Causal effect of impervious cover on annual flood magnitude for the United States
Annalise G. Blum, Paul J. Ferraro, Stacey A. Archfield, Karen R. Ryberg
2020, Geophysical Research Letters (47)
Despite consensus that impervious surfaces increase flooding, the magnitude of the increase remains uncertain. This uncertainty largely stems from the challenge of isolating the effect of changes in impervious cover separate from other factors that also affect flooding. To control for these factors, prior study designs...
Digging into the geologic record of environmentally driven changes in coral-reef development
Philip M. Gravinese, Richard B. Aronson, Lauren T. Toth
2020, Oceanography (1) 85-91
This lesson uses data based on real-world geological archives to guide students toward understanding how climate and oceanography have impacted coral-reef growth over the last 5000 years. The objective of the lesson is for students to determine the relationship between environmental variability and coral-reef development over millennial timescales. In this...
An uncertain future for a population of desert tortoises experiencing human impacts
Kristin H. Berry, Julie L. Yee, Lisa L. Lyren, Jeremy S Mack
2020, Herpetologica (76) 1-11
We evaluated the status of a population of Mojave Desert Tortoises (Gopherus agassizii), a threatened species, in the El Paso Mountains of the northwestern Mojave Desert in California, USA. The study area lies north of and adjacent to a designated critical habitat unit for the species, is adjacent to a...
Estimates of water use associated with continuous oil and gas development in the Williston Basin, North Dakota and Montana, 2007–17
Ryan R. McShane, Theodore B. Barnhart, Joshua F. Valder, Seth S. Haines, Kathleen M. Macek-Rowland, Janet M. Carter, Gregory C. Delzer, Joanna N. Thamke
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5012
This study of water use associated with development of continuous oil and gas resources in the Williston Basin is intended to provide a preliminary model-based analysis of water use in major regions of production of continuous oil and gas resources in the United States. Direct, indirect, and ancillary water use...
Identifying life history traits that promote occurrence for four minnow (Leuciscidae) species in intermittent Gulf Coastal Plain streams
Jessica L. Davis, Mary Freeman, Stephen W. Golladay
2020, Southeastern Naturalist (19) 103-127
- Life history traits of stream fishes partly reflect adaptations to disturbance regimes, which in turn shape assemblage composition via environmental filters. In this study, we focused on life history traits of four morphologically similar leuciscid species in coastal plain streams of southwestern GA that are shifting from historically perennial...
The changing sociocultural context of wildlife conservation
Michael J. Manfredo, Tara L. Teel, Andrew W. Don Carlos, Leeann Sullivan, Alan D. Bright, Alia M. Dietsch, Jeremy Bruskotter, David C. Fulton
2020, Conservation Biology (34) 1549-1559
We introduced a multilevel model of value shift to describe the changing social context of wildlife conservation. Our model depicts how cultural-level processes driven by modernization (e.g., increased wealth, education, and urbanization) affect changes in individual-level cognition that prompt a shift from domination to mutualism wildlife...
Operational earthquake forecasting during the 2019 Ridgecrest, California, earthquake sequence with the UCERF3-ETAS model
Kevin R. Milner, Edward H. Field, William H Savran, Morgan T. Page, Thomas H Jordan
2020, Seismological Research Letters (91) 1567-1578
The first Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast, Version 3–epidemic‐type aftershock sequence (UCERF3‐ETAS) aftershock simulations were running on a high‐performance computing cluster within 33 min of the 4 July 2019 M 6.4 Searles Valley earthquake. UCERF3‐ETAS, an extension of the third Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast (UCERF3), is the first comprehensive,...
Mapping fire regime ecoregions in California
Alexandra D. Syphard, Jon Keeley
2020, International Journal of Wildland Fire (29) 595-601
The fire regime is a central framing concept in wildfire science and ecology and describes how a range of wildfire characteristics vary geographically over time. Understanding and mapping fire regimes is important for guiding appropriate management and risk reduction strategies and for informing research on drivers of global...
Changing suspended sediment in United States rivers and streams: Linking sediment trends to changes in land use/cover, hydrology and climate
Jennifer C. Murphy
2020, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (24) 991-1010
Sediment is one of the leading pollutants in rivers and streams across the United States (US) and the world. Between 1992 and 2012, concentrations of annual mean suspended sediment decreased at over half of the 137 stream sites assessed across the contiguous US. Increases occurred at less than 25 % of...
