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...
Sea lamprey mark type, wounding rate, and parasite-host preference and abundance relationships for lake trout and other species in Lake Ontario
Brian F. Lantry, Jean Adams, Gavin Christie, Teodore Schaner, James Bowlby, Michael Keir, Jana Lantry, Paul Sullivan, Daniel Bishop, Ted Treska, Bruce Morrison
2015, Report
We examined how the frequency of attacks by Sea Lamprey on fishes in Lake Ontario varied in response to Sea Lamprey abundance and preferred host abundance (Lake Trout >432mm). For this analysis we assembled seven data sets. Two fishery independent surveys for Lake Trout: US Geological Survey (USGS)/New York State...
Discrete-storm water-table fluctuation method to estimate episodic recharge.
John R. Nimmo, Charles Horowittz, Lara Mitchell
2015, Groundwater (53) 282-292
We have developed a method to identify and quantify recharge episodes, along with their associated infiltration-related inputs, by a consistent, systematic procedure. Our algorithm partitions a time series of water levels into discrete recharge episodes and intervals of no episodic recharge. It correlates each recharge episode with a specific interval...
From icefield to ocean - Explore the many ways that glaciers influence Alaska's Coastal Ecosystems.
Shad O’Neel, Eran Hood, Kristin Timm
2015, Report
No abstract available....
Soil ecology of a rock outcrop ecosystem: Abiotic stresses, soil respiration, and microbial community profiles in limestone cedar glades
Jennifer M. Cartwright, E. Kudjo Advised by Dzantor
2015, Thesis
Limestone cedar glades are a type of rock outcrop ecosystem characterized by shallow soil and extreme hydrologic conditions—seasonally ranging from xeric to saturated—that support a number of plant species of conservation concern. Although a rich botanical literature exists on cedar glades, soil biochemical processes and the ecology of soil microbial...
Treatment of trace organic compounds in common onsite wastewater systems
Robert Siegrist, Kathleen E. Conn
2015, Conference Paper, Innovation in soil-based onsite wastewater treatment
Onsite wastewater systems (OWS) have historically been relied on to treat conventional pollutants and pathogens in a fashion similar to that expected from centralized wastewater systems. However, based on the occurrence of, and potential effects from, contaminants of emerging concern in wastewaters, OWS as well as centralized systems need...
Complex interactions between global change drivers influence mountain forest and slpine GHG sequestration and stream chemistry
Jill Baron, Melannie D. Hartman
2015, Conference Paper, Mountain Views
Many mountain ecosystems are experiencing coincident increases in temperature, levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) and atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition. All are important controls on rates of plant growth, soil microbial activity, nutrient cycling, and stream N export. It is difficult for experimental studies to explore ecosystem responses to more than one or two treatments at...
An updated conceptual model of Delta Smelt biology: Our evolving understanding of an estuarine fish
Randy Baxter, Larry R. Brown, Gonzalo Castillo, Louise Conrad, Steven D. Culberson, Matthew P. Dekar, Melissa Dekar, Frederick Feyrer, Thaddeus Hunt, Kristopher Jones, Joseph Kirsch, Anke Mueller-Solger, Matthew Nobriga, Steven B. Slater, Ted Sommer, Kelly Souza, Gregg Erickson, Stephanie Fong, Karen Gehrts, Lenny Grimaldo, Bruce Herbold
2015, Technical Report 90
The main purpose of this report is to provide an up-to-date assessment and conceptual model of factors affecting Delta Smelt (Hypomesus transpacificus) throughout its primarily annual life cycle and to demonstrate how this conceptual model can be used for scientific and management purposes. The Delta Smelt is a small estuarine...
Validation of the SCEC broadband platform V14.3 simulation methods using pseudo spectral acceleration data
Douglas S. Dreger, Gregory C. Beroza, Steven M. Day, Christine A. Goulet, Thomas H Jordan, Paul A. Spudich, Jonathan P. Stewart
2015, Seismological Research Letters (86) 39-47
This paper summarizes the evaluation of ground motion simulation methods implemented on the SCEC Broadband Platform (BBP), version 14.3 (as of March 2014). A seven-member panel, the authorship of this article, was formed to evaluate those methods for the prediction of pseudo-‐spectral accelerations (PSAs) of ground motion. The panel’s mandate...
