Evaluating autonomous acoustic surveying techniques for rails in tidal marshes
Lydia L. Stiffler, James T. Anderson, Todd E. Katzner
2018, Wildlife Society Bulletin (42) 78-83
There is a growing interest toward the use of autonomous recording units (ARUs) for acoustic surveying of secretive marsh bird populations. However, there is little information on how ARUs compare to human surveyors or how best to use ARU data that can be collected continuously throughout the day. We used...
Cyclic heliothermal behaviour of the shallow, hypersaline Lake Hayward, Western Australia
Jeffrey V. Turner, Michael R. Rosen, Lee Coshell, Robert J. Woodbury
2018, Journal of Hydrology (560) 495-511
Lake Hayward is one of only about 30 hypersaline lakes worldwide that is meromictic and heliothermal and as such behaves as a natural salt gradient solar pond. Lake Hayward acts as a local groundwater sink, resulting in seasonally variable hypersaline lake water with...
Brown trout in the Lees Ferry reach of the Colorado River—Evaluation of causal hypotheses and potential interventions
Michael C. Runge, Charles B. Yackulic, Lucas S. Bair, Theodore A. Kennedy, Richard A. Valdez, Craig Ellsworth, Jeffrey L. Kershner, R. Scott Rogers, Melissa A. Trammell, Kirk L. Young
2018, Open-File Report 2018-1069
Over the period 2014–2016, the number of nonnative brown trout (Salmo trutta) captured during routine monitoring in the Lees Ferry reach of the Colorado River, downstream of Glen Canyon Dam, began increasing. Management agencies and stakeholders have questioned whether the increase in brown trout in the Lees Ferry reach represents...
The HayWired earthquake scenario—We can outsmart disaster
Kenneth W. Hudnut, Anne M. Wein, Dale A. Cox, Keith A. Porter, Laurie A. Johnson, Suzanne C. Perry, Jennifer L. Bruce, Drew LaPointe
2018, Fact Sheet 2018-3016
The HayWired earthquake scenario, led by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), anticipates the impacts of a hypothetical magnitude-7.0 earthquake on the Hayward Fault. The fault is along the east side of California’s San Francisco Bay and is among the most active and dangerous in the United States, because it runs...
Compilation of new and previously published geochemical and modal data for Mesoproterozoic igneous rocks of the St. Francois Mountains, southeast Missouri
Edward A. du Bray, Warren C. Day, Corey J. Meighan
2018, Data Series 1080
The purpose of this report is to present recently acquired as well as previously published geochemical and modal petrographic data for igneous rocks in the St. Francois Mountains, southeast Missouri, as part of an ongoing effort to understand the regional geology and ore deposits of the Mesoproterozoic basement rocks of...
Titanium mineral resources in heavy-mineral sands in the Atlantic coastal plain of the southeastern United States
Bradley S. Van Gosen, Karl J. Ellefsen
2018, Scientific Investigations Report 2018-5045
This study examined titanium distribution in the Atlantic Coastal Plain of the southeastern United States; the titanium is found in heavy-mineral sands that include the minerals ilmenite (Fe2+TiO3), rutile (TiO2), or leucoxene (an alteration product of ilmenite). Deposits of heavy-mineral sands in ancient and modern coastal plains are a significant...
Origin of primitive tholeiitic and calc-alkaline basalts at Newberry Volcano, Oregon
Richard W. Carlson, Timothy L. Grove, Julie M. Donnelly-Nolan
2018, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems (19) 1360-1377
Major and trace element and radiogenic isotopic characteristics of primitive mafic Pleistocene and Holocene lavas from Newberry Volcano, Oregon, define two groups. The first consists of dry tholeiitic high-alumina olivine basalts that are slightly enriched in highly incompatible elements. The second group consists of calc-alkaline basalts that...
Relative contributions of microbial and infrastructure heat at a crude oil-contaminated site
Ean Warren, Barbara A. Bekins
2018, Journal of Contaminant Hydrology (211) 94-103
Biodegradation of contaminants can increase the temperature in the subsurface due to heat generated from exothermic reactions, making temperature observations a potentially low-cost approach for determining microbial activity. For this technique to gain more widespread acceptance, it is necessary to better understand all the factors affecting the measured temperatures. Biodegradation...
Relative importance of water-quality stressors in predicting fish community responses in midwestern streams
Michael R. Meador, Jeffrey W. Frey
2018, Journal of the American Water Resources Association (54) 708-723
Fish, habitat, and water chemistry data were collected from 98 streams in the midwestern United States, an area dominated by intense cultivation of row crops, in order to identify important water‐quality stressors to fish communities. We focused on 10 stressors including riparian disturbance, riparian vegetative cover, instream fish cover, streambed...
