Lake water temperature modeling in an era of climate change: Data sources, models, and future prospects
Sebastiano Piccolroaz, Senlin Zhu, Robert Ladwig, Laura Carrea, Samantha K. Oliver, Adam Piotrowski, Mariusz Ptak, Ryuichiro Shinohara, Mariusz Sojka, Richard Woolway, David Z. Zhu
2024, Review of Geophysics (62)
Lake thermal dynamics have been considerably impacted by climate change, with potential adverse effects on aquatic ecosystems. To better understand the potential impacts of future climate change on lake thermal dynamics and related processes, the use of mathematical models is essential. In this study, we provide a...
Uranium redox and deposition transitions embedded in deep-time geochemical models and mineral chemistry networks
Elisha Kelly Moore, J. Li, Ao Zhang, Jihua Hao, Shaunna M. Morrison, Daniel Hummer, Nathan Yee
2024, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems (25)
Uranium (U) is an important global energy resource and a redox sensitive trace element that reflects changing environmental conditions and geochemical cycling. The redox evolution of U mineral chemistry can be interrogated to understand the formation and distribution of U deposits and the redox processes involved in U geochemistry throughout...
The noise is the signal: Spatio-temporal variability of production and productivity in high elevation meadows in the Sierra Nevada mountain range of North America
Robert C. Klinger, Tom Stephenson, James Letchinger, Logan Stephenson, Sarah Jacobs
2024, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution (11)
There are expectations that increasing temperatures will lead to significant changes in structure and function of montane meadows, including greater water stress on vegetation and lowered vegetation production and productivity. We evaluated spatio-temporal dynamics in production and productivity in meadows within the Sierra Nevada mountain range of North America...
Prioritizing river basins for nutrient studies
Anthony J. Tesoriero, Dale M. Robertson, Christopher Green, J.K. Bohlke, Judson Harvey, Sharon L. Qi
2024, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment (196)
Increases in fluxes of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) in the environment have led to negative impacts affecting drinking water, eutrophication, harmful algal blooms, climate change, and biodiversity loss. Because of the importance, scale, and complexity of these issues, it may be useful to consider methods for...
Guide to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) sampling within Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration
Erin L. Pulster, Sarah R. Bowman, Landon Keele, Jeffery A. Steevens
2024, Open-File Report 2024-1001
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are synthetic chemicals with a nondegradable fluorinated carbon backbone that have been incorporated in countless industrial and commercial applications. Because PFAS are nondegradable, they have been detected in all environmental media, indicating extensive global contamination. The unique physiochemical properties of PFAS and their complex interactions...
Rayleigh step-selection functions and connections to continuous-time mechanistic movement models
Joseph Michael Eisaguirre, Perry J. Williams, Mevin B. Hooten
2024, Movement Ecology (12)
BackgroundThe process known as ecological diffusion emerges from a first principles view of animal movement, but ecological diffusion and other partial differential equation models can be difficult to fit to data. Step-selection functions (SSFs), on the other hand, have emerged as powerful practical tools for ecologists studying the...
The spatially adaptable filter for error reduction (SAFER) process: Remote sensing-based LANDFIRE disturbance mapping updates
Sanath Sathyachandran Kumar, Brian Tolk, Ray Dittmeier, Joshua J. Picotte, Inga P. La Puma, Birgit Peterson, Timothy Duckett Hatten
2024, Fire (7)
LANDFIRE (LF) has been producing periodic spatially explicit vegetation change maps (i.e., LF disturbance products) across the entire United States since 1999 at a 30 m spatial resolution. These disturbance products include data products produced by various fire programs, field-mapped vegetation and fuel treatment activity (i.e., events) submissions from...
An introduction to Criteria for Reporting and Evaluating Exposure Datasets (CREED) for use in environmental assessments
Graham Merrington, Lisa H. Nowell, Charles Peck
2024, Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management (20) 975-980
Risks posed by environmental exposure to chemicals are routinely assessed to inform activities ranging from environmental status reporting to authorization and registration of chemicals for commercial uses. Environmental risk assessment generally relies on two key values generated from exposure data and ecotoxicity data. Data sets of measured...
Assessing the probability of grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) spawning in the Sandusky River using discharge and water temperature
Sabrina Jaffe, Song S. Qian, Christine M. Mayer, Patrick M. Kocovsky, Anarita Gouveia
2024, Journal of Great Lakes Research (50)
Grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella, Val.) is an invasive species in the Laurentian Great Lakes region with the potential for damaging the lake ecosystem and harming the region's economy. Grass carp spawning was documented in the Sandusky River, Ohio, in 2015 through targeted egg sampling. Continued egg sampling in the Sandusky River...
