Thermokarst lake methanogenesis along a complete talik profile
J.K. Heslop, K.M. Walter Anthony, A. Sepulveda-Jauregui, K. Martinez-Cruz, A. Bondurant, G. Grosse, Miriam C. Jones
2015, Biogeosciences (12) 4317-4331
Thermokarst (thaw) lakes emit methane (CH4) to the atmosphere formed from thawed permafrost organic matter (OM), but the relative magnitude of CH4 production in surface lake sediments vs. deeper thawed permafrost horizons is not well understood. We assessed anaerobic CH4 production potentials from various depths along a 590 cm long...
Concentrations and distributions of metals associated with dissolved organic matter from the Suwannee River (GA, USA)
M. Keshia Kuhn, Elisabeth Neubauer, Thilo Hofmann, Frank von der Kammer, George R. Aiken, Patricia A. Maurice
2015, Environmental Engineering Science (32) 54-65
Concentrations and distributions of metals in Suwannee River (SR) raw filtered surface water (RFSW) and dissolved organic matter (DOM) processed by reverse osmosis (RO), XAD-8 resin (for humic and fulvic acids [FA]), and XAD-4 resin (for “transphilic” acids) were analyzed by asymmetrical flow field-flow fractionation (AsFlFFF). SR samples were compared...
Early Permian conodont fauna and stratigraphy of the Garden Valley Formation, Eureka County, Nevada
Bruce R. Wardlaw, Dora M. Gallegos, Valery V. Chernykh, Walter S. Snyder
2015, Micropaleontology (61) 369-387
The lower part of the Garden Valley Formation yields two distinct conodont faunas. One of late Asselian age dominated by Mesogondolella and Streptognathodus and one of Artinskian age dominated by Sweetognathus with Mesogondolella. The Asselian fauna contains the same species as those found in the type area of the Asselian...
An assessment of sauger population characteristics on two Tennessee River reservoirs
Christy L. Graham, Phillip William Bettoli, Timothy N. Churchill
2015, Journal of the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (2) 101-108
In 1992, a 356-mm minimum length limit (MLL) was enacted on Kentucky Lake and a 381-mm MLL was enacted on Watts Bar Lake, two mainstem reservoirs on the Tennessee River, in an attempt to reduce exploitation and improve the size structure of the sauger (Sander canadensis) populations. The objectives...
Draft comprehensive conservation plan and environmental impact statement-Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
2015, Report
The Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge Complex, consisting of some of the newer properties in the National Wildlife Refuge System, is a work in progress. Offering unique assets to surrounding communities, these lands promise to become some of the premier urban wildlife refuges in the country. At the heart...
Study 8: Prevalence and load of Nanophyetus salmincola infection in outmigrating steelhead trout from five Puget Sound rivers
M.F. Chen, B.A. Stewart, Kevin Senkvik, Paul Hershberger
2015, Book chapter, Puget Sound steelhead marine survival: 2013-2015 research findings summary
Nanophyetus salmincola is a parasitic trematode, or flatworm, that infects salmonid fishes in the Pacific Northwest, including Washington, Oregon, and portions of California. The adult worm lives in the intestine of fish-eating birds and mammals. Eggs shed into the water hatch into miracidia which penetrate the first intermediate host, one...
Provenance and detrital zircon geochronologic evolution of lower Brookian foreland basin deposits of the western Brooks Range, Alaska, and implications for early Brookian tectonism
Thomas E. Moore, Paul B. O’Sullivan, Christopher J. Potter, Raymond A. Donelick
2015, Geosphere (11) 93-122
The Upper Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous part of the Brookian sequence of northern Alaska consists of syntectonic deposits shed from the north-directed, early Brookian orogenic belt. We employ sandstone petrography, detrital zircon U-Pb age analysis, and zircon fission-track double-dating methods to investigate these deposits in a succession of thin...
REE enrichment in granite-derived regolith deposits of the southeast United States: Prospective source rocks and accumulation processes
Nora K. Foley, Robert A. Ayuso
G.J. Simandl, M. Neetz, editor(s)
2015, Conference Paper, Symposium on strategic and critical materials proceedings (British Columbia Geological Survey Paper 2015-3)
The Southeastern United States contains numerous anorogenic, or A-type, granites, which constitute promising source rocks for REE-enriched ion adsorption clay deposits due to their inherently high concentrations of REE. These granites have undergone a long history of chemical weathering, resulting in thick granite-derived regoliths, akin to those of South China,...
