Inferring watershed hydraulics and cold-water habitat persistence using multi-year air and stream temperature signals
Martin A. Briggs, Zachary C. Johnson, Craig D. Snyder, Nathaniel P. Hitt, Barret L. Kurylyk, Laura K. Lautz, Dylan J. Irvine, Stephen T. Hurley, John W. Lane Jr.
2018, Science of the Total Environment (636) 1117-1127
Streams strongly influenced by groundwater discharge may serve as “climate refugia” for sensitive species in regions of increasingly marginal thermal conditions. The main goal of this study is to develop paired air and stream water annual temperature signal analysis techniques to elucidate the relative groundwater contribution to stream water and...
Mercury and lead exposure in avian scavengers from the Pacific Northwest suggest risks to California condors: Implications for reintroduction and recovery
Garth Herring, Collin A. Eagles-Smith, Daniel E. Varland
2018, Environmental Pollution (243) 610-619
Mercury (Hg) and lead (Pb) are widespread contaminants that pose risks to avian scavengers. In fact, Pb exposure is the primary factor limiting population recovery in the endangered California condor (Gymnogyps californianus) and Hg can impair avian reproduction at environmentally relevant exposures. The Pacific Northwest region of the US was historically part...
Weathering of oil in a surficial aquifer
Mary Jo Baedecker, Robert P. Eganhouse, Haiping Qi, Isabelle M. Cozzarelli, Jared J. Trost, Barbara A. Bekins
2018, Groundwater (56) 797-809
The composition of crude oil in a surficial aquifer was determined in two locations at the Bemidji, MN, spill site. The abundances of 71 individual hydrocarbons varied within 16 locations sampled. Little depletion of these hydrocarbons (relative to the pipeline oil) occurred in the first 10 years after the spill,...
Incorporating teleseismic tomography data into models of upper mantle slab geometry
Daniel E. Portner, Gavin P. Hayes
2018, Geophysical Journal International (215) 325-332
Earthquake-based models of slab geometry are limited by the distribution of earthquakes within a subducting slab, which is often heterogeneous. The fast seismic velocity signature of slabs in tomography studies is independent of the distribution of earthquakes within the slab, providing a critical constraint on slab geometry when earthquakes are...
Microbial community composition of a hydrocarbon reservoir 40 years after a CO2 enhanced oil recovery flood
Jenna L. Shelton, Robert S. Andrews, Denise M. Akob, Christina A. DeVera, Adam C. Mumford, John E. McCray, Jennifer C. McIntosh
2018, FEMS Microbiology Ecology (94) 1-11
Injecting CO2 into depleted oil reservoirs to extract additional crude oil is a common enhanced oil recovery (CO2-EOR) technique. However, little is known about how in situ microbial communities may be impacted by CO2 flooding, or if any permanent microbiological changes occur after flooding has ceased. Formation water was collected from an oil field...
Exploring the amphibian exposome in an agricultural landscape using telemetry and passive sampling
Jennifer E. Swanson, Erin L. Muths, Clay Pierce, Stephen J. Dinsmore, Mark W. Vandever, Michelle L. Hladik, Kelly L. Smalling
2018, Scientific Reports (8) 1-10
This is the first field study of its kind to combine radio telemetry, passive samplers, and pesticide accumulation in tissues to characterize the amphibian exposome as it relates to pesticides. Understanding how habitat drives exposure in individuals (i.e., their exposome), and how that relates to individual health is critical to...
Toward salt marsh harvest mouse recovery: A review
Katherine R. Smith, Melissa K. Riley, Laureen Barthman-Thompson, Isa Woo, Mark J. Statham, Sarah Estrella, Douglas A. Kelt
2018, San Francisco Estuary and Watershed Science (16)
The salt marsh harvest mouse (SMHM, Reithrodontomys raviventris) is an endangered species, endemic to the San Francisco Estuary. Despite being protected for almost half a century and being included in a large number of recovery, restoration, and management plans, significant data gaps hinder conservation and management of the species, a challenge...
Exotic invasive Pomacea maculata (Giant Apple Snail) will depredate eggs of frog and toad species of the Southeastern US
Jacoby Carter, Darren Johnson, Sergio Merino
2018, Southeastern Naturalist (17) 470-475
Pomacea maculata (Perry) (Giant Apple Snail) is a freshwater snail native to South America (Hayes et al. 2015) that is an invasive species in the freshwater wetlands and waterways of the northern Gulf of Mexico, peninsular Florida (Benson 2017, Burks 2017) and globally (Hayes et al. 2015). Karraker and Dudgeon (2014) found...
