, Amy M. Regish, Shannon C. Waters-Dynes, Blythe Durbin-Johnson, Monica Britton, Matt Settles, Daniel S. Donnelly, Sarah M. Laske, Michael P. Carey, Randy J Brown, Christian E. Zimmerman
2020, Conservation Physiology (8)
Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) declines are widespread and may be attributed, at least in part, to warming river temperatures. Water temperatures in the Yukon River and tributaries often exceed 18°C, a threshold commonly associated with heat stress and elevated mortality in Pacific salmon. Untangling the complex web of direct...
Impacts of periodic dredging on macroinvertebrate prey availability for benthic foraging fishes in central San Francisco Bay, California
Susan E. W. De La Cruz, Isa Woo, Laurie Hall, Alison Flanagan, Hannah Mittelstaedt
2020, Open-File Report 2020-1086
BackgroundBecause of its importance for species covered under Federal Fishery Management Plans (FMPs), the San Francisco Bay (SFB) estuary has been designated as Essential Fish Habitat (EFH) under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA; 16 United States Code §18559b). Within this estuary, benthic macroinvertebrate communities provide important...
Keystone predators govern the pathway and pace of climate impacts in a subarctic marine ecosystem
Douglas B Rasher, Robert S Stenek, Jochen Halfar, Kristy J Kroeker, Justin B. Ries, M. Tim Tinker, Phoebe T W Chan, J Fietzke, Nicolas Kamenos, Brenda H. Konar, Jonathan S. Lefcheck, Christopher J D Norley, Ben Weitzman, Isaac T Westfield, James A. Estes
2020, Science (369) 1351-1354
Predator loss and climate change are hallmarks of the Anthropocene yet their interactive effects are largely unknown. Here, we show that massive calcareous reefs, built slowly by the alga Clathromorphum nereostratum over centuries to millennia, are now declining because of the emerging interplay between these two processes. Such reefs, the structural base...
Lead speciation, bioaccessibility and source attribution in Missouri's Big River watershed
Matthew Noerpel, Michael Pribil, Danny Rutherford, Preston Law, Karen Bradham, Clay Nelson, Rob Weber, Gene Gunn, Kirk G. Scheckel
2020, Applied Geochemistry (123)
The Southeast Missouri Lead District is among the most productive lead deposits exploited in modern times. Intensive mining conducted prior to regulations resulted in a legacy of lead contaminated soil, large piles of mine tailings and elevated childhood blood lead levels. This study seeks to identify the source of the...
40 years strong—Long-time Geoscience Australia, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) partnership benefits both agencies and the world
U.S. Geological Survey
2020, General Information Product 206
In 1979, the Australian Government chose the city of Alice Springs to host a Landsat Ground Station because of its location in central Australia. This location enables satellite coverage of the entire Australian continent. Its antennas have played a key role in supporting international satellite programs over more than 40...
Assessment of undiscovered gas resources of the Sacramento Basin Province in California, 2019
Christopher J. Schenk, Tracey J. Mercier, Marilyn E. Tennyson, Cheryl A. Woodall, Kristen R. Marra, Heidi M. Leathers-Miller, Phuong A. Le
2020, Fact Sheet 2020-3036
Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated undiscovered, technically recoverable mean resources of 512 billion cubic feet of gas in the Upper Jurassic–Neogene Total Petroleum System of the Sacramento Basin Province in California....
Effect of water velocity and temperature on energy use, behaviour and mortality of pallid sturgeon Scaphirhynchus albus larvae
Joseph T. Mrnak, Laura B. Heironimus, Daniel A. James, Steven R. Chipps
2020, Journal of Fish Biology (97) 1690-1700
Natural reproduction of pallid sturgeon Scaphirhynchus albus has been limited for decades and a recruitment bottleneck is hypothesized to occur during the larval stage of development. In this study, we evaluated the effects of water velocity and temperature on the swimming activity, energy use, settling behaviour and mortality of endogenously feeding larvae....