Climate change: Flowering time may be shifting in surprising ways
Janet S. Prevey
2020, Current Biology (30) R112-R114
Climate change is known to affect regional weather patterns and phenology; however, we lack under-standing of how climate drives phenological change across local spatial gradients. This spatial variation is critical for determining whether subpopulations and metacommunities are changing in unison or diverging in phenology. Divergent responses could reduce synchrony both...
Conterminous United States land cover change patterns 2001–2016 from the 2016 National Land Cover Database
Collin G. Homer, Jon Dewitz, Suming Jin, George Z. Xian, Catherine Costello, Patrick Danielson, Leila Gass, Michelle Funk, James Wickham, Steven Stehman, Roger F. Auch, Kurt H. Riitters
2020, ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (162) 184-199
The 2016 National Land Cover Database (NLCD) product suite (available on www.mrlc.gov), includes Landsat-based, 30 m resolution products over the conterminous (CONUS) United States (U.S.) for land cover, urban imperviousness, and tree, shrub, herbaceous and bare ground fractional percentages. The release of NLCD 2016 provides important new information on land...
Legacy and current‐use contaminants in sediments alter macroinvertebrate communities in southeastern US Streams
Patrick W. Moran, Nile E. Kemble, Ian R. Waite, Barbara Mahler, Lisa H. Nowell, Peter C. Van Metre
2020, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (39) 1219-1232
Sediment contamination of freshwater streams in urban areas is a recognized and growing concern. As a part of a comprehensive regional stream‐quality assessment, stream‐bed sediment was sampled from streams spanning a gradient of urban intensity in the Piedmont ecoregion of the southeastern United States. We evaluated...
Sea turtle conservation: Priorities for environmental education efforts
Jessica E. Swindall, Holly K. Ober, Margaret Lamont, Raymond R. Carthy
2020, EDIS (2)
All five species of sea turtle that occur in Florida are in danger of extinction. Many of the reasons these turtles are declining are a result of people’s actions on beaches and in shallow waters. Environmental education is needed to increase awareness and appreciation for sea turtles, and to teach...
Estimating population persistence for at-risk species using citizen science data
B.A. Crawford, M. Olds, J.C. Maerz, Clinton T. Moore
2020, Biological Conservation (243)
Population persistence probability is valuable for characterizing risk to species and informing listing and conservation decisions but is challenging to estimate through traditional methods for rare, data-limited species. Modeling approaches have used citizen science data to mitigate data limitations of focal species and better...
Niche partitioning among native ciscoes and nonnative Rainbow Smelt in Lake Superior
Caroline Lynn Rosinski, Mark Vinson, Daniel L. Yule
2020, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (149) 184-203
Several species of ciscoes Coregonus, subgenus Leucichthys that are native to the Laurentian Great Lakes are rare or extirpated. The restoration of Coregonus fishes is being actively pursued through stocking, and success may depend on the availability of unoccupied niche space. We described the spring–summer habitat occupancy and diets of three native cisco species (Bloater Coregonus...
Mercury export from Arctic great rivers
Scott Zolkos, David P. Krabbenhoft, Anya Suslova, Suzanne E. Tank, James W. McClelland, Robert G. M. Spencer, Alexander Shiklomanov, Alexander V. Zhulidov, Tatiana Gurtovaya, Nikita Zimov, Sergey Zimov, Edda A. Mutter, Les Kutny, Edwin Amos, Robert M. Holmes
2020, Environmental Science & Technology (54) 4140-4148
Land–ocean linkages are strong across the circumpolar north, where the Arctic Ocean accounts for 1% of the global ocean volume and receives more than 10% of the global river discharge. Yet estimates of Arctic riverine mercury (Hg) export constrained from direct Hg measurements remain sparse. Here, we report results from...
Gas hydrate petroleum systems: What constitutes the “seal”?
Junbong Jang, William F. Waite, Laura A. Stern
2020, Interpretation (8) T231-T248
The gas hydrate petroleum system (GHPS) approach, which has been used to characterize gas hydrates in nature, utilizes three distinct components: a methane source, a methane migration pathway, and a reservoir that not only contains gas hydrate, but also acts as a seal to prevent methane loss. Unlike GHPS, a...
