Satellite and airborne remote sensing of gross primary productivity in boreal Alaskan lakes
Catherine D. Kuhn, Matthew J. Bogard, Sarah Ellen Johnston, Aji John, Eric Vermote, Rob Spencer, Mark M. Dornblaser, Kimberly P. Wickland, Robert G. Striegl, David Butman
2020, Environmental Research Letters (10)
In terrestrial and marine ecosystems, remote sensing has been used to estimate gross primary productivity (GPP) for decades, but few applications exist for shallow freshwater ecosystems.Here we show field-based GPP correlates with satellite and airborne lake color across a range of optically and limnologically diverse lakes in interior Alaska. A...
Reliability of external characteristics to age Barrow’s goldeneye
Tyler L. Lewis, Daniel Esler, Danica H. Hogan, W. Sean Boyd, Timothy D. Bowman, Jonathan Thompson
2020, Wildlife Society Bulletin (44) 654-661
Accurate assignment of age class is critical for understanding most demographic processes. For waterfowl, most techniques for determining age class require birds in hand, reducing utility for quickly and efficiently sampling a large portion of the population. As an alternative, we sought to establish an observation‐based methodology, achievable in the...
Unfamiliar territory: Emerging themes for ecological drought research and management
Shelley D. Crausbay, Julio L. Betancourt, John B. Bradford, Jennifer M. Cartwright, William C. Dennison, Jason B. Dunham, Carolyn Armstrong Enquist, Abby G. Frazier, Kimberly R. Hall, Jeremy S. Littell, Charlie H. Luce, Richard Palmer, Aaron R. Ramirez, Imtiaz Rangwala, Laura Thompson, Brianne M. Walsh, Shawn Carter
2020, One Earth (3) 337-353
Novel forms of drought are emerging globally, due to climate change, shifting teleconnection patterns, expanding human water use, and a history of human influence on the environment that increases the probability of transformational ecological impacts. These costly ecological impacts cascade to human communities, and understanding this changing drought landscape is...
Use of time domain electromagnetic soundings and borehole electromagnetic induction logs to delineate the freshwater/saltwater interface on southwestern Long Island, New York, 2015–17
Frederick Stumm, Michael D. Como, Marie A. Zuck
2020, Open-File Report 2020-1093
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, used surface and borehole geophysical methods to delineate the freshwater/saltwater interface in coastal plain aquifers along the southwestern part of Long Island, New York. Over pumping of groundwater in the early 20th century combined with...
Temperature and water-quality diversity and the effects of surface-water connection in off-channel features of the Willamette River, Oregon, 2015–16
Cassandra D. Smith, Joseph F. Mangano, Stewart A. Rounds
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5068
Water-quality conditions (including temperature) in the Willamette River and many of its adjacent off-channel features, such as alcoves and side channels, were monitored between river miles 67 (near Salem, Oregon) and 168 (near Eugene, Oregon) during the summers of 2015 and 2016. One or more parameters (water temperature, dissolved...
Potential impacts of mercury released from thawing permafrost
Kevin Schaefer, Yasin Elshorbany, Elchin Jafarov, Paul F. Schuster, Robert G. Striegl, Kimberly P. Wickland, Elsie M. Sunderland
2020, Nature-Communications (11)
Mercury (Hg) is a naturally occurring element that bonds with organic matter and, when converted to methylmercury, is a potent neurotoxicant. Here we estimate potential future releases of Hg from thawing permafrost for low and high greenhouse gas emissions scenarios using a mechanistic model. By 2200, the high emissions scenario...
Wildfire risk and hazardous fuel reduction treatments along the US-Mexico border: A review of the science (1985-2019)
Katherine M. Laushman, Seth M. Munson, Timothy N. Titus
2020, Air, Soil and Water Research (13)
The ecosystems along the border between the United States and Mexico are at increasing risk to wildfire due to interactions among climate, land-use, and fuel loads. A wide range of fuel treatments have been implemented to mitigate wildfire and its threats to valued resources, yet we have...
Development of a method to identify complex wells and assess the accuracy of basin withdrawals in Utah
Brittany L. Gold, Cory E. Angeroth, Thomas M. Marston
2020, Open-File Report 2020-1106
Power consumption coefficients (PCCs) and dedicated flowmeter records for irrigation wells in three Utah groundwater basins were analyzed to develop a method to better characterize the accuracy of annual groundwater withdrawal estimates. The PCC method has been used by the U.S. Geological Survey in Utah since 1963 as a way...
Accounting for temporal variability of streamflow in estimates of travel time
Christopher P. Konrad, Noah Schmadel, Judson Harvey, Gregory E. Schwarz, Jesus Gomez-Velez, Elizabeth W. Boyer, Durelle Scott
2020, Frontiers in Water (2)
Retention, processing, and transport of solutes and particulates in stream corridors are influenced by the travel time of streamflow through stream channels, which varies dynamically with discharge. The effects of streamflow variability across sites and over time cannot be addressed by time-averaged models if parameters are based solely on...
