Demographic and potential biological removal models identify raptor species sensitive to current and future wind energy
James E. Diffendorfer, Jessica C. Stanton, Julie A. Beston, Wayne E. Thogmartin, Scott R. Loss, Todd E. Katzner, Douglas H. Johnson, Richard A. Erickson, Matthew D. Merrill, Margo D. Corum
2022, Ecosphere (12)
A central challenge in applied ecology is understanding the effect of anthropogenic fatalities on wildlife populations and predicting which populations may be particularly vulnerable and in greatest need of management attention. We used 3 approaches to investigate potential effects of fatalities from collisions with wind turbines on 14 raptor species...
Material properties and triggering mechanisms of an andesitic lava dome collapse at Shiveluch Volcano, Kamchatka, Russia, revealed using the finite element method
Cory S Wallace, Lauren N. Schaefer, Marlène C. Villeneuve
2022, Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering (55) 2711-2728
Shiveluch volcano (Kamchatka, Russia) is an active andesitic volcano with a history of explosive activity, dome extrusion, and structural collapse during the Holocene. The most recent major (> 1 km3) dome collapse occurred in November 1964, producing a ~ 1.5 km3 debris avalanche that traveled over 15 km from the vent and triggered...
Genomic signatures of thermal adaptation are associated with clinal shifts of life history in a broadly distributed frog
Hugo Cayuela, Yann Dorant, Brenna R. Forester, Dan L Jeffries, Rebecca M. McCaffery, Lisa A Eby, Blake R. Hossack, Jérôme M W Gippet, David S. Pilliod, W Chris Funk
2022, Journal of Animal Ecology (91) 1222-1238
Temperature is a critical driver of ectotherm life-history strategies, whereby a warmer environment is associated with increased growth, reduced longevity and accelerated senescence. Increasing evidence indicates that thermal adaptation may underlie such life-history shifts in wild populations. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and copy number variants (CNVs) can help uncover...
Estimating the influence of oyster reef chains on freshwater detention at the estuary scale using Landsat-8 imagery
Alice Alonso, Natalie G. Nelson, Simeon Yurek, David Kaplan, Maitane Olabarrieta, Peter C Frederick
2022, Estuaries and Coasts (45) 1-16
Oyster reef chains grow in response to local hydrodynamics and can redirect flows, particularly when reef chains grow perpendicular to freshwater flow paths. Singularly, oyster reef chains can act as porous dams that may facilitate nearshore accumulation of fresh or low-salinity water, in turn creating intermediate...
A graphical causal model for resolving species identity effects and biodiversity–ecosystem function correlations: comment
James B. Grace, Michel Loreau, Bernhard Schmid
Brian D. Inouye, editor(s)
2022, Ecology (103)
In a recent paper, Schoolmaster, Zirbel, and Cronin (SZC) (2020) claim “Formal causal analysis show[s] that biodiversity–ecosystem function (BEF) correlations are non-causal associations.” If this conclusion is accepted as true, it suggests a reconsideration of much of our current understanding of how biodiversity relates to the functioning of ecosystems. On...
Cognitive and behavioral coping in response to wildlife disease: The case of hunters and chronic wasting disease
Susan A. Schroeder, Adam Landon, Louis J. Cornicelli, David C. Fulton, Leslie McInenly
2022, Human Dimensions of Wildlife (27) 251-272
The transactional model of stress and coping (TMSC) provides a conceptual framework for understanding adaptations to stressors like chronic wasting disease (CWD). Understanding hunter response to stressors is important because decreased participation and satisfaction can affect individual well-being, cultural traditions, agency revenue, and local economies. Using TMSC, we explored how...
Mechanisms controlling climate warming impact on the occurrence of hypoxia in Chesapeake Bay
Richard Tian, Carl Cerco, Gopal Bhatt, Lewis C. Linker, Gary W. Shenk
2022, Journal of the American Water Resources Association (58) 855-875
AClimate change represents an increasing stressor on estuarine and coastal ecosystems. A series of simulations were run using the Integrated Compartment Water Quality Model to determine the magnitude of various mechanisms controlling the effect of climate warming on dissolved oxygen (DO) in the Chesapeake Bay. The results suggested that the...
River floodplain abandonment and channel deepening coincide with the onset of clear-cut logging in a coastal California redwood forest
William A. L. Chapman, Noah J. Finnegan, Allison M. Pfeiffer, SeanPaul La Selle
2022, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms (47) 994-1012
Changes in both land use and climate can alter the balance of transport capacity and sediment supply in rivers. Hence, the primary driver of recent incision or aggradation in alluvial channels is often unclear. The San Lorenzo River on the central coast of California is one location where both climate...
