Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units program—2019 year in review postcard
John D. Thompson, Donald E. Dennerline, Dawn E. Childs
2020, General Information Product 195
Acting Chief’s MessageDear friends,I invite you to take a look at U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1463, “Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program—2019 Year in Review,” now available at https://doi.org/10.3133/cir1463. In this report, you will find details about the Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units (CRU) program concerning...
Evaluating artificial shelter arrays as a minimally invasive monitoring tool for the hellbender Cryptobranchus alleganiensis
C. M. Bodinof Jachowski, Beth Ross, W.A. Hopkins
2020, Endangered Species Research (41) 167-181
Hellbenders Cryptobranchus alleganiensis are critically imperiled amphibians throughout the eastern USA. Rock-lifting is widely used to monitor hellbenders but can severely disturb habitat. We asked whether artificial shelter occupancy (the proportion of occupied shelters in an array) would function as a proxy for hellbender abundance and thereby serve as a viable alternative...
OpenCLC: An open-source software tool for similarity assessment of linear hydrographic features
Ting Li, Larry Stanislawski, Tyler Brockmeyer, Shaowen Wang, Ethan J. Shavers
2020, SoftwareX (11)
The National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) is a foundational geospatial data source in the United States that enables extensive and diverse environmental research and supports decision-making in numerous contexts. However, the NHD requires regular validation and update given possible inconsistent initial collection and...
Human-associated species dominate passerine communities across the United States
Helen Sofaer, Curtis H. Flather, Catherine S. Jarnevich, Kristin P. Davis, Liba Pejchar
Catherine Sheard, editor(s)
2020, Global Ecology and Biogeography (29) 885-895
AimHuman development and agriculture can have transformative and homogenizing effects on natural systems, shifting the composition of ecological communities towards non-native and native species that tolerate or thrive under human-dominated conditions. These impacts cannot be fully captured by summarizing species presence, as they include dramatic changes to patterns of species...
Waterfowl occurrence and residence time as indicators of H5 and H7 avian influenza in North American Poultry
John M. Humphreys, Andy Ramey, David C. Douglas, Jennifer M. Mullinax, Catherine Soos, Paul T. Link, Patrick Walther, Diann J. Prosser
2020, Scientific Reports (10) 16
Avian influenza (AI) affects wild aquatic birds and poses hazards to human health, food security, and wildlife conservation globally. Accordingly, there is a recognized need for new methods and tools to help quantify the dynamic interaction between wild bird hosts and commercial poultry. Using satellite-marked waterfowl, we applied Bayesian...
Quantifying harvestable fish and crustacean production and associated economic values provided by oyster reefs
QT Lai, Elise R. Irwin, Yawen Zhang
2020, Ocean and Coastal Management (108)
Quantifying ecosystem services can provide information to justify conservation and restoration decisions so as to allocate limited resources effectively. Consequently, decision makers and public typically ask for simple and understandable information with confidence regarding the availability of the services and the...
The surface trace tool — Modeling complex planar interactions using ArcGIS
Drew B. Adams, Heather L. Parks
2020, Open-File Report 2019-1136
The surface trace tool comprises a Python script written for ArcGIS that will determine the line of intersection between a planar feature and a surface. Specifically, this tool was designed for geologic applications where geologic planar-feature orientations are reported as strike and dip, and the intersecting surface is the ground....
Evaluation of legacy and emerging organic chemicals using passive sampling devices on the North Branch Au Sable River near Lovells, Michigan, June 2018
Angela K. Brennan, David A. Alvarez
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2020-5002
The North Branch Au Sable River, located in the northern lower peninsula of Michigan near Lovells, Michigan, has historically been known for its brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) and its status as a blue ribbon trout stream; however, within the past few decades, there has been a decline in fish population....
A review of Cattail (Typha) invasion in North American wetlands
Sheel Bansal, Brian Tangen, Shane Lishawa, Sue Newman, Douglas Wilcox
2020, Fact Sheet 2019-3076
OverviewCattail (Typha) is an iconic emergent wetland plant found worldwide. By producing an abundance of wind-dispersed seeds, cattail can colonize wetlands across great distances, and its rapid growth rate, large size, and aggressive expansion result in dense stands in a variety of aquatic ecosystems such as marshes, ponds, lakes, and...
The 2019 Ridgecrest, California, earthquake sequence ground motions: Processed records and derived intensity metrics
John Rekoske, Eric M. Thompson, Morgan P. Moschetti, Mike Hearne, Brad T. Aagaard, Grace Alexandra Parker
2020, Seismological Research Letters (91) 2010-2023
Following the 2019 Ridgecrest, California, earthquake sequence, we compiled ground‐motion records from multiple data centers and processed these records using newly developed ground‐motion processing software that performs quality assurance checks, performs standard time series processing steps, and computes a wide range of ground‐motion metrics. In addition, we compute station and...
