Using UAS capabilities to help identify hummock-hollow formation and fragmentation in critical marsh habitat (Spartina patens) for mottled ducks in southeast Texas
William R. Jones, Stephen B. Hartley, Camille L. Stagg, Michael J. Osland
2019, Open-File Report 2019-1045
For many years, marshes in the coastal areas from Texas to Louisiana have served as critical habitat for Anas fulvigula, the mottled duck. Mottled ducks are a priority species in the Texas/Louisiana Gulf Coast area and have been affected by critical habitat reduction. In recent years, mottled duck habitats have...
The bee fauna of coastal Napatree Point and two inland sites in southern Rhode Island
Aya Rothwell, Howard S. Ginsberg
2019, Northeastern Naturalist (26) 446-464
We surveyed the bee fauna at Napatree Point, a coastal barrier beach in southwestern Rhode Island, using bee-bowl and netting samples, and compared results to bee-bowl samples at 2 inland sites. We collected a total of 53 species and morphospecies at Napatree Point, including 5 likely Rhode Island state records...
The use of continuous water-quality time-series data to compute nutrient loadings for selected Iowa streams, 2008–17
Jessica D. Garrett
2019, Scientific Investigations Report 2019-5054
In support of nutrient reduction efforts, nitrate (as nitrate plus nitrite) and phosphorus loads and yields were computed for selected streams in Iowa based on continuously monitored sensor data for 2008–17 and 2014–17, respectively. Sample data were used to assess nitrate sensor bias and to create phosphorus-turbidity surrogate models. Where...
Preliminary report on engineering and geological effects of the July 2019 Ridgecrest earthquake sequence
Scott J Brandenberg, Pengfei Wang, Chukwuebuka C Nweke, Kenneth Hudson, Silvia Mazzoni, Yousef Bozorgnia, Kenneth W. Hudnut, Craig A. Davis, Sean K Ahdi, Farzin Zareian, Jawad Fayaz, Richard D Koehler, Colin Chupik, Ian Pierce, Alana Williams, Sinan Akciz, Martin B Hudson, Tadahiro Kishida, Benjamin A. Brooks, Ryan D. Gold, Daniel J. Ponti, Katherine M. Scharer, Devin McPhillips, Christopher DuRoss, Todd Ericksen, Janis Hernandez, Jay Patton, Brian Olson, Timothy E. Dawson, Jerome Treiman, Kelly Blake, Jeffrey Buchhuber, Chris L M Madugo, Joseph Sun, Andrea Donnellan, Greg Lyzenga, Erik Conway
Jonathan P. Stewart, editor(s)
2019, Report
The Ridgecrest Earthquake sequence included a foreshock event on July 4 2019 (M6.4) and a M7.1 mainshock event on July 5 2019. These events occurred in the Eastern California Shear Zone, near Indian Wells Valley, south of China Lake and west of Searles Valley. GEER has partnered with several organizations...
Science needs for continued development of total nitrogen deposition budgets in the United States
Gregory A. Wetherbee, Pamela H. Templar, Richard V. Pouyat, Stephen M. Decina, Brian M. Kerschner, Thomas H. Whitlow, Pamela E. Padgett, Donna B. Schwede, Jill Baron, David Clow, M. Alisa Mast, Graham A. Sexstone, Kristi H. Morris
2019, Report
The objectives of this white paper are to describe the state of the science with respect to total Nr deposition budgets in North America and the research needed to improve these budgets from both a measurement and modeling standpoint. The document is intended to serve as a plan for...
Monitoring storm tide, flooding, and precipitation from Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, September 2017
Michael J. Byrne Sr.
2019, Open-File Report 2019-1065
Hurricane Maria made landfall south of Yabucoa Harbor, Puerto Rico, as a category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 155 miles per hour on September 20, 2017. The hurricane devastated much of the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with Federal Emergency...
Survey of bioaccessible pyrethroid insecticides and sediment toxicity in urban streams of the northeast United States
Kara E. Huff-Hartz, Samuel A. Nutile, Courtney Y. Fung, Federico L. Sinche, Patrick W. Moran, Peter C. Van Metre, Lisa H. Nowell, Michael J. Lydy
2019, Environmental Pollution (254)
Pyrethroids are a class of widely-used insecticides that can be transported from terrestrial applications to aquatic systems via runoff and tend to sorb to organic carbon in sediments. Pyrethroid occurrence is detrimental to stream ecosystems due to toxicity to sediment-dwelling invertebrates which are particularly at risk of pyrethroid exposure in...
