Remote sensing of dryland ecosystem structure and function: Progress, challenges, and opportunities
William K. Smith, Matthew P. Dannenberg, Dong Yan, Stephanie Herrmann, Mallory L. Barnes, Greg A. Barron-Gafford, Joel A. Biederman, Scott Ferrenberg, Andrew M. Fox, Amy R. Hudson, John F. Knowles, Natasha MacBean, David J.P. Moore, Pamela L. Nagler, Sasha C. Reed, William A. Rutherford, Russell L. Scott, Xianfeng Wang, Julia Yang
2019, Remote Sensing of Environment (233)
Drylands make up roughly 40% of the Earth's land surface, and billions of people depend on services provided by these critically important ecosystems. Despite their relatively sparse vegetation, dryland ecosystems are structurally and functionally diverse, and emerging evidence suggests that these ecosystems...
Mountain-block recharge: A review of current understanding
Katherine H. Markovich, Andrew H. Manning, Laura Condon, Jennifer McIntosh
2019, Water Resources Research (55) 8278-8304
Mountain-block recharge (MBR) is the subsurface inflow of groundwater to lowland aquifers from adjacent mountains. MBR can be a major component of recharge but remains difficult to characterize and quantify due to limited hydrogeologic, climatic, and other data in the mountain block and at the mountain front. The number of...
Adapterama II: Universal amplicon sequencing on Illumina platforms (TaggiMatrix)
Travis C Glenn, Todd W Pierson, Natalia J Bayona-Vasquez, Troy J. Kieran, Sandra L. Hoffberg, Jesse Thomas, Daniel E. Lefever, John W. Finger Jr., Bei Gao, Xiaoming Bian, Swarnali Louha, Ramya Kolli, Kerin Bentley, Julie Rushmore, Kelvin Wong, Michael Rothrock, Anna M. McKee, Tai L. Guo, Rodney Mauricio, Marirosa Molina, Brian Cummings, Lawrence H. Lash, Kun Lu, Gregory S. Gilbert, Stephen P. Hubbell, Brant C. Faircloth
2019, PeerJ
Next-generation sequencing (NGS) of amplicons is used in a wide variety of contexts. In many cases, NGS amplicon sequencing remains overly expensive and inflexible, with library preparation strategies relying upon the fusion of locus-specific primers to full-length adapter sequences with a single identifying sequence or ligating adapters onto PCR products....
sUAS-based remote sensing of river discharge using thermal particle image velocimetry and bathymetric lidar
Paul J. Kinzel, Carl J. Legleiter
2019, Remote Sensing (11)
This paper describes a non-contact methodology for computing river discharge based on data collected from small Unmanned Aerial Systems (sUAS). The approach is complete in that both surface velocity and channel geometry are measured directly under field conditions. The technique does not require introducing artificial tracer particles for computing...
Flood-frequency estimates for Ohio streamgages based on data through water year 2015 and techniques for estimating flood-frequency characteristics of rural, unregulated Ohio streams
G. F. Koltun
2019, Scientific Investigations Report 2019-5018
Estimates of the magnitudes of annual peak streamflows with annual exceedance probabilities of 0.5, 0.2, 0.1, 0.04, 0.02, 0.01, and 0.002 (equivalent to recurrence intervals of 2-, 5-, 10-, 25-, 50-, 100-, and 500-years, respectively) were computed for 391 streamgages in Ohio and adjacent states based on data collected through...
Flood-inundation maps for Nimishillen Creek near North Industry, Ohio, 2019
Matthew T. Whitehead
2019, Scientific Investigations Report 2019-5083
Digital flood-inundation maps for a 4-mile reach of Nimishillen Creek near North Industry, Ohio, were created by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District, Ohio, and the Stark County Board of Commissioners. The flood-inundation maps, which can be accessed through the USGS Flood Inundation...
Assessing the feasibility of satellite-based thresholds for hydrologically driven landsliding
Matthew A. Thomas, Brian D. Collins, Benjamin B. Mirus
2019, Water Resources Research (55) 9006-9023
Elevated soil moisture and heavy precipitation contribute to landslides worldwide. These environmental variables are now being resolved with satellites at spatiotemporal scales that could offer new perspectives on the development of landslide warning systems. However, the application of these data to hydro-meteorological thresholds (which account for antecedent soil moisture and...
Sampling across 20 years (1996–2017) reveals loss of diversity and genetic connectivity in the Coachella Valley fringe-toed lizard (Uma inornata)
Amy G. Vandergast, Dustin A. Wood, Mark Fisher, Cameron W. Barrows, Anna Mitelberg, Julia G. Smith
2019, Open-File Report 2019-1105
The Coachella Valley fringe-toed lizard (Uma inornata) is a federally threatened, aeolian sand dune obligate, endemic to the Coachella Valley, California. Historically, U. inornata is thought to have formed a large interconnected metapopulation across the valley, with local dune habitat and population size fluctuations linked to stochastic droughts and flooding. Since the...
