Composite estimation to combine spatially overlapping environmental monitoring surveys
Steven Garman, Cindy L. Yu, Yuyang Li
2024, PLoS ONE (19)
Long-term environmental monitoring surveys are designed to achieve a desired precision (measured by variance) of resource conditions based on natural variability information. Over time, increases in resource variability and in data use to address issues focused on small areas with limited sample sizes require bolstering of...
Monitoring aquifer-storage change from artificial recharge with repeat microgravity along Santa Cruz River, Tucson, Arizona, 2019–22
Libby M. Wildermuth, Jacob L. Conrad
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5115
The City of Tucson water utility, Tucson Water, began releasing treated effluent into the Santa Cruz River channel near downtown Tucson in 2019. This recharge project—the Heritage Project—is intended to create a reach of consistent flow in the channel and recharge water to the aquifer. Tracking the dispersal of recharged...
Seabed maps showing topography, ruggedness, backscatter intensity, sediment mobility, and the distribution of geologic substrates in quadrangle 5 of the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary region offshore of Boston, Massachusetts
Page C. Valentine, VeeAnn A. Cross
2024, Scientific Investigations Map 3515
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the National Marine Sanctuary Program of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, has conducted seabed mapping and related research in the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary (SBNMS) region since 1993. The area being mapped using geophysical and geological data includes the SBNMS and...
Assessing giant sequoia mortality and regeneration following high-severity wildfire
David Nicolas Bertil Soderberg, Adrian Das, Nathan L. Stephenson, Marc D. Meyer, Christy A. Brigham, Joshua Flickinger
2024, Ecosphere (15)
Fire is a critical driver of giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum [Lindl.] Buchholz) regeneration. However, fire suppression combined with the effects of increased temperature and severe drought has resulted in fires of an intensity and size outside of the historical norm. As a result, recent mega-fires...
Characterizing future streamflows in Massachusetts using stochastic modeling—A pilot study
Scott A. Olson, Ghazal Shabestanipour, Jonathan Lamontagne, Scott Steinschneider
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5134
Communities throughout Massachusetts face the potential effects of climate change, ranging from more extreme rainfall to more pronounced and frequent droughts. Understanding the effects of climate change on hydrology is important to State and community officials to evaluate the potential effects on infrastructure and water systems. To better understand the...
ECCOE Landsat quarterly Calibration and Validation report—Quarter 3, 2023
Md Obaidul Haque, Rajagopalan Rengarajan, Mark Lubke, Nahid Hasan, Ashish Shrestha, Jerad L. Shaw, Alex Denevan, Kathryn Ruslander, Esad Micijevic, Michael J. Choate, Cody Anderson, Kurt Thome, Ed Kaita, Julia Barsi, Raviv Levy, Jeff Miller, Leibo Ding
2024, Open-File Report 2024-1017
Executive SummaryThe U.S. Geological Survey Earth Resources Observation and Science Calibration and Validation (Cal/Val) Center of Excellence (ECCOE) focuses on improving the accuracy, precision, calibration, and product quality of remote-sensing data, leveraging years of multiscale optical system geometric and radiometric calibration and characterization experience. The ECCOE Landsat Cal/Val Team continually...
Results of 2018–19 water-quality and hydraulic characterization of aquifer intervals using packer tests and preliminary geophysical-log correlations for selected boreholes at and near the former Naval Air Warfare Center Warminster, Bucks County, Pennsylvania
Lisa A. Senior, Alex R. Fiore
2024, Open-File Report 2024-1007
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) collected data on the vertical distribution of hydraulic head, specific capacity, and water quality using aquifer-interval-isolation tests and other vertical profiling methods in 15 boreholes completed in fractured sedimentary bedrock in Northampton, Warminster, and Warwick Townships, Bucks County, Pennsylvania during 2018–19. This work was done,...
Summary of Creepmeter Data from 1980 to 2020—Measurements Spanning the Hayward, Calaveras, and San Andreas Faults in Northern and Central California
John Langbein, Roger G. Bilham, Hollice A. Snyder, Todd Ericksen
2024, Open-File Report 2024-1011
This report is an update to the presentation by Schulz (1989) introducing potential users to the creepmeter data collected between the publication of Schulz’s report and mid-2020. The creepmeter network monitors aseismic, surface slip at various locations on the Hayward, Calaveras, and San Andreas Faults in northern and central California....
Evaluation and refinement of chlorophyll-a algorithms for high-biomass blooms in San Francisco Bay (USA)
Raphael M. Kudela, David B. Senn, Emily T. Richardson, Keith Bouma-Gregson, Brian A. Bergamaschi, Lawrence Sim
2024, Remote Sensing (16)
A massive bloom of the raphidophyte Heterosigma akashiwo occurred in summer 2022 in San Francisco Bay, causing widespread ecological impacts including events of low dissolved oxygen and mass fish kills. The rapidly evolving bloom required equally rapid management response, leading to the use of near-real-time image analysis of chlorophyll from the...
