USGS Chesapeake Science Strategy 2021-2025
Kenneth Hyer, Scott W. Phillips
2021, Fact Sheet 2021-3037
The Chesapeake Bay ecosystem is a national treasure that provides almost $100 billion annually of goods and services. The Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP), is one of the largest federal-state restoration partnerships in the United States and is underpinned by rigorous science. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has a pivotal role...
Optimization of salt marsh management at the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, New Jersey, through use of structured decision making
Hilary A. Neckles, James E. Lyons, Jessica L. Nagel, Susan C. Adamowicz, Toni Mikula, Paul M. Castelli, Virginia Rettig
2021, Open-File Report 2021-1037
Structured decision making is a systematic, transparent process for improving the quality of complex decisions by identifying measurable management objectives and feasible management actions; predicting the potential consequences of management actions relative to the stated objectives; and selecting a course of action that maximizes the total benefit achieved and balances...
Rapid assessment indicates context-dependent mitigation for amphibian disease risk
Riley F Bernard, Evan H. Campbell Grant
2021, Wildlife Society Bulletin (45) 290-299
Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal) is a fungal pathogen that can cause the emerging infectious disease Bsal chytridiomycosis in some amphibians and is currently causing dramatic declines in European urodeles. To date, Bsal has not been detected in North America but has the potential to cause severe declines in naïve hosts if introduced. Therefore, it is critical...
Coastal Tree-Ring Records for Paleoclimate and Paleoenvironmental Applications in North America
Clay Tucker, Jessie K. Pearl
2021, Quaternary Science Reviews (265)
For more than a century, tree-ring research has identified relationships between climatic and ecological conditions and tree growth to describe past environments and constrain future ecosystem vulnerabilities. Tree-ring records are frequently used as environmental proxies that extend knowledge of past climate and ecology on millennial scales. Many of the most...
Least Bell's Vireos and Southwestern Willow Flycatchers at the San Luis Rey flood risk management project area in San Diego County, California—Breeding activities and habitat use—2020 annual report
Alexandra Houston, Lisa D. Allen, Ryan E. Pottinger, Barbara E. Kus
2021, Open-File Report 2021-1053
Executive SummarySurveys and monitoring for the endangered Least Bell’s Vireo (Vireo bellii pusillus; vireo) were done at the San Luis Rey Flood Risk Management Project Area (Project Area) in the city of Oceanside, San Diego County, California, between March 31 and July 20, 2020. We completed four protocol surveys during...
Evaluating spectral ratio methods for characterizing fundamental resonance peaks on flat sediments: An example from the Atlantic Coastal Plain, Eastern United States
Lisa Sue Schleicher, Thomas L. Pratt
2021, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (111) 1824-1848
Damaging ground motions from the 2011 Mw">Mw 5.8 Virginia earthquake were likely increased due to site amplification from the unconsolidated sediments of the Atlantic Coastal Plain (ACP), highlighting the need to understand site response...
Origin of the isotopic composition of natural perchlorate: Experimental results for the impact of reaction pathway and initial ClOx reactant
Nubia Estrada, Todd A. Anderson, J.K. Bohlke, Baohua Gu, Paul B. Hatzinger, Stanley J. Mroczkowski, Balaji Rao, Neil C. Sturchio, W. Andrew Jackson
2021, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (311) 292-315
Natural perchlorate (ClO4−) exists in many places on Earth, in lunar regolith, meteorites, and on the surface of Mars. Terrestrial natural ClO4− has widely variable Cl and O stable isotopic compositions (δ37Cl, δ18O, Δ17O). The δ18O and Δ17O values of ClO4− from the most hyper-arid locations co-vary. ClO4− from less...
