Individual return patterns of spawning flannelmouth sucker (Catostomus latipinnis) to a desert river tributary
Sophia Marie Bonjour, Keith B. Gido, Charles N. Cathcart, Mark C. McKinstry
2024, Scientific Reports (14)
Tributaries provide temporal and spatial habitat heterogeneity in river networks that can be critical for parts of the life history of a species. Tributary fidelity can benefit individual fish undergoing spawning migrations by reducing time and energy spent exploring new areas and leveraging previous experience, but anthropogenic activities that fragment...
A new water temperature modeling approach to predict thermal habitat suitability for nonnative cichlids in Florida rivers
Alexandra M. Scott, Andrew Kenneth Carlson
2024, Journal of Freshwater Ecology (39)
As global temperatures increase, the spatiotemporal arrangement of thermal habitats in Florida rivers may shift, creating the potential for greater dispersal and establishment of nonnative tropical freshwater fishes. To understand how water temperature changes may affect the spatial distribution of these nonnative species, more effective water temperature prediction models are...
Exploring the dynamic interactions between the Southern San Andreas Fault and a normal fault under the Salton Sea
Luis Ivan Bazan Flores, Christodoulos Kyriakopoulos, David D. Oglesby, Aron J. Meltzner, Thomas K. Rockwell, John M. Fletcher, Daniel S. Brothers
2024, Journal of Geophysical Research Solid Earth (129)
We investigate the dynamic interactions between the Southern San Andreas Fault (SSAF) and a proximal normal fault (NF) beneath the Salton Sea in southern California. The NF, positioned near the SSAF terminus at Bombay Beach, exhibits 11–15 displacement events across 14 stratigraphic sequences, with a range of 0.2–1.4 m of vertical...
Geologic map of the southern Stillwater Range, Nevada
David A. John, Joseph P. Colgan, Margaret E. Berry, Christopher D. Henry, Norman J. Silberling
2024, Scientific Investigations Map 3521
The southern Stillwater Range in west-central Nevada contains the western part of the Oligocene Stillwater-Clan Alpine caldera complex, which extends about 55 kilometers (km) east from the west side of the Stillwater Range to the northwestern Desatoya Mountains. The complex consists of at least seven nested ignimbrite calderas and subjacent...
Effect of invasive plant removal on the density of Peromyscus sonoriensis (western deer mice) in Point Reyes National Seashore, California, USA.
Jonathan P. Rose, Lorraine S Parsons, Patrick M. Kleeman, Brian J. Halstead
2024, Ecological Restoration (42) 271-283
Non-native plants can affect communities through direct competition, and by providing refuge to seed predators, creating apparent competition with native plants. Ammophila arenaria (European beachgrass) has been introduced to coastal dune habitats throughout the western United States where it forms dense monocultures, stabilizes dunes, and alters abiotic and biotic conditions....
Geomorphic map of the Umatilla River corridor, Oregon
Ian P. Yuh, Ralph A. Haugerud, Jim E. O'Connor, Scott J. O’Daniel
2024, Scientific Investigations Map 3527
This map portrays the distribution of landforms along the Umatilla River in northeastern Oregon and covers a corridor 127 kilometers long from the confluence of the Umatilla River with the Columbia River upstream to Meacham Creek. The map encompasses the valley bottom and extends about 1 kilometer up the adjoining...
Developing a predictive model to identify Sea Lamprey parasitism on Lake Trout using biologgers
Connor Reeve, Jean V. Adams, Scott M. Miehls, Michael R. Lowe, Steven J. Cooke, Mary L. Moser, Jake W. Brownscombe
2024, Transactions of American Fisheries Society (153) 781-801
ObjectiveSea Lamprey Petromyzon marinus remain problematic for Lake Trout Salvelinus namaycush restoration in the Laurentian Great Lakes. Fisheries assessments would benefit from knowledge of spatial–temporal patterns of Sea Lamprey parasitism on Lake Trout; however, such patterns are challenging to estimate from wounding rates on caught Lake...
Evaluating the sagebrush conservation design through the lens of a sagebrush indicator species
Brian G. Prochazka, Carl Gregory Lundblad, Kevin E. Doherty, Shawn T. O’Neil, John C. Tull, Steve C. Abele, Cameron L. Aldridge, Peter S. Coates
2024, Rangeland Ecology & Management (97) 146-159
Sagebrush ecosystems support a suite of unique species such as the emblematic greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus; sage-grouse) but are under increasing pressure from anthropogenic stressors such as annual grass invasion, conifer encroachment, altered wildfire regimes, and land use change. We examined the ability of an ecosystem-based framework for sagebrush conservation,...
Apatite and monazite geochemistry record magmatic and metasomatic processes in rare earth element mineralization at Mountain Pass, California
Erin Kay Benson, Kathryn E. Watts
2024, Economic Geology (119) 1611-1642
The largest rare earth element (REE) deposit in the United States is a carbonatite intrusion at Mountain Pass in the Mojave Desert, California. Despite a clear spatiotemporal association of alkaline silicate and carbonatite intrusions at Mountain Pass, a genetic model of their mutual formation has not been resolved. The Mountain...
