Mean composite fire severity metrics computed with Google Earth Engine offer improved accuracy and expanded mapping potential
Sean Parks, Lisa M. Holsinger, Morgan Voss, Rachel A. Loehman, Nathaniel P. Robinson
2018, Remote Sensing (10)
Landsat-based fire severity datasets are an invaluable resource for monitoring and research purposes. These gridded fire severity datasets are generally produced with pre-and post-fire imagery to estimate the degree of fire-induced ecological change. Here, we introduce methods to produce three Landsat-based fire severity metrics using the Google Earth Engine (GEE)...
Water-table and potentiometric-surface altitudes in the upper glacial, Magothy, and Lloyd aquifers of Long Island, New York, April–May 2016
Michael D. Como, Jason S. Finkelstein, Simonette L. Rivera, Jack Monti Jr., Ronald Busciolano
2018, Scientific Investigations Map 3398
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with State and local agencies, systematically collects groundwater data at varying measurement frequencies to monitor the hydrologic conditions on Long Island, New York. Each year during April and May, the U.S. Geological Survey completes a synoptic survey of water levels to define the spatial...
Understanding the influence of nutrients on stream ecosystems in agricultural landscapes
Mark D. Munn, Jeffrey W. Frey, Anthony J. Tesoriero, Robert W. Black, John H. Duff, Kathy Lee, Terry R. Maret, Christopher A. Mebane, Ian R. Waite, Ronald B. Zelt
2018, Circular 1437
Sustaining the quality of the Nation’s water resources and the health of our diverse ecosystems depends on the availability of sound water-resources data and information to develop effective, science-based policies. Effective management of water resources also brings more certainty and efficiency to important economic sectors. Taken together, these actions lead...
Agriculture — A river runs through it — The connections between agriculture and water quality
Paul D. Capel, Kathleen A. McCarthy, Richard H. Coupe, Katia M. Grey, Sheila E. Amenumey, Nancy T. Baker, Richard L. Johnson
2018, Circular 1433
Sustaining the quality of the Nation’s water resources and the health of our diverse ecosystems depends on the availability of sound water-resources data and information to develop effective, science-based policies. Effective management of water resources also brings more certainty and efficiency to important economic sectors. Taken together, these actions lead...
Minimum energy requirements for desalination of brackish groundwater in the United States with comparison to international datasets
Yvana D. Ahdab, Gregory P. Thiel, J.K. Bohlke, Jennifer S. Stanton, John H. Lienhard
2018, Water Research (141) 387-404
This paper uses chemical and physical data from a large 2017 U.S. Geological Surveygroundwater dataset with wells in the U.S. and three smaller international groundwater datasets with wells primarily in Australia and Spain to carry out a comprehensive investigation of brackish groundwater composition in...
Faunal and stable isotopic analyses of benthic foraminifera from the Southeast Seep on Kimki Ridge offshore southern California, USA
Mary McGann, James E. Conrad
2018, Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography (150) 92-117
We investigated the benthic foraminiferal faunal and stable carbon and oxygen isotopic composition of a 15-cm push core (NA075-092b) obtained on a Telepresence-Enabled cruise to the Southeast Seep on Kimki Ridge offshore southern California. The seep core was taken at a depth of 973 m in the vicinity of a...
Columbia River Basin dreissenid mussel monitoring forum workshop
Lisa DeBruyckere, Timothy D. Counihan, Stephen Phillips
2018, Conference Paper
To address actions identified in the Department of Interior’s “Safeguarding the West” strategy, the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission (PSMFC) and US Geological Survey (USGS) convened 43 invasive species coordinators and scientific experts June 5-6, 2018 in Portland, Oregon to assess the status of dreissenid monitoring efforts in the Columbia...
Spatial variability and macro‐scale drivers of growth for native and introduced Flathead Catfish populations
Danielle L. Massie, Geoffrey Smith, Timothy F. Bonvechio, Aaron J. Bunch, David O. Lucchesi, Tyler Wagner
2018, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (147) 554-565
Quantifying spatial variability in fish growth and identifying large‐scale drivers of growth are fundamental to many conservation and management decisions. Although fish growth studies often focus on a single population, it is becoming increasingly clear that large‐scale studies are likely needed for addressing transboundary management needs. This is particularly true...
Genetic population structure of Shoal Bass within their native range
Andrew T. Taylor, Michael D. Tringali, Steven M. Sammons, Travis R. Ingram, Patrick M. O’Rouke, Douglas L. Peterson, James M. Long
2018, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (38) 549-564
Endemic to the Apalachicola River basin of the southeastern USA, the Shoal Bass Micropterus cataractae is a fluvial‐specialist sport fish that is imperiled because of anthropogenic habitat alteration. To counter population declines, restorative stocking efforts are becoming an increasingly relevant management strategy. However, population genetic structure within the species is currently unknown,...
