Assessment of a claimed ultra-low frequency electromagnetic (ULFEM) earthquake precursor
Can Wang, Lilianna Christman, Simon Klemperer, Jonathan M.G. Glen, Darcy McPhee, Chen Bin
2021, Geophysical Journal International (229) 2081-2095
The rate of occurrence of anomalous ultra-low frequency electromagnetic (ULFEM) pulses has been claimed to have increased days to weeks prior to the M5.4 2007 and M4.0 2010 Alum Rock earthquakes. We re-examine the previously reported ultra-low frequency (ULF: 0.01–10 Hz) magnetic data recorded at a QuakeFinder site located 9 km...
Measuring and interpreting multilayer aquifer-system compactions for a sustainable groundwater-system development
Wei-Chia Hung, Cheinway Hwang, Michelle Sneed, Yi-An Chen, Chi-Hua Chu, Shao-Hung Lin
2021, Water Resources Research (57)
Ever decreasing water resources and climate change have driven the increasing use of groundwater causing land subsidence in many countries. Geodetic sensors such as InSAR, GPS and leveling can detect surface deformation but cannot measure subsurface deformation. A single‐well, single‐depth extensometer can be used to measure subsurface deformation, but it...
Earth Resources Observation and Science Center hosting services
U.S. Geological Survey
2021, Fact Sheet 2021-3018
The Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center has a long history of leveraging technology in support of Earth science and business applications including data management, processing, and virtualization and complex solutions to visualize and distribute data. It is the aim of EROS to offer operational excellence and service as...
The basin characterization model—A regional water balance software package
Lorraine E. Flint, Alan L. Flint, Michelle A. Stern
2021, Techniques and Methods 6-H1
This report documents the computer software package, Basin Characterization Model, version 8 (BCMv8)—a monthly, gridded, regional water-balance model—and provides detailed operational instructions and example applications. After several years of many applications and uses of a previous version, CA-BCM, published in 2014, the BCMv8 was refined to improve the accuracy of...
Distribution, abundance, and genomic diversity of the endangered antioch dunes evening primrose (Oenothera deltoides subsp. howellii) surveyed in 2019
Karen M. Thorne, Amy G. Vandergast, editor(s)
2021, Open-File Report 2021-1017
Sand dune ecosystems are highly dynamic landforms found along coastlines and riverine deltas where a supply of sand-sized material is available to be delivered by aquatic and wind environments. These unique ecosystems provide habitat for a variety of endemic and rare plant and animal species. Sand dunes have been affected...
Ashmole's hypothesis and the latitudinal gradient in clutch size
Carl G. Lundblad, Courtney J. Conway
2021, Biological Reviews (96) 1349-1366
One enduring priority for ecologists has been to understand the cause(s) of variation in reproductive effort among species and localities. Avian clutch size generally increases with increasing latitude, both within and across species, but the mechanism(s) driving that pattern continue to generate hypotheses and debate. In 1961, a Ph.D. student...
Assessing gas leakage potential into coal mines from shale gas well failures: Inference from field determination of strata permeability responses to longwall-induced deformations
Eric Watkins, C. Ozgen Karacan, Vasu Gangrade, Steven Schatzel
2021, Natural Resources Research (30) 2347-2360
This paper summarizes the changes in permeability at three boreholes located above an abutment pillar at a longwall coal mine in southwestern Pennsylvania. The motivation of this study was to better characterize the potential interaction between shale gas wells and the mine environment, through measurement of permeability changes in the...
Mapping climate change vulnerability of aquatic-riparian ecosystems using decision-relevant indicators
John Delaney, Kristen L. Bouska, Josh D. Eash, Patricia J. Heglund, Andrew A Allstadt
2021, Ecological Indicators (125)
Climate change has and is projected to continue to alter historical regimes of temperature, precipitation, and hydrology. To assess the vulnerability of climate change from a land management perspective and spatially identify where the most extreme changes are anticipated to occur,...
Groundwater, surface-water, and water-chemistry data, Black Mesa area, northeastern Arizona—2016–2018
Jon P. Mason
2021, Open-File Report 2021-1124
The Navajo (N) aquifer is the primary source of groundwater in the 5,400-square-mile Black Mesa area in northeastern Arizona. Availability of water is an important issue in the Black Mesa area because of continued water requirements for industrial and municipal use by a growing population and because of its arid...