Water-budget analysis of the Upper Big Sandy Designated Ground-water Basin alluvial aquifer, Elbert, El Paso, and Lincoln Counties, Colorado, 2016
Michael S. Kohn, Jeannette H. Oden, L. R. Arnold
2019, Scientific Investigations Report 2019-5049
The U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the Colorado Water Conservation Board and the Upper Big Sandy Groundwater Management District carried out a study in 2016 to evaluate potential groundwater storage changes within the Upper Big Sandy Designated Groundwater Basin (UBSDGB) alluvial aquifer, including groundwater flow between the UBSDGB alluvial...
Glacier recession since the Little Ice Age: Implications for water storage in a Rocky Mountain landscape
Chelsea Mikle, Daniel B. Fagre
2019, Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research (51) 280-289
Glacial ice is a significant influence on local climate, hydrology, vegetation, and wildlife. We mapped a complete set of glacier areas from the Little Ice Age (LIA) using very high-resolution satellite imagery (30-cm) within Glacier National Park, a region that encompasses over 400,000 hectares. We measured glacier change across the...
Subhourly mesoscale analysis of the 2011-2017 North American monsoon near its northwest boundary
Charles Truettner, Michael D. Dettinger, Emanuele Ziaco, Adam Czank, Franco Biondi
2019, International Journal of Climatology (10)
The North American Monsoon (NAM) delivers precipitation to the southwestern USA during the warm-dry summer season. The seasonal extent of NAM precipitation is highly variable and is likely to change under future climate change. Our objective was to determine how large scale monsoonal patterns as well as local variables influence...
Temperature-dependent variations in mineralogy, major element chemistry and the stable isotopes of boron, lithium and chlorine resulting from hydration of rhyolite glass: Constraints from hydrothermal experiments at 150 to 350°C and 25 MPa
Jeffery T. Cullen, Shaul Hurwitz, Jaime D. Barnes, John C. Lassiter, Sarah Penniston-Dorland, Simone Kasemann, James Thordsen
2019, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (261) 269-287
Rhyolite-hosted hydrothermal systems in the continental crust contain valuable energy and mineral resources that make them of special interest across several scientific disciplines. Despite extensive research on these systems, the temperature-dependence of chemical reactions between host rocks and aqueous-rich fluids and the mineralogical transformations resulting from these reactions are not...
Long-term (37 years) impacts of low-head dams on freshwater shrimp habitat connectivity in northeastern Puerto Rico
Jessica Chappell, S. Kyle McKay, Mary Freeman, Catherine M. Pringle
2019, River Research and Applications (35) 1034-1043
Freshwater migratory shrimp in Puerto Rico depend on watershed connectivity, from stream headwaters to the ocean, to complete their life cycle. Moreover, shrimp populations in different watersheds are known to be connected in an island-wide metapopulation. However, low-head dams paired with water intakes on streams draining the El Yunque National...
Rapid inundation of the southern Florida coastline despite low relative sea-level rise rates during the late-Holocene
Miriam Jones, G. Lynn Wingard, Bethany Stackhouse, Katherine Keller, Debra A. Willard, Marci E. Marot, Bryan D. Landacre, Christopher E. Bernhardt
2019, Nature Communications (10)
Sediment cores from Florida Bay, Everglades National Park were examined to determine ecosystem response to relative sea-level rise (RSLR) over the Holocene. High-resolution multiproxy analysis from four sites show freshwater wetlands transitioned to mangrove environments 4–3.6 ka, followed by estuarine environments 3.4–2.8 ka, during a period of enhanced climate variability....
Mapping irrigated cropland extent across the conterminous United States at 30 m resolution using a semi-automatic training approach on Google Earth Engine
Yanhua Xie, Tyler J. Lark, Jesslyn F. Brown, Holly Gibbs
2019, ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (155) 136-149
Accurate and timely information on the distribution of irrigated croplands is crucial to research on agriculture, water availability, land use, and climate change. While agricultural land use has been well characterized, less attention has been paid specifically to croplands that are...