Groundwater flux estimation in streams: A thermal equilibrium approach
Yan Zhou, Garey A. Fox, Ron B. Miller, Robert Mollenhauer, Shannon K. Brewer
2018, Journal of Hydrology (561) 822-832
Stream and groundwater interactions play an essential role in regulating flow, temperature, and water quality for stream ecosystems. Temperature gradients have been used to quantify vertical water movement in the streambed since the 1960s, but advancements in thermal methods are still possible. Seepage runs are a method commonly used to...
Small values in big data: The continuing need for appropriate metadata
Craig A. Stow, Katherine E. Webster, Tyler Wagner, Noah R. Lottig, Patricia A. Soranno, YoonKyung Cha
2018, Ecological Informatics (45) 26-30
Compiling data from disparate sources to address pressing ecological issues is increasingly common. Many ecological datasets contain left-censored data – observations below an analytical detection limit. Studies from single and typically small datasets show that common approaches for handling censored data — e.g., deletion or substituting fixed values — result...
Monitoring riparian-vegetation composition and cover along the Colorado River downstream of Glen Canyon Dam, Arizona
Emily C. Palmquist, Barbara E. Ralston, Daniel A. Sarr, Taylor C. Johnson
2018, Techniques and Methods 2-A14
Vegetation in the riparian zone (the area immediately adjacent to streams, such as stream banks) along the Colorado River downstream of Glen Canyon Dam, Arizona, supports many ecosystem and societal functions. In both Glen Canyon and Grand Canyon, this ecosystem has changed over time in response to flow alterations, invasive...
Freshwater mussel survey for the Columbia Dam removal, Paulins Kill, New Jersey
Heather S. Galbraith, Carrie J. Blakeslee, Jeffrey C. Cole, Erik L. Silldorff
2018, Open-File Report 2018-1074
Semi-quantitative mussel surveys, conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey and the Delaware Riverkeeper Network in cooperation with The Nature Conservancy, were completed in the vicinity of the Columbia Dam, on the Paulins Kill, New Jersey, in August 2017 in order to document the mussel species composition and relative abundance prior...
Prairie Pothole Region wetlands and subsurface drainage systems: Key factors for determining drainage setback distances
Brian Tangen, Mark T. Wiltermuth
2018, Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management (9) 274-284
Use of agricultural subsurface drainage systems in the Prairie Pothole Region of North America continues to increase, prompting concerns over potential negative effects to the Region's vital wetlands. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service protects a large number of wetlands through conservation easements that often utilize standard lateral setback distances...
An objective road risk assessment method for multiple species: ranking 166 reptiles and amphibians in California
Cheryl S. Brehme, Stacie A. Hathaway, Robert N. Fisher
2018, Landscape Ecology (33) 911-935
ContextTransportation and wildlife agencies may consider the need for barrier structures and safe wildlife road-crossings to maintain the long-term viability of wildlife populations. In order to prioritize these efforts, it is important to identify species that are most at risk of extirpation from road-related impacts.<div...
The map as knowledge base
Dalia E. Varanka, E. Lynn Usery
2018, International Journal of Cartography (4) 201-223
This paper examines the concept and implementation of a map as a knowledge base. A map as a knowledge base means that the visual map is not only the descriptive compilation of data and design principles, but also involves a compilation of semantic propositions and logical predicates that create a...
Advancing marine biological observations and data requirements of the complementary Essential Ocean Variables (EOVs) and Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs) Frameworks
Frank E. Muller-Karger, Patricia Miloslavich, Nicholas Bax, Samantha E. Simmons, Mark John Costello, Isabel Sousa Pinto, Gabrielle Canonico, Woody Turner, Michael J. Gill, Enrique Montes, Benjamin D. Best, Jay Pearlman, Patrick N. Halpin, Daniel Dunn, Abigail L. Benson, Corinne S. Martin, Lauren Weatherdon, Ward Appeltans, Pieter Provoost, Eduardo Klein, Christopher R. Kelble, Robert J. Miller, Francisco P. Chavez, Katrin Iken, Sanae Chiba, David Obura, Laetitia M. Navarro, Henrique M. Pereira, Valerie Allain, Sonia Batten, Lisandro Benedetti-Checchi, J. Emmett Duffy, Raphael M. Kudela, Lisa-Maria Rebelo, Yunne Shin, Gary Geller
2018, Frontiers in Marine Science (5) 1-15
Measurements of the status and trends of key indicators for the ocean and marine life are required to inform policy and management in the context of growing human uses of marine resources, coastal development, and climate change. Two synergistic efforts identify specific priority variables for monitoring: Essential Ocean Variables (EOVs)...
