Evidence of nitrate attenuation in intertidal and subtidal groundwater in a subterranean estuary at a Cape Cod embayment, East Falmouth, Massachusetts, 2015–16
Thomas G. Huntington, Kevin D. Kroeger, Timothy D. McCobb, J.K. Böhlke, John A. Colman, Thomas W. Brooks, Beata Syzmczycha
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5100
Nitrogen dynamics in intertidal and nearshore subtidal groundwater (subterranean estuary) adjacent to the Seacoast Shores peninsula, Falmouth, Massachusetts, were investigated during 2015–16 by the U.S. Geological Survey. The peninsula is a densely populated residential area with septic systems and cesspools that are substantial sources of nitrogen to groundwater. The study...
Streamflow characteristics and trends in New Jersey, water years 1903–2017
Amy R. McHugh, Thomas P. Suro, Samantha L. Sullivan, Brianna Williams
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5099
As New Jersey’s population density remains high, so does its requirements for water management. Understanding the streamflow conditions throughout the state and how they may have changed over time is an important part of managing the water resources within the state. The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection has many...
Societal benefits of cyanobacteria harmful algal bloom management in Lake Okeechobee in Florida—Potential damages avoided during the 2018 event under U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Harmful Algal Bloom Interception, Treatment, and Transformation System scenarios
Inoussa Boubacar, Emily Pindilli, Ellie Brown, Benjamin Simon, Kristin Skrabis, Ian Luby
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5091
Freshwater harmful algal blooms (HABs) formed by blue-green algae, or cyanobacteria, have emerged as a global environmental problem. Their negative impacts on aquatic ecosystems can affect the benefits nature provides to human society by reducing water quality; inhibiting aquatic recreation; killing fish, wildlife, and pets; and posing a risk to...
Yellowstone River Compact Commission Seventy-second annual report 2023
Seth Davidson
2024, Report
No abstract available....
Development of a large-volume concentration method to recover infectious avian influenza virus from the aquatic environment
Laura E. Hubbard, Erin A. Stelzer, Rebecca L. Poulson, Dana W. Kolpin, Christine M. Szablewski, Carrie E Givens
2024, Viruses (16)
Since late 2021, outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza virus have caused a record number of mortalities in wild birds, domestic poultry, and mammals in North America. Wetlands are plausible environmental reservoirs of avian influenza virus; however, the transmission and persistence of the virus in the aquatic environment are poorly...
Pragmatically mapping Phragmites with unoccupied aerial systems: A comparison of invasive species land cover classification using RGB and multispectral imagery
Alexandra Danielle Evans, Jennifer Marie Cramer, Victoria Mary Scholl, Erika Lentz
2024, Remote Sensing (16)
Unoccupied aerial systems (UASs) are increasingly being deployed in coastal environments to rapidly map and monitor changes to geomorphology, vegetation, and infrastructure, particularly in difficult to access areas. UAS data, relative to airplane or satellite data, typically have higher spatial resolution, sensor customization, and increased flexibility in temporal resolution, which...
Streamflow, water quality, and constituent loads and yields, Scituate Reservoir drainage area, Rhode Island, water year 2021
Kirk P. Smith, Alana B. Spaetzel
2024, Data Report 1203
As part of a long-term cooperative program to monitor water quality within the Scituate Reservoir drainage area, the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with Providence Water (formerly Providence Water Supply Board) collected streamflow and water-quality data in tributaries to the Scituate Reservoir, Rhode Island. Streamflow and concentrations of chloride and...
Trophic transfer of fipronil residues to black-footed ferrets: Implications for ferret safety, flea control, and plague mitigation
Tyler N. Tretten, David A. Eads, John P. Hughes, Gregory P. Dooley, Dean E. Biggins
2024, Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management
Sylvatic plague, caused by the flea-borne bacterium Yersinia pestis, is an invasive disease in North America that causes reductions of native fauna and transforms ecosystems. Fipronil baits have shown promise in reducing flea loads on prairie dogs Cynomys spp. for plague mitigation. Many species depend on prairie dogs and their ecological influences, including...
Distinguishing natural sources from anthropogenic events in seismic data
Sean Maher, Margaret Elizabeth Glasgow, Elizabeth S. Cochran, Zhigang Peng
2024, Seismological Research Letters
As seismic data are increasingly used to investigate a diverse range of subsurface phenomena beyond regular fast‐rupturing earthquakes (Peng and Gomberg, 2010; Beroza and Ide, 2011), it is important to acknowledge that human‐generated ground vibrations may be mistaken for naturally generated subsurface processes (Larose et al., 2015; Li et al., 2018)....
