Assessing impacts of human stressors on stream fish habitats across the Mississippi River basin
Jared Ross, Dana M. Infante, Arthur R. Cooper, Joanna B. Whittier, Wesley Daniel
2023, Water (15)
Effective conservation of stream fishes and their habitats is complicated by the fact that human stressors alter the way in which natural factors such as stream size, catchment geology, and regional climate influence stream ecosystems. Consequently, efforts to assess the condition of stream fishes and their habitats must not only...
Least Bell's Vireos and Southwestern Willow Flycatchers at the San Luis Rey Flood Risk Management Project Area in San Diego County, California—Breeding activities and habitat use—2022 annual report
Alexandra Houston, Lisa D. Allen, Shannon M. Mendia, Barbara E. Kus
2023, Open-File Report 2023-1040
Executive SummaryWe completed four protocol surveys for Least Bell’s Vireos (Vireo bellii pusillus; vireo) during the breeding season, supplemented by weekly territory monitoring visits. We identified a total of 133 territorial male vireos; 114 were confirmed as paired, and 3 were confirmed as single males. For the remaining 16 territories,...
A decision framework for the management of established biological invasions
C. D. Robichaud, R. C. Rooney, B. M. H. Larson, S. E. Wolfe, Z. Nyssa, Kurt P. Kowalski, H. Braun
2023, Facets: Biological and Life Sciences (8) 1-10
In some cases, managing an established invasive species may do more harm to an ecosystem than allowing the invader to persist. Given limited resources available to land managers and the realities of conservation triage, we recognized the need for systematic guidance for management decisions made at the “late end” of...
Using recovered radio transmitters to estimate positioning error and a generalized Monte Carlo simulation to incorporate error into animal telemetry analysis
Kurt C. Heim, W.C. Ardren, Theodore Castro-Santos
2023, Animal Biotelemetry (11)
BackgroundMobile radio tracking is an important tool in fisheries research and management. Yet, the accuracy of location estimates can be highly variable across studies and within a given dataset. While some methods are available to deal with error, they generally assume a static value...
Importance of subsurface water for hydrological response during storms in a post-wildfire bedrock landscape
Abra Atwood, Madeline Hille, Marin Clark, Francis K. Rengers, Dimitrios Ntarlagiannis, Kirk Townsend, A. Joshua West
2023, Nature Geoscience Communications (14)
Wildfire alters the hydrologic cycle, with important implications for water supply and hazards including flooding and debris flows. In this study we use a combination of electrical resistivity and stable water isotope analyses to investigate the hydrologic response during storms in three catchments: one unburned and...
U.S. Geological Survey Rocky Mountain Region 2022 science exchange, showcasing interdisciplinary and state-of-the-art USGS science
Dana E. Peterson, Katherine L. French, Jeannette H. Oden, Patrick J. Anderson, Timothy N. Titus, Katharine G. Dahm, Jessica M. Driscoll, William J. Andrews
2023, Fact Sheet 2023-3017
IntroductionThe Rocky Mountains and the Colorado River Basin in the Western United States represent complex, interconnected systems that sustain a number of species, including tens of millions of humans. These systems face several challenges, including worsening drought, altered wildfire regimes, climate change, and the spread of invasive species. These factors...
Cryptic tolerant fish species and their potential effect on index of biotic integrity (IBI) scores
Bryson G. Hilburn, Mary Freeman, Katelyn M. Lawson, Steven J. Rider, Carol E. Johnston
2023, Ecological Indicators (154)
Indices such as the Index of Biotic Integrity (IBI) are often used by management agencies to estimate the abstract property of stream health. These indices are usually predicated on the belief that certain fish species are tolerant to environmental perturbation while others are sensitive. Species are usually designated as either...
Role of trace metal co-limitation in cyanobacterial blooms of Maumee Bay (Lake Erie) and Green Bay (Lake Michigan)
James H. Larson, Keith Loftin, Erin A. Stelzer, David M. Costello, Sean Bailey, Mary Anne Evans, Carrie E Givens, Lisa R. Fogarty
2023, Journal of Freshwater Ecology (38)
The open waters of large lakes can sometimes become so depleted in important metals that phytoplankton communities become either growth limited or limited in some metabolic function. Metals such as Fe, Ni, Mo, and Zn are used as co-factors for enzymes by phytoplankton in core metabolic functions, as well as...
