Phytotoxicity of zinc and manganese to seedlings grown in soil contaminated by zinc smelting
W. N. Beyer, C.E. Green, M. Beyer, R. L. Chaney
2013, Environmental Pollution (179) 167-176
Historic emissions from two zinc smelters have injured the forest on Blue Mountain near Palmerton, Pennsylvania, USA. Seedlings of soybeans and five tree species were grown in a greenhouse in a series of mixtures of smelter-contaminated and reference soils and then phytotoxic thresholds were calculated. As little as 10% Palmerton...
Development of a numerical model to simulate groundwater flow in the shallow aquifer system of Assateague Island, Maryland and Virginia
John P. Masterson, Michael N. Fienen, Dean B. Gesch, Carl S. Carlson
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1111
A three-dimensional groundwater-flow model was developed for Assateague Island in eastern Maryland and Virginia to simulate both groundwater flow and solute (salt) transport to evaluate the groundwater system response to sea-level rise. The model was constructed using geologic and spatial information to represent the island geometry, boundaries, and physical properties...
Do hummocks provide a physiological advantage to even the most flood tolerant of tidal freshwater trees?
Jamie A. Duberstein, Ken W. Krauss, William H. Conner, William C. Bridges Jr., Victor B. Shelburne
2013, Wetlands (33) 399-408
Hummock and hollow microtopography is pervasive in tidal freshwater swamps. Many tree species grow atop hummocks significantly more than in hollows, leading to the hypothesis that hummocks provide preferred locations for maximizing physiological proficiency of inhabiting trees that experience repeated flooding. We used thermal dissipation probes to measure the ecophysiological...
History and evaluation of national-scale geochemical data sets for the United States
David B. Smith, Steven M. Smith, John D. Horton
2013, Geoscience Frontiers (4) 167-183
Six national-scale, or near national-scale, geochemical data sets for soils or stream sediments exist for the United States. The earliest of these, here termed the ‘Shacklette’ data set, was generated by a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) project conducted from 1961 to 1975. This project used soil collected from a depth...
Human and biophysical influences on fire occurrence in the United States
Todd Hawbaker, Volker C. Radeloff, Susan I. Stewart, Roger B. Hammer, Nicholas S. Keuler, Murray K. Clayton
2013, Ecological Applications (23) 565-582
National-scale analyses of fire occurrence are needed to prioritize fire policy and management activities across the United States. However, the drivers of national-scale patterns of fire occurrence are not well understood, and how the relative importance of human or biophysical factors varies across the country is unclear. Our research goal...
Groundwater well inventory and assessment in the area of the proposed Normally Pressured Lance natural gas development project, Green River Basin, Wyoming, 2012
Michael J. Sweat
2013, Data Series 770
During May through September 2012, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Bureau of Land Management, inventoried and assessed existing water wells in southwestern Wyoming for inclusion in a possible groundwater-monitor network. Records were located for 3,282 wells in the upper Green River Basin, which includes the U.S. Geological...
Identical metabolic rate and thermal conductance in Rock Sandpiper (Calidris ptilocnemis) subspecies with contrasting nonbreeding life histories
Daniel R. Ruthrauff, Anne Dekinga, Robert E. Gill Jr., Theunis Piersma
2013, The Auk (130) 60-68
Closely related species or subspecies can exhibit metabolic differences that reflect site-specific environmental conditions. Whether such differences represent fixed traits or flexible adjustments to local conditions, however, is difficult to predict across taxa. The nominate race of Rock Sandpiper (Calidris ptilocnemis) exhibits the most northerly nonbreeding distribution of any shorebird...
Summary of science, activities, programs, and policies that influence the rangewide conservation of Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus)
D.J. Manier, David J.A. Wood, Z.H. Bowen, R.M. Donovan, M.J. Holloran, L.M. Juliusson, K.S. Mayne, S.J. Oyler-McCance, F.R. Quamen, D.J. Saher, A.J. Titolo
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1098
The Greater Sage-Grouse, has been observed, hunted, and counted for decades. The sagebrush biome, home to the Greater Sage-Grouse, includes sagebrush-steppe and Great Basin sagebrush communities, interspersed with grasslands, salt flats, badlands, mountain ranges, springs, intermittent creeks and washes, and major river systems, and is one of the most widespread...
The timing of scour and fill in a gravel-bedded river measured with buried accelerometers
Andrew S. Gendaszek, Christopher S. Magirl, Christiana R. Czuba, Christopher P. Konrad
2013, Journal of Hydrology (495) 186-196
A device that measures the timing of streambed scour and the duration of sediment mobilization at specific depths of a streambed was developed using data-logging accelerometers placed within the gravel substrate of the Cedar River, Washington, USA. Each accelerometer recorded its orientation every 20 min and remained stable until the...
