Middle and Late Pleistocene glaciations in the southwestern Pamir and their effects on topography
Konstanze Stubner, Elena Grin, Alan J. Hidy, Mirjam Schaller, Ryan D. Gold, Lothar Ratschbacher, Todd Ehlers
2017, Earth and Planetary Science Letters (466) 181-194
Glacial chronologies provide insight into the evolution of paleo-landscapes, paleoclimate, topography, and the erosion processes that shape mountain ranges. In the Pamir of Central Asia, glacial morphologies and deposits indicate extensive past glaciations, whose timing and extent remain poorly constrained. Geomorphic data and 15 new 10Be...
Evidence of absence (v2.0) software user guide
Daniel Dalthorp, Manuela M. Huso, David Dail
2017, Data Series 1055
Evidence of Absence software (EoA) is a user-friendly software application for estimating bird and bat fatalities at wind farms and for designing search protocols. The software is particularly useful in addressing whether the number of fatalities is below a given threshold and what search parameters are needed to give...
Field-trip guide for exploring pyroclastic density current deposits from the May 18, 1980, eruption of Mount St. Helens, Washington
Brittany D. Brand, Nicholas Pollock, Damiano Sarocchi, Josef Dufek, Michael A. Clynne
2017, Scientific Investigations Report 2017-5022-C
Pyroclastic density currents (PDCs) are one of the most dangerous phenomena associated with explosive volcanism. To help constrain damage potential, a combination of field studies, laboratory experiments, and numerical modeling are used to establish conditions that influence PDC dynamics and depositional processes, including runout distance. The objective of this field...
Baseline assessments for coral reef community structure and demographics on West Maui
Bernardo Vargas-Angel, Darla White, Curt D. Storlazzi, Tova Callender, Paulo Maurin
2017, Report
The coastal and upslope terrains of West Maui have had a long history of impacts owing to more than a century of human activities. Resource extraction, agriculture, as well as residential and resort development have caused land-based pollution that impairs water quality and adversely impact the adjacent marine ecosystem. Today,...
Fifty-eighth supplement to the American Ornithologists' Union: Check-list of North American Birds
Terry Chesser, Kevin J Burns, Carla Cicero, Jon L. Dunn, Andrew W. Kratter, Irby J. Lovette, Pamela C. Rasmussen, J.V. Remsen Jr., James D. Rising, Douglas F. Stotz, Kevin Winker
2017, The Auk (134) 751-773
This is the 17th supplement since publication of the 7th edition of the Check-list of North American Birds (American Ornithologists' Union [AOU] 1998). It summarizes decisions made between April 15, 2016, and April 15, 2017, by the AOS's Committee on Classification and Nomenclature—North and Middle America. The Committee has continued...
Historical changes in organic matter input to the muddy sediments along the Zhejiang-Fujian Coast, China over the past 160 years
Li-lei Chen, Jian Liu, Lei Xing, Ken W. Krauss, Jia-sheng Wang, Gang Xu, Li Li
2017, Organic Geochemistry (111) 13-25
The burial of sedimentary organic matter (SOM) in the large river-influenced estuarine-coastal regions is affected by hydrodynamic sorting, diagenesis and human activities. Typically, the inner shelf region of the East China Sea is a major carbon sink of the Yangtze River-derived fine-grained sediments. Most of the previous work concentrated on...
Acquisition of Borrelia burgdorferi infection by larval Ixodes scapularis (Acari: Ixodidae) associated with engorgement measures
Janelle Couret, M.C. Dyer, T.N. Mather, S. Han, J.I. Tsao, R.A. LeBrun, Howard S. Ginsberg
2017, Journal of Medical Entomology (54) 1055-1060
Measuring rates of acquisition of the Lyme disease pathogen, Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato Johnson, Schmid, Hyde, Steigerwalt & Brenner, by the larval stage of Ixodes scapularis Say is a useful tool for xenodiagnoses of B. burgdorferi in vertebrate hosts. In the nymphal and adult stages of I. scapularis, the duration of attachment to hosts has been shown...
Hourly storm characteristics along the U.S. West Coast: Role of atmospheric rivers in extreme precipitation
Maryam A. Lamjiri, Michael D. Dettinger, F. Martin Ralph, B. Guan
2017, Geophysical Research Letters (44) 7020-7028
Gridded hourly precipitation observations over the conterminous U.S., from 1948 to 2002, are analyzed to determine climatological characteristics of storm precipitation totals. Despite generally lower hourly intensities, precipitation totals along the U.S. West Coast (USWC) are comparable to those in southeast U.S. (SEUS). Storm durations, more so than hourly intensities,...
