The importance of U.S. Geological Survey water-quality super gages
Angela S. Crain
2020, Fact Sheet 2020-3019
Super gages are an important tool providing real-time, continuous water-quality data at streamgages or groundwater wells. They are designed to address specific water-resource threats such as water-related human health issues including harmful algal blooms, floods, droughts, and hazardous substance spills. In addition, super gages improve our understanding of the effects...
Robust ecological drought projections for drylands in the 21st century
John B. Bradford, Daniel Rodolphe Schlaepfer, William K. Lauenroth, Kyle A. Palmquist
2020, Global Change Biology (26) 3906-3919
(Bradford) Dryland ecosystems may be especially vulnerable to expected 21st century increases in temperatures and aridity because they are tightly controlled by patterns of moisture availability. However, climate impact assessments in drylands are difficult because ecological dynamics are dictated by drought conditions that are difficult to define and complex to...
A novel quantitative framework for riverscape genetics
Shannon L. White, Ephraim M. Hanks, Tyler Wagner
2020, Ecological Applications (30)
Riverscape genetics, which applies concepts in landscape genetics to riverine ecosystems, lack appropriate quantitative methods that address the spatial autocorrelation structure of linear stream networks and account for bidirectional geneflow. To address these challenges, we present a general framework for the design and analysis of riverscape...
High spatial fidelity among foraging trips of Masked Boobies from Pedro Cays, Jamaica
Bradley P. Wilkinson, Ann M. Haynes-Sutton, Llewelyn Meggs, Patrick G.R. Jodice
William David Halliday, editor(s)
2020, PLoS ONE (15) 1-12
In marine environments, tropical and subtropical habitats are considered to be inherently less productive than more temperate systems. As such, foraging site fidelity among vertebrate predators occupying low-latitude marine systems is generally low as a response to an increased unpredictability of resources. We investigated the foraging movements of Masked Boobies...
Book review: Proceedings of the First International Snakehead Symposium
Stephen Walsh
2020, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (149) 364-365
Snakehead fishes (family Channidae) are among the most maligned aquatic invasive species in the USA and some other countries where they have been introduced outside of their native range in Asia and Africa. Nevertheless, snakeheads continue to be widely exploited in the live‐food trade in aquaculture and wild‐capture fisheries, are...
Coseismic and post-seismic gravity disturbance induced by seismic sources using a 2.5-D spectral element method
Frederick Pollitz
2020, Geophysical Journal International (122) 827-844
I present a prescription for computing free-air coseismic and post-seismic gravity changes induced by seismic sources in a viscoelastic earth model. I assume a spherical earth geometry and a 2.5-D calculation, that is, 3-D motions that satisfy the equations of quasi-static equilibrium on a 2-D viscoelastic structure. The prescription...
Modelling grass carp egg transport using a 3-D hydrodynamic river model: The role of egg retention in dead zones on spawning success
Tej Heer, Mathew G. Wells, P. Ryan Jackson, Nicholas E. Mandrak
2020, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (77) 1379-1392
Invasive grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) are known to spawn in the Sandusky River, Ohio, USA, within the Great Lakes Basin, and are threatening to expand throughout the Great Lakes. Successful spawning is thought to require that eggs remain in suspension until hatching, which depends on river hydrodynamics and temperature-dependent egg...
A two-stage step-wise framework for fast optimization of well placement in coalbed methane reservoirs
Jiyuan Zhang, Qihong Feng, Xianmin Zhang, Jia Bai, C. Ozgen Karacan, Derek Elsworth
2020, International Journal of Coal Geology (225)
Coalbed methane (CBM) has emerged as a clean energy resource in the global energy mix, especially in countries such as Australia, China, India and the USA. The economical and successful development of CBM requires a thorough evaluation and optimization of well placement prior to field-scale exploitation. This paper presents a...
The role of seismic and slow slip events in triggering the 2018 M7.1 Anchorage earthquake in the Southcentral Alaska subduction zone
Margarita Segou, Thomas E. Parsons
2020, Geophysical Research Letters (47)
The M 7.1 2018 Anchorage earthquake occurred in the bending part of the subducting North Pacific plate near the geometrical barrier formed by the underthrusting Yakutat terrane. We calculate the triggering potential related with stress redistribution from deformation sources including the M 9.2 1964 earthquake coseismic slip, postseismic deformation, slip from...
