First record of pughead deformity in the threatened Clear Lake Hitch
Jessica Catherine Kathan, Matthew J. Young, Frederick V. Feyrer
2020, California Fish and Game (106) 186-190
No abstract available....
Using the Delphi process to gather information from a Bald Eagle expert panel
Rebecca Kolstrom, Tammy L. Wilson, Larry M. Gigliotti
2020, Natural Resource Report NPS/SWAN.NRR-2020/2128
Bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) populations are classified by the Southwest Alaska Network (SWAN) of the National Park Service as a vital sign of biological integrity, largely because of their importance as an indicator species for environmental contaminants and human disturbance. Though Bald Eagles are plentiful in Alaska, it is still...
Using small unmanned aircraft systems for measuring post-flood high-water marks and streambed elevations
Brandon T. Forbes, Geoffrey DeBenedetto, Jesse E. Dickinson, Claire Bunch, Faith A. Fitzpatrick
2020, Remote Sensing (12)
Floods affected approximately two billion people around the world from 1998–2017, causing over 142,000 fatalities and over 656 billion U.S. dollars in economic losses. Flood data, such as the extent of inundation and peak flood stage, are needed to define the environmental, economic, and social impacts of significant flood events....
Individual and population fitness consequences associated with large carnivore use of residential development
Heather E. Johnson, David Bruce Lewis, Stewart Breck
2020, Ecosphere (11)
Large carnivores are negotiating increasingly developed landscapes, but little is known about how such behavioral plasticity influences their demographic rates and population trends. Some investigators have suggested that the ability of carnivores to behaviorally adapt to human development will enable their persistence, and yet, others have suggested that such landscapes...
Risk-targeted alternatives to deterministic ground motion caps in U.S. seismic provisions
Jonathan P. Stewart, Nico Luco, John D Hooper, C. B. Crouse
2020, Earthquake Spectra (36) 904-923
Since their inception over 20 years ago, the maximum considered earthquake ground motion maps in U.S. building codes have capped probabilistic values with deterministic ground motions from characteristic earthquakes on known active faults. This practice has increasingly been called into question both because of spatially non-uniform risk levels...
Microbiology and oxidation-reduction geochemistry of the water-table and Memphis aquifers in the Allen well field, Shelby County, Tennessee
Thomas D. Byl, Mike Bradley
2020, Conference Paper, Proceedings from the 29th Tennessee water resources symposium
The shallow and Memphis aquifers in Shelby County, Tennessee, are valuable natural resources that are used for domestic, public-supply, and agricultural water use. The Memphis aquifer is the primary source for public supply in West Tennessee and provides 170 to 175 million gallons of water per day for more than...
Seasonal selection of riverine habitat by Spotted Bass and Shorthead Redhorse in a regulated river in the Midwestern U.S.
E.N. Edge, Craig P. Paukert, Lobb III, B. Landwer, T.W. Bonnot
2020, River Research and Applications (36) 1087-1096
Riverine fish populations depend on habitats supporting their resource and life history needs. Dynamic streamflow caused by river regulation or natural events influences the distribution of downstream habitat characteristics. Through studying habitat selection, we can identify the most utilized and valuable habitats for the success of native fishes. We determined...
Forecasting water demand across a rapidly urbanizing region
Georgina M. Sanchez, Adam J. Terando, Jordan W. Smith, Ana Maria Garcia, Chad R. Wagner, Ross K. Meentemeyer
2020, Science of the Total Environment (730)
Urban growth and climate change together complicate planning efforts meant to adapt to increasingly scarce water supplies. Several studies have independently examined the impacts of urban planning and climate change on water demand, but little attention has been given to their combined impact. Here we forecast urban water demand using...
Exploring regional scale metamorphic fabrics in the Yukon Tanana terrane and environs using quantitative domain analyses
Jonathan Caine, James V. Jones III
2020, Conference Paper, 2020 Cordilleran tectonics workshop program and abstracts
Metamorphic rock fabrics such as foliations and lineations provide a rock record of numerous deformational characteristics in the Earth’s crust. When spatial information is combined with fabric data collected at points on geologic maps, the nature and consistency of metamorphic fabrics can be explored through structural domain analysis. This is...
