Machine-learning predictions of groundwater specific conductance in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain, south-central United States, with evaluation of regional geophysical aerial electromagnetic data as explanatory variables
Courtney D. Killian, Katherine J. Knierim
2023, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5099
The Mississippi Alluvial Plain, located in the south-central United States, is undergoing long-term groundwater-level declines within the surficial Mississippi River Valley alluvial aquifer (hereinafter referred to as “alluvial aquifer”), which has raised concerns about future groundwater availability. In some parts of the alluvial aquifer, groundwater availability for common uses such...
Less is more: Less herbicide does more when biological control is present in Pontederia crassipes
Linhao Xu, Ashley B.C. Goode, Philip W. Tipping, Melissa C. Smith, Lyn A. Gettys, Brittany K. Knowles, Eileen Pokorny, Luz Salinas, Don DeAngelis
2023, Ecological Modelling (487)
An experiment along with simulation modeling was applied to study the combinations of herbicide treatment and biological control that best limit invasive water hyacinth (Pontederia crassipes, formerly Eichhornia crassipes) in freshwater aquatic systems. The experiment consisted of 14 different treatments of P. crassipes in...
System characterization report on the Pléiades Neo Imager
Simon J. Cantrell, Aparajithan Sampath, James C. Vrabel, Paul Bresnahan, Cody Anderson, Minsu Kim, Seonkyung Park
2023, Open-File Report 2021-1030-P
Executive SummaryThis report addresses system characterization of the Pléiades Neo satellite and is part of a series of system characterization reports produced and delivered by the U.S. Geological Survey Earth Resources Observation and Science Cal/Val Center of Excellence. These reports present and detail the methodology and procedures for characterization; present...
Investigating permafrost carbon dynamics in Alaska with artificial intelligence
Bradley Gay, Neal Pastick, Andreas Zufle, Amanda Armstrong, Kimberly Miner, J.J. Qu
2023, Environmental Research Letters (18)
Positive feedbacks between permafrost degradation and the release of soil carbon into the atmosphere impact land–atmosphere interactions, disrupt the global carbon cycle, and accelerate climate change. The widespread distribution of thawing permafrost is causing a cascade of geophysical and biochemical disturbances with global impacts. Currently, few earth...
Editorial: Rapid, reproducible, and robust environmental modeling for decision support: worked examples and open-source software tools
Jeremy White, Michael N. Fienen, Catherine R. Moore, Anneli Guthke
2023, Frontiers in Earth Science (11)
No abstract available....
Marshbird response to herbicide control of cattail in northwestern Minnesota
Nina M. Hill, Douglas H. Johnson, Thomas R. Cooper, Althea A. Archer, David E. Andersen
2023, The Journal of Wildlife Management (87)
Wetlands provide essential habitat for a wide variety of wildlife species. In the once wetland-rich Prairie Pothole Region and adjacent areas of central North America, many wetlands have been converted to agricultural production. Many remaining wetlands experience ecological change via the invasion and spread of non-native plant species, such as...
A global ecological signal of extinction risk in marine ray-finned fishes (class Actinopterygii)
Trevor M. Bak, Richard J. Camp, Noel A. Heim, Douglas J. McCauley, Jonathan L. Payne, Matthew L Knope
2023, Cambridge Prisms: Extinction (1)
Many marine fish species are experiencing population declines, but their extinction risk profiles are largely understudied in comparison to their terrestrial vertebrate counterparts. Selective extinction of marine fish species may result in rapid alteration of the structure and function of ocean ecosystems. In this study, we compiled...
Assessing the ecological risk of heavy metal sediment contamination from Port Everglades Florida USA
Dimitrios G. Giarikos, Laura White, Andre Daniels, Radleigh G. Santos, Paul E. Baldauf, Amy C. Hirons
2023, PeerJ (11)
Port sediments are often contaminated with metals and organic compounds from anthropogenic sources. Remobilization of sediment during a planned expansion of Port Everglades near Fort Lauderdale, Florida (USA) has the potential to harm adjacent benthic communities, including coral reefs. Twelve sediment cores were collected from four Port Everglades sites...
Living on the edge: Predicting songbird response to management and environmental changes across an ecotone
Nicholas J. Van Lanen, Adrian P. Monroe, Cameron L. Aldridge
2023, Ecology and Evolution (13)
Effective wildlife management requires robust information regarding population status, habitat requirements, and likely responses to changing resource conditions. Single-species management may inadequately conserve communities and result in undesired effects to non-target species. Thus, management can benefit from understanding habitat relationships for multiple species. Pinyon...
Developing fluvial fish species distribution models across the conterminous United States—A framework for management and conservation
Hao Yu, Arthur R. Cooper, Jared Ross, Alexa McKerrow, Daniel J. Wieferich, Dana M. Infante
2023, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5088
This report explains the steps and specific methods used to predict fluvial fish occurrences in their native ranges for the conterminous United States. In this study, boosted regression tree models predict distributions of 271 ecologically important fluvial fish species using relations between fish presence/absence and 22 natural and anthropogenic landscape...