Real-time assessments of water quality—A nowcast for Escherichia coli and cyanobacterial toxins
Donna S. Francy, Amie M.G. Brady, Tammy M. Zimmerman
2019, Fact Sheet 2019-3061
Threats to our recreational and drinking waters include disease-causing (pathogenic) organisms from fecal contamination and toxins produced by some species of cyanobacteria (cyanotoxins) that can cause acute and (or) chronic illnesses. Because traditional laboratory methods for detecting these threats take too long for prompt public health protection, tools for real-time...
Morphological computation of dune evolution with equilibrium and non-equilibrium sediment-transport models
Satomi Yamaguchi, Sanjay Giri, Yasuyuki Shimizu, Jonathan M. Nelson
2019, Water Resources Research (55) 8463-8477
This paper presents an exploratory study that comprises the implementation and comparison of different approaches and parameterization of sediment transport mechanisms in a process-based morphological model for simulating river dunes. The purpose of this study was to assess the underlying physical processes associated with sediment transport and dune evolution simulated...
Geology and assessment of undiscovered oil and gas resources of the East Greenland Rift Basins Province, 2008
Donald L. Gautier
Thomas E. Moore, Donald L. Gautier, editor(s)
2019, Professional Paper 1824-K
In 2007 the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) completed an assessment of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil and gas resources in the East Greenland Rift Basins Province of Northeast Greenland. The province was selected as the prototype for the U.S. Geological Survey Circum-Arctic Resource Appraisal (CARA). In collaboration with the Geological Survey...
Morphodynamic modeling of the response of two barrier islands to Atlantic hurricane forcing
Marlies van der Lugt, Ellen Quataert, Ap van Dongeren, Maarten van Ormondt, Christopher R. Sherwood
2019, Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science (229)
The accurate prediction of a barrier island response to storms is challenging because of the complex interaction between hydro- and morphodynamic processes that changes at different stages during an event. Assessment of the predictive skill is further complicated because of uncertainty in the hydraulic forcing, initial conditions, and the parameterization...
Conservation of temporary wetlands
Dani Boix, Aram J.K. Calhoun, David M. Mushet, Kathleen P. Bell, James A. Fitzsimons, Francis Isselin-Nondedeu
2019, Book chapter, Reference Module in Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences
Temporary wetlands are characterized by frequent drying resulting in a unique, highly specialized assemblage of often rare or specialized plant and animal species. They are found on all continents and in a variety of landscape settings. Although accurate estimates of the abundance of temporary wetlands are available in only a...
Modeling control of Common Carp (Cyprinus carpio) in a shallow lake–wetland system
James B Pearson, Jason B. Dunham, J Ryan Bellmore, Donald E. Lyons
2019, Wetlands Ecology and Management (27) 663-682
The introduction of Common Carp (Cyprinus carpio) into North American waterways has led to widespread alteration of aquatic ecosystems. Control of this invader has proven extremely difficult due to its capacity for rapid population growth. To help understand how Common Carp can potentially be controlled we developed a population dynamics...
Foraging ecology mediates response to ecological mismatch during migratory stopover
A. M. Tucker, Conor P. McGowan, M. Catalano, A. Derose-Wilson, R. A. Robinson, J. Zimmerman
2019, Ecosphere (10)
Impacts of ecological mismatches should be most pronounced at points of the annual cycle when populations depend on a predictable, abundant, and aggregated food resource that changes in timing or distribution. The degree to which species specialize on a key prey item, therefore, should determine their sensitivity to mismatches. We...
Withdrawal and consumption of water by thermoelectric power plants in the United States, 2015
Melissa A. Harris, Timothy H. Diehl
2019, Scientific Investigations Report 2019-5103
The U.S. Geological Survey has developed models to estimate thermoelectric water use based on linked heat and water budgets. The models produced plant-level withdrawal and consumption estimates using consistent methods for 1,122 water-using, utility-scale thermoelectric power plants in the United States for 2015. Total estimated withdrawal for 2015 was about...
Spatial and temporal variation in river corridor exchange across a 5th order mountain stream network
Adam S Ward, Steven Wondzell, Noah Schmadel, Skuyler Herzog, Jay P. Zarnetske, Viktor Baranov, Phillip J Blaen, Nicolai Brekenfeld, Rosalie Chu, Romain Derelle, Jennifer D. Drummond, Jan Fleckenstein, Vanessa Garayburu-Caruso, Emily B. Graham, David Hannah, Ciaran Harman, Jase Hixson, Julia L.A. Knapp, Stefan Krause, Marie Kurz, Jorg Lewandowski, Angang Li, Eugènia Martí, Melinda Miller, Alexander Milner, Kerry Neil, Luisa Orsini, Aaron I. Packman, Stephen Plont, Lupita Renteria, Kevin Roche, Todd V Royer, Catalina Segura, James Stegen, Jason Toyoda, Jacqueline Wells, Nathan Wisnoski
2019, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (23) 5199-5225
Although most field and modeling studies of river corridor exchange have been conducted a scales ranging from 10’s to 100’s of meters; results of these studies are used to predict their ecological and hydrological influences at the scale of river networks. Further complicating prediction, exchanges are expected to vary with...
