Landsat Collection 2 Level-3 Fractional Snow Covered Area science product
U.S. Geological Survey
2022, Fact Sheet 2022-3086
The Landsat Collection 2 Level-3 Fractional Snow Covered Area science product indicates the percentage of pixels covered by snow for Landsat 4–9 imagery. Landsat’s spatial resolution offers the capability to map snow cover patterns across topographically complex mountainous regions. Snow cover is spatially and temporally variable and is often concentrated...
Soil elevation change in mangrove forests and marshes of the greater Everglades: A regional synthesis of surface elevation table-marker horizon (SET-MH) data
Laura Feher, Michael Osland, Karen L. McKee, Kevin R.T. Whelan, Carlos A. Coronado-Molina, Fred H. Sklar, Ken Krauss, Rebecca Howard, Donald Cahoon, James C. Lynch, Lukas Lamb-Wotton, Tiffany G. Troxler, Jeremy R. Conrad, Gordon Anderson, William C. Vervaeke, Thomas J. Smith III, Nicole Cormier, Andrew From, Larry Allain
2022, Estuaries and Coasts
Coastal wetlands adapt to rising seas via feedbacks that build soil elevation, which lead to wetland stability. However, accelerated rates of sea-level rise can exceed soil elevation gain, leading to wetland instability and loss. Thus, there is a pressing need to better understand regional and landscape...
Optimizing satellite resources for the global assessment and mitigation of volcanic hazards—Suggestions from the USGS Powell Center Volcano Remote Sensing Working Group
M. E. Pritchard, M. Poland, K. Reath, B. Andrews, M. Bagnardi, J. Biggs, S. Carn, D. Coppola, S.K. Ebmeier, M.A. Furtney, T. Girona, J. Griswold, T. Lopez, P. Lundgren, S. Ogburn, M. Pavolonis, E. Rumpf, G. Vaughan, C. Wauthier, R. Wessels, R. Wright, K.R. Anderson, M.G. Bato, A. Roman
2022, Scientific Investigations Report 2022-5116
A significant number of the world’s approximately 1,400 subaerial volcanoes with Holocene eruptions are unmonitored by ground-based sensors yet constitute a potential hazard to nearby residents and infrastructure, as well as air travel and global commerce. Data from an international constellation of more than 60 current satellite instruments provide...
Hydrogeologic characteristics of Hourglass and New Years Cave Lakes at Jewel Cave National Monument, South Dakota, from water-level and water-chemistry data, 2015–21
Colton J. Medler
2022, Scientific Investigations Report 2022-5108
Jewel Cave National Monument is in the western Black Hills of South Dakota and contains an extensive cave network, including various subterranean water bodies (cave lakes) that are believed to represent the regionally important Madison aquifer. Recent investigations have sought to improve understanding of hydrogeologic characteristics of cave lakes in...
Indigenous fire management and cross-scale fire-climate relationships in the Southwest United States from 1500 to 1900 CE
Chris I. Roos, Christopher H. Guiterman, Ellis Margolis, Thomas W. Swetnam, Nicholas C. Laluk, Kerry F. Thompson, Chris Toya, Calvin A. Farris, Peter Z. Fulé, Jose M. Iniguez, J. Mark Kaib, Christopher D. O’Connor, Lionel Whitehair
2022, Science Advances (8)
Prior research suggests that Indigenous fire management buffers climate influences on wildfires, but it is unclear whether these benefits accrue across geographic scales. We use a network of 4824 fire-scarred trees in Southwest United States dry forests to analyze up to 400 years of fire-climate relationships at local, landscape, and...
Ecological Coastal Units – Standardized global shoreline characteristics
Roger Sayre, Kevin Butler, Keith Van Graafeiland, Sean Breyer, Dawn Wright
2022, Conference Paper, Oceans 2022, Hampton Roads
A new set of resources is now available that describe global shoreline characteristics. High resolution (30 m), globally comprehensive Coastal Segment Units (CSUs) and Ecological Coastal Units (ECUs) were developed in a collaboration between the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Esri, and the Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON). The data were...
Seismic multi-hazard and impact estimation via causal inference from satellite imagery
Susu Xu, Joshua Dimasaka, David J. Wald, Hae Young Noh
2022, Nature Communications (13)
Rapid post-earthquake reconnaissance is important for emergency responses and rehabilitation by providing accurate and timely information about secondary hazards and impacts, including landslide, liquefaction, and building damage. Despite the extensive collection of geospatial data and satellite images, existing physics-based and data-driven methods suffer from low estimation performance due to the...
Delineating the Pierre Shale from geophysical surveys east and southeast of Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota, 2021
Colton J. Medler
2022, Scientific Investigations Map 3497
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the U.S. Air Force Civil Engineer Center, used surface-geophysical methods to delineate the top of Cretaceous Pierre Shale along survey transects in selected areas east and southeast of Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota, from April to September 2021. Two complementary geophysical methods—electrical...
