USGS enterprise tools for efficient and effective management of science data
Vivian B. Hutchison, Amanda Liford, Ricardo McClees-Funinan, Lisa Zolly, Drew Ignizio, Madison Langseth, Brandon Serna, Elizabeth Sellers, Leslie Hsu, Tamar Norkin, Marcia McNiff, Grace C. Donovan
2020, Fact Sheet 2020-3041
The Science Data Management Branch (SDM) of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) provides data management expertise and leadership and develops guidance and tools to support the USGS in providing the nation with reliable scientific information on the basis of which to describe the Earth. The SDM suite of tools supports...
Soft sediment deformation in dry pyroclastic deposits at Ubehebe Crater, Death Valley, California
Greg A. Valentine, Judith E. Fierstein, James D.L. White
2020, Geology (49) 211-215
Soft sediment deformation structures are common in fine-grained pyroclastic deposits and are often taken, along with other characteristics, to indicate that deposits were emplaced in a wet and cohesive state. At Ubehebe Crater (Death Valley, California, USA), deposits were emplaced by multiple explosions,...
Total water level data from the January and March 2018 nor’easters for coastal areas of New England
Gardner C. Bent, Nicholas J. Taylor
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5048
During winter 2017–18 coastal areas of New England were impacted by the January 4, and March 2–4, 2018, nor’easters. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), under an interagency agreement with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), collected total water level data (the combination of tide, storm surge, wave runup and setup,...
Observed and modeled mercury and dissolved organic carbon concentrations and loads at control structure S-12D, Florida Everglades, 2013–17
Amanda Booth, Brett A. Poulin, David P. Krabbenhoft
2020, Open-File Report 2020-1092
Mercury (Hg) has been a contaminant of concern for several decades in South Florida, particularly in the Florida Everglades. The transport and bioavailability of Hg in aquatic systems is intimately linked to dissolved organic carbon (DOC). In aquatic systems, Hg can be converted to methylmercury (MeHg), which is the form...
Strain-estimated ground motions associated with recent earthquakes in California
Noha Sameh Ahmed Farghal, Annemarie S. Baltay Sundstrom, John Langbein
2020, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (110) 2766-2776
Peak ground velocity (PGV) is a commonly used parameter in earthquake ground‐motion models (GMMs) and hazard analyses, because it is closely related to structural damage and felt ground shaking, and is typically measured on broadband seismometers. Here, we demonstrate that strainmeters, which directly measure in situ strain in the bulk...
Calibration of carbonate-water triple oxygen isotope fractionation: Seeing through diagenesis in ancient carbonates
Jordan A. G. Wostbrock, Uwe Brand, Tyler B. Coplen, Peter K. Swart, Sandra J. Carlson, Adrian J. Brearley, Zachary D. Sharp
2020, Geochemica et Cosmochimica Acta (288) 369-388
High precision triple oxygen isotope measurements of carbonates can better constrain temperatures and oxygen isotope compositions of seawater through geologic time than 18O/16O measurements alone, but lack of a definitive calibration has hindered progress. In this study, we fluorinated both carbonate and water samples to measure quantitatively the triple oxygen isotope composition of...
Modeling occupancy of rare stream fish species in the upper Cumberland and Kentucky River Basins
Nathaniel P. Hitt, Karli M. Rogers, Karmann Kessler, Hannah E. Macmillan
2020, Open-File Report 2020-1100
Biological conservation often requires an understanding of how environmental conditions affect species occurrence and detection probabilities. We used a hierarchical framework to evaluate these effects for several Appalachian stream fish species of conservation concern: Chrosomus cumberlandensis (BSD; blackside dace), Etheostoma sagitta (CAD; Cumberland arrow darter), and Etheostoma spilotum (KAD; Kentucky...
Methods for estimating selected low-flow frequency statistics and mean annual flow for ungaged locations on streams in Alabama
Toby D. Feaster, Katharine Kolb, Jaime A. Painter, Jimmy M. Clark
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5099
Streamflow data and statistics are vitally important for proper protection and management of the water quality and water quantity of Alabama streams. Such data and statistics are generally available at U.S. Geological Survey streamflow-gaging stations, also referred to as streamgages or stations, but are often needed at ungaged stream locations....
