Using movement to inform conservation corridor design for Mojave desert tortoise
Steven J. Hromada, Todd Esque, Amy G. Vandergast, Kirsten E. Dutcher, Corey I Mitchell, Miranda E Gray, Tony Chang, Brett G. Dickson, Kenneth E. Nussear
2020, Movement Ecology (8)
BackgroundPreserving corridors for movement and gene flow among populations can assist in the recovery of threatened and endangered species. As human activity continues to fragment habitats, characterizing natural corridors is important in establishing and maintaining connectivity corridors within the anthropogenic development matrix. The Mojave desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii)...
Spatially explicit reconstruction of post-megafire forest recovery through landscape modeling
Wenru Xu, Hong He, Jacob S. Fraser, Todd Hawbaker, Paul D. Henne, Shengwu Duan, Zhiliang Zhu
2020, Environmental Modelling and Software (134)
Megafires are large wildfires that occur under extreme weather conditions and produce mixed burn severities across diverse environmental gradients. Assessing megafire effects requires data covering large spatiotemporal extents, which are difficult to collect from field inventories. Remote sensing provides an alternative...
High site fidelity does not equate to population genetic structure for common goldeneye and Barrow's goldeneye in North America
Joshua I. Brown, Philip Lavretsky, Robert E. Wilson, Christy Haughey, W. Sean Boyd, Daniel Esler, Sandra L. Talbot, Sarah A. Sonsthagen
2020, Journal of Avian Biology (51)
Delineation of population structure provides valuable information for conservation and management of species, as levels of demographic and genetic connectivity not only affect population dynamics but also have important implications for adaptability and resiliency of populations and species. Here, we measure population genetic structure and connectivity across the ranges of...
Effects of early life stage exposure of largemouth bass to atrazine or a model estrogen (17α-ethinylestradiol)
Jessica Kristin Leet, Catherine A. Richter, Robert S. Cornman, Jason P. Berninger, Ramji K. Bhandari, Diane K. Nicks, James L. Zajicek, Vicki S. Blazer, Donald E. Tillitt
2020, PeerJ (8)
Endocrine disrupting contaminants are of continuing concern for potentially contributing to reproductive dysfunction in largemouth and smallmouth bass in the Chesapeake Bay watershed (CBW) and elsewhere. Exposures to atrazine (ATR) have been hypothesized to have estrogenic effects on vertebrate endocrine systems. The incidence of intersex in male smallmouth bass from...
Fort Peck paddlefish population survival and abundance in the Missouri River
Hayley C. Glassic, Christopher S. Guy, Jay J. Rotella, Cody J. Nagel, David A. Schmetterling, Steven R. Dalbey
2020, Journal of Applied Ichthyology (36) 559-567
Excessive fishing pressure can induce population declines or complete collapse of fisheries. Unless commercial and recreational fisheries for K-selected fishes, or those with slow growth and late maturation, are carefully managed, declines in abundance or fishery collapse is probable. Paddlefish Polyodon spathula,are a K-selected species that experienced historical declines in abundance...
Estimating nitrogen removal services of eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) in Mobile Bay, Alabama
Quan Lai, Elise R. Irwin, Yaoqi Zhang
2020, Ecological Indicators (117) 1-9
Eastern oysters have been acknowledged for their important contribution to human well-being by providing goods and services including nitrogen removal from water bodies. In this study, we integrated daily environmental data (2008–2016) and filtration rate model parameter uncertainty to estimate nitrogen removal from denitrification and nitrogen burial services provided...
Analyses on subpopulation abundance and annual number of maternal dens for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on polar bears (Ursus maritimus) in the southern Beaufort Sea, Alaska
Todd C. Atwood, Jeffrey F. Bromaghin, Vijay P. Patil, George M. Durner, David C. Douglas, Kristin S. Simac
2020, Open-File Report 2020-1087
The long-term persistence of polar bears (Ursus maritimus) is threatened by sea-ice loss due to climate change, which is concurrently providing an opportunity in the Arctic for increased anthropogenic activities including natural resource extraction. Mitigating the risk of those activities, which can adversely affect the population dynamics of the southern...
“Mostri Marini”: Constantine S. Rafinesque's names for three of Antonino Mongitore's Sicilian whales
Neal Woodman, James G. Mead, Michael R. McGowen
2020, Archives of Natural History (47) 344-355
In 1815, the naturalist Constantine Samuel Rafinesque (1783–1840) previewed three new species of cetaceans – Delphinus dalippus, Physeter urganantus and Oxypterus mongitori – that he intended to describe...
