Repetitive sampling and control threshold improve 16S rRNA results from produced waters associated with hydraulically fractured shales
Jenna L. Shelton, Elliott P. Barnhart, Leslie F. Ruppert, Aaron M. Jubb, Madalyn S. Blondes, Christina A. DeVera
2020, Frontiers in Microbiology (11)
Sequencing microbial DNA from deep subsurface environments is complicated by a number of issues ranging from contamination to non-reproducible results. Many samples obtained from these environments - which are of great interest due to the potential to stimulate microbial methane generation - contain low biomass. Therefore, samples from these environments...
Step increase in eastern U.S. precipitation linked to Indian Ocean warming
Courtney Strong, Gregory J. McCabe, Alexander Weech
2020, Geophysical Research Letters (47)
A step increase in annual precipitation over the eastern United States in the early 1970s commenced five decades of invigorated hydroclimate, with ongoing impacts on streamflow and water resources. Despite its far-reaching impacts, the dynamical origin of this change is unknown. Here analyses of a century of...
Groundwater levels in the Denver Basin bedrock aquifers of Douglas County, Colorado, 2011–19
Helen F. Malenda, Colin A. Penn
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5076
Municipal and domestic water users in Douglas County, Colorado, rely on groundwater from the bedrock aquifers in the Denver Basin aquifer system as part of their water supply. The four principal Denver Basin bedrock aquifers are, from shallowest to deepest, the Dawson aquifer (divided administratively into “upper” and “lower” Dawson...
The effect of size on postrelease survival of head-started Mojave desert tortoises
P. A. McGovern, K. A. Buhlmann, B. D. Todd, Clinton T. Moore, J. M. Peaden, J. Heppenstall-Cymerman, J. A. Daly, T. D. Tuberville
2020, Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management (11) 494-506
Captive-rearing conservation programs focus primarily on maximizing postrelease survival. Survival increases with size in a variety of taxa, often leading to the use of enhanced size as a means to minimize postrelease losses. Head-starting is a specific captive-rearing approach used to accelerate growth in captivity prior to release in the...
Research is needed to inform environmental management of hydrothermally inactive and extinct polymetallic sulfide (PMS) deposits
CL Van Dover, Ana Colaco, PC Collins, P Croot, Anna Metaxas, BJ Murton, A Swaddling, R Boschen-Rose, J Carlsson, L Cuyvers, Toshio Fukushima, Amy Gartman, R. Kennedy, C Kriete, NC Mestre, T Molodtsova, A Myhrvold, E Pelleter, SO Popoola, P-Y Qian, J Sarrazin, R Sharma, YJ Suh, JB Sylvan, Chunhui Tao, Michal Tomczak, J Vermilye
2020, Marine Policy (121)
Polymetallic sulfide (PMS) deposits produced at hydrothermal vents in the deep sea are of potential interest to miners. Hydrothermally active sulfide ecosystems are valued for the extraordinary chemosynthetic communities that they support. Many countries, including Canada, Portugal, and the United States,...
Mangrove blue carbon in the face of deforestation, climate change, and restoration
Daniel A. Friess, Ken Krauss, Pierre Taillardat, Maria Fernanda Adame, Erik S. Yando, Clint Cameron, Sigit D. Sasmito, Meriadec Sillanpaa
2020, Annual Plant Reviews (3) 427-456
Coastal wetlands have disproportionately high carbon densities, known as blue carbon, compared to most terrestrial ecosystems. Mangroves and their blue carbon stocks are at risk globally from land‐use and land‐cover change (LULCC) activities such as aquaculture, alongside biophysical disturbances such as sea‐level rise and cyclones. Global estimates of carbon emissions...
Cliff Feature Delineation Tool and Baseline Builder version 1.0 user guide
Alexander C. Seymour, Cheryl J. Hapke, Jonathan A. Warrick
2020, Open-File Report 2020-1070
Coastal cliffs constitute 80 percent of the world’s coastline, with seacliffs fronting a large proportion of the U.S. West Coast shoreline, particularly in California. Erosion of coastal cliffs can threaten infrastructure and human life, yet the spatial and temporal scope of cliff studies have been limited by cumbersome traditional methods...
Contaminants in fish and shellfish in the Stillaguamish River and Port Susan marine areas, Washington
Patrick Moran, Franchesca Perez, Dave McBride
2020, Fact Sheet 2020-3043
The greater Port Susan area of Central Puget Sound, Washington, is home to some of the Stillaguamish Tribe’s fishing, hunting, and gathering areas since time immemorial. It is also a popular sport and commercial fishing area for the public. Large shellfish beds lie in the Port Susan and Stillaguamish estuary...
