U.S. Geological Survey Karst Interest Group proceedings, Nashville, Tennessee, October 22-24, 2024
Eve L. Kuniansky, Lawrence E. Spangler, editor(s)
2024, Open-File Report 2024-1067
Karst hydrogeologic systems represent challenging and unique conditions to scientists studying groundwater flow and contaminant transport. Karst terrains are characterized by distinct and beautiful landscapes, caverns, and springs, and many of the exceptional karst areas are designated as national or state parks. The range and complexity of landforms and groundwater...
Evaluating the sagebrush conservation design through the lens of a sagebrush indicator species
Brian G. Prochazka, Carl Gregory Lundblad, Kevin E. Doherty, Shawn T. O'Neil, John C. Tull, Steve C. Abele, Cameron L. Aldridge, Peter S. Coates
2024, Rangeland Ecology & Management (97) 146-159
Sagebrush ecosystems support a suite of unique species such as the emblematic greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus; sage-grouse) but are under increasing pressure from anthropogenic stressors such as annual grass invasion, conifer encroachment, altered wildfire regimes, and land use change. We examined the ability of an ecosystem-based framework for sagebrush conservation,...
Spread and frequency of explosive silicic volcanism of the Carpathian-Pannonian Region during Early Miocene: Clues from the SW Pannonian Basin and the Dinaridesion during Early Miocene: clues from the SW Pannonian Basin and the Dinarides
Mihovil Brlek, Nina Trinajstić, Sean Patrick Gaynor, Steffen Kutterolf, Folkmar Hauff, Julie Schindlbeck-Belo, Sanja Šuica, Kuo-Lung Wang, Hao-Yang Lee, Elena Watts, Svetoslav V. Georgiev, Vlatko Brčić, Marko Špelić, Ivan Mišur, Duje Kukoč, Blair Schoene, Réka Lukács
2024, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research (445)
Explosive silicic volcanism of the Carpathian-Pannonian Region (CPR) is increasingly recognized as the primary source of tephra across the Alpine-Mediterranean region during the Early and Middle Miocene. However, the tephrostratigraphic framework for this period of volcanic activity is still incomplete. We present new multi-proxy data from Lower Miocene ignimbrites and...
Machine learning and new-generation spaceborne hyperspectral data advance crop type mapping
Itiya Aneece, Prasad Thenkabail, Richard L. McCormick, Alifu Haireti, Daniel Foley, Adam Oliphant, Pardhasaradhi Teluguntla
2024, Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing (90) 687-698
Hyperspectral sensors provide near-continuous spectral data that can facilitate advancements in agricultural crop classification and characterization, which are important for addressing global food and water security issues. We investigated two new-generation hyperspectral sensors, Germany’s Deutsches Zentrum für Luft‐ und Raumfahrt Earth Sensing Imaging Spectrometer (DESIS) and Italy’s PRecursore IperSpettrale della...
Apatite and monazite geochemistry record magmatic and metasomatic processes in rare earth element mineralization at Mountain Pass, California
Erin Kay Benson, Kathryn E. Watts
2024, Economic Geology (119) 1611-1642
The largest rare earth element (REE) deposit in the United States is a carbonatite intrusion at Mountain Pass in the Mojave Desert, California. Despite a clear spatiotemporal association of alkaline silicate and carbonatite intrusions at Mountain Pass, a genetic model of their mutual formation has not been resolved. The Mountain...
Long-term communication of aftershock forecasts: The Canterbury earthquake sequence in New Zealand
Anne Wein, Sara McBride, Julia S. Becker, Annemarie Christophersen, Emma Hudson Doyle, Matthew Gerstenberger, Sally H. Potter
2024, International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction (114)
On 14 February 2016, a magnitude (M)5.7 earthquake struck in Christchurch New Zealand (Aotearoa in the Maori language). The shaking caused damage to historic facades, power outages, cliff collapses, rock falls, and liquefaction but no reported injuries or fatalities. This Valentine’s Day earthquake was an aftershock in the Canterbury earthquake...