A manipulative thermal challenge protocol for adult salmonids in remote field settings
Daniel S. Donnelly, Vanessa R. von Biela, Stephen D. McCormick, Sarah M. Laske, Michael P. Carey, Shannon C. Waters-Dynes, Lizabeth Bowen, Randy J Brown, Sean Larson, Christian E. Zimmerman
2020, Conservation Physiology (1)
Manipulative experiments provide stronger evidence for identifying cause-and-effect relationships than correlative studies, but protocols for implementing temperature manipulations are lacking for large species in remote settings. We developed an experimental protocol for holding adult Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and exposing them to elevated temperature treatments. The goal of the...
Land-use change and future water demand in California’s central coast
Tamara Wilson, Nathan D. Van Schmidt, Ruth Langridge
2020, Land (9) 322-343
Understanding future land-use related water demand is important for planners and resource managers in identifying potential shortages and crafting mitigation strategies. This is especially the case for regions dependent on limited local groundwater supplies. For the groundwater dependent Central Coast of California, we developed two scenarios of future land use...
Using boosted regression tree models to predict salinity in Mississippi embayment aquifers, central United States
Katherine J. Knierim, James A. Kingsbury, Connor J. Haugh, Katherine Marie Ransom
2020, Journal of American Water Resources Association (56) 1029
High salinity limits groundwater use in parts of the Mississippi embayment. Machine learning was used to create spatially continuous and three‐dimensional predictions of salinity across drinking‐water aquifers in the embayment. Boosted regression tree (BRT) models, a type of machine learning, were used to predict specific conductance (SC) and chloride (Cl),...
Hydro-climatic drought in the Delaware River Basin
Gregory J. McCabe, David M. Wolock
2020, Journal of the American Water Resources Association (56) 981-994
The Delaware River Basin (DRB) supplies water to approximately 15 million people and is essential to agriculture and industry. In this study, a monthly water balance model is used to compute monthly water balance components (i.e., potential evapotranspiration, actual evapotranspiration, and runoff [R]) for the DRB...
Transcriptomic response to elevated water temperatures in adult migrating Yukon River Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha)
Lizabeth Bowen, Vanessa R. von Biela, Stephen D. McCormick, Amy M. Regish, Shannon C. Waters-Dynes, Blythe Durbin-Johnson, Monica Britton, Matt Settles, Daniel S. Donnelly, Sarah M. Laske, Michael P. Carey, Randy J Brown, Christian E. Zimmerman
2020, Conservation Physiology (8)
Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) declines are widespread and may be attributed, at least in part, to warming river temperatures. Water temperatures in the Yukon River and tributaries often exceed 18°C, a threshold commonly associated with heat stress and elevated mortality in Pacific salmon. Untangling the complex web of direct...
Impacts of periodic dredging on macroinvertebrate prey availability for benthic foraging fishes in central San Francisco Bay, California
Susan E. W. De La Cruz, Isa Woo, Laurie Hall, Alison Flanagan, Hannah Mittelstaedt
2020, Open-File Report 2020-1086
BackgroundBecause of its importance for species covered under Federal Fishery Management Plans (FMPs), the San Francisco Bay (SFB) estuary has been designated as Essential Fish Habitat (EFH) under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA; 16 United States Code §18559b). Within this estuary, benthic macroinvertebrate communities provide important...
Lead speciation, bioaccessibility and source attribution in Missouri's Big River watershed
Matthew Noerpel, Michael J. Pribil, Danny Rutherford, Preston Law, Karen Bradham, Clay Nelson, Rob Weber, Gene Gunn, Kirk G. Scheckel
2020, Applied Geochemistry (123)
The Southeast Missouri Lead District is among the most productive lead deposits exploited in modern times. Intensive mining conducted prior to regulations resulted in a legacy of lead contaminated soil, large piles of mine tailings and elevated childhood blood lead levels. This study seeks to identify the source of the...
Effect of water velocity and temperature on energy use, behaviour and mortality of pallid sturgeon Scaphirhynchus albus larvae
Joseph T. Mrnak, Laura B. Heironimus, Daniel A. James, Steven R. Chipps
2020, Journal of Fish Biology (97) 1690-1700
Natural reproduction of pallid sturgeon Scaphirhynchus albus has been limited for decades and a recruitment bottleneck is hypothesized to occur during the larval stage of development. In this study, we evaluated the effects of water velocity and temperature on the swimming activity, energy use, settling behaviour and mortality of endogenously feeding larvae....
Spatial and vertical bias in down-looking ship-based acoustic estimates of fish density in Lake Superior: Lessons learned from multi-directional acoustics
Ryan C Grow, Thomas R. Hrabik, Daniel Yule, Bryan G. Matthias, Jared T. Myers, Chad Abel
2020, Journal of Great Lakes Research (46) 1639-1649
Hydroacoustic surveys using hull-mounted down-looking transducers are useful for estimating pelagic fish densities; however, this method may miss shallow fish owing to the acoustic surface dead zone and vessel avoidance. Our objective was to compare pelagic fish density estimates acquired by a traditional down-looking acoustic survey to estimates obtained by...