Relative toxicity and sublethal effects of NaCl and energy-related saline wastewaters on prairie amphibians
Brian J. Tornabene, Creagh W Breuner, Blake R. Hossack
2020, Aquatic Toxicology (228)
Increasing salinity in freshwater environments is a growing problem due both to the negative influences of salts on ecosystems and their accumulation and persistence in environments. Two major sources of increased salinity from sodium chloride salts (NaCl) are saline wastewaters co-produced during...
Spatial and vertical bias in down-looking ship-based acoustic estimates of fish density in Lake Superior: Lessons learned from multi-directional acoustics
Ryan C Grow, Thomas R. Hrabik, Daniel Yule, Bryan G. Matthias, Jared T. Myers, Chad Abel
2020, Journal of Great Lakes Research (46) 1639-1649
Hydroacoustic surveys using hull-mounted down-looking transducers are useful for estimating pelagic fish densities; however, this method may miss shallow fish owing to the acoustic surface dead zone and vessel avoidance. Our objective was to compare pelagic fish density estimates acquired by a traditional down-looking acoustic survey to estimates obtained by...
Habitat use by tiger prey in Thailand’s Western Forest Complex: What will it take to fill a half-full tiger landscape?
Pornkamol Jornburom, Somphot Duangchantrasiri, Sitthichai Jinamoy, Anak Pattanavibool, James E. Hines, Todd W. Arnold, John Fieberg, James L D Smith
2020, Journal for Nature Conservation (58)
Tiger populations are declining globally, and depletion of major ungulate prey is an important contributing factor. To better understand factors affecting prey distribution in Thailand’s Western Forest Complex (WEFCOM), we conducted sign surveys for gaur (Bos gaurus), banteng (Bos javanicus), and sambar (Rusa...
Microbiomes from biorepositories? 16S rRNA bacterial amplicon sequencing of archived and contemporary intestinal samples of wild mammals (Eulipotyphla: Soricidae)
Stephen E. Greiman, Joseph A. Cook, Timothy Odem, Katelyn Cranmer, Schuyler W Liphardt, Damian M. Menning, Sarah A. Sonsthagen, Sandra L. Talbot
2020, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution (8)
Interest in gut microbial community composition has exploded recently as a result of the increasing ability to characterize these organisms and a growing understanding of their role in host fitness. New technologies, such as next generation amplicon (16S rRNA) sequencing, have enabled identification of bacterial communities from samples of diverse...
Seismic analysis of the 2020 Magna, Utah, earthquake sequence: Evidence for a listric Wasatch fault
Guanning Pang, Keith D. Koper, Maria Messimeri, Kristine L. Pankow, Ben Baker, Jamie Farrell, James Holt, J. Mark Hale, Paul B. Robertson, Relu Burlacu, James C. Pechmann, Katherine Whidden, Monique M. Holt, Amir Allam, Christopher DuRoss
2020, Geophysical Research Letters (47)
The 18 March 2020 Mw 5.7 Magna earthquake near Salt Lake City, Utah, offers a rare glimpse into the subsurface geometry of the Wasatch fault system—one of the world's longest active normal faults and a major source of seismic hazard in northern Utah. We analyze the Magna earthquake...
Earthquake information products and tools from the Advanced National Seismic System (ANSS)
Lisa A. Wald
2020, Fact Sheet 2020-3042
This Fact Sheet describes post-earthquake products and tools provided by the Advanced National Seismic System (ANSS) through the U.S. Geological Survey Earthquake Hazards Program. The focus is on products that provide situational awareness immediately after significant earthquakes....
Movement dynamics of nonnative Burbot in the upper Green River system and implications for management
Tucker A. Brauer, Michael Quist, Darren T. Rhea, Troy W. Laughlin, Erik Waring
2020, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (40) 1161-1173
Burbot Lota lota were illegally introduced to the Green River, Wyoming, in the mid-1990s and pose a threat to recreational fisheries and native fish conservation. Although much is known about Burbot population dynamics, little is known about their movement patterns. Our objectives were to describe the movement dynamics of Burbot in the...
