Remote ecological monitoring with smartphones and tasker
Therese M. Donovan, Cathleen Balantic, Jonathan Katz, Mark Massar, Randy Knutson, Kara Duh, Peter Jones, Keith Epstein, Julien Lacasse-Roger, João Dias
2021, Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management (12) 163-173
Researchers have increasingly used autonomous monitoring units to record animal sounds, track phenology with timed photographs, and snap images when triggered by motion. We piloted the use of smartphones to monitor wildlife in the Riverside East Solar Energy Zone (California) and at Indiana Dunes National Park (Indiana). For both efforts,...
Oregon and Landsat
U.S. Geological Survey
2021, Fact Sheet 2021-3021
Oregon’s landscape is as complex and diverse as it is beautiful. Mountain peaks in the Cascade Range soar higher than 10,000 feet. Crater Lake sinks to a depth of 1,943 feet, making it the deepest lake in the United States. Oregon’s lands feature forests, farm fields, grasslands, ocean coastline, rivers,...
The productivity of Cascadia aftershock sequences
Joan S. Gomberg, Paul Bodin
2021, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (111) 1494-1507
This study addresses questions about the productivity of Cascadia mainshock–aftershock sequences using earthquake catalogs produced by the Geological Survey of Canada and the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network. Questions concern the likelihood that future moderate to large intermediate depth intraslab earthquakes in Cascadia would have as few detectable aftershocks as those...
The effects of urban land cover dynamics on urban heat Island intensity and temporal trends
George Z. Xian, Hua Shi, Roger F. Auch, Kevin Gallo, Qiang Zhou, Zhuoting Wu, Michael Kolian
2021, GIScience & Remote Sensing (58) 501-515
Assessments of surface urban heat island (UHI) have focused on using remote sensing and land cover data to quantify UHI intensity and spatial distribution within a certain time period by including land cover information. In this study, we implemented a prototype approach to characterize the spatiotemporal...
Regression relations and long-term water-quality constituent concentrations, loads, yields, and trends in the North Fork Ninnescah River, south-central Kansas, 1999–2019
Ariele R. Kramer, Brian J. Klager, Mandy L. Stone, Patrick J. Eslick-Huff
2021, Scientific Investigations Report 2021-5006
Cheney Reservoir, in south-central Kansas, is the primary water supply for the city of Wichita, Kansas. The North Fork Ninnescah River is the largest tributary to Cheney Reservoir and contributes about 70 percent of the inflow. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the City of Wichita, has been continuously...
Characterization of water-resource threats and needs for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Wildlife Refuges in the Legacy Mountain-Prairie Region, 2020
Nancy J. Bauch, Michael S. Kohn, Brian S. Caruso
2021, Open-File Report 2021-1007
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), began a study in 2019 to complete the compilation and quality assurance of water-resource threats and needs data for the 117 National Wildlife Refuges (NWRs) in the FWS Legacy Mountain-Prairie Region (LMPR) and to characterize the...
Exploring the regional dynamics of U.S. irrigated agriculture from 2002 to 2017
Dinesh Shrestha, Jesslyn F. Brown, Trenton D Benedict, Daniel Howard
2021, Land (10) 394
The United States has a geographically mature and stable land use and land cover system including land used as irrigated cropland; however, changes in irrigation land use frequently occur related to various drivers. We applied a consistent methodology at a 250 m spatial resolution across the lower 48 states to...
Genetic considerations for rewilding the San Joaquin Desert
Jonathan Q. Richmond, Dustin A. Wood, Marjorie D Matocq
2021, Book chapter, Rewilding agricultural landscapes: a California study in rebalancing the needs of people and nature
Genetic data are a powerful and important tool for guiding rewilding efforts and for monitoring the recovery outcomes of those efforts. When used in conjunction with historic species’ distribution records and predictive habitat suitability modeling, genetic information adds a key piece to the puzzle that will increase the probability of...
Reconstructing the dynamics of the highly similar May 2016 and June 2019 Iliamna Volcano, Alaska ice–rock avalanches from seismoacoustic data
Liam Toney, David Fee, Kate E. Allstadt, Matthew M. Haney, Robin S. Matoza
2021, Earth Surface Dynamics (9) 271-293
Surficial mass wasting events are a hazard worldwide. Seismic and acoustic signals from these often remote processes, combined with other geophysical observations, can provide key information for monitoring and rapid response efforts and enhance our understanding of event dynamics. Here, we present seismoacoustic data and analyses for two very large...
