Arsenic in petroleum-contaminated groundwater near Bemidji, Minnesota is predicted to persist for centuries
Brady A. Ziegler, G.-H. Crystal Ng, Isabelle M. Cozzarelli, Aubrey J. Dunshee, Madeline E. Schreiber
2021, Water (13)
We used a reactive transport model to investigate the cycling of geogenic arsenic (As) in a petroleum-contaminated aquifer. We simulated As mobilization and sequestration using surface complexation reactions with Fe(OH)3 during petroleum biodegradation coupled with Fe-reduction. Model results predict that dissolved As in the plume will exceed the...
Status and understanding of groundwater quality in the northern Sierra Nevada foothills domestic-supply aquifer study units, 2015–17—California GAMA Priority Basin Project
Zeno F. Levy, Miranda S. Fram
2021, Scientific Investigations Report 2021-5019
Groundwater quality in the northern Sierra Nevada foothills region of California was investigated as part of California State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) Groundwater Ambient Monitoring Assessment Priority Basin Project (GAMA-PBP). The region was divided into two study units: the Yuba-Bear watersheds (YBW) study unit and the American-Cosumnes-Mokelumne watersheds (ACMW)...
Hydrologic and hydraulic analyses of selected streams near the city of Rittman in Wayne and Medina Counties, Ohio
Chad J. Ostheimer
2021, Scientific Investigations Report 2021-5040
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District and the city of Rittman, Ohio, did a study to provide data to update and expand parts of two Federal Emergency Management Agency Flood Insurance Studies. The study consisted of hydrologic and hydraulic analyses for selected reaches of...
Onset and evolution of Kilauea’s 2018 flank eruption and summit collapse from continuous gravity
Michael Poland, Daniele Carbone, Matthew R. Patrick
2021, Earth and Planetary Science Letters (567)
Prior to the 2018 lower East Rift Zone (ERZ) eruption and summit collapse of Kīlauea Volcano, Hawai‘i, continuous gravimeters operated on the vent rims of ongoing eruptions at both the summit and Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō. These instruments captured the onset of the 2018 lower ERZ eruption and the effects of lava...
Synthesizing and analyzing long-term monitoring data: A greater sage-grouse case study
Michael S. O’Donnell, David R. Edmunds, Cameron L. Aldridge, Julie A. Heinrichs, Adrian P. Monroe, Peter S. Coates, Brian G. Prochazka, Thomas J Christiansen, Steve E. Hanser, Lief A. Wiechman, Avery A Cook, Shawn P. Espinosa, Lee J. Foster, Kathleen A. Griffin, Jesse L. Kolar, Katherine Miller, Ann M. Moser, Thomas E. Remington, Travis J Runia, Leslie A Schreiber, Michael A Schroeder, San J Stiver, Nyssa I Whitford, Catherine S Wightman
2021, Ecological Informatics (63)
Long-term monitoring of natural resources is imperative for increasing the understanding of ecosystem processes, services, and how to manage those ecosystems to maintain or improve function. Challenges with using these data may occur because methods of monitoring changed over time, multiple...
Western pond turtles in the Mojave Desert? A review of their past, present, and possible future
Jeffrey E. Lovich, George T. Jefferson, Robert E. Reynolds, Peter A. Scott, H. Bradley Shaffer, Shellie R. Puffer, Sarah Greely, Kristy L. Cummings, Robert N. Fisher, Kathie Meyer-Wilkins, Doug Gomez, Morgan Ford, Christopher D Otahal
2021, Vertebrate Zoology (71) 317-334
=The western pond turtle (WPT) was formerly considered a single species (Actinemys or Emys marmorata) that ranged from southern British Columbia, Canada to Baja California, México. More recently it was divided into a northern and a southern species. <abbr id="ABBRID0ESAAC"...
Linking behavioral states to landscape features for improved conservation management
Maitreyi Sur, Brian Woodbridge, Todd Esque, Jim R Belthoff, Peter H. Bloom, Robert N. Fisher, Kathleen Longshore, Kenneth Nussear, Jeff A. Tracey, Melissa A. Braham, Todd E. Katzner
2021, Ecology and Evolution (11) 7905-7916
A central theme for conservation is understanding how animals differentially use, and are affected by change in, the landscapes they inhabit. However, it has been challenging to develop conservation schemes for habitat-specific behaviors.Here we use behavioral change point analysis to identify behavioral states of golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) in the...
Catch rates for sturgeon chubs and sicklefin chubs in the Upper Missouri River 2004–2016 and correlations with biotic and abiotic variables
Patrick Braaten, David B. Fuller, Tyler M. Haddix, John R. Hunziker, Michael E. Colvin, Luke M. Holmquist, Ryan H. Wilson
2021, Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management (12) 322-337
A multiweek standardized sampling regime during 2004–2016 in a 60-km reach of the Upper Missouri River assessed reproduction and catch rates for Sturgeon Chub Macrhybopsis gelida and Sicklefin Chub Macrhybopsis meeki. We sampled age-0 Macrhybopsis (primarily Sturgeon Chubs, but potentially including Sicklefin Chubs) all years to indicate successful reproduction, but...
