Deformation from the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake near the southwest margin of the Santa Clara Valley, California
Kevin M. Schmidt, Stephen D. Ellen, David M. Peterson
2014, Geosphere (10) 1177-1202
Damage to pavement and near-surface utility pipes, caused by the 17 October 1989, Loma Prieta earthquake, provides evidence for ground deformation in a 663 km2 area near the southwest margin of the Santa Clara Valley, California (USA). A total of 1427 damage sites, collected from more than 30 sources, are...
The relative impacts of climate and land-use change on conterminous United States bird species from 2001 to 2075
Terry L. Sohl
2014, PLoS ONE (9)
Species distribution models often use climate data to assess contemporary and/or future ranges for animal or plant species. Land use and land cover (LULC) data are important predictor variables for determining species range, yet are rarely used when modeling future distributions. In this study, maximum entropy modeling was used to...
Abandoned floodplain plant communities along a regulated dryland river
L. V. Reynolds, Patrick B. Shafroth, P. K. House
2014, River Research and Applications (30) 1084-1098
Rivers and their floodplains worldwide have changed dramatically over the last century because of regulation by dams, flow diversions and channel stabilization. Floodplains no longer inundated by river flows following dam-induced flood reduction comprise large areas of bottomland habitat, but the effects of abandonment on plant communities are not well...
A high-elevation, multi-proxy biotic and environmental record of MIS 6-4 from the Ziegler Reservoir fossil site, Snowmass Village, Colorado, USA
Ian M. Miller, Jeffrey S. Pigati, R. Scott Anderson, Kirk R. Johnson, Shannon Mahan, Thomas A. Ager, Richard G. Baker, Maarten Blaauw, Jordon Bright, Peter M. Brown, Bruce Bryant, Zachary T. Calamari, Paul E. Carrara, Cherney Michael D., John R. Demboski, Scott A. Elias, Daniel C. Fisher, Harrison J. Gray, Danielle R. Haskett, Jeffrey S. Honke, Stephen T. Jackson, Gonzalo Jiménez-Moreno, Douglas Kline, Eric M. Leonard, Nathaniel A. Lifton, Carol Lucking, H. Gregory McDonald, Dane M. Miller, Daniel R. Muhs, Stephen E. Nash, Cody Newton, James B. Paces, Lesley Petrie, Mitchell A. Plummer, David F. Porinchu, Adam N. Rountrey, Eric Scott, Joseph J. W. Sertich, Saxon E. Sharpe, Gary L. Skipp, Laura E. Strickland, Richard K. Stucky, Robert S. Thompson, Jim Wilson
2014, Quaternary Research (82) 618-634
In North America, terrestrial records of biodiversity and climate change that span Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage (MIS) 5 are rare. Where found, they provide insight into how the coupling of the ocean–atmosphere system is manifested in biotic and environmental records and how the biosphere responds to climate change. In 2010–2011,...
The Late Cretaceous Middle Fork caldera, its resurgent intrusion, and enduring landscape stability in east-central Alaska
Charles R. Bacon, Cynthia Dusel-Bacon, John N. Aleinikoff, John F. Slack
2014, Geosphere (10) 1432-1455
Dissected caldera structures expose thick intracaldera tuff and, uncommonly, cogenetic shallow plutons, while remnants of correlative outflow tuffs deposited on the pre-eruption ground surface record elements of ancient landscapes. The Middle Fork caldera encompasses a 10 km × 20 km area of rhyolite welded tuff and granite porphyry in...
Spatial and temporal patterns of avian paramyxovirus-1 outbreaks in Double-Crested Cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus) in the USA
C. LeAnn White, S. Ip, Carol U. Meteyer, Daniel P. Walsh, Jeffrey S. Hall, Michelle Carstensen, Paul C. Wolf
2014, Journal of Wildlife Diseases (51) 101-112
Morbidity and mortality events caused by avian paramyxovirus-1 (APMV-1) in Double-crested Cormorant (DCCO; Phalacrocorax auritus) nesting colonies in the US and Canada have been sporadically documented in the literature. We describe APMV-1 associated outbreaks in DCCO in the US from the first reported occurrence in 1992 through 2012. The frequency of...
Wildlife friendly roads: the impacts of roads on wildlife in urban areas and potential remedies
Seth P.D. Riley, Justin L. Brown, Jeff A. Sikich, Catherine M. Schoonmaker, Erin E. Boydston
2014, Book chapter, Urban Wildlife Conservation
Roads are one of the most important factors affecting the ability of wildlife to live and move within an urban area. Roads physically replace wildlife habitat and often reduce habitat quality nearby, fragment the remaining habitat, and cause increased mortality through vehicle collisions. Much ecological research on roads has focused...
