Flooding duration and volume more important than peak discharge in explaining 18 years of gravel–cobble river change
Arielle Gervasi, Gregory Pasternack, Amy E. East
2021, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms (46) 3194-3212
Floods play a critical role in geomorphic change, but whether peak magnitude, duration, volume, or frequency determines the resulting magnitude of erosion and deposition is a question often proposed in geomorphic effectiveness studies. This study investigated that question using digital elevation model differencing to compare and...
Michigan and Landsat
U.S. Geological Survey
2021, Fact Sheet 2021-3047
Water means a lot to Michigan, often called the Great Lakes State. The name “Michigan” comes from an Ojibwe word meaning large, or great, water or lake. As the only State touching four of the five Great Lakes—Michigan, Superior, Huron, and Erie—it claims the longest freshwater coastline in the United...
Pollinator communities vary with vegetation structure and time since management within regenerating timber harvests of the Central Appalachian Mountains
Codey L. Mathis, Darin J. McNeil Jr., Monica R. Lee, Christina M. Grozinger, David I. King, Clint Otto, Jeffery A. Larkin
2021, Forest Ecology and Management (495)
Native pollinator populations across the United States are increasingly threatened by a multitude of ecological stressors. Although the drivers behind pollinator population declines are varied, habitat loss/degradation remains one of the most important threats. Forested landscapes, where the impacts of habitat loss/degradation are minimized, are known to support robust pollinator...
Negligible evidence for detrimental effects of Leucocytozoon infections among Emperor Geese (Anser canagicus) breeding on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska
Andrew M. Ramey, Raymond Bucheit, Brian D. Uher-Koch, John Reed, M. Andreina Pacheco, Ananias Escalante, Joel Schmutz
2021, International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife (16) 103-112
Emperor Geese (Anser canagicus) are iconic waterfowl endemic to Alaska and adjacent areas of northeastern Russia that are considered to be near threatened by the International Union for Conservation. This species has been identified as harboring diverse viruses and parasites which have, at times, been associated with disease in other avian taxa....
Insect pathogenic fungi for biocontrol of plague vector fleas: A review
David A. Eads, Stefan Jaronski, Dean E. Biggins, Jeffrey Wimsatt
2021, Journal of Integrated Pest Management (12) 1-10
Bubonic plague is a lethal bacterial disease of great historical importance. The plague organism, Yersinia pestis, is primarily transmitted by fleas (Siphonaptera). In natural settings, where its range expands, Y. pestis resides in association with wild rodents and their fleas (sylvatic plague). While chemical insecticides are used against plague vector fleas, biological...
Estimates of water use associated with continuous oil and gas development in the Permian Basin, Texas and New Mexico, 2010–19
Joshua F. Valder, Ryan R. McShane, Joanna N. Thamke, Jeremy S. McDowell, Grady P. Ball, Natalie A. Houston, Amy E. Galanter
2021, Scientific Investigations Report 2021-5090
In 2015, the U.S. Geological Survey started a topical study to quantify water use in areas of continuous oil and gas (COG) development. The first phase of the study was completed in 2019 and analyzed the Williston Basin. The second phase of the study analyzed the Permian Basin using the...
Hydrologic conditions in Kansas, water year 2020
Chantelle Davis
2021, Fact Sheet 2021-3045
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with Federal, State, and local agencies, maintains a long-term network of hydrologic monitoring stations in Kansas. This network included 219 real-time streamgages, 12 real-time reservoir-level monitoring stations, and 20 groundwater monitoring stations in water year (WY) 2020. A WY is a 12-month period from...
Marine distribution and foraging habitat highlight potential threats at sea for Endangered Bermuda Petrel Pterodroma cahow
André F Raine, Carina Gjerdrum, Isabeau Pratte, Jeremy Madeiros, Jonathan J. Felis, Josh Adams
2021, Endangered Species Research (45) 337-356
Marine spatial planning relies on detailed spatial information of marine areas to ensure effective conservation of species. To enhance our understanding of marine habitat use by the highly pelagic Bermuda petrel Pterodroma cahow, we deployed GPS tags on 6 chick-rearing adults in April 2019 and constructed a habitat suitability model using...
Rebounds, regresses, and recovery: A 15-year study of the coral reef community at Pila‘a, Kaua‘i after decades of natural and anthropogenic stress events
Ku'ulei S. Rodgers, A. Richards Dona, Y. O. Stender, A. O. Tsang, J. H. J. Han, Rebecca Weible, Nancy G. Prouty, Curt D. Storlazzi, Andrew M. Graham
2021, Marine Pollution Bulletin (171)
Pila‘a reef on the north shore of Kaua‘i, Hawai‘i was subjected to a major flood event in 2001 that deposited extensive sediment on the reef flat, resulting in high coral mortality. To document potential recovery, this study replicated benthic and sediment surveys conducted immediately following the event and 15 years later....
