Status and trends of pelagic and benthic prey fish populations in Lake Michigan, 2023
David Warner, Ralph W. Tingley III, Charles P. Madenjian, Cory Brant, Steve A. Farha, Patricia Dieter, Benjamin A. Turschak, Dale Hanson, Kristy Phillips, Caleb Geister
2024, Report
Fall bottom trawl (fall BT) and lakewide acoustic (AC) surveys are conducted annually to generate indices of pelagic and benthic prey fish densities in Lake Michigan. The fall BT survey has been conducted each fall since 1973 using 12-m trawls at depths ranging from 9 to 110 m at fixed...
The roles of diet and habitat use in pesticide bioaccumulation by juvenile Chinook Salmon: Insights from stable isotopes and fatty acid biomarkers
Sara E. Anzalone, Neil W. Fuller, Kara E. Huff Hartz, Gregory W. Whitledge, Jason Tyler Magnuson, Daniel Schlenk, Shawn Acuña, Matt R. Whiles, Michael J. Lydy
2024, Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology (86) 234-248
Stable isotopes (SI) and fatty acid (FA) biomarkers can provide insights regarding trophic pathways and habitats associated with contaminant bioaccumulation. We assessed relationships between SI and FA biomarkers and published data on concentrations of two pesticides [dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane and degradation products (DDX) and bifenthrin] in juvenile Chinook...
Clumped isotopes record a glacial-interglacial shift in seasonality of soil carbonate accumulation in the San Luis Valley, southern Rocky Mountains, USA
Adam M. Hudson, Julia R. Kelson, James B. Paces, Chester A. Ruleman, Katharine W. Huntington, Andrew J. Schauer
2024, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems (25)
Clumped isotope paleothermometry using pedogenic carbonates is a powerful tool for investigating past climate changes. However, location-specific seasonal patterns of precipitation and soil moisture cause systematic biases in the temperatures they record, hampering comparison of data across large areas or differing climate states. To account for biases, more systematic studies...
Methane clumped isotopologue variability from ebullition in a mid-latitude lake
Ellen Jennifer Lalk, Amber Velez, Shuhei Ono
2024, ACS Earth and Space Chemistry (8) 689-701
Methane is a greenhouse gas and is an important component of carbon cycling in freshwater environments. Isotope ratios of methane (13C/12C and D/H) are used extensively as tracers to identify methane sources. Recent advances in the measurement of clumped methane isotopologues (13CH3D, 12CH2D2) offer new opportunities to constrain sources and sinks...
Evaluation of the characteristics, discharge, and water quality of selected springs at Fort Irwin National Training Center, San Bernardino County, California
Jill N. Densmore, Drew C. Thayer, Meghan C. Dick, Peter W. Swarzenski, Lyndsay B. Ball, Celia Z. Rosecrans, Cordell Johnson
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5142
Eight springs and seeps at Fort Irwin National Training Center were described and categorized by their general characteristics, discharge, geophysical properties, and water quality between 2015 and 2017. The data collected establish a modern (2017) baseline of hydrologic conditions at the springs. Two types of springs were identified: (1) precipitation-fed...
Genetic Connectivity in the Arizona toad (Anaxyrus microscaphus): implications for conservation of a stream dwelling amphibian in the arid Southwestern U.S.
Sara J. Oyler-McCance, Mason J. Ryan, Brian K. Sullivan, Jennifer A. Fike, Robert S. Cornman, J. T. Giermakowski, Shawna J Zimmerman, R. L. Harrow, S.J. Hedwell, Blake R. Hossack, I. M. Latella, R. E. Lovish, S. Siefken, Brent H. Sigafus, Erin L. Muths
2024, Conservation Genetics (25) 835-848
The Arizona Toad (Anaxyrus microscaphus) is restricted to riverine corridors and adjacent uplands in the arid southwestern United States. As with numerous amphibians worldwide, populations are declining and face various known or suspected threats, from disease to habitat modification resulting from climate change. The Arizona Toad has been petitioned to...
Post-wildfire debris flows
Joseph Gartner, Jason W. Kean, Francis K. Rengers, Scott W. McCoy, Nina S. Oakley, Gary J. Sheridan
2024, Book chapter, Advances in Debris-flow Science and Practice
Post-wildfire debris flows pose severe hazards to communities and infrastructure near and within recently burned mountainous terrain. Intense heat of wildfires changes the runoff characteristics of a watershed by combusting the vegetative canopy, litter, and duff, introducing ash into the soil and creating water repellant soils. Following wildfire, rainfall on...
Evaluation of data collected by Guam Division of Aquatic and Wildlife Resources during population establishment and monitoring of ko'ko' (Hypotaenidia owstoni) on Rota, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and wildlife monitoring datasets on Cocos Island and Guam
Richard J. Camp, Sarah A B Nash, Kristina L. Paxton
2024, Report
Efforts to recover the critically endangered ko’ko’ (Guam rail, Hypotaenidia owstoni) through establishing an experimental population on the island of Rota in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands have been ongoing for three decades. The U.S. Geological Survey collaborated with the Guam Division of...
