Fine-grained linings of leveed channels facilitate runout of granular flows
B.P. Kokelaar, R. L. Graham, J.M.N.T. Gray, James W. Vallance
2014, Earth and Planetary Science Letters (385) 172-180
Catastrophic dense granular flows, such as occur in rock avalanches, debris flows and pyroclastic flows, move as fully shearing mixtures that have approximately 60 vol.% solids and tend to segregate to form coarse-grained fronts and leveed channels. Levees restrict spreading of unconfined flows and form as coarse particles that become...
The environmental geochemistry of Arsenic – An overview
Robert J. Bowell, Charles N. Alpers, Heather E. Jamieson, D. Kirk Nordstrom, Juraj Majzlan
2014, Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry (79) 1-16
Arsenic is one of the most prevalent toxic elements in the environment. The toxicity, mobility, and fate of arsenic in the environment are determined by a complex series of controls dependent on mineralogy, chemical speciation, and biological processes. The element was first described by Theophrastus in 300 B.C. and named...
ARkStorm@Tahoe: Stakeholder perspectives on vulnerabilities and preparedness for an extreme storm event in the greater Lake Tahoe, Reno, and Carson City region
Christine M. Albano, Dale A. Cox, Michael D. Dettinger, Kevin Shaller, Toby L. Welborn, Maureen McCarthy
2014, Report
Atmospheric rivers (ARs) are strongly linked to extreme winter precipitation events in the Western U.S., accounting for 80 percent of extreme floods in the Sierra Nevada and surrounding lowlands. In 2010, the U.S. Geological Survey developed the ARkStorm extreme storm scenario for California to quantify risks from extreme winter storms...
Two approaches for incorporating climate change into natural resource management planning at Wind Cave National Park
Amy J. Symstad, Andrew J. Long, John Stamm, David A. King, Dominque M. Bachelet, Parker A. Norton
2014, Report
Wind Cave National Park (WICA) protects one of the world’s longest caves, has large amounts of high quality, native vegetation, and hosts a genetically important bison herd. The park’s relatively small size and unique purpose within its landscape requires hands-on management of these and other natural resources, all of which...
Fisheries research and monitoring activities of the Lake Erie Biological Station, 2013
Richard T. Kraus, Mark W. Rogers, Patrick Kocovsky, William Edwards, Betsy L. Bodamer Scarbro, Kevin R. Keretz, Stephanie A. Berkman
2014, Report, Compiled Reports to the Great Lakes Fishery Commission of the Annual Bottom Trawl and Acoustic Surveys, 2013
In 2013, the U.S. Geological Survey’s Lake Erie Biological Station successfully completed large vessel surveys in all three of Lake Erie’s basins. Lake Erie Biological Station’s primary vessel surveys included the Western Basin Forage Fish Assessment and East Harbor Forage Fish Assessment as well as contributing to the cooperative multi-agency...
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....
Preface
Robert J. Bowell, Charles N. Alpers, Heather E. Jamieson, D. Kirk Nordstrom, Juraj Majzlan
2014, Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry (79) iii-v
Arsenic is perhaps history’s favorite poison, often termed the “King of Poisons” and the “Poison of Kings” and thought to be the demise of fiction’s most famous ill-fated lovers. The toxic nature of arsenic has been known for millennia with the mineral realgar (AsS), originally named “arsenikon” by Theophrastus in...
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...
Management and monitoring of the endangered Shenandoah salamander under climate change: Workshop report 10-12 April 2012
Evan H. Campbell Grant, John E. B. Wofford, D. R. Smith, J. Dennis, C. Hawkins-Hoffman, J. Schaberl, M. Foley, M. Bogle
2014, Natural Resource Report NPS/SHEN/NRR—2014/867
Here we report on a structured decision making (SDM) process to identify management strategies to ensure persistence of the federally endangered Shenandoah salamander (Plethodon shenandoah), given that it may be at increased extinction risk under projected climate change. The focus of this report is the second of two SDM workshops;...