Automated extraction of surface water extent from Sentinel-1 data
Wenli Huang, Ben DeVries, Chengquan Huang, Megan W. Lang, John Jones, Irena F. Creed, Mark L. Carroll
2018, Remote Sensing (10) 1-18
Accurately quantifying surface water extent in wetlands is critical to understanding their role in ecosystem processes. However, current regional- to global-scale surface water products lack the spatial or temporal resolution necessary to characterize heterogeneous or variable wetlands. Here, we proposed a fully automatic classification tree approach to classify surface water...
Spatial and temporal patterns in population trends and burrow usage of burrowing owls in North America
Courtney J. Conway
2018, Journal of Raptor Research (52) 129-142
Many researchers have suggested that abundance of Burrowing Owls (Athene cunicularia) has declined in many portions of their breeding range, but a thorough review of their population trends over time is lacking. Published population trends from the North American Breeding Bird Survey program suggested that Burrowing Owl populations in the...
Mapping cropland waterway buffers for switchgrass development in the eastern Great Plains, USA
Yingxin Gu, Bruce K. Wylie
2018, Global Change Biology Bioenergy (10) 415-424
Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.), a highly productive perennial grass, has been recommended as one potential source for cellulosic biofuel feedstocks. Previous studies indicate that planting perennial grasses (e.g., switchgrass) in high‐topographic‐relief cropland waterway buffers can improve local environmental conditions and sustainability. The main advantages of this land management practice include (i)...
burnr: Fire history analysis and graphics in R
Steven B. Malevich, Christopher H. Guiterman, Ellis Q. Margolis
2018, Dendrochronologia (49) 9-15
We developed a new software package, burnr, for fire history analysis and plotting in the Rstatistical programming environment. It was developed for tree-ring fire-scar analysis, but is broadly applicable to other event analyses (e.g., avalanches, frost rings, or culturally modified trees). Our new package can read, write, and manipulate standard tree-ring fire history FHX...
Using the NHD, WBD, and NHDPlus to solve problems
Kernell G. Ries III, Peter A. Steeves
2018, Book chapter, GIS for surface water: Using the National Hydrography Dataset
No abstract available....
Improving geographically extensive acoustic survey designs for modeling species occurrence with imperfect detection and misidentification
Katharine M. Banner, Kathryn M. Irvine, Thomas J. Rodhouse, Wilson J. Wright, Rogelio M. Rodriguez, Andrea R. Litt
2018, Ecology and Evolution (8) 6144-6156
Acoustic recording units (ARUs) enable geographically extensive surveys of sensitive and elusive species. However, a hidden cost of using ARU data for modeling species occupancy is that prohibitive amounts of human verification may be required to correct species identifications made from automated software. Bat acoustic studies exemplify this challenge because...
A multi-species synthesis of satellite telemetry data in the Pacific Arctic (1987–2015): Overlap of marine mammal distributions and core use areas
John J. Citta, Lloyd F. Lowry, Lori T. Quakenbush, Brendan P. Kelly, Anthony S. Fischbach, Josh M. London, Chadwick V. Jay, Kathryn J. Frost, Gregory O’Corry Crowe, Justin A. Crawford, Peter L. Boveng, Michael Cameron, Andrew L. Von Duyke, Mark Nelson, Lois A. Harwood, Pierre Richard, Robert Suydam, Mads Peter Heide-Jorgensen, Roderick C. Hobbs, Dennis I. Litovka, Marianne Marcoux, Alex Whiting, Amy S. Kennedy, John C. George, Jack Orr, Tom Gray
2018, Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography (152) 132-153
We collated available satellite telemetry data for six species of ice-associated marine mammals in the Pacific Arctic: ringed seals (Pusa hispida; n = 118), bearded seals(Erignathus barbatus, n = 51), spotted seals (Phoca largha, n = 72), Pacific walruses (Odobenus rosmarus divergens, n = 389); bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus, n = 46), and five Arctic and sub-arctic stocks of beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas, n = 103). We also included...
Processes and facies relationships in a Lower(?) Devonian rocky shoreline depositional environment, East Lime Creek Conglomerate, south‐western Colorado, USA
James E. Evans, Christopher S. Holm-Denoma
2018, The Depositional Record (4) 133-156
Rocky shorelines are relatively common features along modern coastlines, but few have been recognized in the geological record. The hard substrates of rocky shorelines telescope the width of offshore marine environments, thus the diagnostic deposits observed in such settings today have a low preservation potential due to small accommodation space...
