Has the time come for big science in wildlife health?
Jonathan M. Sleeman
2013, EcoHealth (10) 335-338
The consequences of wildlife emerging diseases are global and profound with increased burden on the public health system, negative impacts on the global economy, declines and extinctions of wildlife species, and subsequent loss of ecological integrity. Examples of health threats to wildlife include Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, which causes a cutaneous fungal...
Geochemical and mineralogical data for soils of the conterminous United States
David B. Smith, William F. Cannon, Laurel G. Woodruff, Federico Solano, James E. Kilburn, David L. Fey
2013, Data Series 801
In 2007, the U.S. Geological Survey initiated a low-density (1 site per 1,600 square kilometers, 4,857 sites) geochemical and mineralogical survey of soils of the conterminous United States as part of the North American Soil Geochemical Landscapes Project. Sampling and analytical protocols were developed at a workshop in 2003, and...
US Topo: topographic maps for the nation
William J. Carswell Jr.
2013, Fact Sheet 2013-3093
US Topo is the next generation of topographic maps from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Arranged in the familiar 7.5-minute quadrangle format, digital US Topo maps are designed to look and feel (and perform) like the traditional paper topographic maps for which the USGS is so well known. In contrast...
Seepage investigations of the Rio Grande from below Leasburg Dam, Leasburg, New Mexico, to above American Dam, El Paso, Texas, 2006-13
D.M. Crilley, A.M. Matherne, Nicole Thomas, S.E. Falk
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1233
Seepage investigations were conducted annually by the U.S. Geological Survey from 1988 to 1998 and from 2004 to 2013 along a 64-mile reach of the Rio Grande from below Leasburg Dam, Leasburg, New Mexico, to above American Dam, El Paso, Texas, as part of the Mesilla Basin monitoring program. Results...
Qualilty, isotopes, and radiochemistry of water sampled from the Upper Moenkopi Village water-supply wells, Coconino County, Arizona
Rob Carruth, Kimberly Beisner, Greg Smith
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1162
The Hopi Tribe Water Resources Program has granted contracts for studies to evaluate water supply conditions for the Moenkopi villages in Coconino County, Arizona. The Moenkopi villages include Upper Moenkopi Village and the village of Lower Moencopi, both on the Hopi Indian Reservation south of the Navajo community of Tuba...
Postwildfire debris-flow hazard assessment of the area burned by the 2013 West Fork Fire Complex, southwestern Colorado
Kristine L. Verdin, Jean A. Dupree, Michael R. Stevens
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1259
This report presents a preliminary emergency assessment of the debris-flow hazards from drainage basins burned by the 2013 West Fork Fire Complex near South Fork in southwestern Colorado. Empirical models derived from statistical evaluation of data collected from recently burned basins throughout the intermountain western United States were used to...
The late Holocene dry period: multiproxy evidence for an extended drought between 2800 and 1850 cal yr BP across the central Great Basin, USA
Scott A. Mensing, Saxon E. Sharpe, Irene Tunno, Don W. Sada, Jim M. Thomas, Scott W. Starratt, Jeremy Smith
2013, Quaternary Science Reviews (78) 266-282
Evidence of a multi-centennial scale dry period between ∼2800 and 1850 cal yr BP is documented by pollen, mollusks, diatoms, and sediment in spring sediments from Stonehouse Meadow in Spring Valley, eastern central Nevada, U.S. We refer to this period as the Late Holocene Dry Period. Based on sediment recovered,...
Phreatophytes under stress: transpiration and stomatal conductance of saltcedar (Tamarix spp.) in a high-salinity environment
Edward P. Glenn, Pamela L. Nagler, Kiyomi Morino, Kevin Hultine
2013, Plant and Soil (371) 655-672
Background and aims: We sought to understand the environmental constraints on an arid-zone riparian phreatophtye, saltcedar (Tamarix ramosissima and related species and hybrids), growing over a brackish aquifer along the Colorado River in the western U.S. Depth to groundwater, meteorological factors, salinity and soil hydraulic properties were compared at stress...
