So, you want to build a decision-support tool? Assessing successes, barriers, and lessons learned for tool design and development
Amanda D. Stoltz, Amanda E. Cravens, Nicole M. Herman-Mercer, Chung Yi Hou
2023, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5076
The purpose of this study is to increase understanding of how the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is developing decision-support tools (DSTs) by documenting successes and barriers across all levels of USGS scientific tool creation and outreach. These findings will help streamline future tool design and development processes. We provide a...
Design and utility of automatous, floating bait delivery platform for applying fish management baits
James J. Wamboldt
2023, Techniques and Methods 8-D2
Using manufactured baits to attract fish to passive gear is common practice in fisheries management. The most common method is using hoop nets baited with soybean cakes or waste cheese to increase captures of multiple catfish species; however, these techniques are limited to how often bait is added, the type...
Species management research program [postcard]
Melanie J. Steinkamp, Mona Khalil, Sally House, Mark Wimer, David H. Hu, Michael J. Adams
2023, General Information Product 226
Executive SummaryOur nation’s fish and wildlife species face increasingly complex threats and challenges. Ensuring a healthy future for these species benefits all Americans, contributing to the abundance of our food supply, the well-being of diverse cultures and communities, and the future of biodiverse ecosystems. The U.S. Geological Survey Species Management...
Southern (California) sea otter population status and trends at San Nicolas Island, 2020–2023
Julie L. Yee, Joseph A. Tomoleoni, Michael C. Kenner, Jessica A. Fujii, Gena B. Bentall, Michelle M. Staedler, Brian B. Hatfield
2023, Open-File Report 2023-1071
The population of southern sea otters (Enhydra lutris nereis) at San Nicolas Island, California, has been monitored annually since the translocation of 140 southern sea otters to the island was completed in 1990. Monitoring efforts have varied in frequency and type across years. In 2017, the U.S. Navy and the...
Transferring deep learning models for hydrographic feature extraction from IfSAR data in Alaska
Larry V. Stanislawski, Nattapon Jaroenchai, Shaowen Wang, Ethan J. Shavers, Alexander Duffy, Philip T. Thiem, Zhe Jiang, Adam Camerer
2023, Conference Paper
The National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) managed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is being updated with higher-quality feature representations through efforts that derive hydrography from 3DEP HR elevation datasets. Deriving hydrography from elevation through traditional flow routing and interactive methods is a complex, time-consuming process that must be tailored for...
Generalization quality metrics to support multiscale mapping: Hausdorff and average distance between polylines
Barry J. Kronenfeld, Larry Stanislawski, Barbara P. Buttenfield, Ethan J. Shavers
2023, Conference Paper
Large geospatial datasets must often be generalized for analysis and display at reduced scales. Automated methods including artificial intelligence and deep learning are being applied to this problem, but the results are often analyzed on the basis of limited and subjective measures. To better support automation, a project is underway...
Toward conciliation in the habitat fragmentation and biodiversity debate
Jonathon Joseph Valente, Dustin G. Gannon, Jessica Hightower, Hankyu Kim, Kara G. Leimberger, Rossana Macedo, Josee Rousseau, Matthew Weldy, Rachel Zitomer, Lenore Fahrig, Robert J. Fletcher Jr., Jianguo Wu, Matthew G. Betts
2023, Landscape Ecology (38) 2717-2730
Landscape-scale conservation planning is urgent given the extent of anthropogenic land-use change and its pervasive impacts on Earth’s biodiversity. However, such efforts are hindered by disagreements over the effects of habitat fragmentation on biodiversity that have persisted since the mid-1970s. We contend that nearly 50 years later, these disagreements have...
Colorado River Basin Actionable and Strategic Integrated Science and Technology (ASIST) pilot project progress toward an information management and technology plan
Eric D. Anderson, Jennifer R. Erxleben, Sharon L. Qi, Adrian P. Monroe, Katharine G. Dahm
2023, Circular 1510
Executive SummaryThe U.S. Geological Survey carries out a wide variety of multidisciplinary science projects through the Bureau’s regions, mission areas, programs, and science centers. However, this structure can limit interactions among individual scientists, segregate data holdings, and make it difficult to apply holistic, interdisciplinary science. In addition, technological advances in...
Spatio-temporal clustering of post-caldera eruptions at Yellowstone caldera: Implications for volcanic hazards and pre-eruptive magma reservoir configuration
Mark E. Stelten, Nicole Thomas, Anthony Francis Pivarunas, Duane Champion
2023, Bulletin of Volcanology (85)
At least 28 rhyolitic lava flows, domes, and tuffs erupted within Yellowstone caldera following its formation 631 ka. Understanding the timing of intracaldera eruptions is essential for characterizing natural hazards posed by Yellowstone volcano. We present 40Ar/39Ar eruption ages for the Mallard Lake Member and Central Plateau Member of the Plateau...