Synoptic analysis of a decade of daily measurements of SO2 emission in the troposphere from volcanoes of the global ground-based Network for Observation of Volcanic and Atmospheric Change
Santiago Arellano, Bo Galle, Fredy Apaza, Geoffroy Avard, Charlotte Barrington, Nicole Bobrowski, Claudia Bucarey, Viviana Burbano, Mike Burton, Zoraida Chacon, Gustavo Chigna, Christian Joseph Clarito, Vladimir Conde, Fidel Costa, Maarten de Moor, Hugo Delgado-Granados, Andrea Di Muro, D. Fernandez, Gustavo Garzon, Hendra Gunawan, Nia Haerani, Thor Hansteen, Silvana Hidalgo, Salvatore Inguaggiato, Mattias Johansson, Christoph Kern, Manne Kihlman, Philippe Kowalski, Pablo Masias, Francisco Montalvo, Joakim Moller, Ulrich Platt, Claudia Rivera, Armando Saballos, Giuseppe Salerno, Benoit Taisne, Freddy Vasconez, Gabriela Velazquez, Fabio Vita, Mathieu M. Yalire
2021, Earth System Science Data (13) 1167-1188
Volcanic plumes are common and far-reaching manifestations of volcanic activity during and between eruptions. Observations of the rate of emission and composition of volcanic plumes are essential to recognize and, in some cases, predict the state of volcanic activity. Measurements of the size and location of the plumes are...
Macrogenetic studies must not ignore limitations of genetic markers and scale
Ivan Paz-Vinas, Evelyn L. Jensen, Laura D. Bertola, Martin F. Breed, Brian K. Hand, Margaret Hunter, Francine Kershaw, Deborah M. Leigh, Gordon Luikart, Joachim Mergeay, Joshua M. Miller, Charles B. van Rees, Gernot Segelbacher, Sean M. Hoban
2021, Ecology Letters (24) 1282-1284
Millette et al. (Ecology Letters, 2020, 23:55–67) reported no consistent worldwide anthropogenic effects on animal genetic diversity using repurposed mitochondrial DNA sequences. We reexamine data from this study, describe genetic marker and scale limitations which might lead to misinterpretations with conservation implications, and provide advice to improve...
Scalability and performance tradeoffs in quantifying relationships between elevation and tidal wetland plant communities
James R. Holmquist, Lisa Schile-Beers, Kevin Buffington, Meng Lu, Thomas J Mozdzer, Jefferson Riera, Donald E. Weller, Meghan Williams, J Patrick Megonigal
2021, Marine Progress Series (666) 57-72
Elevation is a major driver of plant ecology and sediment dynamics in tidal wetlands, so accurate and precise spatial data are essential for assessing wetland vulnerability to sea-level rise and making forecasts. We performed survey-grade elevation and vegetation surveys of the Global Change Research Wetland, a brackish microtidal wetland...
A roadmap for sampling and scaling biological nitrogen fixation in terrestrial ecosystems
Fiona M. Soper, Benton Taylor, Joy Winbourne, Michelle Wong, Katherine A Dynarski, Carla R. G. Reis, Mark Peoples, Cory Cleveland, Sasha C. Reed, Duncan Menge, Steven Perakis
2021, Methods in Ecology and Evolution (12) 1122-1137
Accurately quantifying rates and patterns of biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) in terrestrial ecosystems is essential to characterize ecological and biogeochemical interactions, identify mechanistic controls, improve BNF representation in conceptual and numerical modelling, and forecast nitrogen limitation constraints on future carbon (C) cycling.While many resources address the technical advantages and...
Fire frequency impacts soil properties and processes in sagebrush steppe ecosystems of the Columbia Basin
Leslie Nichols, Douglas J. Shinneman, Susan McIlroy, Marie-Anne de Graaff
2021, Applied Soil Ecology (165)
Increased fire frequency in semi-arid ecosystems can alter biochemical soil properties and soil processes that underpin ecosystem structure and functioning, thus threatening native plant communities and the species that rely on them. However, there is much uncertainty about the magnitude of change as soils are exposed to more fires, because...
SFRmaker and Linesink-Maker: Rapid construction of streamflow routing networks from hydrography data
Andrew T. Leaf, Michael N. Fienen, Howard W. Reeves
2021, Groundwater (59) 761-771
Groundwater models have evolved to encompass more aspects of the water cycle, but the incorporation of realistic boundary conditions representing surface water remains time-consuming and error-prone. We present two Python packages that robustly automate this process using readily available hydrography data as the primary input. SFRmaker...
Progress towards integrating an understanding of chemical ecology into sea lamprey control
Skye D. Fissette, Tyler John Buchinger, C. Michael Wagner, Nicholas S. Johnson, Anne M Scott, Weiming Li
2021, Journal of Great Lakes Research (47) S660-S672
The sea lamprey, Petromyzon marinus, is a destructive invader in the Laurentian Great Lakes that relies on several complex chemical cues to complete their life cycle. The central roles of chemical cues in sea lamprey reproduction provide opportunities to leverage knowledge of sea lamprey chemical ecology when developing alternative or supplemental strategies for...
