Application of electricity and underwater acoustics to clear fish from a navigation lock during maintenance
Jose Rivera, Aaron R. Cupp, Josey Lee Ridgway, Duane Chapman, Bethany E Hoster, Matthew Ross Acre, Robin D. Calfee, Jesse Robert Fischer, James J. Duncker
2023, Management of Biological Invasions (14) 493-502
The presence of fish within navigation locks can introduce an environmental challenge for construction crews when maintenance is required. This study examined the effectiveness of a dual-deterrent fish herding technique using electricity and acoustic stimuli to reduce the abundance of fish within a navigation lock before a scheduled dewatering for...
Landslides triggered by the 2016–2017 storm season, eastern San Francisco Bay region, California
Skye C. Corbett, Brian D. Collins
2023, Scientific Investigations Map 3503
DiscussionThe winter rainy season of 2016–2017 brought abundant rainfall to the State of California and to the San Francisco Bay region. In January and February of 2017, intense rainfall from strong winter storms saturated soils in the region and triggered thousands of shallow landslides. The highest concentration of these landslides...
Remotely sensed short-crested breaking waves in a laboratory directional wave basin
Christine Baker, Melissa Moulton, Margaret L. Palmsten, Katherine Brodie, Emma Nuss, C. Christopher Chickadel
2023, Coastal Engineering (183)
Short-crested breaking waves that result from directionally spread wave conditions dissipate energy and generate turbulence within the surf zone, altering sediment transport processes, wave runup, and forces on structures. Additionally, vertical vorticity generated near crest ends during breaking, which depends on the gradient in wave height along a crest, may...
Comparison of nonergodic ground-motion components from CyberShake and NGA-West2 datasets in California
Xiaofeng Meng, Christine Goulet, Kevin R. Milner, Robert Graves, Scott Callaghan
2023, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (113) 1152-1175
In this study, we compare the Southern California Earthquake Center CyberShake platform against the Next Generation Attenuation‐West2 empirical datasets. Because the CyberShake and empirical datasets cover very different magnitude ranges and site conditions, we develop ground‐motion models (GMMs) for CyberShake datasets to compare trends with empirical GMMs and decompose the...
Generating a reference flow network with improved connectivity to support durable data integration and reproducibility in the coterminous US
David L. Blodgett, J. Michael Johnson, Andrew R. Bock
2023, Environmental Modelling and Software (165)
This report presents a reference flow network for the conterminous United States that is built from the best available information from the U.S. Geological Survey, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Weather Service, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The work is intended to support durable data integration and reproducibility. Originating...
User engagement testing with a pilot decision support tool aimed to support species managers
Haven J. Cashwell, Karen S. McNeal, Kathie Dello, Ryan Boyles, Corey Davis
2023, Weather, Climate, and Society (15) 327-338
Species status assessments (SSAs) are required for endangered species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and focus on the resiliency, redundancy, and representation of endangered species. SSAs must include climate information, because climate is a factor that will impact species in the future. To aid in the inclusion of...
High resolution lidar data shed light on inter-island translocation of endangered bird species in the Hawaiian Islands
Erica M. Gallerani, Jeffrey Burgett, Nicolas R. Vaughn, Lucas Berio Fortini, Geoffrey A. Fricker, Hanna L. Mounce, Thomas W. Gillespie, Lisa H. Crampton, David Knapp, Justin M. Hite, Roy Gilb
2023, Ecological Applications (33)
Translocation, often a management solution reserved for at-risk species, is a highly time-sensitive intervention in the face of a rapidly changing climate. The definition of abiotic and biotic habitat requirements is essential to the selection of appropriate release sites in novel environments. However, field-based...
Salinity and total dissolved solids measurements for natural waters: An overview and a new salinity method based on specific conductance and water type
R. Blaine McCleskey, Charles A. Cravotta III, Matthew P. Miller, Fred D. Tillman, Paul E. Stackelberg, Katherine J. Knierim, Daniel Wise
2023, Applied Geochemistry (154)
The total concentration of dissolved constituents in water is routinely quantified by measurements of salinity or total dissolved solids (TDS). However, salinity and TDS are operationally defined by their analytical methods and are not equivalent for most waters. Furthermore, multiple methods are available to determine salinity and TDS, and these...
Bayesian forecasting of disease spread with little or no local data
Jonathan D Cook, David M. Williams, Daniel P. Walsh, Trevor J. Hefley
2023, Scientific Reports (13)
Rapid and targeted management actions are a prerequisite to efficiently mitigate disease outbreaks. Targeted actions, however, require accurate spatial information on disease occurrence and spread. Frequently, targeted management actions are guided by non-statistical approaches that define the affected area by a pre-determined distance surrounding a small...
