Geomorphometric analysis of the Summit and Ridge classes of the Geographic Names Information System
Sinha Gaurav, Samantha Arundel, Romim Somadder, David P. Martin, Kevin G McKeehan
2023, Conference Paper, Geomorphometry 2023 proceedings
This research aims to conduct a geosemantic comparison of landforms classified in the Summit and Ridge feature classes in the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS). The comparison is based on a 2D shape analysis of manually delineated polygons produced by USGS staff to correspond to 33,304 Summit and 8,006 Ridge...
Geologic and geophysical maps of the Stockton 30’ × 60’ quadrangle, California
M. P. Delattre, Russell W. Graymer, Victoria Langenheim, Keith L. Knudsen, T. E. Dawson, Earl E. Brabb, Carl M. Wentworth, Loren A. Raymond
2023, Report
This pamphlet and accompanying geologic and geophysical maps are the products of cooperative efforts by the California Geological Survey (CGS) and United States Geological Survey (USGS) to compile a comprehensive, digital representation of the bedrock geology, Quaternary surficial deposits, and potential-field anomalies within the boundaries of the Stockton 30’ ×...
Illegal shooting is now a leading cause of death of birds along power lines in the western USA
Eve C. Thomason, Natalie J.S. Turley, James R. Belthoff, Tara Conkling, Todd E. Katzner
2023, iScience (26)
Human actions, both legal and illegal, affect wildlife in many ways. Inaccurate diagnosis of cause of death undermines law enforcement, management, threat assessment, and mitigation. We found 410 dead birds collected along 196 km of power lines in four western USA states during 2019 – 2022. We necropsied these carcasses...
Contemporary record and photographs of the rarely seen and poorly known Mona Blindsnake, Antillotyphlops monensis (Schmidt, 1926), with comments on its ecology and conservation
Danielle Rivera, Jan P. Zegarra, Cielo E. Figuerola-Hernandez, Nahira Arocho-Hernandez, Nathan J. Hostetter, Jaime A. Collazo, Rayna C. Bell
2023, Herpetology Notes (16) 915-918
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Bayesian spatio-temporal survival analysis for all types of censoring with application to a wildlife disease study
Kehui Yao, Jun Zhu, Daniel J. O'Brien, Daniel P. Walsh
2023, Environmetrics (34)
In this article, we consider modeling arbitrarily censored survival data with spatio-temporal covariates. We demonstrate that under the piecewise constant hazard function, the likelihood for uncensored or right-censored subjects is proportional to the likelihood of multiple conditionally independent Poisson random variables. To address left- or interval-censored subjects, we propose to...
Sacramento River nutrient change study
Lisa Thompson, Timothy D. Mussen, Michael Cook, Justin Nordin, James Noss, Ursula Bigler, Srividhya Ramamoorthy, Gry Mine Berg, Sara Driscoll, Clifton Herrmann, Wim J. Kimmerer, Toni Ignoffo, Tamara E. C. Kraus, Joseph K. Fackrell, Brian Bergamaschi, Marianne Guerin, Richard Rachiele
2023, Report
The Sacramento River Nutrient Change Study (SRiNCS) was developed with input from multiple stakeholders in the Delta Regional Monitoring Program, as well as the State Water Contractors. We tracked the effects of changes in nutrient loading resulting from a short-term wastewater hold at the Sacramento River Wastewater Treatment Plant (SRWTP)....
Understanding drivers of mercury in lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush), a top-predator fish in southwest Alaska's parklands
Krista K. Bartz, Michael P. Hannam, Tammy L. Wilson, Ryan F. Lepak, Jacob M. Ogorek, Daniel B. Young, Collin A. Eagles-Smith, David P. Krabbenhoft
2023, Environmental Pollution (330)
Mercury (Hg) is a widespread element and persistent pollutant, harmful to fish, wildlife, and humans in its organic, methylated form. The risk of Hg contamination is driven by factors that regulate Hg loading, methylation, bioaccumulation, and biomagnification. In remote locations, with infrequent access and limited data, understanding the relative importance...
Rare earth element sources, end-use demand trends, and hydrometallurgical separations
James Vaughan, Vitor L. Gontijo, Rick Valenta, Elisa Alonso
2023, Conference Paper
Rare earth elements are increasing in demand due to the movement towards electrification. In particular, there is a growing need for high performance rare earth permanent magnets for motors and generators used to convert electrical energy to mechanical energy, and vice versa. Current trends in rare earth demand are reviewed...
Living with wildfire in Genesee Fire Protection District, Jefferson County, Colorado: 2022 data report
Hannah Brenkert-Smith, Dorie Dalton, Jason Puffett, Patricia A. Champ, Christopher M. Barth, James Meldrum, Colleen Donovan, Carolyn Wagner, Julia Goolsby, Chiara Forrester
2023, Research Note RMRS-RN-99
Genesee Fire Protection District (GFPD) and members of the Board contacted the Wildfire Research Center (WiRē) early in 2021. GFPD serves a community of approximately 1,500 homes and 3,600 residents. The community borders the south side of I-70 and runs south up varied topography with varied vegetation to approximately 8,000...
