How Is climate change affecting polar bears and giant pandas?
Melissa Songer, Todd C. Atwood, David C. Douglas, Qiongyu Huang, Renqiang Li, Nicholas Pilfold, Ming Xu, George M. Durner
2020, Book chapter, Bears of the world: Ecology, conservation, and management
Anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are the primary cause of climate change and an estimated increase of 3.7 to 4.8 °C is predicted by the year 2100 if emissions continue at current levels. Polar bears (Ursus maritimus)...
Development of a novel framework for modeling field-scale conservation effects of depressional wetlands in agricultural landscapes
Owen P. McKenna, Javier M. Osorio, Katherine D. Behrman, Luca Doro, David M. Mushet
2020, Journal of Soil and Water Conservation (6) 695-703
The intermixed cropland, grassland, and wetland ecosystems of the upper mid-western United States combine to provide a suite of valuable ecological services. Grassland and wetland losses in the upper midwestern United States have been extensive, but government-funded conservation programs have protected and restored hundreds of thousands...
Origin and properties of hydrothermal tremor at Lone Star Geyser, Yellowstone National Park, USA
Avinash Nayak, Michael Manga, Shaul Hurwitz, Atsuko Namiki, Phillip B. Dawson
2020, Journal of Geophysical Research (125)
Geysers are rare geologic features that intermittently discharge liquid water and steam driven by heating and decompression boiling. The cause of variability in eruptive styles and the associated seismic signals are not well understood. Data collected from five broadband seismometers at Lone Star Geyser, Yellowstone National...
Seismic attenuation monitoring of a critically stressed San Andreas fault
Luca Malagnini, Thomas E. Parsons
2020, Geophysical Research Letters (47)
We show that seismic attenuation ( ) along the San Andreas fault (SAF) at Parkfield correlates with the occurrence of moderate‐to‐large earthquakes at local and regional distances. Earthquake‐related anomalies are likely caused by changes in permeability from dilatant static stress changes, damage by strong...
Agricultural land-use change alters the structure and diversity of Amazon riparian forests
Leonardo Maracahipes-Santos, Divino Vicente Silverio, Marcia Nunes Macedo, Leandro Maracahipes, Kathi Jo Jankowski, Lucas Navarro Paolucci, Christopher Neill, Paulo Monteiro Brando
2020, Biological Conservation (252)
Riparian forests play key roles in protecting biodiversity and water resources, making them priorities for conservation in human-dominated landscapes, but fragmentation associated with expanding tropical croplands threatens their ecological integrity. We compared the structure of tropical riparian forests within intact and cropland catchments in a region...
Rockhopper Penguin–Imperial Cormorant mixed colonies in the Falkland Islands: A stroke of luck for late breeders
Virginia Morandini, Katie M. Dugger, David Ainley, Miguel Ferrer
2020, Ecosphere (11)
Mixed-species colonies occur frequently, especially among seabirds, and may provide mutual benefits among associated species including antipredator advantages. The “protector” species in such associations may provide early warning signals or by aggressively defending their own nests, may expel predators from the area. We explored costs and benefits to Rockhopper Penguins...
Cytology reveals diverse cell morphotypes and cellin-cell interactions in normal collector sea urchins Tripneustes gratilla
Thierry M. Work, Elena Millard, Daniela B. Mariani, Tina M. Weatherby, Robert Rameyer, Julie Dagenais, Renee Breeden, Allison Beale
2020, Diseases of Aquatic Organisms (142) 63-73
Echinoderms such as sea urchins are important in marine ecosystems, particularly as grazers, and unhealthy sea urchins can have important ecological implications. For instance, unexplained mortalities of Diadema antillarum in the Caribbean were followed by algal overgrowth and subsequent collapse of coral reef ecosystems. Unfortunately, few tools exist to evaluate echinoderm...
Landscape and climatic influences on actual evapotranspiration and available water using the Operational Simplified Surface Energy Balance (SSEBop) Model in eastern Bernalillo County, New Mexico, 2015
Kyle R. Douglas-Mankin, Ryan J. McCutcheon, Aurelia C. Mitchell, Gabriel B. Senay
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5095
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Bernalillo County Public Works Division, conducted a 1-year study in 2015 to assess the spatial and temporal distribution of evapotranspiration (ET) and available water within the East Mountain area in Bernalillo County, New Mexico. ET and available water vary spatiotemporally because of...
