A population on the rise: The origin of deepwater sculpin in Lake Ontario
Amy B. Welsh, Kim T. Scribner, Wendylee Stott, Maureen Walsh
2017, Journal of Great Lakes Research (43) 863-870
Deepwater sculpin, Myoxocephalus thompsonii, were thought to have been extirpated from Lake Ontario. However, in recent years, abundance has increased and recruitment has been documented. There are two hypotheses concerning the origin of the current Lake Ontario deepwater sculpin population. First, individuals from the upper Great Lakes may have recolonized...
Variation in species-level plant functional traits over wetland indicator status categories
Miles E. McCoy-Sulentic, Thomas E. Kolb, David M. Merritt, Emily C. Palmquist, Barbara E. Ralston, Daniel A. Sarr
2017, Ecology and Evolution (7) 3732-3744
Wetland indicator status (WIS) describes the habitat affinity of plant species and is used in wetland delineations and resource inventories. Understanding how species-level functional traits vary across WIS categories may improve designations, elucidate mechanisms of adaptation, and explain habitat optima and niche. We investigated differences in species-level traits of riparian...
Estimating inbreeding rates in natural populations: Addressing the problem of incomplete pedigrees
Mark P. Miller, Susan M. Haig, Jonathan D. Ballou, E. Ashley Steel
2017, Journal of Heredity
Understanding and estimating inbreeding is essential for managing threatened and endangered wildlife populations. However, determination of inbreeding rates in natural populations is confounded by incomplete parentage information. We present an approach for quantifying inbreeding rates for populations with incomplete parentage information. The approach exploits knowledge of pedigree configurations that lead...
Geomorphological evidence for ground ice on dwarf planet Ceres
Britney E. Schmidt, Kynan H.G. Hughson, Heather T. Chilton, Jennifer E. C. Scully, Thomas Platz, Andreas Nathues, Hanna Sizemore, Michael T. Bland, Shane Byrne, Simone Marchi, David O'Brien, Norbert Schorghofer, Harald Hiesinger, Ralf Jaumann, Jan Hendrick Pasckert, Justin D. Lawrence, Debra Buzckowski, Julie C. Castillo-Rogez, Mark V. Sykes, Paul M. Schenk, Maria-Cristina DeSanctis, Giuseppe Mitri, Michelangelo Formisano, Jian-Yang Li, Vishnu Reddy, Lucille Le Corre, Christopher T. Russell, Carol A. Raymond
2017, Nature Geoscience (10) 338-343
Five decades of observations of Ceres suggest that the dwarf planet has a composition similar to carbonaceous meteorites and may have an ice-rich outer shell protected by a silicate layer. NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has detected ubiquitous clays, carbonates and other products of aqueous alteration across the surface of Ceres, but...
Oregon OCS seafloor mapping: Selected lease blocks relevant to renewable energy
Guy R. Cochrane, Lenaig G. Hemery, Sarah K. Henkel
2017, Open-File Report 2017-1045
In 2014 the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) entered into Intra-agency agreement M13PG00037 to map an area of the Oregon Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) off of Coos Bay, Oregon, under consideration for development of a floating wind energy farm. The BOEM requires seafloor...
Bridge scour countermeasure assessments at select bridges in the United States, 2014–16
Taylor J. Dudunake, Richard J. Huizinga, Ryan L. Fosness
2017, Open-File Report 2017-1048
In 2009, the Federal Highway Administration published Hydraulic Engineering Circular No. 23 (HEC-23) to provide specific design and implementation guidelines for bridge scour and stream instability countermeasures. However, the effectiveness of countermeasures implemented over the past decade following those guidelines has not been evaluated. Therefore, in 2013, the U.S....
3.5 square meters: Constructive responses to natural disasters
Maya Vinitsky, editor(s)
2017, Book
Natural disasters and their consequences dominate the news almost on a daily basis. Quick-impact preventive and aid measures are essential for the victims to survive. This volume presents a selection of projects which demonstrate impressively how both cutting-edge technology and locally available materials and resources can be used for this...
Evaluating land-use change scenarios for the Puget Sound Basin, Washington, within the ecosystem recovery target model-based framework
Miguel L. Villarreal, Danielle Aiello, Bill Labiosa
2017, Open-File Report 2017-1057
The Puget Sound Basin, Washington, has experienced rapid urban growth in recent decades, with varying impacts to local ecosystems and natural resources. To plan for future growth, land managers often use scenarios to assess how the pattern and volume of growth may affect natural resources. Using three different land-management scenarios...