Plant traits poorly predict winner and loser shrub species in a warming tundra biome
Mariana García Criado, Isla H. Myers-Smith, Anne Bjorkman, Signe Normand, Anne Blach-Overgaard, Haydn J. D. Thomas, Anu Eskelinen, Konsta Happonen, Juha Alatalo, Alba Anadon-Rosell, Isabelle Aubin, Mariska te Beest, Katlyn R. Betway-May, Daan Blok, Allan Buras, Bruno E. L. Cerabolini, Katherine S. Christie, J. Hans C. Cornelissen, Bruce C. Forbes, Esther R. Frei, Paul Grogan, Luise Hermanutz, Robert D. Hollister, James Hudson, Maitane Iturrate-Garcia, Elina Kaarlejärvi, Michael Kleyer, Laurent J. Lamarque, Jonas J. Lembrechts, Esther Lévesque, Miska Luoto, Petr Macek, Jeremy May, Janet S. Prevéy, Gabriela Schaepman-Strub, Serge N. Sheremetiev, Laura Siegwart Collier, Nadejda A. Soudzilovskaia, Andrew Trant, Susanna E. Venn, Anna-Maria Virkkala
2023, Nature Communications (14)
Climate change is leading to species redistributions. In the tundra biome, shrubs are generally expanding, but not all tundra shrub species will benefit from warming. Winner and loser species, and the characteristics that may determine success or failure, have not yet been fully identified. Here, we investigate whether past abundance...
Tourism-supported working lands sustain a growing jaguar population in the Colombian Llanos
Matthew Hyde, Esteban Payán, Jorge Barragan, Diana Stasiukynas, William L. Kendall, Samantha Rincón, Jerónimo Rodriguez, Kevin R. Crooks, Stewart W. Breck, Valeria Boron
2023, Scientific Reports (13)
Understanding large carnivore demography on human-dominated lands is a priority to inform conservation strategies, yet few studies examine long-term trends. Jaguars (Panthera onca) are one such species whose population trends and survival rates remain unknown across working lands. We integrated nine years of camera trap data and tourist photos to...
Integrated rangeland fire management strategy actionable science plan completion assessment— Climate and weather topic, 2015–20
Christopher R. Anthony, Matthew J Holloran, Mark A. Ricca, Steven E. Hanser, Sue L. Phillips, Paul Steblein, Lief A. Wiechman
2023, Open-File Report 2023-1035
Loss and degradation of sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) rangelands due to an accelerated invasive annual grass-wildfire cycle and other stressors are significant management, conservation, and economic issues in the western U.S. These sagebrush rangelands comprise a unique biome spanning 11 states, support over 350 wildlife species, and provide important ecosystem services...
Open water dreissenid mussel control projects: Lessons learned from a retrospective analysis
Angelique D. Dahlberg, Diane L. Waller, David Hammond, Keegan Lund, Nicholas B. D. Phelps
2023, Scientific Reports (13)
Dreissenid mussels are one of the most problematic aquatic invasive species (AIS) in North America, causing substantial ecological and economic effects. To date, dreissenid mussel control efforts in open water have included physical, biological, and chemical methods. The feasibility of successful dreissenid mussel management or eradication in lakes is relatively...
Editorial: Micro-to nano-analytical challenges towards trace element characterization of ore minerals: New perspectives and applications for sustainable georesources
Manuel Keith, Sarah M. Hayes, C. L. Ciobanu, D. Fougerouse, M. Reich
2023, Frontiers in Earth Science (11)
No abstract available....
Modeling surface wave dynamics in upper Delaware Bay with living shorelines
Ling Zhu, Q. Chen, Hongqing Wang, Nan Wang, Kelin Hu, William D. Capurso, L.M. Niemoczynski, Gregg Snedden
2023, Ocean Engineering (284)
Living shorelines gain increasing attention because they stabilize shorelines and reduce erosion. This study leverages physics-based models and bagged regression tree (BRT) machine learning algorithm to simulate wave dynamics at a living shoreline composed of constructed oyster reefs (CORs) in upper Delaware Bay. The physics-based models consist of coupled Delft3D-FLOW and SWAN in four-level...
Assessment of public and private land cover change in the United States from 1985–2018
Nathan C. Healey, Janis L. Taylor, Roger F. Auch
2023, Environmental Research Communications (5)
An assessment of annual land cover on publicly and privately managed lands across the conterminous United States (CONUS) from 1985–2018 was performed, including land cover conversions within their management category, to inform future policy and land-use decision-making in natural resource management. Synthesizing land cover data with land...
Development and application of an Infragravity Wave (InWave) driver to simulate nearshore processes
Maitane Olabarrieta, John C. Warner, Christie Hegermiller
2023, Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems (15)
Infragravity waves are key components of the hydro-sedimentary processes in coastal areas, especially during extreme storms. Accurate modeling of coastal erosion and breaching requires consideration of the effects of infragravity waves. Here, we present InWave, a new infragravity wave driver of the Coupled Ocean-Atmopshere-Waves-Sediment Transport (COAWST) modeling...
Modeling the maturation history of the stacked petroleum systems of the Williston Basin, USA
Sarah E. Gelman
2023, Marine and Petroleum Geology (155)
A three-dimensional petroleum systems model was built to support U.S. Geological Survey assessments of undiscovered oil and gas resources in the Williston Basin of North Dakota, Montana, and South Dakota. Numerous Paleozoic source rocks have been proven or postulated in the basin, of which...