System characterization report on the China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite-4A (CBERS–4A)
James C. Vrabel, Gregory L. Stensaas, Cody Anderson, Jon Christopherson, Minsu Kim, Seonkyung Park, Simon J. Cantrell
2021, Open-File Report 2021-1030-J
Executive SummaryThis report addresses system characterization of the China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite-4A (CBERS–4A) multispectral remote sensing satellite and is part of a series of system characterization reports produced and delivered by the U.S. Geological Survey Earth Resources Observation and Science Cal/Val Center of Excellence in 2021. These reports present and...
Changes in forest connectivity from beech bark disease in Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan
Stephanie R. Sattler
2021, Open-File Report 2021-1069
Within the forests of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, biologists are trying to understand the effects beech bark disease has on wildlife species, especially species that need forest connectivity to thrive. This project used aerial imagery collected in 2005, shortly after beech bark disease infestation, and satellite imagery from 2018. The...
When Punjab cried wolf: How a rumor triggered an “earthquake” in India
S.S. Martin, Remy Bossu, R. Steed, Matthieu Landes, D. Srinagesh, D. Srinivas, Susan E. Hough
2021, Seismological Research Letters (92) 3887-3898
In recent years, earthquake felt reports contributed via online systems have provided increasingly valuable sources of data to characterize earthquakes and their effects. Contributed felt reports are accompanied by increases in website traffic, which are themselves potentially useful for the early detection of seismic events. In February 2017 the European‐Mediterranean...
Coalescent methods reconstruct contributions of natural colonization and stocking to origins of Michigan inland Cisco (Coregonus artedi)
Jared J. Homola, John D Robinson, Jeannette Kanefsky, Wendylee Stott, Gary Whelan, Kim T Scribner
2021, Journal of Great Lakes Research (47) 1781-1792
Fish population structure in previously glaciated regions is often influenced by natural colonization processes and human-mediated dispersal, including fish stocking. Endemic populations are of conservation interest because they may contain rare and unique genetic variation. While coregonines are native to certain Michigan inland lakes, some were stocked with fish from...
An experimental evaluation of the efficacy of imaging flow cytometry (FlowCam) for detecting invasive Dreissened and Corbiculid bivalve veligers
Whitney Hassett, Julie Zimmerman, Gretchen Rollwagen-Bollens, Stephen M. Bollens, Timothy D. Counihan
2021, Lake and Reservoir Management (37) 406-417
Zebra (Dreissena polymorpha) and quagga (D. bugensis) mussels, first introduced from central Asia into the Great Lakes of North America in the late 1980s, have crossed the continental divide and more recently spread across western North America. At the same time, several new technologies have been developed for the early...
Discrete sample introduction module for quantitative and isotopic analysis of methane and other gases by cavity ring-down spectroscopy
John Pohlman, Michael Casso, Cedric Magen, Emile M. Bergeron
2021, Environmental Science & Technology (55) 12066-12074
Carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) are natural and anthropogenic products that play a central role in the global carbon cycle and regulating Earth’s climate. Applications utilizing laser absorption spectroscopy, which continuously measure concentrations and stable isotope ratios of these greenhouse gases,...
Spatiotemporal dynamics of CO2 gas exchange from headwater mountain streams
David W. Clow, Robert G. Striegl, Mark Dornblaser
2021, Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences (126)
Mountain streams play an important role in the global carbon cycle by transporting, metabolizing, and exchanging carbon they receive from the terrestrial environment. The rates at which these processes occur remain highly uncertain because of a paucity of observations and the difficulty of measuring gas exchange rates...
Mapping wetland burned area from Sentinel-2 across the southeastern United States and its contributions relative to Landsat 8 (2016-2019)
Melanie K. Vanderhoof, Todd Hawbaker, Casey Teske, Andrea Ku, Joe Noble, Joshua J. Picotte
2021, Fire (4)
Prescribed fires and wildfires are common in wetland ecosystems across the Southeastern United States. However, the wetland burned area has been chronically underestimated across the region due to (1) spectral confusion between open water and burned area, (2) rapid post-fire vegetation regrowth, and (3) high annual precipitation...
