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Acid rock drainage (ARD) and disposal of tailings that result from mining activities impact coastal areas in many countries. The dispersion of metals from mine sites that are both proximal and distal to the shoreline can be examined using a pathways approach in which physical and chemical processes guide metal...

Puccinia psidii was first described by Winter (1884) on guava (Psidium guajava L.) in Brazil. The rust is still a major pest of native guava in Brazil and is often referred to as “guava rust” internationally. It is unusual among rust fungi because of its broad and ever-expanding host-range within...

Sliding glaciers and brittle ice failure generate seismic body and surface wave energy characteristic to the source mechanism. Here we analyze continuous seismic recordings from an array of nine short-period passive seismometers located on Bench Glacier, Alaska (USA) (61.033°N, 145.687°W). We focus on the arrival-time and amplitude information of the...

The Hecate Chasma quadrangle (V–28) extends from lat 0° to 25° N. and from long 240° E. to 270° E. The quadrangle was mapped at 1:5,000,000 scale as part of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Planetary Geologic Mapping Program. Hecate Chasma is an extensive rift system consisting of multiple...

Butler’s Gartersnakes (BGS; Thamnophis butleri) are confined to open and semi-open canopy wetlands and adjacent uplands, habitats under threat of development in Wisconsin. To address issues of species identity and putative hybridization with congeneric snakes, a suite of 18 microsatellite loci capable of cross-species amplification of Plains Gartersnakes...

This paper discusses spatial aspects of the global exposure dataset and mapping needs for earthquake risk assessment. We discuss this in the context of development of a Global Exposure Database for the Global Earthquake Model (GED4GEM), which requires compilation of a multi-scale inventory of assets at risk, for example, buildings,...

In the mid-1990s, researchers began using miniature cameras to videotape activities at cryptic passerine nests in grasslands.In subsequent years, use of these video surveillance systems spread dramatically, leading to major strides in our knowledge of nest predation and nesting ecology of many species.Studies using video nest surveillance have helped...

We present a new approach to studying the behavior of radium isotopes in a coastal aquifer. In order to simulate radium isotope distributions in the dynamic flow field of the Dead Sea aquifer, a multi-species density dependent flow model (SUTRA-MS) was used. Field data show that the activity of 226Ra...

In the Inner Coastal Plain of New Jersey, arsenic (As) is released from glauconitic sediment to carbon- and nutrient-rich shallow groundwater. This As-rich groundwater discharges to a major area stream. We hypothesize that microbes play an active role in the mobilization of As from glauconitic subsurface sediments into groundwater in...

The primary objective of this study was to determine whether tree swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) demonstrate similar responses to lake pH and mercury (Hg) contamination in northern Wisconsin as do common loons (Gavia immer). Similar to common loons, Hg concentrations in the blood of tree swallow nestlings were higher, Hg concentrations...

Using real-time PCR, we tested 15 wolf (Canis lupus) feces from the Superior National Forest (SNF), Minnesota, USA, and 191 from Yellowstone National Park (YNP), USA, collected during summer and 13 during winter for canine parvovirus (CPV)-2 DNA. We also tested 20 dog feces for CPV-2 DNA. The PCR assay...

Socio-environmental vulnerable populations are often unrepresented in land-use planning yet have great potential for loss when exposed to changes in ecosystem services. Administrative boundaries, cultural differences, and language barriers increase the disassociation between land-use management and marginalized populations living in the U.S.–Mexico borderlands. This paper describes the development of a...

The workshop is a tutorial on introductory geospatial semantics with hands-on exercises using standard Web browsers. The workshop is divided into two sections, general semantics on the Web and specific examples of geospatial semantics using data from The National Map of the U.S. Geological Survey and the Open Ontology Repository....

Deposition and accumulation of airborne organic contaminants in Yosemite National Park were examined by sampling atmospheric deposition, lichen, zooplankton, and lake sediment at different elevations. Passive samplers were deployed in high‐elevation lakes to estimate surface‐water concentrations. Detected compounds included current‐use pesticides chlorpyrifos, dacthal, and endosulfans and legacy compounds chlordane, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane‐related...

Introduction The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) received a request from the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) to provide monitoring and an evaluation of the effectiveness of habitat actions that Reclamation plans to implement in the Upper Columbia River basin, which includes the Methow River. This monitoring and evaluation program...

As part of the U.S. Geological Survey National Water-Quality Assessment Program, the effects of urbanization on stream ecosystems (EUSE) have been intensively investigated in nine metropolitan areas in the United States, including Boston, Massachusetts; Atlanta, Georgia; Birmingham, Alabama; Raleigh, North Carolina; Salt Lake City, Utah; Denver, Colorado; Dallas–Fort Worth, Texas;...

Effective decision making is closely related to the quality and completeness of available data and information. Data management helps to ensure data quality in any discipline and supports decision making. Managing data as a long-term scientific asset helps to ensure that data will be usable beyond the original intended application....

Soil gas was assessed for contaminants at three former fuel-dispensing sites at Fort Gordon, Georgia, from October 2010 to September 2011. The assessment included delineation of organic contaminants using soil-gas samplers collected from the former fuel-dispensing sites at 8th Street, Chamberlain Avenue, and 12th Street. This assessment was conducted to...

The Eugene Water and Electric Board (EWEB) provides water and electricity to the City of Eugene, Oregon, from the McKenzie River. In the spring of 2002, EWEB initiated a pesticide monitoring program in cooperation with the U.S. Geological Survey as part of their Drinking Water Source Protection Plan. Approximately twice...

Because it commonly generates high-speed, high-volume flow with minimal exposure to solid earth materials, preferential flow in the unsaturated zone is a dominant influence in many problems of infiltration, recharge, contaminant transport, and ecohydrology. By definition, preferential flow occurs in a portion of a medium – that is, a preferred...

Development of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology and passive integrated transponder (PIT) tags has substantially increased the ability of researchers and managers to monitor populations of aquatic organisms. However, use of transportable RFID antenna systems (i.e., backpack-mounted) is currently limited to wadeable aquatic environments (<1.4 m water depth). We describe...

Stream hydrology is foundational to aquatic ecosystems and has been shown to be a structuring element for fish and invertebrates. The relations among urbanization, hydraulics, and invertebrate communities were investigated by the U.S. Geological Survey, National Water-Quality Assessment Program by using measures of stream hydraulics in two areas of the...

Efforts are underway to identify actions that would improve water quality in the Link River to Keno Dam reach of the Upper Klamath River in south-central Oregon. To provide further insight into water-quality improvement options, three scenarios were developed, run, and analyzed using previously calibrated CE-QUAL-W2 hydrodynamic and water-quality models....

Phytoplankton blooms dominated by cyanobacteria that occur annually in hypereutrophic Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon, produce microcystins at concentrations that may contribute to the decline in populations of endangered Lost River (Deltistes luxatus) and shortnose (Chasmistes brevirostris) suckers. During 2007–09, water samples were collected from Upper Klamath Lake to determine the...

Large-scale patterns in fish assemblage structure and functional groups are influenced by alterations in streamflow regime. In this study, we defined an objective threshold for alteration for Oklahoma streams using a combination of the expected range of 27 flow indices and a discriminant analysis to predict flow regime group. We...