Environmental DNA
Margaret Hunter, Kristian Meissner, Catherine Abbott, Florien Leese, Gernot Segelbacher
2024, Report
The widespread adoption of environmental DNA (eDNA) detection tools for biodiversity monitoring has led to the need for universal data standards to inform principled eDNA data applications. Improvements in understanding the meaning and possible uncertainty of eDNA data can minimize erroneous conclusions, increase confidence in eDNA data, and maximize conservation...
Milkweed and floral resource availability for monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) in the United States
Laura Lukens, Jennifer Thieme, Wayne E. Thogmartin
2024, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution (12)
The global decline of pollinators, particularly insects, underscores the importance of enhanced monitoring of their populations and habitats. However, monitoring some pollinator habitat is challenging due to widespread species distributions and shifts in habitat requirements through seasons and life stages. The monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus), a migratory insect pollinator...
READI-Net—Providing tools for the early detection and management of aquatic invasive species
Lisa McKeon, Todd G. Wojtowicz
2024, Fact Sheet 2024-3013
OverviewEarly detection of biological threats, such as invasive species, increases the likelihood that control efforts will be successful and cost-effective. Environmental deoxyribonucleic acid (eDNA) sampling is an established method for the efficient and sensitive early detection of new biological threats. The Rapid eDNA Assessment and Deployment Initiative & Network (READI-Net)...
U.S. Geological Survey Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center science highlights for fiscal year 2023
Todd G. Wojtowicz
2024, Fact Sheet 2024-3012
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center is based in Bozeman, Montana, and has field offices in Glacier National Park, Mont.; Missoula, Mont.; and Knoxville, Tennessee. Our scientists respond to the natural resource management needs of Federal, Tribal, and State partners—directly engaging in the coproduction and application...
Geologic map of the northwest flank of Mauna Loa volcano, Island of Hawai‘i, Hawaii
Frank A. Trusdell, John P. Lockwood
2024, Scientific Investigations Map 2932-E
Mauna Loa, the largest active volcano on Earth, has erupted 34 times since written descriptions became available in A.D. 1832. The most recent eruption of Mauna Loa occurred on November 27, 2022, after a 38 year hiatus; it lasted for 12 days. Some eruptions began with only brief seismic unrest,...
Interdisciplinary science approach for harmful algal blooms (HABs) and algal toxins—A strategic science vision for the U.S. Geological Survey
Victoria G. Christensen, Christopher J. Crawford, Robert J. Dusek, Michael J. Focazio, Lisa Reynolds Fogarty, Jennifer L. Graham, Celeste A. Journey, Mari E. Lee, James H. Larson, Sarah M. Stackpoole, Viviana Mazzei, Emily Pindilli, Barnett A. Rattner, E. Terrence Slonecker, Kristen B. McSwain, Timothy J. Reilly, Ashley E. Lopez
2024, Circular 1520
Executive SummaryAlgal blooms in water, soils, dusts, and the environment have captured national attention because of concerns associated with exposure to algal toxins for humans and animals. Algal blooms naturally occur in all surface-water types and are important primary producers for aquatic ecosystems. However, excessive algae growth can be associated...
Real-time invasive sea lamprey detection using machine learning classifier models on embedded systems
Ian Gonzalez-Afanador, Claudia Chen, Gerardo Morales-Torres, Scott M. Miehls, Hongyang Shi, Xiaobo Tan, Nelson Sepulveda
2024, Neural Computing and Applications (36) 16195-16212
Invasive sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) has historically inflicted considerable economic and ecological damage in the Great Lakes and continues to be a major threat. Accurately monitoring sea lampreys are critical to enabling the deployment of more targeted and effective control measures to minimize the impact associated with this species. This...
Capturing potential: Leveraging grass carp behavior Ctenopharyngodon idella for enhanced removal
Matthew Ross Acre, Tyler Michael Hessler, Sophia Marie Bonjour, James Roberts, Scott F. Colborne, Travis O. Brenden, Lucas R. Nathan, Dustin Broaddus, Christopher S. Vandergoot, Christine M. Mayer, Song S. Qian, Robert D. Hunter, Ryan E. Brown, Robin D. Calfee
2024, Journal of Great Lakes Research (50)
Effective management of invasive species benefits from a comprehensive understanding of the species’ behavior and interactions with the invaded system. We investigated temporal dynamics of telemetry detections and the potential utility of a traitor approach for informing response efforts to the invasive grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) population in the Sandusky...
Peak streamflow trends in Michigan and their relation to changes in climate, water years 1921–2020
Sara B. Levin
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5064-D
This study characterizes hydroclimatic variability and change in peak streamflow and daily streamflow in Michigan from water years 1921 through 2020. Four analysis periods were examined: the 100-year period from water year 1921 through 2020, the 75-year period from water year 1946 through 2020, the 50-year period from water year...