Timescales of magmatic processes in post-collisional potassic lavas, northwestern Tibet
Haibo Zou, Jorge A. Vazquez, Qicheng Fan
2020, LITHOS (358-359)
Post-collisional potassic volcanic rocks on the Tibetan Plateau are widespread, but geologically young (<375 ka) volcanism suitable for 238U-230Th geochronology is rare on the plateau. The geologically young Ashikule volcanic field from northern Tibet offers an excellent opportunity for studying high-resolution timescales of...
Spatial and temporal trends in Potomac River fish abundance linked to species traits
Nathaniel P. Hitt, Karli Rogers, Zachary A. Kelly, Josh Henesy, John E. Mullican
2020, Ecosphere (11)
Analysis of species abundance trends can inform an understanding of the underlying mechanisms. We evaluated spatial and temporal trends in fish species abundance in the non-tidal Potomac River (USA) from a dataset comprising 2841 seine-hauls with > 250,000 individual fish records across 10 sites and 43 years (1975-2017). The dataset...
Timing, frequency, and duration of incubation recesses in dabbling ducks
Rebecca Croston, C. Alex Hartman, Mark P. Herzog, Michael L. Casazza, Cliff L. Feldheim, Joshua T. Ackerman
2020, Ecology and Evolution (10) 2513-2529
Nest attendance is an important determinant of avian reproductive success, and identifying factors that influence the frequency and duration of incubation recesses furthers our understanding of how incubating birds balance their needs with those of their offspring. We characterized the frequency and timing (start time, end time, and duration) of...
Infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus specialization in a multihost salmonid system
David Paez, Shannon L. LaDeau, Rachel Breyta, Gael Kurath, Kerry A. Naish, Paige Ferguson
2020, Evolutionary Applications (13) 1841-1853
Many pathogens interact and evolve in communities where more than one host species is present, yet our understanding of host–pathogen specialization is mostly informed by laboratory studies with single species. Managing diseases in the wild, however, requires understanding how host–pathogen specialization affects hosts in diverse communities....
Forest vegetation change and its impacts on soil water following 47 years of managed wildfire
Jens Stevens, Gabrielle F. S. Boisrame, Ekaterina Rakhmatulina, Sally E. Thompson, Brandon M. Collins, Scott L. Stephens
2020, Ecosystems (23) 1547-1565
Managed wildfire is an increasingly relevant management option to restore variability in vegetation structure within fire-suppressed montane forests in western North America. Managed wildfire often reduces tree cover and density, potentially leading to increases in soil moisture availability, water storage in soils and groundwater, and streamflow. However, the potential hydrologic...
Anthropogenic pollutants and biomarkers for the identification of 2011 Tohoku-oki tsunami deposits (Japan)
Piero Bellanova, Mike Frenken, Klaus Reicherter, Bruce E. Jaffe, Witold Szczucinski, Jan Schwarzbauer
2020, Marine Geology (422)
Organic geochemistry is commonly used in environmental studies. In tsunami research, however, its applications are in their infancy and it is still rarely used. We present results for two types of organic geochemical markers, biomarkers and anthropogenic markers, present in deposits...
A new technique to calculate earthquake stress transfer and to forecast aftershocks
Margarita Segou, Thomas E. Parsons
2020, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (110) 863-873
Coseismic stress changes have been the primary physical principle used to explain aftershocks and triggered earthquakes. However, this method does not adequately forecast earthquake rates and diverse rupture populations when subjected to formal testing. We show that earthquake forecasts can be impaired by assumptions made in physics-based models, such as...
Semiautomated estimates of directivity and related source properties of small to moderate southern California earthquakes using second seismic moments
Haoran Meng, Jeffrey J. McGuire, Yehuda Ben-Zion
2020, Journal of Geophysical Research (125)
We develop a semiautomated method for estimating with second seismic moments the directivity, rupture area, duration, and centroid velocity of earthquakes. The method is applied to 41 southern California earthquakes with magnitude in the range 3.5–5.2 and provides stable results for 28 events. Apparent source time functions (ASTFs) of P and S phases are...
