Mechanisms for ballistic block ejection during the 2016–2017 shallow submarine eruption of Bogoslof volcano, Alaska
Christopher F. Waythomas, Larry G. Mastin
2020, Bulletin of Volcanology (82)
Ejection of ballistic blocks was a characteristic feature of the 2016–2017 Bogoslof eruption. High-resolution satellite images acquired throughout the duration of the 9-month long eruptive period permitted the recognition and mapping of ballistic blocks on the surface of Bogoslof Island. Many of the satellite images recorded the accumulation of ballistic...
Conjoint use of hydraulic head and groundwater age data to detect hydrogeologic barriers
Sarah K. Marshall, Peter G. Cook, Leonard F. Konikow, Craig T. Simmons, Shawan Dogramaci
2020, Hydrogeology Journal (28) 1003-1019
Hydraulic head and groundwater age data are effective in building understanding of groundwater systems. Yet their joint role in detecting and characterising low-permeability geological structures, i.e. hydrogeologic barriers such as faults and dykes, has not been widely studied. Here, numerical flow and transport models, using MODFLOW-NWT and MT3D-USGS, were developed...
Heterogeneity in migration strategies of the whooping crane
Aaron T. Pearse, Kristine L. Metzger, David A. Brandt, Mark T. Bidwell, Mary J. Harner, David M. Baasch, Wade C. Harrell
2020, The Condor (122)
Migratory birds use numerous strategies to successfully complete twice-annual movements between breeding and wintering sites. Context for conservation and management can be provided by characterizing these strategies. Variations in strategy among and within individuals support population persistence in response to changes in land use and climate. We used location data...
Demography of snowshoe hare population cycles
Madan K. Oli, Charles J Krebs, Alice J Kenney, Rudy Boonstra, Stan Boutin, James E. Hines
2020, Ecology (101)
Cyclic fluctuations in abundance exhibited by some mammalian populations in northern habitats (“population cycles”) are key processes in the functioning of many boreal and tundra ecosystems. Understanding population cycles, essentially demographic processes, necessitates discerning the demographic mechanisms that underlie numerical changes. Using mark–recapture data spanning five population cycles (1977–2017), we...
How often can Earthquake Early Warning systems alert sites with high intensity ground motion?
M.-A. Meier, Y. Kodera, M. Bose, A. I. Chung, M. Hoshiba, Elizabeth S. Cochran, Sarah E. Minson, E. Hauksson, T. Heaton
2020, Journal of Geophysical Research (125)
Although numerous Earthquake Early Warning (EEW) algorithms have been developed we still lack a detailed understanding of how often and under what circumstances useful ground motion alerts can be provided to end-users. Here we analyze the alerting performance of the PLUM, EPIC and FinDer algorithms by running them retrospectively on...
Combined influence of intrinsic and environmental factors in shaping productivity in a small pelagic gull, the black-legged kittiwake Rissa tridactyla
Aly McKnight, David B. Irons, Cyndy Loftin, Shawn T. McKinney, Brian J. Olsen
2020, Marine Ecology Progress Series (633) 207-223
While we have a good understanding in many systems of the effects of single variable changes on organisms, we understand far less about how variables act in concert to affect living systems, where interactions among variables can lead to unanticipated results. We used mixed-effect models to evaluate the effects of...
Challenges for leveraging citizen science to support statistically robust monitoring programs
Emily L. Weiser, James E. Diffendorfer, Laura Lopez-Hoffman, Darius J. Semmens, Wayne E. Thogmartin
2020, Biological Conservation (242)
Large samples and long time series are often needed for effective broad-scale monitoring of status and trends in wild populations. Obtaining those sample sizes can be more feasible when volunteers contribute to the dataset, but volunteer-selected sites are not always representative of a population. Previous work to account for biased...
Water-balance techniques for determining available soil-water storage for selected sandy and clay soil study sites in Cass County, North Dakota, 2016–17
Kevin C. Vining
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2019-5141
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service, collected field and remotely sensed data on precipitation, evapotranspiration (ET), and soil-water content to determine available soil-water storage (AWS) at six study sites on sandy and clay soils in Cass County, North Dakota. Data...
Components and predictors of biological soil crusts vary at the regional vs. plant community scales
Lea A. Condon, David A. Pyke
2020, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution (7)
Although biological soil crusts (biocrusts) occur globally in arid and semi-arid environments, most of our knowledge of biocrust cover and ecology is from a relatively small number of locations worldwide. Some plant communities are known to have high cover of biocrusts, but the abundance of biocrusts is largely undocumented in...
