Including Rural America in academic conservation science
David J. Kurz, Arthur Middleton, Melissa S. Chapman, Bruce R. Huber, Michael (Alex) C Mcinturff, Jeremy Sorgen, Kyle S. Van Houtan, Christine E. Wilkinson, Lauren Withey, Justin S. Brashares
2023, Frontiers in Conservation Science (4)
No abstract available....
Monitoring long-term changes of urban surface temperature using time-series land cover and remote sensing data across 50 major cities in the United States
George Z. Xian, Hua Shi, Chase William Mueller, Reza A Hussain, Kristi Sayler, Daniel Howard
2023, Conference Paper, IGARSS 2023 - 2023 IEEE international geoscience and remote sensing symposium
The increase of developed land changes the Earth’s ecosystems and, in doing so, impacts the natural environment and further affects the services it provides to humans. Urban growth and associated land cover transitions alter the thermal and physical properties of the land surface, resulting in surface temperature change in urban...
Mapping the Surface Urban Heat Island effect using the Landsat Surface Temperature Product
Chase Mueller, Reza Hussain, George Z. Xian, Hua Shi, Saeed Arab
2023, Conference Paper, IGARSS 2023 - 2023 IEEE international geoscience and remote sensing symposium
Urban development and associated land cover and land use change alter the thermal, hydrological, and physical properties of the land surface. Urban areas usually exhibit relatively warmer air and surface temperatures than surrounding non-urban lands, a phenomenon recognized as Surface Urban Heat Island (SUHI). As urban areas continue to develop...
Seasonal and elevational differences by sex in capture rate of ʻōpeʻapeʻa (Lasiurus semotus) on Hawai‘i Island
Julia P. S. Hoeh, Aaron A. Aguirre, Flor A. Calderon, Sean P. Casler, Sarah G. Ciarrachi, Karen Courtot, Kristina Montoya-Aiona, Corinna A. Pinzari, P. Marcos Gorresen
2023, Pacific Science (77) 1-26
The study of nocturnally active bats is difficult even for those species that seasonally congregate. This challenge is particularly acute for ‘ōpe‘ape‘a (Hawaiian hoary bat; Lasiurus semotus) because of its solitary foliage-roosting behavior. Yet surveys are essential for conservation and management of this endangered species and only land mammal endemic to...
Comparing NISAR (using Sentinel-1), USDA/NASS CDL, and ground truth crop/non-crop areas in an urban agricultural region
Simon Kraatz, Brian T Lamb, W. Dean Hively, Jyoti Jennewein, Feng Gao, Michael H. Cosh, Paul Siqueira
2023, Sensors (23)
A general limitation in assessing the accuracy of land cover mapping is the availability of ground truth data. At sites where ground truth is not available, potentially inaccurate proxy datasets are used for sub-field-scale resolution investigations at large spatial scales, i.e., in the Contiguous United States. The USDA/NASS Cropland...
In my experience: Groundwater-surface-water interactions reflect the path of least resistance
Donald O. Rosenberry
2023, Groundwater Monitoring and Remediation (43) 119-121
No abstract available. ...
Bayesian weighting of climate models based on climate sensitivity
Elias Massoud, Huikyo Lee, Adam Terando, Michael Wehner
2023, Communications Earth & Environment (4)
Using climate model ensembles containing members that exhibit very high climate sensitivities to increasing CO2 concentrations can result in biased projections. Various methods have been proposed to ameliorate this ‘hot model’ problem, such as model emulators or model culling. Here, we utilize Bayesian Model Averaging as a...
Restructuring and serving web-accessible streamflow data from the NOAA National Water Model historic simulations
J. Michael Johnson, David L. Blodgett, Keith C. Clarke, Jon Pollak
2023, Nature, Scientific Data (10)
In 2016, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration deployed the first iteration of an operational National Water Model (NWM) to forecast the water cycle in the continental United States. With many versions, an hourly, multi-decadal historic simulation is made available to the public. In all released...
Comparing methods to estimate feral burro abundance
Jacob D. Hennig, Kathryn A. Schoenecker
2023, Wildlife Society Bulletin (47)
Obtaining precise and unbiased estimates of feral burro (Equus asinus) abundance in the western United States is challenging due to their cryptic pelage and the rugged terrain they inhabit. Management agencies employ helicopter-based, simultaneous double-observer sightability surveys (hereafter denoted as DOS) to estimate abundance of burros; but the DOS method...
