Optimal allocation of law enforcement patrol effort to mitigate poaching activities
Jennifer F. Moore, Bradley Udell, Julien Martin, Ezechiel Turikunkiko, Michel K. Masozera
2021, Ecological Applications (31)
Poaching is a global problem causing the decline of species worldwide. Optimizing the efficiency of ranger patrols to deter poaching activity at the lowest possible cost is crucial for protecting species with limited resources. We applied decision analysis and spatial optimization algorithms to allocate efforts of...
Contrasting geographic patterns of ignition probability and burn severity in the Mojave Desert
Robert C. Klinger, Emma C Underwood, Randy McKinley, Matthew L. Brooks
2021, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution (9)
The extent and frequency of fire has increased in many arid systems over the last century, with a large proportion of area in some regions undergoing transitions to novel conditions. Portions of the Mojave Desert in southwestern North America have undergone such transitions, most often from woody to...
Aquatic ecosystem metabolism as a tool in environmental management
Kathi Jo Jankowski, Francine H. Mejia, Joanna Blaszczak, Gordon W. Holtgrieve
2021, WIREs Water (8)
Recent advances in high-frequency environmental sensing and statistical approaches have greatly expanded the breadth of knowledge regarding aquatic ecosystem metabolism - the measurement and interpretation of gross primary productivity (GPP) and ecosystem respiration (ER). Aquatic scientists are poised to take advantage of widely available datasets and freely-available modeling tools to...
Field methods, quality-assurance, and data management plan for water-quality activities and water-level measurements, Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho
Roy C. Bartholomay, Neil V. Maimer, Amy J. Wehnke, Samuel L. Helmuth
2021, Open-File Report 2021-1004
IntroductionWater-quality activities and water-level measurements conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Project Office coincide with the USGS mission of appraising the quantity and quality of the Nation’s water resources. The activities are conducted in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Idaho Operations...
Implications of model selection: A comparison of publicly available, conterminous US-extent hydrologic component estimates
Samuel Saxe, William H. Farmer, Jessica M. Driscoll, Terri S. Hogue
2021, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (25) 1529-1598
Spatiotemporally continuous estimates of the hydrologic cycle are often generated through hydrologic modeling, reanalysis, or remote sensing (RS) methods and are commonly applied as a supplement to, or a substitute for, in situ measurements when observational data are sparse or unavailable. This study compares estimates of precipitation (P), actual...
Mammal species composition and habitat associations in a commercial forest and mixed-plantation landscape
Wai Pak Ng, Frank T. van Manen, Stuart P. Sharp, Siew Te Wong, Shyamala Ratnayeke
2021, Forest Ecology and Management (491)
Commercial forest plantations of fast-growing species have been established globally to meet increasing demands for timber, pulpwood, and other wood products. Industrial plantations may contribute to tropical forest conservation by reducing exploitation of primary and secondary natural forests. Whether such plantations...
Comparing sample bias correction methods for species distribution modeling using virtual species
Richard D. Inman, Janet Franklin, Todd Esque, Kenneth E. Nussear
2021, Ecosphere (12)
A key assumption in species distribution modeling (SDM) with presence‐background (PB) methods is that sampling of occurrence localities is unbiased and that any sampling bias is proportional to the background distribution of environmental covariates. This assumption is rarely met when SDM practitioners rely on federated museum...
The species–area relationship for a highly fragmented temperate river system
Leon M. Carl, Peter C. Esselman, Beth L Sparks-Jackson, Christopher C. Wilson
2021, Ecosphere (12)
Despite the importance of species–area relationships (SARs) to conservation, SARs in human‐fragmented rivers have received little attention. Our aim was to test for the presence and strength of SARs for littoral fish assemblages of an extensively dammed river in south‐central Ontario, Canada, and to examine long‐running hypotheses for the drivers...
Drivers of methane flux differ between lakes and reservoirs, complicating global upscaling efforts
Bridget R. Deemer, Meredith A. Holgerson
2021, Journal of Geophysical Research-Biogeosciences (126)
Methane is an important greenhouse gas with growing atmospheric concentrations. Freshwater lakes and reservoirs contribute substantially to atmospheric methane concentrations, but the magnitude of this contribution is poorly constrained. Uncertainty stems partially from whether the sites currently sampled represent the global population as well as incomplete knowledge of which environmental...
Physics‐based evaluation of the maximum magnitude of potential earthquakes induced by the Hutubi (China) underground gas storage
Guoyan Jiang, Lin Liu, Andrew J. Barbour, Renqi Lu, Hongfeng Yang
2021, JGR Solid Earth (126)
The world’s largest underground gas storage facility in Hutubi (HUGS), China, is a unique case where cyclic gas injection‐extraction induced both seismicity and ground deformation. To assess the potential for future induced seismicity, we develop a framework physically based on a well‐constrained hydro‐geomechanical model and on fully...
