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On the continental scale, climate is an important determinant of the distributions of plant taxa and ecoregions. To quantify and depict the relations between specific climate variables and these distributions, we placed modern climate and plant taxa distribution data on an approximately 25-kilometer (km) equal-area grid with 27,984 points that cover Canada and the continental United States (Thompson and others, 2015). The gridded climatic data include annual and monthly temperature and precipitation, as well as bioclimatic variables (growing degree days, mean temperatures of the coldest and warmest months, and a moisture index) based on 1961-1990 30-year mean values from the University of East Anglia (UK) Climatic...
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The Ziegler Reservoir fossil site near Snowmass Village, Colorado (USA) provides a rare opportunity to examine environmental conditions in the Rocky Mountains during marine isotope stage (MIS) 4 (71–57 ka). Although recognized as a global-scale cold event, MIS 4 is typically absent from Rocky Mountain glacial chronologies because the geologic evidence was either covered or destroyed during the subsequent, and larger, MIS 2 (Pinedale; 29–14 ka) glaciation. The Ziegler Reservoir site is perched on a ridge above Pinedale glacial limits, which allowed for the preservation of a long-lived sequence of predominantly eolian sediments that spans from late MIS 6 (ca. 140 ka) through early MIS 3 (ca. 55 ka). Sediments dating...
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Effective monitoring and prediction of flood and drought events requires an improved understanding of how and why surface-water expansion and contraction in response to climate varies across space. This paper sought to (1) quantify how interannual patterns of surface-water expansion and contraction vary spatially across the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) and adjacent Northern Prairie (NP) in the United States, and (2) explore how landscape characteristics influence the relationship between climate inputs and surface-water dynamics. Due to differences in glacial history, the PPR and NP show distinct patterns in regards to drainage development and wetland density, together providing a diversity of conditions to examine...
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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 hypothesized to explain the existence of thermally anomalous faunas (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 reoccupation. Strontium isotope analyses of fossils from a high-elevation marine terrace on Anacapa Island, California yield a suite of ages ranging from ~2.4-2.3 Ma to ~1.4-1.5 Ma. These results indicate that terrace reoccupation and fossil mixing on Anacapa Island could have taken place over several interglacial periods...
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Archaeologists and researchers in allied fields have long sought to understand human colonization of North America. Questions remain about when and how people migrated, where they originated, and how their arrival affected the established fauna and landscape. Here, we present evidence from excavated surfaces in White Sands National Park (New Mexico, United States), where multiple in situ human footprints are stratigraphically constrained and bracketed by seed layers that yield calibrated radiocarbon ages between ~23 and 21 thousand years ago. These findings confirm the presence of humans in North America during the Last Glacial Maximum, adding evidence to the antiquity of human colonization of the Americas and providing...
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This data release contains the data tables for the USGS North American Packrat Midden Database (version 5.0). This version of the Midden Database contains data for 3,331 packrat midden samples obtained from published sources (journal articles, book chapters, theses, dissertations, government and private industry reports, conference proceedings) as well as unpublished data contributed by researchers. Compared to the previous version of the Midden Database (i.e., ver. 4), this version of the database (ver. 5.0) has been expanded to include more precise midden-sample site location data, calibrated midden-sample age data, and plant functional type (PFT) assignments for the taxa in each midden sample. In addition,...
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We assessed a construction site in the northern Las Vegas Valley that was initially reported as an "ice age" deposit. Alluvial deposits exposed at the site were inset into the Las Vegas Formation and contained semi-articulated Equus remains. Calibrated radiocarbon dates on two different materials associated with the remains centered on 1957, thus rendering the horse bones as modern.
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This data release includes a table of concentrations (Sr, U) and radiogenic-isotope compositions (87Sr/86Sr, 234U/238U) for samples of modern lake water as well as a table of isotopic compositions (87Sr/86Sr and 234U/238U) for carbonate-rich samples from a 12.4-m-long composite core of lacustrine sediment from Lower Pahranagat Lake in southeastern Nevada, USA. Stratigraphic and geochronologic context for depths and ages of core material are also included here based on Bayesian age-depth modeling software (Bacon v. 2.2) published in a previous report (Theissen et al., 2019, https://doi.org/10.1017/qua.2019.11).
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Tables of U- and Th-isotopic data used to calculate uranium-series age estimates and initial 234U/238U activity ratios as well as 87Sr/86Sr, δ13C, and δ18O for samples of phreatic speleothems from Wind Cave National Park and U- and Sr-isotopic compositions of waters from the southern Black Hills of South Dakota, USA
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Denali National Park and Preserve (DENA), located in central Alaska, is home to iconic and dynamic landscapes surrounding the tallest mountain range in North America, the Alaska Range. DENA preserves over 6 million acres of wild land that provides opportunities for recreation, subsistence hunting and gathering, preservation of cultural resources, and scientific research. Despite its size and popularity, DENA has only one road—the dead-end, 92-mile Denali National Park Road (hereafter referred to as the Park Road). The Park Road is mostly gravel; only the first 15 miles are paved. It is the only access for most DENA infrastructure, including visitor centers, staff facilities, campgrounds, and businesses. The Park...
