Development of a screening tool to examine lake and reservoir susceptibility to eutrophication in selected watersheds of the eastern and southeastern United States
W. Reed Green, Anne B. Hoos, Alan E. Wilson, Elizabeth N. Heal
2021, Scientific Investigations Report 2021-5075
This report describes a new screening tool to examine lake and reservoir susceptibility to eutrophication in selected watersheds of the eastern and southeastern United States using estimated nutrient loading and flushing rates with measures of waterbody morphometry. To that end, the report documents the compiled data and methods (R-script) used...
Stratigraphic and structural controls on groundwater salinity variations in the Poso Creek Oil Field, Kern County, California, USA
Michael J. Stephens, David H. Shimabukuro, Will Chang, Janice M. Gillespie, Zack Levinson
2021, Hydrogeology Journal (29) 2803-2820
Groundwater total dissolved solids (TDS) distribution was mapped with a three-dimensional (3D) model, and it was found that TDS variability is largely controlled by stratigraphy and geologic structure. General TDS patterns in the San Joaquin Valley of California (USA) are attributed to predominantly connate water composition...
Distribution, abundance and spatial variability of microplastic pollution on the surface of Lake Superior
K Cox, E. Brocious, S Courtenay, Mark Vinson, Seth J. K. Mason
2021, Journal of Great Lakes Research (47) 1358-1364
In 2014, 94 paired neuston net samples (0.5 mm mesh) were collected from the surface waters of Lake Superior. These samples comprise the most comprehensive surface water survey for microplastics of any of the Great Lakes to date, and the first to employ double net...
A novel automatic phenology learning (APL) method of training sample selection using multiple datasets for time-series land cover mapping
Congcong Li, George Z. Xian, Qiang Zhou, Bruce Pengra
2021, Remote Sensing of Environment (266)
The long record of Landsat imagery, which is the cornerstone of Earth observation, provides an opportunity to monitor land use and land cover (LULC) change and understand the interactions between the climate and earth system through time. A few change detection algorithms such...
Phenotypic variation in Brook Trout Salvelinus fontinalis (Mitchill) at broad spatial scales makes morphology an insufficient basis for taxonomic reclassification of the species
Shannon L. White, David C. Kazyak, Richard C Harrington, Matt A. Kulp, Jacob M Rash, T. Casey Weathers, Thomas J Near
2021, Ichthyology & Herpetology (109) 743-751
It was recently proposed that there are three new species of Salvelinus with microendemic distributions in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee, USA. The three species of Salvelinus were hypothesized to be distinct from their congener Brook Trout S. fontinalis based on three meristic traits—pored lateral-line scales, vertebral counts, and number of basihyal teeth. After...
Hotspot dune erosion on an intermediate beach
Nicholas Cohn, Katherine Brodie, Bradley Johnson, Margaret L. Palmsten
2021, Coastal Engineering (170)
A large, low pressure Nor’easter storm and Hurricane Joaquin contributed to multiple weeks of sustained, elevated wave and water level conditions along the southeastern Atlantic coast of the United States in Fall 2015. Sea level anomalies in excess of 1 m and...
Integrating socioecological suitability with human-wildlife conflict risk: Case study for translocation of a large ungulate
Nicholas P. McCann, Eric M. Walberg, James D. Forester, Michael W. Schrage, David C. Fulton, Mark A. Ditmer
2021, Journal of Applied Ecology (58) 2810-2820
Translocations are essential for re-establishing wildlife populations. As they sometimes fail, it is critical to assess factors that influence their success pre-translocation.Socioecological suitability models (SESMs) integrate social acceptance and ecological suitability to enable identification of areas where wildlife populations will expand, which makes it likely that SESMs will also...
Annual-cycle movements and phenology of black scoters in eastern North America
Juliet S. Lamb, Scott G. Gilliland, Jean-Pierre L. Savard, Pamela H. Loring, Scott R. McWilliams, Glenn H. Olsen, Jason E. Osenkowski, Peter W. C. Paton, Matthew Perry, Timothy D. Bowman
2021, Journal of Wildlife Management (85) 1628-1645
Sea ducks exhibit complex movement patterns throughout their annual cycle; most species use distinct molting and staging sites during migration and disjunct breeding and wintering sites. Although research on black scoters (Melanitta americana) has investigated movements and habitat selection during winter, little is known about their annual-cycle movements. We used...
