Mount Rainier National Park
Robert Hoffman, Andrea Woodward, Patricia K. Haggerty, Kurt J. Jenkins, Paul C. Griffin, M. J. Adams, Joan Hagar, Tonnie Cummings, Dan Duriscoe, Karen Kopper, Jon Riedel, Barbara Samora, Lelaina Marin, Guillaume S. Mauger, Karen Bumbaco, Jeremy S. Littell
2014, Report
Natural Resource Condition Assessments (NRCAs) evaluate current conditions for a subset of natural resources and resource indicators in national parks. NRCAs also report on trends in resource condition (when possible), identify critical data gaps, and characterize a general level of confidence for study findings. The resources and indicators emphasized in...
Combined global change effects on ecosystem processesin nine U.S. topographically complex areas
Melannie D. Hartman, Jill S. Baron, Holly A. Ewing, Kathleen Weathers
2014, Biogeochemistry (119) 85-108
Concurrent changes in climate, atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition, and increasing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) affect ecosystems in complex ways. The DayCent-Chem model was used to investigate the combined effects of these human-caused drivers of change over the period 1980–2075 at seven forested montane and two alpine watersheds in...
Stratigraphy, structure and regional correlation of eastern Blue Ridge sequences in southern Virginia and northwestern North Carolina: an interim report from new USGS mapping
Mark W. Carter, Arthur J. Merschat
2014, GSA Field Guides (35) 215-241
Examination of key outcrops in the eastern Blue Ridge in southern Virginia and northwestern North Carolina is used to evaluate existing stratigraphic and structural models. Recent detailed mapping along the Blue Ridge Parkway and the eastern flank of the Mount Rogers massif provides the opportunity to (1) evaluate legacy...
Science applications of a multispectral microscopic imager for the astrobiological exploration of Mars
Jorge Nunez, Jack Farmer, R. Glenn Sellar, Gregg A. Swayze, Diana L. Blaney
2014, Astrobiology (14) 132-169
Future astrobiological missions to Mars are likely to emphasize the use of rovers with in situ petrologic capabilities for selecting the best samples at a site for in situ analysis with onboard lab instruments or for caching for potential return to Earth. Such observations are central to an understanding of the potential for past...
Changes in vegetation and biological soil crust communities on sand dunes stabilizing after a century of grazing on San Miguel Island, Channel Island National Park, California
Kristine L. Zellman
2014, Monographs of the Western North American Naturalist (7) 225-245
San Miguel Island is the westernmost of the California Channel Islands and one of the windiest areas on the west coast of North America. The majority of the island is covered by coastal sand dunes, which were stripped of vegetation and subsequently mobilized due to droughts and sheep ranching during...
Forest ecosystem reorganization underway in the Southwestern US: A preview of widespread forest changes in the Anthropocene
Craig D. Allen
V. Alaric Sample, R. Patrick Bixler, editor(s)
2014, Proceedings RMRS-P-71
No abstract available....
Self-recognition in corals facilitates deep-sea habitat engineering
Sebastian J Hennige, Cheryl L. Morrison, Armin U. Form, Janina Buscher, Nicholas A. Kamenos, J. Murray Roberts
2014, Scientific Reports (4) 1-7
The ability of coral reefs to engineer complex three-dimensional habitats is central to their success and the rich biodiversity they support. In tropical reefs, encrusting coralline algae bind together substrates and dead coral framework to make continuous reef structures, but beyond the photic zone, the cold-water coral Lophelia pertusa also...
Hillslope-scale experiment demonstrates role of convergence during two-step saturation
A. I. Gevaert, A. J. Teuling, R. Uijlenhoet, Stephen B. DeLong, T. E. Huxman, L. A. Pangle, David D. Breshears, J. Chorover, John D. Pelletier, S. R. Saleska, X. Zeng, Peter A. Troch
2014, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (18) 3681-1692
Subsurface flow and storage dynamics at hillslope scale are difficult to ascertain, often in part due to a lack of sufficient high-resolution measurements and an incomplete understanding of boundary conditions, soil properties, and other environmental aspects. A continuous and extreme rainfall experiment on an artificial hillslope at Biosphere 2's Landscape...
Openness to the unexpected: Our Pathways to Careers in a Federal Research Laboratory.
Kurt R. Newman, David B. Bunnell, Darryl W. Hondorp
William W. Taylor, Abigail J. Lynch, Nancy J. Leonard, editor(s)
2014, Book chapter, Future of fisheries: Perspectives for emerging professionals
Many fisheries professionals may not be in the job they originally envisioned for themselves when they began their undergraduate studies. Rather, their current positions could be the result of unexpected, opportunistic, or perhaps even “lucky” open doors that led them down an unexpected path. In many cases, a mentor helped...
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...
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...
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...