Aquatic vegetation responses to island construction (habitat restoration) in a large floodplain river
Deanne C. Drake, Brian R. Gray, Nora Forbes
2018, River Research and Applications (34) 765-776
The Upper Mississippi River is maintained in its current navigable state through impoundments, dredging, and other engineering projects. These stressors, along with anthropogenic impacts and natural system processes, led to declines in aquatic vegetation and the loss of fish and wildlife habitat, with a major downturn the late 1980s and...
Radiocarbon chronometry of Site QJ-280, Quebrada Jaguay, a terminal Pleistocene to early Holocene fishing site in southern Peru
Kevin B. Jones, Gregory W. L. Hodgins, Daniel H. Sandweiss
2018, Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology (14) 82-100
Excavations in 1970, 1996, and 1999 at Site QJ-280, Quebrada Jaguay, in southern Peru, yielded enough dateable terrestrial plant material to establish an extensive radiocarbon chronology for the site. QJ-280 is one of oldest well-dated fishing sites in the Americas: it was occupied from the terminal Pleistocene to the mid-Holocene...
Population history provides foundational knowledge for utilizing and developing native plant restoration materials
Robert Massatti, Holly R. Prendeville, Steve Larson, Bryce A. Richardson, Blair Waldron, Francis F. Kilkenny
2018, Evolutionary Applications (11) 2025-2039
A species’ population structure and history are critical pieces of information that can help guide the use of available native plant materials in restoration treatments and decide what new native plant materials should be developed to meet future restoration needs. In the western United States, Pseudoroegneria spicata (bluebunch wheatgrass; Poaceae) is an...
A direct-push freezing core barrel for sampling unconsolidated subsurface sediments and adjacent pore fluids
Jared J. Trost, Thomas M. Christy, Barbara A. Bekins
2018, Vadose Zone Journal (17) 1-10
Contaminants passing through the unsaturated zone can undergo changes in narrow reaction zones upon reaching saturated sediments. Understanding these reactions requires sampling of sediment together with adjacent water and microbes in a manner that preserves in situ redox conditions. Use of a basket-type core catcher for saturated, noncohesive sediments results...
A new generation of the United States National Land Cover Database: Requirements, research priorities, design, and implementation strategies
Limin Yang, Suming Jin, Patrick Danielson, Collin Homer, Leila Gass, Stacie M Bender, Adam Case, Catherine Costello, Jon Dewitz, Joyce Fry, Michelle Funk, Brian J. Granneman, Greg C Liknes, Matthew B. Rigge, George Z. Xian
2018, ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (146) 108-123
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in partnership with several federal agencies, has developed and released four National Land Cover Database (NLCD) products over the past two decades: NLCD 1992, 2001, 2006, and 2011. These products provide spatially explicit and reliable information on the Nation’s land cover and land cover change....
Use of landscape simulation modeling to quantify resilience for ecological applications
Robert Keane, Rachel A. Loehman, Lisa M. Holsinger, Donald A. Falk, Phil E Higuera, Sharon Hood, Paul F. Hessburg
2018, Ecosphere (9)
Goals of fostering ecological resilience are increasingly used to guide U.S. public land management in the context of anthropogenic climate change and increasing landscape disturbances. There are, however, few operational means of assessing the resilience of a landscape or ecosystem. We present a method to evaluate resilience...
Differential changes in the onset of spring across US National Wildlife Refuges and North American migratory bird flyways
Eric K. Waller, Theresa M. Crimmins, Jessica J. Walker, Erin E. Posthumus, Jake Weltzin
2018, PLoS ONE (13) 1-24
Warming temperatures associated with climate change can have indirect effects on migratory birds that rely on seasonally available food resources and habitats that vary across spatial and temporal scales. We used two heat-based indices of spring onset, the First Leaf Index (FLI) and the First Bloom Index (FBI), as proxies...
Assessment of continuous oil and gas resources of the Timan-Pechora Basin Province, Russia, 2018
Christopher J. Schenk, Tracey J. Mercier, Janet K. Pitman, Phuong A. Le, Marilyn E. Tennyson, Michael E. Brownfield, Kristen R. Marra, Heidi M. Leathers-Miller, Ronald M. Drake II, Timothy R. Klett
2018, Fact Sheet 2018-3050
Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated undiscovered, technically recoverable mean resources of 1.4 billion barrels of oil and 46 trillion cubic feet of gas in the Timan-Pechora Basin Province of Russia....