Characterization of the genetic structure of four sucker species in the Klamath River. Final Report
Matt Smith, Jennifer Von Bargen, Christian A. Smith, Michael A. Miller, Josh Rasmussen, David A. Hewitt
2020, Report
Four species of suckers (family Catostomidae) inhabit the Klamath River Basin of Oregon and California: Lost River suckers (LRS; Deltistes luxatus), shortnose suckers (SNS; Chasmistes brevirostris), Klamath largescale suckers (KLS; Catostomus snyderi), and Klamath smallscale suckers (KSS; Catostomus rimiculus). All but Klamath smallscale suckers are endemic and restricted to the...
Using a dense seismic array to determine structure and site effects of the Two Towers earthflow in northern California
Amanda M. Thomas, Zack Spica, Miles Bodmer, William H. Schulz, Joshua J. Roering
2020, Seismological Research Letters (91) 913-920
We deployed a network of 68 three-component geophones on the slow moving Two Towers earthflow in northern California. We compute horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratios (HVSRs) from the ambient seismic field. The HVSRs have two prominent peaks, one near 1.23 Hz and another between 4 and 8 Hz at most stations. The 1.23 Hz resonance...
Resolving small-scale forest snow patterns using an energy-balance snow model with a 1-layer canopy
Giulia Mazzotti, Richard Essery, C. David Moeser, Tobias Jonas
2020, Water Resources Research (56)
Modelling spatiotemporal dynamics of snow in forests is challenging, as involved processes are strongly dependent on small-scale canopy properties. In this study, we explore how local canopy structure information can be integrated in a medium-complexity energy-balance snow model to replicate observed snow patterns at very high spatial resolutions. Snow depth...
Acute toxicity of the lampricides TFM and niclosamide: Effects on a vascular plant and a chironomid species
Tom Leak, John Aufderheide, Alan Bergfield, Terrance D. Hubert
2020, Journal of Great Lakes Research (46) 180-187
The lampricides 3-trifluoromethyl-4-nitrophenol (TFM) and niclosamide have been used for about 60 years to control sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) in the Great Lakes Basin and Lake Champlain. To register these chemicals as pesticides in North America, their environmental effects must be reviewed on a periodic basis. As a...
Habitat of the endangered salt marsh harvest mouse (Reithrodontomys raviventris) in San Francisco Bay
Bruce G. Marcot, Isa Woo, Karen M. Thorne, Chase M. Freeman, Glenn R. Guntenspergen
2020, Ecology and Evolution (0) 662-677
Understanding habitat associations is vital for conservation of at‐risk marsh‐endemic wildlife species, particularly those under threat from sea level rise. We modeled environmental and habitat associations of the marsh‐endemic, Federally endangered salt marsh harvest mouse (Reithrodontomys raviventris, RERA) and co‐occurrence with eight associated small mammal species from annual trap data,...
Petrologic insights into rift zone magmatic interactions from the 2011 eruption of Kīlauea Volcano, Hawaiʻi
Brett H. Walker, Michael O. Garcia, Tim R. Orr
2020, Journal of Petrology (60) 2051-2075
The high frequency of historical eruptions at Kīlauea Volcano presents an exceptional opportunity to address fundamental questions related to the transport, storage, and interaction of magmas within rift zones. The Nāpau Crater area on Kīlauea’s East Rift Zone (ERZ) experienced nine fissure eruptions within 50 years (1961–2011). Most of the magma...
Copper concentrations in the upper Columbia River as a limiting factor in White Sturgeon recruitment and recovery
Holly J. Puglis, Aida Farag, Christopher A. Mebane
2020, Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management (16) 378-391
Currently there is little natural recruitment of white sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus) in the Upper Columbia River located in British Columbia, Canada and Washington, USA. This review of life history, physiology, and behavior of white sturgeon, along with data from recent toxicological studies, suggest that trace metals, especially Cu, affect survival...
Introduction to this special section: Geothermal energy
Joern Kaven, Dennise Templeton, Arpita P. Bathija
2020, The Leading Edge (39) 855-856
Geothermal energy is a global renewable resource that has the potential to provide a significant portion of baseload energy in many regions. In the United States, it has the potential to provide 8.5% of the electric generation capacity by the middle of the...
