Moving at the speed of flight: Dabbling duck-movement rates and the relationship with electronic tracking interval
Fiona McDuie, Michael L. Casazza, David A. Keiter, Cory T. Overton, Mark P. Herzog, Cliff L. Feldheim, Joshua T. Ackerman
2019, Wildlife Research (46) 533-543
Context. Effective wildlife management requires information on habitat and resource needs, which can be estimated with movement information and modelling energetics. One necessary component of avian models is flight speeds at multiple temporal scales. Technology has limited the ability to accurately assess flight speeds, leading to estimates of questionable accuracy,...
Characterization and evaluation of controls on post-fire streamflow response across western U.S. watersheds
Samuel Saxe, Terri S. Hogue, Lauren E. Hay
2019, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (22) 1221-1237
This research investigates the impact of wildfires on watershed flow regimes, specifically focusing on evaluation of fire events within specified hydroclimatic regions in the western United States, and evaluating the impact of climate and geophysical variables on response. Eighty-two watersheds were identified with at least 10 years of continuous pre-fire...
Relations of dissolved-oxygen variability, selected field constituents, and metabolism estimates to land use and nutrients in high-gradient Boston Mountain streams, Arkansas
Billy Justus, Lucas Driver, J.J. Green, Nathan Wentz
2019, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment (10)
Continuous monitoring data can be extremely useful for assessing water quality conditions particularly for variables that exhibit dynamic diel swings such as dissolved oxygen. As a means of evaluating dissolved oxygen criteria used by the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) for assessing this stream class, we compared continuous dissolved...
Physically based estimation of rainfall thresholds triggering shallow landslides in volcanic slopes of southern Italy
F. Fusco, P. De Vita, Benjamin B. Mirus, Rex L. Baum, V. Allocca, R. Tufano, D. Calcaterra
2019, Water (11)
On the 4th and 5th of March 2005, about 100 rainfall-induced landslides occurred along volcanic slopes of Camaldoli Hill in Naples, Italy. These started as soil slips in the upper substratum of incoherent and welded volcaniclastic deposits, then evolved downslope according to debris avalanche and debris flow mechanisms. This specific...
A multi-indicator spatial similarity approach for evaluating ecological restoration scenarios
Ruscena Wiederholt, Rajendara Paudel, Yogesh Khare, Stephen E. Davis III, G.M. Naja, Stephanie Romanach, L. Pearlstine, Thomas Van Lent
2019, Landscape Ecology (34) 2557-2574
ContextThe greater Everglades region in Florida (USA) is an area of wetlands that has been altered and reduced to 50% of its original area and faces multiple threats. Spatial landscape analysis can help guide a large and complex ecosystem restoration process, involving billions of dollars...
Methods for estimating regional coefficient of skewness for unregulated streams in New England, based on data through water year 2011
Andrea G. Veilleux, Phillip J. Zarriello, Glenn A. Hodgkins, Elizabeth A. Ahearn, Scott A. Olson, Timothy A. Cohn
2019, Scientific Investigations Report 2017-5037
The magnitude of annual exceedance probability floods is greatly affected by the coefficient of skewness (skew) of the annual peak flows at a streamgage. Standard flood frequency methods recommend weighting the station skew with a regional skew to better represent regional and stable conditions. This study presents an updated analysis...
Using a mechanistic model to develop management strategies to cool Apache Trout streams under the threat of climate change
Joy Price Baker, Scott A. Bonar
2019, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (39) 849-867
User‐friendly stream temperature models populated with on‐site data may help in developing strategies to manage temperatures of individual stream reaches that are subject to climate change. We used the field‐tested Stream Segment Temperature model (U.S. Geological Survey) to simulate how altering discharge, groundwater input, channel wetted width, and shade prevents...
Potentiometric surface of the Mississippi River Valley alluvial aquifer, spring 2016
Virginia L. McGuire, Ronald C. Seanor, William H. Asquith, Wade Kress, Kellan R. Strauch
2019, Scientific Investigations Map 3439
A potentiometric surface map for spring 2016 was created for the Mississippi River Valley alluvial (MRVA) aquifer using selected available groundwater-altitude data from wells and surface-water-altitude data from streamgages. Most of the wells were measured annually or one time after installation, but some wells were measured more than one time...
