A large database supports the use of simple models of post-fire tree mortality for thick-barked conifers, with less support for other species
C. Alina Cansler, Sharon M. Hood, Phillip J. van Mantgem, J. Morgan Varner
2020, Fire Ecology (16)
BackgroundPredictive models of post-fire tree and stem mortality are vital for management planning and understanding fire effects. Post-fire tree and stem mortality have been traditionally modeled as a simple empirical function of tree defenses (e.g., bark thickness) and fire injury (e.g., crown scorch). We used the Fire and Tree Mortality...
Diverse cataclysmic floods from Pleistocene glacial Lake Missoula
Roger P. Denlinger, David L. George, Charles M. Cannon, Jim E. O'Connor, Richard B. Waitt
2020, GSA Special Volume on Pleistocene megafloods (548)
In late Wisconsin time, the Purcell Trench lobe of the Cordilleran ice sheet dammed the Clark Fork of the Columbia River in western Montana, creating glacial Lake Missoula. During part of this epoch, the Okanogan lobe also dammed the Columbia River downstream, creating glacial Lake Columbia in northeast Washington. Repeated...
The nature and composition of the J-M Reef, Stillwater Complex, Montana, USA
Michael Jenkins, James E. Mungall, Michael L. Zientek, Paul Holick, Kevin Butak
2020, Economic Geology (115) 1799-1826
In this contribution, we analyze 30 years of mine development data and quantitatively identify the processes that control the grade and tenor of the mineralized rock. An assay database of more than 60,000 samples was used to examine variations in ore grade and tenor of...
Physical and chemical stressors on algal, invertebrate, and fish communities in 14 Milwaukee area streams, 2004–2013
Barbara C. Scudder Eikenberry, Michelle A. Nott, Jana S. Stewart, Daniel J. Sullivan, David A. Alvarez, Amanda H. Bell, Faith A. Fitzpatrick
2020, Fact Sheet 2020-3051
In 2004, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) began sampling 14 wadable streams in urban or urbanizing watersheds near Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The overall goal of the study is to assess the health of the aquatic communities in the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District planning area to inform current and future watershed management....
Predicting multi-species foraging hotspots for marine turtles in the Gulf of Mexico
Ikuko Fujisaki, Kristen Hart, David N. Bucklin, Autumn R. Iverson, Cynthia Rubio, Margaret M. Lamont, Raul de Jesus G.D. Miron, Patrick M. Burchfield, Jaime Pena, Donna J. Shaver
2020, Endangered Species Research (43) 253-266
Quantifying the distribution of animals and identifying underlying characteristics that define suitable habitat are essential for effective conservation of free-ranging species. Prioritizing areas for conservation is important in managing a geographic extent that has a high level of disturbance and limited conservation resources. We examined the potential use of...
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Water-Use Data and Research (WUDR) program overview and status as of October 22, 2020
Kimberly Shaffer
2020, Newsletter
The USGS Water-Use Data and Research Program (WUDR) is an appropriated program that began in Federal fiscal year 2015 and is authorized under the SECURE Water Act (Sec. 9508 (c)). WUDR provides financial assistance through cooperative agreements to State water resource agencies. The WUDR Program has two main goals: To improve...
Advancements towards selective barrier passage by automatic species identification: Applications of deep convolutional neural networks on images of dewatered fish
Jesse Eickholt, Dylan Kelly, Janine Bryan, Scott M. Miehls, Daniel Zielinski
2020, ICES Journal of Marine Science (77) 2804-2813
Invasive species negatively affect enterprises such as fisheries, agriculture, and international trade. In the Laurentian Great Lakes Basin, threats include invasive sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) and the four major Chinese carps. Barriers have proven to be an effective mechanism for managing invasive species but are detrimental in that they also...
Sensitivity of storm response to antecedent topography in the XBeach model
Rangley C. Mickey, P. Soupy Dalyander, Robert T. McCall, Davina Passeri
2020, Journal of Marine Science and Engineering (8)
Antecedent topography is an important aspect of coastal morphology when studying and forecasting coastal change hazards. The uncertainty in morphologic response of storm-impact models and their use in short-term hazard forecasting and decadal forecasting is important to account for when considering a coupled model framework. This study...
An interactive data visualization framework for exploring geospatial environmental datasets and model predictions
Jeffrey D. Walker, Benjamin Letcher, Kirk D. Rodgers, Clint C. Muhlfeld, Vincent S. D’Angelo
2020, Water (12)
With the rise of large-scale environmental models comes new challenges for how we best utilize this information in research, management and decision making. Interactive data visualizations can make large and complex datasets easier to access and explore, which can lead to knowledge discovery, hypothesis formation and improved...
Modeling false positives
Marc Kery, J. Andrew Royle
2020, Book chapter, Applied hierarchical modeling in ecology: Analysis of distribution, abundance and species richness in R and BUGS
Many of the models we are concerned with included explicit descriptions of false negative errors. However, false positive errors can also be commin in practice, especially in citizen science applications where observer skill is highly variable. In addition, new methods which determine detection based on statistical classification or machine learning...