Hurricane Sandy science plan: coastal topographic and bathymetric data to support hurricane impact assessment and response
Jakob M. Stronko
2013, Fact Sheet 2013-3099
Hurricane Sandy devastated some of the most heavily populated eastern coastal areas of the Nation. With a storm surge peaking at more than 19 feet, the powerful landscape-altering destruction of Hurricane Sandy is a stark reminder of why the Nation must become more resilient to coastal hazards. In response to...
Hurricane Sandy science plan: impacts of environmental quality and persisting contaminant exposure
Sarah A. Caskie
2013, Fact Sheet 2013-3091
Hurricane Sandy devastated some of the most heavily populated eastern coastal areas of the Nation. With a storm surge peaking at more than 19 feet, the powerful landscape-altering destruction of Hurricane Sandy is a stark reminder of why the Nation must become more resilient to coastal hazards. In response to...
Hurricane Sandy science plan: impacts to coastal ecosystems, habitats, and fish and wildlife
Warren H. Campbell
2013, Fact Sheet 2013-3096
Hurricane Sandy devastated some of the most heavily populated eastern coastal areas of the Nation. With a storm surge peaking at more than 19 feet, the powerful landscape-altering destruction of Hurricane Sandy is a stark reminder of why the Nation must become more resilient to coastal hazards. In response to...
Hurricane Sandy science plan: coastal impact assessments
Jakob M. Stronko
2013, Fact Sheet 2013-3090
Hurricane Sandy devastated some of the most heavily populated eastern coastal areas of the Nation. With a storm surge peaking at more than 19 feet, the powerful landscape-altering destruction of Hurricane Sandy is a stark reminder of why the Nation must become more resilient to coastal hazards. In response to...
Hurricane Sandy science plan: impacts of storm surge, including disturbed estuarine and bay hydrology
Sarah A. Caskie
2013, Fact Sheet 2013-3092
Hurricane Sandy devastated some of the most heavily populated eastern coastal areas of the Nation. With a storm surge peaking at more than 19 feet, the powerful landscape-altering destruction of Hurricane Sandy is a stark reminder of why the Nation must become more resilient to coastal hazards. In response to...
Hurricane Sandy science plan: New York
Clarice N. Ransom
2013, Fact Sheet 2013-3089
Hurricane Sandy is a stark reminder of why the Nation must become more resilient to coastal hazards. More than one-half of the U.S. population lives within 50 miles of a coast, and this number is increasing. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is one of the largest providers of geologic and hydrologic...
Transient calibration of a groundwater-flow model of Chimacum Creek Basin and vicinity, Jefferson County, Washington: a supplement to Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5160
Joseph L. Jones, Kenneth H. Johnson
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1258
A steady-state groundwater-flow model described in Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5160, ”Numerical Simulation of the Groundwater-Flow System in Chimacum Creek Basin and Vicinity, Jefferson County, Washington” was developed to evaluate potential future impacts of growth and of water-management strategies on water resources in the Chimacum Creek Basin. This supplement to that...
Revised shallow and deep water-level and storage-volume changes in the Equus Beds Aquifer near Wichita, Kansas, predevelopment to 1993
Cristi V. Hansen, Jennifer L. Lanning-Rush, Andrew C. Ziegler
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5170
Beginning in the 1940s, the Wichita well field was developed in the Equus Beds aquifer in southwestern Harvey County and northwestern Sedgwick County to supply water to the city of Wichita. The decline of water levels in the aquifer was noted soon after the development of the Wichita well field...
Nitrogen cycling responses to mountain pine beetle disturbance in a high elevation whitebark pine ecosystem
Megan P. Keville, Sasha C. Reed, Cory C. Cleveland
2013, PLoS ONE (8)
Ecological disturbances can significantly affect biogeochemical cycles in terrestrial ecosystems, but the biogeochemical consequences of the extensive mountain pine beetle outbreak in high elevation whitebark pine (WbP) (Pinus albicaulis) ecosystems of western North America have not been previously investigated. Mountain pine beetle attack has driven widespread WbP mortality, which could...
