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Monitoring long-term changes of urban surface temperature using time-series land cover and remote sensing data across 50 major cities in the United States

The increase of developed land changes the Earth’s ecosystems and, in doing so, impacts the natural environment and further affects the services it provides to humans. Urban growth and associated land cover transitions alter the thermal and physical properties of the land surface, resulting in surface temperature change in urban areas. In this study, we integrated both land cover and surface tempe
Authors
George Z. Xian, Hua Shi, Chase William Mueller, Reza A Hussain, Kristi Sayler, Daniel Howard

Mapping the Surface Urban Heat Island effect using the Landsat Surface Temperature Product

Urban development and associated land cover and land use change alter the thermal, hydrological, and physical properties of the land surface. Urban areas usually exhibit relatively warmer air and surface temperatures than surrounding non-urban lands, a phenomenon recognized as Surface Urban Heat Island (SUHI). As urban areas continue to develop and the climate continues to warm, it has become incr
Authors
Chase Mueller, Reza Hussain, George Z. Xian, Hua Shi, Saeed Arab

Seasonal and elevational differences by sex in capture rate of ʻōpeʻapeʻa (Lasiurus semotus) on Hawai‘i Island

The study of nocturnally active bats is difficult even for those species that seasonally congregate. This challenge is particularly acute for ‘ōpe‘ape‘a (Hawaiian hoary bat; Lasiurus semotus) because of its solitary foliage-roosting behavior. Yet surveys are essential for conservation and management of this endangered species and only land mammal endemic to the Hawaiian Islands. We surveyed for ‘ō
Authors
Julia P. S. Hoeh, Aaron A. Aguirre, Flor A. Calderon, Sean P. Casler, Sarah G. Ciarrachi, Karen Courtot, Kristina Montoya-Aiona, Corinna A. Pinzari, P. Marcos Gorresen

Comparing NISAR (using Sentinel-1), USDA/NASS CDL, and ground truth crop/non-crop areas in an urban agricultural region

A general limitation in assessing the accuracy of land cover mapping is the availability of ground truth data. At sites where ground truth is not available, potentially inaccurate proxy datasets are used for sub-field-scale resolution investigations at large spatial scales, i.e., in the Contiguous United States. The USDA/NASS Cropland Data Layer (CDL) is a popular agricultural land cover dataset d
Authors
Simon Kraatz, Brian T Lamb, W. Dean Hively, Jyoti Jennewein, Feng Gao, Michael H. Cosh, Paul Siqueira

Bayesian weighting of climate models based on climate sensitivity

Using climate model ensembles containing members that exhibit very high climate sensitivities to increasing CO2 concentrations can result in biased projections. Various methods have been proposed to ameliorate this ‘hot model’ problem, such as model emulators or model culling. Here, we utilize Bayesian Model Averaging as a framework to address this problem without resorting to outright rejection o
Authors
Elias Massoud, Huikyo Lee, Adam Terando, Michael Wehner

Restructuring and serving web-accessible streamflow data from the NOAA National Water Model historic simulations

In 2016, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration deployed the first iteration of an operational National Water Model (NWM) to forecast the water cycle in the continental United States. With many versions, an hourly, multi-decadal historic simulation is made available to the public. In all released to date, the files containing simulated streamflow contain a snapshot of model conditions
Authors
J. Michael Johnson, David L. Blodgett, Keith C. Clarke, Jon Pollak

Where ice gave way to fire: Deglacial volcanic activity at the edge of the Coast Mountains in Milbanke Sound, BC

Kitasu Hill and MacGregor Cone formed along the Principe Laredo Fault on British Columbia’s central coast as the Wisconsinan ice sheet withdrew from the Coast Mountains. These small-volume Milbanke Sound Volcanoes (MSV) provide remarkable evidence for the intimate relationship between volcanic and glacial facies. The lavas are within-plate, differentiated (low MgO < 7%) Ocean Island Basalts, hawai
Authors
Tark S. Hamilton, Randolph J. Enkin, Zhengpeng Li, Jan M. Bednarski, Cooper D. Stacey, Mary McGann, Britta J.L. Jensen

Comparing methods to estimate feral burro abundance

Obtaining precise and unbiased estimates of feral burro (Equus asinus) abundance in the western United States is challenging due to their cryptic pelage and the rugged terrain they inhabit. Management agencies employ helicopter-based, simultaneous double-observer sightability surveys (hereafter denoted as DOS) to estimate abundance of burros; but the DOS method routinely produces negatively biased
Authors
Jacob D. Hennig, Kathryn A. Schoenecker

Alternative measures of trait–niche relationships: A test on dispersal traits in saproxylic beetles

Functional trait approaches are common in ecology, but a lack of clear hypotheses on how traits relate to environmental gradients (i.e., trait–niche relationships) often makes uncovering mechanisms difficult. Furthermore, measures of community functional structure differ in their implications, yet inferences are seldom compared among metrics. Community-weighted mean trait values (CWMs), a common m
Authors
Ryan C. Burner, Jörg G. Stephan, Lukas Drag, Mária Potterf, Tone Birkemoe, Juha Siitonen, Jörg Müller, Otso Ovaskainen, Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson, Tord Snäll

Leaf litter decomposition and detrital communities following the removal of two large dams on the Elwha River (Washington, USA)

Large-scale dam removals provide opportunities to restore river function in the long-term and are massive disturbances to riverine ecosystems in the short-term. The removal of two dams on the Elwha River (WA, USA) between 2011 and 2014 was the largest dam removal project to be completed by that time and has since resulted in major changes to channel dynamics, river substrates, in-stream communitie
Authors
Carri J. LeRoy, Sarah A. Morley, Jeffrey J. Duda, Alex A. Zinck, Paris J. Lamoureux, Cameron Pennell, Ali Bailey, Caitlyn Oswell, Mary Silva, Brandy K. Kamakawiwo’ole, Sorrel Hartford, Jacqueline Van Der Hout, Roger Peters, Rebecca Mahan, Justin Stapleton, Rachelle Carina Johnson, Melissa M. Foley

Use of physical blockers to control invasive red swamp crayfish in burrows

The red swamp crayfish Procambarus clarkii is native to the southeast United States but has successfully invaded nearly every continent around the world. Although physical, biological, and chemical controls are employed to reduce or eliminate populations in open-water systems, terrestrial burrows provide a potential refuge from aquatic control treatments. We conducted burrow trials to test whether
Authors
Benjamin Lee Bates, Ann Allert, Mark L. Wildhaber, Jim Stoeckel