A food web including parasites for kelp forests of the Santa Barbara Channel, California
Dana N. Morton, Cristiana Y. Antonino, Farallon J Broughton, Lauren N Dykman, Armand M. Kuris, Kevin D. Lafferty
2021, Scientific Data (8)
We built a high-resolution topological food web for the kelp forests of the Santa Barbara Channel, California, USA that includes parasites and significantly improves resolution compared to previous webs. The 1,098 nodes and 21,956 links in the web describe an economically, socially, and ecologically vital system....
Effects of midazolam on corticosterone and blood gases in spectacled eiders prior to transmitter implantation
Maria Spriggs, Daniel Rizzolo, Kate Martin, Gwen E. Myers, Matthew G. Sexson
2021, Journal of Wildlife Management (85) 909-919
Stress and physical exertion may affect the physiology and behavior of wildlife during and after capture, and consequently, survival following release. Such effects may reduce the quality and quantity of the data obtained from captured wildlife. We captured spectacled eiders (Somateria fischeri), a species listed as...
Diagenesis revealed by fine-scale features at Vera Rubin ridge, Gale crater, Mars
Kristen A. Bennett, Frances Rivera-Hernandez, Connor Tinker, Briony H. N. Horgan, Deirdra M. Fey, C. S. Edwards, Lauren A. Edgar, Rachel Kronyak, Kenneth S. Edgett, Abigail A. Fraeman, Linda C. Kah, Marie Henderson, Nathan Stein, Erwin Dehouck, Amy Williams
2021, JGR Planets (126)
Fine-scale (submillimeter to centimeter) depositional and diagenetic features encountered during the Curiosity rover's traverse in Gale crater provide a means to understand the geologic history of Vera Rubin ridge (VRR). VRR is a topographically high feature on the lower north slope of Aeolis Mons, a 5-km high stratified mound...
Using enclosed Y-mazes to assess chemosensory behavior in reptiles
M. Rockwell Parker, Andrea Faye Currylow, Eric A. Tillman, Charlotte J. Robinson, Jillian Maureen Josimovich, Isabella M.G. Bukovich, Lauren A. Nazarian, Melia G. Nafus, Bryan M. Kluever, Amy A. Yackel Adams
2021, Journal of Visualized Experiments (170)
Reptiles utilize a variety of environmental cues to inform and drive animal behavior such as chemical scent trails produced by food or conspecifics. Decrypting the scent-trailing behavior of vertebrates, particularly invasive species, enables the discovery of cues that induce exploratory behavior and can aid in the development of valuable basic...
The American Kestrel (Falco sparverius) genoscape: Implications for monitoring, management, and subspecies boundaries
K. C. Ruegg, M. Brinkmeyer, C. M. Bossu, R. Bay, E. C. Anderson, Clint W. Boal, R. D. Dawson, A. Eschenbauch, C. J. W. McClure, K. E. Miller, L. Morrow, J. R. Morrow, M. D. Oleyar, B. Ralph, S. Schulwitz, T. Swem, J. F. Therrien, Rich Van Buskirk, T. B. Smith, J. A. Heath
J-F. Therrien, editor(s)
2021, Ornithology (138)
Identifying population genetic structure is useful for inferring evolutionary process and comparing the resulting structure with subspecies boundaries can aid in species management. The American Kestrel (Falco sparverius) is a widespread and highly diverse species with 17 total subspecies, only 2 of which are found north of U.S./Mexico border (F....
A reassessment of Chao2 estimates for population monitoring of grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem
Frank T. van Manen, Michael R. Ebinger, Mark A. Haroldson, Daniel D. Bjornlie, Justin Clapp, Daniel J. Thompson, Kevin L. Frey, Cecily M. Costello, Curtis Hendricks, Jeremy M. Nicholson, Kerry A. Gunther, Katharine R. Wilmot, Hilary Cooley, Jennifer Fortin-Noreus, Pat Hnilicka, Daniel B. Tyers
2021, Report
The Yellowstone Ecosystem Subcommittee (YES) asked the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team (IGBST) to re-assess a technique used in annual population estimation and trend monitoring of grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE). This technique is referred to as the Chao2 approach and estimates the number of females with...
Weather affects post‐fire recovery of sagebrush‐steppe communities and model transferability among sites
Cara Applestein, Trevor Caughlin, Matthew J. Germino
2021, Ecosphere (12)
Altered climate, including weather extremes, can cause major shifts in vegetative recovery after disturbances. Predictive models that can identify the separate and combined temporal effects of disturbance and weather on plant communities and that are transferable among sites are needed to guide vulnerability assessments and management...