Alternative measures of trait–niche relationships: A test on dispersal traits in saproxylic beetles
Ryan C. Burner, Jörg G. Stephan, Lukas Drag, Mária Potterf, Tone Birkemoe, Juha Siitonen, Jörg Müller, Otso Ovaskainen, Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson, Tord Snäll
2023, Ecology and Evolution (13)
Functional trait approaches are common in ecology, but a lack of clear hypotheses on how traits relate to environmental gradients (i.e., trait–niche relationships) often makes uncovering mechanisms difficult. Furthermore, measures of community functional structure differ in their implications, yet inferences are seldom compared among...
Leaf litter decomposition and detrital communities following the removal of two large dams on the Elwha River (Washington, USA)
Carri J. LeRoy, Sarah A. Morley, Jeffrey J. Duda, Alex A. Zinck, Paris J. Lamoureux, Cameron Pennell, Ali Bailey, Caitlyn Oswell, Mary Silva, Brandy K. Kamakawiwo’ole, Sorrel Hartford, Jacqueline Van Der Hout, Roger Peters, Rebecca Mahan, Justin Stapleton, Rachelle Carina Johnson, Melissa M. Foley
2023, Frontiers of Ecology and Evolution (11)
Large-scale dam removals provide opportunities to restore river function in the long-term and are massive disturbances to riverine ecosystems in the short-term. The removal of two dams on the Elwha River (WA, USA) between 2011 and 2014 was the largest dam removal project to be completed by that time and...
Use of physical blockers to control invasive red swamp crayfish in burrows
Benjamin Lee Bates, Ann Allert, Mark L. Wildhaber, Jim Stoeckel
2023, Management of Biological Invasions (14) 709-729
The red swamp crayfish Procambarus clarkii is native to the southeast United States but has successfully invaded nearly every continent around the world. Although physical, biological, and chemical controls are employed to reduce or eliminate populations in open-water systems, terrestrial burrows provide a potential refuge from aquatic control treatments. We conducted burrow trials to...
Hydrologic investigations of green infrastructure by the Central Midwest Water Science Center
Allison A. Atkinson, David C. Heimann, Clinton R. Bailey
2023, Fact Sheet 2023-3043
The water management system within developed communities includes stormwater, wastewater, and drinking-water sources and sinks. Each water management system component provides critical services that support public health in these areas. Stormwater can be quite variable and difficult to manage in developed communities because the amount of stormwater that must...
Landslide initiation thresholds in data-sparse regions: Application to landslide early warning criteria in Sitka, Alaska, USA
Annette Patton, Lisa Luna, Josh J. Roering, Aaron Jacobs, Oliver Korup, Benjamin B. Mirus
2023, Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences (23) 3261-3284
Probabilistic models to inform landslide early warning systems often rely on rainfall totals observed during past events with landslides. However, these models are generally developed for broad regions using large catalogs, with dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of landslide occurrences. This study evaluates strategies for training landslide forecasting models with...
Inter-comparison of measurements of inorganic chemical components in precipitation from NADP and CAPMoN at collocated sites in the USA and Canada during 1986–2019
Jian Feng, Amanda Cole, Gregory A. Wetherbee, Kulbir Banwait
2023, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment (195)
Wet deposition monitoring is a critical part of the long-term monitoring of acid deposition, which aims to assess the ecological impact of anthropogenic emissions of SO2 and NOx. In North America, long-term wet deposition has been monitored through two national networks: the Canadian Air and Precipitation Monitoring Network (CAPMoN) and the...
Florida Kingsnake (Lampropeltis floridana) consumes a juvenile Burmese Python (Python molurus bivitattus) in southern Florida
Peter F. Crawford, Jose A. Torres, Jacquelyn C. Guzy, Andrea Faye Currylow, Lisa Marie McBride, Gretchen Erika Anderson, Matthew F. McCollister, Christina M. Romagosa, Amy A. Yackel Adams, Kristen Hart
2023, Reptiles & Amphibians (30)
The Burmese python (Python molurus bivittatus) is an invasive constrictor established across southern Florida. These snakes are dietary generalists with large home ranges and broad habitat requirements and their introduction has had severe impacts on native species and ecosystems in the region. We describe the first observation of a Florida...
Variability in terrestrial characteristics and erosion rates on the Alaskan Beaufort Sea coast
Anastasia Piliouras, Benjamin M. Jones, Tabatha Clevenger, Ann E. Gibbs, Joel C. Rowland
2023, Environmental Research Letters (18)
Arctic coastal environments are eroding and rapidly changing. A lack of pan-Arctic observations limits our ability to understand controls on coastal erosion rates across the entire Arctic region. Here, we capitalize on an abundance of geospatial and remotely sensed data, in addition to model output, from the...
Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center—2022 annual report
Sara Ernst
2023, Circular 1513
The 2022 annual report of the U.S. Geological Survey Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center highlights accomplishments of 2022, includes a list of 2022 publications, and summarizes the work of the center, as well as the work of each of its science groups. This product allows readers to gain...
Respiratory acclimation of tropical forest roots in response to in situ experimental warming and hurricane disturbance
Rob Tunison, Tana E. Wood, Sasha C. Reed, Molly A. Cavaleri
2023, Ecosystems (27) 168-184
Climate projections predict higher temperatures and more frequent hurricanes in the tropics. Tropical plants subjected to these stresses may respond by acclimating their physiology. We investigated tropical forest root respiration in response to in situ experimental warming and hurricane disturbance in eastern Puerto Rico. We measured...
Arsenic, chromium, uranium, and vanadium in rock, alluvium, and groundwater, Mojave River and Morongo Areas, western Mojave Desert, southern California
John A. Izbicki, Krishangi D. Groover, Whitney A. Seymour
2023, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5089
Trace elements within groundwater that originate from aquifer materials and pose potential public-health hazards if consumed are known as geogenic contaminants. The geogenic contaminants arsenic, chromium, and vanadium can form negatively charged ions with oxygen known as oxyanions. Uranium complexes with bicarbonate and carbonate to form negatively charged ions having...
The 1886 Charleston, South Carolina, Earthquake: Relic railroad offset reveals rupture
Roger Bilham, Susan E. Hough
2023, The Seismic Record (3) 278-288
In the absence of documented surface rupture during the 1 September 1886 Charleston earthquake, there has been considerable speculation about the location and mechanism of the causative fault. We use an inferred coseismic offset of the South Carolina Railroad and additional numerical constraints to develop an elastic deformation model—a west‐dipping...
Warming experiments test the temperature sensitivity of an endangered butterfly across life history stages
Lainey Bristow, Ralph Grundel, Jason Dzurisin, Yudi Li, Andrew Hildreth, Jessica Hellmann
2023, Journal of Insect Conservation
The Karner blue butterfly (Lycaeides melissa samuelis) (hereafter Karner blue) is a federally listed endangered species occurring in disjunct locations within the Midwest and Eastern United States. As a hostplant specialist and an ectotherm, the Karner blue is likely to be susceptible to effects of climate change. We undertook warming experiments...
BatTool: Projecting bat populations facing multiple stressors using a demographic model
Ashton M. Wiens, Amber Schorg, Jennifer Szymanski, Wayne E. Thogmartin
2023, Methods in Ecology and Evolution (23)
Bats provide ecologically and agriculturally important ecosystem services but are currently experiencing population declines caused by multiple environmental stressors, including mortality from white-nose syndrome and wind energy development. Analyses of the current and future health and viability of these species may support conservation management decision making....
Snowpack relative permittivity and density derived from near-coincident lidar and ground-penetrating radar
Randall Bonnell, Daniel McGrath, Andrew Hedrick, Ernesto Trujillo, Tate Meehan, Keith Williams, Hans-Peter Marshall, Graham A. Sexstone, John Fulton, Michael Ronayne, Steven R. Fassnacht, Ryan Webb, Katherine Hale
2023, Hydrological Processes (37)
Depth-based and radar-based remote sensing methods (e.g., lidar, synthetic aperture radar) are promising approaches for remotely measuring snow water equivalent (SWE) at high spatial resolution. These approaches require snow density estimates, obtained from in-situ measurements or density models, to calculate SWE. However, in-situ measurements...
Evaluation of breeding distribution and chronology of North American scoters
Kristin Bianchini, Scott G. Gilliland, Alicia Berlin, Timothy D. Bowman, W. Sean Boyd, Susan E. W. De La Cruz, Daniel Esler, Joseph R. Evenson, Paul L. Flint, Christine Lepage, Scott R. McWilliams, Dustin E. Meattey, Jason E. Osenkowski, Matthew Perry, Jean-François Poulin, Eric T. Reed, Christian Roy, Jean-Pierre L. Savard, Lucas Savoy, Jason L Schamber, Caleb S. Spiegel, John Takekawa, David H. Ward, Mark L. Mallory
2023, Wildlife Biology (2023)
North America's scoter species are poorly monitored relative to other waterfowl. Black Melanitta americana, surf M. perspicillata, and white-winged M. deglandi scoter abundance and trend estimates are thus uncertain in many parts of these species' ranges. The most extensive source of waterfowl abundance and distribution data in North...
