The role of uplift and erosion in the persistence of saline groundwater in the shallow subsurface
Richard M. Yager, Kurt J. McCoy, Clifford I. Voss, Ward E. Sanford, Richard B. Winston
2017, Geophysical Research Letters (44) 3672-3681
In many regions of the world, the shallow (<300 m) subsurface is replenished with meteoric recharge within a few centuries or millennia, but in some regions saline groundwater persists despite abundant rainfall. Analyses of the flushing rate of shallow groundwater usually consider the permeability and recharge rate and a static landscape....
Statistical principles of post-construction fatality monitoring design
Manuela M. Huso, Daniel Dalthorp, Fraenzi Korner-Nievergelt
2017, Book chapter, Wildlife and wind farms, conflicts and solutions, Vol. 2 Onshore: Monitoring and mitigation
No abstract available....
Microbial methane from in situ biodegradation of coal and shale: A review and reevaluation of hydrogen and carbon isotope signatures
David S. Vinson, Neal E. Blair, Anna M. Martini, Steve Larter, William H. Orem, Jennifer C. McIntosh
2017, Chemical Geology (453) 128-145
Stable carbon and hydrogen isotope signatures of methane, water, and inorganic carbon are widely utilized in natural gas systems for distinguishing microbial and thermogenic methane and for delineating methanogenic pathways (acetoclastic, hydrogenotrophic, and/or methylotrophic methanogenesis). Recent studies of coal and shale gas systems have characterized in situ microbial communities...
Classification of California streams using combined deductive and inductive approaches: Setting the foundation for analysis of hydrologic alteration
Matthew I. Pyne, Daren M. Carlisle, Christopher P. Konrad, Eric D. Stein
2017, Ecohydrology (10)
Regional classification of streams is an early step in the Ecological Limits of Hydrologic Alteration framework. Many stream classifications are based on an inductive approach using hydrologic data from minimally disturbed basins, but this approach may underrepresent streams from heavily disturbed basins or sparsely gaged arid regions. An alternative is...
Spatiotemporal ecology of Apalone spinifera in a large, Great Plains river ecosystem
Brian J. Tornabene, Robert G. Bramblett, Alexander V. Zale, Stephen A. Leathe
2017, Herpetological Conservation and Biology (12) 252-271
Sparse information exists about the ecology of Spiny Softshell Turtles (Apalone spinifera) in large rivers, at the northwestern extent of their natural range, and in Montana, where they are disjunct from downstream populations and a State Species of Concern. We determined spatiotemporal ecology of 47 female and 12 male turtles...
Inter-nesting movements and habitat-use of adult female Kemp’s ridley turtles in the Gulf of Mexico
Donna J. Shaver, Kristen M. Hart, Ikuko Fujisaki, David N. Bucklin, Autumn Iverson, Cynthia Rubio, Thomas F. Backof, Patrick M. Burchfield, Raul de Jesus Gonzales Diaz Miron, Peter H. Dutton, Amy Frey, Jaime Peña, Daniel Gomez Gamez, Hector J. Martinez, Jaime Ortiz
2017, PLoS ONE (12)
Species vulnerability is increased when individuals congregate in restricted areas for breeding; yet, breeding habitats are not well defined for many marine species. Identification and quantification of these breeding habitats are essential to effective conservation. Satellite telemetry and switching state-space modeling (SSM) were used to define inter-nesting habitat of endangered...
Implanting 8-mm passive integrated transponder tags into small Brook Trout: Effects on growth and survival in the laboratory
Matthew J. O’Donnell, Benjamin H. Letcher
2017, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (37) 605-611
Passive integrated transponder (PIT) tags are commonly used to investigate relationships between individual fish and their environment. The recent availability of smaller tags has provided the opportunity to tag smaller fish. In this study, we implanted 8-mm PIT tags into small Brook Trout Salvelinus fontinalis (35–50 mm FL; 0.35–1.266 g)...
A decade of insights into grassland ecosystem responses to global environmental change
Elizabeth T. Borer, James B. Grace, W. Stanley Harpole, Andrew S. MacDougall, Eric W. Seabloom
2017, Nature Ecology & Evolution (1)
Earth’s biodiversity and carbon uptake by plants, or primary productivity, are intricately interlinked, underlie many essential ecosystem processes, and depend on the interplay among environmental factors, many of which are being changed by human activities. While ecological theory generalizes across taxa and environments, most empirical tests of factors controlling diversity...
