Evaluation of debris-flow building damage forecasts
Katherine R. Barnhart, Christopher R. Miller, Francis K. Rengers, Jason W. Kean
2024, Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences (24) 1459-1483
Reliable forecasts of building damage due to debris flows may provide situational awareness and guide land and emergency management decisions. Application of debris-flow runout models to generate such forecasts requires combining hazard intensity predictions with fragility functions that link hazard intensity with building damage....
Methylmercury effects on birds: A review, meta-analysis, and development of toxicity reference values for injury assessment based on tissue residues and diet
Josh T. Ackerman, Sarah H. Peterson, Mark P. Herzog, Julie L. Yee
2024, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (43) 1195-1241
Birds are used as bioindicators of environmental mercury (Hg) contamination, and toxicity reference values are needed for injury assessments. We conducted a comprehensive review, summarized data from 168 studies, performed a series of Bayesian hierarchical meta-analyses, and developed new toxicity reference values for the...
Influence of organic matter thermal maturity on rare earth element distribution: A study of Middle Devonian black shales from the Appalachian Basin, USA
Shailee Bhattacharya, Shikha Sharma, Vikas Agrawal, Michael C. Dix, Giovanni Zanoni, Justin E. Birdwell, Albert S. Wylie Jr., Tom Wagner
2024, Energies (17)
This study focuses on understanding the association of rare earth elements (REE; lanthanides + yttrium + scandium) with organic matter from the Middle Devonian black shales of the Appalachian Basin. Developing a better understanding of the role of organic matter (OM) and thermal maturity in REE partitioning may help improve...
Special Contributing Area Loading Program user’s manual
Henry F. Doyle, Marian M. Domanski
2024, Open-File Report 2024-1021
The Special Contributing Area Loading Program (SCALP) is a hydrologic routing program that simulates reservoir routing through a linear-reservoir-in-series method. The Java version of SCALP was developed to replicate and replace the functionality of an older version of the program written in Fortran. SCALP models flow through three reservoirs in...
Automatic identification and quantification of volcanic hotspots in Alaska using HotLINK: The hotspot learning and identification network
Pablo Saunders-Shultz, Taryn Lopez, Hannah R. Dietterich, Tarsilo Girona
2024, Frontiers in Earth Science (12)
An increase in volcanic thermal emissions can indicate subsurface and surface processes that precede, or coincide with, volcanic eruptions. Space-borne infrared sensors can detect hotspots—defined here as localized volcanic thermal emissions—in near-real-time. However, automatic hotspot detection systems are needed to efficiently analyze the large quantities of data produced....
Status of water quality in groundwater resources used for drinking-water supply in the southeastern San Joaquin Valley, 2013–15—California GAMA Priority Basin Project
Karen R. Burow, Jennifer L. Shelton, Miranda S. Fram
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5009
The California Groundwater Ambient Monitoring and Assessment Program Priority Basin Project (GAMA-PBP) investigated water quality of groundwater resources used for drinking-water supplies in the Madera-Chowchilla, Kings, Kaweah, Tule, and Tulare Lake groundwater subbasins of the southeastern San Joaquin Valley during 2013–15. The study focused primarily on groundwater resources used for...
Cytology in cnidaria using Exaiptasia as a model
Thierry M. Work, Chutimon Singarkhan, Tina Weatherby
2024, Diseases of Aquatic Organisms (158) 37-53
A need exists for additional methods to examine cnidaria at the cellular level to aid our understanding of health, anatomy, and physiology of this important group of organisms. This need is particularly acute given that disease is emerging as a major factor in declines of ecologically important functional groups such...
Atmospheric river activity during the late Holocene exceeds modern range of variability in California
Clarke Alexandra Knight, Lysanna Anderson, Liubov S. Presnetsova, Marie Rhondelle Champagne, David Wahl
2024, Nature Communications Earth and Environment (5)
Atmospheric rivers are associated with some of the largest flood-producing precipitation events in western North America, particularly California. Insight into past extreme precipitation can be reconstructed from sedimentary archives on millennial timescales. Here we document atmospheric river activity near Leonard Lake, California, over 3,200 years, using...
Flexible migration and habitat use strategies of an endangered waterbird during hydrological drought
Aaron T. Pearse, Andrew J. Caven, David M. Baasch, Mark T. Bidwell, John A Conkin, David A. Brandt
2024, Conservation Science and Practice (6)
Wildlife species confront threats from climate and land use change, exacerbating the influence of extreme climatic events on populations and biodiversity. Migratory waterbirds are especially vulnerable to hydrological drought via reduced availability of surface water habitats. We assessed how whooping cranes (Grus americana) modified...
