A Methodology to Assess the National and Regional Impacts of U.S. Wind Energy Development on Birds and Bats
James E. Diffendorfer, J.A. Beston, Matthew D. Merrill, Jessica C. Stanton, M.D. Corum, S.R. Loss, W.E. Thogmartin, D.H. Johnson, R.A. Erickson, K.W. Heist
2019, Scientific Investigations Report 2018-5157
This scientific investigations report describes an effort by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) that used research, monitoring data, and modeling to develop a methodology to assess both the current and future population-level consequences of wind energy development on species of birds and bats that are present in the United States...
The use of continuous water-quality time-series data to compute nutrient loadings for selected Iowa streams, 2008–17
Jessica D. Garrett
2019, Scientific Investigations Report 2019-5054
In support of nutrient reduction efforts, nitrate (as nitrate plus nitrite) and phosphorus loads and yields were computed for selected streams in Iowa based on continuously monitored sensor data for 2008–17 and 2014–17, respectively. Sample data were used to assess nitrate sensor bias and to create phosphorus-turbidity surrogate models. Where...
Bayesian statistics for beginners: A step-by-step approach
Therese M. Donovan, Ruth M. Mickey
2019, Book
Bayesian statistics is currently undergoing something of a renaissance. At its heart is a method of statistical inference in which Bayes' theorem is used to update the probability for a hypothesis as more evidence or information becomes available. It is an approach that is ideally suited to making initial assessments...
Natural hazards and mineral commodity supply: Quantifying risk of earthquake disruption to South American copper supply
Emily K. Schnebele, Kishor S. Jaiswal, Nico Luco, Nedal T. Nassar
2019, Resources Policy (63)
Mineral resources, and their mining and enrichment operations, are not equally distributed across Earth. The concentration of mineral supply in certain regions, owing to the geology or geography of the mineral resource, raises the level of risk related to supply disruption. Where mineral production coincides with areas prone to natural...
Global observational needs and resources for marine biodiversity
Gabrielle Canonico, Pier Luigi Buttigieg, Enrique Montes, Frank E. Muller-Karger, Carol Stepien, Dawn J. Wright, Abigail Benson, Brian Helmuth, Mark John Costello, Isabel Sousa-Pinto, Hanieh Saeedi, Jan Newton, Ward Appeltans, Nina Bednarsek, Levente Bodrossy, Benjamin D. Best, Angelika Brandt, Kelly D Goodwin, Katrin Iken, Antonio C Marquez, Patricia Miloslavich, Martin Ostrowski, Woody Turner, Eric P Achterberg, Tom Barry, Omar DeFeo, Gregorio Bigatti, Lea-Anne Henry, Berta Ramiro-Sanchez, Pablo Duran, Telmo Morato, J. Murray Roberts, Ana Garcia-Alegre, Mar Sacau Cuadrado, Bramley Murton
2019, Frontiers in Marine Science (6)
The diversity of life in the sea is critical to the health of ocean ecosystems that support living resources and therefore essential to the economic, nutritional, recreational, and health needs of billions of people. Yet there is evidence that the biodiversity of many marine habitats is being altered in response...
Geochronologic, isotopic, and geochemical data from igneous rocks in the Lane Mountain area, San Bernardino County, California
Paul Stone, Howard J. Brown, M. Robinson Cecil, Robert J. Fleck, Jorge A. Vazquez, John A. Fitzpatrick, Jose J. Rosario
2019, Open-File Report 2019-1070
We present new geochronologic, isotopic, and geochemical data for selected igneous rocks in the Lane Mountain area, California. We determined SHRIMP-RG U-Pb zircon ages for the following units: (1) Larrea complex (~253 Ma and ~149–146 Ma); (2) Daisy granodiorite (~151 Ma); (3) Jack Spring quartz monzonite (~85–82 Ma); (4) unnamed...
Preliminary report on engineering and geological effects of the July 2019 Ridgecrest earthquake sequence
Scott J Brandenberg, Pengfei Wang, Chukwuebuka C Nweke, Kenneth Hudson, Silvia Mazzoni, Yousef Bozorgnia, Kenneth W. Hudnut, Craig A. Davis, Sean K Ahdi, Farzin Zareian, Jawad Fayaz, Richard D Koehler, Colin Chupik, Ian Pierce, Alana Williams, Sinan Akciz, Martin B Hudson, Tadahiro Kishida, Benjamin A. Brooks, Ryan D. Gold, Daniel J. Ponti, Katherine M. Scharer, Devin McPhillips, Christopher DuRoss, Todd Ericksen, Janis Hernandez, Jay Patton, Brian Olson, Timothy E. Dawson, Jerome Treiman, Kelly Blake, Jeffrey Buchhuber, Chris L M Madugo, Joseph Sun, Andrea Donnellan, Greg Lyzenga, Erik Conway
Jonathan P. Stewart, editor(s)
2019, Report
The Ridgecrest Earthquake sequence included a foreshock event on July 4 2019 (M6.4) and a M7.1 mainshock event on July 5 2019. These events occurred in the Eastern California Shear Zone, near Indian Wells Valley, south of China Lake and west of Searles Valley. GEER has partnered with several organizations...
