Advancing cave detection using terrain analysis and thermal imagery
J. Judson Wynne, Jeff Jenness, Derek Sonderegger, Timothy N. Titus, Murzy D. Jhabvala, Nathalie A. Cabrol
2021, Remote Sensing (13)
Since the initial experiments nearly 50 years ago, techniques for detecting caves using airborne and spacecraft acquired thermal imagery have improved markedly. These advances are largely due to a combination of higher instrument sensitivity, modern computing systems, and processor-intensive analytical techniques. Through applying these advancements, our goals...
Digital elevation models: Terminology and definitions
Peter L. Guth, Adriaan Van Niekerk, Carlos H. Grohmann, Jan-Peter Muller, Laurence Hawker, Igor V. Florinsky, Dean B. Gesch, Hannes I. Reuter, Virginia Herrera-Cruz, Serge Riazanoff, Carlos Lopez-Vazquez, Claudia C. Carabajal, Clement Albinet, Peter Strobl
2021, Remote Sensing (13)
Digital elevation models (DEMs) provide fundamental depictions of the three-dimensional shape of the Earth’s surface and are useful to a wide range of disciplines. Ideally, DEMs record the interface between the atmosphere and the lithosphere using a discrete two-dimensional grid, with complexities introduced by the intervening hydrosphere,...
The application of metacommunity theory to the management of riverine ecosystems
Christopher J. Patrick, Kurt E. Anderson, Brown L. Brown, Charles P. Hawkins, Anya N. Metcalfe, Parsa Saffarinia, Tadeu Siqueira, Christopher M. Swan, Jonathan D. Tonkin, Lester L. Yuan
2021, WIREs Water (8)
River managers strive to use the best available science to sustain biodiversity and ecosystem function. To achieve this goal requires consideration of processes at different scales. Metacommunity theory describes how multiple species from different communities potentially interact with local-scale environmental drivers to influence population dynamics and community structure. However, this...
A machine learning approach to modeling streamflow with sparse data in ungaged watersheds on the Wyoming Range, Wyoming, 2012–17
Ryan R. McShane, Cheryl A. Eddy-Miller
2021, Scientific Investigations Report 2021-5093
Scant availability of streamflow data can impede the utility of streamflow as a variable in ecological models of aquatic and terrestrial species, especially when studying small streams in watersheds that lack streamgages. Streamflow data at fine resolution and broad extent were needed by collaborators for ecological research on small streams...
Intraspecific variation mediates density dependence in a genetically diverse plant species
Andrii Zaiats, Matthew J. Germino, Marcelo D. Serpe, Bryce Richardson, Trevor Caughlin
2021, Ecology (102)
Interactions between neighboring plants are critical for biodiversity maintenance in plant populations and communities. Intraspecific trait variation and genome duplication are common in plant species and can drive eco-evolutionary dynamics through genotype-mediated plant–plant interactions. However, few studies have examined how species-wide intraspecific variation may alter interactions between neighboring plants. We...
Integrating socioecological suitability with human-wildlife conflict risk: Case study for translocation of a large ungulate
Nicholas P. McCann, Eric M. Walberg, James D. Forester, Michael W. Schrage, David C. Fulton, Mark A. Ditmer
2021, Journal of Applied Ecology (58) 2810-2820
Translocations are essential for re-establishing wildlife populations. As they sometimes fail, it is critical to assess factors that influence their success pre-translocation.Socioecological suitability models (SESMs) integrate social acceptance and ecological suitability to enable identification of areas where wildlife populations will expand, which makes it likely that SESMs will also...
Improved scaling relationships for seismic moment and average slip of strike-slip earthquakes incorporating fault slip rate, fault width and stress drop
John G. Anderson, Glenn Biasi, Stephen J. Angster, Stephen G. Wesnousky
2021, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (111) 2379-2392
We develop a self‐consistent scaling model relating magnitude Mw to surface rupture length (LE), surface displacement DE, and rupture width WE, for strike‐slip faults. Knowledge of the long‐term fault‐slip rate SF improves magnitude estimates. Data are collected for 55 ground‐rupturing strike‐slip earthquakes that have geological estimates...
A protocol for modelling generalised biological responses using latent variables in structural equation models
James B. Grace, Magdalena Steiner
Gbenga Akomolafe, editor(s)
2021, One Ecosystem (6)
In this paper we consider the problem of how to quantitatively characterize the degree to which a study object exhibits a generalized response. By generalized response, we mean a multivariate response where numerous individual properties change in concerted fashion due to some internal integration. In latent variable structural equation modeling...