Global biotic events evident in the Paleogene marine strata of the eastern San Francisco Bay area, California
Kristin McDougall-Reid
2021, Geological Society of America Memoir 229-268
Paleogene marine strata in the eastern San Francisco Bay area are exposed in discontinuous outcrops in the various tectonic blocks. Although there are many missing intervals, the strata were previously thought to...
Simulated effects of sea-level rise on the shallow, fresh groundwater system of Assateague Island, Maryland and Virginia
Brandon J. Fleming, Jeff P. Raffensperger, Phillip J. Goodling, John P. Masterson
2021, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5104
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the National Park Service, developed a three-dimensional groundwater-flow model for Assateague Island in eastern Maryland and Virginia to assess the effects of sea-level rise on the groundwater system. Sea-level rise is expected to increase the altitude of the water table in barrier island...
Watershed sediment yield following the 2018 Carr Fire, Whiskeytown National Recreation Area, northern California
Amy E. East, Joshua B. Logan, Peter Dartnell, Oren Lieber-Kotz, David B. Cavagnaro, Scott W. McCoy, Donald N. Lindsay
2021, Earth and Space Science (8)
Wildfire risk has increased in recent decades over many regions, due to warming climate and other factors. Increased sediment export from recently burned landscapes can jeopardize downstream infrastructure and water resources, but physical landscape response to fire has not been quantified for some at-risk areas, including much...
Unexpected diversity of Endozoicomonas in deep-sea corals
Christina A. Kellogg, Zoe A. Pratte
2021, Marine Ecology Progress Series (673) 1-15
ABSTRACT: The deep ocean hosts a large diversity of azooxanthellate cold-water corals whose associated microbiomes remain to be described. While the bacterial genus Endozoicomonas has been widely identified as a dominant associate of tropical and temperate corals, it has rarely been detected in deep-sea corals. Determining microbial baselines for these cold-water...
Historical changes in plant water use and need in the continental United States
Michael T Terck, David Thoma, John E. Gross, Kirk R. Sherrill, Stefanie Kagone, Gabriel B. Senay
2021, PLoS ONE (16)
A robust method for characterizing the biophysical environment of terrestrial vegetation uses the relationship between Actual Evapotranspiration (AET) and Climatic Water Deficit (CWD). These variables are usually estimated from a water balance model rather than measured directly and are often more representative of ecologically-significant changes than...
Demography of the Appalachian Spotted Skunk (Spilogale putorius putorius)
Andrew R. Butler, Andrew J. Edelman, Robin Y. Y. Eng, Stephen N. Harris, Colleen Olfenbuttel, Emily D. Thorne, W. Mark Ford, David S. Jachowski
Erin Hewett Ragheb, editor(s)
2021, Southeastern Naturalist (20) 95-109
Spilogale putorius (Eastern Spotted Skunk) is a small, secretive carnivore that has substantially declined throughout the eastern United States since the mid-1900s. To better understand the current status of Eastern Spotted Skunks, we studied survival and reproduction of the S. p. putorius (Appalachian Spotted Skunk) subspecies across 4 states in the central and...
Flooding duration and volume more important than peak discharge in explaining 18 years of gravel–cobble river change
Arielle Gervasi, Gregory Pasternack, Amy E. East
2021, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms (46) 3194-3212
Floods play a critical role in geomorphic change, but whether peak magnitude, duration, volume, or frequency determines the resulting magnitude of erosion and deposition is a question often proposed in geomorphic effectiveness studies. This study investigated that question using digital elevation model differencing to compare and...
Pollinator communities vary with vegetation structure and time since management within regenerating timber harvests of the Central Appalachian Mountains
Codey L. Mathis, Darin J. McNeil Jr., Monica R. Lee, Christina M. Grozinger, David I. King, Clint Otto, Jeffery A. Larkin
2021, Forest Ecology and Management (495)
Native pollinator populations across the United States are increasingly threatened by a multitude of ecological stressors. Although the drivers behind pollinator population declines are varied, habitat loss/degradation remains one of the most important threats. Forested landscapes, where the impacts of habitat loss/degradation are minimized, are known to support robust pollinator...
Divergence in salinity tolerance of northern Gulf of Mexico eastern oysters under field and laboratory exposure
D.A. Marshall, S.M. Casas, W.C. Walton, F.S. Rikard, T.A. Palmer, N. Breaux, Megan K. La Peyre, J.B. Pollack, M.A. Kelly, J.F. LaPeyre
2021, Conservation Physiology (9)
The eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica, is a foundation species within US Gulf of Mexico (GoM) estuaries that has experienced substantial population declines. As changes from management and climate are expected to continue to impact estuarine salinity, understanding how local oyster populations might respond and identifying populations with adaptations to more extreme...