A comparison of contemporary and historical hydrology and water quality in the foothills and coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Arctic Slope, northern Alaska
Joshua C. Koch, Heather Best, Carson Baughman, Charles Couvillion, Michael P. Carey, Jeff Conaway
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5008
The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is a unique landscape in northern Alaska with limited water resources, substantial biodiversity of rare and threatened species, as well as oil and gas resources. The region has unique hydrology related to perennial springs, and the formation of large aufeis fields—sheets of ice that grow...
Performance-based earthquake early warning for tall buildings
S. Farid Ghahari, Khachik Sargsyan, Grace Alexandra Parker, Dan Swensen, Mehmet Celebi, Hamid Haddadi, Ertugrul Taciroglu
2024, Earthquake Spectra (40) 1425-1451
The ShakeAlert Earthquake Early Warning (EEW) system aims to issue an advance warning to residents on the West Coast of the United States seconds before the ground shaking arrives, if the expected ground shaking exceeds a certain threshold. However, residents in tall buildings may experience much greater...
Assessing influence from wastewater treatment facilities on Glorieta Creek and the Pecos River within Pecos National Historical Park, New Mexico, February–October 2022
K. Wilkins, K. R. Beisner, R. E. Travis
2024, Open-File Report 2024-1014
The Pecos National Historical Park protects 2.9 miles of the Pecos River and part of Glorieta Creek within the park boundaries. Updated water-quality data can assist resource managers in determining if effluent from two nearby wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) is affecting the quality of the water in the Pecos River...
Integrated distance sampling models for simple point counts
Marc Kery, J. Andrew Royle, Tyler Hallman, Doug Robinson, Nicolas Strebel, Kenneth F. Kellner
2024, Ecology (105)
Point counts (PCs) are widely used in biodiversity surveys but, despite numerous advantages, simple PCs suffer from several problems: detectability, and therefore abundance, is unknown; systematic spatiotemporal variation in detectability yields biased inferences, and unknown survey area prevents formal density estimation and scaling-up to the landscape level. We introduce integrated...
Spatial distribution of API gravity and gas/oil ratios for petroleum accumulations in Upper Cretaceous strata of the San Miguel, Olmos, and Escondido Formations of the south Texas Maverick Basin—Implications for petroleum migration and charge history
Colin A. Doolan, William H. Craddock, Marc L. Buursink, Javin J. Hatcherian, Steven M. Cahan
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5124
The Maverick Basin of south Texas is currently undergoing active exploration and production of gas and oil from tight sandstone reservoirs. The most productive tight sandstones in the basin are in the Upper Cretaceous San Miguel, Olmos, and Escondido Formations. These units are second only to the Eagle Ford Shale...
Evaluation of sensors for continuous monitoring of harmful algal blooms in the Finger Lakes region, New York, 2019 and 2020
Brett D. Johnston, Kaitlyn M. Finkelstein, Sabina R. Gifford, Michael D.W. Stouder, Elizabeth A. Nystrom, Philip Savoy, Joshua J. Rosen, Matthew B. Jennings
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5010
In response to the increasing frequency of cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms (CyanoHABs) in the Finger Lakes region of New York State, a pilot study by the U.S. Geological Survey, in collaboration with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, was conducted to enhance CyanoHAB monitoring and understanding. High-frequency sensors...
Relation between the relative abundance and collapse of Aphanizomenon flos-aquae and microbial antagonism in Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon
Jennifer C. Underwood, Natalie Celeste Hall, Adam C. Mumford, Ronald W. Harvey, Paul Anthony Bliznik, Kaitlyn Michelle Jeanis
2024, FEMS Microbiology Ecology (100)
Aphanizomenon flos-aquae (AFA) is the dominant filamentous cyanobacterium that develops into blooms in Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon each year. During AFA bloom and collapse, ecosystem conditions for endangered Lost River and shortnose suckers deteriorate, thus motivating the need to identify processes that limit AFA abundance and decline. Here we investigate...
Establishment of terrestrial mammals on former reservoir beds following large dam removal on the Elwha River, Washington, USA
Rebecca M. McCaffery, Sara Cendejas-Zarelli, Katy R Goodwin, Patricia J. Happe, Kurt Jenkins, Kimberly A. Sager-Fradkin
2024, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution (12)
Terrestrial wildlife species are important yet often overlooked taxa in the recovery of ecosystems following dam removal. Their presence can shape ecosystem recovery, signal restoration of ecosystem function, and influence food web dynamics and nutrient transfer. We used camera traps to examine seasonal use of two former reservoir beds...
