Coastal landforms and processes at the Cape Cod National Seashore, Massachusetts—A primer
Graham S. Giese, S. Jeffress Williams, Mark Adams
2015, Circular 1417
Anyone who spends more than a few days on Cape Cod (the Cape) quickly becomes a coastal geologist, quickly learning the rhythms of daily tides and the seasonal cycles of beaches growing and being swept away by storms; swimmers and surfers track how the breakers appear, and dog-walkers notice the...
Avian influenza ecology in North Atlantic sea ducks: Not all ducks are created equal
Jeffrey S. Hall, Robin E. Russell, J. Christian Franson, Catherine Soos, Robert J. Dusek, R. Bradford Allen, Sean W. Nashold, Joshua L. Teslaa, Jon Einar Jonsson, Jennifer R. Ballard, Naomi Jnae Harms, Justin D. Brown
2015, PLoS ONE (10) 1-16
Wild waterfowl are primary reservoirs of avian influenza viruses (AIV). However the role of sea ducks in the ecology of avian influenza, and how that role differs from freshwater ducks, has not been examined. We obtained and analyzed sera from North Atlantic sea ducks and determined the seroprevalence in those...
Land-cover types, shoreline positions, and sand extents derived From Landsat satellite imagery, Assateague Island to Metompkin Island, Maryland and Virginia, 1984 to 2014
Julie Bernier, Steven H. Douglas, Joseph F. Terrano, John A. Barras, Nathaniel G. Plant, Christopher G. Smith
2015, Data Series 968
The U.S. Geological Survey has a long history of responding to and documenting the impacts of storms along the Nation’s coasts and incorporating these data into storm impact and coastal change vulnerability assessments. These studies, however, have traditionally focused on sandy shorelines and sandy barrier-island systems, without consideration of impacts...
Assessment of undiscovered shale gas and shale oil resources in the Mississippian Barnett Shale, Bend Arch–Fort Worth Basin Province, North-Central Texas
Kristen R. Marra, Ronald R. Charpentier, Christopher J. Schenk, Michael D. Lewan, Heidi M. Leathers-Miller, Timothy R. Klett, Stephanie B. Gaswirth, Phuong A. Le, Tracey J. Mercier, Janet K. Pitman, Marilyn E. Tennyson
2015, Fact Sheet 2015-3078
Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated mean volumes of 53 trillion cubic feet of shale gas, 172 million barrels of shale oil, and 176 million barrels of natural gas liquids in the Barnett Shale of the Bend Arch–Fort Worth Basin Province of Texas....
Fall and winter movements and habitat use of the introduced American bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeiana) in a Montana pond
Adam J. Sepulveda, Megan J. Layhee
2015, Herpetological Conservation and Biology (10) 978-984
American Bullfrogs (Lithobates catesbeianus) have been introduced across the globe, including in many northern latitude habitats where wetlands are ice-covered for part of the year. Because bullfrogs are less mobile at low temperatures, greater knowledge about their overwintering habitat may provide additional opportunities for control. Here, we described fall and...
Standard operating procedures for collection of soil and sediment samples for the Sediment-bound Contaminant Resiliency and Response (SCoRR) strategy pilot study
Shawn C. Fisher, Timothy J. Reilly, Daniel K. Jones, William Benzel, Dale W. Griffin, Keith A. Loftin, Luke R. Iwanowicz, Jonathan A. Cohl
2015, Open-File Report 2015-1188-B
An understanding of the effects on human and ecological health brought by major coastal storms or flooding events is typically limited because of a lack of regionally consistent baseline and trends data in locations proximal to potential contaminant sources and mitigation activities, sensitive ecosystems, and recreational facilities where exposures are...
Functional response of ungulate browsers in disturbed eastern hemlock forests
Stephen DeStefano
2015, Forest Ecology and Management (32) 177-183
Ungulate browsing in predator depleted North American landscapes is believed to be causing widespread tree recruitment failures. However, canopy disturbances and variations in ungulate densities are sources of heterogeneity that can buffer ecosystems against herbivory. Relatively little is known about the functional response (the rate of consumption in relation to...
Quantifying 10 years of improved earthquake-monitoring performance in the Caribbean region
Daniel E. McNamara, Christa Hillebrandt-Andrade, Jean-Marie Saurel, V. Huerfano-Moreno, Lloyd Lynch
2015, Seismological Research Letters (87)
Over 75 tsunamis have been documented in the Caribbean and adjacent regions during the past 500 years. Since 1500, at least 4484 people are reported to have perished in these killer waves. Hundreds of thousands are currently threatened along the Caribbean coastlines. Were a great tsunamigenic earthquake to occur in...
