Variation in metal concentrations across a large contamination gradient is reflected in stream but not linked riparian food webs
Johanna M. Kraus, Richard Wanty, Travis S. Schmidt, David Walters, Ruth E. Wolf
2021, Science of the Total Environment (769)
Aquatic insects link food web dynamics across freshwater-terrestrial boundaries and subsidize terrestrial consumer populations. Contaminants that accumulate in larval aquatic insects and are retained across metamorphosis can increase dietary exposure for riparian insectivores. To better understand potential exposure of terrestrial insectivores to aquatically-derived trace...
Using expert knowledge to support Endangered Species Act decision‐making for data‐deficient species
Daniel Bruce Fitzgerald, David R. Smith, David C. Culver, Daniel Feller, Daniel W. Fong, Jeff Hajenga, Matthew L. Niemiller, Daniel C. Nolfi, Wil D. Orndorff, Barbara Douglas, Kelly O. Maloney, John A. Young
2021, Conservation Biology (35) 1627-1638
Many questions relevant to conservation decision making are characterized by extreme uncertainty due to lack of empirical data and complexity of the underlying ecological processes, leading to a rapid increase in the use of structured protocols to elicit expert knowledge. Published ecological applications often employ a modified Delphi method, where...
Stoichiometric ecotoxicology for a multisubstance world
Angela Peace, Paul C. Frost, Nicole D. Wagner, Michael Danger, Chiara Accolla, Philipp Antczak, Bryan W. Brooks, David M. Costello, Rebecca A. Everett, Kevin B. Flores, Christopher M. Heggerud, Roxanne Karimi, Yun Kang, Yang Kuang, James H. Larson, Teresa Mathews, Gregory D. Mayer, Justin N. Murdock, Cheryl A. Murphy, Roger M. Nisbet, Laure Pecquerie, Nathan Pollesch, Erica M. Rutter, Kimberly L. Schultz, J. Thad Scott, Louise Stevenson, Hao Wang
2021, BioScience (72) 132-147
Nutritional and contaminant stressors influence organismal physiology, trophic interactions, community structure, and ecosystem-level processes; however, the interactions between toxicity and elemental imbalance in food resources have been examined in only a few ecotoxicity studies. Integrating well-developed ecological theories that cross all levels of biological organization can enhance our understanding...
Trends in precipitation chemistry across the U.S. 1985–2017: Quantifying the benefits from 30 years of Clean Air Act amendment regulation
Michael McHale, Amy Ludtke, Gregory A. Wetherbee, Douglas A. Burns, Mark A. Nilles, Jason S. Finkelstein
2021, Atmospheric Environment (247)
Acid rain was first recognized in the 1970s in North America and Europe as an atmospheric pollutant that was causing harm to ecosystems. In response, the U.S. Congress enacted Title IV of the Clean Air Act Amendments (CAA) in 1990 to reduce sulfur and nitrogen emissions from fossil fuel...
Zircon surface crystallization ages for the extremely reduced magmatic products of the Millennium Eruption, Changbaishan Volcano (China/North Korea)
Haibo Zou, Jorge A. Vazquez, Yongwei Zhao, Zipei Guo
2021, Gondwana Research (92) 172-183
The Millennium Eruption (ME) of Changbaishan volcano (Baitoushan, Paektu) at 946 CE (Common Era) is one of the largest explosive eruptions on Earth during Holocene times. We date unpolished zircon crystal faces from diverse ME products collected from the southern side of Changbaishan volcano where the ME pumice and welded and...
USGS permafrost research determines the risks of permafrost thaw to biologic and hydrologic resources
Mark P. Waldrop, Lesleigh Anderson, Mark Dornblaser, Li H. Erikson, Ann E. Gibbs, Nicole M. Herman-Mercer, Stephanie R. James, Miriam C. Jones, Joshua C. Koch, Mary-Cathrine Leewis, Kristen L. Manies, Burke J. Minsley, Neal J. Pastick, Vijay Patil, Frank Urban, Michelle A. Walvoord, Kimberly P. Wickland, Christian Zimmerman
2021, Fact Sheet 2020-3058
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in collaboration with university, Federal, Tribal, and independent partners, conducts fundamental research on the distribution, vulnerability, and importance of permafrost in arctic and boreal ecosystems. Scientists, land managers, and policy makers use USGS data to help make decisions for development, wildlife habitat, and other needs....
U.S. Geological Survey 21st-Century science strategy 2020–2030
U.S. Geological Survey
2021, Circular 1476
Today’s Earth system challenges are far more complex and urgent than those that existed in 1879 when the USGS was established. Society’s greatest challenges are directly or indirectly linked to major areas of USGS science. Increased pressures on natural resources continue with consequences for national security, food and water availability,...
Can we advance individual-level heat-health research through the application of stochastic weather generators?