Automated lidar-derived canopy height estimates for the Upper Mississippi River System
Enrika Hlavacek
2015, Thesis
Land cover/land use (LCU) classifications serve as important decision support products for researchers and land managers. The LCU classifications produced by the U.S. Geological Survey’s Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center (UMESC) include canopy height estimates that are assigned through manual aerial photography interpretation techniques. In an effort to improve upon...
Uranium Sequestration During Biostimulated Reduction and In Response to the Return of Oxic Conditions In Shallow Aquifers
Christopher C. Fuller, Kelly J. Johnson, Katherine Akstin, David M. Singer, Steven B. Yabusaki, Yi Fang, M. Fuhrmann
2015, Report
A proposed approach for groundwater remediation of uranium contamination is to generate reducing conditions by stimulating the growth of microbial populations through injection of electron donor compounds into the subsurface. Sufficiently reducing conditions will result in reduction of soluble hexavalent uranium, U(VI), and precipitation of the less soluble +4 oxidation...
Geology and neotectonism in the epicentral area of the 2011 M5.8 Mineral, Virginia, earthquake
William C. Burton, David B. Spears, Richard W. Harrison, Nicholas H. Evans, J. Stephen Schindler, Ronald C. Counts
2015, Field Guides (35) 103-127
This fi eld guide covers a two-day west-to-east transect across the epicentral region of the 2011 M5.8 Mineral, Virginia, earthquake, the largest ever recorded in the Central Virginia seismic zone. The fi eld trip highlights results of recent bedrock and surficial geologic mapping in two adjoining 7.5-min quadrangles, the Ferncliff...
Examining the utility of satellite-based wind sheltering estimates for lake hydrodynamic modeling
Jamon Van Den Hoek, Jordan S. Read, Luke A. Winslow, Paul Montesano, Corey D. Markfort
2015, Remote Sensing of Environment (156) 551-560
Satellite-based measurements of vegetation canopy structure have been in common use for the last decade but have never been used to estimate canopy's impact on wind sheltering of individual lakes. Wind sheltering is caused by slower winds in the wake of topography and shoreline obstacles (e.g. forest canopy) and influences...
Estimating relative sea-level rise and submergence potential at a coastal wetland
Donald R. Cahoon
2015, Estuaries and Coasts (38) 1077-1084
A tide gauge records a combined signal of the vertical change (positive or negative) in the level of both the sea and the land to which the gauge is affixed; or relative sea-level change, which is typically referred to as relative sea-level rise (RSLR). Complicating this situation, coastal wetlands exhibit...
Atmospheric particulate matter in proximity to mountaintop coal mines: Sources and potential environmental and human health impacts
Laura Kurth, Allan Kolker, Mark A. Engle, Nicholas J. Geboy, Michael Hendryx, William H. Orem, Michael McCawley, Lynn M. Crosby, Calin A. Tatu, Matthew S. Varonka, Christina A. DeVera
2015, Environmental Geochemistry and Health (37) 529-544
Mountaintop removal mining (MTM) is a widely used approach to surface coal mining in the US Appalachian region whereby large volumes of coal overburden are excavated using explosives, removed, and transferred to nearby drainages below MTM operations. To investigate the air quality impact of MTM, the geochemical characteristics of atmospheric...
Tracing historical trends of Hg in the Mississippi River using Hg concentrations and Hg isotopic compositions in a lake sediment core, Lake Whittington, Mississippi, USA
John E. Gray, Peter C. Van Metre, Michael J. Pribil, Arthur J. Horowitz
2015, Chemical Geology (395) 80-87
Concentrations and isotopic compositions of mercury (Hg) in a sediment core collected from Lake Whittington, an oxbow lake on the Lower Mississippi River, were used to evaluate historical sources of Hg in the Mississippi River basin. Sediment Hg concentrations in the Lake Whittington core have a large 10-15 y peak...
Comparison of fluvial suspended-sediment concentrations and particle-size distributions measured with in-stream laser diffraction and in physical samples
Jonathan A. Czuba, Timothy D. Straub, Christopher A. Curran, Mark N. Landers, Marian M. Domanski
2015, Water Resources Research (51) 320-340
Laser-diffraction technology, recently adapted for in-stream measurement of fluvial suspended-sediment concentrations (SSCs) and particle-size distributions (PSDs), was tested with a streamlined (SL), isokinetic version of the Laser In-Situ Scattering and Transmissometry (LISST) for measuring volumetric SSCs and PSDs ranging from 1.8-415 µm in 32 log-spaced size classes. Measured SSCs and...