Model selection for the North American Breeding Bird Survey
William A. Link, John R. Sauer, Daniel K Niven
2020, Ecological Applications (30)
The North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) provides data that can be used in complex, multiscale analyses of population change, while controlling for scale‐specific nuisance factors. Many alternative models can be fit to the data, but most model selection procedures are not appropriate for hierarchical models. Leave‐one‐out cross‐validation (LOOCV), in...
Comparing environmental flow implementation options with structured decision making: Case study from the Willamette River, Oregon
J. Tyrell DeWeber, James T. Peterson
2020, Journal of the American Water Resources Association (56) 599-614
Many frameworks have been used to identify environmental flows for sustaining river ecosystems or specific taxa in the face of widespread flow alteration for human use. However, these methods mostly focus on identifying suitable flows and largely ignore the important links between management actions, resulting flows, flow variability, and ecosystem...
Climate change causes river network contraction and disconnection in the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest, Oregon, USA
Adam S Ward, Steven M Wondzell, Noah Schmadel, Skuyler P Herzog
2020, Frontiers in Water (2)
Headwater streams account for more than 89% of global river networks and provide numerous ecosystem services that benefit downstream ecosystems and human water uses. It has been established that changes in climate have shifted the timing and magnitude of observed precipitation, which, at specific gages, have been directly linked...
Holocene relative sea-level change along the tectonically active Chilean coast
Ed Garrett, Daniel Melnick, Tina Dura, Marco Cisternas, Lisa Ely, Robert L. Wesson, Julius Jara-Munoz, Pippa L Whitehouse
2020, Quaternary Science Reviews (236)
We present a comprehensive relative sea-level (RSL) database for north, central, and south-central Chile (18.5°S – 43.6°S) using a consistent, systematic, and internationally comparable approach. Despite its latitudinal extent, this coastline has received little rigorous or systematic attention and details of its RSL history remain largely unexplored. To address this...
Assessment of spatial genetic structure to identify populations at risk for infection of an emerging epizootic disease
William L. Miller, Cassandra M. Miller-Butterworth, Duane R. Diefenbach, W. David Walter
2020, Ecology and Evolution (10) 3977-3990
Understanding the geographic extent and connectivity of wildlife populations can provide important insights into the management of disease outbreaks but defining patterns of population structure is difficult for widely distributed species. Landscape genetic analyses are powerful methods for identifying cryptic structure and movement patterns that may be associated with...
Carbon sources in the sediments of a restoring vs. historically unaltered salt marsh
Judith Z. Drexler, Melanie J. Davis, Isa Woo, Susan E.W. De La Cruz
2020, Estuaries and Coasts (43) 1345-1360
Salt marshes provide the important ecosystem service of carbon storage in their sediments; however, little is known about the sources of such carbon and whether they differ between historically unaltered and restoring systems. In this study, stable isotope analysis was used to quantify carbon sources in...
The Missoula and Bonneville floods—A review of ice-age megafloods in the Columbia River basin
Jim E. O'Connor, Victor R. Baker, Richard B. Waitt, Larry N Smith, Charles M. Cannon, David L. George, Roger P. Denlinger
2020, Earth-Science Reviews (208)
The Channeled Scabland of eastern Washington State, USA, brought megafloods to the scientific forefront. A 30,000-km2 landscape of coulees and cataracts carved into the region’s loess-covered basalt attests to overwhelming volumes of energetic water. The scarred landscape, garnished by huge boulder bars and far-travelled ice-rafted erratics, spurred J Harlen Bretz’s...
Design and methods of the California stream quality assessment (CSQA), 2017
Jason T. May, Lisa H. Nowell, James F. Coles, Daniel T. Button, Amanda H. Bell, Sharon L. Qi, Peter C. Van Metre
2020, Open-File Report 2020-1023
During 2017, as part of the National Water-Quality Assessment Project, the U.S. Geological Survey conducted the California Stream Quality Assessment to investigate the quality of streams in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains ecoregion, United States. The goal of the California Stream Quality Assessment study was to assess the...
Biological control of Aedes mosquito larvae with carnivorous aquatic plant, Utricularia macrorhiza
Jannelle Couret, Marco Notarangelo, Sarashwathi Veera, Noah LeClaire-Conway, Howard S. Ginsberg, Roger A. LeBrun
2020, Parasites & Vectors (13)
BackgroundBiological controls with predators of larval mosquito vectors have historically focused almost exclusively on insectivorous animals, with few studies examining predatory plants as potential larvacidal agents. In this study, we experimentally evaluate a generalist plant predator of North America, Utricularia macrorhiza, the common bladderwort, and evaluate its larvacidal efficiency for...
