Abundant carbon substrates drive extremely high sulfate reduction rates and methane fluxes in Prairie Pothole Wetlands
Paula Martins, David W. Hoyt, Sheel Bansal, Christopher T. Mills, Malak Tfaily, Brian Tangen, Raymond Finocchiaro, Michael D. Johnston, Brandon C. McAdams, Matthew J. Solensky, Garrett J. Smith, Yu-Ping Chin, Michael J. Wilkins
2017, Global Change Biology (23) 3107-3120
Inland waters are increasingly recognized as critical sites of methane emissions to the atmosphere, but the biogeochemical reactions driving such fluxes are less well understood. The Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) of North America is one of the largest wetland complexes in the world, containing millions of small, shallow wetlands. The...
An integral projection model with YY-males and application to evaluating grass carp control
Richard A. Erickson, Eric A. Eager, Marybeth K. Brey, Michael J. Hansen, Patrick Kocovsky
2017, Ecological Modelling (361) 14-25
Invasive fish species disrupt ecosystems and cause economic damage. Several methods have been discussed to control populations of invasive fish including the release of YY-males. YY-males are fish that have 2 male chromosomes compared to a XY-male. When YY-males mate, they only produce male (XY) offspring. This decreases the female...
Genetic differentiation and inferred dynamics of a hybrid zone between Northern Spotted Owls (Strix occidentalis caurina) and California Spotted Owls (S. o. occidentalis) in northern California
Mark P. Miller, Thomas D. Mullins, Eric D. Forsman, Susan M. Haig
2017, Ecology and Evolution (7) 6871-6883
Genetic differentiation among Spotted Owl (Strix occidentalis) subspecies has been established in prior studies. These investigations also provided evidence for introgression and hybridization among taxa but were limited by a lack of samples from geographic regions where subspecies came into close contact. We analyzed new sets of samples from Northern...
Land subsidence and recovery in the Albuquerque Basin, New Mexico, 1993–2014
Jessica M. Driscoll, Justin T. Brandt
2017, Scientific Investigations Report 2017-5057
The Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority (ABCWUA) drinking water supply was almost exclusively sourced from groundwater from within the Albuquerque Basin before 2008. In 2008, the San Juan-Chama Drinking Water Project (SJCDWP) provided surface-water resources to augment the groundwater supply, allowing for a reduction in groundwater pumping in the...
Effects of lateral confinement in natural and leveed reaches of a gravel-bed river: Snake River, Wyoming, USA
Christina Leonard, Carl J. Legleiter, Brandon T. Overstreet
2017, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms (42) 2119-2138
This study examined the effects of natural and anthropogenic changes in confining margin width by applying remote sensing techniques – fusing LiDAR topography with image-derived bathymetry – over a large spatial extent: 58 km of the Snake River, Wyoming, USA. Fused digital elevation models from 2007 and 2012 were differenced...
Changes in projected spatial and seasonal groundwater recharge in the upper Colorado River Basin
Fred D. Tillman, Subhrendu Gangopadhyay, Tom Pruitt
2017, Groundwater (55) 506-518
The Colorado River is an important source of water in the western United States, supplying the needs of more than 38 million people in the United States and Mexico. Groundwater discharge to streams has been shown to be a critical component of streamflow in the Upper Colorado River Basin (UCRB),...
Residence times and alluvial architecture of a sediment superslug in response to different flow regimes
John A. Moody
2017, Geomorphology (294) 40-57
A superslug was deposited in a basin in the Colorado Front Range Mountains as a consequence of an extreme flood following a wildfire disturbance in 1996. The subsequent evolution of this superslug was measured by repeat topographic surveys (31 surveys from 1996 through 2014) of 18 cross sections approximately...
Use of alternating and pulsed direct current electrified fields for zebra mussel control
James A. Luoma, Jan C. Dean, Todd J. Severson, Jeremy K. Wise, Matthew Barbour
2017, Management of Biological Invasions (8) 311-324
Alternatives to chemicals for controlling dreissenid mussels are desirable for environmental compatibility, but few alternatives exist. Previous studies have evaluated the use of electrified fields for stunning and/or killing planktonic life stages of dreissenid mussels, however, the available literature on the use of electrified fields to control adult dreissenid mussels...