Recharge estimation approach in a data-scarce semi-arid region, Northern Ethiopian Rift Valley
Sisay Simachew Mekonen, Scott Boyce, Abdella K. Mohammed, Lorraine E. Flint, Alan L Flint, Markus Disse
2023, Sustainability (15)
Sustainable management of groundwater resources highly relies on the accurate estimation of recharge. However, accurate recharge estimation is a challenge, especially in data-scarce regions, as the existing models are data-intensive and require extensive parameterization. This study developed a process-based hydrologic model combining local and remotely sensed data for characterizing recharge...
Time-dependent weakening of granite at hydrothermal conditions
Tamara Nicole Jeppson, David A. Lockner, Nicholas M. Beeler, Diane E. Moore
2023, Geophysical Research Letters (50)
The evolution of a fault's frictional strength during the interseismic period is a critical component of the earthquake cycle, yet there have been relatively few studies that examine the time-dependent evolution of strength at conditions representative of seismogenic depths. Using a simulated fault in Westerly granite, we...
VogCast: A framework for modeling volcanic air pollution and its application to the 2022 eruption of Mauna Loa Volcano, Hawai'i
Nadya Moisseeva, Steven Businger, Tamar Elias
2023, Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres (128)
Volcanic activity and the associated gas emissions into the atmosphere often result in adverse air quality conditions and present a hazard to human health and the environment. Building on a decade-long effort to provide operational surface sulfur dioxide and sulfate aerosol forecasts for the State of Hawai'i, we present an...
Georeferencing of terrestrial radar images in geomonitoring using kernel correlation
Lorenz Schmid, Tomislav Medic, Brian D. Collins, Lorenz Meier, Andreas Wieser
2023, International Journal of Remote Sensing (44) 6736-6761
Terrestrial radar interferometry (TRI) provides accurate observations of displacements in the line-of-sight (LOS) direction and is therefore used in various monitoring applications. However, relating these displacements directly to the 3d world is challenging due to the particular imaging process. To address this, the radar results are projected onto a 3d...
Characterizing performance of freshwater wetland methane models across time scales at FLUXNET-CH4 sites using wavelet analyses
Zhen Zhang, Sheel Bansal, Kuang-Yu Chang, Etienne Fluet-Chouinard, Kyle B. Delwiche, Mathias Goeckede, Adrian Gustafson, Sara Knox, Antii Leppanen, Licheng Liu, Jinxun Liu, Avni Malhotra, Tiina Markkanen, Gavin McNicol, Joe R. Melton, Paul A Miller, Changhui Peng, Maarit Raivonen, William Riley, Oliver Sonnentag, Tuula Aalto, Rodrigo Vargas, Wenxin Zhang, Qing Zhu, Qiuan Zhu, Qianlai Zhuang, Lisamarie Windham-Myers, Robert B. Jackson, Benjamin Poulter
2023, JGR Biogeosciences (128)
Process-based land surface models are important tools for estimating global wetland methane (CH4) emissions and projecting their behavior across space and time. So far there are no performance assessments of model responses to drivers at multiple time scales. In this study, we apply wavelet analysis to identify the dominant time...
Expanding our view of the cold-water coral niche and accounting of the ecosystem services of the reef habitat
Erik E. Cordes, Amanda Demopoulos, Andrew J. Davies, Ryan Gasbarro, Alexandria C. Rhoads, Elizabeth Loebeker, Derek Sowers, Jason Chaytor, Cheryl L. Morrison, Alexis M. Weinnig, Sandra Brooke, Jay J. Lunden, Furu Mienis, Samantha B. Joye, Andrea M. Quattrini, Tracey T. Sutton, Catherine S. McFadden, Jill R. Bourque, Jennifer McClain Counts, Brian D. Andrews, Melissa J. Betters, Peter J. Etnoyer, Gary A. Wolff, Bernie B. Bernard, James M. Brooks, Michael K. Rasser, Caitlin Adams
2023, Scientific Reports (13)
Coral reefs are iconic ecosystems that support diverse, productive communities in both shallow and deep waters. However, our incomplete knowledge of cold-water coral (CWC) niche space limits our understanding of their distribution and precludes a complete accounting of the ecosystem services they provide. Here, we present...
Steady-state forms of channel profiles shaped by debris flow and fluvial processes
Luke A. McGuire, Scott W. McCoy, Odin Marc, William Struble, Katherine R. Barnhart
2023, Earth Surface Dynamics (11) 1117-1143
Debris flows regularly traverse bedrock channels that dissect steep landscapes, but our understanding of bedrock erosion by debris flows and their impact on steepland morphology is still rudimentary. Quantitative models of steep bedrock channel networks are based on geomorphic transport laws designed to represent...
