Flood-inundation maps for the Green River in Colrain, Leyden, and Greenfield, Massachusetts, from U.S. Geological Survey streamgage 01170100 Green River near Colrain to the confluence with the Deerfield River
Robert H. Flynn, Gardner C. Bent, Pamela J. Lombard
2016, Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5107
The U.S. Geological Survey developed flood elevations in cooperation with the Federal Emergency Management Agency for a 14.3-mile reach of the Green River in Colrain, Leyden, and Greenfield, Massachusetts, to assist landowners and emergency management workers to prepare for and recover from floods. The river reach extends from the U.S....
Tropical storm Irene flood of August 2011 in northwestern Massachusetts
Gardner C. Bent, Scott A. Olson, Andrew J. Massey
2016, Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5027
A Presidential disaster was declared in northwestern Massachusetts, following flooding from tropical storm Irene on August 28, 2011. During the storm, 3 to 10 inches of rain fell on soils that were susceptible to flash flooding because of wet antecedent conditions. The gage height at one U.S. Geological Survey streamgage...
Hydrogeologic barriers to the infiltration of treated wastewater at the Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst Land Application Site, Burlington County, New Jersey
Alex R. Fiore
2016, Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5065
For the final phase of wastewater treatment operations at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in Burlington County, New Jersey, treated effluent is pumped to 12 infiltration basins on a Land Application Site to recharge the unconfined Kirkwood-Cohansey aquifer system. Two of the 12 infiltration basins are operationally ineffective because discharged effluent fails...
Evaluation of avoidance behavior of tadpole madtoms (Noturus gyrinus) as a surrogate for the endangered northern madtom (Noturus stigmosus) in response to granular Bayluscide®
Michael A. Boogaard, Richard A. Erickson, Terrance D. Hubert
2016, Open-File Report 2016-1130
The vertical avoidance behavior of the tadpole madtom (Noturus gyrinus) exposed to environmentally relevant concentrations of the granular formulation of the lampricide Bayluscide® was evaluated. The lampricide formulation (3.2 percent active ingredient coated on a sand granule) is used to control larval sea lamprey populations in the Great Lakes. The...
Geothermal solute flux monitoring and the source and fate of solutes in the Snake River, Yellowstone National Park, WY
R. Blaine McCleskey, Jacob B. Lowenstern, Jonas Schaper, D. Kirk Nordstrom, Henry P. Heasler, Dan Mahony
2016, Applied Geochemistry (73) 142-156
The combined geothermal discharge from over 10,000 features in Yellowstone National Park (YNP) can be can be estimated from the Cl flux in the Madison, Yellowstone, Falls, and Snake Rivers. Over the last 30 years, the Cl flux in YNP Rivers has been calculated using discharge measurements and Cl concentrations...
Southeast regional and state trends in anuran occupancy from calling survey data (2001-2013) from the North American Amphibian Monitoring Program
Oswaldo Villena Carpio, J. Andrew Royle, Linda Weir, Tasha M. Foreman, Kimberly D. Gazenski, Evan H. Campbell Grant
2016, Herpetological Conservation and Biology (11) 373-385
We present the first regional trends in anuran occupancy for eight states of the southeastern United States, based on 13 y (2001–2013) of North American Amphibian Monitoring Program (NAAMP) data. The NAAMP is a longterm monitoring program in which observers collect anuran calling observation data at fixed locations along random...
Evaluation of potential mechanisms of atrazine-induced reproductive impairment in fathead minnow (Pimephales promelas) and Japanese medaka (Oryzias latipes)
Catherine A. Richter, Diana M. Papoulias, Jeffrey J. Whyte, Donald E. Tillitt
2016, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (35) 2230-2238
Atrazine has been implicated in reproductive dysfunction of exposed organisms, and previous studies documented decreased egg production in Japanese medaka (Oryzias latipes) and fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas) during 30-d to 38-d exposures to 0.5 µg/L, 5 µg/L, and 50 µg/L atrazine. The authors evaluated possible mechanisms underlying the reduction in egg production. Gene...
Scale-dependent habitat selection and size-based dominance in adult male American alligators
Bradley A. Strickland, Francisco Vilella, Jerrold L. Belant
2016, PLoS ONE 1-16
Habitat selection is an active behavioral process that may vary across spatial and temporal scales. Animals choose an area of primary utilization (i.e., home range) then make decisions focused on resource needs within patches. Dominance may affect the spatial distribution of conspecifics and concomitant habitat selection. Size-dependent social dominance hierarchies...