Consistent compensatory growth offsets poor condition in trout populations
Robert Al-Chokhachy, Ryan Kovach, Adam J. Sepulveda, Jeff Strait, Bradley B. Shepard, Clint C. Muhlfeld
2019, Freshwater Biology (64) 2120 -2130
1. Compensatory growth – when individuals in poor condition grow rapidly to “catch up” to conspecifics – may be a mechanism that allows individuals to tolerate stressful environmental conditions, both abiotic and biotic. This phenomenon has been documented fairly widely in laboratory and field experiments, but evidence for compensatory growth...
Guidelines and standard procedures for high-frequency groundwater-quality monitoring stations—Design, operation, and record computation
Timothy M. Mathany, John Franco Saraceno, Justin T. Kulongoski
2019, Techniques and Methods 1-D7
High-frequency water-quality monitoring stations measure and transmit data, often in near real-time, from a wide range of aquatic environments to assess the quality of the Nation’s water resources. Common instrumentation for high-frequency water-quality data collection uses a multi-parameter sonde, which typically has sensors that measure and record water temperature, specific...
Evaluation of chemical and hydrologic processes in the eastern Snake River Plain Aquifer based on results from geochemical modeling, Idaho National Laboratory, eastern Idaho
Gordon W. Rattray
2019, Professional Paper 1837-B
Nuclear research activities at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Idaho National Laboratory (INL) produced liquid and solid chemical and radiochemical wastes that were disposed to the subsurface resulting in detectable concentrations of some waste constituents in the eastern Snake River Plain (ESRP) aquifer. These waste constituents may affect the...
Drought-mediated extinction of an arid-land amphibian: Insights from a spatially explicit dynamic occupancy model
Erin R Zylstra, Don E. Swann, Blake R. Hossack, Robert J Steidl
Erin L. Muths, editor(s)
2019, Ecological Applications (29)
Understanding how natural and anthropogenic processes affect population dynamics of species with patchy distributions is critical to predicting their responses to environmental changes. Despite considerable evidence that demographic rates and dispersal patterns vary temporally in response to an array of biotic and abiotic processes, few applications of metapopulation theory have...
Monarch habitat as a component of multifunctional landscape restoration using continuous riparian buffers
Darius J. Semmens, Zachary H. Ancona
2019, Frontiers in Environmental Science (7)
Stabilizing the eastern, migratory population of monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) is expected to require substantial habitat restoration on agricultural land in the core breeding area of the Upper Midwestern U.S. Previous research has considered the potential to utilize marginal land for this purpose because of its low productivity, erodible soils,...
Soil and stand structure explain shrub mortality patterns following global change–type drought and extreme precipitation
Rachel R. Renne, Daniel R. Schlaepfer, Kyle A. Palmquist, John B. Bradford, Ingrid C. Burke, William K. Lauenroth
2019, Ecology (100)
(Bradford) The probability of extreme weather events is increasing, with the potential for widespread impacts to plants, plant communities, and ecosystems. Reports of drought-related tree mortality are becoming more frequent along with increasing evidence that drought accompanied by high temperatures is especially detrimental. Simultaneously, extreme large precipitation events have become...
Efficacy of increasing discharge to reduce tow-mediated fish passage across an electric dispersal barrier system in a confined channel
Jessica Z. LeRoy, Jeremiah J. Davis, Matthew R. Shanks, P. Ryan Jackson, Elizabeth A. Murphy, Carey L. Baxter, Jonathan C. Trovillion, Michael K. McInerney
2019, Journal of Great Lakes Research (45) 1320-1331
The Electric Dispersal Barrier System (EDBS) in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal (CSSC) was built to limit the interbasin transfer of aquatic invasive species between the Mississippi River Basin and the Great Lakes Basin. Commercial barge traffic, or tows, moving downstream through the EDBS can facilitate the upstream passage...
Emerging contaminants in groundwater, karst, and the Edwards Aquifer
Barbara Mahler, Marylynn Musgrove
2019, Book chapter, The Edwards Aquifer: The past, present, and future of a vital water resource
Karst aquifers have hydrogeologic characteristics that render them uniquely vulnerable to contamination from emerging contaminants (ECs). ECs comprise numerous chemical groups, including pharmaceuticals, personal-care products, flame retardants, perfluorinated and polyfluorinated compounds, nanoparticles and microplastics. Many ECs have sources, transport pathways, and chemical characteristics that facilitate their infiltration into groundwater, either...
Controls on spatial and temporal variations of brine discharge to the Dolores River in the Paradox Valley, Colorado, 2016–18
M. Alisa Mast, Neil C. Terry
2019, Scientific Investigations Report 2019-5058
The Paradox Valley in southwestern Colorado is a collapsed anticline formed by movement of the salt-rich Paradox Formation at the core of the anticline. The salinity of the Dolores River, a tributary of the Colorado River, increases substantially as it crosses the valley because of discharge of brine-rich groundwater derived...
