Rangewide occupancy of a flagship species, the Coastal California Gnatcatcher (Polioptila californica californica) in southern California: Habitat associations and recovery from wildfire
Barbara E. Kus, Kristine L. Preston, Alexandra Houston
2024, PLoS ONE (19)
The Coastal California Gnatcatcher (Polioptila californica californica), a federally threatened species, is a flagship species for regional conservation planning in southern California (USA). An inhabitant of coastal sage scrub vegetation, the gnatcatcher has declined in response to habitat loss and fragmentation, exacerbated by catastrophic wildfires. We...
Effect of water delivery and irrigation for riparian restoration in the Colorado River Delta, Mexico
Pamela L. Nagler, Ibrahima Sall, Martha Gomez-Sapiens, Karl W. Flessa, Armando Barreto-Muñoz, Kamel Didan
2024, Restoration Ecology
Along Mexico's arid Colorado River Delta, the riparian corridor lacks water due to a reduction in frequent flows, climate change, human infrastructure, and altered riparian landcover from disturbances to invasive species, fire, and high soil and water salinities, which have led to declines in riparian plant health in recent decades....
Isotopic evaluation of the National Water Model reveals missing agricultural irrigation contributions to streamflow across the western United States
Annie L. Putman, Patrick Cullen Longley, Morgan C. McDonnell, James E. Reddy, Michelle Patricia Katoski, Olivia L. Miller, J. Renee Brooks
2024, Hydrology and Earth Systems Science (28) 2895-2918
The National Water Model (NWM) provides critical analyses and projections of streamflow that support water management decisions. However, the NWM performs poorly in lower-elevation rivers of the western United States (US). The accuracy of the NWM depends on the fidelity of the model inputs and the representation and calibration of...
Coastal Science Navigator companion guide—Discover the U.S. Geological Survey coastal science products you need
Mira Anderberg, Sara Ernst
2024, Circular 1523
The Coastal Science Navigator is an online gateway to a wide variety of U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) coastal change hazards-related information, data, and tools relevant to stakeholders’ scientific and decision-making needs. The products within the Coastal Science Navigator provide data related to past, present, and future threats to our coastlines....
Nitrogen load estimates from six nonpoint sources on Long Island, New York, from 1900 to 2019
Jack Monti, Jr., Donald A. Walter, Kalle L. Jahn
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5047
Estimates of nitrogen loading from nonpoint sources on Long Island, New York, at or just below the land surface, are essential for assessing the current and future effects of nitrogen on the island’s drinking water and fresh and marine surface receiving waters. Annual estimates of nitrogen loading for the 120...
Analysis of water use associated with hydraulic fracturing and determination of baseline water quality in watersheds within the shale play of eastern Ohio, 2021–23
S. Alex Covert, G.F. Koltun
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5045
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, performed a two-part study to (1) assess water use and temporal trends and changes in streamflow, and to (2) characterize 2021–23 baseline water quality, as they relate to oil and gas extraction activities in selected eastern Ohio...
Invertebrate trophic structure on marine ferromanganese and phosphorite hardgrounds
Olivia S. Pereira, Devin Vlach, Angelica Bradley, Jennifer Gonzalez, Kira Mizell, Lisa A. Levin
2024, Limnology and Oceanography
The Southern California Borderland hosts a variety of geologic and oceanographic features that allow for diverse habitats to occur in a restricted region with a strong oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) and hard substrates. These include ferromanganese (FeMn) crusts and phosphorites targeted for deep-seabed mining...
Geospatial PDF map of the compilation of GIS data for the mineral industries and related infrastructure of Africa
Elizabeth R. Neustaedter, Ryan F. Kemna, Abraham J. Padilla, Donya Otarod
2024, Open-File Report 2024-1041
IntroductionIn 2021, the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) National Minerals Information Center (NMIC) completed the project titled "Compilation of geospatial data for the mineral industries and related infrastructure of Africa." This project aimed to leverage the expertise and capabilities of the NMIC to collect, synthesize, and interpret geospatial data to inform...
Water-quality trends in the Kansas River, Kansas, since enactment of the Clean Water Act, 1972–2020
Thomas J. Williams, Brian J. Klager, Tom C. Stiles
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5050
The Clean Water Act was passed by Congress in 1972 to regulate pollution within the waters of the United States. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE), the Kansas Water Office, the Nature Conservancy, the City of Lawrence, the City of...
