Monitoring and assessing urban heat island variations and effects in the United States
George Z. Xian
2021, Fact Sheet 2021-3031
Landsat surface temperature and land cover products have been used to estimate surface temperatures in urban and surrounding nonurban areas and to quantify urban heat island intensity. Understanding the intensity and long-term temporal trends of urban heat islands enables the heat-related health challenges associated with heat waves to be monitored...
Hippopotamus movements structure the spatiotemporal dynamics of an active anthrax outbreak
Keenan Stears, Melissa H. Schmitt, Wendy Christine Turner, Douglas J. McCauley, Epaphras A. Muse, Halima Kiwango, Daniel Matheyo, Benezeth M. Mutayoba
2021, Ecosphere (12)
Globally, anthrax outbreaks pose a serious threat to people, livestock, and wildlife. Furthermore, environmental change can exacerbate these outbreak dynamics by altering the host–pathogen relationship. However, little is known about how the quantitative spatial dynamics of host movement and environmental change may affect the spread of Bacillus anthracis, the causative agent...
Seasonal controls on sediment delivery and hydrodynamics in a vegetated tidally influenced interdistributary island
Richard Styles, Gregg Snedden, S. Jarrell Smith, Duncan B. Bryant, Brandon M. Boyd, Joseph Z. Gailani, Brady Couvillion, Edward Race
2021, Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans (126)
River deltas are maintained by a continuous supply of terrestrial sediments that provide critical land building material to help sustain and protect vulnerable ecological communities and serve as natural storm protection barriers. Local hydrodynamics are important in determining the degree to which fluvial sediments are removed from...
Teleseismic waves reveal anisotropic poroelastic response of wastewater disposal reservoir
Andrew J. Barbour, Nicholas M. Beeler
2021, Earth and Planetary Physics (5) 1-12
Connecting earthquake nucleation in basement rock to fluid injection in basal, sedimentary reservoirs, depends heavily on choices related to the poroelastic properties of the fluid-rock system, thermo-chemical effects notwithstanding. Direct constraints on these parameters outside of laboratory settings are rare, and it is commonly assumed that the rock layers are...
Spatial Gaussian processes improve multi-species occupancy models when range boundaries are uncertain and nonoverlapping
Wilson Wright, Kathryn M. Irvine, Tom Rodhouse, Andrea R. Litt
2021, Ecology and Evolution (11) 8516-8527
Species distribution models enable practitioners to analyze large datasets of encounter records and make predictions about species occurrence at unsurveyed locations. In omnibus surveys that record data on multiple species simultaneously, species ranges are often nonoverlapping and misaligned with the administrative unit defining the spatial domain of interest (e.g.,...
Use of the MODFLOW 6 water mover package to represent natural and managed hydrologic connections
Eric D. Morway, Christian D. Langevin, Joseph D. Hughes
2021, Groundwater (59) 913-924
The latest release of MODFLOW 6, the current core version of the MODFLOW groundwater modeling software, debuted a new package dubbed the “mover” (MVR). Using a generalized approach, MVR facilitates the transfer of water among any arbitrary combination of simulated features (i.e., pumping wells, stream, drains,...
Advancing estuarine ecological forecasts: Seasonal hypoxia in Chesapeake Bay
Donald Scavia, Isabella Bertani, Jeremy M. Testa, Aaron J. Bever, Joel D. Blomquist, Marjorie A. M. Friedrichs, Lewis C. Linker, Bruce Michael, Rebecca Murphy, Gary W. Shenk
2021, Ecological Applications (31)
Ecological forecasts are quantitative tools that can guide ecosystem management. The coemergence of extensive environmental monitoring and quantitative frameworks allows for widespread development and continued improvement of ecological forecasting systems. We use a relatively simple estuarine hypoxia model to demonstrate advances in addressing some of the...
Effects of climate and land-use change on thermal springs recharge—A system-based coupled surface-water and groundwater-flow model for Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas
Rheannon M. Hart, Scott J. Ikard, Phillip D. Hays, Brian R. Clark
2021, Scientific Investigations Report 2021-5045
A three-dimensional hydrogeologic framework of the Hot Springs anticlinorium beneath Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas, was constructed to represent the complex hydrogeology of the park and surrounding areas to depths exceeding 9,000 feet below ground surface. The framework, composed of 6 rock formations and 1 vertical fault emplaced beneath the...
Identifying metabolic alterations associated with coral growth anomalies using 1H NMR metabolomics
Erik R. Andersson, Rusty D. Day, Thierry M. Work, Paul E. Anderson, Cheryl M. Woodley, Tracey B. Schock
2021, Coral Reefs (40) 1195-1209
Coral growth anomalies (GAs) are tumor-like protrusions that are detrimental to coral health, affecting both the coral skeleton and soft tissues. These lesions are increasingly found throughout the tropics and are commonly associated with high human population density, yet little is known about the molecular pathology of the disease. Here,...
