A fault‐based model for crustal deformation in the western United States based on a combined inversion of GPS and geologic inputs
Yuehua Zeng, Zheng-Kang Shen
2017, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (107) 2597-2612
We develop a crustal deformation model to determine fault‐slip rates for the western United States (WUS) using the Zeng and Shen (2014) method that is based on a combined inversion of Global Positioning System (GPS) velocities and geological slip‐rate constraints. The model consists of six blocks with...
Optimal control of an invasive species using a reaction-diffusion model and linear programming
Mathieu Bonneau, Fred A. Johnson, Brian J. Smith, Christina M. Romagosa, Julien Martin, Frank J. Mazzotti
2017, Ecosphere (8) 1-17
Managing an invasive species is particularly challenging as little is generally known about the species’ biological characteristics in its new habitat. In practice, removal of individuals often starts before the species is studied to provide the information that will later improve control. Therefore, the locations and the amount of control...
Climate impacts on agricultural land use in the USA: the role of socio-economic scenarios
Jianhong E. Mu, Benjamin M. Sleeter, John T. Abatzoglou, John M. Antle
2017, Climatic Change (144) 329-345
We examine the impacts of climate on net returns from crop and livestock production and the resulting impact on land-use change across the contiguous USA. We first estimate an econometric model to project effects of weather fluctuations on crop and livestock net returns and then use a semi-reduced form land-use...
Environmental conditions and prey-switching by a seabird predator impact juvenile salmon survival
Brian K. Wells, Jarrod A. Santora, Mark J. Henderson, Peter Warzybok, Jaime Jahncke, Russell W. Bradley, David D. Huff, Isaac D. Schroeder, Peter Nelson, John C. Field, David G. Ainley
2017, Journal of Marine Systems (174) 54-63
Due to spatio-temporal variability of lower trophic-level productivity along the California Current Ecosystem (CCE), predators must be capable of switching prey or foraging areas in response to changes in environmental conditions and available forage. The Gulf of the Farallones in central California represents a biodiversity hotspot and contains the largest...
Performance of Irikura recipe rupture model generator in earthquake ground motion simulations with Graves and Pitarka hybrid approach
Arben Pitarka, Robert Graves, Kojiro Irikura, Hiroe Miyake, Arthur Rodgers
2017, Pure and Applied Geophysics (174) 3537-3555
We analyzed the performance of the Irikura and Miyake (Pure and Applied Geophysics 168(2011):85–104, 2011) (IM2011) asperity-based kinematic rupture model generator, as implemented in the hybrid broadband ground motion simulation methodology of Graves and Pitarka (Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 100(5A):2095–2123, 2010), for simulating ground motion from crustal...
Forecasting the (un)productivity of the 2014 M 6.0 South Napa aftershock sequence
Andrea L. Llenos, Andrew J. Michael
2017, Seismological Research Letters (88) 1241-1251
The 24 August 2014 Mw 6.0 South Napa mainshock produced fewer aftershocks than expected for a California earthquake of its magnitude. In the first 4.5 days, only 59 M≥1.8 aftershocks occurred, the largest of which was an M 3.9 that happened a little over two days after the mainshock. We investigate the aftershock productivity of...
Hypogene caves of the central Appalachian Shenandoah Valley in Virginia
Daniel H. Doctor, Wil Orndorff
2017, Book chapter, Hypogene karst regions and caves of the world
Several caves in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia show evidence for early hypogenic conduit development with later-enhanced solution under partly confined phreatic conditions guided by geologic structures. Many (but not all) of these caves have been subsequently invaded by surface waters as a result of erosion and exhumation. Those not...
Prey partitioning and use of insects by juvenile sockeye salmon and a potential competitor, threespine stickleback, in Afognak Lake, Alaska
Natura Richardson, Anne H. Beaudreau, Mark S. Wipfli, Heather Finkle
2017, Ecology of Freshwater Fish (26) 586-601
Freshwater growth of juvenile sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) depends upon the quality and quantity of prey and interactions with potential competitors in the foraging environment. To a large extent, knowledge about the ecology of lake-rearing juvenile sockeye salmon has emerged from studies of commercially important runs returning to deep nursery...
