Think regionally, act locally: Perspectives on co-design of spatial conservation prioritization tools and why end-user engagement altered our approach
Nicholas J. Van Lanen, Jessica E. Shyvers, Bryan C. Tarbox, Adrian P. Monroe, Patrick J. Anderson, Daniel K. Jones, Katharine G. Dahm, Cameron L. Aldridge
2024, Conservation Science and Practice (6)
Coproduction represents an inclusive approach for developing decision-support resources because it seeks to integrate scientific knowledge and end-user needs. Unfortunately, spatial decision support systems (SDSS) coproduction has sometimes resulted in limited utility for end-users, partially due to scarce SDSS coproduction guidance. To initiate coproduction, we...
External quality-assurance project report for the National Atmospheric Deposition Program National Trends Network and Mercury Deposition Network, 2021–22
Noel A. Deyette, Gregory A. Wetherbee, RoseAnn Martin
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5054
The U.S. Geological Survey Precipitation Chemistry Quality Assurance project (PCQA) operated five distinct programs to provide external quality-assurance monitoring for the National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP) National Trends Network (NTN) and Mercury Deposition Network (MDN) during 2021–22. The NTN programs included (1) a field audit program to evaluate sample contamination...
Four decades of data indicate that planted mangroves stored up to 75% of the carbon stocks found in intact mature stands
Carine F. Bourgeois, Richard A. MacKenzie, Sahadev Sharma, Rupesh K. Bhomia, Nels G. Johnson, Andre S. Rovai, Thomas A. Worthington, Ken Krauss, Kangkuso Analuddin, Jacob J. Bukoski, Jose Alan Castillo, Angie Elwin, Leah Glass, Tim C. Jennerjahn, Mwita M. Mangora, Cyril Marchand, Michael Osland, Ismael A. Ratefinjanahary, Raghab Ray, Severino G. Salmo, Sigit D. Sasmito, Rempei Suwa, Pham Hong Tinh, Carl C. Trettin
2024, Science Advances (10)
Mangroves’ ability to store carbon (C) has long been recognized, but little is known about whether planted mangroves can store C as efficiently as naturally established (i.e., intact) stands and in which time frame. Through Bayesian logistic models compiled from 40 years of data and built from 684 planted mangrove...
Rangewide occupancy of a flagship species, the Coastal California Gnatcatcher (Polioptila californica californica) in southern California: Habitat associations and recovery from wildfire
Barbara E. Kus, Kristine L. Preston, Alexandra Houston
2024, PLoS ONE (19)
The Coastal California Gnatcatcher (Polioptila californica californica), a federally threatened species, is a flagship species for regional conservation planning in southern California (USA). An inhabitant of coastal sage scrub vegetation, the gnatcatcher has declined in response to habitat loss and fragmentation, exacerbated by catastrophic wildfires. We...
Isotopic evaluation of the National Water Model reveals missing agricultural irrigation contributions to streamflow across the western United States
Annie L. Putman, Patrick C. Longley, Morgan C. McDonnell, James E. Reddy, Michelle P. Katoski, Olivia L. Miller, J. Renee Brooks
2024, Hydrology and Earth Systems Science (28) 2895-2918
The National Water Model (NWM) provides critical analyses and projections of streamflow that support water management decisions. However, the NWM performs poorly in lower-elevation rivers of the western United States (US). The accuracy of the NWM depends on the fidelity of the model inputs and the representation and calibration of...
A fine-scale examination of parturition timing in temperate ungulates
Matthew T. Turnley, Tabitha A. Hughes, Randy T. Larsen, Kent R. Hersey, Matthew S. Broadway, M. Colter Chitwood, W. Sue Fairbanks, Robert Charles Lonsinger, Brock R. McMillan
2024, Functional Ecology (14)
Parturition timing has long been a topic of interest in ungulate research. However, few studies have examined parturition timing at fine scale (e.g., <1 day). Predator activity and environmental conditions can vary considerably with diel timing, which may result in selective pressure for parturition to occur...
Coastal Science Navigator companion guide—Discover the U.S. Geological Survey coastal science products you need
Mira Anderberg, Sara Ernst
2024, Circular 1523
The Coastal Science Navigator is an online gateway to a wide variety of U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) coastal change hazards-related information, data, and tools relevant to stakeholders’ scientific and decision-making needs. The products within the Coastal Science Navigator provide data related to past, present, and future threats to our coastlines....
Nitrogen load estimates from six nonpoint sources on Long Island, New York, from 1900 to 2019
Jack Monti Jr., Donald A. Walter, Kalle Jahn
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5047
Estimates of nitrogen loading from nonpoint sources on Long Island, New York, at or just below the land surface, are essential for assessing the current and future effects of nitrogen on the island’s drinking water and fresh and marine surface receiving waters. Annual estimates of nitrogen loading for the 120...
