Divergent, plausible, and relevant climate futures for near- and long-term resource planning
David J. Lawrence, Amber N. Runyon, John E. Gross, Gregor W. Schuurman, Brian W. Miller
2021, Climatic Change (167)
Scenario planning has emerged as a widely used planning process for resource management in situations of consequential, irreducible uncertainty. Because it explicitly incorporates uncertainty, scenario planning is regularly employed in climate change adaptation. An early and essential step in developing scenarios is identifying “climate futures”—descriptions of the physical attributes of...
Geochemistry and mineralogy of metallurgical slag
Nadine M. Piatak, Vojtech Ettler, Darryl Andre Hoppe
2021, Book chapter, Metallurgical slags: Environmental geochemistry and resource potential
Slag is a waste product from the pyrometallurgical processing of natural ores or the recycling of man-made materials. This chapter provides an overview of the geochemical and mineralogical characteristics of different types of slag. A review of the analytical methods used to determine these characteristics is also provided. Ferrous slags...
Wetland selection by female Ring-Necked Ducks (Aythya collaris) in the Southern Atlantic Flyway
Tori D. Mezebish, Richard Chandler, Glenn H. Olsen, Michele Goodman, Frank C. Rohwer, Nicholas J. Meng, Mark D. McConnell
2021, Wetlands (41)
On the wintering grounds, wetland selection by waterfowl is influenced by spatiotemporal resource distribution. The ring-necked duck (Aythya collaris) winters in the southeastern United States where a disproportionate amount of Atlantic Flyway ring-necked duck harvest occurs. We quantified female ring-necked duck selection for wetland characteristics during...
Uncertainty in remote sensing of streams using noncontact radars
Mushfiqur Rahman Khan, Jonathan J Gourley, Jorge Duarte, Humberto Vergara, Daniel Wasielewski, Pierre-Alain Ayral, John W, Fulton
2021, Journal of Hydrology (603)
Accounting for freshwater resources and monitoring floods are vital functions for societies throughout the world. Remote-sensing methods offer great prospects to expand stream monitoring in developing countries and to smaller, headwater streams that are largely ungauged worldwide. This study evaluates the...
The trajectory of soil development and its relationship to soil carbon dynamics
Corey Lawrence, Marjorie S. Schulz, Caroline Masiello, Oliver A. Chadwick, Jennifer W. Harden
2021, Geoderma (403)
It has been postulated that the amount of soil organic carbon (SOC) associated with soil minerals exhibits a threshold relationship in response to effective soil moisture (estimated as precipitation less evapotranspiration). To better characterize the role of moisture in influencing mechanisms...
Merging empirical and mechanistic approaches to modeling aquatic visual foraging using a generalizable visual reaction distance model
Sean K. Rohan, David Beauchamp, Timothy E. Essington, Adam G. Hansen
2021, Ecological Modelling (457)
Visual encounter distance models are important tools for predicting how light and water clarity mediate visual predator-prey interactions that affect the structure and function of aquatic ecosystems at multiple spatial, temporal, and organizational scales. The two main varieties of visual encounter distance...
Using an unmanned aerial vehicle water sampler to gather data in a pit-lake mining environment to assess closure and monitoring
Brian Straight, Devin Castendyk, Diane M. McKnight, Connor P. Newman, Pierre Filiatreault, Americo Pino
2021, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment (193)
Residual pit lakes from mining are often dangerous to sample for water quality. Thus, pit lakes may be rarely (or never) sampled. This study developed new technology in which water-sampling devices, mounted on an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), were used to sample three pit lakes in...
Geomorphic history of Lake Manix, Mojave Desert, California: Evolution of a complex terminal lake basin
Marith C. Reheis, David M. Miller, James B. Paces, Charles G. Oviatt, Joanna R. Redwine, Darrell Kaufman, Jordon Bright, Elmira Wan
2021, Geomorphology (392)
The US Environmental Protection Agency's short-term freshwater effluent test methods include a fish (Pimephales promelas), a cladoceran (Ceriodaphnia dubia), and a green alga (Raphidocelis subcapitata). There is a recognized need for additional taxa to accompany the three standard species for effluent testing. An appropriate additional taxon...