Effectiveness of submerged vanes for stabilizing streamside bluffs
Benjamin O. Lee, Faith A. Fitzpatrick, John A. Hoopes
2020, Journal of Hydraulic Engineering (147)
The effectiveness of submerged vanes for stabilizing streamside bluffs varied over a 10-year monitoring period in a tributary to Lake Superior, United States. Submerged vanes are a river training device used to divert river flows away from eroding banks along meander bends and ultimately hold constant or...
Reproduction and denning by San Clemente Island Foxes: Age, sex, and polygamy
Emily E. Hamblen, William F. Andelt, Thomas R. Stanley
2020, The Southwestern Naturalist (64) 164-172
Channel Island foxes (Urocyon littoralis) live on six of the eight California Channel Islands, and each island is inhabited by a distinct subspecies. Until recently, four of these subspecies were listed under the Endangered Species Act as endangered. Although three of the four subspecies have been delisted, and one subspecies...
Impacts of environmental conditions on fleas in black-tailed prairie dog burrows
Julia E. Poje, Tonie E. Rocke, Michael D. Samuel
2020, Journal of Vector Ecology (45) 356-365
Sylvatic plague, caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis and transmitted by fleas, occurs in prairie dogs of the western United States. Outbreaks can devastate prairie dog communities, often causing nearly 100% mortality. Three competent flea vectors, prairie dog specialists Oropsylla hirsuta and O. tuberculata, and generalist Pulex simulans, are found on prairie dogs...
Ensemble ShakeMaps for magnitude 9 earthquakes on the Cascadia Subduction Zone
Erin A. Wirth, Alex R. Grant, Nasser A. Marafi, Arthur D. Frankel
2020, Seismological Research Letters (92) 199-211
We develop ensemble ShakeMaps for various magnitude 9 (M">MM 9) earthquakes on the Cascadia megathrust. Ground‐shaking estimates are based on 30 M">MM 9...
Brood parasitism of greater sage-grouse by California Quail in Idaho
Jordan C. Rabon, Sarah E McIntire, Peter S. Coates, Mark A. Ricca, Tracey N. Johnson
2020, Western North American Naturalist (80) 569-572
We describe a case of brood parasitism of a Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus; hereafter, sage-grouse) nest by California Quail (Callipepla californica; hereafter, quail) in southwestern Idaho during 2019. We observed one quail egg in the parasitized nest; the egg partially hatched, but the chick was dead upon the final nest...
Baseflow age distributions and depth of active groundwater flow in a snow‐dominated mountain headwater basin
Rosemary W.H. Carroll, Andrew H. Manning, Richard G. Niswonger, David W Marchetti, Kenneth H. Williams
2020, Water Resources Research (56)
Deeper flows through bedrock in mountain watersheds could be important, but lack of data to characterize bedrock properties limits understanding. To address data scarcity, we combine a previously published integrated hydrologic model of a snow‐dominated, headwater basin of the Colorado River with a new method for dating baseflow age using...
Seabird synthesis
Mayumi L. Arimitsu, Hillary K. Burgess, Robin Corcoran, Scott Hatch, Tim Jones, Jackie Lindsey, Caitlin Elizabeth Marsteller, John F. Piatt, Sarah K. Schoen
2020, Book chapter, Ecosystem status report 2020 Gulf of Alaska
Overall, the status of seabirds was fair to good in the WGOA in 2020, with limited data available from Middleton Island, Cook Inlet, and the Kodiak Archipelago (Figure 63). Colony attendance remains low in some populations compared to historic levels, and some colonies were newly abandoned. However, when birds did...
Field comparison of five in situ turbidity sensors
Teri T. Snazelle
2020, Open-File Report 2020-1123
Five commercially available turbidity sensors were field tested by the U.S. Geological Survey Hydrologic Instrumentation Facility for accuracy and data comparability. The tested sensors were the Xylem EXO (EXO), the Hach Solitax sc (Solitax), the In Situ Aqua TROLL sensor installed onto a TROLL 600 sonde (TROLL 600), the Campbell...
Divergent movement patterns of adult and juvenile ‘Akohekohe, an endangered Hawaiian Honeycreeper
Alex X Wang, Eben H. Paxton, Hanna L. Mounce, P. Marcos Gorresen
2020, Journal of Field Ornithology (91) 346-353
The movement patterns of birds across a landscape are often highly variable and influenced by complex interactions between individuals and environments. Because periods of movement can be marked by high mortality, especially among juvenile birds, understanding these patterns may be vital for the conservation of many...
