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Animal movements reflect temporal and spatial availability of resources as well as when, where, and how individuals access such resources. To test these relationships for a predatory reptile, we quantified the effects of prey abundance on the spatial ecology of invasive brown treesnakes (Boiga irregularis) on Guam. Five months after...

Geological reservoir characterization is essential for accurate evaluation of gas production performance from gas hydrate reservoirs. Particularly, the understanding of reservoir architecture and heterogeneity is of great importance since these are considered as major controls on fluid hydrodynamic and thermodynamic conditions....

Understanding the ecological niche of some fishes is complicated by their frequent use of a broad range of food resources and habitats across space and time. Little is known about Broad Whitefish (Coregonus nasus) ecological niches in Arctic landscapes even though they are an important subsistence...

We use amplitude ratios from narrowband-filtered earthquake seismograms to measure variations of seismic attenuation over time, providing unique insights into the dynamic state of stress in the Earth’s crust at depth. Our dataset from earthquakes of the 2016-2017 Central Apennines sequence allows us to obtain high-resolution time histories of seismic...

Municipal water supply for Albuquerque, New Mexico, is provided, in part, through diversion of surface water from the Rio Grande by way of the San Juan-Chama Drinking Water Project diversion structure. Changes in surface-water quality along the Rio Grande and its tributaries upstream from the San Juan-Chama Drinking Water Project...

New lithologic and detrital zircon (DZ) U-Pb data from Devonian–Triassic strata on St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea and from the western Brooks Range of Alaska suggest affinities between these two areas. The Brooks Range constitutes part of the Arctic Alaska–Chukotka microplate, but the tectonic and paleogeographic affinities of...

Responses of terrestrial ecosystems to climate change have been explored in many regions worldwide. While continued drying and warming may alter process rates and deteriorate the state and performance of ecosystems, it could also lead to more fundamental changes in the mechanisms governing ecosystem functioning. Here...

Pathogen transmission depends on host density, mobility and contact. These components emerge from host and pathogen movements that themselves arise through interactions with the surrounding environment. The environment, the emergent host and pathogen movements, and the subsequent patterns of density, mobility and contact form an ‘epidemiological...

This investigation sought to characterize the shedding of infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus (IHNV) in two populations of Columbia River Basin (CRB) Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha). Juvenile spring- and fall-run Chinook salmon were exposed by immersion to each of three IHN virus strains from the UC, MD, and L subgroups,...

Barriers are an effective mechanism for managing invasive species like sea lamprey in the Lau-rentian Great Lakes, but are detrimental because they limit the migration of desirable, native species. Fish passage technologies that selectively pass desirable species while blocking unde-sirable species are needed. Optical sorting tools combined with newly developed...

Movement behavior is an important contributor to habitat selection and its incorporation in disease risk models has been somewhat neglected. The habitat preferences of host individuals affect their probability of exposure to pathogens. If preference behavior can be incorporated in ecological niche models (ENMs) when data on pathogen distributions are...

Observations of elevated barium-to-calcium ratios (Ba/Ca) in Globorotalia truncatulinoides have been attributed to contaminant phases, deep calcification depth and diagenetic processes. Here we investigate intra- and inter-test Ba/Ca variability in the non-spinose planktic foraminifer, G. truncatulinoides, from a sediment trap time series in the northern Gulf of Mexico to...

Groundwater provides nearly 50 percent of the Nation’s drinking water. To help protect this vital resource, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Project assesses groundwater quality in aquifers that are important sources of drinking water (Burow and Belitz, 2014). The surficial aquifer system constitutes one of the...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) evaluated nitrate and orthophosphate concentrations in groundwater for temporal trends (monotonic and step trends) for the middle Snake River region (Cassia, Gooding, Jerome, Lincoln, Minidoka, and Twin Falls Counties) in south-central Idaho using the Regional Kendall test (monotonic trends) and the Wilcoxon signed rank...

Rare earth element (REE) enrichment in the Elk Creek carbonatite, Nebraska USA, is comparable to ore grade enrichment in carbonatite-hosted REE deposits[1]. Petrographic examination of textures documents a complex history of crystallization, brecciation, recrystallization, oxidation, and near surface alteration. Barite (BaSO4) is present in most units, including REE-enriched zones, such...

Sea star wasting—marked in a variety of sea star species as varying degrees of skin lesions followed by disintegration—recently caused one of the largest marine die-offs ever recorded on the west coast of North America, killing billions of sea stars. Despite the...

Since its introduction to North America, white-nose syndrome has been associated with declines greater than 90% in several bat species, prompting the development of treatments to reduce disease-related mortality. As treatment application is scaled up, predicting responses at the population level will help in the development of management plans.We...

Magnetotelluric (MT) imaging results from mineral provinces in Australia and in the United States show an apparent spatial relationship between crustal-scale electrical conductivity anomalies and major magmatic-hydrothermal iron oxide-apatite/iron oxide-copper-gold (IOA-IOCG) deposits. Although these observations have driven substantial interest in the use...

Mountain pine beetle (MPB) is a native disturbance agent across most pine forests in the western US. Climate changes will directly and indirectly impact frequencies and severities of MPB outbreaks, which can then alter fuel characteristics and wildland fire dynamics via changes in stand structure and composition. To investigate the...

The real-world application of climate change adaptation practices in terrestrial wildlife conservation has been slowed by a lack of practical guidance for wildlife managers. Although there is a rapidly growing body of literature on the topic of climate change adaptation and wildlife management, the literature...

Solutions for emerging infectious disease and bioterror threats can be improved by incorporating integrated biodefense strategies, including improved surveillance for animal and zoonotic diseases, strong national leadership, and effective management tools. Active biosurveillance for disease events is key to early detection, warning, and overall situational awareness and enables better communication,...

Malheur Lake is a large, shallow, turbid lake in southeastern Oregon that fluctuates widely in surface area in response to yearly precipitation and climatic cycles. High suspended-sediment concentrations (SSCs) likely are negatively affecting the survival of aquatic plants by reducing the intensity of solar radiation reaching the plants, thus...

Resource managers of the Saguaro National Park are concerned about the spread of the invasive species Cenchrus ciliaris L. (buffelgrass) and the threat it poses to desert ecosystems. Glyphosate-based herbicide treatments seem to be one of a few viable options to control the spread of buffelgrass in the mountainous terrain...

The Rio Grande Transboundary Integrated Hydrologic Model (RGTIHM) was developed through an interagency effort between the U.S. Geological Survey and the Bureau of Reclamation to provide a tool for analyzing the hydrologic system response to the historical evolution of water use and potential changes in water supplies and demands in...

Inducible responses to herbivores can be either localized or spread systemically throughout a plant. The ways in which clonal plants integrate their response to herbivores among clonal ramets is not well understood. Yet, this is important to understand the impacts that herbivores may have on clonal plants. We conducted a...