Expanded conceptual risk framework for uranium mining in Grand Canyon watershed—Inclusion of the Havasupai Tribe perspective
Carletta Tilousi, Jo Ellen Hinck
2024, Open-File Report 2023-1092
In 2012, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior placed a 20-year limit on mineral extraction on Federal lands in the Grand Canyon watershed to permit further study of the environmental effects of uranium mining. Tribal concerns were also noted by the U.S. Department of the Interior and...
Fault activity in the San Gabriel Mountains, southern California, USA: Insights from landscape morphometrics, erosion rates, and fault-slip rates
Andrew Meredith, Devin McPhillips
2024, Geological Society of America Bulletin (136) 3353-3376
Many studies use landscape form to determine spatial patterns of tectonic deformation, and these are particularly effective when paired with independent measures of rock uplift and erosion. Here, we use morphometric analyses and 10Be catchment-averaged erosion rates, together with reverse slip rates from the...
Assessment of undiscovered conventional oil and gas resources in presalt reservoirs of the West-Central Coastal Province of Africa, 2022
Christopher J. Schenk, Tracey J. Mercier, Cheryl A. Woodall, Phuong A. Le, Andrea D. Cicero, Ronald M. Drake II, Geoffrey S. Ellis, Thomas M. Finn, Michael H. Gardner, Sarah E. Gelman, Jane S. Hearon, Benjamin G. Johnson, Jenny H. Lagesse, Heidi M. Leathers-Miller, Kristen R. Marra, Kira K. Timm, Scott S. Young
2024, Fact Sheet 2023-3028
Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated undiscovered, technically recoverable mean conventional resources of 12.1 billion barrels of oil and 50 trillion cubic feet of gas in presalt reservoirs within the West-Central Coastal Province of Africa....
Decomposition rates appear stable despite elevated shrimp abundances following hurricanes in montane streams, Puerto Rico
Max Kelly, Mary Freeman, Pablo E. Gutiérrez-Fonseca, Jesus E. Gomez, Rafael Perez, Lulu Lacey, Alonso Ramírez, Catherine M. Pringle
2024, Hydrobiologia (851) 2329-2345
Leaf litter decomposition is a key ecosystem process in headwater streams, influenced by physical fragmentation, microbial degradation and feeding activity by stream biota. In some tropical streams, feeding by freshwater shrimps can exert strong top-down control on leaf litter decomposition, however, variation in shrimp macroconsumer effects...
Hurricanes: An unexpected mechanism linking disturbance and seed production in trees
Ian Pearse, Andreas Paul Wion
2024, New Phytologist (242) 8-9
This technical commentary provides insights into a recent paper by a non-USGS group of authors who link hurricanes to mast seed production in long-leaf pine....
Resource-driven pattern formation in consumer-resource systems with asymmetric dispersal on a plane
Weiting Song, Shikun Wang, Yuanshi Wang, Don DeAngelis
2024, SIAM Journal on Applied Mathematics
This paper considers resource-driven pattern formation in consumer-resource systems. Here, a planar pattern consists of many big patches, and a big patch can be regarded as combination of many patches on the plane. The consumer moves between patches asymmetrically, while the asymmetry is driven by the resource abundance. Based on...
Ratingcurve: A Python package for fitting streamflow rating curves
Timothy O. Hodson, Keith James Doore, Terry A. Kenney, Thomas M. Over, Muluken Yeheyis
2024, Hydrology (11)
Streamflow is one of the most important variables in hydrology, but it is difficult to measure continuously. As a result, nearly all streamflow time series are estimated from rating curves that define a mathematical relationship between streamflow and some easy-to-measure proxy like water surface elevation (stage). Despite the existence...
Sedimentary processes and instability on the Mississippi River Delta Front near the shipwreck of the SS Virginia
Nathan Figueredo, Samuel J. Bentley, Jason Chaytor, Kehui Xu, Navid H. Jafari, Iaonnis Georgiou, Melanie D'amour, Jeffrey Duxbury, Jeffrey B. Obelcz, Jillian Maloney
2024, Water (16)
Sediment cores were collected from a mudflow lobe (80 m water depth) offshore of the Mississippi River’s Southwest Pass in 2017 to better understand the sedimentology near the lobe entraining the SS Virginia shipwreck (sunk by a German U-boat in 1942) and surrounding Mississippi River delta front. Core analyses...
Validation of a molecular sex marker in three sturgeons from eastern North America
Nicholas M Sard, Brian R Krieser, Richard M. Pendleton, Barbara A. Lubinski, Robin L. Johnson, Dewayne A. Fox, Joel P Van Eenennaam, Jason E Kahn, Chris H Hager, Amanda L. Higgs, David C. Kazyak
2024, Journal of Applied Ichthyology (16) 173-177
Despite the importance of sex-specific information for sturgeon conservation and management, sex identification has been a major challenge outside of mature adults on spawning grounds. Recent work identified a sex-specific locus (AllWSex2) that appears to be broadly conserved across many Acipenserids, but the assay was not...
