Energy allocation and feeding ecology of juvenile chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta) during transition from freshwater to saltwater
Sean E. Burril, Vanessa R. von Biela, Nicola Hillbruber, Christian E. Zimmerman
2019, Polar Biology (41) 1447-1461
Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) populations near their northern range extent in the Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim region of Alaska have undergone major changes in population trajectory and illuminated the lack of basic information on juvenile ecology. This study fills information gaps on the early life history of chum salmon at northern latitudes. Energy...
Distribution and abundance of Least Bell’s Vireos (Vireo bellii pusillus) and Southwestern Willow Flycatchers (Empidonax traillii extimus) on the Middle San Luis Rey River, San Diego County, Southern California—2018 data summary
Lisa D. Allen, Barbara E. Kus
2019, Data Series 1109
We surveyed for Least Bell’s Vireos (Vireo bellii pusillus; vireo) and Southwestern Willow Flycatchers (Empidonax traillii extimus; flycatcher) along the San Luis Rey River, between College Boulevard in Oceanside and Interstate 15 in Fallbrook, California (middle San Luis Rey River), in 2018. Surveys were conducted from April 17 to July 16 (vireo) and from May 16...
Persistence of intense, climate-driven runoff late in Mars history
Edwin S. Kite, David Mayer, Sharon A. Wilson, Joel M. Davis, Antoine S. Lucas, Gaia Stucky de Quay
2019, Science Advances (5)
Mars is dry today, but numerous precipitation-fed paleo-rivers are found across the planet’s surface. These rivers’ existence is a challenge to models of planetary climate evolution. We report results indicating that, for a given catchment area, rivers on Mars were wider than rivers on Earth today. We use the scale...
Measurement of long-term channel change through repeated cross-section surveys at bridge crossings in Alaska
Karenth L. Dworsky, Jeffrey S. Conaway
2019, Open-File Report 2019-1028
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has been working with Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (ADOT&PF) since 1993 to provide hydraulic assessments of scour for bridges throughout Alaska. The purpose of the program is to evaluate, monitor, and study streambed scour at bridges in Alaska; this includes surveying...
Mammut pacificus sp. nov., a newly recognized species of mastodon from the Pleistocene of western North America
Alton C Dooley, Eric Scott, Jeremy Green, Kathleen B. Springer, Brett Dooley, Gregory J. Smith
2019, PeerJ (7)
A new species of mastodon from the Pleistocene of western North America, Mammut pacificus sp. nov. is herein recognized, with specimens identified throughout California and from two localities in southern Idaho. This new taxon differs from the contemporaneous M. americanum in having narrower teeth, most prominently in M3/m3, as well as six sacral vertebrae,...
Mid-latitude net precipitation decreased with Arctic warming during the Holocene
Cody Routson, Nicholas McKay, Darrell Kaufman, Hugues Goosse, Bryan Shuman, Jessica Rodysill, Toby Ault
2019, Nature (568) 83-87
The latitudinal temperature gradient between the Equator and the poles influences atmospheric stability, the strength of the jet stream and extratropical cyclones. Recent global warming is weakening the annual surface gradient in the Northern Hemisphere by preferentially warming the high...
Laboratory for Infectious Disease and the Environment (LIDE)
Joel P. Stokdyk, Jennifer L. Bruce, Tucker R. Burch, Susan K. Spencer, Aaron D. Firnstahl, Mark A. Borchardt
2019, Fact Sheet 2018-3079
The Laboratory for Infectious Disease and the Environment (LIDE) studies the occurrence, fate and transport, and health effects of human and agricultural zoonotic pathogens in the environment. The LIDE is an interagency collaborative effort between the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service that conducts research...
Tampa Bay Ocean and Coastal Acidification Monitoring Quality Assurance Project Plan
Kimberly K. Yates, Christopher S. Moore, Nathan H. Goldstein, Edward T. Sherwood
2019, Open-File Report 2019-1003
Coastal acidification caused by eutrophication, freshwater inflow, and upwelling is already affecting many estuaries worldwide and can be exacerbated by ocean acidification that is caused by increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Effective management, mitigation, and (or) adaptation to the effects of coastal and ocean acidification require careful monitoring of...
Does perspective matter? A case study comparing Eulerian and Lagrangian estimates of common murre (Uria aalge) distributions
Elizabeth M. Phillips, John K. Horne, Jeannette E. Zamon, Jonathan J. Felis, Josh Adams
2019, Ecology and Evolution (9) 4805-4819
Studies estimating species' distributions require information about animal locations in space and time. Location data can be collected using surveys within a predetermined frame of reference (i.e., Eulerian sampling) or from animal‐borne tracking devices (i.e., Lagrangian sampling). Integration of observations obtained from Eulerian and Lagrangian perspectives can provide insights into...