Flood-inundation maps for the Little Calumet River from Lansing to South Holland, Illinois, 2020
Andrew P. Dunn, Timothy D. Straub, Adam E. Manaster
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5074
Digital flood-inundation maps for about an 8-mile reach of the Little Calumet River, Illinois, were created by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The flood-inundation maps, which can be accessed through the USGS Flood Inundation Mapping Science website at https://www.usgs.gov/mission-areas/water-resources/science/flood-inundation-mapping-fim-program,...
Simultaneous Middle Pleistocene eruption of three widespread tholeiitic basalts in northern California (USA): Insights into crustal magma transport in an actively extending back arc
Drew T. Downs, Duane E. Champion, L.J. Patrick Muffler, Robert L. Christiansen, Michael A. Clynne, Andrew T. Calvert
2020, Geology (48) 1216-1220
Mapping and chronology are central to understanding spatiotemporal volcanic trends in diverse tectonic settings. The Cascades back arc in northern California (USA) hosts abundant lava flows and normal faults, but tholeiitic basalts older than 200 ka are difficult to discriminate by classic mapping methods. Paleomagnetism and chemistry offer independent means...
Evaluation of visible light as a cue for guiding downstream migrant juvenile Sea Lamprey
Alexander Haro, Scott M. Miehls, Nicholas S. Johnson, C. Michael Wagner
2020, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (149) 635-647
Light can modify orientation and locomotory behaviors in fish and has been applied to attract or repel migrant fish by inducing positive or negative phototaxis. Here, recently metamorphosed downstream‐migrating Sea Lamprey Petromyzon marinus were exposed to light cues in several orientations and intensities at night under controlled flowing‐water conditions in a laboratory...
The influence of climate variability on the accuracy of NHD perennial and non-perennial stream classifications
Konrad Hafen, Kyle W. Blasch, Alan H. Rea, Roy Sando, Paul Gessler
2020, Journal of the American Water Resources Association (56) 903-916
National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) stream permanence classifications (SPC; perennial, intermittent, and ephemeral) are widely used for data visualization and applied science, and have implications for resource policy and management. NHD SPC were assigned using a combination of topographic field surveys and interviews with local residents. However,...
Identifying reliable indicators of fitness in polar bears
Karyn D. Rode, Todd C. Atwood, Gregory Thiemann, Michelle St. Martin, Ryan H. Wilson, George M. Durner, Eric V. Regehr, Sandra L. Talbot, Kevin Sage, Anthony M. Pagano, Kristin S. Simac
2020, PLoS ONE (15)
Animal structural body size and condition are often measured to evaluate individual health, identify responses to environmental change and food availability, and relate food availability to effects on reproduction and survival. A variety of condition metrics have been developed but relationships between these metrics and vital rates are...
The Alaska Amphibious Community Seismic Experiment
C. Grace Barcheck, Geoffrey A. Abers, Aubreya N. Adams, Anne Becel, John A. Collins, James B. Gaherty, Peter J. Haeussler, Zongshan Li, Ginevra Moore, Evans Onyango, Emily C. Roland, Daniel E. Sampson, Susan Y. Schwartz, Anne F Sheehan, Donna J. Shillington, Patrick J Shore, Spahr Webb, Douglas A Wiens, Lindsay L Worthington
2020, Seismological Research Letters (91) 3054-3063
The Alaska Amphibious Community Seismic Experiment (AACSE) is a shoreline‐crossing passive‐ and active‐source seismic experiment that took place from May 2018 through August 2019 along an ∼700  km">∼700 km∼700 km long...
Toxicity of carbon dioxide to freshwater fishes: Implications for aquatic invasive species management
Aaron R. Cupp, Justin R. Smerud, Linnea M Thomas, Diane L. Waller, David L. Smith, Richard A. Erickson, Mark P. Gaikowski
2020, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (ET&C) (39) 2247-2255
Carbon dioxide (CO2) has been approved by the US Environmental Protection Agency as a new aquatic pesticide to control invasive Asian carps and other aquatic nuisance species in the United States. However, limited CO2 toxicity data could make it challenging for resource managers to characterize the potential risk to nontarget species...
Spatial grain of adaptation is much finer than ecoregional-scale common gardens reveal
Bill Davidson, Matthew J. Germino
2020, Ecology and Evolution (10) 9920-9931
Adaptive variation among plant populations must be known for effective conservation and restoration of imperiled species and predicting their responses to a changing climate. Common‐garden experiments, in which plants sourced from geographically distant populations are grown together such that genetic differences may be expressed, have provided...
