Leveraging machine learning to automate regression model evaluations for large multi-site water-quality trend studies
Jennifer C. Murphy, Jeffrey G. Chanat
2023, Environmental Modeling and Software (170)
Large multi-site trend studies provide an opportunity to evaluate progress of waterbodies towards water-quality goals across broad geographic areas. Such studies often aggregate the results of site-specific models and thus contend with evaluating each model for appropriate fit and statistical...
Critical minerals for a carbon-neutral future
Douglas C. Kreiner, Jane M. Hammarstrom, Warren C. Day
2023, Eos, American Geophysical Union (104)
The Earth Mapping Resources Initiative is filling data gaps and fostering more holistic understanding of critical mineral resources in the United States using a novel mineral systems framework....
Networks of tree-ring based streamflow reconstructions for the Pacific Northwest, U.S.A
Jeremy S. Littell, Gregory T. Pederson, Justin T. Martin, Stephen T. Gray
2023, Water Resources Research (59)
Water resources in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) are characterized by significant interannual to interdecadal variation. Paleo-proxy reconstructions such as those derived from tree-rings provide longer-term context and supplement information on this expected range of variability, which can improve planning, management, and response related to extreme events and...
Stratigraphic cross sections of the Lewis Shale in the eastern part of the southwestern Wyoming Province, Wyoming and Colorado
Jane S. Hearon
2023, Scientific Investigations Map 3511
Three stratigraphic cross sections A–A', B–B', and C–C' were created for the Lewis Shale and associated strata in the eastern part of the Southwestern Wyoming Province of Wyoming and Colorado. The cross sections highlight 15 clinothems within the Lewis Shale, Fox Hills Sandstone, and Lance Formation progradational system (also referred...
Broad-scale assessment of methylmercury in adult amphibians
Brian J. Tornabene, Blake R. Hossack, Brian J. Halstead, Collin A. Eagles-Smith, Michael J. Adams, Adam R. Backlin, Adrianne Brand, Colleen Emery, Robert N. Fisher, Jillian Elizabeth Fleming, Brad Glorioso, Daniel A. Grear, Evan H. Campbell Grant, Patrick M. Kleeman, David Miller, Erin L. Muths, Christopher Pearl, Jennifer Rowe, Caitlin Teresa Rumrill, J. Hardin Waddle, Megan Winzeler, Kelly L. Smalling
2023, Environmental Science and Technology (57) 17511-17521
Mercury (Hg) is a toxic contaminant that has been mobilized and distributed worldwide and is a threat to many wildlife species. Amphibians are facing unprecedented global declines due to many threats including contaminants. While the biphasic life history of many amphibians creates a potential nexus for methylmercury (MeHg) exposure in...
Stream hydrology and a pulse subsidy shape patterns of fish foraging
Kevin Fitzgerald, J. Ryan Bellmore, Jason B. Fellman, Matthew L. H. Cheng, Claire Delbecq, Jeffrey A. Falke
2023, Journal of Animal Ecology (92) 2386-2398
Pulsed subsidy events create ephemeral fluxes of hyper-abundant resources that can shape annual patterns of consumption and growth for recipient consumers. However, environmental conditions strongly affect local resource availability for much of the year, and can heavily impact consumer foraging and growth patterns prior to pulsed subsidy events. Thus,...
System-scale airborne electromagnetic surveys in the lower Mississippi River Valley support multidisciplinary applications
Burke J. Minsley, Ryan F. Adams, William H. Asquith, Bethany L. Burton, Bennett Eugene Hoogenboom, Stephanie R. James, Courtney D. Killian, Katherine J. Knierim, Wade H. Kress, Maxwell A. Lindaman, Andrew T. Leaf, James R. Rigby, Jonathan P. Traylor
2023, Conference Paper
The lower Mississippi River Valley spans over 200,000 square kilometres in parts of seven states, encompassing areas of critical groundwater supplies, natural hazards, infrastructure, and low-lying coastal regions. From 2018 - 2022, the U.S. Geological Survey acquired over 82,000 line-kilometres of airborne electromagnetic, radiometric, and magnetic data over this region...
Dating the penultimate great earthquake in south-central Alaska using tree-ring crossdating and radiocarbon wiggle-matching
David J Barclay, Peter J. Haeussler, Robert C. Witter
2023, Quaternary Science Advances (13)
A forest bed of tree stumps currently in the intertidal zone at Girdwood, south-central Alaska, records coseismic submergence during the penultimate great earthquake. Tree-ring samples from ten spruce stumps were crossdated to develop a 149-year-long ring-width chronology. Radiocarbon wiggle-matching found that single-ring ages from the chronology were offset 28 ± 7 years older...
Relationship between explosive and effusive volcanism in the Montes Apenninus region of the Moon
Lori M. Pigue, Kristen A. Bennett, Briony H.N. Horgan, Lisa Gaddis
2023, Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets (128)
Lunar Pyroclastic Deposits (LPDs) are sites of explosive volcanism and often occur in areas of effusive volcanism on the Moon. On Earth, it has been observed that most volcanism has both effusive and explosive phases, whereas on the Moon, these two types of volcanism have typically been...