Tungsten skarn potential of the Yukon-Tanana Upland, eastern Alaska, USA—A mineral resource assessment
George N.D. Case, Garth E. Graham, Erin E. Marsh, Ryan D. Taylor, Carlin J. Green, Philip J. Brown, Keith A. Labay
2022, Journal of Geochemical Exploration (232)
Tungsten (W) is used in a variety of industrial and technological applications and has been identified as a critical mineral for the United States, India, the European Union, and other countries. These countries rely on W imports mostly from China, which leaves them vulnerable to supply disruption. Consequently, the U.S. government has...
Diagenesis of Vera Rubin ridge, Gale crater, Mars from Mastcam multispectral images
Briony H. N. Horgan, Jeffrey R. Johnson, Abigail A. Fraeman, Melissa Rice, Christina Seeger, James F. Bell, Kristen A. Bennett, Edward A. Cloutis, Lauren A. Edgar, Jens Frydenvang, John P. Grotzinger, Jonas L’Haridon, Samantha Jacob, Nicolas Mangold, Elizabeth B. Rampe, Frances Rivera-Hernandez, Vivian Z. Sun, Lucy Thompson, Danika F. Wellington
2022, JGR Planets (125)
Images from the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission of lacustrine sedimentary rocks of Vera Rubin ridge on “Mt. Sharp” in Gale crater, Mars, have shown stark color variations from red to purple to gray. These color differences crosscut stratigraphy and are likely due to diagenetic alteration of the sediments after...
Why let the dogs out? Exploring variables associated with dog confinement and general characteristics of the free-ranging owned-dog population in a peri-urban area
Francisca Astorga, Daniela Alejandra Poo-Munoz, John F. Organ, Gonzalo Medina-Vogel
2022, Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science (25) 311-325
Free-ranging dogs (FRDs), are a problem in several countries, with impacts on humans, domestic animals, and wildlife, although increasing evidence suggests that most FRDs are owned. Therefore, understanding dog ownership on a fine scale is critical. The main objectives of this study were to explore dog...
Responses of the Carquinez, California suspension bridge during the MW6.0 South Napa earthquake of August 24, 2014
Mehmet Celebi, S. F. Ghahari, E. Taciroglu
2022, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the sixteenth World Conference on Earthquake Engineering
The behavior of the suspension bridge in Carquinez, CA, during the Mw6.0 24 August 2014 South Napa, CA earthquake is studied using data recorded by an extensive array of accelerometers. Modes, corresponding frequencies and damping are identified and compared with previous studies that used ambient data of the deck only...
Three-dimensional electrical resistivity characterization of Mountain Pass, California and surrounding region
Jared R. Peacock, Kevin Denton, David A. Ponce
2021, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems (22)
The Sulphide Queen carbonatite deposit at Mountain Pass in southeast California is a world class rare earth element (REE) resource. This study images electrical resistivity structure of the REE deposit and surrounding area to characterize resources under cover. An east-west elongated grid (35 × 15 km) of 65 wideband magnetotelluric stations spanning from...
Projected change in rangeland fractional component cover across the sagebrush biome under climate change through 2085
Matthew B. Rigge, Hua Shi, Kory Postma
2021, Ecosphere (12)
Climate change over the past century has altered vegetation community composition and species distributions across rangelands in the western United States. The scale and magnitude of climatic influences are unknown. While many studies have projected the effects of climate change using several modeling approaches, none has evaluated the impacts to...
Developing a set of indicators to identify, monitor, and track impacts and change in forests of the United States
Sarah M. Anderson, Linda S. Heath, Marla R. Emery, Jeffrey A. Hicke, Jeremy S. Littell, Alan Lucier, Jeffrey G. Masek, David L. Peterson, Richard Pouyat, Kevin M. Potter, Guy Robertson, Jinelle Sperry
2021, Climatic Change (165)
United States forestland is an important ecosystem type, land cover, land use, and economic resource that is facing several drivers of change including climatic. Because of its significance, forestland was identified through the National Climate Assessment (NCA) as a key sector and system of concern to...
Partial differential equation driven dynamic graph networks for predicting stream water temperature
Tianshu Bao, Xiaowei Jia, Jacob Aaron Zwart, Jeffrey Michael Sadler, Alison P. Appling, Samantha K. Oliver, Taylor T. Johnson
2021, Conference Paper, 2021 IEEE International Conference on Data Mining (ICDM)
This paper presents a physics-guided machine learning approach that incorporates partial differential equations (PDEs) in a graph neural network model to improve the prediction of water temperature in river networks. The standard graph neural network model often uses pre-defined edge weights based on distance or...