Analysis of water use associated with hydraulic fracturing and determination of baseline water quality in watersheds within the shale play of eastern Ohio, 2021–23
S. Alex Covert, G. F. Koltun
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5045
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, performed a two-part study to (1) assess water use and temporal trends and changes in streamflow, and to (2) characterize 2021–23 baseline water quality, as they relate to oil and gas extraction activities in selected eastern Ohio...
An integrated analysis for estimation of survival, growth, and movement of unmarked juvenile anadromous fish
Patti J. Wohner, Adam Duarte, James T. Peterson
2024, Ecological Modelling (495)
Managers invest substantial resources to promote recovery of declining anadromous fish stocks. Recovery strategies are manifold and often include management actions intended to stimulate somatic growth, increase in-river survival, and motivate juvenile outmigration during favorable environmental conditions. Evaluating the efficacy of these management actions is difficult, however, because monitoring data...
A comparative analysis of OpenET for evaluating evapotranspiration in California almond orchards
Kyle Knipper, Martha Anderson, Nicolas Bambach, Forrest Melton, Zac Ellis, Yun Yang, J. M. Volk, Andrew J. McElrone, William P. Kustas, Matthew Roby, Will Carrara, Sebastian Castro, Ayse Kilic, Joshua B. Fisher, Anderson Ruhoff, Gabriel B. Senay, Charles Morton, Sebastian Saa, Richard G. Allen
2024, Agricultural and Forest Meteorology (355)
The almond industry in California faces water management challenges that are being exacerbated by droughts, climate change, and groundwater sustainability legislation. The Tree-crop Remote sensing of Evapotranspiration eXperiment (T-REX) aims to explore opportunities to improve precision irrigation management for woody perennial cropping systems. Almond orchards in the California Central Valley...
Characteristics of the fault damage zone From high-resolution seismic imaging along the Palos Verdes Fault, California
Travis Vincent Alongi, Emily Brodsky, Jared W. Kluesner, Daniel S. Brothers
2024, AGU Advances (5)
The distribution and intensity of fault damage zones provides insight into fault activity and its relationship to fluid flow in the crust. Presently, measures of the in-situ distribution of fault damage remain limited and along-strike studies are rare. This study focuses on an offshore section Palos Verdes Fault damage zone...
Spawning run estimates and phenology for an extremely small population of Atlantic Sturgeon in the Marshyhope Creek–Nanticoke River system, Chesapeake Bay
Nicholas Coleman, Dewayne Fox, Ashlee Horne, Nathan J. Hostetter, John Madsen, Michael O’Brien, Ian Park, Chuck Stence, David Secor
2024, Marine and Coastal Fisheries: Dynamics, Management, and Ecosystem Science (16)
ObjectiveOnce thought to be extirpated from the Chesapeake Bay, fall spawning runs of Atlantic Sturgeon Acipenser oxyrinchus have been rediscovered in the Marshyhope Creek (MC)–Nanticoke River (NR) system of Maryland, United States. High recapture rates in past telemetry surveys suggested a small population in the two connected tributaries. This...
Geospatial PDF map of the compilation of GIS data for the mineral industries and related infrastructure of Africa
Elizabeth R. Neustaedter, Ryan F. Kemna, Abraham J. Padilla, Donya Otarod
2024, Open-File Report 2024-1041
IntroductionIn 2021, the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) National Minerals Information Center (NMIC) completed the project titled "Compilation of geospatial data for the mineral industries and related infrastructure of Africa." This project aimed to leverage the expertise and capabilities of the NMIC to collect, synthesize, and interpret geospatial data to inform...
Accounting for missing ticks: Use (or lack thereof) of hierarchical models in tick ecology studies
Alexej P.K. Siren, Juliana Berube, Laurence A. Clarfeld, Cheryl F. Sullivan, Benjamin Simpson, Tammy L. Wilson
2024, Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases (15)
Ixodid (hard) ticks play important ecosystem roles and have significant impacts on animal and human health via tick-borne diseases and physiological stress from parasitism. Tick occurrence, abundance, activity, and key life-history traits are highly influenced by host availability, weather, microclimate, and landscape features. As such, changes in the environment can...
Water-quality trends in the Kansas River, Kansas, since enactment of the Clean Water Act, 1972–2020
Thomas J. Williams, Brian J. Klager, Tom C. Stiles
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5050
The Clean Water Act was passed by Congress in 1972 to regulate pollution within the waters of the United States. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE), the Kansas Water Office, the Nature Conservancy, the City of Lawrence, the City of...
The 17 January 1994 Northridge, California, earthquake: A retrospective analysis
Susan E. Hough, Robert Graves, Elizabeth S. Cochran, Clara Yoon, James Luke Blair, Scott Haefner, David J. Wald, Vince Quitoriano
2024, The Seismic Record (4) 151-160
The 17 January 1994 Northridge, California, earthquake was a watershed event, with far-reaching societal and scientific impacts. The earthquake, which occurred in the early days of both broadband seismic networks and the Internet, spurred advances in seismic monitoring, real-time systems, and development of data products. Motivated by the...
