Effects of fish populations on Pacific Loon (Gavia pacifica) and Yellow-billed Loon (G. adamsii) lake occupancy and chick production in northern Alaska
Brian D. Uher-Koch, Kenneth G. Wright, Hannah R. Uher-Koch, Joel A. Schmutz
2020, Arctic (73) 405-550
Predator populations are vulnerable to changes in prey distribution or availability. With warming temperatures, lake ecosystems in the Arctic are predicted to change in terms of hydrologic flow, water levels, and connectivity with other lakes. We surveyed lakes in northern Alaska to understand how shifts in the...
Procedures and best practices for trigonometric leveling in the U.S. Geological Survey
Michael L. Noll, Paul H. Rydlund Jr.
2020, Techniques and Methods 11-D3
With the advent of highly precise total stations and modern surveying instrumentation, trigonometric leveling has become a compelling alternative to conventional leveling methods for establishing vertical-control networks and for perpetuating a datum to field sites. Previous studies of trigonometric-leveling measurement uncertainty proclaim that first-, second-, and third-order accuracies may be...
Hydrogeology and groundwater geochemistry of till confining units and confined aquifers in glacial deposits near Litchfield, Cromwell, Akeley, and Olivia, Minnesota, 2014–18
Jared J. Trost, Anna-Turi Maher, William W. Simpkins, Alyssa N. Witt, James R. Stark, Justin Blum, Andrew M. Berg
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5127
Confined (or buried) aquifers of glacial origin overlain by till confining units provide drinking water to hundreds of thousands of Minnesota residents. The sustainability of these groundwater resources is not well understood because hydraulic properties of till that control vertical groundwater fluxes (leakage) to underlying aquifers are largely unknown. The...
Approaches to highly parameterized inversion: PEST++ Version 5, a software suite for parameter estimation, uncertainty analysis, management optimization and sensitivity analysis
Jeremy T. White, Randall J. Hunt, Michael N. Fienen, John E. Doherty
2020, Techniques and Methods 7-C26
PEST++ Version 5 extends and enhances the functionality of the PEST++ Version 3 software suite, providing environmental modeling practitioners access to updated Version 3 tools as well as new tools to support decision making with environmental models. Version 5 of PEST++ includes tools for global sensitivity analysis (PESTPP-SEN); least-squares parameter...
A probabilistic assessment of tephra-fall hazards at Hanford, Washington, from a future eruption of Mount St. Helens
Larry G. Mastin, Alexa R. Van Eaton, Hans F. Schwaiger
2020, Open-File Report 2020-1133
Hanford, Washington (USA) is the construction site of a multi-billion-dollar high-level nuclear waste treatment facility. This site lies 200 kilometers (km) east of Mount St. Helens (MSH), the most active volcano in the contiguous United States. Tephra from a future MSH eruption could pose a hazard to the air intake...
Bathymetric map, surface area, and capacity of Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees, northeastern Oklahoma, 2019
Shelby L. Hunter, A.R. Trevisan, Jennifer Villa, Kevin A. Smith
2020, Scientific Investigations Map 3467
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Grand River Dam Authority, completed a high-resolution multibeam bathymetric survey to compute a new area and capacity table for Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees in northeastern Oklahoma. Area and capacity tables identify the relation between the elevation of the water surface...
Estimating the invasion extent of Asian swamp eel (Monopterus: Synbranchidae) in an altered river of the south-eastern United States
J. R. Johnson, A. T. Taylor, James M. Long
2020, Marine and Freshwater Research (72) 811-822
The first reported invasion of Asian swamp eels (Monopterus albus, ASE) in the continental United States was in the state of Georgia in 1994. This population was first discovered within several ponds on a private nature centre, but the ponds drained via an outflow pipe into marsh habitats...
Fish out of water: Insights from a case study of a highly social animal that failed the mirror self-recognition test
Shannon Barber-Meyer, Lori J. Schmidt
2020, International Journal of Comparative Psychology (33)
Mirror self-recognition (MSR) tests have been conducted with a variety of species with the aim of examining whether subject animals have the capacity for self-awareness. To date, the majority of animals that have convincingly passed are highly social mammals whose wild...
Editorial: Plant-soil interactions under changing climate
Sanna Sevanto, Charlotte Grossiord, Tamir Klein, Sasha C. Reed
2020, Frontiers in Plant Science (11)
The health and well-being of plants and soil is crucial for all life on Earth. It is well-known that vegetation cover follows climatic zones, and plants respond to climatic drivers such as temperature and precipitation (Seddon et al., 2016; Kattge et al., 2020). It is also well-known that plant health...
