The PLUM earthquake early warning algorithm: A retrospective case study of West Coast, USA, data
Debi Kilb, Julian J Bunn, Jessie Kate Saunders, Elizabeth S. Cochran, Sarah E. Minson, Annemarie S. Baltay Sundstrom, Colin T O’Rourke, Mitsuyuki Hoshiba, Yuki Kodera
2021, JGR Solid Earth (126)
The PLUM (Propagation of Local Undamped Motion) earthquake early warning (EEW) algorithm differs from typical source-based EEW algorithms as it predicts shaking directly from observed shaking without first deriving earthquake source information (e.g., magnitude and epicenter). Here, we determine optimal PLUM event detection thresholds for U.S. West Coast earthquakes using...
Caution is warranted when using animal space-use and movement to infer behavioral states
Frances E. Buderman, Tess M. Gingery, Duane R. Diefenbach, Laura C. Gigliotti, Danielle Begley-Miller, Marc E. McDill, Bret D. Wallingford, Christopher S. Rosenberry, Patrick J. Drohan
2021, Movement Ecology (9)
BackgroundIdentifying the behavioral state for wild animals that can’t be directly observed is of growing interest to the ecological community. Advances in telemetry technology and statistical methodologies allow researchers to use space-use and movement metrics to infer the underlying, latent, behavioral state of an animal without direct observations....
Diet composition and body condition of polar bears (Ursus maritimus) in relation to sea ice habitat in the Canadian High Arctic
Katie R. N. Florko, Gregory W. Thiemann, Jeffrey F. Bromaghin, Evan S. Richardson
2021, Polar Biology (44) 1445-1456
Polar bears (Ursus maritimus) rely on sea ice for hunting marine mammal prey. Declining sea ice conditions associated with climate warming have negatively affected polar bears, especially in the southern portion of their range. At higher latitudes, the transition from multi-year ice to thinner annual ice...
Assessment of streamflow and water quality in the Upper Yampa River Basin, Colorado, 1992–2018
Natalie K. Day
2021, Scientific Investigations Report 2021-5016
The Upper Yampa River Basin drains approximately 2,100 square miles west of the Continental Divide in north-western Colorado. There is a growing need to understand potential changes in the quantity and quality of water resources as the basin is undergoing increasing land and water development to support growing municipal, industrial,...
Estimating Piacenzian sea surface temperature using an alkenone-calibrated transfer function
Harry J. Dowsett, Marci M. Robinson, Kevin M. Foley
2021, Scientific Investigations Report 2021-5051
Stationarity of environmental preferences is a primary assumption required for any paleoenvironmental reconstruction using fossil materials based upon calibration to modern organisms. Confidence in this assumption decreases the further back in time one goes, and the validity of the assumption that species temperature tolerances have not changed over time has...
Lateral shoreline erosion and shore-proximal sediment deposition on a coastal marsh from seasonal, storm and decadal measurements
Kathryn E.L. Smith, Joseph F. Terrano, Nicole S. Khan, Christopher G. Smith, Jonathan L Pitchford
2021, Geomorphology (389)
The persistence of coastal marsh is dependent on its ability to maintain elevation relative to sea level, particularly for marshes experiencing high rates of shoreline erosion due to wave-attack, storms, and sea level rise. Sediments eroded at the marsh edge are either delivered onto the marsh platform or into the estuary, the latter resulting...
Evaluation of remote mapping techniques for earthquake-triggered landslide inventories in an urban subarctic environment: A case study of the 2018 Anchorage, Alaska Earthquake
Sabrina N. Martinez, Lauren N. Schaefer, Kate E. Allstadt, Eric M. Thompson
2021, Frontiers Earth Science Journal (9)
Earthquake-induced landslide inventories can be generated using field observations but doing so can be challenging if the affected landscape is large or inaccessible after an earthquake. Remote sensing data can be used to help overcome these limitations. The effectiveness of remotely sensed data to produce landslide inventories, however,...
Magnitude and frequency of floods in the alluvial plain of the lower Mississippi River, 2017
Brandon T. Anderson
2021, Scientific Investigations Report 2021-5046
Annual exceedance probability flows at gaged locations and regional regression equations used to estimate annual exceedance probability flows at ungaged locations were developed by the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Mississippi Department of Transportation, to improve flood-frequency estimates at rural streams in the alluvial plain of the lower...
A near-real-time model for estimating probability of road obstruction due to earthquake-triggered landslides
B.H. Wilson, Kate E. Allstadt, Eric M. Thompson
2021, Earthquake Spectra (37) 2400-2418
Coseismic landslides are a major source of transportation disruption in mountainous areas, but few approaches exist for rapidly estimating impacts to road networks. We develop a model that links the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) near-real-time earthquake-triggered landslide hazard model with Open Street Map (OSM) road network data...
