Trends in pesticide use on soybean, corn and cotton since the introduction of major genetically modified crops in the United States
Richard H. Coupe, Paul D. Capel
2016, Pest Management Science (72) 1013-1022
BACKGROUNDGenetically modified (GM) varieties of soybean, corn and cotton have largely replaced conventional varieties in the United States. The most widely used applications of GM technology have been the development of crops that are resistant to a specific broad-spectrum herbicide (primarily glyphosate) or that produce insecticidal compounds within the plant...
Economic impacts of a California tsunami
Adam Rose, Ian Sue Wing, Dan Wei, Anne Wein
2016, Natural Hazards Review (17) 1-12
The economic consequences of a tsunami scenario for Southern California are estimated using computable general equilibrium analysis. The economy is modeled as a set of interconnected supply chains interacting through markets but with explicit constraints stemming from property damage and business downtime. Economic impacts are measured by...
Coesite in suevites from the Chesapeake Bay impact structure
John C. Jackson, J. Wright Horton Jr., I-Ming Chou, Harvey E. Belkin
2016, Meteoritics and Planetary Science (51) 946-965
The occurrence of coesite in suevites from the Chesapeake Bay impact structure is confirmed within a variety of textural domains in situ by Raman spectroscopy for the first time and in mechanically separated grains by X-ray diffraction. Microtextures of coesite identified in situ investigated under transmitted light and by scanning electron microscope...
Estimating forest and woodland aboveground biomass using active and passive remote sensing
Zhuoting Wu, Dennis G. Dye, John M. Vogel, Barry R. Middleton
2016, Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing (82) 271-281
Aboveground biomass was estimated from active and passive remote sensing sources, including airborne lidar and Landsat-8 satellites, in an eastern Arizona (USA) study area comprised of forest and woodland ecosystems. Compared to field measurements, airborne lidar enabled direct estimation of individual tree height with a slope of 0.98 (R2 = 0.98)....
@KarlTheFog has been mapped!
Alicia A. Torregrosa
2016, BayGEO Journal (9)
Within the world of mapping, clouds are a pesky interference to be removed from satellite remote sensed imagery. However, to many of us, that is a waste of pixels. Cloud maps are becoming increasingly valuable in the quest to understand land cover change and surface processes. In coastal California, the...
Organic petrology and geochemistry of Eocene Suzak bituminous marl, north-central Afghanistan: Depositional environment and source rock potential
Paul C. Hackley, John Sanfilipo
2016, Marine and Petroleum Geology (73) 572-589
Organic geochemistry and petrology of Eocene Suzak bituminous marl outcrop samples from Madr village in north-central Afghanistan were characterized via an integrated analytical approach to evaluate depositional environment and source rock potential. Multiple proxies suggest the organic-rich (TOC ∼6 wt.%) bituminous marls are ‘immature’ for oil generation (e.g., vitrinite Ro < 0.4%, Tmax < 425 °C,...
Assessing the role of seabirds in the ecology of influenza A viruses
Andrew S. Lang, Camille Lebarbenchon, Andrew M. Ramey, Gregory J. Robertson, Jonas Waldenstrom, Michelle Wille
2016, Avian Diseases (60) 378-386
Wild waterbirds, specifically waterfowl, gulls, and shorebirds, are recognized as the primordial reservoir of influenza A viruses (IAVs). However, the role of seabirds, an abundant, diverse, and globally distributed group of birds, in the perpetuation and transmission of IAVs is less clear. Here we summarize published and publicly available data...
Developing fish trophic interaction indicators of climate change for the Great Lakes
Richard T. Kraus, Carey T. Knight, Ann Marie Gorman, Patrick M. Kocovsky, Brian Weidel, Mark W. Rogers
2016, Report
This project addressed regional climate change effects on aquatic food webs in the Great Lakes. We sought insights by examining Lake Erie as a representative system with a high level of anthropogenic impacts, strong nutrient gradients, seasonal hypoxia, and spatial overlap of cold- and cool-water fish guilds. In Lake Erie...
Parameterization of the InVEST Crop Pollination Model to spatially predict abundance of wild blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium Aiton) native bee pollinators in Maine, USA
Shannon C. Groff, Cynthia S. Loftin, Frank Drummond, Sara Bushmann, Brian J. McGill
2016, Environmental Modelling and Software (79) 1-9
Non-native honeybees historically have been managed for crop pollination, however, recent population declines draw attention to pollination services provided by native bees. We applied the InVEST Crop Pollination model, developed to predict native bee abundance from habitat resources, in Maine's wild blueberry crop landscape. We evaluated model performance with parameters...
