A physical model of the high-frequency seismic signal generated by debris flows
Maxime Farin, Victor C. Tsai, Michael P. Lamb, Kate E. Allstadt
2019, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms (44) 2529-2543
We propose a physical model for the high‐frequency (>1 Hz) spectral distribution of seismic power generated by debris flows. The modeled debris flow is assumed to have four regions where the impact rate and impulses are controlled by different mechanisms: the flow body, a coarser‐grained snout, a snout lip where...
Local niche differences predict genotype associations in sister taxa of desert tortoise
Richard D. Inman, A. Stewart Fotheringham, Janet Franklin, Todd Esque, Taylor Edwards, Kenneth Nussear
2019, Diversity and Distributions (25) 1194-1209
Aims To investigate spatial congruence between ecological niches and genotype in two allopatric species of desert tortoise that are species of conservation concern. Location Mojave and Sonoran Desert ecoregions; California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, USA. Methods We compare ecological niches of Gopherus agassizii and Gopherus morafkai using species distribution modelling (SDM)...
Is there convergence of gut microbes in blood-feeding vertebrates?
Jin Song, Jon G Sanders, Daniel T Baldassarre, Jaime A Chaves, Nicholas S. Johnson, Antoinette J. Piaggio, Matthew J Stuckey, Eva Novakova, Jessica L Metcalf, Bruno B Chomel, Alvaro Aguilar-Setien, Rob Knight, Valerie J. McKenzie
2019, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (374)
Animal microbiomes play an important role in dietary adaptation, yet the extent to which microbiome changes exhibit parallel evolution is unclear. Of particular interest is an adaptation to extreme diets, such as blood, which poses special challenges in its content of proteins and lack of essential nutrients. In this study,...
Petrology of volcanic rocks associated with silver-gold (Ag-Au) epithermal deposits in the Tonopah, Divide, and Goldfield Mining Districts, Nevada
Edward A. du Bray, David A. John, Joseph P. Colgan, Peter G. Vikre, Michael A. Cosca, Leah E. Morgan
2019, Scientific Investigations Report 2019-5024
Miocene calc-alkaline volcanic rocks, part of the southern segment of the ancestral Cascades magmatic arc, are spatially, temporally, and likely genetically associated with precious metal epithermal deposits in the Tonopah, Divide, and Goldfield Districts of west-central Nevada. In the Tonopah mining district, volcanic rocks include the Mizpah Trachyte, Fraction Tuff,...
Energy depletion and stress levels of Sockeye Salmon migrating at the northern edge of their distribution
Michael P. Carey, Kevin D. Keith, Merlyn Schelske, Charlie Lean, Stephen D. McCormick, Amy M. Regish, Christian E. Zimmerman
2019, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (148) 757-797
The physiological challenge for anadromous fish to migrate upriver is influenced by river temperature, but the impacts of river temperature can be difficult to predict due to an incomplete understanding of how temperature influences migration costs, especially in high‐latitude (>60°N) ecosystems. To assess temperature influences on...
Variability of estimated ultimate recovery in shale oil and shale gas accumulations in the U.S.
Christopher J. Schenk, Heidi M. Leathers-Miller
2019, Conference Paper, Conference proceedings, 81st EAGE conference and exhibition 2019
Variability of mean EURs within and between unconventional reservoirs is becoming more apparent as thousands of wells are drilled and oil and gas is produced from unconventional low-permeability reservoirs. Production from many of these reservoirs shows that there is spatial heterogeneity of EURs, which is mainly related to geologic characteristics....
The National Map—New data delivery homepage, advanced viewer, lidar visualization
U.S. Geological Survey
2019, Fact Sheet 2019-3032
As one of the cornerstones of the U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) National Geospatial Program, The National Map is a collaborative effort among the USGS and other Federal, State, and local partners to improve and deliver topographic information for the Nation. The National Map is featuring direct links to new and...
Long-term trajectories of fractional component change in the Northern Great Basin, USA
Matthew B. Rigge, Hua Shi, Collin Homer, Patrick Danielson, Brian J. Granneman
2019, Ecosphere (10)
The need to monitor change in sagebrush steppe is urgent due to the increasing impacts of climate change, shifting fire regimes, and management practices on ecosystem health. Remote sensing provides a cost effective and reliable method for monitoring change through time and attributing changes to drivers. We report an automated...