The 2008 phreatomagmatic eruption of Okmok volcano, Aleutian Islands, Alaska: Chronology, deposits, and landform changes
Jessica Larsen, Christina A. Neal, Janet R. Schaefer, Max Kaufman, Zhong Lu
2015, Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys Report of Investigation RI 2015-2
Okmok volcano, Aleutian Islands, Alaska, explosively erupted over a five-week period between July 12 and August 23, 2008. The eruption was predominantly phreatomagmatic, producing fine-grained tephra that covered most of northeastern Umnak Island. The eruption had a maximum Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) of 4, with eruption column heights up to...
Modifications to risk-targeted seismic design maps for subduction and near-fault hazards
Abbie B. Liel, Nico Luco, Meera Raghunandan, C. Champion
Terje Haukaas, editor(s)
2015, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the 12th international conference on applications of statistics and probability in civil engineering (ICASP12)
ASCE 7-10 introduced new seismic design maps that define risk-targeted ground motions such that buildings designed according to these maps will have 1% chance of collapse in 50 years. These maps were developed by iterative risk calculation, wherein a generic building collapse fragility curve is convolved with the U.S. Geological...
Quantifying and predicting fuels and the effects of reduction treatments along successional and invasion gradients in sagebrush habitats
Douglas J. Shinneman, David S. Pilliod, Robert Arkle, Nancy F. Glenn
2015, Report
Sagebrush shrubland ecosystems in the Great Basin are prime examples of how altered successional trajectories can create dynamic fuel conditions and, thus, increase uncertainty about fire risk and behavior. Although fire is a natural disturbance in sagebrush, post-fire environments are highly susceptible to conversion to an invasive grass-fire regime (often...
Synopsis of the history of sea otter conservation in the United States
Glenn R. VanBlaricom
2015, Book chapter
In the late 1860s, declining US sea otter populations elicited concern because of prior excessive harvests. Congress mandated protection of Alaskan sea otters in 1868, but hunting continued unrestrained. The Fur Seal Treaty of 1911 (abrogated in 1941) protected sea otters in international waters, but was not applicable to most...
Day-roost tree selection by northern long-eared bats - What do non-roost tree comparisons and one year of data really tell us?
Alexander Silvis, W. Mark Ford, Eric R. Britzke
2015, Global Ecology and Conservation (3) 756-763
Bat day-roost selection often is described through comparisons of day-roosts with randomly selected, and assumed unused, trees. Relatively few studies, however, look at patterns of multi-year selection or compare day-roosts used across years. We explored day-roost selection using 2 years of roost selection data for female northern long-eared bats (Myotis...
Characterization of stormwater runoff from bridges in North Carolina and the effects of bridge runoff on receiving streams
Chad Wagner, Sharon Fitzgerald, Matthew Lauffer
2015, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the 2015 International Conference on Ecology & Transportation
The presentation will provide an overview of a collaborative study between USGS, NC Department of Transportation and URS Corporation to characterize stormwater runoff from bridges in North Carolina and the effects of bridge runoff on receiving streams. This investigation measured bridge deck runoff from 15 bridges for 12-15 storms, stream...
Preliminary analysis of suspended sediment rating curves for the Kalamazoo River and its tributaries from Marshall to Kalamazoo, Michigan
David T. Soong, Christopher J. Hoard, Faith A. Fitzpatrick, Ronald B. Zelt
2015, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the Joint Federal Interagency Conference 2015
Suspended sediment concentration (SSC) rating curves for the Kalamazoo River and its tributaries from Marshall to Kalamazoo, Michigan, U.S.A., were developed based on measured data. The slopes of the atsite SSC rating curves were of two general types: either increasing or decreasing with increasing discharges. By examining the basin characteristics...
Impacts of fire management on aboveground tree carbon stocks in Yosemite and Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks
John R. Matchett, James A. Lutz, Leland W. Tarnay, Douglas G. Smith, Kendall M.L. Becker, Matthew L. Brooks
2015, Report, Natural Resource Report NPS/SIEN/NRR—2015/910
Forest biomass on Sierra Nevada landscapes constitutes one of the largest carbon stocks in California, and its stability is tightly linked to the factors driving fire regimes. Research suggests that fire suppression, logging, climate change, and present management practices in Sierra Nevada forests have altered historic patterns of landscape carbon...
Drought monitoring and assessment: Remote sensing and modeling approaches for the Famine Early Warning Systems Network
Gabriel Senay, Naga Manohar Velpuri, Stefanie Bohms, Michael Budde, Claudia Young, James Rowland, James Verdin
2015, Book chapter
Drought monitoring is an essential component of drought risk management. It is usually carried out using drought indices/indicators that are continuous functions of rainfall and other hydrometeorological variables. This chapter presents a few examples of how remote sensing and hydrologic modeling techniques are being used to generate a suite of...