Science needs for continued development of total nitrogen deposition budgets in the United States
Gregory A. Wetherbee, Pamela H. Templar, Richard V. Pouyat, Stephen M. Decina, Brian M. Kerschner, Thomas H. Whitlow, Pamela E. Padgett, Donna B. Schwede, Jill Baron, David Clow, M. Alisa Mast, Graham A. Sexstone, Kristi H. Morris
2019, Report
The objectives of this white paper are to describe the state of the science with respect to total Nr deposition budgets in North America and the research needed to improve these budgets from both a measurement and modeling standpoint. The document is intended to serve as a plan for...
Root-driven weathering impacts on mineral-organic associations in deep soils over pedogenic time scales
Mariela Garcia Arredondo, Corey Lawrence, Marjorie S. Schulz, Malak M. Tfaily, Ravi K. Kukkadapu, Morris E. Jones, Kristin Boye, Marco Keiluweit
2019, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (263) 68-84
Plant roots are critical weathering agents in deep soils, yet the impact of resulting mineral transformations on the vast deep soil carbon (C) reservoir are largely unknown. Root-driven weathering of primary minerals may cause the formation of reactive secondary minerals, which protect mineral-organic associations (MOAs) for centuries or millennia. Conversely,...
Monitoring storm tide, flooding, and precipitation from Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, September 2017
Michael J. Byrne Sr.
2019, Open-File Report 2019-1065
Hurricane Maria made landfall south of Yabucoa Harbor, Puerto Rico, as a category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 155 miles per hour on September 20, 2017. The hurricane devastated much of the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with Federal Emergency...
Contact rates with nesting birds before and after invasive snake removal: Estimating the effects of trap-based control
Amy A. Yackel Adams, Melia G. Nafus, Page Klug, Bjorn Lardner, M.J. Mazurek, Julie A. Savidge, Robert Reed
2019, NeoBiota (49)
Invasive predators are responsible for almost 60% of all vertebrate extinctions worldwide with the most vulnerable faunas occurring on islands. The brown treesnake (Boiga irregularis) is a notorious invasive predator that caused the extirpation or extinction of most native forest birds on Guam. The...
Survey of bioaccessible pyrethroid insecticides and sediment toxicity in urban streams of the northeast United States
Kara E. Huff-Hartz, Samuel A. Nutile, Courtney Y. Fung, Federico L. Sinche, Patrick W. Moran, Peter C. Van Metre, Lisa H. Nowell, Michael J. Lydy
2019, Environmental Pollution (254)
Pyrethroids are a class of widely-used insecticides that can be transported from terrestrial applications to aquatic systems via runoff and tend to sorb to organic carbon in sediments. Pyrethroid occurrence is detrimental to stream ecosystems due to toxicity to sediment-dwelling invertebrates which are particularly at risk of pyrethroid exposure in...
Water-budget analysis of the Upper Big Sandy Designated Ground-water Basin alluvial aquifer, Elbert, El Paso, and Lincoln Counties, Colorado, 2016
Michael S. Kohn, Jeannette H. Oden, L. R. Arnold
2019, Scientific Investigations Report 2019-5049
The U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the Colorado Water Conservation Board and the Upper Big Sandy Groundwater Management District carried out a study in 2016 to evaluate potential groundwater storage changes within the Upper Big Sandy Designated Groundwater Basin (UBSDGB) alluvial aquifer, including groundwater flow between the UBSDGB alluvial...
Glacier recession since the Little Ice Age: Implications for water storage in a Rocky Mountain landscape
Chelsea Mikle, Daniel B. Fagre
2019, Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research (51) 280-289
Glacial ice is a significant influence on local climate, hydrology, vegetation, and wildlife. We mapped a complete set of glacier areas from the Little Ice Age (LIA) using very high-resolution satellite imagery (30-cm) within Glacier National Park, a region that encompasses over 400,000 hectares. We measured glacier change across the...
Subhourly mesoscale analysis of the 2011-2017 North American monsoon near its northwest boundary
Charles Truettner, Michael D. Dettinger, Emanuele Ziaco, Adam Czank, Franco Biondi
2019, International Journal of Climatology (10)
The North American Monsoon (NAM) delivers precipitation to the southwestern USA during the warm-dry summer season. The seasonal extent of NAM precipitation is highly variable and is likely to change under future climate change. Our objective was to determine how large scale monsoonal patterns as well as local variables influence...
Movement and mortality of Atlantic salmonkelts (Salmo salar) released into thePenobscot River, Maine
George A. Maynard, Lisa K. Izzo, Joseph D. Zydlewski
2019, Fishery Bulletin (116) 281-290
The Penobscot River is home to the last major run of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) in the United States. For over one century, the river has been stocked intensively. Since the late 1970s, most kelts are released to the Penobscot River estuary following spawning in a hatchery. Over that time,...
