Lahar—River of volcanic mud and debris
Jon J. Major, Thomas C. Pierson, James W. Vallance
2018, Fact Sheet 2018-3024
Lahar, an Indonesian word for volcanic mudflow, is a mixture of water, mud, and volcanic rock flowing swiftly along a channel draining a volcano. Lahars can form during or after eruptions, or even during periods of inactivity. They are among the greatest threats volcanoes pose to people and property. Lahars...
Modeled inundation limits of potential lahars from Mount Adams in the White Salmon River Valley, Washington
Julia P. Griswold, Thomas C. Pierson, Joseph A. Bard
2018, Open-File Report 2018-1013
Lahars large enough to reach populated areas are a hazard at Mount Adams, a massive volcano in the southern Cascade Range of Washington State (fig. 1). It is considered to be still active and has the potential to erupt again. By definition, lahars are gravity-driven flows of water-saturated mixtures of...
Compilation and analysis of multiple groundwater-quality datasets for Idaho
Stephen A. Hundt, Candice B. Hopkins
2018, Open-File Report 2018-1079
Groundwater is an important source of drinking and irrigation water throughout Idaho, and groundwater quality is monitored by various Federal, State, and local agencies. The historical, multi-agency records of groundwater quality include a valuable dataset that has yet to be compiled or analyzed on a statewide level. The purpose...
Rethinking the use of seabed sediment temperature profiles to trace submarine groundwater flow
Barret L. Kurylyk, Dylan J. Irvine, A.A. Mohammed, V. F. Bense, Martin A. Briggs, J.W. Loder, Y. Geshelin
2018, Water Resources Research (54) 4595-4614
Submarine groundwater fluxes across the seafloor facilitate important hydrological and biogeochemical exchanges between oceans and seabed sediment, yet few studies have investigated spatially distributed groundwater fluxes in deep‐ocean environments such as continental slopes. Heat has been previously applied as a submarine groundwater tracer using an analytical solution to a heat...
Acquisition and dissemination of cephalosporin-resistant E. coli in migratory birds sampled at an Alaska landfill as inferred through genomic analysis
Christina Ann Ahlstrom, Jonas Bonnedahl, Hanna Woksepp, Jorge Hernandez, Olsen Bjorn, Andrew M. Ramey
2018, Scientific Reports (8)
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in bacterial pathogens threatens global health, though the spread of AMR bacteria and AMR genes between humans, animals, and the environment is still largely unknown. Here, we investigated the role of wild birds in the epidemiology of AMR Escherichia coli. Using next-generation sequencing, we characterized cephalosporin-resistant E....
Leaf to landscape responses of giant sequoia to hotter drought: An introduction and synthesis for the special section
Koren R. Nydick, Nathan L. Stephenson, Anthony R. Ambrose, Gregory P. Asner, Wendy L. Baxter, Adrian J. Das, Todd E. Dawson, Roberta E. Martin, Tarin Paz-Kagan
2018, Forest Ecology and Management (419-420) 249-256
Hotter droughts are becoming more common as climate change progresses, and they may already have caused instances of forest dieback on all forested continents. Learning from hotter droughts, including where on the landscape forests are more or less vulnerable to these events, is critical to help resource managers proactively prepare...
Strategies for effective collaborative manuscript development in interdisciplinary science teams
Samantha K. Oliver, C. Emi Fergus, Nicholas K. Skaff, Tyler Wagner, Pang-Ning Tan, Kendra Spence Cheruvelil, Patricia A. Soranno
2018, Ecosphere (9) 1-13
Science is increasingly being conducted in large, interdisciplinary teams. As team size increases, challenges can arise during manuscript development, where achieving one team goal (e.g., inclusivity) may be in direct conflict with other goals (e.g., efficiency). Here, we present strategies for effective collaborative manuscript development that draw from our experiences...
Downstream impacts of dams: shifts in benthic invertivorous fish assemblages
Rafaela Vendrametto Granzotti, Leandro E. Miranda, Angelo A. Agostinho, Luiz Carlos Gomes
2018, Aquatic Sciences (80) 1-14
Impoundments alter connectivity, sediment transport and water discharge in rivers and floodplains, affecting recruitment, habitat and resource availability for fish including benthic invertivorous fish, which represent an important link between primary producers and higher trophic levels in tropical aquatic ecosystems. We investigated long-term changes to water regime, water quality, and...
