Optimal timing of high-flow experiments for sandbar deposition
David J. Topping, Paul E. Grams, Ronald E. Griffiths, Joseph E. Hazel Jr., Matthew Kaplinski, David J. Dean, Nicholas Voichick, Joel A. Unema, Thomas A. Sabol
2019, Conference Paper, High-Flow Experiments Assessment Extended Abstracts
Sediment-transport theory and field measurements indicate that the greatest or most efficient deposition of sand in eddies occurs during controlled floods (a.k.a. High-Flow Experiments or HFEs) when the greatest amount of the finest sand is available on the bed of the Colorado River (Topping and others, 2010). Conducting HFEs when...
Results from the Department of the Interior Strategic Sciences Group Technical Support for the 2018 Kīlauea Eruption
K. A. Ludwig, Alice Pennaz, Aleeza Wilkins
2019, Report
On May 3, 2018 Hawai'i’s Kīlauea volcano erupted, ultimately covering 35 square kilometers (13.5 square miles) of land in lava, destroying over 700 homes in multiple subdivisions, and displacing over 2500 residents in the Puna District on the southeast flank of the volcano. Simultaneously, Kīlauea’s summit experienced its largest collapse...
A revised continuous surface elevation model for modeling
Rueen-Fang Wang, Eli Ateljevich, Theresa A. Fregoso, Bruce E. Jaffe
2019, Book chapter, Methodology for flow and salinity estimates in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and Suisun Marsh, 39th Annual Progress Report to the State Water Resources Control Board
A digital elevation model (DEM) is an essential component of any hydrodynamic model. The Delta Modeling Section (Section) has maintained a database of bathymetry soundings and levee surveys for decades and published a 10-meter (10m) DEM for the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (Delta) (California Department of Water...
Changes in body condition and diet of lotic Smallmouth Bass across two flow regimes during summer months at the southern extent of their native range
Christopher R. Middaugh, Daniel D. Magoulick
2019, American Fisheries Society Symposium (87) 93-110
The Ozark Plateau is located at the southern extent of native Smallmouth Bass Micropterus dolomieu range and water temperature and drought conditions during summer months may potentially affect growth of Smallmouth Bass in this region. Groundwater streams in the region do not warm to the same extent as runoff streams...
Estimating indirect impacts of wind-energy development for breeding grassland birds and waterfowl in the northern Great Plains
Jill A. Shaffer, Charles R. Loesch, Deborah A. Buhl
2019, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the Wind Wildlife Research Meeting XII
No abstract available....
Nest-defense behavior of Mississippi Kites in urban and exurban areas
B. R. Skipper, Clint W. Boal
2019, Human-Wildlife Interactions (13)
Mississippi kites (Ictinia mississippiensis) have become an abundant raptor in many urban and exurban areas throughout the Southern Great Plains of the United States. Unfortunately, human–wildlife conflicts have resulted from this juxtaposition of suitable breeding areas for kites and areas that humans frequent, with some kites responding aggressively to humans...
First summer survival and channel unit habitat use by the Neosho subspecies of Smallmouth Bass (Micropterus dolomieu velox)
Shannon K. Brewer, Brandon L. Browne, Thomas A. Worthington, Robert Mollenhauer, Anthony Rodger, Matt Skoog, Jim Burroughs
2019, American Fisheries Society Symposium (87) 21-37
No abstract available. ...
Effects of high flow experiments on warm-water native and nonnative fishes
David Ward
2019, Conference Paper, High-Flow Experiments Assessment Extended Abstracts
The harsh environmental conditions and extreme flooding that created Grand Canyon also shaped the unique native fish that evolved in the Colorado River. Native fish have evolved their physiology, morphology and behavior to withstand high flood events. Flooding has been shown to benefit spawning, survival and recruitment of juvenile native...
Fire, forests and city water supply
Dennis W. Hallema, Alicia M. Kinoshita, Deborah A. Martin, Francois-Nicholas Robinne, Mauricio Galleguillos, Steven G. McNulty, Ge Sun, Kunwar K. Singh, Rua S. Mordecai, Peter F. Moore
2019, Unasylva (70) 58-66
Forest landscapes generate 57 percent of runoff worldwide and supply water to more than 4 billion people (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005). As the world population continues to increase, there is a strong need to understand how forest processes link together in a cascade to provide people with water services like...
