A new method to generate a high-resolution global distribution map of lake chlorophyll
Michael J Sayers, Amanda G. Grimm, Robert A. Shuchman, Andrew M. Deines, David B. Bunnell, Zachary B Raymer, Mark W. Rogers, Whitney Woelmer, David Bennion, Colin N. Brooks, Matthew A. Whitley, David M. Warner, Justin G. Mychek-Londer
2015, International Journal of Remote Sensing (36) 1942-1964
A new method was developed, evaluated, and applied to generate a global dataset of growing-season chlorophyll-a (chl) concentrations in 2011 for freshwater lakes. Chl observations from freshwater lakes are valuable for estimating lake productivity as well as assessing the role that these lakes play in carbon budgets. The standard 4 km...
Status and trends of land change in the Midwest–South Central United States—1973 to 2000
Roger F. Auch, Krista A. Karstensen
Roger F. Auch, Krista A. Karstensen, editor(s)
2015, Professional Paper 1794-C
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Professional Paper 1794–C is the third in a four-volume series on the status and trends of the Nation’s land use and land cover, providing an assessment of the rates and causes of land-use and land-cover change in the Midwest–South Central United States between 1973 and 2000....
Hydrologic data for the Walker River Basin, Nevada and California, water years 2010–14
Michael T. Pavelko, Erin L. Orozco
2015, Data Series 967
Walker Lake is a threatened and federally protected desert terminal lake in western Nevada. To help protect the desert terminal lake and the surrounding watershed, the Bureau of Reclamation and U.S. Geological Survey have been studying the hydrology of the Walker River Basin in Nevada and California since 2004. Hydrologic...
Potentiometric surface of the Catahoula aquifer in central Louisiana, 2013
Fendick, Kayla Carter
2015, Scientific Investigations Map 3339
The Catahoula aquifer is an important source of fresh groundwater in central Louisiana. In 2010, about 3.96 million gallons per day (Mgal/d) were withdrawn from the Catahoula aquifer in Louisiana. In 2012, the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources began a study to document current...
smwrBase—An R package for managing hydrologic data, version 1.1.1
David L. Lorenz
2015, Open-File Report 2015-1202
This report describes an R package called smwrBase, which consists of a collection of functions to import, transform, manipulate, and manage hydrologic data within the R statistical environment. Functions in the package allow users to import surface-water and groundwater data from the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Water Information System database...
Acadia National Park climate change scenario planning workshop summary
Jonathan Star, Nicholas Fisichelli, Alexander Bryan, Amanda Babson, Rebecca Cole-Will, Abraham J. Miller-Rushing
2015, Conference Paper
This report summarizes outcomes from a two-day scenario planning workshop for Acadia National Park, Maine. The primary objective of the workshop was to help Acadia senior leadership make management and planning decisions based on up-to-date climate science and assessments of future uncertainty. The workshop was also designed as a training...
Indicators of climate impacts for forests: Recommendations for the U.S. National Climate Assessment Indicators system
Linda S. Heath, Sarah M. Anderson, Marla R. Emery, Jeffrey A. Hicke, Jeremy S. Littell, Alan Lucier, Jeffrey G. Masek, David L. Peterson, Richard Pouyat, Kevin M. Potter, Guy Robertson, Jinelle Sperry, A. Bytnerowicz, Sarah E. Jovan, Miranda H. Mockrin, Robert Musselman, Bethany K. Schulz, Robert J. Smith, Susan I. Stewart
2015, Report
The Third National Climate Assessment (NCA) process for the United States focused in part on developing a system of indicators to communicate key aspects of the physical climate, climate impacts, vulnerabilities, and preparedness to inform decisionmakers and the public. Initially, 13 active teams were formed to recommend indicators in...
Estimating mercury exposure of piscivorous birds and sport fish using prey fish monitoring
Joshua T. Ackerman, C. Alex Hartman, Collin A. Eagles-Smith, Mark P. Herzog, Jay Davis, Gary Ichikawa, Autumn Bonnema
2015, Environmental Science & Technology (49) 13596-13604
Methylmercury is a global pollutant of aquatic ecosystems, and monitoring programs need tools to predict mercury exposure of wildlife. We developed equations to estimate methylmercury exposure of piscivorous birds and sport fish using mercury concentrations in prey fish. We collected original data on western grebes (Aechmophorus occidentalis) and Clark’s grebes...
