U.S. Geological Survey sage-grouse and sagebrush ecosystem research annual report for 2018
Steven E. Hanser, editor(s)
2018, Circular 1446
The sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) ecosystem extends across a large portion of the Western United States, and the greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) is one of the iconic species of this ecosystem. Greater sage-grouse populations occur in 11 States and are dependent on relatively large expanses of sagebrush-dominated habitat. Sage-grouse populations have...
A comparison of the chemical sensitivities between in vitro and in vivo propagated juvenile freshwater mussels: Implications for standard toxicity testing
A. Popp, W. G. Cope, M.A. McGregor, Thomas J. Kwak, T. Augspurger, Jay F. Levine, L. Koch
2018, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (37) 3077-3085
Unionid mussels are ecologically important and are globally imperiled. Toxicants contribute to mussel declines, and toxicity tests using juvenile mussels—a sensitive life stage—are valuable in determining thresholds used to set water quality criteria. In vitro culture methods provide an efficient way to propagate juveniles for toxicity testing, but their relative...
Approaches for improving field soil identification
Zhaosheng Fan, Skye A. Wills, Jeffrey E. Herrick, Travis W. Nauman, Colby W. Brungard, Dylan E. Beaudette, Matthew R. Levi, Anthony T. O’Geen
2018, Soil Science Society of America Journal (82) 871-877
Use of soil survey information by non-soil-scientists is often limited by their inability to select the correct soil map unit component (COMP). Here, we developed two approaches that can be deployed to smartphones for non-soil-scientists to identify COMP from the location alone or location together with easily observed field data...
Soil property and class maps of the conterminous United States at 100-meter spatial resolution
Amanda Ramcharan, Tomislav Hengl, Travis W. Nauman, Colby W. Brungard, Sharon Waltman, Skye A. Wills, James Thompson
2018, Soil Science Society of America Journal (82) 186-201
With growing concern for the depletion of soil resources, conventional soil maps need to be updated and provided at finer and finer resolutions to be able to support spatially explicit human–landscape models. Three US soil point datasets—the National Cooperative Soil Survey Characterization Database, the National Soil Information System, and the...
Reductions in tree performance during hotter droughts are mitigated by shifts in nitrogen cycling
Charlotte Grossiord, Arthur Gessler, Sasha C. Reed, Isaac Borrego, Adam D. Collins, Lee T. Dickman, Max Ryan, Leonie Schonbeck, Sanna Sevanto, Alberto Vilagroso, Nate G. McDowell
2018, Plant, Cell & Environment (41) 2627-2637
Climate warming should result in hotter droughts of unprecedented severity in this century. Such droughts have been linked with massive tree mortality, and data suggest that warming interacts with drought to aggravate plant performance. Yet how forests will respond to hotter droughts remains unclear, as does the suite of mechanisms...
Biocrusts enhance soil fertility and Bromus tectorum growth, and interact with warming to influence germination
Scott Ferrenberg, Akasha M. Faist, Armin J. Howell, Sasha C. Reed
2018, Plant and Soil (429) 77-90
Background and aimsBiocrusts are communities of cyanobacteria, mosses, and/or lichens found in drylands worldwide. Biocrusts are proposed to enhance soil fertility and productivity, but simultaneously act as a barrier to the invasive grass, Bromus tectorum, in western North America. Both biocrusts and B. tectorum are sensitive to climate change drivers,...
Long-term evolution of sand transport through a river network: Relative influences of a dam versus natural changes in grain size from sand waves
David J. Topping, Erich R. Mueller, John C. Schmidt, Ronald E. Griffiths, David J. Dean, Paul E. Grams
2018, Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface (123) 1879-1909
Temporal and spatial nonuniformity in supplies of water and sand in a river network leads to sand transport that is in local disequilibrium with the upstream sand supply. In such river networks, sand is transported downstream as elongating waves in which coupled changes in grain size and transport occur. Depending...
KG²B, a collaborative benchmarking exercise for estimating the permeability of the Grimsel granodiorite - Part 1: measurements, pressure dependence and pore-fluid effects
Christian David, J. Wasserman, F. Amann, David A. Lockner, E.H. Rutter, T Vanorio, A. Amann Hildenbrand, J. Billiotte, T. Reuschle, D. Lasseux, J. Fortin, R. Lenormand, A.P.S. Selvadurai, P.G. Meredith, J. Browning, T.M. Mitchell, D. Loggia, F. Nono, J. Sarout, L. Esteban, C. Davy, L. Louis, G. Boitnott, C. Madonna, E. Jahns, Fleury. M., G. Berthe, P. Delage, P. Braun, D. Gregoire, L. Perrier, P. Polito, Y. Jannot, A. Sommier, B. Krooss, R. Fink, Q. Hu, J.M. Klaver, A. Clark
2018, Geophysical Journal International (215) 799-824
Measuring the permeability of tight rocks remains a challenging task. In addition to the traditional sources of errors that affect more permeable formations (e.g. sample selection, non-representative specimens, disturbance introduced during sample acquisition and preparation), tight rocks can be particularly prone to solid–fluid interactions and thus more sensitive to the...