Mitigating future avian malaria threats to Hawaiian forest birds from climate change
Wei Liao, Carter T. Atkinson, Dennis LaPointe, Michael D. Samuel
2017, PLoS ONE (12) 1-25
Avian malaria, transmitted by Culex quinquefasciatus mosquitoes in the Hawaiian Islands, has been a primary contributor to population range limitations, declines, and extinctions for many endemic Hawaiian honeycreepers. Avian malaria is strongly influenced by climate; therefore, predicted future changes are expected to expand transmission into higher elevations and intensify and...
A software tool to assess uncertainty in transient-storage model parameters using Monte Carlo simulations
Adam S. Ward, Christa A. Kelleher, Seth J. K. Mason, Thorsten Wagener, Neil McIntyre, Brian L. McGlynn, Robert L. Runkel, Robert A. Payn
2017, Freshwater Science (36) 195-217
Researchers and practitioners alike often need to understand and characterize how water and solutes move through a stream in terms of the relative importance of in-stream and near-stream storage and transport processes. In-channel and subsurface storage processes are highly variable in space and time and difficult to measure. Storage estimates...
Reassortment of influenza A viruses in wild birds in Alaska before H5 Clade 2.3.4.4 Outbreaks
Nichola J. Hill, Islam T. M. Hussein, Kimberly R. Davis, Eric J. Ma, Timothy J. Spivey, Andrew M. Ramey, Wendy Blay Puryear, Suman R. Das, Rebecca A. Halpin, Xudong Lin, Nadia B. Federova, David L. Suarez, Walter M. Boyce, Jonathan A. Runstadler
2017, Emerging Infectious Diseases (23) 654-657
Sampling of mallards in Alaska during September 2014–April 2015 identified low pathogenic avian influenza A virus (subtypes H5N2 and H1N1) that shared ancestry with highly pathogenic reassortant H5N2 and H5N1 viruses. Molecular dating indicated reassortment soon after interhemispheric movement of H5N8 clade 2.3.4.4, suggesting genetic exchange in Alaska or surrounds...
Hazus® estimated annualized earthquake losses for the United States
Kishor S. Jaiswal, Doug Bausch, Jesse Rozelle, John Holub, Sean McGowan
2017, Report
Large earthquakes can cause social and economic disruption that can be unprecedented to any given community, and the full recovery from these impacts may or may not always be achievable. In the United States (U.S.), the 1994 M6.7 Northridge earthquake in California remains the third costliest disaster in U.S. history;...
The deadly fisheries safety issue no one discusses
Scott A. Bonar
2017, Fisheries (April 2017)
No abstract available....
Estimating occupancy probability of moose using hunter survey data
Nathan J. Crum, Angela K. Fuller, Christopher S. Sutherland, Evan G. Cooch, Jeremy E. Hurst
2017, Journal of Wildlife Management (81) 521-534
Monitoring rare species can be difficult, especially across large spatial extents, making conventional methods of population monitoring costly and logistically challenging. Citizen science has the potential to produce observational data across large areas that can be used to monitor wildlife distributions using occupancy models. We used citizen science (i.e., hunter...
Groundwater conditions in Utah, Spring of 2017
Carole B. Burden
2017, Cooperative Investigations Report 58
This is the fifty-fourth in a series of annual reports that describe groundwater conditions in Utah. Reports in this series, published cooperatively by the U.S. Geological Survey and the Utah Department of Natural Resources, Division of Water Rights, and the Utah Department of Environmental Quality, Division of Water Quality, provide...
Temporospatial dynamics and public health significance of bacterial flora identified on a major leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) nesting beach in the Southern Caribbean
Ayanna Carla N. Phillips, Johanna Couteau, Stacy Rajh, Neville Stewart, Antonio Watson, Adam Jehu, Hamish Asmath, Chandrashekhar Unakal, Francis Dziva, Ridley Holder, Raymond R. Carthy
2017, Marine Ecology (38)
Grande Riviere beach, on the island of Trinidad, supports the largest nesting population of leatherback turtles in the Caribbean region. Throughout the nesting season, nests are naturally disturbed by newly nesting females, resulting in egg breakage and loss of some nest viability. This environment is ideal for the growth and...
Standard methods for sampling freshwater fishes: Opportunities for international collaboration
Scott A. Bonar, Norman Mercado-Silva, Wayne A. Hubert, Beard Jr., Goran Dave, Jan Kubecka, Brian D. S. Graeb, Nigel P. Lester, Mark T. Porath, Ian J. Winfield
2017, Fisheries (42) 150-156
With publication of Standard Methods for Sampling North American Freshwater Fishes in 2009, the American Fisheries Society (AFS) recommended standard procedures for North America. To explore interest in standardizing at intercontinental scales, a symposium attended by international specialists in freshwater fish sampling was convened at the 145th Annual AFS Meeting in Portland,...
