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...
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....
Key breeding habitats of threatened golden eagles across Eastern Canada identified using a multi-level, multi-scale habitat selection approach
Laurie D Maynard, Jerome Lemaitre, Jean-Francois Therrien, Tricia A. Miller, Todd E. Katzner, Scott G. Somershoe, Cooper. Jeff, Robert Sargent, Nicolas Lecomte
2024, Landscape Ecology (39)
ContextIn a conservation context, identifying key habitats suitable for reproduction, foraging, or survival is a useful tool, yet challenging for species with large geographic distributions and/or living in remote regions.ObjectivesThe objective of this study is to identify selected habitats at multiple levels...
The influence of time, tide, and place on fine scale nekton distribution: Insights from the San Francisco Estuary
Matthew J. Young, Frederick V. Feyrer, Jason L. Hassrick, Shawn Acuna, David E. Ayers, John M. Donovan, Lenny Grimaldo
2024, Estuaries and Coasts (47) 1101-1118
The location of estuarine organisms varies based on geophysical cycles and environmental conditions, which can strongly bias understanding of organism abundance and distribution. In the San Francisco Estuary, California, extensive monitoring surveys have provided insight into the life history and ecology of certain commercially important or...
Developing transmissible vaccines for animal infections
Daniel G. Streicker, Megan E. Griffiths, Rustom Antia, Laura M. Bergner, Peter Bowman, Maria Vitoria dos Santos de Moraes, Kevin Esvelt, Mike Famulare, Amy T. Gilbert, Biao He, Michael A. Jarvis, David A. Kennedy, Jennifer Kuzma, Carolyne Nasimiyu Wanyonyi, Christopher Remien, Kyle Rosenke, Tonie E. Rocke, Courtney Schreiner, Justin Sheen, David Simons, Ivet A. Yordanova, James J. Bull, Scott L. Nuismer
2024, Science (384) 275-277
Many emerging and reemerging pathogens originate from wildlife, but nearly all wild species are unreachable using conventional vaccination, which requires capture of and vaccine administration to individual animals. By enabling immunization at scales sufficient to interrupt pathogen transmission, transmissible vaccines (TVs) that spread themselves through wildlife populations...
Acute toxicity of the lampricide 4-nitro-3-(trifluoromethyl)phenol to the Mussel (Obovaria subrotunda), its host (Percina maculata), and a surrogate mussel species (Obovaria olivaria)
Teresa J. Newton, Nicholas Schloesser, Cheryl Kaye, Chad K. Andresen, Michael A. Boogaard, Christina M. Carter, Ryan Jay Ellingson, Courtney A. Kirkeeng, Justin R. Schueller
2024, Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (43) 1423-1430
The risk of lampricide applications (such as 4-nitro-3-[trifluoromethyl]phenol [TFM]) to nontarget fauna continues to be a concern within the Great Lakes Fishery Commission Sea Lamprey Control Program, especially among imperiled aquatic species—such as native freshwater mussels. The Grand River (Ohio, USA) is routinely treated...
Biological soil crusts are more prevalent in warmer and drier environments within the Great Basin ecoregion: Implications for managing annual grass invasion
Lea A. Condon, John B. Bradford, Peter S. Coates
2024, Restoration Ecology (32)
Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) can thrive under environmental conditions that are stressful for vascular plants such as high temperatures and/or extremely low moisture availability. In these settings, and in the absence of disturbance, cover of biocrusts commonly exceeds cover of vascular plants. Arid landscapes...
Nutrient chemistry in the Elizabeth Lake subwatershed—Effects of onsite wastewater treatment systems on groundwater and lake water quality, Los Angeles County, California
Adelia M McGregor, Joseph L. Domagalski, Krishangi D. Groover, Angela M. Hansen, Anthony A. Brown
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5012
Nutrient (nitrogen [N] and phosphorus [P] chemistry) downgradient from onsite wastewater treatment system (OWTS) was evaluated with a groundwater study in the area surrounding Elizabeth Lake, the largest of three sag lakes within the Santa Clara River watershed of Los Angeles County, California.Elizabeth Lake is listed on the “303 (d)...
Hunting mode and habitat selection mediate the success of human hunters
Kaitlyn M. Gaynor, Michael C Mcinturff, Briana L. Abrahms, Alison M. Smith, Justin S. Brashares
2024, Movement Ecology (12)
BackgroundAs a globally widespread apex predator, humans have unprecedented lethal and non-lethal effects on prey populations and ecosystems. Yet compared to non-human predators, little is known about the movement ecology of human hunters, including how hunting behavior interacts with the environment.MethodsWe characterized...
