California sea otter (Enhydra lutris nereis) census results, spring 2019
Brian B. Hatfield, Julie L. Yee, Michael C. Kenner, Joseph A. Tomoleoni
2019, Data Series 1118
The 2019 census of southern sea otters (Enhydra lutris nereis), also known as California sea otters, was conducted from early May to early July along the mainland coast of central California and in April at San Nicolas Island in southern California. The range-wide index, defined as the 3-year average of...
Variable impacts of contemporary versus legacy agricultural phosphorus on US river water quality
Sarah M. Stackpoole, Edward G. Stets, Lori A. Sprague
2019, PNAS (116) 20562-20567
Phosphorus (P) fertilizer has contributed to the eutrophication of freshwater ecosystems. Watershed-based conservation programs aiming to reduce external P loading to surface waters have not resulted in significant water-quality improvements. One factor that can help explain the lack of water-quality response is remobilization of accumulated legacy (historical) P within the...
Ethical guidelines for publication of fisheries research
Patrick Kocovsky, Patricia S Gaunt, Brandon K. Peoples, Emmanuel A Frimpong
2019, Fisheries (44) 445-448
In 2000, the Governing Board of the American Fisheries Society (AFS) approved the first Guidelines for Authorship (GFA) in AFS publications, developed by the AFS Publications Overview Committee (POC) chaired by Mary Fabrizio. This version of the GFA document provided guidance for fisheries science publications for nearly two decades. The...
U.S. Geological Survey energy and wildlife research annual report for 2019
Mona Khalil, editor(s)
2019, Circular 1458
Access to affordable and reliable energy remains a critical need for people and the economy. To satisfy society’s demand for energy, the United States is expanding access to vast natural resources to produce electricity as well as petroleum and natural gas products. Development of our Nation’s energy resources, however, often...
Growth drivers of Bakken oil well productivity
Emil D. Attanasi, Philip A. Freeman
2019, Natural Resources Research (29) 1471-1486
This paper identifies the drivers of the phenomenal growth in productivity in hydraulically fractured horizontal oil wells producing from the middle member of the Bakken Formation in North Dakota. The data show a strong underlying spatial component and somewhat weaker temporal component. Drivers of the spatial component are favorable...
U.S. Geological Survey sagebrush ecosystem research annual report for 2019
Steve E. Hanser, editor(s)
2019, Circular 1459
The sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) ecosystem extends across a large portion of the Western United States. Affected by multiple stressors, including interactions among fire, exotic plant invasions, and human land uses, this ecosystem has experienced significant loss, fragmentation, and degradation of landscapes once dominated by sagebrush. In turn, wildlife populations have...
U.S. Geological Survey energy and wildlife research annual report for 2019 postcard
Mona Khalil
2019, General Information Product 193
This postcard provides details about the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Energy and Wildlife Research Annual Report for 2019, which highlights new research on the interactions of energy development with wildlife. Encompassing investigations of conventional and renewable energy development across the United States, from the Arctic Coastal Plain of Alaska to...
Captive-rearing duration may be more important than environmental enrichment for enhancing turtle head-starting success
S.J. Tetzlaff, J.S. Sperry, B.A. Kingsbury, Brett Alexander DeGregorio
2019, Global Ecology and Conservation (20)
Raising captive animals past critical mortality stages for eventual release (head-starting) is a common conservation tactic. Counterintuitively, post-release survival can be low. Post-release behavior affecting survival could be influenced by captive-rearing duration and housing conditions. Practitioners have adopted environmental enrichment to...
Where’s the rock: Using convolutional neural networks to improve land cover classification
Helen Petlyak, Corina Cerovski-Darriau, Vadim Zaliva, Jonathan D. Stock
2019, Remote Sensing (11)
While machine learning techniques have been increasingly applied to land cover classification problems, these techniques have not focused on separating exposed bare rock from soil covered areas. Therefore, we built a convolutional neural network (CNN) to differentiate exposed bare rock (rock) from soil cover (other). We made a...
Leptospirosis in Northern Sea Otters (Enhydra lutris kenyoni) from Washington
Susan Knowles, Deanna Lynch, Nancy J. Thomas
2019, Journal of Wildlife Diseases (56) 466-471
We diagnosed leptospirosis in six northern sea otters (Enhydra lutris kenyoni) that stranded on beaches in Washington, US in 2002. Significant gross findings included cyanotic oral mucous membranes, renal swelling, congestion or pale streaks on the cut surface of the lobules, hematuria, dehydration, lymphadenopathy, pulmonary congestion and rarely adrenal hemorrhage...