Twelve-year dynamics and rainfall thresholds for alternating creep and rapid movement of the Hooskanaden landslide from integrating InSAR, pixel offset tracking, and borehole and hydrological measurements
Y. Xu, Z. Lu, William H. Schulz, J. Kim
2020, JGR Earth Surface
The Hooskanaden landslide is a large (~600 m wide × 1,300 m long), deep (~30 – 45 m) slide located in southwestern Oregon. Since 1958, it has had five moderate/major movements that catastrophically damaged the intersecting U.S. Highway 101, along with persistent slow wet‐season movements and a long‐term accelerating trend due to coastal erosion. Multiple remote sensing...
Improved prediction of management-relevant groundwater discharge characteristics throughout river networks
Janet R. Barclay, J. Jeffrey Starn, Martin A. Briggs, Ashley Helton
2020, Water Resources Research (56)
Groundwater discharge zones connect aquifers to surface water, generating baseflow and serving as ecosystem control points across aquatic ecosystems. The influence of groundwater discharge on surface flow connectivity, fate and transport of contaminants and nutrients, and thermal habitat depends strongly on hydrologic characteristics such as the...
Assessing the exposure of three diving bird species to offshore wind areas on the U.S. Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf using satellite telemetry
Iain J Stenhouse, Alicia Berlin, Andrew T Gilbert, M Wing Goodale, Carrie O Gray, William A Montevecchi, Lucas Savoy, Caleb S. Spiegel
2020, Diversity and Distributions (26) 1703-1714
AimThe United States Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) has considerable offshore wind energy potential. Capturing that resource is part of a broader effort to reduce CO2 emissions. While few turbines have been constructed in U.S. waters, over a dozen currently planned offshore wind projects have the potential to...
Coordinated river infrastructure decisions improve net social-ecological benefits
Samuel G. Roy, Adam Daignault, Joseph D. Zydlewski, Allison Truhlar, Sean Smith, Shaleen Jain, David Hart
2020, Environmental Research Letters (15)
We explore the social, ecological, economic, and technical dimensions of sustainable river infrastructure development and the potential benefits of coordinating decisions such as dam removal and stream crossing improvement. Dam removal is common practice for restoring river habitat connectivity and ecosystem health. However, stream crossings such as...
Annotated bibliography of scientific research on greater sage-grouse published from 2015 to 2019
Sarah K. Carter, Robert S. Arkle, Heidi L. Bencin, Benjamin R. Harms, Daniel J. Manier, Aaron N. Johnston, Susan L. Phillips, Steven E. Hanser, Zachary H. Bowen
2020, Open-File Report 2020-1103
The greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus; hereafter GRSG) has been a focus of scientific investigation and management action for the past two decades. The 2015 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listing determination of “not warranted” was in part due to a large-scale collaborative effort to develop strategies to conserve GRSG populations...
Trends in concentration, loads, and sources of trace metals and nutrients in the Spokane River Watershed, northern Idaho, water years 1990–2018
Lauren M. Zinsser
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5096
A long history of mining and widespread metals contamination in the Coeur d’Alene River watershed and downstream into the Spokane River has led to the area’s designation as a Superfund site and to extensive, ongoing (as of 2020) remedial actions. Long-term water-quality and streamflow data, collected by the U.S. Geological...
Mapping stream and floodplain geomorphic characteristics with the Floodplain and Channel Evaluation Tool (FACET) in the Mid-Atlantic Region, United States
Marina J. Metes, Kristina G. Hopkins, Labeeb Ahmed, Samuel Lamont, Peter R. Claggett, Gregory E. Noe
2020, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the geomorphometry 2020 conference
Quantifying channel and floodplain geomorphic characteristics is essential for understanding and modeling sediment and nutrient dynamics in fluvial systems. The increased availability of high-resolution elevation data from light detection and ranging (lidar) has helped improve methods for extracting these metrics at a greater accuracy across regional scales. The Floodplain and...
Pressure coring operations during The University of Texas-Gulf of Mexico 2-1 (UT-GOM2-1) Hydrate Pressure Coring Expedition in Green Canyon Block 955, northern Gulf of Mexico
Carla Thomas, Stephen C. Phillips, Peter B. Flemings, Manasij Santra, Helen Hammon, Timothy Collett, Ann Cook, Tom Pettigrew, Mike Mimitz, Melanie Holland, Peter Schultheiss
2020, AAPG Bulletin (104) 1877-1901
In May 2017, The University of Texas Hydrate Pressure Coring Expedition Gulf of Mexico 2-1 (UT-GOM2-1) drilled two adjacent holes in Green Canyon Block 955 in the deep-water Gulf of Mexico as part of The University of Texas at Austin and US Department of Energy Deepwater Methane Hydrate Characterization and...