Adaptive fine-tuning for transferring a U-net hydrography extraction model using K-means
Larry Stanislawski, Ethan J. Shavers, Neal J. Pastick, Philip T. Thiem, Shaowen Wang, Nattapon Jaroenchai, Zhe Jiang, Barry J. Kronenfeld, Barbara P. Buttenfield, Adam Camerer
2024, Conference Paper
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) coordinates the collection of hydrographic features derived from remotely sensed interferometric synthetic aperture radar (IfSAR) elevation and intensity data in Alaska. Hydrographic features are cartographic representations of surface water features such as stream, rivers, lakes, ponds, canals, etc. Collection and validation procedures involve complex...
Effects of stochastically-simulated near-fault ground motions on soil liquefaction
Andrew James Makdisi, Mayssa Dabaghi, Lianne Brito Silveira, Sanaz Rezaeian, Kirstie Lafon Haynie, Henry Mason
2024, Conference Paper
The scarcity of historically recorded near-fault ground motions poses a challenge to systematically understanding the influence of near-fault effects on various types of seismic demands for engineering purposes. In particular, the current state of knowledge of the influence of ground-shaking intensity on soil liquefaction and its consequences does not specifically...
2024 Crustal Deformation Modeling Workshop report
Brad T. Aagaard, Matthew Knepley, Eric Lindsey, Kathryn Z. Materna, Hilary R Martens, Charles Williams
2024, Conference Paper
The 2024 Crustal Deformation Modeling Workshop was held June 10–14 at the Colorado School of Mines. The workshop included two days of tutorials on using PyLith for crustal deformation modeling, followed by three days of science talks and discussions. The workshop focused on four primary themes: ● Constraining long-term fault...
Pilot framework for fish habitat assessments across tidal and non tidal waters in the Patuxent River Basin
H Nisonson, Alexander H. Kiser, Benjamin P. Gressler, A Leight, John A. Young
2024, NOAA Technical Memorandum NOS NCCOS 332
As part of the 2014 Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement, all Bay States and the District of Columbia have committed to improving the condition of the Bay, which includes a goal to achieve sustainable fisheries. One outcome under that broad goal is improved effectiveness of fish habitat conservation and preservation efforts....
Reduction of large vessel traffic improves water quality and alters fish habitat-use throughout a large river
Michael J. Spear, Brandon S. Harris, Taylor A. Bookout, Brian Ickes, Kathi Jo Jankowski, Levi E. Solomon, Kristopher A. Maxson, Andrya L. Whitten Harris, Andrew T. Mathis, Sam J. Schaick, Jesse A. Williams, Jason A. DeBoer, Allison W. Lenaerts, Eric C. Hine, John H. Chick, James T. Lamer
2024, Science of the Total Environment (946)
Rivers are increasingly used as superhighways for the continental-scale transportation of freight goods, but the ecological impact of large vessel traffic on river ecosystems is difficult to study. Recently, the temporary maintenance closure of lock and dam systems on the Illinois Waterway (USA) brought...
Assessing the utility of uncrewed aerial system photogrammetrically derived point clouds for land cover classification in the Alaska North Slope
Jung-Kuan Liu, Rongjun Qin, Samantha T. Arundel
2024, Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing (PE&RS) (90) 405-414
Uncrewed aerial systems (UASs) have been used to collect “pseudo field plot” data in the form of large-scale stereo imagery to supplement and bolster direct field observations to monitor areas in Alaska. These data supplement field data that is difficult to collect in such...
Application of a workflow to determine the feasibility of using simulated streamflow for estimation of streamflow frequency statistics
Amanda Whaling, Kelly Sanks, William H. Asquith, Kirk D. Rodgers
2024, Journal of Hydrologic Engineering (29)
Streamflow records from hydrologic models are attractive for use in operational hydrology, such as a streamflow frequency analysis. The amount of bias inherent to simulated streamflow from hydrologic models is often unknown, but it is likely present in derivative products. Therefore, a workflow may help determine where streamflow frequency analysis...
Predicting the response of a long-distance migrant to changing environmental conditions in winter
Richard A. Stillman, E.M. Rivers, W. Gilkerson, K. A. Wood, P. Clausen, C. Deane, David H. Ward
2024, Ecology and Evolution (14)
Access to high-quality food is critical for long-distance migrants to provide energy for migration and arrival at breeding grounds in good condition. We studied effects of changing abundance and availability of a marine food, common eelgrass (Zostera marina L.), on an arctic-breeding, migratory goose, black brant (Brant bernicla nigricans Lawrence 1846), at...