Comment on “A new decade in seismoacoustics (2010–2022)” by Fransiska Dannemann Dugick, Clinton Koch, Elizabeth Berg, Stephen Arrowsmith, and Sarah Albert
Adam T. Ringler, Robert E. Anthony, Brian Shiro, Toshiro Tanimoto, David C. Wilson
2023, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (113) 2746-2752
An increase in seismic stations also having microbarographs has led to increased interest in the field of seismoacoustics. A review of the recent advances in this field can be found in Dannemann Dugick et al. (2023). The goal of this note is to draw the attention of the readers of <a...
Application of a catch multiple survey analysis for Atlantic horseshoe crab Limulus polyphemus in the Delaware Bay
Kristen A. Anstead, John A. Sweka, Linda Barry, Eric M. Hallerman, David R. Smith, Natalie Ameral, Michael Schmidtke, Richard A. Wong
2023, Marine and Coastal Fisheries: Dynamics, Management, and Ecosystem Science (15)
ObjectiveThis paper applies a catch multiple survey analysis (CMSA) to Atlantic horseshoe crabs Limulus polyphemus in the Delaware Bay to generate robust population estimates for harvest management. Currently, horseshoe crabs along the U.S. Atlantic coast are harvested as bait for other fisheries and collected for their blood, which is...
Status, trend, and monitoring effectiveness of Marbled Murrelet (Brachyramphus marmoratus) at sea abundance and reproductive output off central California, 1999–2021
Jonathan Felis, Josh Adams, Benjamin H. Becker
2023, Open-File Report 2023-1065
Marbled Murrelets (Brachyramphus marmoratus) have been listed as “endangered” by the State of California and “threatened” by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service since 1992 in California, Oregon, and Washington. Information regarding murrelet abundance, distribution, and habitat associations is critical for risk assessment, effective management, evaluation of conservation efficacy, and...
Prioritization of species status assessments for decision support
Ashley B.C. Goode, Erin Rivenbark, Jessica A. Gilbert, Conor P. McGowan
2023, Decision Analysis (20) 311-325
Species status assessments are used to inform U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) decision making for Endangered Species Act (ESA) classification decisions, recovery planning, and more. The large number of species that require assessment and uncertainty in the data available impede the process of assigning and completing the assessments, which...
A synergistic future for AI and ecology
Barbara A. Han, Kush R. Varshney, Shannon L. LaDeau, Ajit Subramaniam, Kathleen C. Weathers, Jacob Aaron Zwart
2023, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (120)
Research in both ecology and AI strives for predictive understanding of complex systems, where nonlinearities arise from multidimensional interactions and feedbacks across multiple scales. After a century of independent, asynchronous advances in computational and ecological research, we foresee a critical need for intentional synergy to meet current societal challenges against...
The diversity of volcanic hazard maps around the world: Insights from map makers
Jan Lindsay, Danielle Charlton, Mary Ann T. Clive, Daniel Bertin, Sarah E. Ogburn, Heather M. Wright, John W. Ewert, Eliza S. Calder, Bastian Steinke
2023, Journal of Applied Volcanology (12)
The IAVCEI Working Group on Hazard Mapping has been active since 2014 and has facilitated several activities to enable sharing of experiences of how volcanic hazard maps are developed and used around the world. One key activity was a global survey of 90 map makers and practitioners to collect data...
Shallow fault slip of the 2020 M5.1 Sparta, North Carolina, earthquake
Frederick Pollitz
2023, Seismological Research Letters (94) 2831-2839
The 2020 M 5.1 Sparta, North Carolina, earthquake is the largest in the eastern United States since the 2011 M 5.8 Mineral, Virginia, earthquake and produced a ∼2.5‐km‐long surface rupture, unusual for an event of this magnitude. A geological field study conducted soon after the...
Pardus in the press: Drivers of leopard (Panthera pardus fusca) attack occurrence on humans in Nepal
Shashank Poudel, Joshua P. Twining, Richard C. Stedman, Shravan Kumar Ghimire, Angela K. Fuller
2023, People and Nature (5) 177-188
The negative impact of large carnivore presence in human-dominated landscapes manifests as livestock depredation and in extreme cases as attacks on humans. In the case of conflict with leopards in Nepal, attacks resulting in human fatality have become more frequent over time, thus creating an urgent socio-ecological and management...
ENSO and NAO linkages to interannual salinity variability in north central Gulf of Mexico estuaries through teleconnections with precipitation
Gregg Snedden
2023, Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science (293)
Though the importance of Earth's internal climate modes such as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) to regional-scale climate variability is well recognized, the degree to which these oscillations are reflected by spatio-temporal salinity variability over interannual timescales in estuaries is less understood. Here an 11-year continuous salinity monitoring dataset spanning 223 stations...