Categories: Data; Types: Downloadable, Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, Shapefile; Tags: Alaska, Alaska Range, Browne glaciation, Cantwell Basin, Cantwell Formation, All tags...
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This data release contains: 1) the BIOME4-simulated biome data used to create Sommers et al. (2021) Figures 2, 6, S6, and S7; 2) the CESM2-CISM2 calendar-adjusted temperature data used to create Sommers et al. (2021) Figures 2, 7, S2-S5, and S8-S11; and 3) land, ice, and ocean mask data and continent and ice sheet outline files. Additional CESM2-CISM2 simulation data described in Sommers et al. (2021) are available from the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR)/National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Digital Asset Services Hub (DASH; https://doi.org/10.5065/as0j-6387). The simulated biome data are on a global 0.5-degree grid for the Last Interglacial (LIG; 127.0-119.0 ka) at 500-year time...
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Post-fire shifts in vegetation composition will have broad ecological impacts. However, information characterizing post-fire recovery patterns and their drivers are lacking over large spatial extents. In this analysis we used Landsat imagery collected when snow cover (SCS) was present, in combination with growing season (GS) imagery, to distinguish evergreen vegetation from deciduous vegetation. We sought to (1) characterize patterns in the rate of post-fire, dual season Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) across the region, (2) relate remotely sensed patterns to field-measured patterns of re-vegetation, and (3) identify seasonally-specific drivers of post-fire rates of NDVI recovery. Rates of post-fire...
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Public participation geographic information systems (PPGIS) is increasingly used in coastal settings to inform natural resource management and spatial planning. Social Values for Ecosystem Services (SolVES), a PPGIS tool that systematizes the mapping and modeling of social values and cultural ecosystem services, is promising for use in coastal settings but has seen relatively limited applications relative to other PPGIS approaches; it has also to our knowledge not yet been applied in a barrier island setting. In this study, we surveyed two visitor groups and residents living near Cape Lookout National Seashore (North Carolina, USA) to understand social values they hold for the area in the context of the park’s management...
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High-frequency observations of surface water at fine spatial scales are critical to effectively manage aquatic habitat, flood risk and water quality. We developed inundation algorithms for Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 across 12 sites within the conterminous United States (CONUS) covering >536,000 km2 and representing diverse hydrologic and vegetation landscapes. These algorithms were trained on data from 13,412 points spread throughout the 12 sites. Each scene in the 5-year (2017-2021) time series was classified into open water, vegetated water, and non-water at 20 m resolution using variables not only from Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2, but also variables derived from topographic and weather datasets. The Sentinel-1 model...
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At times during the past two million years, glaciers formed in the mountainous part of the Platte River drainage basin. These glaceriers were predominantly valley glaciers, also commonly referred to a s mountain or alpine glaciers. by definition, valley glaciers flow through pre-existing valleys and are bounded by exposed bedrock. the deep valleys and canyons of the map area already existed at the beginning of the Ice Age as a result of regional uplift and subsequent erosion that occured from late Oligocene through Pliocene time. the largest valley glacier in the map area was 45 km long and as much as 600 m thick. During times when Pleistocene glaciers reached their maximum extent, about 10 percent of the mountainous...
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The Mammoth Springs (MS) fossil site at Hot Springs, South Dakota, provides a unique opportunity to reconstruct paleoenvironmental conditions. We used luminescence dating on fine sand sized potassium feldspars to establish a chronological framework for the site. In addition, we dated a late Pleistocene paludal proxy site using luminescence and incorporated those results with previous radiocarbon dating. Radiocarbon dating of the MS sinkhole organics suggested that the ages of the sediments that hosted the fossils was ~22-26 ka, while luminescence dating on feldspar grains suggested substantially older ages of ~130-255 ka. Analysis of the equivalent dose dispersion of the luminescence samples showed that the sediments...
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This data set consists of monthly long-term mean temperature data (degrees C) for the last glacial maximum (21 ka) downscaled to a 10-km grid of North America. The 10-km data were derived using simulated temperature data from 10 general circulation models (GCMs; CCSM4, CNRM-CM5, COSMOS-ASO, FGOALS-g2, GISS-E2-R, IPSL-CM5A-LR, MIROC-ESM, MPI-ESM-P-OA, MPI-ESM-P-OAC, and MRI-CGCM3) run under the PMIP3/CMIP5 (Paleoclimate Modelling Intercomparison Project phase 3 / Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 5) “lgm” and “piControl” experiments. The lgm and piControl data are available from the Earth System Grid - Center for Enabling Technologies (ESG-CET; https://esgf-node.llnl.gov/projects/esgf-llnl/). Additional...