Assessing contributions of cold-water refuges to reproductive migration corridor conditions for adult salmon and steelhead trout in the Columbia River, USA
Marcia N. Snyder, Nathan H. Schumaker, Jason B. Dunham, Matthew Keefer, P.T. Leinenbach, Allen Brookes, John Palmer, Jennifer Wu, Druscilla M Keenan, Joseph L. Ebersole
2020, Journal of Ecohydraulics
Diadromous fish populations face multiple challenges along their migratory routes. These challenges include suboptimal water quality, harvest, and barriers to longitudinal and lateral connectivity. Interactions among factors influencing migration success make it challenging to assess management options for improving migratory fish conditions along riverine migration corridors. We describe a spatially...
Simulation of groundwater flow in the regional aquifer system on Long Island, New York, for pumping and recharge conditions in 2005–15
Donald A. Walter, John P. Masterson, Jason S. Finkelstein, Monti, Paul E. Misut, Michael N. Fienen
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5091
A three-dimensional groundwater-flow model was developed for the aquifer system of Long Island, New York, to evaluate (1) responses of the hydrologic system to changes in natural and anthropogenic hydraulic stresses, (2) the subsurface distribution of groundwater age, and (3) the regional-scale distribution of groundwater travel times and the source...
Probabilistic application of an integrated catchment-estuary-coastal system model to assess the evolution of inlet-interrupted coasts over the 21st century
J. Bamunawala, Ali Dastgheib, Roshanka Ranasinghe, Ad van der Spek, Shreedhar Maskey, A. Brad Murray, Patrick L. Barnard, Trang Minh Duong, T.A.J.G. Sirisena
2020, Frontiers in Applied Mathematics and Statistics (7)
Inlet-interrupted sandy coasts are dynamic and complex coastal systems with continuously evolving geomorphological behaviors under the influences of both climate change and human activities. These coastal systems are of great importance to society (e.g., providing habitats, navigation, and recreational activities) and are affected by both oceanic and terrestrial...
Volcanic hazard assessment for an eruption hiatus, or post-eruption unrest context: Modeling continued dome collapse hazards for Soufrière Hills Volcano
E.T. Spiller, R.L. Wolpert, Sarah E. Ogburn, E.S. Calder, J.O. Berger, A.K. Patra, E.B. Pitman
2020, Frontiers in Earth Science (8)
Effective volcanic hazard management in regions where populations live in close proximity to persistent volcanic activity involves understanding the dynamic nature of hazards, and associated risk. Emphasis until now has been placed on identification and forecasting of the escalation phase of activity, in order to provide adequate warning...
Geomorphic survey of North Fork Eagle Creek, New Mexico, 2018
Alexander P. Graziano
2020, Open-File Report 2020-1121
About one-quarter of the water supply for the Village of Ruidoso, New Mexico, is from groundwater pumped from wells located along North Fork Eagle Creek in the National Forest System lands of the Lincoln National Forest near Alto, New Mexico. Because of concerns regarding the effects of groundwater pumping on...
Warmer temperatures interact with salinity to weaken physiological facilitation to stress in freshwater fishes
Richard H. Walker, Geoffrey D. Smith, Spencer B Hudson, Susannah S. Susannah S. French, Annika W. Walters
2020, Conservation Physiology (8)
Management of stressors requires an understanding of how multiple stressors interact, how different species respond to those interactions and the underlying mechanisms driving observed patterns in species' responses. Salinization and rising temperatures are two pertinent stressors predicted to intensify in freshwater ecosystems, posing concern for how susceptible organisms achieve and...
Density dependence and adult survival drive the dynamics in two high elevation amphibian populations
Amanda M. Kissel, Simone Tenan, Erin L. Muths
2020, Diversity (12)
Amphibian conservation has progressed from the identification of declines to mitigation, but efforts are hampered by the lack of nuanced information about the effects of environmental characteristics and stressors on mechanistic processes of population regulation. Challenges include a paucity of long-term data and scant information about the relative roles of...
The roles of flood magnitude and duration in controlling channel width and complexity on the Green River in Canyonlands, Utah, USA
Paul E. Grams, David J. Dean, Alexander E. Walker, Alan Kasprak, John C. Schmidt
2020, Geomorphology (371)
Predictions of river channel adjustment to changes in streamflow regime based on relations between mean channel characteristics and mean flood magnitude can be useful to evaluate average channel response. However, because these relations assume equilibrium sediment transport, their applicability to cases...
External quality assurance project report for the National Atmospheric Deposition Program’s National Trends Network and Mercury Deposition Network, 2017–18
Gregory A. Wetherbee, RoseAnn Martin
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5084
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Precipitation Chemistry Quality Assurance project (PCQA) operated five distinct programs to provide external quality-assurance monitoring for the National Atmospheric Deposition Program’s (NADP) National Trends Network and Mercury Deposition Network during 2017–18. The National Trends Network programs included (1) a field audit program to evaluate sample...
