Restoration of Gavia immer (common loon) in Minnesota—2022 annual report
William S. Beatty, Luke J. Fara, Steven C. Houdek, Robert Rabasco, Spencer Rettler, Elizabeth Rasmussen, Kevin P. Kenow, Brian R. Gray, Steven Yang, Kelly Amoth
2023, Open-File Report 2023-1062
The explosion of the Deepwater Horizon mobile drilling platform on April 20, 2010, caused a massive oil spill and injury to natural resources in the Gulf of Mexico. Gavia immer (common loon) were negatively affected from the spill. The Open Ocean Trustee Implementation Group funded the project “Restoration of Common...
Widespread retreat of coastal habitat is likely at warming levels above 1.5 °C
Neil Saintilan, Benjamin Horton, Torbjörn Törnqvist, Erica Ashe, Nicole Khan, Mark Schuerch, Chris Perry, Robert E. Kopp, Gregory Garner, Nicholas Murray, Kerrylee Rogers, Simon Albert, Jeffrey Kelleway, Timothy Shaw, Colin D. Woodroffe, Catherine E. Lovelock, Madeline Goddard, Lindsay B. Hutley, Katya Kovalenko, Laura Feher, Glenn R. Guntenspergen
2023, Nature (621) 112-119
Several coastal ecosystems—most notably mangroves and tidal marshes—exhibit biogenic feedbacks that are facilitating adjustment to relative sea-level rise (RSLR), including the sequestration of carbon and the trapping of mineral sediment<a id="ref-link-section-d6940227e925" title="Morris, J. T. et al. Contributions of organic and inorganic matter to sediment volume and accretion in tidal wetlands...
Estimating fat content in barred owls (Strix varia) with predictive models developed from direct measures of proximate body composition
Ryan C. Baumbusch, Katie Dugger, David Wiens
2023, Conservation Physiology (11)
Body condition indices and related metrics can help assess habitat quality and other ecological processes, and ideally, these metrics are based on measures of lipids directly extracted from the species of interest. In recent decades, barred owls (Strix varia) have become a species of conservation concern as they invaded older...
Reanalysis ignores pertinent data, includes inappropriate observations, and disregards realities of applied ecology: Response to Huso and Dalthorp (2023)
Christopher J.W. McClure, Brian W. Rolek, Leah Dunn, Jennifer D. McCabe, Luke Martinson, Todd E. Katzner
2023, Journal of Applied Ecology (60) 2289-2294
1) We recently demonstrated efficacy of automated curtailment of wind turbines in reducing fatalities of eagles at a study site in Wyoming, USA. Huso and Dalthorp criticize our work, asserting that there are several ‘major errors’ that render our previous work as providing ‘no meaningful support’ for automated...
Reanalysis indicates little evidence of reduction in eagle mortality rate by automated curtailment of wind turbines
Manuela Huso, Daniel Dalthorp
2023, Journal of Applied Ecology (60) 2282-2288
Unintended consequences of renewable energy development include collision-caused deaths of birds and bats. Energy companies may risk prosecution if protected species are among the casualties. Shutting down turbines during high collision-risk conditions could reduce mortality rates, and several companies are developing systems to identify such conditions.A recent peer-reviewed article...
Influence of human development and predators on patterns of Virginia opossum occupancy, abundance, and activity
John T. Veon, Ellery V. Lassiter, Emily Johansson, Michael Shaw, Leah McTigue, A. Massey, Rylee Gibson, Brett Alexander DeGregorio
2023, Journal of Zoology (321) 278-288
As human development continues to expand, wildlife must relocate or adapt to survive. Many mammalian mesopredators, such as the Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana), have adapted to living alongside human development. Furthermore, top-down predation pressure may be altered in nuanced ways within the human environment....
Roles of regional structures and country-rock facies in defining mineral belts in central Idaho mineral province with detail for Yellow Pine and Thunder Mountain mining districts
Karen Lund, John N. Aleinikoff, Christopher S. Holm-Denoma
2023, Professional Paper 1884
The central Idaho metallogenic province hosts numerous mineral deposit types. These include Late Cretaceous precious-polymetallic vein deposits, amagmatic Paleocene–Eocene breccia-hosted gold-tungsten-antimony deposits, and Eocene mercury deposits in metasedimentary roof pendants and in Late Cretaceous granitoids. Hot-springs gold deposits in Eocene volcanic rocks are also included in the central Idaho province....