Wetland selection by female Ring-Necked Ducks (Aythya collaris) in the Southern Atlantic Flyway
Tori D. Mezebish, Richard B. Chandler, Glenn H. Olsen, Michele Goodman, Frank C. Rohwer, Nicholas J. Meng
2021, Wetlands (41)
On the wintering grounds, wetland selection by waterfowl is influenced by spatiotemporal resource distribution. The ring-necked duck (Aythya collaris) winters in the southeastern United States where a disproportionate amount of Atlantic Flyway ring-necked duck harvest occurs. We quantified female ring-necked duck selection for wetland characteristics during and after the 2017-2018...
Structured decision making and optimal bird monitoring in the northern Gulf of Mexico
Auriel Fournier, R. Randy Wilson, James E. Lyons, Jeffrey S. Gleason, Evan M. Adams, Laurel M. Barnhill, Janell M. Brush, Robert J. Cooper, Stephen J. DeMaso, Melanie J.L. Driscoll, Mitchell J. Eaton, Peter C. Frederick, Michael G. Just, Michael A. Seymour, John M. Tirpak, Mark S. Woodrey
2021, Open-File Report 2020-1122
The avian conservation community struggles to design and implement large scale, long-term coordinated bird monitoring programs within the northern Gulf of Mexico due to the complexity of the conservation enterprise in the region; this complexity arises from the diverse stakeholders, multiple jurisdictions, complex ecological processes, myriad habitats, and over 500...
Ten years on from the quake that shook the nation’s capital
Thomas L. Pratt, Martin C. Chapman, Anjana K. Shah, J. Wright Horton, Jr., Oliver S. Boyd
2021, EOS, Transactions AGU
No abstract available....
Validation of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Land Change Monitoring, Assessment and Projection (LCMAP) collection 1.0 annual land cover products 1985–2017
Stephen V. Stehman, Bruce Pengra, Josephine Horton, Danika F. Wellington
2021, Remote Sensing of Environment (265)
The U.S. Geological Survey Land Change Monitoring, Assessment and Projection (USGS LCMAP) has released a suite of annual land cover and land cover change products for the conterminous United States (CONUS). The accuracy of these products was assessed using an independently collected land cover reference sample dataset produced by analysts...
Oyster model inventory: Identifying critical data and modeling approaches to support restoration of oyster reefs in coastal U.S. Gulf of Mexico waters
Megan K. La Peyre, Danielle A. Marshall, Shaye E. Sable
2021, Open-File Report 2021-1063
Executive SummaryAlong the coast of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, the eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) plays important ecological and economic roles. Commercial landings from this region account for more than 50 percent of all U.S. landings; these oyster reefs also provide varied ecosystem services, including nursery habitat for many fish...
Optimization of a suite of flathead catfish (Pylodictis olivaris) microsatellite markers for understanding the population genetics of introduced populations in the northeast United States
Shannon L. White, Michael S. Eackles, Tyler Wagner, Megan K. Schall, Geoffrey Smith, Julian Avery, David C. Kazyak
2021, BMC Research Notes
Flathead catfish are rapidly expanding into nonnative waterways throughout the United States. Once established, flathead catfish may cause disruptions to the local ecosystem through consumption and competition with native fishes, including species of conservation concern. Flathead catfish often become a popular sport fish in their introduced range, and so management...
Multiple coping strategies maintain stability of a small mammal population in a resource-restricted environment
Anne Y Polyakov, William D Tietje, Arjun Srivathsa, Virginie Rolland, James E. Hines, Madan K. Oli
2021, Ecology and Evolution (11) 12529-12541
In semi-arid environments, aperiodic rainfall pulses determine plant production and resource availability for higher trophic levels, creating strong bottom-up regulation. The influence of climatic factors on population vital rates often shapes the dynamics of small mammal populations in such resource-restricted environments. Using a 21-year biannual capture–recapture...
Predicted spatial distribution of the Eastern Spotted Skunk (Spilogale putorius) in Virginia using detection and non-detection records
Emily D. Thorne, W. Mark Ford
2021, Southeastern Naturalist (20) 39-51
The geographic distribution of a species is a fundamental component in understanding its ecology and is necessary for forming effective conservation plans. For rare and elusive species of conservation concern, accurate maps of predicted occurrence are particularly problematic and often highly subjective. Spilogale putorius (Eastern Spotted Skunk) populations have...
