A multi-state occupancy modelling framework for robust estimation of disease prevalence in multi-tissue disease systems
Vratika Chaudhary, Samantha M Wisely, Felipe A Hernandez, James E. Hines, James D. Nichols, Madan K. Oli
2020, Journal of Applied Ecology (57) 2463-2474
Given the public health, economic and conservation implications of zoonotic diseases, their effective surveillance is of paramount importance. The traditional approach to estimating pathogen prevalence as the proportion of infected individuals in the population is biased because it fails to account for imperfect detection. A statistically robust way to...
Beyond sticks and stones: Integrating physical and ecological conditions into watershed restoration assessments using a food web modeling approach
Emily J Whitney, James R Bellmore, Joseph R. Benjamin, Chris E Jordan, Jason B. Dunham, Michael Newsom, Matt Nahorniak
2020, Food Webs (25)
Watershed assessments have become common for prioritizing restoration in river networks. These assessments primarily focus on geomorphic conditions of rivers but less frequently incorporate non-geomorphic abiotic factors such as water chemistry and temperature, and biotic factors such as the structure of food webs. Using a dynamic food web model that...
What to do when invaders are out of control?
Jason Dunham, Ivan Arismendi, Christina Murphy, Alex Koeberle, J Andres Olivos, James B Pearson, Francisco Pickens, David Roon, John R. Stevenson
2020, WIREs Water (7)
Biological invasions threaten species and ecosystems worldwide. Impacts from invasions are especially prevalent in freshwaters, where managers have struggled to contain the problem. Conventional approaches to managing invaders focus on prevention and control. In practice, these measures have proven to be variably effective. Control or eradication of established invaders is...
Slender salamanders (genus Batrachoseps) reveal Southern California to be a center for the diversification, persistence, and introduction of salamander lineages
Elizabeth L Jockusch, Robert W Hansen, Robert N. Fisher, David B Wake
2020, PeerJ (8)
BackgroundThe southern California biodiversity hotspot has had a complex geological history, with both plate tectonic forces and sea level changes repeatedly reconfiguring the region, and likely driving both lineage splittings and extinctions. Here we investigate patterns of genetic divergence in two species of slender salamanders (Plethodontidae: Batrachoseps) in this region....
Winter survival of female Ring-Necked Ducks in the Southern Atlantic Flyway
Tori D. Mezebish, Glenn H. Olsen, Michele Goodman, Frank C. Rohwer, Mark D. McConnell
2020, Journal of Wildlife Management (84) 1527-1535
North American waterfowl harvest regulations are largely guided by the status of breeding populations. Nonetheless, understanding the demographics of wintering waterfowl populations can elucidate the effects of hunting pressure on population dynamics. The ring‐necked duck (Aythya collaris) breeds and winters in all North American administrative flyways...
Capturing spatiotemporal patterns in presence-absence data to inform monitoring and sampling designs for the threatened Dakota skipper (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae) in the Great Plains of the United States
Max Post van der Burg, Jane E. Austin, Mark T. Wiltermuth, Wesley E. Newton, Garrett J. MacDonald
2020, Environmental Entomology (49) 1252-1261
Declines among species of insect pollinators, especially butterflies, has garnered attention from scientists and managers. Often these declines have spurred governments to declare some species as threatened or endangered. We used existing presence–absence data from surveys for the threatened Dakota skipper Hesperia dacotae (Skinner) to build statistical maps of species presence that...
Quantifying ecospace utilization and ecosystemengineering during the early Phanerozoic—The role of bioturbation and bioerosion
Luis A. Buatois, M. Gabriela Mangano, Nicholas J Minter, Kai Zhou, Max Wisshak, Mark A. Wilson, Ricardo A. Olea
2020, Science Advances (6)
The Cambrian explosion (CE) and the great Ordovician biodiversification event (GOBE) are the two most important radiations in Paleozoic oceans. We quantify the role of bioturbation and bioerosion in ecospace utilization and ecosystem engineering using information from 1367 stratigraphic units. An increase in all diversity metrics is demonstrated for the...
