Borehole analysis, single-well aquifer testing, and water quality for the Burnpit well, Mount Rushmore National Memorial, South Dakota
William G. Eldridge, Galen K. Hoogestraat, Steven E. Rice
2021, Scientific Investigations Report 2021-5059
Mount Rushmore National Memorial (hereafter referred to as “the memorial”), in western South Dakota, is maintained by the National Park Service (NPS) and includes 1,278 acres of land in the east-central part of the Black Hills. An ongoing challenge for NPS managers at the memorial is providing water from sustainable...
Metal accumulation varies with life history, size, and development of larval amphibians
Kelly L. Smalling, Emily Bea Oja, Danielle M. Cleveland, Jon D Davenport, Collin A. Eagles-Smith, Evan H. Campbell Grant, Patrick M. Kleeman, Brian J. Halstead, Kenzi M Stemp, Brian J. Tornabene, Zachary J Bunnell, Blake R. Hossack
2021, Environmental Pollution (287)
Amphibian larvae are commonly used as indicators of aquatic ecosystem health because they are susceptible to contaminants. However, there is limited information on how species characteristics and trophic position influence contaminant loads in larval amphibians. Importantly, there remains a...
Quantitative microbial risk assessment for contaminated private wells in the fractured dolomite aquifer of Kewaunee County, Wisconsin
Tucker R. Burch, Joel P. Stokdyk, Susan K. Spencer, Burney A Kieke, Aaron D. Firnstahl, Maureen A. Muldoon, Mark A. Borchardt
2021, Environmental Health Perspectives (129)
Background:Private wells are an important source of drinking water in Kewaunee County, Wisconsin. Due to the region’s fractured dolomite aquifer, these wells are vulnerable to contamination by human and zoonotic gastrointestinal pathogens originating from land-applied cattle manure and private septic systems.Objective:We determined the magnitude...
Probabilistic methodology for the assessment of original and recoverable coal resources, illustrated with an application to a coal bed in the Fort Union Formation, Wyoming
Ricardo A. Olea, Brian N. Shaffer, Jon E. Haacke, James A. Luppens
2021, Techniques and Methods 6-G1
Executive SummaryThe U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has been using its Circular 891 for evaluating uncertainty in coal resource assessments for more than 35 years. Calculated cell tonnages are assigned to four qualitative reliability classes depending exclusively on distance to the nearest drill hole. The main appeal of this methodology, simplicity,...
Grassland live fractional cover map creation and Geographic Information System (GIS) analysis for rangeland management supporting Kenya Northern Rangelands Trust Conservancies
Amina Rangoonwala, Elijah Ramsey III
2021, Open-File Report 2021-1001
The handbooks and synchronized MP4 recordings provide hands-on instruction for creating and analyzing vegetation live fractional cover (LFC) maps. The methods and protocols used in the instruction materials follow those developed and recorded in Rangoonwala and Ramsey (2019). The LFC mapping and geographic information system (GIS) analyses highlight the consortium...
Water-level data for the Albuquerque Basin and adjacent areas, central New Mexico, period of record through September 30, 2020
Elaiya R. Jurney, Meghan T. Bell
2021, Data Series 1139
The Albuquerque Basin, located in central New Mexico, is about 100 miles long and 25–40 miles wide. The basin is hydrologically defined as the extent of consolidated and unconsolidated deposits of Tertiary and Quaternary age that encompasses the structural Rio Grande Rift between San Acacia to the south and Cochiti...
Hyperspectral narrowband data propel gigantic leap in the earth remote sensing
Prasad Thenkabail, Itiya P. Aneece, Pardhasaradhi Teluguntla, Adam Oliphant
2021, Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing. (77) 461-467
Hyperspectral narrowbands (HNBs) capture data as nearly continuous “spectral signatures” rather than a “few spectral data points” along the electromagnetic spectrum as with multispectral broadbands (MBBs). Almost all of satellite remote sensing of the Earth in the twentieth century was conducted using MBB data from sensors such as the Landsat-series, Advanced...
Reconstruction of an extreme flood hydrograph and morphodynamics of a meander bend in a high-peak discharge variability river (Powder River, USA)
Massimiliano Ghinassi, John A. Moody
2021, Sedimentology (68) 3549-3576
Understanding of morphodynamic processes associated with large-scale floods has recently improved following significant advances of modern technologies. Nevertheless, a clear link between flood discharge and in-channel sedimentation processes remains to be resolved. The hydrological and geomorphological data available for the meandering Powder River (Montana, USA) since...