The Independent Volcanic Eruption Source Parameter Archive (IVESPA, version 1.0): A new observational database to support explosive eruptive column model validation and development
Thomas J Aubry, Samantha Engwell, Costanza Bonadonna, Guillaume Carazzo, Simona Scollo, Alexa R. Van Eaton, Isabelle A Taylor, David Jessop, Julia Eychenne, Mathieu Gouhier, Larry G. Mastin, Kristi L. Wallace, Sebastien Biass, Marcus Bursik, Roy G Grainger, Mark Jellinek, Anja Schmidt
2021, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research (417)
Eruptive column models are powerful tools for investigating the transport of volcanic gas and ash, reconstructing past explosive eruptions, and simulating future hazards. However, the evaluation of these models is challenging as it requires independent estimates of the main model inputs...
Species mixture effects and climate influence growth, recruitment and mortality in Interior West USA Populus tremuloides-conifer communities
Christopher E. Looney, Wilfred J Previant, John B. Bradford, Linda M Nagel
2021, Journal of Ecology (109) 2934-2949
Tree-species mixture effects (e.g. complementarity and facilitation) have been found to increase individual-tree productivity, lessen mortality and improve recruitment in forests worldwide. By promoting more efficient and complete resource use, mixture effects may also lessen individual-tree-level water stress, thus improving drought resistance. We investigated the influence of mixture effects...
Time marches on, but do the causal pathways driving instream habitat and biology remain consistent?
Richard H Walker, Matthew J. Ashton, Matthew J. Cashman, Rosemary M. Fanelli, Kevin P. Krause, Gregory E. Noe, Kelly O. Maloney
2021, Science of the Total Environment (789)
Stream ecosystems are complex networks of interacting terrestrial and aquatic drivers. To untangle these ecological networks, efforts evaluating the direct and indirect effects of landscape, climate, and instream predictors on biological condition through time are needed. We used structural equation modeling and leveraged a...
Improved methods for understanding the role of predation on dreissenid population dynamics
Kevin R. Keretz, Richard Kraus, Joseph Schmitt
2021, Environmental Biology of Fishes (104) 629-633
Impacts of dreissenid mussels (Dreissena spp.) on Great Lakes ecosystems are well documented, and a better understanding of mechanisms that cause variation in dreissenid abundance is needed. An outstanding question is how much dreissenid biomass is consumed by fish predation. A significant difficulty for investigating dreissenid consumption by fish is that...
Effect of groundwater withdrawals, river stage, and precipitation on water-table elevations in the Iowa River alluvial aquifer near Tama, Iowa, 2017–20
Lance R. Gruhn, Adel E. Haj
2021, Open-File Report 2021-1019
The Sac and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa is the only federally recognized Tribe in the State of Iowa and is commonly known as the Meskwaki Nation. The Tribe owns more than 8,100 acres, referred to as the “Meskwaki Settlement.” The Meskwaki Settlement uses a well field that...
Hydrologic variation influences stream fish assemblage dynamics through flow regime and drought
Daniel D. Magoulick, M. P. Dekar, S. W. Hodges, M. K. Scott, M. R. Rabalais, C. M. Bare
2021, Scientific Reports (11)
Hydrologic variation can play a major role in structuring stream fish assemblages and relationships between hydrology and biology are likely to be influenced by flow regime. We hypothesized that more variable flow regimes would have lower and more variable species richness, higher species turnover and lower assemblage stability, and greater...
Threading the needle: How humans influence predator–prey spatiotemporal interactions in a multiple‐predator system
Asia Murphy, Duane R. Diefenbach, Mark Ternent, Matt Lovallo, David Miller
2021, Journal of Animal Ecology (90) 2377-2390
Perceived predation risk and the resulting antipredator behaviour varies across space, time and predator identity. Communities with multiple predators that interact and differ in their use of space, time of activity and hunting mode create a complex landscape for prey to avoid predation. Anthropogenic presence and disturbance have the...
Improving flood-frequency analysis with a 4,000-year record of flooding on the Tennessee River near Chattanooga, Tennessee
Tessa M. Harden, Jim E. O'Connor, Meredith L. Carr, Mackenzie Keith
2021, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5138
This comprehensive field study applied paleoflood hydrology methods to estimate the frequency of low-probability floods for the Tennessee River near Chattanooga, Tennessee. The study combined stratigraphic records of large, previously unrecorded floods with modern streamflow records and historical flood accounts. The overall approach was to (1) develop a flood...