Seismic evidence for a crustal magma reservoir beneath the upper east rift zone of Kilauea volcano, Hawaii
Guoqing Lin, Falk Amelung, Yan Lavallee, Paul G. Okubo
2014, Geology (42) 187-190
An anomalous body with low Vp (compressional wave velocity), low Vs (shear wave velocity), and high Vp/Vs anomalies is observed at 8–11 km depth beneath the upper east rift zone of Kilauea volcano in Hawaii by simultaneous inversion of seismic velocity structure and earthquake locations. We interpret this body to...
Quantifying spatial scaling patterns and their local and regional correlates in headwater streams: Implications for resilience
Emma Gothe, Leonard Sandin, Craig R. Allen, David G. Angeler
2014, Ecology and Society (19)
The distribution of functional traits within and across spatiotemporal scales has been used to quantify and infer the relative resilience across ecosystems. We use explicit spatial modeling to evaluate within- and cross-scale redundancy in headwater streams, an ecosystem type with a hierarchical and dendritic network structure. We assessed the cross-scale...
Experimental additions of aluminum sulfateand ammonium nitrate to in situ mesocosms toreduce cyanobacterial biovolume and microcystinconcentration
Theodore D. Harris, Frank M. Wilhelm, Jennifer L. Graham, Keith A. Loftin
2014, Lake and Reservoir Management (30) 84-93
Recent studies suggest that nitrogen additions to increase the total nitrogen:total phosphorus (TN:TP) ratio may reduce cyanobacterial biovolume and microcystin concentration in reservoirs. In systems where TP is >100 μg/L, however, nitrogen additions to increase the TN:TP ratio could cause ammonia, nitrate, or nitrite toxicity to terrestrial and aquatic organisms. Reducing phosphorus via...
Applying threshold concepts to conservation management of dryland ecosystems: Case studies on the Colorado Plateau
Matthew A. Bowker, Mark E. Miller, Steven L. Garman, Travis Belote
Glenn R. Guntenspergen, editor(s)
2014, Book chapter, Application of threshold concepts in natural resource decision making
Ecosystems may occupy functionally distinct alternative states, some of which are more or less desirable from a management standpoint. Transitions from state to state are usually associated with a particular trigger or sequence of triggers, such as the addition or subtraction of a disturbance. Transitions are often not linear, rather...
Earth observation based assessment of the water production and water consumption of Nile Basin agro-ecosystems
Wim Bastiaanssen, Poolad Karimi, Lisa-Maria Rebelo, Zheng Duan, Gabriel B. Senay, Lal Muthuwatte, Vladimir Smakhtin
2014, Remote Sensing (6) 10306-10334
The increasing competition for water resources requires a better understanding of flows, fluxes, stocks, and the services and benefits related to water consumption. This paper explains how public domain Earth Observation data based on Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), Second Generation Meteosat (MSG), Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission (TRMM) and various...
Stable occupancy by breeding hawks (Buteo spp.) over 25 years on a privately managed bunchgrass prairie in northeastern Oregon, USA
Patricia L. Kennedy, Anne M. Bartuszevige, Marcy Houle, Ann B. Humphrey, Katie M. Dugger, John Williams
2014, The Condor (116) 435-445
Potential for large prairie remnants to provide habitat for grassland-obligate wildlife may be compromised by nonsustainable range-management practices. In 1979–1980, high nesting densities of 3 species of hawks in the genus Buteo—Ferruginous Hawk (Buteo regalis), Red-tailed Hawk (B. jamaicensis), and Swainson's Hawk (B. swainsoni)—were documented on the Zumwalt Prairie and surrounding...
Modeling the hydrogeophysical response of lake talik evolution
Burke J. Minsley, Tristan Wellman, Michelle Ann Walvoord, Andre Revil
2014, Conference Paper, SEG Technical Program Expanded Abstracts 2014
Geophysical methods provide valuable information about subsurface permafrost and its relation to dynamic hydrologic systems. Airborne electromagnetic data from interior Alaska are used to map the distribution of permafrost, geological features, surface water, and groundwater. To validate and gain further insight into these field datasets, we also explore the geophysical...
