A comparison of high-resolution specific conductance-based end-member mixing analysis and a graphical method for baseflow separation of four streams in hydrologically challenging agricultural watersheds
Scott C. Kronholm, Paul D. Capel
2015, Hydrological Processes (29) 2521-2533
Quantifying the relative contributions of different sources of water to a stream hydrograph is important for understanding the hydrology and water quality dynamics of a given watershed. To compare the performance of two methods of hydrograph separation, a graphical program [baseflow index (BFI)] and an end-member mixing analysis that used...
Crowdsourcing The National Map
Elizabeth McCartney, Kari J. Craun, Erin M. Korris, David A. Brostuen, Laurence R. Moore
2015, Cartography and Geographic Information Science (42) 54-57
Using crowdsourcing techniques, the US Geological Survey’s (USGS) Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) project known as “The National Map Corps (TNMCorps)” encourages citizen scientists to collect and edit data about man-made structures in an effort to provide accurate and authoritative map data for the USGS National Geospatial Program’s web-based The National...
Evidence of bottom-up limitations in nearshore marine systems based on otolith proxies of fish growth
Vanessa R. von Biela, Gordon H. Kruse, Franz J. Mueter, Bryan A. Black, David C. Douglas, Thomas E. Helser, Christian E. Zimmerman
2015, Marine Biology (162) 1019-1031
Fish otolith growth increments were used as indices of annual production at nine nearshore sites within the Alaska Coastal Current (downwelling region) and California Current (upwelling region) systems (~36–60°N). Black rockfish (Sebastes melanops) and kelp greenling (Hexagrammos decagrammus) were identified as useful indicators in pelagic and...
Geolocators on Golden-winged Warblers do not affect migratory ecology
Sean M. Peterson, Henry M. Streby, Gunnar R. Kramer, Justin A. Lehman, David A. Buehler, David E. Andersen
2015, The Condor (117) 256-261
The use of light-level geolocators is increasingly common for connecting breeding and nonbreeding sites and identifying migration routes in birds. Until recently, the mass and size of geolocators precluded their use on songbird species weighing <12 g. Reducing the mass of geolocators, such as by shortening or eliminating the light...
Minimizing marker mass and handling time when attaching radio-transmitters and geolocators to small songbirds
Henry M. Streby, Tara L. McAllister, Sean M. Peterson, Gunnar R. Kramer, Justin A. Lehman, David E. Andersen
2015, The Condor (117) 249-255
Radio-transmitters and light-level geolocators are currently small enough for use on songbirds weighing <15 g. Various methods are used to attach these markers to larger songbirds, but with small birds it becomes especially important to minimize marker mass and bird handling time. Here, we offer modifications to harness materials and...
Using Landsat imagery to detect, monitor, and project net landscape change
Ryan R. Reker, Terry L. Sohl, Alisa L. Gallant
2015, All Bird Bulletin (Spring 2015) 13-17
Detailed landscape information is a necessary component to bird habitat conservation planning. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center has been providing information on the Earth’s surface for over 40 years via the continuous series of Landsat satellites. In addition to operating, processing, and disseminating...
First record of a banded Sandwich Tern (Thalasseus sandvicensis) moving from England to the United States
Jeffrey A. Spendelow
2015, Waterbirds (38) 425-426
A Sandwich Tern (Thalasseus sandvicensis sandvicensis) banded as a chick in 2002 at Coquet Island off the northeast coast of Great Britain was observed at two locations on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA, in August and September 2013. This is the first record of a banded Sandwich Tern from the United...
Evaluation of angler reporting accuracy in an off-site survey to estimate statewide steelhead harvest
J. L. McCormick, D. Whitney, D. J. Schill, Michael C. Quist
2015, Fisheries Management and Ecology (22) 134-142
Accuracy of angler-reported data on steelhead, Oncorhynchus mykiss (Walbaum), harvest in Idaho, USA, was quantified by comparing data recorded on angler harvest permits to the numbers that the same group of anglers reported in an off-site survey. Anglers could respond to the off-site survey using mail or Internet; if they did not...