Accelerating glacier volume loss on Juneau Icefield driven by hypsometry and melt-accelerating feedbacks
Bethan Davies, Robert McNabb, Jacob Bendle, Jonathan Carrivick, Jeremy Ely, Tom Holt, Bradley Markle, Christopher J. McNeil, Lindsey Nicholson, Mauri Pelto
2024, Nature Communications (15)
Globally, glaciers and icefields contribute significantly to sea level rise. Here we show that ice loss from Juneau Icefield, a plateau icefield in Alaska, accelerated after 2005 AD. Rates of area shrinkage were 5 times faster from 2015–2019 than from 1979–1990. Glacier volume loss remained fairly...
Pacific Lamprey responses to stressors: Dewatering and electrofishing
Theresa L. Liedtke, Lisa K. Weiland, Joe Skalicky, Julie Harris, Monica R. Blanchard, Ann B. Grote, Ann E. Gray, Brian K. Ekstrom
2024, Report
The Pacific Lamprey Conservation Initiative (PLCI) is a collaboration of Tribes, Federal, and State agencies working together to protect and restore Pacific Lamprey (Entosphenus tridentatus) and other native lampreys (i.e., Lampetra spp.) in Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California, and Idaho. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service hosts and facilitates the PLCI,...
Reduction of large vessel traffic improves water quality and alters fish habitat-use throughout a large river
Michael J. Spear, Brandon S. Harris, Taylor A. Bookout, Brian Ickes, Kathi Jo Jankowski, Levi E. Solomon, Kristopher A. Maxson, Andrya L. Whitten Harris, Andrew T. Mathis, Sam J. Schaick, Jesse A. Williams, Jason A. DeBoer, Allison W. Lenaerts, Eric C. Hine, John H. Chick, James T. Lamer
2024, Science of the Total Environment (946)
Rivers are increasingly used as superhighways for the continental-scale transportation of freight goods, but the ecological impact of large vessel traffic on river ecosystems is difficult to study. Recently, the temporary maintenance closure of lock and dam systems on the Illinois Waterway (USA) brought...
Side-scan sonar as a tool for measuring fish populations: Current state of the science and future directions
Josey Lee Ridgway, John A. Madsen, Jesse Robert Fischer, Robin Calfee, Matthew Ross Acre, David C. Kazyak
2024, Fisheries
Side-scan sonar (SSS) is a powerful tool that can be used to address many key questions in fisheries science. In principle, SSS uses dual transducers to transmit a narrow-beam, wide-angle acoustic signal as the survey vessel transits an area. The intensity of reflected sound is...
CoastSeg: An accessible and extendable hub for satellite-derived-shoreline (SDS) detection and mapping
Sharon Fitzpatrick, Daniel Buscombe, Jonathan Warrick, Mark Alan Lundine, Kilian Vos
2024, Journal of Open Source Software (9)
CoastSeg is an interactive browser-based program that aims to broaden the adoption of satellite-derived shoreline (SDS) detection and coastal landcover mapping workflows among coastal scientists and coastal resource management practitioners. SDS is a sub-field of coastal sciences that aims to detect and post-process a time-series of shoreline locations from publicly...
Use of Doppler velocity radars to monitor and predict debris and flood wave velocities and travel times in post-wildfire basins
John Fulton, Nicholas Graff Hall, Laura A. Hempel, J.J. Gourley, Mark F. Henneberg, Michael S. Kohn, William H. Farmer, William H. Asquith, Daniel Wasielewski, Andrew S. Stecklein, Amanullah Mommandi, Aziz Khan
2024, Journal of Hydrology X (24)
The magnitude and timing of extreme events such as debris and floodflows (collectively referred to as floodflows) in post-wildfire basins are difficult to measure and are even more difficult to predict. To address this challenge, a sensor ensemble consisting of noncontact, ground-based (near-field), Doppler velocity (velocity) and pulsed (stage...
Characterising, quantifying, and accessing eruption source parameters of explosive volcanic eruptions for operational simulation of tephra dispersion: A current view and future perspectives
Samantha Engwell, Larry G. Mastin, Contanza Bonadonna, Sara Barsotti, Natalia Irma Deligne, Bergrun A. Oladottir
2024, Bulletin of Volcanology (86)
Eruption source parameters (ESPs) are crucial for characterising volcanic eruptions and are essential inputs to numerical models used for hazard assessment. Key ESPs of explosive volcanic eruptions include plume height, mass eruption rate, eruption duration, and grain-size distribution. Some of these ESPs can be directly observed...
Reach-scale mapping of surface flow velocities from thermal images acquired by an uncrewed aircraft system along the Sacramento River, California, USA
Paul J. Kinzel, Carl J. Legleiter, Christopher L. Gazoorian
2024, Water (16)
An innovative payload containing a sensitive mid-wave infrared camera was flown on an uncrewed aircraft system (UAS) to acquire thermal imagery along a reach of the Sacramento River, California, USA. The imagery was used as input for an ensemble particle image velocimetry (PIV) algorithm to produce near-continuous maps of surface...
