Publications

Developing conservation strategies for species vulnerable to the effects of climate change, like polar bears (Ursus maritimus), can be challenging given the uncertainty of future environmental conditions. Effective conservation planning requires identifying and ranking threats to the persistence of polar bears throughout their circumpolar range and then assessing the ability of...

Raw seismological waveform data contain noise from the instrument’s surroundings and the instrument itself that can dominate recordings at low and high frequencies. To use these data in ground‐motion modeling, the effects of noise on the signals must be reduced and the signals’ usable frequency range identified. We present automated procedures to efficiently reduce low‐frequency noise...

In flowing waters with elevated selenium concentrations, fish are often considered to be at risk from selenium toxicity owing to dietary exposure and accumulation in ovary tissues and subsequent deformities in developing larvae. We studied selenium throughout components of the aquatic food webs at geomorphically distinct locations along the oligotrophic Kootenai River (Montana and Idaho...

CONTEXT Agrivoltaics—the co-location of solar energy and agricultural production—may reduce land-use competition and boost revenues for landowners. Sheep grazing in solar facilities (i.e., solar grazing/agrivoltaic grazing systems) is increasingly common in agricultural areas. Solar grazing can provide land access to flock owners and support agricultural viability via payments for...

After the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, scientific interest in coronaviruses endemic in animal populations has increased dramatically. However, investigating the prevalence of disease in animal populations across the landscape, which requires finding and capturing animals can be difficult. Spatial random sampling over a grid could be extremely inefficient because animals can be hard to...

As a part of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Natural Hazards Mission Area, the Engineering and Risk Project (ERP) of the Geologic Hazards Science Center conducts civil engineering research to extend natural hazards science to risk assessments. The ERP includes predominantly, but not exclusively, staff funded by the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program. A major focus of the ERP is to deliver