Report of the River Master of the Delaware River for the period December 1, 2009–November 30, 2010
Kendra L. Russell, Darwin Ockerman, Bruce E. Krejmas, Gary N. Paulachok, Robert R. Mason, Jr.
2019, Open-File Report 2019-1093
A Decree of the Supreme Court of the United States, entered June 7, 1954, established the position of Delaware River Master within the U.S. Geological Survey. In addition, the Decree authorizes diversion of water from the Delaware River Basin and requires compensating releases from certain reservoirs, owned by New York...
Combining sediment fingerprinting with age-dating sediment using fallout radionuclides for an agricultural stream, Walnut Creek, Iowa, USA
Allen C. Gellis, Christopher C. Fuller, Peter C. Van Metre, Christopher T. Filstrup, Kevin Cole, Timur Sabitov
2019, Journal of Soils and Sediments (19) 3374-3396
PurposeThe main purpose of this study was to demonstrate the utility of the sediment fingerprinting approach to apportion surface-derived sediment, and then age date that portion using short-lived fallout radionuclides. In systems where a large mass of mobile sediment is in channel storage, age dating provides an understanding...
Marine fog inputs appear to increase methylmercury bioaccumulation in a coastal terrestrial food web
Peter S. Weiss-Penzias, Michael S. Bank, Deana L. Clifford, Alicia A. Torregrosa, Belle Zheng, Wendy Lin, Christopher C. Wilmers
2019, Scientific Reports (9)
Coastal marine atmospheric fog has recently been implicated as a potential source of ocean-derived monomethylmercury (MMHg) to coastal terrestrial ecosystems through the process of sea-to-land advection of foggy air masses followed by wet deposition. This study examined whether pumas (Puma concolor) in coastal central California, USA, and their associated food...
Phenology patterns indicate recovery trajectories of ponderosa pine forests after high-severity fires
Jessica J. Walker, Christopher E. Soulard
2019, Remote Sensing (11)
Post-fire recovery trajectories in ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Laws.) forests of the US Southwest are increasingly shifting away from pre-burn vegetation communities. This study investigated whether phenological metrics derived from a multi-decade remotely sensed imagery time-series could differentiate among grass, evergreen shrub, deciduous, or conifer-dominated replacement pathways. We...
Investigating the accuracy of one‐dimensional volcanic plume models using laboratory experiments and field data
James S. McNeal, Larry G. Mastin, Raul B. Cal, Stephen A. Solovitz
2019, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research (124) 11290-11304
During volcanic eruptions, model predictions of plume height are limited by the accuracy of entrainment coefficients used in many plume models. Typically, two parameters are used, α and β, which relate the entrained air speed to the jet speed in the axial and cross‐flow directions,...
Watershed geomorphology modifies the sensitivity of aquatic ecosystem metabolism to temperature
Kathi Jo Jankowski, Daniel E. Schindler
2019, Scientific Reports (9)
How carbon cycles are regulated by environmental temperature remains a substantial uncertainty in our understanding of how watersheds will respond to ongoing climate change. Aquatic ecosystems are important components of carbon flux to the atmosphere and ocean, yet we have limited understanding of how temperature modifies ecosystem metabolic processes and,...
Employing an ecosystem services framework to deliver decision ready science
Emily Pindilli, Dianna M. Hogan, Zhiliang Zhu
2019, Advances in Ecological Research (4) 302-323
Public land managers have limited information to allow for the integration and balancing of multiple objectives in land management decisions including the social (cultural and health), economic (monetary and nonmonetary), and environmental aspects. In this article, we document an approach to consider the many facets of decision making by...
Pecos River Basin salinity assessment, Santa Rosa Lake, New Mexico, to the confluence of the Pecos River and the Rio Grande, Texas, 2015
Natalie A. Houston, Jonathan V. Thomas, Patricia B. Ging, Andrew P. Teeple, Diana E. Pedraza, David S. Wallace
2019, Scientific Investigations Report 2019-5071
The elevated salinity of the Pecos River throughout much of its length is of paramount concern to water users and water managers. Dissolved-solids concentrations in the Pecos River exceed 3,000 milligrams per liter in many of its reaches in the study area, from Santa Rosa Lake, New Mexico, to the...