Fine-scale weather patterns drive reproductive success in the Brown Pelican
R.A. Streker, J.S. Lamb, J. Dindo, Patrick G.R. Jodice
2021, Waterbirds (44) 153-166
In the northern Gulf of Mexico, island restoration and creation have been used to mitigate potential negative effects of anthropogenic and environmental stressors to breeding seabirds. The long-term success of such projects can be enhanced when data are available to elucidate how site-specific and larger-scale factors may contribute to reproductive...
Process-based models and studies of coastal change to inform habitat restoration and climate change adaptation
Eric E. Grossman
2021, Conference Paper, The 2021 Puget Sound nearshore restoration summit proceedings
Puget Sound salmon and estuary recovery strategies identify tens of thousands of acres of floodplain and estuary habitat restoration needed to re-establish ecosystem functions lost or degraded from western land use (Simenstad et al., 2011); the extent for nearshore habitat remains uncertain. Sediment is critical for shaping the structure and...
Hydrogeologic framework, water levels, and selected contaminant concentrations at Valmont TCE Superfund Site, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, 2020
Lisa A. Senior, Alex R. Fiore, Philip H. Bird
2021, Open-File Report 2021-1093
The Valmont TCE Superfund Site, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania is underlain by fractured and folded sandstones and shales of the Pottsville and Mauch Chunk Formations, which form a fractured-rock aquifer recharged locally by precipitation. Industrial activities at the former Chromatex Plant resulted in trichloroethene (TCE) contamination of groundwater at and near...
The effect of changing sea ice on wave climate trends along Alaska's central Beaufort Sea coast
Cornelis M. Nederhoff, Li H. Erikson, Anita C Engelstad, Peter A. Bieniek, Jeremy L. Kasper
2021, The Cryosphere (16) 1609-1629
Diminishing sea ice is impacting the wave field across the Arctic region. Recent observation- and model-based studies highlight the spatiotemporal influence of sea ice on offshore wave climatologies, but effects within the nearshore region are still poorly described. This study characterizes the wave climate in the central Beaufort Sea coast...
Towards improving an Area of Concern: Main-channel habitat rehabilitation priorities for the Maumee River
Keith D. Shane, Melissa J. Oubre, Todd D. Crail, Jeffrey G. Miner, Christine M. Mayer, Taylor E. Sasak, Robin L. DeBruyne, Joshua Miller, Edward F. Roseman, William D. Hintz
2021, Journal of Great Lakes Research (47) 1429-1436
The Maumee River watershed in the Laurentian Great Lakes Basin has been impacted by decades of pollution and habitat modification due to human settlement and development. As such, the lower 35 km of the Maumee River and several smaller adjacent watersheds comprising...
Development and evaluation of habitat suitability criteria for native fishes in three Arizona streams
Zach C. Nemec, Larissa N. Lee, Scott A. Bonar
2021, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (41) 661-677
Habitat loss is a main contributor to fish fauna declines in the southwestern USA. Several studies have defined stream-specific habitat conditions that support the growth and survival of native fish in Arizona to inform stream restoration efforts, yet general habitat use of most individual species across the region is not...
Minimal stratigraphic evidence for coseismic coastal subsidence during 2000 yr of megathrust earthquakes at the central Cascadia subduction zone
Alan Nelson, Andrea D. Hawkes, Yuki Sawai, Ben P. Hotron, Robert C. Witter, Lee-Ann Bradley, Niamh Cahill
2021, Geosphere (Geological Society of America) (17) 171-200
Lithology and microfossil biostratigraphy beneath the marshes of a central Oregon estuary limit geophysical models of Cascadia megathrust rupture during successive earthquakes by ruling out >0.5 m of coseismic coastal subsidence for the past 2000 yr. Although the stratigraphy in cores and outcrops includes as many as 12 peat-mud contacts,...
Habitat associations of breeding conifer-associated birds in managed and regenerating forested stands
Brian W. Rolek, Daniel J. Harrison, Daniel W. Linden, Cyndy Loftin, Petra B. Wood
2021, Forest Ecology and Management (502) 1-15
Forests are often affected by management that could influence demographics of breeding and post-breeding birds that reside within. Numerous studies have focused on immediate effects from management on wildlife soon after forestry treatment (e.g., 0–5 years), however, fewer studies have examined changes in focal species abundance over longer durations as...
Fisheries research and monitoring activities of the Lake Erie Biological Station, 2021
Mark Richard Dufour, Corbin David Hilling, Kevin R. Keretz, Richard T. Kraus, Richard Cole Oldham, James Roberts, Joseph Schmitt
2021, Report
A comprehensive understanding of fish populations and their interactions is the cornerstone of modern fishery management and the basis for Lake Erie’s Fish Community Goals and Objectives (FCOs) developed in 2020 (Francis et al. 2020). The 2021 USGS Lake Erie Biological Station annual report is responsive to these FCOs and...
