A comparative phylogeographic approach to facilitate recovery of an imperiled freshwater mussel (Bivalvia: Unionida: Potamilus inflatus)
Chase H. Smith, Nathan A. Johnson
2020, Diversity (12)
North American freshwaters are among the world’s most threatened ecosystems, and freshwater mussels are among the most imperiled inhabiting these systems. A critical aspect of conservation biology is delineating patterns of genetic diversity, which can be difficult when a taxon has been extirpated from a significant portion of its historical...
Remotely sensed thermal decay rate: An index for vegetation monitoring
Sanath S. Kumar, Lara Prihodko, Brianna M. Lind, Julius Anchang, Wenjie Ji, Christopher Wade Ross, Milkah Njoki Kahiu, Naga Manohar Velpuri, P. Niall Hanan
2020, Nature (10)
Vegetation buffers local diurnal land surface temperatures, however, this effect has found limited applications for remote vegetation characterization. In this work, we parameterize diurnal temperature variations as the thermal decay rate derived by using satellite daytime and nighttime land surface temperatures and modeled using Newton’s law of cooling. The relationship between...
GIS-Modeling of island hopping through the Philippines demonstrates trade-offs migrant grey-faced buzzards during oceanic crossings
Camille B. Concepcion, Keith L. Bildstein, Todd E. Katzner
2020, Journal of Engineering, Environment and Agriculture Research (2) 11-28
Migration can be costly with consequences that can influence population trajectories. These costs and consequences are especially heightened during over-water travels, which can be high-risk events for birds. We created spatial models to evaluate potential migratory responses of “oceanic”, island-hopping grey-faced buzzards that encounter variation in landscape parameters and weather...
Observations of an extreme atmospheric river storm with a diverse sensor network
Benjamin J. Hatchett, Q. Cao, Phillip B. Dawson, C. J. Ellis, C. W. Hecht, B. Kawzenuk, J. T. Lancaster, T. C. Osborne, A. M. Wilson, M. L. Anderson, M. D. Dettinger, J. F. Kalansky, M. L. Kaplan, D. P. Lettenmaier, N. S. Oakley, R. M. Ralph, D. W. Reynolds, A. B. White, M. Sierks, E. Sumargo
2020, Earth and Space Science (7)
Observational networks enhance real‐time situational awareness for emergency and water resource management during extreme weather events. We present examples of how a diverse, multitiered observational network in California provided insights into hydrometeorological processes and impacts during a 3‐day atmospheric river storm centered on 14 February 2019. This network, which has...
Behavioral response to high temperatures in a desert grassland bird: Use of shrubs as thermal refugia
Janet M. Ruth, William A. Talbot, Eric Krabbe Smith
2020, Western North American Naturalist (80) 265-275
Birds inhabiting hot, arid ecosystems contend with trade-offs between heat dissipation and water conservation. As temperatures increase, passerines engage in various behaviors to reduce exposure to heat, solar radiation and insolation, and reradiation of heat from the ground. These responses to rising temperatures may result...
Caldera collapse geometry revealed by near‐field GPS displacements at Kilauea Volcano in 2018
Paul Segall, Kyle R. Anderson, Fabio Pulvirenti, Taiyi Wang, Ingrid A. Johanson
2020, Geophysical Research Letters (47)
We employ near‐field GPS data to determine the subsurface geometry of a collapsing caldera during the 2018 Kīlauea eruption. Collapse occurred in 62 discrete events, with “inflationary” deformation external to the collapse, similar to previous basaltic collapses. We take advantage of GPS data from the collapsing block and independent constraints...
A 36-year record of rock avalanches in the Saint Elias Mountains of Alaska, with implications for future hazards
Erin K. Bessette-Kirton, Jeffrey A. Coe
2020, Frontiers in Earth Science (8)
Glacial retreat and mountain-permafrost degradation resulting from rising global temperatures have the potential to impact the frequency and magnitude of landslides in glaciated environments. Several recent events, including the 2015 Taan Fiord rock avalanche, which triggered a tsunami with one of the highest wave runups ever recorded, have called attention...
Hydrogeologic and geochemical characterization of groundwater resources in Pine and Wah Wah Valleys, Iron, Beaver, and Millard Counties, Utah
Philip M. Gardner, Thomas M. Marston, Susan G. Buto, Lynette E. Brooks
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2019-5139
Pine and Wah Wah Valleys are neighboring structural basins that encompass about 1,330 square miles in Beaver, Iron, and Millard Counties in Utah, approximately 50 miles northwest of Cedar City, Utah, and 50 miles southeast of Baker, Nevada. Perennial streamflow is limited and only exists in higher-altitude reaches of small...
