The relationship between whumpf observations and avalanche activity in Colorado, USA
Jason Konigsberg, Ron Simenhois, Karl Birkeland, Erich Peitzsch, Doug Chabot, Ethan Greene
2023, Conference Paper, Proceedings, International Snow Science Workshop 2023
Triggering whumpfs is a primary indicator of unstable snowpack conditions. Although backcountry travelers and avalanche forecasters rely on whumpfs as a warning sign of potential avalanches, there is little formal research to confirm this relationship. This study investigated the temporal correlation between whumpfs and avalanche activity in data from Colorado's...
Mapping a glide avalanche with terrestrial lidar in Glacier National Park, USA
James W. Dillon, Zachary Miller, Erich Peitzsch, Kevin D. Hammonds
2023, Conference Paper, Proceedings, International Snow Science Workshop 2023
Thorough documentation of large avalanche events is important for forecasting efforts, infrastructure planning, and investigating the processes involved in avalanche formation and release. However, due in part to the isolated and dangerous nature of avalanche terrain, collecting in-situ, spatially continuous, and quantitative information surrounding avalanches remains difficult. Advances in remote...
Temporal evolution of slab and weak layer properties during the transition from dry to wet snowpack conditions
Josh Lipkowitz, Erich Peitzsch, Jean Dixon, Marcus Kalb, Douglas McCabe, Griffin Ditmar, Christoph Mitterer
2023, Conference Paper, Proceedings, International Snow Science Workshop 2023
Wet-snow slab avalanches are destructive and may become more prevalent in a warming climate. This type of avalanche remains challenging to forecast because the underlying processes leading to wet-snow slab avalanche release are poorly understood. In this study, we examine the temporal evolution of weak layer and slab liquid water...
Under-forecasting wet avalanche cycles: Case studies and lessons learned from two wet avalanche cycles in northwest Montana and central Colorado
Zachary Guy, Erich Peitzsch
2023, Conference Paper, Proceedings, International Snow Science Workshop 2023
Predicting the timing and location of natural wet avalanche events is challenging, especially the release of wet slabs. In this study, we describe the existing snowpack structure, weather, and observed avalanche activity for two separate wet avalanche cycles in different avalanche climate types: northwest Montana and central Colorado. In both...
Spatial extent of forested avalanche terrain impacted by wildfire across the Sawtooth National Forest
Zachary Miller, John Sykes, Megan Guinn, Benjamin VandenBos, Scott Savage, Erich Peitzsch
2023, Conference Paper, Proceedings, International Snow Science Workshop 2023
Forest structure is a major driver of mountain snowpacks and avalanche occurrence. Healthy forests can reduce the incidence of dangerous slab avalanches, slow avalanches when in motion, shorten their runout distances, and act as a safety buffer for backcountry users, infrastructure, and transportation corridors. Since 1984, wildfire area in the...
Big avalanches in a changing climate: Using tree-ring derived avalanche chronologies to examine avalanche frequency across multiple climate types
Erich Peitzsch, Gregory T. Pederson, Justin Martin, Eran Hood, Ethan Greene, Karl Birkeland, Kelly Elder, Gabriel Wolken, Nickolas E. Kichas, Daniel Kent Stahle, John Harley
2023, Conference Paper, Proceedings, International Snow Science Workshop 2023
Large-magnitude snow avalanches pose a hazard to humans and infrastructure worldwide. Analyzing the spatiotemporal behavior of avalanches and the contributory climate factors is important for understanding historical variability in climate-avalanche relationships as well as improving avalanche forecasting. This study uses established dendrochronological methods to develop long-term regional avalanche chronologies for...
Using tree rings to compare Colorado’s 2019 avalanche cycle to previous large avalanche cycles
Erich Peitzsch, Ethan Greene, Jason Konigsberg, Gregory T. Pederson, Justin Martin, Nickolas Kichas, Daniel Kent Stahle, Adrien Favillier, Nicolas Eckert, Karl Birkeland, Kelly Elder
2023, Conference Paper, Proceedings, International Snow Science Workshop 2023
Large magnitude avalanches (size ≥D3) impact settlements, transportation corridors, and public safety worldwide. In Colorado, United States, avalanches have killed more people than any other natural hazard since 1950. In March 2019, a historically large magnitude avalanche cycle occurred throughout the entire mountainous portion of Colorado resulting in more than...
Compost, plants and endophytes versus metal contamination: Choice of a restoration strategy steers the microbiome in polymetallic mine waste
Martina Kracmarova, Jakub Papik, Ondrej Uhlik, John Freeman, Andrea L. Foster, Mary-Catherine Leewis, Courtney Creamer
2023, Environmental Microbiome (18)
Finding solutions for the remediation and restoration of abandoned mining areas is of great environmental importance as they pose a risk to ecosystem health. In this study, our aim was to determine how remediation strategies with (i) compost amendment, (ii) planting a metal-tolerant grass Bouteloua curtipendula, and...