Coast to coast: High genomic connectivity in North American scoters
Sarah A. Sonsthagen, Robert E. Wilson, Philip Lavretsky, Sandra L. Talbot
2019, Ecology and Evolution (9) 7246-7261
Dispersal shapes demographic processes and therefore is fundamental to understanding biological, ecological, and evolutionary processes acting within populations. However, assessing population connectivity in scoters (Melanitta sp.) is challenging as these species have large spatial distributions that span remote landscapes, have varying nesting distributions (disjunct vs. continuous), exhibit...
Ecological islands: Conserving biodiversity hotspots in a changing climate
Jennifer M. Cartwright
2019, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment (17) 331-340
For decades, botanists have recognized that rare plants are clustered into ecological “islands”: small and isolated habitat patches produced by landscape features such as sinkholes and bedrock outcrops. Insular ecosystems often provide unusually stressful microhabitats for plant growth (eg because of thin soils, high temperatures, extreme pH, or limited nutrients)...
An ANCOVA model for porosity and its uncertainty for oil reservoirs based on TORIS dataset
C. Ozgen Karacan
2019, Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering
Porosity is one of the most important parameters to assess in-place oil or gas in reservoirs, and to evaluate recovery from enhanced production operations. Since it is relatively well-established to determine porosity using different laboratory and field methods, its value is usually determined at many locations across a reservoir...
Ecological effects of fear: How spatiotemporal heterogeneity in predation risk influences mule deer access to forage in a sky‐island system
Chris Lowrey, Kathleen Longshore, David M. Choate, Jyoteshwar R Nagol, Joseph O. Sexton, Daniel B. Thompson
2019, Ecology and Evolution (9) 7213-7226
Forage availability and predation risk interact to affect habitat use of ungulates across many biomes. Within sky‐island habitats of the Mojave Desert, increased availability of diverse forage and cover may provide ungulates with unique opportunities to extend nutrient uptake and/or to mitigate predation risk. We addressed whether habitat use and...
Migration triggers in a large herbivore: Galapagos giant tortoises navigating resources gradients on volcanoes
Guillaume Bastille-Rousseau, Charles B. Yackulic, James P. Gibbs, Jacqueline L. Friar, Freddy Cabrera, Stephen Blake
2019, Ecology (100)
To understand how migratory behavior evolved and to predict the future of migratory species in the face of global environmental change it is important to quantify intra- and inter-individual variation in migratory behavior. Intra-individual variation includes behavioral response to changing environmental conditions and hence behavioral plasticity in the context of...
Application of sediment end-member analysis for understanding sediment fluxes, northern Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana
Julie Bernier, Jennifer L. Miselis, Noreen A. Buster, James G. Flocks
2019, Conference Paper, Coastal Sediments 2019—Proceedings of the 9th International Conference
We analyzed grain-size distributions (GSDs) from a time-series of sediment samples to evaluate sediment transport following anthropogenic sand-berm emplacement at the northern Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana. End-member analysis (EMA) was applied to compare the end-member (EM) GSD of a known sediment source to GSDs from surrounding environments and characterize the physical...
Ground-motion residuals, path effects, and crustal properties: A pilot study in southern California
Valerie J. Sahakian, Annemarie S. Baltay Sundstrom, Thomas C. Hanks, Janine Bueler, Frank Vernon, Deborah L. Kilb, Norm A. Abrahamson
2019, Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth (124) 5738-5753
To improve models of ground motion estimation and probabilistic seismic hazard analyses, the engineering seismology field is moving toward developing fully nonergodic ground motion models, models specific for individual source‐to‐site paths. Previous work on this topic has examined systematic variations in ground‐motion along particular paths (from either recorded or simulated...
Toward a national coastal hazard forecast of total water levels
Alfredo Aretxabaleta, Kara S. Doran, Joseph W. Long, Li H. Erikson
2019, Conference Paper, Coastal sediments 2019: Proceedings of the 9th international conference
Storm surge and large waves combine to erode beaches, cause marsh and coral decay, and inundate low-elevation areas, resulting in hazards to coastal communities and loss of natural resources. The USGS, in collaboration with NOAA, is developing a real-time system to provide ∼ 6-day forecasts of total water levels (TWLs)...