Evaluating associations between environmental variables and Escherichia coli levels for predictive modeling at Pawtuckaway Beach in Nottingham, New Hampshire, from 2015 to 2017
James F. Coles, Kathleen F. Bush
2019, Scientific Investigations Report 2019-5111
From 2015 through 2017, the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services and the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services studied occurrences of high levels of Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria at the Pawtuckaway State Park Beach in Nottingham, New Hampshire. Historic...
Assessing the ecological impacts of biomass harvesting along a disturbance severity gradient
Valerie J. Kurth, Anthony W.D. Amato, John B. Bradford, Brian J. Palik, Christopher E. Looney
2019, Ecological Applications
Disturbance is a central driver of forest development and ecosystem processes with variable effects within and across ecosystems. Despite the high levels of variation in disturbance severity often observed in forests following natural and anthropogenic disturbance, studies quantifying disturbance impacts often rely on categorical classifications, thus limiting opportunities to...
Avian influenza virus prevalence in marine birds is dependent on ocean temperatures
Jeffrey S. Hall, Robert J. Dusek, Sean Nashold, Joshua L. TeSlaa, Bradford R. Allen, Daniel A. Grear
2019, Ecological Applications (30)
Waterfowl and shorebirds are the primary hosts of influenza A virus (IAV), however, in most surveillance efforts, large populations of birds are not routinely examined; specifically marine ducks and other birds that reside predominately on or near the ocean. We conducted a long-term study sampling sea ducks and gulls in...
How low should we go when warning for earthquakes?
Elizabeth S. Cochran, Allen L. Husker
2019, Science (366) 957-958
A key goal of earthquake early warning (EEW) systems is to alert populations who may be affected by a particular level of ground shaking so that they can take action to reduce impacts of that shaking, such as injuries, damages to physical infrastructure, or emotional distress. Most EEW systems work...
Influence of forest harvest severity and time since perturbation on conservation of North American birds
Daniel J. Twedt
2019, Forest Ecology and Management (458)
I calculated avian conservation scores, based on published quantitative assessment of bird presence (typically relative abundance) and regional Partners in Flight conservation concern score of each species. I related these avian conservation scores to severity of forest perturbation (i.e., % retention) and number of years since perturbation for forest stands...
Using δ13C and δ18O to analyze loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) response to experimental drought and fertilization
Wen Lin, Jean-Christophe Domec, Eric Ward, John D. Marshall, John S King, Marshall A. Laviner, Thomas R Fox, Jason B. West, Ge Sun, Steve G McNulty, Asko Noormets
2019, Tree Physiology
Drought frequency and intensity are projected to increase throughout the southeastern USA, the natural range of loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.), and are expected to have major ecological and economic implications. We analyzed the carbon and oxygen isotopic compositions in tree ring cellulose of loblolly pine in a factorial drought...
General external uncertainty models of three-plane intersection point for 3D absolute accuracy assessment of lidar point cloud
Minsu Kim, Seonkyung Park, Jeffrey J. Danielson, Jeffrey Irwin, Gregory L. Stensaas, Jason M. Stoker, Joshua Nimetz
2019, Remote Sensing (11)
The traditional practice to assess accuracy in lidar data involves calculating RMSEz (root mean square error of the vertical component). Accuracy assessment of lidar point clouds in full 3D (dimension) is not routinely performed. The main challenge in assessing accuracy in full 3D is how to identify a conjugate point...
Holocene earthquake history and slip rate of the southern Teton fault, Wyoming, USA
Christopher DuRoss, Ryan D. Gold, Richard W. Briggs, Jaime E. Delano, Dean A. Ostenaa, Mark Zellman, Nicole Cholewinski, Seth Wittke, Shannon A. Mahan
2019, Geological Society of America Bulletin (132) 1566-1586
The 72-km-long Teton normal fault bounds the eastern base of the Teton Range in northwestern Wyoming, USA. Although geomorphic surfaces along the fault record latest Pleistocene to Holocene fault movement, the postglacial earthquake history of the fault has remained enigmatic. We excavated a paleoseismic trench at the Buffalo Bowl site...
Using age tracers and decadal sampling to discern trends in nitrate, arsenic and uranium in groundwater beneath irrigated cropland
Anthony J. Tesoriero, Karen R. Burow, Lonna Frans, Jonathan V. Haynes, Christopher M. Hobza, Bruce D. Lindsey, John E. Solder
2019, Environmental Science and Technology (53) 14152-14164
Repeat sampling and age tracers were used to examine trends in nitrate, arsenic and uranium concentrations in groundwater beneath irrigated cropland. Much higher nitrate concentrations in shallow modern groundwater were observed at both the Columbia Plateau and High Plains sites (median values of 10.2 and 15.4 mg/L as N, respectively)...
