A review of the key genetic tools to assist imperiled species conservation: analyzing West Indian manatee populations
Robert K. Bonde, Peter M. McGuire, Margaret E. Hunter
2012, Journal of Marine Animals and Their Ecology (5) 8-19
Managers faced with decisions on threatened and endangered wildlife populations often are lacking detailed information about the species of concern. Integration of genetic applications will provide management teams with a better ability to assess and monitor recovery efforts on imperiled species. The field of molecular biology continues to progress...
Summary of bird-survey and banding results at W.L. Finley National Wildlife Refuge, 1998-2008
Joan Hagar
2012, Open-File Report 2012-1223
With some of the best remaining examples of oak habitats in the Willamette Valley, the Willamette Valley National Wildlife Refuge Complex (WVNWRC) has been implementing restoration efforts to reverse the successional trend towards Douglas-fir and maple that is threatening existing oak woodlands. The restoration work has been considered a model...
A two-phase sampling design for increasing detections of rare species in occupancy surveys
Krishna Pacifici, Robert M. Dorazio, Michael J. Dorazio
2012, Methods in Ecology and Evolution (3) 721-730
1. Occupancy estimation is a commonly used tool in ecological studies owing to the ease at which data can be collected and the large spatial extent that can be covered. One major obstacle to using an occupancy-based approach is the complications associated with designing and implementing an efficient survey. These...
Effects of a drawdown on plant communities in a freshwater impoundment at Lacassine National Wildlife Refuge, Louisiana
Rebecca J. Howard, Larry Allain
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5221
Disturbance is an important natural process in the creation and maintenance of wetlands. Water depth manipulation and prescribed fire are two types of disturbance commonly used by humans to influence vegetation succession and composition in wetlands with the intention of improving wildlife habitat value. A 6,475-hectare (ha) impoundment was constructed...
Atmospheric deposition, water-quality, and sediment data for selected lakes in Mount Rainer, North Cascades, and Olympic National Parks, Washington, 2008-10
Rich W. Sheibley, James R. Foreman, Patrick W. Moran, Peter W. Swarzenski
2012, Data Series 721
To evaluate the potential effect from atmospheric deposition of nitrogen to high-elevation lakes, the U.S. Geological Survey partnered with the National Park Service to develop a "critical load" of nitrogen for sediment diatoms. A critical load is defined as the level of a given pollutant (in this case, nitrogen) at...
A climate trend analysis of Senegal
Christopher C. Funk, Jim Rowland, Alkhalil Adoum, Gary Eilerts, James Verdin, Libby White
2012, Fact Sheet 2012-3123
This brief report, drawing from a multi-year effort by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET), identifies modest declines in rainfall, accompanied by increases in air temperatures. These analyses are based on quality-controlled station observations. Conclusions: * Summer rains have remained steady in...
Changes in water budgets and sediment yields from a hypothetical agricultural field as a function of landscape and management characteristics--A unit field modeling approach
Jason L. Roth, Paul D. Capel
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5203
Crop agriculture occupies 13 percent of the conterminous United States. Agricultural management practices, such as crop and tillage types, affect the hydrologic flow paths through the landscape. Some agricultural practices, such as drainage and irrigation, create entirely new hydrologic flow paths upon the landscapes where they are implemented. These hydrologic...
Surficial Geologic Map of Mesa Verde National Park, Montezuma County, Colorado
Paul E. Carrara
2012, Scientific Investigations Map 3224
Mesa Verde National Park in southwestern Colorado was established in 1906 to preserve and protect the artifacts and dwelling sites, including the famous cliff dwellings, of the Ancestral Puebloan people who lived in the area from about A.D. 550 to A.D. 1300. In 1978, the United Nations designated the park...
Urban habitat fragmentation and genetic population structure of bobcats in coastal southern California
E.W. Ruell, S.P.D. Riley, M.R. Douglas, M.F. Antolin, J.R. Pollinger, J.A. Tracey, L.M. Lyren, E. E. Boydston, Robert N. Fisher, K.R. Crooks
2012, American Midland Naturalist (168) 265-280
Although habitat fragmentation is recognized as a primary threat to biodiversity, the effects of urban development on genetic population structure vary among species and landscapes and are not yet well understood. Here we use non-invasive genetic sampling to compare the effects of fragmentation by major roads and urban development on...