Estimating connectivity of hard clam (Mercenaria mercenaria) and eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) larvae in Barnegat Bay
J.D. Goodwin, D.M. Munroe, Zafer Defne, Neil K. Ganju, James Vasslides
2019, Estuaries and Coasts (7)
Many marine organisms have a well-known adult sessile stage. Unfortunately, our lack of knowledge regarding their larval transient stage hinders our understanding of their basic ecology and connectivity. Larvae can have swimming behavior that influences their transport within the marine environment. Understanding the larval stage provides insight...
Assessment of site-specific agricultural Best Management Practices in the Upper East River watershed, Wisconsin, using a field-scale SWAT model
Katherine R. Merriman, Prasad Daggupati, Raghavan Srinivasan, Brett A. Hayhurst
2019, Journal of Great Lakes Research (3) 619-641
The Great Lakes “Priority Watershed” effort targeted the Upper East River watershed, a 116.5 km2 tributary watershed to Green Bay in Wisconsin, to reduce sediment and nutrients entering Green Bay. A Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model was created to determine the effectiveness of Best Management Practices (BMPs) derived...
Recruitment dynamics and reproductive ecology of Blue Sucker in Texas, with a focus on the Big Bend region of the Rio Grande
Seiji Miyazono, Allison A. Pease, Timothy B. Grabowski, Sarah Fritts
2019, Cooperator Science Series CSS-134-2020
Blue Sucker Cycleptus elongatus is a state-listed threatened species in Texas and is considered vulnerable throughout its range. Once considered a single, wide-ranging species, blue suckers are now recognized as a complex of closely related, but genetically and morphologically distinct species within the genus Cycleptus, including an undescribed species within...
Spatio-temporal population change of Arctic-breeding waterbirds on the Arctic Coastal Plain of Alaska
Courtney L. Amundson, Paul L. Flint, Robert A Stehn, Robert Platte, Heather M. Wilson, William W. Larned, Julian B. Fischer
2019, Avian Conservation and Ecology (14)
Rapid physical changes that are occurring in the Arctic are primary drivers of landscape change and thus may drive population dynamics of Arctic-breeding birds. Despite the importance of this region to breeding and molting waterbirds, lack of a comprehensive analysis of historic data has hindered quantifying avian population change. We...
Constraining parameter uncertainty in modeling debris-flow initiation during the September 2013 Colorado Front Range storm
Rex L. Baum, C.R. Scheevel, Eric S. Jones
2019, Conference Paper, Debris-flow hazards mitigation: Mechanics, monitoring, modeling, and assessment; proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Debris-Flow Hazards Mitigation, Golden, Colorado, USA, June 10-13, 2019
The occurrence of debris flows during the September 2013 northern Colorado floods took the emergency management community by surprise. The September 2013 debris flows in the Colorado Front Range initiated from shallow landslides in colluvium. Most occurred on south- and east-facing slopes on the walls of steep canyons in crystalline...
Review of Gulls simplified: A comparative approach to identification by Pete Dunne and Kevin T. Karlson
Garrett J. MacDonald
2019, Prairie Naturalist (51) 39-40
No abstract available....
Discriminating among Pacific salmon, Rainbow Trout, and Atlantic Salmon species using common genetic screening methods
Christopher Habicht, Andrew Barclay, Heather A. Hoyt, Christian T. Smith, Keith N. Turnquist, Wesley Larson
2019, Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management (10) 228-240
The five most common species of Pacific salmon, Rainbow Trout (steelhead) Oncorhynchus spp., and Atlantic Salmon Salmo salar intermingle in the North Pacific Ocean and its freshwater tributaries. Efficient morphological methods for distinguishing among these species are sometimes limited by condition of the specimen (degraded or missing morphology), life...
Bayesian analysis of the impact of rainfall data product on simulated slope failure for North Carolina locations
Soni Yatheendradas, Dalia Kirschbaum, Grey Nearing, Jasper A. Vrugt, Rex L. Baum, Rick Wooten, Ning Lu, Jonathan W. Godt
2019, Computational Geosciences (23) 495-522
In the past decades, many different approaches have been developed in the literature to quantify the load-carrying capacity and geotechnical stability (or the Factor of Safety, F_s) of variably saturated hillslopes. Much of this work has focused on a deterministic characterization of hillslope stability. Yet, simulated F_s values are subject...
USGS combats invasive species through citizen science
Wesley Daniel
2019, Newsletter
No abstract available....
