Publications
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Snow-cover remote sensing of conifer tree recovery in high-severity burn patches
The number of large, high-severity wildfires has been increasing across the western United States over the last several decades. It is not fully understood how changes in the frequency of large, severe wildfires may impact the resilience of conifer forests, due to alterations in regeneration success or failure. Our research investigates 30 years of conifer recovery patterns within 34 high-severity
Authors
Casey Menick, Wade T. Tinkham, Chad Hoffman, Melanie K. Vanderhoof, Jody C. Vogeler
Tracking cycles of Phanerozoic opening and closing of ocean basins using detrital rutile and zircon geochronology and geochemistry
Sedimentary basins provide a deep time archive of tectonic and Earth-surface processes that can be leveraged by detrital mineral U-Pb dating and geochemistry to track paleogeography, magmatism, and crustal evolution. Zircon preserves the long-term (billions of years) record of supercontinent cycles; however, it is biased toward preserving felsic crustal records. Detrital rutile complements the det
Authors
Margaret L. Odlum, Tomas N. Capaldi, Kelly David Thomson, Daniel F. Stockli
Paleoproterozoic reworking of Archean crust and extreme back-arc metamorphism in the enigmatic southern Trans-Hudson orogen
The crustal evolution of the southernmost ∼2000–1800 Ma Trans-Hudson orogen (THO) is enigmatic due to burial by Phanerozoic sediments. We provide new insights through petrochronologic analysis of a paragneiss drill core sample. Detrital zircon age peaks at 2625, 2340, and 1880 Ma and Hf isotopes suggest Paleoproterozoic arc development proximal to Archean source(s). Phase equilibria modeling and t
Authors
Ian William Hillenbrand, Amy K. Gilmer, Michael L. Williams, Amanda (Kate) Souders, Michael J. Jercinovic, Heather A. Lowers, Jorge A. Vazquez
Climate change will impact surface water extents and dynamics across the central United States
Climate change is projected to impact river, lake, and wetland hydrology, with global implications for the condition and productivity of aquatic ecosystems. We integrated Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 based algorithms to track monthly surface water extent (2017–2021) for 32 sites across the central United States (U.S.). Median surface water extent was highly variable across sites, ranging from 3.9% to
Authors
Melanie K. Vanderhoof, Jay Christensen, Laurie C. Alexander, Charles R. Lane, Heather E. Golden
A tale of two islands: Tectonic and orbital controls on marine terrace reoccupation, Channel Islands National Park, California, USA
In areas of low uplift rate on the Pacific Coast of North America, reoccupation of emergent marine terraces by later high sea-stands has been hypothesised to explain the existence of thermally anomalous fauna (mixtures of warm and cool species) of last interglacial age. If uplift rates have been low for much of the Quaternary, it follows that higher (older) terraces should also show evidence of re
Authors
Daniel R. Muhs, Lindsey T. Groves, Kathleen R. Simmons, R. Randall Schumann, Stephen B. DeVogel
Report of the River Master of the Delaware River for the period December 1, 2013–November 30, 2014
Executive SummaryA Decree of the Supreme Court of the United States, entered June 7, 1954 (New Jersey v. New York, 347 U.S. 995), established the position of Delaware River Master within the U.S. Geological Survey. In addition, the Decree authorizes the diversion of water from the Delaware River Basin and requires compensating releases from specific reservoirs owned by New York City to be made und
Authors
Kendra L. Russell, William J. Andrews, Vincent J. DiFrenna, J. Michael Norris, Robert R. Mason,
The economics of decarbonizing Costa Rica's agriculture, forestry and other land uses sectors
In 2018, Costa Rica demonstrated its commitment to the Paris Agreement and published its Decarbonization Plan for achieving zero net emissions by the year 2050. We evaluate the impacts of the country's strategy for decarbonizing its Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Uses (AFOLU) sectors by coupling the Integrated Economic-Environmental Modeling framework with high-resolution spatial land use-la
Authors
Onil Banerjee, Martin Cicowiez, Renato Vargas, Edmundo Molina-Perez, Kenneth J. Bagstad, Ziga Malek
Plant macrofossil data for 48-0 ka in the USGS North American Packrat Midden Database, version 5.0
Plant macrofossils from packrat (Neotoma spp.) middens provide direct evidence of past vegetation changes in arid regions of North America. Here we describe the newest version (version 5.0) of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) North American Packrat Midden Database. The database contains published and contributed data from 3,331 midden samples collected in southwest Canada, the western United Stat
Authors
Laura E. Strickland, Robert S. Thompson, Sarah Shafer, Patrick J. Bartlein, Richard T. Pelltier, Katherine H Anderson, R. Randall Schumann, Andrew K. McFadden
Pollen in polar ice implies eastern Canadian forest dynamics diverged from climate after European settlement
Rapid warming and human exploitation threaten boreal forests. Understanding links among vegetation, climate, and people in this vast biome requires highly resolved long-term records that integrate regional inputs. We developed an 850-year pollen-based record of supraregional vegetation change using a southern Greenland ice core and atmospheric modeling that identified the boreal and mixed-conifer
Authors
Sandra O. Brugger, Nathan J. Chellman, Andreas Plach, Paul D. Henne, Andreas Stohl, Joseph R. McConnell
The geographic extent of bird populations affected by renewable-energy development
Bird populations are declining globally. Wind and solar energy can reduce emissions of fossil fuels that drive anthropogenic climate change, yet renewable-energy production represents a potential threat to bird species. Surveys to assess potential effects at renewable-energy facilities are exclusively local, and the geographic extent encompassed by birds killed at these facilities is largely unkno
Authors
Hannah Vander Zander, David H. Nelson, Tara Conkling, Taber Allison, James E. Diffendorfer, Thomas Dietsch, Amy L Fesnock, Scott Loss, Patricia Ortiz, Robin Paulmann, Krysta Rodgers, Peter M. Sanzenbacher, Todd E. Katzner
Heterogeneous multi-stage accretionary orogenesis — Evidence from the Gunnison block in the Yavapai Province, southwest USA
Proterozoic rocks exposed in the southwestern U.S.A. represent one of the best examples of crustal growth by arc-related magmatism and accretionary orogenesis. Within the Southwest the 1.8–1.7 Ga Yavapai Province is widely regarded as a classic example of juvenile arc crust, however 1.8–2.5 Ga inherited zircon and Nd and Hf model ages have been recognized near Gunnison in central Colorado. These d
Authors
Ian William Hillenbrand, Amy K. Gilmer, Michael L. Williams, Karl E. Karlstrom, Amanda (Kate) Souders, Jorge A. Vazquez, Wayne R. Premo
The importance of nodal plane orientation diversity for earthquake focal mechanism stress inversions
Inversions of earthquake focal mechanisms are among the most accessible and reliable methods for determining crustal stress. However, the use of this method varies widely, and assumptions that underpin it are often violated, potentially compromising stress estimates. We investigate the consequences of violating the little-studied assumption that the focal mechanisms have diverse orientations. Our
Authors
Jens-Erik Lundstern, Eric Beauce, Orlando J. Teran