AndreaBozzo/ceres-open-data-index huggingface dataset:
Results from local knowledge of berry resources surveys administered to community experts in four villages of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska

A trichotomous choice survey was used to document local expert observations of five berry species locally known as: salmonberry (Rubus chamaemorus), blackberry (Empetrum nigrum), cranberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea), blueberry (Vaccinium uliginosum), and red berry (Rubus arcticus).  The survey consisted of propositions concerning importance of specific berry species within Indigenous households; observations of changes in berry abundance, phenology, habitat, or availability; attribution of potential drivers of change; and instance of changes in behavior in response to changing berry resources.  Respondents were asked to agree (yes) or disagree (no) with propositions or state that they were unsure of an answer (don’t know).  The third option of don’t know was provided to respondents to prevent false or unreliable answers by forcing respondents to choose yes or no when they in fact do not know the answer.  
The survey instrument was developed in iterative consultation with Tribal Council staff in each village and was approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) (OMB control number 1028-0122) per the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act (1995).  A purposive sampling strategy (Schutt 2009) targeting community experts was used.  Community experts were defined as individuals that had lived in their community for at least 10 years and had participated in berry harvesting consistently over this time frame.  Project participants were identified by community contacts and Tribal Councils in each village and participation requirements were checked before beginning the survey. Respondents were provided with an informed consent sheet that explained the risks and benefits of participation, including that the results of the project would be made public, though their identities would not be shared.  Surveys were administered in person with project personnel reading each proposition to the respondent and recording their answers on a paper survey. To avoid potential confusion due to local nomenclature respondents were shown a picture of each berry and asked to verify the supplied name or provide an alternate name before the propositions for each berry species were read.

Tags: botany, chevak, ecology, emmonak, hooper-bay, indigenous-knowledge, kotlik, usgs-5c1ac619e4b0708288c5e59e, yukon-delta
Organization: Department of the Interior
Sphere Particle Measurements During Sampler Comparison

We designed two new samplers for monitoring airborne particulates, including fungal and fern spores and plant pollen, that rely on natural wind currents (Passive Environmental Sampler) or a battery operated fan (Active Environmental Sampler). Both samplers are modeled after commercial devices such as the Rotorod® and the Burkard® samplers, but are more economical and require less maintenance than commercial devices. We conducted wind tunnel comparisons of our two new samplers to Rotorod® samplers using synthetic polyethylene spheres (12 - 160 µm in diameter) to compare numbers and size range of particulates that are captured by the samplers. This dataset contains raw particle sizes of polyethylene spheres that were captured by the samplers during eight separate trials in a sealed room with constant recirculating air flow.

Tags: environment, environmental-dna, environmental-sampler, spore-traps, usgs-5c1c1d83e4b0708288c7ac29
Organization: Department of the Interior
Data Release for "Holocene thermokarst lake dynamics in northern Interior Alaska: the interplay of climate, fire, and subsurface hydrology"

