Inferring presence of the western toad (Anaxyrus boreas) species complex using environmental DNA
Thomas W. Franklin, Joseph C. Dysthe, Michael Golden, Kevin S. McKelvey, Blake R. Hossack, Kellie J. Carim, Cynthia Tait, Michael K. Young, Michael K. Schwartz
2018, Global Ecology and Conservation (15) 1-9
Western toads (species complex comprised of Anaxyrus boreas, A. canorus, A. exsul, and A. nelsoni) are widely distributed in the western United States but are declining, particularly in the southeastern extent of their range. The subspecies A. b. boreas is listed as a Species of Greatest Conservation Need in New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. Reliable and sensitive methods...
Duck nest depredation, predator behavior, and female response using video
Rebecca Croston, Joshua T. Ackerman, Mark P. Herzog, Jeffrey D. Kohl, C. Alex Hartman, Sarah H. Peterson, Cory T. Overton, Cliff L. Feldheim, Michael L. Casazza
2018, Journal of Wildlife Management (82) 1014-1025
Depredation plays an important role in determining duck nest success and predator and female duck behavior during nest depredation can influence nest fate. We examined depredation of mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) and gadwall (A. strepera) nests in Suisun Marsh, California, USA, in 2015–2016 with continuous infrared video monitoring to identify nest...
Alaska Volcano Observatory alert and forecasting timeliness: 1989–2017
Cheryl Cameron, Stephanie Prejean, Michelle L. Coombs, Kristi L. Wallace, John Power, Diana C. Roman
2018, Frontiers in Earth Science - Volcanology (6)
The Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) monitors volcanoes in Alaska and issues notifications and warnings of volcanic unrest and eruption. We evaluate the timeliness and accuracy of eruption forecasts for 53 eruptions at 20 volcanoes, beginning with Mount Redoubt's 1989–1990 eruption. Successful forecasts are defined as those where AVO issued...
Managing conflicts in the River of Grass
Stephanie S. Romanach, James M. Beerens, Larry Perez, Saira Haider, Leonard G. Pearlstine
2018, Solutions Journal (9)
Chances are, you would not pack up and move to a new home without first researching the neighborhood, reviewing your finances, and maybe investigating schools nearby. Similarly, you would not buy the first car you find on a magazine cover without first reviewing the technical specifications, exploring your options, and...
Using geologic structures to constrain constitutive laws not accessible in the laboratory
Johanna Nevitt, Jessica M. Warren, Kathryn M. Kumamoto, David D. Pollard
2018, Journal of Structural Geology (125) 55-63
In this essay, we explore a central problem of structural geology today, and in the foreseeable future, which is the determination of constitutive laws governing rock deformation to produce geologic structures. Although laboratory experiments provide much needed data and insights about constitutive laws, these experiments cannot cover the range of conditions and...
Projected 21st century coastal flooding in the Southern California Bight. Part 2: Tools for assessing climate change-driven coastal hazards and socio-economic impacts
Li H. Erikson, Patrick L. Barnard, Andrea C. O'Neill, Nathan J. Wood, Jeanne M. Jones, Juliette Finzi Hart, Sean Vitousek, Patrick W. Limber, Maya Hayden, Michael Fitzgibbon, Jessica Lovering, Amy C. Foxgrover
2018, Journal of Marine Science and Engineering (6) 1-19
This paper is the second of two that describes the Coastal Storm Modeling System (CoSMoS) approach for quantifying physical hazards and socio-economic hazard exposure in coastal zones affected by sea-level rise and changing coastal storms. The modelling approach, presented in Part 1, downscales atmospheric global-scale projections to local scale coastal...
A semi-arid river in distress: Contributing factors and recovery solutions for three imperiled freshwater mussels (Family Unionidae) endemic to the Rio Grande basin in North America
Charles R. Randklev, Tom Miller, Michael Hart, Jennifer Morton, Nathan A. Johnson, Kevin Skow, Kentaro Inoue, Eric Tsakiris, Susan Oetker, Ryan Smith, Clint Robertson, Roel Lopez
2018, Science of the Total Environment (631-632) 733-744
Freshwater resources in arid and semi-arid regions are in extreme demand, which creates conflicts between needs of humans and aquatic ecosystems. The Rio Grande basin in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico exemplifies this issue, as much of its aquatic biodiversity is in peril as a result of human...