Peak streamflow trends in Wisconsin and their relation to changes in climate, water years 1921–2020
Sara B. Levin
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5064-J
This study characterizes hydroclimatic variability and change in peak streamflow and daily streamflow in Wisconsin from water years 1921 through 2020. Nonstationarity in peak streamflow in Wisconsin can include monotonic trends, change points, and autocorrelation. Spatial patterns of nonstationarity in peak streamflow, daily streamflow, and monthly precipitation, temperature, and snowfall...
Peak streamflow trends and their relation to changes in climate in Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5064
Flood-frequency analysis, also called peak-flow frequency or flood-flow frequency analysis, is essential to water resources management applications including critical structure design and floodplain mapping. Federal guidelines for doing flood-frequency analyses are presented in a U.S. Geological Survey Techniques and Methods report known as Bulletin 17C. A basic assumption within Bulletin...
Introduction and methods of analysis for peak streamflow trends and their relation to changes in climate in Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin
Karen R. Ryberg, Thomas M. Over, Sara B. Levin, David C. Heimann, Nancy A. Barth, Mackenzie K. Marti, Padraic S. O'Shea, Christopher A. Sanocki, Tara J. Williams-Sether, Harper N. Wavra, T. Roy Sando, Steven K. Sando, Milan S. Liu
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5064-A
Flood-frequency analysis, also called peak-flow frequency or flood-flow frequency analysis, is essential to water resources management applications including critical structure design and floodplain mapping. Federal guidelines for doing flood-frequency analyses are presented in a U.S. Geological Survey Techniques and Methods Report known as Bulletin 17C. A basic assumption within Bulletin...
Nutrient and carbonate chemistry patterns associated with Karenia brevis blooms in three West Florida Shelf estuaries 2020-2023
Emily R. Hall, Kimberly Yates, Katherine A. Hubbard, Matt Garrett, Jessica Frankle
2024, Frontiers in Marine Science (11)
Ocean acidification (OA) driven by eutrophication, riverine discharge, and other threats from local population growth that affect the inorganic carbonate system is already affecting the eastern Gulf of Mexico. Long-term declines in pH of ~ -0.001 pH units yr-1 have been observed in many southwest Florida estuaries over the past few...
U.S. Geological Survey Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center: Proceedings of the fiscal year 2023 annual reporting meeting to the Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Program
Andrew Alan Schultz, Gregory Mark Anderson, David Topping, Ronald E. Griffiths, David Dean, Paul Grams, Keith Kohl, Gerard Lewis Salter, Matthew A. Kaplinski, Katherine Chapman, Erich R. Mueller, Emily C. Palmquist, Bradley J. Butterfield, Joel B. Sankey, Bridget Deemer, Charles Yackulic, Lindsay Erika Hansen, Drew Elliot Eppehimer, Theodore Kennedy, Anya Metcalfe, Jeffrey Muehlbauer, Morgan Ford, Michael Dodrill, Maria C. Dzul, Pilar Rinker, Michael J. Pillow, David Ward, Josh Korman, Molly A.H. Webb, James A. Crossman, Eric J Frye, David L. Rogowski, Kimberley Dibble, Lucas Bair, Joshua Abbott, Thomas Gushue, Erica Paige Byerley, Joseph E Thomas, Thomas A. Sabol, Bryce Anthony Mihalevich
Meredith A. Hartwell, Andrew Alan Schultz, Gregory Mark Anderson, editor(s)
2024, Conference Paper
This proceedings is prepared for the USBR and Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Program (GCDAMP) to account for work conducted and products delivered in FY 2023 by SBSC's Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center (GCMRC) and to inform the Technical Work Group of science conducted by GCMRC and its cooperators...
Demography with drones: Detecting growth and survival of shrubs with unoccupied aerial systems
Peter J. Olsoy, Andrii Zaiats, Donna M. Delparte, Matthew Germino, Bryce Richardson, Anna V. Roser, Jennifer S. Forbey, Megan E Cattau, Trevor Caughlin
2024, Restoration Ecology (32)
Large-scale disturbances, such as megafires, motivate restoration at equally large extents. Measuring the survival and growth of individual plants plays a key role in current efforts to monitor restoration success. However, the scale of modern restoration (e.g., >10,000 ha) challenges measurements of demographic rates with...
Seasonal differences in larval sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) sensitivity to the pesticide TFM
Justin Schueller, Michael A. Boogaard, Courtney A Kirkeeng, Nicholas A. Schloesser, Samantha L. Wolfe, Avery J. Lettenberger, Tisha King-Heiden, James A. Luoma
2024, Journal of Great Lakes Research (50)
Invasive sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) are controlled in the Great Lakes with 4-nitro-3-(trifluoromethyl) phenol (commonly 3-trifluoromethyl-4-nitrophenol or TFM). The proper concentration of TFM must be applied during treatments to effectively kill larval sea lamprey while minimizing impacts to non-target species. In this study, bioassay tests were conducted in May, July,...