Instrumental variable methods in structural equation models
James Grace
Michael Morrissey, editor(s)
2021, Methods in Ecology and Evolution (12) 1148-1157
Instrumental variable regression (RegIV) provides a means for detecting and correcting parameter bias in causal models. Widely used in economics, recently several papers have highlighted its potential utility for ecological applications. Little attention has thus far been paid to the fact that IV methods can also be implemented within...
Conservation of northwestern and southwestern pond turtles: Threats, population size estimates, and population viability analysis
Stephanie Manzo, E. Griffin Nicholson, Devereux. Zachary, Robert N. Fisher, Christopher W. Brown, Peter A Scott, H. Bradley Shaffer
2021, Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management (12) 485-501
Accurate status assessments of long-lived, widely distributed taxa depend on the availability of long-term monitoring data from multiple populations. However, monitoring populations across large temporal and spatial scales is often beyond the scope of any one researcher or research group. Consequently, wildlife managers may be...
The evolution of geospatial reasoning, analytics, and modeling
Samantha T. Arundel, Wenwen Li
2021, Book chapter, The Geographic Information Science & Technology Body of Knowledge
The field of geospatial analytics and modeling has a long history coinciding with the physical and cultural evolution of humans. This history is analyzed relative to the four scientific paradigms: (1) empirical analysis through description, (2) theoretical explorations using models and generalizations, (3)...
Reinterpreting the Bruun Rule in the context of equilibrium shoreline models
Maurizio D’Anna, Deborah Idier, Bruno Castelle, Sean Vitousek, Goneri Le Cozannet
2021, Journal of Marine Science and Engineering (9)
Long-term (>decades) coastal recession due to sea-level rise (SLR) has been estimated using the Bruun Rule for nearly six decades. Equilibrium-based shoreline models have been shown to skillfully predict short-term wave-driven shoreline change on time scales of hours to decades. Both the Bruun Rule and equilibrium shoreline...
Post audit of simulated groundwater flow to a short-lived (2019-2020) crater lake at Kīlauea Volcano
Ashton F. Flinders, James P. Kauahikaua, Paul A. Hsieh, Steven E. Ingebritsen
2021, Groundwater (60) 64-70
About 14.5 months after the 2018 eruption and summit collapse of Kīlauea Volcano, Hawaiʻi, liquid water started accumulating in the deepened summit crater, forming a lake that attained 51 m depth before rapidly boiling off on December 20, 2020, when an eruption from the crater wall poured lava...
Towards building a sustainable future: Positioning ecological modelling for impact in ecosystems management
Don DeAngelis, Daniel Franco, Alan Hastings, Frank M. Hilker, Suzanne Lenhart, Frithjof Lutscher, Natalia Petrovskaya, Sergei Petrovskii, Rebecca C. Tyson
2021, Bulletin of Mathematical Biology (83)
As many ecosystems worldwide are in peril, efforts to manage them sustainably require scientific advice. While numerous researchers around the world use a great variety of models to understand ecological dynamics and their responses to disturbances, only a small fraction of these models are ever used to inform ecosystem management....
Demographic modeling informs functional connectivity and management interventions in Graham’s beardtongue
Matthew Richard Jones, Daniel E. Winkler, Robert Massatti
2021, Conservation Genetics (22) 993-1003
Functional connectivity (i.e., the movement of individuals across a landscape) is essential for the maintenance of genetic variation and persistence of rare species. However, illuminating the processes influencing functional connectivity and ultimately translating this knowledge into management practice remains a fundamental challenge. Here, we combine various...
Machine learning predictions of mean ages of shallow well samples in the Great Lakes Basin, USA
Christopher Green, Katherine Marie Ransom, Bernard T. Nolan, Lixia Liao, Thomas Harter
2021, Journal of Hydrology (603)
The travel time or “age” of groundwater affects catchment responses to hydrologic changes, geochemical reactions, and time lags between management actions and responses at down-gradient streams and wells. Use of atmospheric tracers has facilitated the characterization of groundwater ages, but most wells lack such...
Evaluating stereo digital terrain model quality at Mars Rover Landing Sites with HRSC, CTX, and HiRISE Images
Randolph L. Kirk, David Mayer, Robin L. Fergason, Bonnie L. Redding, Donna M. Galuszka, Trent M. Hare, Klaus Gwinner
2021, Remote Sensing (13)
We have used high-resolution digital terrain models (DTMs) of two rover landing sites based on mosaicked images from the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera as a reference to evaluate DTMs based on High-Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) and Context Camera (CTX) images. The Next-Generation Automatic Terrain Extraction...