An open source database for the synthesis of soil radiocarbon data: ISRaD version 1.0
Corey R. Lawrence, Jeffrey Beem-Miller, Alison Hoyt, Grey Monroe, Carlos Sierra, Shane Stoner, Katherine Heckman, Joseph Blankinship, Susan Crow, Gavin McNichol, Susan Trumbore, Paul Levine, Olga Vinduskova, Katherine Todd-Brown, Craig Rasmussen, Caitlin Hicks Pries, Christina Schadel, Karis McFarlane, Sebastian Doetterl, Christine Hatte, Yujie He, Claire C. Treat, Jennifer W. Harden, Margaret S. Torn, Cristian Estop-Aragonés, Asmeret A. Berhe, Marco Keiluweit, Agatha Della Rosa Kuhnen, Erika Marin-Spiotta, Alain F. Plante, Aaron Thompson, Zheng Shi, Joshua P. Schimel, Lydia J.S. Vaughn, Sophie F. von Fromm, Rota Wagai
2020, Earth System Science Data (12) 61-76
Radiocarbon is a critical constraint on our estimates of the timescales of soil carbon cycling that can aid in identifying mechanisms of carbon stabilization and destabilization and improve the forecast of soil carbon response to management or environmental change. Despite the wealth of soil radiocarbon data that have been reported...
Inundation exposure assessment for Majuro Atoll, Republic of the Marshall Islands using a high-accuracy digital elevation model
Dean B. Gesch, Monica Palaseanu-Lovejoy, Jeffrey J. Danielson, Charles Fletcher, Maria Kottermair, Matthew Barbee, Andrea Jalandoni
2020, Remote Sensing (12)
Majuro Atoll in the central Pacific has high coastal vulnerability due to low-lying islands, rising sea level, high wave events, eroding shorelines, a dense population center, and limited freshwater resources. Land elevation is the primary geophysical variable that determines exposure to inundation in coastal settings. Accordingly, coastal elevation data (with...
Nest site selection influences cinnamon teal nest survival in Colorado
William L. Kendall, Casey M. Setash, David Olson
2020, Journal of Wildlife Management (84) 542-552
Nest survival of ducks is partially a function of the spatiotemporal characteristics of the site at which a bird chooses to nest. Nest survival is also a fundamental component of population growth in waterfowl but is relatively unstudied for cinnamon teal (Spatula cyanoptera). We investigated cinnamon teal nest survival in...
Seismic character and progression of explosive activity during the 2016-2017 eruption of Bogoslof volcano, Alaska
Cheryl Searcy, John Power
2020, Bulletin of Volcanology (82)
Bogoslof volcano, in the central Aleutian arc, experienced a major eruption between December 2016 and August 2017 that was characterized by explosive activity (VEI 2 to 3) and the extrusion of lava domes. The Alaska Volcano Observatory tracked the activity in real-time using seismicity observed on distant stations as...
Using conceptual models to relate multiparameter satellite data to subsurface volcanic processes in Latin America
Kevin Reath, Matthew Pritchard, Juliet Biggs, Ben Andrews, Susi Ebmeier, Marco Bagnardi, Tarsilo Girona, Paul Lundgren, Taryn Lopez, Michael P. Poland
2020, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems (21)
Satellite data have been extensively used to identify volcanic behavior. However, the physical subsurface processes causing any individual manifestation of activity can be ambiguous. We propose a classification scheme for the cause of unrest that simultaneously considers three multiparameter satellite observations. The scheme is based on...
Turbidite stratigraphy in proglacial lakes: Deciphering trigger mechanisms using a statistical approach
Nore Praet, Maarten Van Daele, Tim Collart, J. Moernaut, Elke Vandekerkhove, P. Kempf, Peter J. Haeussler, M. De Batist
2020, Sedimentology (67) 2332-2359
Turbidites embedded in lacustrine sediment sequences are commonly used to reconstruct regional flood or earthquake histories. A critical step for this method to be successful is that turbidites and their trigger mechanisms are determined unambiguously. The latter is particularly challenging for prehistoric proglacial lake records in high-seismicity settings where both...
Estimating bedload from suspended load and water discharge in sand bed rivers
T.C. Ashley, B. McElroy, D. Buscombe, Paul E. Grams, M. Kaplinski
2020, Water Resources Research (56)
Estimates of fluvial sediment discharge from in situ instruments are an important component of large‐scale sediment budgets that track long‐term geomorphic change. Suspended sediment load can be reliably estimated using acoustic or physical sampling techniques; however, bedload is difficult to measure directly and can consequently be one of the largest...
U.S. Geological Survey Earthquake Science Center
Stephen H. Hickman
2020, Fact Sheet 2019-3067
The mission of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Earthquake Science Center is to collect a wide range of data on earthquakes, faults, and crustal deformation; conduct research to increase our understanding of earthquake source processes, occurrence, and effects; and synthesize this knowledge into probabilistic seismic hazard assessments, aftershock forecasts, and...