Hydrologic analysis of an earthen embankment dam in southern Westchester County, New York
Anthony Chu, Michael L. Noll, William D. Capurso, Robert J. Welk
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5123
In 2001, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection installed 25 wells on the southern embankment of the Hillview Reservoir in Westchester County in an unsuccessful attempt to locate the source of a large seep (seep A) that began flowing continuously in 1999. In 2005, the U.S. Geological Survey...
Season of death, pathogen persistence and wildlife behaviour alter number of anthrax secondary infections from environmental reservoirs
Amelie C. Dolfi, Kyrre Kausrud, Kristyna Rysava, Celeste Champagne, Yen-Hua Huang, Zoe R. Barandongo, Wendy Christine Turner
2024, Proceedings of the Royal Society B (291)
An important part of infectious disease management is predicting factors that influence disease outbreaks, such as R, the number of secondary infections arising from an infected individual. Estimating R is particularly challenging for environmentally transmitted pathogens given time lags between cases and subsequent infections. Here, we calculated R for Bacillus anthracis infections arising from anthrax carcass sites...
Yellowstone River fish bypass channel physical and hydraulic monitoring, Montana
J. Brooks Stephens, Jason S. Alexander, Seth A. Siefken
2024, Data Report 1189
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Bureau of Reclamation, began monitoring the Yellowstone River fish bypass channel according to the specifications of the Lower Yellowstone Adaptive Management and Monitoring Plan. The fish bypass channel was constructed to provide upstream migrating fish with a route around a diversion dam....
Using stochastic point pattern analysis to track regional orientations of magmatism during the transition to cenozoic extension and Rio Grande rifting, Southern Rocky Mountains
Joshua Mark Rosera, Sean P. Gaynor, Alexey Ulianov, Urs Schaltegger
2024, Tectonics (43)
The southern Rocky Mountains in Colorado and northern New Mexico hosted intracontinental magmatism that developed during a tectonic transition from shortening (Laramide orogeny, ca. 75 to 40 Ma) through extension and rifting. We present a novel approach that uses stochastic weighted bootstrap simulations of a large set of...
An update of hydrologic conditions and distribution of selected constituents in water, eastern Snake River aquifer and perched groundwater zones, Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho, emphasis 2019–21
Kerri C. Treinen, Allison R. Trcka, Jason C. Fisher
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5128
Since 1952, wastewater discharged to infiltration ponds (also called “percolation ponds”) and disposal wells at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) has affected water quality in the eastern Snake River Plain (ESRP) aquifer and perched groundwater zones underlying the INL. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the U.S. Department...
Life-history connections to long-term fish population trends in a species-rich temperate river
Andrew J. Nagy, Mary Freeman, Brian J. Irwin, Seth J. Wenger
2024, Ecology of Freshwater Fish (33)
Fishes exhibit a diverse range of traits encompassing life-history strategies, feeding behaviours and spawning behaviours. These traits mediate fish population responses to changing environmental conditions such as those caused by anthropogenic stressors. The Conasauga River, located in northwestern Georgia and southeastern Tennessee, USA, hosts a...
Stress-driven recurrence and precursory moment-rate surge in caldera collapse earthquakes
Paul Segall, Mark V. Matthews, David R. Shelly, Taiyi Wang, Kyle R. Anderson
2024, Nature Geoscience (17) 264-269
Predicting the recurrence times of earthquakes and understanding the physical processes that immediately precede them are two outstanding problems in seismology. Although geodetic measurements record elastic strain accumulation, most faults have recurrence intervals longer than available measurements. Foreshocks provide the principal observations of processes before mainshocks,...
A global assessment of environmental and climate influences on wetland macroinvertebrate community structure and function
Luis B. Epele, Emilio A. Williams-Subiza, Matthew S. Bird, Aurelie Boissezon, Dani Boix, Elaine Demierre, Conor Fair, Patricia Garcia, Stephanie Gascon, Marta G. Grech, Hamish S. Greig, Michael Jeffries, Jamie M. Kneitel, Olga Loskutova, Leonardo Maltchik, Luz M. Manzo, Gabriela Mataloni, Kyle McLean, Musa C. Mlambo, Beat Oertli, Mateus M. Pires, Jordi Sala, Erica E. Scheibler, Cristina Stenert, Haitao Wu, Scott A Wissinger, Darold P. Batzer
2024, Global Change Biology (30)
Estimating organisms' responses to environmental variables and taxon associations across broad spatial scales is vital for predicting their responses to climate change. Macroinvertebrates play a major role in wetland processes, but studies simultaneously exploring both community structure and community trait responses to environmental gradients are still lacking. We compiled a...