Radiometric calibration of a non-imaging airborne spectrometer to measure the Greenland ice sheet surface
Christopher J. Crawford, Jeannette van den Bosch, Kelly M. Brunt, Milton G. Hom, John W. Cooper, David J. Harding, James J. Butler, Philip W. Dabney, Thomas A. Neumann, Craig S. Cleckner, Thorsten Markus
2019, Atmospheric Measurement Techniques (12) 1913-1933
Methods to radiometrically calibrate a non-imaging airborne visible-to-shortwave infrared (VSWIR) spectrometer to measure the Greenland ice sheet surface are presented. Airborne VSWIR measurement performance for bright Greenland ice and dark bare rock/soil targets is compared against the MODerate resolution atmospheric TRANsmission (MODTRAN®) radiative transfer code (version 6.0), and a coincident...
Wildlife mortality at wind facilities: How we know what we know how we might mislead ourselves, and how we set our future course
Manuela M. Huso
2019, Book chapter, Wind energy and wildlife impacts
To accurately estimate per turbine – or per megawatt – annual wildlife mortality at wind facilities, the raw counts of carcasses found must be adjusted for four major sources of imperfect detection: (1) fatalities that occur outside the monitoring period; (2) carcasses that land outside the monitored area;...
Agricultural chemical concentrations and loads in rivers draining the Central Valley, California: Before, during, and after an extended drought
Joseph L. Domagalski
2019, Book chapter, Pesticides in surface water: Monitoring, modeling, risk assessment, and management
Drought or near drought conditions persisted in California from 2012 through 2016, followed by a high precipitation year in 2017. Long-term water quality monitoring of two key river stations, the Sacramento River at Freeport and the San Joaquin River near Vernalis, located within the largely agricultural Central Valley, allow...
Parallel signatures of selection at genomic islands of divergence and the major histocompatibility complex in ecotypes of sockeye salmon across Alaska
Wesley Larson, Tyler H. Dann, Morten T. Limborg, Garrett J. McKinney, James E. Seeb, Lisa W. Seeb
2019, Molecular Ecology (28) 2254-2271
Understanding the genetic mechanisms that facilitate adaptive radiation is an important component of evolutionary biology. Here, we genotyped 82 neutral SNPs, seven SNPs in islands of divergence identified in a previous study (island SNPs), and a region of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) in 32 populations of sockeye salmon to...
Interactive mapping of nonindigenous species in the Laurentian Great Lakes
Joseph P. Smith, El K. Lower, Felix A. Martinez, Catherine M. Riseng, Lacey A. Mason, Edward S. Rutherford, Matthew E. Neilson, Pam Fuller, Kevin E. Wehrly, Rochelle A. Sturtevant
2019, Management of Biological Invasions (10) 192-199
Nonindigenous species pose significant risks to the health and integrity of ecosystems around the world. Tracking and communicating the spread of these species has been of interest to ecologists and environmental managers for many years, particularly in the bi-national Laurentian Great Lakes of North America. In this paper, we introduce...
Plant richness and composition in hardwood forest understories vary along an acidic deposition and soil-chemical gradient in the northeastern United States
Michael R. Zarfos, Martin Dovciak, Gregory B. Lawrence, Todd C. McDonnell, Timothy J. Sullivan
2019, Plant and Soil (438) 461-477
AimsA century of atmospheric deposition of sulfur and nitrogen has acidified soils and undermined the health and recruitment of foundational tree species in the northeastern US. However, effects of acidic deposition on the forest understory plant communities of this region are poorly documented. We investigated how forest understory...
A strong colonizer rules the trematode guild in an intertidal snail host
Pilar Alda, Nicolas Bonel, Nestor J. Cazzaniga, Sergio R. Martorelli, Kevin D. Lafferty
2019, Ecology (100)
We examined the extent to which supply‐side, niche, and competition theories and concepts help explain a trematode community in which one species comprises 87% of the trematode individuals, and the remaining 15 species each have <3%. We collected and dissected the common and wide‐ranging snail host Heleobia australis over four seasons from...
Survival outcome patterns revealed by deploying advanced tags in quantity: Pacific halibut (Hippoglossus stenolepis) survivals after release from trawl catches through expedited sorting
Craig S. Rose, Julie K. Nielsen, John Gauvin, Tim Loher, Suresh Sethi, Andrew C. Seitz, Michael B. Courtney, Paige Drobny
2019, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (76) 2215-2224
Bycatch of Pacific halibut (Hippoglossus stenolepis) limits many trawl fisheries in Alaska and greatly concerns stakeholders from local communities and fisheries that rely on Pacific halibut. To reduce Pacific halibut mortality, trawlers in the Bering Sea that target flatfish have been developing expedited release procedures to sort Pacific halibut from...