Ecological inferences on invasive carp survival using hydrodynamics and egg drift models
Ruichen Xu, Duane Chapman, Caroline M. Elliott, Bruce Call, Robert B. Jacobson, Binbin Yang
2024, Scientific Reports (14)
Bighead carp (Hypophthalmichthys nobilis), silver carp (H. molitrix), black carp (Mylopharyngodon piceus), and grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella), are invasive species in North America. However, they hold significant economic importance as food sources in China. The drifting stage of carp eggs has received great attention because egg...
A hierarchical model for eDNA fate and transport dynamics accommodating low concentration samples
Ben Augustine, Patrick Ross Hutchins, Devin Nicole Jones-Slobodian, Jacob R. Williams, Eric Leinonen, Adam Sepulveda
2024, Preprint
Environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling is an increasingly important tool for answering ecological questions and informing aquatic species management; however, several factors currently limit the reliability of ecological inference from eDNA sampling. Two particular challenges are 1) determining species source location(s) and 2) accurately and precisely measuring low concentration eDNA samples...
Genetic structure of restored Brook Trout populations in the Southern Appalachian Mountains indicates successful reintroductions
Rebecca J. Smith, David C. Kazyak, Matt A. Kulp, Barbara A. Lubinski, Benjamin M. Fitzpatrick
2024, Conservation Genetics (25) 1007-1020
Wildlife reintroduction is an important conservation tool for threatened species, yet identifying appropriate source populations poses a challenge. In particular, the possibility of outbreeding depression is cited as a constraint limiting the range of candidate source populations for translocation. When multiple source lineages are mixed during reintroduction, genetic monitoring is...
Environmental DNA dynamics of three species of unionid freshwater mussels
Dannise Ruiz-Ramos, Nathan Thompson, Catherine A. Richter, Megan C. Voshage, Theresa M. Schreier, Christopher M. Merkes, Katy E. Klymus
2024, Environmental DNA (6)
North American freshwater mussels are of special conservation concern due to their high endemism and the multiple anthropogenic stressors affecting them. Of the over 300 species in North America, nearly one third of these species are federally listed as threatened or endangered. Environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis has been successful in...
Characteristics of debris-flow-prone watersheds and debris-flow-triggering rainstorms following the Tadpole Fire, New Mexico, USA
Luke A. McGuire, Francis K. Rengers, Ann Youberg, Alexander Gorr, Olivia J. Hoch, Rebecca Beers, Ryan Porter
2024, Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences (24) 1357-1379
Moderate- or high-severity fires promote increases in runoff and erosion, leading to a greater likelihood of extreme geomorphic responses, including debris flows. In the first several years following fire, the majority of debris flows initiate when runoff rapidly entrains sediment on steep slopes. From...
Reproduction of grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) in the Maumee River, Ohio: Part 2—Optimal river conditions for egg and larval drift
Jessica Z. LeRoy, Henry F. Doyle, P. Ryan Jackson, Charles V. Cigrand
2024, Journal of Great Lakes Research (50)
This study uses a one-dimensional steady-state hydraulic model and the Fluvial Egg Drift Simulator (FluEgg) to model the drift and dispersion of grass carp eggs and larvae in the Maumee River, Ohio, for 180 scenarios representing different combinations of 10 river flows, 6 water temperatures, and 3 spawning locations. The...
Calculation of a suspended-sediment concentration-turbidity regression model and flood-ebb suspended-sediment concentration differentials from marshes near Stone Harbor and Thompsons Beach, New Jersey, 2018–19 and 2022–23
Olivia A. De Meo, Robert D. Bales, Neil K. Ganju, Eric D. Marsjanik, Steven E. Suttles
2024, Data Report 1193
The U.S. Geological Survey collected water velocity and water quality data from salt marshes in Great Channel, southwest of Stone Harbor, New Jersey, and near Thompsons Beach, New Jersey, to evaluate restoration effectiveness after Hurricane Sandy and monitor postrestoration marsh health. Time series data of turbidity and water velocity were...