Hydrology and water quality of a dune-and-swale wetland adjacent to the Grand Calumet River, Indiana, 2019–22
Shawn Naylor, Amy M. Gahala
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2023-5122
Adverse ecological and water-quality effects associated with industrial land-use changes are common for littoral wetlands connected to river mouth ecosystems in the Grand Calumet River-Indiana Harbor Canal Area of Concern. These effects can be exacerbated by recent high Lake Michigan water levels that are problematic for wetland restoration. Wetlands in...
Establishing quantitative benchmarks for soil erosion and ecological monitoring, assessment, and management
Nicholas P. Webb, Brandon L. Edwards, Alexandra Heller, Sarah E. McCord, Jeremy W. Schallner, Ronald S. Treminio, Brandi E. Wheeler, Nelson G. Stauffer, Sheri Spiegal, Michael C. Duniway, Alexander C.E. Traynor, Emily Kachergis, Carrie-Ann Houdeshell
2024, Ecological Indicators (159)
Soil erosion can have a multitude of negative impacts on agroecosystems and society and there remains an urgent need for tools to support its management. Quantitative benchmarks based on holistic understanding of erosion processes, ecosystem function, and land use objectives can be...
Variability in weather and site properties affect fuel and fire behavior following fuel treatments in semiarid sagebrush-steppe.
Samuel J. Price, Matthew J. Germino
2024, Journal of Environmental Management (353)
Fuel-treatments targeting shrubs and fire-prone exotic annual grasses (EAGs) are increasingly used to mitigate increased wildfire risks in arid and semiarid environments, and understanding their response to natural factors is needed for effective landscape management. Using field-data collected over four years from fuel-break treatments in semiarid sagebrush-steppe, we asked 1)...
Generalized potentiometric maps of the Fort Union, Hell Creek, and Fox Hills aquifers within the Standing Rock Reservation
Todd M. Anderson, Robert F. Lundgren
2024, Scientific Investigations Map 3516
Generalized potentiometric surfaces of the Fort Union, Hell Creek, and Fox Hills aquifers were constructed to assess the groundwater resources of the Standing Rock Reservation. Additionally, this information can provide water managers with tools and data to effectively manage water resources in the future. Previous studies that mapped the geology...
Non-native plant invasion after fire in western USA varies by functional type and with climate
Janet S. Prevey, Catherine S. Jarnevich, Ian S. Pearse, Seth M. Munson, Jens T. Stevens, Kevin Barrett, Jonathon D. Coop, Michelle Day, David Firmage, Paula J. Fornwalt, Katharine Haynes, James B. Johnston , Becky Kerns, Meg A. Krawchuk, Becky Miller, Ty Nietupski, Jacquilyn Roque, Judith Diane Springer, Camille S. Stevens-Rumann, Micheal T. Stoddard, Claire Tortorelli
2024, Biological Invasions (26) 1157-1179
Invasions by non-native plant species after fire can negatively affect important ecosystem services and lead to invasion-fire cycles that further degrade ecosystems. The relationship between fire and plant invasion is complex, and the risk of invasion varies greatly between functional types and across geographic scales. Here, we examined patterns and...
Evaluating the reliability of environmental concentration data to characterize exposure in environmental risk assessments
Michelle L. Hladik, Arjen Markus, Dennis R. Helsel, Lisa H. Nowell, Stefano Polesello, Heinz Rudel, Drew Szabo, Iain Wilson
2024, Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management (20) 981-1003
Environmental risk assessments often rely on measured concentrations in environmental matrices to characterize exposure of the population of interest—typically, humans, aquatic biota, or other wildlife. Yet, there is limited guidance available on how to report and evaluate exposure datasets for reliability and relevance, despite...
Unlearning Racism in Geoscience (URGE): Summary of U.S. Geological Survey URGE pod deliverables
Matthew C. Morriss, Eleanour Snow, Jennifer L. Miselis, William F. Waite, Katherine R. Barnhart, Andria P. Ellis, Liv M. Herdman, Seth C. Moran, Annie L. Putman, Nadine G. Reitman, Wendy K. Stovall, Meagan J. Eagle, Stephen C. Phillips
2024, Circular 1515
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is in a unique position to be a leader in diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in the Earth sciences. As one of the largest geoscience employers, the USGS wields significant community influence and has a responsibility to adopt and implement robust, unbiased policies so that...
Integrating monitoring and modeling information to develop an indicator of watershed progress toward nutrient reduction goals
Qian Zhang, Gary W. Shenk, Gopal Bhatt, Isabella Bertani
2024, Ecological Indicators (158)
Eutrophication has been a major environmental issue in many coastal and inland ecosystems, which is primarily attributed to excessive anthropogenic inputs of nutrients. Restoration efforts have therefore focused on the reduction of watershed nutrient loads, including in the Chesapeake Bay (USA). To facilitate watershed management,...