Analysis of mitochondrial DNA sequence data demonstrates that monophyly of myotis occultus is complicated by greater sampling of myotis lucifugus
Jeffrey M. Lorch, Antoinette J. Piaggio, Daniel R. Taylor
2024, Southwestern Naturalist (67) 255-262
The validity of Myotis occultus as a species unique from Myotis lucifugus has been a source of debate. Most recently, many authorities treat M. occultus as a distinct species, at least in part because a previous study showed that M. occultus and M. l. carissima (the subspecies that occurs in closest geographic proximity to M....
Data-driven adjustments for combined use of NGA-East hard-rock ground motion and site amplification models
Maria E. Ramos-Sepulveda, Jonathan P. Stewart, Grace Alexandra Parker, Morgan P. Moschetti, Eric M. Thompson, Scott J. Brandenberg, Youssef M A Hashash, Ellen Rathje
2024, Earthquake Spectra (40) 1132-1157
Model development in the Next Generation Attenuation-East (NGA-East) project included two components developed concurrently and independently: (1) earthquake ground-motion models (GMMs) that predict the median and aleatory variability of various intensity measures conditioned on magnitude and distance, derived for a reference hard-rock site condition with an average shear-wave velocity in...
Case definitions for wildlife diseases
Kimberli J.G. Miller, E. Jane Parmley, Anne Ballmann, Jennifer Buckner, Megan Jones, Julia S. Lankton, Marnie Zimmer
2024, Techniques and Methods 19
Welcome to the first manual of “Case Definitions for Wildlife Diseases,” a “living” electronic publication. The plan is to add and update this manual’s case definitions periodically as warranted; thus, this manual will never be completed, and readers should download the latest versions of specific chapters (that is, definitions) when...
Yosemite toad (Anaxyrus canorus) transcriptome reveals interplay between speciation genes and adaptive introgression
Paul A. Maier, Amy G. Vandergast, Andrew J. Bohonak
2024, Molecular Ecology (33)
Genomes are heterogeneous during the early stages of speciation, with small ‘islands’ of DNA appearing to reflect strong adaptive differences, surrounded by vast seas of relative homogeneity. As species diverge, secondary contact zones between them can act as an interface and selectively filter through...
Time of year and weather influence departure decisions of sandhill cranes at a primary stopover
Rachel A. Vanausdall, William L. Kendall, Daniel P. Collins, Quentin R. Hays
2024, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution (12)
The Rocky Mountain Population (RMP) of greater sandhill cranes uses a key stopover area, the San Luis Valley (SLV) in Colorado. Parameters of migration phenology can differ between autumn and spring and are affected by weather and environmental factors. We hypothesized that sandhill cranes in the SLV would have...
Annotated bibliography of scientific research relevant to oil and gas reclamation best management practices in the western United States, published from 1969 through 2020
Rebecca K. Mann, Molly L. McCormick, Seth M. Munson, Hillary F. Cooper, Lee C. Bryant, Jared K. Swenson, Laura A. Johnston, Savannah L. Wilson, Michael C. Duniway
2024, Open-File Report 2023-1068
Integrating recent scientific knowledge into management decisions supports effective natural resource management and can lead to better resource outcomes. However, finding and accessing scientific knowledge can be time consuming and costly. To assist in this process, the U.S. Geological Survey has created a series of annotated bibliographies on topics...
Incorporating life history diversity in an integrated population model to inform viability analysis
Mark H. Sorel, Jeffrey C. Jorgensen, Richard W. Zabel, Mark David Scheuerell, Andrew R. Murdoch, Cory M. Kamphaus, Sarah J. Converse
2024, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (81) 535-548
Life history diversity can significantly affect population dynamics and effects of management actions. For instance, variation in individual responses to environmental variability can reduce extirpation risk to populations, as the portfolio effect dampens temporal variability in abundance. Moreover, differences in habitat use may cause individuals to respond differently to habitat...
Spatial extent drives patterns of relative climate change sensitivity for freshwater fishes of the United States
Samuel C. Silknetter, Abigail Benson, Jennifer A. Smith, Meryl C. Mims
2024, Ecosphere (15)
Assessing the sensitivity of freshwater species to climate change is an essential component of prioritizing conservation efforts for threatened freshwater ecosystems and organisms. Sensitivity to climate change can be systematically evaluated for multiple species using geographic attributes such as range size and climate niche...
StreamStats—A quarter century of delivering web-based geospatial and hydrologic information to the public, and lessons learned
Kernell G. Ries III, Peter A. Steeves, Peter M. McCarthy
2024, Circular 1514
StreamStats is a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) web application that provides streamflow statistics, such as the 1-percent annual exceedance probability peak flow, the mean flow, and the 7-day, 10-year low flow, to the public through a map-based user interface. These statistics are used in many ways, such as in the...