Hydrologic study of green infrastructure in poorly drained urbanized soils at RecoveryPark, Detroit, Michigan, 2014–21
Ralph J. Haefner, Christopher J. Hoard, William Shuster
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5018
Uncontrolled stormwater runoff volume is a legacy stressor on sewer-system capacity that is further compromised by the effects of aging infrastructure. Green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) has been used in a variety of designs and configurations (for example, bioretention) with the goal of increasing evapotranspiration and infiltration in the local water...
Peak streamflow trends in Missouri and their relation to changes in climate, water years 1921–2020
Mackenzie K. Marti, David C. Heimann
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5064-F
This report characterizes changes in peak streamflow in Missouri and the relation of these changes to climatic variability, and provides a foundation for future studies that can address nonstationarity in peak-streamflow frequency analysis in Missouri. Records of annual peak and daily streamflow at streamgages and gridded monthly climatic data (observed...
A toolbox for improving reclamation success: Joint USGS-BLM report establishes best management practices for oil and gas operations, monitoring methods, and standards
Michael C. Duniway, Meredith A. Hartwell
2024, Reclamation Matters 40-41
The U. S. Geological Survey, in partnership with the Bureau of Land Management, recently published an oil and gas reclamation techniques and methods report that provides land managers and oil and gas operators specific guidance and best management practices for development impacts, successfully reclaiming disturbed lands during and after oil...
Basin-scale responses of groundwater-resource quality to drought and recovery, San Joaquin Valley, California
Zeno F. Levy, Bryant C. Jurgens, Kirsten Faulkner, Jennifer S. Harkness, Miranda S. Fram
2024, Hydrological Processes (38)
Groundwater-resource quality is assumed to be less responsive to drought compared to that of surface water due to relatively long transit times of recharge to drinking-supply wells. Here, we evidence dynamic perturbations in aquifer pressure dynamics during drought and subsequent recovery periods cause dramatic...
Late Triassic paleogeography of southern Laurentia and its fringing arcs: Insights from detrital zircon U-Pb geochronology and Hf isotope geochemistry, Auld Lang Syne basin (Nevada, USA)
Theresa Maude Schwartz, Sandra J. Wyld, Joseph P. Colgan, Douglas W. Prihar
2024, GSA Bulletin (136) 4595-4615
Fluvial strata of the Upper Triassic Chinle Formation and Dockum Group, exposed across the Western Interior of North America, have long been interpreted to record a transcontinental river system that connected the ancestral Ouachita orogen of Texas and Oklahoma, USA, to the Auld...
Passive acoustic monitoring and convolutional neural networks facilitate high-resolution and broadscale monitoring of a threatened species
Adam Duarte, Matthew J. Weldy, Damon B. Lesmeister, Zachary J. Ruff, Julianna Jenkins, Jonathon Joseph Valente, Matthew G. Betts
2024, Ecological Indicators (162)
Population monitoring is an essential component of biodiversity conservation and management, but low detection probabilities for rare and/or cryptic species makes estimating abundance and occupancy challenging. Passive acoustic monitoring combined with machine learning algorithms represents a potential path forward to effectively and efficiently monitor the occurrence of rare vocalizing species...
National shoreline change—Summary statistics for vector shorelines from the early 1900s to the 2010s for Puerto Rico
Rachel E. Henderson, Julia L. Heslin, Emily A. Himmelstoss, Maritza Barreto-Orta
2024, Data Report 1191
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) maintains a database of historical shoreline positions for the United States coasts derived from historical sources, such as aerial photographs or topographic surveys, and contemporary sources, such as modern orthophotography, light detection and ranging (lidar) point clouds, and digital elevation models. These shorelines are compiled...
Management implications of habitat selection by whooping cranes (Grus americana) on the Texas coast
Sarah E. Lehnen, Steven E. Sesnie, Matthew J. Butler, Aaron T. Pearse, Kristine L. Metzger
2024, Ecosphere (15)
Effective habitat management for rare and endangered species requires a thorough understanding of their specific habitat requirements. Although machine learning models have been increasingly used in the analyses of habitat use by wildlife, the primary focus of these models has been on generating spatial predictions. In this study, we used...
Estimating age and growth of Largemouth Bass in southwestern reservoirs using otoliths and scales
Steven J. Ingram, Joshua D. Grant, Zachary S. Beard, Nathan Berg, Anna M. Ringelman, Scott A. Bonar
2024, Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management (14) 315-323
Age and growth data are frequently used to monitor and manage important North American sport fishes such as Largemouth Bass Micropterus salmoides. Continental and regional growth standards have been developed for this species to assess fish growth over time and across space. However, Largemouth Bass age and growth data are infrequently...