Trait heritability and its implications for the management of an invasive vertebrate
Brenna A Levine, Marlis R Douglas, Amy A. Yackel Adams, Bjorn Lardner, Robert Reed, Julie A. Savidge, Michael E Douglas
2021, Biological Invasions (23) 3447-3456
Control methods that target specific traits of an invasive species can produce results contrary to the aims of management. If targeted phenotypes exhibit heritability, then it follows that the invasive species could evolve greater resistance to the applied control measures over time. Additional complications emerge if those traits targeted by...
Surficial geology of the northern San Luis Valley, Saguache, Fremont, Custer, Alamosa, Rio Grande, Conejos, and Costilla Counties, Colorado
Chester A. Ruleman, Theodore R. Brandt
2021, Scientific Investigations Map 3475
The San Luis Valley and associated underlying basin of south-central Colorado and north-central New Mexico is the largest structural and hydrologic basin of the Rio Grande Rift and fluvial system. The surrounding San Juan and Sangre de Cristo Mountains reveal evidence of widespread volcanism and transtensional tectonism beginning in...
Visualizing proximity of non-native species to protected areas of the United States—A proximity visualization tool for BISON
Travis J. Harrison, Enrika Hlavacek, Jennifer Dieck
2021, Fact Sheet 2021-3027
The Proximity Visualization Tool is a simple lightweight tool that can be placed on web pages that allows users to identify non-native species near Department of Interior lands. The tool works by accessing the more than 400 million species occurrence records in the Biodiversity Information Serving Our Nation (BISON) database...
Identification of bacteria in groundwater used for domestic supply in the southeast San Joaquin Valley, California, 2014
Carmen A. Burton, Christine J. Lawrence
2021, Scientific Investigations Report 2021-5030
Groundwater is an important source of drinking water in California. Water-borne diseases caused by microbial contamination are a growing concern. The MI test, a membrane filtration method for the chromogenic/fluorogenic detection of total coliforms and Escherichia coli, was used for samples collected January to April 2014 from 42 domestic wells...
Survey of fish assemblages in the upper Neversink River and upper Rondout Creek, New York, 2017–19
Dylan R. Winterhalter, Scott D. George, Barry P. Baldigo
2021, Data Series 1137
Streams in the Catskill Mountains region of New York provide many important ecological and economic services, including recreational angling and serving as a drinking water supply to New York City. Many streams in this region were adversely affected by acid deposition during the late 20th century, impairing water quality and...
As the prey thickens: Rainbow trout select prey based upon width not length
Michael J. Dodrill, Charles B. Yackulic, Theodore Kennedy, Michael D. Yard, Josh Korman
2021, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (78) 809-819
Drift-feeding fish are typically considered size-selective predators. Yet, few studies have explicitly tested which aspect of prey “size” best explains size selection by drift-foraging fish. Here, we develop a Bayesian discrete choice model to evaluate how attributes of both prey and predator simultaneously influence size-selective foraging. We apply the model...
The North American Breeding Bird Survey in Mexico, 2008 to 2018—A status report
Water Resources Division, U.S. Geological Survey, Mexican National Commission for the Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity
2021, Circular 1479
Collection of avian population data has repeatedly been identified as a high priority for bird conservation in Mexico. To meet this need, in 2008 the North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS), a volunteer-based survey, was expanded to include northern Mexico. The BBS in Mexico (Mexican BBS) is managed by the...
Resilience to fire and resistance to annual grass invasion in sagebrush ecosystems of US National Parks
Thomas Rodhouse, Jeffrey Lonneker, Lisa Bowersock, Diana Popp, Jamela Thompson, Gordon Dicus, Kathryn M. Irvine
2021, Global Ecology and Conservation (28)
Western North American sagebrush shrublands and steppe face accelerating risks from fire-driven feedback loops that transition these ecosystems into self-reinforcing states dominated by invasive annual grasses. In response, sagebrush conservation decision-making is increasingly done through the lens of resilience to fire and annual grass invasion resistance. Operationalizing...
Monitoring abundance of aggregated animals (Florida manatees) using an unmanned aerial system (UAS)
Holly H Edwards, Jeffrey A. Hostetler, Bradley M Stith, Julien Martin
2021, Scientific Reports (11)
Imperfect detection is an important problem when counting wildlife, but new technologies such as unmanned aerial systems (UAS) can help overcome this obstacle. We used data collected by a UAS and a Bayesian closed capture-mark-recapture model to estimate abundance and distribution while accounting for imperfect detection...