Reactivity of As and U co-occurring in mine wastes in northeastern Arizona
Johanna Blake, Sumant Avasarala, Abdul-Mehdi Ali, Michael Spilde, Juan S Lezama-Pacheco, Drew Latta, Kateryna Artyushkova, Anastasia G Ilgen, Christopher Shuey, Christopher Nez, Jose M Cerrato
2019, Chemical Geology (522) 26-37
The reactivity of co-occurring arsenic (As) and uranium (U) in mine wastes was investigated using batch reactors, microscopy, spectroscopy, and aqueous chemistry. Analyses of field samples collected in proximity to mine wastes in northeastern Arizona confirm the presence of As and U in soils and surrounding waters, as reported in...
Distribution of contaminants in the environment and wildlife habitat use: A case study with lead and waterfowl on the Upper Texas Coast
Brian Kearns, Stephen K. McDowell, Jena A. Moon, Elizabeth A. Rigby, Warren C. Conway, David A. Haukos
2019, Ecotoxicology (28) 809-824
The magnitude and distribution of lead contamination remain unknown in wetland systems. Anthropogenic deposition of lead may be contributing to negative population-level effects in waterfowl and other organisms that depend on dynamic wetland habitats, particularly if they are unable to detect and differentiate levels of environmental...
Potential for increased hydrothermal arsenic flux during volcanic unrest: Implications for California water supply
Steven E. Ingebritsen, William C. Evans
2019, Applied Geochemistry (108)
The hydrothermal systems associated with the restless high-threat volcanoes at Lassen and Long Valley, California, each release large amounts of arsenic (As) to surface waters – ~6 and ~8 metric tons/yr, respectively. The hydrothermal As output can increase during volcanic unrest,...
A 3-year in-situ measurement of CO2 efflux in coastal wetlands: Understanding carbon loss through ecosystem respiration and its partitioning
Xueyang Yu, Siyuan Ye, Linda Olsson, Mengjie Wei, Ken Krauss, Hans Brix
2019, Wetlands 1-12
Understanding the link between ecosystem respiration (Reco) and its influential factors is necessary to evaluate the sources of gaseous carbon loss in coastal wetlands. Seablite (Suaeda salsa Pall.) is the main vegetation type pioneering temperate coastal wetlands in northeast China, and is generally an understudied wetland type. To evaluate the...
Benthic community dynamics in Coyote Creek and Artesian Slough, southern San Francisco Bay, California, May 2016 to March 2018
Kelly H. Shrader, Sarah A. Pearson, Francis Parchaso, Janet K. Thompson
2019, Open-File Report 2019-1057
The primary objective of this study is to quantify current (2016–18) benthic-community structure and function in the southern San Francisco Bay, and to compare those communities to the communities in the neighboring sloughs. The study area is inclusive of the area south of the Dumbarton Bridge including Coyote Creek and...
Assessment of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon concentrations in southern Lake Powell, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Arizona and Utah, 2016–17
Alissa L. Coes, Nicholas V. Paretti, David A. Alvarez, Jamie P. Macy
2019, Scientific Investigations Report 2019-5065
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon contamination related to boat use is one of the most important water-quality issues affecting Lake Powell. High concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in water are common around marinas and other areas with extensive motorboat activity because of releases of uncombusted or partially combusted oil and gasoline from...
Widespread diminishing anthropogenic effects on calcium in freshwaters
Gesa A. Weyhenmeyer, Jens Hartmann, Dag O. Hessen, Jiří Kopáček, Josef Hejzlar, Stephan Jacquet, Stephen K. Hamilton, Piet Verburg, Taylor H. Leach, Martin Schmid, Giovanna Flaim, Tiina Nõges, Peeter Nõges, Valerie C. Wentzky, Michela Rogora, James A. Rusak, Sarian Kosten, Andrew M. Paterson, Katrin Teubner, Scott N. Higgins, Gregory B. Lawrence, Külli Kangur, Ilga Kokorite, Leonardo Cerasino, Clara Funk, Rebecca G. Harvey, Florentina Moatar, Heleen de Wit, Thomas Zechmeister
2019, Scientific Reports (9)
Calcium (Ca) is an essential element for almost all living organisms. Here, we examined global variation and controls of freshwater Ca concentrations, using 440 599 water samples from 43 184 inland water sites in 57 countries. We found that the global median Ca concentration was 4.0 mg L−1 with 20.7% of the water...
