The influence of climate variability on the accuracy of NHD perennial and non-perennial stream classifications
Konrad Hafen, Kyle W. Blasch, Alan H. Rea, Roy Sando, Paul Gessler
2020, Journal of the American Water Resources Association (56) 903-916
National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) stream permanence classifications (SPC; perennial, intermittent, and ephemeral) are widely used for data visualization and applied science, and have implications for resource policy and management. NHD SPC were assigned using a combination of topographic field surveys and interviews with local residents. However,...
National Land Imaging Program
Steven M. Young
2020, Fact Sheet 2020-3034
Changes taking place across the Earth’s land surface have the potential to affect people, economies, and the environment on a daily basis. Our Nation’s economic security and environmental vitality rely on continuous monitoring of the Earth’s continents, islands, and coastal regions to record, study, and understand land change at local,...
Hydrology of Haskell Lake and investigation of a groundwater contamination plume, Lac du Flambeau Reservation, Wisconsin
Andrew T. Leaf, Megan J. Haserodt
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5024
Haskell Lake is a shallow, 89-acre drainage lake in the headwaters of the Squirrel River, on the Lac du Flambeau Reservation in northern Wisconsin. The lake has long been valued by the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians (LDF Tribe) for abundant wild rice and game fish....
Assessing year‐round habitat use by migratory sea ducks in a multi‐species context reveals seasonal variation in habitat selection and partitioning
Juliet S. Lamb, Peter WC Paton, Jason E. Osenkowski, Shannon S. Badzinski, Alicia Berlin, Timothy D. Bowman, Chris Dwyer, Luke J. Fara, Scott G. Gilliland, Kevin P. Kenow, Christine Lepage, Mark L. Mallory, Glenn H. Olsen, Matthew Perry, Scott A. Petrie, Jean-Pierre L. Savard, Lucas Savoy, Michael L. Schummer, Caleb S. Spiegel, Scott R. McWilliams
2020, Ecography (43) 1842-1858
Long‐distance migration presents complex conservation challenges, and migratory species often experience shortfalls in conservation due to the difficulty of identifying important locations and resources throughout the annual cycle. In order to prioritize habitats for conservation of migratory wildlife, it is necessary to understand how habitat needs change throughout the annual...
Bioclimatic modeling of potential vegetation types as an alternative to species distribution models for projecting plant species shifts under changing climates
Robert Keane, Lisa M. Holsinger, Rachel A. Loehman
2020, Forest Ecology and Management (477)
Land managers need new tools for planning novel futures due to climate change. Species distribution modeling (SDM) has been used extensively to predict future distributions of species under different climates, but their map products are often too coarse for fine-scale operational...
Hillslopes in humid-tropical climates aren’t always wet: Implications for hydrologic response and landslide initiation in Puerto Rico, USA
Matthew A. Thomas, Benjamin B. Mirus, Joel B. Smith
2020, Hydrological Processes (34) 4307-4318
The devastating impacts of the widespread flooding and landsliding in Puerto Rico following the September 2017 landfall of Hurricane Maria highlight the increasingly extreme atmospheric disturbances and enhanced hazard potential in mountainous humid‐tropical climate zones. Long‐standing conceptual models for hydrologically driven hazards in Puerto Rico posit that hillslope soils remain...
Increasing threat of coastal groundwater hazards from sea-level rise in California
K.M. Befus, Patrick L. Barnard, Daniel J. Hoover, Juliette Finzi Hart, Clifford I. Voss
2020, Nature Climate Change (10) 946-952
Projected sea-level rise will raise coastal water tables, resulting in groundwater hazards that threaten shallow infrastructure and coastal ecosystem resilience. Here we model a range of sea-level rise scenarios to assess the responses of water tables across the diverse topography and climates of the California coast....