Report of the technical expert workshop: Developing recommendations for field response, captive management, and rehabilitation of sea turtles with fibropapillomatosis
Brian Stacy, Allen M. Foley, Thierry M. Work, Anne Lauritsen, Barbara Schroeder, Stacy A. Hargrove, Jennifer L. Keene
2019, NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS-OPR-60
Fibropapillomatosis (FP) is a disease of sea turtles that primarily manifests as tumors of the skin. Strandings of green turtles with this disease have dramatically increased in the Southeast U.S. over the last decade, necessitating a review of various practices related to the capture, handling, and treatment of afflicted turtles....
Effects of high flow events (and other factors) on Salmonids
Charles B. Yackulic
2019, Conference Paper, High-Flow Experiments Assessment Extended Abstracts
Spring and fall high flow events released by Glen Canyon Dam appear to affect rainbow and brown trout in different ways that also very geographically, however other environmental factors are likely to play as important, or more important. Teasing apart impacts is made difficult by the lack of experimental design...
Sources, timing, and fate of sediment and contaminants in the nearshore: insights from geochemistry
Renee K. Takesue, Kathleen E. Conn, Margaret Dutch
2019, Conference Paper, 2018 Salish Sea Toxics Monitoring Synthesis: A Selection of Research
Rivers in Cascade watersheds carry sediment with a volcanic composition that is distinct from the plutonic composition of the Puget lowlands. Compositional properties (signatures) allow discrimination of river-sourced Cascade from lowland sediment, and inferences about transport pathways. Surface sediment on land contains atmospheric radionuclides whose known decay rates define monthly...
Pallid sturgeon basin-wide contaminants assessment
Molly A. H. Webb, Diana Papoulias, David Rouse, Steve Alexander, Mandy L. Annis, Michael Coffey, Kevin Johnson, Aleshia Kenney, Mike McKee, Lourdes Mena, Karen Nelson, Matt Schwarz
2019, Report
Pallid sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus albus), listed as endangered in 1990 under the federal Endangered Species Act (United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), 1990), have declined due to habitat loss, commercial fishing, and hybridization. Pollution in the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers has to-date only received minor attention as a factor in...
Understanding the central Great Plains as a coupled climatic-hydrological-human system: Lessons learned in operationalizing interdisciplinary collaboration
Marcellus M. Caldas, Martha E. Mather, Jason S. Bergtold, Melinda Daniels, Gabriel Granco, Joseph Aistrup, David A. Haukos, Aleksey Y. Sheshukov, Matthew R. Sanderson, Jessica L. Heier Stamm
2019, Book chapter, Collaboration across boundaries for social-ecological systems science
This chapter discusses an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary project to understand the interactions of agriculture, climate, and water resources in the Central Great Plains as a coupled natural-human system. We focus on the Smoky Hills Watershed in Kansas, where we gathered socioeconomic, hydrological, and climatic data, along with ecological data on...
Comparison of groundwater age models for assessing nitrate loading, transport pathways, and management options in a complex aquifer system
E.H. Koh, E. Lee, D. Kaown, Christopher Green, D.C. Koh, K.K Lee, Sangil Lee
2019, Hydrological Processes (32) 923-938
In an aquifer system with complex hydrogeology, mixing of groundwater with different ages could occur associated with various flow pathways. In this study, we applied different groundwater age estimation techniques (lumped parameter model, and numerical model) to characterize groundwater age distributions and the major pathways of nitrate contamination in the...
The accuracy of ecological flow metrics derived using a physics-based distributed rainfall-runoff model in the Great Plains, USA
Thomas A. Worthington, Shannon K. Brewer, Baxter Viex, Jonathan G. Kennen
2019, Ecohydrology (12)
The development of a hydrologic foundation, essential for advancing our understanding of flow-ecology relationships, was developed using the high-resolution physics-based distributed rainfall–runoff model Vflo in a semi-arid region. We compared the accuracy and bias associated with flow metrics that were generated using Vflo, gauge data, and drainage area ratios at both...
Factors controlling landslide frequency-area distributions
Hakan Tanyas, Cees J. van Westen, Kate E. Allstadt, Randall W. Jibson
2019, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms (44) 900-917
A power‐law relation for the frequency–area distribution (FAD) of medium and large landslides (e.g. tens to millions of square meters) has been observed by numerous authors. But the FAD of small landslides diverges from the power‐law distribution, with a rollover point below which frequencies decrease for...
