Vegetation and precipitation shifts interact to alter organic and inorganic carbon storage in cold desert soils
David P. Huber, Kathleen A. Lohse, Amy Commendador, Stephen Joy, Ken A. Aho, Bruce P. Finney, Matthew J. Germino
2019, Ecosphere (10)
Dryland ecosystems are experiencing shifts in rainfall and plant community composition, which are expected to alter cycling and storage of soil carbon (C). Few experiments have been conducted to examine long‐term effects on (1) soil organic C (SOC) pools throughout the soil profile, and (2) soil inorganic C (SIC) pools...
Sediment monitoring during Elwha River dam removals: Lessons learned during the Nation’s largest dam removal project
Christopher A. Curran, Christopher S. Magirl, Robert C. Hilldale
2019, Conference Paper, Proceedings of SEDHYD 2019
No abstract available....
Climate, streamflow, and lake-level trends in the Great Lakes Basin of the United States and Canada, water years 1960–2015
Parker A. Norton, Daniel G. Driscoll, Janet M. Carter
2019, Scientific Investigations Report 2019-5003
Water levels in the Great Lakes fluctuate substantially because of complex interactions among inputs (precipitation and streamflow), outputs (evaporation and outflow), and other factors. This report by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative was completed to describe trends in climate, streamflow, lake levels, and...
Constraining the oxygen isotopic composition of nitrate produced by nitrification
Danielle S. Boshers, Julie Granger, Craig R. Tobias, J.K. Bohlke, Richard L. Smith
2019, Environmental Science & Technology (53) 1206-1216
Measurements of the stable isotope ratios of nitrogen (15N/14N) and oxygen (18O/16O) in nitrate (NO3–) enable identification of sources, dispersal, and fate of natural and contaminant NO3– in aquatic environments. The 18O/16O of NO3– produced by nitrification is often assumed to reflect the proportional contribution of oxygen atom sources, water, and molecular oxygen,...
Geomorphic survey of North Fork Eagle Creek, New Mexico, 2017
Alexander P. Graziano
2019, Open-File Report 2018-1187
About one-quarter of the water supply for the Village of Ruidoso, New Mexico, is derived from groundwater pumping along North Fork Eagle Creek in the Eagle Creek Basin near Alto, New Mexico. Because of concerns regarding the effects of groundwater pumping on surface-water hydrology in the Eagle Creek Basin and...
Groundwater and surface-water data collection for Mason County, western Washington, 2016–18
Alison E. Tecca, Lonna M. Frans
2019, Data Series 1106
Groundwater levels and surface water flow measurements were collected from August 2016 to September 2018 to provide the Mason Conservation District and other stakeholders with basic knowledge of existing water resources in Mason County, Washington. Additionally, the data were collected with the intent of contributing to informed decision making about...
Abundance and productivity of marbled murrelets (Brachyramphus marmoratus) off central California during the 2018 breeding season
Jonathan J. Felis, Emily C. Kelsey, Josh Adams
2019, Data Series 1107
Executive SummaryMarbled murrelets (Brachyramphus marmoratus) have been listed as “endangered” by the State of California and “threatened” by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service since 1992 in California, Oregon, and Washington. Information regarding marbled murrelet abundance, distribution, population trends, and habitat associations is critical for risk assessment, effective management, evaluation...
Surface fire to Crown Fire: Fire history in the Taos Valley watersheds, New Mexico, USA
Lane B Johnson, Ellis Q. Margolis
2019, Fire (2)
Tree-ring fire scars, tree ages, historical photographs, and historical surveys indicate that, for centuries, fire played different ecological roles across gradients of elevation, forest, and fire regimes in the Taos Valley Watersheds. Historical fire regimes collapsed across the three watersheds by 1899, leaving all sites without fire for at least...
Improved enrichment factor calculations through principal component analysis: Examples from soils near breccia pipe uranium mines, Arizona, USA
Carleton R. Bern, Katherine Walton-Day, David L. Naftz
2019, Environmental Pollution (248) 90-100
The enrichment factor (EF) is a widely used metric for determining how much the presence of an element in a sampling media has increased relative to average natural abundance because of human activity. Calculation of an EF requires the selection of both a background composition and a reference element, choices...