Trophic niches of native and nonnative fishes along a river-reservoir continuum
Casey A. Pennock, Zachary T. Ahrens, Mark McKinstry, Phaedra E. Budy, Keith B. Gido
2021, Scientific Reports (11) 1-12
Instream barriers can constrain dispersal of nonnative fishes, creating opportunities to test their impact on native communities above and below these barriers. Deposition of sediments in a river inflow to Lake Powell, USA resulted in creation of a large waterfall prohibiting upstream movement of fishes from the reservoir allowing us...
Biotic vs abiotic controls on temporal sensitivity of primary production to precipitation across North American drylands
Andrew J Felton, Robert K Shriver, John B. Bradford, Katharine N. Suding, Brady W Allred, Peter B. Adler
2021, New Phytologist (231) 2150-2161
Dryland net primary productivity (NPP) is sensitive to temporal variation in precipitation (PPT), but the magnitude of this ‘temporal sensitivity’ varies spatially. Hypotheses for spatial variation in temporal sensitivity have often emphasized abiotic factors, such as moisture limitation, while overlooking biotic factors, such as vegetation structure.We tested these hypotheses...
Beyond streamflow: Call for a national data repository of streamflow presence for streams and rivers in the United States
Kristin L. Jaeger, Konrad Hafen, Jason B. Dunham, Ken M. Fritz, Stephanie K. Kampf, Theodore B. Barnhart, Kendra E. Kaiser, Roy Sando, Sherri L Johnson, Ryan R. McShane, Sarah Beth Dunn
2021, Water (12)
Observations of the presence or absence of surface water in streams are useful for characterizing streamflow permanence, which includes the frequency, duration, and spatial extent of surface flow in streams and rivers. Such data are particularly valuable for headwater streams, which comprise the vast majority of channel length in stream...
Cape Romain partnership for coastal protection
Mitchell J. Eaton, Fred A. Johnson, Jessica Mikels-Carrasco, David J. Case, Julien Martin, Bradley Stith, Simeon Yurek, Bradley Udell, Laura Villegas, Laura Taylor, Zulquarnain Haider, Hadi Charkhgard, Changhyun Kwon
2021, Open-File Report 2021-1021
This final report summarizes activities, outcomes, and lessons learned from a 3-year project titled “Climate Change Adaptation for Coastal National Wildlife Refuges” with the Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) and local partners in the surrounding South Carolina Lowcountry. The Lowcountry is classified as the 10-county area encompassing the coastal...
Fluvial Egg Drift Simulator (FluEgg) user’s manual
Marian M. Domanski, Jessica Z. LeRoy, Michael Berutti, P. Ryan Jackson
2021, Open-File Report 2021-1052
The Fluvial Egg Drift Simulator (FluEgg) was developed to simulate the transport and dispersion of invasive carp eggs and larvae in a river. FluEgg currently (2020) supports modeling of bighead carp (Hypophthalmichthys nobilis), silver carp (H. molitrix), and grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella), with the planned addition of black carp (Mylopharyngodon...
Navigating the science-policy interface
Michael C. Runge
Donald Baur, Ya-Wei Li, editor(s)
2021, Book chapter, Endangered species act: Law, policy, and perspectives
As a wildlife population ecologist who wants to conduct useful science, I find the Endangered Species Act (ESA), like other federal wildlife statutes, an intriguing read. The topic is in my wheelhouse—fish, wildlife, and plants, with a focus at the population and species levels. There is an emphasis on...
Changes in the abundance and distribution of waterfowl wintering in the Central Valley of California, 1973–2000
Joseph P. Fleskes, Michael L. Casazza, Cory T. Overton, Elliott Matchett, Julie L. Yee
2021, Studies of Western Birds (3) 50-74
The Central Valley of California is one of the most important areas for wintering waterfowl in the world and the focus of extensive conservation efforts to mitigate for historical losses and counter continuing stressors to habitats. To guide conservation, we analyzed trends in the abundance and distribution (spatiotemporal abundance patterns)...
Detailed traveltime tomography and seismic catalog around the 2019 Mw7.1 Ridgecrest, California, earthquake using dense rapid-response seismic data
Malcolm White, Hongjian Fang, Rufus D. Catchings, Mark Goldman, Jamison Haase Steidl, Yehuda Ben-Zion
2021, Geophysical Journal International (227) 204-227
We derive a detailed earthquake catalogue and Vp, Vs and Vp/Vs models for the region around the 2019 Mw 6.4 and Mw7.1 Ridgecrest, California, earthquake sequence using data recorded by rapid-response, densely deployed sensors following the Ridgecrest main shock and the regional network. The new catalogue spans a 4-month period, starting on 1 June 2019, and it includes...