A conceptual site model of contaminant transport pathways from the Bremerton Naval Complex to Sinclair Inlet, Washington, 2011–21
Kathleen E. Conn, Sarah E. Janssen, Chad C. Opatz, Valerie A.L. Bright
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5011
Historical activities on the Bremerton Naval Complex (BNC) in Puget Sound, Washington, have resulted in Sinclair Inlet sediments with elevated concentrations of contaminants, including organic contaminants such as polychlorinated biphenyls and trace elements including mercury. Six U.S. Geological Survey–U.S. Navy datasets have been collected since the last major assessment, in...
Novel data in recreation monitoring—Summary proceedings from interagency workshops in 2019 and 2023
Emily J. Wilkins, Christian S.L. Crowley, Eric A. White, Spencer A. Wood, Rudy Schuster
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5013
Two interagency workshops were held in 2019 and 2023 in Fort Collins, Colorado, to discuss the use of novel data in recreation monitoring. During the workshops, the phrase “novel data in recreation monitoring” was primarily used to refer to data from social media, mobile device applications, and other online secondary...
Evaluation of groundwater resources in the Upper White River Basin within Mount Rainier National Park, Washington State, 2020
Leland T. Fuhrig, Andrew J. Long, Alexander O. Headman
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5015
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the National Park Service, investigated groundwater gains and losses on the upper White River within Mount Rainier National Park in Washington. This investigation was conducted using stream discharge measurements at 14 locations within 7 reaches over a 6.5-mile river length from near...
Linking temperature sensitivity of mangrove communities, populations and individuals across a tropical-temperate transitional zone
Yiyang Kang, David A. Kaplan, Michael Osland
2024, Journal of Ecology (112) 1256-1274
Climate change is reshaping coastal wetlands worldwide, driving ecosystem shifts like mangrove poleward expansion into saltmarshes in tropical-temperate transitional zones. Though warming is recognized as the primary driver, a lack of detailed field studies limits our ability to predict mangrove responses to rapid climate warming.Here, we characterized how mangroves...
Limited evidence of late Quaternary tectonic surface deformation in the eastern Tennessee seismic zone, USA
Jessica Ann Thompson Jobe, Richard W. Briggs, Ryan D. Gold, Laurel Bauer, Camille Collett
2024, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (114) 1920-1940
The ~300-km-long eastern Tennessee seismic zone (ETSZ), USA, is the second-most seismically active region east of the Rocky Mountains. Seismicity generally occurs below the Paleozoic fold-and-thrust belt within the Mesoproterozoic basement, at depths of 5–26 km, and earthquake magnitudes during the instrumental record have been moment magnitude (Mw)≤4.8. Evidence of...
Fair graph learning using constraint-aware priority adjustment and graph masking in river networks
Erhu He, Yiqun Xie, Alexander Y. Sun, Jacob Aaron Zwart, Jie Yang, Zhenong Jin, Yang Wang, Hassan Ali Karimi, Xiaowei Jia
2024, Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (38) 22087-22095
Accurate prediction of water quality and quantity is crucial for sustainable development and human well-being. However, existing data-driven methods often suffer from spatial biases in model performance due to heterogeneous data, limited observations, and noisy sensor data. To overcome these challenges, we propose Fair-Graph, a novel graph-based recurrent neural network...
Exploring and integrating differences in niche characteristics across regional and global scales to better understand plant invasions in Hawaiʻi
Lucas Berio Fortini, Lauren R. Kaiser, Curtis Daehler, James D. Jacobi, Monica Dimson, Thomas W Gillespie
2024, Biological Invasions (26) 1827-1843
The spread of ecosystem modifying invasive plant (EMIP) species is one of the largest threats to native ecosystems in Hawaiʻi. However, differences in niche characteristics between Hawaiʻi’s isolated insular environment and the wider global distribution of these species have not been carefully examined. We used species distribution modeling (SDM) methods...
Greater sage-grouse habitat of Nevada and northeastern California—Integrating space use, habitat selection, and survival indices to guide areas for habitat management
Megan C. Milligan, Peter S. Coates, Shawn T. O’Neil, Brianne E. Brussee, Michael P. Chenaille, Derek Friend, Kathleen Steele, Justin R. Small, Timothy S. Bowden, Arlene D. Kosic, Katherine Miller
2024, Open-File Report 2024-1018
Executive SummaryGreater sage-grouse populations (Centrocercus urophasianus; hereafter sage-grouse) are threatened by a suite of disturbances and anthropogenic factors that have contributed to a net loss of sagebrush-dominant shrub cover in recent decades. Declines in sage-grouse populations are largely linked to habitat loss across their range. A key component of conservation...
Differences in life history patterns of American shad, Alosa sapidissima, populations between ancestral, Atlantic coast, and non-native, Pacific coast rivers of North America
Thomas P. Quinn, Lisa Wetzel, Daniel J. Hasselman, Kimberly Larsen
2024, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (81) 862-878
Organisms naturalized outside their native range can reveal new life history patterns in new environments. Here, we compare life history patterns of American shad, Alosa sapidissima, from five rivers along the U.S. Pacific coast (introduced range) with contemporary data from the Atlantic coast source populations. The Pacific coast fish...
