Model-based clustering reveals patterns in central place use of a marine top predator
Brian M. Brost, Mevin Hooten, Robert J. Small
2020, Ecosphere
Satellite telemetry data are commonly used to quantify habitat selection, examine animal movements, and delineate home ranges. These data also contain valuable information concerning dens, nests, roosts, and other central places that are often associated with important life history events and may exhibit unique characteristics; however, using satellite telemetry data...
Statewide assessment of karst aquifers in New York with an inventory of closed-depression and focused-recharge features
William M. Kappel, James E. Reddy, Jonathan Casey Root
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5030
Karst is a landscape formed from the dissolution of soluble rock or rock containing minerals that are easily dissolved from within the rock. The landscape is characterized by sinkholes, caves, losing streams, springs, and underground drainage systems, which rapidly move water through the karst. The two forms of karst in...
Influence of hydropower outflow characteristics affecting riverbank stability: The lower Osage River case (Missouri, USA)
Wesam Mohammed-Ali, Cesar Mendoza, Robert R. Holmes Jr.
2020, Hydrological Sciences Journal (65) 1784-1793
This research examined the influences of outflow characteristics affecting riverbank stability. The 130 km stretch of the lower Osage River downstream from Bagnell Dam (Missouri, USA) provided an excellent case study for this purpose. The integrated BSTEM model with the HEC-RAS model was accurately calibrated and validated with data from...
Assessment of fire fuel load dynamics in shrubland ecosystems in the western United States using MODIS products
Zhen Li, Hua Shi, James Vogelmann, Todd Hawbaker, Birgit Peterson
2020, Remote Sensing (12)
Assessing fire behavior in shrubland/grassland ecosystems of the western United States has proven especially problematic, in part due to the complex nature of the vegetation and its relationships with prior fire history events. Our goals in this study were (1) to determine if we can effectively leverage...
Juvenile Lost River and shortnose sucker year-class formation, survival, and growth in Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon, and Clear Lake Reservoir, California—2018 monitoring report
Ryan J. Bart, Summer M. Burdick, Marshal S. Hoy, Carl O. Ostberg
2020, Open-File Report 2020-1064
Executive SummaryPopulations of federally endangered Lost River (Deltistes luxatus) and shortnose suckers (Chasmistes brevirostris) in Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon, and Clear Lake Reservoir (hereinafter Clear Lake), California, are experiencing long-term decreases in abundance. Upper Klamath Lake populations are decreasing not only because of adult mortality, which is relatively low, but...
Purpose and benefits of U.S. Geological Survey Trusted Digital Repositories
Natalie Latysh, Keith G. Kirk, John Faundeen
2020, Fact Sheet 2020-3032
Federal mandates and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS, also known as the Bureau) Fundamental Science Practices (FSP) policies require that publicly funded scientific data, publications, and derivative works be openly accessible to researchers and the public. Open access helps to leverage the public investment by making the acquired data and published...
Geochronologic and Hf-isotope framework of Proterozoic rocks from central New Mexico, USA: Formation of the Mazatzal crustal province in an extended continental margin arc
Mark E. Holland, Tyler A. Grambling, Karl E. Karlstrom, James V. Jones III, Kimberly N. Nagotko, Christopher G. Daniel
2020, Precambrian Research (347)
The growth of southern Laurentia has been attributed to the accretion of juvenile arc terranes during the successive 1.74-1.68 Ga Yavapai and 1.65-1.60 Ga Mazatzal orogenies. However, in light of the increasing importance of the ca. 1.49-1.40 Ga Mesoproterozoic Picuris orogeny, the tectonic setting in which the Mazatzal crustal province...
Land use effects on sediment nutrient processes in a heavily modified watershed using structural equation models
Rebecca M. Kreiling, Martin C. Thoms, Lynn A. Bartsch, James H. Larson, Victoria Christensen
2020, Water Resources Research (56)
Contemporary land use can affect sediment nutrient processes in rivers draining heavily modified watersheds; however, studies linking land use to sediment nutrient processes in large river networks are limited. In this study, we developed and evaluated structural equation models (SE models) for denitrification and phosphorus retention capacity to determine direct...
Groundwater levels and generalized potentiometric surfaces, former Naval Air Warfare Center, West Trenton, New Jersey, 2018
Alex R. Fiore, Pierre J. Lacombe
2020, Open-File Report 2020-1016
Groundwater-level conditions, generalized groundwater potentiometric surfaces, and generalized flow directions at the decommissioned Naval Air Warfare Center in West Trenton, New Jersey, were evaluated for calendar year 2018. Groundwater levels measured continuously in five on-site wells and one nearby off-site well were plotted as hydrographs for January 1, 2018, through...