The Wallula fault and tectonic framework of south-central Washington, as interpreted from magnetic and gravity anomalies
Richard J. Blakely, Brian L. Sherrod, Craig S. Weaver, Ray E. Wells, Alan C. Rohay
2014, Tectonophysics (624-625) 32-45
The Yakima fold and thrust belt (YFTB) in central Washington has accommodated regional, mostly north-directed, deformation of the Cascadia backarc since prior to emplacement of Miocene flood basalt of the Columbia River Basalt Group (CRBG). The YFTB consists of two structural domains. Northern folds of the YFTB strike eastward and...
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...
Book review: Decision making in natural resource management: A structured adaptive approach
Angela K. Fuller
2014, Journal of Wildlife Management (78) 175-176
No abstract available.Book information: Decision Making in Natural Resource Management: A Structured Adaptive Approach. Michael J. Conroy and James T. Peterson, 2013. Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, UK. 456 pp. $99.95 paperback. ISBN: 978-0-470-67174-0....
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...
Integrating recent land cover mapping efforts to update the National Gap Analysis Program's species habitat map
Alexa McKerrow, A. Davidson, Todd Earnhardt, Abigail L. Benson
Charles Toth, Thomas Holm, Boris Jutz, editor(s)
2014, Conference Paper, Proceedings: ISPRS Technical Commission I Symposium (Volume XL-1)
Over the past decade, great progress has been made to develop national extent land cover mapping products to address natural resource issues. One of the core products of the GAP Program is range-wide species distribution models for nearly 2000 terrestrial vertebrate species in the U.S. We rely on deductive modeling...
Hydroclimatic regimes: a distributed water-balance framework for hydrologic assessment, classification, and management
Peter K. Weiskel, David M. Wolock, Phillip J. Zarriello, Richard M. Vogel, Sara B. Levin, Robert M. Lent
2014, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (18) 3855-3872
Runoff-based indicators of terrestrial water availability are appropriate for humid regions, but have tended to limit our basic hydrologic understanding of drylands – the dry-subhumid, semiarid, and arid regions which presently cover nearly half of the global land surface. In response, we introduce an indicator framework that gives equal weight...
2013 status of the Lake Ontario lower trophic levels
Kristen T. Holeck, Lars G. Rudstam, Christopher Hotaling, Russ D. McCullough, Dave Lemon, Web Pearsall, Jana R. Lantry, Michael J. Connerton, Steve LaPan, Betsy Trometer, Brian F. Lantry, Maureen Walsh, Brian Weidel
2014, NYSDEC Lake Ontario Annual Report 2013-16
Phosphorus showed high variation across nearshore (10 m depth) sites but was more stable at offshore (20 m and deeper) stations. In June and July, sites at the mouth of the Niagara River and at Oak Orchard had high phosphorus concentrations (20 – 46 μg/L). Epilimnetic average April-Oct total phosphorus...
Predicting the spatial extent of liquefaction from geospatial and earthquake specific parameters
Jing Zhu, Laurie G. Baise, Eric M. Thompson, David J. Wald, Keith L. Knudsen
George Deodatis, Bruce R. Ellingwood, Dan M. Frangopol, editor(s)
2014, Conference Paper, Safety, reliability, risk and life-cycle performance of structures and infrastructures: Proceedings of the 11th international conference on structural safety and reliability
The spatially extensive damage from the 2010-2011 Christchurch, New Zealand earthquake events are a reminder of the need for liquefaction hazard maps for anticipating damage from future earthquakes. Liquefaction hazard mapping as traditionally relied on detailed geologic mapping and expensive site studies. These traditional techniques are difficult to apply globally...
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,...
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...
Development of a generic auto-calibration package for regional ecological modeling and application in the Central Plains of the United States
Yiping Wu, Shuguang Liu, Zhengpeng Li, Devendra Dahal, Claudia J. Young, Gail L. Schmidt, Jinxun Liu, Brian Davis, Terry L. Sohl, Jeremy M. Werner, Jennifer Oeding
2014, Ecological Informatics (19) 35-46
Process-oriented ecological models are frequently used for predicting potential impacts of global changes such as climate and land-cover changes, which can be useful for policy making. It is critical but challenging to automatically derive optimal parameter values at different scales, especially at regional scale, and validate the model performance. In...
Thermodynamic properties for arsenic minerals and aqueous species
D. Kirk Nordstrom, Juraj Majzlan, Erich Konigsberger
Robert J. Bowell, Charles N. Alpers, Heather E. Jamieson, D. Kirk Nordstrom, Juraj Majzlan, editor(s)
2014, Book chapter, Arsenic: Environmental geochemistry, mineralogy, and microbiology (Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry no. 79)
Quantitative geochemical calculations are not possible without thermodynamic databases and considerable advances in the quantity and quality of these databases have been made since the early days of Lewis and Randall (1923), Latimer (1952), and Rossini et al. (1952). Oelkers et al. (2009) wrote, “The creation...
"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...
