Clutch may predict growth of hatchling Burmese pythons better than food availability or sex
Jillian Maureen Josimovich, Bryan G. Falk, Alejandro Grajal-Puche, Emma B. Hanslowe, Ian A. Bartoszek, Robert Reed, Andrea Faye Currylow
2021, Biology Open (10)
Identifying which environmental and genetic factors affect growth pattern phenotypes can help biologists predict how organisms distribute finite energy resources in response to varying environmental conditions and physiological states. This information may be useful for monitoring and managing populations of cryptic, endangered, and invasive species. Consequently, we assessed the effects...
Impacts of a non-indigenous ecosystem engineer, the American beaver (Castor canadensis), in a biodiversity hotspot
Jonathan Q. Richmond, Camm C. Swift, Thomas A. Wake, Cheryl S. Brehme, Kristine L. Preston, Barbara E. Kus, Edward L Ervin, Scott Tremor, Tritia Matsuda, Robert N. Fisher
Anthony J. Giordano, editor(s)
2021, Frontiers in Conservation Science (2) 1-14
Non-native species having high per capita impacts in invaded communities are those that modulate resource availability and alter disturbance regimes in ways that are biologically incompatible with the native biota. In areas where it has been introduced by humans, American beaver (Castor canadensis) is an iconic example of such species...
Multi-model comparison of computed debris flow runout for the 9 January 2018 Montecito, California post-wildfire event
Katherine R. Barnhart, Ryan P. Jones, David L. George, Brian W. McArdell, Francis K. Rengers, Dennis M. Staley, Jason W. Kean
2021, Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface (126)
Hazard assessment for post-wildfire debris flows, which are common in the steep terrain of the western United States, has focused on the susceptibility of upstream basins to generate debris flows. However, reducing public exposure to this hazard also requires an assessment of hazards in downstream areas that...
Depth of groundwater used for drinking-water supplies in the United States
James R. Degnan, Leon J. Kauffman, Melinda L. Erickson, Kenneth Belitz, Paul E. Stackelberg
2021, Scientific Investigations Report 2021-5069
Groundwater supplies 35 percent of drinking water in the United States. Mapping the quantity and quality of groundwater at the depths used for potable supplies requires an understanding of locational variation in the characteristics of drinking-water wells (depth and open interval). Typical depths of domestic- and public-drinking-water supply wells...
Growing as slow as a turtle: Unexpected maturational differences in a small, long-lived species
Devin Edmonds, Michael J. Dreslik, Jeffrey E. Lovich, Thomas P. Wilson, Carl H. Ernst
2021, PLoS ONE (16)
Turtle body size is associated with demographic and other traits like mating success, reproductive output, maturity, and survival. As such, growth analyses are valuable for testing life history theory, demographic modeling, and conservation planning. Two important but unsettled research areas relate to growth after maturity and...
Climatic controls on soil carbon accumulation and loss in a dryland ecosystems
Bonnie G. Waring, Kenneth R Smith, Edmund E. Grote, Armin J. Howell, Robin H. Reibold, Colin L Tucker, Sasha C. Reed
2021, Journal of Geophysical Research (126)
Arid and semiarid ecosystems drive year-to-year variability in the strength of the terrestrial carbon (C) sink, yet there is uncertainty about how soil C gains and losses contribute to this variation. To address this knowledge gap, we embedded C-depleted soil mesocosms, containing litter or biocrust C inputs, within an in...
Documentation and mapping of flooding from the January and March 2018 nor’easters in coastal New England
Pamela J. Lombard, Scott A. Olson, Luke P. Sturtevant, Rena D. Kalmon
2021, Scientific Investigations Report 2021-5109
In January and March 2018, coastal Massachusetts experienced flooding from two separate nor’easters. To put the January and March floods into historical context, the USGS computed statistical stillwater elevations. Stillwater elevations recorded in January 2018 in Boston (9.66 feet relative to the North American Vertical Datum of 1988) have an...
Responding to ecological transformation: Mental models, external constraints, and manager decision-making
Katherine R. Clifford, Amanda E. Cravens, Corrine N. Knapp
2021, BioScience (72) 57-70
Ecological transformation creates many challenges for public natural resource management and requires managers to grapple with new relationships to change and new ways to manage it. In the context of unfamiliar trajectories of ecological change, a manager can resist, accept, or direct change, choices that make up the resist-accept-direct...
