The future of ecosystem assessments is automation, collaboration, and artificial intelligence
Carmen Galaz-García, Kenneth J. Bagstad, Julien Brun, Rebecca Chaplin-Kramer, Trevor Dhu, Nicholas J. Murray, Connor J. Nolan, Taylor H. Ricketts, Heidi M. Sosik, Daniel Sousa, Geoff Willard, Benjamin S Halpern
2023, Environmental Research Letters (18)
Robust and routine ecosystem assessments will be fundamental to track progress towards achieving this decade’s global environmental and sustainability goals. Here we examine four needs that address common failure points of ecosystem assessments. These are (1) developing rapid, reproducible, and repeatable ecological data workflows, (2) harmonizing in situ and remotely...
Experimental infection of Mexican free-tailed bats (Tadarida brasiliensis) with SARS-CoV-2
Jeffrey S. Hall, Erik K. Hofmeister, Hon S. Ip, Sean Nashold, Ariel Elizabeth Leon, Carly Marie Malave, Elizabeth Falendysz, Tonie E. Rocke, M. Carossino, U. Balasuriya, Susan Knowles
2023, mSphere (8)
The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus is thought to have originated in wild bats from Asia, and as the resulting pandemic continues into its third year, concerns have been raised that the virus will expand its host range and infect North American wildlife species, including bats. Mexican free-tailed...
Identifying physical characteristics and functional traits of forbs preferred or highly visited by bees in the Prairie Pothole Region
Stacy C. Simanonok, Clint R.V. Otto
2023, Open-File Report 2022-1114
Establishing and enhancing pollinator habitat to support declining bee populations is a national goal within the United States. Pollinator habitat is often created through incentive-based conservation programs, and the inclusion of cost-effective forbs within the habitat design is a critical component of such programs. U.S. Geological Survey research from 2015...
Flea control on prairie dogs (Cynomys spp.) with fipronil bait pellets: Potential plague mitigation tool for rapid field application and wildlife conservation
Marc R. Matchett, David A. Eads, Jennifer Cordova, Travis Livieri, Holly Hicks, Dean E. Biggins
2023, Journal of Wildlife Diseases (59) 71-83
Sylvatic plague is a widespread, primarily flea-vectored disease in western North America. Because plague is highly lethal to endangered black-footed ferrets (Mustela nigripes, BFFs) and the prairie dogs (Cynomys spp., PDs) on which BFFs depend for habitat and prey, minimizing the impacts of plague is a priority at BFF reintroduction sites....
Epistylis spp. infestation in two species of mud turtles (Kinosternon spp.) in the American Southwest
Audrey K. Owens, Jennifer A. Smith, Rebecca A. Cole, Jeffrey M. Lorch, Daniel A. Grear
2023, Journal of Wildlife Diseases (59) 167-171
The protistan genus Epistylis contains freshwater colonial species that attach to aquatic organisms in an epibiotic or parasitic relationship. They are known to attach to the epidermis and shells of aquatic turtles, but have not been reported to cause heavy infestations or morbidity in turtles....
Near real-time detection of winter cover crop termination using harmonized Landsat and Sentinel-2 (HLS) to support ecosystem assessment
Feng Gao, Jyoti Jennewein, W. Dean Hively, Alex M. Soroka, Alison Thieme, Dawn Bradley, Jason Keppler, Steven Mirsky, Uvirkaa Akumaga
2023, Science of Remote Sensing (7)
Cover crops are planted to reduce soil erosion, increase soil fertility, and improve watershed management. In the Delmarva Peninsula of the eastern United States, winter cover crops are essential for reducing nutrient and sediment losses from farmland. Cost-share programs have been created to incentivize cover crops to achieve conservation objectives....
Plague and distemper: Threats to black-footed ferret conservation
Tonie E. Rocke
Robin W. Radcliffe, David A. Jessup, editor(s)
2023, Book chapter, Wildlife disease and health in conservation
No abstract available....
A pilot biodiversity inventory and monitoring protocol in support of coastal adaptation projects in tidal and nearshore subtidal habitats of Boston Harbor Islands
Michelle Staudinger, Marc Albert
2023, Report
The Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area (BOHA) is at high risk to the impacts of sealevel rise (SLR) and erosion from coastal storms. In June 2021, the National Trust for Historic Preservation listed the islands as one of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places due to climate change. BOHA...
Hydrogeologic framework of the Red River alluvial aquifer and Carrizo-Wilcox aquifer in northwestern Louisiana
Phillip D. Hays, Anna M. Nottmeier, Robert B. Fendick Jr., William J. Daugherty, Kayla Carter
2023, Water Resources Technical Report of the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development, Office of Public Works 82
Groundwater in northwestern Louisiana is a valuable resource needed for expanding public-supply needs as well as possible energy development needs arising from Haynesville Formation natural-gas production. The Red River alluvial and the Carrizo-Wilcox aquifers are two of the most important and heavily pumped aquifers in northwestern Louisiana; however, little documentation...