Bathymetry and geomorphology of Shelikof Strait and the western Gulf of Alaska
Mark Zimmermann, Megan M. Prescott, Peter J. Haeussler
2019, Geosciences (9)
We defined the bathymetry of Shelikof Strait and the western Gulf of Alaska (WGOA) from the edges of the land masses down to about 7000 m deep in the Aleutian Trench. This map was produced by combining soundings from historical National Ocean Service (NOS) smooth sheets (2.7 million soundings); shallow...
Nanoscale molecular fractionation of organic matter within unconventional petroleum source beds
Aaron M. Jubb, Paul C. Hackley, Javin J. Hatcherian, Jing Qu, Timothy O Nesheim
2019, Energy and Fuels (33) 97859-9766
Fractionation of petroleum during migration through sedimentary rock matrices has been observed across lengths of meters to kilometers. Selective adsorption of specific chemical moieties at mineral surfaces and/or the phase behavior of petroleum during pressure changes typically are invoked to explain this behavior. Such phenomena are of interest as they...
Optimizing walking pace to maximize snake detection rate: A visual encounter survey experiment
Bjorn Lardner, Amy A. Yackel Adams, Julie A. Savidge, Robert Reed
2019, Herpetologica (75) 218-223
Visual encounter survey efforts can be defined and constrained by duration, distance, or both duration and distance simultaneously. This study examines the optimal walking pace that will maximize the number of animal detections within a limited time frame. We predicted that animal sighting rate per...
Contaminant concentrations in sediments, aquatic invertebrates, and fish in proximity to rail tracks used for coal transport in the Pacific Northwest: A baseline assessment
Whitney B Hapke, Robert W. Black, Collin A. Eagles-Smith, Cassandra Smith, Lyndal Johnson, Gina M Ylitalo, Daryle Boyd, Jay W. Davis, Sara L. Caldwell Eldridge, Elena Nilsen
2019, Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology (77) 549-574
Railway transport of coal poses an environmental risk because coal dust contains polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), mercury (Hg), and other trace metals. In the Pacific Northwest, proposed infrastructure projects could result in an increase in coal transport by train through the Columbia River corridor. Baseline information is needed on current...
Middle Pleistocene formation of the Rio Grande Gorge, San Luis Valley, south-central Colorado and north-central New Mexico, USA: Process, timing, and downstream implications
Chester A. Ruleman, Adam M. Hudson, Ren A. Thompson, Daniel P. Miggins, James B. Paces, Brent M. Goehring
2019, Quaternary Science Reviews (223)
The Rio Grande is the fourth longest river in North America extending over 3,000 km from the Rocky Mountains to the Gulf of Mexico. The Pleistocene evolution of this river from individual subbasins into a coalesced fluvial system has been long debated. Herein, we constrain the middle Pleistocene evolution of the...
Aquatic–terrestrial linkages provide novel opportunities for freshwater ecologists to engage stakeholders and inform riparian management
Jeffrey Muehlbauer, Christina A. Lupoli, Johanna M. Kraus
2019, Freshwater Science (38) 946-952
Studies of aquatic–terrestrial ecosystem linkages explore the mechanisms by which components of one ecosystem, such as the aquatic insect community in a stream, directly affect components of an adjacent ecosystem, such as the density and diversity of riparian predators. On a human level, research into these linkages...
Evaluating the potential for sea lice to evolve freshwater tolerance as a consequence of freshwater treatments in salmon aquaculture
Maya Groner, Emilie Laurin, Marit Stormoen, Javier Sanchez, Mark D Fast, Crawford W. Revie
2019, Aquaculture Environment Interactions (11) 507-519
Increasing usage of non-medicinal methods (NMMs) to control sea louse infestations on salmon farms has raised questions about whether sea lice may be able to evolve tolerance of NMMs. Of particular concern is the potential for sea lice to evolve freshwater tolerance as a result of freshwater treatments. Wild trout...