Mapping the probability of freshwater algal blooms with various spectral indices and sources of training data
Tyler Victor King, Stephen Hundt, Konrad Hafen, Victoria G. Stengel, Scott D. Ducar
2022, Journal of Applied Remote Sensing (16)
Algal blooms are pervasive in many freshwater environments and can pose risks to the health and safety of humans and other organisms. However, monitoring and tracking of potentially harmful blooms often relies on in-person observations by the public. Remote sensing has proven useful in augmenting in situ observations of algal...
Groundwater quality and geochemistry of the western wet gas part of the Marcellus Shale Oil and Gas Play in West Virginia
Mark D. Kozar, Mitchell A. McAdoo, Karl B. Haase
2022, Scientific Investigations Report 2022-5094
Thirty rural residential water wells in the wet gas region of the Marcellus Shale oil and gas play in northwestern West Virginia were sampled by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in 2018, in cooperation with West Virginia State agencies, to analyze for a range of water-quality constituents, including major ions,...
BFS—A non-linear, state-space model for baseflow separation and prediction
Christopher P. Konrad
2022, Scientific Investigations Report 2022-5114
Streamflow in rivers can be separated into a relatively steady component, or baseflow, that represents reliably available surface water and more dynamic components of runoff that typically represent a large fraction of total streamflow. A spatially aggregated numerical time-series model was developed to separate the baseflow component of a...
Climate change and ‘alien species in National Parks’: Revisited
Catherine S. Jarnevich, Terri Hogan, Jennifer Sieracki, Christine Lipsky, John Wullschleger
Lewis H. Ziska, editor(s)
2022, Book chapter, Invasive species and global climate change
The US National Park Service mission includes conserving native species and historical landscapes ‘unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations’. However, humans have increased the introduction of non-native species that can become invasive and which have harmful impacts on native species and landscapes. We revisit two previous papers, ‘Alien Species...
Note to Banders, December 2022
Antonio Celis-Murillo
2022, Newsletter
Note to All Banders was a special extra communication with more urgent information relevant to banders. This Note to All Banders was sent to U.S. bird banders on December 20, 2022. This note includes holiday greetings and a review of the 2022 successes at...
Ungulate migrations of the western United States, volume 3
Matthew Kauffman, Blake Lowrey, Jodi Berg, Scott Bergen, Doug Brimeyer, Patrick Burke, Teal Cufaude, James W. Cain III, Jeffrey Cole, Alyson Courtemanch, Michelle Cowardin, Julie Cunningham, Melia DeVivo, Jennifer Diamond, Orrin Duvuvuei, Julien Fattebert, Joanna R. Ennis, Darby Finley, Jessica Fort, Gary Fralick, Eric Freeman, Jeff Gagnon, Julie Garcia, Emily Gelzer, Morgan Graham, Jacob Gray, Evan Greenspan, L. Embere Hall, Curtis Hendricks, Andy Holland, Brian Holmes, Katey Huggler, Mark A. Hurley, Emily Jeffreys, Aran Johnson, Lee Knox, Kevin Krasnow, Zack Lockyer, Hannah Manninen, Mike McDonald, Jennifer L. McKee, James Meacham, Jerod Merkle, Barb Moore, Tony W. Mong, Clayton Nielsen, Brendan Oates, Kim Olsen, Daniel Olson, Lucas Olson, Matt Pieron, Jake Powell, Annemarie Prince, Kelly Proffitt, Craig Reddell, Corinna Riginos, Robert Ritson, Sierra Robatcek, Shane Roberts, Hall Sawyer, Cody Schroeder, Jessie Shapiro, Nova Simpson, Scott Sprague, Alethea Steingisser, Nicole Tatman, Benjamin Turnock, Cody F. Wallace, Laura Wolf
2022, Scientific Investigations Report 2022-5088
Ungulates (hooved mammals) have a broad distribution across the western United States and play an important role in maintaining predator-prey dynamics, affecting vegetation communities, and providing economic benefits to regional communities through tourism and hunting. Throughout the diverse landscapes they occupy, many ungulate populations undertake seasonal migrations to exploit spatially...
Insights from the Alabama Hills into Mesozoic magmatism and tectonics in eastern California
Ryan Edward Frazer, Sean P. Gaynor, Drew S. Coleman, Jennifer M. Wenner
2022, Lithosphere (2022)
New zircon U-Pb ages for the Alabama Hills Granite in Owens Valley, eastern California, range from 103 to 102 Ma, nearly 20 Ma older than previously published zircon ages. The data preclude previously implied links between the pluton and the adjacent Late Cretaceous Mount Whitney Intrusive Suite. Geochronologic and isotopic data indicate...
Water-quality improvement of an agricultural watershed marsh after macrophyte establishment and point-source reduction
Sarah Fuller, Edward P Boswell, Anita M. Thompson, Dale M. Robertson
2022, Wetlands (42)
Green Lake, located in central Wisconsin USA within a watershed with land use dominated by agriculture, is listed as impaired under Sect. 303(d) of the Clean Water Act. The primary tributary, Silver Creek, is also impaired because of high total phosphorus (TP) concentrations. Silver Creek flows through a shallow marsh before...