Use of environmental DNA to assess American Eel distribution, abundance, and barriers in a river-canal system
Scott D. George, Barry P. Baldigo, Christopher B. Rees, Meredith L. Bartron, John J. Wiley Jr., Daniel S. Stich, Scott M. Wells, Dylan R. Winterhalter
2023, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (152) 310-326
Objective: The American Eel Anguilla rostrata historically was one of the most common fish species in Atlantic coast watersheds, but extensive dam construction and other factors caused a widespread population decline. One of the watersheds where American Eels have declined considerably is the Mohawk River in eastern and central...
Watershed carbon yield derived from gauge observations and river network connectivity in the United States
Han Qiu, Xuesong Zhang, Anni Yang, Kimberly Wickland, Edward G. Stets, Min Chen
2023, Scientific Data (10)
River networks play a critical role in the global carbon cycle. Although global/continental scale riverine carbon cycle studies demonstrate the significance of rivers and streams for linking land and coastal regions, the lack of spatially distributed riverine carbon load data represents a gap for quantifying riverine carbon net gain or...
External quality-assurance project report for the National Atmospheric Deposition Program’s National Trends Network and Mercury Deposition Network, 2019–20
Gregory A. Wetherbee, RoseAnn Martin, Alexander Liethen
2023, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5045
The U.S. Geological Survey Precipitation Chemistry Quality Assurance project (PCQA) operated four distinct programs to provide external quality-assurance monitoring for the National Atmospheric Deposition Program’s (NADP) National Trends Network (NTN) and Mercury Deposition Network (MDN) during 2019–20. The NTN programs included (1) a field audit program to evaluate sample contamination...
Evaluating drivers of hydrology, water quality, and benthic macroinvertebrates in streams of Fairfax County, Virginia, 2007–18
James S. Webber, Jeffrey G. Chanat, Aaron J. Porter, John D. Jastram
2023, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5027
In 2007, the U.S. Geological Survey partnered with Fairfax County, Virginia, to establish a long-term water-resources monitoring program to evaluate the hydrology, water quality, and ecology of Fairfax County streams and the watershed-scale effects of management practices. Fairfax County uses a variety of management practices, policies, and programs to protect...
Simulation of flow and eutrophication in the central Salem River, New Jersey
Frederick J. Spitz, Vincent T. DePaul
2023, Scientific Investigations Report 2022-5047
The central Salem River in New Jersey is subject to periods of water-quality impairment, marked by elevated concentrations of phosphorus and chlorophyll-a, and low concentrations of and large diurnal swings in concentrations of dissolved oxygen. These seasonal eutrophic conditions are controlling factors for water quality in lower reaches, where the...
Study design and methods of the Wells and Enteric disease Transmission (WET) Trial, a randomised controlled trial
Debbie Lee, Donna Denno, Phil Tarr, Jingwei Wu, Joel P. Stokdyk, Mark A. Borchardt, Heather Murphy
2023, BMJ Open (13)
Introduction: The burden of disease attributed to drinking water from private wells is not well characterised. The Wells and Enteric disease Transmission trial is the first randomised controlled trial to estimate the burden of disease that can be attributed to the consumption of untreated private well water. To...
Mapping landslide susceptibility over large regions with limited data
Jacob Bryson Woodard, Benjamin B. Mirus, Matthew Crawford, Dani Or, Ben Leshchinsky, Kate E. Allstadt, Nathan J. Wood
2023, Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface (128)
Landslide susceptibility maps indicate the spatial distribution of landslide likelihood. Modeling susceptibility over large or diverse terrains remains a challenge due to the sparsity of landslide data (mapped extent of known landslides) and the variability in triggering conditions. Several different data sampling strategies of landslide locations used to train a...
Environmental antimicrobial resistance gene detection from wild bird habitats using two methods: A commercially available culture-independent qPCR assay and culture of indicator bacteria followed by whole-genome sequencing
Christina Ahlstrom, Laura Celeste Scott, Hanna Woksepp, Jonas Bonnedahl, Andrew M. Ramey
2023, Journal of Global Antimicrobial Resistance (33) 186-193
ObjectivesA variety of methods have been developed to detect antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in different environments to better understand the evolution and dissemination of this public health threat. Comparisons of results generated using different AMR detection methods, such as quantitative PCR (qPCR) and whole-genome sequencing...
