Sediments and the sea floor of the continental shelves and coastal waters of the United States—About the usSEABED integrated sea-floor-characterization database, built with the dbSEABED processing system
Brian J. Buczkowski, Jane A. Reid, Chris J. Jenkins
2020, Open-File Report 2020-1046
Since the second half of the 20th century, there has been an increase in scientific interest, research effort, and information gathered on the geologic sedimentary character of the continental margins of the United States. Data and information from thousands of sources have increased our scientific understanding of the character of...
Sand dunes, modern and ancient, on southern Colorado Plateau tribal lands, southwestern USA
Margaret Hiza
2020, Book chapter, Inland Dunes of North America
A mantle of both active and stable aeolian sand covers approximately 34,000 km2 of northern Arizona, western New Mexico and southern Utah on the southern Colorado Plateau. From west to east, these deposits can be subdivided into the Kaibab-Moenkopi dunes, Chinle Valley dunes, and Chaco dunes, all...
Mercury in fish from streams and rivers in New York State: Spatial patterns, temporal changes, and environmental drivers
Karen Riva-Murray, Wayne Richter, N. Roxanna Razavi, Douglas A. Burns, Lisa B Cleckner, Mark Burton, Scott D. George, Douglas A. Freehafer
2020, Ecotoxicology (29) 1686-1708
Mercury (Hg) concentrations in freshwater fish across the state of New York frequently exceed guidelines considered harmful to humans and wildlife, but statewide distribution and temporal changes are not well known for the state’s streams and rivers. We analyzed existing data to describe recent spatial patterns, identify key environmental drivers,...
Short- and long-term responses of riparian cottonwoods (Populus spp.) to flow diversion: Analysis of tree-ring radial growth and stable carbon isotopes
Derek M. Schook, Jonathan M. Friedman, Craig A. Stricker, Adam Z. Csank, David J. Cooper
2020, Science of the Total Environment (735)
Long duration tree-ring records with annual precision allow for the reconstruction of past growing conditions. Investigations limited to the most common tree-ring proxy of ring width can be difficult to interpret, however, because radial growth is affected by multiple environmental processes. Furthermore, studies of living trees may miss important effects...
Effects of climate and land-use changes on fish catches across lakes at a global scale
Y. Kao, Mark W. Rogers, David Bunnell, I. G. Cowx, S. S. Qian, O. Anneville, Beard Jr., A. Brinker, J. R. Britton, R. Chura-Crusz, N. J. Gownaris, J. R. Jackson, K. Kangur, J. Kolding, A.A. Lukin, Abigail Lynch, N. Mercado-Silva, R. Moncayo-Estrada, F. J. Njaya, I. Ostrovsky, L.G. Rudstam, A. L. E. Sandstrom, Y. Sato, Humberto Siguayro-Mamani, A. Thorpe, P. A. M. van Zwieten, P. Volta, Y. Q. Wang, A. Weiperth, O. L. F. Weyl, Joelle D. Young
2020, Nature Communications (11)
Globally, our knowledge on lake fisheries is still limited despite their importance to food security and livelihoods. Here we show that fish catches can respond either positively or negatively to climate and land-use changes, by analyzing time-series data (1970–2014) for 31 lakes across five continents. We find that effects of...
Precipitation runoff modeling system (PRMS) as part of an integrated hydrologic model for the Osage Nation, northeastern Oklahoma, 1915–2014
Joseph A. Hevesi, Randall T. Hanson, Jason R. Masoner
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2019-5030
Executive SummaryThe Osage Nation lacks a comprehensive tribal water plan to describe the quality and quantity of water resources in the Osage Nation, a 2,304-square-mile (mi2) area of rolling pastures, tallgrass prairie, and mixed woodlands in northeastern Oklahoma. A tribal water plan can be used to help manage the sustainable...
Evaluation of the impacts of radio-marking devices on feral horses and burros in a captive setting
Kathryn A. Schoenecker, Sarah R. B. King, Gail C. Collins
2020, Human Wildlife Interactions (14) 73-86
Radio-collars and other radio-marking devices have been invaluable tools for wildlife managers for >40 years. These marking devices have improved our understanding of wildlife spatial ecology and demographic parameters and provided new data facilitating model development for species conservation and management. Although these tools have been used on virtually all...