Flood-frequency characteristics of Wisconsin streams
John F. Walker, Marie C. Peppler, Mari E. Danz, Laura E. Hubbard
2017, Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5140
Flood-frequency characteristics for 360 gaged sites on unregulated rural streams in Wisconsin are presented for percent annual exceedance probabilities ranging from 0.2 to 50 using a statewide skewness map developed for this report. Equations of the relations between flood-frequency and drainage-basin characteristics were developed by multiple-regression analyses. Flood-frequency characteristics for...
Distance and environmental difference in alpine plant communities
George P. Malanson, Dale L. Zimmerman, Daniel B. Fagre
2017, Physical Geography (38) 489-505
Differences in plant communities are a response to the abiotic environment, species interactions, and dispersal. The role of geographic distance relative to the abiotic environment is explored for alpine tundra vegetation from 319 plots of four regions along the Rocky Mountain cordillera in the USA. The site by species data...
Antifungal bacteria on woodland salamander skin exhibit high taxonomic diversity and geographic variability
Carly R. Muletz-Wolz, Graziella V. DiRenzo, Stephanie A. Yarwood, Evan H. Campbell Grant, Robert C. Fleischer, Karen R. Lips
2017, Applied and Environmental Microbiology (83)
Diverse bacteria inhabit amphibian skin; some of those bacteria inhibit growth of the fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. Yet there has been no systematic survey of anti-B. dendrobatidis bacteria across localities, species, and elevations. This is important given geographic and taxonomic variations in amphibian susceptibility...
Host density increases parasite recruitment but decreases host risk in a snail-trematode system
Julia C Buck, R.F. Hechinger, A.C. Wood, T.E. Stewart, A.M. Kuris, Kevin D. Lafferty
2017, Ecology (98) 2029-2038
Most species aggregate in local patches. High host density in patches increases contact rate between hosts and parasites, increasing parasite transmission success. At the same time, for environmentally-transmitted parasites, high host density can decrease infection risk to individual hosts, because infective stages are divided among all hosts in a patch,...
Potential implications of acoustic stimuli as a non-physical barrier to silver carp and bighead carp
Kelsie Murchy, Aaron R. Cupp, Jon Amberg, Brooke J. Vetter, Kim T. Fredricks, Mark P. Gaikowski, Allen F. Mensinger
2017, Fisheries Management and Ecology (24) 208-216
The effectiveness of an acoustic barrier to deter the movement of silver carp, Hypophthalmichthys molitrix (Valenciennes) and bighead carp, H. nobilis (Richardson) was evaluated. A pond (10 m × 5 m × 1.2 m) was divided in half by a concrete-block barrier with a channel (1 m across) allowing fish access to each side. Underwater speakers were placed on...
Sculpted by water, elevated by earthquakes—The coastal landscape of Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska
Robert C. Witter, Adam LeWinter, Adrian M. Bender, Craig Glennie, David C. Finnegan
2017, General Information Product 177
Within Glacier Bay National Park in southeastern Alaska, the Fairweather Fault represents the onshore boundary between two of Earth’s constantly moving tectonic plates: the North American Plate and the Yakutat microplate. Satellite measurements indicate that during the past few decades the Yakutat microplate has moved northwest at a rate of...
Assessing the status of sediment toxicity and macroinvertebrate communities in the Eighteenmile Creek Area of Concern, New York
Scott D. George, Brian T. Duffy, Barry P. Baldigo
2017, Journal of Great Lakes Research (43) 55-63
In 1972, the governments of Canada and the United States committed to restoring the physical, chemical, and biological integrity of the Laurentian Great Lakes under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. Through this framework, the downstream-most section of Eighteenmile Creek, a tributary to the south shore of Lake Ontario in...
The role of density-dependent and –independent processes in spawning habitat selection by salmon in an Arctic riverscape
Brock M. Huntsman, Jeffrey A. Falke, James W. Savereide, Katrina E. Bennett
2017, PLoS ONE (12) 1-21
Density-dependent (DD) and density-independent (DI) habitat selection is strongly linked to a species’ evolutionary history. Determining the relative importance of each is necessary because declining populations are not always the result of altered DI mechanisms but can often be the result of DD via a reduced carrying capacity. We developed...
Editorial
Abigail Lynch, R. G. Asch, William W. L. Cheung, Craig P. Paukert, Ryan R. Rykaczewski, Warwick H. H. Sauer
2017, Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries (27) 293-296
No abstract available....
Exploring the use of environmental DNA to determine the species of salmon redds
Burke Strobel, Matthew Laramie, David S. Pilliod
2017, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (37) 943-950
Annual redd counts are used to monitor the status and trends of salmonid populations, but methods to easily and reliably determine which of sympatric species made specific redds are lacking. We explored whether environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis might prove useful for determining the species of salmon redds. We collected eDNA...