Trait‐based variation in host contribution to pathogen transmission across species and resource supplies
Miranda E Welsh, James P. Cronin, Charles E. Mitchell
2020, Ecology (101)
Two key knowledge gaps currently limit the development of more predictive and general models of pathogen transmission: (1) the physiological basis of heterogeneity in host contribution to pathogen transmission (reservoir potential) remains poorly understood, and (2) a general means of integrating the ecological dynamics of host communities has yet to...
A multi-state occupancy modelling framework for robust estimation of disease prevalence in multi-tissue disease systems
Vratika Chaudhary, Samantha M Wisely, Felipe A Hernandez, James E. Hines, James D. Nichols, Madan K. Oli
2020, Journal of Applied Ecology (57) 2463-2474
Given the public health, economic and conservation implications of zoonotic diseases, their effective surveillance is of paramount importance. The traditional approach to estimating pathogen prevalence as the proportion of infected individuals in the population is biased because it fails to account for imperfect detection. A statistically robust way to...
Beyond sticks and stones: Integrating physical and ecological conditions into watershed restoration assessments using a food web modeling approach
Emily J Whitney, James R Bellmore, Joseph R. Benjamin, Chris E Jordan, Jason B. Dunham, Michael Newsom, Matt Nahorniak
2020, Food Webs (25)
Watershed assessments have become common for prioritizing restoration in river networks. These assessments primarily focus on geomorphic conditions of rivers but less frequently incorporate non-geomorphic abiotic factors such as water chemistry and temperature, and biotic factors such as the structure of food webs. Using a dynamic food web model that...
What to do when invaders are out of control?
Jason Dunham, Ivan Arismendi, Christina Murphy, Alex Koeberle, J Andres Olivos, James B Pearson, Francisco Pickens, David Roon, John R. Stevenson
2020, WIREs Water (7)
Biological invasions threaten species and ecosystems worldwide. Impacts from invasions are especially prevalent in freshwaters, where managers have struggled to contain the problem. Conventional approaches to managing invaders focus on prevention and control. In practice, these measures have proven to be variably effective. Control or eradication of established invaders is...
Slender salamanders (genus Batrachoseps) reveal Southern California to be a center for the diversification, persistence, and introduction of salamander lineages
Elizabeth L Jockusch, Robert W Hansen, Robert N. Fisher, David B Wake
2020, PeerJ (8)
BackgroundThe southern California biodiversity hotspot has had a complex geological history, with both plate tectonic forces and sea level changes repeatedly reconfiguring the region, and likely driving both lineage splittings and extinctions. Here we investigate patterns of genetic divergence in two species of slender salamanders (Plethodontidae: Batrachoseps) in this region....
Capturing spatiotemporal patterns in presence-absence data to inform monitoring and sampling designs for the threatened Dakota skipper (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae) in the Great Plains of the United States
Max Post van der Burg, Jane E. Austin, Mark T. Wiltermuth, Wesley E. Newton, Garrett J. MacDonald
2020, Environmental Entomology (49) 1252-1261
Declines among species of insect pollinators, especially butterflies, has garnered attention from scientists and managers. Often these declines have spurred governments to declare some species as threatened or endangered. We used existing presence–absence data from surveys for the threatened Dakota skipper Hesperia dacotae (Skinner) to build statistical maps of species presence that...
Quantifying ecospace utilization and ecosystemengineering during the early Phanerozoic—The role of bioturbation and bioerosion
Luis A. Buatois, M. Gabriela Mangano, Nicholas J Minter, Kai Zhou, Max Wisshak, Mark A. Wilson, Ricardo A. Olea
2020, Science Advances (6)
The Cambrian explosion (CE) and the great Ordovician biodiversification event (GOBE) are the two most important radiations in Paleozoic oceans. We quantify the role of bioturbation and bioerosion in ecospace utilization and ecosystem engineering using information from 1367 stratigraphic units. An increase in all diversity metrics is demonstrated for the...
Biological effects of hydrocarbon degradation intermediates: Is the total petroleum hydrocarbon analytical method adequate for risk assessment?