Analysis of groundwater and surface water in areas of isoxaflutole application, Tuscola and Kalamazoo Counties, Michigan
Carol L. Luukkonen, Mark E. Brigham
2022, Scientific Investigations Report 2022-5100
The herbicide 5-cyclopropyl-4-(2-methylsulfonyl-4-trifluoromethylbenzoyl) isoxazole, also known as isoxaflutole (IXF), was conditionally approved for use on corn in Michigan in 2015. The fate of IXF and its degradates in different environmental settings and the processes by which these compounds move to groundwater or to surface-water bodies have been previously studied, but...
The National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program’s U.S. GeoFramework Initiative — Delivering a digital database of geologic map information by 2030
Jenna L. Shelton, William Andrews, Joseph Colgan, Samuel Johnstone, David R. Soller, Richard Berg, Donald S. Sweetkind, Kristine L. Zellman, John Brock, Kate Ritzel
2022, Fact Sheet 2022-3079
The U.S. Geological Survey's National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program's U.S. GeoFramework Initiative responds to Congressional direction to implement the National Geologic Map Database Phase Three. The U.S. GeoFramework Initiative aims to create and deliver a new digital geologic framework of the United States by 2030. This Fact Sheet outlines the...
U.S. Geological Survey science strategy for Arctic Alaska, fiscal years 2022–24
Dee M. Williams, Aimee Devaris
2022, Circular 1499
IntroductionThe United States is an Arctic nation because of Alaska and thus maintains tremendous interests and stewardship responsibilities in the region, especially as the region undergoes substantial environmental transformation. This Arctic Science Strategy is intended to support those interests and responsibilities by expressing the core values, mission, vision, and...
Precipitation-driven flood-inundation mapping of Muddy Creek at Harrisonville, Missouri
David C. Heimann, Paul H. Rydlund
2022, Scientific Investigations Report 2022-5084
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the city of Harrisonville, Missouri, assessed flooding of Muddy Creek resulting from varying precipitation magnitudes and durations, antecedent runoff conditions, and channel modifications (cleaned culverts and added detention storage). The precipitation scenarios were used to develop a library of flood-inundation maps that included...
Spatial models can improve the experimental design of field-based transplant gardens by preventing bias due to neighborhood crowding
Andrii Zaiats, Juan M. Requena-Mullor, Matthew Germino, Jennifer S. Forbey, Bryce A. Richardson, T. Trevor Caughlin
2022, Ecology and Evolution (12)
Field-based transplant gardens, including common and reciprocal garden experiments, are a powerful tool for studying genetic variation and gene-by-environment interactions. These experiments assume that individuals within the garden represent independent replicates growing in a homogenous environment. Plant neighborhood interactions are pervasive across plant populations and could violate assumptions of transplant...
Acetylenotrophic and diazotrophic Bradyrhizobium sp. strain I71 from TCE-contaminated soils
Denise M. Akob, John M. Sutton, Timothy J. Bushman, Shaun Baesman, Edina Klein, Yesha Shrestha, Robert Andrews, Janna L. Fierst, Max Kolton, Sara Gushgari-Doyle, Ronald Oremland, John Freeman
Jeremy D. Semrau, editor(s)
2022, Applied and Environmental Microbiology (88)
AbstractAcetylene (C2H2) is a molecule rarely found in nature, with very few known natural sources, but acetylenotrophic microorganisms can use acetylene as their primary carbon and energy source. As of 2018 there were 15 known strains of aerobic and anaerobic acetylenotrophs; however, we hypothesize there may...
Effects of shading on the rare plant species, Physostegia correllii (Lamiaceae) and Trillium texanum (Melanthiaceae)
Beth Middleton, Casey R. Williams, Chris Doffitt, Darren Johnson
2022, Journal of the Botanical Research Institute of Texas (16) 591-603
Rare plant species that are constrained by shading may be threatened by a lack of natural disturbance that removes overhanging vegetation. The original distribution of the study species Physostegia correllii (Lundell) Shinners included freshwater floodplains of large rivers in the southcentral U.S. (Colorado, Rio Grande, and Mississippi rivers). A second species, Trillium texanum Buckley...
Tooth wear and the apparent consumption of human foods among American black bears (Ursus americanus) in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, USA
Kent A. Hatch, Kimberly A. Kester, Amanda Loveless, Beverly L. Roeder, Frank T. van Manen
2022, Mammalian Biology (2022) 1-9
Stable isotope analyses of hair have been used to estimate the consumption of human foods by American black bears (Ursus americanus). Consumption of human foods influences body mass and reproductive success of bears. However, the underlying factors that cause some bears to become conflict bears and resort to consuming human...
Black Abalone surveys at Naval Base Ventura County, San Nicolas Island, California—2021, annual report
Michael C. Kenner, Julie L. Yee
2022, Open-File Report 2022-1107
The U.S. Geological Survey monitors a suite of intertidal black abalone sites at San Nicolas Island, California, in cooperation with the U.S. Navy, which owns the island. The nine rocky intertidal sites were established in 1980 to study the potential effect of translocated sea otters on the intertidal black...