Exchange of carbapenem-resistant Escherichia coli Sequence Type 38 intercontinentally and among wild bird, human, and environmental niches
Christina Ahlstrom, Hanna Woksepp, Linus Sandegren, Andrew M. Ramey, Jonas Bonnedahl
2023, Applied and Environmental Microbiology (89)
Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) are a global threat to human health and are increasingly being isolated from nonclinical settings. OXA-48-producing Escherichia coli sequence type 38 (ST38) is the most frequently reported CRE type in wild birds and has been detected in gulls or storks in North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. The epidemiology...
Range-wide population trend analysis for greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus)—Updated 1960–2022
Peter S. Coates, Brian G. Prochazka, Cameron L. Aldridge, Michael S. O’Donnell, David R. Edmunds, Adrian P. Monroe, Steve E. Hanser, Lief A. Wiechman, Michael P. Chenaille
2023, Data Report 1175
Greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) are at the center of state and national land-use policies largely because of their unique life-history traits as an ecological indicator for health of sagebrush ecosystems. This updated population trend analysis provides state and federal land and wildlife managers with best-available science to help guide current...
Supervised versus unsupervised approaches to classification of accelerometry data
Maitreyi Sur, Jonathan C. Hall, Joseph Brandt, Molly Astell, Sharon A. Poessel, Todd E. Katzner
2023, Ecology and Evolution (13)
Sophisticated animal-borne sensor systems are increasingly providing novel insight into how animals behave and move. Despite their widespread use in ecology, the diversity and expanding quality and quantity of data they produce have created a need for robust analytical methods for biological interpretation. Machine learning tools are often used to...
Measuring basin-scale aquifer storage change and mapping specific yield in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA, with repeat microgravity data
Jeffrey R. Kennedy, Meghan T. Bell
2023, Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies (47)
Study RegionThe groundwater basin underlying the City of Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.Study FocusThe study focuses on changes in groundwater storage and how those changes relate to groundwater-level changes. Groundwater storage change was measured using repeat microgravity at 35...
Relative contributions of water-level components to extreme water levels along the US Southeast Atlantic Coast from a regional-scale water-level hindcast
Kai Alexander Parker, Li H. Erikson, Jennifer Anne Thomas, Cornelis M. Nederhoff, Patrick L. Barnard, Sanne Muis
2023, Natural Hazards (117) 2219-2248
A 38-year hindcast water level product is developed for the U.S. Southeast Atlantic coastline from the entrance of Chesapeake Bay to the southeast tip of Florida. The water level modelling framework utilized in this study combines a global-scale hydrodynamic model (Global Tide and Surge Model, GTSM-ERA5), a novel ensemble-based tide...
Reference genome of an iconic lizard in western North America, Blainville’s horned lizard Phrynosoma blainvillii
Jonathan Q. Richmond, Jimmy A. McGuire, Merly Escalona, Mohan P. A. Marimuthu, Oanh Nguyen, Samuel Sacco, Eric Beraut, Erin Toffelmier, Robert N. Fisher, Ian J. Wang, H.B. Shaffer
2023, Journal of Heredity (114) 410-417
Genome assemblies are increasingly being used to identify adaptive genetic variation that can help prioritize the population management of protected species. This approach may be particularly relevant to species like Blainville’s horned lizard, Phrynosoma blainvillii, due to its specialized diet on noxious harvester ants, numerous adaptative traits for avoiding predation...
Logs and data from the Starthistle trench across a scarp within the Wallula Fault Zone, southeastern Washington
Stephen J. Angster, Brian L. Sherrod, John Lasher
2023, Scientific Investigations Map 3495
IntroductionThe Wallula Fault Zone is composed of a series of northwest-trending faults and folds that coincide with a prominent magnetic anomaly that extends uninterrupted for approximately 120 kilometers within the Cascadia back arc of southeastern Washington and northeastern Oregon. It is part of the geologic structures associated with the topographic...
Rift basins and intraplate earthquakes: New high-resolution aeromagnetic data provide insights into buried structures of the Charleston, South Carolina seismic zone
Anjana K. Shah, Thomas L. Pratt, J. Wright Horton, Jr.
2023, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems (24)
The delineation of faults that pose seismic risk in intraplate seismic zones and the mapping of features associated with failed rift basins can help our understanding of links between the two. We use new high-resolution aeromagnetic data, previous borehole sample information, and reprocessed seismic reflection profiles to image subsurface structures...