Embryo deformities and nesting trends in Kemp’s ridley sea turtles Lepidochelys kempii before and after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill
Donna J. Shaver, Christian Gredzens, J. Shelby Walker, Céline A. J. Godard-Codding, Janet E. Yacabucci, Amy Frey, Peter H. Dutton, Christopher J. Schmitt
2021, Endangered Species Research (44) 277-289
Kemp’s ridley sea turtles Lepidochelys kempii were disproportionately affected by the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill, which began on 20 April 2010. Embryo deformities were documented in inviable L. kempii eggs before (2008-2010) and after (2011-2013) the DWH spill in 2 Texas (USA) nesting areas (Upper Texas Coast and Padre Island National Seashore). Additional nesting trends,...
Assessment of water quality and discharge in the Herring River, Wellfleet, Massachusetts, November 2015 to September 2017
Thomas G. Huntington, Alana B. Spaetzel, John A. Colman, Kevin D. Kroeger, Robert T. Bradley
2021, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5120
The U.S. Geological Survey, Cape Cod National Seashore of the National Park Service, and Friends of Herring River cooperated from 2015 to 2017 to assess nutrient concentrations and fluxes across the ocean-estuary boundary at a dike on the Herring River in Wellfleet, Massachusetts. The purpose of this assessment was to...
Groundwater conditions and trends, 2009–19, Saipan, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands
Jackson N. Mitchell, Todd K. Presley, Robert L. Carruth
2021, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5129
Groundwater is the primary source of municipal water for Saipan. Nearly all groundwater for the municipal water supply is withdrawn from a freshwater-lens system with a limited amount of freshwater that is susceptible to saltwater intrusion. The status of Saipan’s groundwater resources has not been thoroughly assessed since 2003. The...
Exploration of the 2016 Yellowstone River fish kill and proliferative kidney disease in wild fish populations
Patrick Ross Hutchins, Adam Sepulveda, Hanna Hartikainen, Ken D. Staigmiller, Scott T. Opitz, Renee M. Yamamoto, Amberly Huttinger, Rick J. Cordes, Tammy Weiss, Lacey R. Hopper, Maureen K. Purcell, Beth Okamura
2021, Ecosphere (3)
Proliferative kidney disease (PKD) is an emerging disease that recently resulted in a large mortality event of salmonids in the Yellowstone River (Montana, USA). Total PKD fish mortalities in the Yellowstone River were estimated in the tens of thousands, which resulted in a multi‐week river closure and an estimated economic...
Assessment of contaminant trends in plumes and wells and monitoring network optimization at the Badger Army Ammunition Plant, Sauk County, Wisconsin
Matthew Pajerowski, Phillip J. Goodling, Marina J. Metes
2021, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5106
Soil and groundwater at the Badger Army Ammunition Plant (BAAP), Sauk County, Wisconsin, were affected by several contaminants as a result of production and waste disposal practices common during its operation from 1942 to 1975. Three distinct plumes of contaminated groundwater originate on BAAP property and extend off-site, as identified...
A revised position for the primary strand of the Pleistocene-Holocene San Andreas fault in southern California
Kim Blisniuk, Katherine M. Scharer, Warren Sharp, Roland Burgmann, Colin Amos, Michael Rymer
2021, Science Advances (7)
The San Andreas fault has the highest calculated time-dependent probability for large-magnitude earthquakes in southern California. However, where the fault is multistranded east of the Los Angeles metropolitan area, it has been uncertain which strand has the fastest slip rate and, therefore, which has the highest probability of a destructive...
Across borders: External factors and prior behaviour influence North Pacific albatross associations with fishing vessels
Rachael A Orben, Josh Adams, Michelle M. Hester, Scott A. Shaffer, Robert M. Suryan, Tomo Deguchi, Kiyoaki Ozaki, Fumio Sato, Lindsay C. Young, Corey A. Clatterbuck, Melinda G. Conners, David A Kroodsma, Leigh G Torres
2021, Journal of Applied Ecology (58) 1272-1283
Understanding encounters between marine predators and fisheries across national borders and outside national jurisdictions offers new perspectives on unwanted interactions to inform ocean management and predator conservation. Although seabird–fisheries overlap has been documented at many scales, remote identification of vessel encounters has lagged because vessel movement data often are...
