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At least 757 records · Page 42Linked to original sources
USGS2007

Development of the Hydroecological Integrity Assessment Process for Determining Environmental Flows for New Jersey Streams

The natural flow regime paradigm and parallel stream ecological concepts and theories have established the benefits of maintaining or restoring the full range of natural hydrologic variation for physiochemical processes, biodiversity, and the evolutionary potential of aquatic and riparian communities. A synthesis of recent advances in hydroecological research coupled with stream classification has resulted in a new process to determine environmental flows and assess hydrologic alteration. This process has national and international applicability. It allows classification of streams into hydrologic stream classes and identification of a set of non-redundant and ecologically relevant hydrologic indices for 10 critical sub-components of flow. Three computer programs have been developed for implementing the Hydroecological Integrity Assessment Process (HIP): (1) the Hydrologic Indices Tool (HIT), which calculates 171 ecologically relevant hydrologic indices on the basis of daily-flow and peak-flow stream-gage data; (2) the New Jersey Hydrologic Assessment Tool (NJHAT), which can be used to establish a hydrologic baseline period, provide options for setting baseline environmental-flow standards, and compare past and proposed streamflow alterations; and (3) the New Jersey Stream Classification Tool (NJSCT), designed for placing unclassified streams into pre-defined stream classes. Biological and multivariate response models including principal-component, cluster, and discriminant-function analyses aided in the development of software and implementation of the HIP for New Jersey. A pilot effort is currently underway by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection in which the HIP is being used to evaluate the effects of past and proposed surface-water use, ground-water extraction, and land-use changes on stream ecosystems while determining the most effective way to integrate the process into ongoing regulatory programs. Ultimately, this scientifically defensible process will help to quantify the effects of anthropogenic changes and development on hydrologic variability and help planners and resource managers balance current and future water requirements with ecological needs.

Scientific Investigations Report↗
USGS2001

Spatial variability of sediment erosion processes using GIS analysis within watersheds in a historically mined region, Patagonia Mountains, Arizona

In this study, a geographic information system (GIS) is used to integrate and accurately map field studies, information from remotely sensed data, watershed models, and the dispersion of potentially toxic mine waste and tailings. The purpose of this study is to identify erosion rates and net sediment delivery of soil and mine waste/tailings to the drainage channel within several watershed regions to determine source areas of sediment delivery as a method of quantifying geo-environmental analysis of transport mechanisms in abandoned mine lands in arid climate conditions. Users of this study are the researchers interested in exploration of approaches to depicting historical activity in an area which has no baseline data records for environmental analysis of heavily mined terrain.

Arizona↗
USGS2013

Data-driven modeling of background and mine-related acidity and metals in river basins

A novel application of self-organizing map (SOM) and multivariate statistical techniques is used to model the nonlinear interaction among basin mineral-resources, mining activity, and surface-water quality. First, the SOM is trained using sparse measurements from 228 sample sites in the Animas River Basin, Colorado. The model performance is validated by comparing stochastic predictions of basin-alteration assemblages and mining activity at 104 independent sites. The SOM correctly predicts (>98%) the predominant type of basin hydrothermal alteration and presence (or absence) of mining activity. Second, application of the Davies–Bouldin criteria to k-means clustering of SOM neurons identified ten unique environmental groups. Median statistics of these groups define a nonlinear water-quality response along the spatiotemporal hydrothermal alteration-mining gradient. These results reveal that it is possible to differentiate among the continuum between inputs of background and mine-related acidity and metals, and it provides a basis for future research and empirical model development.

Environmental Pollution↗
USGS2015

Compact development and VMT: environmental determinism, self-selection, or some of both?

There is a long-running debate in the planning literature about the effects of the built environment on travel behavior and the degree to which apparent effects are due to the tendency of households to self-select into neighborhoods that reinforce their travel preferences. Those who want to walk will choose walkable neighborhoods, and those who want to use transit will choose transit-served neighborhoods. These households might have walked or used transit more than their neighbors wherever they lived. Most previous studies have shown that individual attitudes attenuate the relationship between the residential environment and travel choices, and so the effect of the built environment on travel may be overestimated. But there are other researchers who argue the reverse, claiming that residential preferences reinforce built environmental influences. This study assesses the relative importance of the built environment and residential preferences/travel attitudes for a sample of 962 households in the Greater Salt Lake region using structural equation modeling. For the sake of simplicity, we extracted two factors using principal component analysis, one representing the built environment and the other representing residential preferences/attitudes. Our findings are consistent with the view that the neighborhood built environment and residential preferences both influence household’s travel, that the built environment is the stronger influence, and that the built environment affects travel through two causal pathways, one direct and the other indirect, through attitudes.

Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design↗
USGS2019

Impacts to wildlife of wind energy siting and operation in the United States

Electricity from wind energy is a major contributor to the strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel use and thus reduce the negative impacts of climate change. Wind energy, like all power sources, can have adverse impacts on wildlife. After nearly 25 years of focused research, these impacts are much better understood, although uncertainty remains. In this report, we summarize positive impacts of replacing fossil fuels with wind energy, while describing what we have learned and what remains uncertain about negative ecological impacts of the construction and operation of land-based and offshore wind energy on wildlife and wildlife habitat in the U.S. Finally, we propose research on ways to minimize these impacts. TO SUMMARIZE: 1 Environmental and other benefits of wind energy include near-zero greenhouse gas emissions, reductions of other common air pollutants, and little or no water use associated with producing electricity from wind energy. Various scenarios for meeting U.S. carbon emission reduction goals indicate that a four- to five-fold expansion of land-based wind energy from the current 97 gigawatts (GW) by the year 2050 is needed to minimize temperature increases and reduce the risk of climate change to people and wildlife. 2 Collision fatalities of birds and bats are the most visible and measurable impacts of wind energy production. Current estimates suggest most bird species, especially songbirds, are at low risk of population-level impacts. Raptors as a group appear more vulnerable to collisions. Population-level impacts on migratory tree bats are a concern, and better information on population sizes is needed to evaluate potential impacts to these species. Although recorded fatalities of cave-dwelling bat species are typically low at most wind energy facilities, additional mortality from collisions is a concern given major declines in these species due to white-nose syndrome (WNS). Assessments of regional and cumulative fatality impacts for birds and bats have been hampered by the lack of data from areas with a high proportion of the nation’s installed wind energy capacity. Efforts to expand data accessibility from all regions are underway, and this greater access to data along with improvements in statistical estimators should lead to improved impact assessments. 3 Habitat impacts of wind energy development are difficult to assess. An individual wind energy facility may encompass thousands of acres, but only a small percentage of the landscape within the project area is directly transformed. If a project is sited in previously undisturbed habitat, there is concern for indirect impacts, such as displacement of sensitive species. Studies to date indicate displacement of some species, but the long-term population impacts are unknown. 4 Offshore wind energy development in the U.S. is just beginning. Studies at offshore wind facilities in Europe indicate some bird and marine mammal species are displaced from project areas, but substantial uncertainty exists regarding the individual or population-level impacts of this displacement. Bird and bat collisions with offshore turbines are thought to be less common than at terrestrial facilities, but currently the tools to measure fatalities at offshore wind energy facilities are not available. The wind energy industry, state and federal agencies, conservation groups, academia, and scientific organizations have collaborated for nearly 25 years to conduct the research needed to improve our understanding of risk to wildlife and to avoid and minimize that risk. Efforts to reduce the uncertainty about wildlife risk must keep up withthe pace and scale of the need to reduce carbon emissions. This will require focusing our research priorities and increasing the rate at which we incorporate research results into the development and validation of best practices for siting and operating wind energy facilities.

Issues in Ecology↗
USGS2015

Understanding ocean acidification impacts on organismal to ecological scales

Ocean acidification (OA) research seeks to understand how marine ecosystems and global elemental cycles will respond to changes in seawater carbonate chemistry in combination with other environmental perturbations such as warming, eutrophication, and deoxygenation. Here, we discuss the effectiveness and limitations of current research approaches used to address this goal. A diverse combination of approaches is essential to decipher the consequences of OA to marine organisms, communities, and ecosystems. Consequently, the benefits and limitations of each approach must be considered carefully. Major research challenges involve experimentally addressing the effects of OA in the context of large natural variability in seawater carbonate system parameters and other interactive variables, integrating the results from different research approaches, and scaling results across different temporal and spatial scales.

Oceanography↗
USGS2017

Extinction debt as a driver of amphibian declines: An example with imperiled flatwoods salamanders

A comprehensive view of population declines and their underlying causes is necessary to reverse species loss. Historically, in many cases, a narrow view may have allowed species declines to continue, virtually undetected, for long periods of time (perhaps even decades). We suggest that extinction debt is likely responsible for numerous (perhaps most) amphibian declines and that this perspective should be incorporated into the structure of amphibian research and management. Extinction debt, originally proposed to explain changes in species richness following environmental disturbance, also may refer to the proportion of populations of an individual species that is expected to eventually be lost because of habitat change. A conservation framework to address extinction debt focuses research on threats at the individual, population, and metapopulation levels. This approach will help enhance, restore, and protect specific processes and habitats at the proper scale by directing management to the most vulnerable level and stage of a species. We illustrate this approach using Flatwoods Salamanders, Ambystoma cingulatum and Ambystoma bishopi , which occurred historically throughout the Coastal Plain of the southeastern United States but have experienced a greater than 85% loss of populations in recent years. Reversal of these losses is possible only if conservation and recovery efforts encompass individual, population, and metapopulation levels. We illustrate our framework by outlining actions that could be taken at each of these levels to help guide conservation and management of amphibians with complex life cycles and provide options for how to prioritize conservation actions in the face of logistical and budgetary shortfalls.

