Spatial modeling of common raven density and occurrence helps guide landscape management within Great Basin sagebrush ecosystems
Sarah C. Webster, Shawn T. O’Neil, Brianne E. Brussee, Peter S. Coates, Pat J. Jackson, John C. Tull, David J. Delehanty
2021, Human–Wildlife Interactions (15)
Common ravens (Corvus corax; ravens) are a behaviorally flexible nest predator of several avian species, including species of conservation concern. Movement patterns based on life history phases, particularly territoriality of breeding birds and transiency of nonbreeding birds, are thought to influence the frequency and efficacy of nest predation. As such,...
Dispersion and stratification dynamics in the upper Sacramento River deep water ship channel
Leah Lenoch, Paul Stumpner, Jon R. Burau, Luke C. Loken, Steven Sadro
2021, San Francisco Estuary and Watershed Science (19)
Hydrodynamics control the movement of water and material within and among habitats, where time-scales of mixing can exert bottom-up regulatory effects on aquatic ecosystems through their influence on primary production. The San Francisco Estuary (estuary) is a low-productivity ecosystem, which is in part responsible for constraining higher trophic levels, including...
Retreat and regrowth of the Greenland Ice Sheet during the Last Interglacial as simulated by the CESM2-CISM2 coupled climate–ice sheet model
Aleah Sommers, Bette L. Otto-Bliesner, William Lipscomb, Marcus Lofverstrom, Sarah Shafer, Patrick J. Bartlein, Esther C. Brady, Erik Kluzek, Gunter Leguy, Katherine Thayer-Calder, Robert Tomas
2021, Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology (36)
During the Last Interglacial, approximately 129 to 116 ka (thousand years ago), the Arctic summer climate was warmer than the present, and the Greenland Ice Sheet retreated to a smaller extent than its current state. Previous model-derived and geological reconstruction estimates of the sea-level contribution of the Greenland Ice Sheet...
Clustering supported classification of ChemCam data from Gale crater, Mars
K. Rammelkamp, Olivier Gasnault, Olivier Forni, Candice C. Bedford, Erwin Dehouck, Agnes Cousin, Jeremie Lasue, Gael David, Travis S.J. Gabriel, Sylvestre Maurice, Roger C. Wiens
2021, Earth and Space Science (8)
The Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument on board the MSL rover Curiosity has collected a very large and unique dataset of in-situ spectra and images of Mars since landing in August 2012. More than 800,000 single shot LIBS (laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy) spectra measured on more than 2,500 individual targets were...
Bar-tailed Godwits Limosa lapponica in Alaska: Revisiting population estimates from the staging grounds
Daniel R. Ruthrauff, Zak Pohlen, Heather M. Wilson, James Johnson
2021, Wader Study (128) 255-264
Bar-tailed Godwits Limosa lapponica baueri breed in Alaska and spend the nonbreeding season primarily in eastern Australia and New Zealand. Long-term declines spurred recent surveys at nonbreeding sites that yielded a revised population estimate of ~126,000 godwits. We conducted aerial surveys for Bar-tailed Godwits in 2018 and 2019 at pre-migratory...
Glacier and permafrost hazards
G.J. Wolken, A.K. Liljedahl, M. Brubaker, Jeffrey A. Coe, G. Fiske, H.H. Christiansen, M. Jacquemart, B.M. Jones, A. Kaab, F. Løvholt, S. Natali, A.C.A. Rudy, D. Streletskiy
2021, Report, 2021 Arctic Report Card
No abstract available....
Changes in liquefaction severity in the San Francisco Bay Area with sea-level rise
Alex R. Grant, Anne Wein, Kevin M. Befus, Juliette Finzi-Hart, Mike Frame, Rachel Volentine, Patrick L. Barnard, Keith L. Knudsen
2021, Conference Paper, Geo-Extreme 2021: Climatic Extremes and Earthquake Modeling
This paper studies the impacts of sea-level rise on liquefaction triggering and severity around the San Francisco Bay Area, California, for the M 7.0 “HayWired” earthquake scenario along the Hayward fault. This work emerged from stakeholder engagement for the US Geological...
Alaska natural gas hydrate production testing: Test site selection, characterization and testing operations
Timothy Collett
2021, Report
This Interagency Agreement supports the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and its research partners in understanding, predicting, and testing the recoverability and potential production characteristics of onshore natural gas hydrate in the Greater Prudhoe Bay area on the Alaska North Slope (ANS: Prudhoe Bay, Kuparuk River, and Milne...