Scenario-Based Decision Analysis: Integrated scenario planning and structured decision making for resource management under climate change
Brian W. Miller, Mitchell Eaton, Amy Symstad, Gregor W. Schuurman, Imtiaz Rangwala, William R. Travis
2023, Biological Conservation (286)
Managing resources under climate change is a high-stakes and daunting task, especially because climate change and associated complex biophysical responses engender sustained directional changes as well as abrupt transformations. This environmental non-stationarity challenges assumptions and expectations among scientists, managers, rights...
Long-term changes in concentrations and yield of riverine dissolved silicon from the poles to the tropics
Kathi Jo Jankowski, Keira Johnson, Lienne R. Sethna, Paul Julian, Adam S. Wymore, Arial J. Shogren, Patrick Thomas, Pamela L. Sullivan, Diane M. McKnight, William H. McDowell, Ruth C. Heindel, Jeremy B. Jones, Wilfred M. Wollheim, Benjamin Abbott, Linda A. Deegan, Joanna C. Carey
2023, Global Biogeochemical Cycles (37)
Riverine exports of silicon (Si) influence global carbon cycling through the growth of marine diatoms, which account for ∼25% of global primary production. Climate change will likely alter river Si exports in biome-specific ways due to interacting shifts in chemical weathering rates, hydrologic connectivity, and metabolic processes in aquatic and...
High-frequency variability of carbon dioxide fluxes in tidal water over a temperate salt marsh
Shuzhen Song, Zhaohui Aleck Wang, Kevin D. Kroeger, Meagan J. Eagle, Sophie N. Chu, Jianzhong Ge
2023, Limnology & Oceanography (68) 2108-2125
Existing analyses of salt marsh carbon budgets rarely quantify carbon loss as CO2 through the air–water interface in inundated marshes. This study estimates the variability of partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2) and air–water CO2 fluxes over summer and fall of 2014 and 2015 using high-frequency measurements of tidal water pCO2 in a salt marsh of...
Bathymetric contour maps, surface area and capacity tables, and bathymetric change maps for selected water-supply lakes in northeastern Missouri, 2021
Benjamin C. Rivers, Richard J. Huizinga, Joseph M. Richards, Garett J. Waite
2023, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5108
Bathymetric data were collected at 12 water-supply lakes in northeastern Missouri by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (MoDNR) and various local agencies, as part of a multiyear effort to establish or update the surface area and capacity tables for the surveyed...
Mapping methane reduction potential of tidal wetland restoration in the United States
James Holmquist, Meagan J. Eagle, Rebecca Molinari, Sydney K. Nick, Liana Stachowicz, Kevin D. Kroeger
2023, Communications Earth & Environment (4)
Coastal wetlands can emit excess methane in cases where they are impounded and artificially freshened by structures that impede tidal exchange. We provide a new assessment of coastal methane reduction opportunities for the contiguous United States by combining multiple publicly available map layers, reassessing greenhouse gas emissions datasets, and applying...
Long-term trends in Arctic riverine chemistry signal multi-faceted northern change
Suzanne E. Tank, James W. McClelland, Robert G. M. Spencer, Alexander I. Shiklomanov, Anya Suslova, Florentina Moatar, Rainer Amon, Lee W. Cooper, Greg Elias, Vyacheslav Gordeev, Christopher Guay, Tatiana Gurtovaya, Lyudmila Kosmenko, Edda A. Mutter, Bruce Peterson, Bernhard Peucker-Ehrenbrink, Peter Raymond, Paul Schuster, Lindsay Scott, Robin Staples, Robert G. Striegl, Mikhail Tretiakov, Alexander V. Zhulidov, Nikita Zimov, Sergey Zimov, Robert M. Holmes
2023, Nature Geoscience (16) 789-796
Rivers integrate processes occurring throughout their watersheds and are therefore sentinels of change across broad spatial scales. River chemistry also regulates ecosystem function across Earth’s land–ocean continuum, exerting control from the micro- (for example, local food web) to the macro- (for example, global carbon cycle) scale. In the rapidly warming...
Predation of invasive silver carp by native largemouth bass is size-selective in the Illinois River
Eli G. Lampo, Jonathan M. Vallazza, Cory A. Anderson, Levi E. Solomon, Richard M. Pendleton, Toby J. Holda, James T. Lamer
2023, Scientific Reports (13)
Silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix) are a nonnative, planktivorous, and highly invasive species of cyprinid located throughout the Mississippi River Basin. Although they co-occur with largemouth bass (Micropterus nigricans), an abundant native predatory fish, their predator–prey relationship is poorly understood. This potential relationship warrants investigation as largemouth...
Scale-dependent tradeoffs between habitat and time in explaining Alligator Gar (Atractosteus spatula) movement
Johnathan K. Ellard, Hayden C. Roberts, Daniel J. Daugherty, Paul B. Fleming, Matthew Ross Acre, Joshuah S. Perkin
2023, Environmental Biology of Fishes
Ecological theory predicts that movement by riverine fishes at the population level is characterized by both stationary and mobile individuals together creating a leptokurtic distribution of movement distances. However, studies testing this theory typically ignore spatial heterogeneity in riverscapes, and the theory has not been tested...