Accounting for fine-scale forest structure is necessary to model snowpack mass and energy budgets in montane forests
Patrick D. Broxton, C. David Moeser, Adrian Harpold
2021, Water Resources Research (57)
Accurately modeling the effects of variable forest structure and change on snow distribution and persistence is critical to water resource management. The resolution of many snow models is too coarse to represent heterogeneous canopy structure in forests, and therefore, most models simplify forest effects on snowpack mass...
Cyanobacteria, cyanotoxin synthetase gene, and cyanotoxin occurrence among selected large river sites of the conterminous United States, 2017–18
Robert E. Zuellig, Jennifer L. Graham, Erin A. Stelzer, Keith A. Loftin, Barry H. Rosen
2021, Scientific Investigations Report 2021-5121
The U.S. Geological Survey measured cyanobacteria, cyanotoxin synthetase genes, and cyanotoxins at 11 river sites throughout the conterminous United States in a multiyear pilot study during 2017–19 through the National Water Quality Assessment Project to better understand the occurrence of cyanobacteria and cyanotoxins in large inland and coastal rivers. This...
Space-for-time is not necessarily a substitution when monitoring the distribution of pelagic fishes in the San Francisco Bay-Delta
Adam Duarte, James T. Peterson
2021, Ecology and Evolution (11) 16727-16744
Occupancy models are often used to analyze long-term monitoring data to better understand how and why species redistribute across dynamic landscapes while accounting for incomplete capture. However, this approach requires replicate detection/non-detection data at a sample unit and many long-term monitoring programs lack temporal replicate surveys. In such cases, it...
Update of the groundwater flow model for the Great Miami buried-valley aquifer in the vicinity of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio
Alexander D. Riddle
2021, Scientific Investigations Report 2021-5115
A previously constructed numerical model simulating the regional groundwater flow system in the vicinity of the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio, was updated to incorporate current hydrologic stresses and conditions and improve the usefulness of the model for water-supply planning and protection. The original model, which simulated conditions...
Long-term variation in polar bear body condition and maternal investment relative to a changing environment
Todd C. Atwood, Karyn D. Rode, David C. Douglas, Kristin S. Simac, Anthony Pagano, Jeffrey F. Bromaghin
2021, Global Ecology and Conservation (32)
In the Arctic, warming air and ocean temperatures have resulted in substantial changes to sea ice, which is primary habitat for polar bears (Ursus maritimus). Reductions in extent, duration, and thickness have altered sea ice dynamics, which influences the ability of polar bears...
Are drought indices and climate data good indicators of ecologically relevant soil moisture dynamics in drylands?
David Barnard, Matthew J. Germino, John B. Bradford, Rory O’Connor, Caitlin M. Andrews, Robert K Shriver
2021, Ecological Indicators (133)
Droughts are disproportionately impacting global dryland regions where ecosystem health and function are tightly coupled to moisture availability. Drought severity is commonly estimated using algorithms such as the standardized precipitation-evapotranspiration index (SPEI), which can estimate climatic water balance impacts at various...
Impacts of climate change on groundwater availability and spring flows: Observations from the highly productive Medicine Lake Highlands/Fall River Springs Aquifer System
Lauren K Mancewicz, L. Davisson, Shawn J Wheelock, Erick R. Burns, Simon R. Poulson, Scott W. Tyler
2021, Journal of the American Water Resources Association (57) 1021-1036
Medicine Lake Highlands/Fall River Springs Aquifer System, located in northeastern California, is home to some of the largest first-order springs in the United States. This work assesses the likely effects of projected climate change on spring flow. Four anticipated climate futures (GFDL A2, GFDL B1, CCSM4...
Syn-eruptive hydration of volcanic ash records pyroclast-water interaction in explosive eruptions
Michael R. Hudak, Ilya N. Bindeman, Matthew W. Loewen, Thomas Giachetti
2021, Geophysical Research Letters (48)
Magma-water interaction can dramatically influence the explosivity of volcanic eruptions. However, syn- and post-eruptive diffusion of external (non-magmatic) water into volcanic glass remains poorly constrained and may bias interpretation of water in juvenile products. Hydrogen isotopes in ash from the 2009 eruption of Redoubt Volcano, Alaska, record...