Measured and calculated nitrate and dissolved organic carbon concentrations and loads at the W.P. Franklin Lock and Dam, S-79, south Florida, 2014-17
Amanda Booth
2020, Open-File Report 2020-1094
The U.S. Geological Survey monitored dissolved nitrate plus nitrite as nitrogen (N) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations and calculated loads of these constituents at the W.P. Franklin Lock and Dam (S-79) from April 2014 to December 2017. Flows from Lake Okeechobee controlled by S-77, S-78 and S-79 affect water...
Water temperature controls for regulated canyon-bound rivers
Bryce A. Mihalevich, Bethany Neilson, Caleb A. Buahin, Charles B. Yackulic, John C. Schmidt
2020, Water Resources Research (56)
Many canyon‐bound rivers have been dammed and downstream flow and water temperatures modified. Climate change is expected to cause lower storage in reservoirs and warmer release temperatures, which may further alter downstream flow and thermal regimes. To anticipate potential future changes, we first need to understand the dominant heat transfer...
Increased typhoon activity in the Pacific deep tropics driven by Little Ice Age circulation changes
James F Bramante, Murray Ford, Paul Kench, Andrew Ashton, Michael Toomey, Richard Sullivan, Kristopher Karnauskas, Caroline C. Ummenhofer, Jeffrey P. Donnelly
2020, Nature Geoscience (13) 806-811
The instrumental record reveals that tropical cyclone activity is sensitive to oceanic and atmospheric variability on inter-annual and decadal scales. However, our understanding of the influence of climate on tropical cyclone behaviour is restricted by the short historical record and the sparseness of prehistorical reconstructions, particularly in the western North...
Along-margin variations in breakup volcanism at the Eastern North American Margin
John A. Greene, Masako Tominaga, Nathaniel C. Miller
2020, Journal of Geophysical Research (125)
We model the magnetic signature of rift-related volcanism to understand the distribution and volumeofmagmatic activity that occurred during the breakup of Pangaea and early Atlantic opening at the Eastern North American Margin (ENAM).Along-strike variations in the amplitude and character of the prominent East Coast Magnetic Anomaly (ECMA) suggest that the...
Cortisol is an osmoregulatory and glucose-regulating hormone in Atlantic sturgeon, a basal ray-finned fish
Stephen D. McCormick, Meghan L. Taylor, Amy M. Regish
2020, Journal of Experimental Biology (223)
Our current understanding of the hormonal control of ion regulation in aquatic vertebrates comes primarily from studies on teleost fishes, with relatively little information on more basal fishes. We investigated the role of cortisol in regulating seawater tolerance and its underlying mechanisms in an anadromous chondrostean,...
Estimating and forecasting spatial population dynamics of apex predators using transnational genetic monitoring
Richard Bischof, Cyril Milleret, Pierre Dupont, Joseph Chipperfield, Mahdieh Tourani, Andres Ordiz, Perry de Valpine, Daniel Turek, J. Andrew Royle, Olivier Gemenez, Oystein Flagstad, Mikael Akesson, Linn Svensson, Henrik Broseth, Jonas Kindberg
2020, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA (11) 30531-30538
The ongoing recovery of terrestrial large carnivores in North America and Europe is accompanied by intense controversy. On the one hand, reestablishment of large carnivores entails a recovery of their most important ecological role, predation. On the other hand, societies are struggling to relearn how to live with apex predators...
Using tracer variance decay to quantify variability of salinity mixing in the Hudson River Estuary
John C. Warner, W Rockwill Geyer, David K. Ralston, Tarandeep S. Kalra
2020, Journal of Geophysical Research, Oceans (125)
The salinity structure in an estuary is controlled by time‐dependent mixing processes. However, the locations and temporal variability of where significant mixing occurs is not well‐understood. Here we utilize a tracer variance approach to demonstrate the spatial and temporal structure of salinity mixing in the Hudson River Estuary. We run...
Stable isotope dynamics of herbivorous reef fishes and their ectoparasites
William Jenkins, Amanda Demopoulos, Matthew C. Nicholson, Paul C. Sikkel
2020, Diversity (12)
Acanthurids (surgeonfishes) are an abundant and diverse group of herbivorous fishes on coral reefs. While their contribution to trophic linkages and dynamics in coral reef systems has received considerable attention, the role of linkages involving their parasites has not. As both consumers of fish tissue and prey to microcarnivores, external...