Groundwater sustainability and land subsidence in California’s Central Valley
Claudia C. Faunt, Jonathan A. Traum, Scott E. Boyce, Whitney A. Seymour, Elizabeth Rae Jachens, Justin T. Brandt, Michelle Sneed, Sandra Bond, Marina Marcelli
2024, Water (16)
The Central Valley of California is one of the most prolific agricultural regions in the world. Agriculture is reliant on the conjunctive use of surface-water and groundwater. The lack of available surface-water and land-use changes have led to pumping-induced groundwater-level and storage declines, land subsidence, changes to streamflow and...
The influence of channel morphology and hydraulic complexity on larval pallid sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus albus) drift and dispersal dynamics in the Fort Peck Segment, Upper Missouri River: Insights from particle tracking simulations
Bruce Call, Richard R. McDonald, Susannah Erwin, R. B. Jacobson
2024, Journal of Ecohydraulics
Longitudinal dispersal of migratory fish species can be interrupted by factors that fragment rivers, such as dams and reservoirs with incompatible habitats, and indirect alterations to variables, such as water temperature or turbidity. The endangered pallid sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus albus) population in the Upper Missouri River Basin in North...
Cyclic injection leads to larger and more frequent induced earthquakes under volume-controlled conditions
Kayla A. Kroll, Elizabeth S. Cochran
2024, Seismological Research Letters (95) 2105-2117
As carbon storage technologies advance globally, methods to understand and mitigate induced earthquakes become increasingly important. Although the physical processes that relate increased subsurface pore pressure changes to induced earthquakes have long been known, reliable methods to forecast and control induced seismic sequences remain elusive. Suggested reservoir engineering scenarios for...
Evaluation of streamflow predictions from LSTM models in water- and energy-limited regions in the United States
Kul Bikram Khand, Gabriel B. Senay
2024, Machine Learning with Applications (16)
The application of Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) models for streamflow predictions has been an area of rapid development, supported by advancements in computing technology, increasing availability of spatiotemporal data, and availability of historical data that allows for training data-driven LSTM models....
Prey supply and predation as potential limitations to feasibility of anadromous salmonid introductions in a reservoir
Rachelle Carina Johnson, Benjamin Lorenz Jensen, Tessa Julianne Code, Jeffrey J. Duda, David Beauchamp
2024, Water (16)
Introducing anadromous fish upstream of migration barriers has frequently been proposed as a conservation strategy, but existing conditions and future changes to the ecosystems above barriers such as invasive species, climate change, and varying water operations influence the capacity to support such introductions. In the Upper Skagit River, Washington,...
Evaluation of 2-D shear-wave velocity models and VS30at six strong-motion recording stations in southern California using multichannel analysis of surface waves and refraction tomography
Joanne H. Chan, Rufus D. Catchings, Mark R. Goldman, Coyn J. Criley, Robert R. Sickler
2024, Open-File Report 2024-1016
To better understand the potential for amplified ground shaking at sites that house critical infrastructure, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) evaluated shear-wave velocities (VS) at six strong-motion recording stations in Southern California Edison facilities in southern California. We calculated VS30 (time-averaged shear-wave velocity in the upper 30 meters [m]), which...
Evaluating seawater intrusion forecast uncertainty under climate change in the Pajaro Valley, California
Marisa M. Earll, Wesley R. Henson, Brian Lockwood, Scott E. Boyce
2024, Journal of Hydrology (636)
Climate change and climate variability impacts such as rising sea levels have the potential to exacerbate seawater intrusion and the strain on coastal freshwater resources in already stressed groundwater basins such as those in the Pajaro Valley groundwater basin, California. Regional hydrologic models are often coupled with climate projections to...
Reproduction of grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) in the Maumee River, Ohio: Part 1—Spawning area identification using bidirectional drift modeling
P. Ryan Jackson, Charles V. Cigrand, Patrick M. Kocovsky, Nicole R. King, Alan Kasprak, Evan M. Lindroth, Henry F. Doyle, Song S. Qian, Christine M. Mayer
2024, Journal of Great Lakes Research (50)
Control of invasive grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) populations in the Western Lake Erie Basin merits adaptive management guided by the best available science. Presently (2024), capture of mature grass carp in rivers during spawning season is most efficient, so knowing when and where grass carp are spawning is essential information...
Network connectivity contributes to native small-bodied fish assemblages in the upper Mississippi River system
Shaley A Valentine, Kristen L. Bouska, Gregory W. Whitledge
2024, Journal of Freshwater Biology (69) 859-878
Effective management and conservation of fishes requires understanding habitat use across multiple life stages while ensuring necessary habitats are both available and accessible. Tributary habitats may play an important role in recruitment and dispersal of fishes in anthropogenically modified rivers such as the...