Use of multi-sensor active fire detections to map fires in the United States: the future of monitoring trends in burn severity
Joshua J. Picotte, Michael Coan, Stephen M. Howard
2014, Conference Paper, Proceedings: Wildland fire in the Appalachians: Discussions among managers and scientists. General Technical Report SRS-199
The effort to utilize satellite-based MODIS, AVHRR, and GOES fire detections from the Hazard Monitoring System (HMS) to identify undocumented fires in Florida and improve the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS) mapping process has yielded promising results. This method was augmented using regression tree models to identify burned/not-burned pixels...
Predicting Impacts of tropical cyclones and sea-Level rise on beach mouse habitat
Q. Chen, Hongqing Wang, Lixia Wang, Robert Tawes, Drew Rollman
2014, Journal of Coastal Research (68) 12-19
Alabama beach mouse (ABM) (Peromyscus polionotus ammobates) is an important component of the coastal dune ecosystem along the Gulf of Mexico. Due to habitat loss and degradation, ABM is federally listed as an endangered species. In this study, we examined the impacts of storm surge and wind waves, which are...
Continuous water-quality and suspended-sediment transport monitoring in the San Francisco Bay, California, water years 2011–13
Paul A. Buchanan, Maureen A. Downing-Kunz, David H. Schoellhamer, Gregory Shellenbarger, Kurt Weidich
2014, Fact Sheet 2014-3090
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) monitors water quality and suspended-sediment transport in the San Francisco Bay. The San Francisco Bay area is home to millions of people, and the bay teems with both resident and migratory wildlife, plants, and fish. Fresh water mixes with salt water in the bay, which...
Well log and 2D seismic data character of the Wilcox Group in south-central Louisiana
Catherine B. Enomoto
2014, Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies Transactions (64) 105-118
Well logs and 2D seismic data were used to interpret the depth and morphology of potential Paleocene and lower Eocene Wilcox Group slope and basin-floor reservoirs in south-central Louisiana. These may occur in a poorly explored area previously estimated by the U.S. Geological Survey to contain a mean undiscovered conventional...
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...
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...
Water quality monitoring protocol for wadeable streams and rivers in the Northern Great Plains Network
Marcia H. Wilson, Barbara L. Rowe, Robert A. Gitzen, Stephen K. Wilson, Kara J. Paintner-Green
2014, Natural Resource Report NPS/NGPN/NRR—2014/868
Preserving the national parks unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations is a fundamental purpose of the National Park Service (NPS). To address growing concerns regarding the overall physical, chemical, and biological elements and processes of park ecosystems, the NPS implemented science-based management through “Vital Signs” monitoring in 270 national...
Exchange of nitrogen and phosphorus between a shallow lagoon and coastal waters
Melanie Hayn, Robert W. Howarth, Neil K. Ganju, Peter Berg, Kenneth H. Foreman, Anne E. Giblin, Karen McGlathery
2014, Estuaries and Coasts (37) 63-73
West Falmouth Harbor, a shallow lagoon on Cape Cod, has experienced a threefold increase in nitrogen load since the mid- to late 1990s due to input from a groundwater plume contaminated by a municipal wastewater treatment plant. We measured the exchange of nitrogen and phosphorus between the harbor and the...
Impact of increasing market access on a tropical small-scale fishery
Kara Stevens, Brian J. Irwin, Daniel Kramer, Gerald Urquhart
2014, Marine Policy (50) 46-52
Small-scale fisheries have historically been marginalized in management and policy investments, and they often remain under-reported in national economic and fisheries statistics. Even so, small-scale fisheries are not entirely buffered from the impacts of globalization, such as the introduction and expansion of markets. This study measures the long-term impact of...