Andrew Verdin, Kathryn Grace, Frank Davenport, Chris Funk, Gregory Husak
2021, Climatic Change (164)
Individuals living in every region of the world are increasingly vulnerable to negative health outcomes due to extreme heat exposure. Children, in particular, may face long-term consequences associated with heat stress that affect their educational attainment and later life health and well-being. Retrospective individual-level analyses are useful for determining the...
Aural and visual detection of greater sage-grouse leks: Implications for population trend estimates
Ian P. Riley, Courtney J. Conway, Bryan S. Stevens, Shane Roberts
2021, Journal of Wildlife Management (85) 508-519
Counts of greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) at leks have been used in harvest management, Endangered Species Act listing decisions, and land management policies for over half a century. Lek count sampling methods focus on counting male sage-grouse at known leks, primarily those observed visually from roads or vantage points, but...
Influence of pre-existing structure on pluton emplacement and geomorphology: The Merrimac plutons, northern Sierra Nevada, California (USA)
Victoria Langenheim, Jorge A. Vazquez, Kevin M. Schmidt, Giovanni Guglielmo, Donald S. Sweetkind
2021, Geosphere (17) 455-478
In much of the western Cordillera of North America, the geologic framework of crustal structure generated in the Mesozoic leaves an imprint on later plutonic emplacement, subsequent structural setting, and present landscape morphology. The Merrimac plutons in the northern Sierra Nevada (California, USA) are a...
Freezing temperatures restrict woody plant recruitment and restoration efforts in abandoned montane pastures
Evan M Rehm, Stephanie G. Yelenik, Carla M. D’Antonio
2021, Global Ecology and Conservation (26)
Tropical montane forests are being lost at an alarming rate but harbor some of the globe’s most unique biodiversity. The Hawaiian archipelago is a prime example of the importance of high elevation forests to species conservation and persistence as they serve...
Wildfires: Identification of a new suite of aromatic polycarboxylic acids in ash and surface water
Imma Ferrer, E. Michael Thurman, Jerry A. Zweigenbaum, Sheila F. Murphy, Jackson P. Webster, Fernando L. Rosario-Ortiz
2021, Science of the Total Environment (770)
Ash and surface water samples collected after wildfires in four different geographical locations (California, Colorado, Kansas and Alberta) were analyzed. The ash samples were leached with deionized water, and leachates were concentrated by solid phase extraction and analyzed by liquid chromatography/time-of-flight mass spectrometry. In...
An integrated geochemical approach for defining sources of groundwater salinity in the southern Rio Grande Valley of the Mesilla Basin, New Mexico and west Texas, USA
Christopher Kubicki, Kenneth C. Carroll, James C. Witcher, Andrew J. Robertson
2021, Report, New Mexico Water Resources Research Institute Technical Reports
A significantly elevated groundwater salinity zone was identified in the southern part of the Mesilla Valley. This investigation characterized the occurrence, spatial extent, and source of the plume of elevated groundwater salinity using a wide range of geochemical and geophysical data and methods....
The Coyote Mountains’ desert snail (Sonorelix harperi carrizoensis), a lazarus species With the first documentation of live individuals
Robert N. Fisher, Samuel Rosen Fisher
2021, Bulletin of the Southern California Academy of Sciences (119) 49-54
The Coyote Mountain desert snail (Sonorelix harperi carrizoensis) was described in 1937 from 30 dry shells collected the previous year. We reviewed the literature and museum records and found two additional shell collections for this subspecies from the type locality one from 1958, and one from an adjacent mountain...
Extensive frost weathering across unglaciated North America during the Last Glacial Maximum
Jill J Marshall, Joshua J. Roering, Alan W. Rempel, Sarah Shafer, Patrick J. Bartlein
2021, Geophysical Research Letters (48)
In unglaciated terrain, the imprint of past glacial periods is difficult to discern. The topographic signature of periglacial processes, such as solifluction lobes, may be erased or hidden by time and vegetation, and thus their import diminished. Belowground, periglacial weathering, particularly frost cracking, may have imparted a...
Status of endemic reed-warblers of the Mariana Islands, with emphasis on conservation strategies for the endangered Nightingale Reed-warbler
Ann P. Marshall, Fred A Amidon, Richard J. Camp, P. Marcos Gorresen, Paul Radley
2021, Bird Conservation International (31) 481-493
Insular species, particularly birds, experience high levels of speciation and endemism. Similarly, island birds experience extreme levels of extinction. Based on a 2012 taxonomic assessment, historically there were four reed-warbler species in the Mariana Islands, the Guam Reed-warbler Acrocephalus luscinia (Guam), the Nightingale Reed-warbler Acrocephalus hiwae (Saipan and Alamagan),...
Groundwater development leads to decreasing arsenic concentrations in the San Joaquin Valley, California
Emily A. Haugen, Bryant Jurgens, Jose Alfredo Arroyo-Lopez, George L. V Bennett V
2021, Science of the Total Environment (771)
In the San Joaquin Valley (SJV), California, about 10% of drinking water wells since 2010 had arsenic concentrations above the US maximum contaminant level of 10 μg/L. High concentrations of arsenic are often associated with high pH (greater than 7.8) or reduced geochemical conditions. Although most wells have low arsenic (<3 μg/L)...