Riparian vegetation response amid variable climate conditions across the Upper Gila River watershed: informing Tribal restoration priorities
Roy Petrakis
2023, Newsletter
Restoring degraded river systems is an enormous challenge, especially given the uncertainty in a time of climate change. Here, Roy Petrakis explains how restoration approaches informed by remote sensing and a climate adaptation framework increase the potential for overall success. He discusses research being done on the Gila River as...
Improvements and evaluation of the agro-hydrologic VegET model for large-area water budget analysis and drought monitoring
Gabriel B. Senay, Stefanie Kagone, Gabriel Edwin Lee Parrish, Kul Bikram Khand, Olena Boiko, Naga Manohar Velpuri
2023, Hydrology (10)
We enhanced the agro-hydrologic VegET model to include snow accumulation and melt processes and the separation of runoff into surface runoff and deep drainage. Driven by global weather datasets and parameterized by land surface phenology (LSP), the enhanced VegET model was implemented in the cloud to simulate daily soil moisture...
Methane pore accessibility, densification, and accommodation by organic matter in the Niobrara Formation at wet-gas thermal maturity conditions
Aaron M. Jubb, Leslie F. Ruppert, Tristan G. A. Youngs, Tom Headen, Justin E. Birdwell, Michael Cheshire, Martha Stokes
2023, International Journal of Coal Geology (277)
Petroleum within unconventional source-rock reservoirs is hosted in organic matter and mineral pore space as well as in voids and microfractures. Recent work has shown that for source-rock reservoirs in the dry gas window, significant portions of methane (CH4), the main component of petroleum at elevated maturities, can be...
Exploring the interior of Europa with the Europa Clipper
James Roberts, William B. McKinnon, Catherine Elder, Gabriel Tobie, John Biersteker, Duncan Young, Ryan S. Park, Gregor Steinbrugge, Francis Nimmo, Samuel Howell, Julie C. Castillo-Rogez, Morgan Cable, Jacob Abrahams, Michael T. Bland, Chase Chivers, Corey Cochrane, Andrew Dombard, Carolyn M. Ernst, Antonio Genova, Christopher Gerekos, Christopher R. Glein, Camilla Harris, Hamish Hay, Paul O. Hayne, Matthew Hedman, Hauke Hussmann, Xianzhe Jia, Krishan Khurana, Walter Kiefer, Randolph L. Kirk, Margaret Kivelson, Justin D. Lawrence, Erin J. Leonard, Jonathan Lunine, Erwan Mazarico, Thomas B. McCord, Alfred S. McEwen, Carol Paty, Lynnae Quick, Carol A. Raymond, Kurt Retherford, Lorenz Roth, Abigail Rymer, Joachim Saur, Kirk Scanlan, Dustin Schroeder, David Senske, Wencheng Shao, Krista Soderlund, Elizabeth Spiers, Marshall Styczinski, Paolo Tortora, Steven Vance, Michaela Villarreal, Benjamin Weiss, Joseph Westlake, Paul Withers, Natalie Wolfenbarger, Bonnie J. Buratti, Haje Korth, Robert Pappalardo, Interior Thematic Working Group
2023, Space Science Reviews (219)
The Galileo mission to Jupiter revealed that Europa is an ocean world. The Galileo magnetometer experiment in particular provided strong evidence for a salty subsurface ocean beneath the ice shell, likely in contact with the rocky core. Within the ice shell and ocean, a number of tectonic and geodynamic processes...
Macroscale analyses suggest invasive plant impacts depend more on the composition of invading plants than on environmental context
Evelyn M. Beaury, Helen Sofaer, Regan Early, Ian Pearse, Dana M. Blumenthal, Jeffrey Corbin, Jeffrey M. Diez, Jeffrey Dukes, David Barnett, Ines Ibanez, Laís Petri, Montserrat Vilà, Bethany A. Bradley
2023, Global Ecology and Biogeography (23) 1964-1976
AimNative biodiversity is threatened by the spread of non-native invasive species. Many studies demonstrate that invasions reduce local biodiversity but we lack an understanding of how impacts vary across environments at the macroscale. Using ~11,500 vegetation surveys from ecosystems across the United States, we quantified how the...