The National Ocean Biodiversity Strategy
Gabrielle Canonico, J. Emmett Duffy, Masha Edmonson, Katie Fillingham, Abigail Benson, Kelsey Bisson, Amanda Demopoulos, Beth Hinchey, Katsumi Matsumoto, Chris Meyer, James Price, Elaine Shen, Woody Turner, Mike Weise, Andrea Vander Woude, Lauren Wenzel
2024, Report
President Biden has been clear that the ocean is central to life on Earth. As he has proclaimed, “the ocean powers millions of jobs; feeds and sustains us; and is a rejuvenating source of inspiration, exploration, and recreation.” The Biden-Harris Administration has worked hard to fulfill the President’s goal to...
Coyote use of prairie dog colonies is most frequent in areas used by American badgers
Rebecca Windell, Larissa L. Bailey, Travis Livieri, David A. Eads, Dean E. Biggins, Stewart Breck
2024, Journal of Mammalogy
The consequences of intraguild predation on vulnerable subordinate species are an important consideration in the recovery of endangered species. In prairie ecosystems, coyotes (Canis latrans) are the primary predator of endangered black-footed ferrets (Mustela nigripes; hereafter, ferrets) and presumably compete for prairie dog (Cynomys spp.) prey. Coyote predation of ferrets...
Total phosphorus and suspended-sediment concentrations and loads from two main tributaries to Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon, 2014–20
Liam N. Schenk, Caelan Simeone
2024, Open-File Report 2024-1034
Total phosphorus (TP) and suspended-sediment concentrations (SSC) and loads were computed at two U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) streamgages in the upper Klamath River Basin on the Sprague (USGS site ID 11501000) and Williamson (USGS site ID 11502500) Rivers using high temporal resolution turbidity and streamflow data to develop surrogate regression...
Geographic principles applied to population dynamics: A spatially interpolated integrated population model
Brian G. Prochazka, Peter S. Coates, Shawn T. O'Neil, Shawn P. Espinosa, Cameron L. Aldridge
2024, Methods in Ecology and Evolution
A major impediment to wildlife conservation and management, from a quantitative perspective, is dealing with high degrees of uncertainty associated with population estimates. Integrated population models (IPMs) can help alleviate that challenge, but they are often limited to narrow spatial or temporal windows...
Metal release from manganese nodules in anoxic seawater and implications for deep-sea mining dewatering operations
Yang Xiang, Janelle M. Steffen, Phoebe J. Lam, Amy Gartman, Kira Mizell, Jessica N. Fitzsimmons
2024, ACS ES&T Water (4) 2957-2967
The potential mining of deep-sea polymetallic nodules has been gaining increasing attention due to their enrichment in metals essential for a low-carbon future. To date, there have been few scientific studies concerning the geochemical consequences of dewatered mining waste discharge into the pelagic water column, which...
Detection of periodic peaks in Karenia brevis concentration consistent with the time-delay logistic equation
Bruce E. Kurtz, James E. Landmeyer, James K. Culter
2024, Science of the Total Environment (946)
The logistic equation models single-species population growth with a sigmoid curve that begins as exponential and ends with an asymptotic approach to a final population determined by natural system carrying capacity. But the population of a natural system often does not stabilize as it approaches carrying capacity. Instead, it...
Boulders modulate hillslope-channel coupling in the northern Alaska Range
Adrian Bender, Richard O. Lease
2024, Geology
Active orogens balance tectonic rock uplift with erosion, commonly via river incision coupled to landslide denudation of “threshold” hillslopes, but sediment’s role in this feedback is unclear. We report fluvial geometry, and sediment size, prevalence, and mobility across two ≤600-m-tall gneissic northern Alaska...
Quantitative microbial risk assessment with microbial source tracking for mixed fecal sources contaminating recreational river waters, Iowa, USA
Tucker R. Burch, Joel P. Stokdyk, Aaron Firnstahl, Sarah Opelt, Rachel Cook, Joe Heffron, Amanda Brown, Claire E. Hruby, Mark A. Borchardt
2024, Environmental Science & Technology Water (4) 2789-2802
Fecal contamination of surface water can cause acute gastrointestinal illness (AGI) among recreators. AGI risk varies among human, livestock, and wildlife fecal sources, but the prevalence of individual sources is unknown for most recreational sites. We estimated AGI risk for six sites near Des Moines, Iowa,...