U.S. Department of the Interior Climate Science Centers and U.S. Geological Survey National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center—Annual report for 2016
Sarah R. Weiskopf, Elda Varela Minder, Holly A. Padgett
2017, Open-File Report 2017-1033
Introduction2016 was an exciting year for the Department of the Interior (DOI) Climate Science Centers (CSCs) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center (NCCWSC). In recognition of our ongoing efforts to raise awareness and provide the scientific data and tools needed to address the...
Between hot rocks and dry places: The status of the Dixie Valley toad
Matthew J. Forrest, Josefin Stiller, Tim L. King, Greg Rouse
2017, Western North American Naturalist (77) 162-175
In Dixie Valley, Nevada, an isolated population of toads has been the subject of proactive conservation measures by the Nevada Department of Wildlife and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service since 2008 due to concerns about potential habitat degradation resulting from exploitation of nearby geothermal energy resources. These toads appear...
Community for Data Integration 2016 annual report
Madison L. Langseth, Leslie Hsu, Jon Amberg, Norman Bliss, Andrew R. Bock, Rachel T. Bolus, R. Sky Bristol, Katherine J. Chase, Theresa M. Crimmins, Paul S. Earle, Richard Erickson, A. Lance Everette, Jeff T. Falgout, John Faundeen, Michael N. Fienen, Rusty Griffin, Michelle R. Guy, Kevin D. Henry, Nancy J. Hoebelheinrich, Randall J. Hunt, Vivian B. Hutchison, Drew A. Ignizio, Dana M. Infante, Catherine Jarnevich, Jeanne M. Jones, Tim Kern, Scott Leibowitz, Francis L. Lightsom, R. Lee Marsh, S. Grace McCalla, Marcia McNiff, Jeffrey T. Morisette, John C. Nelson, Tamar Norkin, Todd M. Preston, Alyssa Rosemartin, Roy Sando, Jason T. Sherba, Richard P. Signell, Benjamin M. Sleeter, Eric T. Sundquist, Colin B. Talbert, Roland J. Viger, Jake F. Weltzin, Sharon Waltman, Marc Weber, Daniel J. Wieferich, Brad Williams, Lisamarie Windham-Myers
2017, Open-File Report 2017-1053
The Community for Data Integration (CDI) represents a dynamic community of practice focused on advancing science data and information management and integration capabilities across the U.S. Geological Survey and the CDI community. This annual report describes the various presentations, activities, and outcomes of the CDI monthly forums, working groups, virtual...
Sensitivity of lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) early life stages to 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-P-dioxin and 3,3′,4,4′,5-pentachlorobiphenyl
Donald E. Tillitt, Justin A. Buckler, Diane Nicks, James Candrl, Rachel Claunch, Robert W. Gale, Holly J. Puglis, Edward E. Little, Tiffany L. Linbo, Mary Baker
2017, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (36) 988-998
The aquatic food web of the Great Lakes has been contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) since the mid-20th century. Threats of PCB exposures to long-lived species of fish, such as lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens), have been uncertain because of a lack of information on the relative sensitivity of the species....
Persistence of historical population structure in an endangered species despite near-complete biome conversion in California's San Joaquin Desert
Jonathan Q. Richmond, Dustin A. Wood, Michael F. Westphal, Amy G. Vandergast, Adam D. Leache, Lawrence Saslaw, H. Scott Butterfield, Robert N. Fisher
2017, Molecular Ecology (26) 3618-3635
Genomic responses to habitat conversion can be rapid, providing wildlife managers with time-limited opportunities to enact recovery efforts that use population connectivity information that reflects predisturbance landscapes. Despite near-complete biome conversion, such opportunities may still exist for the endemic fauna and flora of California's San Joaquin Desert, but comprehensive genetic...
Unraveling the disease consequences and mechanisms of modular structure in animal social networks
Pratha Sah, Stephan T. Leu, Paul C. Cross, Peter J. Hudson, Shweta Bansal
2017, PNAS (16) 4165-4170
Disease risk is a potential cost of group living. Although modular organization is thought to reduce this cost in animal societies, empirical evidence toward this hypothesis has been conflicting. We analyzed empirical social networks from 43 animal species to motivate our study of the epidemiological consequences of modular structure in...
Estimated seepage rates from selected ditches, ponds, and lakes at the Camas National Wildlife Refuge, eastern Idaho
Gordon W. Rattray
2017, Journal of Environmental Management (203) 578-591
The Camas National Wildlife Refuge (Refuge) in eastern Idaho, established in 1937, contains wetlands, ponds, and wet meadows that are essential resting and feeding habitat for migratory birds and nesting habitat for waterfowl. Initially, natural sources of water supported these habitats. However, during the past few decades, changes in...