Characterizing the diverse hydrogeology underlying rivers and estuaries using new floating transient electromagnetic methodology
John W. Lane, Martin A. Briggs, PK Maurya, Eric A. White, JB Pedersen, Esben Auken, Neil C. Terry, Burke J. Minsley, Wade Kress, Denis R. LeBlanc, Ryan F. Adams, Carole D. Johnson
2020, Science of the Total Environment (740)
The hydrogeology below large surface water features such as rivers and estuaries is universally under-informed at the long reach to basin scales (tens of km+). This challenge inhibits the accurate modeling of fresh/saline groundwater interfaces and groundwater/surface water exchange patterns at management-relevant spatial extents. Here we introduce a towed, floating...
Changes in climate and land cover affect seasonal streamflow forecasts in the Rio Grande headwaters
Colin A. Penn, David W. Clow, Graham A. Sexstone, Sheila F. Murphy
2020, Journal of the American Water Resources Association (56) 882-902
Seasonal streamflow forecast bias, changes in climate, snowpack, and land cover, and the effects of these changes on relations between basin‐wide snowpack, SNOw TELemetry (SNOTEL) station snowpack, and seasonal streamflow were evaluated in the headwaters of the Rio Grande, Colorado. Results indicate that shifts in the seasonality of precipitation and...
The impact of sediment supply on the initiation and magnitude of runoff-generated debris flows
Hui Tang, Luke A. McGuire, Jason W. Kean, Joel B. Smith
2020, Geophysical Research Letters (47)
Rainfall intensity‐duration (ID) thresholds are commonly used to assess the potential for runoff‐generated debris flows, but the sensitivity of these thresholds to sediment supply, which can change rapidly with time, is relatively unexplored. Furthermore, debris flows often self‐organize into distinct surges, but the factors controlling the magnitude and frequency of...
Repeatable source, path, and site effects from the 2019 Ridgecrest M7.1 earthquake sequence
Grace Alexandra Parker, Annemarie S. Baltay Sundstrom, John Rekoske, Eric M. Thompson
2020, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (110) 1530-1548
We use a large instrumental dataset from the 2019 Ridgecrest earthquake sequence (Rekoske et al., 2019, 2020) to examine repeatable source‐, path‐, and site‐specific ground motions. A mixed‐effects analysis is used to partition total residuals relative to the Boore et al. (2014;...
Corrigendum to "A remote sensing-based model of tidal marsh aboveground carbon stocks for the conterminous United States" [ISPRS J. Photogram. Rem. Sens.139 (2018) 255-271]
Kristin B. Byrd, Laurel Ballanti, Nathan Thomas, Dung Nguyen, James Holmquist, Marc Simard, Lisamarie Windham-Myers
2020, ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (166) 63-67
The authors regret that two thirds of the San Francisco Bay biomass data included in the Landsat random forest models were not scaled to the proper units of grams per square meter. This error affects the Landsat-only models in the article, which are models #1-4 shown in Table 6. The...
Incorporating spatial synchrony in the status assessment of a threatened species with multivariate analysis
Edward Stowe, Seth J. Wenger, Mary Freeman, Byron J. Freeman
2020, Biological Conservation (248)
Spatial synchrony—correlated abundance fluctuations among distinct populations—is associated with increased extinction risk but is not a component of widely-used extinction risk assessments (e.g., IUCN Red List, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Species Status Assessment). Alongside traditional viability metrics (i.e., the number of populations, their spatial extent, the status of each...
Nowcasting methods for determining microbiological water quality at recreational beaches and drinking-water source waters
Donna S. Francy, Amie M.G. Brady, Jessica R. Cicale, Harrison D Dalby, Erin A. Stelzer
2020, Journal of Microbiological Methods (175)
Nowcasts are tools used to provide timely and accurate water-quality assessments of threats to drinking-water and recreational resources from fecal contamination or cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms. They use mathematical models and techniques to provide near-real-time estimates of fecal-indicator bacteria (FIB) and cyanotoxin concentrations. Techniques include logic-based thresholds, decision trees (built...
Geometric controls on megathrust earthquakes
Steven M. Plescia, Gavin P. Hayes
2020, Geophysical Journal International (222) 1270-1282
The role of subduction zone geometry in the nucleation and propagation of great-sized earthquake ruptures is an important topic for earthquake hazard, since knowing how big an earthquake can be on a given fault is fundamentally important. Past studies have shown subducting bathymetric features (e.g. ridges, fracture zones, seamount...
