Arsenic, chromium, uranium, and vanadium in rock, alluvium, and groundwater, Mojave River and Morongo Areas, western Mojave Desert, southern California
John A. Izbicki, Krishangi D. Groover, Whitney A. Seymour
2023, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5089
Trace elements within groundwater that originate from aquifer materials and pose potential public-health hazards if consumed are known as geogenic contaminants. The geogenic contaminants arsenic, chromium, and vanadium can form negatively charged ions with oxygen known as oxyanions. Uranium complexes with bicarbonate and carbonate to form negatively charged ions having...
The 1886 Charleston, South Carolina, Earthquake: Relic railroad offset reveals rupture
Roger Bilham, Susan E. Hough
2023, The Seismic Record (3) 278-288
In the absence of documented surface rupture during the 1 September 1886 Charleston earthquake, there has been considerable speculation about the location and mechanism of the causative fault. We use an inferred coseismic offset of the South Carolina Railroad and additional numerical constraints to develop an elastic deformation model—a west‐dipping...
BatTool: Projecting bat populations facing multiple stressors using a demographic model
Ashton M. Wiens, Amber Schorg, Jennifer Szymanski, Wayne E. Thogmartin
2023, Methods in Ecology and Evolution (23)
Bats provide ecologically and agriculturally important ecosystem services but are currently experiencing population declines caused by multiple environmental stressors, including mortality from white-nose syndrome and wind energy development. Analyses of the current and future health and viability of these species may support conservation management decision making....
Snowpack relative permittivity and density derived from near-coincident lidar and ground-penetrating radar
Randall Bonnell, Daniel McGrath, Andrew Hedrick, Ernesto Trujillo, Tate Meehan, Keith Williams, Hans-Peter Marshall, Graham A. Sexstone, John W, Fulton, Michael Ronayne, Steven R. Fassnacht, Ryan Webb, Katherine Hale
2023, Hydrological Processes (37)
Depth-based and radar-based remote sensing methods (e.g., lidar, synthetic aperture radar) are promising approaches for remotely measuring snow water equivalent (SWE) at high spatial resolution. These approaches require snow density estimates, obtained from in-situ measurements or density models, to calculate SWE. However, in-situ measurements...
Cultivating resilience in dryland soils: An assisted migration approach to biological soil crust restoration
Sierra Jech, Natalie K. Day, Nichole Barger, Anita Antoninka, Matthew A. Bowker, Sasha C. Reed, Colin L Tucker
2023, Microorganisms (11)
Land use practices and climate change have driven substantial soil degradation across global drylands, impacting ecosystem functions and human livelihoods. Biological soil crusts, a common feature of dryland ecosystems, are under extensive exploration for their potential to restore the stability and fertility of degraded soils through the development of inoculants....
Seven dam challenges for migratory fish: Insights from the Penobscot River
Joseph D. Zydlewski, Stephen M. Coghlan, Cody Dillingham, Guillermo Figueroa-Munoz, Carolyn Merriam, Sean Smith, Rylee Smith, Daniel S. Stich, Sarah K. Vogel, Karen Wilson, Gayle B. Zydlewski
2023, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution (11)
More than a century of impoundments in the Penobscot River, Maine, USA, has contributed to population declines in migratory fish in the system. A decade of change, research, and monitoring has revealed direct and indirect ways that dams have influenced the river habitat, connectivity for migratory fish, and the food...
Evaluation of breeding distribution and chronology of North American scoters
Kristin Bianchini, Scott G. Gilliland, Alicia Berlin, Timothy D. Bowman, W. Sean Boyd, Susan E.W. De La Cruz, Daniel Esler, Joseph R. Evenson, Paul L. Flint, Christine Lepage, Scott R. McWilliams, Dustin E. Meattey, Jason E. Osenkowski, Matthew Perry, Jean-Francois Poulin, Eric T. Reed, Christian Roy, Jean-Pierre L. Savard, Lucas Savoy, Jason L Schamber, Caleb S. Spiegel, John Takekawa, David H. Ward, Mark L. Mallory
2023, Wildlife Biology (2023)
North America's scoter species are poorly monitored relative to other waterfowl. Black Melanitta americana, surf M. perspicillata, and white-winged M. deglandi scoter abundance and trend estimates are thus uncertain in many parts of these species' ranges. The most extensive source of waterfowl abundance and distribution data in North...
Science to support conservation action in a large river system: The Willamette River, Oregon, USA
Rebecca L. Flitcroft, Luke Whitman, James White, J. Rose Wallick, Laurel E. Stratton Garvin, Cassandra Smith, Robert Plotnikoff, Michael Mulvey, Tobias Kock, Krista Jones, Peter Gruendike, Carolyn Gombert, Guillermo Giannico, Andrew Dutterer, Daniel G. Brown, Hannah Barrett, Robert M. Hughes
2023, Water Biology and Security (2)
Management and conservation efforts that support the recovery and protection of large rivers are daunting, reflecting the complexity of the challenge and extent of effort (in terms of policy, economic investment, and spatial extent) needed to afford measurable change. These...