Winter precipitation and summer temperature predict lake water quality at macroscales
S. M. Collins, S. Yuan, P. N. Tan, S. K. Oliver, J. F. Lapierre, K. S. Cheruvelil, C. E. Fergus, N. K. Skaff, J. Stachelek, Tyler Wagner, P. A. Soranno
2019, Water Resources Research (55) 2708-2721
Climate change can have strong effects on aquatic ecosystems, including disrupting nutrient cycling and mediating processes that affect primary production. Past studies have been conducted mostly on individual or small groups of ecosystems, making it challenging to predict how future climate change will affect water quality at broad scales. We...
Recreational impacts to wildlife: Managing visitors and resources to protect wildlife
Jeffrey L. Marion
2019, Report
Publication Abstract: Visitor use management is essential for maximizing benefits for visitors while achieving and maintaining desired resource conditions and visitor experiences on federally managed lands and waters. Visitor capacity, a component of visitor use management, is defined as the maximum amounts and types of visitor use that an...
Flood-inundation maps for the Yellow River from River Drive to Centerville Highway, Gwinnett County, Georgia
Jonathan W. Musser
2019, Scientific Investigations Report 2019-5009
Digital flood-inundation maps for a 16.4-mile reach of the Yellow River in Gwinnett County, Georgia, from 0.5 mile upstream from River Drive to Centerville Highway (Georgia State Route 124) were developed to depict estimates of the areal extent and depth of flooding corresponding to selected water levels (stages) at two...
Harmful algal blooms
U.S. Geological Survey
2019, General Information Product 188
This postcard provides details about "Cyanobacterial Harmful Algal Blooms and U.S. Geological Survey Science Capabilities, "Open File Report 2016-1174, where you can find details about how U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists use traditional methods and emerging technologies in collaboration with numerous partners to lead a diverse range of...
Widespread global peatland establishment and persistence over the last 130,000 y
Claire C. Treat, Thomas Kleinen, Nils Broothaerts , April S. Dalton, Rene Dommain, Thomas A. Douglas, Judith Z. Drexler, Sarah A Finkelstein, Guido Grosse, Geoffrey Hope, Jack Hutchings, Miriam C. Jones, Peter Kuhry, Terri Lacourse, Outi Lahteenoja, Julie Loisel, Bastiaan Notebaert, Richard Payne, Dorothy M. Peteet, A. Britta K. Sannel, Jonathan M. Stelling, Jens Strauss, Graeme T. Swindles, Julie Talbot, Charles Tarnocai, Gert Verstraeten, Christopher J. Williams , Zhengyu Xia, Zicheng Yu, Minna Valiranta, Martina Hattestrand, Helena Alexanderson, Victor Brovkin
2019, PNAS (116) 4822-4827
Glacial−interglacial variations in CO2 and methane in polar ice cores have been attributed, in part, to changes in global wetland extent, but the wetland distribution before the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, 21 ka to 18 ka) remains virtually unknown. We present a study of global peatland extent and carbon (C) stocks...
Comparison of aquatic invertebrate communities in near-shore areas with high or low boating activity
Bradley Smith, Steven R. Chipps, Jeff Grote, Jake Mecham, Tanner M. Stevens, Tobias Rapp
2019, Journal of Freshwater Ecology (34) 189-198
Lakeshore areas provide important habitat for aquatic invertebrates in shallow lakes. However, these zones are prone to anthropogenic disturbances that include shoreline development, urbanization, nutrient inputs, agricultural and(or) recreational use. Among recreational uses, public access sites are often developed to accommodate boaters and facilitate lake access via...
Leakage and increasing fluid pressure detected in Oklahoma's wastewater disposal reservoir
Andrew J. Barbour, Lian Xu, Evelyn Roeloffs, Justin Rubinstein
2019, Journal of Geophysical Research 2896-2919
The Arbuckle Group is the principal reservoir used for wastewater disposal in Oklahoma. In Osage County—a seismically quiet part of the state—continuous measurements of fluid pressure reveal that pressure in the reservoir is increasing by at least 5 kPa annually and sometimes at a much higher rate. Tidal analysis reveals...
Effects of land use on greenhouse gas flux in playa wetlands and associated watersheds in the High Plains, USA
Dale W. Daniel, Loren M. Smith, Scott T. McMurry, Brian Tangen, Charles F. Dahl, Ned Euliss, Ted LaGrange
2019, Agricultural Sciences (10) 181-201
In the High Plains, U.S., native prairie conversion to cropland agriculture has resulted in a loss of service delivery capabilities from most depressional wetlands as a result of sedimentation. Restoring historic hydrological conditions to affected wetlands may rejuvenate some services, however, there may be tradeoffs due to emissions of CH4 and...