Response of fish assemblages to restoration of rapids habitat in a Great Lakes connecting channel
A. Molina-Moctezuma, N. Godby, K. Kapuscinski, Edward F. Roseman, K. Skubik, A. Moerke
2021, Journal of Great Lakes Research (47) 1182-1191
Rapids habitats are critical spawning and nursery grounds for multiple Laurentian Great Lakes fishes of ecological importance such as lake sturgeon, walleye, and salmonids. However, river modifications have destroyed important rapids habitat in connecting channels by modifying flow profiles and removing large quantities of cobble and gravel that are preferred...
Integrating thermal infrared stream temperature imagery and spatial stream network models to understand natural spatial thermal variability in streams
Matthew R. Fuller, Joseph L. Ebersole, Naomi Detenbeck, Rochelle Labisoa, Peter Leinenbach, Christian E. Torgersen
2021, Journal of Thermal Biology (100)
Under a warmer future climate, thermal refuges could facilitate the persistence of species relying on cold-water habitat. Often these refuges are small and easily missed or smoothed out by averaging in models. Thermal infrared (TIR) imagery can provide empirical water surface...
Recency of faulting and subsurface architecture of the San Diego Bay pull-apart basin, California, USA
Drake Moore Singleton, Jillian M. Maloney, Daniel S. Brothers, Shannon Klotsko, Neal W. Driscoll, Thomas K. Rockwell
2021, Frontiers in Earth Science (9)
In southern California, plate boundary motion between the North American and Pacific plates is distributed across several sub-parallel fault systems. The offshore faults of the California Continental Borderland (CCB) are thought to accommodate ~10-15% of the total plate boundary motion, but the exact distribution of slip and the mechanics of...
Magnetotelluric sampling and geoelectric hazard estimation: Are national-scale surveys sufficient?
Benjamin Scott Murphy, Greg M. Lucas, Jeffrey J. Love, Anna Kelbert, Paul A. Bedrosian, E. Joshua Rigler
2021, AGU Space Weather (19)
At present, the most reliable information for inferring storm-time ground electric fields along electrical transmission lines comes from coarsely sampled, national-scale magnetotelluric (MT) data sets, such as that provided by the EarthScope USArray program. An underlying assumption in the use of such data is that they adequately sample the spatial...
Nuclear magnetic resonanance logs of fractured bedrock at the Hidden Lane Landfill site, Culpeper Basin, Virginia
Carole D. Johnson, Stephanie N. Phillips, Frederick D. Day-Lewis, Claire R. Tiedeman, Bruce Rundell, Edward Gilbert
2021, Conference Paper, Symposium on the application of geophysics to engineering and environmental problems proceedings
In May 2018, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) collected borehole nuclear magnetic resonance (bNMR) logs in three boreholes completed in sandstone and siltstone of the Balls Bluff Member of the Bull Run Formation at a Superfund Site in Culpeper Basin, Virginia....
Experimental warming differentially affects vegetative and reproductive phenology of tundra plants
Courtney G. Collins, Sarah Claire Elmendorf, Robert D. Hollister, Greg Henry, Karin Clark, Anne Bjorkman, Isla H. Myers-Smith, Janet S. Prevey, Isabel Ashton, Jakob J. Assmann, Juha Alatalo, Michele Carbognani, Chelsea Chisholm, Elisabeth J. Cooper, Chiara, Ingibjorg Svala Jonsdottir, Kari Klanderud, Christopher Kopp, Carolyn Livensperger, Marguerite Mauritz, Jeremy May, Ulf Molau, Steven F. Oberbaeur, Emily Ogburn, Zoe Panchen, Alessandro Petraglia, Eric Post, Christian Rixen, Heidi Rodenhizer, Ted Schuur, Phillip Semenchuk, Jane G. Smith, Heidi Steltzer, Ørjan Totland, Marilyn Walker, Jeffrey Welker, Katharine N. Suding
2021, Nature Communications (12)
Rapid climate warming is altering Arctic and alpine tundra ecosystem structure and function, including shifts in plant phenology. While the advancement of green up and flowering are well-documented, it remains unclear whether all phenophases, particularly those later in the season, will shift in unison or respond divergently to warming. Here,...
The PLUM earthquake early warning algorithm: A retrospective case study of West Coast, USA, data
Debi Kilb, Julian J Bunn, Jessie Kate Saunders, Elizabeth S. Cochran, Sarah E. Minson, Annemarie S. Baltay Sundstrom, Colin T O’Rourke, Mitsuyuki Hoshiba, Yuki Kodera
2021, JGR Solid Earth (126)
The PLUM (Propagation of Local Undamped Motion) earthquake early warning (EEW) algorithm differs from typical source-based EEW algorithms as it predicts shaking directly from observed shaking without first deriving earthquake source information (e.g., magnitude and epicenter). Here, we determine optimal PLUM event detection thresholds for U.S. West Coast earthquakes using...