Stressor identification framework of biological impairment in Mississippi streams to support watershed restoration and TMDL development
Matthew B. Hicks, Jennifer M. Cartwright
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5098
The Clean Water Act (CWA) requires States to identify waters that are impaired for designated uses. These waters are published through a State’s §303(d) list. The CWA also requires that a total maximum daily load (TMDL) be completed for each water body to calculate the maximum amount of contaminants that...
Climate has contrasting direct and indirect effects on armed conflicts
David Helman, Benjamin F. Zaitchik, Chris Funk
2020, Environmental Research Letters (15)
There is an active debate regarding the influence that climate has on the risk of armed conflict, which stems from challenges in assembling unbiased datasets, competing hypotheses on the mechanisms of climate influence, and the difficulty of disentangling direct and indirect climate effects. We use gridded historical non-state conflict records,...
Temporal and spatial changes in Myotis lucifugus acoustic activity before and after white-nose syndrome on Fort Drum Army Installation, New York, USA
W. Mark Ford, Tomás Nocera, Alexander Silvis, Christopher A. Dobony
2020, Acta Chiropterologica (22) 121-134
Changes to bat distribution and habitat associations at the local to sub-landscape scale in the post white-nose syndrome (WNS) environment have received little attention to date despite being critical information for managers. To better understand the spatial nature of bat population declines, we modelled both activity patterns and occupancy from...
A demographic projection model to support conservation decision making for an endangered snake with limited monitoring data
A. M. Tucker, Conor P. McGowan, E. Mulero Oliveras, N.F. Angeli, J.P. Zegarra
2020, Animal Conservation (24) 291-301
Conservation planning for rare and threatened species is often made more difficult by a lack of research and monitoring data. In such cases, managers may rely on qualitative assessments of species risk that lack explicit acknowledgement of uncertainty. Snakes are a group of conservation concern that are also notoriously difficult...
Ultra‐high‐resolution mapping of biocrusts with Unmanned Aerial Systems
Caroline Havrilla, Miguel L. Villarreal, Jacob DiBiase, Michael C. Duniway, Nichole Barger
2020, Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation (6) 441-456
Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) occur in drylands globally where they support ecosystem functioning by increasing soil stability, reducing dust emissions and modifying soil resource availability (e.g. water, nutrients). Determining biocrust condition and extent across landscapes continues to present considerable challenges to scientists and land managers. Biocrusts...
Ecohydrological responses to surface flow across borders: Two decades of changes in vegetation greenness and water use in the riparian corridor of the Colorado River Delta
Pamela L. Nagler, Armando Barreto-Muñoz, Sattar Chavoshi Borujeni, Christopher J. Jarchow, Marth M. Gómez‐Sapiens, Hamideh Nouri, Stefanie M. Herrmann, Kamel Didan
2020, Hydrological Processes (34) 4851-4883
Hydrological and bioclimatic processes that lead to drought may stress plants and wildlife, restructure plant community type and architecture, increase monotypic stands and bare soils, facilitate the invasion of non‐native plant species and accelerate soil erosion. Our study focuses on the impact of a paucity of Colorado River surface flows...
The influence of soil age on ecosystem structure and function across biomes
Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo, Peter B. Reich, Richard D. Bardgett, David J. Eldridge, Hans Lambers, David A. Wardle, Sasha C. Reed, Cesar Plaza, Guochen K. Png, Sigrid Neuhauser, Asmeret A. Berhe, Stephen C. Hart, Hang-Wei Hu, Ji-Zheng He, Felipe Bastida, Sebastian R. Abades, Fernando D. Alfaro, Nick A. Cutler, Antonio Gallardo, Laura García-Velázquez, Patrick E. Hayes, Zeng-Yei Hseu, Cecilia A. Perez, Fernanda Santos, Christina Siebe, Pankaj Trivedi, Benjamin W. Sullivan, Luis Weber-Grullon, Mark Williams, Noah Fierer
2020, Nature Communications (11)
The importance of soil age as an ecosystem driver across biomes remains largely unresolved. By combining a cross-biome global field survey, including data for 32 soil, plant, and microbial properties in 16 soil chronosequences, with a global meta-analysis, we show that soil age is a significant ecosystem driver, but only...