The current state of permafrost in Alaska and meaningful expectations for its future evolution are informed by long-term perspectives on previous permafrost degradation. Thermokarst processes in permafrost landscapes often lead to widespread lake formation and the spatial and temporal evolution of thermokarst lake landscapes reflects the combined effects of climate, ground conditions, vegetation, and fire. This study provides detailed analyses of thermokarst lake sediments of Holocene age from the southern loess uplands of the Yukon Flats; including bathymetry and sediment core analyses across a water depth transect. The sediment core results, dated by radiocarbon and 210Pb, indicate the onset of finely laminated lacustrine sedimentation between ~10,000 and 9,000 cal yr BP that followed basin development through inferred thermokarst processes. Thermokarst expansion to modern shoreline configurations continued until ~5000 cal yr BP, which may have been influenced by increased fire. Between ~5000 and 2000 cal yr BP, the preservation of fine laminations at intermediate and deep-water depths indicate higher lake levels than present. At that time, the lake likely overflowed into an over-deepened gully system that is no longer occupied by perennial streams. By ~2000 cal yr BP, massive sedimentation at intermediate water depths indicates that lake levels lowered, which is interpreted to reflect a response to drier conditions based on correspondence with Yukon Flats regional fire and local paleoclimate reconstructions. Consideration of additional contributing mechanisms include the possible influence of catastrophic lake drainages on down-gradient base-flow levels that may have enhanced subsurface water loss, although this mechanism is untested. The overall consistency between the millennial lake-level trends documented here with regional paleoclimate trends indicates that after lakes formed, their size and depth has likely been affected directly by North Pacific atmospheric circulation changes and indirectly through evolution of permafrost, ground ice and subsurface hydrology. As the first detailed study of a Holocene thermokarst basin that links expansion, stabilization and subsequent climate-driven lake level variations in a loess upland, results provide a framework for future investigations of paleoclimatic signals from similar lake systems that characterize large regions of Alaska and Siberia

Tags: alaska, holocene, lake-sediment, permafrost, thermokarst, usgs-5c1ab8c7e4b0708288c5e389, water-balance, yukon-flats
Organization: Department of the Interior
Data in Support of Development of Regression Equations for the Estimation of Flood Flows at Ungaged Streams in Pennsylvania (ver. 2.0, August 2020)

Regression equations, which may be used to estimate flood flows at select annual exceedance probabilities, were developed for ungaged streams in Pennsylvania. The equations were developed using annual peak flow data through water year 2015 and basin characteristics for 285 streamflow gaging stations across Pennsylvania and surrounding states. The streamgages included active and discontinued continuous-record stations, as well as crest-stage partial-record stations, and required a minimum of 10 years of annual peak streamflow data for inclusion in the study. Explanatory variables significant at the 95-percent confidence level for one or more regression equations included the following basin characteristics: drainage area, maximum basin elevation, mean basin slope, percent storage, and the percentage of carbonate bedrock within a basin. The State was divided into five regions, and regional regression equations were developed to estimate flood flows associated with the 50-, 20-, 10-, 4-, 2-, 1-, 0.5-, and 0.2-percent annual exceedance probabilities (which correspond to the 2-, 5-, 10-, 25-, 50-, 100-, 200-, and 500-year recurrence intervals, respectively). Although the regression equations can be used to estimate the magnitude of flood flows for most streams in the State, they are not valid for streams with drainage areas generally greater than 1,500 square miles or with substantial regulation, diversion, or mining activity within the basin. The regional regression equations will be incorporated into the U.S. Geological Survey StreamStats application (https://water.usgs.gov/osw/streamstats/).  
Additionally, annual peak flow data for 356 streamgages initially considered for inclusion in the analysis for development of updated flood-flow regression equations were analyzed for the existence of trends; estimates of flood-flow magnitude and frequency were also computed for these streamgages. Estimates of flood-flow magnitude and frequency for streamgages substantially affected by upstream regulation are also presented. 
The data release contains PeakFQ input and output files (.psf, .txt, .prt) for select regulated (non-reference) and unregulated (reference) streamgages in Pennsylvania and border areas of adjacent states. The version 2.0 revision includes a dataset representing the five regions across Pennsylvania related to the estimation of flood flows by means of regression equations at ungaged streams not subject to substantial flow regulation, diversion, or mining activity.  
NOTE: The previous version is available from the author; all of the data in the previous version can be found in version 2.0. 
First Posted - 2019 (available from author) 
Revised - August 2020 (version 2.0)

Tags: maryland, new-york, ohio, pennsylvania, regression-analysis, usgs-5c1aa7a4e4b0708288c5b35c, west-virginia
Organization: Department of the Interior
Geospatial and survey data for flood-inundation maps in a 23-mile reach of the Medina River at Bandera, Texas, 2018