The addition of 144Nd atomic mass to routine ICP-MS analysis as a Quick Screening Tool for Approximating Rare Earth Elements (Q-STAR) in natural waters
Elizabeth J. Tomaszewski, Zhouming Sun, Anthony J. Bednar
2024, Journal of Geochemical Exploration (258)
Rare earth elements (REEs) are a class of critical minerals, all of which can have supply chain vulnerability that impacts economic security. These elements are widely measured in environmental matrices via inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS); however, successful quantification can require time-consuming, sample-specific optimization. While a...
Male lake char release taurocholic acid as part of a mating pheromone
Tyler J. Buchinger, Ke Li, Ugo Bussy, Belinda Huerta, Sonam Tamrakar, Nicholas S. Johnson, Weiming Li
2024, Journal of Experimental Biology (227)
The evolutionary origins of sexual preferences for chemical signals remain poorly understood, due, in part, to scant information on the molecules involved. In the current study, we identified a male pheromone in lake char (Salvelinus namaycush) to evaluate the hypothesis that it exploits...
Seasonal differences in larval sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) sensitivity to the pesticide TFM
Justin Schueller, Michael A. Boogaard, Courtney A Kirkeeng, Nicholas A. Schloesser, Samantha L. Wolfe, Avery J. Lettenberger, Tisha King-Heiden, James A. Luoma
2024, Journal of Great Lakes Research (50)
Invasive sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) are controlled in the Great Lakes with 4-nitro-3-(trifluoromethyl)phenol (commonly 3-trifluoromethyl-4-nitrophenol or TFM). The proper amount of TFM must be applied during treatments to effectively kill larval sea lamprey while minimizing impacts to non-target species. In this...
Seasonal and breeding phenologies of 38 grassland bird species in the midcontinent of North America
Garrett J. MacDonald, Michael J. Anteau, Kristen S. Ellis, Lawrence D. Igl, Neal D. Niemuth, Josh L. Vest
2024, Open-File Report 2024-1002
Grasslands in the midcontinent of North America are highly imperiled, and grassland birds have suffered the largest bird declines of any terrestrial biome in North America in the last 50 years. Consequently, the conservation and management of grasslands, as well as their associated avian communities, are major priorities for the...
Satellite Interferometry Landslide Detection and Preliminary Tsunamigenic Plausibility Assessment in Prince William Sound, Southcentral Alaska
Lauren N. Schaefer, Jinwook Kim, Dennis M. Staley, Zhong Lu, Katherine R. Barnhart
2024, Open-File Report 2023-1099
Regional mapping of actively deforming landslides, including measurements of landslide velocity, is integral for hazard assessments in paraglacial environments. These inventories are also critical for describing the potential impacts that the warming effects of climate change have on slope instability in mountainous and cryospheric terrain. The objective of this study...
Water-quality indicators of surface-water-influenced groundwater supplies in the Ohio River alluvial aquifer of West Virginia
Mitchell A. McAdoo, Gregory T. Connock
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5139
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources, studied surface-water-influenced groundwater supplies in the Ohio River alluvial aquifer of West Virginia for the purpose of understanding the influence of surface water on groundwater chemistry. Public groundwater supplies obtained from these aquifers receive...
The U.S. Geological Survey Water Resources Research Act Program—Meeting local, State, and national needs for water resources science and training
Mark P. Miller, Earl A. Greene, Tanja N. Williamson
2024, Fact Sheet 2023-3031
IntroductionThe U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has a broad research portfolio that addresses water resource issues that are critical to our Nation’s prosperity and quality of life. Socioeconomics, geopolitical stressors, population growth, climate variability, and other factors provide challenges for the management of water resources. Working collaboratively with partners, the USGS...
A framework to facilitate development and testing of image-based river velocimetry algorithms
Carl J. Legleiter, Paul J. Kinzel
2024, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms (49) 1361-1382
Image-based methods have compelling, demonstrated potential for characterizing flow fields in rivers, but algorithms like particle image velocimetry (PIV) must be further tested and improved to enable more effective use of these techniques. This paper presents a framework designed for this exact purpose: Simulating Hydraulics and Images for Velocimetry Evaluation...
Macroscale controls determine the recovery of river ecosystem productivity following flood disturbances
Heili Lowman, Robert K. Shriver, Robert O. Hall Jr., Judson Harvey, Philip Savoy, Charles Yackulic, Joanna R. Blaszczak
2024, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (121)
River ecosystems rely on varied flows, including regular floods, to provide food and habitat for aquatic organisms. However, flows of freshwater are becoming increasingly managed for irrigation, industry, and other human activities, and the frequency of floods is changing. Our study used time-series data of photosynthesis from 143 rivers across...
