Annual crop type classification of the U.S. Great Plains for 2000 to 2011
Daniel M. Howard, Bruce K. Wylie
2014, Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing (6) 537-549
The purpose of this study was to increase the spatial and temporal availability of crop classification data. In this study, nearly 16.2 million crop observation points were used in the training of the US Great Plains classification tree crop type model (CTM). Each observation point was further defined by weekly...
Fish biodiversity sampling in stream ecosystems: a process for evaluating the appropriate types and amount of gear
Joseph M. Smith, Sarah P. Wells, Martha E. Mather, Robert M. Muth
2014, Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems (24) 338-350
Because human impacts and climate change threaten aquatic ecosystems, a need exists to quantify catchment-scale biodiversity patterns and identify conservation actions that can mitigate adverse human impacts on aquatic biota. Whereas many traditional aquatic resource questions can be answered by repeatedly sampling a few target species with...
Transformation products and human metabolites of triclocarban and tricllosan in sewage sludge across the United States
Benny F.G. Pycke, Isaac B. Roll, Bruce J. Brownawell, Chad A. Kinney, Edward T. Furlong, Dana W. Kolpin, Rolf U. Halden
2014, Environmental Science & Technology (48) 7881-7890
Removal of triclocarban (TCC) and triclosan (TCS) from wastewater is a function of adsorption, abiotic degradation, and microbial mineralization or transformation, reactions that are not currently controlled or optimized in the pollution control infrastructure of standard wastewater treatment. Here, we report on the levels of eight transformation products, human metabolites,...
Mount Baker lahars and debris flows, ancient, modern, and future
David S. Tucker, Kevin M. Scott, Eric E. Grossman, Scott Linneman
2014, GSA Field Guides 33-52
The Middle Fork Nooksack River drains the southwestern slopes of the active Mount Baker stratovolcano in northwest Washington State. The river enters Bellingham Bay at a growing delta 98 km to the west. Various types of debris flows have descended the river, generated by volcano collapse or eruption (lahars),...
Water quality of potential reference lakes in the Arkansas Valley and Ouachita Mountain ecoregions, Arkansas
B. G. Justus, Bradley J. Meredith
2014, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment (186) 3785-3800
This report describes a study to identify reference lakes in two lake classifications common to parts of two level III ecoregions in western Arkansas—the Arkansas Valley and Ouachita Mountains. Fifty-two lakes were considered. A screening process that relied on land-use data was followed by reconnaissance water-quality sampling, and two lakes...
The UCERF3 grand inversion: Solving for the long‐term rate of ruptures in a fault system
Morgan T. Page, Edward H. Field, Kevin Milner, Peter M. Powers
2014, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (104) 1181-1204
We present implementation details, testing, and results from a new inversion‐based methodology, known colloquially as the “grand inversion,” developed for the Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast (UCERF3). We employ a parallel simulated annealing algorithm to solve for the long‐term rate of all ruptures that extend through the seismogenic thickness on...
Occupancy patterns of regionally declining grassland sparrow populations in a forested Pennsylvania landscape
Jason M. Hill, Duane R. Diefenbach
2014, Conservation Biology (28) 735-744
Organisms can be affected by processes in the surrounding landscape outside the boundary of habitat areas and by local vegetation characteristics. There is substantial interest in understanding how these processes affect populations of grassland birds, which have experienced substantial population declines. Much of our knowledge regarding patterns of occupancy and...
Application of spatially gridded temperature and land cover data sets for urban heat island analysis
Kevin Gallo, George Z. Xian
2014, Urban Climate (8) 1-10
Two gridded data sets that included (1) daily mean temperatures from 2006 through 2011 and (2) satellite-derived impervious surface area, were combined for a spatial analysis of the urban heat-island effect within the Dallas-Ft. Worth Texas region. The primary advantage of using these combined datasets included the capability to designate...
Habitat availability is a more plausible explanation than insecticide acute toxicity for U.S. grassland bird species declines
Jason M. Hill, J. Franklin Egan, Glenn E. Stauffer, Duane R. Diefenbach
2014, PLoS ONE (9) 1-8
Grassland bird species have experienced substantial declines in North America. These declines have been largely attributed to habitat loss and degradation, especially from agricultural practices and intensification (the habitat-availability hypothesis). A recent analysis of North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) “grassland breeding” bird trends reported the surprising conclusion that insecticide...
