Optical sensors for water quality
Brian A. Pellerin, Brian A. Bergamaschi
2014, Lakeline 13-17
Shifts in land use, population, and climate have altered hydrologic systems in the United States in ways that affect water quality and ecosystem function. Water diversions, detention in reservoirs, increased channelization, and changes in rainfall and snowmelt are major causes, but there are also more subtle causes such as changes...
Soil criteria to protect terrestrial wildlife and open-range livestock from metal toxicity at mining sites
Karl L Ford, W. Nelson Beyer
2014, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment (186) 1899-1905
Thousands of hard rock mines exist in the western USA and in other parts of the world as a result of historic and current gold, silver, lead, and mercury mining. Many of these sites in the USA are on public lands. Typical mine waste associated with these sites are tailings...
Mercury bioaccumulation in Southern Appalachian birds, assessed through feather concentrations
Rebecca Hylton Keller, Lingtian Xie, David B. Buchwalter, Kathleen E. Franzreb, Theodore R. Simons
2014, Ecotoxicology (23) 304-316
Mercury contamination in wildlife has rarely been studied in the Southern Appalachians despite high deposition rates in the region. From 2006 to 2008 we sampled feathers from 458 birds representing 32 species in the Southern Appalachians for total mercury and stable isotope δ 15N. Mercury concentrations (mean ± SE) averaged 0.46 ± 0.02 μg g−1 (range 0.01–3.74 μg g−1). Twelve...
Fish depth distributions in the Lower Mississippi River
K. J. Killgore, Leandro E. Miranda
2014, River Research and Applications (30) 347-359
A substantial body of literature exists about depth distribution of fish in oceans, lakes and reservoirs, but less is known about fish depth distribution in large rivers. Most of the emphasis on fish distributions in rivers has focused on longitudinal and latitudinal spatial distributions. Knowledge on depth distribution is necessary...
Reservoir floodplains support distinct fish assemblages
Leandro E. Miranda, S. L. Wigen, Jonah D. Dagel
2014, River Research and Applications (30) 338-346
Reservoirs constructed on floodplain rivers are unique because the upper reaches of the impoundment may include extensive floodplain environments. Moreover, reservoirs that experience large periodic water level fluctuations as part of their operational objectives seasonally inundate and dewater floodplains in their upper reaches, partly mimicking natural inundations of river floodplains....
Oyster reef restoration in the northern Gulf of Mexico: extent, methods and outcomes
Megan K. LaPeyre, Jessica N. Furlong, Laura A. Brown, Bryan P. Piazza, Ken Brown
2014, Ocean and Coastal Management (89) 20-28
Shellfish reef restoration to support ecological services has become more common in recent decades, driven by increasing awareness of the functional decline of shellfish systems. Maximizing restoration benefits and increasing efficiency of shellfish restoration activities would greatly benefit from understanding and measurement of system responses to management activities. This project...
Wildland fire ash: Production, composition and eco-hydro-geomorphic effects
Merche B. Bodi, Deborah A. Martin, Victoria N. Balfour, Cristina Santin, Stefan H. Doerr, Paulo Pereira, Artemi Cerda, Jorge Mataix-Solera
2014, Earth-Science Reviews (130) 103-127
Fire transforms fuels (i.e. biomass, necromass, soil organic matter) into materials with different chemical and physical properties. One of these materials is ash, which is the particulate residue remaining or deposited on the ground that consists of mineral materials and charred organic components. The quantity and characteristics of ash...
The profound reach of the 11 April 2012 M 8.6 Indian Ocean earthquake: Short‐term global triggering followed by a longer‐term global shadow
Frederick Pollitz, Roland Burgmann, Ross S. Stein, Volkan Sevilgen
2014, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (104) 972-984
The 11 April 2012 M 8.6 Indian Ocean earthquake was an unusually large intraoceanic strike‐slip event. For several days, the global M≥4.5 and M≥6.5 seismicity rate at remote distances (i.e., thousands of kilometers from the mainshock) was elevated. The strike‐slip mainshock appears through its Love waves to have triggered a global...