Diurnal timing of nonmigratory movement by birds: The importance of foraging spatial scales
Julie M. Mallon, Marlee A. Tucker, Annalea Beard, Richard O Bierregaard, Keith L. Bildstein, Katrin Böhning-Gaese, John N. Brzorad, Evan R. Buechley, Javier Bustamante, Carlos Carrapato, Jose Alfredo Castillo-Guerrero, Elizabeth Clingham, Mark Desholm, Christopher R. DeSorbo, Robert Domenech, Hayley Douglas, Olivier Duriez, Peter Enggist, Nina Farwig, Wolfgang Fiedler, Anna Gagliardo, Clara García‐Ripollés, Jose Antonio Gil Gallus, Morgan E. Gilmour, Roi Harel, Autumn-Lynn Harrison, Leeann Henry, Todd E. Katzner, Roland Kays, Erik Kleyheeg, Rubén Limiñana, Pascual Lopez-Lopez, Giuseppe Lucia, Alan Maccarone, Egidio Mallia, Ugo Mellone, E.K. Mojica, Ran Nathan, Scott H. Newman, Steffen Oppel, Yotam Orchan, Diann J. Prosser, Hannah Riley, Sascha Rösner, Dana G. Schabo, Holger Schulz, Scott A. Shaffer, Adam Shreading, João Paulo Silva, Jolene Sim, Henrik Skov, Orr Spiegel, Matthew J. Stuber, John Y. Takekawa, Vicente Urios, Javier Vidal-Mateo, Kevin Warner, Bryan D. Watts, Nicola Weber, Sam Weber, Martin Wikelski, Ramunas Zydelis, Thomas Mueller, William F. Fagan
2020, Journal of Avian Biology (51)
Timing of activity can reveal an organism's efforts to optimize foraging either by minimizing energy loss through passive movement or by maximizing energetic gain through foraging. Here, we assess whether signals of either of these strategies are detectable in the timing of activity of daily, local movements by birds. We...
Estimating population-specific predation effects on Chinook salmon via data integration
Mark H. Sorel, Richard W. Zabel, Devin S. Johnson, A. Michelle Wargo Rub, Sarah J. Converse
Hamish McCallum, editor(s)
2020, Journal of Applied Ecology (58) 372-381
Recent success in the conservation of many marine mammals has resulted in new management challenges due to increasing conflict with fisheries. Increasing predation by pinnipeds on threatened salmon is of particular concern. Seemingly, pinniped conservation is now in conflict with the recovery of threatened salmon, creating a dilemma for...
A comparison of the CMIP6 midHolocene and lig127k simulations in CESM2
Bette L. Otto-Bliesner, Esther C. Brady, Robert A Tomas, Samuel Albani, Patrick J. Bartlein, Natalie M Mahowald, Sarah Shafer, Erik Kluzek, Peter J Lawrence, Gunter Leguy, Matthew Rothstein, Aleah Sommers
2020, Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology (35)
Results are presented and compared for the Community Earth System Model version 2 (CESM2) simulations of the middle Holocene (MH, 6 ka) and Last Interglacial (LIG, 127 ka). These simulations are designated as Tier 1 experiments (midHolocene and lig127k) for the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 6 (CMIP6) and the Paleoclimate Modeling Intercomparison Project...
Aquifer transmissivity in Nassau, Queens, and Kings Counties, New York, estimated from specific-capacity tests at production wells
John H. Williams, Madison Woodley, Jason S. Finkelstein
2020, Open-File Report 2020-1108
As part of a cooperative effort between the U.S. Geological Survey and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to evaluate the sustainability of Long Island’s sole-source aquifer system, the transmissivities of four aquifers were estimated from specific-capacity tests at 447 production wells in Nassau, Queens, and Kings Counties...
Climate sensitivity of water use by riparian woodlands at landscape scales
Marc Mayes, Kelly K. Caylor, Michael B. Singer, John C Stella, Dar Roberts, Pamela L. Nagler
2020, Hydrological Processes (34) 4884-4903
Semi‐arid riparian woodlands face threats from increasing extractive water demand and climate change in dryland landscapes worldwide. Improved landscape‐scale understanding of riparian woodland water use (evapotranspiration, ET) and its sensitivity to climate variables is needed to strategically manage water resources, as well as to create successful ecosystem conservation and restoration...
Getting to the root of plant‐mediated methane emissions and oxidation in a thermokarst bog
Jesse C Turner, Colby J Moorberg, Andrea Wong, Kathleen Shea, Mark Waldrop, Merritt R. Turetsky, Rebecca B. Neumann
2020, Journal of Geophysical Research Biogeosciences (125)
Vascular plants are important in the wetland methane cycle, but their effect on production, oxidation, and transport has high uncertainty, limiting our ability to predict emissions. In a permafrost‐thaw bog in Interior Alaska, we used plant manipulation treatments, field‐deployed planar optical oxygen sensors, direct measurements of methane...