Empirical ground-motion basin response in the California Great Valley, Reno, Nevada, and Portland, Oregon
Sean Kamran Ahdi, Brad T. Aagaard, Morgan P. Moschetti, Grace Alexandra Parker, Oliver S. Boyd, William J. Stephenson
2024, Earthquake Spectra (40) 1099-1131
We assess how well the Next-Generation Attenuation-West 2 (NGA-West2) ground-motion models (GMMs), which are used in the US Geological Survey’s (USGS) National Seismic Hazard Model (NSHM) for crustal faults in the western United States, predict the observed basin response in the Great Valley of California, the Reno...
Tracking magma pathways and surface faulting in the Southwest Rift Zone and the Koaʻe fault system (Kīlauea volcano, Hawai ‘i) using photogrammetry and structural observations
Stefano Mannini, Joel Ruch, Richard W. Hazlett, Drew T. Downs, Carolyn Parcheta, Steven P. Lundblad, James Anderson, Ryan L. Perroy, Nicolas Oestreicher
2024, Bulletin of Volcanology (86)
Volcanic islands are often subject to flank instability, resulting from a combination of magmatic intrusions along rift zones and gravitational spreading causing extensional faulting at the surface. Here, we study the Koaʻe fault system (KFS), located south of the summit caldera of Kīlauea volcano in Hawaiʻi,...
Concept of a satellite cross-calibration radiometer for in-orbit calibration of commercial optical satellites
Medhavy Thankappan, Jon Christopherson, Simon John Cantrell, Robert Ryan, Mary Pagnutti, Courtney Bright, Denis Naughton, Kathryn Lynn Ruslander, Lan-Wei Wang, David Hudson, Jerad Shaw, Shankar N. Ramaseri Chandra, Cody Anderson
2024, Remote Sensing (16)
The satellite Earth observation (EO) sector is burgeoning with hundreds of commercial satellites being launched each year, delivering a rich source of data that could be exploited for societal benefit. Data streams from the growing number of commercial satellites are of variable quality, limiting the potential for their combined use...
Deep resistivity geophysics of the San Juan–Silverton caldera complex, San Juan County, Colorado (USA)
Brian D. Rodriguez, Douglas Yager, Eric D. Anderson, Robert L. Runkel, Bennett Eugene Hoogenboom, Bruce Smith, Maria Deszcz-Pan
2024, Geosphere (20) 910-934
Magnetotelluric (MT) and audiomagnetotelluric (AMT) data are used to better understand the subsurface geology and mineral resources in the San Juan–Silverton caldera complex located near Silverton, Colorado, western United States, as part of the extensive southern Rocky Mountains volcanic field that covers much...
Where east meets west: Phylogeography of the high Arctic North American brant goose
Robert Wilson, Sean Boyd, Sarah A. Sonsthagen, David H. Ward, Preben Clausen, Kathryn Dickson, Bartwolt Ebbinge, Gudmundur Gudmundsson, George Sage, Jolene Rearick, Dirk V. Derksen, Sandra Talbot
2024, Ecology and Evolution (14)
Genetic variation in Arctic species is often influenced by vicariance during the Pleistocene, as ice sheets fragmented the landscape and displaced populations to low- and high-latitude refugia. The formation of secondary contact or suture zones during periods of ice sheet retraction has important consequences...
Breeding population size of the Pink-footed Shearwater Ardenna creatopus on Isla Mocha, Chile
Ryan D. Carle, Tiare Varela, Valentina Colodro, T.J. Clark-Wolf, Jonathan J. Felis, Peter Hodum, Francisco Javier Astete Castillo, Veronica Lopez
2024, Marine Ornithology: Journal of Seabird Research and Conservation (52) 85-96
Species population estimates are a fundamental component of conservation planning, but there are deficiencies in reliable data for many seabirds. The Pink-footed Shearwater Ardenna creatopus is a seabird that breeds on three islands worldwide, with the largest population on Isla Mocha, Chile. We aimed to update the breeding population estimate of...
Opportunities and challenges for precipitation forcing data in post-wildfire hydrologic modeling applications
Trevor Fuess Partridge, Zachary Johnson, Rachel Sleeter, Sharon L. Qi, Michelle A. Walvoord, Sheila F. Murphy, Cara L. Peterman-Phipps, Brian A. Ebel
2024, WIREs Water (11)
The frequency and extent of wildfires have increased in recent decades with immediate and cascading effects on water availability in many regions of the world. Precipitation is used as primary input to hydrologic models and is a critical driver of post-wildfire hydrologic hazards including debris flows, flash floods, water-quality effects,...