In vitro impacts of glyphosate on manatee lymphocytes
Maite De Maria, Natalia Garcia-Reyero, Nicole I. Stacy, Jeffrey R. Abbott, Fahong Yu, Ruyiu Pu, Kevin J. Kroll, Francisco R. Barboza, Michael T. Walsh, Juan G. Perez-Jimenez, David A. Moraga Amador, Margaret Hunter, Nancy D. Denslow
2024, Environment International (193)
Exposure to contaminants, such as the herbicide glyphosate, can suppress protective immune functions. Glyphosate is the herbicide most used worldwide and has been found in the plasma of more than 50 % of the Florida manatees (Trichechus manatus latirostris) and all-year-round in their aquatic environment. Our objectives were to analyze...
Best practices for incorporating climate change science into Department of the Interior analyses, consultations, and decision making
Adam J. Terando, Anna Maureen Tucker, Amber N. Runyon, James A. Miller, Judy L. Perkins, Sean W. Kimbrel, Amanda S. Cross, Ryan P. Boyles
2024, Report
The purpose of this document is to provide technical guidance, practical application examples, and resource lists for those who conduct, manage, and/or interpret technical workflows within the Department of the Interior. This document is intended to support implementation of Department of the Interior policy 526 DM 1 and establish best...
Deep-ocean macrofaunal assemblages on ferromanganese and phosphorite-rich substrates in the Southern California Borderland
Michelle Guraieb, Guillermo F Mendoza, Kira Mizell, Gregory W. Rouse, R.A. McCarthy, Olivia S. Pereira, Lisa A. Levin
2024, PeerJ (12)
Mineral-rich hardgrounds, such as ferromanganese (FeMn) crusts and phosphorites, occur on seamounts and continental margins, gaining attention for their resource potential due to their enrichment in valuable metals in some regions. This study focuses on the Southern California Borderland (SCB), an area characterized by uneven and heterogeneous topography featuring FeMn...
Detecting trajectories of regime shifts and loss of resilience in coastal wetlands using remote sensing
Melinda Martinez, Marcelo L Ardon, Joshua Gray
2024, Ecosystems (27) 1060-1075
Many freshwater forested wetlands along the southeastern United States coastline are rapidly transitioning from forest to marsh or open water, due to climate change-related disturbances. Recent studies have found early warning signals (EWS) of regime shifts in other ecosystems, but it is unclear if these can be detected for coastal...
Early detection of wildlife disease pathogens using CRISPR-Cas system methods
Adam Alberto Perez, Guelaguetza Vazquez-Meves, Margaret Hunter
2024, The CRISPR Journal
Wildlife diseases are a considerable threat to human health, conservation, and the economy. Surveillance is a critical component to mitigate the impact of animal diseases in these sectors. To monitor human diseases, CRISPR-Cas (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats-CRISPR-associated protein) biosensors have proven instrumental as diagnostic tools capable of detecting...
Sand supply to San Francisco Bay from the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers of the Central Valley, California
Mathieu D. Marineau, David Hart, Christopher P. Ely, Lester McKee
2024, Open-File Report 2024-1055
Sediment from the Central Valley via the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (Delta) and Suisun Bay is a primary source of sand to San Francisco Bay, California. Sand is mined from San Francisco Bay for commercial purposes, such as for use in concrete for construction. To better understand the supply of sand...
Use of continuous water-quality time-series data to compute total phosphorus concentrations and loads for the Missouri River at St. Joseph and Hermann, Missouri, 2007–22
Kendra M. Markland
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5097
In support of Missouri’s Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy, which was created to reduce the nutrient contamination of Missouri’s waterways from point and nonpoint sources, total phosphorus concentrations and loads were computed for the Missouri River at St. Joseph, Missouri, streamgage (U.S. Geological Survey station 06818000) and the Missouri River at...
