Structure and seismic hazard of the Ventura Avenue anticline and Ventura fault, California: Prospect for large, multisegment ruptures in the Western Transverse Ranges
Judith Hubbard, John H. Shaw, James F. Dolan, Thomas L. Pratt, Lee J. McAuliffe, Thomas K. Rockwell
2014, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (104) 1070-1087
The Ventura Avenue anticline is one of the fastest uplifting structures in southern California, rising at ∼5 mm/yr. We use well data and seismic reflection profiles to show that the anticline is underlain by the Ventura fault, which extends to seismogenic depth. Fault offset increases with depth, implying that the...
Evaluation and prioritization of stream habitat monitoring in the Lower Columbia Salmon and Steelhead Recovery Domain as related to the habitat monitoring needs of ESA recovery plans
Amy L. Puls, Kara Anlauf Dunn, Bernadette Graham Hudson
2014, Report
The lower Columbia River and its tributaries once supported abundant runs of salmon and steelhead; however, there are five species currently listed under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA). The National Marine Fisheries Service has completed, and is proposing for adoption, a comprehensive ESA Recovery Plan for the Lower Columbia...
Assessment of lesser prairie-chicken use of wildlife water guzzlers
Clint W. Boal, Philip K. Borsdorf, Trevor S. Gicklhorn
2014, Bulletin of the Texas Ornithological Society (46) 10-18
Man-made water sources have been used as a management tool for wildlife, especially in arid regions, but the value of these water sources for wildlife populations is not well understood. In particular, the value of water as a conservation tool for Lesser Prairie-Chickens (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) is unknown. However, this is...
Survival of female white-cheeked pintails during brood rearing in Puerto Rico
Marisel Lopez-Flores, J. Brian Davis, Francisco Vilella, Richard M. Kaminski, Jose A. Cruz-Burgos, Joseph D. Lancaster
2014, Caribbean Naturalist (10) 1-12
Anas bahamensis (White-cheeked Pintail) is widely distributed across the Caribbean islands and South America. The species is classified as threatened in Puerto Rico and a species of least concern across most of its range. Little demographic data exist for the species, particularly during the breeding season. During 2000-2002, we radiomarked...
Probing reservoir-triggered earthquakes in Koyna, India, through scientific deep drilling
H. Gupta, Shailesh Nayak, William L. Ellsworth, Y. J. B. Rao, S. Rajan, B.K. Bansal, N. Purnachandra Rao, S. Roy, K. Arora, R. Mohan, V. M. Tiwari, H. V. S. Satyanarayana, P. K. Patro, D. Shashidhar, K. Mallika
2014, Scientific Drilling (18) 5-9
We report here the salient features of the recently concluded International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP) workshop in Koyna, India. This workshop was a sequel to the earlier held ICDP workshop in Hyderabad and Koyna in 2011. A total of 49 experts (37 from India and 12 from 8...
"Report a Landslide” A website to engage the public in identifying geologic hazards
Rex L. Baum, Lynn M. Highland, Peter T. Lyttle, Jeremy Fee, Eric Martinez, Lisa A. Wald
2014, Conference Paper, Landslide science for a safer geoenvironment, Vol.1: The International Programme on Landslides (IPL)
Direct observation by people is the most practical way of identifying, locating, and describing most damaging landslides. In an effort to increase public awareness of landslide hazards and encourage public participation in collecting basic data about landslides, the USGS recently launched a website called “Report a landslide.” The website is...
Metals, organic compounds, and nutrients in Long Island Sound: sources, magnitudes, trends, and impacts
John R. Mullaney, J.C. Varekamp, A.E. MCElroy, V.T. Brsslin
2014, Book chapter, Long Island Sound
Long Island Sound (LIS) is a relatively shallow estuary with a mean depth of 20 m (maximum depth 49 m) and a unique hydrology and history of pollutant loading. Those factors have contributed to a wide variety of contamination problems in its muddy sediments, aquatic life and water column....
Development and characterization of 12 microsatellite markers for the Island Night Lizard (Xantusia riversiana), a threatened species endemic to the Channel Islands, California, USA
Ryan P. O’Donnell, Charles A. Drost, Karen E. Mock
2014, Conservation Genetics Resources (6) 699-700
The Island Night Lizard is a federally threatened species endemic to the Channel Islands of California. Twelve microsatellite loci were developed for use in this species and screened in 197 individuals from across San Nicolas Island, California. The number of alleles per locus ranged from 6 to 21. Observed heterozygosities...
