Population history provides foundational knowledge for utilizing and developing native plant restoration materials
Robert Massatti, Holly R. Prendeville, Steve Larson, Bryce A. Richardson, Blair Waldron, Francis F. Kilkenny
2018, Evolutionary Applications (11) 2025-2039
A species’ population structure and history are critical pieces of information that can help guide the use of available native plant materials in restoration treatments and decide what new native plant materials should be developed to meet future restoration needs. In the western United States, Pseudoroegneria spicata (bluebunch wheatgrass; Poaceae) is an...
A new generation of the United States National Land Cover Database: Requirements, research priorities, design, and implementation strategies
Limin Yang, Suming Jin, Patrick Danielson, Collin Homer, Leila Gass, Stacie M Bender, Adam Case, Catherine Costello, Jon Dewitz, Joyce Fry, Michelle Funk, Brian J. Granneman, Greg C Liknes, Matthew B. Rigge, George Z. Xian
2018, ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (146) 108-123
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in partnership with several federal agencies, has developed and released four National Land Cover Database (NLCD) products over the past two decades: NLCD 1992, 2001, 2006, and 2011. These products provide spatially explicit and reliable information on the Nation’s land cover and land cover change....
Movements and dive patterns of pygmy killer whales (Feresa attenuata) released in the Gulf of Mexico following rehabilitation
Eric Pulis, Randall S. Wells, Gregory S. Schorr, David C. Douglas, Mystera M. Samuelson, Moby Solangi
2018, Aquatic Mammals (44) 555-567
The habits and habitats of pygmy killer whales (Feresa attenuata) in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) are poorly known outside of strandings and line-transect surveys. Two adult male pygmy killer whales were found live-stranded in the state of Mississippi (USA) on 1 September 2015 and were subsequently rehabilitated and returned...
Quantifying uncertainty in cumulative surface slip along the Cucamonga Fault, a crustal thrust fault in southern California
Devin McPhillips, Katherine M. Scharer
2018, Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth (123) 9063-9083
Studies of historic earthquake ground surface ruptures show that displacements along strike are spatially variable. As a result, latest Quaternary slip rates developed from a spatially restricted set of cumulative displacement measurements may not accurately represent fault velocity. Here we examine the uncertainties associated with slip...
Continuing progress toward a national assessment of water availability and use
Eric J. Evenson, Sonya A. Jones, Nancy L. Barber, Paul M. Barlow, David L. Blodgett, Breton W. Bruce, Kyle R. Douglas-Mankin, William H. Farmer, Jeffrey M. Fischer, William B. Hughes, Jonathan G. Kennen, Julie E. Kiang, Molly A. Maupin, Howard W. Reeves, Gabriel B. Senay, Jennifer S. Stanton, Chad R. Wagner, Jennifer T. Wilson
2018, Circular 1440
Executive SummaryThe Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 (Public Law 111—11) was passed into law on March 30, 2009. Subtitle F, also known as the SECURE Water Act, calls for the establishment of a “national water availability and use assessment program” within the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The USGS...
Streamflow contributions from tribal lands to major river basins of the United States
Kyle W. Blasch, Stephen A. Hundt, Patrick Wurster, Roy Sando, Antony Berthelote
2018, PLoS ONE (13) 1-16
While many studies on tribal water resources of individual tribal lands in the United States (US) have been conducted, the importance of tribal water resources at a national scale has largely gone unrecognized because their combined totals have not been quantified. Thus, we sought to provide a numerical estimate of...
Collision and displacement vulnerability to offshore wind energy infrastructure among marine birds of the Pacific Outer Continental Shelf
Emily C. Kelsey, Jonathan J. Felis, Max Czapanskiy, David M. Peresksta, Josh Adams
2018, Journal of Environmental Management (227) 229-247
Marine birds are vulnerable to collision with and displacement by offshore wind energy infrastructure (OWEI). Here we present the first assessment of marine bird vulnerability to potential OWEI in the California Current System portion of the U.S. Pacific Outer Continental Shelf (POCS). Using population size, demography, life history, flight heights, and avoidance...
Chronic wasting disease detection and mortality sources in semi-protected deer population
Krysten L. Schuler, Jonathan A. Jenks, Robert W. Klaver, Christopher S. Jennelle, R. Terry Bowyer
2018, Wildlife Biology (2018)
Surveillance for wildlife diseases is essential for assessing population dynamics of ungulates, especially in free-ranging populations where infected animals are difficult to sample. Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is an emerging infectious disease of concern because of the potential for substantial negative effects on populations of cervids. Variability in the likelihood...
Climatically driven changes in primary production propagate through trophic levels
David C. Stoner, Joseph O. Sexton, David M. Choate, Jyothy Nagol, Heather H. Bernales, Steven A. Sims, Kirsten E. Ironside, Kathleen M. Longshore, Thomas C. Edwards Jr.