The Sedimentary Geochemistry and Paleoenvironments Project
Una Farrell, Rifaat Samawi, Savitha Anjanappa, Roman Klykov, Oyeleye Adeboye, Heda Agic, Anne-Sofie Ahm, Thomas Boag, Fred Bowyer, Jochen J. Brocks, Tessa Brunoir, Donald Canfield, Xiaoyan Chen, Meng Cheng, Matthew Clarkson, Devon B. Cole, David Cordie, Peter W. Crockford, Huan Cui, Tais Dahl, Lucas Del Mouro, Keith Dewing, Stephen Dornbos, Nadja Drabon, Julie A. Dumoulin, Jospeh Emmings, Cecilia R. Endringa, Tiffani A. Fraser, Robert R. Gaines, Richard M. Gaschnig, Timothy M. Gibson, Geoffrey J. Gilleaudeau, Benjamin C. Gill, Karin Goldberg, Romain Guilbaud, Galen P. Halverson, Emma U. Hammarlund, Kalev G. Hantsoo, Miles A. Henderson, Malcolm S. W. Hodgskiss, Tristan Horner, Jon M. Husson, Benjamin Johnson, Pavel Kabanov, C. Brenhin Keller, Julien Kimmig, Michael A. Kipp, Andrew H. Knoll, Timmu Kreitsmann, Marcus Kunzmann, Florian Kurzweil, Matthew A. LeRoy, Chao Li, Alex Lipp, David K. Loydell, Xinze Lu, Francis A. Macdonald, Joseph M. Magnall, Kaarel Mand, Akshay Mehra, Michael J. Melchin, Austin J. Miller, Chiza N. Mwinde, Brennan O’Connell, Lawrence M. Och, Frantz Ossa Ossa, Anais Pages, Kart Paiste, Camille A. Partin, Shanan Peters, Peter Petrov, Tiffany L. Playter, Stephanie Plaza-Torres, Susannah M. Porter, Simon W. Poulton, Sara B. Pruss, Sylvain Richoz, Samantha R. Ritzer, Alan D. Rooney, Swapan K. Sahoo, Shane D. Schoepfer, Judith A. Sclafani, Yanan Shen, Oliver Shorttle, Sarah P. Slotznick, Emily F. Smith, Sam Spinks, Richard G. Stockey, J. V. Strauss, Eva E. Stueken, Sabrina Tecklenburg, Danielle Thomson, N. J. Tosca, Gabriel J. Uhlein, Maoli N. Vizcaino, Huajian Wang, Tristan White, Philip R. Wilby, Christina R. Woltz, Rachel A. Wood, Lei Xiang, Inessa A. Yurchenko, Tianran Zhang, Noah J. Planavsky, Kimberly V. Lau, David T. Johnston, Erik A. Sperling
2021, Geobiology (19) 545-556
Geobiology explores how Earth's system has changed over the course of geologic history and how living organisms on this planet are impacted by or are indeed causing these changes. For decades, geologists, paleontologists, and geochemists have generated data to investigate these topics. Foundational efforts in sedimentary geochemistry utilized spreadsheets for...
Consequences of migratory coupling of predators and prey when mediated by human actions
Navinder J. Singh, Fraucke Ecke, Todd E. Katzner, Sumanta Bagchi, Per Sandstrom, Birger Hornfeldt
2021, Diversity and Distributions (27) 1848-1860
AimAnimal migrations influence ecosystem structure, dynamics and persistence of predator and prey populations. The theory of migratory coupling postulates that aggregations of migrant prey can induce large-scale synchronized movements in predators, and this coupling is consequential for the dynamics of ecological communities. The degree to which humans...
Translational invasion ecology: Bridging research and practice to address one of the greatest threats to biodiversity
Toni Lyn Morelli, Carrie Brown-Lima, Jenica M. Allen, Evelyn M. Beaury, Emily J. Fusco, Audrey Barker-Plotkin, Brittany B. Laginhas, Brendan Quirion, Bridget Griffin, Blair McLaughlin, Lara Munro, Nancy Olmstead, Julie Richburg, Bethany A. Bradley
2021, Biological Invasions (23) 3323-3335
Effective natural resource management and policy is contingent on information generated by research. Conversely, the applicability of research depends on whether it is responsive to the needs and constraints of resource managers and policy makers. However, many scientific fields including invasion ecology suffer from a disconnect...
Human-polar bear interactions
Todd C. Atwood, James Wilder
Randall W. Davis, Anthony M. Pagano, editor(s)
2021, Book chapter, Ethology and behavioral ecology of sea otters and polar bears
Human-wildlife interactions (HWI) are driven fundamentally by overlapping space and resources. As competition intensifies, the likelihood of interaction and conflict increases. In turn, conflict may impede conservation efforts by lowering social tolerance of wildlife, especially when human-wildlife conflict (HWC) poses a threat to human safety and economic well-being. Thus, mitigating...