Insights into shallow magmatic processes at Kīlauea Volcano, Hawaiʻi, from a multiyear continuous gravity time series
Michael P. Poland, Daniele Carbone
2016, Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth (121) 5477-5492
Continuous gravity data collected near the summit eruptive vent at Kīlauea Volcano, Hawaiʻi, during 2011–2015 show a strong correlation with summit-area surface deformation and the level of the lava lake within the vent over periods of days to weeks, suggesting that changes in gravity reflect variations in volcanic activity. Joint...
Experimental warming in a dryland community reduced plant photosynthesis and soil CO2 efflux although the relationship between the fluxes remained unchanged
Timothy M. Wertin, Jayne Belnap, Sasha C. Reed
2016, Functional Ecology (31) 297-305
1. Drylands represent our planet's largest terrestrial biome and, due to their extensive area, maintain large stocks of carbon (C). Accordingly, understanding how dryland C cycling will respond to climate change is imperative for accurately forecasting global C cycling and future climate. However, it remains difficult to predict how increased...
Characterizing potentially induced earthquake rate changes in the Brawley Seismic Zone, southern California
Andrea L. Llenos, Andrew J. Michael
2016, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (106) 2045-2062
The Brawley seismic zone (BSZ), in the Salton trough of southern California, has a history of earthquake swarms and geothermal energy exploitation. Some earthquake rate changes may have been induced by fluid extraction and injection activity at local geothermal fields, particularly at the North Brawley Geothermal Field (NBGF) and at...
Organic petrology and geochemistry of mudrocks from the lacustrine Lucaogou Formation, Santanghu Basin, northwest China: Application to lake basin evolution
Paul C. Hackley, Neil Fishman, Tao Wu, Gregory Baugher
2016, International Journal of Coal Geology (168) 20-34
Exploration for tight oil in the frontier Santanghu Basin of northwest China has resulted in recent commercial discoveries sourced from the lacustrine Upper Permian Lucaogou Formation, already considered a “world class source rock” in the Junggar Basin to the west. Here we apply an integrated analytical program to carbonate-dominated mudrocks...
Maxent modeling for predicting potential distribution of goitered gazelle in central Iran: the effect of extent and grain size on performance of the model
Rasoul Khosravi, Mahmoud-Reza Hemami, Mansoureh Malekian, Alan L. Flint, Lorraine E. Flint
2016, Turkish Journal of Zoology (40) 574-585
The spatial scale of environmental layers is an important factor to consider in developing an understanding of ecological processes. This study employed Maxent modeling to investigate the geographic distribution of goitered gazelle, Gazella subgutturosa (Güldenstädt, 1780), in central Iran using uncorrelated variables at a spatial resolution of 250 m. We...
Persistent slip rate discrepancies in the eastern California (USA) shear zone
Eileen Evans, Wayne R. Thatcher, Frederick Pollitz, Jessica R. Murray
2016, Geology (44) 691-694
Understanding fault slip rates in the eastern California shear zone (ECSZ) using GPS geodesy is complicated by potentially overlapping strain signals due to many sub-parallel strike-slip faults and by inconsistencies with geologic slip rates. The role of fault system geometry in describing ECSZ deformation may be investigated with total variation...
Shale-gas assessment: Comparison of gas-in-place versus performance-based approaches
H. Stueck, David W. Houseknecht, D. Franke, Donald L. Gautier, A. Bahr, S. Ladage
2016, Natural Resources Research (25) 315-329
The recent interest in exploration for shale gas increases the demand for a reliable, compatible resource assessment. Many different assessment methods are used, commonly depending on types and quantity of data available, which may lead to significantly divergent results for the same shale-gas play. This study compares results obtained using...
Timing of ice retreat alters seabird abundances and distributions in the southeast Bering Sea
Martin Renner, Sigrid Salo, Lisa B. Eisner, Kathy J. Kuletz, Jarrod A. Santora, Patrick Ressler, Carol Ladd, John F. Piatt, Gary S. Drew, George L. Hunt
2016, Biology Letters (12)
Timing of spring sea-ice retreat shapes the southeast Bering Sea food web. We compared summer seabird densities and average bathymetry depth distributions between years with early (typically warm) and late (typically cold) ice retreat. Averaged over all seabird species, densities in early-ice-retreat-years were 10.1% (95% CI: 1.1–47.9%) of that in...
Duration of fuels reduction following prescribed fire in coniferous forests of U.S. national parks in California and the Colorado Plateau
Phillip J. van Mantgem, Laura Lalemand, MaryBeth Keifer, Jeffrey M. Kane
2016, Forest Ecology and Management (379) 265-272
Prescribed fire is a widely used forest management tool, yet the long-term effectiveness of prescribed fire in reducing fuels and fire hazards in many vegetation types is not well documented. We assessed the magnitude and duration of reductions in surface fuels and modeled fire hazards in coniferous forests across nine...