Annotated bibliography of scientific research on greater sage-grouse published from October 2019 to July 2022
Elisabeth C. Teige, Logan M. Maxwell, Samuel E. Jordan, Tait K. Rutherford, Emma I. Dietrich, Ella M. Samuel, Alexandra L. Stoneburner, Nathan J. Kleist, Jennifer K. Meineke, Lea B. Selby, Alison C. Foster, Sarah K. Carter
2023, Open-File Report 2023-1082
Integrating recent scientific knowledge into management decisions supports effective natural resource management and can lead to better resource outcomes. However, finding and accessing scientific knowledge can be time consuming and costly. To assist in this process, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) created a series of annotated bibliographies on topics of...
A global long-term daily reanalysis of reference evapotranspiration for drought and food-security monitoring
Mike Hobbins, Timen Jansma, Daniel Sarmiento, Amy McNally, Tamuka Magadzire, Harikishan Jayanthi, Will Turner, Andrew Hoell, Greg Husak, Gabriel B. Senay, Olena Boiko, Michael Budde, Pamella Magone, Candida Dewes
2023, Nature Scientific Data (10)
NOAA has developed a global reference evapotranspiration (ET0) reanalysis using the UN Food and Agriculture Organization formulation (FAO-56) of the Penman-Monteith equation forced by MERRA phase 2 (MERRA2) meteorological and radiative drivers. The NOAA ET0 reanalysis is provided daily from January 1, 1980 to the near-present at a...
Effect of feeding history on metabolic rate of largemouth bass (Micropterus nigricans): implications for bioenergetics models
Steven H. Ranney, Steven R. Chipps, David H. Wahl
2023, Canadian Journal of Zoology (102) 207-216
Metabolic rate is a key parameter in fish energy budgets that strongly influences the output of bioenergetics models. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that metabolic rate varies with growth history of age-1 largemouth bass Micropterus nigricans Cuvier, 1828. Two groups of fish were fed alternating maintenance or ad libitum rations...
Monitoring population-level foraging distribution of a marine migratory species from land: Strengths and weaknesses of the isotopic approach on the Northwest Atlantic loggerhead turtle aggregation
Simona A. Ceriani, Susan Murasko, David S. Addison, David Anderson, Greg Curry, Nicole A. Desjardin, Scott F. Eastman, Daniel R. Evans, Nancy Evou, Mariana M.P.B. Fuentes, Matthew H. Godfrey, Kristen Hart, Paul Hillbrand, Sarah E. Hirsch, Cody R. Mott, Katherine L. Mansfield, Kristen T. Mazzarella, Sarah V. Norris, S. Michelle Pate, Katrina F. Phillips, Kirt W. Rusenko, Brian M. Shamblin, Amber Stevenson, Kelly A. Sloan, Anton D. Tucker, Ryan C. Welsh, Paolo Casale
2023, Frontiers in Marine Science (10)
Assessing the linkage between breeding and non-breeding areas has important implications for understanding the fundamental biology of and conserving animal species. This is a challenging task for marine species, and in sea turtles a combination of stable isotope analysis (SIA) and satellite telemetry has been increasingly used. The Northwest...
Multiple-well monitoring site adjacent to the Elk Hills Oil Field, Kern County, California
Rhett R. Everett, Janice M. Gillespie, Mackenzie M. Shepherd, Andrew Y. Morita, Maryanne Bobbitt, Christopher A. Kohel, John G. Warden
2023, Open-File Report 2023-1073
IntroductionThe Elk Hills Oil Field is one of the many fields selected for regional groundwater mapping and monitoring by the California State Water Resources Control Board as part of the Oil and Gas Regional Monitoring Program (California State Water Resources Control Board, 2015, 2022b; U.S. Geological Survey, 2022a). The U.S....
Bathymetric, hydrodynamic, biological, and water-quality characteristics of a nearshore area of the Laguna Madre near South Padre Island, Texas, 2021–22
Stephen P. Opsahl, Julio Ines Beltran, Darwin J. Ockerman
2023, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5111
A variety of data were collected by the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the City of South Padre Island, to better understand the physical and biological habitat in Tompkins Channel and adjacent seagrass beds in the lower Laguna Madre, Texas, where the construction of berms has been proposed in...
Using high-frequency monitoring data to quantify city-wide suspended-sediment load and evaluate TMDL goals
Samuel Adam Miller, James S. Webber, John D. Jastram, Marcus F Aguilar
2023, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment (195)
Excess sediment is a common reason water bodies in the USA become listed as impaired resulting in total maximum daily loads (TMDL) that require municipalities to invest millions of dollars annually on management practices aimed at reducing suspended-sediment loads (SSLs), yet monitoring data are rarely used...