Development of a Surface-Water Index of Permanence to assess surface-water availability for ecohydrological refugia
Alynn Martin, Roy Sando, Lindsey Thurman, Kyle McLean, Patrick Wurster, John Jones, Anteneh Sarbanes
2023, Fact Sheet 2023-3045
Surface-water availability has major implications for the environment and society in the 21st century. With climate change, increased drought severity, and altered water and land use, future water availability is predicted to continue to decline in many areas, including much of the western United States. An understanding of where and...
Growth performance of Rainbow Trout in reservoir tributaries and implications for steelhead growth potential above Skagit River dams
Benjamin Lorenz Jensen, Rachelle Carina Johnson, Jeffrey J. Duda, Carl Ostberg, Tessa Julianne Code, Jonathan H Mclean, Karl D. Stenberg, Kimberly Larsen, Marshal Hoy, David Beauchamp
2023, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (43) 1427-1446
ObjectiveIn the Pacific Northwest (USA), Pacific salmon Oncorhynchus spp. populations have been declining significantly for decades, prompting stakeholders to respond with a variety of conservation and restoration measures. One such measure being considered in the Skagit River basin (Washington, USA) is the introduction of steelhead Oncorhynchus mykiss (anadromous Rainbow Trout) above...
Browsing the literature
Matthew J. Germino
2023, Rangelands (45) 109-112
No abstract available....
Unraveling mechnisms underlying effects of wetting–drying cycles on soil respiration in a dryland
Guopeng Liang, Sasha C. Reed, John M. Stark, Bonnie G. Waring
2023, Biogeochemistry (166) 23-37
Rewetting of dry soils usually stimulates soil carbon (C) emission, a phenomenon known as the Birch effect. Soil C cycling in drylands, which store approximately one third of terrestrial soil organic C (SOC), is strongly affected by wetting–drying cycles. However, the physical, chemical, and biological mechanisms...
Preliminary map of the surface rupture from the August 9, 2020, Mw 5.1 earthquake near Sparta, North Carolina—The Little River fault and other possible coseismic features
Arthur J. Merschat, Mark W. Carter
2023, Open-File Report 2023-1074
This publication is a preliminary map and geodatabase of the coseismic surface rupture and other coseismic features generated from the August 9, 2020, Mw 5.1 earthquake near Sparta, North Carolina. Geologic mapping facilitated by analysis of post-earthquake quality level 0 to 1 lidar, document the coseismic surface rupture, named the...
An early warning signal for grassland degradation on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau
Qiuan Zhu, Huai Chen, Changhui Peng, Jinxun Liu, Shilong Piao, Jin-Sheng He, Shiping Wang, Xinquan Zhao, Jiang Zhang, Xiuqin Fang, Jiaxin Jin, Qi-En Yang, Liliang Ren, Yanfen Wang
2023, Nature Communications (14)
Intense grazing may lead to grassland degradation on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, but it is difficult to predict where this will occur and to quantify it. Based on a process-based ecosystem model, we define a productivity-based stocking rate threshold that induces extreme grassland degradation to assess whether...
Dispersal of juvenile Barrow’s goldeneyes (Bucephala islandica) mirrors that of breeding adults
Tess Forstner, Sean Boyd, Daniel Esler, David Green
2023, Movement Ecology (11)
Barrow’s goldeneyes across western North America have been shown to have a high degree of subpopulation independence using several data types. However, evidence for structured populations based on mitochondrial DNA, band recoveries, and tracking of adults is discordant with evidence from autosomal DNA. We used satellite...
Linking water use efficiency with water use strategy from leaves to communities
Jie Liang, Ken Krauss, John Finnigan, Hilary Stuart-Williams, Graham D. Farquhar, Marilyn C. Ball
2023, New Phytologist (240) 1735-1742
Limitations and utility of three measures of water use characteristics were evaluated: water use efficiency (WUE), intrinsic WUE and marginal water cost of carbon gain (aE/aA) estimated, respectively, as ratios of assimilation (A) to transpiration (E), of A to stomatal conductance (gs) and of sensitivities of E and A with variation in gs. Only the measure aE/aA estimates...
