Does the stress-gradient hypothesis hold water? Disentangling spatial and temporal variation in plant effects on soil moisture in dryland systems
Bradley J. Butterfield, John B. Bradford, Cristina Armas, Ivan Prieto, Francisco I. Pugnaire
2016, Functional Ecology (30) 10-19
The nature of the relationship between water limitation and facilitation has been one of the most contentious debates surrounding the stress-gradient hypothesis (SGH), which states that plant-plant interactions shift from competition to facilitation with increasing environmental stress. We take a closer look at the potential role of soil...
Consistent and efficient processing of ADCP streamflow measurements
David S. Mueller
George Constantinescu, Marcelo H. Garcia, Dan Hanes, editor(s)
2016, Conference Paper, River Flow 2016: Proceedings of the international conference on fluvial hydraulics
The use of Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers (ADCPs) from a moving boat is a commonly used method for measuring streamflow. Currently, the algorithms used to compute the average depth, compute edge discharge, identify invalid data, and estimate velocity and discharge for invalid data vary among manufacturers. These differences could result...
Conflation and integration of archived geologic maps and associated uncertainties
Thomas G. Shoberg
2016, Journal of Geography and Geology (8) 28-40
Old, archived geologic maps are often available with little or no associated metadata. This creates special problems in terms of extracting their data to use with a modern database. This research focuses on some problems and uncertainties associated with conflating older geologic maps in regions where modern geologic maps are,...
Rating curve uncertainty: A comparison of estimation methods
Mason Jr., Julie E. Kiang, Timothy A. Cohn
George Constantinescu, Marcelo H. Garcia, Dan Hanes, editor(s)
2016, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the international conference on fluvial hydraulics (river flow 2016)
The USGS is engaged in both internal development and collaborative efforts to evaluate existing methods for characterizing the uncertainty of streamflow measurements (gaugings), stage-discharge relations (ratings), and, ultimately, the streamflow records derived from them. This paper provides a brief overview of two candidate methods that may be used to characterize...
Integrated modeling approach for fate and transport of submerged oil and oil-particle aggregates in a freshwater riverine environment
Faith A. Fitzpatrick, Rex Johnson, Zhenduo Zhu, David Waterman, Richard D. McCulloch, Earl Hayter, Marcelo H. Garcia, Michel C. Boufadel, Timothy Dekker, Jacob S. Hassan, David T. Soong, Christopher J. Hoard, Kenneth Lee
2016, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the joint federal interagency conference 2015
The Enbridge Line 6B pipeline release of diluted bitumen into the Kalamazoo River downstream of Marshall, Michigan, U.S.A., in July 2010 was one of the largest oil spills into freshwater in North American history. A portion of the oil interacted with river sediment and submerged requiring the development and implementation...
LakeMetabolizer: An R package for estimating lake metabolism from free-water oxygen using diverse statistical models
Luke Winslow, Jacob A. Zwart, Ryan D. Batt, Hilary A. Dugan, R. Iestyn Woolway, Jessica Corman, Paul C. Hanson, Jordan S. Read
2016, Inland Waters (6) 622-636
Metabolism is a fundamental process in ecosystems that crosses multiple scales of organization from individual organisms to whole ecosystems. To improve sharing and reuse of published metabolism models, we developed LakeMetabolizer, an R package for estimating lake metabolism from in situ time series of dissolved oxygen, water temperature, and, optionally, additional environmental...
A comparison of helicopter-borne electromagnetic systems for hydrogeologic studies
Paul A. Bedrosian, Cyril Schamper, Esben Auken
2016, Geophysical Prospecting (64) 192-215
The increased application of airborne electromagnetic surveys to hydrogeological studies is driving a demand for data that can consistently be inverted for accurate subsurface resistivity structure from the near surface to depths of several hundred metres. We present an evaluation of three commercial airborne electromagnetic systems over two test blocks...
Hydrologic effects on diameter growth phenology for Celtis laevigata and Quercus lyrata in the floodplain of the lower White River, Arkansas
Scott T. Allen, Wesley Cochran, Ken W. Krauss, Richard F. Keim, Sammy L. King
Callie Jo Schweitzer, Wayne K. Clatterbuck, Christopher M. Oswalt, editor(s)
2016, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the 18th Biennial Southern Silvicultural Research Conference: USDA Forest Service General Technical Report SRS-212
Bottomland hardwood (BLH) forests represent an extensive wetland system in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley and southeastern USA, and it is currently undergoing widespread transition in species composition. One such transition involves increased establishment of sugarberry (Celtis laevigata), and decreased establishment of overcup oak (Quercus lyrata). The ecological mechanisms that control...
