Migration patterns and wintering distribution of common loons breeding in the Upper Midwest
Kevin P. Kenow, Luke J. Fara, Steven C. Houdek, Brian R. Gray, Darryl J. Heard, Michael W. Meyer, Timothy J. Fox, Robert Kratt, Scott L. Ford, Anette Gendron-Fitzpatrick, Carrol L. Henderson
2021, Journal of Avian Biology (52)
Identification of geographic linkages among breeding, migratory and wintering common loon Gavia immer populations is needed to inform regional and national conservation planning efforts and compensation of loons lost during marine oil spill events. Satellite telemetry and archival geolocator tags were used to determine the migration patterns and...
Biotic vs abiotic controls on temporal sensitivity of primary production to precipitation across North American drylands
Andrew J Felton, Robert K Shriver, John B. Bradford, Katharine N. Suding, Brady W Allred, Peter B. Adler
2021, New Phytologist (231) 2150-2161
Dryland net primary productivity (NPP) is sensitive to temporal variation in precipitation (PPT), but the magnitude of this ‘temporal sensitivity’ varies spatially. Hypotheses for spatial variation in temporal sensitivity have often emphasized abiotic factors, such as moisture limitation, while overlooking biotic factors, such as vegetation structure.We tested these hypotheses...
Beyond streamflow: Call for a national data repository of streamflow presence for streams and rivers in the United States
Kristin Jaeger, Konrad Hafen, Jason B. Dunham, Ken M. Fritz, Stephanie K. Kampf, Theodore B. Barnhart, Kendra E. Kaiser, Roy Sando, Sherri L Johnson, Ryan R. McShane, Sarah Beth Dunn
2021, Water (12)
Observations of the presence or absence of surface water in streams are useful for characterizing streamflow permanence, which includes the frequency, duration, and spatial extent of surface flow in streams and rivers. Such data are particularly valuable for headwater streams, which comprise the vast majority of channel length in stream...
Integrated hydrology and operations modeling to evaluate climate change impacts in an agricultural valley irrigated with snowmelt runoff
Wesley Kitlasten, Eric D. Morway, Richard G. Niswonger, Murphy Gardner, Jeremy T. White, Enrique Triana, David J. Selkowitz
2021, Water Resources Research (57)
Applying models to developed agricultural regions remains a difficult problem because there are no existing modeling codes that represent both the complex physics of the hydrology and anthropogenic manipulations to water distribution and consumption. We apply an integrated groundwater – surface water and hydrologic river operations model...
Cape Romain partnership for coastal protection
Mitchell J. Eaton, Fred A. Johnson, Jessica Mikels-Carrasco, David J. Case, Julien Martin, Bradley Stith, Simeon Yurek, Bradley Udell, Laura Villegas, Laura Taylor, Zulquarnain Haider, Hadi Charkhgard, Changhyun Kwon
2021, Open-File Report 2021-1021
This final report summarizes activities, outcomes, and lessons learned from a 3-year project titled “Climate Change Adaptation for Coastal National Wildlife Refuges” with the Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) and local partners in the surrounding South Carolina Lowcountry. The Lowcountry is classified as the 10-county area encompassing the coastal...
System characterization of Earth observation sensors
2021, Open-File Report 2021-1030
This U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report provides information from assessments of Earth observation sensors completed by the U.S. Geological Survey Earth Resources Observation and Science Cal/Val Center of Excellence. These reports are provided as independent measures of basic system performance by the Earth Resources Observation and Science Cal/Val Center of...
A review of osmoregulation in lamprey
Diogo Ferreira-Martins, Jonathan M Wilson, Scott P Kelly, Dennis Kolosov, Stephen D. McCormick
2021, Journal of Great Lakes Research (47) S59-S71
Lamprey are living representatives of the basal vertebrate agnathan lineage. Many lamprey species are anadromous with a complex life cycle that includes metamorphosis from a freshwater (FW) benthic filter-feeding larva into a parasitic juvenile which migrates to seawater (SW) or (in landlocked populations) large bodies of FW. After a juvenile/adult...
Fluvial Egg Drift Simulator (FluEgg) user’s manual
Marian M. Domanski, Jessica Z. LeRoy, Michael Berutti, P. Ryan Jackson
2021, Open-File Report 2021-1052
The Fluvial Egg Drift Simulator (FluEgg) was developed to simulate the transport and dispersion of invasive carp eggs and larvae in a river. FluEgg currently (2020) supports modeling of bighead carp (Hypophthalmichthys nobilis), silver carp (H. molitrix), and grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella), with the planned addition of black carp (Mylopharyngodon...