Multinational evaluation of genetic diversity indicators for the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework
Alicia Mastretta-Yanes, Jessica M. da Silva, Catherine E. Grueber, Luis Castillo-Reina, Viktoria Koppa, Brenna R. Forester, W. Chris Funk, Myriam Heuertz, Fumiko Ishihama, Rebecca Jordan, Joachim Mergeay, Ivan Paz-Vinas, Victor Julio Rincon-Parra, Maria Alejandra Rodriguez-Morales, Libertad Arredondo-Amezcua, Gaelle Brahy, Matt DeSaix, Lily Durkee, Ashley Hamilton, Margaret E. Hunter, Austin Koontz, Iris Lang, Maria Camila Latorre-Cardenas, Tanya Latty, Alexander Llanes-Quevedo, Anna J. MacDonald, Meg Mahoney, Caitlin Miller, Juan Francisco Ornelas, Santiago Ramirez-Barahona, Erica Robertson, Isa-Rita M. Russo, Metztli Arcila Santiago, Robyn E. Shaw, Glenn M. Shea, Per Sjogren-Gulve, Emma Suzuki Spence, Taylor Stack, Sofia Suarez, Akio Takenaka, Henrik Thurfjell, Sheela P. Turbek, Marlien van der Merwe, Fleur Visser, Ana Wegier, Georgina Wood, Eugenia Zarza, Linda Laikre, Sean M. Hoban
2024, Ecology Letters (27)
Under the recently adopted Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, 196 Parties committed to reporting the status of genetic diversity for all species. To facilitate reporting, three genetic diversity indicators were developed, two of which focus on processes contributing to genetic diversity conservation: maintaining genetically distinct populations and ensuring populations are large...
Declining groundwater storage expected to amplify mountain streamflow reductions in a warmer world
Rosemary W.H. Carroll, Richard G. Niswonger, Craig Ulrich, Charuleka Varadharajan, Erica Siirila-Woodburn, Kenneth H. Williams
2024, Nature Water (2) 419-433
Groundwater interactions with mountain streams are often simplified in model projections, potentially leading to inaccurate estimates of streamflow response to climate change. Here, using a high-resolution, integrated hydrological model extending 400 m into the subsurface, we find groundwater an important and stable source of historical streamflow in...
Browsing the literature
Matthew J. Germino
2024, Rangelands (46) 100-102
For this edition of Browsing the Literature, we have two new papers from Rangeland Ecology & Management, a series of basic ecology papers with an international scope from journals such as the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA), Science, and Nature, and several papers advancing our understanding of...
Examining inequality in aquatic ecosystem services: Evidence from large-scale monitoring programs
Katya E. Kovalenko, Sergey Ilyushkin, Holly Wellar-Kelly, Justine Annaliese Neville, Glenn R. Guntenspergen
2024, Ecology and People (935)
We hypothesize that aquatic ecosystem services are likely to be inequitably accessible and addressing this hypothesis requires systematic assessment at regional and national scales. We used existing data from large-scale aquatic monitoring programs (National Coastal Condition Assessment, National Lakes Assessment) to examine relationships between ecosystem condition,...
Does the extent of glacial cover across watersheds and discharge periods affect dietary resource use of nearshore fishes in the Northern Gulf of Alaska?
Lindsey Stadler, Kristen Gorman, Vanessa R. von Biela, Andrew C. Seitz, Katrin Iken
2024, Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology (577)
Northern high-latitude glaciers impact nearshore marine ecosystems through the discharge of cold and fresh waters, including nutrients and organic matter. Fishes are important integrators of ecosystem processes and hold key positions in the transfer of energy to higher trophic positions...
How to select an objective function using information theory
Timothy O. Hodson, Thomas M. Over, Smith Tyler, Lucy A. Marshall
2024, Water Resources Research (60)
In machine learning or scientific computing, model performance is measured with an objective function. But why choose one objective over another? According to the information-theoretic paradigm, the “best” objective function is whichever minimizes information loss. To evaluate different objectives, transform them into likelihoods. The ratios of these...
Genetic analysis of harvest samples reveals population structure in a highly mobile generalist carnivore
Stuart C. Fetherston, Robert Charles Lonsinger, Lora B. Perkins, Chadwick P. Lehman, Jennifer R. Adams, Lisette P. Waits
2024, Ecology and Evolution (14)
Delineating wildlife population boundaries is important for effective population monitoring and management. The bobcat (Lynx rufus) is a highly mobile generalist carnivore that is ecologically and economically important. We sampled 1225 bobcats harvested in South Dakota, USA (2014–2019), of which 878 were retained to assess genetic diversity and infer population...