Potential effects of climate change on the distribution of waterbirds in the Prairie Pothole Region, U.S.A.
Valerie Steen, Abby N. Powell
2012, Waterbirds (35) 217-229
Wetland-dependent birds are considered to be at particularly high risk for negative climate change effects. Current and future distributions of American Bittern (Botaurus lentiginosus), American Coot (Fulica americana), Black Tern (Chlidonias niger), Pied-billed Grebe (Podilymbus podiceps) and Sora (Porzana carolina), five waterbird species common in the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR),...
High-resolution digital elevation dataset for Crater Lake National Park and vicinity, Oregon, based on LiDAR survey of August-September 2010 and bathymetric survey of July 2000
Joel E. Robinson
2012, Data Series 716
Crater Lake partially fills the caldera that formed approximately 7,700 years ago during the eruption of a 12,000-foot volcano known as Mount Mazama. The caldera-forming or climactic eruption of Mount Mazama devastated the surrounding landscape, left a thick deposit of pumice and ash in adjacent valleys, and spread a blanket...
Viral fitness: definitions, measurement, and current insights
Andrew R. Wargo, Gael Kurath
2012, Current Opinion in Virology (2) 538-545
Viral fitness is an active area of research, with recent work involving an expanded number of human, non-human vertebrate, invertebrate, plant, and bacterial viruses. Many publications deal with RNA viruses associated with major disease emergence events, such as HIV-1, influenza virus, and Dengue virus. Study topics include drug resistance, immune...
2011 Year in review - Earth Resources Observation and Science Center
2012, Open-File Report 2012-1185
The USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center's 2011 Year in Review is an annual report recounting the broad scope of the Center's 2011 accomplishments. The report covers preparations for the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) launch, the ever-increasing use of free Landsat data, monitoring the effects of natural...
waterData--An R package for retrieval, analysis, and anomaly calculation of daily hydrologic time series data, version 1.0
Karen R. Ryberg, Aldo V. Vecchia
2012, Open-File Report 2012-1168
Hydrologic time series data and associated anomalies (multiple components of the original time series representing variability at longer-term and shorter-term time scales) are useful for modeling trends in hydrologic variables, such as streamflow, and for modeling water-quality constituents. An R package, called waterData, has been developed for importing daily hydrologic...
Dark and background response stability for the Landsat 8 Thermal Infrared Sensor
Kelly Vanderwerff, Matthew Montanaro
2012, Conference Paper, Proceedings of SPIE volume 8510
The Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) is a pushbroom sensor that will be a part of the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM), which is a joint mission between NASA and the USGS. The TIRS instrument will continue to collect the thermal infrared data that are currently being collected by the Thematic...
Annual fluxes of sediment-associated trace/major elements, carbon, nutrients, and sulfur from US coastal rivers
Arthur J. Horowitz, Verlon C. Stephens, Kent A. Elrick, James J. Smith
2012, Conference Paper, Erosion and sediment yields in the changing environment : proceedings of an IAHS International Commission on Continental Erosion symposium held at the Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, CAS-Chengdu, China, 11-15 October 2012
About 260–270 Mt of suspended sediment are discharged annually from the conterminous USA; approximately 69% derives from Gulf rivers (n = 36), 24% from Pacific rivers (n = 42), and 7% from Atlantic rivers (n = 54). Elevated sediment-associated chemical concentrations relative to baseline levels occur in the reverse order...
Comparison of 2008-2009 water years and historical water-quality data, upper Gunnison River Basin, Colorado
Patricia A. Solberg, Bryan Moore, Ty D. Blacklock
2012, Data Series 687
Population growth and changes in land use have the potential to affect water quality and quantity in the upper Gunnison River Basin. In 1995, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Bureau of Land Management, City of Gunnison, Colorado River Water Conservation District, Crested Butte South Metropolitan District,...