A statistical learning framework for groundwater nitrate models of the Central Valley, California, USA
Bernard T. Nolan, Michael N. Fienen, David L. Lorenz
2015, Journal of Hydrology (531) 902-911
We used a statistical learning framework to evaluate the ability of three machine-learning methods to predict nitrate concentration in shallow groundwater of the Central Valley, California: boosted regression trees (BRT), artificial neural networks (ANN), and Bayesian networks (BN). Machine learning methods can learn complex patterns in the data but because...
Surprise and opportunity for learning in Grand Canyon: the Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Program
Theodore S. Melis, Carl Walters, Josh Korman
2015, Ecology and Society (20)
With a focus on resources of the Colorado River ecosystem below Glen Canyon Dam, the Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Program has included a variety of experimental policy tests, ranging from manipulation of water releases from the dam to removal of non-native fish within Grand Canyon National Park. None of...
Simulation of the effects of different inflows on hydrologic conditions in Lake Houston with a three-dimensional hydrodynamic model, Houston, Texas, 2009–10
Samuel H. Rendon, Michael T. Lee
2015, Scientific Investigations Report 2015-5153
Lake Houston, an important water resource for the Houston, Texas, area, receives inflows from seven major tributaries that compose the San Jacinto River Basin upstream from the reservoir. The effects of different inflows from the watersheds drained by these tributaries on the residence time of water in Lake Houston and...
Geologic Cross Section I–I′ Through the Appalachian Basin from the Eastern Margin of the Illinois Basin, Jefferson County, Kentucky, to the Valley and Ridge Province, Scott County, Virginia
Robert T. Ryder, Michael H. Trippi, Christopher S. Swezey
2015, Scientific Investigations Map 3343
Geologic cross section I‒I’ is the fourth in a series of cross sections constructed by the U.S. Geological Survey to document and improve understanding of the geologic framework and petroleum systems of the Appalachian basin. Cross section I‒I’ provides a regional view of the structural and stratigraphic framework of the...
Taxonomic revision of Phascogale tapoatafa (Meyer, 1793) (Dasyuridae; Marsupialia), including descriptions of two new subspecies and confirmation of P. pirata Thomas, 1904 as a ‘Top End’ endemic
K. P. Aplin, S. G. Rhind, J. Ten Have, R. Terry Chesser
2015, Zootaxa (4055) 1-73
The Australian Brush-tailed Phascogale (Phascogale tapoatafa sensu lato) has a broad but highly fragmented distribution around the periphery of the Australian continent and all populations are under significant ongoing threat to survival. A new appraisal of morphological and molecular diversity within the group reveals that the population in the ‘Top...
What role do hurricanes play in sediment delivery to subsiding river deltas?
James E. Smith, Samuel J. Bentley, Gregg Snedden, Crawford White
2015, Scientific Reports (5)
The Mississippi River Delta (MRD) has undergone tremendous land loss over the past century due to natural and anthropogenic influences, a fate shared by many river deltas globally. A globally unprecedented effort to restore and sustain the remaining subaerial portions of the delta is now underway, an endeavor that is...
Reviews and syntheses: Effects of permafrost thaw on Arctic aquatic ecosystems
J.E. Vonk, S.E. Tank, W.B. Bowden, I. Laurion, W.F. Vincent, P. Alekseychik, Y. Amyot, M.F. Billet, J. Canario, R.M. Cory, B.N. Deshpande, M. Helbig, M. Jammet, J. Karlsson, J. Larouche, G. MacMillan, Milla Rautio, K.M. Walter Anthony, Kimberly P. Wickland
2015, Biogeosciences (12) 7129-7167
The Arctic is a water-rich region, with freshwater systems covering about 16 % of the northern permafrost landscape. Permafrost thaw creates new freshwater ecosystems, while at the same time modifying the existing lakes, streams, and rivers that are impacted by thaw. Here, we describe the current state of knowledge...
The climate hazards infrared precipitation with stations—a new environmental record for monitoring extremes
Chris Funk, Pete Peterson, Martin Landsfeld, Diego Pedreros, James Verdin, Shraddhanand Shukla, Gregory Husak, James Rowland, Laura Harrison, Andrew Hoell, Joel Michaelsen
2015, Scientific Data (2)
The Climate Hazards group Infrared Precipitation with Stations (CHIRPS) dataset builds on previous approaches to ‘smart’ interpolation techniques and high resolution, long period of record precipitation estimates based on infrared Cold Cloud Duration (CCD) observations. The algorithm i) is built around a 0.05° climatology that incorporates satellite information to represent...
