Using multiple environmental proxies and hydrodynamic modeling to investigate Late Holocene climate and coastal change within a large Gulf of Mexico estuarine system (Mobile Bay, Alabama, USA)
Christopher G. Smith, Miriam C. Jones, Lisa Osterman, Davina Passeri
2020, Marine Geology (427)
A high degree of uncertainty exists for understanding and predicting coastal estuarine response to changing climate, land-use, and sea-level conditions, leaving geologic records as a best-proxy for constraining potential outcomes. With the majority of the world's population focused in coastal regions, understanding how local systems respond to global, regional, and...
An adaptive approach to vegetation management in native prairies of the northern Great Plains
Clinton T. Moore, Jill J. Gannon, Terry L. Shaffer, Cami Dixon
2020, Book chapter, Structured decision making: Case studies in natural resource management
No abstract available....
Introduction to structuring decisions
David R. Smith
2020, Book chapter, Structured decision making: Case studies in natural resource management
Decision structuring, also known as decision framing, provides the foundation and roadmap for analyzing a decision. For decisions that warrant a systematic approach, structuring begins with identifying the problem for analysis, which sounds simple but can be deceptively difficult because decision problems are often ill-formed at the start....
Geometric and material variability influences stress states relevant to coastal permafrost bluff failure
Matthew A. Thomas, Alejandro Mota, Benjamin M. Jones, R. Charles Choens, Jennifer M. Frederick, Diana L. Bull
2020, Frontiers in Earth Science (143) 1-13
Scientific knowledge and engineering tools for predicting coastal erosion are largely confined to temperate climate zones that are dominated by non-cohesive sediments. The pattern of erosion exhibited by the ice-bonded permafrost bluffs in Arctic Alaska, however, is not well explained by these tools. Investigation of the oceanographic, thermal, and mechanical...
Introduction to prediction and the value of information
David R. Smith
2020, Book chapter, Structured decision making: Case studies in natural resource management
Predicting the consequences of alternative actions in terms of the objectives is central to decision making. Modeling in the broadest sense, from simple to complex and based on data or expert judgment, comprises the essential toolkit for making decision-relevant predictions. Gaps in knowledge and the resulting uncertainty can...
Introduction to risk analysis
Michael C. Runge, Sarah J. Converse
2020, Book chapter, Structured decision making: Case studies in natural resource management
Many decisions are made in the face of uncertainty that either cannot or will not be reduced, and the challenge to the decision maker is how to manage the risk imposed by that uncertainty. This chapter will introduce the field of risk analysis, focusing on both the scientific tasks (estimating...
Allocating funds under the National Fish Habitat Action Plan
Michael C. Runge
2020, Book chapter, Structured decision making: Case studies in natural resource management
Each year, the Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), with advice from a Fisheries Management Team, allocates funding to support the National Fish Habitat Action Plan. The Service distributes the funds to Fish Habitat Partnerships (FHPs), who, in turn, undertake projects that “protect, restore, or enhance fish...
Introduction to resource allocation
James E. Lyons
2020, Book chapter, Structured decision making: Case studies in natural resource management
With ongoing habitat loss and degradation, ever-increasing threats to biodiversity, and limited funding for conservation and management, nearly every natural resource manager routinely faces difficult resource allocation problems. Funding and capacity for natural resource management rarely meet the need, and informed resource allocations are increasingly important. These decision problems include...
Aseismic transient slip on the Gofar transform fault, East Pacific Rise
Yajing Liu, Jeffrey J. McGuire, Mark Behn
2020, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (117) 10188-10194
Oceanic transform faults display a unique combination of seismic and aseismic slip behavior, including a large globally averaged seismic deficit, and the local occurrence of repeating magnitude (M) ∼6">∼6∼6 earthquakes with abundant foreshocks and seismic...
Strategic conservation of an imperiled freshwater mussel, the Dwarf Wedgemussel, in North Carolina
David R. Smith, Sarah E McCrae
2020, Book chapter, Structured decision making: Case studies in natural resource management
To be effective, managers of imperiled species must face the unavoidable tradeoff between conservation benefits and constrained budgets and must not be paralyzed by scientific uncertainty. Decision analysis can help meet these challenges when used to develop cost-effective strategies to recover or improve the status of species. The U.S. Fish...