Productivity and linkages of the food web of the southern region of the western Antarctic Peninsula continental shelf
Tosca Ballerini, Eileen E. Hofmann, David G. Ainley, Kendra L. Daly, Marina Marrari, Christine A. Ribic, Walker O. Smith Jr., John H. Steele
2014, Progress in Oceanography (122) 10-29
The productivity and linkages in the food web of the southern region of the west Antarctic Peninsula continental shelf were investigated using a multi-trophic level mass balance model. Data collected during the Southern Ocean Global Ocean Ecosystem Dynamics field program were combined with data from...
Reconstructing suspended sediment mercury contamination of a steep, gravel-bed river using reservoir theory
Katherine Skalak, James Pizzuto
2014, Environmental Geosciences (20) 17-35
We use sediment ages and mercury (Hg) concentrations to estimate past and future concentrations in the South River, Virginia, where Hg was released between 1930 and 1950 from a manufacturing process related to nylon production. In a previous study, along a 40 km (25 mi) reach, samples were collected from 26 of...
Association, roost use and simulated disruption of Myotis septentrionalis maternity colonies
Alexander Silvis, W. Mark Ford, Eric R. Britzke, Joshua B. Johnson
2014, Behavioural Processes (103) 283-290
How wildlife social and resource networks are distributed on the landscape and how animals respond to resource loss are important aspects of behavioral ecology. For bats, understanding these responses may improve conservation efforts and provide insights into adaptations to environmental conditions. We tracked maternity colonies of northern bats (Myotis septentrionalis)...
Relative contribution of lipid sources to eggs of lesser scaup
Kyle A. Cutting, Keith A. Hobson, Jay J. Rotella, Jeffrey M. Warren, John Y. Takekawa, Susan E.W. De La Cruz, Michael Parker
2014, Journal of Avian Biology (45) 197-201
Studies of how birds mobilize nutrients to eggs have traditionally considered a continuum of possible allocation strategies ranging from income breeding (rely on food sources found on the breeding grounds) to capital breeding (rely on body reserves stored prior to the breeding season). For capital breeding, stored body reserves can...
Mineral Resource of the Month: Talc
Robert L. Virta, Bradley S. Van Gosen
2014, Earth (March 2014)
When people think of talc, they often think of talcum and baby powder. However, these uses of talc are minor compared to its use in industrial manufacturing. The leading use of talc in the United States is in the production of ceramics, where it is a source of magnesium oxide,...
CO2 and CH4 emissions from streams in a lake-rich landscape: Patterns, controls, and regional significance
John T. Crawford, Noah R. Lottig, Emily H. Stanley, John F. Walker, Paul C. Hanson, Jacques C. Finlay, Robert G. Striegl
2014, Global Biogeochemical Cycles (28) 197-210
Aquatic ecosystems are important components of landscape carbon budgets. In lake-rich landscapes, both lakes and streams may be important sources of carbon gases (CO2 and CH4) to the atmosphere, but the processes that control gas concentrations and emissions in these interconnected landscapes have not been adequately addressed. We use multiple...
When water, gravity and geology collide: Firsthand observations of the impacts of the 2013 Colorado floods
Geoffrey S. Plumlee
2014, Earth Magazine (59) 29-34
No abstract available....
Porphyry copper assessment of Central America and the Caribbean Basin
Floyd Gray, Jane M. Hammarstrom, Stephen Ludington, Lukas Zürcher, Carl E. Nelson, Gilpin R. Robinson Jr., Robert J. Miller, Barry C. Moring
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2010-5090-I
Mineral resource assessments provide a synthesis of available information about distributions of mineral deposits in the Earth’s crust. The U.S. Geological Survey prepared a probabilistic mineral resource assessment of undiscovered resources in porphyry copper deposits in Central America and the Caribbean Basin in collaboration with geoscientists from academia and the...
Monitoring of wild fish health at selected sites in the Great Lakes Basin: methods and preliminary results
Vicki Blazer, Patricia M. Mazik, Luke R. Iwanowicz, Ryan Braham, Cassidy Hahn, Heather L. Walsh, Adam Sperry
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1027
During fall 2010 and spring 2011, a total of 119 brown bullhead (Ameiurus nebulosus), 136 white sucker (Catostomus commersoni), 73 smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieu), and 59 largemouth bass (M. salmoides) were collected from seven Great Lakes Basin Areas of Concern and one Reference Site. Comprehensive fish health assessments were conducted...