2018, Global Change Biology (24) 4453-4463
Climate and land‐use change are the major drivers of global biodiversity loss. Their effects are particularly acute for wide‐ranging consumers, but little is known about how these factors interact to affect the abundance of large carnivores and their herbivore prey. We analyzed population densities of a primary and secondary consumer...
The 1952 Kern County, California earthquake: A case study of issues in the analysis of historical intensity data for estimation of source parameters
Leah Salditch, Susan E. Hough, Seth Stein, Bruce Spencer, Edward Brooks, James S. Neely, Madeleine C. Lucas
2018, Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors (283) 140-151
Seismic intensity data based on first-hand accounts of shaking give valuable insight into historical and early instrumental earthquakes. Comparing an observed intensity distribution to intensity-prediction models based on modern calibration events allows the magnitude to be estimated for many historic earthquakes. Magnitude estimates can also potentially be refined for earthquakes...
Necropsy-based wild fish health assessment
Vicki S. Blazer, Heather L. Walsh, Ryan P. Braham, Cheyenne R. Smith
2018, Journal of Visualized Experiments (139)
Anthropogenic influences from increased nutrients and chemical contaminants, to habitat alterations and climate change, can have significant effects on fish populations. Adverse effects monitoring, utilizing biomarkers from the organismal to the molecular level, can be used to assess the cumulative effects on fishes and other organisms. Fish health has been...
Modelling sound attenuation in heterogeneous environments for improved bioacoustic sampling of wildlife populations
J. Andrew Royle
2018, Methods in Ecology and Evolution (9) 1939-1947
Acoustic sampling methods are becoming increasingly important in biological monitoring. Sound attenuation is one of the most important dynamics affecting the utility of acoustic data as it directly affects the probability of detection of individuals by acoustic sensor arrays and especially the localization of acoustic signals necessary in telemetry...
Methods used to reconstruct historical daily streamflows in northern New Jersey and southeastern New York, water years 1922–2010
R. Edward Hickman, Amy R. McHugh
2018, Scientific Investigations Report 2018-5068
A study was conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, to reconstruct streamflows for use in the RiverWare model. Methods and data used to estimate daily reconstructed streamflows at 53 sites in selected subbasins in northern New Jersey and southeastern New...
Approaches for improving field soil identification
Zhaosheng Fan, Skye A. Wills, Jeffrey E. Herrick, Travis W. Nauman, Colby W. Brungard, Dylan E. Beaudette, Matthew R. Levi, Anthony T. O’Geen
2018, Soil Science Society of America Journal (82) 871-877
Use of soil survey information by non-soil-scientists is often limited by their inability to select the correct soil map unit component (COMP). Here, we developed two approaches that can be deployed to smartphones for non-soil-scientists to identify COMP from the location alone or location together with easily observed field data...
Soil property and class maps of the conterminous United States at 100-meter spatial resolution
Amanda Ramcharan, Tomislav Hengl, Travis W. Nauman, Colby W. Brungard, Sharon Waltman, Skye A. Wills, James Thompson
2018, Soil Science Society of America Journal (82) 186-201
With growing concern for the depletion of soil resources, conventional soil maps need to be updated and provided at finer and finer resolutions to be able to support spatially explicit human–landscape models. Three US soil point datasets—the National Cooperative Soil Survey Characterization Database, the National Soil Information System, and the...
Reductions in tree performance during hotter droughts are mitigated by shifts in nitrogen cycling
Charlotte Grossiord, Arthur Gessler, Sasha C. Reed, Isaac Borrego, Adam D. Collins, Lee T. Dickman, Max Ryan, Leonie Schonbeck, Sanna Sevanto, Alberto Vilagroso, Nate G. McDowell
2018, Plant, Cell & Environment (41) 2627-2637
Climate warming should result in hotter droughts of unprecedented severity in this century. Such droughts have been linked with massive tree mortality, and data suggest that warming interacts with drought to aggravate plant performance. Yet how forests will respond to hotter droughts remains unclear, as does the suite of mechanisms...
KG²B, a collaborative benchmarking exercise for estimating the permeability of the Grimsel granodiorite - Part 1: measurements, pressure dependence and pore-fluid effects
Christian David, J. Wasserman, F. Amann, David A. Lockner, E.H. Rutter, T Vanorio, A. Amann Hildenbrand, J. Billiotte, T. Reuschle, D. Lasseux, J. Fortin, R. Lenormand, A.P.S. Selvadurai, P.G. Meredith, J. Browning, T.M. Mitchell, D. Loggia, F. Nono, J. Sarout, L. Esteban, C. Davy, L. Louis, G. Boitnott, C. Madonna, E. Jahns, Fleury. M., G. Berthe, P. Delage, P. Braun, D. Gregoire, L. Perrier, P. Polito, Y. Jannot, A. Sommier, B. Krooss, R. Fink, Q. Hu, J.M. Klaver, A. Clark
2018, Geophysical Journal International (215) 799-824
Measuring the permeability of tight rocks remains a challenging task. In addition to the traditional sources of errors that affect more permeable formations (e.g. sample selection, non-representative specimens, disturbance introduced during sample acquisition and preparation), tight rocks can be particularly prone to solid–fluid interactions and thus more sensitive to the...