Abundance of Gulf Coast Waterdogs (Necturus beyeri) along Bayou Lacombe, Saint Tammany Parish, Louisiana
Brad Glorioso, Hardin Waddle, Lindy J. Muse, Sidney T Godfrey
2021, Journal of Herpetology (55) 160-166
Few ecological studies have been conducted on Gulf Coast Waterdogs (Necturus beyeri), and published studies have focused on relatively small stream sections of 125 m to 1.75 km. In 2015, we sampled 25 sites along a 13.4-km stretch of Bayou Lacombe (Saint Tammany Parish, Louisiana,...
Population estimates and trends of three Maui Island-endemic Hawaiian Honeycreepers
Seth Judge, Christopher C Warren, Richard J. Camp, Laura K Berthold, Hanna L. Mounce, Patrick J. Hart, Ryan J. Monello
2021, Journal of Field Ornithology (92) 115-126
Population monitoring is critical for informing the management and conservation of rare Hawaiian forest birds. In 2017, we used point-transect distance sampling methods to estimate population densities of birds on Haleakalā Volcano on east Maui island. We estimated the populations and ranges of three island-endemic Hawaiian...
A review of sand detachment in modern deep marine environments: Analogues for upslope stratigraphic traps
John W. Counts, Lawrence Amy, Aggeliki Georgiopoulou, Peter Haughton
2021, Marine and Petroleum Geology (132)
Isolated, detached sands provide opportunities for large-volume stratigraphic traps in many deepwater petroleum systems. Here we provide a review of the different types of sandbody detachments based on published data from the modern-day seafloor and recent (generally Quaternary-present), shallow-buried strata. Detachment mechanisms...
Identification of Aphanomyces invadans, the cause of epizootic ulcerative syndrome, in smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieu) from the Cheat River, West Virginia, USA
Heather L. Walsh, Vicki S. Blazer, Patricia M. Mazik
2021, Journal of Fish Diseases (44) 1639-1641
The oomycete Aphanomyces invadans (Saprolegniales, Oomycetes), the cause of epizootic ulcerative syndrome (EUS), is an OIE (World Organization for Animal Health) reportable pathogen, capable of infecting many fish species worldwide in both freshwater and estuarine environments (Iberahim et al. 2018). Since the discovery of EUS in Japan in 1971 (Egusa...
Caution is warranted when using animal space-use and movement to infer behavioral states
Frances E. Buderman, Tess M. Gingery, Duane R. Diefenbach, Laura C. Gigliotti, Danielle Begley-Miller, Marc E. McDill, Bret D. Wallingford, Christopher S. Rosenberry, Patrick J. Drohan
2021, Movement Ecology (9)
BackgroundIdentifying the behavioral state for wild animals that can’t be directly observed is of growing interest to the ecological community. Advances in telemetry technology and statistical methodologies allow researchers to use space-use and movement metrics to infer the underlying, latent, behavioral state of an animal without direct observations....
Diet composition and body condition of polar bears (Ursus maritimus) in relation to sea ice habitat in the Canadian High Arctic
Katie R. N. Florko, Gregory W. Thiemann, Jeffrey F. Bromaghin, Evan S. Richardson
2021, Polar Biology (44) 1445-1456
Polar bears (Ursus maritimus) rely on sea ice for hunting marine mammal prey. Declining sea ice conditions associated with climate warming have negatively affected polar bears, especially in the southern portion of their range. At higher latitudes, the transition from multi-year ice to thinner annual ice...
Assessment of streamflow and water quality in the Upper Yampa River Basin, Colorado, 1992–2018
Natalie K. Day
2021, Scientific Investigations Report 2021-5016
The Upper Yampa River Basin drains approximately 2,100 square miles west of the Continental Divide in north-western Colorado. There is a growing need to understand potential changes in the quantity and quality of water resources as the basin is undergoing increasing land and water development to support growing municipal, industrial,...
Estimating Piacenzian sea surface temperature using an alkenone-calibrated transfer function
Harry J. Dowsett, Marci M. Robinson, Kevin M. Foley
2021, Scientific Investigations Report 2021-5051
Stationarity of environmental preferences is a primary assumption required for any paleoenvironmental reconstruction using fossil materials based upon calibration to modern organisms. Confidence in this assumption decreases the further back in time one goes, and the validity of the assumption that species temperature tolerances have not changed over time has...
Lateral shoreline erosion and shore-proximal sediment deposition on a coastal marsh from seasonal, storm and decadal measurements
Kathryn Smith, Joseph F. Terrano, Nicole S. Khan, Christopher G. Smith, Jonathan L Pitchford
2021, Geomorphology (389)
The persistence of coastal marsh is dependent on its ability to maintain elevation relative to sea level, particularly for marshes experiencing high rates of shoreline erosion due to wave-attack, storms, and sea level rise. Sediments eroded at the marsh edge are either delivered onto the marsh platform or into the estuary, the latter resulting...