Temperature-dependent variations in mineralogy, major element chemistry and the stable isotopes of boron, lithium and chlorine resulting from hydration of rhyolite glass: Constraints from hydrothermal experiments at 150 to 350°C and 25 MPa
Jeffery T. Cullen, Shaul Hurwitz, Jaime D. Barnes, John C. Lassiter, Sarah Penniston-Dorland, Simone Kasemann, James Thordsen
2019, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (261) 269-287
Rhyolite-hosted hydrothermal systems in the continental crust contain valuable energy and mineral resources that make them of special interest across several scientific disciplines. Despite extensive research on these systems, the temperature-dependence of chemical reactions between host rocks and aqueous-rich fluids and the mineralogical transformations resulting from these reactions are not...
Long-term (37 years) impacts of low-head dams on freshwater shrimp habitat connectivity in northeastern Puerto Rico
Jessica Chappell, S. Kyle McKay, Mary Freeman, Catherine M. Pringle
2019, River Research and Applications (35) 1034-1043
Freshwater migratory shrimp in Puerto Rico depend on watershed connectivity, from stream headwaters to the ocean, to complete their life cycle. Moreover, shrimp populations in different watersheds are known to be connected in an island-wide metapopulation. However, low-head dams paired with water intakes on streams draining the El Yunque National...
Virus-like particle production in atmospheric eubacteria isolates
Nuria Teigell-Perez, Cristina Gonzalez-Martin, Basilio Valladares, David J. Smith, Dale W. Griffin
2019, Atmosphere (10)
Culturable eubacterial isolates were collected at various altitudes in Earth’s atmosphere to include ~1.5 m above ground in Tallahassee, Florida, USA, ~10.0 m above sea level over the mid-Atlantic ridge (~15oN), ~ 20 km above ground over the continental United States, ~20 km above sea level over the Pacific Ocean...
Rapid inundation of the southern Florida coastline despite low relative sea-level rise rates during the late-Holocene
Miriam Jones, G. Lynn Wingard, Bethany Stackhouse, Katherine Keller, Debra A. Willard, Marci E. Marot, Bryan D. Landacre, Christopher E. Bernhardt
2019, Nature Communications (10)
Sediment cores from Florida Bay, Everglades National Park were examined to determine ecosystem response to relative sea-level rise (RSLR) over the Holocene. High-resolution multiproxy analysis from four sites show freshwater wetlands transitioned to mangrove environments 4–3.6 ka, followed by estuarine environments 3.4–2.8 ka, during a period of enhanced climate variability....
Volcanic hazards in the Pacific U.S. Territories
Gabrielle Tepp, Brian Shiro, William W. Chadwick
2019, Fact Sheet 2019-3036
The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and American Samoa lie along the western side of the famed Pacific Ring of Fire. Here, the processes of active island and submarine volcanoes produce activity both underwater and in the atmosphere that poses potential hazards to the daily lives of residents and travelers. Since 2000, CNMI volcanoes...
Mapping irrigated cropland extent across the conterminous United States at 30 m resolution using a semi-automatic training approach on Google Earth Engine
Yanhua Xie, Tyler J. Lark, Jesslyn F. Brown, Holly Gibbs
2019, ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (155) 136-149
Accurate and timely information on the distribution of irrigated croplands is crucial to research on agriculture, water availability, land use, and climate change. While agricultural land use has been well characterized, less attention has been paid specifically to croplands that are...
Reactivity of As and U co-occurring in mine wastes in northeastern Arizona
Johanna Blake, Sumant Avasarala, Abdul-Mehdi Ali, Michael Spilde, Juan S Lezama-Pacheco, Drew Latta, Kateryna Artyushkova, Anastasia G Ilgen, Christopher Shuey, Christopher Nez, Jose M Cerrato
2019, Chemical Geology (522) 26-37
The reactivity of co-occurring arsenic (As) and uranium (U) in mine wastes was investigated using batch reactors, microscopy, spectroscopy, and aqueous chemistry. Analyses of field samples collected in proximity to mine wastes in northeastern Arizona confirm the presence of As and U in soils and surrounding waters, as reported in...
Alternative sea lamprey barrier technologies: History as a control tool
D.P. Zielinski, R. L. McLaughlin, Theodore R. Castro-Santos, B. Paudel, Pete J. Hrodey, A. M. Muir
2019, Reviews in Fisheries Science and Aquaculture (27) 438-457
Currently, application of lampricides and installation of low-head barriers are the only proven means of sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) control in the Great Lakes. While sea lamprey cannot climb or jump over low-head barriers, many desirable migratory species also cannot traverse barriers and are unintentionally blocked. Recently,...
Distribution of contaminants in the environment and wildlife habitat use: A case study with lead and waterfowl on the Upper Texas Coast
Brian Kearns, Stephen K. McDowell, Jena A. Moon, Elizabeth A. Rigby, Warren C. Conway, David A. Haukos
2019, Ecotoxicology (28) 809-824
The magnitude and distribution of lead contamination remain unknown in wetland systems. Anthropogenic deposition of lead may be contributing to negative population-level effects in waterfowl and other organisms that depend on dynamic wetland habitats, particularly if they are unable to detect and differentiate levels of environmental...