Paddlefish management and conservation: Opportunities and challenges at home and abroad
Cecil A. Jennings
2020, Fisheries Magazine (45) 334-334
Ratcheting up rigor in wildlife management decision making
Angela K. Fuller, Daniel J. Decker, Michael V. Schiavone, Ann Forstchen
2020, Wildlife Society Bulletin (44) 29-41
The wildlife management institution has been transforming to ensure relevance and positive conservation outcomes into the future. Continuous improvement of decision making is one aspect of this transformation, but many obstacles hinder systematic approaches to decision making. One can point to examples of formal decision science applications by state and...
Bridging the research-management gap: Landscape ecology in practice on public lands in the western United States
Sarah K. Carter, David S. Pilliod, Travis S. Haby, Karen L. Prentice, Cameron L. Aldridge, Patrick J. Anderson, Zachary H. Bowen, John B. Bradford, Samuel A. Cushman, Joseph C. DeVivo, Michael C. Duniway, Ryan S. Hathaway, Lisa Nelson, Courtney A. Schultz, Rudy Schuster, E. Jamie Trammell, Jake Weltzin
2020, Landscape Ecology (35) 545-560
The field of landscape ecology has grown and matured in recent decades, but incorporating landscape science into land management decisions remains challenging. Many lands in the western United States are federally owned and managed for multiple uses, including recreation, conservation, and energy development. We argue for stronger integration of landscape...
Geology and assessment of undiscovered oil and gas resources of the Sverdrup Basin Province, Arctic Canada, 2008
Marilyn E. Tennyson, Janet K. Pitman
Thomas E. Moore, Donald L. Gautier, editor(s)
2020, Professional Paper 1824-I
The Sverdrup Basin Province, an area of 515,000 square kilometers on the northern margin of North America, extends 1,300 kilometers across the Canadian Arctic Islands from near the Mackenzie Delta to northern Ellesmere Island. It consists of an intracratonic late Paleozoic to early Cenozoic rift-sag basin and a Mesozoic rift...
Short-term forecasts of insect phenology inform pest management
Theresa M. Crimmins, Katharine L. Gerst, Diego Huerta, R. Lee Marsh, Erin E. Posthumus, Alyssa H. Rosemartin, Jeff R. Switzer, Jake Weltzin, Len Coop, Nicholas Dietschler, Daniel A. Herms, Samita Limbu, R. Talbot Trotter, Mark Whitmore
2020, Annals of the Entomological Society of America (113) 139-148
Insect pests cost billions of dollars per year globally, negatively impacting food crops and infrastructure, and contributing to the spread of disease. Timely information regarding developmental stages of pests can facilitate early detection and control, increasing efficiency and effectiveness. In 2018, the U.S. National Phenology Network (USA-NPN) released a suite...
Linking monitoring and data analysis to predictions and decisions for the range-wide eastern black rail status assessment
Conor P. McGowan, N. Angeli, W. Beisler, C.W. Snyder, N.M. Rankin, J. Woodrow, J. Wilson, E. Rivenbark, A. Schwarzer, C. Hand, R.M. Anthony, R. Griffin, K. Barrett, A. Haverland, N. Roach, T. Schneider, A. J. Smith, F. Smith, J. Tolliver, Bryan D Watts
2020, Endangered Species Research (43) 209-222
The US Fish and Wildlife Service has initiated a re-envisioned approach for providing decision makers with the best available science and synthesis of that information, called the Species Status Assessment (SSA), for endangered species decision making. The SSA report is a descriptive document that provides decision makers with an assessment...
Mixed organic and inorganic tapwater exposures and potential effects in greater Chicago area, USA
Paul Bradley, Maria Argos, Dana W. Kolpin, Shannon M. Meppelink, Kristin M. Romanok, Kelly L. Smalling, Michael J. Focazio, Joshua M. Allen, Julie E. Dietze, Michael J. Devito, Ariel Donovan, Nicola Evans, Carrie E. Givens, James L. Gray, Christopher P. Higgins, Michelle L. Hladik, Luke Iwanowicz, Celeste A. Journey, Rachael F. Lane, Zachary R. Laughrey, Keith A. Loftin, R. Blaine McCleskey, Carrie A. McDonough, Elizabeth K Medlock Kakaley, Michael T. Meyer, Andrea Holthouse-Putz, Susan D Richardson, Alan Stark, Christopher P. Weis, Vickie S. Wilson, Abderrahman Zehraoui
2020, Science of the Total Environment (719)
Safe drinking water at the point of use (tapwater, TW) is a public-health priority. TW exposures and potential human-health concerns of 540 organics and 35 inorganics were assessed in 45 Chicago area United States (US) homes in 2017. No US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) enforceable Maximum Contaminant Level(s) (MCL) were...