Louisiana waterthrush and benthic macroinvertebrate response to shale gas development
Petra Wood, Mack W. Frantz, Douglas A. Becker
2016, Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management (7) 423-433
Because shale gas development is occurring over large landscapes and consequently is affecting many headwater streams, an understanding of its effects on headwater-stream faunal communities is needed. We examined effects of shale gas development (well pads and associated infrastructure) on Louisiana waterthrush Parkesia motacilla and benthic macroinvertebrate communities in 12...
An evaluation of methods for estimating decadal stream loads
Casey J. Lee, Robert M. Hirsch, Gregory E. Schwarz, David J. Holtschlag, Stephen D. Preston, Charles G. Crawford, Aldo V. Vecchia
2016, Journal of Hydrology (542) 185-203
Effective management of water resources requires accurate information on the mass, or load of water-quality constituents transported from upstream watersheds to downstream receiving waters. Despite this need, no single method has been shown to consistently provide accurate load estimates among different water-quality constituents, sampling sites, and sampling regimes. We evaluate...
Earthquake probabilities for the Wasatch front region in Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming
Ivan G. Wong, William R. Lund, Christopher B. DuRoss, Patricia Thomas, Walter Arabasz, Anthony J. Crone, Michael D. Hylland, Nico Luco, Susan S. Olig, James C. Pechmann, Stephen Personius, Mark D. Petersen, David P. Schwartz, Robert B. Smith, Steve Rowman
2016, Report
In a letter to The Salt Lake Daily Tribune in September 1883, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) geologist G.K. Gilbert warned local residents about the implications of observable fault scarps along the western base of the Wasatch Range. The scarps were evidence that large surface-rupturing earthquakes had occurred in the past...
Improved geomagnetic referencing in the Arctic environment
B. Poedjono, N. Beck, A. C. Buchanan, L. Borri, S. Maus, Carol Finn, E. William Worthington, Tim White
2016, Conference Paper
Geomagnetic referencing uses the Earth’s magnetic field to determine accurate wellbore positioning essential for success in today's complex drilling programs, either as an alternative or a complement to north-seeking gyroscopic referencing. However, fluctuations in the geomagnetic field, especially at high latitudes, make the application of geomagnetic referencing in those areas...
Montane Forests
Malcolm P. North, Brandon M. Collins, Hugh D. Safford, Nathan L. Stephenson
2016, Book chapter, Ecosystems of California
This long-anticipated reference and sourcebook for California’s remarkable ecological abundance provides an integrated assessment of each major ecosystem type—its distribution, structure, function, and management. A comprehensive synthesis of our knowledge about this biologically diverse state, Ecosystems of California covers the state from oceans to mountaintops using multiple lenses: past and...
Stratigraphic architecture of a fluvial-lacustrine basin-fill succession at Desolation Canyon, Uinta Basin, Utah: Reference to Walthers’ Law and implications for the petroleum industry
Grace L. Ford, David R. Pyles, Marieke Dechesne
2016, Mountain Geologist (53) 5-28
A continuous window into the fluvial-lacustrine basin-fill succession of the Uinta Basin is exposed along a 48-mile (77-kilometer) transect up the modern Green River from Three Fords to Sand Wash in Desolation Canyon, Utah. In ascending order the stratigraphic units are: 1) Flagstaff Limestone, 2) lower Wasatch member of...
Coral calcification and ocean acidification
Paul L. Jokiel, Christopher P. Jury, Ilsa B. Kuffner
2016, Book chapter, Coral reefs at the crossroads
Over 60 years ago, the discovery that light increased calcification in the coral plant-animal symbiosis triggered interest in explaining the phenomenon and understanding the mechanisms involved. Major findings along the way include the observation that carbon fixed by photosynthesis in the zooxanthellae is translocated to animal cells throughout the colony...
Drivers of Caribbean freshwater ecosystems and fisheries
Thomas J. Kwak, Augustin C. Engman, Jesse R. Fischer, Craig G. Lilyestrom
2016, Book chapter, Freshwater, fish and the future: Proceedings of the Global Cross-Sectoral Conference
No abstract available....
Comparative mitogenomic analyses of three North American stygobiont amphipods of the genus Stygobromus (Crustacea: Amphipoda)
Aaron W. Aunins, David L. Nelms, Christopher S. Hobson, Tim L. King
2016, Mitochondrial DNA Part B (1) 560-563
The mitochondrial genomes of three North American stygobiont amphipods Stygobromus tenuis potomacus, S. foliatus and S. indentatus collected from Caroline County, VA, were sequenced using a shotgun sequencing approach on an Illumina NextSeq500 (Illumina Inc., San Diego, CA). All three mitogenomes displayed 13 protein-coding genes, 22 tRNAs and two rRNAs typical of metazoans. While S. tenuis and S....
