Relations among water levels, specific conductance, and depths of bedrock fractures in four road-salt-contaminated wells in Maine, 2007–9
Charles W. Schalk, Nicholas W. Stasulis
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5205
Data on groundwater-level, specific conductance (a surrogate for chloride), and temperature were collected continuously from 2007 through 2009 at four bedrock wells known to be affected by road salts in an effort to determine the effects of road salting and fractures in bedrock that intersect the well at a depth...
Net Ecosystem Production (NEP) of the Great Plains, United States
Daniel Howard, Tagir Gilmanov, Yingxin Gu, Bruce Wylie, Li Zhang
2012, Fact Sheet 2012-3134
Gross primary production (GPP) and ecosystem respiration (Re) are the fundamental environmental characteristics that promote carbon exchanges with the atmosphere (Chapin and others, 2009), although other exchanges of carbon, such as direct oxidation (Lovett and others, 2006), can modify net ecosystem production (NEP). The accumulation of carbon in terrestrial ecosystems...
Synchronous cycling of Ichthyophoniasis with Chinook salmon density revealed during the annual Yukon River spawning migration
Stanley Zuray, Richard Kocan, Paul Hershberger
2012, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (141) 615-623
Populations of Chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha in the Yukon River declined by more than 57% between 2003 and 2010, probably the result of a combination of anthropogenic and environmental factors. One possible contributor to this decline is Ichthyophonus, a mesomycetozoan parasite that has previously been implicated in significant losses of...
Snake River fall Chinook salmon life history investigations: Annual report 2010
Kenneth F. Tiffan, William P. Connor, Rebecca A. Buchanan, Scott J. St John, John M. Erhardt, Craig A. Haskell
2012, Report
This report summarizes three research activities conducted in 2010-2011. The first was a radiotelemetry study conducted in the lower Clearwater River. The second was a hydroacoustic study conducted in Lower Granite and Little Goose reservoirs. The third was an analysis of covariates affecting juvenile fall Chinook salmon survival and behavior....
Status and trends of land change in the Western United States--1973 to 2000
Benjamin M. Sleeter, Tamara S. Wilson, William Acevedo, editor(s)
2012, Professional Paper 1794-A
Preface U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Professional Paper 1794–A is the first in a four-volume series on the status and trends of the Nation’s land use and land cover, providing an assessment of the rates and causes of land-use and land-cover change in the Western United States between 1973 and 2000. Volumes...
Burial increases seed longevity of two Artemisia tridentata (Asteraceae) subspecies
Upekala C. Wijayratne, David A. Pyke
2012, American Journal of Botany (99) 438-447
Premise of the study: Seed longevity and persistence in soil seed banks may be especially important for population persistence in ecosystems where opportunities for seedling establishment and disturbance are unpredictable. The fire regime, an important driver of population dynamics in sagebrush steppe ecosystems, has been altered by exotic annual grass...
Ecosystem services valuation to support decisionmaking on public lands—A case study of the San Pedro River watershed, Arizona
Kenneth J. Bagstad, Darius J. Semmens, Rob Winthrop, Delilah Jaworksi, Joel Larson
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5251
This report details the findings of the Bureau of Land Management–U.S. Geological Survey Ecosystem Services Valuation Pilot Study. This project evaluated alternative methods and tools that quantify and value ecosystem services, and it assessed the tools’ readiness for use in the Bureau of Land Management decisionmaking process. We tested these...
Roles of inflammatory caspases during processing of zebrafish interleukin-1β in Francisella noatunensis infection
Lucia N. Vojtech, Nichole Scharping, James C. Woodson, John D. Hansen
2012, Infection and Immunity (80) 2878-2885
The interleukin-1 family of cytokines are essential for the control of pathogenic microbes but are also responsible for devastating autoimmune pathologies. Consequently, tight regulation of inflammatory processes is essential for maintaining homeostasis. In mammals, interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β) is primarily regulated at two levels, transcription and processing. The main pathway for...
The Midwest Stream Quality Assessment
Peter C. Van Metre, Jeffrey W. Frey, Ellen Tarquinio
2012, Fact Sheet 2012-3124
In 2013, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water-Quality Assessment Program (NAWQA) and USGS Columbia Environmental Research Center (CERC) will be collaborating with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) National Rivers and Streams Assessment (NRSA) to assess stream quality across the Midwestern United States. The sites selected for this study...