Barbara A. Bekins, Jennifer Brennan, Donald E. Tillitt, Isabelle M. Cozzarelli, Jennifer M. Illig, Dalma Martinovich-Weigelt
2020, Environmental Science & Technology (54) 11396-11404
In crude oil contaminant plumes, the dissolved organic carbon (DOC) is mainly hydrocarbon degradation intermediates only partly quantified by the diesel range total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPHd) method. To understand potential biological effects of degradation intermediates, we tested three fractions of DOC:...
Constraining central Himalayan (Nepal) fault geometry through integrated thermochronology and thermokinematic modeling
Surydoy Ghoshal, Nadine McQuarrie, Delores Robinson, D.P. Adhikari, Leah E. Morgan, Todd A. Ehlers
2020, Tectonics (39)
Constraining the subsurface structural geometry of the central Himalaya continues to prove difficult, even after the 2015 Gorkha earthquake and the resulting insights into the trajectory of the Main Himalayan thrust (MHT). To this end, we apply a thermokinematic model to evaluate four possible balanced cross section geometries based on...
Flood-inundation maps for Dardenne Creek in St. Charles County, Missouri, 2019
David C. Heimann, Jonathon D. Voss, Paul H. Rydlund Jr.
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5060
Digital flood-inundation maps for a 9.9-mile reach of Dardenne Creek, St. Charles County, Missouri, were created by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Missouri Department of Transportation, St. Charles County, and the Cities of O’Fallon and St. Peters, Mo. The flood-inundation maps, which can be accessed through the USGS Flood...
Aboveground and belowground vegetation biomass and nutrients
Todd M. Folse, Thomas E. McGinnis, Leigh A. Sharp, Jonathan L. West, Melissa K. Hymel, John P. Troutman, Dona Weifenbach, William M. Boshart, Laurie B. Rodrigue, Danielle C. Richardi, W. Bernard Wood, C. Mike Miller, Elizabeth M. Robinson, Angelina M. Freeman, Camille Stagg, Brady Couvillion, Holly Beck
2020, Report, A standard operating procedures manual for the Coastwide Reference Monitoring System-Wetlands and the System-Wide Assessment and Monitoring Program: Methods for site establishment, data collection, and quality assurance/quality control
Wetland biomass production, decomposition, and storage of organic matter govern estuarine energy transfer, in addition to determining the physical sustainability of marshes exposed to sea-level rise and subsidence. Peak standing biomass represents an indicator of wetland production or productivity but does not account for turnover (production and decomposition) of different pools of biomass with...
Ultraviolet-assisted oiling assessment improves detection of oiled birds experiencing clinical signs of hemolytic anemia after exposure to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill
J. A. Fallon, E. P. Smith, N. Shoch, J. D. Paruk, E. A. Adams, D. C. Evers, Patrick G.R. Jodice, M. Perkins, D. E. Meatty, W. A. Hopkins
2020, Ecotoxicology (29) 1399-1408
While large-scale oil spills can cause acute mortality events in birds, there is increasing evidence that sublethal oil exposure can trigger physiological changes that have implications for individual performance and survival. Therefore, improved methods for identifying small amounts of oil on birds are needed. Because ultraviolet (UV) light can be...
Assessing the potential for spectrally based remote sensing of salmon spawning locations
Lee R. Harrison, Carl J. Legleiter, Brandon T. Overstreet, Tomoko Bell, John Hannon
2020, River Research and Applications (36) 1618-1632
Remote sensing tools are increasingly used for quantitative mapping of fluvial habitats, yet few techniques exist for continuous sampling of aquatic organisms, such as spawning salmonids. This study assessed the potential for spectrally based remote sensing of salmon spawning locations (i.e., redds) using data acquired from...
