The addition of 144Nd atomic mass to routine ICP-MS analysis as a Quick Screening Tool for Approximating Rare Earth Elements (Q-STAR) in natural waters
Elizabeth J. Tomaszewski, Zhouming Sun, Anthony J. Bednar
2024, Journal of Geochemical Exploration (258)
Rare earth elements (REEs) are a class of critical minerals, all of which can have supply chain vulnerability that impacts economic security. These elements are widely measured in environmental matrices via inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS); however, successful quantification can require time-consuming, sample-specific optimization. While a...
Male lake char release taurocholic acid as part of a mating pheromone
Tyler J. Buchinger, Ke Li, Ugo Bussy, Belinda Huerta, Sonam Tamrakar, Nicholas S. Johnson, Weiming Li
2024, Journal of Experimental Biology (227)
The evolutionary origins of sexual preferences for chemical signals remain poorly understood, due, in part, to scant information on the molecules involved. In the current study, we identified a male pheromone in lake char (Salvelinus namaycush) to evaluate the hypothesis that it exploits...
Seasonal differences in larval sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) sensitivity to the pesticide TFM
Justin Schueller, Michael A. Boogaard, Courtney Kirkeeng, Nicholas Schloesser, Samantha L. Wolfe, Avery J. Lettenberger, Tisha King-Heiden, James A. Luoma
2024, Journal of Great Lakes Research (50)
Invasive sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) are controlled in the Great Lakes with 4-nitro-3-(trifluoromethyl)phenol (commonly 3-trifluoromethyl-4-nitrophenol or TFM). The proper amount of TFM must be applied during treatments to effectively kill larval sea lamprey while minimizing impacts to non-target species. In this...
Seasonal and breeding phenologies of 38 grassland bird species in the midcontinent of North America
Garrett J. MacDonald, Michael J. Anteau, Kristen S. Ellis, Lawrence D. Igl, Neal D. Niemuth, Josh L. Vest
2024, Open-File Report 2024-1002
Grasslands in the midcontinent of North America are highly imperiled, and grassland birds have suffered the largest bird declines of any terrestrial biome in North America in the last 50 years. Consequently, the conservation and management of grasslands, as well as their associated avian communities, are major priorities for the...
Satellite Interferometry Landslide Detection and Preliminary Tsunamigenic Plausibility Assessment in Prince William Sound, Southcentral Alaska
Lauren N. Schaefer, Jinwook Kim, Dennis M. Staley, Zhong Lu, Katherine R. Barnhart
2024, Open-File Report 2023-1099
Regional mapping of actively deforming landslides, including measurements of landslide velocity, is integral for hazard assessments in paraglacial environments. These inventories are also critical for describing the potential impacts that the warming effects of climate change have on slope instability in mountainous and cryospheric terrain. The objective of this study...
Using resiliency, redundancy, and representation in a Bayesian belief network to assess imperilment of riverine fishes
Corey Garland Dunn, David A. Schumann, Michael E. Colvin, Logan John Sleezer, Matthew Wagner, D. Todd Jones-Farrand, Erin Rivenbark, Sarah McRae, Kristine Evans
2024, Ecosphere (15)
Conservation prioritization frameworks are used worldwide to identify species at greatest risk of extinction and to allocate limited resources across regions, species, and populations. Conservation prioritization can be impeded by ecological knowledge gaps and data deficiency, especially in freshwater species inhabiting highly complex aquatic ecosystems. Therefore, we developed a flexible...
Water-quality indicators of surface-water-influenced groundwater supplies in the Ohio River alluvial aquifer of West Virginia
Mitchell A. McAdoo, Gregory T. Connock
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5139
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources, studied surface-water-influenced groundwater supplies in the Ohio River alluvial aquifer of West Virginia for the purpose of understanding the influence of surface water on groundwater chemistry. Public groundwater supplies obtained from these aquifers receive...
The U.S. Geological Survey Water Resources Research Act Program—Meeting local, State, and national needs for water resources science and training
Mark P. Miller, Earl A. Greene, Tanja N. Williamson
2024, Fact Sheet 2023-3031
IntroductionThe U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has a broad research portfolio that addresses water resource issues that are critical to our Nation’s prosperity and quality of life. Socioeconomics, geopolitical stressors, population growth, climate variability, and other factors provide challenges for the management of water resources. Working collaboratively with partners, the USGS...