Status and trends of prey fish populations in Lake Michigan, 2018
David Bunnell, Charles P. Madenjian, Timothy J. Desorcie, Patricia Dieter, Jean V. Adams
2019, Report
The U.S. Geological Survey Great Lakes Science Center has conducted lake-wide surveys of the fish community in Lake Michigan each fall since 1973 using standard 12 m bottom trawls towed along contour at depths of 9 to 110 m at each of seven index transects. The survey provides relative...
Plasticity in elk migration timing is a response to changing environmental conditions
Gregory J.M. Rickbeil, Jerod A. Merkle, Greg Anderson, M. Paul Atwood, Jon P. Beckmann, Eric K Cole, Alyson B. Courtemanch, Sarah Dewey, David D. Gustine, Matthew Kauffman, Douglas E. McWhirter, Tony W. Mong, Kelly Proffitt, Patrick J. White, Arthur D. Middleton
2019, Global Change Biology (25) 2368-2381
Migration is an effective behavioral strategy for prolonging access to seasonal resources and may be a resilient strategy for ungulates experiencing changing climatic conditions. In the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE), elk are the primary ungulate, with approximately 20,000 individuals migrating to exploit seasonal gradients in forage...
Methane emissions from groundwater pumping in the USA
Justin T. Kulongoski, Peter B. McMahon
2019, Climate and Atmospheric Science (2) 1-8
Atmospheric methane accumulation contributes to climate change, hence quantifying methane emissions is essential to assess and model the impacts. Here we estimate methane emissions from groundwater pumping in the Los Angeles Basin (LAB), north-eastern Pennsylvania, and the Principal aquifers of the USA using the average concentrations of methane in groundwater...
Undocumented late 18th- to early 19th-century volcanic eruptions in the Southwest Rift Zone of Kīlauea Volcano, Hawai‘i
Richard W. Hazlett, Tim R. Orr, Steve P. Lundblad
2019, Scientific Investigations Report 2019-5010
The historical record of volcanic activity at Kīlauea Volcano on the Island of Hawaiʻi begins with the phreatomagmatic blasts of 1790. Three decades later, in 1823, the first party of non-Hawaiian visitors, organized by the English Reverend William Ellis, reached Kīlauea’s summit. A detailed narrative by Ellis includes an account...
Tsunamigenic splay faults imply a long-term asperity in southern Prince William Sound, Alaska
Lee Liberty, Daniel S. Brothers, Peter J. Haeussler
2019, Geophysical Research Letters (46) 3764-3772
Coseismic slip partitioning and uplift over multiple earthquake cycles is critical to understanding upper‐plate fault development. Bathymetric and seismic reflection data from the 1964 Mw9.2 Great Alaska earthquake rupture area reveal sea floor scarps along the tsunamigenic Patton Bay/Cape Cleare/Middleton Island fault system. The faults splay from...
Prediction of unprecedented biological shifts in the global ocean
G. Beaugrand, A. Conversi, A. Atkinson, James Cloern, S. Chiba, S. Fonda-Umani, R.R. Kirby, C.H. Greene, E. Goberville, S.A. Otto, P.C. Reid, L. Stemmann, M. Edwards
2019, Nature Climate Change (9) 237-243
Impermanence is an ecological principle1 but there are times when changes occur nonlinearly as abrupt community shifts (ACSs) that transform the ecosystem state and the goods and services it provides2. Here, we present a model based on niche theory<a id="ref-link-section-d63913e663" title="Hutchinson, G. E. An Introduction to Population Ecology (Yale Univ. Press,...
Invasive buffelgrass detection using high-resolution satellite and UAV imagery on Google Earth Engine
Kaitlyn Elkind, Temuulen T. Sankey, Seth M. Munson, Clare E. Aslan
2019, Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation (5) 318-331
Methods to detect and monitor the spread of invasive grasses are critical to avoid ecosystem transformations and large economic costs. The rapid spread of non‐native buffelgrass(Pennisetum ciliare) has intensified fire risk and is replacing fire intolerant native vegetation in the Sonoran Desert of the southwestern US. Coarse‐resolution satellite imagery has had...
Plague management of prairie dog colonies: Degree and duration of deltamethrin flea control
David Austin Eads, Dean E. Biggins
2019, Journal of Vector Ecology (44) 40-47
Plague is a flea-borne disease of mammalian hosts. On the grasslands of western North America, plague stifles populations of Cynomys spp. prairie dogs (PDs). To manage plague, PD burrows are treated with 0.05% deltamethrin dust that can suppress flea numbers and plague transmission. Here, we evaluate the degree and duration of deltamethrin...