A transect through the base of the Bronson Hill Terrane in western New Hampshire
Gregory J. Walsh, Peter M. Valley, Karri R. Sicard
Thelma Barton Thompson, Peter J. Thompson, editor(s)
2012, Conference Paper
This trip will present the preliminary results of ongoing bedrock mapping in the North Hartland and Claremont North 7.5-minute quadrangles in western New Hampshire. The trip will travel from the Lebanon pluton to just north of the Sugar River pluton (Fig. 1) with the aim of examining the lower structural...
Carbon export by rivers draining the conterminous United States
Edward G. Stets, Robert G. Striegl
2012, Inland Waters (2) 177-184
Material exports by rivers, particularly carbon exports, provide insight to basin geology, weathering, and ecological processes within the basin. Accurate accounting of those exports is valuable to understanding present, past, and projected basin-wide changes in those processes. We calculated lateral export of inorganic and organic carbon (IC and OC) from...
Characterization of storm runoff from selected South Carolina Department of Transportation maintenance yards
Kevin J. Conlon, Peter J. Reinhart
2012, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the 2012 South Carolina Water Resources Conference
The objective of this project is to collect sufficient stormwater water-quality and flow data to document the type, concentration, and event load of selected constituents transported from South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT) maintenance yards by stormwater runoff....
Quantification of water-level variability effect on plant species populations using paleoecological and hydrological time series data
Edwin A. Roehl Jr., Paul Conrads, Christopher Bernhardt
2012, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the 2012 South Carolina Water Resources Conference
Soil cores provide valuable data on historical changes in vegetation and hydrologic conditions. Empirical models were developed to quantify the effect of meteorological and hydrologic forcing on plant species distributions over a 110-year period in Water Conservation Area 1 (WCA1) in the Florida Everglades, also known as the Arthur R....
Toxicity of carbon nanotubes to freshwater aquatic invertebrates
Joseph N. Mwangi, Ning Wang, Christopher G. Ingersoll, Doug K. Hardesty, Eric L. Brunson, Hao Li, Baolin Deng
2012, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (31) 1823-1830
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are hydrophobic in nature and thus tend to accumulate in sediments if released into aquatic environments. As part of our overall effort to examine the toxicity of carbon-based nanomaterials to sediment-dwelling invertebrates, we have evaluated the toxicity of different types of CNTs in 14-d water-only exposures to...
Woody riparian vegetation near selected streamgages in the western United States
Gregor T. Auble, Jonathan M. Friedman, Patrick B. Shafroth, Michael F. Merigliano, Michael L. Scott
2012, Data Series 708
Areal cover and occupancy of woody riparian species near 456 streamgages in the western United States were obtained from site visits during the growing seasons of 1996-2002. We made concomitant estimates of grazing intensity, channel stabilization and incision, gradient, sediment particle size, and nearby planting of Russian olive. The purpose...
Fine-scale habitat use of reintroduced black-footed ferrets on prairie dog colonies in New Mexico
Jennifer G. Chipault, Dean E. Biggins, James K. Detling, Dustin H. Long, Robin M. Reich
2012, Western North American Naturalist (72) 216-227
Black-footed ferrets (Mustela nigripes) are among the most endangered animals in North America. Reintroductions of captive-born ferrets onto prairie dog (Cynomys spp.) colonies are crucial to the conservation of the species. In September 2007, captive-born ferrets were released on a black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) colony at the Vermejo Park...
Resource selection models are useful in predicting fine-scale distributions of black-footed ferrets in prairie dog colonies
David A. Eads, David S. Jachowski, Dean E. Biggins, Travis M. Livieri, Marc R. Matchett, Joshua J. Millspaugh
2012, Western North American Naturalist (72) 206-215
Wildlife-habitat relationships are often conceptualized as resource selection functions (RSFs)—models increasingly used to estimate species distributions and prioritize habitat conservation. We evaluated the predictive capabilities of 2 black-footed ferret (Mustela nigripes) RSFs developed on a 452-ha colony of black-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus) in the Conata Basin, South Dakota. We...