Independent age estimates resolve the controversy of ancient human footprints at White Sands
Jeffrey S. Pigati, Kathleen B. Springer, Jeffrey S. Honke, David Wahl, Marie Rhondelle Champagne, Susan R.H. Zimmerman, Harrison J. Gray, Vincent L. Santucci, Daniel Odess, David Bustos, Matthew R. Bennett
2023, Science (382) 73-75
Human footprints at White Sands National Park, New Mexico, USA, reportedly date to between ~23,000 and 21,000 years ago according to radiocarbon dating of seeds from the aquatic plant Ruppia cirrhosa. These ages remain controversial because of potential old carbon reservoir effects that could compromise their accuracy. We present new...
Flood damage costs beyond buildings—A Lake Champlain case study
Charles Rhodes
2023, Fact Sheet 2023-3034
IntroductionFloods account for more than 75 percent of Federal disaster declarations and lead other natural disasters in economic costs. Early-warning systems have lowered flood-related fatalities, but costs continue to rise as flood-prone areas continue to be urbanized (U.S. Geological Survey, 2006). A Lake Champlain case study shows that at moderate...
Wide-area debris field and seabed characterization of a deep ocean dump site surveyed by autonomous underwater vehicles
Sophia T. Merrifield, Sean Celona, Ryan A. McCarthy, Andrew Pietruszka, Heidi Batchelor, Robert Hess, Andrew Nager, Raymond Young, Kurt Sadorf, Lisa A. Levin, David L. Valentine, James E. Conrad, Eric J. Terrill
2023, Environmental Science and Technology (57) 18162-18171
Disposal of industrial and hazardous waste in the deep ocean was a pervasive global practice near coastlines in the 20th century. Uncertainty in the quantity, location, and contents of dumped materials at historical disposal sites underscores ongoing risks to marine ecosystems and human health. This study presents analysis of a...
Critical minerals in subduction-related magmatic-hydrothermal systems of the United States
Peter Vikre, David John, Niki E. Wintzer, Fleetwood Koutz, Frederick Graybeal, Chris Dail, David C. Annis
2023, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5082
During the World War and Cold War eras (1910s–1990s), domestic consumption of numerous mineral commodities relied increasingly on imported supplies. Consumption reliance has since expanded to include 50 “critical minerals” (elements and mineral commodities) that are mostly to entirely imported and subject to curtailment by suppliers or supply chain disruption....
Long-term demographic analysis of the Cape Sable seaside sparrow (1992–2021)
Marisa Takada Martinez, Laura D'Acunto, Stephanie Romanach
2023, Report
The Cape Sable seaside sparrow (Ammospiza maritima mirabilis) is an endangered species that has experienced a population decline of more than 60% since 1981. Despite its critical population status, a statistically robust analysis of the species’ demographic rates utilizing all data has yet to be completed (Benscoter et al. 2021)....
Comparing reintroduction strategies for the endangered San Francisco gartersnake (Thamnophis sirtalis tetrataenia) using demographic models
Jonathan P. Rose, Richard Kim, Elliot James Schoenig, Patrick C. Lien, Brian J. Halstead
2023, PLoS ONE (18)
For endangered species persisting in a few populations, reintroductions to unoccupied habitat are a popular conservation action to increase viability in the long term. Identifying the reintroduction strategy that is most likely to result in viable founder and donor populations is essential to optimally use resources...
Geochemical evidence for evolving Proterozoic crustal thickness and orogenic styles in southwestern Laurentia
Ian William Hillenbrand, Karl E. Karlstrom, Michael L. Williams, Amy K. Gilmer, Wayne R. Premo, Peter B Davis
2023, Earth and Planetary Science Letters (622)
It has long been challenging for researchers to track the crustal thickness and mode(s) of crustal modification in ancient convergent margins, limiting evaluation of the tectonic styles and processes that modify continental crust during orogenesis. We present trace element igneous geochemical crustal thickness proxies that quantitatively track...
Lessons learned from the 2022 CONVERSE Monogenetic Volcanism Response Scenario exercise
Yolanda C Lin, Einat Lev, Ria Mukerji, Tobias P. Fischer, Charles Connor, Wendy K. Stovall, M. Poland, Alexandra M. Iezzi, Christelle Wauthier, Judit Gonzalez-Santana, Heather M. Wright, Samantha Wolf, Tobi Kasali
2023, Volcanica (6) 345-366
When volcanic unrest occurs, the scientific community can advance fundamental understanding of volcanic systems, but only with coordination before, during, and after the event across academic and governmental agencies. To develop a coordinated response plan, the Community Network for Volcanic Eruption Response (CONVERSE) orchestrated a scenario exercise centered around a...
The sands of time: Predicting sea level rise impacts to barrier island habitats
Erin L. Koen, William Barichivich, Susan Walls
2023, Global Ecology and Conservation (47)
Coastal beach ecosystems support critical habitat for numerous species and are vulnerable to sea level rise. Sand beaches are spatially and temporally dynamic, making it difficult to accurately predict future habitat loss – estimates that are crucial as species are being assessed for protection. We mapped sand beach habitat on 12...