Correlations along a 140 km transect in the westernmost Peach Spring Tuff, and tracing changing facies through depositional environments
David C. Buesch
2020, Conference Paper, Changing facies: The 2020 desert symposium Field guide and proceedings
Tephrochronology is the correlation of tephra beds and tuffs by various means, and it is an important tool in refining stratigraphic and structural interpretations. The 18.78 Ma Peach Spring Tuff (PST) is a large-volume ignimbrite that was deposited across a ~200 km x 360 km area of southeastern California,...
2019 National park visitor spending effects: Economic contributions to local communities, states, and the nation
Catherine Cullinane Thomas, Lynne Koontz
2020, Natural Resource Report NPS/NRSS/EQD/NRR—2020/2110
The National Park Service (NPS) manages the Nation’s most iconic destinations that attract millions of visitors from across the Nation and around the world. Trip-related spending by NPS visitors generates and supports economic activity within park gateway communities. This report summarizes the annual economic contribution analysis that measures how NPS...
Effects of flow diversion on Snake Creek and its riparian cottonwood forest, Great Basin National Park
Derek M. Schook, David J. Cooper, Jonathan M. Friedman, Steven E. Rice, Jamie D. Hoover, Richard D. Thaxton
2020, Natural Resource Report NPS/GRBA/NRR-2020/2104
Snake Creek flows east from the southern Snake Range in Nevada over complex lithology before leaving Great Basin National Park. The river travels over a section of karst limestone where some surface water naturally recharges the groundwater flow system. In 1961 a water diversion pipeline was constructed by downstream water...
Movement ecology and habitat use differences in Black Scoters wintering along the Atlantic coast
H. M. Plumpton, S. G. Gilliland, Beth Ross
2020, Avian Conservation and Ecology (15)
For migratory species such as Black Scoters (Melanitta americana) whose range encompasses a variety of habitats, it is especially important to obtain habitat use information across the species’ range to better understand anthropogenic threats, e.g., marine development and climate change. The objective of our study was to investigate the winter...
7700-year persistence of an isolated, free-living coral assemblage in the Galápagos Islands: A model for coral refugia?
Joshua Feingold, Bernhard Reigl, Katie Hendrickson, Lauren Toth, Hai Cheng, R. Lawrence Edwards, Richard B. Aronson
2020, Coral Reefs (39) 639-647
In an eastern-Pacific coral assemblage at Devil’s Crown, Galápagos Islands, Ecuador, two coral species, Psammocora stellata and Cycloseris (Diaseris) distorta, form dense populations of unattached colonies on sand and rubble substrata. In the Galápagos, living C. (D.) distorta is found only at this single site, whereas populations of P. stellata...
Vegetation affects timing and location of wetland methane emissions
Sheel Bansal, Olivia Johnson, Jacob Meier, Zhu Xiaoyan
2020, Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences (125)
Common assumptions about how vegetation affects wetland methane (CH) flux include acting as conduits for CH release, providing carbon substrates for growth and activity of methanogenic organisms, and supplying oxygen to support CH oxidation. However, these effects may change through time, especially...
Fisheries research and monitoring activities of the Lake Erie Biological Station, 2019
Kevin R. Keretz, Patrick Kocovsky, Richard Kraus, Joseph Schmitt
2020, Report
A comprehensive understanding of fish populations and their interactions is the cornerstone of modern fishery management and the basis for Fish Community Goals and Objectives for Lake Erie (Ryan et al. 2003). This report is responsive to U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) obligations via Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Great...
Research in the refuge constraints to restoring diverse forest ecosystems at Hakalau
Stephanie G. Yelenik, Eli T. Rose, Eben H. Paxton, Evan M Rehm, Carla M. D'Antonio
2020, Newsletter, Friends of Hakalau Forst National Wildlife Refuge Newsletter
No abstract available. ...