The During Nearshore Event Experiment (DUNEX): A collaborative coastal community experiment to address coastal resilience
Jessamin A. Straub, Mary A. Cialone, Britt Raubenheimer, Jenna A. Brown, Nicole Elko, Katherine L. Brodie
2023, Shore & Beach (91) 23-29
The During Nearshore Event Experiment (DUNEX) was a large-scale coastal field effort focused on improving understanding of during-storm nearshore processes to ultimately develop predictive technologies, engineering solutions, and actions to enhance coastal resilience. The experiments were conducted on the North Carolina coast by a multidisciplinary group of over 30 research...
Towards improved code-based performance objectives for liquefaction hazard analysis
Andrew James Makdisi, Steven L. Kramer
2023, Conference Paper, Proceedings, 4th international conference on applications of statistics and probability in civil engineering (ICASP14)
Ground failure due to liquefaction in loose sand deposits poses substantial risks to the built environment, and has caused significant damage in past earthquakes to a wide range of infrastructure. Advances in liquefaction hazard analysis in practice have largely stagnated in recent years; the state of practice remains rooted in...
CONUS404: The NCAR-USGS 4-km long-term regional hydroclimate reanalysis over the CONUS
R. M. Rasmussen, F. Chen, C. H. Liu, K. Ikeda, A. Prein, J. Kim, T. Schneider, A. Dai, D. Gochis, A. Dugger, Y. Zhang, A. Jaye, J. Dudhia, C. He, M. Harrold, L. Xue, S. Chen, A. Newman, E. Dougherty, R. Abolafia-Rozenzweig, N. Lybarger, Roland J. Viger, David P. Lesmes, Katherine Skalak, John Brakebill, Donald Walter Cline, Krista A. Dunne, K. Rasmussen, G. Miguez-Macho
2023, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (104) E1382-E1408
A unique, high-resolution, hydroclimate reanalysis, 40-plus-year (October 1979–September 2021), 4 km (named as CONUS404), has been created using the Weather Research and Forecasting Model by dynamically downscaling of the fifth-generation European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) atmospheric reanalysis of the global climate dataset (ERA5) over the conterminous United States....
A summary of grizzly bear distribution in Montana: Application of consistent methods in 2022
Cecily M. Costello, J. Dellinger, Jennifer Fortin-Noreus, Mark A. Haroldson, Wayne F. Kasworm, J. E. Tiesberg, Frank T. van Manen
2023, Report
No abstract available....
Intraspecific trait variability facilitates tree species persistence along riparian forest edges in Southern Amazonia
Leonardo Maracahipes-Santos, Divino Vicente Silvério, Leandro Maracahipes, Marcia N. Macedo, Eddie Lenza, Kathi Jo Jankowski, Michelle Wong, Antonio Carlos Silveiro da Silva, Christopher Neill, Giselda Durigan, Paulo Brando
2023, Scientific Reports (13)
Tropical forest fragmentation from agricultural expansion alters the microclimatic conditions of the remaining forests, with effects on vegetation structure and function. However, little is known about how the functional trait variability within and among tree species in fragmented landscapes influence and facilitate species’ persistence in these...
A review of geology and mining in the Marble Mountains, southeastern California
David C. Buesch, Bruce W. Bridenbecker
2023, Conference Paper, 2023 Desert Symposium Field Guide and Proceedings: Mines of the Mojave
Mining in the Marble Mountains of southeastern California was active in the earliest 1900s and gradually declined to very few active mines by 1959. Most mining consisted of hard-rock prospects and mines, with a few soft-rock prospects and one mine. The Marble Mountains are a 10 km by 30 km,...
A Great Escape: Resource availability and density-dependence shape population dynamics along trailing range edges
Alexej Sirén, Marketa Zimova, Chris Sutherland, John T. Finn, Jillian R. Kilborn, Rachel M. Cliche, Leighlan S. Prout, L. Scott Mills, Toni Lyn Morelli
2023, Ecography (2023)
Populations along geographical range limits are often exposed to unsuitable climate and low resource availability relative to core populations. As such, there has been a renewed focus on understanding the factors that determine range limits to better predict how species will respond to global change. Using recent theory on range...
Evaluation of alternative groundwater-withdrawal scenarios on water levels in Kingsbury Pond, upper Charles River Basin, eastern Massachusetts
Paul M. Barlow, Paul J. Friesz, Jeffrey R. Barbaro
2023, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5083
Kingsbury Pond is a glacial kettle pond in the town of Norfolk, Massachusetts, in the Mill River Basin, which is part of the Upper Charles River Basin in eastern Massachusetts. The pond is hydraulically connected to the surrounding groundwater-flow system, and water levels in the pond fluctuate in response to...
DNA in the water: How genetic tools are aiding the fight against invasive grass carp in Lake Erie
Stephen Frank Spear
2023, Newsletter, Buckeye Bulletin
The article describes two USGS projects that are using eDNA to help inform grass carp management in Lake Erie. The article was requested by the Ohio Water Environment Association given the relevance and interest of the issue to its members....
