Flood inundation maps for the Wabash River at New Harmony, Indiana
Kathleen K. Fowler
2016, Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5119
Digital flood-inundation maps for a 3.68-mile reach of the Wabash River extending 1.77 miles upstream and 1.91 miles downstream from streamgage 03378500 at New Harmony, Indiana, were created by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs. The flood-inundation maps, which can...
Viability of the Alaskan breeding population of Steller’s eiders
Kylee Dunham, J. Barry Grand
2016, Open-File Report 2016-1084
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is tasked with setting objective and measurable criteria for delisting species or populations listed under the Endangered Species Act. Determining the acceptable threshold for extinction risk for any species or population is a challenging task, particularly when facing marked uncertainty. The Alaskan breeding population...
Evaluating models of population process in a threatened population of Steller’s eiders: A retrospective approach
Kylee Dunham, J. Barry Grand
2016, Open-File Report 2016-1062
The Alaskan breeding population of Steller’s eiders (Polysticta stelleri) was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1997 in response to perceived declines in abundance throughout their breeding and nesting range. Aerial surveys suggest the breeding population is small and highly variable in number, with zero birds counted...
Demographic characteristics of an adfluvial bull trout population in Lake Pend Oreille, Idaho
Jonathan L McCubbins, Michael J. Hansen, Joseph M DosSantos, Andrew M. Dux
2016, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (36) 1269-1277
Introductions of nonnative species, habitat loss, and stream fragmentation have caused the Bull Trout Salvelinus confluentus to decline throughout much of its native distribution. Consequently, in June 1998, the Bull Trout was listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act as threatened. The Bull Trout has existed in Lake Pend Oreille and...
Triennial changes in groundwater quality in aquifers used for public supply in California: Utility as indicators of temporal trends
Robert H. Kent, Matthew K. Landon
2016, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment (188)
From 2004 to 2011, the U.S. Geological Survey collected samples from 1686 wells across the State of California as part of the California State Water Resources Control Board’s Groundwater Ambient Monitoring and Assessment (GAMA) Priority Basin Project (PBP). From 2007 to 2013, 224 of these wells were resampled to assess...
Mercury and methylmercury in aquatic sediment across western North America
Jacob Fleck, Mark C. Marvin-DiPasquale, Collin A. Eagles-Smith, Joshua T. Ackerman, Michelle A. Lutz, Michael T. Tate, Charles N. Alpers, Britt D. Hall, David P. Krabbenhoft, Chris S. Eckley
2016, Science of the Total Environment (568) 727-738
Large-scale assessments are valuable in identifying primary factors controlling total mercury (THg) and monomethyl mercury (MeHg) concentrations, and distribution in aquatic ecosystems. Bed sediment THg and MeHg concentrations were compiled for > 16,000 samples collected from aquatic habitats throughout the West between 1965 and 2013. The influence of aquatic feature type...
Potential effects of climate change on streamflow for seven watersheds in eastern and central Montana
Katherine J. Chase, Adel E. Haj, R. Steven Regan, Roland J. Viger
2016, Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies (7) 69-81
Study regionEastern and central Montana.Study focusFish in Northern Great Plains streams tolerate extreme conditions including heat, cold, floods, and drought; however changes in streamflow associated with long-term climate change may render some prairie streams uninhabitable for current fish species. To better understand future hydrology of these...
High resolution mapping of development in the wildland-urban interface using object based image extraction
Michael D. Caggiano, Wade T. Tinkham, Chad Hoffman, Antony S. Cheng, Todd Hawbaker
2016, Heliyon (2)
The wildland-urban interface (WUI), the area where human development encroaches on undeveloped land, is expanding throughout the western United States resulting in increased wildfire risk to homes and communities. Although census based mapping efforts have provided insights into the pattern of development and expansion of the WUI at regional and...
Large-scale changes in bloater growth and condition in Lake Huron
Carson G. Prichard, Edward F. Roseman, Kevin M. Keeler, Timothy P. O’Brien, Stephen C. Riley
2016, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (145) 1241-1251
Native Bloaters Coregonus hoyi have exhibited multiple strong year-classes since 2005 and now are the most abundant benthopelagic offshore prey fish in Lake Huron, following the crash of nonnative AlewivesAlosa pseudoharengus and substantial declines in nonnative Rainbow Smelt Osmerus mordax. Despite recent recoveries in Bloater abundance, marketable-size (>229 mm) Bloaters...