To cross or not to cross: modeling wildlife road crossings as a binary response variable with contextual predictors
Shane R. Siers, Robert N. Reed, Julie A. Savidge
2016, Ecosphere (7)
Roads are significant barriers to landscape-scale movements of individuals or populations of many wildlife taxa. The decision by an animal near a road to either cross or not cross may be influenced by characteristics of the road, environmental conditions, traits of the individual animal, and other aspects of the context...
Best practices in passive remote sensing VNIR hyperspectral system hardware calibrations
Joseph Jablonski, Christopher Durell, E. Terrence Slonecker, Kwok Wong, Blair Simon, Andrew Eichelberger, Jacob Osterberg
2016, Conference Paper, Proc. SPIE 9860, Hyperspectral Imaging Sensors: Innovative Applications and Sensor Standards 2016
Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) is an exciting and rapidly expanding area of instruments and technology in passive remote sensing. Due to quickly changing applications, the instruments are evolving to suit new uses and there is a need for consistent definition, testing, characterization and calibration. This paper seeks to outline a broad...
Megafloods and Clovis cache at Wenatchee, Washington
Richard B. Waitt
2016, Quaternary Research (85) 430-444
Immense late Wisconsin floods from glacial Lake Missoula drowned the Wenatchee reach of Washington's Columbia valley by different routes. The earliest debacles, nearly 19,000 cal yr BP, raged 335 m deep down the Columbia and built high Pangborn bar at Wenatchee. As advancing ice blocked the northwest of Columbia valley, several giant floods descended...
Assessing predation risks for small fish in a large river ecosystem between contrasting habitats and turbidity conditions
Michael J. Dodrill, Michael D. Yard, William E. Pine III
2016, American Midland Naturalist (175) 206-221
This study examined predation risk for juvenile native fish between two riverine shoreline habitats, backwater and debris fan, across three discrete turbidity levels (low, intermediate, high) to understand environmental risks associated with habitat use in a section of the Colorado River in Grand Canyon, AZ. Inferences are particularly important to...
Challenges for mapping cyanotoxin patterns from remote sensing of cyanobacteria
Rick P Stumpf, Timothy W. Davis, Timothy T. Wynne, Jennifer L. Graham, Keith A. Loftin, T.H. Johengen, D. Gossiaux, D. Palladino, A. Burtner
2016, Harmful Algae (54) 160-173
Using satellite imagery to quantify the spatial patterns of cyanobacterial toxins has several challenges. These challenges include the need for surrogate pigments – since cyanotoxins cannot be directly detected by remote sensing, the variability in the relationship between the pigments and cyanotoxins – especially microcystins (MC), and the lack of...
Geologic map of the Valdez D-1 and D-2 quadrangles (Mount Wrangell Volcano), Alaska
D.H. Richter, R. G. McGimsey, Keith A. Labay, M. A. Lanphere, R. B. Moore, C.J. Nye, D. S. Rosenkrans, G. R. Winkler
2016, Scientific Investigations Map 3351
Geologic Note Mount Wrangell (elev. 4,317 m) is the youngest and only active volcano in the Oligocene to Holocene-aged Wrangell volcanic field that extends from beyond the Alaska-Yukon border northwest through the Wrangell Mountains to the Copper River Basin. The volcano is a very large (900 km3) broad shield containing an...
Urban hydrology—Science capabilities of the U.S. Geological Survey
Joseph M. Bell, Amy E. Simonson, Irene J. Fisher
2016, Fact Sheet 2016-3023
Urbanization affects streamflow characteristics, coastal flooding, and groundwater recharge. Increasing impervious areas, streamflow diversions, and groundwater pumpage are some of the ways that the natural water cycle is affected by urbanization. Assessment of the relations among these factors and changes in land use helps water-resource managers with issues such as...
Urban development and stream ecosystem health—Science capabilities of the U.S. Geological Survey
Pamela A. Reilly, Zoltan Szabo, James F. Coles
2016, Fact Sheet 2016-3026
Urban development creates multiple stressors that can degrade stream ecosystems by changing stream hydrology, water quality, and physical habitat. Contaminants, habitat destruction, and increasing streamflow variability resulting from urban development have been associated with the disruption of biological communities, particularly the loss of sensitive aquatic biota. Understanding how algal, invertebrate,...
Urban infrastructure and water management—Science capabilities of the U.S. Geological Survey
Shawn C. Fisher, Rosemary M. Fanelli, William R. Selbig
2016, Fact Sheet 2016-3025
Managing the urban-water cycle has increasingly become a challenge for water-resources planners and regulators faced with the problem of providing clean drinking water to urban residents. Sanitary and combined sanitary and storm sewer networks convey wastewater to centralized treatment plants. Impervious surfaces, which include roads, parking lots, and buildings, increase...