Black abalone surveys at Naval Base Ventura County, San Nicolas Island, California: 2019, annual report
Michael C. Kenner
2020, Open-File Report 2020-1047
The U.S. Geological Survey Western Ecological Research Center’s Santa Cruz Field Station, Santa Cruz, California, has been funded by the U.S. Navy to continue monitoring a suite of intertidal black abalone sites at San Nicolas Island, California. The nine rocky intertidal sites were established in 1980 by Glenn VanBlaricom (then...
Inventory and analysis of groundwater resources: Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota
William G. Eldridge, Colton J. Medler
2020, Report
Industrial and commercial developments in western North Dakota potentially could affect the sources of water that contribute to wells, spring flow, and seeps within Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Without basic water resources data, accurately predicting the effects of water withdrawals and water quality concerns related to industrial and commercial developments...
Keeping Hawai‘i's forest birds one step ahead of disease in a warming world
Eben H. Paxton, Jim Kraus
2020, Book chapter, Structured decision making- Case studies in natural resource management
Hawai‘i’s high-elevation forests provide a critical refuge from disease for native forest birds. However, global warming is facilitating the encroachment of mosquitoes and the diseases they transmit into increasingly higher elevations of remaining refugia, threatening the viability of the forest birds across the islands. Multiple management actions to address the...
Resource allocation for coastal wetland management: Confronting uncertainty about sea level rise
James E. Lyons, Kevin S. Kalasz, Gregory Breese, Clint W. Boal
2020, Book chapter, Structured decision making: Case studies in natural resource management
Coastal wetlands are rich and diverse ecosystems with a wide variety of birdlife and other natural resources. Decision making for coastal wetland management is difficult given the complex nature of these ecological systems and the frequent need to meet multiple objectives for varied resources. Management challenges in the...
Feeding ecology of age-0 gar at Lake Texoma inferred from analysis of stable isotopes
Richard A. Snow, D.R. Stewart, M. J. Porta, James M. Long
2020, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (40) 638-650
Conservation and restoration of gar (Lepisosteidae) populations in North America are increasingly of interest to fisheries managers. Alligator Gar Atractosteus spatula are being stocked as age-0 fish in efforts to re-establish extirpated populations. However, gars are known to be highly cannibalistic in hatcheries, suggesting that age-0 Alligator Gar...
Trends in streamflow, nutrients, and total suspended solids in the Upper White River Basin, Indiana
G. F. Koltun, Cassie Hauswald
2020, Fact Sheet 2020-3030
The U.S. Geological Survey, in partnership with The Nature Conservancy, analyzed existing water-quality and streamflow data from three locations in the Upper White River Basin, Indiana, to estimate annual mean concentrations and fluxes and to identify and quantify changes in water quality and streamflow over time. Water-quality data used in...
Generalizing indirect defense and resistance of plants
Ian S. Pearse, Eric LoPresti, Robert N. Schaeffer, William C. Wetzel, Kailen A. Mooney, Jared G. Ali, Paul J. Ode, Micky D. Eubanks, Judith L. Bronstein, Marjorie G. Weber
2020, Ecology Letters (23) 1137-1152
Indirect defence, the adaptive top‐down control of herbivores by plant traits that enhance predation, is a central component of plant–herbivore interactions. However, the scope of interactions that comprise indirect defence and associated ecological and evolutionary processes has not been clearly defined. We argue that the range of plant traits that...
Ecological status of aquatic communities in selected streams in the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District planning area of Wisconsin, 2004–13
Barbara C. Scudder Eikenberry, Michelle A. Nott, Jana S. Stewart, Daniel J. Sullivan, David A. Alvarez, Amanda H. Bell, Faith A. Fitzpatrick
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5035
A total of 14 wadable streams in urban or urbanizing watersheds near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, were sampled in 2004, 2007, 2010, and 2013 to assess the ecological status of aquatic communities (biota), including benthic algae and invertebrates, and fish. To assess temporal variation, additional community sampling was also done at a...
