Quarterly wildlife mortality report October 2021
Bryan J. Richards, Daniel A. Grear, Shelby Jo Weidenkopf
2021, Newsletter
The USGS National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC) Quarterly Mortality Report provides brief summaries of epizootic mortality and morbidity events by quarter. The write-ups, highlighting epizootic events and other wildlife disease topics of interest, are published in the Wildlife Disease Association quarterly newsletter. A link is provided in this WDA newsletter...
Characterization of halogenated organic compounds in pelagic sharks and sea turtles using a nontargeted approach
Aikebaier Renaguli, Sujan Fernando, Thomas M. Holsen, Philip K. Hopke, Douglas H. Adams, George H. Balazs, T. Todd Jones, Thierry M. Work, Bernard S. Crimmins, Jennifer M. Lynch
2021, Environmental Science & Technology (55) 16390-16401
Halogenated organic compounds (HOCs) in marine species collected from the Atlantic Ocean [3 shortfin mako (Isurus oxyrinchus) and 1 porbeagle (Lamna nasus)], and 12 sea turtles collected from the Pacific Ocean [3 loggerhead (Caretta caretta), 3 green (Chelonia mydas), 3 olive ridley...
The importance of forests in bumble bee biology and conservation
John Michael Mola, Jeremy Hemberger, Jade Kochanski, Leif L. Richardson, Ian Pearse
2021, BioScience (71) 1234-1248
Declines of many bumble bee species have raised concerns because of their importance as pollinators and potential harbingers of declines among other insect taxa. At present, bumble bee conservation is predominantly focused on midsummer flower restoration in open habitats. However, a growing body of evidence suggests that forests may...
Resource use among top-level piscivores in a temperate reservoir: Implications for a threatened coldwater specialist
Adam G. Hansen, Jennifer R. Gardner, Kristin A. Connelly, Matt Polacek, David Beauchamp
2021, Ecology of Freshwater Fish (31) 469-491
Evaluations of resource use among native piscivores in natural lakes have consistently documented significant partitioning that supports coexistence. Partitioning may be less prominent in reservoirs where water-level fluctuations can compress habitat and trophic diversity, but studies are lacking. Stable isotopes and bioenergetic models were used to...
Capacity assessment for Earth Monitoring, Analysis, and Prediction (EarthMAP) and future integrated monitoring and predictive science at the U.S. Geological Survey
Jennifer L. Keisman, Sky Bristol, David S. Brown, Allison K. Flickinger, Gregory L. Gunther, Peter S. Murdoch, MaryLynn Musgrove, John C. Nelson, Gregory D. Steyer, Kathryn A. Thomas, Ian R. Waite
2021, Open-File Report 2021-1102
Executive SummaryManagers of our Nation’s resources face unprecedented challenges driven by the convergence of increasing, competing societal demands and a changing climate that affects the stability, vulnerability, and predictability of those resources. To help meet these challenges, the scientific community must take advantage of all available technologies, data, and integrative...
Oil and gas wastewater components alter streambed microbial community structure and function
Denise M. Akob, Adam Mumford, Andrea Fraser, Cassandra Rashan Harris, William H. Orem, Matthew S. Varonka, Isabelle M. Cozzarelli
2021, Frontiers in Microbiology (12)
The widespread application of directional drilling and hydraulic fracturing technologies expanded oil and gas (OG) development to previously inaccessible resources. A single OG well can generate millions of liters of wastewater, which is a mixture of brine produced from the fractured formations and injected hydraulic fracturing fluids (HFFs)....
Airborne hybrid sensor maps the country: Multi-agency effort for testing a potential new hybrid 3DEP-NAIP sensor
Jason M. Stoker, Aparajithan Sampath, Minsu Kim, Jeffrey Irwin, Eric Rounds, Josh Heyer, Julie Davenport, Gabe Bellante, Tony Kimmet, Collin McCormick, John Mootz
2021, LiDAR Magazine (11) 6-16
No abstract available....
Permafrost characterization and feature identification using public domain airborne electromagnetic data, interior Alaska
Abraham M. Emond, Ronald Daanen, Burke J. Minsley
2021, FastTIMES (26)
The Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys (DGGS) airborne electromagnetic (AEM) data are an excellent resource for permafrost characterization. AEM data can be used for pingo identification, estimating permafrost thickness, estimating surface talik thickness, evaluating permafrost health (temperature), talik identification and more. Data examples are shown from discontinuous...
Random forest
Emil D. Attanasi, Timothy Coburn
2021, Book chapter, Encyclopedia of mathematical geosciences
This entry defines and discusses the random forest machine learning algorithm. The algorithm is used to predict class or quantities for target variables using values of a set of predictor variables. It uses decision trees that are generated from bootstrap sampling of the training data set to create a "forest"....
