Social Values for Ecosystem Services, version 3.0 (SolVES 3.0): documentation and user manual
Benson C. Sherrouse, Darius J. Semmens
2015, Open-File Report 2015-1008
The geographic information system (GIS) tool, Social Values for Ecosystem Services (SolVES), was developed to incorporate quantified and spatially explicit measures of social values into ecosystem service assessments. SolVES 3.0 continues to extend the functionality of SolVES, which was designed to assess, map, and quantify the social values of ecosystem services. Social values—the perceived,...
Geologic map of the Patagonia Mountains, Santa Cruz County, Arizona
Frederick Graybeal, Lorre A. Moyer, Peter G. Vikre, Pamela Dunlap, John C. Wallis
2015, Open-File Report 2015-1023
The Patagonia Mountains contain two large porphyry Cu-Mo systems each with separate associated hypogene and supergene zones, two high-grade Cu-Mo breccia pipes, one large epithermal Ag-Pb-Zn-Mn deposit, and numerous additional areas of base- and precious-metal mineralization all zoned around a Laramide-age composite batholith of intermediate composition. Compilations and new work...
Movements of wild pigs in Louisiana and Mississippi, 2011-13
Stephen B. Hartley, Buddy L. Goatcher, Sijan Sapkota
2015, Open-File Report 2014-1241
The prolific breeding capability, behavioral adaptation, and adverse environmental impacts of invasive wild pigs (Sus scrofa) have increased efforts towards managing their populations and understanding their movements. Currently, little is known about wild pig populations and movements in Louisiana and Mississippi. From 2011 to 2013, the U.S. Geological Survey investigated...
Lake Michigan Diversion Accounting land cover change estimation by use of the National Land Cover Dataset and raingage network partitioning analysis
Jennifer B. Sharpe, David T. Soong
2015, Open-File Report 2014-1258
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Chicago District, is responsible for monitoring and computation of the quantity of Lake Michigan water diverted by the State of Illinois. As part of this effort, the USACE uses the Hydrological Simulation Program–FORTRAN (HSPF) with measured meteorological data inputs to estimate runoff from...
Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Restoration Project final report: Monitoring for evaluation of recovery and restoration of injured nearshore resources
Brenda E. Ballachey, James L. Bodkin, Kimberly A. Kloecker, Tom Dean, Heather A Colletti
2015, Report
In 2012, we completed three consecutive years of full field sampling in WPWS for EVOS Restoration Project 10100750. Nearshore monitoring was conducted in collaboration with the NPS SWAN I&M program and, beginning in 2012, as part of the EVOSTC GWA program. Data collection was done in accordance with standard operating procedures...
Desert tortoises (Gopherus agassizii) are selective herbivores that track the flowering phenology of their preferred food plants
Bryan W. Jennings, Kristin H. Berry
2015, PLoS ONE (10)
Previous studies of desert tortoise foraging ecology in the western Mojave Desert suggest that these animals are selective herbivores, which alter their diet according to the temporal availability of preferred food plants. These studies, however, did not estimate availability of potential food plants by taking into account the spatial and...
Maps showing the change in modern sediment thickness on the Inner Continental Shelf offshore of Fire Island, New York, between 1996-97 and 2011
William C. Schwab, Wayne E. Baldwin, Jane F. Denny
2015, Open-File Report 2014-1238
The U.S. Geological Survey mapped approximately 336 square kilometers of the lower shoreface and inner continental shelf offshore of Fire Island, New York, in 1996 and 1997, using high-resolution sidescan-sonar and seismic-reflection systems, and again in 2011, using interferometric sonar and high-resolution chirp seismic-reflection systems. This report presents a comparison...
Low-flow characteristics for selected streams in Indiana
Kathleen K. Fowler, John T. Wilson
2015, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5242
The management and availability of Indiana’s water resources increase in importance every year. Specifically, information on low-flow characteristics of streams is essential to State water-management agencies. These agencies need low-flow information when working with issues related to irrigation, municipal and industrial water supplies, fish and wildlife protection, and the dilution...
Glacier-derived August runoff in northwest Montana
Adam Clark, Joel T. Harper, Daniel B. Fagre
2015, Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research (47) 1-16
The second largest concentration of glaciers in the U.S. Rocky Mountains is located in Glacier National Park (GNP), Montana. The total glacier-covered area in this region decreased by ∼35% over the past 50 years, which has raised substantial concern about the loss of the water derived from glaciers during the...