Mudpuppy (Necturus maculosus maculosus ) spatial distribution, breeding water depth, and use of artificial spawning habitat in the Detroit River
Jaquelyn M. Craig, David A. Mifsud, Andrew S. Briggs, James C. Boase, Gregory W. Kennedy
2015, Herpetological Conservation and Biology (10) 926-934
Mudpuppy (Necturus maculosus maculosus) populations have been declining in the Great Lakes region of North America. However, during fisheries assessments in the Detroit River, we documented Mudpuppy reproduction when we collected all life stages from egg through adult as by-catch in fisheries assessments. Ten years of fisheries sampling resulted in...
Desert wetlands—Archives of a wetter past
Jeffery S. Pigati, Kathleen B. Springer, Craig R. Manker
2015, Fact Sheet 2015-3077
Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) are finding evidence of a much wetter past in the deserts of the American Southwest using a most unlikely source—wetlands. Wetlands form in arid environments where water tables approach or breach the ground surface. Often thought of as stagnant and unchanging, new evidence...
The petroleum geologist and the insurance policy
Susan E. Hough, Morgan T. Page
2015, Seismological Research Letters (87) 171-176
In a recent study, Hough and Page (2015) presented several lines of evidence suggesting that most of the significant earthquakes in Oklahoma during the twentieth century, including the Mw 5.7 El Reno earthquake of 9 April 1952, were likely induced by wastewater injection and possibly secondary oil recovery operations. We...
Reintroduction of Lake Sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) into the St. Regis River, NY: Post-release assessment of habitat use and growth
Dawn E. Dittman, Marc A. Chalupnicki, James H. Johnson, James Snyder
2015, Northeastern Naturalist (22) 704-716
One of the depleted endemic fish species of the Great Lakes, Acipenser fulvescens (Lake Sturgeon), has been the target of extensive conservation efforts. One strategy is reintroduction into historically productive waters. The St. Regis River, NY, represents one such adaptive-management effort, with shared management between New York and the St....
California State Waters map series — Offshore of Pigeon Point, California
Guy R. Cochrane, Janet Watt, Peter Dartnell, H. Gary Greene, Mercedes D. Erdey, Bryan E. Dieter, Nadine E. Golden, Samuel Y. Johnson, Charles A. Endris, Stephen R. Hartwell, Rikk G. Kvitek, Clifton W. Davenport, Lisa M. Krigsman, Andrew C. Ritchie, Ray W. Sliter, David P. Finlayson, Katherine L. Maier
Guy R. Cochrane, Susan A. Cochran, editor(s)
2015, Open-File Report 2015-1232
Introduction In 2007, the California Ocean Protection Council initiated the California Seafloor Mapping Program (CSMP), designed to create a comprehensive seafloor map of high-resolution bathymetry, marine benthic habitats, and geology within the 3-nautical-mile limit of California’s State Waters. The CSMP approach is to create highly detailed seafloor maps through collection, integration,...
Qualitative assessment of selected areas of the world for undiscovered sediment-hosted stratabound copper deposits: Chapter Y in Global mineral resource assessment
Michael L. Zientek, Niki E. Wintzer, Timothy S. Hayes, Heather L. Parks, Deborah A. Briggs, J. Douglas Causey, Shyla A. Hatch, M. Christopher Jenkins, David J. Williams
Michael L. Zientek, Jane M. Hammarstrom, Kathleen M. Johnson, editor(s)
2015, Scientific Investigations Report 2010-5090-Y
A qualitative mineral resource assessment of sediment-hosted stratabound copper mineralized areas for undiscovered copper deposits was performed for 10 selected areas of the world. The areas, in alphabetical order, are (1) Belt-Purcell Basin, United States and Canada; (2) Benguela and Cuanza Basins, Angola; (3) Chuxiong Basin, China; (4) Dongchuan Group...
Assessing local population vulnerability to wind energy development with branching process models: an application to wind energy development
Richard A. Erickson, Eric A. Eager, Jessica C. Stanton, Julie A. Beston, James E. Diffendorfer, Wayne E. Thogmartin
2015, Ecosphere (6)
Quantifying the impact of anthropogenic development on local populations is important for conservation biology and wildlife management. However, these local populations are often subject to demographic stochasticity because of their small population size. Traditional modeling efforts such as population projection matrices do not consider this source of variation whereas individual-based...
Air- and stream-water-temperature trends in the Chesapeake Bay region, 1960-2014
John D. Jastram, Karen C. Rice
2015, Open-File Report 2015-1207
Water temperature is a basic, but important, measure of the condition of all aquatic environments, including the flowing waters in the streams that drain our landscape and the receiving waters of those streams. Climatic conditions have a strong influence on water temperature, which is therefore naturally variable both in time...