Middle and late Pleistocene pluvial history of Newark Valley, central Nevada, USA
Joanna L. Redwine, R. M. Burke, Marith C. Reheis, R. J. Bowers, Jordon Bright, D. S. Kaufman, R. M. Forester
Scott W. Starratt, Michael R. Rosen, editor(s)
2021, Book chapter, From saline to freshwater: The diversity of western lakes in space and time
Newark Valley lies between the two largest pluvial lake systems in the Great Basin, Lake Lahontan and Lake Bonneville. Soils and geomorphology, stratigraphic interpretations, radiocarbon ages, and amino acid racemization geochronology analyses were employed to...
Lakes of the western United States: Novel tools and new views
Scott W. Starratt, Michael R. Rosen
2021, Book chapter, From saline to freshwater: The diversity of western lakes in space and time
No abstract available....
Using microbial source tracking to identify fecal contamination sources in an embayment in Hempstead Harbor on Long Island, New York
Tristen N. Tagliaferri, Shawn C. Fisher, Christopher M. Kephart, Natalie Cheung, Ariel P. Reed, Robert J. Welk
2021, Scientific Investigations Report 2021-5042
The U.S. Geological Survey worked collaboratively with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to assess the potential sources of fecal contamination entering Hempstead Harbor, an embayment on the northern shore of Nassau County, Long Island, New York. Water samples are routinely collected by the New York State Department...
The consequences of dam passage for downstream-migrating American eel in the Penobscot River, Maine
Matthew A. Mensinger, Erik J. Blomberg, Joseph D. Zydlewski
2021, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (78) 1181-1192
American eel (Anguilla rostrata) often pass hydropower dams during adult spawning migrations. We conducted a 4-year acoustic telemetry study that characterized passage risks through two dams (West Enfield and Milford) in the Penobscot River, Maine, USA. We released tagged fish (n = 355) at two sites, estimated survival and delay under...
From saline to freshwater: The diversity of western lakes in space and time
Scott W. Starratt, Michael R. Rosen, editor(s)
2021, Book
Beginning with the nineteenth-century territorial surveys, the lakes and lacustrine deposits in what is now the western United States were recognized for their economic value to the expanding nation. In the latter half of the twentieth century, these systems have been acknowledged as outstanding examples of depositional systems serving as...
Holocene evolution of sea-surface temperature and salinity in the Gulf of Mexico
Kaustubh Thiumalai, Julie N. Richey, Terrence M. Quinn
2021, Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology (36)
Flows into and out of the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) are integral to North Atlantic ocean circulation, and help facilitate poleward heat transport in the Western Hemisphere. The GoM also serves as a key source of moisture for much of North America. Modern patterns of sea-surface temperature...
Understanding the future of big sagebrush regeneration: challenges of projecting complex ecological processes
Daniel Rodolphe Schlaepfer, John B. Bradford, William K. Lauenroth, Robert K Shriver
2021, Ecosphere (12)
Regeneration is an essential demographic step that affects plant population persistence, recovery after disturbances, and potential migration to track suitable climate conditions. Challenges of restoring big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) after disturbances including fire-invasive annual grass interactions exemplify the need to understand the complex regeneration processes of...
Paleoclimate record for Lake Coyote, California, and the Last Glacial Maximum and deglacial paleohydrology (25 to 14 cal ka) of the Mojave River
David M. Miller, Stephanie L. Dudash, John P. McGeehin
2021, Book chapter, From Saline to Freshwater: The Diversity of Western Lakes in Space and Time
Lake Coyote, California, which formed in one of five basins along the Mojave River, acted both as a part of the Lake Manix basin and, after the formation of Afton Canyon and draining of Lake Manix ca. 24.5 calibrated (cal) ka, a side basin that was filled episodically for the...