Climate change risks and adaptation options for Madagascar
Sarah R. Weiskopf, Janet Alice Cushing, Toni Lyn Morelli, Bonnie Myers
2021, Ecology and Society (26)
Climate change poses an increasing threat to achieving development goals and is often considered in development plans and project designs. However, there have been challenges in the effective implementation of those plans, particularly in the sustained engagement of the communities to undertake adaptive actions, but also due to insufficient scientific...
The Southeastern U.S. as a complex of use sites for nonbreeding rufa Red Knots: Fifteen years of band-encounter data
M.E. Tuma, Abby Powell
2021, Wader Study 265-273
Shorebirds have been banded for decades and monitoring programs have helped to accumulate large band-encounter datasets from across the globe; however, many of these datasets are left largely unused, particularly those collected by citizen scientists. These datasets can provide valuable insight into the...
Factors limiting reproductive success of American Oystercatchers (Haematopus palliatus) in Florida's southern Big Bend region
N. Vitale, J. Brush, Abby Powell
2021, Waterbirds (44) 449-462
Florida's Big Bend region hosts the second largest concentration of breeding American Oystercatchers in the state, but reproductive success is low. Nest site characteristics and predation were examined to determine their influence on survival of nests and broods at two areas in the southern...
Maps of the Arctic Alaska boundary area as defined by the U.S. Arctic Research and Policy Act—Including geospatial characteristics of select marine and terrestrial features
Dee M. Williams, Christopher L. Richmond
2021, Scientific Investigations Map 3484
This pamphlet presents a series of general reference maps showing relevant geospatial features of the U.S. Arctic boundary as defined by the U.S. Congress since 1984. The first generation of the U.S. Arctic Research and Policy Act (ARPA) boundary maps was originally formatted and published in 2009 by a private...
Simulation of groundwater budgets and travel times for watersheds on the north shore of Long Island Sound, with implications for nitrogen-transport studies
Janet R. Barclay, John R. Mullaney
2021, Scientific Investigations Report 2021-5116
Aquatic systems in and around the Long Island Sound (LIS) provide a variety of ecological and economic benefits, but in some areas of the LIS, aquatic ecosystems have become degraded by excess nitrogen. A substantial fraction of the nitrogen inputs to the LIS are transported through the groundwater-flow system. Because...
California deepwater investigations and groundtruthing (Cal DIG) I: Fault and shallow geohazard analysis offshore Morro Bay
Maureen A. L. Walton, Charlie K Paull, Guy R. Cochrane, Jason A. Addison, Roberto Gwiazda, Daniel J. Kennedy, Eve M. Lundsten, Antoinette Gabrielle Papesh
2021, Report
The California Deepwater Investigations and Groundtruthing (Cal DIG) I project focuses on the potential seafloor hazards and impacts of alternative energy infrastructure in the outer continental shelf region offshore of south-central California. This is one of three reports covering a single study area located between Monterey and Point Conception, California...
Quarterly wildlife mortality report October 2021
Bryan J. Richards, Daniel A. Grear, Shelby Jo Weidenkopf
2021, Newsletter
The USGS National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC) Quarterly Mortality Report provides brief summaries of epizootic mortality and morbidity events by quarter. The write-ups, highlighting epizootic events and other wildlife disease topics of interest, are published in the Wildlife Disease Association quarterly newsletter. A link is provided in this WDA newsletter...
Characterization of halogenated organic compounds in pelagic sharks and sea turtles using a nontargeted approach
Aikebaier Renaguli, Sujan Fernando, Thomas M. Holsen, Philip K. Hopke, Douglas H. Adams, George H. Balazs, T. Todd Jones, Thierry M. Work, Bernard S. Crimmins, Jennifer M. Lynch
2021, Environmental Science & Technology (55) 16390-16401
Halogenated organic compounds (HOCs) in marine species collected from the Atlantic Ocean [3 shortfin mako (Isurus oxyrinchus) and 1 porbeagle (Lamna nasus)], and 12 sea turtles collected from the Pacific Ocean [3 loggerhead (Caretta caretta), 3 green (Chelonia mydas), 3 olive ridley...
The importance of forests in bumble bee biology and conservation
John Michael Mola, Jeremy Hemberger, Jade Kochanski, Leif L. Richardson, Ian S. Pearse
2021, BioScience (71) 1234-1248
Declines of many bumble bee species have raised concerns because of their importance as pollinators and potential harbingers of declines among other insect taxa. At present, bumble bee conservation is predominantly focused on midsummer flower restoration in open habitats. However, a growing body of evidence suggests that forests may...