2013 update on sea otter studies to assess recovery from the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, Prince William Sound, Alaska
Brenda E. Ballachey, Daniel H. Monson, George G. Esslinger, Kimberly A. Kloecker, James L. Bodkin, Lizabeth Bowen, A. Keith Miles
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1030
On March 24, 1989, the tanker vessel Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince William Sound, Alaska, spilling an estimated 42 million liters of Prudhoe Bay crude oil. Oil spread in a southwesterly direction and was deposited on shores and waters in western Prince William Sound (WPWS). The sea otter (Enhydra...
Modifications made to ModelMuse to add support for the Saturated-Unsaturated Transport model (SUTRA)
Richard B. Winston
2014, Techniques and Methods 6-A49
This report (1) describes modifications to ModelMuse,as described in U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Techniques and Methods (TM) 6–A29 (Winston, 2009), to add support for the Saturated-Unsaturated Transport model (SUTRA) (Voss and Provost, 2002; version of September 22, 2010) and (2) supplements USGS TM 6–A29. Modifications include changes to the main...
Logs and data from trenches across the Berryessa Fault at the Jerd Creek site, northeastern Napa County, California, 2011-2012
James J. Lienkaemper, Carla M. Rosa, Ian J. Cappelle, Evan M. Wolf, Nichole E. Knepprath, Lucille A. Piety, Sarah A. Derouin, Liam M. Reidy, Joanna L. Redwine, Robert R. Sickler
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1033
The primary purpose of this report is to provide drafted field logs of exploratory trenches excavated across the Berryessa Fault section of the northern Green Valley Fault (Lienkaemper, 2012; Lienkaemper and others, 2013) in 2011 and 2012 that show evidence for at least one surface-rupturing earthquake in the past few...
Assessment of undiscovered sandstone copper deposits of the Kodar-Udokan area, Russia
Michael L. Zientek, Vladimir S. Chechetkin, Heather L. Parks, Stephen E. Box, Deborah A. Briggs, Pamela M. Cossette, Alla Dolgopolova, Timothy S. Hayes, Reimar Seltmann, Boris Syusyura, Cliff D. Taylor, Niki E. Wintzer
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2010-5090-M
Mineral resource assessments integrate and synthesize available information as a basis for estimating the location, quality, and quantity of undiscovered mineral resources. This probabilistic mineral resource assessment of undiscovered sandstone copper deposits within Paleoproterozoic metasedimentary rocks of the Kodar-Udokan area in Russia is a contribution to a global assessment led...
Precipitation variability of the Grand Canyon region, 1893 through 2009, and its implications for studying effects of gullying of Holocene terraces and associated archeological sites in Grand Canyon, Arizona
Richard Hereford, Glenn E. Bennett, Helen C. Fairley
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1006
A daily precipitation dataset covering a large part of the American Southwest was compiled for online electronic distribution (http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2014/1006/). The dataset contains 10.8 million observations spanning January 1893 through January 2009 from 846 weather stations in six states and 13 climate divisions. In addition to processing the data...
Assessing risks to humans from invasive Burmese pythons in Everglades National Park, Florida, USA
Robert N. Reed, Ray W. Snow
2014, Wildlife Society Bulletin
Invasive Burmese pythons (Python molurus bivittatus) are now established across a large area of southern Florida, USA, including all of Everglades National Park (NP). The presence of these large-bodied snakes in the continental United States has attracted intense media attention, including regular reference to the possibility of these snakes preying...
Estimate of undiscovered copper resources of the world, 2013
Kathleen M. Johnson, Jane M. Hammarstrom, Michael L. Zientek, Connie L. Dicken
2014, Fact Sheet 2014-3004
Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated a mean of 3,500 million metric tons (Mt) of undiscovered copper among 225 tracts around the world. Annual U.S. copper consumption is 2 Mt; global consumption is 20 Mt. The USGS assessed undiscovered copper in two deposit types that account...
Mean annual, seasonal, and monthly precipitation and runoff in Arkansas, 1951-2011
Aaron L. Pugh, Drew A. Westerman
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5006
This report describes long-term annual, seasonal, and monthly means for precipitation and runoff in Arkansas for the period from 1951 through 2011. Precipitation means were estimated using data from the Parameter-elevation Regressions on Independent Slopes Model database; while total runoff, groundwater runoff, and surface runoff means were estimated using data...