Sensitivity of tsunami evacuation modeling to direction and land cover assumptions
Mathew C. Schmidtlein, Nathan J. Wood
2015, Applied Geography (56) 154-163
Although anisotropic least-cost-distance (LCD) modeling is becoming a common tool for estimating pedestrian-evacuation travel times out of tsunami hazard zones, there has been insufficient attention paid to understanding model sensitivity behind the estimates. To support tsunami risk-reduction planning, we explore two aspects of LCD modeling as it applies to pedestrian...
Directly dated MIS 3 lake-level record from Lake Manix, Mojave Desert, California, USA
Marith C. Reheis, David M. Miller, John P. McGeehin, Joanna R. Redwine, Charles G. Oviatt, Jordon E. Bright
2015, Quaternary Research (83) 187-203
An outcrop-based lake-level curve, constrained by ~ 70 calibrated 14C ages on Anodonta shells, indicates at least 8 highstands between 45 and 25 cal ka BP within 10 m of the 543-m upper threshold of Lake Manix in the Mojave Desert of southern California. Correlations of Manix highstands with ice, marine, and speleothem records suggest that at...
Rising air and stream-water temperatures in Chesapeake Bay region, USA
Karen C. Rice, John D. Jastram
2015, Climatic Change (128) 127-138
Monthly mean air temperature (AT) at 85 sites and instantaneous stream-water temperature (WT) at 129 sites for 1960–2010 are examined for the mid-Atlantic region, USA. Temperature anomalies for two periods, 1961–1985 and 1985–2010, relative to the climate normal period of 1971–2000, indicate that the latter period was statistically significantly warmer...
Variably-saturated groundwater modeling for optimizing managed aquifer recharge using trench infiltration
Victor M. Heilweil, Jerome Benoit, Richard W. Healy
2015, Hydrological Processes (29) 310-319
Spreading-basin methods have resulted in more than 130 million cubic meters of recharge to the unconfined Navajo Sandstone of southern Utah in the past decade, but infiltration rates have slowed in recent years because of reduced hydraulic gradients and clogging. Trench infiltration is a promising alternative technique for increasing recharge...
Joint inversion of seismic and magnetotelluric data in the Parkfield Region of California using the normalized cross-gradient constraint
Ninfa L. Bennington, Haijiang Zhang, Cliff Thurber, Paul A. Bedrosian
2015, Pure and Applied Geophysics (172) 1033-1052
We present jointly inverted models of P-wave velocity (Vp) and electrical resistivity for a two-dimensional profile centered on the San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD). Significant structural similarity between main features of the separately inverted Vp and resistivity models is exploited by carrying out a joint inversion of the...
Moving environmental DNA methods from concept to practice for monitoring aquatic macroorganisms
Caren S. Goldberg, Katherine M. Strickler, David S. Pilliod
2015, Biological Conservation (183) 1-3
The discovery that macroorganisms can be detected from their environmental DNA (eDNA) in aquatic systems has immense potential for the conservation of biological diversity. This special issue contains 11 papers that review and advance the field of eDNA detection of vertebrates and other macroorganisms, including studies of eDNA production, transport,...
Stafford fault system: 120 million year fault movement history of northern Virginia
David S. Powars, Rufus D. Catchings, J. Wright Horton Jr., J. Stephen Schindler, Milan J. Pavich
2015, GSA Special Papers (509) 407-431
The Stafford fault system, located in the mid-Atlantic coastal plain of the eastern United States, provides the most complete record of fault movement during the past ~120 m.y. across the Virginia, Washington, District of Columbia (D.C.), and Maryland region, including displacement of Pleistocene terrace gravels. The Stafford fault system is...
Zinc isotopic signatures in eight lake sediment cores from across the United States
Anita Thapalia, David Borrok, Peter C. Van Metre, Jennifer T. Wilson
2015, Environmental Science and Technology (49) 132-140
Zinc is an important trace element pollutant in urban environments; however, the extent of Zn contamination and the sources of urban Zn pollution are often unclear. We measured Zn concentrations and isotopes in sediment cores collected from eight lakes or reservoirs across the United States. We paired these data with...