The effects of management practices on grassland birds—Eastern Meadowlark (Sturnella magna)
Scott D. Hull, Jill A. Shaffer, Lawrence D. Igl
2019, Professional Paper 1842-MM
The key to Eastern Meadowlark (Sturnella magna) management is providing large areas of contiguous grassland of moderate height with significant grass cover and moderate forb density. Eastern Meadowlarks have been reported to use habitats with 10–187 centimeters (cm) average vegetation height, 6–88 cm visual obstruction reading, 53–86 percent grass cover,...
Regression models for estimating sediment and nutrient concentrations and loads at the Iroquois River near Foresman, Indiana, March 2015 through July 2018
Timothy R. Lathrop, Aubrey R. Bunch, Myles S. Downhour, Daniel M. Perkins
2019, Scientific Investigations Report 2019-5087
In 2015, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Iroquois River Conservancy District, deployed continuous water-quality monitors and began collecting representative discrete water-quality samples at the Iroquois River near Foresman, Indiana, streamflow-gaging station (U.S. Geological Survey station 05524500). By relating continuously monitored water-quality data and discrete water-quality samples collected...
Predicting fish species richness and habitat relationships using Bayesian hierarchical multispecies occupancy models
Shannon White, Evan Faulk, Caleb Tzilkowski, Andrew Weber, Matt Marshall, Tyler Wagner
2019, Canadian Journal Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (77)
Understanding how stream fishes respond to changes in habitat availability is complicated by low occurrence rates of many species, which in turn reduces the ability to quantify species–habitat relationships and account for imperfect detection in estimates of species richness. Multispecies occupancy models have been used sparingly in the analysis of...
Estimating sightability of greater sage-grouse at leks using an aerial infrared system and N-mixture models
Peter S. Coates, Gregory T. Wann, Gifford L. Gillette, Mark A. Ricca, Brian G. Prochazka, John P. Severson, Katie M. Andrle, Shawn P. Espinosa, Michael L. Casazza, David J. Delehanty
2019, Wildlife Biology (2019)
Counts of grouse present at leks (breeding grounds) during spring are widely used to monitor population numbers and assess trends. However, only a proportion of birds available to count are detected resulting in a biased population index. We designed a study using an aerial integrated infrared imaging system (AIRIS) and...
Prediction and inference of flow-duration curves using multi-output neural networks
Scott C. Worland, Scott Steinschneider, William H. Asquith, Rodney Knight, Michael E. Wieczorek
2019, Water Resources Research (55) 6850-6868
We develop multi-output neural network models (MNNs) to predict flow-duration curves (FDCs) in 9,203 ungaged locations in the Southeastern United States for six decades between 1950-2009. The model architecture contains multiple response variables in the output layer that correspond to individual quantiles along the FDC. During training, predictions are made...
A multidisciplinary coastal vulnerability assessment for local government focused on ecosystems, Santa Barbara area, California
Monique Myers, Patrick L. Barnard, Edward Beighley, Daniel R. Cayan, Jenifer E. Dugan, Dongmei Feng, Samuel F. Iacobellis, John M. Melack, Henry M. Page
2019, Ocean and Coastal Management (182)
Incorporating coastal ecosystems in climate adaptation planning is needed to maintain the well-being of both natural and human systems. Our vulnerability study uses a multidisciplinary approach to evaluate climate change vulnerability of an urbanized coastal community that could serve as a model approach for communities worldwide, particularly in similar Mediterranean...
A spatio-contextual probabilistic model for extracting linear features in hilly terrain from high-resolution DEM data
Xiran Zhou, Wenwen Li, Samantha T. Arundel
2019, International Journal of Geographical Information Science (33) 666-686
This paper introduces our research in developing a probabilistic model to extract linear terrain features from high resolution DEM (Digital Elevation Model) data. The proposed model takes full advantage of spatio-contextual information to characterize terrain changes. It first derives a quantifiable measure of spatio-contextual patterns of linear terrain feature, such...
Modeling sediment bypassing around idealized rocky headlands
Douglas A. George, John L. Largier, Greg B. Pasternack, Patrick L. Barnard, Curt D. Storlazzi, Li H. Erikson
2019, Journal of Marine Science and Engineering (7)
Alongshore sediment bypassing rocky headlands remains understudied despite the importance of characterizing littoral processes for erosion abatement, beach management, and climate change adaptation. To address this gap, a numerical model sediment transport study was developed to identify controlling factors and mechanisms for sediment headland bypassing potential. Four idealized headlands were...
