Seasonal electrical resistivity surveys of a coastal bluff, Barter Island, North Slope Alaska
Peter W. Swarzenski, Cordell Johnson, Thomas Lorenson, Christopher H. Conaway, Ann E. Gibbs, Li H. Erikson, Bruce M. Richmond, Mark P. Waldrop
2016, Journal of Environmental & Engineering Geophysics (21) 37-42
Select coastal regions of the North Slope of Alaska are experiencing high erosion rates that can be attributed in part to recent warming trends and associated increased storm intensity and frequency. The upper sediment column of the coastal North Slope of Alaska can be described as continuous permafrost underlying a...
High performance computing to support multiscale representation of hydrography for the conterminous United States
Larry V. Stanislawski, Yan Liu, Barbara P. Buttenfield, Kornelijus Survila, Jeffrey Wendel, Abdurraouf Okok
2016, Conference Paper, 19th ICA Workshop, Automated Generalisation for On-Demand Mapping
The National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) for the United States furnishes a comprehensive set of vector features representing the surface-waters in the country (U.S. Geological Survey 2000). The high-resolution (HR) layer of the NHD is largely comprised of hydrographic features originally derived from 1:24,000-scale (24K) U.S. Topographic maps. However, in recent...
Geology and geomorphology of the Carolina Sandhills, Chesterfield County, South Carolina
Christopher S. Swezey, Bradley A. Fitzwater, G. Richard Whittecar
2016, Book
This two-day field trip focuses on the geology and geomorphology of the Carolina Sandhills in Chesterfield County, South Carolina. This area is located in the updip portion of the U.S. Atlantic Coastal Plain province, supports an ecosystem of longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) and wiregrass (Aristida stricta), and contains three major...
Hydropedology: Synergistic integration of soil science and hydrology in the Critical Zone
H.S. Lin, J.J. McDonnell, John R. Nimmo, Y. A. Pachepsky
2016, Hydrological Processes (29) 4559-4561
Soil and water are the two critical components of theEarth’s Critical Zone (Figure 1): Soil modulates the connection between bedrock and the atmospheric boundary layer and water is a major driving force and transport agent between these two zones....
Age, growth and fall diet of channel catfish in Cheat Lake, West Virginia
Corbin D. Hilling, Stuart A. Welsh, Dustin M. Smith
2016, Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management (7) 304-314
Acidification has historically impaired Cheat Lake's fish community, but recent mitigation efforts within the Cheat River watershed have improved water quality and species richness. Presently, channel catfish Ictalurus punctatus are abundant and attain desirable sizes for anglers. We evaluated the age, growth, and fall diet of the population. We collected...
Hydrologic response of desert wetlands to Holocene climate change: preliminary results from the Soda Springs area, Mojave National Preserve, California
Jeffrey S. Pigati, Marith C. Reheis, John P. McGeehin, Jeffrey S. Honke, J. Bright
2016, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the 1st Death Valley Natural History Conference
Desert wetlands are common features in arid environments and include a variety of hydrologic facies, including seeps, springs, marshes, wet meadows, ponds, and spring pools. Wet ground conditions and dense stands of vegetation in these settings combine to trap eolian, alluvial, and fluvial sediments that accumulate over time....
The story of rising voices: Facilitating collaboration between indigenous and western ways of knowing
Julie Maldonado, Heather Lazrus, Shiloh-Kay Bennett, Karletta Chief, Carla May Dhillon, Bob Gough, Linda Kruger, Jeffrey T. Morisette, Stefan Petrovic, Kyle P. Whyte
Michele Companion, Miriam S. Chaiken, editor(s)
2016, Book chapter, Responses to disasters and climate change: Understanding vulnerability and fostering resilience
Indigenous community self-determination, cultures, and ways of life are at high risk from climate change impacts and ecological dispossession. Partnerships between experts with backgrounds in Indigenous and western knowledge may be productive and effective ways to reduce vulnerability and foster resilience. This chapter examines collaborations among scientific and Native American,...
Wildfire may increase habitat quality for spring Chinook salmon in the Wenatchee River subbasin, WA, USA
Rebecca L. Flitcroft, Jeffrey A. Falke, Gordon H. Reeves, Paul F. Hessburg, Kris M. McNyset, Lee E. Benda
2016, Forest Ecology and Management (359) 126-140
Pacific Northwest salmonids are adapted to natural disturbance regimes that create dynamic habitat patterns over space and through time. However, human land use, particularly long-term fire suppression, has altered the intensity and frequency of wildfire in forested upland and riparian areas. To examine the potential...