Application of microtremor horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio (MHVSR) analysis for site characterization: State of the art
S. Molnar, J. F. Cassidy, S. Castellaro, C. Cornou, H. Crow, J. A. Hunter, S. Matsushima, F. J. Sanchez-Sesma, Alan Yong
2018, Surveys in Geophysics
Nakamura (Q Rep Railway Tech Res Inst 30:25–33, 1989) popularized the application of the horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio (HVSR) analysis of microtremor (seismic noise or ambient vibration) recordings to estimate the predominant frequency and amplification factor of earthquake shaking. During the following quarter century, popularity in the microtremor HVSR (MHVSR) method...
A snow density dataset for improving surface boundary conditions in Greenland ice sheet firn modeling
Robert Fausto, Jason E. Box, Baptiste Vandecrux, Dirk van As, Konrad Steffen, Michael J. MacFerrin, Horst Machguth, William Colgan, Daniel Mcgrath, Lora S. Koenig, Charalampos Charalampidis, Roger J. Braithwaite
2018, Frontiers in Earth Science (6)
The surface snow density of glaciers and ice sheets is of fundamental importance in converting volume to mass in both altimetry and surface mass balance studies, yet it is often poorly constrained. Site-specific surface snow densities are typically derived from empirical relations based on temperature and wind speed. These parameterizations...
Integrating adaptive management and ecosystem services concepts to improve natural resource management: Challenges and opportunities
Rebecca S. Epanchin-Niell, James W. Boyd, Molly K. Macauley, Lynn Scarlett, Carl D. Shapiro, Byron K. Williams
2018, Circular 1439
Executive Summary—OverviewNatural resource managers must make decisions that affect broad-scale ecosystem processes involving large spatial areas, complex biophysical interactions, numerous competing stakeholder interests, and highly uncertain outcomes. Natural and social science information and analyses are widely recognized as important for informing effective management. Chief among the systematic approaches for improving...
Separable correlation and maximum likelihood
Karl Oskar Ekvall, Brian R. Gray
2018, arXiv
We consider estimation of the covariance matrix of a multivariate normal distribution when the correlation matrix is separable in the sense that it factors as a Kronecker product of two smaller matrices. A computationally convenient coordinate descent-type algorithm is developed for maximum likelihood estimation. Simulations indicate our method often gives...
Modeling the fish community population dynamics and forecasting the eradication success of an exotic fish from an alpine stream
Christophe Laplanche, Arnaud Elger, Frederic Santoul, Gary P. Thiede, Phaedra Budy
2018, Biological Conservation (223) 34-46
Management actions aimed at eradicating exotic fish species from riverine ecosystems can be better informed by forecasting abilities of mechanistic models. We illustrate this point with an example of the Logan River, Utah, originally populated with endemic cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii utah), which compete with...
Response to comment by Walker et al. on “From data to decisions: Processing information, biases, and beliefs for improved management of natural resources and environments”
Pierre D. Glynn, Alexey A. Voinov, Carl D. Shapiro, Paul A. White
2018, Earth's Future (6) 762-769
Our different kinds of minds and types of thinking affect the ways we decide, take action, and cooperate (or not). The comment by Walker et al. (2018, https://doi.org/10.1002/2017EF000750) illustrates several points made by Glynn et al. (2017, https://doi.org/10.1002/2016EF000487) and many other articles. Namely, biases and beliefs...
Hydrologic and water-quality characteristics of Caño Boquerón, Cabo Rojo, and Puerto Mosquito, Isla de Vieques, Puerto Rico, July 2015–July 2016
Julieta M. Gómez-Fragoso, Jose A. Santiago-Saez
2018, Scientific Investigations Report 2018-5018
Coastal lagoons are common features of the Puerto Rico shoreline that provide habitat for commercial and recreational species and serve important roles in the nutrient cycle of the ecosystems. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Puerto Rico Environmental Quality Board, conducted a limnological study at Caño Boquerón in...
Crustal structure and quaternary acceleration of deformation rates in central Washington revealed by stream profile inversion, potential field geophysics, and structural geology of the Yakima folds
Lydia M. Staisch, Richard J. Blakely, Harvey Kelsey, Richard Styron, Brian Sherrod
2018, Tectonics (37) 1750-1770
Post‐Miocene tectonic uplift along fault‐cored anticlines within central Washington produced the Yakima Fold Province, a region of active NNE‐SSW shortening in the Cascadian backarc. The relative timing and rate of deformation along individual structures is coarsely defined yet imperative for seismic hazard assessment. In this work, we use geomorphic and...