Robust projections of future fire probability for the conterminous United States
Peng Gao, Adam J. Terando, John A Kupfer, J. Morgan Varner, Michael C. Stambaugh, Ting L Lei, J. Kevin Hiers
2021, Science of the Total Environment (789)
Globally increasing wildfires have been attributed to anthropogenic climate change. However, providing decision makers with a clear understanding of how future planetary warming could affect fire regimes is complicated by confounding land use factors that influence wildfire and by uncertainty associated with model simulations of...
Sediment budget for watersheds of West Maui, Hawaii
Jonathan D. Stock, Corina Cerovski-Darriau
2021, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5133
Episodic runoff brings suspended sediment to West Maui’s nearshore waters, turning them from blue to brown. This pollution degrades the ecological, cultural, and recreational value of these iconic nearshore waters. We used mapping, monitoring, and modeling to identify and quantify the watershed sources for fine sediment that pollutes the nearshore...
Sources of volcanic tremor associated with the summit caldera collapse during the 2018 east rift eruption of Kīlauea Volcano, Hawai'i
J. Soubestre, B. Chouet, Phillip B. Dawson
2021, Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth (126)
Volcanic tremor occurring at the beginning of the 2018 Kīlauea eruption is characterized using both seismic and tilt data recorded at the Kīlauea summit. An automatic seismic network-based approach detects several types of tremor including (a) 0.5–1 Hz long-period tremor preceding the eruption, located at the south-southwest edge...
GIS-based identification of areas that have resource potential for sediment-hosted Pb-Zn deposits in Alaska
Karen D. Kelley, Garth E. Graham, Keith A. Labay, Nora B. Shew
2021, Open-File Report 2020-1147
A state-wide Geographic Information System analysis was conducted to assess prospectivity for lead (Pb) and zinc (Zn) in sediment-hosted deposits in Alaska. The datasets that were utilized include publicly available geospatial datasets of lithologic, geochemical, and mineral occurrence data. Key characteristics of Pb-Zn deposits were identified in available datasets and...
Modeling effects of disturbance across life history strategies of stream fishes
Robert J. Fournier, Nick R. Bond, Daniel D. Magoulick
2021, Oecologia (196) 413-425
A central goal of population ecology is to establish linkages between life history strategy, disturbance, and population dynamics. Globally, disturbance events such as drought and invasive species have dramatically impacted stream fish populations and contributed to sharp declines in freshwater biodiversity. Here, we used RAMAS-Metapop to construct stage-based demographic metapopulation...
Stress controls rupture extent and maximum magnitude of induced earthquakes
K. A. Kroll, Elizabeth S. Cochran
2021, Geophysical Research Letters (48)
Seismic hazard forecasts of induced seismicity often require estimates of the maximum possible magnitude (Mmax). Empirical models suggest that maximum magnitudes, or expected number of earthquakes, are related to the volume of injected fluid. We perform a suite of 3D physics-based earthquake simulations with rate- and state-dependent friction, systematically varying...
An empirically based simulation model to inform flow management for endangered species conservation
Timothy E. Walsworth, Phaedra E. Budy
2021, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (78) 1770-1781
Increasing water demand, water development, and ongoing climate change have driven extensive changes to the hydrology, geomorphology and biology of arid-land rivers globally, driving an increasing need to understand how annual hydrologic conditions affect the distribution and abundance of imperiled desert fish populations. We analyzed the relationship between annual hydrologic...
Development of soil radiocarbon profiles in a reactive transport framework
Jennifer Druhan, Corey Lawrence
2021, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (306) 63-83
Today, there is a greater appreciation for the importance of the physical protection of carbon (C) through interactions with mineral surfaces, isolation from microbes, and the important role of transport in shaping soil properties and controlling moisture limitations on decomposition. As our paradigm for soil organic carbon (SOC) preservation changes, so too should our representation...
Science needs of southeastern grassland species of conservation concern: A framework for species status assessments
Reed F. Noss, Jennifer M. Cartwright, Dwayne Estes, Theo Witsell, K. Gregg Elliott, Daniel S. Adams, Matthew A. Albrecht, Ryan P. Boyles, Patrick J. Comer, Chris Doffitt, Don Faber-Langendoen, JoVonn G. Hill, William C. Hunter, Wesley M. Knapp, Mike Marshall, Milo Pyne, Jason R. Singhurst, Christopher Tracey, Jeffrey L. Walck, Alan Weakley
2021, Open-File Report 2021-1047
The unglaciated southeastern United States is a biodiversity hotspot, with a disproportionate amount of this biodiversity concentrated in grasslands. Like most hotspots, the Southeast is also threatened by human activities, with the total reduction of southeastern grasslands estimated as 90 percent (upwards to 100 percent for some types) and with...