Drivers of Caribbean freshwater ecosystems and fisheries
Thomas J. Kwak, Augustin C. Engman, Jesse R. Fischer, Craig G. Lilyestrom
2016, Book chapter, Freshwater, fish and the future: Proceedings of the Global Cross-Sectoral Conference
No abstract available....
Earthquake probabilities for the Wasatch front region in Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming
Ivan G. Wong, William R. Lund, Christopher B. DuRoss, Patricia Thomas, Walter Arabasz, Anthony J. Crone, Michael D. Hylland, Nico Luco, Susan S. Olig, James C. Pechmann, Stephen Personius, Mark D. Petersen, David P. Schwartz, Robert B. Smith, Steve Rowman
2016, Report
In a letter to The Salt Lake Daily Tribune in September 1883, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) geologist G.K. Gilbert warned local residents about the implications of observable fault scarps along the western base of the Wasatch Range. The scarps were evidence that large surface-rupturing earthquakes had occurred in the past...
Site effects in Port-au-Prince (Haiti) from the analysis of spectral ratio and numerical simulations.
Sadrac St. Fleur, Etienne Bertrand, Francoise Courboulex, Bernard Mercier de Lepinay, Anne Deschamps, Susan E. Hough, Giovanna Cultrera, Dominique Boisson, Claude Prepetit
2016, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (106) 1298-1315
To provide better insight into seismic ground motion in the Port‐au‐Prince metropolitan area, we investigate site effects at 12 seismological stations by analyzing 78 earthquakes with magnitude smaller than 5 that occurred between 2010 and 2013. Horizontal‐to‐vertical spectral ratio on earthquake recordings and a standard spectral ratio were applied to...
Upper bound of pier scour in laboratory and field data
Stephen Benedict, Andral W. Caldwell
2016, Transportation Research Record (2588) 145-153
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the South Carolina Department of Transportation, conducted several field investigations of pier scour in South Carolina and used the data to develop envelope curves defining the upper bound of pier scour. To expand on this previous work, an additional cooperative investigation was...
Upper bound of abutment scour in laboratory and field data
Stephen Benedict
2016, Transportation Research Record (2588) 154-162
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the South Carolina Department of Transportation, conducted a field investigation of abutment scour in South Carolina and used those data to develop envelope curves that define the upper bound of abutment scour. To expand on this previous work, an additional cooperative investigation was...
Microhabitat suitability and niche breadth of common and imperiled Atlantic Slope freshwater mussels
Tamara J. Pandolfo, Thomas J. Kwak, W. Gregory Cope
2016, Freshwater Mollusk Biology and Conservation (19) 27-50
Knowledge of the habitat suitability of freshwater mussels (family Unionidae) is necessary for effective decision making in conservation and management. We empirically measured microhabitat use for 10 unionid mussel species, including the U.S. federally endangered Alasmidonta heterodon, at 20 sites in the Tar River basin, North Carolina, USA. We also...
Fledgling survival increases with development time and adult survival across north and south temperate zones
Penn Lloyd, Thomas E. Martin
2016, Ibis (158) 135-143
Slow life histories are characterized by high adult survival and few offspring, which are thought to allow increased investment per offspring to increase juvenile survival. Consistent with this pattern, south temperate zone birds are commonly longer-lived and have fewer young than north temperate zone species. However, comparative analyses of juvenile...
Discontinuities concentrate mobile predators: Quantifying organism-environment interactions at a seascape scale
Christina G. Kennedy, Martha E. Mather, Joseph M. Smith, John T. Finn, Linda A. Deegan
2016, Ecosphere (7)
Understanding environmental drivers of spatial patterns is an enduring ecological problem that is critical for effective biological conservation. Discontinuities (ecologically meaningful habitat breaks), both naturally occurring (e.g., river confluence, forest edge, drop-off) and anthropogenic (e.g., dams, roads), can influence the distribution of highly mobile organisms that have land- or seascape...