Status of groundwater-level altitudes and long-term groundwater-level changes in the Chicot, Evangeline, and Jasper aquifers, Houston-Galveston region, Texas, 2020
Christopher L. Braun, Jason K. Ramage
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5089
Since the early 1900s, most of the groundwater withdrawals in the Houston-Galveston region, Texas, have been from the three primary aquifers that compose the Gulf Coast aquifer system—the Chicot, Evangeline, and Jasper aquifers. Withdrawals from these aquifers are used for municipal supply, commercial and industrial use, and irrigation. This report,...
Strategic Plan for the North American Breeding Bird Survey, 2020–30
U.S. Geological Survey, Canadian Wildlife Service
2020, Circular 1466
The North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) has been the cornerstone of continental bird conservation and management for hundreds of North American bird species in the United States and Canada for more than 50 years. This strategic plan was developed in collaboration with key partners and stakeholders and charts the...
Moving from decision to action in conservation science
Alexander Wright, Riley F Bernard, Brittany A. Mosher, Katherine O'Donnell, Taylor Braunagel, Graziella V. DiRenzo, Jillian Elizabeth Fleming, Charles Shafer, Adrianne B. Brand, Elise F. Zipkin, Evan H. Campbell Grant
2020, Biological Conservation (249)
Biodiversity loss is a major threat to the integrity of ecosystems and is projected to worsen, yet the path to successful conservation remains elusive. Decision support frameworks (DSFs) are increasingly applied by resource managers to navigate the complexity, uncertainty, and differing socio-ecological objectives inherent to conservation problems. Most published conservation...
Biological effects of hydrocarbon degradation intermediates: Is the total petroleum hydrocarbon analytical method adequate for risk assessment?
Barbara A. Bekins, Jennifer Brennan, Donald E. Tillitt, Isabelle M. Cozzarelli, Jennifer M. Illig, Dalma Martinovich-Weigelt
2020, Environmental Science & Technology (54) 11396-11404
In crude oil contaminant plumes, the dissolved organic carbon (DOC) is mainly hydrocarbon degradation intermediates only partly quantified by the diesel range total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPHd) method. To understand potential biological effects of degradation intermediates, we tested three fractions of DOC:...
Flood-inundation maps for Dardenne Creek in St. Charles County, Missouri, 2019
David C. Heimann, Jonathon D. Voss, Paul H. Rydlund Jr.
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5060
Digital flood-inundation maps for a 9.9-mile reach of Dardenne Creek, St. Charles County, Missouri, were created by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Missouri Department of Transportation, St. Charles County, and the Cities of O’Fallon and St. Peters, Mo. The flood-inundation maps, which can be accessed through the USGS Flood...
Aboveground and belowground vegetation biomass and nutrients
Todd M. Folse, Thomas E. McGinnis, Leigh A. Sharp, Jonathan L. West, Melissa K. Hymel, John P. Troutman, Dona Weifenbach, William M. Boshart, Laurie B. Rodrigue, Danielle C. Richardi, W. Bernard Wood, C. Mike Miller, Elizabeth M. Robinson, Angelina M. Freeman, Camille Stagg, Brady Couvillion, Holly Beck
2020, Report, A standard operating procedures manual for the Coastwide Reference Monitoring System-Wetlands and the System-Wide Assessment and Monitoring Program: Methods for site establishment, data collection, and quality assurance/quality control
Wetland biomass production, decomposition, and storage of organic matter govern estuarine energy transfer, in addition to determining the physical sustainability of marshes exposed to sea-level rise and subsidence. Peak standing biomass represents an indicator of wetland production or productivity but does not account for turnover (production and decomposition) of different pools of biomass with...