Observations of mixing and transport on a steep beach
Jenna A. Brown, Jamie H. MacMahan, Ad J. H. M. Reniers, Ed B. Thornton, Alan L. Shanks, Steven G. Morgan, Edie L. Gallagher
2019, Continental Shelf Research (178) 1-14
Surfzone mixing and transport on a sandy, steep (∼1/8 slope), reflective beach at Carmel River State Beach, California, are described for a range of wave and alongshore flow conditions. Depth-limited wave breaking occurred close to the shore due to the steepness of the beach, creating a narrow surf/swash zone (∼10 m...
The application of oyster reefs in shoreline protection: Are we over‐engineering for an ecosystem engineer?
R. L. Morris, D. M. Bilkovic, M. K. Boswell, D. Bushek, J. Cebrian, Josh Goff, K. M. Kibler, Megan K. LaPeyre, G. McClenachan, J. A. Moody, P. E. Sacks, J.P. Shinn, E. L. Sparks, N. A. Temple, L. J. Walters, B. M. Webb, S. E. Swearer
2019, Journal of Applied Ecology (56) 1703-1711
Oyster reef living shorelines have been proposed as an effective alternative to traditional coastal defence structures (e.g. bulkheads, breakwaters), with the benefit that they may keep pace with sea‐level rise and provide co‐benefits, such as habitat provision. However, there remains uncertainty about the effectiveness of shoreline protection provided by...
Syn-collisional exhumation of hot middle crust in the Adirondack Mountains (New York, USA): Implications for extensional orogenesis in the southern Grenville province
Sean Regan, Gregory J. Walsh, Michael L. Williams, Jeffrey R. Chiarenzelli, Megan E. Toft, Ryan J. McAleer
2019, Geosphere (15) 1-22
Extensional deformation in the lower to middle continental crust is increasingly recognized and shown to have significant impact on crustal architecture, magma emplacement, fluid flow, and ore deposits. Application of the concept of extensional strain to ancient orogenic systems, like the Grenville province of eastern North America, has helped decipher the structural evolution of...
Mercury concentrations vary within and among individual bird feathers: A critical evaluation and guidelines for feather use in mercury monitoring programs
Sarah H. Peterson, Joshua T. Ackerman, Matthew Toney, Mark P. Herzog
2019, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (38) 1164-1187
Feathers are widely used to represent mercury contamination in birds. Yet, few recommendations exist that provide guidance for using bird feathers in mercury monitoring programs. We conducted a literature review and 5 experiments to show that mercury concentrations vary substantially within (vane >100% higher than calamus) and among (>1000%) individual...
Digital database of the geologic map of the middle east rift geothermal subzone, Kīlauea Volcano, Hawai‘i
Michael H. Zoeller, Frank A. Trusdell, Richard B. Moore
2019, Data Series 1111
This database release contains all the information used to produce Geologic Investigations Series I-2614 (https://pubs.usgs.gov/imap/2614/). The main component of this digital release is a geodatabase prepared using ArcGIS, but Esri shapefiles are included as well.Kīlauea is an active shield volcano in the southeastern part of the...
Mercury exposure and altered parental nesting behavior in a wild songbird
C. Alex Hartman, Joshua T. Ackerman, Mark P. Herzog
2019, Environmental Science & Technology (53) 5396-5405
Methylmercury is a neurotoxin and endocrine disruptor and may impair avian reproduction directly through embryotoxicity or by altering parental care behaviors. We studied mercury exposure and incubation behavior of free-living tree swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) nesting in artificial nest boxes. Using small temperature dataloggers, we measured incubation constancy (the proportion of...
Influence of fire refugia spatial pattern on post-fire forest recovery in Oregon’s Blue Mountains
William M Downing, Meg A. Krawchuk, Garrett W Meigs, Sandra L. Haire, Jonathan D. Coop, Ryan B Walker, Ellen Whitman, Geneva W. Chong, Carol Miller
2019, Landscape Ecology (34) 771-792
ContextFire regimes in many dry forests of western North America are substantially different from historical conditions, and there is concern about the ability of these forests to recover following severe wildfire. Fire refugia, unburned or low-severity burned patches where trees survived fire, may serve as essential propagule sources...
Lotic freshwater: Rivers
Ellen Wohl, R. O. Hall Jr., David Walters
2019, Book chapter, Encyclopedia of the World’s Biomes
Ecosystems associated with rivers are intricately connected to their entire watershed. The river ecosystem includes the channel of active water flow, floodplain, and riparian and hyporheic zones. This ecosystem is shaped by interactions among the natural flow of water, sediments within the river and entering the river, and large wood...
