Upscaling of U (VI) desorption and transport from decimeter‐scale heterogeneity to plume‐scale modeling
Gary P. Curtis, Matthias Kohler, Ramakrishnan Kannappan, Martin A. Briggs, Frederick D. Day-Lewis
2015, Technical Report DOE-USGS--SC0003681
Scientifically defensible predictions of field scale U(VI) transport in groundwater requires an understanding of key processes at multiple scales. These scales range from smaller than the sediment grain scale (less than 10 μm) to as large as the field scale which can extend over several kilometers. The key processes that...
Geologic maps of the eastern Alaska Range, Alaska (1:63,360 scale)
Warren J. Nokleberg, John N. Aleinikoff, Gerard C. Bond, Oscar J. Ferrians Jr., Paige L. Herzon, Ian M. Lange, Ronny T. Miyaoka, Donald H. Richter, Carl E. Schwab, Steven R. Silva, Thomas E. Smith, Richard E. Zehner
2015, Report
This report provides a description of map units for a suite of 44 inch-to-mile (1:63,360-scale) geologic quadrangle maps of the eastern Alaska Range. This report also contains a geologic and tectonic summary and a comprehensive list of references pertaining to geologic mapping and specialized studies of the region. In addition...
Potential application of radiogenic isotopes and geophysical methods to understand the hydrothermal dystem of the Upper Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park
James B. Paces, Andrew J. Long, Karl R. Koth
2015, Natural Resource Report NPS/YELL/NRR—2015/1077
Numerous geochemical and geophysical studies have been conducted at Yellowstone National Park to better understand the hydrogeologic processes supporting the thermal features of the Park. This report provides the first 87Sr/86Sr and 234U/238U data for thermal water from the Upper Geyser Basin (UGB) intended to evaluate whether heavy radiogenic isotopes...
Biology and ecology of Neosho Smallmouth Bass and the genetically distinct Ouachita lineage
Shannon K. Brewer, James M. Long
Michael D. Tringali, James M. Long, Timothy W. Birdsong, Michael S. Allen, editor(s)
2015, Book chapter, Black Bass diversity: Multidisciplinary science for conservation
We reviewed the published and gray literature associated with Neosho Smallmouth Bass and the genetically-distinct Ouachita lineage. Substantial inter-stream variation appears to occur among these populations, particularly related to age. The Neosho subspecies is more abundant, grows faster, and lives longer than the genetically-distinct Ouachita lineage. Recruitment is highly variable...
Density-dependent effects of omnivorous stream crayfish on benthic trophic dynamics
J.P. Ludlam, B. T. Banks, Daniel D. Magoulick
2015, Freshwater Crayfish (21) 165-170
Crayfish are abundant and important consumers in aquatic food webs and crayfish invasions have demonstrated strong effects of crayfish on multiple trophic levels. Density may be an important factor determining the role of omnivorous crayfish in benthic communities, especially if density alters the strength of trophic interactions. The effect of...
Regional tectonic setting for the Trinidad earthquake swarms (2000-2012) from gravity and magnetic data
Carol A. Finn, Mason A. Kass, Bruce D. Smith
2015, Conference Paper, Symposium on the Application of Geophysics to Engineering and Environmental Problems
Earthquakes in the Raton basin near Trinidad, Colorado, (Figure 1) are located (Rubenstein et. al., 2014) near a major gravity and magnetic boundary. These earthquakes also occur in an area of hydrocarbon production that includes several high-capacity produced water injection wells. This presentation gives a very basic outline of the...
The role of suspension events in cross-shore and longshore suspended sediment transport in the surf zone
Bruce E. Jaffe
2015, Conference Paper, The Proceedings of the Coastal Sediments 2015
Suspension of sand in the surf zone is intermittent. Especially striking in a time series of concentration are periods of intense suspension, suspension events, when the water column suspended sediment concentration is an order of magnitude greater than the mean concentration. The prevalence, timing, and contribution of suspension events to...
Life on the edge in eastern Alaska: Basal Ordovician(Tremadocian), platform-margin faunas of the Jones Ridge Formation
J. F. Taylor, T. J. Allen, John E. Repetski, J. V. Strauss, S. J. Irwin
2015, Stratigraphy (12) 71-77
As the most fossiliferous and least deformed succession of unequivocally Laurentian lower Paleozoic strata in Alaska, the Jones Ridge Limestone has provided critical data for numerous stratigraphic studies (e. g. Palmer 1968; Harris et al. 1995; Dumoulin et al. 2002; Dumoulin and Harris 2012) focused on the Cambrian and Ordovician...
