Geology topics

A. J. Smith

Publications and source records attributed to A. J. Smith.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

USGS2020

Linking monitoring and data analysis to predictions and decisions for the range-wide eastern black rail status assessment

The US Fish and Wildlife Service has initiated a re-envisioned approach for providing decision makers with the best available science and synthesis of that information, called the Species Status Assessment (SSA), for endangered species decision making. The SSA report is a descriptive document that provides decision makers with an assessment of a species’ current status and predicted future status. These analyses support all manner of decisions under the US Endangered Species Act, such as listing, reclassification, recovery planning, etc. Novel scientific analysis and predictive modeling in SSAs could be an important part of rooting species conservation decisions in current data and cutting edge analytical and modeling techniques. Here we describe a novel analysis of available data to assess current condition of eastern black rail across its range in a dynamic occupancy analysis. We used the results of the analysis to develop a site occupancy projection model where the model parameters (initial occupancy, site persistence, colonization) were linked to environmental covariates, such as land management and land cover change (sea-level rise, development, etc.). We used the projection model to predict future conditions under multiple sea-level rise and habitat management scenarios. Occupancy probability and site colonization were low in all analysis units and site persistence was also low, suggesting low resiliency and redundancy currently. Extinction probability was high for all analysis units in all simulated scenarios except one with significant effort to preserve existing habitat, suggesting low future resiliency and redundancy. With results of these data analyses and predictive modeling, the US Fish and Wildlife Service concluded that protections of the Endangered Species Act were warranted for this subspecies.

Endangered Species Research↗

USGS2011

Effects of flow releases on macroinvertebrate assemblages in the Indian and Hudson Rivers in the Adirondack Mountains of Northern New York

The effects of flow releases (daily during spring and four times weekly during summer) from a small impoundment on macroinvertebrate assemblages in the lower Indian River and upper Hudson River of northern New York were assessed during the summers of 2005 and 2006. Community indices, feeding guilds, dominant species and Bray–Curtis similarities at three sites on the Indian River, below a regulated impoundment, were compared with those at four control sites on the Cedar River, below a run-of-the-river impoundment of comparable size. The same indices at four less-likely affected sites on the Hudson River, below the mouth of the Indian River, were compared with those at an upstream control site on the Hudson River. Results show that the function and apparent health of macroinvertebrate communities were generally unaffected by atypical flow regimes and/or altered water quality at study reaches downstream from both dams in the Indian, Cedar and Hudson Rivers. The lentic nature of releases from both impoundments, however, produced significant changes in the structure of assemblages at Indian and Cedar River sites immediately downstream from both dams, moderate effects at two Indian River sites 2.4 and 4.0 km downstream from its dam, little or no effect at three Cedar River sites 7.2–34.2 km downstream from its dam, and no effect at any Hudson River site. Bray–Curtis similarities indicate that assemblages did not differ significantly among sites within similar impact categories. The paucity of scrapers at all Indian River sites, and the predominance of filter-feeding Simulium gouldingi and Pisidium compressum immediately below Abanakee dam, show that only minor differences in dominant species and trophic structure of macroinvertebrate communities occurred at affected sites in the Indian River compared to the Cedar River. Thus, flow releases had only a small, localized effect on macroinvertebrate communities in the Indian River.

New York↗

USGS2000

Younger Dryas interval and outflow from the Laurentide ice sheet

A boxmodel of the Great Lakes is used to estimate meltwater flow into the North Atlantic between 8000 and 14,000 calendar years B.P. Controls on the model include the oxygen isotopic composition of meltwaters and lake waters as measured in the shells of ostracodes. Outflow rates are highest when oxygen isotopic values of the lake waters are most negative, denoting a maximum glacial meltwater component. Flow rates reach maximum values before the onset of the Younger Dryas and after it ends. These maxima appear to be correlative with the major meltwater pulses MWP 1A and 1B. Although the resumption of North Atlantic Deep Water formation may be tied to the reduction in ice sheet melting, neither the onset nor the end of the Younger Dryas, as recorded in the Greenland Ice Sheet Project (GISP2) records, appear tied to maxima in meltwater outflow from the Laurentide ice sheet.

Great Lakes↗