Journal of Herpetology↗
USGS2025

Development of genomic markers for monitoring and research on plethodontid salamanders

Despite the importance of plethodontid salamanders and their vulnerability to ongoing environmental change, they are inherently difficult to monitor due to their cryptic nature. Recent advances in genomics have created new opportunities for monitoring of populations and their responses to environmental perturbations. In this study, we developed a new target capture-based genomic panel for the purposes of genetic monitoring in plethodontid salamanders. We demonstrate its utility in several distantly related species and present an example application in two representative species with co-occurring distributions but different ecological attributes and expected patterns of population structure: Plethodon jordani and Desmognathus wrighti . Although the number of successfully assembled loci declined with phylogenetic distance from the original reference species ( Desmognathus spp), we obtained high-quality data from thousands of loci from species in all four genera tested ( Desmognathus , Plethodon , Eurycea , and Gyrinophilus ), which span the deepest split in Plethodontidae. Landscape genetic analyses detected weak but statistically significant geographic structure in P. jordani , and much stronger geographic structure in D. wrighti , as expected based on the lower population density and likely lower dispersal ability of D. wrighti . Our target capture panel is broadly applicable across salamanders in Plethodontidae and has the potential to provide data for a wide range of phylogenetic, biogeographic, and population genetics research questions.

North Carolina, Tennessee↗
USGS2019

Ecosystem function and services of aquatic predators in the Anthropocene

Arguments for the need to conserve aquatic predator (AP) populations often focuses on the ecological and socio-economic roles they play. Here, we summarize the diverse ecosystem functions and services connected to APs, including regulating food webs, cycling nutrients, engineering habitat, transmitting diseases/parasites, mediating ecological invasions, effecting climate, supporting fisheries, generating tourism, and providing bioinspiration. In some cases, human-driven declines and increases in AP populations have altered these ecosystem functions and services. We present a Social Ecological Framework for supporting adaptive management decisions involving APs in response to social and environmental change. We also identify outstanding questions to guide future research on the ecological functions and ecosystem services of APs in a changing world

Trends in Ecology and Evolution↗
USGS2003

Understanding climatic impacts, vulnerabilities, and adaptation in the United States: Building a capacity for assessment

Based on the experience of the U.S. National Assessment, we propose a program of research and analysis to advance capability for assessment of climate impacts, vulnerabilities, and adaptation options. We identify specific priorities for scientific research on the responses of ecological and socioeconomic systems to climate and other stresses; for improvement in the climatic inputs to impact assessments; and for further development of assessment methods to improve their practical utility to decision-makers. Finally, we propose a new institutional model for assessment, based principally on regional efforts that integrate observations, research, data, applications, and assessment on climate and linked environmental-change issues. The proposed program will require effective collaboration between scientists, resource managers, and other stakeholders, all of whose expertise is needed to define and prioritize key regional issues, characterize relevant uncertainties, and assess potential responses. While both scientifically and organizationally challenging, such an integrated program holds the best promise of advancing our capacity to manage resources and the economy adaptively under a changing climate.

Climatic Change↗
USGS2000

The land cover trends project: A strategy for monitoring land cover change at a national scale

Policy-makers and scientists often require comprehensive data on the types and rates of land use and land cover change at a variety of scales. However, there is generally a lack of local, regional, and national land use and land cover data of sufficient reliability and temporal and geographic detail for providing accurate estimates of landscape change. The U.S. Geological Survey's EROS Data Center and the Landscape Ecology Branch of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are collaborating on a four-year research project to document the types, distributions, rates, drivers, and consequences of land cover change for the conterminous United States over the past 30 years. The project is using an ecoregion framework as a geographic stratifier. Both regional and national characteristics of change are determined by sampling land cover change for each of 84 ecoregions using five selected epochs of data from the nearly 30-year record of Landsat 1-7 data. Three types of land cover variables are being mapped or derived: (1) general land cover type; (2) landscape biophysical properties; and (3) landscape pattern. Assessments of the drivers and consequences of change within each ecoregion are then prepared. A pilot phase focusing on the analysis of five selected ecoregions is well underway and will be completed by the end of 2000. Methodologies established during the pilot phase will then be applied to the remaining ecoregions.