Database and time series of nearshore waves along the Alaskan coast from the United States-Canada border to the Bering Sea
Anita C. Engelstad, Li H. Erikson, Borja G. Reguero, Ann E. Gibbs, Kees Nederhoff
2024, Open-File Report 2023-1094
Alaska’s Arctic coast has some of the highest coastal erosion rates in the world, primarily driven by permafrost thaw and increasing wave energy. In the Arctic, a warming climate is driving sea ice cover to decrease in space and time. A lack of long-term observational wave data along Alaska’s coast...
Trace silicon determination in biological samples by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS): Insight into volatility of silicon species in hydrofluoric acid digests for optimal sample preparation and introduction to ICP-MS
Zikri Arslan, Heather A. Lowers
2024, Minerals (14)
A method for the determination of trace levels of silicon from biological materials by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) has been developed. The volatility of water-soluble silicon species, hexafluorosilicic acid (H2SiF6), and sodium metasilicate (Na2SiO3) was investigated by evaporating respective solutions (50 µg/mL silicon) in nitric acid (HNO3),...
Using global remote camera data of a solitary species complex to evaluate the drivers of group formation
Joshua P. Twining, Chris Sutherland, Andrzej Zalewski, Michael V. Cove, Johnny Birks, Oliver R. Wearn, Jessica Haysom, Anna Wereszczuk, Emiliano Manzo, Paola Bartolommei, Alessio Mortelliti, Bryn Evans, Brian D. Gerber, Thomas J. McGreevy Jr., Laken S. Ganoe, Juliana Masseloux, Amy E. Mayer, Izabela Wierzbowska, Jan Loch, Jocelyn Akins, Donovan Drummey, William McShea, Stephanie Manke, Lain Pardo, Andy Boyce, Sheng Li, Roslina Binti Ragai, Ronglarp Sukmasuang, Alvaro Jose Villafane Trujillo, Carlos Lopez-Gonzalez, Nalleli Elvira Lara-Diaz, Olivia Cosby, Cristian N. Waggershauser, Jack Bamber, Frances Stewart, Jason Fisher, Angela K. Fuller, Kelly Perkins, Roger A. Powell
2024, PNAS (121)
The social system of animals involves a complex interplay between physiology, natural history, and the environment. Long relied upon discrete categorizations of “social” and “solitary” inhibit our capacity to understand species and their interactions with the world around them. Here, we use a globally distributed camera trapping dataset to test...
Habitat amount and edge effects, not perch proximity, nest exposure, or vegetation diversity affect cowbird parasitism in agricultural landscapes
Matthew D. Stephenson, Kyla L. Yuza, Lisa A. Schulte, Robert W. Klaver
2024, Landscape Ecology (39)
ContextPrior research documented relationships between brown-headed cowbird (Molothrus ater) brood parasitism and edge effects, proximity of perches, and nest exposure. Those relationships have not been evaluated in agroecosystems containing extremes of fragmentation and vegetation diversity.ObjectivesWe compared three existing hypotheses on how cowbirds locate host nests with...
Growth, survival, and cohort formation of juvenile Lost River (Deltistes luxatus) and shortnose suckers (Chasmistes brevirostris) in Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon, and Clear Lake Reservoir, California—2021–22 monitoring report
Barbara A. Martin, John M. Caldwell, Jacob R. Krause, Alta C. Harris
2024, Open-File Report 2024-1013
Executive SummaryThe work reported in this publication provides updated data and interpretation for sampling years 2015 and 2022 of the juvenile monitoring project. The study objectives, background, study area, species description, and methods remained the same or similar throughout the years, while the executive summary, results, and discussion were updated...
Too simple, too complex, or just right? Advantages, challenges, and guidance for indicators of genetic diversity
Sean M. Hoban, Jessica M. da Silva, Alice C. Hughes, Margaret Hunter, Belma Kalamujic Stroil, Linda Laikre, Alicia Mastretta-Yanes, Katie L Millette, Ivan Paz-Vinas, Lucia Ruiz Bustos, Robyn E. Shaw, Cristiano Vernesi, the Coalition for Conservation Genetics
2024, BioScience
Measuring genetic diversity of wild species using DNA-based data remains resource intensive and time consuming for nearly all species. However, genetic assessments are needed for global conservation commitments, including the Convention on Biological Diversity, and for governments and managers to evaluate conservation progress, as well as prioritizing species and...
Paleogene mid-crustal intrusions in the Ruby Mountains–East Humboldt Range metamorphic core complex, northeastern Nevada, USA
A.W. Snoke, C.B. Barnes, Keith A. Howard, A. Romanoski, Wayne R. Premo, C. Hetherington, A. Strike, C. Frost, P. Copeland, S-Y Lee
2024, Geosphere (20) 577-620
Middle Eocene to early Oligocene intrusions, widespread in the Ruby Mountains–East Humboldt Range metamorphic core complex, Nevada, USA, provide insights into a major Paleogene magmatic episode and its relation to tectonism in the northeastern Great Basin. These intrusions, well-exposed in upper Lamoille Canyon, range in composition from gabbro to leucomonzogranite....
