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The integrated photogrammetric mapping system flown on the last three Apollo lunar missions (15, 16, and 17) in 1971 and 1972 incorporated a Metric (mapping) Camera, a high-resolution Panoramic Camera, and a star camera and laser altimeter to provide support data. The U.S. Geological Survey’s Astrogeology Science Center, the Intelligent...

A deep geologic repository (DGR) for low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste has been proposed at the Bruce nuclear site on the eastern flank of the Michigan Basin in southeastern Ontario, Canada. The repository would be placed at a depth of ~680 m, within a ~450 m-thick sequence of geologic media...

The mutable nature of low-order streams makes regular updating of surface water maps necessary for accurate representation. Low-order streams make up roughly half the streams in the conterminous United States by length, and small inaccuracies in stream head location can result in significant error in stream reach, order, and density....

Since the 1970s, the Central Valley of California has seen a large investment in preservation and restoration of wetlands and riparian areas. At the same time, grasslands have been lost to vineyards, orchards, and residential development at an accelerating rate. We analyzed data from 17 Christmas Bird Count circles that...

The beating phenomenon observed in recorded earthquake responses of a tall building in Japan and of two others buildings in the U.S. are examined in this paper. The objective of the paper is to discuss the significance of beating and to estimate what percentage of total shaking energy impacting a...

Permafrost is found throughout northern latitudes, and hasfar reaching implications for natural and man-made environments including hydrologic processes, landscape dynamics, ecosystems, and infrastructure. While maps of near-surface permafrost characteristics are available, relatively little is known about permafrost distributions at depth over large areas. Here, we summarize several frequency domain airborne...

Strong indicators of species’ sensitivity, adaptive capacity, and overall vulnerability to climate change are provided by changes in phenology, the timing of recurring life events (Parmesan and Yohe, 2003). We possess poor information on climate induced shifts in phenology of marine organisms, especially top predators. The Gulf of Maine (GOM)...

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We utilize a two-step process to validate 0-4 Hz ground motion simulations using the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. In the first step we run multiple realizations using the Graves and Pitarka hybrid method as implemented on the SCEC Broadband Simulation Platform and compare these with near-fault (R < 40...

Geoscience Australia has recently released its 2018 National Seismic Hazard Assessment (NSHA18). Results from the NSHA18 indicate significantly lower seismic hazard across almost all Australian localities at the 1/500 annual exceedance probability level relative to the factors adopted for the current Australian Standard AS1170.4–2007 (R2018). These new hazard estimates, coupled...

Forest fragmentation in agroecosystems is linked to declines of avian species worldwide. Agriculture has greatly reduced native forest cover in east-central Argentina. Assessing the influence of fragmentation on forest bird populations is vital to inform reliable conservation and management strategies for the Espinal region of Argentina. We determined the relationships...

Ecosystems in the southwestern U.S. are hotspots for climate change, and are predicted to experience continued warming and drying. In these water-limited systems, the balance between herbaceous and woody plant abundance impacts biodiversity and ecosystem processes, highlighting the need to understand how climate change will influence functional composition. However,...

High‐resolution lidar reveals newly recognized evidence of strong shaking in the New Madrid seismic zone in the central United States. We mapped concentrations of sackungen (ridgetop spreading features) on bluffs along the eastern Mississippi River valley in northwestern Tennessee that likely form or are reactivated during large earthquakes. These sackungen...

Remote sensing has become an increasingly viable tool for characterizing fluvial systems. In this study, we used field measurements from a 1.6 km reach of the upper Sacramento River, CA, to evaluate the potential of mapping water depths from a range of platforms, sensors, and depth retrieval methods. Field measurements...

A time series of three closely-spaced data sets are used to track the early expansion of the invasive Japanese benthic foraminifera Trochammina hadai in the southern portion of San Francisco Bay known as South Bay. The species initially appeared in 1983, comprising only 1.5% of the assemblage in one of...

A SPARROW (SPAtially Related Regressions On Watershed attributes) model that was previously developed for western Oregon and northwestern California was updated using advancements in the SPARROW software and refinements to the input data. As was the case for the original model calibration, the updated models used the NHD Plus...

The palila (Loxioides bailleui) population was surveyed annually from 1998–2018 on Mauna Kea Volcanoto determine abundance, population trend, and spatial distribution. In the latest surveys, the 2017population was estimated at 1,177−1,813 birds (point estimate: 1,461) and the 2018 population wasestimated at 778−1,420 (point estimate: 1,051). Only two palila were detected...

On the Western Slope of Colorado, variable climate and precipitation conditions are typical. Periods of drought—which may be defined by lack of water, high temperatures, low soil moisture, or other indicators—cause a range of impacts across sectors, including water, land, and fire management.The Western Slope’s Upper Colorado River Basin (UCRB)...

Wastewater disposal is generally accepted to be the primary cause of the increased seismicity rate in Oklahoma within the past decade, but no statewide analysis has investigated the contribution of hydraulic fracturing (HF) to the observed seismicity or the seismic hazard. Utilizing an enhanced seismicity catalog generated with multi‐station template...

Improved predictions of earthquake ground motions are critical to advancing seismic hazard analyses and earthquake response. The high seismicity rate from 2009 to 2016 in Oklahoma and Kansas provides an extensive data set for examining the ground motions from these events. We evaluate the ability of three suites of ground‐motion...

Understanding the relationship between environmental factors and vital rates is an important step in predicting a species’ response to environmental change. Species associated with sea ice are of particular concern because sea ice is projected to decrease rapidly in polar environments with continued levels of greenhouse gas emissions. The relationship...

Digital flood-inundation maps for a 2.9-square-mile area of Ithaca, New York, were created in 2015–18 by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the City of Ithaca, New York, and the New York State Department of State. The flood-inundation maps depict estimates of the maximum areal extent and depth of...

Knowing how many manatees live in Florida is critical for conservation and management of this threatened species. Martin et al. (2015) flew aerial surveys in 2011–2012 and estimated abundance in those years using advanced techniques that incorporated multiple data sources. We flew additional aerial surveys in 2015–2016 to count manatees...

Fishes introduced outside of their native distributions have the potential to negatively affect their recipient ecosystems. Since their illegal introduction into the Green River, Wyoming, in the 1990s, Burbot Lota lota have been sampled in lotic and lentic environments throughout the Green River system where they pose a threat to...

It is asserted that reduction or elimination of hatchery stocking will increase natural‐origin salmon Oncorhynchus spp. and steelhead O. mykiss production. We conducted an analysis of steelhead population census data (1958–2017) to determine whether elimination of summer steelhead stocking in the upper Clackamas River in 1998 increased the productivity of...