Distribution and abundance of Westslope Cutthroat Trout in relation to habitat characteristics at multiple spatial scales
John W Heckel, Michael C. Quist, Carson J. Watkins, Andrew M. Dux
2020, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (40) 893-909
The distribution and relative abundance of Westslope Cutthroat Trout (WCT) Oncorhynchus clarkii lewisi in relation to habitat characteristics remain unknown across large portions of the species’ range. The goals of this research were to provide a foundational understanding of WCT distribution and relative abundance related to habitat characteristics in tributaries of the...
Using value of information to prioritize research needs for migratory bird management under climate change: A case study using federal land acquisition in the United States
Clark S Rushing, Madeleine A. Rubenstein, James E. Lyons, Michael C. Runge
2020, Biological Reviews (95) 1109-1130
In response to global habitat loss, many governmental and non‐governmental organizations have implemented land acquisition programs to protect critical habitats permanently for priority species. The ability of these protected areas to meet future management objectives may be compromised if the effects of climate change are not considered in acquisition decisions....
Bedrock geologic map of the Mount Ascutney 7.5- x 15-minute quadrangle, Windsor County, Vermont, and Sullivan County, New Hampshire
Gregory J. Walsh, Peter M. Valley, Peter J. Thompson, Nicholas M. Ratcliffe, Brooks P. Proctor, Karri R. Sicard
2020, Scientific Investigations Map 3440
The bedrock geology of the Mount Ascutney 7.5- x 15-minute quadrangle consists of highly deformed and metamorphosed Mesoproterozoic through Devonian metasedimentary and meta-igneous rocks intruded by rocks of the Mesozoic White Mountain Igneous Suite. In the west, Mesoproterozoic gneisses of the Mount Holly Complex are the oldest rocks and form...
Preliminary investigation of the critically imperiled Caney Mountain cave crayfish Orconectes stygocaneyi Hobbs III, 2001 (Decapoda: Cambaridae) in Missouri, USA
Robert J. DiStefano, D.C. Ashley, Shannon K. Brewer, J.B. Mouser, M. Neimiller
2020, Freshwater Crayfish (25) 47-57
The Caney Mountain cave crayfish (Orconectes stygocaneyi) is one of North America's rarest crayfish, endemic to one cave in southern Missouri, USA. The species is listed as 'critically imperiled' by Missouri, and 'threatened' by the American Fisheries Society. Previously, only 15 crayfish have been observed in Mud Cave, and only...
Millennial-scale climate and human drivers of environmental change and fire activity in a dry, mixed-conifer forest of northwestern Montana
David B. McWethy, Mio Alt, Elana Argiriadis, Dario Battistel, Richard G. Everett, Gregory T. Pederson
2020, Frontiers in Forests and Global Change (3)
Warm summer temperatures and longer fire seasons are promoting larger, and in some cases, more fires that are severe in low- and mid-elevation, dry mixed-conifer forests of the Northern Rocky Mountains (NRM). Long-term historical fire conditions and human influence on past fire activity are not well understood for these topographically...
Seasonal manganese transport in the hyporheic zone of a snowmelt-dominated river (East River, Colorado)
S. Bryant, A. Sawyer, Martin A. Briggs, C. Saup, A. R Nelson, M. J. Wilkins, J. R. Christensen, K. H. Williams
2020, Hydrogeology Journal (28) 1323-1341
Manganese (Mn) plays a critical role in river-water quality because Mn-oxides serve as sorption sites for contaminant metals. The aim of this study is to understand the seasonal cycling of Mn in an alpine streambed that experiences large spring snowmelt events and the potential responses to changes in snowmelt timing...
Geologic map of the Homestake Reservoir 7.5′ quadrangle, Lake, Pitkin, and Eagle Counties, Colorado
Chester A. Ruleman, Michael G. Frothingham, Theodore R. Brandt, Colin A. Shaw, Marc W. Caffee, Brent M. Goehring, Keith A. Brugger
2020, Scientific Investigations Map 3451
The Homestake Reservoir 7.5' quadrangle lies at the northwestern end of the Upper Arkansas Valley, and headwaters of the Arkansas River, and the Roaring Fork, Fryingpan, and Eagle Rivers of the Colorado River system. The quadrangle lies within tectonic provinces of the 1.4 giga-annum (Ga) Picuris orogeny and includes the...