Digital flood-inundation maps were created by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the Bandera County River Authority and Groundwater District and with the Texas Water Development Board for a 23-mile reach of the Medina River extending from Winans Creek to English Crossing, Texas. The flood-inundation maps represent a range of selected water-surface elevations at USGS streamflow-gaging station 08178880 Medina River at Bandera, Texas (hereinafter referred to as the “Bandera station”). Near-real time hydrologic data for estimating areas of inundation near the Bandera station are available from the USGS National Water Information System (NWIS) web interface (https://waterdata.usgs.gov/tx/nwis/) and from the National Weather Service (NWS) Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service (http:/water.weather.gov/ahps/). In this study, flood profiles were computed for the stream reach by means of a one-dimensional step-backwater model (Davidian, 1984; U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 2016a, b). These digital data accompany Choi, N., and Engel, F.L., 2019, Flood-inundation maps for a 23-mile reach of the Medina River at Bandera, Texas, 2018:  U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2019-5067, 15 p., https://doi.org/10.3133/sir20195067. Detailed information about the methods and data used for this analysis are provided in the companion interpretive report. The flood-inundation maps can be accessed through the USGS Flood Inundation Mapping Science website at http://water.usgs.gov/osw/flood_inundation/.

Tags: bandera, bandera-county, flood-inundation-maps, floodplain, floodplains, floods, geographic-information-system, geospatial-analysis, geospatial-data, geospatial-datasets, gis, high-water-marks, hydraulic-engineering, hydraulic-model, hydrology, inlandwaters, maps-and-atlases, medina-river, model-archive, river, stream, streamflow, texas, united-states, usgs-5c1aa000e4b0708288c59af4
Organization: Department of the Interior
Evaluating Adaptive Capacity of Desert Bighorn Sheep to Climate Change: Identifying Genetic to Climate Adaptations in Native and Reintroduced Populations-Major Allele Frequency by Population

Natural selection may result in local adaptation to different environmental conditions across the range of a species. Understanding local adaptation, in turn, informs management decisions such as translocation to restore locally-extinct populations. We used a landscape genomics approach to detect genetic signatures of selection related to climatic variation among desert bighorn sheep populations across their indigenous range in the western United States. This approach allowed us to investigate broad patterns of both neutral and adaptive genetic variation across very different environments. Analyses suggested that ancestry and isolation by distance were the most significant forces driving genetic variation in desert bighorn sheep, but that climate was associated with at least 1 locus (i.e., location on the genome) under directional selection. The alternate allele (i.e., variant) at this locus was associated with biologically significant increases in elevation and precipitation, decreases in temperature, and was nearly private to herds occupying the Great Basin ecosystem. Our results suggest climate conditions at higher latitudes may have resulted in a distinct ecotype of desert bighorn sheep whose adaptations are still apparent among the few remaining indigenous populations in the Great Basin. We also found 2 highly supported candidate genes in the genomic region linked to this outlier. How the molecular function of these candidate genes may affect physiological response of desert bighorn sheep to climate is unclear, although their identification provides new insight into the genetic mechanisms potentially underlying environmental adaptation. We identified several other loci under strong directional selection not related to climate and described a previously unknown pattern of strong genetic divergence of bighorn sheep within the White Mountains compared to other populations. Overall, these findings suggest selection from environmental factors may influence genomic variation at the ecosystem-scale in desert bighorn sheep and these results extend our understanding of how this subspecies may respond to different environmental conditions.