Conference Paper↗
USGS2022

Perspectives on challenges and opportunities at the restoration-policy interface in the U.S.A.

As we advance into the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, understanding the relationship between science, management, and policy is increasingly important given the paucity of research evaluating the ability of existing policy to address contemporary environmental challenges. Despite their inherent interdependence, restoration ecology as a scientific discipline, ecological restoration as a practice, and the policies driving restoration efforts do not always represent a unified force. Accenting the policies and practices within the United States, we present our perspective on challenges associated with this disunion, including those linked to social dimensions of restoration and limitations associated with existing policy. We provide a review of existing federal policy in the United States and synthesize suggestions that have emerged in the literature to fortify connections between restoration science and policy. We also describe social challenges to meeting restoration goals, including barriers surrounding power dynamics, trust, and communication, as well as divergent incentives, perspectives, and values. We propose potential solutions that exist in transdisciplinary collaboration and knowledge sharing, and evidence-based, balanced decision-making that equally considers varying perspectives. With the understanding that current conservation practices are not enough to mitigate environmental degradation, we focus on streamlining problem-solving strategies to support restoration and face the widespread ecological issues of today.

Restoration Ecology↗
USGS1998

U.S. Geological Survey Activities Related to American Indians and Alaska Natives Fiscal Year 1998

Introduction The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is an impartial scientific organization that strives to produce scientific results that are relevant to the people of the United States and their land and resource managers. In cooperation with American Indian and Alaska Native governments, the USGS conducts research on water and mineral resources, animals and plants of environmental, economic, or subsistence importance, natural hazards, and geologic resources. Digital data on cartography, mineral resources, stream flows, biota, and other data sets are available to American Indian and Alaska Native institutions. The USGS recognizes the need learn from and to share knowledge with Native peoples. This report describes most of the activities that the USGS conducted with American Indian and Alaska Native governments, educational institutions, and individuals during Federal fiscal year 1998.

Report↗
USGS2016

Long-term trends in naturalized rainbow trout ( Oncorhynchus mykiss ) populations in the upper Esopus Creek, Ulster County, New York, 2009–15

The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Ulster County, New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, and the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, surveyed fish communities annually on the main stem and tributaries of the upper Esopus Creek, Ulster County, New York, from 2009 to 2015. This report summarizes the density, biomass, and size structure of rainbow trout ( Oncorhynchus mykiss ) and brown trout ( Salmo trutta ) populations from the 2015 surveys along with data from the preceding 6 years. The mean density of rainbow trout populations in 2015 was 98 fish per 0.1 hectare, which was the highest value observed since 2010, and the mean biomass of rainbow trout populations in 2015 was 864 grams per 0.1 hectare, which was the highest value observed since 2012.

New York↗
USGS2019

Using UAS capabilities to help identify hummock-hollow formation and fragmentation in critical marsh habitat ( Spartina patens ) for mottled ducks in southeast Texas

For many years, marshes in the coastal areas from Texas to Louisiana have served as critical habitat for Anas fulvigula , the mottled duck. Mottled ducks are a priority species in the Texas/Louisiana Gulf Coast area and have been affected by critical habitat reduction. In recent years, mottled duck habitats have been threatened by natural and anthropogenic changes including urbanization, flooding, saltwater intrusion, and hydrologic alterations. These impacts are affecting the quality of habitat that is essential for the mottled duck nesting, feeding, and livelihood. Cumulative and synergistic effects of contamination and invasive species encroachment have also caused mottled duck habitat to be considered as some of the most critically endangered habitats in the United States. To help understand the environmental conditions that characterize the coastal landscape, U.S. Geological Survey researchers used an unmanned aerial system (UAS) to acquire high-resolution imagery to document current land and water spatial configuration and wetland health at McFaddin National Wildlife Refuge, Texas.