Genome-wide association analysis of the resistance to infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus in two rainbow trout aquaculture lines confirms oligogenic architecture with several moderate effect quantitative trait loci
Yniv Palti, Roger L. Vallejo, Maureen K. Purcell, Guangtu Gao, Kristy L. Shewbridge, Roseanna L. Long, Christopher Setzke, Breno O. Fragomeni, Hao Cheng, Kyle E. Martin, Kerrry A. Naish
2024, Frontiers in Genetics (15)
Infectious hematopoietic necrosis (IHN) is a disease of salmonid fish that is caused by the IHN virus (IHNV), which can cause substantial mortality and economic losses in rainbow trout aquaculture and fisheries enhancement hatchery programs. In a previous study on a commercial rainbow trout breeding line that has...
Magnitude and frequency of floods in the Coastal Plain region of Louisiana, 2016
Paul A. Ensminger, Daniel M. Wagner, Amanda Whaling
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5031
To improve flood-frequency estimates for rural streams in the Coastal Plain region of Louisiana, generalized least-squares regression techniques were used to relate corresponding annual exceedance probability streamflows for 211 streamgages in the region to a suite of explanatory variables that include physical, climatic, pedologic, and land-use characteristics of the streamgage...
Biodiversity loss reduces global terrestrial carbon storage
Sarah R. Weiskopf, Forest Isbell, Maria Isabel Arce-Plata, Moreno Di Marco, Mike Harfoot, Justin A. Johnson, Susannah B. Lerman, Brian W. Miller, Toni Lyn Morelli, Akira S. Mori, Ensheng Weng, Simon Ferrier
2024, Nature Communications (15)
Natural ecosystems store large amounts of carbon globally, as organisms absorb carbon from the atmosphere to build large, long-lasting, or slow-decaying structures such as tree bark or root systems. An ecosystem’s carbon sequestration potential is tightly linked to its biological diversity. Yet when considering future projections, many carbon sequestration models...
The SCEC/USGS community stress drop validation study using the 2019 Ridgecrest earthquake sequence
Annemarie S. Baltay Sundstrom, Rachel E. Abercrombie, Shanna Xianhui Chu, Taka’aki Taira
2024, Seismica (3)
We introduce a community stress drop validation study using the 2019 Ridgecrest, California, earthquake sequence, in which researchers are invited to use a common dataset to independently estimate comparable measurements using a variety of methods. Stress drop is the change in average shear stress on a fault during earthquake rupture,...
Illegal shooting of protected nongame birds along power lines coincides with places and times of peak legal recreational shooting
Eve C. Thomason, James R. Belthoff, Sharon A. Poessel, Todd E. Katzner
2024, Ornithological Applications (126)
Illegal killing of protected nongame birds is pervasive and can be demographically relevant. In 2021 and 2022, we evaluated spatial and temporal patterns in illegal killing of birds along 69.7 km of power lines in the Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area in Idaho, USA, to...
Earthquake relocations delineate discrete a fault network and deformation corridor throughout Southeast Alaska and Southwest Yukon
Katherine M. Biegel, Jeremy M. Gosselin, Jan Dettmer, Maurice Colpron, Eva Enkelmann, Jonathan Caine
2024, Tectonics (43)
Deformation in southeastern Alaska and southwest Yukon is governed by the subduction and translation of the Pacific-Yakutat plates relative to the North American plate in the St. Elias region. Despite notable historical seismicity and major regional faults, studies of the region between the Fairweather and Denali faults are complicated by glacial...
Discovery and genomic characterization of a novel hepadnavirus from asymptomatic anadromous alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus)
Clayton D. Raines, Jan Lovy, Nicolas B.D. Phelps, Sunil Mor, Terry Ng, Luke Iwanowicz
2024, Viruses (16)
The alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus) is an anadromous herring that inhabits waters of northeastern North America. This prey species is a critical forage for piscivorous birds, mammals, and fishes in estuarine and oceanic ecosystems. During a discovery project tailored to identify potentially emerging pathogens of this species, we obtained the...
Earthquake cycle mechanics during caldera collapse: Simulating the 2018 Kīlauea eruption
Joshua Allen Crozier, Kyle R. Anderson
2024, Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth (129)
In multiple observed caldera-forming eruptions, the rock overlying a draining magma reservoir dropped downward along ring faults in sequences of discrete collapse earthquakes. These sequences are analogous to tectonic earthquake cycles and provide opportunities to examine fault mechanics and collapse eruption dynamics over multiple events. Collapse earthquake...
Ecological dissimilarity matters more than geographical distance when predicting land surface indicators using machine learning
Bo Zhou, Gregory S. Okin, Junzhe Zhang, Shannon L. Savage, Christopher J. Cole, Michael C. Duniway
2024, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing (62)
Supervised training techniques, such as those used in machine learning, use generally large sets of in situ data to train models that can, in turn, be used to make predictions (or prediction maps) about the Earth’s surface in times or places where no in situ...