Migration of injected wastewater with high levels of ammonia in a saline aquifer in south Florida
Nicasio Sepulveda, Melinda A. Lohmann
2021, Groundwater (59) 597-613
Treated wastewater with high levels of ammonia has been injected, since March 1983 into the deep saline units of the Lower Floridan aquifer (LFA) from a treatment plant near the east coast of Miami-Dade County in southeastern Florida. Monitoring wells in the plant recorded ammonia concentrations above ambient levels at...
Poecivirus is present in individuals with beak deformities in seven species of North American birds
Maxine Zylberberg, Caroline R. Van Hemert, Colleen M. Handel, Rachel Liu, Joseph L. DeRisi
2021, Journal of Wildlife Diseases (57) 273-281
Avian keratin disorder (AKD), a disease of unknown etiology characterized by debilitating beak overgrowth, has increasingly affected wild bird populations since the 1990s. A novel picornavirus, poecivirus, is closely correlated with disease status in Black-capped Chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) in Alaska. However, our knowledge of the relationship between poecivirus and beak...
Field trials to test new trap technologies for monitoring Culex populations and the efficacy of the biopesticide formulation VectoMax® FG for control of larval Culex quinquefasciatus in the Alaka'i Plateau, Kaua'i, Hawaii
Dennis Lapointe, Theodore V. Black, Michael Riney, Grace Tredinnick, Lisa H. Crampton, Justin Hite
2021, Hawaii Cooperative Studies Unit Technical Report Series 96
Mosquito-borne avian malaria Plasmodium relictum is a key limiting factor for endemic Hawaiian forest birds. In the past decade, populations of Kaua‘i’s endemic forest birds have been in a steep decline due to an increase in malaria transmission. To evaluate the use of available biopesticides for short-term mosquito control we...
Adaptive monitoring in action: Reconsidering design-based estimators reveals underestimation of whitebark pine disease prevalence in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem
Erin Shanahan, Wilson Wright, Kathryn Irvine
2021, Journal of Applied Ecology (58) 1079-1089
Identifying and understanding status and trends in ecological indicators motivates continual monitoring over decades. Many programs rely on probability surveys and their companion design-based estimators for status assessments (e.g. Horvitz–Thompson). Design-based estimators do not easily extend to trend estimation nor situations with observation errors. Field-based monitoring efforts inevitably have...
Mars: Abundant recurring slope lineae (RSL) following the planet-encircling dust event (PEDE) of 2018
Alfred S. McEwen, Ethan I Schaefer, Colin M. Dundas, Sarah S. Sutton, Leslie K Tamppari, Matthew Chojnacki
2021, Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets (126)
Recurring slope lineae (RSL) are dark linear markings on Mars that regrow annually and likely originate from the flow of either liquid water or granular material. Following the great dust storm (or planet-encircling dust event, PEDE) of Mars year (MY) 34, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter/High Resolution Imaging Science...
NABat: A top-down, bottom-up solution to collaborative continental-scale monitoring
Brian Reichert, Mylea L. Bayless, Tina L. Cheng, Jeremy T.H. Coleman, Charles M. Francis, Winifred F. Frick, Benjamin Gotthold, Kathryn Irvine, Cori Lausen, Han Li, Susan C. Loeb, Jonathan D. Reichard, Thomas Rodhouse, Jordi L. Segers, Jeremy Siemers, Wayne E. Thogmartin, Theodore Weller
2021, Ambio (50) 901-913
Collaborative monitoring over broad scales and levels of ecological organization can inform conservation efforts necessary to address the contemporary biodiversity crisis. An important challenge to collaborative monitoring is motivating local engagement with enough buy-in from stakeholders while providing adequate top-down direction for scientific rigor, quality control,...
A geology and geodesy based model of dynamic earthquake rupture on the Rodgers Creek‐Hayward‐Calaveras Fault System, California
Ruth A. Harris, Michael Barall, David A. Lockner, Diane E. Moore, David A. Ponce, Russell Graymer, Gareth J. Funning, Carolyn A. Morrow, Christodoulos Kyriakopoulos, Donna Eberhart-Phillips
2021, JGR Solid Earth (126)
The Hayward fault in California's San Francisco Bay area produces large earthquakes, with the last occurring in 1868. We examine how physics‐based dynamic rupture modeling can be used to numerically simulate large earthquakes on not only the Hayward fault, but also its connected companions to the north and south, the...
Assessing the feasibility of managed aquifer recharge in California
Nicola Ulibarri, Nataly Escobedo Garcia, Rebecca L Nelson, Amanda E. Cravens, Ryan J McCarty
2021, Water Resources Research (57)
With aquifers around the world stressed by over-extraction, water managers are increasingly turning to managed aquifer recharge (MAR), directly replenishing groundwater resources through injection wells, recharge basins, or other approaches. While there has been progress in understanding the geological and infrastructure-related considerations to make MAR more effective,...