Juvenile coho salmon growth differences track biennial pink salmon spawning patterns
Kevin A. Fitzgerald, J. Ryan Bellmore, Jason B. Fellman, Matthew L.H. Cheng, Naomi Boyles-Muehleck, Claire E. Delbecq, Jeffrey A. Falke
2024, Freshwater Biology (69) 1583-1595
1. Spawning Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) provide marine-derived resources (MDR) to freshwater food webs in the form of eggs, flesh and maggots that consume salmon carcasses, all of which positively impact stream-dwelling fish growth. Pink salmon (O. gorbuscha) are widely distributed throughout coastal catchments along the North Pacific Ocean and display increased...
Heart of the West: Wyoming’s commitment to conservation of migratory ungulates
Emily Reed, Matthew J. Kauffman
2024, Book chapter, A watershed moment: The American West in the age of limits
The small town of Superior, Wyoming, used to be a booming coal town. Pictures from the 1920s reveal sparkling new cars, a bowling alley, and other amenities supported by the wealth of the coal mines. Today, those prosperous days are nowhere to be seen. Superior doesn’t have a grocery store...
Best practices for incorporating climate change science into Department of the Interior analyses, consultations, and decision making
Adam J. Terando, Anna Maureen Tucker, Amber N. Runyon, James A. Miller, Judy L. Perkins, Sean W. Kimbrel, Amanda S. Cross, Ryan P. Boyles
2024, Report
The purpose of this document is to provide technical guidance, practical application examples, and resource lists for those who conduct, manage, and/or interpret technical workflows within the Department of the Interior. This document is intended to support implementation of Department of the Interior policy 526 DM 1 and establish best...
Use of continuous water-quality time-series data to compute total phosphorus concentrations and loads for the Missouri River at St. Joseph and Hermann, Missouri, 2007–22
Kendra M. Markland
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5097
In support of Missouri’s Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy, which was created to reduce the nutrient contamination of Missouri’s waterways from point and nonpoint sources, total phosphorus concentrations and loads were computed for the Missouri River at St. Joseph, Missouri, streamgage (U.S. Geological Survey station 06818000) and the Missouri River at...
Penguin colony georegistration using camera pose estimation and phototourism
Haoyu Wu, Clare Flynn, Carole Hall, Christian Joseph Che-Castaldo, Dimitris Samaras, Mathew Schwaller, Heather J. Lynch
2024, PLoS ONE (19)
Satellite-based remote sensing and uncrewed aerial imagery play increasingly important roles in the mapping of wildlife populations and wildlife habitat, but the availability of imagery has been limited in remote areas. At the same time, ecotourism is a rapidly growing industry and can yield a vast catalog of photographs that...
Examining inter-regional and intra-seasonal differences in wintering waterfowl landscape associations among Pacific and Atlantic flyways
Matthew J. Hardy, Christopher K. Williams, Brian S. Ladman, Maurice E. Pitesky, Cory T. Overton, Michael L. Casazza, Elliott Matchett, Diann J. Prosser, Jeffrey J. Buler
2024, Preprint
The Central Valley of California (CVC) and Mid-Atlantic (MA) in the U.S. are both critical sites for nationwide food security (California Poultry Federation 2016, Prosser et al. 2017), and many waterfowl species annually, especially during the winter, providing feeding and roosting locations for a variety of species. Mapping waterfowl distributions,...
Identifying and filling critical knowledge gaps can optimize financial viability of blue carbon projects in tidal wetlands
Tim J.B. Carruthers, S. Beaux Jones, Megan K. Terrell, Jonathan F. Scheibly, Brendan J. Player, Valerie A. Black, Justin R. Ehrenwerth, Patrick D. Biber, Rod M. Connolly, Steve Crooks, Jason P. Curole, Kelly M. Darnell, Alyssa M. Dausman, Allison L. DeJong, Shawn M. Doyle, Christopher R. Esposito, Daniel A. Friess, James W. Fourqurean, Ioannis Y. Georgiou, Gabriel D. Grimsditch, Songjie He, Eva R. Hillmann, Guerry O. Holm Jr., Jennifer Howard, Hoonshin Jung, Stacy D. Jupiter, Erin P. Kiskaddon, Ken Krauss, Paul S. Lavery, Bingqing Liu, Catherine E. Lovelock, Sarah K. Mack, Peter I. Macreadie, Karen J. McGlathery, J. Patrick Megonigal, Brian J. Roberts, Scott Settelmyer, Lorie W. Staver, Hilary J. Stevens, Ariana Eileen Sutton-Grier, Jorge A. Villa, John R. White, Michelle Waycott
2024, Frontiers in Environmental Science (12)
One of the world’s largest “blue carbon” ecosystems, Louisiana’s tidal wetlands on the US Gulf of Mexico coast, is rapidly being lost. Louisiana’s strong legal, regulatory, and monitoring framework, developed for one of the world’s largest tidal wetland systems, provides an opportunity for a programmatic approach to blue carbon accreditation...