Sea otter foraging behavior
Randall W. Davis, James L. Bodkin
2021, Book chapter, Ethology and behavioral ecology of sea otters and polar bears
Sea otters are marine specialists but diet generalists, which feed primarily on benthic mega-invertebrates (i.e., body dimension >1 cm). They locate and capture epibenthic and infaunal prey with their forepaws by relying on vision and tactile sensitivity during short-duration dives (generally <2 min) in shallow waters (routine dives <30 m and maximum dive depth...
Evaluating corticosterone as a biomarker for amphibians exposed to increased salinity and ambient corticosterone
Brian J. Tornabene, Blake R. Hossack, Erica J Crespi, Creagh W Breuner
2021, Conservation Physiology (9)
Physiological biomarkers are commonly used to assess the health of taxa exposed to natural and anthropogenic stressors. Glucocorticoid (GC) hormones are often used as indicators of physiological stress in wildlife because they affect growth, reproduction and survival. Increased salinity from human activities negatively influences amphibians and their corticosterone (CORT; the...
The petrologic and degassing behavior of sulfur and other magmatic volatiles from the 2018 eruption of Kīlauea, Hawaiʻi: Melt concentrations, magma storage depths, and magma recycling
Allan Lerner, Paul J. Wallace, Thomas Shea, Adrien Mourey, Peter J. Kelly, Patricia A. Nadeau, Tamar Elias, Christoph Kern, Laura E. Clor, Cheryl Gansecki, R. Lopaka Lee, Lowell Moore, Cynthia A. Werner
2021, Bulletin of Volcanology (83)
Kīlauea Volcano’s 2018 lower East Rift Zone (LERZ) eruption produced exceptionally high lava effusion rates and record-setting SO2 emissions. The eruption involved a diverse range of magmas, including primitive basalts sourced from Kīlauea’s summit reservoirs. We analyzed LERZ matrix glasses, melt inclusions, and host minerals to identify...
Active Mars: A dynamic world
Colin M. Dundas, Patricio Becerra, Shane Byrne, Matthew Chojnacki, Ingrid J. Daubar, Serina Diniega, Candice J. Hansen, Kenneth E. Herkenhoff, Margaret E. Landis, Alfred S. McEwen, Ganna Portyankina, Adomas Valantinas
2021, Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets (126)
Mars exhibits diverse surface changes at all latitudes and all seasons. Active processes include impact cratering, aeolian sand and dust transport, a variety of slope processes, changes in polar ices, and diverse effects of seasonal CO2 frost. The extent of surface change has been surprising and indicates that...
Vulnerability of Pacific salmon to invasion of northern pike (Esox lucius) in Southcentral Alaska
Chase S. Jalbert, Jeffrey A. Falke, Andres Lopez, Kristine J. Dunker, Adam Sepulveda, Peter A. H. Westley
2021, PLoS ONE (16)
The relentless role of invasive species in the extinction of native biota requires predictions of ecosystem vulnerability to inform proactive management strategies. The worldwide invasion and range expansion of predatory northern pike (Esox lucius) has been linked to the decline of native...
Earthquake source mechanisms and stress field variations associated with wastewater-induced seismicity in southern Kansas, USA
Amandine Amemotou, Patricia Martinez-Garzon, Grzegorz Kwiatek, Justin Rubinstein, Marco Bohnhoff
2021, Journal of Geophysical Research (126)
The strong increase of seismicity rates in the contiguous USA over the last 10 years is linked to the injection of huge amounts of wastewater from oil and gas production in unconventional hydrocarbon reservoirs. We calculated 549 moment tensors of induced earthquakes (MW ≤ 4.9) in southern Kansas to study...