Mechanisms of sediment flux between shallows and marshes
Jessica R. Lacy, L.M. Schile, J.C. Callaway, M.C. Ferner
2015, Conference Paper, The Proceedings of Coastal Sediments 2015
We conducted a field study to investigate temporal variation and forcing mechanisms of sediment flux between a salt marsh and adjacent shallows in northern San Francisco Bay. Suspended-sediment concentration (SSC), tidal currents, and wave properties were measured over the marsh, in marsh creeks, and in bay shallows. Cumulative sediment flux...
Soil formation: Chapter 6
Martin B. Goldhaber, Steven A. Banwart
2015, Book chapter, Soil carbon: Science, management and policy for multiple benefits
Soil formation reflects the complex interaction of many factors, among the most important of which are (i) the nature of the soil parent material, (ii) regional climate, (iii) organisms, including humans, (iv) topography and (v) time. These processes operate in Earth's critical zone; the thin veneer of our planet where...
A comparative study of surface waves inversion techniques at strong motion recording sites in Greece
Panagiotis C. Pelekis, Alexandros Savvaidis, Robert E. Kayen, Vasileios S. Vlachakis, George A. Athanasopoulos
2015, Conference Paper, Symposium on the Application of Geophysics to Engineering and Environmental Problems 2015
Surface wave method was used for the estimation of Vs vs depth profile at 10 strong motion stations in Greece. The dispersion data were obtained by SASW method, utilizing a pair of electromechanical harmonic-wave source (shakers) or a random source (drop weight). In this study, three inversion techniques were used...
Spatiotemporal analysis of gene flow in Chesapeake Bay Diamondback Terrapins (Malaclemys terrapin)
Paul E. Converse, Shawn R Kuchta, Willem R Roosenburg, Paula F. P. Henry, G. Michael Haramis, Tim L. King
2015, Molecular Ecology (24) 5864-5876
There is widespread concern regarding the impacts of anthropogenic activities on connectivity among populations of plants and animals, and understanding how contemporary and historical processes shape metapopulation dynamics is crucial for setting appropriate conservation targets. We used genetic data to identify population clusters and quantify gene flow over historical and...
Prey use and provisioning rates of urban-nesting Mississippi Kites in west Texas
Brandi C. Welch, Clint W. Boal
2015, Journal of Raptor Research (49) 141-151
Urban ecosystems are attractive to several raptor species, including the Mississippi Kite (Ictinia mississippiensis). To better understand the niche filled by urban-nesting Mississippi Kites, we observed nesting kites at 10 nests for a total of 269 hr during the breeding seasons of 2010 and 2011. We assessed prey delivery rates...
User-interactive sediment budgets in a browser: A web application for river science and management
David M. Sibley, David J. Topping, Megan Hines, Bradley D. Garner
2015, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the 5th Federal Interagency Hydrologic Modeling Conference and the 10th Federal Interagency Sedimentation Conference
Decision-support tools providing accurate, near-real-time data and user-friendly interactive visualizations are of critical value to resource managers tasked with planning and carrying out management programs in their domain. Creating a system to continuously aggregate datasets and recompute derived values is difficult and error-prone when attempted by hand. To address this...
Formulating the American Geophysical Union's Scientific Integrity and Professional Ethics Policy: Challenges and lessons learned
Linda C. Gundersen, Randy Townsend
2015, Book chapter, Geoethics: Ethical challenges and case studies in Earth Sciences
Creating an ethics policy for a large, diverse geosciences organization is a challenge, especially in the midst of the current contentious dialogue in the media related to such issues as climate change, sustaining natural resources, and responding to natural hazards. In 2011, the American Geophysical Union (AGU) took on this...
The effect of UV-C exposure on larval survival of the dreissenid quagga mussel
Alecia Stewart-Malone, Michael Misamore, Siri K. Wilmoth, Alejandro Reyes, Wai Hing Wong, Jackson Gross
2015, PLoS ONE (10 )
The rapid spread of quagga mussels (Dreissena rostriformis bugensis) has lead to their invasion of Lake Mead, Nevada, the largest reservoir in North America and partially responsible for providing water to millions of people in the southwest. Current strategies for mitigating the growth and spread of quagga mussels primarily include...