Origin of the J-M Reef and Lower Banded series, Stillwater Complex, Montana, USA
Michael Jenkins, James E. Mungall, Michael L. Zientek, Gelu Costin, Zhuo-sen Yao
2021, Precambrian Research (367)
The origin and parental magma for layered cumulates in the Lower Banded series (LBS) and the J-M Reef Pd-Pt deposit of the Stillwater Complex remains poorly constrained. We present whole-rock lithogeochemistry and mineral chemistry from LBS rocks collected from drill holes...
Depths inferred from velocities estimated by remote sensing: A flow resistance equation-based approach to mapping multiple river attributes at the reach scale
Carl J. Legleiter, Paul J. Kinzel
2021, Remote Sensing (13)
Remote sensing of flow conditions in stream channels could facilitate hydrologic data collection, particularly in large, inaccessible rivers. Previous research has demonstrated the potential to estimate flow velocities in sediment-laden rivers via particle image velocimetry (PIV). In this study, we introduce a new framework for also obtaining...
Total phosphorus loadings for the Cedar River at Palo, Iowa, 2009–20
Jessica D. Garrett
2021, Scientific Investigations Report 2021-5127
In support of nutrient reduction efforts, total phosphorus loads and yields were computed using turbidity-surrogate and LOAD ESTimator (LOADEST) models for the Cedar River at Palo, Iowa, for January 1, 2009, to December 15, 2020. Sample data were used to create a total phosphorus concentration turbidity-surrogate model. Total phosphorus loads...
Modeling scenarios for the management of axis deer in Hawai‘i
Steve C. Hess, Seth Judge
2021, Pacific Science (75) 561-573
Axis deer (Axis axis) are invasive species that threaten native ecosystems and agriculture on Maui Island. To mitigate negative effects, it is necessary to understand current abundance, population trajectory, and how to most effectively reduce the population. Our objectives were to examine the population history...
Hazard-consistent seismic losses and collapse capacities for light-frame wood buildings in California and Cascadia
Robert Edward Chase, Abbie B. Liel, Nico Luco, Zach Bullock
2021, Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering (19) 6615-6639
We evaluate the seismic performance of modern seismically designed wood light-frame (WLF) buildings, considering regional seismic hazard characteristics that influence ground motion duration and frequency content and, thus, seismic risk. Results show that WLF building response correlates strongly with ground motion spectral shape but weakly with duration. Due to the...
Mineral deposit discovery order and three-part quantitative assessments
Donald A. Singer, Michael L. Zientek
2021, Ore Geology Reviews (139)
Larger oil pools tending to be discovered earlier in an exploration play suggests the same pattern might exist for mineral deposits and could be used in predicting sizes of undiscovered deposits in mineral assessments. The volume of individual...
Characterization of the biological, physical, and chemical properties of a toxic thin layer in a temperate marine system
Margaret A McManus, Adam T Greer, Amanda HV Timmerman, Jeff C Sevadjian, C. Brock Woodson, Robert Cowen, Derek A Fong, Stephen G. Monismith, Olivia M. Cheriton
2021, Marine Ecology Progress Series (MEPS) (678) 17-35
The distribution of plankton in the ocean is patchy across a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. One type of oceanographic feature that exemplifies this patchiness is a ‘thin layer’. Thin layers are subsurface aggregations of plankton that range in vertical thickness from centimeters to a few meters,...
Remotely sensed fine-fuel changes from wildfire and prescribed fire in a semi-arid grassland
Adam Gerhard Wells, Seth M. Munson, Steven Sesnie, Miguel L. Villarreal
2021, Fire (4)
The spread of flammable invasive grasses, woody plant encroachment, and enhanced aridity have interacted in many grasslands globally to increase wildfire activity and risk to valued assets. Annual variation in the abundance and distribution of fine-fuel present challenges to land managers implementing prescribed burns and mitigating wildfire, although methods to...
Preliminary geohydrologic assessment of Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge, Altar Valley, southeastern Arizona
Sandra J. Owen-Joyce, James B. Callegary, Amy Elizabeth Rosebrough
2021, Scientific Investigations Report 2021-5050
The Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge is located in the southern part of Altar Valley, southwest of Tucson in southeastern Arizona. The primary water-supply well at the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge has experienced a two-decade decrease in groundwater levels in the well, as have other wells in the southern...
