Mississippi river delta: Chapter G in Emergent wetlands status and trends in the northern Gulf of Mexico: 1950-2010
Lawrence R. Handley, Kathryn A. Spear, Mirka Zapletal, Cindy A. Thatcher, William Jones, Scott Wilson
2012, Report, Emergent wetlands status and trends in the northern Gulf of Mexico: 1950-2010
No abstract available. ...
Response of the North American monsoon to regional changes in ocean surface temperature
John A. Barron, Sarah E. Metcalfe, Jason A. Addison
2012, Paleoceanography (27)
The North American monsoon (NAM), an onshore wind shift occurring between July and September, has evolved in character during the Holocene largely due to changes in Northern Hemisphere insolation. Published paleoproxy and modeling studies suggest that prior to ∼8000 cal years BP, the NAM affected a broader region than today,...
Reoccurrence of 'Ōma'o in leeward woodland habitat and their distribution in alpine habitat on Hawai'i island
Seth W. Judge, Jacqueline M. Gaudioso, P. Marcos Gorresen, Richard J. Camp
2012, Wilson Journal of Ornithology (124) 675-681
The endemic solitaire, 'Oma'o (Myadestes obscurus), is common in windward forests of Hawai'i Island, but has been historically extirpated from leeward forests. The last detections of 'Oma'o on the leeward side of the island were in woodland habitat on the western flank of Mauna Loa in 1978. 'Oma'o were detected...
Tracking lava flow emplacement on the east rift zone of Kilauea, Hawai’i with synthetic aperture radar (SAR) coherence
Hannah R. Dietterich, Michael P. Poland, David Schmidt, Katharine V. Cashman, David R. Sherrod, Arkin Tapia Espinosa
2012, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems (13)
Lava flow mapping is both an essential component of volcano monitoring and a valuable tool for investigating lava flow behavior. Although maps are traditionally created through field surveys, remote sensing allows an extraordinary view of active lava flows while avoiding the difficulties of mapping on location. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR)...
Selection of the Mars Science Laboratory landing site
M. Golombek, J. Grant, D. Kipp, A. Vasavada, Randolph L. Kirk, Robin L. Fergason, P. Bellutta, F. Calef, K. Larsen, Y. Katayama, A. Huertas, R. Beyer, A. Chen, T. Parker, B. Pollard, S. Lee, R. Hoover, H. Sladek, J. Grotzinger, R. Welch, E. Noe Dobrea, J. Michalski, M. Watkins
2012, Space Science Reviews (170) 641-737
The selection of Gale crater as the Mars Science Laboratory landing site took over five years, involved broad participation of the science community via five open workshops, and narrowed an initial >50 sites (25 by 20 km) to four finalists (Eberswalde, Gale, Holden and Mawrth) based on science and safety....
Peninsular terrane basement ages recorded by Paleozoic and Paleoproterozoic zircon in gabbro xenoliths and andesite from Redoubt volcano, Alaska
Charles R. Bacon, Jorge A. Vazquez, Joseph L. Wooden
2012, Geological Society of America Bulletin (124) 24-34
Historically Sactive Redoubt volcano is an Aleutian arc basalt-to-dacite cone constructed upon the Jurassic–Early Tertiary Alaska–Aleutian Range batholith. The batholith intrudes the Peninsular tectonostratigraphic terrane, which is considered to have developed on oceanic basement and to have accreted to North America, possibly in Late Jurassic time. Xenoliths in Redoubt magmas...
Out of the tropics: the Pacific, Great Basin lakes, and late Pleistocene water cycle in the western United States
Mitchell Lyle, Linda Heusser, Christina Ravelo, Masanobu Yamamoto, John Barron, Noah S. Diffenbaugh, Timothy Herbert, Dyke Andreasen
2012, Science (337) 1629-1633
The water cycle in the western U.S. changed dramatically over glacial cycles. In the last 20,000 years, higher precipitation caused desert lakes to form which have since dried out. Higher glacial precipitation is hypothesized to result from a southward shift of Pacific winter storm tracks. We compared Pacific Ocean data...