Physical habitat and water quality correlates of crayfish distributions in a mined watershed
Stuart A. Welsh, Zachary J. Loughman
2014, Hydrobiologia (745) 85-96
In mined watersheds, water quality alters aquatic faunas, but few studies have focused on associations between stream habitat and crayfish distributions. We examined associations of water quality and physical habitat quality on presence/absence of six crayfish species in the upper Kanawha River drainage of southern West Virginia, USA, a region...
USGS Field Activities 12BHM01, 12BHM02, 12BHM03, 12BHM04, and 12BHM05 on the West Florida Shelf, in February, April, May, June, and August 2012
Lisa L. Robbins, Paul O. Knorr, Kendra L. Daly, Kira E. Barrera
2014, Data Series 883
Atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) is absorbed by the ocean’s surface where it combines with seawater to form a weak, naturally occurring acid called carbonic acid (H2CO3). Increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere results in the absorption of more CO2 by the ocean and, therefore, increases in the acidity of...
Surface wave site characterization at 27 locations near Boston, Massachusetts, including 2 strong-motion stations
Eric M. Thompson, Bradley A. Carkin, Laurie G. Baise, Robert E. Kayen
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1232
The geotechnical properties of the soils in and around Boston, Massachusetts, have been extensively studied. This is partly due to the importance of the Boston Blue Clay and the extent of landfill in the Boston area. Although New England is not a region that is typically associated with seismic hazards,...
USGS investigations of water produced during hydrocarbon reservoir development
Mark A. Engle, Isabelle M. Cozzarelli, Bruce D. Smith
2014, Fact Sheet 2014-3104
Significant quantities of water are present in hydrocarbon reservoirs. When brought to the land surface during oil, gas, and coalbed methane production, the water—either naturally occurring or injected as a method to enhance production—is termed produced water. Produced water is currently managed through processes such as recycling, treatment and discharge,...
Effects of human disturbance on waterbird nesting and reproductive success at restoration pond SF2, south San Francisco Bay, California
Joshua T. Ackerman, Mark P. Herzog, Christopher A. Hartman
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1223
To offset for the loss of managed pond habitat during restoration of wetlands to tidal marsh, the South Bay Salt Pond (SBSP) Restoration Project is enhancing some of the remaining ponds by constructing islands for roosting and nesting waterbirds. Among these wetland habitats, the SBSP Restoration Project also is installing...
Simulating 2,368 temperate lakes reveals weak coherence in stratification phenology
Jordan S. Read, Luke A. Winslow, Gretchen J. A. Hansen, Jamon Van Den Hoek, Paul C. Hanson, Louise C. Bruce, Corey D. Markfort
2014, Ecological Modelling (291) 142-150
Changes in water temperatures resulting from climate warming can alter the structure and function of aquatic ecosystems. Lake-specific physical characteristics may play a role in mediating individual lake responses to climate. Past mechanistic studies of lake-climate interactions have simulated generic lake classes at large spatial scales or performed detailed analyses...
Termini of calving glaciers as self-organized critical systems
J. Astrom, D. Vallot, M. Schafer, E. Welty, Shad O’Neel, T.C. Bartholomaus, Y. Liu, T. Riikila, T. Zwinger, J. Timonen, Johnnie N. Moore
2014, Nature Geoscience (7) 874-878
Over the next century, one of the largest contributions to sea level rise will come from ice sheets and glaciers calving ice into the ocean<a id="ref-link-section-d44209e580" title="Moore, J. C., Grinsted, A., Zwinger, T. & Jevrejeva, S. Semi-empirical and process-based global sea level projections. Rev. Geophys. 51, 484–522 (2013)." href="https://www.nature.com/articles/ngeo2290#ref-CR1" data-track="click"...
Practical limitations on the use of diurnal temperature signals to quantify groundwater upwelling
Martin A. Briggs, Laura K. Lautz, Sean F. Buckley, John W. Lane Jr.
2014, Journal of Hydrology (519) 1739-1751
Groundwater upwelling to streams creates unique habitat by influencing stream water quality and temperature; upwelling zones also serve as vectors for contamination when groundwater is degraded. Temperature time series data acquired along vertical profiles in the streambed have been applied to simple analytical models to determine rates of vertical fluid...