Ecological impacts of winter water level drawdowns on lake littoral zones: A review
Allison H. Roy
2017, Aquatic Sciences (79) 803-824
Freshwater littoral zones harbor diverse ecological communities and serve numerous ecosystem functions that are controlled, in part, by natural water level fluctuations. However, human alteration of lake hydrologic regimes beyond natural fluctuations threaten littoral zone ecological integrity. One type of hydrologic alteration in lakes is winter water level drawdowns, which...
Using dissolved carbon dioxide to alter the behavior of invasive round goby
Aaron R. Cupp, John Tix, Justin R. Smerud, Richard A. Erickson, Kim T. Fredricks, Jon Amberg, C. D. Suski, Robert Wakeman
2017, Management of Biological Invasions (8) 567-574
Fisheries managers need effective methods to limit the spread of invasive round goby Neogobius melanostomus in North America. Elevating carbon dioxide (CO2) in water at pinch points of rivers (e.g., inside locks) is one approach showing potential to deter the passage of invasive fishes, such as bigheaded carps Hypophthalmichthys spp., but the effectiveness...
Role of a naturally varying flow regime in Everglades restoration
Judson Harvey, Paul R. Wetzel, Thomas E. Lodge, Victor C. Engel, Michael S. Ross
2017, Restoration Ecology (25) S27-S38
The Everglades is a low-gradient floodplain predominantly on organic soil that undergoes seasonally pulsing sheetflow through a network of deepwater sloughs separated by slightly higher elevation ridges. The seasonally pulsing flow permitted the coexistence of ridge and slough vegetation, including the persistence of productive, well-connected sloughs that seasonally concentrated prey...
Flood-inundation maps for the Meramec River at Valley Park and at Fenton, Missouri, 2017
Benjamin J. Dietsch, Jacob N. Sappington
2017, Scientific Investigations Report 2017-5116
Two sets of digital flood-inundation map libraries that spanned a combined 16.7-mile reach of the Meramec River that extends upstream from Valley Park, Missouri, to downstream from Fenton, Mo., were created by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Louis Metropolitan Sewer District, Missouri...
Importance of scale, land cover, and weather on the abundance of bird species in a managed forest
Alexis R. Grinde, Gerald J. Hiemi, Brian R. Sturtevant, Hannah Panci, Wayne E. Thogmartin, Peter Wolter
2017, Forest Ecology and Management (405) 295-308
Climate change and habitat loss are projected to be the two greatest drivers of biodiversity loss over the coming century. While public lands have the potential to increase regional resilience of bird populations to these threats, long-term data are necessary to document species responses to changes in climate and habitat...
Genetic composition and connectivity of the Antillean manatee (Trichechus manatus manatus) in Panama
Edgardo Diaz-Ferguson, Margaret Hunter, Hector M. Guzman
2017, Aquatic Mammals (43) 378-386
Genetic diversity and haplotype composition of the West Indian manatee (Trichechus manatus) population from the San San Pond Sak wetland in Bocas del Toro, Panama was studied using a segment of mitochondrial DNA (D’loop). No genetic information has been published to date for Panamanian populations. Due to the secretive behavior...
Skagit River coho salmon life history model—Users’ guide
Andrea Woodward, Grant Kirby, Scott Morris
2017, Open-File Report 2017-1125
Natural resource management is conducted in the context of multiple anthropogenic stressors and is further challenged owing to changing climate. Experiments to determine the effects of climate change on complex ecological systems are nearly impossible. However, using a simulation model to synthesize current understanding of key ecological processes through...
Tracking riverborne sediment and contaminants in Commencement Bay, Washington, using geochemical signatures
Renee K. Takesue, Kathleen E. Conn, Richard S. Dinicola
2017, Open-File Report 2017-1124
Large rivers carry terrestrial sediment, contaminants, and other materials to the coastal zone where they can affect marine biogeochemical cycles and ecosystems. This U.S. Geological Survey study combined river and marine sediment geochemistry and organic contaminant analyses to identify riverborne sediment and associated contaminants at shoreline sites in Commencement Bay,...
Minimizing effects of methodological decisions on interpretation and prediction in species distribution studies: An example with background selection
Catherine S. Jarnevich, Marian Talbert, Jeffrey T. Morisette, Cameron L. Aldridge, Cynthia Brown, Sunil Kumar, Daniel J. Manier, Colin Talbert, Tracy R. Holcombe
2017, Ecological Modelling (363) 48-56
Evaluating the conditions where a species can persist is an important question in ecology both to understand tolerances of organisms and to predict distributions across landscapes. Presence data combined with background or pseudo-absence locations are commonly used with species distribution modeling to develop these relationships. However, there is not a...