Geology of the Mount Rogers area, revisited: Evidence of Neoproterozoic continental rifting, glaciation, and the opening and closing of the Iapetus ocean, Blue Ridge, VA–NC–TN
Arthur J. Merschat, C. Scott Southworth, Christopher S. Holm-Denoma, Ryan J. McAleer
Arthur J. Merschat, editor(s)
2016, Book chapter, Geology of the Mount Rogers area, revisited, Blue Ridge, VA–NC–TN: Carolina Geological Society Annual Field Trip Guidebook
Recent field and geochronological studies in eight 7.5-minute quadrangles near Mount Rogers in Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee recognize important stratigraphic and structural relationships for the Neoproterozoic Mount Rogers and Konnarock formations, the northeast end of the Mountain City window, the separation of Mesoproterozoic rocks of the Blue Ridge into...
Deserts
Jayne Belnap, Robert H. Webb, Todd Esque, Matthew L. Brooks, Lesley A. DeFalco, James A. MacMahon
2016, Book chapter, Ecosystems of California
The deserts of California (Lead photo, Fig. 1) occupy approximately 38% of California’s landscape (Table 1) and consist of three distinct deserts: the Great Basin Desert, Mojave Desert, and Colorado Desert, the latter of which is a subdivision of the Sonoran Desert (Brown and Lowe 1980). The wide range of...
Targets set to reduce Lake Erie algae
Mary Anne Evans
2016, Report, Michigan State of the Great Lakes
In February 2016, the Great Lakes Executive Committee, which oversees the implementation of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA) between the U.S. and Canada, approved phosphorus loading targets for Lake Erie to reduce the size of harmful algal blooms (HABs), reduce the presence of the low oxygen zone in...
Application of an extreme winter storm scenario to identify vulnerabilities, mitigation options, and science needs in the Sierra Nevada mountains, USA
Christine M. Albano, Michael D. Dettinger, Maureen McCarthy, Kevin D. Schaller, Toby Wellborn, Dale A. Cox
2016, Natural Hazards (80) 879-900
In the Sierra Nevada mountains (USA), and geographically similar areas across the globe where human development is expanding, extreme winter storm and flood risks are expected to increase with changing climate, heightening the need for communities to assess risks and better prepare for such events. In this case study, we...
Geologic context of large karst springs and caves in the Ozark National Scenic Riverways, Missouri
David J. Weary, Randall C. Orndorff
2016, Conference Paper
The ONSR is a karst park, containing many springs and caves. The “jewels” of the park are large springs, several of first magnitude, that contribute significantly to the flow and water quality of the Current River and its tributaries. Completion of 1:24,000-scale geologic mapping of the park and surrounding river...
Field and laboratory determination of water-surface elevation and velocity using noncontact measurements
Jonathan M. Nelson, Paul J. Kinzel, Mark Walter Schmeeckle, Richard R. McDonald, Justin T. Minear
2016, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the 20th Congress of the Asia Pacific Division of the International Association for Hydro Environment Engineering & Research
Noncontact methods for measuring water-surface elevation and velocity in laboratory flumes and rivers are presented with examples. Water-surface elevations are measured using an array of acoustic transducers in the laboratory and using laser scanning in field situations. Water-surface velocities are based on using particle image velocimetry or other machine vision...
Conflation and integration of archived geologic maps and associated uncertainties
Thomas G. Shoberg
2016, Journal of Geography and Geology (8) 28-40
Old, archived geologic maps are often available with little or no associated metadata. This creates special problems in terms of extracting their data to use with a modern database. This research focuses on some problems and uncertainties associated with conflating older geologic maps in regions where modern geologic maps are,...
Rating curve uncertainty: A comparison of estimation methods
Mason Jr., Julie E. Kiang, Timothy A. Cohn
George Constantinescu, Marcelo H. Garcia, Dan Hanes, editor(s)
2016, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the international conference on fluvial hydraulics (river flow 2016)
The USGS is engaged in both internal development and collaborative efforts to evaluate existing methods for characterizing the uncertainty of streamflow measurements (gaugings), stage-discharge relations (ratings), and, ultimately, the streamflow records derived from them. This paper provides a brief overview of two candidate methods that may be used to characterize...
Natural graphite demand and supply - Implications for electric vehicle battery requirements
Donald W. Olson, Robert L. Virta, Mahbood Mahdavi, Elizabeth S. Sangine, Steven M. Fortier
2016, GSA Special Papers (520) 67-77
Electric vehicles have been promoted to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and lessen U.S. dependence on petroleum for transportation. Growth in U.S. sales of electric vehicles has been hindered by technical difficulties and the high cost of the lithium-ion batteries used to power many electric vehicles (more than 50% of the...