Time-lapse camera observations of gas piston activity at Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō, Kīlauea volcano, Hawai‘i
Tim R. Orr, James Rea
2012, Bulletin of Volcanology (74) 2353-2362
Gas pistoning is a type of eruptive behavior described first at Kīlauea volcano and characterized by the (commonly) cyclic rise and fall of the lava surface within a volcanic vent or lava lake. Though recognized for decades, its cause continues to be debated, and determining why and when it occurs...
Detecting hidden volcanic explosions from Mt. Cleveland Volcano, Alaska with infrasound and ground-couples airwaves
Slivio De Angelis, David Fee, Matthew Haney, David Schneider
2012, Geophysical Research Letters (39)
In Alaska, where many active volcanoes exist without ground-based instrumentation, the use of techniques suitable for distant monitoring is pivotal. In this study we report regional-scale seismic and infrasound observations of volcanic activity at Mt. Cleveland between December 2011 and August 2012. During this period, twenty explosions were detected by...
Survival and growth of juvenile Pacific lampreys tagged with passive integrated transponders (PIT) in freshwater and seawater
Matthew G. Mesa, Elizabeth S. Copeland, Helena E. Christiansen, Jacob L. Gregg, Sean R. Roon, Paul K. Hershberger
2012, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (141) 1260-1268
Tagging methods are needed for both adult and juvenile life stages of Pacific lampreys Lampetra tridentata to better understand their biology and factors contributing to their decline. We developed a safe and efficient technique for tagging juvenile Pacific lampreys with passive integrated transponder (PIT) tags. We tested the short-term survival...
Use of ASTER and MODIS thermal infrared data to quantify heat flow and hydrothermal change at Yellowstone National Park
R. Greg Vaughan, Laszlo P. Keszthelyi, Jacob B. Lowenstern, Cheryl Jaworowski, Henry Heasler
2012, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research (233-234) 72-89
The overarching aim of this study was to use satellite thermal infrared (TIR) remote sensing to monitor geothermal activity within the Yellowstone geothermal area to meet the missions of both the U.S. Geological Survey and the Yellowstone National Park Geology Program. Specific goals were to: 1) address the challenges...
Selenium in aquatic biota inhabiting agricultural drains in the Salton Sea Basin, California
Michael K. Saiki, Barbara A. Martin, Thomas W. May
2012, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment (184) 5623-5640
Resource managers are concerned that water conservation practices in irrigated farmlands along the southern border of the Salton Sea, Imperial County, California, could increase selenium concentrations in agricultural drainwater and harm the desert pupfish (Cyprinodon macularius), a federally protected endangered species. As part of a broader attempt to...
Carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide degassing and cryptic thermal input to Brimstone Basin, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
D. Bergfeld, William C. Evans, J. B. Lowenstern, S. Hurwitz
2012, Chemical Geology (330-331) 233-243
Brimstone Basin, a remote area of intense hydrothermal alteration a few km east of the Yellowstone Caldera, is rarely studied and has long been considered to be a cold remnant of an ancient hydrothermal system. A field campaign in 2008 confirmed that gas emissions from the few small vents were...
Casual instrument corrections for short-period and broadband seismometers
Matthew M. Haney, John Power, Michael West, Paul Michaels
2012, Seismological Research Letters (83) 834-845
Of all the filters applied to recordings of seismic waves, which include source, path, and site effects, the one we know most precisely is the instrument filter. Therefore, it behooves seismologists to accurately remove the effect of the instrument from raw seismograms. Applying instrument corrections allows analysis of the seismogram...
Effectiveness of common fish screen materials to protect lamprey ammocoetes
Brien P. Rose, Matthew G. Mesa
2012, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (32) 597-603
Understanding the effects of irrigation diversions on populations of Pacific lampreyLampetra tridentata in the Columbia River basin is needed for their recovery. We tested the effectiveness of five common fish screen materials for excluding lamprey ammocoetes: interlock (IL), vertical bar (VB), perforated plate (PP), and 12-gauge and 14-gauge wire cloth (WC12)...