From data to decisions: Processing information, biases, and beliefs for improved management of natural resources and environments
Pierre D. Glynn, Alexey A. Voinov, Carl D. Shapiro, Paul A. White
2017, Earth's Future (5) 356-378
Our different kinds of minds and types of thinking affect the ways we decide, take action, and cooperate (or not). Derived from these types of minds, innate biases, beliefs, heuristics, and values (BBHV) influence behaviors, often beneficially, when individuals or small groups face immediate, local, acute situations that they and...
Bacterial, fungal, and plant communities exhibit no biomass or compositional response to two years of simulated nitrogen deposition in a semiarid grassland
Theresa A. McHugh, Ember M. Morrissey, Rebecca C. Mueller, La Verne Gallegos-Graves, Cheryl R. Kuske, Sasha C. Reed
2017, Environmental Microbiology (19) 1600-1611
Nitrogen (N) deposition affects myriad aspects of terrestrial ecosystem structure and function, and microbial communities may be particularly sensitive to anthropogenic N inputs. However, our understanding of N deposition effects on microbial communities is far from complete, especially for drylands where data are comparatively rare. To address the need for...
Scale-specific habitat relationships influence patch occupancy: defining neighborhoods to optimize the effectiveness of landscape-scale grassland bird conservation
Michael Guttery, Christine Ribic, David W. Sample, Andy Paulios, Chris Trosen, John D. Dadisman, Daniel Schneider, Josephine Horton
2017, Landscape Ecology (32) 515-529
ContextBeyond the recognized importance of protecting large areas of contiguous habitat, conservation efforts for many species are complicated by the fact that patch suitability may also be affected by characteristics of the landscape within which the patch is located. Currently, little is known about the...
2016 status of the Lake Ontario Lower Trophic levels
Kristen T. Holeck, Lars G. Rudstam, Christopher Hotaling, Russ McCullough, Dave Lemon, Web Pearsall, Jana Lantry, Mike Connerton, Steve LaPan, Zy Biesinger, Brian F. Lantry, Maureen Walsh, Brian Weidel
2017, Book chapter, Annual Report Bureau of Fisheries Lake Ontario Unit and St. Lawrence River Unit to Great Lakes Fishery Commission’s Lake Ontario Committee.
Significant Findings for Year 2016: 1) Offshore spring total phosphorus (TP) in 2016 was 6.2 μg/L, higher than 2014 and 2015 (4.0 and 4.2 μg/L); there was no significant decline 2001 - 2016. Offshore soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP) was very low in 2016; Apr/May – Oct mean values were <1 μg/L....
Occurrence of cyanobacteria, microcystin, and taste-and-odor compounds in Cheney Reservoir, Kansas, 2001-16
Jennifer L. Graham, Guy M. Foster, Thomas J. Williams, Ariele R. Kramer, Theodore D. Harris
2017, Scientific Investigations Report 2017-5016
Cheney Reservoir, located in south-central Kansas, is one of the primary drinking-water supplies for the city of Wichita and an important recreational resource. Since 1990, cyanobacterial blooms have been present occasionally in Cheney Reservoir, resulting in increased treatment costs and decreased recreational use. Cyanobacteria, the cyanotoxin microcystin, and the taste-and-odor...
Twenty years of water-quality studies in the Cheney Reservoir Watershed, Kansas, 1996-2016
Jennifer L. Graham, Guy M. Foster, Ariele R. Kramer
2017, Fact Sheet 2017-3019
Since 1996, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the City of Wichita, has done studies in the Cheney Reservoir watershed to understand environmental effects on water-quality conditions. Early studies (1996–2001) determined subwatershed sources of contaminants, nutrient and sediment loading to Cheney Reservoir, changes in reservoir sediment quality over...
Semiautomatic approaches to account for 3-D distortion of the electric field from local, near-surface structures in 3-D resistivity inversions of 3-D regional magnetotelluric data
Brian D. Rodriguez
2017, Open-File Report 2017-1007
This report summarizes the results of three-dimensional (3-D) resistivity inversion simulations that were performed to account for local 3-D distortion of the electric field in the presence of 3-D regional structure, without any a priori information on the actual 3-D distribution of the known subsurface geology. The methodology used a...
U.S. Geological Survey distribution of European Space Agency's Sentinel-2 data
Renee L. Pieschke
2017, Fact Sheet 2017-3026
A partnership established between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) allows for USGS storage and redistribution of images acquired by the MultiSpectral Instrument (MSI) on the European Union's Sentinel-2 satellite mission. The MSI data are acquired from a pair of satellites, Sentinel-2A and Sentinel-2B, which...