Insights on geochemical, isotopic, and volumetric compositions of produced water from hydraulically fractured Williston Basin oil wells
Tanya J. Gallegos, Colin A. Doolan, Rodney R. Caldwell, Mark A Engle, Matthew S. Varonka, Justin E. Birdwell, Glenn D. Jolly, Tyler B. Coplen, Thomas A. Oliver
2021, Environmental Science and Technology (55) 10025-10034
Tracing produced water origins from wells hydraulically fractured with freshwater-based fluids is sometimes predicated on assumptions that (1) each geological formation contains compositionally unique brine and (2) produced water from recently hydraulically fractured wells resembles fresher meteoric water more so than produced water from older wells. These assumptions are not...
Elk monitoring in Mount Rainier and Olympic National Parks: 2008-2017 synthesis report
Kurt Jenkins, B. C. Lubow, P. J. Happe, K. Braun, J. Boetsch, W. Baccus, T. Chestnut, D. J. Vales, B. J. Moeller, M. Tirhi, E. Holman, P. C. Griffin
2021, Natural Resource Report NPS/NCCN/NRR-2021/2284
In 2008, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) began collaborating with the National Park Service (NPS)-North Coast and Cascades Network (NCCN), the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe (MIT), Puyallup Tribe of Indians (PTOI), and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) to develop a standard survey protocol for monitoring long-term changes in the...
What is the effect of poaching activity on wildlife species?
Jennifer F. Moore, Eustrate Uzabaho, Abel Musana, Prosper Uwingell, James E. Hines, James D. Nichols
2021, Ecological Applications (31)
Poaching is a pervasive threat to wildlife, yet quantifying the direct effect of poaching on wildlife is rarely possible because both wildlife and threat data are infrequently collected concurrently. In this study, we used poaching data collected through the Management Information System (MIST) and wildlife camera trap data collected by...
Wetlands
Brian Tangen, Sheel Bansal
2021, Report, Recarbonizing global soils – A technical manual of recommended management practices
During the last decades, soil organic carbon (SOC) attracted the attention of a much wider array of specialists beyond agriculture and soil science, as it was proven to be one of the most crucial components of the earth’s climate system, which has a great potential to be managed by humans....
Predicting water temperature dynamics of unmonitored lakes with meta-transfer learning
Jared Willard, Jordan Read, Alison P. Appling, Samantha K. Oliver, Xiaowei Jia, Vipin Kumar
2021, Water Resources Research (57)
Most environmental data come from a minority of well-monitored sites. An ongoing challenge in the environmental sciences is transferring knowledge from monitored sites to unmonitored sites. Here, we demonstrate a novel transfer-learning framework that accurately predicts depth-specific temperature in unmonitored lakes (targets) by borrowing models from well-monitored lakes (sources). This...
Exploring GPS observations of postseismic deformation following the 2012 MW7.8 Haida Gwaii and 2013 MW7.5 Craig, Alaska Earthquakes: Implications for viscoelastic Earth structure
Katherine A. Guns, Frederick Pollitz, Thorne Lay, Han Yue
2021, Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth (126)
The Queen Charlotte-Fairweather Fault (QC-FF) system off the coast of British Columbia and southeast Alaska is a highly active dextral strike-slip plate boundary that accommodates ∼50 mm/yr of relative motion between the Pacific and North America plates. Nine MW ≥ 6.7 earthquakes have occurred along the QC-FF system since 1910, including a MS(G-R)8.1 event in...
National Park Service Vegetation Mapping Inventory Program: Great Smoky Mountains National Park vegetation mapping project
Kevin D. Hop, Andrew C. Strassman, Stephanie Sattler, Rickie White, Milo Pyne, Tom Govus, Jennifer Dieck
2021, Natural Resource Report 2021/2285
The National Park Service (NPS) Vegetation Mapping Inventory (VMI) Program is an effort to classify, describe, and map existing vegetation communities in national park units throughout the United States. The NPS VMI Program is managed by the NPS Natural Resource Stewardship and Science Inventory and Monitoring Program and provides baseline...
Context-dependent deep learning
Roy M. Turner, Cyndy Loftin, Alex Revello, Logan R. Kline, Meredith Lewis, Salimeh Yasai-Sekeh
2021, Modeling and Using Context (4)
Explicitly representing an agent’s context has been shown to have many benefits, which should also apply to machine learning. In this paper, we describe an approach to do this called context-dependent deep learning (CDDL), which is based on earlier work in context-mediated behavior (CMB) that uses contextual schemas (c-schemas) to...