Magnetic surveys with unmanned aerial systems: Software for assessing and comparing the accuracy of different sensor systems, suspension designs and compensation methods
Leon Kaub, Gordon Keller, Claire Bouligand, Jonathan M.G. Glen
2021, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems (G-Cubed) (22)
A typical problem for magnetic surveys with small Unmanned Aerial Systems (sUAS) is the heading error caused by undesired magnetic signals that originate from the aircraft. This can be addressed by suspending the magnetometers on sufficiently long tethers. However, tethered payloads require skilled pilots and are difficult...
Interacting effects of density-dependent and density-independent factors on growth rates in southwestern Cutthroat Trout populations
Brock M. Huntsman, Abigail Lynch, Colleen A. Caldwell
2021, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (150) 651-664
Density-dependent (DD) and density-independent (DI) effects play an important role in shaping fish growth rates, an attribute that correlates with many life history traits in fishes. Consequently, understanding the extent to which DD and DI effects influence growth rates is valuable for fisheries assessments because it can inform managers about...
Comparison of historical water temperature measurements with landsat analysis ready data provisional surface temperature estimates for the Yukon River in Alaska
Carson Baughman, Jeff Conaway
2021, Remote Sensing (13)
Water temperature is a key element of freshwater ecological systems and a critical element within natural resource monitoring programs. In the absence of in situ measurements, remote sensing platforms can indirectly measure water temperature over time and space. The Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center has processed archived Landsat...
Sediment transport, turbidity, and dissolved oxygen responses to annual streambed drawdowns for downstream fish passage in a flood control reservoir
Liam N. Schenk, Heather M. Bragg
2021, Journal of Environmental Management (295)
Sediment transport, turbidity, and dissolved oxygen were evaluated during six consecutive water years (2013–2018) of drawdowns of a flood control reservoir in the upper Willamette Valley, Oregon, USA. The drawdowns were conducted to allow volitional passage of endangered juvenile chinook salmon through the dam's regulating outlets by lowering the reservoir elevation...
New geochemical tools for investigating resource and energy functions at deep-sea cold seeps using amino-acid δ15N in chemosymbiotic mussels (Bathymodiolus childressi)
Natasha Vokhshoori, Matt McCarthy, Hilary Close, Amanda Demopoulos, Nancy G. Prouty
2021, Geobiology (19) 601-617
In order to reconstruct the ecosystem structure of chemosynthetic environments in the fossil record, geochemical proxies must be developed. Here, we present a suite of novel compound-specific isotope parameters for tracing chemosynthetic production with a focus on understanding nitrogen dynamics in deep-sea cold seep environments. We examined the chemosymbiotic bivalve Bathymodiolus...
Nutrient limitation of algae and macrophytes in streams: Integrating laboratory bioassays, field experiments, and field data
Christopher A. Mebane, Andrew M. Ray, Amy M Marcarelli
2021, PLoS ONE (16)
Successful eutrophication control strategies need to address the limiting nutrient. We conducted a battery of laboratory and in situ nutrient-limitation tests with waters collected from 9 streams in an agricultural region of the upper Snake River basin, Idaho, USA. Laboratory tests used the green alga Raphidocelis subcapitata, the macrophyte Lemna minor (duckweed) with...
When hazard avoidance is not an option: Lessons learned from monitoring the postdisaster Oso landslide, USA
Mark E. Reid, Jonathan W. Godt, Richard G LaHusen, Stephen L Slaughter, Thomas C. Badger, Brian D. Collins, William H. Schulz, Rex L. Baum, Jeffrey A. Coe, Edwin L Harp, Kevin M. Schmidt, Richard M. Iverson, Joel B. Smith, Ralph A. Haugerud, David L. George
2021, Landslides (18) 2993-3009
On 22 March 2014, a massive, catastrophic landslide occurred near Oso, Washington, USA, sweeping more than 1 km across the adjacent valley flats and killing 43 people. For the following 5 weeks, hundreds of workers engaged in an exhaustive search, rescue, and recovery effort directly in...
Regional occurrence of aqueous tungsten and relations with antimony, arsenic and molybdenum concentrations (Sardinia, Italy)
Rosa Cidu, Riccardo Biddau, Franco Frau, Richard B. Wanty, Stefano Naitza
2021, Journal of Geochemical Exploration (229)
Tungsten (W) is rarely found in natural waters, yet it can be introduced into the food chain and cause potentially toxic effects. Uptake of W by plants and vegetables, or trace presence of W in drinking water are...