Contaminants in urban waters—Science capabilities of the U.S. Geological Survey
John D. Jastram, Kenneth E. Hyer
2016, Fact Sheet 2016-3024
Streams and estuaries with urban watersheds commonly exhibit increased streamflow and decreased base flow; diminished stream-channel stability; excessive amounts of contaminants such as pesticides, metals, industrial and municipal waste, and combustion products; and alterations to biotic community structure. Collectively, these detrimental effects have been termed the “urban-stream syndrome.” Water-resource managers...
Seasonal patterns in carbon dioxide in 15 mid-continent (USA) reservoirs
John R. Jones, Daniel V. Obrecht, Jennifer L. Graham, Michelle B. Balmer, Christopher T. Filstrup, John A. Downing
2016, Inland Waters (2) 265-272
Evidence suggests that lakes are important sites for atmospheric CO2 exchange and so play a substantial role in the global carbon budget. Previous research has 2 weaknesses: (1) most data have been collected only during the open-water or summer seasons, and (2) data are concentrated principally on natural lakes in...
Post-Hurricane Ike coastal oblique aerial photographs collected along the Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana barrier islands and the north Texas coast, September 14-15, 2008
Karen L. M. Morgan, M. Dennis Krohn, Kristy K. Guy
2016, Data Series 990
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), as part of the National Assessment of Coastal Change Hazards project, conducts baseline and storm-response photography missions to document and understand the changes in vulnerability of the Nation's coasts to extreme storms (Morgan, 2009). On September 14-15, 2008, the USGS conducted an oblique...
Baseline coastal oblique aerial photographs collected from Calcasieu Lake, Louisiana, to Brownsville, Texas, September 9-10, 2008
Karen L. M. Morgan, Karen A. Westphal
2016, Data Series 991
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), as part of the National Assessment of Coastal Change Hazards project, conducts baseline and storm-response photography missions to document and understand the changes in vulnerability of the Nation's coasts to extreme storms (Morgan, 2009). On September 9-10, 2008, the USGS conducted an oblique...
Direct observations of ice seasonality reveal changes in climate over the past 320–570 years
Sapna Sharma, John J. Magnuson, Ryan D. Batt, Luke Winslow, Johanna Korhonen, Yasuyuki Aono
2016, Scientific Reports (6)
Lake and river ice seasonality (dates of ice freeze and breakup) responds sensitively to climatic change and variability. We analyzed climate-related changes using direct human observations of ice freeze dates (1443–2014) for Lake Suwa, Japan, and of ice breakup dates (1693–2013) for Torne River, Finland. We found a rich array...
The bee microbiome: Impact on bee health and model for evolution and ecology of host-microbe interactions
Philipp Engel, Waldan K. Kwong, Quinn McFrederick, Kirk E. Anderson, Seth Michael Barribeau, James Angus Chandler, Robert S. Cornman, Jacques Dainat, Joachim R. de Miranda, Vincent Doublet, Olivier Emery, Jay D. Evans, Laurent Farinelli, Michelle Flenniken, Fredrik Granberg, Juris A. Grasis, Laurent Gauthier, Juliette Hayer, Hauke Koch, Sarah Kocher, Vincent G. Martinson, Nancy Moran, Monica Munoz-Torres, Irene Newton, Robert J. Paxton, Eli Powell, Ben M. Sadd, Paul Schmid-Hempel, Regula Schmid-Hempel, Jin Song, Ryan S. Schwarz, Dennis vanEngelsdorp, Benjamin Dainat
2016, mBio
As pollinators, bees are cornerstones for terrestrial ecosystem stability and key components in agricultural productivity. All animals, including bees, are associated with a diverse community of microbes, commonly referred to as the microbiome. The bee microbiome is likely to be a crucial factor affecting host health. However, with the exception...
Spatial and temporal patterns of mercury concentrations in freshwater fish across the Western United States and Canada
Collin A. Eagles-Smith, Joshua T. Ackerman, James J. Willacker, Michael T. Tate, Michelle A. Lutz, Jacob Fleck, A. Robin Stewart, James G. Wiener, David C. Evers, Jesse M. Lepak, Jay A. Davis, Colleen Flanagan Pritz
2016, Science of the Total Environment (568) 1171-1184
Methylmercury contamination of fish is a global threat to environmental health. Mercury (Hg) monitoring programs are valuable for generating data that can be compiled for spatially broad syntheses to identify emergent ecosystem properties that influence fish Hg bioaccumulation. Fish total Hg (THg) concentrations were evaluated across the Western United States...
