Assessment of continuous gas resources in the Horn River Basin, Cordova Embayment, and Liard Basin, Canada, 2019
Christopher J. Schenk, Tracey J. Mercier, Cheryl A. Woodall, Thomas M. Finn, Phuong A. Le, Michael E. Brownfield, Kristen R. Marra, Stephanie B. Gaswirth, Heidi M. Leathers-Miller, Janet K. Pitman
2021, Fact Sheet 2020-3015
Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated undiscovered, technically recoverable mean resources of 135.4 trillion cubic feet of continuous gas in Devonian–Mississippian shales in the Horn River Basin, Cordova Embayment, and Liard Basin of Canada....
Assessment of water quality and discharge in the Herring River, Wellfleet, Massachusetts, November 2015 to September 2017
Thomas G. Huntington, Alana B. Spaetzel, John A. Colman, Kevin D. Kroeger, Robert T. Bradley
2021, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5120
The U.S. Geological Survey, Cape Cod National Seashore of the National Park Service, and Friends of Herring River cooperated from 2015 to 2017 to assess nutrient concentrations and fluxes across the ocean-estuary boundary at a dike on the Herring River in Wellfleet, Massachusetts. The purpose of this assessment was to...
Groundwater conditions and trends, 2009–19, Saipan, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands
Jackson N. Mitchell, Todd K. Presley, Robert L. Carruth
2021, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5129
Groundwater is the primary source of municipal water for Saipan. Nearly all groundwater for the municipal water supply is withdrawn from a freshwater-lens system with a limited amount of freshwater that is susceptible to saltwater intrusion. The status of Saipan’s groundwater resources has not been thoroughly assessed since 2003. The...
Exploration of the 2016 Yellowstone River fish kill and proliferative kidney disease in wild fish populations
Patrick Ross Hutchins, Adam Sepulveda, Hanna Hartikainen, Ken D. Staigmiller, Scott T. Opitz, Renee M. Yamamoto, Amberly Huttinger, Rick J. Cordes, Tammy Weiss, Lacey R. Hopper, Maureen K. Purcell, Beth Okamura
2021, Ecosphere (3)
Proliferative kidney disease (PKD) is an emerging disease that recently resulted in a large mortality event of salmonids in the Yellowstone River (Montana, USA). Total PKD fish mortalities in the Yellowstone River were estimated in the tens of thousands, which resulted in a multi‐week river closure and an estimated economic...
Assessment of contaminant trends in plumes and wells and monitoring network optimization at the Badger Army Ammunition Plant, Sauk County, Wisconsin
Matthew Pajerowski, Phillip J. Goodling, Marina J. Metes
2021, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5106
Soil and groundwater at the Badger Army Ammunition Plant (BAAP), Sauk County, Wisconsin, were affected by several contaminants as a result of production and waste disposal practices common during its operation from 1942 to 1975. Three distinct plumes of contaminated groundwater originate on BAAP property and extend off-site, as identified...
A revised position for the primary strand of the Pleistocene-Holocene San Andreas fault in southern California
Kim Blisniuk, Katherine M. Scharer, Warren Sharp, Roland Burgmann, Colin Amos, Michael Rymer
2021, Science Advances (7)
The San Andreas fault has the highest calculated time-dependent probability for large-magnitude earthquakes in southern California. However, where the fault is multistranded east of the Los Angeles metropolitan area, it has been uncertain which strand has the fastest slip rate and, therefore, which has the highest probability of a destructive...
Across borders: External factors and prior behaviour influence North Pacific albatross associations with fishing vessels
Rachael A Orben, Josh Adams, Michelle M. Hester, Scott A. Shaffer, Robert M. Suryan, Tomo Deguchi, Kiyoaki Ozaki, Fumio Sato, Lindsay C. Young, Corey A. Clatterbuck, Melinda G. Conners, David A Kroodsma, Leigh G Torres
2021, Journal of Applied Ecology (58) 1272-1283
Understanding encounters between marine predators and fisheries across national borders and outside national jurisdictions offers new perspectives on unwanted interactions to inform ocean management and predator conservation. Although seabird–fisheries overlap has been documented at many scales, remote identification of vessel encounters has lagged because vessel movement data often are...
Forecasting ecological responses for wetland restoration planning in Florida's Everglades
Stephanie Romanach, Leonard G. Pearlstine
2021, Book chapter, Reference module in earth systems and environmental sciences
The Everglades wetland was once a river of grass, with water flowing slowly through the sawgrass, southward across the landscape. As developers took hold of south Florida, water was sent away from the heart of the Everglades through canals and levees...