Indonesia and the United States team up to reduce impacts from dangerous volcanoes
Jacob B. Lowenstern, Kasbani, John S. Pallister, David W. Ramsey
2020, Fact Sheet 2019-3074
With 75 historically active volcanoes, Indonesia is the world’s most volcanically active nation. Its volcanoes are legendary throughout the world, with the notorious 19th-century eruptions at Mount Tambora (1815) and Krakatau (1883), and the eruption that created the giant Toba Caldera in Sumatra (75,000 years ago)—the Earth’s largest volcanic eruption...
HESS opinions: Beyond the long-term water balance: Evolving Budyko's supply–demand framework for the Anthropocene towards a global synthesis of land-surface fluxes under natural and human-altered watersheds
A. Sankarasubramanian, Dingbao Wang, Stacey A. Archfield, Meredith Reitz, Richard M Vogel, Amirhossein Mazrooei, Sudarshana Mukhopadhyaya
2020, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (24) 1975-1984
Global hydroclimatic conditions have been substantially altered over the past century by anthropogenic influences that arise from the warming global climate and from local/regional anthropogenic disturbances. Traditionally, studies have used coupling of multiple models to understand how land-surface water fluxes vary due to changes in global climatic patterns and local...
A graphical causal model for resolving species identity effects and biodiversity–ecosystem function correlations
Donald R. Schoolmaster Jr., Chad R Zirbel, James P. Cronin
2020, Ecology (101)
Identifying and clearly communicating the drivers of ecosystem function is a crucially important goal for both basic and applied ecology. This has proven difficult because the putative causes (e.g., environment, species identity, biodiversity, and functional traits) are numerous and correlated. The problem is exacerbated by a lack of a formal...
PFAS in the environment
U.S. Geological Survey
2020, General Information Product 197
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is working with Federal, State, and local partners to monitor and evaluate perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in the State’s groundwater and surface waters. PFAS are synthetic chemicals with widespread commercial and industrial use that can take a very long time to break down in...
Microplastics
U.S. Geological Survey
2020, General Information Product 196
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is working with Federal, State, and local partners to monitor and evaluate microplastics in our lakes, rivers, and coastal waters. Microplastics are very small pieces of plastic, some-times so small that they cannot be seen with the naked eye. The USGS is taking an active...
Temporal magnetotellurics reveals mechanics of the 2012 Mount Tongariro, NZ eruption
Graham J. Hill, Hugh M. Bibby, Jared R. Peacock, Erin L. Wallin, Yasuo Ogawa, Luca Caricchi, Harry Keys, Stewart L. Bennie, Yann Avram
2020, Geophysical Research Letters (47)
Monitoring dynamics of volcanic eruptions with geophysics is challenging. In August and November 2012, two small eruptions from Mount Tongariro provided a unique opportunity to image subsurface changes caused by the eruptions. A detailed magnetotelluric survey of the Tongariro volcanic complex completed prior to the eruption (2008–2010)...
Modeling the supporting ecosystem services of depressional wetlands
David M. Mushet, Cali L. Roth
2020, Wetlands (40) 1061-1069
We explored how a geographic information system modeling approach could be used to quantify supporting ecosystem services related to the type, abundance, and distribution of landscape components. Specifically, we use the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs model to quantify habitats that support amphibians and birds, floral resources that...
Sea-level rise exponentially increases coastal flood frequency
Mohsen Taherkhani, Sean Vitousek, Patrick L. Barnard, L Neil Frazer, Tiffany Anderson, Charles Fletcher
2020, Scientific Reports (10)
Sea-level rise will radically redefine the coastline of the 21st century. For many coastal regions, projections of global sea-level rise by the year 2100 (e.g., 0.5–2 meters) are comparable in magnitude to today’s extreme but short-lived increases in water level due to storms. Thus, the 21st century will...
Updated study reporting levels (SRLs) for trace-element data collected for the California Groundwater Ambient Monitoring and Assessment (GAMA) Program Priority Basin Project, October 2009–October 2018
George L. Bennett V
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5034
Groundwater samples have been collected in California as part of statewide investigations of groundwater quality conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey for the Groundwater Ambient Monitoring and Assessment (GAMA) Priority Basin Project (PBP) since 2004. The GAMA-PBP is being conducted in cooperation with the California State Water Resources Control Board...