An introduction to the “Oceans and Society: Blue Planet” Initiative
Emily A Smail, Paul DiGiacomo, Sophie Seeave, Samy Djavidnia, Louis Celliers, Pierre-Yves Le Traon, Jeremy Gault, Elva Escobar-Briones, Hans-Peter Plag, Christine Pequignet, Lenore Bajona, Lin Zhang, Jay Pearlman, Andy Steven, Jon Hodge, Fanny-Mae Racault, Curt D. Storlazzi, Willam Skirving
2019, Journal of Operational Oceanography (12) s1-s11
We live on a blue planet, and Earth’s waters benefit many sectors of society. The future of our blue planet is increasingly reliant on the services delivered by marine, coastal and inland waters and on the advancement of effective, evidence-based decisions on sustainable development. “Oceans and Society: Blue Planet” (hereafter...
Soil texture and precipitation seasonality influence plant community structure in North American temperate shrub steppe
Rachel R. Renne, John B. Bradford, Ingrid C. Burke, William K. Lauenroth
2019, Ecology (100)
In drylands, the coexistence of grasses and woody plants has been attributed to soil‐water resource partitioning. Soil texture and precipitation seasonality can influence the amount and distribution of water in the soil, and their interaction may play an important role in determining the relative importance of grasses and woody plants....
FLUXNET-CH4 synthesis activity: Objectives, observations, and future directions
Sara H. Knox, Robert B. Jackson, Benjamin Poulter, Gavin McNicol, Etienne Fluet-Chouinard, Zhen Zhang, Gustaf Hugelius, Philippe Bousquet, Josep G Canadell, Marielle Saunois, Dario Papale, Housen Chu, Trevor F. Keenan, Dennis Baldocchi, Margaret S. Torn, Ivan Mammarella, Carlo Trotta, Mika Aurela, Gil Bohrer, David I. Campbell, Alessandro Cescatti, Samuel D. Chamberlain, Jiquan Chen, Weinan Chen, Sigrid Dengel, Ankur R. Desai, Eugenie S. Euskirchen, Thomas Friborg, Daniele Gasbarra, Ignacio Goded, Mathias Goeckede, Martin Heimann, Manuel Helbig, Takashi Hirano, David Y. Hollinger, Hiroki Iwata, Minseok Kang, Janina Klatt, Ken Krauss, Lars Kutzbach, Annalea Lohila, Bhaskar Mitra, Timothy H Morin, Mats B. Nilsson, Shuli Niu, Asko Noormets, Walter C. Oechel, Matthias Peichl, Olli Peltola, Michele L. Reba, Andrew D. Richardson, Benjamin R. K. Runkle, Youngryel Ryu, Torsten Sachs, Karina V R Schafer, Hans Peter Schmid, Narasinha Shurpali, Oliver Sonnentag, Angela C I Tang, Masahito Ueyama, Rodrigo Vargas, Timo Vesala, Eric Ward, Lisamarie Windham-Myers, Georg Wohlfahrt, Donatella Zona
2019, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (100) 2607-2632
This paper describes the formation of, and initial results for, a new FLUXNET coordination network for ecosystem-scale methane (CH4) measurements at 60 sites globally, organized by the Global Carbon Project in partnership with other initiatives and regional flux tower networks. The objectives of the effort are presented along with an...
Northern forest winters have lost cold, snowy conditions that are important for ecosystems and human communities
Alexandra R Contosta, Nora J. Casson, Sarah Garlick, Sarah J. Nelson, Matthew P Ayers, Elizabet A Buralkowski, John Campbell, Irean Creed, Catharine Eimers, Celia Evans, Ivan Fernandez, Collin Fuss, Thomas G. Huntington, Kaizad Pate, Rebecca Sanders-DeMott, Kyongo Son, Pamela H. Templer, Darren Thornbrugh
2019, Ecological Applications (29)
Winter is an understudied but key period for the socio-ecological systems of northeastern North American forests. A growing awareness of the importance of the winter season to forest ecosystems and surrounding communities has inspired several decades of research, both across the northern forest and at other mid- and high-latitude ecosystems...