Science partnership between U.S. Geological Survey and the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe—Understanding the Elwha River Dam Removal Project
Jeffrey J. Duda, Matt M. Beirne, Jonathan A. Warrick, Christopher S. Magirl
2018, Fact Sheet 2018-3025
After nearly a century of producing power, two large hydroelectric dams on the Elwha River in Washington State were removed during 2011 to 2014 to restore the river ecosystem and recover imperiled salmon populations. Roughly two-thirds of the 21 million cubic meters of sediment—enough to fill nearly 2 million dump...
Landscape connectivity for bobcat (Lynx rufus) and lynx (Lynx canadensis) in the Northeastern United States
Laura E. Farrell, Daniel M. Levy, Therese M. Donovan, Ruth M. Mickey, Alan Howard, Jennifer Vashon, Mark Freeman, Kim Royar, C. William Kilpatrick
2018, PLoS ONE (13) 1-25
Landscape connectivity is integral to the persistence of metapopulations of wide ranging carnivores and other terrestrial species. The objectives of this research were to investigate the landscape characteristics essential to use of areas by lynx and bobcats in northern New England, map a habitat availability model for each species, and...
Golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) habitat selection as a function of land use and terrain, San Diego County, California
Jeff A. Tracey, Melanie C. Madden, Peter H. Bloom, Todd E. Katzner, Robert N. Fisher
2018, Open-File Report 2018-1067
Beginning in 2014, the U.S. Geological Survey, in collaboration with Bloom Biological, Inc., began telemetry research on golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) captured in the San Diego, Orange, and western Riverside Counties of southern California. This work was supported by the San Diego Association of Governments, California Department of Fish...
The influence of episodic shallow magma degassing on heat and chemical transport in volcanic hydrothermal systems
Kewei Chen, Hongbin Zhan, Erick R. Burns, Steven E. Ingebritsen, Pierre Agrinier
2018, Geophysical Research Letters (45) 3068-3076
Springs at La Soufrière of Guadeloupe have been monitored for nearly four decades since the phreatic eruption and associated seismic activity in 1976. We conceptualize degassing vapor/gas mixtures as square‐wave sources of chloride and heat and apply a new semianalytic solution to demonstrate that chloride and heat pulses with the...
Evaluating the potential for near-shore bathymetry on the Majuro Atoll, Republic of the Marshall Islands, using Landsat 8 and WorldView-3 imagery
Sandra K. Poppenga, Monica Palaseanu-Lovejoy, Dean B. Gesch, Jeffrey J. Danielson, Dean J. Tyler
2018, Scientific Investigations Report 2018-5024
Satellite-derived near-shore bathymetry (SDB) is becoming an increasingly important method for assessing vulnerability to climate change and natural hazards in low-lying atolls of the northern tropical Pacific Ocean. Satellite imagery has become a cost-effective means for mapping near-shore bathymetry because ships cannot collect soundings safely while operating close to the...
The Midwest Stream Quality Assessment—Influences of human activities on streams
Peter C. Van Metre, Barbara Mahler, Daren M. Carlisle, James F. Coles
2018, Fact Sheet 2017-3087
Healthy streams and the fish and other organisms that live in them contribute to our quality of life. Extensive modification of the landscape in the Midwestern United States, however, has profoundly affected the condition of streams. Row crops and pavement have replaced grasslands and woodlands, streams have been straightened, and...
Are prey remains accurate indicators of chick diet? A comparison of diet quantification techniques for Black Oystercatchers
B.H. Robinson, H.A. Coletti, L.M. Phillips, Abby Powell
2018, Wader Study (125) 20-32
The quantification of prey remains is a common method for estimating the diet of a variety of birds. However, these estimates may be subject to biases based on prey body type, nesting habitat, and collection date. To better understand biases and limitations associated with this method, we compared it with...
Assessment of continuous gas resources in the Phosphoria Formation of the Wyoming Thrust Belt Province, Wyoming, Idaho, and Utah, 2017
Christopher J. Schenk, Tracey J. Mercier, Marilyn E. Tennyson, Cheryl A. Woodall, Thomas M. Finn, Janet K. Pitman, Stephanie B. Gaswirth, Kristen R. Marra, Phuong A. Le, Timothy R. Klett, Heidi M. Leathers-Miller
2018, Fact Sheet 2018-3001
Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated mean undiscovered, technically recoverable resources of 198 billion cubic feet of continuous gas in the Phosphoria Formation of the Wyoming Thrust Belt Province, Wyoming, Idaho, and Utah....