Research priorities for migratory birds under climate change—A qualitative value of information assessment
Madeleine A. Rubenstein, Clark S. Rushing, James E. Lyons, Michael C. Runge
2020, Circular 1472
The mission of the U.S. Geological Survey National Climate Adaptation Science Center is to provide actionable, management-relevant research on climate change effects on ecosystems and wildlife to U.S. Department of the Interior bureaus. Providing this kind of useful scientific information requires understanding how natural-resource managers make decisions and identifying research...
Quantifying and addressing the prevalence and bias of study designs in the environmental and social sciences
Alec P. Christie, David Abecasis, Mehdi Adjeroud, Juan C. Alonso, Tatsuya Amano, Alvaro Anton, Barry P. Baldigo, Rafael Barrientos, Jake E. Bicknell, Deborah A. Buhl, Just Cebrian, Ricardo S. Ceia, Luciana Cibils-Martina, Sarah Clarke, Joachim Claudet, Michael D. Craig, Dominique Davoult, Annelies De Backer, Mary K. Donovan, Tyler D. Eddy, Filipe M. Franca, Jonathan P.A. Gardner, Bradley P. Harris, Ari Huusko, Ian L. Jones, Brendan P. Kelaher, Janne S. Kotiaho, Adrià López-Baucells, Heather L. Major, Aki Maki-Petays, Beatriz Martinez-Lopez, Carlos A. Martin, Philip A. Martin, Daniel Mateos-Molina, Robert A. McConnaughey, Michele Meroni, Christoph F. J. Meyer, Kade Mills, Monica Montefalcone, Norbertas Noreika, Carlos Palacin, Anjali Pande, C. Roland Pitcher, Carlos Ponce, Matthew J. Rinella, Ricardo Rocha, Maria C. Ruiz-Delgado, Juan J. Schmitter-Soto, Jill A. Shaffer, Shailesh Sharma, Anna A. Sher, Doriane Stagnol, Thomas Stanley, Kevin D.E. Stokesbury, Aurora Torres, Oliver Tully, Teppo Vehanen, Corinne Watts, Qingyuan Zhao, William J. Sutherland
2020, Nature Communications (11)
Building trust in science and evidence-based decision-making depends heavily on the credibility of studies and their findings. Researchers employ many different study designs that vary in their risk of bias to evaluate the true effect of interventions or impacts. Here, we empirically quantify, on a large...
A Bayesian framework for assessing extinction risk based on ordinal categories of population condition and projected landscape change
Daniel Bruce Fitzgerald, Andrew R Henderson, Kelly O. Maloney, Mary Freeman, John A. Young, Amanda E. Rosenberger, David C. Kazyak, David R. Smith
2020, Biological Conservation (253)
Many at-risk species lack standardized surveys across their range or quantitative data capable of detecting demographic trends. As a result, extinction risk assessments often rely on ordinal categories of risk based on explicit criteria or expert elicitation. This study demonstrates a...
Feral burros and other influences on desert tortoise presence in the western Sonoran Desert
Kristin H. Berry, Julie L. Yee, Lisa L. Lyren
2020, Herpetologica (76) 403-413
Across the globe, conflicting priorities exist in how land and resources are managed. In the American West, conflicts are common on public lands with historical mandates for multiple uses. We explored the impacts of multiple uses of land in a case study of Agassiz's Desert...
What processes must we understand to forecast regional-scale population dynamics?
Jesse R. Lasky, Mevin Hooten, Peter B. Adler
2020, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (287)
An urgent challenge facing biologists is predicting the regional-scale population dynamics of species facing environmental change. Biologists suggest that we must move beyond predictions based on phenomenological models and instead base predictions on underlying processes. For example, population biologists, evolutionary biologists, community ecologists and ecophysiologists all argue that the respective...
Non-analog increases to air, surface, and belowground temperature extreme events due to climate change
M.D. Petrie, John B. Bradford, W.K. Lauenroth, D.R. Schlaepfer, Caitlin M. Andrews, D.M. Bell
2020, Climate Change (163) 2233-2256
Air temperatures (Ta) are rising in a changing climate, increasing extreme temperature events. Examining how Ta increases are influencing extreme temperatures at the soil surface and belowground in the soil profile can refine our understanding of the ecological consequences of rising temperatures. In this paper, we validate surface and soil...
Occupancy and detectability of northern long-eared bats in the Lake States Region
Brenna A. Hyzy, Robin E. Russell, Alexander Silvis, W. Mark Ford, Jason D. Riddle, Kevin R. Russell
2020, Wildlife Society Bulletin (44) 732-740
The northern long‐eared bat (Myotis septentrionalis) is one of the bat species most affected by white‐nose syndrome. Population declines attributed to white‐nose syndrome contributed to the species’ listing as federally threatened under the 1973 Endangered Species Act. Although one of the most abundant Myotine bats in eastern North America prior...