Vulnerability of age-0 pallid sturgeon Scaphirhynchus albus to predation; effects of predator type, turbidity, body size, and prey density
William E. French, Brian D. S. Graeb, Steven R. Chipps, Robert A. Klumb
2014, Environmental Biology of Fishes (97) 635-646
Predation can play an important role in the recruitment dynamics of fishes with intensity regulated by behavioral (i.e., prey selectivity) and/or environmental conditions that may be especially important for rare or endangered fishes. We conducted laboratory experiments to quantify prey selection and capture efficiency by three predators employing distinct foraging...
Size-selective mortality of steelhead during freshwater and marine life stages related to freshwater growth in the Skagit River, Washington
Jamie N. Thompson, David A. Beauchamp
2014, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (143) 910-925
We evaluated freshwater growth and survival from juvenile (ages 0–3) to smolt (ages 1–5) and adult stages in wild steelhead Oncorhynchus mykiss sampled in different precipitation zones of the Skagit River basin, Washington. Our objectives were to determine whether significant size-selective mortality (SSM) in steelhead could be detected between early and later...
Assessing landscape constraints on species abundance: Does the neighborhood limit species response to local habitat conservation programs?
Christopher F. Jorgensen, Larkin A. Powell, Jeffrey J. Lusk, Andrew A. Bishop, Joseph J. Fontaine
2014, PLoS ONE (9) 1-13
Landscapes in agricultural systems continue to undergo significant change, and the loss of biodiversity is an ever-increasing threat. Although habitat restoration is beneficial, management actions do not always result in the desired outcome. Managers must understand why management actions fail; yet, past studies have focused on assessing habitat attributes at...
Angler effort and catch within a spatially complex system of small lakes.
Kevin L. Pope, Christopher J. Chizinski, Dustin R. Martin, Tony J. Barada, Jeffrey J. Schuckman
2014, Fisheries Research (154) 172-178
Spatial layout of waterbodies and waterbody size can affect a creel clerk’s ability to intercept anglers for interviews and to accurately count anglers, which will affect the accuracy and precision of estimates of effort and catch. This study aimed to quantify angling effort and catch across a spatially complex system...
Nutrient additions to mitigate for loss of Pacific salmon: consequences for stream biofilm and nutrient dynamics
Amy M. Marcarelli, Colden V. Baxter, Mark S. Wipfli
2014, Ecosphere (5) 1-22
Mitigation activities designed to supplement nutrient and organic matter inputs to streams experiencing decline or loss of Pacific salmon typically presuppose that an important pathway by which salmon nutrients are moved to fish (anadromous and/or resident) is via nutrient incorporation by biofilms and subsequent bottom-up stimulation of biofilm production, which...
A reconstruction of sea surface temperature variability in the southeastern Gulf of Mexico from 1734 to 2008 C.E. using cross-dated Sr/Ca records from the coral Siderastrea siderea
Kristine L. DeLong, Christopher R. Maupin, Jennifer A. Flannery, Terrence M. Quinn, CC Shen
2014, Paleoceanography (29) 403-422
This study uses skeletal variations in coral Sr/Ca from three Siderastrea siderea coral colonies within the Dry Tortugas National Park in the southeastern Gulf of Mexico (24°42′N, 82°48′W) to reconstruct monthly sea surface temperature (SST) variations from 1734 to 2008 Common Era (C.E.). Calibration and verification of the replicated coral...
Relationships between water and gas chemistry in mature coalbed methane reservoirs of the Black Warrior Basin
Jack C. Pashin, Marcella R. McIntyre-Redden, Steven D. Mann, David C. Kopaska-Merkel, Matthew S. Varonka, William H. Orem
2014, International Journal of Coal Geology (126) 92-105
Water and gas chemistry in coalbed methane reservoirs of the Black Warrior Basin reflects a complex interplay among burial processes, basin hydrodynamics, thermogenesis, and late-stage microbial methanogenesis. These factors are all important considerations for developing production and water management strategies. Produced water ranges from nearly potable sodium-bicarbonate water to...
Global ocean conveyor lowers extinction risk in the deep sea
Lea-Anne Henry, Norbert Frank, Dierk Hebbeln, Claudia Weinberg, Laura Robinson, Tina van de Flierdt, Mikael Dahl, Melanie Douarin, Cheryl L. Morrison, Matthias Lopez Correa, Alex D. Rogers, Mario Ruckelshausen, J. Murray Roberts
2014, Deep Sea Research Part A, Oceanographic Research Papers (88) 8-16
General paradigms of species extinction risk are urgently needed as global habitat loss and rapid climate change threaten Earth with what could be its sixth mass extinction. Using the stony coral Lophelia pertusa as a model organism with the potential for wide larval dispersal, we investigated how the global ocean...