Flood-inundation maps of the Meramec River from Eureka to Arnold, Missouri, 2018
Benjamin J. Dietsch, Kellan R. Strauch
2019, Scientific Investigations Report 2019-5004
Libraries of digital flood-inundation maps that spanned a combined 37.2-mile reach of the Meramec River that extended upstream from Eureka, Missouri, to downstream near the confluence of the Meramec and Mississippi Rivers were created by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Metropolitan...
Water-balance modeling of selected lakes for evaluating viability as long-term fisheries in Kidder, Logan, and Stutsman Counties, North Dakota
Robert F. Lundgren, Benjamin C. York, Nathan A. Stroh, Aldo V. Vecchia
2019, Scientific Investigations Report 2019-5007
Water levels in lakes and wetlands in the central North Dakota Missouri Coteau region that were either dry or only sporadically held water since before the 1930s have been rising since the early 1990s in response to an extended wet period. The lakes have remained full since the mid-1990s, which...
Water quality and hydrology of the Yellow Dog and Salmon Trout Watersheds, Marquette County, Michigan 2013–16
Christopher J. Hoard, Thomas L. Weaver
2019, Scientific Investigations Report 2018-5152
In 2013, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, began monitoring the water quality of springs and seeps within the Yellow Dog and Salmon Trout watersheds in Marquette County, Michigan. The objectives of this study were to (1) monitor streamflow and analyze the hydrology of...
Accounting for phenology in the analysis of animal movement
Henry R. Scharf, Mevin Hooten, Ryan R. Wilson, George M. Durner, Todd C. Atwood
2019, Biometrics (75) 810-820
The analysis of animal tracking data provides important scientific understanding and discovery in ecology. Observations of animal trajectories using telemetry devices provide researchers with information about the way animals interact with their environment and each other. For many species, specific geographical features in the landscape can have a strong effect...
Multi-species duck harvesting using dynamic programming and multi-criteria decision analysis
Fred Johnson, Guthrie S. Zimmerman, Min Huang, Paul I. Padding, Greg Balkcom, Michael C. Runge, Patrick K. Devers
2019, Journal of Applied Ecology 1-13
1.Multiple species are often exposed to a common hunting season, but harvest and population objectives may not be fully achieved if harvest potential varies among species and/or species abundances are not correlated through time. Our goal was to develop an approach for setting a common hunting season that would recognize...
Mississippi river sediment diversions and coastal wetland sustainability: Synthesis of responses to freshwater, sediment, and nutrient inputs
Tracy Elsey-Quirk, Sean A. Graham, Irving A. Mendelssohn, Gregg Snedden, John W. Day, Gary P. Shaffer, Leigh Anne Sharp, Robert R. Twilley, James Pahl, R.R. Lane
2019, Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science (221) 170-183
Management and restoration of coastal wetlands require insight into how inundation, salinity, and the availability of mineral sediment and nutrients interact to influence ecosystem functions that control sustainability. The Mississippi River Delta, which ranks among the world's largest and most productive coastal wetland complexes, has experienced extensive deterioration over the...
Resource concentration mechanisms facilitate foraging success in simulations of a pulsed oligotrophic wetland
Simeon Yurek, Donald L. DeAngelis
2019, Landscape Ecology (34) 583-601
ContextMovement of prey on hydrologically pulsed, spatially heterogeneous wetlands can result in transient, high prey concentrations, when changes in landscape features such as connectivity between flooded areas alternately facilitate and impede prey movement. Predators track and exploit these concentrations, depleting them as they arise.<div id="ASec2"...
Flooding regimes increase avian predation on wildlife prey in tidal marsh ecosystems
Karen M. Thorne, Kyle A. Spragens, Kevin J. Buffington, Jordan A. Rosencranz, John Takekawa
2019, Ecology and Evolution (9) 1083-1094
Within isolated and fragmented populations, species interactions such as predation can cause shifts in community structure and demographics in tidal marsh ecosystems. It is critical to incorporate species interactions into our understanding when evaluating the effects of sea‐level rise and storm surges on tidal marshes. In...