Dam removal: Listening in
Melissa M. Foley, James Bellmore, James E. O'Connor, Jeffrey J. Duda, Amy E. East, Gordon G. Grant, Chauncey W. Anderson, Jennifer A. Bountry, Mathias J. Collins, Patrick J. Connolly, Laura S. Craig, James E. Evans, Samantha Greene, Francis J. Magilligan, Christopher S. Magirl, Jon J. Major, George R. Pess, Timothy J. Randle, Patrick B. Shafroth, Christian E. Torgersen, Desiree D. Tullos, Andrew C. Wilcox
2017, Water Resources Research (53) 5229-5246
Dam removal is widely used as an approach for river restoration in the United States. The increase in dam removals—particularly large dams—and associated dam-removal studies over the last few decades motivated a working group at the USGS John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis to review and synthesize available...
Using optimal transport theory to estimate transition probabilities in metapopulation dynamics
Jonathan M. Nichols, Jeffrey A. Spendelow, James D. Nichols
2017, Ecological Modelling (359) 311-319
This work considers the estimation of transition probabilities associated with populations moving among multiple spatial locations based on numbers of individuals at each location at two points in time. The problem is generally underdetermined as there exists an extremely large number of ways in which individuals can move from one...
Autotrophic microbial arsenotrophy in arsenic-rich soda lakes
Ronald S. Oremland, Chad W. Saltikov, John F. Stolz, James T. Hollibaugh
2017, FEMS Microbiology Letters (364)
A number of prokaryotes are capable of employing arsenic oxy-anions as either electron acceptors [arsenate; As(V)] or electron donors [arsenite; As(III)] to sustain arsenic-dependent growth (‘arsenotrophy’). A subset of these microorganisms function as either chemoautotrophs or photoautotrophs, whereby they gain sufficient energy from their redox metabolism of arsenic to completely...
The transtensional offshore portion of the northern San Andreas fault: Fault zone geometry, late Pleistocene to Holocene sediment deposition, shallow deformation patterns, and asymmetric basin growth
Jeffrey W. Beeson, Samuel Y. Johnson, Chris Goldfinger
2017, Geosphere (13) 1173-1206
We mapped an ~120 km offshore portion of the northern San Andreas fault (SAF) between Point Arena and Point Delgada using closely spaced seismic reflection profiles (1605 km), high-resolution multibeam bathymetry (~1600 km2), and marine magnetic data. This new data set documents SAF location and continuity, associated tectonic geomorphology, shallow stratigraphy, and...
Water quality measurements in San Francisco Bay by the U.S. Geological Survey, 1969–2015
Tara Schraga, James E. Cloern
2017, Scientific Data (4)
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) maintains a place-based research program in San Francisco Bay (USA) that began in 1969 and continues, providing one of the longest records of water-quality measurements in a North American estuary. Constituents include salinity, temperature, light extinction coefficient, and concentrations of chlorophyll-a, dissolved oxygen, suspended particulate...
Comparison of sediment and nutrient export and runoff characteristics from watersheds with centralized versus distributed stormwater management
Kristina G. Hopkins, J.V. Loperfido, Laura S. Craig, Gregory E. Noe, Dianna M. Hogan
2017, Journal of Environmental Management (203) 286-298
Stormwater control measures (SCMs) are used to retain stormwater and pollutants. SCMs have traditionally been installed in a centralized manner using detention to mitigate peak flows. Recently, distributed SCM networks that treat runoff near the source have been increasingly utilized. The aim of this study was to evaluate differences among...
Archive of bathymetry data collected in South Florida from 1995 to 2015
Mark Erik Hansen, Nancy T. DeWitt, Billy J. Reynolds
2017, Data Series 1031
DescriptionLand development and alterations of the ecosystem in south Florida over the past 100 years have decreased freshwater and increased nutrient flows into many of Florida's estuaries, bays, and coastal regions. As a result, there has been a decrease in the water quality in many of these critical habitats, often...
Documentation for the MODFLOW 6 framework
Joseph D. Hughes, Christian D. Langevin, Edward R. Banta
2017, Techniques and Methods 6-A57
MODFLOW is a popular open-source groundwater flow model distributed by the U.S. Geological Survey. Growing interest in surface and groundwater interactions, local refinement with nested and unstructured grids, karst groundwater flow, solute transport, and saltwater intrusion, has led to the development of numerous MODFLOW versions. Often times, there are incompatibilities...
Documentation for the “XT3D” option in the Node Property Flow (NPF) Package of MODFLOW 6
Alden M. Provost, Christian D. Langevin, Joseph D. Hughes
2017, Techniques and Methods 6-A56
This report describes the “XT3D” option in the Node Property Flow (NPF) Package of MODFLOW 6. The XT3D option extends the capabilities of MODFLOW by enabling simulation of fully three-dimensional anisotropy on regular or irregular grids in a way that properly takes into account the full, three-dimensional conductivity tensor. It...