Groundwater-quality and select quality-control data from the National Water-Quality Assessment Project, January through December 2016, and previously unpublished data from 2013 to 2015
Terri Arnold, Laura M. Bexfield, MaryLynn Musgrove, Melinda L. Erickson, James A. Kingsbury, James R. Degnan, Anthony J. Tesoriero, Justin T. Kulongoski, Kenneth Belitz
2020, Data Series 1124
Environmental groundwater-quality data were collected from 648 wells as part of the National Water-Quality Assessment Project of the U.S. Geological Survey National Water-Quality Program and are included in this report. Most of the wells (514) were sampled from January through December 2016, and 60 of them were sampled in 2013...
The influence of frequency and duration of seismic ground motion on the size of triggered landslides—A regional view
Randall W. Jibson, Hakan Tanyas
2020, Engineering Geology (273)
Observation, theory, and intuition all suggest that larger earthquakes should trigger larger landslides. Many factors could contribute to this, including depth-dependent shear strength or non-linearity of ground motion in soils and rock, but we hypothesize that the key characteristics of large...
Fluoride occurrence in United States groundwater
Peter B. McMahon, Craig J. Brown, Tyler D. Johnson, Kenneth Belitz, Bruce D. Lindsey
2020, Science of the Total Environment (732)
Data from 38,105 wells were used to characterize fluoride (F) occurrence in untreated United States (U.S.) groundwater. For domestic wells (n = 11,032), water from which is generally not purposely fluoridated or monitored for quality, 10.9% of the samples have F concentrations >0.7 mg/L (U.S. Public Health Service recommended optimal...
Trends in thermal maturity indicators for the organic sulfur-rich Eagle Ford Shale
Katherine L. French, Justin E. Birdwell, Michael Lewan
2020, Marine and Petroleum Geology (118)
Thermal maturity is critical to evaluate petroleum systems and to interpret biomarker results for paleoenvironmental and geobiology studies. Many thermal maturity indices were developed for marine source rocks containing type II kerogen, but their behavior in organic sulfur-rich source rocks requires more investigation. Here, we present geochemical analyses of whole...
2018 U.S. Geological Survey–California Geological Survey fault-imaging surveys across the Hollywood and Santa Monica Faults, Los Angeles County, California
Rufus D. Catchings, Janis Hernandez, Mark R. Goldman, Joanne H. Chan, Robert R. Sickler, Brian Olson, Coyn J. Criley
2020, Open-File Report 2020-1049
We acquired multiple types of seismic data across the Hollywood Fault in Hollywood, Calif., and the Santa Monica Fault in Beverly Hills, Calif., in May and June 2018. On the basis of our data, we infer near-surface locations of various traces of these faults.From two separate profiles across the Hollywood...
Compositional analysis of formation water geochemistry and microbiology of commercial and carbon dioxide-rich wells in the southwestern United States
Jenna L. Shelton, Robert S. Andrews, Denise M. Akob, Christina A. DeVera, Adam C. Mumford, Mark Engle, Michelle R. Plampin, Sean T. Brennan
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5037
Studies of naturally occurring subsurface carbon dioxide (CO2) accumulations can provide useful information for potential CO2 injection projects; however, the microbial communities and formation water geochemistry of most reservoirs are understudied. Formation water and microbial biomass were sampled at four CO2-rich reservoir sites: two within Bravo Dome, a commercial CO2...
A review of pathogens, diseases, and contaminants of muskrats (Ondatra zibethicus) in North America
Laken S Ganoe, W. David Walter, Justin D. Brown, Michael J. Yabsley, Matthew J Lovallo
2020, Frontiers in Veterinary Science (7)
Over the last 50 years, significant muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus) harvest declines have been observed throughout North America. Several theories for the decline have been proposed, including increased parasite infections and disease within muskrat populations. No existing wholistic review of muskrat exposure to pathogens, contaminants, and diseases exists. To address this...