Mineralogy and lithology of the Upper Cretaceous Niobrara Formation determined by hyperspectral core imaging
Justin E. Birdwell, Lionel C. Fontenot, Brigette Martini
2020, Mountain Geologist (57) 121-143
Sections of the Upper Cretaceous (Coniacian to Campanian) Niobrara Formation in two cores from Kansas and Colorado, the Amoco Rebecca Bounds and USGS Portland 1, respectively, were examined by hyperspectral core imaging and analysis. A spectral imaging system combining high-resolution photography (50 μm), 3D laser profiling (20 μm), and near-visible...
Parsing complex terrain controls on mountain glacier response to climate forcing
Caitlyn Elizabeth Florentine, Joel T. Harper, Daniel B. Fagre
2020, Global and Planetary Change (191)
Glaciers are a key indicator of changing climate in the high mountain landscape. Glacier variations across a mountain range are ultimately driven by regional climate forcing. However, changes also reflect local, topographically driven processes such as snow avalanching, snow wind-drifting, and radiation shading as well as the initial glacier conditions such as hypsometry and...
Automated location correction and spot height generation for named summits in the coterminous United States
Samantha Arundel, Gaurav Sinha
2020, International Journal of Digital Earth (13) 1570-1584
Spot elevations published on historical U.S. Geological Survey topographic maps were established as needed to enhance information imparted by the quadrangle’s contours. In addition to other features, labels were routinely placed on mountain summits. While some elevations were established through field survey triangulation, many were computed during...
Green turtle mitochondrial microsatellites indicate finer-scale natal homing to isolated islands than to continental nesting sites
Brian M. Shamblin, Kristen Hart, Kelly J. Martin, Simona A. Ceriani, Dean A. Bagley, Katherine L. Mansfield, Llewellyn M. Ehrhart, Campbell J. Nairn
2020, MEPS (643) 159-171
In highly mobile philopatric species, defining the scale of natal homing is fundamental to characterizing population dynamics and effectively managing distinct populations. Genetic tools have provided evidence of regional natal philopatry in marine turtles, but extensive sharing of maternally inherited mitochondrial control region (CR) haplotypes within regions (<500 km) often...
Use of strong habitat–abundance relationships in assessing population status of cryptic fishes: An example using the Harlequin Darter
Kathryn M Holcomb, Paul Schueller, Howard L. Jelks, John R Knight, Micheal S Allen
2020, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (149) 320-334
Understanding trends in abundance is important to fisheries conservation, but techniques for estimating streamwide abundance of cryptic fishes with strong habitat–abundance relationships are not well established and need further development. We developed techniques for addressing this need using the Harlequin Darter Etheostoma histrio, a small, cryptic freshwater fish associated with submerged...
Comparison of underwater video with electrofishing and dive‐counts for stream fish abundance estimation
Nathaniel P. Hitt, Karli M. Rogers, Craig D. Snyder, C. Andrew Dolloff
2020, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (150) 24-37
Advances in video technology enable new strategies for stream fish research. We compared juvenile (age‐0) and adult (age 1+) Brook Trout Salvelinus fontinalis abundance estimates from underwater video with backpack electrofishing and dive‐count methods across a series of stream pools...
Quantifying drought’s influence on moist soil seed vegetation in California’s Central Valley through time-series remote sensing
Kristin B. Byrd, Austen Lorenz, James Anderson, Cynthia Wallace, Kara Moore-O'Leary, Jennifer Isola, Ricardo Ortega, Matt Reiter
2020, Ecological Applications (30)
Californias Central Valley, USA is a critical component of the Pacific Flyway despite loss of more than 90% of its wetlands. Moist soil seed (MSS) wetland plants are now produced by mimicking seasonal flooding in managed wetlands to provide an essential food resource for waterfowl. Managers need MSS plant area...
Bayesian modeling of non-stationary, univariate, spatial data for the Earth sciences
Karl J. Ellefsen, Bradley S. Van Gosen
2020, Techniques and Methods 7-C24
Some Earth science data, such as geochemical measurements of element concentrations, are non-stationary—the mean and the standard deviation vary spatially. It is important to estimate the spatial variations in both statistics because such information is indicative of geological and other Earth processes. To this end, an estimation method is formulated...