Potential economic consequences along migratory flyways from reductions in breeding habitat of migratory waterbirds
Wayne E. Thogmartin, James H. Devries, Darius J. Semmens, James E. Diffendorfer, James A. Dubovksy, Jonathan J. Derbridge, Brady J. Mattsson
2023, Biological Conservation (285)
The migration of species, often across continents, makes it difficult to quantify the cumulative effects of local- and regional-scale conservation actions. Further, variation in stakeholder interests, differing jurisdictional governance processes, priorities, and monitoring abilities across the migratory range shapes place-specific differences in...
Assessing contaminants of emerging concern in the Great Lakes Ecosystem: A decade of method development and practical application
Gerald T. Ankley, Steven R. Corsi, Christine M. Custer, Drew R. Ekman, Stephanie L. Hummel, Kimani L. Kimbrough, Heiko L. Schoenfuss, Daniel L. Villeneuve
2023, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (42) 2506-2518
Assessing the ecological risk of contaminants in the field typically involves consideration of a complex mixture of compounds which may or may not be detected via instrumental analyses. Further, there are insufficient data to predict the potential biological effects of many detected compounds, leading...
Earth’s mantle composition revealed by mantle plumes
Dominique Weis, Karen Harpp, Lauren N Harrison, Maud Boyet, Catherine Chauvel, Cinzia Farnetani, Val Finlayson, Kanai Lee, Rita Parai, Anat Shahar, Nicole Williamson
2023, Nature Reviews in Earth and Environment (4) 604-625
Mantle plumes originate at depths near the core−mantle boundary (~2,800 km). As such, they provide invaluable information about the composition of the deep mantle and insight into convection, crustal formation, and crustal recycling, as well as global heat and volatile budgets. In this Review, we discuss the effectiveness and challenges...
Carbon sequestration and subsidence reversal in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and Suisun Bay: Management opportunities for climate mitigation and adaptation
Lisamarie Windham-Myers, Patty Oikawa, Steve Deverel, Dylan Chapple, Judith Z. Drexler, Dylan Stern
2023, San Francisco Estuary and Watershed Science (20)
The aquatic landscapes of the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta (hereafter, the Delta) and Suisun Bay represent both a significant past and future soil carbon stock. Historical alterations of hydrologic flows have led to depletion of soil carbon stocks via emissions of carbon dioxide...
Near surface sediments introduce low frequency noise into gravity models
Geoffrey Phelps, Collin Cronkite-Ratcliff
2023, Applied Computing and Geosciences (19)
3D geologic modeling and mapping often relies on gravity modeling to identify key geologic structures, such as basin depth, fault offset, or fault dip. Such gravity models generally assume either homogeneous or spatially uncorrelated densities within modeled rock bodies and overlying sediments, with average densities typically derived from surface and drill-hole sampling....
CGS: Coupled growth and survival model with cohort fairness
Erhu He, Yue Wan, Benjamin Letcher, Jennifer H. Fair, Yiquin Xie, Xiaowei Jia
2023, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the Thirty-Second International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence
Fish modeling in complex environments is critical for understanding drivers of population dynamics in aquatic systems. This paper proposes a Bayesian network method for modeling fish survival and growth over multiple connected rivers. Traditional fish survival models capture the effect of multiple environmental drivers (e.g., stream temperature, stream flow)...
The founding charter of the Omic Biodiversity Observation Network (Omic BON)
Raissa Meyer, Neil Davies, Kathleen J. Pitz, Christopher Meyer, Robyn Samuel, Jane Anderson, Ward Appeltans, Katharine Barker, Francisco P. Chavez, J. Emmett Duffy, Kelly D. Goodwin, Maui Hudson, Margaret Hunter, Johannes Karstensen, Christine M. Laney, Margaret Leinen, Paula Mabee, James A. Macklin, Frank Muller-Karger, Nicolas Pade, Jay Pearlman, Lori Phillips, Pieter Provoost, Ioulia Santi, Dmitry Schigel, Lynn M. Schriml, Alice Soccodato, Saara Suominen, Katherine M. Thibault, Visotheary Ung, Jodie van de Kamp, Elycia Wallis, Ramona Walls, Pier Luigi Buttigieg
2023, GigaScience (12)
Omic BON is a thematic Biodiversity Observation Network under the Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON), focused on coordinating the observation of biomolecules in organisms and the environment. Our founding partners include representatives from national, regional, and global observing systems; standards organizations; and data and sample management...