Far-field pressurization likely caused one of the largest injection induced earthquakes by reactivating a large pre-existing basement fault structure
William L. Yeck, Matthew Weingarten, Harley M. Benz, Daniel E. McNamara, E. Bergman, R.B Herrmann, Justin L. Rubinstein, Paul S. Earle
2016, Geophysical Research Letters (43) 10,198-10,207
The Mw 5.1 Fairview, Oklahoma, earthquake on 13 February 2016 and its associated seismicity produced the largest moment release in the central and eastern United States since the 2011 Mw 5.7 Prague, Oklahoma, earthquake sequence and is one of the largest earthquakes potentially linked to wastewater injection. This energetic sequence has produced...
Seed bank and big sagebrush plant community composition in a range margin for big sagebrush
Trace E. Martyn, John B. Bradford, Daniel R. Schlaepfer, Ingrid C. Burke, William K. Laurenroth
2016, Ecosphere (7) 1-11
The potential influence of seed bank composition on range shifts of species due to climate change is unclear. Seed banks can provide a means of both species persistence in an area and local range expansion in the case of increasing habitat suitability, as may occur under future climate change. However,...
Household evacuation characteristics in American Samoa during the 2009 Samoa Islands tsunami
Emma J. I. Apatu, Chris E. Gregg, Nathan J. Wood, Liang Wang
2016, Disasters (40) 779-798
Tsunamis represent significant threats to human life and development in coastal communities. This quantitative study examines the influence of household characteristics on evacuation actions taken by 211 respondents in American Samoa who were at their homes during the 29 September 2009 Mw 8.1 Samoa Islands earthquake and tsunami disaster. Multiple...
Climate change is advancing spring onset across the U.S. national park system
William B. Monahan, Alyssa Rosemartin, Katharine L. Gerst, Nicholas A. Fisichelli, Toby R. Ault, Mark D. Schwartz, John E. Gross, Jake F. Weltzin
2016, Ecosphere (7) 1-17
Many U.S. national parks are already at the extreme warm end of their historical temperature distributions. With rapidly warming conditions, park resource management will be enhanced by information on seasonality of climate that supports adjustments in the timing of activities such as treating invasive species, operating visitor facilities, and scheduling...
Atmospheric inputs of organic matter to a forested watershed: Variations from storm to storm over the seasons
Lidiia Iavorivska, Elizabeth W. Boyer, Matthew P. Miller, Michael G. Brown, Terrie Vasilopoulos, Jose D. Fuentes, Christopher J. Duffy
2016, Atmospheric Environment (147) 284-295
The objectives of this study were to determine the quantity and chemical composition of precipitation inputs of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) to a forested watershed; and to characterize the associated temporal variability. We sampled most precipitation that occurred from May 2012 through August 2013 at the Susquehanna Shale Hills Critical Zone...
Automatic delineation of seacliff limits using lidar-derived high-resolution DEMs in southern California
Monica Palaseanu-Lovejoy, Jeffrey J. Danielson, Cindy A. Thatcher, Amy C. Foxgrover, Patrick L. Barnard, John Brock, Adam Young
2016, Journal of Coastal Research 162-173
Seacliff erosion is a serious hazard with implications for coastal management and is often estimated using successive hand-digitized cliff tops or bases (toe) to assess cliff retreat. Even if efforts are made to standardize manual digitizing and eliminate subjectivity, the delineation of cliffs is time-consuming and depends on the analyst's...
Evaluating land cover influences on model uncertainties—A case study of cropland carbon dynamics in the Mid-Continent Intensive Campaign region
Zhengpeng Li, Shuguang Liu, Xuesong Zhang, Tristram O. West, Stephen M. Ogle, Naijun Zhou
2016, Ecological Modelling (337) 176-187
Quantifying spatial and temporal patterns of carbon sources and sinks and their uncertainties across agriculture-dominated areas remains challenging for understanding regional carbon cycles. Characteristics of local land cover inputs could impact the regional carbon estimates but the effect has not been fully evaluated in the past. Within the North American...
Water-level altitudes 2016 and water-level changes in the Chicot, Evangeline, and Jasper aquifers and compaction 1973–2015 in the Chicot and Evangeline aquifers, Houston-Galveston region, Texas
Mark C. Kasmarek, Jason K. Ramage, Michaela R. Johnson
2016, Scientific Investigations Map 3365
Most of the land-surface subsidence in the Houston-Galveston region, Texas, has occurred as a direct result of groundwater withdrawals for municipal supply, commercial and industrial use, and irrigation that depressured and dewatered the Chicot and Evangeline aquifers, thereby causing compaction of the aquifer sediments, mostly in the fine-grained silt and...
Massachusetts reservoir simulation tool—User’s manual
Sara B. Levin
2016, Open-File Report 2016-1136
IntroductionThe U.S. Geological Survey developed the Massachusetts Reservoir Simulation Tool to examine the effects of reservoirs on natural streamflows in Massachusetts by simulating the daily water balance of reservoirs. The simulation tool was developed to assist environmental managers to better manage water withdrawals in reservoirs and to preserve downstream aquatic...