Determination of earthquake magnitude for early warning from the time-dependence of P-wave amplitudes
Shunta Noda, William L. Ellsworth
2017, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (107) 1860-1867
We propose a method that utilizes the time dependence of P‐wave displacement amplitudes to estimate the final magnitude (M) for earthquake early warning (EEW) before the arrival of the peak amplitude. A relation between M and P‐wave displacement amplitude is employed for the method. Its value is set as a...
A spatiotemporal clustering model for the Third Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast (UCERF3‐ETAS): Toward an operational earthquake forecast
Edward H. Field, Kevin R. Milner, Jeanne L. Hardebeck, Morgan T. Page, Nicholas van der Elst, Thomas H. Jordan, Andrew J. Michael, Bruce E. Shaw, Maximillan J. Werner
2017, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (107) 1049-1081
We, the ongoing Working Group on California Earthquake Probabilities, present a spatiotemporal clustering model for the Third Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast (UCERF3), with the goal being to represent aftershocks, induced seismicity, and otherwise triggered events as a potential basis for operational earthquake forecasting (OEF). Specifically, we add an epidemic‐type...
Adding a nitrogen footprint to Colorado State University’s sustainability plan
Jacob Kimiecik, Jill Baron, Timothy Weinmann, Emily Taylor
2017, Sustainability (10) 89-95
As a large land grant university with more than 32,000 students, Colorado State University has both on-campus non-agricultural and agricultural sources of nitrogen (N) released to the environment. We used the Nitrogen Footprint Tool to estimate the amount of N released from different sectors of the university for the CSU...
Life history constraints explain negative relationship between fish productivity and dissolved organic carbon in lakes
Nicola Craig, Stuart E. Jones, Brian Weidel, Christopher T. Solomon
2017, Ecology and Evolution (7) 6201-6209
Resource availability constrains the life history strategies available to organisms and may thereby limit population growth rates and productivity. We used this conceptual framework to explore the mechanisms driving recently reported negative relationships between fish productivity and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations in lakes. We studied populations of bluegill (Lepomis...
USGS Integration of New Science and Technology, Appendix A
Marybeth K. Brey, Brent C. Knights, Aaron R. Cupp, Jon Amberg, Duane Chapman, Robin D. Calfee, James J. Duncker
2017, Report, 2017 Asian Carp Monitoring and Response Plan
This product summarizes the USGS plans for integration of new science and technology into Asian Carp control efforts for 2017. This includes the 1) implementation and evaluation of new tactics and behavioral information for monitoring, surveillance, control and containment; 2) understanding behavior and reproduction of Asian carp in established and...
Remote measurement of high preeruptive water vapor emissions at Sabancaya volcano by passive differential optical absorption spectroscopy
Christoph Kern, Pablo Masias, Fredy Apaza, Kevin Reath, Ulrich Platt
2017, Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth (122) 3540-3564
Water (H2O) is by far the most abundant volcanic volatile species and plays a predominant role in driving volcanic eruptions. However, numerous difficulties associated with making accurate measurements of water vapor in volcanic plumes have limited their use as a diagnostic tool. Here we present the first detection of water...
The difficulty of measuring the absorption of scattered sunlight by H2O and CO2 in volcanic plumes: A comment on Pering et al. “A novel and inexpensive method for measuring volcanic plume water fluxes at high temporal resolution,” Remote Sens. 2017, 9, 146
Christoph Kern
2017, Remote Sensing (9)
In their recent study, Pering et al. (2017) presented a novel method for measuring volcanic water vapor fluxes. Their method is based on imaging volcanic gas and aerosol plumes using a camera sensitive to the near-infrared (NIR) absorption of water vapor. The imaging data are empirically calibrated by comparison with...
Diel periodicity and chronology of upstream migration in yellow-phase American eels (Anguilla rostrata)
Joni L. Aldinger, Stuart A. Welsh
2017, Environmental Biology of Fishes (100) 829-838
Yellow-phase American eel (Anguilla rostrata) upstream migration is temporally punctuated, yet migration chronology within diel time periods is not well-understood. This study examined diel periodicity, chronology, and total length (TL) of six multi-day, high-count (285–1,868 eels) passage events of upstream migrant yellow-phase American eels at the Millville Dam...