Assessment of continuous gas resources of the North Caspian Basin Province, Kazakhstan and Russia, 2018
Christopher J. Schenk, Tracey J. Mercier, Thomas M. Finn, Marilyn E. Tennyson, Phuong A. Le, Michael E. Brownfield, Kristen R. Marra, Stephanie B. Gaswirth, Heidi M. Leathers-Miller, Ronald M. Drake II
2018, Fact Sheet 2018-3051
Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated undiscovered, technically recoverable mean resources of 84.5 trillion cubic feet of continuous gas in the North Caspian Basin Province of Kazakhstan and Russia....
Strike-slip 23 January 2018 MW 7.9 Gulf of Alaska rare intraplate earthquake: Complex rupture of a fracture zone system
Anne Krabbenhoeft, Roland von Huene, John J. Miller, Dietrich Lange, Felipe Vera
2018, Scientific Reports (8) 1-9
Large intraplate earthquakes in oceanic lithosphere are rare and usually related to regions of diffuse deformation within the oceanic plate. The 23 January 2018 MW 7.9 strike-slip Gulf of Alaska earthquake ruptured an oceanic fracture zone system offshore Kodiak Island. Bathymetric compilations show a muted topographic expression of the fracture zone...
Where have all the turtles gone, and why does it matter?
Jeffrey E. Lovich, Joshua R. Ennen, Mickey Agha, J. Whitfield Gibbons
2018, BioScience (68) 771-781
Of the 356 species of turtles worldwide, approximately 61% are threatened or already extinct. Turtles are among the most threatened of the major groups of vertebrates, in general, more so than birds, mammals, fishes or even the much besieged amphibians. Reasons for the dire situation of turtles worldwide include the...
Assessing wild juvenile trout ecology in the lower Mountain Fork
James M. Long, W. W. Hoback, M. L. Reed, Tyler Farling
2018, Cooperator Science Series 133-2018
Reservoir tailwaters can be valuable fisheries for Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), which is commonly stocked as mitigation for the altered habitat because it performs well as a put-and-take species in these thermally depressed systems. These fisheries are usually sustained by stocking due to flow fluctuations and lack of suitable spawning...
Movements and dive patterns of pygmy killer whales (Feresa attenuata) released in the Gulf of Mexico following rehabilitation
Eric Pulis, Randall S. Wells, Gregory S. Schorr, David C. Douglas, Mystera M. Samuelson, Moby Solangi
2018, Aquatic Mammals (44) 555-567
The habits and habitats of pygmy killer whales (Feresa attenuata) in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) are poorly known outside of strandings and line-transect surveys. Two adult male pygmy killer whales were found live-stranded in the state of Mississippi (USA) on 1 September 2015 and were subsequently rehabilitated and returned...
Quantifying uncertainty in cumulative surface slip along the Cucamonga Fault, a crustal thrust fault in southern California
Devin McPhillips, Katherine M. Scharer
2018, Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth (123) 9063-9083
Studies of historic earthquake ground surface ruptures show that displacements along strike are spatially variable. As a result, latest Quaternary slip rates developed from a spatially restricted set of cumulative displacement measurements may not accurately represent fault velocity. Here we examine the uncertainties associated with slip...
Continuing progress toward a national assessment of water availability and use
Eric J. Evenson, Sonya A. Jones, Nancy L. Barber, Paul M. Barlow, David L. Blodgett, Breton W. Bruce, Kyle R. Douglas-Mankin, William H. Farmer, Jeffrey M. Fischer, William B. Hughes, Jonathan G. Kennen, Julie E. Kiang, Molly A. Maupin, Howard W. Reeves, Gabriel B. Senay, Jennifer S. Stanton, Chad R. Wagner, Jennifer T. Wilson
2018, Circular 1440
Executive SummaryThe Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 (Public Law 111—11) was passed into law on March 30, 2009. Subtitle F, also known as the SECURE Water Act, calls for the establishment of a “national water availability and use assessment program” within the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The USGS...
Additional period and site class maps for the 2014 National Seismic Hazard Model for the conterminous United States
Allison Shumway, Mark D. Petersen, Peter M. Powers, Sanaz Rezaeian
2018, Open-File Report 2018-1111
The 2014 update of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Seismic Hazard Model (NSHM) for the conterminous United States (2014 NSHM; Petersen and others, 2014, 2015) included probabilistic ground motion maps for 2 percent and 10 percent probabilities of exceedance in 50 years, derived from seismic hazard curves for peak ground acceleration...
Streamflow contributions from tribal lands to major river basins of the United States
Kyle W. Blasch, Stephen Hundt, Patrick Wurster, Roy Sando, Antony Berthelote
2018, PLoS ONE (13) 1-16
While many studies on tribal water resources of individual tribal lands in the United States (US) have been conducted, the importance of tribal water resources at a national scale has largely gone unrecognized because their combined totals have not been quantified. Thus, we sought to provide a numerical estimate of...