Science plan for improving three-dimensional seismic velocity models in the San Francisco Bay region, 2019–24
Brad T. Aagaard, Russell W. Graymer, Clifford H. Thurber, Arthur J. Rodgers, Taka’aki Taira, Rufus D. Catchings, Christine A. Goulet, Andreas Plesch
2020, Open-File Report 2020-1019
This five-year science plan outlines short-term and long-term goals for improving three-dimensional seismic velocity models in the greater San Francisco Bay region as well as how to foster a community effort in reaching those goals. The short-term goals focus on improving the current U.S. Geological Survey San Francisco Bay region...
AMMonitor: Remote monitoring of biodiversity in an adaptive framework with R
Cathleen Balantic, Therese M. Donovan
2020, Methods in Ecology and Evolution (11) 869-877
Ecological research and management programs are increasingly using autonomous monitoring units (AMUs) to collect large volumes of acoustic and/or photo data to address pressing management objectives or research goals. The data management requirements of an AMU-based monitoring effort are often overwhelming, with a considerable amount of processing to translate raw...
AMMonitor 2: Remote monitoring of biodiversity in an adaptive framework in R
Cathleen Balantic, Therese M. Donovan
2020, Methods in Ecology and Evolution (11) 869-877
Ecological research and management programs are increasingly using autonomous monitoring units (AMUs) to collect large volumes of acoustic and/or photo data to address pressing management objectives or research goals. The data management requirements of an AMU-based monitoring effort are often overwhelming, with a considerable amount of processing to translate...
Disk-integrated thermal properties of Ceres measured at the millimeter wavelengths
Jian-Yang Li, Arielle Moullet, Timothy N. Titus, Henry H. Hsieh, Mark V. Sykes
2020, Astronomical Journal (159)
We observed Ceres at three epochs in 2015 November and 2017 September and October with Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) 12 m array and in 2017 October with the ALMA Compact Array (ACA), all at ~265 GHz continuum (wavelengths of ~1.1 mm) to map the temperatures of...
Land change monitoring, assessment, and projection
Jennifer Rover, Jesslyn F. Brown, Roger F. Auch, Kristi L. Sayler, Terry L. Sohl, Heather J. Tollerud, George Z. Xian
2020, Fact Sheet 2020-3024
There is a pressing need to monitor and understand the rapid land change happening around the world. The U.S. Geological Survey is developing a new capability, called Land Change Monitoring, Assessment, and Projection (LCMAP), to innovate the understanding of land change. This capability is the Earth Resources Observation and Science Center's...
Passive sampling of groundwater wells for determination of water chemistry
Thomas E. Imbrigiotta, Philip T. Harte
2020, Techniques and Methods 1-D8-
IntroductionPassive groundwater sampling is defined as the collection of a water sample from a well without the use of purging by a pump or retrieval by a bailer (Interstate Technology and Regulatory Council [ITRC], 2006; American Society for Testing and Materials [ASTM], 2014). No purging means that advection of water...
Nutrient status of San Francisco Bay and its management implications
James E. Cloern, Tara Schraga, Erica Nejad, Charles A. Martin
2020, Estuaries and Coasts (43) 1299-1317
Nutrient enrichment has degraded many of the world’s estuaries by amplifying algal production, leading to hypoxia/anoxia, loss of vascular plants and fish/shellfish habitat, and expansion of harmful blooms (HABs). Policies to protect coastal waters from the effects of nutrient enrichment require information to determine if a water body is impaired...
Assessment of continuous oil and gas resources in Lower Silurian Shales of the Arabian Peninsula, 2019
Christopher J. Schenk, Tracey J. Mercier, Cheryl A. Woodall, Marilyn E. Tennyson, Thomas M. Finn, Michael E. Brownfield, Kristen R. Marra, Phuong A. Le, Ronald M. Drake II, Scott A. Kinney
2020, Fact Sheet 2019-3070
Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated undiscovered, technically recoverable mean resources of 4.6 billion barrels of oil and 561 trillion cubic feet of gas in the Lower Silurian Shale Total Petroleum System of the Arabian Peninsula....
Mercury, cadmium, copper, arsenic, and selenium measurements in the feathers of adult eastern brown pelicans (Pelecanus occidentalis carolinensis) and chicks in multiple breeding grounds in the northern Gulf of Mexico
U. Ndu, J. S. Lamb, Sarah E. Janssen, R. Rossi, Y. G. Satgé, Patrick G.R. Jodice
2020, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment (192)
The amounts of trace metals and metalloids that have been introduced into aquatic ecosystems due to anthropogenic activities have increased in recent decades. Some of these elements like mercury are easily transferred from one trophic level to another and can accumulate to toxic quantities in organisms at the top of...