Visually communicating future climate in a web environment
Corey Davis, Heather D Aldridge, Ryan Boyles, Karen McNeal, Lindsay C. Mauldin, Rachel M. Atkins
2020, Weather, Climate, and Society (12) 877-896
While there is growing demand for use of climate model projections to understand the potential impacts of future climate on resources, there is a lack of effective visuals that convey the range of possible climates across spatial scales and with uncertainties that potential users need to inform their impact assessments...
Accounting for land in the United States: Integrating physical land cover, land use, and monetary valuation
Scott A. Wentland, Zachary H. Ancona, Kenneth J. Bagstad, James W. Boyd, Julie L. Hass, Marina Gindelsky, Jeremy G. Moulton
2020, Ecosystem Services (46)
Land plays a critical role in both economic and environmental accounting. As an asset, it occupies a unique position at the intersection of the System of National Accounts (SNA), the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting Central Framework (SEEA-CF), and (as a spatial...
Using Markov chains to quantitatively assess movement patterns of invasive fishes impacted by a carbon dioxide barrier in outdoor ponds
Lauren K Borland, Collin J Mulcahy, Barb Bennie, Douglas D Baumann, Roger J. Haro, Molly Van Appledorn, Kathi Jo Jankowski, Aaron R. Cupp, Richard A. Erickson
2020, Natural Resource Modeling (33)
Natural resource managers use barriers to deter the movement of aquatic invasive species. Research and development of new invasive species barriers is often evaluated in pond and field scales using high‐resolution telemetry data. Telemetry data sets can be a rich source of data about fish movement and behavior but can...
Optimizing release strategies: A stepping-stone approach to reintroduction
N.A. Lloyd, Nathan J. Hostetter, C.L. Jackson, Sarah J. Converse, A. Moehrenschlager
2020, Article
Evaluation of alternative management strategies enables informed decisions to accelerate species recovery. For reintroductions, post-release survival to reproductive age is a key parameter influencing population growth. Here we trial a ‘stepping-stone’ method to maximize the success of captive-bred animals when the availability of more suitable wild-born release candidates is limited....
Expanding the feasibility of fish and wildlife assessments with close-kin mark–recapture
Benjamin Marcy-Quay, Suresh Sethi, Nina O. Therkildsen, Clifford E. Kraft
2020, Ecosphere (11)
Close-kin mark–recapture (CKMR) is a powerful new method for the assessment of fish and wildlife population dynamics. Unlike traditional mark–recapture techniques, the use of kinship as an identifying mark is robust to many forms of capture heterogeneity including variation in gear efficiency and tagging-based effects such as loss and differential...
QCam: sUAS-based doppler radar for measuring river discharge
John W. Fulton, Isaac E. Anderson, C.-L. Chiu, Wolfram Sommer, Josip Adams, Tommaso Moramarco, David M. Bjerklie, Janice M. Fulford, Jeff L. Sloan, Heather Best, Jeffrey S. Conaway, Michelle J. Kang, Michael S. Kohn, Matthew J. Nicotra, Jeremy J. Pulli
2020, Remote Sensing (12)
The U.S. Geological Survey is actively investigating remote sensing of surface velocity and river discharge (discharge) from satellite-, high altitude-, small, unmanned aircraft systems- (sUAS or drone), and permanent (fixed) deployments. This initiative is important in ungaged basins and river reaches that lack the infrastructure to deploy...
Phylogenetic escape from pests reduces pesticides on some crop plants
Ian S. Pearse, Jay Rosenheim
2020, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (117) 26849-26853
Pesticides are a ubiquitous component of conventional crop production but come with considerable economic and ecological costs. We tested the hypothesis that variation in pesticide use among crop species is a function of crop economics and the phylogenetic relationship of a crop to native plants because unrelated crops accrue fewer...
Evidence for primitive magma storage and eruption following prolonged equilibration in thickened crust
Heather Winslow, Philipp Ruprecht, Mark E. Stelten, Alvaro Amigo
2020, Bulletin of Volcanology (82)
In continental arcs, the exposure of primitive eruptive products at the surface is typically a result of rapid magmatic transfer through the crust. As a result, the initially primitive magma experiences minimal crustal residence and thus insignificant differentiation towards more evolved products. This rapid transfer of primitive magma through thickened...
Imaging the tectonic grain of the Northern Cordillera orogen using Transportable Array receiver functions
Vera Schulte-Pelkum, Jonathan Saul Caine, James V. Jones III, Thorsten W Becker
2020, Seismological Research Letters (91) 3086-3105
Azimuthal variations in receiver function conversions can image lithospheric structural contrasts and anisotropic fabrics that together compose tectonic grain. We apply this method to data from EarthScope Transportable Array in Alaska and additional stations across the northern Cordillera. The best‐resolved quantities are the strike and...