Can identifying discrete behavioral groups with individual-based acoustic telemetry advance the understanding of fish distribution patterns?
Ryland B. Taylor, Martha E. Mather, Joseph M. Smith, Kayla M. Boles
2021, Frontiers in Marine Science (8)
Identifying patterns of organismal distribution can provide valuable insights for basic and applied marine and coastal ecology because understanding where animals are located is foundational to both research and science-based conservation. Understanding variation in distributional patterns can lead to a better assessment of ecological drivers and an improved ability to...
Warming sea surface temperatures fuel summer epidemics of eelgrass wasting disease
Maya Groner, Morgan E. Eisenlord, Reyn M. Yoshioka, Evan A. Fiorenza, Phoebe D. Dawkins, Olivia J. Graham, Miranda Winningham, Alex Vompe, Natalie D. Rivlin, Bo Yang, Colleen A. Burge, Brendan Rappazzo, Carla P. Gomes, C. Drew Harvell
2021, Marine Ecology Progress Series (679) 47-58
Seawater temperatures are increasing, with many unquantified impacts on marine diseases. While prolonged temperature stress can accelerate host-pathogen interactions, the outcomes in nature are poorly quantified. We monitored eelgrass wasting disease (EWD) from 2013-2017 and correlated mid-summer prevalence of EWD with remotely sensed seawater temperature metrics before, during, and after...
The aboveground and belowground growth characteristics of juvenile conifers in the southwestern United States
N.L. Pirtel, R.M. Hubbard, John B. Bradford, T.E. Kolb, M.E. Litvak, S.R. Abella, S.M. Porter, Petrie M.D.
2021, Ecosphere (12)
Juvenile tree survival will play an important role in the persistence of coniferous forests and woodlands in the southwestern United States (SWUS). Vulnerability to climatic and environmental stress declines as trees grow, such that larger, more deeply rooted juveniles are less likely to experience mortality. It...
Assessing the migratory histories, trophic positions, and conditions of lake sturgeon in the St. Croix and Mississippi Rivers using fin ray microchemistry, stable isotopes, and fatty acid profiles
Jeffrey R. Ziegeweid, Michelle Bartsch, Lynn A. Bartsch, Steven J. Zigler, Robert J Kennedy, Seth A. Love
2021, Ecological Processes (10)
BackgroundReproducing populations of invasive carps (Hypophthalmichthys spp.) could alter aquatic food webs and negatively affect native fishes in the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area (MISS) and the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway (SACN). However, proposed invasive carp barriers may also threaten populations of native migratory fishes by preventing...
Long-term Pseudogymnoascus destructans surveillance data reveal factors contributing to pathogen presence
John Grider, Robin E. Russell, Anne Ballmann, Trevor J. Hefley
2021, Ecosphere (12)
The disease white-nose syndrome (WNS) was first recognized in upstate New York in 2006 and has since spread across much of the United States (U.S.), causing severe mortality in several North American bat species. To aid in the identification and monitoring of at-risk bat populations, we...
Water Resources Research Act Program—Current status, development opportunities, and priorities for 2020–30
Mary J. Donohue, Earl A. Greene, Darren T. Lerner
2021, Circular 1488
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Water Resources Research Act (WRRA) Program connects our Nation’s academic capital to the USGS mission by delivering university-based research, outreach, and education services to our citizens. For more than 50 years, the WRRA Program has invested in local, State, and regionally focused water-related research;...
The Yorktown Formation: Improved stratigraphy, chronology and paleoclimate interpretations from the U.S. mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain
Harry J. Dowsett, Marci M. Robinson, Kevin M. Foley, Timothy D. Herbert
2021, Geosciences (11)
The Yorktown Formation records paleoclimate conditions along the mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain during the mid-Piacenzian Warm Period (3.264 to 3.025 Ma), a climate interval of the Pliocene in some ways analogous to near future climate projections. To gain insight into potential near future changes, we investigated Yorktown Formation...
Anomalous noble gas solubility in liquid cloud water: Possible implications for noble gas temperatures and cloud physics
Chris M. Hall, M. Clara Castro, Martha A. Scholl, Julien Amalberti, Stephen B. Gingerich
2021, Water Resources Research (57)
The noble gas temperature climate proxy is an established tool that has previously been applied to determine the source of groundwater recharge, however, unanswered questions remain. In fractured media (e.g., volcanic islands) recharge can be so rapid that groundwater is significantly depleted in heavy noble gases, indicating...