Evolutionary perspectives on thiamine supplementation of managed Pacific salmonid populations
Avril M. Harder, Aimee N. Reed, Freya Elizabeth Rowland
2024, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
Thiamine deficiency complex (TDC) has been identified in an ever-expanding list of species and populations. In many documented occurrences of TDC in fishes, juvenile mortality can be high—up to 90% at the population level. Such sweeping demographic losses and concomitant decreases in genetic diversity due to TDC can be prevented...
Cryospheric sciences at the U.S. Geological Survey
Caitlyn Florentine, Erich Peitzsch, Miriam C. Jones, Theodore B. Barnhart, Thomas M. Cronin
2024, Fact Sheet 2024-3043
IntroductionThe cryosphere is the collective parts of the Earth where water is in its frozen state and includes snow, glaciers, ice sheets, ice shelves, freshwater ice, sea ice, and permafrost. The cryosphere is a climate indicator and climate regulator. Surface cryosphere features, such as glaciers, snow, and sea ice, store...
Cosmogenic 21Ne exposure ages on late Pleistocene moraines in Lassen Volcanic National Park, California, USA
Joseph P. Tulenko, Greg Balco, Michael A. Clynne, L.J. Patrick Muffler
2024, GChron (6) 639-652
We report new cosmogenic 21Ne in quartz exposure ages from 18 samples on three distinct moraines deposited in the Lost Creek drainage, approximately 3–7 km down-valley from Lassen Peak in Lassen Volcanic National Park. Although measuring 21Ne in quartz is generally straightforward, accurate 21Ne exposure...
High genetic diversity, low population genetic structure, strong natal philopatry, and longevity revealed in the Black Swift (Cypseloides niger borealis)
Carolyn Gunn, Kim Potter, Jennifer A. Fike, Sara J. Oyler-McCance
2024, The Wilson Journal of Ornithology (136) 448-457
Genetic diversity is a critical cornerstone of biodiversity and is a central goal in management and conservation biology. Such diversity has implications for survivability, adaptability, and resiliency of a species. This study aimed to determine levels of genetic diversity and population genetic structure in the Northern Black Swift (Cypseloides niger...
System characterization report on the Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) sensor
Mahesh Shrestha, Aparajithan Sampath, Minsu Kim, Seonkyung Park
2024, Open-File Report 2021-1030-R
Executive Summary This report addresses system characterization of the Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) sensor, an imaging spectrometer developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. This report is part of a series of system characterization reports produced and delivered by the U.S. Geological Survey Earth Resources Observation and...
Reconstructing half a century of coregonine recruitment reveals species-specific dynamics and synchrony across the Laurentian Great Lakes
Taylor A. Brown, Lars G. Rudstam, Suresh A. Sethi, Paul Ripple, Jason Smith, Ted Treska, Christopher Hessell, Erik Olsen, Ji X. He, Jory Jonas, Benjamin J. Rook, Joshua Blankenheim, Sarah J.H. Beech, Erin Brown, Eric K. Berglund, H. Andrew Cook, Erin S. Dunlop, Stephen James, Steven A. Pothoven, Zach Amidon, John A. Sweka, Dray Carl, Scott Hansen, David Bunnell, Brian Weidel, Andrew Edgar Honsey
2024, ICES Journal of Marine Science
Understanding how multiple species and populations vary in their recruitment dynamics can elucidate the processes driving recruitment across space and time. Lake Whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis) and Cisco (C. artedi) are socioecologically important fishes across their range; however, many Laurentian Great Lakes populations have experienced declining, poor, or sporadic recruitment in...
Sea level rise threatens Florida’s insular vertebrate biodiversity
Erin L. Koen, William Barichivich, Elizabeth Braun De Torrez, Susan Walls
2024, Biodiversity and Conservation
Islands are some of the most biodiverse places on earth, but they are also hotspots of biodiversity loss. The coastline of Florida, U.S.A., is surrounded by thousands of islands, many of which are home to species that occur nowhere else. A rapidly emerging threat to these low-lying islands is inundation...
Microfossil biostratigraphy and paleoenvironments of Cretaceous and Pliocene sediments along Greens Mill Run, North Carolina, USA
Mikayla Dixon, Stephen J. Culver, David J. Mallinson, Brian T. Huber, Jean Self-Trail, Whittney Spivey, W. Burleigh Harris
2024, Stratigraphy (21) 323-335
Cretaceous sediments are disconformably overlain by Pliocene sediments along the banks of Greens Mill Run, Greenville, North Carolina, located in the central coastal plain. The Cretaceous sediments, composed of glauconitic sand and clay, have previously been informally considered part of the Maastrichtian Peedee Formation. The Pliocene sediments are assigned to...