A simple prioritization tool to diagnose impairment of stream temperature for coldwater fishes in the Great Basin
Jeffrey A. Falke, Jason B. Dunham, David Hockman-Wert, Randy A. Pahl
2016, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (36) 147-160
We provide a simple framework for diagnosing the impairment of stream water temperature for coldwater fishes across broad spatial extents based on a weight-of-evidence approach that integrates biological criteria, species distribution models, and geostatistical models of stream temperature. As a test case, we applied our approach to identify stream reaches...
Addressing potential local adaptation in species distribution models: implications for conservation under climate change
Maria Helena Hallfors, Jishan Liao, Jason D. K. Dzurisin, Ralph Grundel, Marko Hyvarinen, Kevin Towle, Grace C. Wu, Jessica J. Hellmann
2016, Ecological Applications (26) 1154-1169
Species distribution models (SDMs) have been criticized for involving assumptions that ignore or categorize many ecologically relevant factors such as dispersal ability and biotic interactions. Another potential source of model error is the assumption that species are ecologically uniform in their climatic tolerances across their range. Typically, SDMs to treat...
Female sea lamprey shift orientation toward a conspecific chemical cue to escape a sensory trap
Cory O. Brant, Nicholas S. Johnson, Ke Li, Tyler J. Buchinger, Weiming Li
2016, Behavioral Ecology (27) 810-819
The sensory trap model of signal evolution hypothesizes that signalers adapt to exploit a cue used by the receiver in another context. Although exploitation of receiver biases can result in conflict between the sexes, deceptive signaling systems that are mutually beneficial drive the evolution of stable communication systems. However, female...
Water-quality effects on phytoplankton species and density and trophic state indices at Big Base and Little Base Lakes, Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas, June through August, 2015
Lucas Driver, Billy Justus
2016, Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science (70) 88-95
Big Base and Little Base Lakes are located on Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas, and their close proximity to a dense residential population and an active military/aircraft installation make the lakes vulnerable to water-quality degradation. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) conducted a study from June through August 2015 to investigate the effects of water quality on...
Water-quality response to a high-elevation wildfire in the Colorado Front Range
M. Alisa Mast, Sheila F. Murphy, David W. Clow, Colin A. Penn, Graham A. Sexstone
2016, Hydrological Processes (30) 1811-1823
Water quality of the Big Thompson River in the Front Range of Colorado was studied for 2 years following a high‐elevation wildfire that started in October 2012 and burned 15% of the watershed. A combination of fixed‐interval sampling and continuous water‐quality monitors was used to examine the timing and magnitude of...
Evolution of mid-Atlantic coastal and back-barrier estuary environments in response to a hurricane: Implications for barrier-estuary connectivity
Jennifer L. Miselis, Brian D. Andrews, Robert S. Nicholson, Zafer Defne, Neil K. Ganju, Anthony S. Navoy
2016, Estuaries and Coasts (39) 916-934
Assessments of coupled barrier island-estuary storm response are rare. Hurricane Sandy made landfall during an investigation in Barnegat Bay-Little Egg Harbor estuary that included water quality monitoring, geomorphologic characterization, and numerical modeling; this provided an opportunity to characterize the storm response of the barrier island-estuary system. Barrier island morphologic response...
Identification of groundwater nitrate contamination from explosives used in road construction: Isotopic, chemical, and hydrologic evidence
James R. Degnan, John Karl Bohlke, Krystle Pelham, David M. Langlais, Gregory J. Walsh
2016, Environmental Science & Technology (50) 593-603
Explosives used in construction have been implicated as sources of NO3– contamination in groundwater, but direct forensic evidence is limited. Identification of blasting-related NO3– can be complicated by other NO3– sources, including agriculture and wastewater disposal, and by hydrogeologic factors affecting NO3– transport and stability. Here we describe a study that used hydrogeology, chemistry,...
Quantifying watershed-scale groundwater loading and in-stream fate of nitrate using high-frequency water quality data
Matthew P. Miller, Anthony J. Tesoriero, Paul D. Capel, Brian A. Pellerin, Kenneth E. Hyer, Douglas A. Burns
2016, Water Resources Research (52) 330-347
We describe a new approach that couples hydrograph separation with high-frequency nitrate data to quantify time-variable groundwater and runoff loading of nitrate to streams, and the net in-stream fate of nitrate at the watershed-scale. The approach was applied at three sites spanning gradients in watershed size and land use in...