Hierarchical models improve the use of alligator abundance as an indicator
Seth C. Farris, J. Hardin Waddle, Caitlin E. Hackett, Laura A. Brandt, Frank J. Mazzotti
2021, Ecological Indicators (133)
Indicator species are species which can be monitored as an index to measure the overall health of an ecosystem. Crocodylians have been shown to be good indicators of wetland condition as they respond to changes in hydrology, can be efficiently monitored, and are...
Impacts of extreme environmental disturbances on piping plover survival are partially moderated by migratory connectivity
Kristen S. Ellis, Michael J. Anteau, Francesca J. Cuthbert, Cheri L Gratto-Trevor, Joel G. Jorgensen, David J Newstead, Larkin A. Powell, Megan M. Ring, Mark H. Sherfy, Rose J. Swift, Dustin L. Toy, David N. Koons
2021, Biological Conservation (264)
Effective conservation for listed migratory species requires an understanding of how drivers of population decline vary spatially and temporally, as well as knowledge of range-wide connectivity between breeding and nonbreeding areas. Environmental conditions distant from breeding areas can have lasting effects...
Gene expression profiles in two razor clam populations: Discerning drivers of population status
Heather A. Coletti, Lizabeth Bowen, Brenda Ballachey, Tammy L. Wilson, Shannon C. Waters-Dynes, Michael Booz, Katrina L Counihan, Tuula E. Hollmen, Benjamin Pister
2021, Life (11)
With rapidly changing marine ecosystems, shifts in abundance and distribution are being documented for a variety of intertidal species. We examined two adjacent populations of Pacific razor clams (Siliqua patula) in lower Cook Inlet, Alaska. One population (east) supported a sport and personal use fishery, but...
Mean squared error, deconstructed
Timothy O. Hodson, Thomas M. Over, Sydney Foks
2021, Journal of Advances in Earth Systems Modeling (13)
As science becomes increasingly cross-disciplinary and scientific models become increasingly cross-coupled, standardized practices of model evaluation are more important than ever. For normally distributed data, mean squared error (MSE) is ideal as an objective measure of model performance, but it gives little insight into what aspects of...
Crustal seismic attenuation of the central United States and Intermountain West
Will Levandowski, Oliver S. Boyd, Danya AbdelHameid, Daniel McNamara
2021, Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth (126)
Seismic attenuation is generally greater in the western United States (WUS) than the central and eastern United States (CEUS), but the nature of this transition or location of this boundary is poorly constrained. We conduct crustal seismic (Lg) attenuation tomography across a region that stretches from the...
Using isotopic data to evaluate Esox lucius (Linnaeus, 1758) natal origins in a hydrologically complex river basin
Ryan M. Fitzpatrick, Dana L. Winkelman, Brett M. Johnson
2021, Fishes (6)
Otolith microchemistry has emerged as a powerful technique with which to identify the natal origins of fishes, but it relies on differences in underlying geology that may occur over large spatial scales. An examination of how small a spatial scale on which this technique can be implemented, especially in...
Nutrient and suspended-sediment concentrations in the Maumee River and tributaries during 2019 rain-induced fallow conditions
Tanja N. Williamson, Kimberly Shaffer, Donna L. Runkle, Matthew John Hardebeck, Edward G. Dobrowolski, Jeffrey W. Frey, Nancy T. Baker, Katie Marie Collier, Carrie A. Huitger, Stephanie P. Kula, Ralph J. Haefner, Lisa M Hartley, Hunter Frederick Crates, J. Jeremy Webber, Dennis P. Finnegan, Nicholas J. Reithel, Chad Toussant, Thomas L. Weaver
2021, Journal of Great Lakes Research (47) 1726-1736
Above average precipitation from October 2018 through July 2019 in the Maumee River (R.) Basin resulted in 29% of cropland left fallow, providing a glimpse of potential effects from decreased nutrient application. Ongoing monitoring at 15 water-quality sites on the Maumee R. upstream from Defiance enabled comparison with 2017, which...
Comparative genomics analyses support the reclassification of Bisgaard taxon 40 as Mergibacter gen. nov., with Mergibacter septicus sp. nov. as type species: Novel insights into the phylogeny and virulence factors of a Pasteurellaceae family member associated with mortality events in seabirds
Eliana De Luca, Sonsiray Alvarez-Narvaez, Grazieli Maboni, Rodrigo P Baptista, Nicole M Nemeth, Kevin D. Niedringhaus, Jason T. Ladner, Jeffrey M. Lorch, Galina Koroleva, Sean Lovett, Gustavo F Palacios, Susan Sanchez
2021, Frontiers in Microbiology (12)
The Pasteurellaceae family has been associated with fatal diseases in numerous avian species. Several new taxa within this family, including Bisgaard taxon 40, have been recently described in wild birds, but their genomic characteristics and pathogenicity are not well understood. We isolated Bisgaard taxon 40 from four species of seabirds, including...