Tags: arizona, california, desert-bighorn-sheep, genetic-capacity, nevada, usgs-5c1a995be4b0708288c59a87
Organization: Department of the Interior
Evaluating Adaptive Capacity of Desert Bighorn Sheep to Climate Change: Identifying Genetic to Climate Adaptations in Native and Reintroduced Populations-SNP Matrix

Natural selection may result in local adaptation to different environmental conditions across the range of a species. Understanding local adaptation, in turn, informs management decisions such as translocation to restore locally-extinct populations. We used a landscape genomics approach to detect genetic signatures of selection related to climatic variation among desert bighorn sheep populations across their indigenous range in the western United States. This approach allowed us to investigate broad patterns of both neutral and adaptive genetic variation across very different environments. Analyses suggested that ancestry and isolation by distance were the most significant forces driving genetic variation in desert bighorn sheep, but that climate was associated with at least 1 locus (i.e., location on the genome) under directional selection. The alternate allele (i.e., variant) at this locus was associated with biologically significant increases in elevation and precipitation, decreases in temperature, and was nearly private to herds occupying the Great Basin ecosystem. Our results suggest climate conditions at higher latitudes may have resulted in a distinct ecotype of desert bighorn sheep whose adaptations are still apparent among the few remaining indigenous populations in the Great Basin. We also found 2 highly supported candidate genes in the genomic region linked to this outlier. How the molecular function of these candidate genes may affect physiological response of desert bighorn sheep to climate is unclear, although their identification provides new insight into the genetic mechanisms potentially underlying environmental adaptation. We identified several other loci under strong directional selection not related to climate and described a previously unknown pattern of strong genetic divergence of bighorn sheep within the White Mountains compared to other populations. Overall, these findings suggest selection from environmental factors may influence genomic variation at the ecosystem-scale in desert bighorn sheep and these results extend our understanding of how this subspecies may respond to different environmental conditions.

Tags: arizona, california, desert-bighorn-sheep, genetic-capacity, nevada, usgs-5c1a993ee4b0708288c59a83
Organization: Department of the Interior
Land surface carbon and nitrogen data from the fall sampling trip of 2014 around Chincoteague Bay

Following Hurricane Sandy, scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey, St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center conducted a seasonal collection of estuarine, marsh, and sandy overwash surface sediments from Chincoteague Bay, Tom’s Cove, and the surrounding Assateague Island and Delmarva Peninsula in March–April and October 2014. Surplus surface sediment was analyzed for metals, percent carbon and nitrogen, d13C, and d15N as part of a complementary U.S. Geological Survey Coastal and Marine Geology Program Sea-level and Storm Impacts on Estuarine Environments and Shorelines project study. The geochemical subsample analyzed for metals and stable isotopes at each site may be used for comparison with past data sets, to create a modern baseline of the natural distribution of the area, to understand seasonal variability as it relates to the health of the local environment, and to assess marsh-to-bay interactions. The use of metals, stable carbon, and stable nitrogen isotopes allows for a more cohesive snapshot of factors influencing the environment and could aid in tracking environmental change. This report serves as an archive for chemical data derived from the surface sediment. Data are available for a seasonal comparison between the March–April 2014 and October 2014 sampling trips. Downloadable data are available as Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. Additional files include formal Federal Geographic Data Committee metadata (data downloads).

Tags: assateague-island, barrier-island, carbon, chincoteague-bay, environment, geoscientific-information, marsh, maryland, nitrogen, sediment, st-petersburg-coastal-and-marine-science-center, stable-isotopes, surface, toms-cove, u-s-geological-survey, usgs, usgs-5c195571-228c-4f9f-b65f-82f8ff7efd3a, virginia
Organization: Department of the Interior
Capture histories and tag retention of acoustic-tagged green (Chelonia mydas) and hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata) sea turtles, Buck Island Reef National Monument, U.S. Virgin Islands, 2012-2017

This dataset contains the capture histories for juvenile green (Chelonia mydas) and hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata) sea turtles tagged with an acoustic telemetry tag between 2012 and 2017. It contains information on how many days had passed since the tag was attached and whether or not the tag was still attached upon recapture. This dataset thus allows estimation of acoustic tag retention rates for these two species of sea turtle in our study site at Buck Island Reef National Monument (BIRNM), St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI).