Modeling the water-quality effects to the Klamath River from recirculation in drains and canals, Oregon and California, 2006–15
Erik A. Smith, Annett B. Sullivan
2023, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5059
The potential recirculation of Klamath Strait Drain (hereafter called by its local name, “Klamath Straits Drain”) water into Ady Canal to reduce the drain discharge of high nutrient loads into the Klamath River was assessed by the U.S. Geological Survey for the Bureau of Reclamation. To study the feasibility of...
Hydrogeology and simulated groundwater availability in reaches 3 and 4 of the Washita River aquifer, southern Oklahoma, 1980–2017
Ian M.J. Rogers, S. Jerrod Smith, Nicole C. Gammill, Natalie J. Gillard, Kayla A. Lockmiller, Evin J. Fetkovich, Jessica S. Correll, Sean P. Hussey
2023, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5072
The 1973 Oklahoma Groundwater Law (Oklahoma Statutes §82–1020.5) requires that the Oklahoma Water Resources Board conduct hydrologic investigations of the State’s aquifers to determine the maximum annual yield for each groundwater basin. Because more than 20 years have elapsed since the final order was issued, the U.S. Geological Survey, in...
Confirmation of significant sea turtle nesting activity on a remote island chain in the Gulf of Mexico
Margaret Lamont, Dianne Ingram, Todd Baker, Matt Weigel, Brian M. Shamblin
2023, Ecology and Evolution (13)
Globally, six of the seven sea turtle species are threatened or endangered and as such, monitoring reproductive activity for these species is necessary for effective population recovery. Remote beaches provide a challenge to conducting these surveys, which often results in data gaps that can hamper management planning. Throughout the summer...
Learnings from rapid response efforts to remotely detect landslides triggered by the August 2021 Nippes earthquake and Tropical Storm Grace in Haiti
Pukar Amatya, Corey Scheip, Aline Deprez, Jean-Philippe Malet, Stephen L. Slaughter, Alexander L. Handwerger, Robert Emberson, Dalia Kirschbaum, Julien Jean-Baptiste, Mong-Han Huang, Marin Clark, Dimitrios Zekkos, Jhih-Rou Huang, Fabrizio Pacini, Enguerran Boissier
2023, Natural Hazards (118) 2337-2375
On August 14, 2021, a Mw 7.2 earthquake struck the Tiburon Peninsula of western Haiti triggering thousands of landslides. Three days after the earthquake on August 17, 2021, Tropical Storm Grace crossed shallow waters offshore of southern Haiti triggering more landslides worsening the situation. In the aftermath of these events, several organizations...
Evolution of Miocene normal and dextral faulting in the lower Colorado River region near Blythe, California, USA
Skyler Pendleton Mavor, Scott E.K. Bennett, Ryan S. Crow, John S. Singleton, Victoria Langenheim, Daniel F. Stockli, Mark E. Stelten, Timothy Brickey, Paul J. Umhoefer, L. Sue Beard
2023, Geosphere (19) 1180-1209
The evolution of strain in nascent continental plate boundaries commonly involves distributed deformation and transitions between different styles of deformation as the plate boundary matures. Distributed NW-striking faults, many with km-scale right-lateral separation, are prevalent near Blythe, California, and have been variably interpreted...
A residual oil zone (ROZ) assessment methodology with application to the central basin platform (Permian Basin, USA) for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and long-term geologic CO2 storage
C. Ozgen Karacan, Sean T. Brennan, Marc L. Buursink, Philip A. Freeman, Celeste D. Lohr, Matthew D. Merrill, Ricardo A. Olea, Peter D. Warwick
2023, Geoenergy Science and Engineering (230)
Residual oil zones (ROZ) form due to various geologic conditions and are located below the oil/water contact (OWC) of main pay zones (MPZ). Since ROZs usually contain immobile oil, they have not typically been considered commercially attractive for development by conventional primary recovery methods used in the initial phases...