The GFDL Earth System Model Version 4.1 (GFDL-ESM 4.1): Overall coupled model description and simulation characteristics
John P Dunne, L W Horowitz, A. Adcroft, P. Ginoux, I.M. Held, J.C.H. Johns, John P. Krasting, Sergey Malyshev, V. Naik, F. Paulot, Elena Shevliakova, C. A. Stock, N Zadeh, V. Balaji, C Blanton, C Dupuis, J. Durachta, R Dussin, Paul P. G. Gauthier, S M Griffies, Huan Guo, Robert W. Hallberg, Matthew J. Harrison, Jian He, W Hurlin, Charles W. McHugh, R Menzel, Paul C. D. Milly, S Nikonov, D. Paynter, J J Ploshay, A. Radhakrishnan, K Rand, B Reichel, T.C. Robinson, M D Schwarzkopf, L Sentman, S. Underwood, H Vahlenkamp, M. Winton, Andrew T. Wittenberg, Bruce Wyman, Yujin Zeng, Ming Zhao
2020, Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems (JAMES) (12)
We describe the baseline coupled model configuration and simulation characteristics of GFDL's Earth System Model Version 4.1 (ESM4.1), which builds on component and coupled model developments at GFDL over 2013–2018 for coupled carbon-chemistry-climate simulation contributing to the sixth phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project. In contrast...
Understanding and documenting the scientific basis of selenium ecological protection in support of site-specific guidelines development for Lake Koocanusa, Montana, U.S.A., and British Columbia, Canada
Theresa S. Presser, David L. Naftz
2020, Open-File Report 2020-1098
Modeling of ecosystems is a part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s protocol for developing site-specific selenium guidelines for protection of aquatic life. Selenium as an environmental contaminant is known to bioaccumulate and cause reproductive effects in fish and wildlife. Here we apply a modeling methodology—ecosystem-scale selenium modeling—to understand and document...
A stress-similarity triggering model for aftershocks of the MW6.4 and MW7.1 Ridgecrest earthquakes
Jeanne L. Hardebeck
2020, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (110) 1716-1727
The July 2019 Mw">Mw 6.4 and 7.1 Ridgecrest earthquakes triggered numerous aftershocks, including clusters of off‐fault aftershocks in an extensional stepover of the Garlock fault, near the town of Olancha, and near Panamint...
Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal) not detected in an intensive survey of wild North American amphibians
J. Hardin Waddle, Daniel A. Grear, Brittany Mosher, Evan H. Campbell Grant, Michael J. Adams, Adam R. Backlin, William Barichivich, Adrianne B. Brand, Gary M. Bucciarelli, Daniel L. Calhoun, Tara Chestnut, Jon M. Davenport, Andrew E. Dietrich, Robert N. Fisher, Brad Glorioso, Brian J. Halstead, Marc P Hayes, R. Ken Honeycutt, Blake R. Hossack, Patrick M. Kleeman, Julio A. Lemos-Espinal, Jeffrey M. Lorch, Robert W. Atkinson, Erin L. Muths, Christopher Pearl, Katherine Richgels, Charles W Robinson, Mark F. Roth, Jennifer Rowe, Walter Sadinski, Brent H. Sigafus, Iga Stasiak, Samuel Sweet, Susan C. Walls, Gregory J Watkins-Colwell, C. LeAnn White, Lori A Williams, Megan E. Winzeler
2020, Scientific Reports (10)
The salamander chytrid fungus (Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans [Bsal]) is causing massive mortality of salamanders in Europe. The potential for spread via international trade into North America and the high diversity of salamanders has catalyzed concern about Bsal in the U.S. Surveillance programs for invading pathogens must initially meet challenges that include...
Are the stress drops of small earthquakes good predictors of the stress drops of moderate-to-large earthquakes?
Jeanne L. Hardebeck
2020, Journal of Geophysical Research- Solid Earth (125)
The stress drops of small earthquakes often exhibit spatial patterns of variability. If moderate and large earthquakes follow the same spatial patterns, the stress drops of possible future damaging earthquakes could be better predicted by considering the stress drops of nearby small events. Better stress drop predictability could reduce...