Structural superposition in fault systems bounding Santa Clara Valley, California
Russell W. Graymer, Richard G. Stanley, David A. Ponce, Robert C. Jachens, Robert W. Simpson, Carl M. Wentworth
2015, Geosphere (11) 63-75
Santa Clara Valley is bounded on the southwest and northeast by active strike-slip and reverse-oblique faults of the San Andreas fault system. On both sides of the valley, these faults are superposed on older normal and/or right-lateral normal oblique faults. The older faults comprised early components of the San Andreas...
Having it both ways? Land use change in a U.S. midwestern agricultural ecoregion
Roger F. Auch, Chris R. Laingen
2015, Professional Geographer (67) 84-97
Urbanization has been directly linked to decreases in area of agricultural lands and, as such, has been considered a threat to food security. Although the area of land used to produce food has diminished, often overlooked have been changes in agricultural output. The Eastern Corn Belt Plains (ECBP) is an...
Composite Sunrise Butte pluton: Insights into Jurassic–Cretaceous collisional tectonics and magmatism in the Blue Mountains Province, northeastern Oregon
Kenneth H. Johnson, J.J. Schwartz, Jiri Zak, Krystof Verner, Calvin G. Barnes, Clay Walton, Joseph L. Wooden, James E. Wright, Ronald W. Kistler
2015, GSA Special Papers (513) 377-398
The composite Sunrise Butte pluton, in the central part of the Blue Mountains Province, northeastern Oregon, preserves a record of subduction-related magmatism, arc-arc collision, crustal thickening, and deep-crustal anatexis. The earliest phase of the pluton (Desolation Creek unit) was generated in a subduction zone environment, as the oceanic lithosphere between the...
Crowdsourced earthquake early warning
Sarah E. Minson, Benjamin A. Brooks, Craig L. Glennie, Jessica R. Murray, John O. Langbein, Susan E. Owen, Thomas H. Heaton, Robert A. Iannucci, Darren L. Hauser
2015, Science Advances (1) 1-7
Earthquake early warning (EEW) can reduce harm to people and infrastructure from earthquakes and tsunamis, but it has not been implemented in most high earthquake-risk regions because of prohibitive cost. Common consumer devices such as smartphones contain low-cost versions of the sensors used in EEW. Although less accurate than scientific-grade...
Examining the utility of bulk otolith δ13C to describe diet in wild-caught black rockfish Sebastes melanops
Vanessa R. von Biela, Seth D. Newsome, Christian E. Zimmerman
2015, Aquatic Biology (23) 201-208
Otolith carbon isotope δ13C values may provide temporally resolved diet proxies in fish. If otolith δ13C values reflect diet, isotope values from recent otolith and muscle tissue should correlate and known ontogenetic diet shifts should be reflected in comparisons between otolith material deposited during different life history stages. We analyzed...
Mate replacement and alloparental care in Ferruginous Hawk (Buteo regalis)
Shubham Datta, Will M. Inselman, Jonathan A. Jenks, Kent C. Jensen, Christopher C. Swanson, Robert W. Klaver, Indrani Sasmal, Troy W. Grovenburg
2015, The Prairie Naturalist (47) 36-37
Alloparental care (i.e., care for unrelated offspring) has been documented in various avian species (Maxson 1978, Smith et al. 1996, Tella et al. 1997, Lislevand et al. 2001, Literak and Mraz 2011). A male replacement mate that encounters existing broods has options, which include alloparental care or infanticide. Infanticide may...
Lake Ontario benthic prey fish assessment, 2014
Brian Weidel, Maureen Walsh
2015, Report, 2014 Annual Report Bureau of Fisheries Lake Ontario Unit and St. Lawrence River Unit to the Great Lakes Fishery Commission’s Lake Ontario Committee
Benthic prey fishes are an important component of the Lake Ontario fish community and serve as vectors that move energy from benthic invertebrates into native and introduced sport fishes. Since the 1970’s, the USGS Lake Ontario Biological Station has assessed benthic fish populations and community dynamics with bottom trawls at...
Broadening the regulated-river management paradigm: A case study of the forgotten dead zone hindering Pallid Sturgeon recovery
Christopher S. Guy, Hilary B. Treanor, Kevin M. Kappenman, Eric A. Scholl, Jason E. Ilgen, Molly A. H. Webb
2015, Fisheries (40) 6-14
The global proliferation of dams within the last half century has prompted ecologists to understand the effects of regulated rivers on large-river fishes. Currently, much of the effort to mitigate the influence of dams on large-river fishes has been focused on downriver effects, and little attention has been given to...