Report on the reptiles of Upland Savai’i
Robert N. Fisher, Moeumu Uili
James Atherton, Bruce Jefferies, editor(s)
2012, Report, Rapid biodiversity assessment of Upland Savai'i, Samoa
The reptile team conducted a 21 kilometre transect from the coast east of Asau to the uplands ending near Mauga Silisili at over 1720 m elevation. This transect covered the main habitats on Savai’i and allowed the team to determine where various reptile species and invasive species occurred across this...
An unusual molluscan faunule from the upper part of the Monterey Formation (middle to late Miocene) in Arroyo Seco, Monterey County, central California
Charles L. Powell II
2012, Conference Paper, Field trip guidebook for the 45th annual meeting of the Western Society of Malacologists
No abstract available....
Status of rainbow smelt in U.S. waters of Lake Ontario, 2011
Brian Weidel, Michael J. Connerton
2012, Report, Status of important prey fishes in the U.S. Waters of Lake Ontario, 2011
Rainbow smelt Osmerus mordax are the second most abundant pelagic prey fish in Lake Ontario. The abundance and weight indices for Lake Ontario age-1 and older rainbow smelt declined in 2011 and represented a 64% and 54% decrease respectively from 2010 levels. Length frequency-based age analysis indicated that age-1 rainbow...
Analysis options for estimating status and trends in long-term monitoring
Jonathan Bart, Hawthorne L. Beyer
2012, Book chapter, Design and Analysis of Long-term Ecological Monitoring Studies
This chapter describes methods for estimating long-term trends in ecological parameters. Other chapters in this volume discuss more advanced methods for analyzing monitoring data, but these methods may be relatively inaccessible to some readers. Therefore, this chapter provides an introduction to trend analysis for managers and biologists while also discussing...
Relating management practices and nutrient export in agricultural watersheds of the United States
Lori A. Sprague, Jo Ann M. Gronberg
2012, Journal of Environmental Quality (41) 1939-1950
Relations between riverine export (load) of total nitrogen (N) and total phosphorus (P) from 133 large agricultural watersheds in the United States and factors affecting nutrient transport were evaluated using empirical regression models. After controlling for anthropogenic inputs and other landscape factors affecting nutrient transport-such as runoff, precipitation, slope, number...
Future opportunities and challenges in remote sensing of drought
Brian D. Wardlow, Martha C. Anderson, Justin Sheffield, Brad Doorn, James Verdin, Xiwu Zhan, Matt Rodell
Brian D. Wardlow, Martha C. Anderson, James P. Verdin, editor(s)
2012, Book chapter, Remote sensing of drought: innovative monitoring approaches
The value of satellite remote sensing for drought monitoring was first realized more than two decades ago with the application of Normalized Difference Index (NDVI) data from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) for assessing the effect of drought on vegetation. Other indices such as the Vegetation Health Index...
Oligocene age of the classic Belén fruit and seed assemblage of north coastal Peru based on diatom biostratigraphy
Steven R. Manchester, Fabiany Herrera, Elisabeth Fourtainer, John A. Barron, Jean-Noel Martinez
2012, Journal of Geology (120) 467-476
The Belén flora, in north coastal Peru, is the most diverse fruit and seed assemblage known from the Paleogene of South America. Almost no original paleobotanical work has been done on this assemblage since the pioneering treatments published by E.W. Berry, in the 1920’s and the precise age has not...
Wet deposition of fission-product isotopes to North America from the Fukushima Dai-ichi incident, March 2011
Gregory A. Wetherbee, David A. Gay, Timothy M. Debey, Christopher M.B. Lehmann, Mark A. Nilles
2012, Environmental Science & Technology (46) 2574-2582
Using the infrastructure of the National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP), numerous measurements of radionuclide wet deposition over North America were made for 167 NADP sites before and after the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Station incident of March 12, 2011. For the period from March 8 through April 5, 2011, wet-only...
Post-wildfire wind erosion in and around the Idaho National Laboratory Site
Matthew J. Germino
2012, Report
Wind erosion following large wildfires on and around the INL Site is a recurrent threat to human health and safety, DOE operations and trafficability, and ecological and hydrological condition of the INL Site and down-wind landscapes. Causes and consequences of wind erosion are mainly known from warm deserts (e.g., Southwest...
