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Lake Tahoe’s clarity remains a key indicator of overall ecosystem status, and scientific understanding about factors affecting lake clarity continues to evolve. The purpose of this briefing memorandum is to summarize the status of clarity metrics and drivers of change discussed in the 2022 TSAC Data Synthesis and Analysis report....

Cyanobacterial blooms are an issue drawing increasing concern in freshwater lakes and reservoirs in the United States due to the real and sometimes perceived harms they can cause through cyanotoxin production or other effects. These types of blooms are often referred to as cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms (cyanoHABs)....

No abstract available....

Atmospheric dust deposited to snow cover (dust-on-snow) diminishes snow-surface albedo (SSA) to result in early onset and accelerated rate of melting, effects that challenge management of downstream water resources. During ongoing investigations to identify the light-energy absorbing dust particles most responsible for diminished SSA in the Upper Colorado River Basin...

Hurricane Maria struck the island of Puerto Rico on September 20, 2017, as a Category 4 storm. The hurricane traversed the island from southeast to northwest and produced recorded 48-hour rainfall totals of up to 30.01 inches. Estimates of the human death toll range from 2,975 to 4,645, possibly more.The...

As humans increasingly dominate the nitrogen cycle, deposition of reactive nitrogen (Nr) will continue to have adverse consequences for ecosystems. In the Rocky Mountains, Nr deposition remains elevated and has become increasingly dominated by ammonium, despite efforts to reduce emissions. Currently, spatial models of Nr deposition do...

Coastal wetlands are not only among the world’s most valued ecosystems but also among the most threatened by high greenhouse gas emissions that lead to accelerated sea level rise. There is intense debate regarding the extent to which landward migration of wetlands might compensate for seaward wetland losses....

The Lucerne Valley is in the southwestern part of the Mojave Desert and is about 75 miles northeast of Los Angeles, California. The Lucerne Valley groundwater basin encompasses about 230 square miles and is separated from the Upper Mojave Valley groundwater basin by splays of the Helendale Fault. Since its...

White sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus) are long-lived, late-maturing, benthic-feeding fish that are ideal candidates for assessing the bioaccumulation of persistent chemicals. In this study, composite tissue samples of brain, liver, gonad, and fillet were collected from white sturgeon in 2009 from five sites in the Hanford Reach of the Columbia...

In this study we examine the potential effects of three predicted sea level rise (SLR) scenarios on the nearshore eelgrass (Zostera marina L.) and surf smelt (Hypomesus pretiosus) spawning habitats along a beach on Bainbridge Island, Washington. Baseline bathymetric, geomorphological, and biological surveys were conducted to determine the existing...

Land cover maps are essential for characterizing the biophysical properties of the Earth’s land areas. Because land cover information synthesizes a rich array of information related to both the ecological condition of land areas and their exploitation by humans, they are widely used for basic and applied research that requires...

Microbial biofilms occur in all levels of the Critical Zone (CZ); they are on and in the vegetation, throughout the soil-saprolite zone, and along fractures in deep subsurface. Here we discuss biofilms in each level of the CZ with a focus in the soil-saprolite continuum. We show how scanning electron...

Compiling disparate datasets into publicly available composite databases helps natural resource communities explore ecological trends and effectively manage across spatiotemporal scales. Though some studies have reported on the database construction phase, fewer have evaluated the data acquisition and distribution process. To...

The range of 187Re/188Os values measured from samples of five organic-rich lacustrine mudstones units in the Eocene Green River Formation in the...

The need to balance economic development with impacts to Arctic wildlife has been a prominent subject since petroleum exploration began on the North Slope of Alaska, USA, in the late 1950s. The North Slope region includes polar bears (Ursus maritimus) of the southern Beaufort Sea subpopulation,...

An analysis of the potential for deposits of critical minerals and elements in Maine presented here includes data and discussions for antimony, beryllium, cesium, chromium, cobalt, graphite, lithium, manganese, niobium, platinum group elements, rhenium, rare earth elements, tin, tantalum, tellurium, titanium, uranium, vanadium, tungsten, and zirconium. Deposits are divided into...

Diamondback terrapins are small estuarine turtles that are vital to the health of salt marsh and mangrove habitats. Their populations have declined for over a century due to many factors including coastal development, nest predation, pet trade and drowning in crab traps. Without action, terrapin populations will continue to decline....

The effects of a warming climate will alter the hydrological cycles of arid southwestern U.S. reservoirs which primarily support agricultural needs, provide flood control, and generate hydroelectric power while secondarily supporting fish communities and sport fishing opportunities. The success of littoral spawning fishes depends on the timing and variability of...

The headwaters of the Snake River are in the mountains of northwestern Wyoming on lands primarily administered by the National Park Service and the Bridger-Teton National Forest. Streamflow from the Snake River Basin has been measured at some sites for more than 100 years. Water from this drainage basin is...

The RESTORE Council Monitoring and Assessment Program (CMAP), administered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), spatially and temporally inventoried programs in the Gulf of Mexico focused on water quality and habitat monitoring and mapping....

The RESTORE Council Monitoring and Assessment Program (CMAP), administered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), spatially and temporally inventoried programs in the Gulf of Mexico focused on water quality and habitat monitoring and mapping....

The RESTORE Council Monitoring and Assessment Program (CMAP), administered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), spatially and temporally inventoried programs in the Gulf of Mexico focused on water quality and habitat monitoring and mapping....

The RESTORE Council Monitoring and Assessment Program (CMAP), administered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), spatially and temporally inventoried programs in the Gulf of Mexico focused on water quality and habitat monitoring and mapping....

Accurate predictions of ecological restoration outcomes are needed across the increasingly large landscapes requiring treatment following disturbances. However, observational studies often fail to account for nonrandom treatment application, which can result in invalid inference. Examining a spatiotemporally extensive management treatment-- post-fire seeding of declining sagebrush shrubs across the semiarid U.S....

Many populated, tropical coastlines fronted by fringing coral reefs are exposed to wave-driven marine flooding that is exacerbated by sea-level rise. Most fringing coral reef are not alongshore uniform, but bisected by shore-normal channels; however, little is known about the influence of such channels on alongshore variations on runup and...