Bot fly parasitism of Allegheny woodrats (Neotoma magister) in Virginia
Karen E. Powers, Michael T. Mengak, Robert R. Sheehy, W. Mark Ford, Richard J. Reynolds
2020, The American Midland Naturalist (184) 62-72
The Allegheny woodrat (Neotoma magister) is a species of high conservation concern and relatively well-studied with respect to habitat use/associations, food habits, conservation genetics, and population trends. However, with the exception of raccoon roundworm (Baylisascaris procyonis) occurrence and etiology in woodrats, most disease and parasite...
Aquatic invasive species in the Chesapeake Bay drainage—Research-based needs and priorities of U.S. Geological Survey partners and collaborators
Christine L. Densmore
2020, Open-File Report 2020-1057
Executive SummaryThe U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is revising the Chesapeake Bay-based science plan to align it with recent U.S. Department of Interior and USGS science priorities that include, as stated in the plan, providing “an integrated understanding of the factors affecting fish habitat, fish health, and landscape conditions” in Chesapeake...
Oregon spotted frog (Rana pretiosa) migration from an aquatic overwintering site: Timing, duration, and potential environmental cues
Jay Bowerman, Christopher Pearl
2020, The American Midland Naturalist (184) 87-97
Relatively few North American anurans overwinter in water and information is sparse on their movement from overwintering habitat to breeding sites. Oregon spotted frogs (Rana pretiosa) breed explosively in early spring and often overwinter submerged at sites that are distanced from breeding habitats. In montane parts of their range, wintering...
Evaluating the utility of principal component analysis on EDS x-ray maps to determine bulk mineralogy
Karen Spaleta, Sarah M. Hayes, Rainer Newberry, Nadine M. Piatak
2020, Geostandards and Geoanalytical Research (44) 821-843
Due to advances in EDS technology, electron microscopy techniques have become an important tool to determine the relative abundance of mineral phases. However, few studies have directly compared EDS X‐ray mineralogy with traditional techniques for assessing bulk mineralogy and elemental composition. We show that analysing a...
Towards understanding relationships between atmospheric pressure variations and long-period horizontal seismic data: A case study
Alexis Casondra Bianca Alejandro, Adam T. Ringler, David C. Wilson, Robert E. Anthony, S.V. Moore
2020, Geophysical Journal International (223) 676-691
Variations in atmospheric pressure have long been known to introduce noise in long-period (>10 s) seismic records. This noise can overwhelm signals of interest such as normal modes and surface waves. Generally, this noise is most pronounced on the horizontal components where it arises due to tilting of the seismometer...
Kinematics of fault slip associated with the July 4-6 2019 Ridgecrest, Californai earthquakes sequence
Frederick Pollitz, Jessica R. Murray, Jerry L. Svarc, Charles Wicks, Evelyn Roeloffs, Sarah E. Minson, Katherine M. Scharer, Katherine J. Kendrick, Kenneth W. Hudnut, Johanna Nevitt, Benjamin A. Brooks, David Mencin
2020, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (110) 1688-1700
The 2019 Ridgecrest, California, earthquake sequence produced observable crustal deformation over much of central and southern California, as well as surface rupture over several tens of kilometers. To obtain a detailed picture of the fault slip involved in the 4 July M 6.4 foreshock and 6 July M 7.1 mainshock, we combine strong‐motion seismic...
Mapping the 3-D extent of the Stillwater Complex, Montana—Implications for potential platinum group element exploration and development
Carol A. Finn, Michael L. Zientek, Heather L. Parks, Dana E. Peterson
2020, Precambrian Research (348)
Geophysical models characterize the exposed and interpreted buried extent of the Stillwater Complex, critical for understanding the origin of the layered mafic intrusion and its associated high-grade platinum group element resources. The 3D models, constrained by gravity, magnetic, xenolith, seismic, borehole, and rock property data indicate that the likely maximum...
A GT-seq panel for walleye (Sander vitreus) provides important insights for efficient development and implementation of amplicon panels in non-model organisms
Matthew L. Bootsma, Kristen Gruenthal, Garrett McKinney, Levi Simmons, Loren Miller, Greg G. Sass, Wesley Larson
2020, Molecular Ecology Resources (20) 1706-1722
Targeted amplicon sequencing methods, such as genotyping-in-thousands by sequencing (GT-seq), facilitate rapid, accurate, and cost-effective analysis of hundreds of genetic loci in thousands of individuals. Development of GT-seq panels is nontrivial, but studies describing trade-offs associated with different steps of GT-seq panel development are rare. Here, we construct a dual-purpose...