Draft comprehensive conservation plan and environmental impact statement - Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge
Christopher Huber, Catherine Cullinane Thomas
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, editor(s)
2015, Report
The Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge Complex, consisting of some of the newer properties in the National Wildlife Refuge System, is a work in progress. Offering unique assets to surrounding communities, these lands promise to become some of the premier urban wildlife refuges in the country. At the heart...
The 3D Elevation Program: summary for South Carolina
William Carswell Jr.
2015, Fact Sheet 2015-3029
Elevation data are essential to a broad range of applications, including forest resources management, wildlife and habitat management, national security, recreation, and many others. For the State of South Carolina, elevation data are critical for flood risk management, natural resources conservation, agriculture and precision farming, infrastructure and construction management, forest...
Geologic map of the Montauk quadrangle, Dent, Texas, and Shannon Counties, Missouri
David J. Weary
2015, Scientific Investigations Map 3320
The Montauk 7.5-minute quadrangle is located in south-central Missouri within the Salem Plateau region of the Ozark Plateaus physiographic province. About 2,000 feet (ft) of flat-lying to gently dipping lower Paleozoic sedimentary rocks, mostly dolomite, chert, sandstone, and orthoquartzite, overlie Mesoproterozoic igneous basement rocks. Unconsolidated residuum, colluvium, terrace deposits, and...
Evaluation of the short term 12 hour toxicity of 3-trifluoromethyl-4-nitrophenol (TFM) to multiple life stages of Venustaconcha ellipsiformis and Epioblasma triquetra and its host fish (Percina caprodes)
Michael A. Boogaard, Teresa Newton, Terrance D. Hubert, Cheryl Kaye, M. Christopher Barnhart
2015, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (34) 1634-1641
The present study evaluated the risk of 12-h exposures of the lampricide 3-trifluoromethyl-4-nitrophenol (TFM) to multiple life stages of the federally endangered snuffbox (Epioblasma triquetra) and its primary host fish the common logperch (Percina caprodes) as well as a surrogate to the snuffbox, the ellipse (Venustaconcha ellipsiformis). Life stages examined...
Geospatial association between adverse birth outcomes and arsenic in groundwater in New Hampshire, USA
Xun Shi, Joseph D. Ayotte, Akikazu Onda, Stephanie Miller, Judy Rees, Diane Gilbert-Diamond, Tracy L Onega, Jiang Gui, Margaret R. Karagas, John B Moeschler
2015, Environmental Geochemistry and Health (37) 333-351
There is increasing evidence of the role of arsenic in the etiology of adverse human reproductive outcomes. Because drinking water can be a major source of arsenic to pregnant women, the effect of arsenic exposure through drinking water on human birth may be revealed by a geospatial association between arsenic...
Icefield-to-ocean linkages across the northern Pacific coastal temperate rainforest ecosystem
Shad O’Neel, Eran Hood, Allison L. Bidlack, Sean W. Fleming, Mayumi L. Arimitsu, Anthony Arendt, Evan W. Burgess, Christopher J. Sergeant, Anne E. Beaudreau, Kristin Timm, Gregory D. Hayward, Joel H. Reynolds, Sanjay Pyare
2015, BioScience (65) 499-512
Rates of glacier mass loss in the northern Pacific coastal temperate rainforest (PCTR) are among the highest on Earth, and changes in glacier volume and extent will affect the flow regime and chemistry of coastal rivers, as well as the nearshore marine ecosystem of the Gulf of Alaska. Here we...