Imagery
Todd M. Folse, Thomas E. McGinnis, Leigh A. Sharp, Jonathan L. West, Melissa K. Hymel, John P. Troutman, Dona Weifenbach, William M. Boshart, Laurie B. Rodrigue, Danielle C. Richardi, W. Bernard Wood, C. Mike Miller, Elizabeth M. Robinson, Angelina M. Freeman, Camille Stagg, Brady Couvillion, Holly Beck
2020, Report, A standard operating procedures manual for the Coastwide Reference Monitoring System-Wetlands and the System-Wide Assessment and Monitoring Program: Methods for site establishment, data collection, and quality assurance/quality control
As part of CRMS, Digital Orthophoto Quarter Quadrangles (DOQQs) for the coastal region of Louisiana are created for years when coastwide land-water classifications are required. A DOQQ is a raster image in which displacement in the image caused by sensor orientation and terrain relief has been corrected. These images combine...
Now trending … Earthquake information
William S. Leith, Jeremy Fee, Eric M. Martinez, Lynda A. Lastowka
2020, Seismological Research Letters (91) 2900-2903
The U.S. Geological Survey Earthquake Hazards Program has overall successfully fulfilled its mission of providing timely earthquake information via web applications and other methods. Imagine a single month of earthquake data delivery, serving 3.6 billion total data requests, including 29 million pageviews by 7.1 million users, 606 million automated data...
Ultraviolet-assisted oiling assessment improves detection of oiled birds experiencing clinical signs of hemolytic anemia after exposure to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill
J. A. Fallon, E. P. Smith, N. Shoch, J. D. Paruk, E. A. Adams, D. C. Evers, Patrick G.R. Jodice, M. Perkins, D. E. Meatty, W. A. Hopkins
2020, Ecotoxicology (29) 1399-1408
While large-scale oil spills can cause acute mortality events in birds, there is increasing evidence that sublethal oil exposure can trigger physiological changes that have implications for individual performance and survival. Therefore, improved methods for identifying small amounts of oil on birds are needed. Because ultraviolet (UV) light can be...
Assessing the potential for spectrally based remote sensing of salmon spawning locations
Lee R. Harrison, Carl J. Legleiter, Brandon T. Overstreet, Tomoko Bell, John Hannon
2020, River Research and Applications (36) 1618-1632
Remote sensing tools are increasingly used for quantitative mapping of fluvial habitats, yet few techniques exist for continuous sampling of aquatic organisms, such as spawning salmonids. This study assessed the potential for spectrally based remote sensing of salmon spawning locations (i.e., redds) using data acquired from...
Financial risk innovation: Development of earthquake parametric triggers for contingent credit instruments
Guillermo Collich, Rafael Rosillo, Juan Martinez, David J. Wald, Juan Jose Durante
2020, Book chapter, Natural Disasters and Climate Change
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has developed financial risk management strategies for natural disasters focusing primarily on the emergency phase of the catastrophes where financial support is more cost-efficient and certainly most needed. The main IDB financial instrument to provide liquidity in the aftermath of catastrophic events is...
The GFDL Earth System Model Version 4.1 (GFDL-ESM 4.1): Overall coupled model description and simulation characteristics
John P Dunne, L W Horowitz, A. Adcroft, P. Ginoux, I.M. Held, J.C.H. Johns, John P. Krasting, Sergey Malyshev, V. Naik, F. Paulot, Elena Shevliakova, C. A. Stock, N Zadeh, V. Balaji, C Blanton, C Dupuis, J. Durachta, R Dussin, Paul P. G. Gauthier, S M Griffies, Huan Guo, Robert W. Hallberg, Matthew J. Harrison, Jian He, W Hurlin, Charles W. McHugh, R Menzel, Paul C. D. Milly, S Nikonov, D. Paynter, J J Ploshay, A. Radhakrishnan, K Rand, B Reichel, T.C. Robinson, M D Schwarzkopf, L Sentman, S. Underwood, H Vahlenkamp, M. Winton, Andrew T. Wittenberg, Bruce Wyman, Yujin Zeng, Ming Zhao
2020, Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems (JAMES) (12)
We describe the baseline coupled model configuration and simulation characteristics of GFDL's Earth System Model Version 4.1 (ESM4.1), which builds on component and coupled model developments at GFDL over 2013–2018 for coupled carbon-chemistry-climate simulation contributing to the sixth phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project. In contrast...