Maximizing the water quality benefits of wetlands in croplands
Owen P. McKenna, Caryn D Ross, Joseph Prenger
2023, Report
Key Takeaways Nutrient loads from croplands continue to negatively affect surface water quality, despite considerable investments in and adoption of agricultural conservation practices aimed at reducing nutrient losses. Numerous studies indicate that effective restoration and management of wetlands in and adjacent to cultivated croplands could reduce surface and subsurface nutrient...
Status and trends of the Lake Huron prey fish community, 1976-2021
Timothy P. O'Brien, Darryl W. Hondorp, Peter C. Esselman, Edward F. Roseman
2023, Report
The U.S. Geological Survey Great Lakes Science Center has assessed annual changes in the offshore prey fish community of Lake Huron since 1973. Assessments are based on a bottom trawl survey conducted in October of each year and an acoustics-midwater trawl survey, which began in 2004 and is conducted...
Geologic map of Okmok Volcano
Jessica Larsen, Christina A. Neal, Janet Schaefer, Christopher J. Nye
2023, Report of Investigations of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys 2023-1
The geologic map and description of map units presented here cover approximately 880 km2 of northeastern Umnak Island, Aleutian Islands, Alaska. This report focuses on Okmok Volcano and its eruptive products and updates the mid-20th-century geologic map of Byers (1959). Mapped deposits reflect the state of the volcano just prior...
2021–2022 Statewide Abundance Estimates for the Florida Manatee
Timothy A. Gowan, Holly H. Edwards, Andrea M. Krzystan, Julien Martin, Jeffrey A. Hostetler
2023, Technical Report TR-27
Knowing the population size of Florida manatees (Trichechus manatus latirostris) is critical for conservation and management of this threatened species. Martin et al. (2015) and Hostetler et al. (2018) applied statistical models that incorporated multiple data sources to estimate the statewide abundance of manatees from aerial surveys f lown in...
Comprehensive inventory of habitat assessment and evaluation datasets to support Deepwater Horizon mesophotic and deep benthic communities
Rachel Bassett, Jennifer Herting, Janessy Frometa, Stephanie M. Sharuga, Jacob Howell, Laughlin Siceloff, Jill Bourque, Megan Cromwell, Kirstie Francis, Randy Clark, Amanda Demopoulos, Andy David, Kristopher Benson, Stacey L. Harter
2023, DWH MDBC Data Report DR-23-01
This report is part of the NOAA Mesophotic and Deep Benthic Communities (MDBC) Series of publications that share the results of work conducted by the Deepwater Horizon MDBC restoration projects. The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill was an unprecedented event. Approximately 3.2 million barrels of oil were released into the...
The not-so-dead of winter: Underwater light climate and primary productivity under snow and ice cover in inland lakes
Andrew J. Bramburger, Ted Ozersky, Greg M. Silsbe, Christopher J. Crawford, Leif Olmanson, Krill Shchapov
2023, Inland Waters (13) 1-12
As global surface temperatures continue to rise as a result of anthropogenic climate change, effects in temperate lakes are likely to be more pronounced than in other ecosystems. Decreases in snow and ice cover extent and duration, as well as extended periods of summer stratification have been observed in temperate...
What controls suspended-sediment concentration and export in flooded agricultural tracts in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta?
Jessica R. Lacy, Evan T. Dailey, Tara L. Morgan-King
2023, San Francisco Estuary and Watershed Science (21)
We investigated wind-wave and suspended-sediment dynamics in Little Holland Tract and Liberty Island, two subsided former agricultural tracts in the Cache Slough complex in the northern Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta which were restored to tidal shallows to improve habitat. Turbidity, and thus suspended-sediment concentration (SSC), is important to habitat quality because...
The future of coastal monitoring through satellite remote sensing
Sean Vitousek, Dan Buscombe, Kilian Vos, Patrick L. Barnard, Andrew C. Ritchie, Jonathan Warrick
2023, Cambridge Prisms: Coastal Futures (1)
Satellite remote sensing is transforming coastal science from a “data-poor” field into a “data-rich” field. Sandy beaches are dynamic landscapes that change in response to long-term pressures, short-term pulses, and anthropogenic interventions. Until recently, the rate and breadth of beach change have outpaced our ability to monitor those changes, due...
Skeletal indicators of locomotor adaptations in shrews
Neal Woodman
2023, Therya (14) 15-37
The Soricidae (Mammalia: Eulypotyphla) comprises more than 450 species inhabiting a variety of habitats on five continents. As a family, shrews employ a variety of locomotor modes that incorporate ambulatory, fossorial, aquatic, and scansorial behaviors, illustrating an ability to exploit a variety of natural substrates and their associated resources. In...