Expanding our view of the cold-water coral niche and accounting of the ecosystem services of the reef habitat
Erick E. Cordes, Amanda Demopoulos, Andrew Davies, Ryan Gasbarro, Alexandria Rhoads, Elizabeth Lobecker, Dereck Sowers, Jason Chaytor, Cheryl L. Morrison, Alexis Marie Weinnig, Sandra Brooke, Jay J. Lunden, Furu Mienis, Samantha B. Joye, Andrea M. Quattrini, Tracey Sutton, Catherine McFadden, Jill R. Bourque, Jennifer McClain Counts, Brian D. Andrews, Melissa Betters, Peter Etnoyer, Gary Wolff, Bernie Bernard, James Brooks, Michael Rasser, Caitlin Adams
2023, Scientific Reports (13)
Coral reefs are iconic ecosystems that support diverse, productive communities in both shallow and deep waters. However, our incomplete knowledge of cold-water coral (CWC) niche space limits our understanding of their distribution and precludes a complete accounting of the ecosystem services they provide. Here, we present...
Predicting daily river chlorophyll concentrations at a continental scale
Philip Savoy, Judson Harvey
2023, Water Resources Research (59)
Eutrophication is one of the largest threats to aquatic ecosystems and chlorophyll a measurements are relevant indicators of trophic state and algal abundance. Many studies have modeled chlorophyll a in rivers but model development and testing has largely occurred at individual sites which hampers creating generalized models capable of making broad-scale...
Snag dynamics and surface fuel loads in the Sierra Nevada: Predicting the impact of the 2012–2016 drought
Hudson Northrop, Jodi N. Axelson, Adrian Das, Nathan L. Stephenson, Emilio Vilanova, Scott L. Stephens, John J. Battles
2023, Forest Ecology and Management (551)
Forest die-backs linked to extreme droughts are expected to increase as the climate dries and warms. An example is the 2012-2016 hotter drought in California that induced widespread tree mortality in the Sierra Nevada, California. The sudden increase in snags (i.e., standing dead trees) raised immediate concerns about their impact...
Marginal value analysis reveals shifting importance of migration habitat for waterfowl under a changing climate
Ryan C. Burner, Benjamin Donald Golas, Kevin J. Aagaard, Eric V. Lonsdorf, Wayne E. Thogmartin
2023, Ecology and Evolution (13)
Migratory waterfowl are an important resource for consumptive and non-consumptive users alike and provide tremendous economic value in North America. These birds rely on a complex matrix of public and private land for forage and roosting during migration and wintering periods, and substantial conservation...
Creating oriented and precisely sectioned mineral mounts for in situ chemical analyses—An example using olivine for diffusion chronometry studies
Kendra J. Lynn, Liliana G. Desmither
2023, Techniques and Methods 5-D5
Diffusion chronometry is now a widely applied methodology for determining the rates and timescales of geologic processes from the chemical zoning observed in minerals. Despite the popularity of the method, several challenges still remain during its application, including: (1) the random sectioning of minerals either in thin sections or grain...
Effects of landcover on mesocarnivore density and detection rate along an urban to rural gradient
Leah McTigue, Brett Alexander DeGregorio
2023, Global Ecology and Conservation (48)
Human development has major implications for wildlife populations. Urban-exploiter species can benefit from human subsidized resources, whereas urban-avoider species can vanish from wildlife communities in highly developed areas. Therefore, understanding how the density of different species varies in response to landcover changes associated with human development can provide important insight...
Shifted sediment-transport regimes by climate change and amplified hydrological variability in cryosphere-fed rivers
Tinghu Zhang, Dongfeng Li, Amy E. East, Albert J. Kettner, James L. Best, Jinren Ni, Xixi Lu
2023, Science Advances (9)
Climate change affects cryosphere-fed rivers and alters seasonal sediment dynamics, affecting cyclical fluvial material supply and year-round water-food-energy provisions to downstream communities. Here, we demonstrate seasonal sediment-transport regime shifts from the 1960s to 2000s in four cryosphere-fed rivers characterized by glacial, nival, pluvial, and mixed regimes, respectively. Spring sees a...
Response of lake metabolism to catchment inputs inferred using high-frequency lake and stream data from across the northern hemisphere
Jessica R. Corman, Jacob Aaron Zwart, Jennifer Klug, Denise A Bruesewitz, Elvira de Eyto, Marcus Klaus, Lesley B. Knoll, James A. Rusak, Michael J. Vanni, Maria Belen Alfonso, Rocio Luz Fernandez, Huaxia Yao, Kari Austnes, Raoul-Marie Couture, Heleen A. de Wit, Jan Karlsson, Alo Laas
2023, Limnology & Oceanography (68) 2617-2631
In lakes, the rates of gross primary production (GPP), ecosystem respiration (R), and net ecosystem production (NEP) are often controlled by resource availability. Herein, we explore how catchment vs. within lake predictors of metabolism compare using data from 16 lakes spanning 39°N to 64°N,...