Hydrology and geomorphology of the Taiya River near the West Creek Tributary, southeast Alaska
Janet H. Curran
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5059
The Taiya River flows through the Chilkoot Trail Unit of Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park in southeast Alaska, which was founded to preserve cultural and historical resources and further understanding of natural processes active in the surrounding coastal-to-subarctic basin. Riverine processes exert an important influence on ecologically important boreal...
Understanding and documenting the scientific basis of selenium ecological protection in support of site-specific guidelines development for Lake Koocanusa, Montana, U.S.A., and British Columbia, Canada
Theresa S. Presser, David L. Naftz
2020, Open-File Report 2020-1098
Modeling of ecosystems is a part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s protocol for developing site-specific selenium guidelines for protection of aquatic life. Selenium as an environmental contaminant is known to bioaccumulate and cause reproductive effects in fish and wildlife. Here we apply a modeling methodology—ecosystem-scale selenium modeling—to understand and document...
A stress-similarity triggering model for aftershocks of the MW6.4 and MW7.1 Ridgecrest earthquakes
Jeanne L. Hardebeck
2020, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (110) 1716-1727
The July 2019 Mw">Mw 6.4 and 7.1 Ridgecrest earthquakes triggered numerous aftershocks, including clusters of off‐fault aftershocks in an extensional stepover of the Garlock fault, near the town of Olancha, and near Panamint...
Improving early warning of drought-driven food insecurity in Southern Africa using operational hydrological monitoring and forecasting products
Shraddhanand Shukla, Kristi Arsenault, Abda Hazra, Christa Peters-Lidard, Frank Davenport, Tamuka Magadzire, Chris Funk
2020, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (20) 1187-1201
The region of southern Africa (SA) has a fragile food economy and is vulnerable to frequent droughts. Interventions to mitigate food insecurity impacts require early warning of droughts —preferably as early as possible before the harvest season (typically, starting in April) and lean season (typically, starting in November). Hydrologic monitoring...
Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal) not detected in an intensive survey of wild North American amphibians
J. Hardin Waddle, Daniel A. Grear, Brittany Mosher, Evan H. Campbell Grant, Michael J. Adams, Adam R. Backlin, William Barichivich, Adrianne B. Brand, Gary M. Bucciarelli, Daniel L. Calhoun, Tara Chestnut, Jon M. Davenport, Andrew E. Dietrich, Robert N. Fisher, Brad Glorioso, Brian J. Halstead, Marc P Hayes, R. Ken Honeycutt, Blake R. Hossack, Patrick M. Kleeman, Julio A. Lemos-Espinal, Jeffrey M. Lorch, Robert W. Atkinson, Erin L. Muths, Christopher Pearl, Katherine Richgels, Charles W Robinson, Mark F. Roth, Jennifer Rowe, Walter Sadinski, Brent H. Sigafus, Iga Stasiak, Samuel Sweet, Susan C. Walls, Gregory J Watkins-Colwell, C. LeAnn White, Lori A Williams, Megan E. Winzeler
2020, Scientific Reports (10)
The salamander chytrid fungus (Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans [Bsal]) is causing massive mortality of salamanders in Europe. The potential for spread via international trade into North America and the high diversity of salamanders has catalyzed concern about Bsal in the U.S. Surveillance programs for invading pathogens must initially meet challenges that include...
Novel molecular resources to facilitate future genetics research on freshwater mussels (Bivalvia: Unionidae)
Nathan A. Johnson, Chase H. Smith
2020, Data (5)
Molecular data have been an integral tool in the resolution of the evolutionary relationships and systematics of freshwater mussels, despite the limited number of nuclear markers available for Sanger sequencing. To facilitate future studies, we evaluated the phylogenetic informativeness of loci from the recently published anchored hybrid enrichment (AHE) probe...