A universal Model-R Coupler to facilitate the use of R functions for model calibration and analysis
Yiping Wu, Shuguang Liu, Wende Yan
2014, Environmental Modelling and Software (62) 65-69
Mathematical models are useful in various fields of science and engineering. However, it is a challenge to make a model utilize the open and growing functions (e.g., model inversion) on the R platform due to the requirement of accessing and revising the model's source code. To overcome this barrier, we...
Width and dip of the southern San Andreas Fault at Salt Creek from modeling of geophysical data
Victoria E. Langenheim, Noah D. Athens, Daniel S. Scheirer, Gary S. Fuis, Michael J. Rymer, Mark R. Goldman
Robert E. Reynolds, editor(s)
2014, Conference Paper, Not a drop left to drink
We investigate the geometry and width of the southernmost stretch of the San Andreas Fault zone using new gravity and magnetic data along line 7 of the Salton Seismic Imaging Project. In the Salt Creek area of Durmid Hill, the San Andreas Fault coincides with a complex magnetic signature, with...
Latest Quaternary paleoseismology and evidence of distributed dextral shear along the Mohawk Valley fault zone, northern Walker Lane, California
Ryan D. Gold, Richard W. Briggs, Stephen Personius, Anthony J. Crone, Shannon A. Mahan, Stephen Angster
2014, Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth (119) 5014-5032
The dextral-slip Mohawk Valley fault zone (MVFZ) strikes northwestward along the eastern margin of the Sierra Nevada in the northern Walker Lane. Geodetic block modeling indicates that the MVFZ may accommodate ~3 mm/yr of regional dextral strain, implying that it is the highest slip-rate strike-slip fault in the region; however,...
Molecular signature of organic nitrogen in septic-impacted groundwater
William A. Arnold, Krista Longnecker, Kevin D. Kroeger, Elizabeth B. Kujawinski
2014, Environmental Science: Processes and Impacts (16) 2400-2407
Dissolved inorganic and organic nitrogen levels are elevated in aquatic systems due to anthropogenic activities. Dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) arises from various sources, and its impact could be more clearly constrained if specific sources were identified and if the molecular-level composition of DON were better understood. In this work, the...
Ground-motion site effects from multimethod shear-wave velocity characterization at 16 seismograph stations deployed for aftershocks of the August 2011 Mineral, Virginia earthquake
William J. Stephenson, Jackson K. Odum, Daniel E. McNamara, Robert A. Williams, Stephen J Angster
2014, GSA Special Papers (509) 47-65
We characterize shear-wave velocity versus depth (Vs profile) at 16 portable seismograph sites through the epicentral region of the 2011 Mw 5.8 Mineral (Virginia, USA) earthquake to investigate ground-motion site effects in the area. We used a multimethod acquisition and analysis approach, where active-source horizontal shear (SH) wave reflection and refraction...
Studying seafloor bedforms using autonomous stationary imaging and profiling sonars
Ellyn T. Montgomery, Christopher R. Sherwood
2014, Conference Paper, OCEANS 2013: Proceedings of a meeting held 23-27 September 2013, San Diego, California, USA
The Sediment Transport Group at the U.S. Geological Survey, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center uses downward looking sonars deployed on seafloor tripods to assess and measure the formation and migration of bedforms. The sonars have been used in three resolution-testing experiments, and deployed autonomously to observe changes in...
North American Commission on Stratigraphic Nomenclature Note 66: records of Stratigraphic Commission, 2003-2013
Robert M. Easton, Octavian Catuneanu, Art D. Donovan, Richard H. Fluegeman, A.P. Hamblin, Howard Harper, Norman P. Lasca, Jared R. Morrow, Randall C. Orndorff, Peter Sadler, Robert W. Scott, Berry H. Tew
2014, Stratigraphy (11) 143-157
Note 66 summarizes activities of the North American Commission on Stratigraphic Nomenclature (NACSN) from November 2003 to October 2013 and is condensed from the minutes of the NACSN’s 58th to 68th annual meetings1. The purposes of the Commission are to develop statements of stratigraphic principles,recommend procedures applicable to the classification...
Transcriptomic effects-based monitoring for endocrine active chemicals: Assessing relative contribution of treated wastewater to downstream pollution
Dalma Martinovic-Weigelt, Alvine C. Mehinto, Gerald T. Ankley, Nancy D. Denslow, Larry B. Barber, Kathy Lee, Ryan J. King, Heiko L. Schoenfuss, Anthony L. Schroeder, Daniel L. Villeneuve
2014, Environmental Science & Technology (48) 2385-2394
The present study investigated whether a combination of targeted analytical chemistry information with unsupervised, data-rich biological methodology (i.e., transcriptomics) could be utilized to evaluate relative contributions of wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluents to biological effects. The effects of WWTP effluents on fish exposed to ambient, receiving waters were studied at...