Tropical wetlands in the Anthropocene: The critical role of wet-dry cycles
Michael J. Osland, Beth A. Middleton
2018, Solutions Journal (9)
In the face of climate change and increasing human water demands for agriculture, industry, and cities, the fate of wetland ecosystems in tropical wet-dry climates is threatened. To maximize biodiversity and ecological resilience, the value of the ecosystem services provided by tropical wetlands can be incorporated into regional land use...
Geochemical characterization and modeling of regional groundwater contributing to the Verde River, Arizona between Mormon Pocket and the USGS Clarkdale gage
Kimberly R. Beisner, W. Payton Gardner, Andrew G. Hunt
2018, Journal of Hydrology (564) 99-114
We use synoptic surveys of stream discharge, stable isotopes, and dissolved noble gases to identify the source of groundwater discharge to the Verde River in central Arizona. The Verde River more than doubles in discharge in Mormon Pocket over a 1.4 km distance that includes three discrete locations of...
Status of selenium in south San Francisco Bay—A basis for modeling potential guidelines to meet National tissue criteria for fish and a proposed wildlife criterion for birds
Samuel N. Luoma, Theresa S. Presser
2018, Open-File Report 2018-1105
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed Aquatic Life and AquaticDependent Wildlife Criteria for Selenium (Se) in California’s San Francisco Bay and Delta (Bay-Delta) in June 2016. Here we apply...
Nutrient loads in the Lost River and Klamath River Basins, south-central Oregon and northern California, March 2012–March 2015
Liam N. Schenk, Marc A. Stewart, Sara L. Caldwell Eldridge
2018, Scientific Investigations Report 2018-5075
The U.S. Geological Survey and Bureau of Reclamation collected water-quality data from March 2012 to March 2015 at locations in the Lost River and Klamath River Basins, Oregon, in an effort to characterize water quality and compute a nutrient budget for the Bureau of Reclamation Klamath Reclamation Project. The study...
Wildlife management is science based: Myth or reality?
Daniel J. Decker, John F. Organ, Ann Forstchen, Michael V. Schiavone, Angela K. Fuller
2018, The Wildlife Professional 30-32
In the January/February issue of The Wildlife Professional, a group of wildlife leaders discussed what they considered "myths" in wildlife management and invited other wildlife professionals to contribute their favorites. Here, five wildlife professionals take up that theme with their discussions of the scientific basis of...
Turning on the faucet to a healthy coast
Beth Middleton, Paul A. Montagna
2018, Solutions Journal (9)
Coastal re-engineering and freshwater extraction have reduced water flow into the estuaries of the world. Because of these activities, stressed coastal vegetation is especially vulnerable to die-off during droughts, contributing to a loss of human services related to storm protection, fisheries and water quality. The subsequent collapse of vegetation is...
Methylmercury dynamics in Upper Sacramento Valley rice fields with low background soil mercury levels
K. Christy Tanner, Lisamarie Windham-Myers, Mark C. Marvin-DiPasquale, Jacob Fleck, Kenneth W. Tate, Bruce A. Linquist
2018, Journal of Environmental Quality (47) 830-838
Few studies have considered how methylmercury (MeHg, a toxic form of Hg produced in anaerobic soils) production in rice (Oryza sativa L.) fields can affect water quality, and little is known about MeHg dynamics in rice fields. Surface water MeHg and total Hg (THg) imports, exports, and storage were studied in...
Characterization of peak streamflows and flood inundation of selected areas in southeastern Texas and southwestern Louisiana from the August and September 2017 flood resulting from Hurricane Harvey
Kara M. Watson, Glenn R. Harwell, David S. Wallace, Toby L. Welborn, Victoria G. Stengel, Jeremy S. McDowell
2018, Scientific Investigations Report 2018-5070
Hurricane Harvey made landfall near Rockport, Texas, on August 25, 2017, as a Category 4 hurricane with wind gusts exceeding 150 miles per hour. As Harvey moved inland, the forward motion of the storm slowed down and produced tremendous rainfall amounts over southeastern Texas, with 8-day rainfall amounts exceeding 60...
Water-quality conditions with an emphasis on cyanobacteria and associated toxins and taste-and-odor compounds in the Kansas River, Kansas, July 2012 through September 2016
Jennifer L. Graham, Guy M. Foster, Thomas J. Williams, Matthew D. Mahoney, Madison R. May, Keith A. Loftin
2018, Scientific Investigations Report 2018-5089
Cyanobacteria cause a multitude of water-quality concerns, including the potential to produce toxins and taste-and-odor compounds that may cause substantial economic and public health concerns, and are of particular interest in lakes, reservoirs, and rivers that are used for drinking-water supply. Extensive cyanobacterial blooms typically do not develop in the...