Salt marsh habitats and diamondback terrapins in a rapidly changing climate: A review
Margaret M. Lamont, Michael J. Osland, Melissa M. Baustian
2024, Estuaries and Coasts (48)
The impacts associated with global climate change (e.g., sea-level rise, tropical storms, and warming temperatures) are expected to alter predator–prey interactions, foundation species, and plant community structure in coastal ecosystems. While the complex dynamics of these habitats have been examined under future climate predictions, few ecosystem models incorporate influences from...
Longitudinal and seasonal changes of organic matter sources through a semi-arid river-reservoir system
Alysa Muir Yoder, Austin K. Baldwin, Mark C. Marvin-DiPasquale, Brett Poulin, Jesse Naymik, David P. Krabbenhoft
2024, Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences (129)
The quality and quantity of organic matter (OM) in a river system directly affects ecosystem health; thus, managers benefit from an in-depth understanding of the drivers and sources of OM. In the Snake River, a highly altered river-reservoir system in the semi-arid western United States, OM production and loading are...
Flood-inundation maps for the Cuyahoga River at Jaite, Ohio, 2024
Matthew T. Whitehead, Chad J. Ostheimer
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5115
Digital flood-inundation maps for a nearly 6-mile reach of the Cuyahoga River at Jaite, Ohio, were created by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District Board of Trustees. The maps depict estimates of the extent and depth of flooding corresponding to selected water...
Using the horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio method to estimate thickness of the Barry Arm landslide, Prince William Sound, Alaska
Andrew L. Collins, Kate E. Allstadt, Dennis M. Staley
2024, Open-File Report 2024-1071
Conducting detailed investigations of large landslides is difficult, especially in the subsurface, largely due to environmental factors such as steep slopes, difficult access, and numerous objective hazards. These factors have made it challenging to accurately estimate the depth to the failure surface of the Barry Arm landslide, a large (roughly...
Assessing the sustainability of Pacific walrus harvest in a changing environment
Devin L. Johnson, Joseph Michael Eisaguirre, Rebecca L. Taylor, Erik M. Andersen, Joel L. Garlich-Miller
2024, Journal of Wildlife Management
Harvest sustainability is a primary goal of wildlife management and conservation, and in a changing world, it is increasingly important to consider environmental drivers of population dynamics alongside harvest in cohesive management plans. This is particularly pertinent for harvested species that acutely experience effects of climate change. The Pacific walrus...
The dynamics of sea otter prey selection under population growth and expansion
Clint Leach, Ben Weitzman, Jim Bodkin, Daniel Esler, George G. Esslinger, Kimberly A. Kloecker, Daniel Monson, Jamie N. Womble, Mevin B. Hooten
2024, Ecosphere (15)
Sea otters (Enhydra lutris) were extirpated from much of their range in the North Pacific by the early 1900s but have made a remarkable recovery in Southeast Alaska. Sea otter populations have been particularly successful in Glacier Bay, Alaska, a protected tidewater glacier fjord with a diverse and productive nearshore...
Food-web dynamics of a floodplain mosaic overshadow the effects of engineered logjams for Pacific salmon and steelhead
James C. Paris, Colden V. Baxter, James R Bellmore, Joseph R. Benjamin
2024, Ecological Applications
Food webs vary in space and time. The structure and spatial arrangement of food webs are theorized to mediate temporal dynamics of energy flow, but empirical corroboration in intermediate-scale landscapes is scarce. River-floodplain landscapes encompass a mosaic of aquatic habitat patches and food webs, supporting a variety of aquatic consumers...
Influenza A virus antibodies in ducks and introduction of highly pathogenic influenza A(H5N1) virus, Tennessee, USA
David Stallknect, Deborah Carter, Abigail Blake-Bradshaw, Nicholas Masto, Cory Highway, Jamie Feddersen, Richard J. Webby, Bradley S. Cohen, Jeffery D. Sullivan, Rebecca L. Poulson
2024, Emerging Infectious Diseases (30) 2647-2650
Testing of ducks in Tennessee, United States, before introduction of highly pathogenic influenza A(H5N1) virus demonstrated a high prevalence of antibodies to influenza A virus but very low prevalence of antibodies to H5 (25%) or H5 and N1 (13%) subtypes. Antibody prevalence increased after H5N1 introduction....