Field geology under the sea with a remotely operated vehicle: Mona Rift, Puerto Rico
Uri S. ten Brink, Or M. Bialik, Jason Chaytor, Claudia Flores, Marcie Purkey Phillips
2024, Geosphere (20) 1575-1597
We implemented concepts of field geology at great ocean depths by constructing virtual outcrops from a string of overlapping video frames collected by remotely operated vehicles (ROVs). This lower-cost alternative to drilling boreholes allows stratigraphic extension into the offshore and regional interpretation of marine seismic profiles. The imagery was collected...
Assessment of undiscovered conventional oil and gas resources in the Norphlet Formation, U.S. Gulf Coast region, 2023
John W. Counts, William H. Craddock, Jared T. Gooley, Marc Buursink, Tracey J. Mercier, Cheryl A. Woodall, Christopher J. Schenk
2024, Fact Sheet 2024-3034
Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) estimated undiscovered, technically recoverable mean resources of 16 million barrels of oil and 348 billion cubic feet of gas in conventional reservoirs of the Norphlet Formation in the U.S. Gulf Coast region....
3Density estimation using spatial capture-recapture analyses: Application to vaccination of prairie dogs against sylvatic plague
Robin E. Russell, Dan W. Tripp, Katherine Richgels, Tonie E. Rocke
2024, The Journal of Wildlife Management
Prairie dogs are notoriously difficult to enumerate, with previously methods including visual counts, mark-resight, burrow counts, and catch per unit effort. Unlike those methods, spatial capture-recapture (SCR) analyses allow for formal estimation of density along with associated estimates of uncertainty, detection probability, and the size of the average area over...
Examining inter-regional and intra-seasonal differences in wintering waterfowl landscape associations among Pacific and Atlantic flyways
Matthew J. Hardy, Christopher K. Williams, Brian S. Ladman, Maurice E. Pitesky, Cory T. Overton, Michael L. Casazza, Elliott Matchett, Diann Prosser, Jeffrey J. Buler
2024, Preprint
The Central Valley of California (CVC) and Mid-Atlantic (MA) in the U.S. are both critical sites for nationwide food security (California Poultry Federation 2016, Prosser et al. 2017), and many waterfowl species annually, especially during the winter, providing feeding and roosting locations for a variety of species. Mapping waterfowl distributions,...
Identifying and filling critical knowledge gaps can optimize financial viability of blue carbon projects in tidal wetlands
Tim J.B. Carruthers, S. Beaux Jones, Megan K. Terrell, Jonathan F. Scheibly, Brendan J. Player, Valerie A. Black, Justin R. Ehrenwerth, Patrick D. Biber, Rod M. Connolly, Steve Crooks, Jason P. Curole, Kelly M. Darnell, Alyssa M. Dausman, Allison L. DeJong, Shawn M. Doyle, Christopher R. Esposito, Daniel A. Friess, James W. Fourqurean, Ioannis Y. Georgiou, Gabriel D. Grimsditch, Songjie He, Eva R. Hillmann, Guerry O. Holm Jr., Jennifer Howard, Hoonshin Jung, Stacy D. Jupiter, Erin P. Kiskaddon, Ken Krauss, Paul S. Lavery, Bingqing Liu, Catherine E. Lovelock, Sarah K. Mack, Peter I. Macreadie, Karen J. McGlathery, J. Patrick Megonigal, Brian J. Roberts, Scott Settelmyer, Lorie W. Staver, Hilary J. Stevens, Ariana Eileen Sutton-Grier, Jorge A. Villa, John R. White, Michelle Waycott
2024, Frontiers in Environmental Science (12)
One of the world’s largest “blue carbon” ecosystems, Louisiana’s tidal wetlands on the US Gulf of Mexico coast, is rapidly being lost. Louisiana’s strong legal, regulatory, and monitoring framework, developed for one of the world’s largest tidal wetland systems, provides an opportunity for a programmatic approach to blue carbon accreditation...