Genetic evidence supports sporadic and independent introductions of subtype H5 low pathogenic avian influenza A viruses from wild birds to domestic poultry in North America
Lei Li, Andrew S. Bowman, Thomas J. DeLiberto, Mary L. Killian, Scott Krauss, Jacqueline M. Nolting, Mia Kim Torchetti, Andrew M. Ramey, Andrew B. Reeves, David E. Stallknecht, Richard J. Webby, Xiu-Feng Wan
2018, Journal of Virology (92) 1-16
Wild bird–origin influenza A viruses (IAVs or avian influenza) have led to sporadic outbreaks among domestic poultry in the United States (US) and Canada, resulting in economic losses through the implementation of costly containment practices and destruction of birds. We used evolutionary analyses of virus sequence data to determine that...
Impacts of tidal road-stream crossings on aquatic organism passage
Sarah Becker, Scott Jackson, Adrian Jordaan, Allison H. Roy
2018, Cooperator Science Series 131-2018
ivers and streams are highly vulnerable to fragmentation from roads due to their prevalence in the landscape. Road-stream crossings are far more numerous than other anthropogenic barriers such as dams; these crossing structures (culverts, bridges, fords, and tide gates) have been demonstrated to impede the passage of aquatic organisms. However,...
Tidal flushing of mercury from the Bremerton Naval Complex through the PSNS015 stormwater drain system to Sinclair Inlet, Kitsap County, Washington, 2011 -12
Kathleen E. Conn, Anthony J. Paulson, Richard S. Dinicola, John F. DeWild
2018, Scientific Investigations Report 2018-5087
The sediments of Sinclair Inlet, in Puget Sound, Washington, have elevated levels of contaminants including mercury. The Bremerton Naval Complex is adjacent to Sinclair Inlet, and has known areas of historical soil mercury contamination. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the U.S. Navy, has been investigating the potential for...
A 42 year inference of cloud base height trends in the Luquillo Mountains of northeastern Puerto Rico
Paul W. Miller, Thomas L. Mote, C.A. Ramseyer, Ashley E. Van Beusekom, Martha A. Scholl, Grizelle Gonzalez
2018, Climate Research (76) 87-94
The Luquillo Mountains of eastern Puerto Rico are home to the only tropical rainforest managed by the United States Forest Service, with cloud-immersed forests historically occupying the highest elevations. However, within the past 50 yr, studies of the Luquillo cloud forest have suggested an increase in cloud base heights (CBH), although...
U.S. Landsat Analysis Ready Data
U.S. Geological Survey
2018, Fact Sheet 2018-3053
U.S. Landsat Analysis Ready Data (ARD) are a revolutionary new U.S. Geological Survey science product that allows the Landsat archive to be more accessible and easier to analyze and reduces the amount of time users spend on data processing for monitoring and assessing landscape change. U.S. Landsat ARD are Level-2 products derived...
Evaluating time-removal models for estimating availability of boreal birds during point count surveys: Sample size requirements and model complexity
Peter Solymos, Steven M. Matsuoka, Steven G. Cumming, Diana Stralberg, Patricia C. Fontaine, Fiona K. A. Schmiegelow, Samantha J. Song, Erin M. Bayne
2018, Condor (120) 765-786
We used conventional and finite mixture removal models with and without time-varying covariates to evaluate availability given presence for 152 bird species using data from point counts in boreal North America. We found that the choice of model had an impact on the estimability of unknown model parameters and affected...
Controls on submarine channel-modifying processes identified through morphometric scaling relationships
Lauren E. Shumaker, Zane R. Jobe, Samuel Johnstone, Luke A. Pettinga, Dingxin Cai, Jeremiah D. Moody
2018, Geosphere (14) 2171-2187
Submarine channels share morphological similarities with rivers, but observations from modern and ancient systems indicate they are formed under processes and controls unique to submarine settings. Morphologic characteristics of channels—e.g., width, depth, slope, and the relationships among them—can constrain interpretations of channel-forming processes. This work uses morphometric scaling relationships extracted...
Leveraging big data towards functionally-based, catchment scale restoration prioritization
John P. Lovette, Jonathan M. Duncan, Lindsey S. Smart, John P. Fay, Dean L. Urban, Nancy Daly, Jamie Blackwell, Anne B. Hoos, Ana M. Garcia, Lawrence E. Band
2018, Environmental Management (62) 1007-1024
The persistence of freshwater degradation has necessitated the growth of an expansive stream and wetland restoration industry, yet restoration prioritization at broad spatial extents is still limited and ad-hoc restoration prevails. The River Basin Restoration Prioritization tool has been developed to incorporate vetted, distributed data models into a catchment scale...