Synergistic interaction of climate and land-use drivers alter the function of North American, Prairie-pothole Wetlands
Owen P. McKenna, Samuel Richard Kucia, David M. Mushet, Michael J. Anteau, Mark T. Wiltermuth
2019, Sustainability (11)
Prairie-pothole wetlands provide the critical habitat necessary for supporting North American migratory waterfowl populations. However, climate and land-use change threaten the sustainability of these wetland ecosystems. Very few experiments and analyses have been designed to investigate the relative impacts of climate and land-use change drivers, as well as the antagonistic...
Riparian soil nitrogen cycling and isotopic enrichment in response to a long-term salmon carcass manipulation experiment
Megan Feddern, Gordon W. Holtgrieve, Steven S. Perakis, Julia A. Hart, Hyejoo Ro, Tom Quinn
2019, Ecosphere (10)
Pacific salmon acquire most of their biomass in the ocean before returning to spawn and die in coastal streams and lakes, thus providing subsidies of marine‐derived nitrogen (MDN) to freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems. Recent declines in salmon abundance have raised questions of whether managers should mitigate for losses of salmon...
A rapid assessment method for ground layer coastal vegetation
Chellby R. Kilheffer, Jordan Raphael, Lindsay Ries, H. Brian Underwood
2019, Journal of Coastal Conservation (23) 1047-1055
We aim to test a rapid ecological assessment method to monitor regenerating coastal vegetation without sacrificing accuracy. We estimated species frequency in vegetation plots using traditional point intercept methods. We also tested a rapid, digital method to take high-resolution digital photographs of plots. We navigated among plot locations using a...
Accumulating evidence in ecology: Once is not enough
James D. Nichols, William Kendall, G.Scott Boomer
2019, Ecology and Evolution (9) 13991-14004
Many published studies in ecological science are viewed as stand-alone investigations that purport to provide new insights into how ecological systems behave based on single analyses. But it is rare for results of single studies to provide definitive results, as evidenced in current discussions of the “reproducibility crisis” in science....
Creating figures in R that meet the AFS style guide: Standardization and supporting script
Hayley C. Glassic, Kurt C. Heim, Christopher S. Guy
2019, Fisheries Magazine (44) 539-544
Visual display of information in scientific and non‐scientific literature is the most efficient way to summarize large amounts data, focus the readers’ attention on patterns, and substantiate the message in the narrative. Figures often represent years of data collection and substantial monetary investment, and it is worth repeating the cliché...
Peak streamflow and stages at selected streamgages on the Arkansas River in Oklahoma and Arkansas, May to June 2019
Jason M. Lewis, A.R. Trevisan
2019, Open-File Report 2019-1129
As much as 22 inches of rain fell in Oklahoma in May 2019, resulting in historic flooding along the Arkansas River in Oklahoma and Arkansas. The flooding along the Arkansas River and its tributaries that began in May continued into June 2019. Peaks of record were measured at 12 U.S....
Using component ratios to detect metadata and instrument problems of seismic stations: Examples from 18 years of GEOSCOPE data
Helle A. Pedersen, Nicolas Leroy, Dimitri Zigone, Martin Vallee, Adam T. Ringler, David C. Wilson
2019, Seismological Research Letters (91) 272-286
Replacement or deterioration of seismic instruments and the evolution of the installation conditions and sites can alter the seismic signal in very subtle ways, so it is notoriously difficult to monitor the signal quality of permanent seismic stations. We present a simple tool, energy ratios between each pair of the...
Chronic wasting disease—Research by the U.S. Geological Survey and partners
M. Camille Hopkins, Christina M. Carlson, Paul C. Cross, Christopher J. Johnson, Bryan J. Richards, Robin E. Russell, Michael D. Samuel, Glen A. Sargeant, Daniel P. Walsh, W. David Walter
2019, Open-File Report 2019-1109
IntroductionChronic wasting disease (CWD) is the only transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, a class of invariably fatal neurodegenerative mammalian diseases associated with a misfolded cellular prion protein found in wild free-ranging animals. Because it has a long incubation period, affected animals in Cervidae (the deer family; referred to as “cervids”) may not...