Testing glacial isostatic adjustment models of last-interglacial sea level history in the Bahamas and Bermuda
Daniel R. Muhs, Kathleen R. Simmons, R. Randall Schumann, Eugene S. Schweig III, Mark P. Rowe
2020, Quaternary Science Reviews (233)
Part of the spatial variation in the apparent sea-level record of the last interglacial (LIG) period is due to the diverse response of coastlines to glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) processes, particularly where coastlines were close to the Laurentide Ice Sheet during the past two glacial periods. We tested modeled LIG...
Wind River subbasin restoration: Annual report of US..Geological Survey activities, January 2018 through December 2018
Ian G. Jezorek
2020, Report
We sampled juvenile wild Steelhead Oncorhynchus mykiss in headwater streams of the Wind River, WA, to characterize populations and investigate life-history metrics, particularly migratory patterns. We used Passive Integrated Transponder (PIT)-tagging and a series of instream PIT-tag interrogation systems (PTISs) to track juveniles. The Wind River subbasin is considered a...
Assessment of bridge scour countermeasures at selected bridges in the United States, 2014–18
Thomas P. Suro, Richard J. Huizinga, Ryan L. Fosness, Taylor Dudunake
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2019-5080
Erosion of the streambed, known also as scour, around pier 3 of the New York State Thruway bridge over Schoharie Creek caused the pier to fail, which ultimately resulted in bridge failure during the flooding event of April 5, 1987. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) responded to the need for...
Water-quality comparison of the Gulf Coast aquifer system at various scales in Texas from National Water-Quality Assessment groundwater studies, 2013–15
Patricia B. Ging
2020, Fact Sheet 2020-3010
One of the objectives of the U.S. Geological Survey National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Project is to assess groundwater quality in aquifers that are important sources of drinking water such as the coastal lowlands aquifer system, which is often referred to in Texas as the “Gulf Coast aquifer system.” The Gulf...
Development of a modeling framework for predicting decadal barrier island evolution
Rangley C. Mickey, Joseph W. Long, P. Soupy Dalyander, Robert L. Jenkins III, David M. Thompson, Davina Passeri, Nathaniel G. Plant
2020, Open-File Report 2019-1139
Predicting the decadal evolution of barrier island systems is important for coastal managers who propose restoration or preservation alternatives aimed at increasing the resiliency of the island and its associated habitats or communities. Existing numerical models for simulating morphologic changes typically include either long-term (for example, longshore transport under quiescent...
Application of decadal modeling approach to forecast barrier island evolution, Dauphin Island, Alabama
Rangley C. Mickey, Elizabeth Godsey, P. Soupy Dalyander, Victor Gonzalez, Robert L. Jenkins III, Joseph W. Long, David M. Thompson, Nathaniel G. Plant
2020, Open-File Report 2020-1001
Forecasting barrier island evolution provides coastal managers and stakeholders the ability to assess the resiliency of these important coastal environments that are home to both established communities and existing natural habitats. This study uses an established coupled model framework to assess how Dauphin Island, Alabama, responds to various storm and...
Interaction of bacterial communities and indicators of water quality in shoreline sand, sediment, and water of Lake Michigan
Meredith B. Nevers, Muruleedhara Byappanahalli, Cindy H. Nakatsu, Julie L. Kinzelman, Mantha S. Phanikumar, Dawn Shively, Ashley Spoljaric
2020, Water Research (178)
Shoreline sand harbors high concentrations of fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) that may be resuspended into the water column through washing and resuspension. Studies have explored coastal processes that influence this sand-water flux for FIB, but little is known about how microbial markers of contamination or the bacterial community interact in...
Analysis of nearshore placement of sediments at Ogden Dunes, Indiana
David L Young, Katherine E Brutsche, Honghai Li, Brian C McFall, Erin C Maloney, Kaitlyn E McClain, David F. Bucaro, Jessica Z. LeRoy, James J. Duncker, Kevin K. Johnson, P. Ryan Jackson
2020, Report
The harbor structures/shoreline armoring on the southern Lake Michigan shoreline interrupt sand migration. Ogden Dunes, Indiana, and the nearby Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore observed shoreline erosion due to engineered structures associated with Burns Waterway Harbor, east of Ogden Dunes, impeding natural east to west sediment migration. To remedy this, USACE...