Simulated effects of sea-level rise on the shallow, fresh groundwater system of Assateague Island, Maryland and Virginia
Brandon J. Fleming, Jeff P. Raffensperger, Phillip J. Goodling, John P. Masterson
2021, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5104
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the National Park Service, developed a three-dimensional groundwater-flow model for Assateague Island in eastern Maryland and Virginia to assess the effects of sea-level rise on the groundwater system. Sea-level rise is expected to increase the altitude of the water table in barrier island...
Landscape features fail to explain spatial genetic structure in white-tailed deer across Ohio, USA
Javan M. Bauder, Christine S. Anderson, H. Lisle Gibbs, Michael J. Tonkovich, W. David Walter
2021, Journal of Wildlife Management (85) 1669-1684
Landscape features influence wildlife movements across spatial scales and have the potential to influence the spread of disease. Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a fatal prion disease affecting members of the family Cervidae, particularly white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), and the first positive CWD case in a wild deer in Ohio,...
Labeling poststorm coastal imagery for machine learning: Measurement of interrater agreement
Evan B. Goldstein, Daniel D. Buscombe, Eli D. Lazarus, Somya Mohanty, Shah N. Rafique, K A Anarde, Andrew D Ashton, Tomas Beuzen, Katherine A. Castagno, Nicholas Cohn, Matthew P. Conlin, Ashley Ellenson, Megan Gillen, Paige A. Hovenga, Jin-Si R. Over, Rose V. Palermo, Katherine Ratlif, Ian R Reeves, Lily H. Sanborn, Jessamin A. Straub, Luke A. Taylor, Elizabeth J. Wallace, Jonathan A. Warrick, Phillipe Alan Wernette, Hannah E Williams
2021, Earth and Space Science (8)
Classifying images using supervised machine learning (ML) relies on labeled training data—classes or text descriptions, for example, associated with each image. Data-driven models are only as good as the data used for training, and this points to the importance of high-quality labeled data for developing a ML...
Individual variation in temporal dynamics of post-release habitat selection
Simona Picardi, Nathan Ranc, Brian J. Smith, Peter S. Coates, Steven R. Mathews, David K. Dahlgren
2021, Frontiers in Conservation Science (2)
Translocated animals undergo a phase of behavioral adjustment after being released in a novel environment, initially prioritizing exploration and gradually shifting toward resource exploitation. This transition has been termed post-release behavioral modification. Post-release behavioral modification may also manifest as changes in habitat selection through time, and these temporal dynamics...
Historical changes in plant water use and need in the continental United States
Michael T Terck, David Thoma, John E. Gross, Kirk R. Sherrill, Stefanie Kagone, Gabriel B. Senay
2021, PLoS ONE (16)
A robust method for characterizing the biophysical environment of terrestrial vegetation uses the relationship between Actual Evapotranspiration (AET) and Climatic Water Deficit (CWD). These variables are usually estimated from a water balance model rather than measured directly and are often more representative of ecologically-significant changes than...
Modelling tilt noise caused by atmospheric processes at long periods for several horizontal seismometers at BFO—A reprise
W. Zurn, T. Forbriger, R. Widmer-Schnidrig, P. Duffner, Adam T. Ringler
2021, Geophysical Journal International (228) 927-943
Tilting of the ground due to loading by the variable atmosphere is known to corrupt very long period horizontal seismic records (below 10 mHz) even at the quietest stations. At BFO (Black Forest Observatory, SW-Germany), the opportunity arose to study these disturbances on a variety of simultaneously operated state-of-the-art...
Precipitation-runoff processes in the Merced River Basin, Central California, with prospects for streamflow predictability, water years 1952–2013
Kathryn M. Koczot, John C. Risley, JoAnn M. Gronberg, John M. Donovan, Kelly R. McPherson
2021, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5150
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the California Department of Water Resources (DWR), has constructed a new spatially detailed Precipitation-Runoff Modeling System (PRMS) model for the Merced River Basin, California, which is a tributary of the San Joaquin River in California. Operated through an Object User Interface (OUI) with...
LakeEnsemblR: An R package that facilitates ensemble modelling of lakes
Tadhg N. Moore, Jorrit P. Mesman, Robert Ladwig, Johannes Feldbauer, Freya Olsson, Rachel M. Pilla, Tom Shatwell, Jason J. Venkiteswaran, Austin D. Delany, Hilary A. Dugan, Kevin C. Rose, Jordan Read
2021, Environmental Modelling & Software (143)
Model ensembles have several benefits compared to single-model applications but are not frequently used within the lake modelling community. Setting up and running multiple lake models can be challenging and time consuming, despite the many similarities between the existing models (forcing data, hypsograph, etc.). Here we present an R package,...