A framework to facilitate development and testing of image-based river velocimetry algorithms
Carl J. Legleiter, Paul J. Kinzel
2024, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms (49) 1361-1382
Image-based methods have compelling, demonstrated potential for characterizing flow fields in rivers, but algorithms like particle image velocimetry (PIV) must be further tested and improved to enable more effective use of these techniques. This paper presents a framework designed for this exact purpose: Simulating Hydraulics and Images for Velocimetry Evaluation...
Macroscale controls determine the recovery of river ecosystem productivity following flood disturbances
Heili Lowman, Robert K. Shriver, Robert O. Hall Jr., Judson Harvey, Philip Savoy, Charles Yackulic, Joanna R. Blaszczak
2024, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (121)
River ecosystems rely on varied flows, including regular floods, to provide food and habitat for aquatic organisms. However, flows of freshwater are becoming increasingly managed for irrigation, industry, and other human activities, and the frequency of floods is changing. Our study used time-series data of photosynthesis from 143 rivers across...
Remote sensing-based 3D assessment of landslides: A review of the data, methods, and applications
Hessah Albanwan, Rongjun Qin, Jung-Kuan Liu
2024, Remote Sensing (16)
Remote sensing (RS) techniques are essential for studying hazardous landslide events because they capture information and monitor sites at scale. They enable analyzing causes and impacts of ongoing events for disaster management. There has been a plethora of work in the literature mostly discussing (1) applications to detect, monitor,...
Examining the effect of physicochemical and meteorological variables on water quality indicators of harmful algal blooms in a shallow hypereutrophic lake using machine learning techniques
Susan Wherry, Liam N. Schenk
2024, Water (4) 1073-1082
Two independent machine learning techniques, boosted regression trees and artificial neural networks, were used to examine the physicochemical and meteorological variables that affect the seasonal growth and decline of harmful algal blooms (HABs) in a shallow, hypereutrophic lake in southern Oregon. High temporal resolution data collected...
Identifying indicators of polar bear population status
Karyn D. Rode, Ryan R. Wilson, Justin A. Crawford, Lori T. Quakenbush
2024, Ecological Indicators (159)
Monitoring trends in large mammal populations is a fundamental component of wildlife management and conservation. However, direct estimates of population size and vital rates of large mammals can be logistically challenging and expensive. Indicators that reflect trends in abundance, therefore, can be valuable tools for...
Multigenerational, indirect exposure to pyrethroids demonstrates potential compensatory response and reduced toxicity at higher salinity in estuarine fish
Sara Hutton, Samreen Siddiqui, Emily Pedersen, Christopher Markgraf, Amelie Segarra, Michelle L. Hladik, Richard E Connon, Susanne M. Brander
2024, Environmental Science and Technology (58) 2224-2235
Estuarine environments are critical to fish species and serve as nurseries for developing embryos and larvae. They also undergo daily fluctuations in salinity and act as filters for pollutants. Additionally, global climate change (GCC) is altering salinity regimes within estuarine systems through changes in precipitation and...
Multiple lines of evidence point to pesticides as stressors affecting invertebrate communities in small streams in five United States regions
Lisa H. Nowell, Patrick W. Moran, Ian R. Waite, Travis S. Schmidt, Paul M. Bradley, Barbara J. Mahler, Peter Van Metre
2024, Science of the Total Environment (915)
Multistressor studies were performed in five regions of the United States to assess the role of pesticides as stressors affecting invertebrate communities in wadable streams. Pesticides and other chemical and physical stressors were measured in 75 to 99 streams per region for 4 weeks, after...
Underwater flashlights: What light can tell us about water quality
Kevin Alexander Ryan, Douglas A. Burns
2024, Frontiers for Young Minds
Water is essential for life. The particles and dissolved chemicals found in rivers, lakes, and oceans are constantly changing with weather, seasons, and human activities. The substances found in water can be helpful or harmful to humans and other organisms. New technologies allow scientists to use waterproof computers (called sensors)...
A multiscale perspective for improving conservation of Conchos pupfish
Lindsey C. Elkins, Matthew Ross Acre, Megan G. Bean, Sarah M. Robertson, Ryan Smith, Joshuah S. Perkin
2024, Animal Conservation (27) 538-553
Desert spring systems of the American southwest hold high local fish endemism and are ranked among the most threatened ecosystems in the world. The prioritization of conservation resources to protect species living within these arid landscapes requires knowledge of species abundance and distribution. The...