A new decision support tool for collaborative adaptive vegetation management in northern Great Plains national parks
Isabel W. Ashton, Amy Symstad, Heather Baldwin, Max Post van der Burg, Steven Bekedam, Erin Borgman, Milton Haar, Terri Hogan, Stephanie Rockwood, Daniel J Swanson, Carmen Thomson, Cody Wienk
2020, Parks Stewardship Forum (3)
National Park Service (NPS) units in the northern Great Plains (NGP) were established to preserve and interpret the history of America, protect and showcase unusual geology and paleontology, and provide a home for vanishing large wildlife. A unifying feature among these national parks, monuments, and historic sites is mixed-grass prairie,...
Landsat Collection 2 geometric calibration updates
R. Rengarajan, Michael J. Choate, James C. Storey, Shannon Franks, Esad Micijevic
2020, Conference Paper, Proceedings: Earth observing systems XXV
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) changed the management and delivery of Landsat products to the public in its archive through the implementation of Collections. The Collections process ensures consistent data quality through time and across all the Landsat sensors with a few modifications to the metadata. The consistent data products...
Comparability and reproducibility of biomarker ratio values measured by GC-QQQ-MS
Katherine L. French, Arne Leider, Christian Hallmann
2020, Organic Geochemistry (150)
The Norwegian Geochemical Standard North Sea Oil-1 was analyzed by gas chromatography triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (GC-QQQ-MS) on two instruments using independently developed analytical methods. Biomarker ratios determined by GC-QQQ-MS were compared to each other and to previously reported values determined by gas chromatography single quadrupole mass spectrometry (GC-Q-MS) or...
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...
How and why is the timing and occurrence of seasonal migrants in the Gulf of Maine changing due to climate?
Adrian Jordaan, Daniel Pendleton, Chris Sutherland, Michelle Staudinger
2020, Report
Plants and animals undergo certain recurring life-cycle events, such as migrations between summer and winter habitats or the annual blooming of plants. Known as phenology, the timing of these events is very sensitive to changes in climate (and changes in one species’ phenology can impact entire food webs and ecosystems)....
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...
Improving the accessibility and transferability of machine learning algorithms for identification of animals in camera trap images: MLWIC2
Michael A. Tabak, Mohammad S. Norouzzadeh, David W. Wolfson, Erica J. Newton, Raoul K. Boughton, Jacob S. Ivan, Eric Odell, Eric S. Newkirk, Reesa Y. Conrey, Jennifer L. Stenglein, Fabiola Iannarilli, John Erb, Ryan K. Brook, Amy J. Davis, Jesse S. Lewis, Daniel P. Walsh, James C Beasley, Kurt C. Vercauteren, Jeff Clune, Ryan S. Miller
2020, Ecology and Evolution (10) 10374-10383
Motion‐activated wildlife cameras (or “camera traps”) are frequently used to remotely and noninvasively observe animals. The vast number of images collected from camera trap projects has prompted some biologists to employ machine learning algorithms to automatically recognize species in these images, or at least filter‐out images...
Estimating response distances of lesser prairie-chickens to anthropogenic features during long-distance movements
Jacob M. Peterson, Julia E. Earl, Samuel D. Fuhlendorf, Dwayne Elmore, David A. Haukos, Ashley M. Tanner, Scott A. Carleton
2020, Ecosphere (11)
Spatially distributed populations often rely on large-scale processes for long-term population stability. These processes are driven by individuals moving across the landscape through long-distance dispersal movements. However, as landscapes are continually altered by anthropogenic development, increased fragmentation and avoidance behavior can affect landscape permeability and limit dispersal. Lesser prairie-chickens (Tympanuchus...
Scenarios for valuing sample information in natural resources
Byron K. Williams, Ellie Brown
2020, Methods in Ecology and Evolution (11) 1534-1549
Uncertainty is ubiquitous in natural resource systems, science and management. Sample data are obtained in order to reduce uncertainty, thereby increasing knowledge and improving resource management, but sampling always comes at a cost of some sort. Is that cost worthwhile? Analysis of the value of sample information (VSI) addresses...
Development and validation of the CHIRTS-daily quasi-global high-resolution daily temperature data set
Andrew Verdin, Chris Funk, Pete Peterson, Martin Landsfeld, Cascade Tuholske, Kathryn Grace
2020, Scientific Data (7)
We present a high-resolution daily temperature data set, CHIRTS-daily, which is derived by merging the monthly Climate Hazards center InfraRed Temperature with Stations climate record with daily temperatures from version 5 of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Re-Analysis. We demonstrate that remotely sensed temperature estimates may more closely...