A reference genome assembly for the continentally distributed ring-necked snake, Diadophis punctatus
Erin P. Westeen, Merly Escalona, Eric Beraut, Mohan P. A. Marimuthu, Oanh Nguyen, Robert N. Fisher, Erin Toffelmier, H. Bradley Shaffer, Ian J. Wang
2023, Journal of Heredity (114) 690-697
Snakes in the family Colubridae include more than 2,000 currently recognized species, and comprise roughly 75% of the global snake species diversity on Earth. For such a spectacular radiation, colubrid snakes remain poorly understood ecologically and genetically. Two subfamilies, Colubrinae (788 species) and Dipsadinae (833 species), comprise the bulk...
a-positive: A robust estimator of the earthquake rate in incomplete or saturated catalogs
Nicholas van der Elst, Morgan T. Page
2023, JGR Solid Earth (128)
Detection thresholds in earthquake catalogs frequently change in time due to station coverage improvements and network saturation effects during active periods such as mainshock-aftershock cascades. This presents a challenge to seismicity-rate estimation; there is a tradeoff between using as low a minimum magnitude as possible to maximize...
Summary of the history and research of the U.S. Geological Survey gas hydrate properties laboratory in Menlo Park, California, active from 1993 to 2022
Laura A. Stern, Stephen H. Kirby
2023, Open-File Report 2023-1063
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Clathrate Hydrate Properties Project, active from 1993 to 2022 in Menlo Park, California, stemmed from an earlier project on the properties of planetary ices supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA’s) Planetary Geology and Geophysics Program. We took a material science approach in...
Priority research needs to inform amphibian conservation in the Anthropocene
Evan H. Campbell Grant, Staci M. Amburgey, Brian Gratwicke, Victor Acosta Chaves, Anat M. Belasen, David Bickford, Carsten Bruhl, Natalie E. Calatayud, Nick Clemann, Simon Clulow, Jelka Crnobrnja-Isailovic, Jeff Dawson, David A. De Angelis, C. Kenneth Dodd Jr., Annette Evans, Gentile Francesco Ficetola, Mattia Falaschi, Sergio Gonzalez-Mollinedo, David M. Green, Roseanna Gamlen-Greene, Richard A. Griffiths, Brian J. Halstead, Craig Hassapakis, Geoffrey Heard, Catharina Karlsson, Tom Kirschey, Blake Klocke, Tiffany A. Kosch, Sophia Kusterko Novaes, Luke Linhoff, John C. Maerz, Brittany A. Mosher, Katherine M. O'Donnell, Leticia M. Ochoa-Ochoa, Deanna H. Olson, Kristiina Ovaska, J. Dale Roberts, Aimee J. Silla, Tariq Stark, Jeanne Tarrant, R. Upton, Judit Voros, Erin L. Muths
2023, Conservation Science and Practice (5)
The problem of global amphibian declines has prompted extensive research over the last three decades. Initially, the focus was on identifying and characterizing the extent of the problem, but more recently efforts have shifted to evidence-based research designed to identify best solutions and to improve conservation outcomes. Despite extensive accumulation...
Polar bear's range dynamics and survival in the Holocene
Heikki Seppa, Marit-Solveig Seidenkrantz, Beth Elaine Caissie, Marc Macias Fauria
2023, Quaternary Science Reviews (317)
Polar bear (Ursus maritimus) is the apex predator of the Arctic, largely dependent on sea-ice. The expected disappearance of the ice cover of the Arctic seas by the mid 21st century is predicted to cause a dramatic decrease in the global range and population size of the species. To place...
Local topography and streambed hydraulic conductivity influence riparian groundwater age and groundwater-surface water connection
Sara R. Warix, Alexis Navarre-Sitchler, Andrew H. Manning, Kamini Singha
2023, Water Resources Research (59)
The western U.S. is experiencing increasing rain to snow ratios due to climate change, and scientists are uncertain how changing recharge patterns will affect future groundwater-surface water connection. We examined how watershed topography and streambed hydraulic conductivity impact groundwater age and stream discharge at eight sites along a headwater stream...
Testosterone identifies hatchling sex for Mojave desert tortoises (Gopherus agassizii)
M. A. Walden, Kevin J. Loope, Elizabeth Ann Hunter, Stephen J. Divers, Jessica R. Comolli, Todd Esque, Kevin T. Shoemaker
2023, Scientific Reports (13)
The threatened Mojave desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) exhibits temperature-dependent sex determination, and individuals appear externally sexually monomorphic until sexual maturity. A non-surgical sex identification method that is suitable for a single in situ encounter with hatchlings is essential for minimizing handling of wild animals. We tested...