Exploring VIIRS continuity with MODIS in an expedited capability for monitoring drought-related vegetation conditions
Trenton D Benedict, Jesslyn F. Brown, Stephen P. Boyte, Daniel Howard, Brian Fuchs, Brian D. Wardlow, Tsegaye Tadesse, Kirk Evenson
2021, Remote Sensing (13)
Vegetation has been effectively monitored using remote sensing time-series vegetation index (VI) data for several decades. Drought monitoring has been a common application with algorithms tuned to capturing anomalous temporal and spatial vegetation patterns. Drought stress models, such as the Vegetation Drought Response Index (VegDRI), often use VIs like the...
Assessment of sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) diet using DNA metabarcoding of feces
Nicholas S. Johnson, Sean A. Lewandoski, Christopher M. Merkes
2021, Ecological Indicators (125)
Sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) are invasive in the Laurentian Great Lakes, parasitize large-bodied fishes, and therefore are the focus of an international control program. However, damage caused by sea lamprey to modern day fish stocks remains uncertain because diet analysis of juvenile sea lamprey has been challenging; they feed on...
Geological constraints on the mechanisms of slow earthquakes
James D. Kirkpatrick, Ake Fagereng, David R. Shelly
2021, Nature Reviews Earth and Environment (2) 285-301
The recognition of slow earthquakes in geodetic and seismological data has transformed the understanding of how plate motions are accommodated at major plate boundaries. Slow earthquakes, which slip more slowly than regular earthquakes but faster than plate motion velocities, occur in a range of tectonic and metamorphic settings. They exhibit...
Genetic structure of Maryland Brook Trout populations: Management implications for a threatened species
Raymond P. Morgan II, David C. Kazyak, Tim L. King, Barbara A. Lubinski, Matthew T. Sell, Alan A Heft, Jess W Jones
2021, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (41) 1097-1119
Brook Trout Salvelinus fontinalis have declined across their native range due to multiple anthropogenic factors, including landscape alteration and climate change. Although coldwater streams in Maryland (eastern United States) historically supported significant Brook Trout populations, only fragmented remnant populations remain, with the exception of the upper Savage River...
The effects of management practices on grassland birds—Lark Sparrow (Chondestes grammacus)
Jill A. Shaffer, Lawrence D. Igl, Douglas H. Johnson, Marriah L. Sondreal, Christopher M. Goldade, Barry D. Parkin, Betty R. Euliss
2021, Professional Paper 1842-DD
Keys to Lark Sparrow (Chondestes grammacus) management include providing open grasslands with sparse-to-moderate herbaceous and litter cover and a woody component and allowing occasional burning or moderate grazing. Lark Sparrows have been reported to use habitats with 10–63 centimeters (cm) average vegetation height, 10–54 percent grass cover, 9–25 percent forb...
Evaluating low flow patterns, drivers and trends in the Delaware River Basin
John C. Hammond, Brandon J. Fleming
2021, Journal of Hydrology (598)
In the humid, temperate Delaware River Basin (DRB) where water availability is generally reliable, summer low flows can cause competition between various human and ecological water uses. As temperatures continue to rise, population increases and development expands, it is critical to...
Earthquake magnitudes from dynamic strain
Andrew J. Barbour, John O. Langbein, Noha Sameh Ahmed Farghal
2021, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (111) 1325-1346
Dynamic strains have never played a role in determining local earthquake magnitudes, which are routinely set by displacement waveforms from seismic instrumentation (e.g., ML). We present a magnitude scale for local earthquakes based on broadband dynamic strain waveforms. This scale is derived from the peak...
Natural and anthropogenic geochemical tracers to investigate residence times and groundwater–surface-water interactions in an urban alluvial aquifer
Connor P. Newman, Suzanne S. Paschke, Gabrielle L. Keith
2021, Water (13)
A multi-component geochemical dataset was collected from groundwater and surface-water bodies associated with the urban Fountain Creek alluvial aquifer, Colorado, USA, to facilitate analysis of recharge sources, geochemical interactions, and groundwater-residence times. Results indicate that groundwater can be separated into three distinct geochemical zones based on location within the flow...
Assessment of a claimed ultra-low frequency electromagnetic (ULFEM) earthquake precursor
Can Wang, Lilianna Christman, Simon Klemperer, Jonathan M.G. Glen, Darcy McPhee, Chen Bin
2021, Geophysical Journal International (229) 2081-2095
The rate of occurrence of anomalous ultra-low frequency electromagnetic (ULFEM) pulses has been claimed to have increased days to weeks prior to the M5.4 2007 and M4.0 2010 Alum Rock earthquakes. We re-examine the previously reported ultra-low frequency (ULF: 0.01–10 Hz) magnetic data recorded at a QuakeFinder site located 9 km...