An evaluation of the efficacy of using environmental DNA (eDNA) to detect giant gartersnakes (Thamnophis gigas)
Brian J. Halstead, Dustin A. Wood, Lizabeth Bowen, Shannon C. Waters-Dynes, Amy G. Vandergast, Julia S. Ersan, Shannon M. Skalos, Michael L. Casazza
2017, Open-File Report 2017-1123
Detecting populations of rare or cryptic species is essential for their conservation. For species like giant gartersnakes (Thamnophis gigas), conventional survey methods can be expensive and inefficient. These sampling difficulties might be overcome by modern techniques that detect deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) shed by organisms into the environment (eDNA). We evaluated...
Hydrogeology and simulated groundwater flow and availability in the North Fork Red River aquifer, southwest Oklahoma, 1980–2013
S. Jerrod Smith, John H. Ellis, Derrick L. Wagner, Steven M. Peterson
2017, Scientific Investigations Report 2017-5098
On September 8, 1981, the Oklahoma Water Resources Board established regulatory limits on the maximum annual yield of groundwater (343,042 acre-feet per year) and equal-proportionate-share (EPS) pumping rate (1.0 acre-foot per acre per year) for the North Fork Red River aquifer. The maximum annual yield and EPS were based on...
Refining the cheatgrass–fire cycle in the Great Basin: Precipitation timing and fine fuel composition predict wildfire trends
David S. Pilliod, Justin L. Welty, Robert Arkle
2017, Ecology and Evolution (7) 8126-8151
Larger, more frequent wildfires in arid and semi-arid ecosystems have been associated with invasion by non-native annual grasses, yet a complete understanding of fine fuel development and subsequent wildfire trends is lacking. We investigated the complex relationships among weather, fine fuels, and fire in the Great Basin, USA. We first...
A review of surface energy balance models for estimating actual evapotranspiration with remote sensing at high spatiotemporal resolution over large extents
Ryan R. McShane, Katelyn P. Driscoll, Roy Sando
2017, Scientific Investigations Report 2017-5087
Many approaches have been developed for measuring or estimating actual evapotranspiration (ETa), and research over many years has led to the development of remote sensing methods that are reliably reproducible and effective in estimating ETa. Several remote sensing methods can be used to estimate ETa at the high spatial resolution...
Analysis of seafloor change around Dauphin Island, Alabama, 1987–2015
James G. Flocks, Nancy T. DeWitt, Chelsea A. Stalk
2017, Open-File Report 2017-1112
Dauphin Island is a 26-km-long barrier island located southwest of Mobile Bay, Alabama, in the north-central Gulf of Mexico. The island contains sandy beaches, dunes, maritime forests, freshwater ponds and intertidal wetlands, providing habitat for many endangered and threatened species. Dauphin Island also provides protection for and maintains estuarine conditions...
Bathymetric and velocimetric surveys at highway bridges crossing the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers near St. Louis, Missouri, May 23–27, 2016
Richard J. Huizinga
2017, Scientific Investigations Report 2017-5076
Bathymetric and velocimetric data were collected by the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Missouri Department of Transportation, near 13 bridges at 8 highway crossings of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers in the greater St. Louis, Missouri, area from May 23 to 27, 2016. A multibeam echosounder mapping system...
Bathymetric surveys of the Neosho River, Spring River, and Elk River, northeastern Oklahoma and southwestern Missouri, 2016–17
Shelby L. Hunter, Chad E. Ashworth, S. Jerrod Smith
2017, Scientific Investigations Report 2017-5101
In February 2017, the Grand River Dam Authority filed to relicense the Pensacola Hydroelectric Project with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The predominant feature of the Pensacola Hydroelectric Project is Pensacola Dam, which impounds Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees (locally called Grand Lake) in northeastern Oklahoma. Identification of information gaps...
Using models to identify the best data: An example from northern Wisconsin
Andrew T. Leaf
2017, Groundwater (55) 641-645
Linear-based data-worth analysis is an efficient and straightforward method for identifying the most important data for model forecasts....