Evaluating density-weighted connectivity of black bears (Ursus americanus) in Glacier National Park with spatial capture–recapture models
Sarah L Carroll, Greta M Schmidt, John S. Waller, Tabitha A. Graves
2024, Movement Ecology (12)
BackgroundImproved understanding of wildlife population connectivity among protected area networks can support effective planning for the persistence of wildlife populations in the face of land use and climate change. Common approaches to estimating connectivity often rely on small samples of individuals without considering the spatial structure of populations,...
Sicklefin Chub (Macrhybopsis meeki) and Sturgeon Chub (M. gelida) temporal and spatial patterns from extant population monitoring and habitat data spanning 23 Years
Mark L. Wildhaber, Benjamin M West, Kendell Ray Bennett, Jack Howard May, Janice L. Albers, Nicholas S. Green
2024, Fishes (9)
Sicklefin (Macrhybopsis meeki) and sturgeon chub (M. gelida) historically occurred throughout the Missouri River (MR), in some tributaries, and Mississippi River downstream of the MR. They have been species of U.S. state-level conservation concern and U.S. Endangered Species Act listing candidates since the 1990s. We applied analytical...
Resurvey of cross sections on the Yampa and Little Snake Rivers in Lily and Deerlodge Parks, Colorado
Ronald E. Griffiths, David J. Topping, Christina Leonard, Joel A. Unema
2024, Open-File Report 2023-1070
Resurveys of seven geomorphologic cross sections located in the Lily Park and Deerlodge Park, Colorado, reaches of the Yampa and Little Snake Rivers were conducted in October 2017. These cross sections extend from Lily Park, at the confluence of the two rivers, to Deerlodge Park within Dinosaur National Monument. Four...
Report of the River Master of the Delaware River for the period December 1, 2013–November 30, 2014
Kendra L. Russell, William J. Andrews, Vincent J. DiFrenna, J. Michael Norris, Mason Jr.
2024, Open-File Report 2023-1084
Executive SummaryA Decree of the Supreme Court of the United States, entered June 7, 1954 (New Jersey v. New York, 347 U.S. 995), established the position of Delaware River Master within the U.S. Geological Survey. In addition, the Decree authorizes the diversion of water from the Delaware River Basin and...
Extreme low-frequency waves on the Ofu, American Samoa, reef flat
Olivia M. Cheriton, Curt D. Storlazzi, Ferdinand K.J. Oberle, Kurt J. Rosenberger, Eric K. Brown
2024, Coral Reefs (43) 185-191
The southern fringing reef along Ofu, American Samoa, has been a focus of coral research owing to the presence of super-heated pools on the reef flat, where corals thrive in elevated sea temperatures. Here, we present the first documentation of exceptionally large low-frequency (periods > 100 s) waves...
A far-traveled basalt lava flow in north-central Oregon, USA
Anthony Francis Pivarunas, David R. Sherrod, Jim E. O'Connor, Charles M. Cannon, Mark E. Stelten
2024, Geological Society of America Bulletin (136) 3291-3310
Widely separated basalt lava-flow outcrops in north-central Oregon, USA, expose products of a single eruptive episode. A Pliocene lava flow, here informally termed the Tetherow basalt, issued from vents near Redmond, in the Deschutes basin of Oregon, as a plains-forming basalt now exposed...
Evaluating spatial coverage of the greater sage-grouse umbrella to conserve sagebrush-dependent species biodiversity within the Wyoming basins
Cameron L. Aldridge, D. Joanne Saher, Julie A. Heinrichs, Adrian P. Monroe, Matthias Leu, Steve E. Hanser
2024, Land (13)
Biodiversity is threatened due to land-use change, overexploitation, pollution, and anthropogenic climate change, altering ecosystem functioning around the globe. Protecting areas rich in biodiversity is often difficult without fully understanding and mapping species’ ecological niche requirements. As a result, the umbrella species concept is often applied, whereby conservation of...
The economics of decarbonizing Costa Rica's agriculture, forestry and other land uses sectors
Onil Banerjee, Martin Cicowiez, Renato Vargas, Edmundo Molina-Perez, Kenneth J. Bagstad, Ziga Malek
2024, Ecological Economics (218)
In 2018, Costa Rica demonstrated its commitment to the Paris Agreement and published its Decarbonization Plan for achieving zero net emissions by the year 2050. We evaluate the impacts of the country's strategy for decarbonizing its Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Uses (AFOLU) sectors by coupling the Integrated Economic-Environmental Modeling...