Sediment transport and evaluation of sediment surrogate ratings in the Kootenai River near Bonners Ferry, Idaho, Water Years 2011–14
Molly S. Wood, Ryan L. Fosness, Alexandra B. Etheridge
2015, Scientific Investigations Report 2015-5169
The Kootenai River white sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus) and other native fish species are culturally important to the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho, but their habitat and recruitment have been affected by anthropogenic changes to the river. Although the interconnections among anthropogenic changes and their impacts on fish are complex, the Kootenai...
Comparison of U.S. net import reliance for nonfuel mineral commodities—A 60-year retrospective (1954–1984–2014)
Steven M. Fortier, DeYoung Jr., Elizabeth S. Sangine, Emily K. Schnebele
2015, Fact Sheet 2015-3082
Introduction The economic vitality and national security of the United States depend on the reliable supply of numerous nonfuel mineral commodities. Over the past six decades, many of these commodities have been sourced increasingly from outside the United States. The mix of commodities for which the United States is import dependent...
Mapping geoelectric fields during magnetic storms: Synthetic analysis of empirical United States impedances
Paul A. Bedrosian, Jeffrey J. Love
2015, Geophysical Research Letters (42) 10160-10170
Empirical impedance tensors obtained from EarthScope magnetotelluric data at sites distributed across the midwestern United States are used to examine the feasibility of mapping magnetic storm induction of geoelectric fields. With these tensors, in order to isolate the effects of Earth conductivity structure, we perform a synthetic analysis—calculating geoelectric field...
Wildlife Habitat Restoration: Chapter 12
Courtney J. Conway, Kathi L. Borgmann
Michael L. Morrison, Heather A. Mathewson, editor(s)
2015, Book chapter, Wildlife habitat conservation : concepts, challenges, and solutions
As the preceding chapters point out, many wildlife species and the habitat they depend on are in peril. However, opportunities exist to restore habitat for many imperiled wildlife species. But what is wildlife habitat restoration? We begin this chapter by defining habitat restoration and then provide recommendations on how to...
Infecting Pacific Herring with Ichthyophonus sp. in the laboratory
Paul Hershberger, Lucas Hart, Ashley MacKenzie, M.L. Yanney, Carla M. Conway, Diane G. Elliott
2015, Journal of Aquatic Animal Health (27) 217-221
The protistan parasite Ichthyophonus sp. occurs in coastal populations of Pacific Herring Clupea pallasii throughout the northeast Pacific region, but the route(s) by which these planktivorous fish become infected is unknown. Several methods for establishing Ichthyophonus infections in laboratory challenges were examined. Infections were most effectively established after intraperitoneal (IP)...
Characterization of the extremely arsenic-resistant Brevibacterium linens strain AE038-8 isolated from contaminated groundwater in Tucumán, Argentina
Daniela Maizel, Jodi S. Blum, Marcela A. Ferrero, Sagar M. Utturkar, Steven D. Brown, Barry P. Rosen, Ronald S. Oremland
2015, International Biodeterioration and Biodegradation (107) 147-153
Brevibacterium linens AE038-8, isolated from As-contaminated groundwater in Tucumán (Argentina), is highly resistant to arsenic oxyanions, being able to tolerate up to 1 M As(V) and 75 mM As(III) in a complex medium. Strain AE038-8 was also able to reduce As(V) to As(III) when grown in complex medium but paradoxically it could not...
The role of dynamic surface water-groundwater exchange on streambed denitrification in a first-order, low-relief agricultural watershed
Mina N. Rahimi Kazerooni, Hedeff I. Essaid, John T. Wilson
2015, Water Resources Research (51) 9514-9538
The role of temporally varying surface water-groundwater (SW-GW) exchange on nitrate removal by streambed denitrification was examined along a reach of Leary Weber Ditch (LWD), Indiana, a small, first-order, low-relief agricultural watershed within the Upper Mississippi River basin, using data collected in 2004 and 2005. Stream stage, GW heads (H),...
Shift in Global Tantalum Mine Production, 2000–2014
Donald I. Bleiwas, John F. Papp, Thomas R. Yager
2015, Fact Sheet 2015-3079
Introduction Tantalum has a unique set of properties that make it useful in a number of diverse applications. The ability of the metal to store and release electrical energy makes it ideally suited for use in certain types of capacitors that are widely used in modern electronics. Approximately 60 percent of...
Complex interactions in Lake Michigan’s rapidly changing ecosystem
Henry A. Vanderploeg, David B. Bunnell, Hunter J. Carrick, Tomas O. Hook
2015, Journal of Great Lakes Research (41) 1-6
For over 30 years, Lake Michigan’s food web has been in a constant state of transition from reductions in nutrient loading and proliferation of invasive species at multiple trophic levels. In particular, there has been concern about impacts from the invasive predatory cercopagids (Bythotrephes longimanus and Cercopagis pengoi) and expanding dreissenid mussel and...