Gopherus Agassizii (Agassiz’s Desert Tortoise). Mechanical Injury
Amanda Smith, Laura A. Tennant, Jeffrey E. Lovich, Terence R. Arundel
2015, Herpetological Review (46) 423-424
On 3 June 2015 at 1024 h, a team of U.S. Geological Survey scientists located an immature Gopherus agassizii (Agassiz’s desert tortoise) at Joshua Tree National Park, near the southern Cottonwood Canyon entrance. The habitat in the area is typical of the Sonoran Desert in that part of California with...
Head-of-tide bottleneck of particulate material transport from watersheds to estuaries
Scott H. Ensign, Gregory E. Noe, Cliff R. Hupp, Katherine Skalak
2015, Geophysical Research Letters (42) 10671-10679
We measured rates of sediment, C, N, and P accumulation at four floodplain sites spanning the nontidal through oligohaline Choptank and Pocomoke Rivers, Maryland, USA. Ceramic tiles were used to collect sediment for a year and sediment cores were collected to derive decadal sedimentation rates using 137Cs. The results showed...
Science foundation Chapter 5 Appendix 5.1: Case study dabbling ducks
Gregory S. Yarris, Joshua T. Ackerman
2015, Report, The baylands and climate change what we can do: Baylands ecosystem habitat goals science update 2015
Dabbling ducks are the most abundant group of waterfowl that overwinter in the shallow wetlands and ponds of San Francisco Bay (SFB). Species within this group are primarily omnivorous, feeding on both plant material and macroinvertebrate prey by “tipping” to access benthic foods in bottom sediments or by foraging in...
Groundwater: The disregarded component in lake water and nutrient budgets, Part 1: Effects of groundwater on hydrology
Donald O. Rosenberry, Jorg Lewandowski, Karin Meinikmann, Gunnar Nutzmann
2015, Hydrological Processes (29) 2895-2921
Lake eutrophication is a large and growing problem in many parts of the world, commonly due to anthropogenic sources of nutrients. Improved quantification of nutrient inputs is required to address this problem, including better determination of exchanges between groundwater and lakes. This first of a two-part review provides a brief history of...
Shaking intensity from injection-induced versus tectonic earthquakes in the central-eastern United States
Susan E. Hough
2015, The Leading Edge (34) 690-697
Although instrumental recordings of earthquakes in the central and eastern United States (CEUS) remain sparse, the U. S. Geological Survey's “Did you feel it?” (DYFI) system now provides excellent characterization of shaking intensities caused by induced and tectonic earthquakes. Seventeen CEUS events are considered between 2013 and 2015. It is...
Artificial reefs and reef restoration in the Laurentian Great Lakes
Matthew W. McLean, Edward F. Roseman, Jeremy J. Pritt, Gregory W. Kennedy, Bruce A. Manny
2015, Journal of Great Lakes Research (41) 1-8
We reviewed the published literature to provide an inventory of Laurentian Great Lakes artificial reef projects and their purposes. We also sought to characterize physical and biological monitoring for artificial reef projects in the Great Lakes and determine the success of artificial reefs in meeting project objectives. We found records...
Extensive feeding on sockeye salmon Oncorhynchus nerka smolts by bull trout Salvelinus confluentus during initial outmigration into a small, unregulated and inland British Columbia river
Nathan B. Furey, Scott G. Hinch, A.G. Lotto, David A. Beauchamp
2015, Journal of Fish Biology (86) 392-401
Stomach contents were collected and analysed from 22 bull trout Salvelinus confluentus at the edge of the Chilko Lake and Chilko River in British Columbia, Canada, during spring outmigration of sockeye salmon Oncorhynchus nerka smolts. Twenty of the 22 (>90%) stomachs contained prey items, virtually all identifiable prey items were outmigrant O. nerka smolts and stomach...
GEAR1: A Global Earthquake Activity Rate model constructed from geodetic strain rates and smoothed seismicity
Peter Bird, David D. Jackson, Yan Y. Kagan, Corne Kreemer, Ross Stein
2015, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (105) 2538-2554
Global earthquake activity rate model 1 (GEAR1) estimates the rate of shallow earthquakes with magnitudes 6–9 everywhere on Earth. It was designed to be reproducible and testable. Our preferred hybrid forecast is a log–linear blend of two parent forecasts based on the Global Centroid Moment Tensor (CMT) catalog (smoothing 4602...
Seismic hazard assessment: Honing the debate, testing the models
Ross Stein, Mark W. Stirling
2015, Eos, Earth and Space Science News
Four workshops held in 2013–2014 at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis brought together university, government, and insurance industry scientists from countries that straddle plate boundaries and those in plate interiors. Participants were invited; the workshops’ goals involved developing tests of Probabilistic Seismic...