Predictive modeling reveals elevated conductivity relative to background levels in freshwater tributaries within the Chesapeake Bay watershed, USA
Rosemary M. Fanelli, Joel Moore, Charles C. Stillwell, Andrew J. Sekellick, Richard Walker
2024, ES&T Water (4) 4978-4989
Elevated conductivity (i.e., specific conductance or SC) causes osmotic stress in freshwater aquatic organisms and may increase the toxicity of some contaminants. Indices of benthic macroinvertebrate integrity have declined in urban areas across the Chesapeake Bay watershed (CBW), and more information is needed about whether these...
Mitigating climate change by abating coal mine methane: A critical review of status and opportunities
C. Ozgen Karacan, Robert A. Field, Maria Olczak, Malgorzata Kasprzak, Felicia Ruiz, Stefan Schwietzke
2024, International Journal of Coal Geology (295)
Methane has a short atmospheric lifetime compared to carbon dioxide (CO2), ∼decade versus ∼centuries, but it has a much higher global warming potential (GWP), highlighting how reducing methane emissions can slow the rate of climate change. When considering the contribution of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to current global...
A systematic review of laboratory investigations into the pathogenesis of avian influenza viruses in wild avifauna of North America
Matthew Brandon Gonnerman, Christina Leyson, Jeffery D. Sullivan, Mary J. Pantin-Jackwood, Erica Spackman, Jennifer M. Mullinax, Diann Prosser
2024, Proceeding of the Royal Society B (291)
The lack of consolidated information regarding the response of wild bird species to infection with avian influenza virus (AIV) is a challenge to both conservation managers and researchers alike, with related sectors also impacted, such as public health and commercial poultry. Using two independent searches, we reviewed...
Effects of noise from oil and gas development on raptors and songbirds—A science synthesis to inform National Environmental Policy Act analyses
Logan M. Maxwell, Tait K. Rutherford, Nathan J. Kleist, Elisabeth C. Teige, Richard J. Lehrter, Megan A. Gilbert, David J.A. Wood, Aaron N. Johnston, John C. Tull, Travis S. Haby, Sarah K. Carter
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5087
The U.S. Geological Survey is working with Federal land management agencies to develop a series of science syntheses to support environmental effects analyses that agencies conduct to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). This report synthesizes science information about the potential effects of noise from oil and gas...
Dynamics, monitoring and forecasting of tephra in the atmosphere
Federica Pardini, Sara Barsotti, Contanza Bonadonna, Mattia de’ Michieli Vitturi, Arnau Folch, Larry G. Mastin, Soledad Osores, Andrew T. Prata
2024, Reviews of Geophysics (62)
Explosive volcanic eruptions inject hot mixtures of solid particles (tephra) and gasses into the atmosphere. Entraining ambient air, these mixtures can form plumes rising tens of kilometers until they spread laterally, forming umbrella clouds. While the largest clasts tend to settle in proximity to the volcano, the smallest fragments, commonly...
Evaluating the impact of uncertainty in ground motion forecasts for post-earthquake impact modeling applications
Davis T. Engler, Kishor S. Jaiswal, Mahadevan Ganesh
2024, Earthquake Spectra Journal (41) 524-546
The US Geological Survey’s (USGS) ShakeMap system provides a rapid characterization of strong ground shaking in areas directly affected by an earthquake. This study focuses on studying the aggregate effects of macroseismic shaking estimates from ShakeMap, expressed in terms of modified Mercalli intensity (MMI), when accounting for the uncertainty in...
The projected exposure and response of a natural barrier island system to climate-driven coastal hazards
Jennifer Anne Thomas, Patrick L. Barnard, Sean Vitousek, Li H. Erikson, Kai Alexander Parker, Kees Nederhoff, Kevin M. Befus, Manoochehr Shirzaei
2024, Scientific Reports (14)
Accelerating sea level rise (SLR) and changing storm patterns will increasingly expose barrier islands to coastal hazards, including flooding, erosion, and rising groundwater tables. We assess the exposure of Cape Lookout National Seashore, a barrier island system in North Carolina (USA), to projected SLR and storm hazards over the twenty-first...
Multi-decadal trophic shifts in Lake Erie yellow perch Perca flavescens
Joseph Schmitt, Ann Marie Gorman, Carey Knight, Mark Richard Dufour, James J. Roberts, Travis Hartman
2024, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (81) 1560-1580
In Lake Erie, yellow perch Perca flavescens support vast commercial and recreational fisheries, yet populations have recently declined. Using N = 5889 yellow perch stomachs collected from 1997 to 2021, we explored trends in the feeding ecology and trophic level of yellow perch with generalized additive models. Models revealed a significant decrease in yellow perch...
Predator-specific mortality of sage-grouse nests based on predator DNA on eggshells
Nolan A. Helmstetter, Courtney J. Conway, Shane Roberts, Jennifer R. Adams, Paul D. Makela, Lisette P. Waits
2024, Ecology and Evolution (14)
Greater sage-grouse (hereafter sage-grouse; Centrocercus urophasianus) populations have declined across their range. Increased nest predation as a result of anthropogenic land use is one mechanism proposed to explain these declines. However, sage-grouse contend with a diverse suite of nest predators that vary in functional traits (e.g., search tactics or hunting mode)...