Connecting dryland fine-fuel assessments to wildfire exposure and natural resource values at risk
Adam Gerhard Wells, Seth M. Munson, Miguel L. Villarreal, Steven E. Sesnie, Katherine M. Laushman
2023, Fire Ecology (19)
BackgroundWildland fire in arid and semi-arid (dryland) regions can intensify when climatic, biophysical, and land-use factors increase fuel load and continuity. To inform wildland fire management under these conditions, we developed high-resolution (10-m) estimates of fine fuel across the Altar Valley in southern Arizona, USA, which spans dryland,...
Community cloud computing infrastructure to support equitable water research and education
Anthony M. Castronova, Ayman Nassar, Wouter Knoben, Michael N. Fienen, Louise Arnal, Martyn Clark
2023, Groundwater (61) 612-616
No abstract available....
Chemical characteristics of wildfire ash across the globe and their environmental and socio-economic implications
Carmen Sanchez-Garcia, Cristina Santín, Jonay Neris, Gabriel Sigmund, Xose Lois Otero, Joella Manley, Gil González-Rodríguez, Claire Belcher, Artemi Cerdá, Abbey L Marcotte, Sheila F. Murphy, Charles Rhoades, Gary J. Sheridan, Tercia Strydom, Peter R. Robichaud, Stefan H. Doerr
2023, Environment International (178)
The mobilisation of potentially harmful chemical constituents in wildfire ash can be a major consequence of wildfires, posing widespread societal risks. Knowledge of wildfire ash chemical composition is crucial to anticipate and mitigate these risks.Here we present a comprehensive dataset on the chemical characteristics of a wide range of wildfire...
Historical fire regimes and contemporary fire effects within sagebrush habitats of Gunnison Sage-grouse
Petar Simic, Jonathan Coop, Ellis Margolis, Jessica R. Young, Manuel K. Lopez
2023, Ecosphere (14)
The historical role of fire in sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) landscapes remains poorly understood, yet is important to inform management and conservation of obligate species such as the threatened Gunnison Sage-grouse (GUSG; Centrocercus minimus). We reconstructed fire histories from tree-ring fire scars at sagebrush–forest ecotones (10...
Ash aggregate-rich pyroclastic density currents of the 431 CE Tierra Blanca Joven eruption, Ilopango caldera, El Salvador
Richard J. Brown, Alexa R. Van Eaton, Walter Hernandez, Pearce Condren, Clare Sweeney, Pierre-Yves Tournigand, James W. Vallance
2023, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research (439)
The VEI 6, Tierra Blanca Joven pyroclastic sequence (30–90 km3 DRE volume), erupted from Ilopango caldera, El Salvador, in 431 CE, is the product of one of the largest eruptions of the last two millennia. The eruption devastated Central America's Mayan civilization. The...
Percent-slope map showing historical anthracite coal-mining infrastructure at the northern end of the Lackawanna syncline, Wayne, Susquehanna, and Lackawanna Counties, Pennsylvania
Gregory J. Walsh, Mark C. Walsh
2023, Scientific Investigations Map 3507
Introduction Abandoned railroads and infrastructure from the anthracite coal-mining industry are significant features in abandoned mine lands and are an important part of history; however, these features are often lost and masked by the passage of time and the regrowth of forests. The application of modern light detection and ranging (lidar)...
Evaluating deep learning architecture and data assimilation for improving water temperature forecasts at unmonitored locations
Jacob Aaron Zwart, Jeremy Alejandro Diaz, Scott Douglas Hamshaw, Samantha K. Oliver, Jesse Cleveland Ross, Margaux Jeanne Sleckman, Alison P. Appling, Hayley Corson-Dosch, Xiaowei Jia, Jordan S Read, Jeffrey M Sadler, Theodore Paul Thompson, David Watkins, Elaheh (Ellie) White
2023, Frontiers in Water (5)
Deep learning (DL) models are increasingly used to forecast water quality variables for use in decision making. Ingesting recent observations of the forecasted variable has been shown to greatly increase model performance at monitored locations; however, observations are not collected at all locations, and methods are not yet well developed...
Stratigraphic architecture and fluvial interpretations of the Upper Cretaceous (Turonian?) Middendorf Formation, Chesterfield County, South Carolina, U.S.A.
Christopher S. Swezey, Bradley A. Fitzwater, G. Richard Whittecar
2023, Journal of Sedimentary Research (93) 327-349
The Upper Cretaceous (Turonian?) Middendorf Formation is a sand-rich stratigraphic unit of fluvial origin that forms a large aquifer in the U.S. Atlantic Coastal Plain. In Chesterfield County (South Carolina), which is the site of the type locality, the formation ranges in thickness from 66.5 to > 119.7 meters. The...