Survival estimates for the invasive American bullfrog
Paige E. Howell, Erin L. Muths, Brent H. Sigafus, Blake R. Hossack
2020, Amphibia-Reptilia (41) 559-564
American bullfrogs (Lithobates catesbeianus) are significant invaders in many places and can negatively impact native species. Despite their impact and wide distribution, little is known about their demography. We used five years of capture mark-recapture data to estimate annual apparent survival of post-metamorphic bullfrogs in a population on the Buenos...
Rock strength properties of granitic rocks in Yosemite Valley, Yosemite National Park, California
Brian D. Collins, Federica Sandrone, Laurent Gastaldo, Greg M. Stock, Michel Jaboyedoff
2020, Data Series 1126
Yosemite National Park, located in the central part of California’s Sierra Nevada mountains, is a glacially carved landscape filled with iconic rock formations such as Cathedral Peak, El Capitan, and Half Dome. Igneous rocks, consisting primarily of variations of granite, granodiorite, and tonalite, make up the majority of the bedrock...
Subspecies differentiation in an enigmatic chaparral shrub species
Yi Huang, Glen R. Morrison, Alan Brelsford, Janet Franklin, Diana D Jolles, Jon Keeley, V Thomas Parker, Natalie Saavedra, Andrew C Sanders, Thomas Stoughton, Gregory A. Wahlert, Amy Litt
2020, American Journal of Botany (107) 923-940
PremiseDelimiting biodiversity units is difficult in organisms in which differentiation is obscured by hybridization, plasticity, and other factors that blur phenotypic boundaries. Such work is more complicated when the focal units are subspecies, the definition of which has not been broadly explored in the era of modern...
Legacy and contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) in tree swallows along an agricultural to industrial gradient: Maumee River, OH
Christine M. Custer, Thomas W. Custer, Paul M. Dummer, Sandra L. Schultz, Chi Yen Tseng, Natalie Karouna-Renier, Cole W. Matson
2020, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (39) 1936-1952
Exposure to multiple classes of contaminants, both legacy and contaminants of emerging concern (CECs), were assessed in tree swallow (Tachycineta bicolor) tissue and diet samples from 6 sites along the Maumee River, Ohio, USA, to understand both exposure and possible effects of exposure to those CECs for which there are...
Four-dimensional surface motions of the Slumgullion landslide and quantification of hydrometeorological forcing
Xie Hu, Roland Bürgmann, William H. Schulz, Eric J. Fielding
2020, Nature Communications (11)
Landslides modify the natural landscape and cause fatalities and property damage worldwide. Quantifying landslide dynamics is challenging due to the stochastic nature of the environment. With its large area of ~1 km2 and perennial motions at ~10–20 mm per day, the Slumgullion landslide in Colorado, USA, represents an ideal natural laboratory to...
Optimization of tidal marsh management at the Cape May and Supawna Meadows National Wildlife Refuges, New Jersey, through use of structured decision making
Hilary A. Neckles, James E. Lyons, Jessica L. Nagel, Susan C. Adamowicz, Toni Mikula, Brian Braudis, Heidi Hanlon
2020, Open-File Report 2020-1055
Structured decision making is a systematic, transparent process for improving the quality of complex decisions by identifying measurable management objectives and feasible management actions; predicting the potential consequences of management actions relative to the stated objectives; and selecting a course of action that maximizes the total benefit achieved and balances...
Installation and performance of the Albuquerque Seismological Laboratory small-aperture posthole array
Robert Anthony, Adam T. Ringler, David C. Wilson, J. Zebulon Maharrey, Gary Gyure, Aaron Pepiot, Leo D. Sandoval, Samuel Sandoval, Thomas Telesha, Gilbert Vallo, Nicholas S. Voss
2020, Seismological Research Letteres (91) 2425-2437
The Global Seismographic Network (GSN) has been used extensively by seismologists to characterize large earthquakes and image deep earth structure. Although the network’s original design goals have been met, the seismological community has suggested that the incorporation of small-aperture seismic arrays at select sites may improve performance of the network...
Analysis of movement recursions to detect reproductive events and estimate their fate in central place foragers
Simona Picardi, Brian Smith, Matthew E. Boone, Peter C. Frederick, Jacopo G. Cecere, Diego Rubolini, Lorenzo Serra, Simone Pirrello, Rena R. Borkhataria, Mathieu Basille
2020, Movement Ecology (8)
Recursive movement patterns have been used to detect behavioral structure within individual movement trajectories in the context of foraging ecology, home-ranging behavior, and predator avoidance. Some animals exhibit movement recursions to locations that are tied to reproductive functions, including nests and dens; while existing literature recognizes that, no method is...