Heterogeneous rupture in the great Cascadia earthquake of 1700 inferred from coastal subsidence estimates
Pei-Ling Wang, Simon E. Engelhart, Kelin Wang, Andrea D. Hawkes, Benjamin P. Horton, Alan R. Nelson, Robert C. Witter
2013, Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth (118) 2460-2473
Past earthquake rupture models used to explain paleoseismic estimates of coastal subsidence during the great A.D. 1700 Cascadia earthquake have assumed a uniform slip distribution along the megathrust. Here we infer heterogeneous slip for the Cascadia margin in A.D. 1700 that is analogous to slip distributions during instrumentally recorded great...
Landscape consequences of natural gas extraction in Fayette and Lycoming Counties, Pennsylvania, 2004–2010
E.T. Slonecker, L.E. Milheim, C.M. Roig-Silva, A.R. Malizia, B.H. Gillenwater
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1119
Increased demands for cleaner burning energy, coupled with the relatively recent technological advances in accessing unconventional hydrocarbon-rich geologic formations, have led to an intense effort to find and extract natural gas from various underground sources around the country. One of these sources, the Marcellus Shale, located in the Allegheny Plateau,...
UNLV’s environmentally friendly Science and Engineering Building is monitored for earthquake shaking
Erol Kalkan, Woody Savage, Shahneam Reza, Eric Knight, Ying Tian
2013, Fact Sheet 2013-3022
The University of Nevada Las Vegas’ (UNLV) Science and Engineering Building is at the cutting edge of environmentally friendly design. As the result of a recent effort by the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Strong Motion Project in cooperation with UNLV, the building is now also in the forefront of buildings...
Documenting the stages and streamflows associated with the 2011 activation of the New Madrid Floodway, Missouri
Todd A. Koenig, Robert R. Holmes Jr.
2013, Professional Paper 1798-E
The U.S. Geological Survey initiated a substantial effort in the summer of 2011 to measure and document the record-setting floods of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, including the reach in and near the New Madrid Floodway. The activation of the floodway, which had not occurred since 1937, provided a rare...
Mercury in wetlands at the Glacial Ridge National Wildlife Refuge, northwestern Minnesota, 2007-9
Timothy K. Cowdery, Mark E. Brigham
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5068
The Glacial Ridge National Wildlife Refuge was established in 2004 on land in northwestern Minnesota that had previously undergone extensive wetland and prairie restorations. About 7,000 acres of drained wetlands were restored to their original hydrologic function and aquatic ecosystem. During 2007–9, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the...
Habitat use and diet composition of juvenile Atlantic salmon in a tributary of Lake Ontario
James H. Johnson
2013, Journal of Great Lakes Research (39) 162-167
The habitat use and diet of juvenile Atlantic salmon Salmo salar was examined in the South Sandy Creek drainage that discharges into eastern Lake Ontario. Subyearling salmon were stocked in early May during two consecutive years, and habitat and diet evaluations were made in mid-July and mid-October in 2005 and...
Grizzly bear predation links the loss of native trout to the demography of migratory elk in Yellowstone
Arthur D. Middleton, Thomas A. Morrison, Jennifer K. Fortin, Charles T. Robbins, Kelly M. Proffitt, P.J. White, Douglas E. McWhirter, Todd M. Koel, Douglas G. Brimeyer, W. Sue Fairbanks, Matthew J. Kauffman
2013, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (280)
The loss of aquatic subsidies such as spawning salmonids is known to threaten a number of terrestrial predators, but the effects on alternative prey species are poorly understood. At the heart of the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem, an invasion of lake trout has driven a dramatic decline of native cutthroat trout...
Animal migration amid shifting patterns of phenology and predation: Lessons from a Yellowstone elk herd
Arthur D. Middleton, Matthew J. Kauffman, Douglas E. McWhirter, John G. Cook, Rachel C. Cook, Abigail A. Nelson, Michael D. Jimenez, Robert W. Klaver
2013, Ecology (94) 1245-1256
Migration is a striking behavioral strategy by which many animals enhance resource acquisition while reducing predation risk. Historically, the demographic benefits of such movements made migration common, but in many taxa the phenomenon is considered globally threatened. Here we describe a long-term decline in the productivity of elk (Cervus...