Nearshore coastal bathymetry data collected in 2016 from West Ship Island to Horn Island, Gulf Islands National Seashore, Mississippi
Nancy T. DeWitt, Chelsea A. Stalk, Jake J. Fredericks, James G. Flocks, Kyle W. Kelso, Andrew S. Farmer, Thomas M. Tuten, Noreen A. Buster
2018, Data Series 1081
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center, in cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile District, conducted bathymetric surveys of the nearshore waters surrounding Ship and Horn Islands, Gulf Islands National Seashore, Mississippi. The objective of this study was to establish base-level elevation...
New insights into the phylogenetics and population structure of the prairie falcon (Falco mexicanus)
Jacqueline M. Doyle, Douglas A. Bell, Peter H. Bloom, Gavin Emmons, Amy Fesnock-Parker, Todd E. Katzner, Larry LePre, Kolbe Leonard, Phillip SanMiguel, Rick Westerman, J. Andrew DeWoody
2018, BMC Genomics (19) 1-14
BackgroundManagement requires a robust understanding of between- and within-species genetic variability, however such data are still lacking in many species. For example, although multiple population genetics studies of the peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus) have been conducted, no similar studies have been done of the...
Effects of climate change on forest vegetation in the Northern Rockies Region
Robert E. Keane, Mary Frances Mahalovich, Barry L. Bollenbacher, Mary E. Manning, Rachel A. Loehman, Terrie B. Jain, Lisa M. Holsinger, Andrew J. Larson, Meredith M. Webster
2018, General Technical Report RMRS-GTR-374-6
The projected rapid changes in climate will affect the unique vegetation assemblages of the Northern Rockies region in myriad ways, both directly through shifts in vegetation growth, mortality, and regeneration, and indirectly through changes in disturbance regimes and interactions with changes in other ecosystem processes, such as hydrology, snow dynamics,...
Effects of climate change on ecological disturbance in the Northern Rockies Region [Chapter 8]
Rachel A. Loehman, Barbara J. Bentz, Gregg A. DeNitto, Robert E. Keane, Mary E. Manning, Jacob P. Duncan, Joel M. Egan, Marcus B. Jackson, Sandra Kegley, I. Blakey Lockman, Dean E. Pearson, James A. Powell, Steve Shelly, Brytten E. Steed, Paul J. Zambino
2018, General Technical Report RMRS-GTR-374
This chapter describes the ecology of important disturbance regimes in the Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USFS) Northern Region and the Greater Yellowstone Area, hereafter called the Northern Rockies region, and potential shifts in these regimes as a consequence of observed and projected climate change. The term disturbance regime...
The response of source-bordering aeolian dunefields to sediment-supply changes 2: Controlled floods of the Colorado River in Grand Canyon, Arizona, USA
Joel B. Sankey, Joshua Caster, Alan Kasprak, Amy E. East
2018, Aeolian Research (32) 154-169
In the Colorado River downstream of Glen Canyon Dam in the Grand Canyon, USA, controlled floods are used to resupply sediment to, and rebuild, river sandbars that have eroded severely over the past five decades owing to dam-induced changes in river flow and sediment supply. In this study, we examine...
The response of source-bordering aeolian dunefields to sediment-supply changes 1: Effects of wind variability and river-valley morphodynamics
Joel B. Sankey, Alan Kasprak, Joshua Caster, Amy E. East, Helen C. Fairley
2018, Aeolian Research (32) 228-245
Source-bordering dunefields (SBDs), which are primarily built and maintained with river-derived sediment, are found in many large river valleys and are currently impacted by changes in sediment supply due to climate change, land use changes, and river regulation. Despite their importance, a physically based, applied approach for quantifying the response...
High costs of infection: Alphavirus infection reduces digestive function and bone and feather growth in nestling house sparrows (Passer domesticus)
Carol A. Fassbinder-Orth, Tess L. Killpack, Dylan S. Goto, Ellecia L. Rainwater, Valerie I. Shearn-Bochsler
2018, PLoS ONE (13) 1-20
Increasingly, ecoimmunology studies aim to use relevant pathogen exposure to examine the impacts of infection on physiological processes in wild animals. Alphaviruses are arthropod-borne, single-stranded RNA (ssRNA) viruses (“arboviruses”) responsible for millions of cases of human illnesses each year. Buggy Creek virus (BCRV) is a unique alphavirus that is transmitted...
Spectrally based bathymetric mapping of a dynamic, sand‐bedded channel: Niobrara River, Nebraska, USA
Elizabeth Dilbone, Carl J. Legleiter, Jason S. Alexander, Brandon McElroy
2018, River Research and Applications (34) 430-441
Methods for spectrally based mapping of river bathymetry have been developed and tested in clear‐flowing, gravel‐bed channels, with limited application to turbid, sand‐bed rivers. This study used hyperspectral images and field surveys from the dynamic, sandy Niobrara River to evaluate three depth retrieval methods. The first regression‐based approach, optimal band...