Distribution of earthquakes on a branching fault system using integer programming and greedy sequential methods
Eric L. Geist, Thomas E. Parsons
2020, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems (21)
A new global optimization method is used to determine the distribution of earthquakes on a complex, connected fault system. The method, integer programming, has been advanced in the field of operations research, but has not been widely applied to geophysical problems until recently. In this application, we determine...
Legacy and current-use toxic contaminants in Pacific sand lance (Ammodytes personatus) from Puget Sound, Washington
Kathleen E. Conn, Theresa L. Liedtke, Renee K. Takesue, Richard S. Dinicola
2020, Marine Pollution Bulletin (158)
Forage fish are primary prey for seabirds, fish and marine mammals. Elevated levels of pollutants in Puget Sound, Washington salmon and killer whale tissues potentially could be sufficiently high to elicit adverse effects and hamper population recovery efforts. Contaminant transfer and biomagnification of the toxic compounds measured in this study...
Does fecundity of cisco vary in the Upper Great Lakes?
Daniel Yule, Jamie A. Dobosenski, Jared T. Myers, Mark Ebener, Randall M. Claramunt, James E. McKenna Jr., H. George Ketola, Owen T. Gorman
2020, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (40) 973-985
Fecundity of fish is influenced by several factors, including body length, condition, population density, and environmental conditions. It follows that fecundity of fish populations can exhibit spatiotemporal variability; thus, periodic quantification of length–fecundity relationships is important for management. We hypothesized that average fecundity of Cisco Coregonus artedi in...
Seasonal dynamics and interannual variability in mercury concentrations and loads through a three-reservoir complex
Austin K. Baldwin, Brett Poulin, Jesse Naymik, Charles Hoovestol, Gregory M. Clark, David P. Krabbenhoft
2020, Environmental Science & Technology (51) 9305-9314
The Hells Canyon Complex (HCC) along the Snake River (Idaho-Oregon border, USA) encompasses three successive reservoirs that seasonally stratify, creating anoxic conditions in the hypolimnion that promote methylmercury (MeHg) production. This study quantified seasonal dynamics and interannual variability in mercury concentrations (inorganic divalent mercury (IHg) and MeHg) and loads at...
Hypoxia augments edge effects of water column stratification on fish distribution
Derek W. Chamberlin, Carey Knight, Richard Kraus, Ann Marie Gorman, Wenzhao Xu, Paris D. Collingsworth
2020, Fisheries Research (231)
Hypoxic conditions in both freshwater and marine habitats have a significant effect on the distribution of fish in the water column, resulting in some fishes aggregating near the edges of the hypoxic zone. These aggregations may increase fish susceptibility to fishing gears, with attendant effects on stock assessment inferences. We...
Wastewater-based epidemiology pilot study to examine drug use in the Western United States
Nicholas Bishop, Tammy Jones-Lepp, Miranda Margetts, Jordan Sykes, David A. Alvarez, Deborah Keil
2020, Science of the Total Environment (745)
The extent of prescription and illicit drug abuse in geographically isolated rural and micropolitan communities in the intermountain western United States (US) has not been well tracked. The goal of this pilot study was to accurately measure drug dose consumption rates (DCR) between two...
Assessing the vulnerability of military installations in the coterminous United States to potential biome shifts resulting from rapid climate change
Richard H. Odom, W. Mark Ford
2020, Environmental Management (66) 564-589
Climate change impacts to Department of Defense (DoD) installations will challenge future military mission and natural resource stewardship efforts by increasing vulnerability to flooding, drought, altered fire regimes, invasive species, etc. We developed biome classifications based on current climate for the coterminous United States using the Holdridge Life Zone...
Linking nest microhabitat selection to nest survival within declining pheasant populations in the Central Valley of California
Ian Dwight, Jessica H Vogt, Peter S. Coates, Joseph P. Fleskes, Daniel P. Connelly, Scott C. Gardner
2020, Wildlife Research (47) 391-403
Context: The ring-necked pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) has experienced considerable population declines in recent decades, especially in agricultural environments of the Central Valley of California. Although large-scale changes in land cover have been reported as an important driver of population dynamics, the effects of microhabitat conditions on specific demographic rates (e.g. nesting)...
Benthic suffocation of invasive lake trout embryos by fish carcasses and sedimentation in Yellowstone Lake
Alex S. Poole, Todd M. Koel, Nathan A. Thomas, Alexander V. Zale
2020, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (40) 1077-1086
Introduced Lake Trout Salvelinus namaycush threaten native Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout Oncorhynchus clarkii bouvieri in Yellowstone Lake, Yellowstone National Park, where gill nets have been used to suppress subadult and adult Lake Trout since 1995. However, survival of embryonic and larval life history stages can have profound effects on the population...