Female hatchling American kestrels have a larger hippocampus than males: A link with sexual size dimorphism?
Melanie F. Guigueno, Natalie Karouna-Renier, Paula F. P. Henry, Jessica A. Head, Lisa E. Peters, Vince P. Palace, Robert J. Letcher, Kimberly J. Fernie
2018, Behavioural Brain Research (349) 98-101
The brain and underlying cognition may vary adaptively according to an organism’s ecology. As with all raptor species, adult American kestrels (Falco sparverius) are sexually dimorphic with females being larger than males. Related to this sexual dimorphism, kestrels display sex differences in hunting and migration, with females ranging more widely...
Metamodeling for groundwater age forecasting in the Lake Michigan Basin
Michael N. Fienen, B. Thomas Nolan, Leon J. Kauffman, Daniel T. Feinstein
2018, Water Resources Research (54) 4750-4766
Groundwater age is an important indicator of groundwater susceptibility to anthropogenic contamination and a key input to statistical models for forecasting water quality. Numerical models can provide estimates of groundwater age, enabling interpretation of measured age tracers. However, to extend to national‐scale groundwater systems where numerical models are not routinely...
Environmental controls, emergent scaling, and predictions of greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes in coastal salt marshes
Omar I. Abdul-Aziz, Khandker S. Ishitaq, Jianwu Tang, Serena Moseman-Valtierra, Kevin D. Kroeger, Meagan Gonneea Eagle, Jordan Mora, Kate Morkeski
2018, Journal of Geophysical Research G: Biogeosciences (123) 2234-2256
Coastal salt marshes play an important role in mitigating global warming by removing atmospheric carbon at a high rate. We investigated the environmental controls and emergent scaling of major greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes such as carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) in coastal salt marshes by conducting data analytics and...
Biogeography of pelagic food webs in the North Pacific
John F. Piatt, Mayumi L. Arimitsu, William J. Sydeman, Sarah Ann Thompson, Heather Renner, Stephani Zador, David C. Douglas, Scott A. Hatch, Arthur B. Kettle, Jeffrey C. Williams
2018, Fisheries Oceanography (27) 366-380
The tufted puffin (Fratercula cirrhata) is a generalist seabird that breeds throughout the North Pacific and eats more than 75 different prey species. Using puffins as samplers, we characterized the geographic variability in pelagic food webs across the subarctic North Pacific from the composition of ~10,000 tufted puffin meals (~56,000...
USGS quarterly wildlife mortality report July 2018
Bryan J. Richards, Barbara Bodenstein, Anne Ballmann, Michelle St. Martin
2018, Wildlife Disease Association Newsletter 15-17
No abstract available....
Sensitivity of streamflow to climate change in California
Theodore E. W. Grantham, Daren M. Carlisle, Gregory J. McCabe, Jeanette K. Howard
2018, Climate Change (149) 427-441
Climate change is rapidly altering the global water cycle, exposing vulnerabilities in both social and environmental systems. However, uncertainty in future climate predictions makes it difficult to design and evaluate strategies for building climate resilience. In regions such as California, characterized by stressed water-supply systems, high natural climate variability, and...
Comparative nest survival of three sympatric loon species breeding in the Arctic
Brian D. Uher-Koch, Joshua C. Koch, Kenneth G. Wright, Joel A. Schmutz
2018, Journal of Avian Biology (49) 1-15
Identifying factors influencing nest survival among sympatric species is important for understanding and managing sources of variation in population dynamics of individual species. Three species of loons nest sympatrically in northern Alaska and differ in body size, life history characteristics, and population trends. We tested the effects of competition, nest...
Advances in sensitivity analysis of uncertainty to changes in sampling density when modeling spatially correlated attributes
Ricardo A. Olea
2018, Book chapter
A comparative analysis of distance methods, kriging and stochastic simulation is conducted for evaluating their capabilities for predicting fluctuations in uncertainty due to changes in spatially correlated samples. It is concluded that distance methods lack the most basic capabilities to assess reliability despite their wide acceptance. In contrast, kriging and...
Applying high-resolution imagery to evaluate restoration-induced changes in stream condition, Missouri River Headwaters Basin, Montana
Melanie K. Vanderhoof, Clifton Burt
2018, Remote Sensing (10) 1-28
Degradation of streams and associated riparian habitat across the Missouri River Headwaters Basin has motivated several stream restoration projects across the watershed. Many of these projects install a series of beaver dam analogues (BDAs) to aggrade incised streams, elevate local water tables, and create natural surface water storage by reconnecting...