Experimental amelioration of harsh weather speeds growth and development in a tropical montane songbird
Adam E. Mitchell, Jordan Boersma, Anthonio Anthony, Kanehiro Kitayama, Thomas E. Martin
2020, The American Naturalist (196)
Organisms living at high elevations generally grow and develop more slowly than those at lower elevations. Slow montane ontogeny is thought to be an evolved adaptation to harsh environments that improves juvenile quality via physiological trade-offs. However, slower montane ontogeny may also...
National Land Imaging Program
Steven M. Young
2020, Fact Sheet 2020-3034
Changes taking place across the Earth’s land surface have the potential to affect people, economies, and the environment on a daily basis. Our Nation’s economic security and environmental vitality rely on continuous monitoring of the Earth’s continents, islands, and coastal regions to record, study, and understand land change at local,...
Hydrology of Haskell Lake and investigation of a groundwater contamination plume, Lac du Flambeau Reservation, Wisconsin
Andrew T. Leaf, Megan J. Haserodt
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5024
Haskell Lake is a shallow, 89-acre drainage lake in the headwaters of the Squirrel River, on the Lac du Flambeau Reservation in northern Wisconsin. The lake has long been valued by the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians (LDF Tribe) for abundant wild rice and game fish....
A distributed temperature sensing investigation of groundwater discharge to Haskell Lake, Lac du Flambeau Reservation, Wisconsin, July 27–August 1, 2016
Andrew T. Leaf
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5005
Haskell Lake is a shallow, 89-acre drainage lake in the headwaters of the Squirrel River, on the Lac du Flambeau Reservation in northern Wisconsin. Historically, this lake was an important producer of wild rice for the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians (LDF Tribe); but, beginning in...
Assessing year‐round habitat use by migratory sea ducks in a multi‐species context reveals seasonal variation in habitat selection and partitioning
Juliet S. Lamb, Peter WC Paton, Jason E. Osenkowski, Shannon S. Badzinski, Alicia Berlin, Timothy D. Bowman, Chris Dwyer, Luke J. Fara, Scott G. Gilliland, Kevin P. Kenow, Christine Lepage, Mark L. Mallory, Glenn H. Olsen, Matthew Perry, Scott A. Petrie, Jean-Pierre L. Savard, Lucas Savoy, Michael L. Schummer, Caleb S. Spiegel, Scott R. McWilliams
2020, Ecography (43) 1842-1858
Long‐distance migration presents complex conservation challenges, and migratory species often experience shortfalls in conservation due to the difficulty of identifying important locations and resources throughout the annual cycle. In order to prioritize habitats for conservation of migratory wildlife, it is necessary to understand how habitat needs change throughout the annual...
Bioclimatic modeling of potential vegetation types as an alternative to species distribution models for projecting plant species shifts under changing climates
Robert Keane, Lisa M. Holsinger, Rachel A. Loehman
2020, Forest Ecology and Management (477)
Land managers need new tools for planning novel futures due to climate change. Species distribution modeling (SDM) has been used extensively to predict future distributions of species under different climates, but their map products are often too coarse for fine-scale operational...
Reversal of forest soil acidification in the northeastern United States and eastern Canada: Site and soil factors contributing to recovery
P.W. Hazlett, C.E. Emilson, Gregory B. Lawrence, I. J. Fernandez, R. Ouimet, S.W. Bailey
2020, Soil Systems (4)
As acidic deposition has decreased across Eastern North America, forest soils at some sites are beginning to show reversal of soil acidification. However, the degree of recovery appears to vary and is not fully explained by deposition declines alone. To assess if other site and soil factors can help to...
Evolution of faulting induced by deep fluid injection, Paradox Valley, Colorado
Roger P. Denlinger, Daniel R. H. O'Connell
2020, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (110) 2308-2327
High‐pressure fluid injection into a subhorizontal confined aquifer at 4.3–4.6 km depth induced >7000">>7000>7000 earthquakes between 1991 and 2012 within once seismically quiescent Paradox Valley in Colorado, with magnitudes up to <span id="MathJax-Element-2-Frame" class="MathJax"...
Nest predation and adult mortality relationships with post-natal metabolic rates and growth among songbird species
Riccardo Ton, Michael S. Mitchell
2020, Journal of Experimental Biology (223)
Metabolism is thought to mediate the connection between environmental selection pressures and a broad array of life history tradeoffs, but tests are needed. High juvenile predation correlates with fast growth, which may be achieved via fast juvenile metabolism. Fast offspring metabolism and growth can create physiological...