Assessing the long-term earthquake risk for the US National Bridge Inventory (NBI)
Kishor S. Jaiswal, N. Simon Kwong, S. S. Yen, D. Bausch, Kuo-wan Lin, Nico Luco, David J. Wald, J. Rozelle
2020, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the 17th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering
We estimate annualized earthquake loss associated with over 600,000 bridges located throughout the contiguous United States. Each year, the Federal Highway Administration, in partnership with State Departments of Transportation, undertake a massive exercise to update the National Bridge Inventory (NBI) by combining data from states, federal agencies, local jurisdictions, and...
Impacts of grade control structure installations on hydrology and sediment transport as an adaptive management strategy
Deborah Tosline, Laura M. Norman, Blair P. Greimann, Jay Cederberg, Victor Huang, Benjamin L. Ruddell
2020, Final Report ST-2017-1751-01
The goal of this research was to examine the impacts of Grade Control Structure (GCS) installations at the Heard Scout Pueblo (HSP) study site in the City of Phoenix, Arizona, USA. The study site is around a high-use trail system and is comprised of eroded and incised channels that conduct...
Using video survey to examine the effect of habitat on gag grouper encounter
G. Alvarez, D. Gandy, Brian J. Irwin, Cecil A. Jennings, Adam Fox
2020, Conference Paper
Gag is a reef fish that was declared overfished in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) in 2009. Although Gag are no longer listed as overfished, fisheries managers are concerned that stocks may not be recovering. Our objective was to identify habitat characteristics important to Gag, and their effect on the...
Shallow basin structure and attenuation are key to predicting long shaking duration in Los Angeles Basin
Voon H Lai, Robert Graves, Chunquan Yu, Zhongwen Zhan, Don Helmberger
2020, Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth (125)
Ground motions in the Los Angeles Basin during large earthquakes are modulated by earthquake ruptures, path effects into the basin, basin effects, and local site response. We analyzed the direct effect of shallow basin structures on shaking duration at a period of 2–10 s in the Los...
Assessing plot-scale impacts of land use on overland flow generation in Central Panama
Sidney A. Bush, Robert Stallard, Brian A. Ebel, Holly R. Barnard
2020, Hydrological Processes (34) 5043-5069
Land use in Panama has changed dramatically with ongoing deforestation and conversion to cropland and cattle pastures, potentially altering the soil properties that drive the hydrological processes of infiltration and overland flow. We compared plot-scale overland flow generation between hillslopes in forested and actively cattle-grazed watersheds...
Simulating wave runup on an intermediate–reflective beach using a wave-resolving and a wave-averaged version of XBeach
A.F. de beer, R.T. McCall, Joseph W. Long, M.F.S. Tissier, A.J.H.M. Reniers
2020, Coastal Engineering (167)
The prediction of wave runup, as well as its components, time-averaged setup and the time-varying swash, is a key element of coastal storm hazard assessments, as wave runup controls the transitions between morphodynamic response types such as dune erosion and overwash,...
Estimating wildfire fuel consumption with multitemporal airborne laser scanning data and demonstrating linkage with MODIS-derived fire radiative energy
T. Ryan McCarley, Andrew T. Hudak, Aaron M. Sparks, Nicole S. Vaillant, Arjan J.H. Meddens, Laura Trader, Jason R. Kreitler, Luigi Boschetti
2020, Remote Sensing of Environment (251)
Characterizing pre- and post-fire fuels remains a key challenge for estimating biomass consumption and carbon emissions from wildfires. Airborne laser scanning (ALS) data have demonstrated effectiveness for estimating canopy, and to a lesser degree, surface fuel components at fine-scale (i.e., 30 m) across landscapes. Using...
The Everglades Depth Estimation Network (EDEN) surface-water interpolation model, version 3
Saira M. Haider, Eric Swain, James Beerens, Matthew D. Petkewich, Bryan McCloskey, Heather Henkel
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5083
The Everglades Depth Estimation Network (EDEN) is an integrated network of water-level gages, interpolation models that estimate daily water-level data at ungaged locations, and applications that generate derived hydrologic data across the freshwater part of the Greater Everglades landscape. Version 3 (V3) of the EDEN interpolation surface-water model is the most...
The distribution of woody species in relation to climate and fire in Yosemite National Park, California, USA
Jan W. van Wagtendonk, Peggy E Moore, Julie L. Yee, James A. Lutz
2020, Fire Ecology (16)
BackgroundThe effects of climate on plant species ranges are well appreciated, but the effects of other processes, such as fire, on plant species distribution are less well understood. We used a dataset of 561 plots 0.1 ha in size located throughout Yosemite National Park, in the Sierra Nevada...