Integrated borehole, radar, and seismic velocity analysis reveals dynamic spatial variations within a firn aquifer in southeast Greenland
Siobhan Killingbeck, N. C. Schmerr, L. N. Montgomery, A. D. Booth, P. W. Livermore, Olivia L. Miller, J. Guandique, S. Burdick, R. R. Forster, L. S. Koenig, Anatoly Legchenko, S. R. M. Ligtenberg, C. Miege, D. K. Solomon, L. J. West
2020, Geophysical Research Letters (47)
Perennial water storage in firn aquifers has been observed within the lower percolation zone of the southeast Greenland ice sheet. Spatially distributed seismic and radar observations, made ~50 km upstream of the Helheim Glacier terminus, reveal spatial variations of seismic velocity within a firn aquifer. From 1.65 to 1.8 km elevation, shear‐wave...
Influenza A viruses remain infectious for more than seven months in northern wetlands of North America
Andrew M. Ramey, Andrew B. Reeves, Judith Z. Drexler, Joshua T. Ackerman, Susan E.W. De La Cruz, Andrew S. Lang, Christina Leyson, Paul T. Link, Diann Prosser, Gregory J. Robertson, Jordan Wight, Sungsu Youk, Erica Spackman, Mary Pantin-Jackwood, Rebecca L. Poulson, David E. Stallknecht
2020, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (287)
In this investigation, we used a combination of field- and laboratory-based approaches to assess if influenza A viruses (IAVs) shed by ducks could remain viable for extended periods in surface water within three wetland complexes of North America. In a field experiment, replicate filtered surface water samples...
High concentration methane hydrate in a silt reservoir from the deep-water Gulf of Mexico
Stephen Philips, Peter Flemings, Melanie Holland, Peter Schultheiss, William F. Waite, Junbong Jang, Ethan Petrou, Helen Hammon
2020, AAPG Bulletin (104) 1971-1995
We present results from 30 quantitative degassing experiments of pressure core sections collected during The University of Texas-Gulf of Mexico 2-1 (UT-GOM2-1) Hydrate Pressure Coring Expedition at Green Canyon Block 955 in the deep-water Gulf of Mexico as part of The University of Texas at Austin–US Department of Energy Deepwater...
Pressure coring a Gulf of Mexico deep-water turbidite gas hydrate reservoir: Initial results from The University of Texas–Gulf of Mexico 2-1 (UT-GOM2-1) Hydrate Pressure Coring Expedition
Peter Flemings, Stephen Phillips, Ray Boswell, Timothy Collett, Ann Cook, Tian Dong, Matthew Frye, David Goldberg, Giles Guerin, Melanie Holland, Junbong Jang, Kevin Meazell, Jamie Morrison, Joshua O’Connell, Ethan Petrou, Tom Pettigrew, Peter Polito, Alexey Portnov, Manasj Santra, Peter Schultheiss, Yongkoo Seol, William Shedd, Evan S. Solomon, Carla Thomas, William F. Waite, Kehua You
2020, AAPG Bulletin (104) 1847-1876
The University of Texas Hydrate Pressure Coring Expedition (UT-GOM2-1) recovered cores at near in situ formation pressures from a gas hydrate reservoir composed of sandy silt and clayey silt beds in Green Canyon Block 955 in the deep-water Gulf of Mexico. The expedition results are synthesized and linked to other...
Rethinking a groundwater flow system using a multiple-tracer geochemical approach: A case study in Moab-Spanish Valley, Utah
Philip M. Gardner, Nora C. Nelson, Victor M. Heilweil, John E. Solder, Douglas K. Solomon
2020, Journal of Hydrology (590)
The Glen Canyon Group Aquifer (GCGA) is the sole source of public water supply for the city of Moab, Utah, a domestic and international tourist destination. Population and tourism growth are likely to target the GCGA for future water resources, but our analysis indicates...
Assessment of water quality and fecal contamination sources at Hook Pond, East Hampton, New York
Shawn C. Fisher, Brendan A. McCarthy, Christopher M. Kephart, Dale W. Griffin
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5071
SummaryThe U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Village of East Hampton, New York, conducted a 1-year study from August 2017 to August 2018 to provide data necessary to improve understanding of the sources of nutrients and pathogens to Hook Pond watershed to allow for possible mitigation or reduction of...
Water Quality of groundwater used for public supply in principal aquifers of the western United States
Celia Z. Rosecrans, MaryLynn Musgrove
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5078
Groundwater provides nearly half of the Nation’s drinking water. As the Nation’s population grows, the importance of (and need for) high-quality drinking-water supplies increases. As part of a national-scale effort to assess groundwater quality in principal aquifers (PAs) that supply most of the groundwater used for public supply, the...