Frequent transitions in mating-type locus chromosomal organization in Malassezia and early steps in sexual reproduction
Marco A. Coelho, Giuseppe Ianiri, Marcia David-Palma, Bart Theelen, Rohit Goyal, Aswathy Narayanan, Jeffrey M. Lorch, Kaustuv Sanyal, Teun Boekhout, Joseph Heitman
2023, PNAS (120)
Fungi in the basidiomycete genus Malassezia are the most prevalent eukaryotic microbes resident on the skin of human and other warm-blooded animals and have been implicated in skin diseases and systemic disorders. Analysis of Malassezia genomes revealed that key adaptations to the skin microenvironment have a direct genomic basis, and the identification of mating/meiotic...
Occupancy and activity patterns of nine-banded armadillos (Dasypus novemcinctus) in a suburban environment
Brett Alexander DeGregorio, Matthew R. McElroy, Emily P. Johansson
2023, Diversity (15)
The geographic range of the nine-banded armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus) has rapidly been expanding within the United States for the last 150 years. One of the factors contributing to this astounding range expansion is the species’ ability to survive in and colonize human-dominated areas. Despite the fact that armadillos...
Diving deeper into seep distribution along the Cascadia Convergent Margin, USA
Jane A. Rudebusch, Nancy G. Prouty, James E. Conrad, Janet Watt, Jared W. Kluesner, Jenna C. Hill, Nathaniel C. Miller, Sally J. Watson, Jess Hillman
2023, Frontiers in Earth Science (11)
Previous margin-wide studies of methane seep distribution along the Cascadia Subduction Zone indicate peaks in seep density within the landward limit of the of gas hydrate stability zone (GHSZ; ≤500 m depth), suggesting a link between current ocean warming, acceleration of hydrate dissociated, and methane emissions. This inferred connection,...
Waterfowl show spatiotemporal trends in influenza A H5 and H7 infections but limited taxonomic variation
Cody M. Kent, Sarah N. Bevins, Jennifer M. Mullinax, Jeffery D. Sullivan, Diann Prosser
2023, Ecological Applications (33)
Influenza A viruses in wild birds pose threats to the poultry industry, wild birds, and human health under certain conditions. Of particular importance are wild waterfowl, which are the primary reservoir of low pathogenicity influenza viruses that ultimately cause high pathogenicity outbreaks in poultry farms. Despite much work on the...
An introduction to lesions and histology of scleractinian corals
Aine C. Hawthorn, Ilze K. Berzins, Michelle Dennis, Matti Kiupel, Alisa L. Newton, Esther C. Peters, Vicente Avila Reyes, Thierry M. Work
2023, Veterinary Pathology (60) 529-546
Stony corals (Scleractinia) are in the Phylum Cnidaria (cnidae referring to various types of stinging cells). They may be solitary or colonial, but all secrete an external, supporting aragonite skeleton. Large, colonial members of this phylum are responsible for the accretion of coral reefs in tropical and...
First observation of the ground-state electron-capture of 40K
L. Hariasz, M. Stukel, P.C.F. Di Stefano, B.C. Rasco, K.P. Rykaczewski, N.T. Brewer, D.W. Stracener, Y. Liu, Z. Gai, C. Rouleau, J. B. Carter, J. Kostensalo, J. Suhonen, H. Davis, E.D. Lukosi, K.C. Goetz, R.K. Grzywacz, M. Mancuso, F. Petricca, A. Fijalkowska, M. Wolinska-Cichocka, J. Ninkovic, P. Lechner, R.B. Ickert, Leah E. Morgan, P.R. Renne, I. Yavin
2023, Physical Review C (108)
Potassium-40 is a widespread, naturally occurring isotope whose radioactivity impacts estimated geological ages spanning billions of years, nuclear structure theory, and subatomic rare-event searches—including those for dark matter and neutrinoless double-beta decay. The decays of this long-lived isotope must be precisely known for its use as a geochronometer, and to...
Rare 40K decay with implications for fundamental physics and geochronology
M. Stukel, L. Hariasz, P.C.F. Di Stefano, B.C. Rasco, K.P. Rykaczewski, N.T. Brewer, D.W. Stracener, Y. Liu, Z. Gai, C. Rouleau, J. B. Carter, J. Kostensalo, J. Suhonen, H. Davis, E.D. Lukosi, K.C. Goetz, R.K. Grzywacz, M. Mancuso, F. Petricca, A. Fijalkowska, M. Wolinska-Cichocka, J. Ninkovic, P. Lechner, R.B. Ickert, Leah E. Morgan, P.R. Renne, I. Yavin
2023, Physical Review Letters (131)
Potassium-40 is a widespread, naturally occurring isotope whose radioactivity impacts subatomic rare-event searches, nuclear structure theory, and estimated geological ages. A predicted electron-capture decay directly to the ground state of argon-40 has never been observed. The KDK (potassium decay) collaboration reports strong evidence of this rare decay mode. A blinded...