Predictive modeling reveals elevated conductivity relative to background levels in freshwater tributaries within the Chesapeake Bay watershed, USA
R. Fanelli, Joel Moore, Charles C. Stillwell, Andrew Sekellick, Richard Walker
2024, ES&T Water (4) 4978-4989
Elevated conductivity (i.e., specific conductance or SC) causes osmotic stress in freshwater aquatic organisms and may increase the toxicity of some contaminants. Indices of benthic macroinvertebrate integrity have declined in urban areas across the Chesapeake Bay watershed (CBW), and more information is needed about whether these...
Mitigating climate change by abating coal mine methane: A critical review of status and opportunities
C. Özgen Karacan, Robert A. Field, Maria Olczak, Malgorzata Kasprzak, Felicia Ruiz, Stefan Schwietzke
2024, International Journal of Coal Geology (295)
Methane has a short atmospheric lifetime compared to carbon dioxide (CO2), ∼decade versus ∼centuries, but it has a much higher global warming potential (GWP), highlighting how reducing methane emissions can slow the rate of climate change. When considering the contribution of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to current global...
A systematic review of laboratory investigations into the pathogenesis of avian influenza viruses in wild avifauna of North America
Matthew Brandon Gonnerman, Christina Leyson, Jeffery D. Sullivan, Mary J. Pantin-Jackwood, Erica Spackman, Jennifer M. Mullinax, Diann Prosser
2024, Proceeding of the Royal Society B (291)
The lack of consolidated information regarding the response of wild bird species to infection with avian influenza virus (AIV) is a challenge to both conservation managers and researchers alike, with related sectors also impacted, such as public health and commercial poultry. Using two independent searches, we reviewed...
Intraspecific trait variability in wild populations predicts neither variability nor performance in a common garden
Ella M. Samuel, Rachel M. Mitchell, Daniel E. Winkler, Zoë M. Davidson, Shannon Joy Lencioni, Robert Massatti
2024, Restoration Ecology
Dryland restoration requires plant materials capable of performing well despite difficult growing conditions. Selecting plant materials with higher intraspecific trait variability (ITV) may support successful outcomes by enhancing the performance of those materials in restoration settings. However, maintaining ITV from wild populations is not well understood and requires further investigation...
Developments in African industrial minerals for renewable energy
Thomas Yager
2024, Fact Sheet 2024-3029
Introduction Africa is emerging as a leading source for minerals used in the manufacture of batteries for electric vehicles and in other renewable energy applications. New graphite, lithium, and rare-earth mines have or could be opened in African countries from 2017 through 2026.Estimates of production capacities for graphite, lithium, and rare-earth...
Effects of noise from oil and gas development on raptors and songbirds—A science synthesis to inform National Environmental Policy Act analyses
Logan M. Maxwell, Tait K. Rutherford, Nathan J. Kleist, Elisabeth C. Teige, Richard J. Lehrter, Megan A. Gilbert, David J.A. Wood, Aaron N. Johnston, John C. Tull, Travis S. Haby, Sarah K. Carter
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5087
The U.S. Geological Survey is working with Federal land management agencies to develop a series of science syntheses to support environmental effects analyses that agencies conduct to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). This report synthesizes science information about the potential effects of noise from oil and gas...
Zircon constraints on the eruptive sequence and magma evolution of rhyolites at South Sister volcano, Oregon
Annika E. Dechert, Nathan Lee Andersen, Josef Dufek, Christine E. Jilly-Rehak
2024, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems (25)
We present 230Th-238U crystallization ages and trace element compositions for zircons spanning the late Pleistocene to Holocene rhyolite eruptive record at South Sister volcano in the central Oregon Cascade Range. Most zircon ages are between 100 and 20 ka, with very few in secular equilibrium (>350 ka). The weighted mean of zircon ages...