Exploring environmental factors that drive diel variations in tree water storage using wavelet analysis
Ryan Harmon, Holly Barnard, Frederick Day-Lewis, Deqiang Mao, Kamini Singha
2021, Frontiers in Water (3)
Internal water storage within trees can be a critical reservoir that helps trees overcome both short- and long-duration environmental stresses. We monitored changes in internal tree water storage in a ponderosa pine on daily and seasonal scales using moisture probes, a dendrometer, and time-lapse electrical resistivity imaging (ERI). These...
Evaluation of actual evapotranspiration rates from the Operational Simplified Surface Energy Balance (SSEBop) model in Florida and parts of Alabama and Georgia, 2000–17
Nicasio Sepulveda
2021, Scientific Investigations Report 2021-5072
Evapotranspiration (ET) is the water-vapor flux transported from the surface of the Earth into the atmosphere and is the sum of surface water directly evaporated and subsurface water transpired by plants. ET rates are commonly estimated by using potential or reference ET, which might differ from actual ET rates. Actual...
Estimation of dissolved-solids concentrations using continuous water-quality monitoring and regression models at four sites in the Yuma area, Arizona and California, January 2017 through March 2019
Jay R. Cederberg, Nicholas V. Paretti, Alissa L. Coes, Edyth Hermosillo, Lucia Andrade
2021, Scientific Investigations Report 2021-5080
Multiple linear regression models were developed to estimate dissolved-solids concentrations in water at four sites in the Yuma area between Imperial Dam, Arizona and California and the southerly international boundary with Mexico at San Luis, Arizona. Continuous and discrete water-quality data were collected at gaging stations in the Colorado River...
Assessment of barrier island morphological change in northern Alaska
Anna I. Hamilton, Ann E. Gibbs, Li H. Erikson, Anita C. Engelstad
2021, Open-File Report 2021-1074
Arctic barriers islands are highly dynamic features influenced by a variety of oceanographic, geologic, and environmental factors. Many Alaskan barrier islands and spits serve as habitat and protection for native species, as well as shelter the coast from waves and storms that cause flooding and degradation of coastal villages. This...
Seasonally dynamic nutrient modeling quantifies storage lags and time-varying reactivity across large river basins
Noah Schmadel, Judson Harvey, Gregory E. Schwarz
2021, Environmental Research Letters (16)
Nutrients that have gradually accumulated in soils, groundwaters, and river sediments in the United States over the past century can remobilize and increase current downstream loading, obscuring effects of conservation practices aimed at protecting water resources. Drivers of storage accumulation and release of nutrients are poorly understood at the spatial...
Nonlinear shifts in infectious rust disease due to climate change
Joan Dudney, Claire Willing, Adrian Das, Andrew M. Latimer, Jonathan C B Nesmith, John J. Battles
2021, Nature Communications (12)
Range shifts of infectious plant disease are expected under climate change. As plant diseases move, emergent abiotic-biotic interactions are predicted to modify their distributions, leading to unexpected changes in disease risk. Evidence of these complex range shifts due to climate change, however, remains largely speculative. Here, we combine a long-term...
The Holocene dynamics of Ryder Glacier and ice tongue in north Greenland
Matt O’Regan, Thomas M. Cronin, Brendan Reilly, Aage K. Olsen Alstrup, Laura Gemery, Anna Golub, Larry A. Mayer, Mathieu Morlighem, Matthias Moros, Ole L. Munk, Johan Nilsson, Christof Pearce, Henrieka Detlef, Christian Stranne, Flor Vermassen, Gabriel West, Martin Jakobsson
2021, The Cryosphere (15) 4073-4097
The northern sector of the Greenland Ice Sheet is considered to be particularly susceptible to ice mass loss arising from increased glacier discharge in the coming decades. However, the past extent and dynamics of outlet glaciers in this region, and hence their vulnerability to climate change, are poorly documented. In...
Thyroid disruption and oxidative stress in American kestrels following embryonic exposure to the alternative flame retardants, EHTBB and TBPH
CHristopher Goodchild, Natalie Karouna-Renier, Paula F. P. Henry, Robert J. Letcher, Sandra L. Schultz, Catherine M. Maddox, Thomas Bean, Lisa E. Peters, Vince P. Palace, Kimberly J. Fernie
2021, Environment International (157)
Brominated flame retardant chemicals, such as 2-ethylhexyl-2,3,4,5-tetrabromobenzoate (EHTBB) (CAS #: 183658–27-7) and bis(2-ethylhexyl)-2,3,4,5-tetrabromophthalate (TBPH) (CAS #: 26040–51-7), have been detected in avian tissues and eggs from remote regions. Exposure to EHTBB and TBPH has been shown to cause oxidative stress and altered thyroid function...