Glaciological and marine geological controls on terminus dynamics of Hubbard Glacier, southeast Alaska
Leigh A. Stearns, Gordon S. Hamilton, C. J. van der Veen, D. C. Finnegan, Shad O’Neel, J. B. Scheick, D. E. Lawson
2015, Journal of Geophysical Research F: Earth Surface (120) 1065-1081
Hubbard Glacier, located in southeast Alaska, is the world's largest non-polar tidewater glacier. It has been steadily advancing since it was first mapped in 1895; occasionally, the advance creates an ice or sediment dam that blocks a tributary fjord (Russell Fiord). The sustained advance raises the probability of long-term closure...
Rapid growth and genetic diversity retention in an isolated reintroduced black bear population in the central appalachians
Sean M. Murphy, John J. Cox, Joseph D. Clark, Benjamin J. Augustine, John T. Hast, Dan Gibbs, Michael Strunk, Steven Dobey
2015, Journal of Wildlife Management (79) 807-818
Animal reintroductions are important tools of wildlife management to restore species to their historical range, and they can also create unique opportunities to study population dynamics and genetics from founder events. We used non-invasive hair sampling in a systematic, closed-population capture-mark-recapture (CMR) study design at the Big South Fork (BSF)...
Genes indicative of zoonotic and swine pathogens are persistent in stream water and sediment following a swine manure spill
Sheridan K. Haack, Joseph W. Duris, Dana W. Kolpin, Lisa R. Fogarty, Heather E. Johnson, Kristen E. Gibson, Michael J. Focazio, Kellogg J. Schwab, Laura E. Hubbard, William T. Foreman
2015, Applied and Environmental Microbiology (81) 3430-3441
Manure spills to streams are relatively frequent, but no studies have characterized stream contamination with zoonotic and veterinary pathogens, or fecal chemicals, following a spill. We tested stream water and sediment over 25 days and downstream for 7.6 km for: fecal indicator bacteria (FIB); the fecal indicator chemicals cholesterol and...
A nonlinear, implicit one-line model to predict long-term shoreline change
Sean Vitousek, Patrick L. Barnard
2015, Conference Paper, The proceedings of the coastal sediments 2015
We present the formulation, validation, and application of a nonlinear, implicit one-line model to simulate long-term (decadal and longer) shoreline change. The purpose of the implicit numerical method presented here is to allow large time steps without sacrificing model stability compared to explicit approaches, and thereby improve computational efficiency. The...
Precise interpolar phasing of abrupt climate change during the last ice age
WAIS Divide Project Members, Christo Buizert, Betty M. Adrian, Jinho Ahn, Mary Albert, Richard B. Alley, Daniel Baggenstos, Thomas K. Bauska, Ryan C. Bay, Brian B. Bencivengo, Charles R. Bentley, Edward J. Brook, Nathan J. Chellman, Gary D. Clow, Jihong Cole-Dai, Howard Conway, Eric Cravens, Kurt M. Cuffey, Nelia W. Dunbar, Jon S. Edwards, John M. Fegyveresi, Dave G. Ferris, Joan J. Fitzpatrick, T. J. Fudge, Chris J. Gibson, Vasileios Gkinis, Joshua J. Goetz, Stephanie Gregory, Geoffrey Mill Hargreaves, Nels Iverson, Jay A. Johnson, Tyler R. Jones, Michael L. Kalk, Matthew J. Kippenhan, Bess G. Koffman, Karl Kreutz, Tanner W. Kuhl, Donald A. Lebar, James E. Lee, Shaun A. Marcott, Bradley R. Markle, Olivia J. Maselli, Joseph R. McConnell, Kenneth C. McGwire, Logan E. Mitchell, Nicolai B. Mortensen, Peter D. Neff, Kunihiko Nishiizumi, Richard M. Nunn, Anais J. Orsi, Daniel R. Pasteris, Joel B. Pedro, Erin C. Pettit, P. Buford Price, John C. Priscu, Rachael H. Rhodes, Julia L. Rosen, Andrew J. Schauer, Spruce W. Schoenemann, Paul J. Sendelbach, Jeffrey P. Severinghaus, Alexander J. Shturmakov, Michael Sigl, Kristina R. Slawny, Joseph M. Souney, Todd A. Sowers, Matthew K. Spencer, Eric J. Steig, Kendrick C. Taylor, Mark S. Twickler, Bruce H. Vaughn, Donald E. Voigt, Edwin D. Waddington, Kees C. Welten, Anthony W. Wendricks, James W. C. White, Mai Winstrup, Gifford J. Wong, Thomas E. Woodruff
2015, Nature (520) 661-665
The last glacial period exhibited abrupt Dansgaard–Oeschger climatic oscillations, evidence of which is preserved in a variety of Northern Hemisphere palaeoclimate archives1. Ice cores show that Antarctica cooled during...