Effect of temperature on feeding period of larval blacklegged ticks (Acari: Ixodidae) on eastern fence lizards
Eric L. Rulison, Roger A. LeBrun, Howard S. Ginsberg
2014, Journal of Medical Entomology (51) 1308-1311
Ambient temperature can influence tick development time, and can potentially affect tick interactions with pathogens and with vertebrate hosts. We studied the effect of ambient temperature on duration of attachment of larval blacklegged ticks, Ixodes scapularis Say, to eastern fence lizards, Sceloporus undulatus (Bose & Daudin). Feeding periods of larvae that attached to lizards...
Pesticides in Mississippi air and rain: A comparison between 1995 and 2007
Michael S Majewski, Richard H. Coupe, William T. Foreman, Paul D. Capel
2014, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (33) 1283-1293
A variety of current-use pesticides were determined in weekly composite air and rain samples collected during the 1995 and 2007 growing seasons in the Mississippi Delta (MS, USA) agricultural region. Similar sampling and analytical methods allowed for direct comparison of results. Decreased overall pesticide use in 2007 relative to 1995...
Land-margin ecosystem hydrologic data for the coastal Everglades, Florida, water years 1996-2012
Gordon H. Anderson, Thomas J. Smith III, Karen M. Balentine
2014, Data Series 853
Mangrove forests and salt marshes dominate the landscape of the coastal Everglades (Odum and McIvor, 1990). However, the ecological effects from potential sea-level rise and increased water flows from planned freshwater Everglades restoration on these coastal systems are poorly understood. The National Park Service (NPS) proposed the South Florida Global...
2010 Volcanic activity in Alaska, Kamchatka, and the Kurile Islands: Summary of events and response of the Alaska Volcano Observatory
Christina A. Neal, Julie Herrick, O.A. Girina, Marina Chibisova, Alexander Rybin, Robert G. McGimsey, Jim Dixon
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5034
The Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) responded to eruptions, possible eruptions, volcanic unrest or suspected unrest at 12 volcanic centers in Alaska during 2010. The most notable volcanic activity consisted of intermittent ash emissions from long-active Cleveland volcano in the Aleutian Islands. AVO staff also participated in hazard communication regarding eruptions...
A pier-scour database: 2,427 field and laboratory measurements of pier scour
Stephen T. Benedict, Andral W. Caldwell
2014, Data Series 845
The U.S. Geological Survey conducted a literature review to identify potential sources of published pier-scour data, and selected data were compiled into a digital spreadsheet called the 2014 USGS Pier-Scour Database (PSDb-2014) consisting of 569 laboratory and 1,858 field measurements. These data encompass a wide range of laboratory and field...
Three-dimensional seismic velocity structure of Mauna Loa and Kilauea volcanoes in Hawaii from local seismic tomography
Guoqing Lin, Peter M. Shearer, Robin S. Matoza, Paul G. Okubo, Falk Amelung
2014, Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth (119) 4377-4392
We present a new three-dimensional seismic velocity model of the crustal and upper mantle structure for Mauna Loa and Kilauea volcanoes in Hawaii. Our model is derived from the first-arrival times of the compressional and shear waves from about 53,000 events on and near the Island of Hawaii between 1992...
An analysis of potential water availability from the Charles Mill, Clendening, Piedmont, Pleasant Hill, Senecaville, and Wills Creek Lakes in the Muskingum River Watershed, Ohio
G. F. Koltun
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5071
This report presents the results of a study to assess potential water availability from the Charles Mill, Clendening, Piedmont, Pleasant Hill, Senecaville, and Wills Creek Lakes, located within the Muskingum River Watershed, Ohio. The assessment was based on the criterion that water withdrawals should not appreciably affect maintenance of recreation-season...
Connecting the dots: a collaborative USGS-NPS effort to expand the utility of monitoring data
James B. Grace, Donald R. Schoolmaster Jr., E. William Schweiger, Brian R. Mitchell, Kathryn Miller, Glenn R. Guntenspergen
2014, The George Wright Forum (31) 181-190
The Natural Resource Challenge (National Park Service 1999) was a call to action. It constituted a mandate for monitoring based on the twin premises that (1) natural resources in national parks require active management and stewardship if we are to protect them from gradual degradation, and (2) we cannot protect...