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions of Amazon hydropower with strategic dam planning
Rafael M. Almeida, Qinru Shi, Jonathan M. Gomes-Selman, Xiaojian Wu, Yexiang Xue, Hector Angarita, Nathan Barros, Bruce R. Forsberg, Roosevelt García-Villacorta, Stephen K. Hamilton, John M. Melack, Mariana Montoya, Guillaume Perez, Suresh Sethi, Carla P. Gomes, Alexander S. Flecker
2019, Nature Communications (10)
Hundreds of dams have been proposed throughout the Amazon basin, one of the world’s largest untapped hydropower frontiers. While hydropower is a potentially clean source of renewable energy, some projects produce high greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per unit electricity generated (carbon intensity). Here we show how...
Local scale spatial patterns of freshwater mussels in the Upper Mississippi River
Patricia Ries, Nathan R. De Jager, Teresa Newton, Steven J. Zigler
2019, Freshwater Science (38) 742-752
Multiple physical and biological factors contribute to the structure of freshwater mussel communities in large rivers. Mussel distributions are frequently described as clumped or patchy. However, few surveys of mussel populations have been designed to quantify these spatial patterns. We used indicators of spatial autocorrelation to quantify spatial patterns of...
Yellowstone grizzly bear investigations: Annual report of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team 2018
Frank T. van Manen, Mark A. Haroldson, Bryn Karabensh, editor(s)
2019, Report
This annual report summarizes the results of grizzly bear (Ursus arctos) research and monitoring conducted in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) by the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team (IGBST) during 2018. The research and monitoring program is focused on population estimation and demographics, food monitoring, and habitat monitoring. The report...
Physicochemical controls on zones of higher coral stress where Black Band Disease occurs at Mākua Reef, Kauaʻi, Hawaiʻi
Ferdinand Oberle, Curt D. Storlazzi, Olivia M. Cheriton, Renee K. Takesue, Daniel J. Hoover, Joshua B. Logan, Christina M. Runyon, Christina A. Kellogg, Cordell Johnson, Peter W. Swarzenski
2019, Frontiers in Marine Science (6)
Pervasive and sustained coral diseases contribute to the systemic degradation of reef ecosystems, however, to date an understanding of the physicochemical controls on a coral disease event is still largely lacking. Water circulation and residence times and submarine groundwater discharge all determine the degree to which reef organisms are exposed...
Geologic cross section A–A′ through the Appalachian basin from the southern margin of the Ontario Lowlands province, Genesee County, western New York, to the Valley and Ridge province, Lycoming County, north-central Pennsylvania
Michael H. Trippi, Robert T. Ryder, Catherine B. Enomoto
2019, Scientific Investigations Map 3425
IntroductionGeologic cross section A–A′ is the fifth in a series of cross sections constructed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to document and improve understanding of the geologic framework and petroleum systems of the Appalachian basin. Cross section A–A′ provides a regional view of the structural and stratigraphic framework of the Appalachian...
Water priorities for the nation—The U.S. Geological Survey next generation water observing system
Sandra M. Eberts, Chad R. Wagner, Michael D. Woodside
2019, Fact Sheet 2019-3046
The challenges of providing safe and sustainable water supplies for human and ecological uses and protecting lives and property during water emergencies are well recognized. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) plays an essential role in meeting these challenges through its observational networks and renowned water science and research activities (National...
A framework for quantifying resilience to forest disturbance
Timothy Bryant, Kristen Waring, Meador Sanchez, John B. Bradford
2019, Frontiers in Forests and Global Change (2)
(Bradford) The concept of ecological resilience is an invaluable tool to assess the risk of state transitions and predict the impact of management on an ecosystem’s response to future disturbances. However, resilience is difficult to quantify and the factors contributing to resilience are often unknown in systems subject to multiple...
Factors promoting the recolonization of Oahu, Hawaii, by Bristle-thighed Curlews
T. Lee Tibbitts, Daniel R. Ruthrauff, Jared G. Underwood, Vijay P. Patil
2019, Global Ecology and Conservation (21)
Suitable habitat for Arctic-breeding migratory shorebirds is decreasing at their traditional wintering islands and atolls in the Central Pacific Flyway (i.e., Oceania) due to habitat degradation, reclamation, and sea-level rise. To maintain the size and resiliency of their populations, migratory shorebirds will need to expand their winter ranges by...