Geologic map of the Bodie Hills, California and Nevada
David A. John, Edward A. du Bray, Stephen E. Box, Peter G. Vikre, James J. Rytuba, Robert J. Fleck, Barry C. Moring
2015, Scientific Investigations Map 3318
The Bodie Hills covers about 1,200 km2 straddling the California-Nevada state boundary just north of Mono Lake in the western part of the Basin and Range Province, about 20 km east of the central Sierra Nevada. The area is mostly underlain by the partly overlapping, middle to late Miocene Bodie Hills...
Status and trends of prey fish populations in Lake Michigan, 2013
Charles P. Madenjian, David B. Bunnell, Timothy J. Desorcie, Melissa Jean Kostich, Patricia M. Dieter, Jean V. Adams
2015, Report
The U.S. Geological Survey Great Lakes Science Center has conducted lake-wide surveys of the fish community in Lake Michigan each fall since 1973 using standard 12-m bottom trawls towed along contour at depths of 9 to 110 m at each of seven index transects. The resulting data on relative abundance,...
Mercury and selenium contamination in waterbird eggs and risk to avian reproduction at Great Salt Lake, Utah
Joshua T. Ackerman, Mark P. Herzog, Christopher A. Hartman, John P. Isanhart, Garth Herring, Sharon Vaughn, John F. Cavitt, Collin A. Eagles-Smith, Howard Browers, Chris Cline, Josh Vest
2015, Open-File Report 2015-1020
The wetlands of the Great Salt Lake ecosystem are recognized regionally, nationally, and hemispherically for their importance as breeding, wintering, and migratory habitat for diverse groups of waterbirds. Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge is the largest freshwater component of the Great Salt Lake ecosystem and provides critical breeding habitat for...
A framework for modeling anthropogenic impacts on waterbird habitats: addressing future uncertainty in conservation planning
Elliott Matchett, Joseph P. Fleskes, Charles A. Young, David R. Purkey
2015, Open-File Report 2015-1017
The amount and quality of natural resources available for terrestrial and aquatic wildlife habitats are expected to decrease throughout the world in areas that are intensively managed for urban and agricultural uses. Changes in climate and management of increasingly limited water supplies may further impact water resources essential for sustaining...
Wetland paleoecological study of southwest coastal Louisiana: sediment cores and diatom calibration dataset
Kathryn E. L. Smith, James G. Flocks, Gregory D. Steyer, Sarai C. Piazza
2015, Data Series 877
Wetland sediment data were collected in 2009 and 2010 throughout the southwest Louisiana Chenier Plain as part of a pilot study to develop a diatom-based proxy for past wetland water chemistry and the identification of sediment deposits from tropical storms. The complete dataset includes forty-six surface sediment samples and nine...
Mount St. Helens: Controlled-source audio-frequency magnetotelluric (CSAMT) data and inversions
Jeff Wynn, Herbert A. Pierce
2015, Data Series 901
This report describes a series of geoelectrical soundings carried out on and near Mount St. Helens volcano, Washington, in 2010–2011. These soundings used a controlled-source audio-frequency magnetotelluric (CSAMT) approach (Zonge and Hughes, 1991; Simpson and Bahr, 2005). We chose CSAMT for logistical reasons: It can be deployed by helicopter, has...
Mapping migratory flyways in Asia using dynamic Brownian bridge movement models
E.C. Palm, S. H. Newman, Diann J. Prosser, Xiangming Xiao, Ze Luo, Nyambayar Batbayar, Sivananinthaperumal Balachandran, John Y. Takekawa
2015, Movement Ecology (3) 1-10
Background Identifying movement routes and stopover sites is necessary for developing effective management and conservation strategies for migratory animals. In the case of migratory birds, a collection of migration routes, known as a flyway, is often hundreds to thousands of kilometers long and can extend across political boundaries. Flyways encompass the...
Potentiometric surfaces and water-level trends in the Cockfield (upper Claiborne) aquifer in southern Arkansas and the Wilcox (lower Wilcox) aquifer of northeastern and southern Arkansas, 2012
Kirk D. Rodgers
2015, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5232
The Cockfield aquifer, located in southern Arkansas, is composed of Eocene-age sand beds found near the base of the Cockfield Formation of Claiborne Group. The Wilcox aquifer, located in northeastern and southern Arkansas, is composed of Paleocene-age sand beds found in the middle to lower part of the Wilcox Group....