Effects of water-supply reservoirs on streamflow in Massachusetts
Sara B. Levin
2016, Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5123
State and local water-resource managers need modeling tools to help them manage and protect water-supply resources for both human consumption and ecological needs. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, has developed a decision-support tool to estimate the effects of reservoirs on natural streamflow....
Submarine glacial landforms on the Bay of Fundy–northern Gulf of Maine continental shelf
B.J. Todd, J. Shaw, Page C. Valentine
2016, Geological Society, London, Memoirs (46) 429-436
The Bay of Fundy–northern Gulf of Maine region surrounds the southern part of Nova Scotia, encompassing, from west to east, the Bay of Fundy, Grand Manan Basin, German Bank, Browns Bank, Northeast Channel and northeastern Georges Bank (Fig. 1a, b). During the last glacial maximum (c. 24–20 14C ka BP), the...
Helminth community structure in two species of arctic-breeding waterfowl
Courtney L. Amundson, N.J. Traub, A.J. Smith-Herron, Paul L. Flint
2016, International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife (5) 263-272
Climate change is occurring rapidly at high latitudes, and subsequent changes in parasite communities may have implications for hosts including wildlife and humans. Waterfowl, in particular, harbor numerous parasites and may facilitate parasite movement across broad geographic areas due to migratory movements. However, little is known about helminth community structure...
Bathymetric survey and estimation of storage capacity of lower Sixmile Creek reservoir, Ithaca, New York
John F. Wernly, Zajd, William F. Coon
2016, Open-File Report 2016-1157
During 2015, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the City of Ithaca, New York, and the New York State Department of State, conducted a bathymetric survey of the lower Sixmile Creek reservoir in Tompkins County, New York. A former water-supply reservoir for the City of Ithaca, the reservoir is...
Delineation of areas contributing groundwater to selected receiving surface water bodies for long-term average hydrologic conditions from 1968 to 1983 for Long Island, New York
Paul E. Misut, Jack Monti, Jr.
2016, Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5138
To assist resource managers and planners in developing informed strategies to address nitrogen loading to coastal water bodies of Long Island, New York, the U.S. Geological Survey and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation initiated a program to delineate a comprehensive dataset of groundwater recharge areas (or areas...
Geology and mineral resources of the North-Central Idaho Sagebrush Focal Area: Chapter C in Mineral resources of the Sagebrush Focal Areas of Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming
Karen Lund, Lukas Zürcher, Albert H. Hofstra, Bradley S. Van Gosen, Mary Ellen Benson, Stephen E. Box, Eric D. Anderson, Donald I. Bleiwas, Jacob DeAngelo, Ronald M. Drake II, Gregory L. Fernette, Stuart A. Giles, Jonathan M. G. Glen, Jon E. Haacke, John D. Horton, David A. John, Gilpin R. Robinson Jr., Barnaby W. Rockwell, Carma A. San Juan, Brian N. Shaffer, Steven M. Smith, Colin F. Williams
2016, Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5089-C
SummaryThe U.S. Department of the Interior has proposed to withdraw approximately 10 million acres of Federal lands from mineral entry (subject to valid existing rights) from 12 million acres of lands defined as Sagebrush Focal Areas (SFAs) in Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming (for further discussion on the lands...
Geology and mineral resources of the Sheldon-Hart Mountain National Wildlife Refuge Complex (Oregon and Nevada), the Southeastern Oregon and North-Central Nevada, and the Southern Idaho and Northern Nevada (and Utah) Sagebrush Focal Areas: Chapter B in Mineral resources of the Sagebrush Focal Areas of Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming
Peter G. Vikre, Mary Ellen Benson, Donald I. Bleiwas, Joseph P. Colgan, Pamela M. Cossette, Jacob DeAngelo, Connie L. Dicken, Ronald M. Drake II, Edward A. du Bray, Gregory L. Fernette, Jonathan M. G. Glen, Jon E. Haacke, Susan M. Hall, Albert H. Hofstra, David A. John, Stephen Ludington, Mark J. Mihalasky, James J. Rytuba, Brian N. Shaffer, Lisa L. Stillings, John C. Wallis, Colin F. Williams, Douglas B. Yager, Lukas Zürcher
2016, Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5089-B
SummaryThe U.S. Department of the Interior has proposed to withdraw approximately 10 million acres of Federal lands from mineral entry (subject to valid existing rights) from 12 million acres of lands defined as Sagebrush Focal Areas (SFAs) in Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming (for further discussion on the lands...