Highly conductive horizons in the Mesoproterozoic Belt-Purcell Basin: Sulfidic early basin strata as key markers of Cordilleran shortening and Eocene extension
Paul A. Bedrosian, Stephen E. Box
2016, Book chapter, Belt basin: Window to Mesoproterozoic Earth
We investigated the crustal structure of the central Mesoproterozoic Belt Basin in northwestern Montana and northern Idaho using a crustal resistivity section derived from a transect of new short- and long-period magnetotelluric (MT) stations. Two- and three-dimensional resistivity models were generated from these data in combination with data collected previously...
Radiometric calibration updates to the Landsat collection
Esad Micijevic, Obaidul Haque, Nischal Mishra
2016, Conference Paper, Proceedings Volume 9972, Earth Observing Systems XXI
The Landsat Project is planning to implement a new collection management strategy for Landsat products generated at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center. The goal of the initiative is to identify a collection of consistently geolocated and radiometrically calibrated images across the entire Landsat...
Regulation of the hunting season as a tool for adaptive harvest management — First results for pink-footed geese Anser brachyrhynchus
Jesper Madsen, Kevin K. Clausen, Thomas K. Christensen, Fred A. Johnson
2016, Wildlife Biology (22) 204-208
Adjustment of hunting season length is often used to regulate harvest of waterbirds but the effects are disputed. We describe the first results of season length extension on the harvest of the pink-footed goose, which has been selected as the first test case of adaptive harvest management of waterbirds in...
Landsat-7 ETM+ radiometric calibration status
Julia A. Barsi, Brian L. Markham, J. S. Czapla-Myers, Dennis L. Helder, Simon Hook, John R. Schott, Obaidul Haque
2016, Conference Paper, Proceedings Volume 9972, Earth Observing Systems XXI
Now in its 17th year of operation, the Enhanced Thematic Mapper + (ETM+), on board the Landsat-7 satellite, continues to systematically acquire imagery of the Earth to add to the 40+ year archive of Landsat data. Characterization of the ETM+ on-orbit radiometric performance has been on-going since its launch in...
Restoring sand shinnery oak prairies with herbicide and grazing in New Mexico
Jennifer C. Zavaleta, David A. Haukos, Blake A. Grisham, Clint W. Boal, Charles Dixon
2016, Southwestern Naturalist (61) 225-232
Sand shinnery oak (Quercus havardii) prairies are increasingly disappearing and increasingly degraded in the Southern High Plains of Texas and New Mexico. Restoring and managing sand shinnery oak prairie can support biodiversity, specific species of conservation concern, and livestock production. We measured vegetation response to four treatment combinations of herbicide...
Elucidating the role of vegetation in the initiation of rainfall-induced shallow landslides: Insights from an extreme rainfall event in the Colorado Front Range
Luke McGuire, Francis K. Rengers, Jason W. Kean, Jeffrey A. Coe, Benjamin B. Mirus, Rex L. Baum, Jonathan W. Godt
2016, Geophysical Research Letters (43) 9084-9092
More than 1100 debris flows were mobilized from shallow landslides during a rainstorm from 9 to 13 September 2013 in the Colorado Front Range, with the vast majority initiating on sparsely vegetated, south facing terrain. To investigate the physical processes responsible for the observed aspect control, we made measurements of...
Application of organic petrography in North American shale petroleum systems: A review
Paul C. Hackley, Brian J. Cardott
2016, International Journal of Coal Geology (163) 8-51
Organic petrography via incident light microscopy has broad application to shale petroleum systems, including delineation of thermal maturity windows and determination of organo-facies. Incident light microscopy allows practitioners the ability to identify various types of organic components and demonstrates that solid bitumen is the dominant organic matter occurring in shale...
Migratory routes and at-sea threats to Pink-footed Shearwaters
Josh Adams, Jonathan J. Felis, Peter Hodum, Valentina Colodro, Ryan Carle, Verónica López
2016, Conference Paper, Seventh Meeting of the Seabird Bycatch Working Group
The Pink-footed Shearwater (Ardenna creatopus) is a seabird with a breeding range restricted to three islands in Chile and an estimated world population of approximately 56,000 breeding individuals (Muñoz 2011, Oikonos unpublished data). Due to multiple threats on breeding colonies and at-sea, Pink-footed Shearwaters are listed as Endangered by the...