Exploring VIIRS continuity with MODIS in an expedited capability for monitoring drought-related vegetation conditions
Trenton D Benedict, Jesslyn F. Brown, Stephen P. Boyte, Daniel Howard, Brian Fuchs, Brian D. Wardlow, Tsegaye Tadesse, Kirk Evenson
2021, Remote Sensing (13)
Vegetation has been effectively monitored using remote sensing time-series vegetation index (VI) data for several decades. Drought monitoring has been a common application with algorithms tuned to capturing anomalous temporal and spatial vegetation patterns. Drought stress models, such as the Vegetation Drought Response Index (VegDRI), often use VIs like the...
Genetic structure of Maryland Brook Trout populations: Management implications for a threatened species
Raymond P. Morgan II, David C. Kazyak, Tim L. King, Barbara A. Lubinski, Matthew T. Sell, Alan A Heft, Jess W Jones
2021, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (41) 1097-1119
Brook Trout Salvelinus fontinalis have declined across their native range due to multiple anthropogenic factors, including landscape alteration and climate change. Although coldwater streams in Maryland (eastern United States) historically supported significant Brook Trout populations, only fragmented remnant populations remain, with the exception of the upper Savage River...
Natural and anthropogenic geochemical tracers to investigate residence times and groundwater–surface-water interactions in an urban alluvial aquifer
Connor P. Newman, Suzanne S. Paschke, Gabrielle L. Keith
2021, Water (13)
A multi-component geochemical dataset was collected from groundwater and surface-water bodies associated with the urban Fountain Creek alluvial aquifer, Colorado, USA, to facilitate analysis of recharge sources, geochemical interactions, and groundwater-residence times. Results indicate that groundwater can be separated into three distinct geochemical zones based on location within the flow...
Assessment of a claimed ultra-low frequency electromagnetic (ULFEM) earthquake precursor
Can Wang, Lilianna Christman, Simon Klemperer, Jonathan M.G. Glen, Darcy McPhee, Chen Bin
2021, Geophysical Journal International (229) 2081-2095
The rate of occurrence of anomalous ultra-low frequency electromagnetic (ULFEM) pulses has been claimed to have increased days to weeks prior to the M5.4 2007 and M4.0 2010 Alum Rock earthquakes. We re-examine the previously reported ultra-low frequency (ULF: 0.01–10 Hz) magnetic data recorded at a QuakeFinder site located 9 km...
Earth Resources Observation and Science Center hosting services
U.S. Geological Survey
2021, Fact Sheet 2021-3018
The Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center has a long history of leveraging technology in support of Earth science and business applications including data management, processing, and virtualization and complex solutions to visualize and distribute data. It is the aim of EROS to offer operational excellence and service as...
The basin characterization model—A regional water balance software package
Lorraine E. Flint, Alan L. Flint, Michelle A. Stern
2021, Techniques and Methods 6-H1
This report documents the computer software package, Basin Characterization Model, version 8 (BCMv8)—a monthly, gridded, regional water-balance model—and provides detailed operational instructions and example applications. After several years of many applications and uses of a previous version, CA-BCM, published in 2014, the BCMv8 was refined to improve the accuracy of...
Groundwater, surface-water, and water-chemistry data, Black Mesa area, northeastern Arizona—2016–2018
Jon P. Mason
2021, Open-File Report 2021-1124
The Navajo (N) aquifer is the primary source of groundwater in the 5,400-square-mile Black Mesa area in northeastern Arizona. Availability of water is an important issue in the Black Mesa area because of continued water requirements for industrial and municipal use by a growing population and because of its arid...
Synoptic analysis of a decade of daily measurements of SO2 emission in the troposphere from volcanoes of the global ground-based Network for Observation of Volcanic and Atmospheric Change
Santiago Arellano, Bo Galle, Fredy Apaza, Geoffroy Avard, Charlotte Barrington, Nicole Bobrowski, Claudia Bucarey, Viviana Burbano, Mike Burton, Zoraida Chacon, Gustavo Chigna, Christian Joseph Clarito, Vladimir Conde, Fidel Costa, Maarten de Moor, Hugo Delgado-Granados, Andrea Di Muro, D. Fernandez, Gustavo Garzon, Hendra Gunawan, Nia Haerani, Thor Hansteen, Silvana Hidalgo, Salvatore Inguaggiato, Mattias Johansson, Christoph Kern, Manne Kihlman, Philippe Kowalski, Pablo Masias, Francisco Montalvo, Joakim Moller, Ulrich Platt, Claudia Rivera, Armando Saballos, Giuseppe Salerno, Benoit Taisne, Freddy Vasconez, Gabriela Velazquez, Fabio Vita, Mathieu M. Yalire
2021, Earth System Science Data (13) 1167-1188
Volcanic plumes are common and far-reaching manifestations of volcanic activity during and between eruptions. Observations of the rate of emission and composition of volcanic plumes are essential to recognize and, in some cases, predict the state of volcanic activity. Measurements of the size and location of the plumes are...