Machine-learning predictions of high arsenic and high manganese at drinking water depths of the glacial aquifer system, northern continental United States
Melinda L. Erickson, Sarah M. Elliott, Craig J. Brown, Paul E. Stackelberg, Katherine Marie Ransom, James E. Reddy, Charles A. Cravotta III
2021, Environmental Science & Technology (9) 5791-5805
Globally, over 200 million people are chronically exposed to arsenic (As) and/or manganese (Mn) from drinking water. We used machine-learning (ML) boosted regression tree (BRT) models to predict high As (>10 μg/L) and Mn (>300 μg/L) in groundwater from the glacial...
Identifying resting locations of a small elusive forest carnivore using a two-stage model accounting for GPS measurement error and hidden behavioral states
Dalton Hance, Katie M. Moriarty, Bruce A. Hollen, Russell Perry
2021, Movement Ecology (9)
Studies of animal movement using location data are often faced with two challenges. First, time series of animal locations are likely to arise from multiple behavioral states (e.g., directed movement, resting) that cannot be observed directly. Second, location data can be affected by measurement error, including failed location fixes. Simultaneously...
Water resources of St. Martin Parish, Louisiana
Maxwell A. Lindaman, Vincent E. White
2021, Fact Sheet 2021-3007
Information concerning the availability, use, and quality of water in St. Martin Parish, Louisiana, is critical for proper water-supply management. The purpose of this fact sheet is to present information that can be used by water managers, parish residents, and others for stewardship of this vital resource. In 2014, about...
Water resources of Iberville Parish, Louisiana
Maxwell A. Lindaman, Vincent E. White
2021, Fact Sheet 2021-3014
Information concerning the availability, use, and quality of water in Iberville Parish, Louisiana, is critical for proper water-supply management. The purpose of this fact sheet is to present information that can be used by water managers, parish residents, and others for stewardship of this vital resource. In 2014, about 589.87 million...
3D Elevation Program—Federal best practices
Vicki Lukas, Vanessa Baez
2021, Fact Sheet 2020-3062
The goal of the 3D Elevation Program (3DEP) is to complete nationwide data acquisition in 8 years, by 2023, to provide the first-ever national baseline of consistent high-resolution three-dimensional data—including bare earth elevations and three-dimensional point clouds—collected in a timeframe of less than a decade. Successful implementation of 3DEP depends...
Aquaculture and Irrigation Water-Use Model (AIWUM) version 1.0—An agricultural water-use model developed for the Mississippi Alluvial Plain, 1999–2017
Jordan L. Wilson
2021, Scientific Investigations Report 2021-5011
Water use is a critical and often uncertain component of quantifying any water budget and securing reliable and sustainable water supplies. Recent water-level declines in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain (MAP), especially in the central part of the Mississippi Delta, pose a threat to water sustainability. Aquaculture and Irrigation Water-Use Model...
Linear regression model documentation and updates for computing water-quality constituent concentrations or densities using continuous real-time water-quality data for the Kansas River, Kansas, July 2012 through September 2019
Thomas J. Williams
2021, Open-File Report 2021-1018
The Kansas River provides drinking water to about 800,000 people in northeastern Kansas. Water-treatment facilities that use the Kansas River as a water-supply source use chemical and physical processes during water treatment to remove contaminants before public distribution. Advanced notification of changing water-quality conditions near water-supply intakes allows water-treatment facilities...
Synthesis of geochronologic research on Late Pliocene to Holocene emergent shorelines in the lower Savannah River area of southeastern Georgia, USA
Helaine W. Markewich, Milan J. Pavich, Shannon A. Mahan, Paul R. Bierman, Wilma B. Aleman-Gonzalez, Arthur P. Schultz
2021, Open-File Report 2021-1015
Emergent late Pliocene and Pleistocene shoreline deposits, morphologically identifiable Pleistocene shoreline units, and seaward-facing scarps characterize the easternmost Atlantic Coastal Plain (ACP) of the United States of America. In some areas of the ACP, these deposits, units, and scarps have been studied in detail. Within these areas, temporal and spatial...
Half of global methane emissions come from highly variable aquatic ecosystem sources
Judith A. Rosentreter, Alberto V. Borges, Bridget R. Deemer, Meredith A. Holgerson, Shaoda Liu, Chunlin Song, John M. Melack, Peter A. Raymond, Carlos M. Duarte, George H. Allen, David Olefeldt, Benjamin Poulter, Tom I. Batin, Bradley D. Eyre
2021, Nature Geoscience (14) 225-230
Atmospheric methane is a potent greenhouse gas that plays a major role in controlling the Earth’s climate. The causes of the renewed increase of methane concentration since 2007 are uncertain given the multiple sources and complex biogeochemistry. Here, we present a metadata analysis of methane fluxes from all major natural,...