Geospatial datasets for assessing the effects of rangeland conditions on dissolved-solids yields in the Upper Colorado River Basin
Fred D. Tillman, Marilyn E. Flynn, David W. Anning
2015, Open-File Report 2015-1007
In 2009, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) developed a Spatially Referenced Regressions on Watershed Attributes (SPARROW) surface-water quality model for the Upper Colorado River Basin (UCRB) relating dissolved-solids sources and transport in the 1991 water year to upstream catchment characteristics. The SPARROW model focused on geologic and agricultural sources of...
River mainstem thermal regimes influence population structuring within an Appalachian brook trout population
Aaron Aunins, J. Todd Petty, Tim L. King, Mariya Schilz, Patricia M. Mazik
2015, Conservation Genetics (16) 15-29
Brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) often exist as highly differentiated populations, even at small spatial scales, due either to natural or anthropogenic sources of isolation and low rates of dispersal. In this study, we used molecular approaches to describe the unique population structure of brook trout inhabiting the Shavers Fork watershed,...
A Bayesian kriging approach for blending satellite and ground precipitation observations
Andrew P. Verdin, Balaji Rajagopalan, William Kleiber, Christopher C. Funk
2015, Water Resources Research (51) 908-921
Drought and flood management practices require accurate estimates of precipitation. Gauge observations, however, are often sparse in regions with complicated terrain, clustered in valleys, and of poor quality. Consequently, the spatial extent of wet events is poorly represented. Satellite-derived precipitation data are an attractive alternative, though they tend to underestimate...
Calculating crop water requirement satisfaction in the West Africa Sahel with remotely sensed soil moisture
Amy McNally, Gregory J. Husak, Molly Brown, Mark L. Carroll, Christopher C. Funk, Soni Yatheendradas, Kristi Arsenault, Christa Peters-Lidard, James Verdin
2015, Journal of Hydrometeorology (16) 295-305
The Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission will provide soil moisture data with unprecedented accuracy, resolution, and coverage, enabling models to better track agricultural drought and estimate yields. In turn, this information can be used to shape policy related to food and water from commodity markets to humanitarian relief efforts....
An integrated Riverine Environmental Flow Decision Support System (REFDSS) to evaluate the ecological effects of alternative flow scenarios on river ecosystems
Kelly O. Maloney, Colin B. Talbert, Jeffrey C. Cole, Heather S. Galbraith, Carrie J. Blakeslee, Leanne Hanson, Christopher L. Holmquist-Johnson
2015, Fundamental and Applied Limnology (186) 171-192
In regulated rivers, managers must evaluate competing flow release scenarios that attempt to balance both human and natural needs. Meeting these natural flow needs is complex due to the myriad of interacting physical and hydrological factors that affect ecosystems. Tools that synthesize the voluminous scientific data and models on these...
Sources of endocrine-disrupting compounds in North Carolina waterways: a geographic information systems approach
Dana K. Sackett, Crystal Lee Pow, Matthew J. Rubino, D.D. Aday, W. Gregory Cope, Seth W. Kullman, J.A. Rice, Thomas J. Kwak, LeRoy M. Law
2015, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (34) 437-445
The presence of endocrine-disrupting compounds (EDCs), particularly estrogenic compounds, in the environment has drawn public attention across the globe, yet a clear understanding of the extent and distribution of estrogenic EDCs in surface waters and their relationship to potential sources is lacking. The objective of the present study was to...
The forcing of southwestern Asia teleconnections by low-frequency sea surface temperature variability during boreal winter
Andrew Hoell, Christopher C. Funk, Mathew Barlow
2015, Journal of Climate (28) 1511-1526
Southwestern Asia, defined here as the domain bounded by 20°–40°N and 40°–70°E, which includes the nations of Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, is a water-stressed and semiarid region that receives roughly 75% of its annual rainfall during November–April. The November–April climate of southwestern Asia is strongly influenced by tropical Indo-Pacific...
An assessment of morphometric indices, blood chemistry variables and an energy meter as indicators of the whole body lipid content in Micropterus dolomieu, Sander vitreus and Ictalurus punctatus
Matthew G. Mesa, Brien P. Rose
2015, Journal of Fish Biology (86) 755-764
The effectiveness of several non-lethal techniques as indicators of total lipid content in smallmouth bass Micropterus dolomieu, walleye Sander vitreus and channel catfish Ictalurus punctatus was investigated. The techniques included (1) the Fulton and relative condition factors, (2) relative mass, (3) plasma indicators of nutritional status (alkaline phosphatase, calcium, cholesterol,...