Navigating the science-policy interface
Michael C. Runge
Donald Baur, Ya-Wei Li, editor(s)
2021, Book chapter, Endangered species act: Law, policy, and perspectives
As a wildlife population ecologist who wants to conduct useful science, I find the Endangered Species Act (ESA), like other federal wildlife statutes, an intriguing read. The topic is in my wheelhouse—fish, wildlife, and plants, with a focus at the population and species levels. There is an emphasis on...
Evidence for latent crustal fluid injection transients in southern California from long-duration earthquake swarms
Zachary E. Ross, Elizabeth S. Cochran
2021, Geophysical Research Letters (48)
Earthquake swarms are manifestations of aseismic driving processes deep in the crust. We examine the spatiotemporal distribution of aseismic processes in Southern California using a 12-years catalog of swarms derived with deep learning algorithms. In a core portion of the plate boundary region, which is not associated with elevated heat...
Long-term population fluctuations of a Burrowing Owl population on Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico, USA
Carl G. Lundblad, Courtney J. Conway, Kristen Cruz-McDonnell, Dejeanne Doublet, Martha J. Desmond, Corrie Navis, Kurt Ongman
2021, Journal of Raptor Research (55) 241-254
Western Burrowing Owls (Athene cunicularia hypugaea; hereafter, Burrowing Owls) were once widespread residents of grasslands throughout western North America, but their range has contracted, and abundance has declined in some regions. The causes of declines and geographic variation in population trends of Burrowing Owls are unclear but may be linked...
Genetic structure and population history in two critically endangered Kaua‘i honeycreepers
Loren Cassin-Sackett, Michael G. Campana, Nancy McInerney, Haw Chuan Lim, Natalia Przelomska, Bryce Masuda, R. Terry Chesser, Eben H. Paxton, Jeffery T Foster, Lisa H. Crampton, Robert C. Fleischer
2021, Conservation Genetics (22) 601-614
Population sizes of endemic songbirds on Kaua‘i have decreased by an order of magnitude over the past 10–15 years to dangerously low numbers. The primary cause appears to be the ascent of invasive mosquitoes and Plasmodium relictum, the agent of avian malaria, into elevations formerly free of introduced malarial parasites and their...
Using systems thinking to inform management of imperiled species: A case study with sea turtles
Ian Silver-Gorges, Simona A. Ceriani, Matthew Ware, Megan Lamb, Margaret Lamont, Janice Becker, Raymond Carthy, Chris Matechik, Joseph C. Mitchell, Raya Pruner, Mike Reynolds, Bradley Smith, Caitlyn Snyder, Mariana M. P. B. Fuentes
2021, Biological Conservation (260)
Management of imperiled species facing spatiotemporally dynamic threats is difficult. Systems thinking can inform their management by quantifying the impacts that they face. We apply systems thinking to the Northern Gulf of Mexico (NGM) loggerhead (Caretta caretta) Recovery Unit (RU), one of the smallest subpopulations of loggerheads nesting in the USA. We...
Riparian forest cover modulates phosphorus storage and nitrogen cycling in agricultural stream sediments
Rebecca M. Kreiling, Lynn A. Bartsch, Patrik Mathis Perner, Enrika Hlavacek, Victoria Christensen
2021, Environmental Management (68) 279-293
Watershed land cover affects in-stream water quality and sediment nutrient dynamics. The presence of natural land cover in the riparian zone can reduce the negative effects of agricultural land use on water quality; however, literature evaluating the effects of natural riparian land cover on stream sediment nutrient dynamics is scarce....
Developing a strategy for the national coordinated soil moisture monitoring network
Micheal Cosh, Todd Caldwell, Bruce M. Baker, John D. Bolton, Nathan Edwards, Peter Goble, Heather Hofman, Tyson Ochsner, Steven Quiring, Charles W. Schalk, Marina Skumanich, Mark Svoboda, Molly Woloszyn
2021, Vadose Zone Journal (20)
Soil moisture is a critical land surface variable, affecting a wide variety of climatological, agricultural, and hydrological processes. Determining the current soil moisture status is possible via a variety of methods, including in situ monitoring, remote sensing, and numerical modeling. Although all of these approaches are...
Changes in the abundance and distribution of waterfowl wintering in the Central Valley of California, 1973–2000
Joseph P. Fleskes, Michael L. Casazza, Cory T. Overton, Elliott Matchett, Julie L. Yee
2021, Studies of Western Birds (3) 50-74
The Central Valley of California is one of the most important areas for wintering waterfowl in the world and the focus of extensive conservation efforts to mitigate for historical losses and counter continuing stressors to habitats. To guide conservation, we analyzed trends in the abundance and distribution (spatiotemporal abundance patterns)...