Resource use among top-level piscivores in a temperate reservoir: Implications for a threatened coldwater specialist
Adam G. Hansen, Jennifer R. Gardner, Kristin A. Connelly, Matt Polacek, David Beauchamp
2021, Ecology of Freshwater Fish (31) 469-491
Evaluations of resource use among native piscivores in natural lakes have consistently documented significant partitioning that supports coexistence. Partitioning may be less prominent in reservoirs where water-level fluctuations can compress habitat and trophic diversity, but studies are lacking. Stable isotopes and bioenergetic models were used to...
Capacity assessment for Earth Monitoring, Analysis, and Prediction (EarthMAP) and future integrated monitoring and predictive science at the U.S. Geological Survey
Jennifer L. Keisman, Sky Bristol, David S. Brown, Allison K. Flickinger, Gregory L. Gunther, Peter S. Murdoch, MaryLynn Musgrove, John C. Nelson, Gregory D. Steyer, Kathryn A. Thomas, Ian R. Waite
2021, Open-File Report 2021-1102
Executive SummaryManagers of our Nation’s resources face unprecedented challenges driven by the convergence of increasing, competing societal demands and a changing climate that affects the stability, vulnerability, and predictability of those resources. To help meet these challenges, the scientific community must take advantage of all available technologies, data, and integrative...
Oil and gas wastewater components alter streambed microbial community structure and function
Denise M. Akob, Adam C. Mumford, Andrea Fraser, Cassandra Rashan Harris, William H. Orem, Matthew S. Varonka, Isabelle M. Cozzarelli
2021, Frontiers in Microbiology (12)
The widespread application of directional drilling and hydraulic fracturing technologies expanded oil and gas (OG) development to previously inaccessible resources. A single OG well can generate millions of liters of wastewater, which is a mixture of brine produced from the fractured formations and injected hydraulic fracturing fluids (HFFs)....
Airborne hybrid sensor maps the country: Multi-agency effort for testing a potential new hybrid 3DEP-NAIP sensor
Jason M. Stoker, Aparajithan Sampath, Minsu Kim, Jeffrey Irwin, Eric Rounds, Josh Heyer, Julie Davenport, Gabe Bellante, Tony Kimmet, Collin McCormick, John Mootz
2021, LiDAR Magazine (11) 6-16
No abstract available....
Permafrost characterization and feature identification using public domain airborne electromagnetic data, interior Alaska
Abraham M. Emond, Ronald Daanen, Burke J. Minsley
2021, FastTIMES (26)
The Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys (DGGS) airborne electromagnetic (AEM) data are an excellent resource for permafrost characterization. AEM data can be used for pingo identification, estimating permafrost thickness, estimating surface talik thickness, evaluating permafrost health (temperature), talik identification and more. Data examples are shown from discontinuous...
Random forest
Emil D. Attanasi, Timothy Coburn
2021, Book chapter, Encyclopedia of mathematical geosciences
This entry defines and discusses the random forest machine learning algorithm. The algorithm is used to predict class or quantities for target variables using values of a set of predictor variables. It uses decision trees that are generated from bootstrap sampling of the training data set to create a "forest"....
Can identifying discrete behavioral groups with individual-based acoustic telemetry advance the understanding of fish distribution patterns?
Ryland B. Taylor, Martha E. Mather, Joseph M. Smith, Kayla M. Boles
2021, Frontiers in Marine Science (8)
Identifying patterns of organismal distribution can provide valuable insights for basic and applied marine and coastal ecology because understanding where animals are located is foundational to both research and science-based conservation. Understanding variation in distributional patterns can lead to a better assessment of ecological drivers and an improved ability to...
Warming sea surface temperatures fuel summer epidemics of eelgrass wasting disease
Maya Groner, Morgan E. Eisenlord, Reyn M. Yoshioka, Evan A. Fiorenza, Phoebe D. Dawkins, Olivia J. Graham, Miranda Winningham, Alex Vompe, Natalie D. Rivlin, Bo Yang, Colleen A. Burge, Brendan Rappazzo, Carla P. Gomes, C. Drew Harvell
2021, Marine Ecology Progress Series (679) 47-58
Seawater temperatures are increasing, with many unquantified impacts on marine diseases. While prolonged temperature stress can accelerate host-pathogen interactions, the outcomes in nature are poorly quantified. We monitored eelgrass wasting disease (EWD) from 2013-2017 and correlated mid-summer prevalence of EWD with remotely sensed seawater temperature metrics before, during, and after...