Multi-year data from satellite- and ground-based sensors show details and scale matter in assessing climate’s effects on wetland surface water, amphibians, and landscape conditions
Walter Sadinski, Alisa L. Gallant, Mark Roth, Jesslyn F. Brown, Gabriel Senay, Wayne L. Brininger, Perry M. Jones, Jason M. Stoker
2018, PLoS ONE (13)
Long-term, interdisciplinary studies of relations between climate and ecological conditions on wetland-upland landscapes have been lacking, especially studies integrated across scales meaningful for adaptive resource management. We collected data in situ at individual wetlands, and via satellite for surrounding 4-km2 landscape blocks, to assess relations between annual weather dynamics, snow duration, phenology, wetland...
Spring temperature, migration chronology, and nutrient allocation to eggs in three species of arctic‐nesting geese: Implications for resilience to climate warming
Jerry W. Hupp, David H. Ward, David X. Soto, Keith A. Hobson
2018, Global Change Biology (24) 5056-5071
The macronutrients that Arctic herbivores invest in their offspring are derived from endogenous reserves of fat and protein (capital) that females build prior to the period of investment or from foods they consume concurrently with investment (income). The relative contribution from each source can be influenced by temporal and environmental...
Genetic evidence supports sporadic and independent introductions of subtype H5 low pathogenic avian influenza A viruses from wild birds to domestic poultry in North America
Lei Li, Andrew S. Bowman, Thomas J. DeLiberto, Mary L. Killian, Scott Krauss, Jacqueline M. Nolting, Mia Kim Torchetti, Andrew M. Ramey, Andrew B. Reeves, David E. Stallknecht, Richard J. Webby, Xiu-Feng Wan
2018, Journal of Virology (92) 1-16
Wild bird–origin influenza A viruses (IAVs or avian influenza) have led to sporadic outbreaks among domestic poultry in the United States (US) and Canada, resulting in economic losses through the implementation of costly containment practices and destruction of birds. We used evolutionary analyses of virus sequence data to determine that...
Introduction of Eurasian-origin H8N4 influenza A virus into North America via migratory birds
Andrew M. Ramey, Andrew B. Reeves, Tyrone F. Donnelly, Rebecca L. Poulson, David E. Stallknecht
2018, Emerging Infectious Diseases (24) 1950-1953
We identified a Eurasian-origin influenza A(H8N4) virus in North America by sampling wild birds in western Alaska, USA. Evidence for repeated introductions of influenza A viruses into North America by migratory birds suggests that intercontinental dispersal might not be exceedingly rare and that our understanding of viral establishment is incomplete....
Impacts of tidal road-stream crossings on aquatic organism passage
Sarah Becker, Scott Jackson, Adrian Jordaan, Allison H. Roy
2018, Cooperator Science Series 131-2018
ivers and streams are highly vulnerable to fragmentation from roads due to their prevalence in the landscape. Road-stream crossings are far more numerous than other anthropogenic barriers such as dams; these crossing structures (culverts, bridges, fords, and tide gates) have been demonstrated to impede the passage of aquatic organisms. However,...
Spatially explicit patterns in a dryland's soil respiration and relationships with climate, whole plant photosynthesis and soil fertility
Timothy M. Wertin, Kristina E. Young, Sasha C. Reed
2018, Oikos (127) 1280-1290
Arid and semiarid ecosystems play a significant role in regulating global carbon cycling, yet our understanding of the controls over the dominant pathways of dryland CO2exchange remains poor. Substantial amounts of dryland soil are not covered by vascular plants and this patchiness in cover has important implications for spatial patterns...
Advantages and limitations to the use of optical measurements to study sediment properties
Emmanuel Boss, Christopher R. Sherwood, Paul Hill, Tim Milligan
2018, MDPI - Applied Sciences (8) 1-19
Measurements of optical properties have been used for decades to study particle distributions in the ocean. They are useful for estimating suspended mass concentration as well as particle-related properties such as size, composition, packing (particle porosity or density), and settling velocity. Measurements of optical properties are, however, biased, as certain...
Patterns of host-associated fecal indicators driven by hydrology, precipitation, and land use attributes in Great Lakes watersheds
Deborah K. Dila, Steven R. Corsi, Peter L. Lenaker, Austin K. Baldwin, Melinda J. Bootsma, Sandra L. McLellan
2018, Environmental Science & Technology (52) 11500-11509
Fecal contamination from sewage and agricultural runoff is a pervasive problem in Great Lakes watersheds. Most work examining fecal pollution loads relies on discrete samples of fecal indicators and modeling land use. In this study, we made empirical measurements of human and ruminant-associated fecal indicator bacteria and combined these with...