Airport deicers: An unrecognized source of phosphorus loading in receiving waters
Owen M. Stefaniak, Steven R. Corsi, Troy D. Rutter, Greg G. Failey
2023, Environmental Science and Technology (57) 17051-17060
Airport ice control products contributed to total phosphorus (TP) loadings in a study of surface water runoff at a medium-sized airport from 2015 to 2021. Eleven airport ice control products had TP concentrations from 1–807 mg L–1 in liquid formulas, while solid pavement deicer had a TP...
Microhabitat use of native Santa Ana sucker and arroyo chub in an effluent-dominated southern California stream
Brock Huntsman, Larry R. Brown, Jason May, Kai Palenscar, Kerwin Russell, Heather Dyer, Marissa L. Wulff, Brett Mills, Chris Jones
2023, Southwestern Naturalist (67) 192-204
A significant amount of the base flow of the Santa Ana River, located within California's arid Los Angeles metropolitan region, originates from two wastewater treatment facilities: the Rialto wastewater treatment facility and Rapid Infiltration and Extraction facility. The Santa Ana sucker (Pantosteus santaanae, syn. Catostomus santaanae) and arroyo chub...
Tourist perceptions of climate change impacts on mountain ecotourism in southern Mexico
Ginger Deason, Erin Seekamp, Adam Terando, Camila Rojas
2023, Tourism and Hospitality (4) 451-466
Climate change impacts on tourism are well documented, with most studies focusing on challenges facing ski or beach tourism. While non-ski, mountain tourism accounts for almost one fifth of tourism worldwide, there is a dearth of research on tourists’ perceptions of climate change impacts and their effects on tourism demand...
Effects of noise from oil and gas development on ungulates and small mammals—A science synthesis to inform National Environmental Policy Act analyses
Tait K. Rutherford, Logan M. Maxwell, Nathan J. Kleist, Elisabeth C. Teige, Richard J. Lehrter, Megan A. Gilbert, David J.A. Wood, Aaron N. Johnston, Claudia Mengelt, John C. Tull, Travis S. Haby, Sarah K. Carter
2023, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5114
The U.S. Geological Survey is working with Federal land management agencies to develop a series of science syntheses to support environmental effects analyses that agencies conduct to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). This report synthesizes science information about the potential effects of noise from oil and gas...
Updated decision analysis to inform multi-species salmonine management in Lake Michigan
Kelly Filer Robinson, Michael L. Jones, Richard Clark, Brian Roth, Jory Jonas, Iyob Tsehaye, Matthew S. Kornis, Benjamin A. Turschak, Daniel O’Keefe, Brian Brenton
2023, Cooperator Science Series FWS/CSS-154-2023
The recreational fishery for salmonine species in Lake Michigan (lake trout, Chinook salmon, coho salmon, steelhead, and brown trout) is largely maintained through stocking. Decisions about how many of each species to stock require an understanding of how to maintain a sustainable balance of predators (salmonine species) to prey (alewife)...
Construction and modification of debris-flow alluvial fans as captured in the geomorphic and sedimentary record: Examples from the western Sangre de Cristo Mountains, south-central Colorado
Sylvia Nicovich, James Schmitt, Harrison J. Gray, Ralph E. Klinger, Shannon A. Mahan
2023, Geological Society of America Special Papers (561)
Debris-flow alluvial fans are iconic features of dynamic landscapes and are hypothesized to record tectonic and climatic change. Here, we highlight their complex formation and evolution through an exemplary suite of Quaternary debris-flow alluvial fans emanating from the western range front of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in south-central Colorado,...
Stony coral tissue loss disease accelerated shifts in coral composition and declines in reef accretion potential in the Florida Keys
Lauren T. Toth, Travis A. Courtney, Michael A. Colella, Robert R. Ruzicka
2023, Frontiers in Marine Science (10)
Outbreaks of coral disease have been a dominant force shaping western Atlantic coral-reef assemblages since the late 1970s. Stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) is nonetheless having an unprecedented impact in the region. Whereas numerous studies over the last decade have worked to characterize this novel pathogen and its...
Factors influencing autumn–winter movements of midcontinent Mallards and consequences for harvest and habitat management
Aaron T. Pearse, M. Szymanski, Cynthia A. Anchor, Michael J. Anteau, Rocco Murano, David A. Brandt, Joshua D. Stafford
2023, Ecology and Evolution (13)
Annual phenology and distributions of migratory wildlife have been noticeably influenced by climate change, leading to concerns about sustainable populations. Recent studies exploring conditions influencing autumn migration departure have provided conflicting insights regarding factors influencing the movements of Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos), a popular game...
Responses of native freshwater mussels to remediation to remove polychlorinated biphenyl-contaminated sediments in the upper Hudson River
Teresa J. Newton, Denise A. Mayer, James T. Rogala, Sean S. Madden, Brian R. Gray
2023, Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems (33) 1413-1430
The Hudson River, New York, was contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) from two manufacturing plants over a period of approximately 30 years, and PCBs are still present in sediment and biota today. The river provides habitat for a variety of plants and animals, including native freshwater mussels. A remediation programme,...