The Eglington fault is one of several intrabasinal faults in the Las Vegas Valley, Nevada, USA, and is the only one recognized as a source for significant earthquakes. Its broad warp displaces Late Pleistocene spring deposits of the Las Vegas Formation, which record hydrologic fluctuations that occurred in response to millennial- and submillennial-scale climate oscillations throughout the late Quaternary. The sediments allow us to constrain the timing of displacement on the Eglington fault and identify hydrologic changes that are temporally coincident with that event. The fault deforms deposits that represent widespread marshes that filled the valley between ca. 31.7 and 27.6 ka. These marshes desiccated abruptly...
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The CLIM-MET stations are meteorological/geological stations that are designed to function in remote areas for long periods of time without human intervention. These stations measure meteorological and wind-erosion parameters under varying climatic and land-use conditions to detect and describe ongoing landscape changes. Combined with historic and other data, CLIM-MET data can provide inputs into regional climatic models that describe how the Southwest will respond to future climatic conditions.
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This release contains avaialable particle-size and mineralogic data as well as latitude and longitude information for dust samples collected from snow at high elevation sites in the Colorado Rocky Mountains and from dust source areas on the Colorado Plateau.
map background search result map search result map Climate Impact Meteorological Stations (CLIM-MET) Data from The Mojave National Preserve, California and Canyonlands National Park, Utah 1998-2016 Data Release for Phosphorous speciation and solubility in aeolian dust deposited in the interior American West Data release for Wetlands inform how climate extremes influence surface water expansion and contraction Bringing the South Dakota southern Black Hills Mammoth Site formation and fossil discovery to light: a chronological reassignment using Luminescence Dating Uranium-, thorium-, strontium-, carbon- and oxygen-isotope data used to evaluate a 300,000-year history of water-table fluctuations at Wind Cave, South Dakota, USA — scale, timing, and groundwater mixing in the Madison Aquifer Data release for tracking rates of post-fire conifer regeneration distinct from deciduous vegetation recovery across the western U.S. Data release for Climatically driven displacement on the Eglington fault, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA Data release for Evidence of humans in North America during the Last Glacial Maximum Spatial social value distributions for multiple user groups in a coastal national park Data release for Evidence of glacial activity during MIS 4 in the Rocky Mountains, Colorado, USA Radiocarbon dating of an alluvial deposit with associated faunal remains Data Release - Pleistocene Glaciation in the Upper Platte River Drainage Basin, Colorado Strontium and uranium isotopic compositions (87Sr/86Sr and 234U/238U) of mid- to late-Holocene lacustrine sediments from Lower Pahranagat Lake, Pahranagat National Wildlife Refuge, Lincoln County, Nevada Data release for the Geologic Map of the Denali Park Road Corridor, Denali National Park, Alaska Strontium isotope, amino acid, and fossil taxonomy data to aid in identifying instances of marine terrace reoccupation on Anacapa and San Miguel Islands, California, USA Data release for climate change impacts on surface water extents across the central United States Radiocarbon dating of an alluvial deposit with associated faunal remains Data release for Climatically driven displacement on the Eglington fault, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA Strontium and uranium isotopic compositions (87Sr/86Sr and 234U/238U) of mid- to late-Holocene lacustrine sediments from Lower Pahranagat Lake, Pahranagat National Wildlife Refuge, Lincoln County, Nevada Bringing the South Dakota southern Black Hills Mammoth Site formation and fossil discovery to light: a chronological reassignment using Luminescence Dating Uranium-, thorium-, strontium-, carbon- and oxygen-isotope data used to evaluate a 300,000-year history of water-table fluctuations at Wind Cave, South Dakota, USA — scale, timing, and groundwater mixing in the Madison Aquifer Strontium isotope, amino acid, and fossil taxonomy data to aid in identifying instances of marine terrace reoccupation on Anacapa and San Miguel Islands, California, USA Spatial social value distributions for multiple user groups in a coastal national park Data release for the Geologic Map of the Denali Park Road Corridor, Denali National Park, Alaska Data Release - Pleistocene Glaciation in the Upper Platte River Drainage Basin, Colorado Climate Impact Meteorological Stations (CLIM-MET) Data from The Mojave National Preserve, California and Canyonlands National Park, Utah 1998-2016 Data Release for Phosphorous speciation and solubility in aeolian dust deposited in the interior American West Data release for Wetlands inform how climate extremes influence surface water expansion and contraction Data release for climate change impacts on surface water extents across the central United States Data release for tracking rates of post-fire conifer regeneration distinct from deciduous vegetation recovery across the western U.S.