Productivity of functional guilds of fishes in managed wetlands in coastal South Carolina
Kelly F. Robinson, Cecil A. Jennings
2014, Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management (5) 70-86
In coastal South Carolina, many wetlands are impounded and managed as migratory waterfowl habitat. Impoundment effects on fish production and habitat quality largely are unknown. We used the size-frequency method to estimate summer production of fish guilds in three impoundments along the Combahee River, South Carolina. We predicted that guild-specific...
Locking horns with Hawai‘i’s non-native ungulate issues
Steve C. Hess
2014, Proceedings of the Vertebrate Pest Conference (26) 21-25
Conservation and management interests for sustained-yield hunting of non-native ungulates in Hawai‘i have conflicted with the conservation of native biota for several decades. Hawaiian ecosystems evolved in the absence of large mammals and all currently hunted animals in Hawai‘i are non-native species. The best-studied aspects of Hawai‘i’s ungulates have dealt...
A comparison of resident fish assemblages in managed and unmanaged coastal wetlands in North Carolina and South Carolina
Kelly F. Robinson, Cecil A. Jennings
2014, Southeastern Naturalist (13) 237-260
The dominant fish species within impounded coastal wetlands in the southeastern US may be different from the species that dominate natural marshes. We tested the hypothesis that resident fish assemblages inhabiting impounded coastal wetlands in South Carolina would differ from resident assemblages in natural marshes of the southeastern United States....
Understanding the value of imperfect science from national estimates of bird mortality from window collisions
Craig S. Machtans, Wayne E. Thogmartin
2014, Condor (116) 3-7
The publication of a U.S. estimate of bird–window collisions by Loss et al. is an example of the somewhat contentious approach of using extrapolations to obtain large-scale estimates from small-scale studies. We review the approach by Loss et al. and other authors who have published papers on human-induced avian mortality...
Evidence of natural reproduction by Muskellunge in middle Tennessee rivers
Lila H. Warren, Phillip William Bettoli
2014, Southeastern Naturalist (13) 506-514
Native Esox masquinongy (Muskellunge) in the Cumberland River drainage, TN, were nearly extirpated in the 1970s due to decades of over-fishing and habitat degradation from coal mining, logging, and other land-use practices. In an effort to preserve the species in that drainage, a stocking program began in 1976 in the upper Caney...
Post-breeding migration of Dutch-breeding black-tailed godwits: timing, routes, use of stopovers, and nonbreeding destinations
Jos C. E. W. Hooijmeijer, Nathan R. Senner, T. Lee Tibbitts, Robert E. Gill Jr., David C. Douglas, Leo W. Bruinzeel, Eddy Wymenga, Theunis Piersma
2014, Ardea (101) 141-152
Conservation of long-distance migratory shorebirds is complex because these species use habitats spread across continents and hemispheres, making identification of critical habitats and potential bottlenecks in the annual cycle especially difficult. The population of Black-tailed Godwits that breeds in Western Europe, Limosa limosa limosa, has declined precipitously over the past...
Development of a multimetric index for fish assemblages in a cold tailwater in Tennessee
Tomas J. Ivasauskas, Phillip William Bettoli
2014, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (143) 495-507
Tailwaters downstream of hypolimnetic-release hydropeaking dams exhibit a unique combination of stressors that affects the structure and function of resident fish assemblages. We developed a statistically and biologically defensible multimetric index of fish assemblages for the Caney Fork River below Center Hill Dam, Tennessee. Fish assemblages were sampled at five...
Utilizing multi-sensor fire detections to map fires in the United States
Stephen M. Howard, Joshua J. Picotte, Michael Coan
2014, Conference Paper, The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Volume XL-1,
In 2006, the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS) project began a cooperative effort between the US Forest Service (USFS) and the U.S.Geological Survey (USGS) to map and assess burn severity all large fires that have occurred in the United States since 1984. Using Landsat imagery, MTBS is mandated to...
The case for a modern multiwavelength, polarization-sensitive LIDAR in orbit around Mars
Adrian J. Brown, Timothy I. Michaels, Shane Byrne, Wenbo Sun, Timothy N. Titus, Anthony Colaprete, Michael J. Wolff, Gorden Videen, Christian J. Grund
2014, Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer (115) 131-143
We present the scientific case to build a multiple-wavelength, active, near-infrared (NIR) instrument to measure the reflected intensity and polarization characteristics of backscattered radiation from planetary surfaces and atmospheres. We focus on the ability of such an instrument to enhance, perhaps revolutionize, our understanding of climate, volatiles and astrobiological potential...