On the downscaling of actual evapotranspiration maps based on combination of MODIS and landsat-based actual evapotranspiration estimates
Ramesh K. Singh, Gabriel B. Senay, Naga Manohar Velpuri, Stefanie Bohms, James P. Verdin
2014, Remote Sensing (6) 10483-10509
Downscaling is one of the important ways of utilizing the combined benefits of the high temporal resolution of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) images and fine spatial resolution of Landsat images. We have evaluated the output regression with intercept method and developed the Linear with Zero Intercept (LinZI) method for...
The 3D Elevation Program: summary for Kansas
William J. Carswell Jr.
2014, Fact Sheet 2014-3106
Elevation data are essential to a broad range of applications, including forest resources management, wildlife and habitat management, national security, recreation, and many others. For the State of Kansas, elevation data are critical for agriculture and precision farming, natural resources conservation, flood risk management, infrastructure and construction management, geologic resource...
An initial abstraction and constant loss model, and methods for estimating unit hydrographs, peak streamflows, and flood volumes for urban basins in Missouri
Richard J. Huizinga
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5193
Streamflow data, basin characteristics, and rainfall data from 39 streamflow-gaging stations for urban areas in and adjacent to Missouri were used by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the Metropolitan Sewer District of St. Louis to develop an initial abstraction and constant loss model (a time-distributed basin-loss model) and...
Observations of elk movement patterns on Fossil Butte National Monument
Edward M. Olexa, Suzanna Carrithers. Soileau, Leslie A. Allen
2014, WLCI Fact Sheet 6
The elk herd that frequents Fossil Butte National Monument, a subset of the West Green River elk population, provides visitors with seasonal opportunities to view an iconic species of the western United States. Throughout the year, these elk range across a variety of private, State, and Federal lands within close...
Using multiple data sets to populate probabilistic volcanic event trees
C. G. Newhall, John S. Pallister
2014, Book chapter, Volcanic Hazards, Risks and Disasters
The key parameters one needs to forecast outcomes of volcanic unrest are hidden kilometers beneath the Earth’s surface, and volcanic systems are so complex that there will invariably be stochastic elements in the evolution of any unrest. Fortunately, there is sufficient regularity in behaviour that some, perhaps many, eruptions can...
USGS Arctic Ocean Carbon Cruise 2012: Field Activity L-01-12-AR to collect carbon data in the Arctic Ocean, August-September 2012
Lisa L. Robbins, Jonathan Wynn, Paul O. Knorr, Bogdan Onac, John T. Lisle, Katherine Y. McMullen, Kimberly K. Yates, Robert H. Byrne, Xuewu Liu
2014, Data Series 862
From August 25 to September 27, 2012, the United States Coast Guard Cutter (USCGC) Healy was part of an Extended Continental Shelf Project to determine the limits of the extended continental shelf in the Arctic. On a non-interference basis, a USGS ocean acidification team participated on the cruise to collect...
Earthquake catalog for estimation of maximum earthquake magnitude, Central and Eastern United States: Part B, historical earthquakes
Russell L. Wheeler
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1025-B
Computation of probabilistic earthquake hazard requires an estimate of Mmax: the moment magnitude of the largest earthquake that is thought to be possible within a specified geographic region. The region specified in this report is the Central and Eastern United States and adjacent Canada. Parts A and B of this...
Geologic map of the west-central Buffalo National River region, northern Arkansas
Mark R. Hudson, Kenzie J. Turner
2014, Scientific Investigations Map 3314
This map summarizes the geology of the west-central Buffalo National River region in the Ozark Plateaus region of northern Arkansas. Geologically, the region lies on the southern flank of the Ozark dome, an uplift that exposes oldest rocks at its center in Missouri. Physiographically, the map area spans the Springfield...
Anisakiosis and pseudoterranovosis
Lena Measures
2014, Circular 1393
Anisakiosis and pseudoterranovosis are parasitic diseases caused by infection with larval nematodes or roundworms of the genera Anisakis and Pseudoterranova. These infections are zoonoses, meaning they are transmissible between animals and humans and vice versa. The life cycles of Anisakis spp., commonly called whaleworm, and Pseudoterranova spp., commonly called sealworm,...
Ecological implications of Laurel Wilt infestation on Everglades Tree Islands, southern Florida
James R. Snyder
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1225
There is a long history of introduced pests attacking native forest trees in the United States (Liebhold and others, 1995; Aukema and others, 2010). Well-known examples include chestnut blight that decimated the American chestnut (Castanea dentata), an extremely important tree in the eastern United States, both as a food source...