The Searsville Lake Site (California, USA) as a candidate Global boundary Stratotype Section and Point for the Anthropocene series
M. Allison Stegner, Elizabeth A. Hadly, Anthony D. Barnosky, SeanPaul La Selle, Brian L. Sherrod, R. Scott Anderson, Sergio A. Redondo, Maria Viteri, Karrie Weaver, Andrew Cundy, Pawel Gaca, Neil Rose, Handong Yang, Sarah A. Roberts, Irka Hajdas, Bryan A. Black, Trisha Spanbauer
2023, The Anthropocene Review (10) 116-145
Cores from Searsville Lake within Stanford University’s Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve, California, USA, are examined to identify a potential GSSP for the Anthropocene: core JRBP2018-VC01B (944.5 cm-long) and tightly correlated JRBP2018-VC01A (852.5 cm-long). Spanning from 1900 CE ± 3 years to 2018 CE, a secure chronology resolved to the sub-annual level allows detailed...
Improving the operational simplified surface energy balance evapotranspiration model using the forcing and normalizing operation
Gabriel B. Senay, Gabriel Edwin Lee Parrish, Matthew Schauer, Mackenzie Friedrichs, Kul Bikram Khand, Olena Boiko, Stefanie Bohms, Ray Dittmeier, Saeed Arab, Lei Ji
2023, Remote Sensing (15)
Actual evapotranspiration modeling is providing useful information for researchers and resource managers in agriculture and water resources around the world. The performance of models depends on the accuracy of forcing inputs and model parameters. We developed an improved approach to the parameterization of the Operational Simplified Surface Energy Balance...
Vulnerable waters are essential to watershed resilience
Charles R. Lane, Irena F. Creed, Heather E. Golden, Scott G. Leibowitz, David M. Mushet, Mark C. Rains, Qiusheng Wu, Ellen D’Amico, Laurie C. Alexander, Genevieve A. Ali, Nandita B. Basu, Micah G. Bennett, Jay R. Christensen, Matthew J. Cohen, Tim P. Covino, Ben DeVries, Ryan A. Hill, Kelsey G. Jencso, Megan W. Lang, Daniel L. McLaughlin, Donald O. Rosenberry, Jennifer Rover, Melanie K. Vanderhoof
2023, Ecosystems (26) 1-28
Watershed resilience is the ability of a watershed to maintain its characteristic system state while concurrently resisting, adapting to, and reorganizing after hydrological (for example, drought, flooding) or biogeochemical (for example, excessive nutrient) disturbances. Vulnerable waters include non-floodplain wetlands and headwater streams, abundant watershed components representing...
Causality-informed Bayesian inference for rapid seismic ground failure and building damage estimation
David J. Wald, Susu Xu, J. Dimasaka, H. Noh
2023, Conference Paper
Rapid and accurate estimates of seismic ground failure and building damage are beneficial to efficient emergency response and post-earthquake recovery. Traditional approaches, such as physical and geospatial models, have poor accuracy and resolution due to large uncertainties and the limited availability of informing geospatial layers. The introduction of remote sensing...
Relative-condition parameters for fishes of Montana, USA
Robert W. Eckelbecker, Nathaniel M. Heili, Christopher S. Guy, David A. Schmetterling
2023, Fishes (8)
Body condition indices are commonly used in the management of fish populations and are a surrogate to physiological attributes such as tissue-energy reserves. Relative condition factor (Kn) describes the condition of species relative to populations in a geographic area. We developed models to allow for the calculation of Kn in...
Trace elements in blood of sea ducks from Dutch Harbor and Izembek Lagoon, Alaska
J. Christian Franson, Tuula E. Hollmen, Paul L. Flint, Angela C. Matz
2023, Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management (14) 41-50
In 2001, we collected whole blood from sea ducks (Steller’s eider Polysticta stelleri, harlequin duck Histrionicus histrionicus, black scoter Melanitta nigra, and long-tailed duck Clangula hyemalis) wintering at Dutch Harbor, Alaska, and from Steller’s eiders molting at Izembek Lagoon on the Alaska Peninsula....
Assessment of cropland inundation due to the operation of the Reelfoot Lake spillway in West Tennessee
Md. N.M. Bhuyian, Chayan Lahiri, Timothy H. Diehl, Elizabeth Heal
2023, Journal of the American Water Resources Association (59) 855-873
Running Reelfoot Bayou (RRB) is the outlet canal of Reelfoot Lake, the largest natural lake in Tennessee. RRB is not able to contain discharge from Reelfoot Lake greater than the bankfull discharge of 28 m3/s (1000 ft3/s), which typically occurs at the beginning of the growing season...