Hydrogeologic setting, conceptual groundwater flow system, and hydrologic conditions 1995–2010 in Florida and parts of Georgia, Alabama, and South Carolina
Jason C. Bellino, Eve L. Kuniansky, Andrew M. O'Reilly, Joann F. Dixon
2018, Scientific Investigations Report 2018-5030
The hydrogeologic setting and groundwater flow system in Florida and parts of Georgia, Alabama, and South Carolina is dominated by the highly transmissive Floridan aquifer system. This principal aquifer is a vital source of freshwater for public and domestic supply, as well as for industrial and agricultural uses throughout the...
Intraspecific differences in morphology correspond to differential spawning habitat use in two riverine catostomid species
Timothy B. Grabowski, Jessica E. Pease, Jillian R. Groeschel
2018, Environmental Biology of Fishes (101) 1249-1260
Maintaining intraspecific diversity is an important goal for fisheries conservation and recovery actions. While ecomorphological studies have demonstrated intraspecific diversity related to feeding or flow regime, there has been little assessment of such variation in regard to spawning habitat. We evaluated the relationship between individual morphology of Robust Redhorse and...
Effects of brine contamination from energy development on wetland macroinvertebrate community structure in the Prairie Pothole Region
Todd M. Preston, Michael J. Borgreen, Andrew M. Ray
2018, Environmental Pollution (239) 722-732
Wetlands in the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) of North America support macroinvertebrate communities that are integral to local food webs and important to breeding waterfowl. Macroinvertebrates in PPR wetlands are primarily generalists and well adapted to within and among year changes in water permanence and salinity. The Williston Basin, a...
A tale of two wildfires; testing detection and prediction of invasive species distributions using models fit with topographic and spectral indices
Amanda M. West, Paul H. Evangelista, Catherine S. Jarnevich, Darin Shulte
2018, Landscape Ecology (33) 969-984
ContextDeveloping species distribution models (SDMs) to detect invasive species cover and evaluate habitat suitability are high priorities for land managers.ObjectivesWe tested SDMs fit with different variable combinations to provide guidelines for future invasive species model development based on transferability between...
Assessment of undiscovered continuous oil and gas resources of Upper Cretaceous Shales in the Songliao Basin of China, 2017
Christopher J. Potter, Christopher J. Schenk, Janet K. Pitman, Timothy R. Klett, Marilyn E. Tennyson, Stephanie B. Gaswirth, Heidi M. Leathers-Miller, Thomas M. Finn, Michael E. Brownfield, Tracey J. Mercier, Kristen R. Marra, Cheryl A. Woodall
2018, Fact Sheet 2018-3014
Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated mean undiscovered, technically recoverable resources of 3.3 billion barrels of oil and 887 billion cubic feet of gas in shale reservoirs of the Upper Cretaceous Qingshankou and Nenjiang Formations in the Songliao Basin of northeastern China....
Soil moisture datasets at five sites in the central Sierra Nevada and northern Coast Ranges, California
Michelle A. Stern, Frank A. Anderson, Lorraine E. Flint, Alan L. Flint
2018, Data Series 1083
In situ soil moisture datasets are important inputs used to calibrate and validate watershed, regional, or statewide modeled and satellite-based soil moisture estimates. The soil moisture dataset presented in this report includes hourly time series of the following: soil temperature, volumetric water content, water potential, and total soil water content....
Stream fish colonization but not persistence varies regionally across a large North American river basin
Kit Wheeler, Seth J. Wenger, Stephen J. Walsh, Zachary P. Martin, Howard L. Jelks, Mary Freeman
2018, Biological Conservation (223) 1-10
Many species have distributions that span distinctly different physiographic regions, and effective conservation of such taxa will require a full accounting of all factors that potentially influence populations. Ecologists recognize effects of physiographic differences in topography, geology and climate on local habitat configurations, and thus the relevance of landscape heterogeneity...
Characteristics of successful volunteer-led urban forest tree committees in Massachusetts
Richard W. Harper, Emily S. Huff, David V. Bloniarz, Stephen Destefano, Craig R. Nicolson
2018, Urban Forestry & Urban Greening (34) 311-317
Citizen engagement through urban forest tree committee volunteer service may aid in providing essential experience, ideas, and skills that support municipal tree management. Using semi-structured, research interviews with tree committee (TC) representatives from across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, this...
Nest mortality of sagebrush songbirds due to a severe hailstorm
Jessica N. Hightower, Jason D. Carlisle, Anna D. Chalfoun
2018, Wilson Journal of Ornithology (130) 561-567
Demographic assessments of nesting birds typically focus on failures due to nest predation or brood parasitism. Extreme weather events such as hailstorms, however, can also destroy eggs and injure or kill juvenile and adult birds at the nest. We documented the effects of a severe hailstorm on 3 species of...