Biofilms provide new insight into pesticide occurrence in streams and links to aquatic ecological communities
Barbara Mahler, Travis S. Schmidt, Lisa H. Nowell, Sharon L. Qi, Peter C. Van Metre, Michelle L. Hladik, Daren M. Carlisle, Mark D. Munn, Jason May
2020, Environmental Science & Technology (54) 5509-5519
Streambed sediment is commonly analyzed to assess occurrence of hydrophobic pesticides and risks to aquatic communities. However, stream biofilms also have the potential to accumulate pesticides and may be consumed by aquatic organisms. To better characterize risks to aquatic life, the U.S. Geological Survey Regional Stream Quality Assessment measured 93...
The Landsat Burned Area algorithm and products for the conterminous United States
Todd Hawbaker, Melanie K. Vanderhoof, Gail L. Schmidt, Yen-Ju G. Beal, Joshua J. Picotte, Joshua Takacs, Jeff T. Falgout, John L. Dwyer
2020, Remote Sensing of Environment (244)
Complete and accurate burned area map data are needed to document spatial and temporal patterns of fires, to quantify their drivers, and to assess the impacts on human and natural systems. In this study, we developed the Landsat Burned Area (BA) algorithm, an update from the Landsat Burned Area Essential...
Localized outbreaks of coral disease on Arabian reefs are linked to extreme temperatures and environmental stressors
Greta S. Aeby, Emily Howells, Thierry M. Work, David Abrego, Gareth J. Williams, Lisa M. Wedding, Jamie M. Caldwell, Monica M Moritsch, John Burt
2020, Coral Reefs (39) 829-846
The Arabian Peninsula borders the hottest reefs in the world, and corals living in these extreme environments can provide insight into the effects of warming on coral health and disease. Here, we examined coral reef health at 17 sites across three regions along the northeastern Arabian Peninsula (Persian Gulf, Strait...
Acoustic Sediment Estimation Toolbox (ASET): A software package for calibrating and processing TRDI ADCP data to compute suspended-sediment transport in sandy rivers
Lucas Gerardo Dominguez Ruben, Ricardo Szupiany, Francisco Latosinski, Cecilia Lopez Weibel, Molly S. Wood, Justin A. Boldt
2020, Computers & Geosciences (140) Article 104499
Quantifying suspended-sediment transport is critical for a variety of disciplines related to the management of water resources. However, the number of gauging stations and monitoring networks in most rivers around the world is insufficient to improve understanding of river dynamics and support water resource management decisions. This is mainly due...
Identifying candidate reference reaches to assess the physical and biological integrity of wadeable streams in different ecoregions and among stream sizes
Craig P. Paukert, Ethan R. Kleeklamp, Ralph William Tingley
2020, Ecological Indicators (111)
Efforts to quantify disturbances to aquatic systems often use landscape-level metrics, presumably linked to ecological integrity, but fewer studies have directly linked ecological integrity to instream habitat, and applied these results to unsampled stream reaches throughout a landscape. We developed a flexible, quantitative approach that characterizes stream impairment across a...
A critical assessment of human-impact indices based on anthropogenic pollen indicators
Mara Deza-Araujo, Cesar Morales-Molino, Willy Tinner, Paul D. Henne, Caroline Heitz, Gianni B Pezzatti, Albert Hafner, Marco Conedera
2020, Quaternary Science Reviews (236)
Anthropogenic pollen indicators in pollen records are an established tool for reconstructing the history of human impacts on vegetation and landscapes. They are also used to disentangle the influence of human activities and climatic variability on ecosystems. The comprehensive anthropogenic pollen-indicator approach developed by Behre (1981) has been widely used,...
Inferring surface flow velocities in sediment-laden Alaskan rivers from optical image sequences acquired from a helicopter
Carl J. Legleiter, Paul J. Kinzel
2020, Remote Sensing (12)
The remote, inaccessible location of many rivers in Alaska creates a compelling need for remote sensing approaches to streamflow monitoring. Motivated by this objective, we evaluated the potential to infer flow velocities from optical image sequences acquired from a helicopter deployed above two large, sediment-laden rivers. Rather than artificial seeding,...