Influenza A virus detected in native bivalves in waterfowl habitat of the Delmarva Peninsula, USA
Christine L. Densmore, Deborah D. Iwanowicz, Shawn M. McLaughlin, Christopher Ottinger, Jason E. Spires, Luke R. Iwanowicz
2019, Microorganisms (7)
We evaluated the prevalence of influenza A virus (IAV) in different species of bivalves inhabiting natural water bodies in waterfowl habitat along the Delmarva Peninsula and Chesapeake Bay in eastern Maryland. Bivalve tissue from clam and mussel specimens (Macoma balthica, Macoma phenax, Mulinia sp., Rangia cuneata, Mya arenaria, Guekensia demissa,...
Effects of water temperature, turbidity, and rainbow trout on humpback chub population dynamics
Charles B. Yackulic, Julia B. Hull
Phil Frederick, editor(s)
2019, Fact Sheet 2019-3049
Humpback chub (Gila cypha Miller 1946), found only in the Colorado River Basin, was one of the first species to be given full protection under the Endangered Species Act of 1973. Habitat alterations, such as changes in flow and water temperature caused by dams, and the introduction of nonnative fish...
The effects of management practices on grassland birds—Wilson’s Phalarope (Phalaropus tricolor)
Jill A. Shaffer, Lawrence D. Igl, Douglas H. Johnson, Christopher M. Goldade, Amy L. Zimmerman, Betty R. Euliss
2019, Professional Paper 1842-J
The key to Wilson’s Phalarope (Phalaropus tricolor) management is providing wetland complexes containing suitable wetland characteristics (that is, open water, emergent vegetation, and open shoreline) and upland habitat (native grassland or tame hayland) throughout the breeding season. Wilson’s Phalaropes have been reported to use habitats with 15–32 centimeters (cm) average...
The effects of management practices on grassland birds—American Bittern (Botaurus lentiginosus)
Jill A. Shaffer, Lawrence D. Igl, Douglas H. Johnson, Marriah L. Sondreal, Christopher M. Goldade, Amy L. Zimmerman, Travis L. Wooten, Betty R. Euliss
2019, Professional Paper 1842-K
Keys to American Bittern (Botaurus lentiginosus) management include protecting wetlands and adjacent uplands and maintaining idle upland habitat. American Bitterns have been reported to use habitats with 30–203 centimeters (cm) average vegetation height, 44–99 cm visual obstruction reading, and less than 91 cm water depth. ...
Laboratory assessment of alternative stream velocity measurement methods
Stephen A. Hundt, Kyle W. Blasch
2019, PLoS ONE (14)
Understanding streamflow in montane watersheds on regional scales is often incomplete due to a lack of data for small-order streams that link precipitation and snowmelt processes to main stem discharge. This data deficiency is attributed to the prohibitive cost of conventional streamflow measurement methods and the remote location of many...
Effects of the neonicotinoid insecticide clothianidin on southern leopard frog (Rana sphenocephala) tadpole behavior
J. N. Holtswarth, F. E. Rowland, Holly J. Puglis, Michelle L. Hladik, Elisabeth B. Webb
2019, Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology (103) 717-722
Neonicotinoid insecticides are highly water soluble with relatively long half-lives, which allows them to move into and persist in aquatic ecosystems. However, little is known of the impacts of neonicotinoids on non-target vertebrates, especially at sublethal concentrations. We evaluated the effects of the neonicotinoid clothianidin on...
Arsenic variability and groundwater age in three water supply wells in southeast New Hampshire
Joseph Levitt, James R. Degnan, Sarah Flanagan, Bryant Jurgens
2019, Geoscience Frontiers (10) 1669-1683
Three wells in New Hampshire were sampled bimonthly over three years to evaluate the temporal variability of arsenic concentrations and groundwater age. All samples had measurable concentrations of arsenic throughout the entire sampling period and concentrations in individual wells varied, on average, by more than 7 µg/L. High arsenic concentrations...
Numerical model simulations of potential changes in water levels and capture of natural discharge from groundwater withdrawals in Snake Valley and adjacent areas, Utah and Nevada
Melissa D. Masbruch
2019, Open-File Report 2019-1083
The National Park Service (NPS) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) are concerned about cumulative effects of groundwater development on groundwater-dependent resources managed by, and other groundwater resources of interest to, these agencies in Snake Valley and adjacent areas, Utah and Nevada. Of particular concern to the NPS and...