Tolerance of northern Gulf of Mexico eastern oysters to chronic warming at extreme salinities
D.A. Marshall, N.C. Coxe, Megan K. La Peyre, W.C. Walton, F. Scott Rikard, J. Beseres Pollack, M.A. Kelly, J.F. La Peyre
2021, Journal of Thermal Biology (100)
The eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica, provides critical ecosystem services and supports valuable fishery and aquaculture industries in northern Gulf of Mexico (nGoM) subtropical estuaries where it is grown subtidally. Its upper critical thermal limit is not well defined, especially when combined with extreme salinities. The cumulative mortalities of the progenies of wild C....
A decade of Indigenous knowledge research in the Yukon River basin: Reflection on “Indigenous observations of change in the lower Yukon River basin, Alaska”
Nicole M. Herman-Mercer
2021, Human Organization (80) 234-245
Herman-Mercer reflects on her first article" Indigenous Observations of Change in the Lower Yukon River Basin, Alaska." The observations and knowledge presented in this study have become part of an ever-growing catalog of studies representing, and part of a chorus of Indigenous communities across the Arctic and Subarctic conveying, the...
Channel-amphitheatre landforms resulting from liquefaction flowslides during rapid drawdown of glacial Lake Fraser, British Columbia, Canada
Brendan G.N. Miller, Richard M. Iverson, John J. Clague, Marten Geertsema, Nicholas J. Roberts
2021, Geomorphology (392)
Unusual channel-amphitheatre landforms are present in Late Pleistocene–early Holocene, subaqueous fan and delta deposits in the glacial Lake Fraser basin, central British Columbia. The lake formed during the decay of the last Cordilleran Ice Sheet and drained ~11,500 years ago during a large outburst flood. The fronts of...
Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units program—2020 research abstracts
John D. Thompson, Patrick G.R. Jodice, Donald E. Dennerline, Dawn E. Childs, editor(s)
2021, Circular 1477
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) serves as the research arm of the U.S. Department of the Interior and has established a series of strategic goals that focus its efforts on serving the American people. Within the USGS, the Ecosystems Mission Area is responsible for conducting and sponsoring research that addresses...
Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units program—2020 Year in review
John D. Thompson, Donald E. Dennerline, Dawn E. Childs, Patrick G.R. Jodice
2021, Circular 1478
Established in 1935, the Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units program (CRU program) is a unique cooperative partnership among State fish and wildlife agencies, universities, the Wildlife Management Institute, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Designed to meet the scientific needs of natural resource...
Student and recent graduate opportunities
Laura K. Corey
2021, General Information Product 211
As an unbiased, multidisciplinary science organization, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is dedicated to the timely, relevant, and impartial study of the health of our ecosystems and environment, our natural resources, the impacts of climate and land-use change, and the natural hazards that affect our lives. Opportunities for undergraduate and...
Optimization of salt marsh management at the Long Island National Wildlife Refuge Complex, New York, through use of structured decision making
Hilary A. Neckles, James E. Lyons, Jessica L. Nagel, Susan C. Adamowicz, Toni Mikula, Monica R. Williams
2021, Open-File Report 2021-1070
Structured decision making is a systematic, transparent process for improving the quality of complex decisions by identifying measurable management objectives and feasible management actions; predicting the potential consequences of management actions relative to the stated objectives; and selecting a course of action that maximizes the total benefit achieved and balances...
American and Sacramento Rivers, California, erodibility measurements and model
Paul A. Work, Daniel N. Livsey
2021, Scientific Investigations Report 2021-5052
Executive Summary A previous report by the authors described sediment sampling and drilling by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) beside the American and Sacramento Rivers near Sacramento, California, in support of a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project focused on regional flood control. The drilling was performed to define lithology,...
Identification of the Gulf of Mexico as an important high-use habitat for leatherback turtles from Central America
D.R. Evans, R.A. Valverde, C. Ordonez, Raymond R. Carthy
2021, Ecosphere (12)
Endangered leatherback sea turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) are wide-ranging, long-distance migrants whose movements are often associated with environmental cues. We examined the spatial distribution and habitat use for 33 satellite-tracked leatherbacks from nesting beaches on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica and Panama from 2004 to 2018,...