Coflowering invasive plants and a congener have neutral effects on fitness components of a rare endemic plant
Diane L. Larson, Jennifer L Larson, Amy Symstad, Deborah A. Buhl, Zachary M. Portman
2021, Ecology and Evolution (11) 4750-4762
Network analyses rarely include fitness components, such as germination, to tie invasive plants to population-level effects on the natives. We address this limitation in a previously studied network of flower visitors around a suite of native and invasive plants that includes an endemic plant at Badlands...
Post-fire management targeting invasive annual grasses may have inadvertently released the exotic perennial forb Chondrilla juncea and suppressed its biocontrol agent
Brynne E. Lazarus, Matthew J. Germino
2021, Biological Invasions (23) 1915-1932
Top-down and bottom-up factors affecting invasive populations are rarely considered simultaneously, yet their interactive responses to disturbances and management interventions can be essential to understanding invasion patterns. We evaluated post-fire responses of the exotic perennial forb Chondrilla juncea (rush skeletonweed) and its biocontrol agents to landscape factors and a post-fire combined herbicide...
Simulation of groundwater flow in the aquifer system of the Anacostia River and surrounding watersheds, Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia
Jeff P. Raffensperger, Lois M. Voronin, Cheryl A. Dieter
2021, Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5225
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the District Department of Energy & Environment, Water Quality Division, is investigating the hydrogeology of the tidal Anacostia River watershed within Washington, D.C., with the goal of improving understanding of the groundwater-flow system and the interaction of groundwater and surface water in the...
Black abalone surveys at Naval Base Ventura County, San Nicolas Island, California—2020, annual report
Michael C. Kenner
2021, Open-File Report 2021-1023
The U.S. Geological Survey monitors a suite of intertidal black abalone sites at San Nicolas Island, California, in cooperation with the U.S. Navy, which owns the island. The nine rocky intertidal sites were established in 1980 to study the potential impact of translocated sea otters on the intertidal black abalone...
Sea-level rise enhances carbon accumulation in United States tidal wetlands
Ellen Herbert, Lisamarie Windham-Myers, Matthew L. Kirwan
2021, One Earth (4) 425-433
Coastal wetlands accumulate soil carbon more efficiently than terrestrial systems, but sea level rise potentially threatens the persistence of this prominent carbon sink. Here, we combine a published dataset of 372 soil carbon accumulation rates from across the United States with new analysis of 131 sites in coastal Louisiana and...
Substitution of inland fisheries with aquaculture and chicken undermines human nutrition in the Peruvian Amazon
Sebastian A. Heilpern, Kathryn Fiorella, Carlos Canas, Alexander S. Flecker, Luis Moya, Shahid Naeem, Suresh Sethi, Maria Uriarte, Ruth DeFries
2021, Nature Food (2) 192-197
With declining capture fisheries production, maintaining nutrient supplies largely hinges on substituting wild fish with economically comparable farmed animals. Although such transitions are increasingly commonplace across global inland and coastal communities, their nutritional consequences are unknown. Here, using human demographic and health information, and fish nutrient composition data from the...
Water temperature and availability shape the spatial ecology of a hot springs endemic toad
Brian J. Halstead, Patrick M. Kleeman, Jonathan P. Rose, Kristen J Fouts
2021, Herpetologica (77) 24-36
Desert amphibians are limited to exploiting ephemeral resources and aestivating or to inhabiting scarce refuges of permanent water, such as springs. Understanding how amphibians use these resources is essential for their conservation. Dixie Valley Toads (Anaxyrus williamsi) are precinctive to a small system of...
A multidisciplinary investigation into the eruptive style, processes, and duration of a Cascades back-arc tholeiitic basalt: A case study of the Brushy Butte flow field, northern California, United States
Drew T. Downs, Duane E. Champion, Michael A. Clynne, L.J. Patrick Muffler
2021, Frontiers in Earth Science (9)
The Cascades back-arc in northern California is dominated by monogenetic tholeiitic basalts that erupted throughout the Pleistocene. Elucidating their eruptive history and processes is important for understanding potential future eruptions here. We focus on the well-exposed monogenetic volcano that emplaced the Brushy Butte flow field, which constructed a ∼150 m tall...
The 2018 update of the US National Seismic Hazard Model: Ground motion models in the central and eastern US
Sanaz Rezaeian, Peter M. Powers, Allison Shumway, Mark D. Petersen, Nico Luco, Arthur D. Frankel, Morgan P. Moschetti, Eric M. Thompson, Daniel McNamara
2021, Earthquake Spectra (37) 1354-1390
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) National Seismic Hazard Model (NSHM) is the scientific foundation of seismic design regulations in the United States and is regularly updated to consider the best available science and data. The 2018 update of the conterminous US NSHM includes major changes to the underlying ground...