Hydrothermal activity in the southwest Yellowstone Plateau Volcanic Field
Shaul Hurwitz, R. Blaine McCleskey, Deborah Bergfeld, Sara Peek, David Susong, David A. Roth, Jefferson Hungerford, Erin B White, Lauren Harrison, Behnaz Hosseini, R. Greg Vaughan, Andrew G. Hunt, James B. Paces
2020, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems (21)
In the past two decades, the U.S. Geological Survey and the National Park Service have studied hydrothermal activity across the Yellowstone Plateau Volcanic Field (YPVF) to improve the understanding of the magmatic-hydrothermal system and to provide a baseline for detecting future anomalous activity. In 2017 and 2018 we sampled water...
The historic events at Kilauea Volcano in 2018: Summit collapse, rift zone eruption, and Mw 6.9 earthquake: Preface to the special issue
Matthew R. Patrick, Ingrid A. Johanson, Thomas Shea, Greg Waite
2020, Bulletin of Volcanology (82)
Kīlauea Volcano, on the Island of Hawaiʻi, has had a prominent role in the science of volcanology, and a long history of generating new insights into how volcanoes operate (Tilling et al. 2014; Garcia 2015). Native Hawaiians shared ideas on the behavior of the volcano with early Western visitors...
Quantifying trends in arsenic, nitrate, and dissolved solids from selected wells in Utah
Olivia L. Miller
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5047
Groundwater makes up a primary portion of the water supply in many parts of Utah, with annual withdrawals estimated at more than 1,000,000 acre-feet per year. Increases to groundwater withdrawal and land use may negatively impact water availability. Ensuring availability of clean water requires understanding how water quality has changed...
Decision analysis for managing public natural resources
Michael C. Runge, Ellen A Bean
2020, Book chapter, Structured decision making: Case studies in natural resource management
Examples like the Grand Canyon story are becoming more common—agencies and stakeholders are increasingly using decision tools to help navigate complex decisions regarding natural resources. Several books and many papers have made the case for the use of decision analysis in natural resource management settings and have described the tools...
Hydro-morphological characterization of coral reefs for wave runup prediction
Fred Scott, Jose A.A. Antolinez, Robert T. McCall, Curt D. Storlazzi, Ad Reiners, Stuart Pearson
2020, Frontiers in Marine Science (7)
Many coral reef-lined coasts are low-lying with elevations <4 m above mean sea level. Climate-change-driven sea-level rise, coral reef degradation, and changes in storm wave climate will lead to greater occurrence and impacts of wave-driven flooding. This poses a significant threat to their coastal communities. While greatly at risk, the...
Using remotely sensed data to map Joshua Tree distributions at Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, California, 2018
Todd Esque, Patrick E. Baird, Felicia C. Chen, David C. Housman, Tom J. Holton
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5053
Species distribution models (SDMs) that are derived through inference have been used to provide important insights toward species distributions. Their inferences can be robust in relation to known presences, but SDMs have error rates that cannot be quantified with certainty. For large plant species with unique signatures and in sparsely...
The water-year water balance of the Colorado River Basin
Gregory J. McCabe, David M. Wolock
2020, Journal of the American Water Resources Association (56) 724-737
Model‐estimated monthly water balance components (i.e., potential evapotranspiration, actual evapotranspiration, and runoff (R)) for 146 United States (U.S.) Geological Survey 8‐digit hydrologic units located in the Colorado River Basin (CRB) are used to examine the temporal and spatial variability of the CRB water balance for water...
Seismic velocity variations associated with the 2018 lower East Rift Zone eruption of Kīlauea, Hawaiʻi
Ashton F. Flinders, Corentin Caudron, Ingrid A. Johanson, Taka’aki Taira, Brian Shiro, Matthew M. Haney
2020, Bulletin of Volcanology (82)
The 2018 lower East Rift Zone eruption of Kīlauea (Hawai‘i) marked a dramatic change in the volcano’s 35-year-long rift zone eruption. The collapse of the middle East Rift Zone vent Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō was followed by one of the volcano’s most voluminous eruptions in 500 years. Over the course of this...
Submarine canyons, slope failures and mass transport processes in southern Cascadia
Jenna C. Hill, Janet Watt, Daniel S. Brothers, Jared W. Kluesner
2020, Geological Society, London, Special Publications (500) 453-475
The marine turbidite record along the southern Cascadia Subduction Zone has been used to interpret paleoseismicity and suggest a shorter recurrence interval for large (>M7) earthquakes along this portion of the margin; however, the sources and pathways of these turbidity flows are poorly constrained. We examine the spatial distribution of...
Evaluating elevation change thresholds between structure-from-motion DEMs derived from historical aerial photos and 3DEP LiDAR data
Peter G. Chirico, Jessica D. DeWitt, Sarah E. Bergstresser
2020, Remote Sensing (10)
This study created digital terrain models (DTMs) from historical aerial images using Structure from Motion (SfM) for a variety of image dates, resolutions, and photo scales. Accuracy assessments were performed on the SfM DTMs, and they were compared to the United States Geological Survey’s three-dimensional digital elevation program (3DEP) light...