Drought and land-cover conditions in the Great Plains
Heather J. Tollerud, Jesslyn F. Brown, Thomas Loveland, Rezaul Mahmood, Norman B. Bliss
2018, Earth Interactions (22) 1-25
Land–atmosphere interactions play a critical role in the Earth system, and a better understanding of these interactions could improve weather and climate models. The interaction among drought, vegetation productivity, and land cover is of particular significance. In a semiarid environment, such as the U.S. Great Plains, droughts can have a...
Spatial sampling bias in the Neotoma paleoecological archives affects species paleo-distribution models
Richard D. Inman, Janet Franklin, Todd Esque, Kenneth E. Nussear
2018, Journal of Quaternary Science Reviews (198) 115-125
The ability to infer paleo-distributions with limited knowledge of absence makes species distribution modeling (SDM) a useful tool for exploring paleobiogeographic questions. Spatial sampling bias is a known issue when modeling extant species. Here we quantify the spatial sampling bias in a North American packrat midden archive and explore its impact on...
Tidal flushing of mercury from the Bremerton Naval Complex through the PSNS015 stormwater drain system to Sinclair Inlet, Kitsap County, Washington, 2011 -12
Kathleen E. Conn, Anthony J. Paulson, Richard S. Dinicola, John F. DeWild
2018, Scientific Investigations Report 2018-5087
The sediments of Sinclair Inlet, in Puget Sound, Washington, have elevated levels of contaminants including mercury. The Bremerton Naval Complex is adjacent to Sinclair Inlet, and has known areas of historical soil mercury contamination. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the U.S. Navy, has been investigating the potential for...
Habitat overlap between Asiatic black bear Ursus thibetanus and red panda Ailurus fulgens in Himalaya
Manjit Bista, Saroj Panthi, Sarah R. Weiskopf
2018, PLoS ONE (13)
Studying habitat overlap between sympatric species is one of the best ways to identify interspecies relationships and to direct conservation efforts so that multiple species can benefit. However, studies exploring interspecies relationships are very limited in Nepal, making it difficult for the government of Nepal and conservation partners to manage...
Experimental infection of Tadarida brasiliensis with Pseudogymnoascus destructans, the fungus that causes white-nose syndrome
Michelle Verant, Carol U. Meteyer, Benjamin Stading, David S. Blehert
2018, mSphere (3)
White-nose syndrome (WNS) is causing significant declines in populations of North American hibernating bats, and recent western and southern expansions of the disease have placed additional species at risk. Understanding differences in species susceptibility and identifying management actions to reduce mortality of bats from WNS are top research priorities. However,...
The 2015 landslide and tsunami in Taan Fiord, Alaska
Brentwood Higman, Dan H. Shugar, Colin P. Stark, Goran Ekstrom, Michele N Koppes, Patrick Lynett, Anja Dufresne, Peter J. Haeussler, Marten Geertsema, Sean P.S. Gulick, Andrew Mattox, Jeremy G. Venditti, Maureen A. L. Walton, Naoma McCall, Erin Mckittrick, Breanyn MacInnes, Eric L. Bilderback, Hui Tang, Micheal Willis, Bruce Richmond, Bobby Reece, Christopher F. Larsen, Bjorn Olson, James Capra, Aykut Ayca, Colin K Bloom, Haley Williams, Doug Bonno, Robert Weiss, Adam Keen, Vassilios Skanavis, Micheal Loso
2018, Scientific Reports (8)
Glacial retreat in recent decades has exposed unstable slopes and allowed deep water to extend beneath some of those slopes. Slope failure at the terminus of Tyndall Glacier on 17 October 2015 sent 180 million tons of rock into Taan Fiord, Alaska. The resulting tsunami reached elevations as high as...
A 42 year inference of cloud base height trends in the Luquillo Mountains of northeastern Puerto Rico
Paul W. Miller, Thomas L. Mote, C.A. Ramseyer, Ashley E. Van Beusekom, Martha A. Scholl, Grizelle Gonzalez
2018, Climate Research (76) 87-94
The Luquillo Mountains of eastern Puerto Rico are home to the only tropical rainforest managed by the United States Forest Service, with cloud-immersed forests historically occupying the highest elevations. However, within the past 50 yr, studies of the Luquillo cloud forest have suggested an increase in cloud base heights (CBH), although...
U.S. Landsat Analysis Ready Data
U.S. Geological Survey
2018, Fact Sheet 2018-3053
U.S. Landsat Analysis Ready Data (ARD) are a revolutionary new U.S. Geological Survey science product that allows the Landsat archive to be more accessible and easier to analyze and reduces the amount of time users spend on data processing for monitoring and assessing landscape change. U.S. Landsat ARD are Level-2 products derived...
What it is to be established: policy and management implications for non-native and invasive species
Patrick Kocovsky, Rochelle Sturtevant, James Schardt
2018, Management of Biological Invasions (9) 177-185
Management of invasive species, whether prevention, population reduction, or eradication, requires assessment of the invasive species’ population status and an assessment of the probability of success of management options. Perceptions of a species’ permanence in an environment or lack thereof frequently drives how limited time, financial, and personnel resources are...