Colored shaded-relief bathymetry, acoustic backscatter, and selected perspective views of the Inner Continental Borderland, southern California
Peter Dartnell, Neal W. Driscoll, Daniel S. Brothers, James E. Conrad, Jared Kluesner, Graham Kent, Brian D. Andrews
2015, Scientific Investigations Map 3324
In late 2013, Scripps Institution of Oceanography collected multibeam bathymetry and acoustic-backscatter data of the Inner Continental Borderland Region, Southern California. The U.S. Geological Survey Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center processed these data, and this report provides the data in a number of different formats in addition to a...
U.S. Geological Survey quality-assurance plan for surface-water activities in Kansas, 2015
Colin C. Painter, Brian L. Loving
2015, Open-File Report 2015-1074
This Surface Water Quality-Assurance Plan documents the standards, policies, and procedures used by the Kansas Water Science Center (KSWSC) of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) for activities related to the collection, processing, storage, analysis, and publication of surface-water data....
Focused exhumation along megathrust splay faults in Prince William Sound, Alaska
Peter J. Haeussler, Phillip A Armstrong, Lee M Liberty, Kelly M Ferguson, Shaun P Finn, Jeannette C Arkle, Thomas L. Pratt
2015, Quaternary Science Reviews (113) 8-22
Megathrust splay faults are a common feature of accretionary prisms and can be important for generating tsunamis during some subduction zone earthquakes. Here we provide new evidence from Alaska that megathrust splay faults have been conduits for focused exhumation in the last 5 Ma. In most of central Prince William Sound,...
Simulating hydrologic response to climate change scenarios in four selected watersheds of New Hampshire
David M. Bjerklie, Joseph D. Ayotte, Matthew J. Cahillane
2015, Scientific Investigations Report 2015-5047
The State of New Hampshire has initiated a coordinated effort to proactively prepare for the effects of climate change on the natural and human resources of New Hampshire. An important aspect of this effort is to develop a vulnerability assessment of hydrologic response to climate change. The U.S. Geological Survey,...
Home range, habitat use, and movement patterns of non-native Burmese pythons in Everglades National Park, Florida, USA
Kristen M. Hart, Michael S. Cherkiss, Brian J. Smith, Frank J. Mazzotti, Ikuko Fujisaki, Ray W. Snow, Michael E. Dorcas
2015, Animal Biotelemetry (3)
Background Studies on the spatial ecology of invasive species provide critical information for conservation managers such as habitat preferences and identification of native species at risk of predation. To understand the spatial ecology of non-native Burmese pythons (Python molurus bivittatus), now well-established in Everglades National Park and much of South Florida...
Assessing the components of adaptive capacity to improve conservation and management efforts under global change
Adrienne Nicotra, Erik A. Beever, Amanda Robertson, Gretchen Hofmann, John O’Leary
2015, Conservation Biology (29) 1268-1278
Natural-resource managers and other conservation practitioners are under unprecedented pressure to categorize and quantify the vulnerability of natural systems based on assessment of the exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity of species to climate change. Despite the urgent need for these assessments, neither the theoretical basis of adaptive capacity nor the...