Maturation characteristics and life history strategies of the Pacific Lamprey, Entosphenus tridentatus
Benjamin J. Clemens, Stan van de Wetering, Stacia A. Sower, Carl B. Schreck
2013, Canadian Journal of Zoology (91) 775-788
Lampreys (Petromyzontiformes) have persisted over millennia and now suffer a recent decline in abundance. Complex life histories may have factored in their persistence; anthropogenic perturbations in their demise. The complexity of life histories of lampreys is not understood, particularly for the anadromous Pacific lamprey, Entosphenus tridentatus Gairdner, 1836. Our goals...
Influence of monsoon-related riparian phenology on yellow-billed cuckoo habitat selection in Arizona
Cynthia S.A. Wallace, Miguel L. Villarreal, Charles van Riper III
2013, Journal of Biogeography (40) 2094-2107
Aim: The western yellow-billed cuckoo (Coccyzus americanus occidentalis), a Neotropical migrant bird, is facing steep population declines in its western breeding grounds owing primarily to loss of native habitat. The favoured esting habitat for the cuckoo in the south-western United States is low-elevation riparian forests and woodlands. Our aim...
Ecological thresholds as a basis for defining management triggers for National Park Service vital signs: case studies for dryland ecosystems
Matthew A. Bowker, Mark E. Miller, R. Travis Belote, Steven L. Garman
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1244
Threshold concepts are used in research and management of ecological systems to describe and interpret abrupt and persistent reorganization of ecosystem properties (Walker and Meyers, 2004; Groffman and others, 2006). Abrupt change, referred to as a threshold crossing, and the progression of reorganization can be triggered by one or more...
Influence of management and precipitation on carbon fluxes in greatplains grasslands
Matthew B. Rigge, Bruce K. Wylie, Li Zhang, Stephen P. Boyte
2013, Ecological Indicators (34) 590-599
Suitable management and sufficient precipitation on grasslands can provide carbon sinks. The net carbon accumulation of a site from the atmosphere, modeled as the Net Ecosystem Productivity (NEP), is a useful means to gauge carbon balance. Previous research has developed methods to integrate flux tower data with satellite biophysical datasets...
Estimating riparian and agricultural evapotranspiration by reference crop evapotranspiration and MODIS Enhanced Vegetation Index
Pamela L. Nagler, Edward P. Glenn, Uyen Nguyen, Russell Scott, Tania Doody
2013, Remote Sensing (5) 3849-3871
Dryland river basins frequently support both irrigated agriculture and riparian vegetation and remote sensing methods are needed to monitor water use by both crops and natural vegetation in irrigation districts. We developed an algorithm for estimating actual evapotranspiration (ETa) based on the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) from the Moderate Resolution...
InSAR Evidence for an active shallow thrust fault beneath the city of Spokane Washington, USA
Charles W. Wicks Jr., Craig S. Weaver, Paul Bodin, Brian L. Sherrod
2013, Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth (118) 1268-1276
In 2001, a nearly five month long sequence of shallow, mostly small magnitude earthquakes occurred beneath the city of Spokane, a city with a population of about 200,000, in the state of Washington. During most of the sequence, the earthquakes were not well located because seismic instrumentation was sparse. Despite...
Direct and indirect effects of land use on floral resources and flower-visiting insects across an urban landscape
K.C. Matteson, James B. Grace, E.S. Minor
2013, Oikos (122) 682-694
Although urban areas are often considered to have uniformly negative effects on biodiversity, cities are most accurately characterized as heterogeneous mosaics of buildings, streets, parks, and gardens that include both ‘good’ and ‘bad’ areas for wildlife. However, to date, few studies have evaluated how human impacts vary in direction and...
Irrigation trends in Kansas, 1991-2011
Joan F. Kenny, Kyle E. Juracek
2013, Fact Sheet 2013-3094
This fact sheet examines trends in total reported irrigation water use and acres irrigated as well as irrigation water use by crop type and system type in Kansas for the years 1991 through 2011. During the 21-year period, total reported irrigation water diversions varied substantially from year to year as...