Variations in surface water-ground water interactions along a headwater mountain stream : comparisons between transient storage and water balance analyses
Adam S. Ward, Robert A. Payn, Michael N. Gooseff, Brian L. McGlynn, Kenneth E. Bencala, Christa A. Kelleher, Steven M. Wondzell, Thorsten Wagener
2013, Water Resources Research (49) 3359-3374
The accumulation of discharge along a stream valley is frequently assumed to be the primary control on solute transport processes. Relationships of both increasing and decreasing transient storage, and decreased gross losses of stream water have been reported with increasing discharge; however, we have yet to validate these relationships with...
Hydrodynamics of spur and groove formations on a coral reef
Justin S. Rogers, Stephen G. Monismith, Falk Feddersen, Curt D. Storlazzi
2013, Journal of Geophysical Research C: Oceans (118) 3059-3073
Spur and groove (SAG) formations are found on the fore reefs of many coral reefs worldwide. Although these formations are primarily present in wave‐dominated environments, their effect on wave‐driven hydrodynamics is not well understood. A two‐dimensional, depth‐averaged, phase‐resolving nonlinear Boussinesq model (funwaveC) was used to model hydrodynamics...
The influence of vegetation on the hydrodynamics and geomorphology of a tree island in Everglades National Park (Florida, United States)
Pamela L. Sullivan, Victor C. Engel, Michael S. Ross, Rene M. Price
2013, Ecohydrology (7) 727-744
Transpiration-driven nutrient accumulation has been identified as a potential mechanism governing the creation and maintenance of wetland vegetation patterning. This process may contribute to the formation of nutrient-rich tree islands within the expansive oligotrophic marshes of the Everglades (Florida, United States). This study presents hydrogeochemical data indicating that tree root...
Hydrologic controls on the transport and cycling of carbon and nitrogen in a boreal catchment underlain by continuous permafrost
Joshua C. Koch, Robert L. Runkel, Robert G. Striegl, Diane M. McKnight
2013, Journal of Geophysical Research G: Biogeosciences (118) 698-712
Boreal ecosystems represent a large carbon (C) reservoir and a substantial source of greenhouse gases. Hydrologic conditions dictate whether C leached from boreal soils is processed in catchments or flushed to less productive environments via the stream. This study quantified hydrologic and biogeochemical C loss from a boreal catchment underlain...
The influence of sea level rise and changes in fringing reef morphology on gradients in alongshore sediment transport
A. E. Grady, L. J. Moore, Curt D. Storlazzi, E. Elias, M. A. Reidenbach
2013, Geophysical Research Letters (40) 3096-3101
Climate‐change‐induced alterations to coral reef ecosystems, in combination with sea level rise, have the potential to significantly alter wave dissipation across reefs, leading to shifts in alongshore sediment transport gradients and alterations to tropical coastlines. We used Delft3D to model schematized profiles of two reef flat widths based on the...
Macroinvertebrate diets reflect tributary inputs and turbidity-driven changes in food availability in the Colorado River downstream of Glen Canyon Dam
Holly A. Wellard Kelly, Emma J. Rosi-Marshall, Theodore A. Kennedy, Robert O. Hall Jr., Wyatt F. Cross, Colden V. Baxter
2013, Freshwater Science (32) 397-410
Physical changes to rivers associated with large dams (e.g., water temperature) directly alter macroinvertebrate assemblages. Large dams also may indirectly alter these assemblages by changing the food resources available to support macroinvertebrate production. We examined the diets of the 4 most common macroinvertebrate taxa in the Colorado River through Glen...
Estimating wildfire risk on a Mojave Desert landscape using remote sensing and field sampling
Peter F. Van Linn III, Kenneth E. Nussear, Todd C. Esque, Lesley A. DeFalco, Richard D. Inman, Scott R. Abella
2013, International Journal of Wildland Fire (22) 770-779
Predicting wildfires that affect broad landscapes is important for allocating suppression resources and guiding land management. Wildfire prediction in the south-western United States is of specific concern because of the increasing prevalence and severe effects of fire on desert shrublands and the current lack of accurate fire prediction tools. We...
Pyroclastic density currents associated with the 2008-2009 eruption of Chaitén Volcano (Chile): forest disturbances, deposits, and dynamics
Jon J. Major, Thomas C. Pierson, Richard P. Hoblitt, Hugo Moreno
2013, Andean Geology (40) 324-358
Explosive activity at Chaitén Volcano in May 2008 and subsequent dome collapses over the following nine months triggered multiple, small-volume pyroclastic density currents (PDCs). The explosive activity triggered PDCs to the north and northeast, which felled modest patches of forest as far as 2 km from the caldera rim....