Documentation for the MODFLOW 6 Groundwater Flow Model
Christian D. Langevin, Joseph D. Hughes, Edward R. Banta, Richard G. Niswonger, Sorab Panday, Alden M. Provost
2017, Techniques and Methods 6-A55
This report documents the Groundwater Flow (GWF) Model for a new version of MODFLOW called MODFLOW 6. The GWF Model for MODFLOW 6 is based on a generalized control-volume finite-difference approach in which a cell can be hydraulically connected to any number of surrounding cells. Users can define the model...
Greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) nesting and brood-rearing microhabitat in Nevada and California—Spatial variation in selection and survival patterns
Peter S. Coates, Brianne E. Brussee, Mark A. Ricca, Jonathan E. Dudko, Brian G. Prochazka, Shawn P. Espinosa, Michael L. Casazza, David J. Delehanty
2017, Open-File Report 2017-1087
Greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus; hereinafter, "sage-grouse") are highly dependent on sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) dominated vegetation communities for food and cover from predators. Although this species requires the presence of sagebrush shrubs in the overstory, it also inhabits a broad geographic distribution with significant gradients in precipitation and temperature that...
Using object-based image analysis to conduct high-resolution conifer extraction at regional spatial scales
Peter S. Coates, K. Benjamin Gustafson, Cali L. Roth, Michael P. Chenaille, Mark A. Ricca, Kimberly Mauch, Erika Sanchez-Chopitea, Travis J. Kroger, William M. Perry, Michael L. Casazza
2017, Open-File Report 2017-1093
The distribution and abundance of pinyon (Pinus monophylla) and juniper (Juniperus osteosperma, J. occidentalis) trees (hereinafter, "pinyon-juniper") in sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) ecosystems of the Great Basin in the Western United States has increased substantially since the late 1800s. Distributional expansion and infill of pinyon-juniper into sagebrush ecosystems threatens the...
Hierarchical population monitoring of greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) in Nevada and California—Identifying populations for management at the appropriate spatial scale
Peter S. Coates, Brian G. Prochazka, Mark A. Ricca, Gregory T. Wann, Cameron L. Aldridge, Steven E. Hanser, Kevin Doherty, Michael S. O’Donnell, David R. Edmunds, Shawn P. Espinosa
2017, Open-File Report 2017-1089
Population ecologists have long recognized the importance of ecological scale in understanding processes that guide observed demographic patterns for wildlife species. However, directly incorporating spatial and temporal scale into monitoring strategies that detect whether trajectories are driven by local or regional factors is challenging and rarely implemented. Identifying the...
Reconstructing Common Era relative sea-level change on the Gulf Coast of Florida
Matthew J. Gerlach, Simon E. Engelhart, Andrew C. Kemp, Ryan P. Moyer, Joseph M. Smoak, Christopher E. Bernhardt, Niamh Cahill
2017, Marine Geology (390) 254-269
To address a paucity of Common Era data in the Gulf of Mexico, we reconstructed ~ 1.1 m of relative sea-level (RSL) rise over the past ~ 2000 years at Little Manatee River (Gulf Coast of Florida, USA). We applied a regional-scale foraminiferal transfer function to fossil assemblages preserved in a core of salt-marsh...
Field-trip guide to Columbia River flood basalts, associated rhyolites, and diverse post-plume volcanism in eastern Oregon
Mark L. Ferns, Martin J. Streck, Jason D. McClaughry
2017, Scientific Investigations Report 2017-5022-O
The Miocene Columbia River Basalt Group (CRBG) is the youngest and best preserved continental flood basalt province on Earth, linked in space and time with a compositionally diverse succession of volcanic rocks that partially record the apparent emergence and passage of the Yellowstone plume head through eastern Oregon during...
A unique coral community in the mangroves of Hurricane Hole, St. John, US Virgin Islands
Caroline S. Rogers
2017, Diversity (9)
Corals do not typically thrive in mangrove environments. However, corals are growing on and near the prop roots of red mangrove trees in Hurricane Hole, an area within the Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument under the protection of the US National Park Service in St. John, US Virgin Islands....
Field-trip guide to the geologic highlights of Newberry Volcano, Oregon
Robert A. Jensen, Julie M. Donnelly-Nolan
2017, Scientific Investigations Report 2017-5022-J2
Newberry Volcano and its surrounding lavas cover about 3,000 square kilometers (km2) in central Oregon. This massive, shield-shaped, composite volcano is located in the rear of the Cascades Volcanic Arc, ~60 km east of the Cascade Range crest. The volcano overlaps the northwestern corner of the Basin and...