Tags: acoustic-telemetry, biota, buck-island-reef-national-monument, oceans, saint-croix-county-equivalent, sea-turtles, telemetry, usgs-5c190a12e4b006c4f857424b, virgin-islands-of-the-united-states
Organization: Department of the Interior
Summary of soil field-saturated hydraulic conductivity, hydrophobicity, preferential-flow, and particle-size measurements collected at four study sites on the island of Maui, Hawaii, September 2017–August 2018

The U.S. Geological Survey and the University of Hawaii at Manoa, in cooperation with the County of Maui Department of Water Supply and the State of Hawaii Commission on Water Resource Management, initiated a field data collection program to provide information for determining how infiltration rates and soil hydrophobicity are dependent on plant species type within forested areas on the island of Maui, Hawaii. The field data collection is part of a study to quantify the impacts of high-priority non-native and dominant native plant species on freshwater availability throughout the State of Hawaii (https://archive.usgs.gov/archive/sites/hi.water.usgs.gov/studies/maui_eco/index.html). The overall objective of the study is to provide needed information for (1) assessing species-specific impacts on freshwater availability and (2) reducing uncertainty in regional recharge estimates associated with forested areas. This dataset includes a summary of 226 individual measurements of soil field-saturated hydraulic conductivity, hydrophobicity, and preferential flow collected at four study sites on the island of Maui between September 2017 and August 2018. The dataset also includes a summary of soil particle-size analyses made on a total of 45 soil samples collected from the four sites.

Tags: hawaii, hydrophobicity, infiltration, infiltration-rate, maui, particle-size-distribution, preferential-flow, saturated-hydraulic-conductivity, usgs-5c18398ee4b006c4f8558300
Organization: Department of the Interior
Rat mark-recapture plot-area data in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park from 2015-2017

This is a selected data set that outlines the plot areas and trapping grids used to monitor 'Elepaio and black rat activity within Hawaii Volcanoes National Park (HAVO) from 2015-2017.  These data provide the spatial reference and structure of four field plots used in the study. Please reference the associated metadata and datasets that correspond to this publication for more information on how these locations were used.

Tags: baci, hawaii, hawaii-county-2, hawaii-volcanoes-national-park, invasive-rat, invasive-species, natural-resource-management, nest-success, predator-control, usgs-5c17f76be4b006c4f8557721
Organization: Department of the Interior
Rat mark-recapture data in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park from 2015-2017

In Hawai‘i and other oceanic islands with few native land mammals, black rats (Rattus rattus) are among the most damaging invasive vertebrate species to native forest bird populations and habitats, due to their arboreal behavior and generalist foraging habitats and habitat use. This is a selected data set used to assess the impacts of rodenticide treatment on black rat (Rattus rattus) abundance within Hawaii Volcanoes National Park (HAVO). 
The key objective was to identify rat abundance before and after rodenticide treatment, using paired non-treatment and treatment plots at high elevation (1700-1830m) and low elevation (1220-1340 m). This dataset includes the results of a mark recapture study that took place within a centralized 300x300 m (9 ha) portion of each 700x700 m (49 ha) study plot (two treatment and two non-treatment plots). Live trapping was conducted in a series of nine 4-day trapping periods from 2015-2017. Traps were placed 50 m apart in a grid fashion, with a total of 49 traps per plot. Rodenticide application commenced in the treatment plot in January 2017, in between the fall 2016 and spring 2017 trapping periods. The treatment covered the entire 49 ha plot at Kipuka Ki and Lower Keamoku, using bait stations containing 0.45 kg 0.005% diphacinone spaced 50 m apart (225 stations). Rats were reduced to low numbers throughout the treatment period, which continued from January through August 2017.

Tags: baci, hawaii, hawaii-county-2, hawaii-volcanoes-national-park, invasive-rat, invasive-species, natural-resource-management, nest-success, predator-control, usgs-5c17f756e4b006c4f8557711
Organization: Department of the Interior