Morphological, elemental, and boron isotopic insights into pathophysiology of diseased coral growth anomalies
Erik Andersson, Joseph A. E. Stewart, Thierry M. Work, Cheryl M. Woodley, Tracey B. Schock, Russell D. Day
2020, Scientific Reports (10)
Growth anomalies (GAs) impact both coral skeleton and soft tissues and are detrimental to reef health. This tumor-like disease is increasingly found throughout the tropics and is commonly associated with high human population density, yet little is known about the etiology, pathology, or calcification behavior of the disease. Here, we...
Estimating the effect of winter cover crops on nitrogen leaching using cost-share enrollment data, satellite remote sensing, and Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) modeling
W. Dean Hively, Sangchul Lee, Ali M. Sadeghi, Gregory W. McCarty, Brian T. Lamb, Alexander M. Soroka, Jason Keppler, In-Young Yeo, Glenn E. Moglen
2020, Journal of Soil and Water Conservation (75) 362-375
This study employed a novel combination of data (winter cover crop cost-share enrollment records, satellite remote sensing of wintertime vegetation, and results of Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) water quality simulations) to estimate the environmental performance of winter cover crops (WCC) at the watershed scale, from 2008 through 2017,...
Local to landscape-level controls of water fluxes through Hawaiian forests: Effects of invasive animals and plants on soil infiltration capacity across substrate and moisture gradients
Lucas B. Fortini, Christina Leopold, Kimberlie Perkins, Oliver A. Chadwick, Stephanie G. Yelenik, James D. Jacobi, Kaiena Bishaw, Makani Gregg, Sarah N. Rosa
2020, Report
Given the potential effect of invasive plants and animals to water fluxes through forests, the invasive-driven degradation of native ecosystems is a topic of great concern for many downstream land and water managers. The infiltration rate determines the partitioning between runoff and infiltration into soil in Hawaiian forests and beyond....
Differences in macronutrient content of common aquatic macroinvertebrates available as prey for young-of-the-year Scaphirhynchus sturgeons in the lower Missouri River
Alin Gonzalez, C. L. Barnes, S. M. Wilder, James M. Long
2020, Article
Nutrient availability in prey items can have important consequences for the growth, reproduction, survival, and recruitment into adulthood of juvenile fish. For young of the year sturgeon, which are highly dependent on macroinvertebrates as prey, knowing the nutritional content across various prey items within their habitats can help managers during...
Joint seasonality in geographic and ecological spaces, illustrated with a partially migratory bird
Mathieu Basille, James I. Watling, Stephanie Romanach, Rena R. Borkhataria
2020, Ecosphere (11)
As most species live in seasonal environments, considering varying conditions is essential to understand species dynamics in both geographic and ecological spaces. Both resident and migratory species need to contend with seasonality and balance settling in favorable areas with tracking favorable environmental conditions during the year. We present an exploratory...
Golden Eagle perch site use in the U.S. southern plains: Understanding electrocution risk
J.F. Dwyer, R.K. Murphy, D Stahlecker, Angela M. Dwyer, Clint W. Boal
2020, Journal of Raptor Research (54) 126-135
Electrocution on overhead electric systems is a primary cause of anthropogenic mortality for Golden Eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) in North America. Distribution poles supporting energized equipment are most often involved in electrocutions, but the frequency with which Golden Eagles perch on pole supporting equipment is unknown....
Mild displacements of boulders during the 2019 Ridgecrest Earthquakes
Norman Sleep, Susan E. Hough
2020, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (110) 1579-1588
Strong seismic waves from the July 2019 Ridgecrest, California, earthquakes displaced rocks in proximity to the M 7.1 mainshock fault trace at several locations. In this report, we document large boulders that were displaced at the Wagon Wheel Staging Area (WWSA), approximately 4.5 km southeast of the southern terminus of...
Ten ways Mount St. Helens changed our world—The enduring legacy of the 1980 eruption
Carolyn L. Driedger, Jon J. Major, John S. Pallister, Michael A. Clynne, Seth C. Moran, Elizabeth G. Westby, John W. Ewert
2020, Fact Sheet 2020-3031
Mount St. Helens was once enjoyed for its serene beauty and was considered one of America’s most majestic volcanoes because of its perfect cone shape, similar to Japan’s beloved Mount Fuji. Nearby residents assumed that the mountain was solid and enduring. That perception changed during the early spring of 1980. Then,...