Nearshore fish species richness and species–habitat associations in the St. Clair–Detroit River System
Corbin D. Hilling, Jason L. Fischer, Jason E. Ross, Taaja Tucker, Robin L. DeBruyne, Christine M. Mayer, Edward F. Roseman
2021, Water (12)
Shallow water riparian zones of large rivers provide important habitat for fishes, but anthropogenic influences have reduced the availability and quality of these habitats. In the St. Clair–Detroit River System, a Laurentian Great Lakes connecting channel, losses of riparian habitat contributed to impairment of fish populations and their habitats. We...
Soil reservoir dynamics of ophidiomyces ophidiicola, the causative agent of snake fungal disease
Lewis J. Campbell, Joanna Burger, Robert T. Zappalorti, John F. Bunnell, Megan Winzeler, Daniel R. Taylor, Jeffrey M. Lorch
2021, Journal of Fungi (7)
Wildlife diseases pose an ever-growing threat to global biodiversity. Understanding how wildlife pathogens are distributed in the environment and the ability of pathogens to form environmental reservoirs is critical to understanding and predicting disease dynamics within host populations. Snake fungal disease (SFD) is an emerging conservation threat to North American...
Migration efficiency sustains connectivity across agroecological networks supporting sandhill crane migration
J. Patrick Donnelly, Sammy L. King, Jeff Knetter, James H. Gammonley, Victoria J. Dreitz, Blake A. Grisham, M. Cathy Nowak, Daniel P. Collins
2021, Ecosphere (12)
Preserving avian flyway connectivity has long been challenged by our capacity to meaningfully quantify continental habitat dynamics and bird movements at temporal and spatial scales underlying long-distance migrations. Waterbirds migrating hundreds or thousands of kilometers depend on networks of wetland stopover sites to rest and refuel. Entire populations may rely...
Detailed traveltime tomography and seismic catalog around the 2019 Mw7.1 Ridgecrest, California, earthquake using dense rapid-response seismic data
Malcolm White, Hongjian Fang, Rufus D. Catchings, Mark Goldman, Jamison Haase Steidl, Yehuda Ben-Zion
2021, Geophysical Journal International (227) 204-227
We derive a detailed earthquake catalogue and Vp, Vs and Vp/Vs models for the region around the 2019 Mw 6.4 and Mw7.1 Ridgecrest, California, earthquake sequence using data recorded by rapid-response, densely deployed sensors following the Ridgecrest main shock and the regional network. The new catalogue spans a 4-month period, starting on 1 June 2019, and it includes...
A decision-analytical framework for developing harvest regulations
Michael C. Runge
Kevin L. Pope, Larkin A. Powell, editor(s)
2021, Book chapter, Harvest of fish and wildlife: New paradigms for sustainable management
The development of harvest regulations for fish or wildlife is a complex decision that needs to weigh multiple objectives, consider a set of alternative regulatory options, integrate scientific understanding about the population dynamics of the harvested species as well as the human response to regulations, account for uncertainty, and provide...
Engaging hunters in selecting duck season dates using decision science: Problem framing, objective setting, devising management alternatives
Angela K. Fuller, Joshua C. Stiller, William F. Siemer, Kelly A. Perkins
2021, Book chapter, Harvest of fish and wildlife: New paradigms for sustainable management
Waterfowl hunters have an important economic impact on local, state, and national economies, and are important stakeholders in decisions regarding waterfowl harvest season dates. Individual states are responsible for annually setting duck season dates that conform to the migratory game bird season frameworks as set by the U.S. Fish and...
Using structured decision making to incorporate ecological and social values into harvest decisions: Case studies of white-tailed deer and walleye
Kelly F. Robinson, Angela K. Fuller, Michael Jones
2021, Book chapter, Harvest of fish and wildlife: New paradigms for sustainable management
Harvest decisions for fish and wildlife populations often include conflicting ecological, economic, and social values. Using decision analysis, such as structured decision making and adaptive management, as a framework to aid decision makers in multi-objective decision making for setting harvest regulations can lead to a more transparent and resilient decision....
The future of managing ungulate species: White-tailed deer as a case study
Duane R. Diefenbach, W. Matthew Knox, Christopher S. Rosenberry
2021, Book chapter, Harvest of fish and wildlife: New paradigms for sustainable management
The future challenge to managing ungulate populations to meet objectives is likely to become more difficult as participation in recreational hunting declines and ungulate populations become more abundant. The authors use the white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in North America as a case study to illustrate the management challenges facing decision...
System characterization report on the WorldView-3 Imager
Simon J. Cantrell, Jon Christopherson, Cody Anderson, Gregory L. Stensaas, Shankar N. Ramaseri Chandra, Minsu Kim, Seonkyung Park
2021, Open-File Report 2021-1030-I
Executive SummaryThis report addresses system characterization of the Maxar WorldView-3 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 2020. These reports present and detail the methodology and procedures for...