How uncertainty analysis of streamflow data can reduce costs and promote robust decisions in water management applications
Hilary McMilan, Jan Seibert, Asgeir Petersen-Overleir, Michel Lang, Paul White, Ton Snelder, Kit Rutherford, Tobias Krueger, Robert R. Mason, Jr., Julie E. Kiang
2017, Water Resources Research (53) 5220-5228
Streamflow data are used for important environmental and economic decisions, such as specifying and regulating minimum flows, managing water supplies, and planning for flood hazards. Despite significant uncertainty in most flow data, the flow series for these applications are often communicated and used without uncertainty information. In this commentary, we...
Chemical and isotopic evidence for CO2 charge and migration within Bravo Dome and potential CO2 leakage to the southwest
Sean T. Brennan
2017, Energy Procedia (114) 2996-3005
Gas analyses from northeastern New Mexico, USA indicate that previous interpretations of the location of gas charge into the northeastern portion of Bravo Dome are likely correct, and that there may be multiple migration pathways from the same source for different regions in northeastern New Mexico....
Geomorphic processes responsible for decadal-scale arroyo changes, Rio Puerco, New Mexico
Allen C. Gellis, John G. Elliott, Milan Pavich
2017, Geological Society of America Bulletin (129) 1660-1680
The channel and arroyo of the Rio Puerco have continued to evolve since incision in the late 1800s. Resurveys of channel cross sections and aerial imagery over time indicate that between the 1970s and 1990s, the upstream reaches (type 1 morphology) of the Rio Puerco have continued to undergo construction...
Understanding and finding solutions to the problem of sedimentation in the National Wildlife Refuge System
Max Post van der Burg, Karen Jenni, Timothy L. Nieman, Josh D. Eash, Gregory A. Knutsen
2017, Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management (8) 648-660
The National Wildlife Refuge System (Refuge System) is a collection of public lands maintained by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for migratory birds and other wildlife. Wetlands on individual National Wildlife Refuges (Refuges) may be at risk of increased sedimentation because of land use...
Species’ traits help predict small mammal responses to habitat homogenization by an invasive grass
Joseph P. Ceradini, Anna D. Chalfoun
2017, Ecological Applications (27) 1451-1465
Invasive plants can negatively affect native species, however, the strength, direction, and shape of responses may vary depending on the type of habitat alteration and the natural history of native species. To prioritize conservation of vulnerable species, it is therefore critical to effectively predict species’ responses to invasive plants, which...
Downscaling wind and wavefields for 21st century coastal flood hazard projections in a region of complex terrain
Andrea C. O'Neill, Li H. Erikson, Patrick L. Barnard
2017, Earth and Space Science (4) 314-334
While global climate models (GCMs) provide useful projections of near-surface wind vectors into the 21st century, resolution is not sufficient enough for use in regional wave modeling. Statistically downscaled GCM projections from Multivariate Adaptive Constructed Analogues provide daily averaged near-surface winds at an appropriate spatial resolution for wave modeling within...
Monitoring water content dynamics of biological soil crusts
Michael H. Young, Lynn F. Fenstermaker, Jayne Belnap
2017, Journal of Arid Environments (142) 41-49
Biological soil crusts (hereafter, “biocrusts”) dominate soil surfaces in nearly all dryland environments. To better understand the influence of water content on carbon (C) exchange, we assessed the ability of dual-probe heat-pulse (DPHP) sensors, installed vertically and angled, to measure changes in near-surface water content. Four DPHP sensors were installed...
Short-term ecological consequences of collaborative restoration treatments in ponderosa pine forests of Colorado
Jenny S. Briggs, Paula J. Fornwalt, Jonas A. Feinstein
2017, Forest Ecology and Management (395) 69-80
Ecological restoration treatments are being implemented at an increasing rate in ponderosa pine and other dry conifer forests across the western United States, via the USDA Forest Service’s Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration (CFLR) program. In this program, collaborative stakeholder groups work with National Forests (NFs) to adaptively implement and monitor...
Nitrogenase activity by biological soil crusts in cold sagebrush steppe ecosystems
Stacy G. Schwabedissen, Kathleen A. Lohse, Sasha C. Reed, Ken A. Aho, Timothy S. Magnuson
2017, Biogeochemistry (134) 57-76
In drylands worldwide, biological soil crusts (BSC) form a thin photosynthetic cover across landscapes, and provide vital benefits in terms of stabilizing soil and fixing nitrogen (N) and carbon (C). Numerous studies have examined the effects of climate and disturbance on BSC functions; however, few have characterized these responses in...