Costs of living for juvenile Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) in an increasingly warming and invaded world
Lauren M. Kuehne, Julian D. Olden, Jeffrey J. Duda
2012, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (69) 1621-1630
Rapid environmental change in freshwater ecosystems has created a need to understand the interactive effects of multiple stressors, with temperature and invasive predators identified as key threats to imperiled fish species. We tested the separate and interactive effects of water temperature and predation by non-native smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieu) on...
Baseline and projected future carbon storage and greenhouse-gas fluxes in ecosystems of the Western United States
Zhi-Liang Zhu, Bradley C. Reed
2012, Professional Paper 1797
This assessment was conducted to fulfill the requirements of section 712 of the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 2007 and to improve understanding of carbon and greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes in ecosystems of the Western United States. The assessment examined carbon storage, carbon fluxes, and other GHG fluxes...
Spatial genetic structure and asymmetrical gene flow within the Pacific walrus
Sarah A. Sonsthagen, Chadwick V. Jay, Anthony S. Fischbach, George K. Sage, Sandra L. Talbot
2012, Journal of Mammalogy (93) 1512-1524
Pacific walruses (Odobenus rosmarus divergens) occupying shelf waters of Pacific Arctic seas migrate during spring and summer from 3 breeding areas in the Bering Sea to form sexually segregated nonbreeding aggregations. We assessed genetic relationships among 2 putative breeding populations and 6 nonbreeding aggregations. Analyses of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control...
Thermal maturity map of Devonian shale in the Illinois, Michigan, and Appalachian basins of North America
Joseph A. East, Christopher S. Swezey, John E. Repetski, Daniel O. Hayba
2012, Scientific Investigations Map 3214
Much of the oil and gas in the Illinois, Michigan, and Appalachian basins of eastern North America is thought to be derived from Devonian shale that is within these basins (for example, Milici and others, 2003; Swezey, 2002, 2008, 2009; Swezey and others, 2005, 2007). As the Devonian strata were...
Degassing of Cl, F, Li and Be during extrusion and crystallization of the rhyolite dome at Volcán Chaitén, Chile during 2008 and 2009
Jacob B. Lowenstern, Heather Bleick, Jorge A. Vazquez, Jonathan M. Castro, Peter B. Larson
2012, Bulletin of Volcanology (74) 2303-2319
We investigated the distribution of Cl, F, Li, and Be in pumices, obsidians, and crystallized dome rocks at Chaitén volcano in 2008–2009 in order to explore the behavior of these elements during explosive and effusive volcanic activity. Electron and ion microprobe analyses of matrix and inclusion glasses from pumice, obsidian,...
Hydrate morphology: Physical properties of sands with patchy hydrate saturation
S. Dai, J.C. Santamarina, William F. Waite, T.J. Kneafsey
2012, Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth (117) B11205
The physical properties of gas hydrate-bearing sediments depend on the volume fraction and spatial distribution of the hydrate phase. The host sediment grain size and the state of effective stress determine the hydrate morphology in sediments; this information can be used to significantly constrain estimates of the physical properties of...
Estimated probability of arsenic in groundwater from bedrock aquifers in New Hampshire, 2011
Joseph D. Ayotte, Matthew Cahillane, Laura Hayes, Keith W. Robinson
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5156
Probabilities of arsenic occurrence in groundwater from bedrock aquifers at concentrations of 1, 5, and 10 micrograms per liter (µg/L) were estimated during 2011 using multivariate logistic regression. These estimates were developed for use by the New Hampshire Environmental Public Health Tracking Program. About 39 percent of New Hampshire bedrock...
Shallow stratigraphic control on pockmark distribution in north temperate estuaries
Laura L. Brothers, Joseph T. Kelley, Daniel F. Belknap, Walter A. Barnhardt, Brian D. Andrews, Christine Legere, John E. Hughes Clarke
2012, Marine Geology (329-331) 34-45
Pockmark fields occur throughout northern North American temperate estuaries despite the absence of extensive thermogenic hydrocarbon deposits typically associated with pockmarks. In such settings, the origins of the gas and triggering mechanism(s) responsible for pockmark formation are not obvious. Nor is it known why pockmarks proliferate in this region but...