System characterization report on the WorldView-3 Imager
Simon J. Cantrell, Jon Christopherson, Cody Anderson, Gregory L. Stensaas, Shankar N. Ramaseri Chandra, Minsu Kim, Seonkyung Park
2021, Open-File Report 2021-1030-I
Executive SummaryThis report addresses system characterization of the Maxar WorldView-3 satellite and is part of a series of system characterization reports produced and delivered by the U.S. Geological Survey Earth Resources Observation and Science Cal/Val Center of Excellence in 2020. These reports present and detail the methodology and procedures for...
System characterization report on the Gaofen-1
Mahesh Shrestha, Aparajithan Sampath, Shankar N. Ramaseri Chandra, Jon Christopherson, Jerad Shaw, Gregory L. Stensaas, Cody Anderson
2021, Open-File Report 2021-1030-B
Executive SummaryThis report addresses system characterization of Gaofen-1 and is part of a series of system characterization reports produced and delivered by the U.S. Geological Survey Earth Resources Observation and Science Cal/Val Center of Excellence in 2020. These reports present the detail methodology and procedures for characterization; present technical and...
System characterization report on the German Aerospace Center (DLR) Earth Sensing Imaging Spectrometer (DESIS)
Mahesh Shrestha, Aparajithan Sampath, Shankar N. Ramaseri Chandra, Jon Christopherson, Jerad Shaw, Cody Anderson
2021, Open-File Report 2021-1030-A
Executive SummaryThis report addresses system characterization of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) Earth Sensing Imaging Spectrometer (DESIS) and is part of a series of system characterization reports produced and delivered by the U.S. Geological Survey Earth Resources Observation and Science Cal/Val Center of Excellence. These reports present the methodology and...
Harvest as a tool to manage populations of undesirable or overabundant fish and wildlife
Craig P. Paukert, Elisabeth B. Webb, Drew N. Fowler, Corbin D. Hilling
2021, Book chapter, Harvest of fish and wildlife: New paradigms for sustainable management
Harvest is a common management tool for fish and game species and can also be used for overabundant populations when stakeholders want to reduce populations reduced and still provide recreational opportunities. The authors propose a framework to determine if harvest can be used to control populations when overabundance is an...
Recent carbon storage and burial exceed historic rates in the San Juan Bay estuary peri-urban mangrove forests (Puerto Rico, United States)
Cathleen Wigand, Meagan J. Eagle, Benjamin Branoff, Stephen Balogh, Kenneth Miller, Rose M. Martin, Alana Hanson, Autumn Oczkowski, Evelyn Huertas, Joseph Loffredo, Elizabeth Watson
2021, Frontiers in Forests and Global Change (4)
Mangroves sequester significant quantities of organic carbon (C) because of high rates of burial in the soil and storage in biomass. We estimated mangrove forest C storage and accumulation rates in aboveground and belowground components among five sites along an urbanization gradient in the San Juan Bay Estuary, Puerto Rico....
The limitations of external measurements for aging small mammals: The cautionary example of the Lesser Treeshrew (Scandentia: Tupaiidae: Tupaia minor Günther, 1876)
Neal Woodman, Ananth Miller-Murthy, Link E. Olson, Eric J. Sargis
2021, Journal of Mammalogy (102)
Age is a basic demographic characteristic vital to studies of mammalian social organization, population dynamics, and behavior. To eliminate potentially confounding ontogenetic variation, morphological comparisons among populations of mammals typically are limited to mature individuals (i.e., those assumed to have ceased most somatic growth). In our morphometric studies of treeshrews...
Fire, land cover, and temperature drivers of bat activity in winter
Marcelo H. Jorge, Sara E. Sweeten, Michael C. TRUE, Samuel R. Freeze, Michael J. Cherry, Elina P. Garrison, W. Mark Ford
2021, Fire Ecology (17)
BackgroundUnderstanding the effects of disturbance events, land cover, and weather on wildlife activity is fundamental to wildlife management. Currently, in North America, bats are of high conservation concern due to white-nose syndrome and wind-energy development impact, but the role of fire as a potential additional stressor has received...
A hidden Markov model for estimating age-specific survival when age and size are uncertain
Timothy A. Gowan, Michael D. Tringali, Jeffrey A. Hostetler, Julien Martin, Leslie I. Ward-Geiger, Jennifer M Johnson
2021, Ecology (102)
Estimates of age-specific survival probabilities are needed for age-structured population models and to inform conservation decisions. However, determining the age of individuals in wildlife populations is often problematic. We present a hidden Markov model for estimating age-specific survival from capture–recapture or capture–recapture–recovery data when age is...