Measuring and interpreting multilayer aquifer-system compactions for a sustainable groundwater-system development
Wei-Chia Hung, Cheinway Hwang, Michelle Sneed, Yi-An Chen, Chi-Hua Chu, Shao-Hung Lin
2021, Water Resources Research (57)
Ever decreasing water resources and climate change have driven the increasing use of groundwater causing land subsidence in many countries. Geodetic sensors such as InSAR, GPS and leveling can detect surface deformation but cannot measure subsurface deformation. A single‐well, single‐depth extensometer can be used to measure subsurface deformation, but it...
Earth Resources Observation and Science Center hosting services
U.S. Geological Survey
2021, Fact Sheet 2021-3018
The Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center has a long history of leveraging technology in support of Earth science and business applications including data management, processing, and virtualization and complex solutions to visualize and distribute data. It is the aim of EROS to offer operational excellence and service as...
The basin characterization model—A regional water balance software package
Lorraine E. Flint, Alan L. Flint, Michelle A. Stern
2021, Techniques and Methods 6-H1
This report documents the computer software package, Basin Characterization Model, version 8 (BCMv8)—a monthly, gridded, regional water-balance model—and provides detailed operational instructions and example applications. After several years of many applications and uses of a previous version, CA-BCM, published in 2014, the BCMv8 was refined to improve the accuracy of...
Distribution, abundance, and genomic diversity of the endangered antioch dunes evening primrose (Oenothera deltoides subsp. howellii) surveyed in 2019
Karen M. Thorne, Amy G. Vandergast, editor(s)
2021, Open-File Report 2021-1017
Sand dune ecosystems are highly dynamic landforms found along coastlines and riverine deltas where a supply of sand-sized material is available to be delivered by aquatic and wind environments. These unique ecosystems provide habitat for a variety of endemic and rare plant and animal species. Sand dunes have been affected...
Ashmole's hypothesis and the latitudinal gradient in clutch size
Carl G. Lundblad, Courtney J. Conway
2021, Biological Reviews (96) 1349-1366
One enduring priority for ecologists has been to understand the cause(s) of variation in reproductive effort among species and localities. Avian clutch size generally increases with increasing latitude, both within and across species, but the mechanism(s) driving that pattern continue to generate hypotheses and debate. In 1961, a Ph.D. student...
Mapping climate change vulnerability of aquatic-riparian ecosystems using decision-relevant indicators
John T. Delaney, Kristen L. Bouska, Josh D. Eash, Patricia J. Heglund, Andrew A Allstadt
2021, Ecological Indicators (125)
Climate change has and is projected to continue to alter historical regimes of temperature, precipitation, and hydrology. To assess the vulnerability of climate change from a land management perspective and spatially identify where the most extreme changes are anticipated to occur,...
Groundwater, surface-water, and water-chemistry data, Black Mesa area, northeastern Arizona—2016–2018
Jon P. Mason
2021, Open-File Report 2021-1124
The Navajo (N) aquifer is the primary source of groundwater in the 5,400-square-mile Black Mesa area in northeastern Arizona. Availability of water is an important issue in the Black Mesa area because of continued water requirements for industrial and municipal use by a growing population and because of its arid...
Synoptic analysis of a decade of daily measurements of SO2 emission in the troposphere from volcanoes of the global ground-based Network for Observation of Volcanic and Atmospheric Change
Santiago Arellano, Bo Galle, Fredy Apaza, Geoffroy Avard, Charlotte Barrington, Nicole Bobrowski, Claudia Bucarey, Viviana Burbano, Mike Burton, Zoraida Chacon, Gustavo Chigna, Christian Joseph Clarito, Vladimir Conde, Fidel Costa, Maarten de Moor, Hugo Delgado-Granados, Andrea Di Muro, D. Fernandez, Gustavo Garzon, Hendra Gunawan, Nia Haerani, Thor Hansteen, Silvana Hidalgo, Salvatore Inguaggiato, Mattias Johansson, Christoph Kern, Manne Kihlman, Philippe Kowalski, Pablo Masias, Francisco Montalvo, Joakim Moller, Ulrich Platt, Claudia Rivera, Armando Saballos, Giuseppe Salerno, Benoit Taisne, Freddy Vasconez, Gabriela Velazquez, Fabio Vita, Mathieu M. Yalire
2021, Earth System Science Data (13) 1167-1188
Volcanic plumes are common and far-reaching manifestations of volcanic activity during and between eruptions. Observations of the rate of emission and composition of volcanic plumes are essential to recognize and, in some cases, predict the state of volcanic activity. Measurements of the size and location of the plumes are...