Mortality thresholds of juvenile trees to drought and heatwaves: Implications for forest regeneration across a landscape gradient
Alexadra Lalor, Darin J. Law, David D. Breshears, Donald A. Falk, Jason P. Field, Rachel A. Loehman, Jack Triepke, Greg A. Barron-Gafford
2023, Frontiers in Forests and Global Change (6)
Tree loss is increasing rapidly due to drought- and heat-related mortality and intensifying fire activity. Consequently, the fate of many forests depends on the ability of juvenile trees to withstand heightened climate and disturbance anomalies. Extreme climatic events, such as droughts and heatwaves, are increasing in frequency and severity, and...
Evaluation of portable Raman spectroscopic analysis for source-rock thermal maturity assessments on bulk crushed rock
Martha Stokes, Aaron M. Jubb, Paul C. Hackley, Justin E. Birdwell, Elliott Barnhart, Clint Scott, Jenna L. Shelton, Margaret M. Sanders, Javin J. Hatcherian
2023, International Journal of Coal Geology (279)
This study presents a simplified method and empirical relationships for determining organic matter thermal maturity using a portable Raman system equipped with a 785 nm laser, for analysis of crushed, whole-rock samples. Suites of rocks represented by shale and coal samples with various mineralogical composition, thermal maturity, and total organic...
The enigmatic Rattlesnake Knoll, Spring Valley, east-central Nevada—A geophysical perspective
Edward A. Mankinen, Peter D. Rowley, Edwin H. McKee
2023, Open-File Report 2023-1002
Rattlesnake Knoll is a small, 30-meter-high mound of igneous breccia in the center of Spring Valley, east-central Nevada. In the past, researchers have disagreed as to whether the unusual-looking outcrop is intrusive or volcanic. The breccia possesses a normal magnetic polarity, but this is not apparent in aeromagnetic survey data....
Geomorphic classification framework for assessing reproductive ecology of Scaphirhynchus albus (pallid sturgeon), Fort Peck segment, Upper Missouri River, Montana and North Dakota
Robert B. Jacobson, Caroline M. Elliott, Edward Bulliner
2023, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5109
The segment of the Upper Missouri River between Fort Peck Dam and the headwaters of Lake Sakakawea is home to a population of the endangered Scaphirhynchus albus (pallid sturgeon). Lack of population growth (recruitment failure) has been attributed to inadequate dispersal distance of larvae between spawning locations and the headwaters...
Application of the Stream Salmonid Simulator (S3) model to assess fall Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) production in the American River, California
John M. Plumb, Russell W. Perry, Tyson W. Hatton, Collin D. Smith, John M. Hannon
2023, Open-File Report 2023-1060
Executive SummaryAnadromous fish returning to the lower American River are restricted to 36 kilometers of free-flowing river between Nimbus Dam and American River’s confluence with the Sacramento River, California. Salmon in the American River provide an important freshwater recreational fishery. However, annual salmon production in the American River in recent...
Toward invasive mussel genetic biocontrol: Approaches, challenges, and perspectives
Victor H. Hernandez Elizarraga, Scott Ballantyne, Lindsey Gengelbach, Juliana A. Americo, Steven T. Suhr, Marie-Claude Senut, Ben Minerich, Christopher M. Merkes, Thea M. Edwards, Katy E. Klymus, Cathy A. Richter, Diane L. Waller, Yale J. Passamaneck, Mauro de F. Rebelo, Daryl M. Gohl
2023, iScience (26)
Invasive freshwater mussels, such as the zebra (Dreissena polymorpha), quagga (Dreissena rostriformis bugensis), and golden (Limnoperna fortunei) mussel have spread outside their native ranges throughout many regions of the North American, South American, and European continents in recent decades, damaging infrastructure and the environment. This review describes...
Bioavailability and toxicity models of copper to freshwater life: The state of regulatory science
Christopher A. Mebane
2023, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (42) 2529-2563
Efforts to incorporate bioavailability adjustments into regulatory water quality criteria in the United States have included four major procedures: hardness-based single-linear regression equations, water-effect ratios (WERs), biotic ligand models (BLMs), and multiple-linear regression models (MLRs) that use dissolved organic carbon, hardness, and pH. The...
LANDFIRE
Jennifer L. Long, Timothy D. Hatten
2023, Fact Sheet 2023-3044
Landscape Fire and Resource Management Planning Tools (LANDFIRE) is a key national geospatial data source for strategic fire and resource management planning and analysis. LANDFIRE is the first complete, nationally consistent collection of more than 25 geospatial layers, databases, and ecological models at a 30-meter resolution that describe disturbance, vegetation,...
The 3D Elevation Program—Supporting Idaho’s economy
Tom Carlson
2023, Fact Sheet 2023-3035
IntroductionDue to Idaho’s inland location approximately 350 miles from the Pacific Ocean and its 80 recognized mountain ranges, the State’s climate varies widely, with maritime influence in the northern and western parts of Idaho and continental influence on the eastern side. The weather in the abundant mountains is unpredictable and...