USGS workshop on CO2 sequestration in unconventional reservoirs
Kevin B. Jones, M.D. Corum, Madalyn S. Blondes
2012, Greenhouse News (106) 16-18
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) held a workshop titled “CO2 Sequestration in Unconventional Reservoirs” at the National Conservation Training Center, Shepherdstown, West Virginia, USA, on March 28th – 29th, 2012. Currently the USGS National Geologic Carbon Sequestration Assessment estimates potential subsurface storage volumes only in the existing pore spaces of...
Numerical simulation of flow in deep open boreholes in a coastal freshwater lens, Pearl Harbor Aquifer, O‘ahu, Hawai‘i
Kolja Rotzoll
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5009
The Pearl Harbor aquifer in southern O‘ahu is one of the most important sources of freshwater in Hawai‘i. A thick freshwater lens overlays brackish and saltwater in this coastal aquifer. Salinity profiles collected from uncased deep monitor wells (DMWs) commonly are used to monitor freshwater-lens thickness. However, vertical flow in...
Nitrate removal in deep sediments of a nitrogen-rich river network: A test of a conceptual model
Robert S. Stelzer, Lynn Bartsch
2012, Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences (117)
Many estimates of nitrogen removal in streams and watersheds do not include or account for nitrate removal in deep sediments, particularly in gaining streams. We developed and tested a conceptual model for nitrate removal in deep sediments in a nitrogen-rich river network. The model predicts that oxic, nitrate-rich groundwater will...
Western pond turtle: Biology, sampling techniques, inventory and monitoring, conservation, and management: Northwest Fauna No. 7
R.B. Bury, Hartwell H. Welsh Jr., David J. Germano, Donald T. Ashton, editor(s)
2012, Book
One of only two native, freshwater turtle species in the western United States, western pond turtles are declining in portions of their original range. Declines are mostly due to habitat loss, introduction of non-native species, pollution, and lack of connectivity among populations. USGS zoologist R. Bruce Bury and colleagues from...
Evaluation of capture techniques for long-billed curlews wintering in Texas
Marc C. Woodin, Mary K. Skoruppa, Jeremy W. Edwardson, Jane E. Austin
2012, Bulletin of the Texas Ornithological Society (45) 12-22
Texas coast harbors the largest, eastern-most populations of Long-billed Curlews (Numenius americanus) in North America; however, very little is known about their migration and wintering ecology. Curlews are readily captured on their breeding grounds, but experience with capturing the species during the non-breeding season is extremely limited. We assessed the...
The role of spatial and temporal heterogeneity and competition in structuring trematode communities in the great pond snail, Lymnaea stagnalis (L.)
Miroslava Soldánová, Armand M. Kuris, Tomáš Scholz, Kevin D. Lafferty
2012, Journal of Parasitology (98) 460-471
We assessed how spatial and temporal heterogeneity and competition structure larval trematode communities in the pulmonate snail Lymnaea stagnalis. To postulate a dominance hierarchy, mark-release-recapture was used to monitor replacements of trematode species within snails over time. In addition, we sampled the trematode community in snails in different ponds in...
The 1909 Taipei earthquake: implication for seismic hazard in Taipei
Hiroo Kanamori, William H.K. Lee, Kuo-Fong Ma
2012, Geophysical Journal International (191) 126-146
The 1909 April 14 Taiwan earthquake caused significant damage in Taipei. Most of the information on this earthquake available until now is from the written reports on its macro-seismic effects and from seismic station bulletins. In view of the importance of this event for assessing the shaking hazard in the...
Tools for quantifying isotopic niche space and dietary variation at the individual and population level.
Seth D. Newsome, Justin D. Yeakel, Patrick V. Wheatley, M. Tim Tinker
2012, Journal of Mammalogy (93) 329-341
Ecologists are increasingly using stable isotope analysis to inform questions about variation in resource and habitat use from the individual to community level. In this study we investigate data sets from 2 California sea otter (Enhydra lutris nereis) populations to illustrate the advantages and potential pitfalls of applying various statistical...
Advances in spectroscopic methods for quantifying soil carbon
James B. Reeves III, Gregory W. McCarty, Francisco Calderon, W. Dean Hively
2012, Book chapter, Managing agricultural greenhouse gases
The current gold standard for soil carbon (C) determination is elemental C analysis using dry combustion. However, this method requires expensive consumables, is limited by the number of samples that can be processed (~100/d), and is restricted to the determination of total carbon. With increased interest in soil C sequestration,...