Texas↗
USGS2026

Field performance evaluation of a bayluscide 20-percent suspension concentrate formulation

Petromyzon marinus (sea lamprey) is a parasitic, invasive fish of the Laurentian Great Lakes. Since the late 1950s, the Great Lakes Fishery Commission has implemented an integrated Sea Lamprey Control Program (SLCP) that relies on two lampricidal chemicals: 3-(trifluoromethyl)-4-nitrophenol (TFM) and niclosamide. Niclosamide is applied using a bayluscide 20-percent emulsifiable concentrate; however, a solvent in this formulation, N -methyl-2-pyrrolidone, has been linked with worker safety concerns and has contributed to equipment degradation and clogging. To address these limitations, the U.S. Geological Survey, in collaboration with Battelle UK, developed a bayluscide 20-percent suspension concentrate (SC) as a potential alternative formulation. In this study, we evaluated the field performance of SC on the Indian River in Schoolcraft County, Michigan. The objective was to assess the formulation’s compatibility with SLCP application procedures and equipment, and to determine its ability to deliver precise lampricide concentrations in a timely manner. SC was found to dilute easily with stream water and readily combined with TFM. As a result, target lampricide concentrations in the stream were achieved within 1 hour of initiating delivery. Moreover, concentrations remained within 9 percent of target values, with less than 2 percent variation across the width of the stream, demonstrating consistent and uniform distribution. These findings indicate that SC can support accurate and timely lampricide applications. When considered alongside previous research highlighting its favorable selectivity for sea lamprey and improved environmental safety, the results support the pursuit of registration and adoption of SC as a new tool for controlling invasive sea lamprey.

Michigan↗
USGS1994

Development of a digital land cover data base for the Selawik National Wildlife Refuge

Digital land cover and terrain data of the Selawik National Wildlife Refuge were produced by the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) Earth Resources Observation Systems Alaska Field Office for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. These and other environmental data were incorporated into a Fish and Wildlife Service geographic information system to prepare a comprehensive conservation plan and an environmental impact statement for the refuge and to assist in research and management of the refuge. The digital data base, stored on tapes, includes land cover classifications from Landsat multispectral scanner data, elevation, slope, and aspect data for the area covered by the USGS Selawik and Shungnak l:250,000-scale topographic maps. The maps incorporate more than 90 percent of the refuge. Additional digital data in the data base include (a) land cover of the entire refuge at 50-, 200-, and 400-m pixel sizes derived from Landsat multispectral scanner data; (b) Landsat multispectral scanner data registered to a 50-m Universal Transverse Mercator grid; (c) elevation, slope, aspect, and solar illumination data registered to each Landsat scene; (d) stream hydrography and surficial geology digitized from USGS l:250,000-scale quadrangle maps; and (e) Refuge and wilderness boundaries. In addition to the digital products, color hard copy maps were produced from the l:250,000-scale quadrangle base land cover, elevation, slope, and aspect digital data.

Alaska↗
USGS2019

Updates to the Madison Lake (Minnesota) CE–QUAL–W2 water-quality model for assessing algal community dynamics

A previously developed CE–QUAL–W2 model for Madison Lake, Minnesota, simulated the algal community dynamics, water quality, and fish habitat suitability of Madison Lake under recent (2014) meteorological conditions. Additionally, this previously developed model simulated the complex interplay between external nutrient loading, internal nutrient loading from sediment release of phosphorus, and the organic matter decomposition of the algal biomass. However, the partitioning of Cyanophyta within the modeling framework was simplified to one group and did not account for how different Cyanophyta populations are affected by light conditions, use of nitrogen, temperature growth ranges, and differences in settling rates. Properly capturing Cyanophyta dynamics is important given the potential risks posed by potential large algal blooms. For example, when Cyanophyta form large blooms, recreational activities can become restricted in certain areas because of thick algal scums or algal mats, in addition to the possible production of a class of toxins, known as cyanotoxins, capable of threatening human health, domestic animals, and wildlife. Therefore, we updated the model to partition the Cyanophyta into a group that fixed nitrogen and a second, more buoyant Cyanophyta group that did not independently fix nitrogen. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the St. Croix Watershed Research Station (Science Museum of Minnesota) with support from the Environmental and Natural Resources Trust Fund of Minnesota (Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources), updated the Madison Lake CE–QUAL–W2 model to address the shortcomings of simulating Cyanophyta in the previously developed model and better characterize Cyanophyta into two groups. In addition to updating the Cyanophyta group differentiation, the part of the model that handles the simulation of algal community dynamics was updated while preserving model predictive capabilities for nutrients, water temperature, and dissolved oxygen. The calibration and validation of the model was done under recent meteorological conditions with large and persistent Cyanophyta blooms (2014 and 2016). Overall, the model simulations predicted the persistently large total phosphorus concentrations in the hypolimnion of Madison Lake and key differences in nutrient concentrations between 2014 and 2016. The Cyanophyta bloom persistence throughout the summer was also simulated by the model in 2014 and 2016, a critical goal of the model update. Finally, monthly total phosphorus budgets were calculated for the updated Madison Lake model for 2014 and 2016.

Minnesota↗