Occurrence and transport of selected constituents in streams near the Stibnite mining area, Central Idaho, 2012–14
Alexandra B. Etheridge
2015, Scientific Investigations Report 2015-5166
Mining of stibnite (antimony sulfide), tungsten, gold, silver, and mercury near the town of Stibnite in central Idaho has left a legacy of trace element contamination in local streams. Water-quality and streamflow monitoring data from a network of five streamflow-gaging stations were used to estimate trace-element and suspended-sediment loads and...
Stream geomorphic and habitat data from a baseline study of Underwood Creek, Wisconsin, 2012
Benjamin M. Young, Faith A. Fitzpatrick, James D. Blount
2015, Data Series 947
Geomorphic and habitat data were collected along Underwood Creek as part of a larger study of stream water quality conditions in the greater Milwaukee, Wisconsin, area. The data were collected to characterize baseline physical conditions in Underwood Creek prior to a potential discharge of wastewater return flow to the stream...
Characterization of hydrology and water quality of Piceance Creek in the Alkali Flat area, Rio Blanco County, Colorado, March 2012
Judith C. Thomas
2015, Scientific Investigations Report 2015-5147
Previous studies by the U.S. Geological Survey identified Alkali Flat as an area of groundwater upwelling, with increases in concentrations of total dissolved solids, and streamflow loss, but additional study was needed to better characterize these observations. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Bureau of Land Management, White...
Hydrodynamic assessment data associated with the July 2010 line 6B spill into the Kalamazoo River, Michigan, 2012–14
Paul C. Reneau, David T. Soong, Christopher J. Hoard, Faith A. Fitzpatrick
2015, Open-File Report 2015-1205
Hydrodynamic-assessment data for the Kalamazoo River were collected by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) during 2012–14 to augment other hydrodynamic data-collection efforts by Enbridge Energy L.P. and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency associated with the 2010 Enbridge Line 6B oil spill. Specifically, the USGS data-collection efforts were focused on additional...
Restoration handbook for sagebrush steppe ecosystems with emphasis on greater sage-grouse habitat—Part 2. Landscape level restoration decisions
David A. Pyke, Steven T. Knick, Jeanne C. Chambers, Mike Pellant, Richard F. Miller, Jeffrey L. Beck, Paul S. Doescher, Eugene W. Schupp, Bruce A. Roundy, Mark Brunson, James D. McIver
2015, Circular 1418
Sagebrush steppe ecosystems in the United States currently (2015) occur on only about one-half of their historical land area because of changes in land use, urban growth, and degradation of land, including invasions of non-native plants. The existence of many animal species depends on the existence of sagebrush steppe habitat....
Architecture and evolution of an Early Permian carbonate complex on a tectonically active island in east-central California
Calvin H. Stevens, Robert T. Magginetti, Paul Stone
2015, Stratigraphy (12) 167-182
The newly named Upland Valley Limestone represents a carbonate complex that developed on and adjacent to a tectonically active island in east-central California during a brief interval of Early Permian (late Artinskian) time. This lithologically unique, relatively thin limestone unit lies within a thick sequence of predominantly siliciclastic rocks and...
Regional implications of new chronostratigraphic and paleogeographic data from the Early Permian Darwin Basin, east-central California
Calvin H. Stevens, Paul Stone, Robert T. Magginetti
2015, Stratigraphy (12) 149-166
The Darwin Basin developed in response to episodic subsidence of the western margin of the Cordilleran continental shelf from Late Pennsylvanian (Gzhelian) to Early Permian (late Artinskian) time. Subsidence of the basin was initiated in response to continental truncation farther to the west and was later augmented by thrust emplacement...
Stratigraphy and paleogeographic significance of a Late Pennsylvanian to Early Permian channeled slope sequence in the Darwin Basin, southern Darwin Hills, east-central California
Calvin H. Stevens, Paul Stone, Robert T. Magginetti, Scott M. Ritter
2015, Stratigraphy (12) 185-196
The complex stratigraphy of late Paleozoic rocks in the southern Darwin Hills consists of regionally extensive Mississippian and Early to Middle Pennsylvanian rocks overlain by latest Pennsylvanian to Early Permian rocks, herein called the Darwin Hills sequence. Deposition of this latter sequence marked the beginning of the Darwin Basin. In...
Occupancy estimation for rare species using a spatially-adaptive sampling design
Krishna Pacifici, Brian J. Reich, Robert Dorazio, Michael J. Conroy
2015, Methods in Ecology and Evolution (7) 285-293
Summary 1. Spatially clustered populations create unique challenges for conservation monitoring programmes. Advances in methodology typically are focused on either the design or the modelling stage of the study but do not involve integration of both. 2. We integrate adaptive cluster sampling and spatial occupancy modelling by developing two models to handle...
