Physiological and endocrine changes in Atlantic salmon smolts during hatchery rearing, downstream migration and ocean entry
Stephen D. McCormick, Timothy F. Sheehan, Björn Thrandur Björnsson, Christine Lipsky, John F. Kocik, Amy M. Regish, Michael F. O’Dea
2013, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (70) 105-118
Billions of hatchery salmon smolts are released annually in an attempt to mitigate anthropogenic impacts on freshwater habitats, often with limited success. Mortality of wild and hatchery fish is high during downstream and early ocean migration. To understand changes that occur during migration, we examined physiological and endocrine changes in...
Seismic evidence for a slab tear at the Puerto Rico Trench
Hallie E. Meighan, Jay Pulliam, Uri S. ten Brink, Alberto M. Lopez-Venegas
2013, Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth (118) 2915-2923
The fore-arc region of the northeast Caribbean plate north of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands has been the site of numerous seismic swarms since at least 1976. A 6 month deployment of five ocean bottom seismographs recorded two such tightly clustered swarms, along with additional events. Joint analyses of...
High-water marks from tropical storm Irene for selected river reaches in northwestern Massachusetts, August 2011
Gardner C. Bent, Laura Medalie, Martha G. Nielsen
2013, Data Series 775
A Presidential Disaster Declaration was issued for Massachusetts, with a focus on the northwestern counties, following flooding from tropical storm Irene on August 28–29, 2011. Three to 10 inches of rain fell during the storm on soils that were susceptible to flash flooding because of wet antecedent conditions. The gage...
Plasticity of parental care under the risk of predation: how much should parents reduce care?
Thomas E. Martin
2013, Biology Letters (9)
Predation can be an important agent of natural selection shaping parental care behaviours, and can also favour behavioural plasticity. Parent birds often decrease the rate that they visit the nest to provision offspring when perceived risk is high. Yet, the plasticity of such responses may differ among species as a...
Relating Yellow Rail (Coturnicops noveboracensis) occupancy to habitat and landscape features in the context of fire
Jane E. Austin, Deborah A. Buhl
2013, Waterbirds (36) 199-213
The Yellow Rail (Coturnicops noveboracensis) is a focal species of concern associated with shallowly flooded emergent wetlands, most commonly sedge (Carex spp.) meadows. Their populations are believed to be limited by loss or degradation of wetland habitat due to drainage, altered hydrology, and fire suppression, factors that have often resulted...
Predicting breeding shorebird distributions on the Arctic Coastal Plain of Alaska
Sarah T. Saalfeld, Richard B. Lanctot, Stephen C. Brown, David T. Saalfeld, James A. Johnson, Brad A. Andres, Jonathan R. Bart
2013, Ecosphere (4)
The Arctic Coastal Plain (ACP) of Alaska is an important region for millions of migrating and nesting shorebirds. However, this region is threatened by climate change and increased human development (e.g., oil and gas production) that have the potential to greatly impact shorebird populations and breeding habitat in the...
Predicting locations of rare aquatic species’ habitat with a combination of species-specific and assemblage-based models
James E. McKenna, Douglas M. Carlson, Molly L. Payne-Wynne
2013, Diversity and Distributions (19) 503-517
Aim: Rare aquatic species are a substantial component of biodiversity, and their conservation is a major objective of many management plans. However, they are difficult to assess, and their optimal habitats are often poorly known. Methods to effectively predict the likely locations of suitable rare aquatic species habitats are needed....
Partitioning of selected trace elements in coal combustion products from two coal-burning power plants in the United States
Sharon M. Swanson, Mark A. Engle, Leslie F. Ruppert, Ronald H. Affolter, Kevin B. Jones
2013, International Journal of Coal Geology (113) 116-126
Samples of feed coal (FC), bottom ash (BA), economizer fly ash (EFA), and fly ash (FA) were collected from power plants in the Central Appalachian basin and Colorado Plateau to determine the partitioning of As, Cr, Hg, Pb, and Se in coal combustion products (CCPs). The Appalachian plant burns a...
Influence of multi-source and multi-temporal remotely sensed and ancillary data on the accuracy of random forest classification of wetlands in northern Minnesota
Jennifer M. Corcoran, Joseph F. Knight, Alisa L. Gallant
2013, Remote Sensing (5) 3212-3238
Wetland mapping at the landscape scale using remotely sensed data requires both affordable data and an efficient accurate classification method. Random forest classification offers several advantages over traditional land cover classification techniques, including a bootstrapping technique to generate robust estimations of outliers in the training data, as well as the...
Archive of Digital boomer subbottom data collected during USGS cruises 99FGS01 and 99FGS02 offshore southeast and southwest Florida, July and November, 1999
Arnell S. Forde, Shawn V. Dadisman, Dana S. Wiese, Daniel C. Phelps
2013, Data Series 773
In July (19 - 26) and November (17 - 18) of 1999, the USGS, in cooperation with the Florida Geological Survey (FGS), conducted two geophysical surveys in: (1) the Atlantic Ocean offshore of Florida's east coast from Orchid to Jupiter, FL, and (2) the Gulf of Mexico offshore of Venice,...
Archive of digital chirp subbottom profile data collected during USGS cruise 11BIM01 Offshore of the Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana, June 2011
Arnell S. Forde, Shawn V. Dadisman, Jennifer L. Miselis, James G. Flocks, Dana S. Wiese
2013, Data Series 772
From June 3 to 13, 2011, the U.S. Geological Survey conducted a geophysical survey to investigate the geologic controls on barrier island framework and long-term sediment transport along the oil spill mitigation sand berm constructed at the north end and just offshore of the Chandeleur Islands, LA. This effort is...
Review of revised Klamath River Total Maximum Daily Load models from Link River Dam to Keno Dam, Oregon
Stewart A. Rounds, Annett B. Sullivan
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1136
Flow and water-quality models are being used to support the development of Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) plans for the Klamath River downstream of Upper Klamath Lake (UKL) in south-central Oregon. For riverine reaches, the RMA-2 and RMA-11 models were used, whereas the CE-QUAL-W2 model was used to simulate pooled...
Uranium(VI) interactions with mackinawite in the presence and absence of bicarbonate and oxygen
Tanya J. Gallegos, Christopher C. Fuller, Samuel M. Webb, William J. Betterton
2013, Environmental Science & Technology (47) 7357-7364
Mackinawite, Fe(II)S, samples loaded with uranium (10-5, 10-4, and 10-3 mol U/g FeS) at pH 5, 7, and 9, were characterized using X-ray absorption spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction to determine the effects of pH, bicarbonate, and oxidation on uptake. Under anoxic conditions, a 5 g/L suspension of mackinawite lowered 5...
Land loss due to recent hurricanes in coastal Louisiana, U.S.A.
Monica Palaseanu-Lovejoy, Christine J. Kranenburg, John A. Barras, John Brock
2013, Journal of Coastal Research 97-109
The aim of this study is to improve estimates of wetland land loss in two study regions of coastal Louisiana, U.S.A., due to the extreme storms that impacted the region between 2004 and 2009. The estimates are based on change-detection-mapping analysis that incorporates pre and postlandfall (Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav,...
Sea-level-induced seismicity and submarine landslide occurrence
Daniel S. Brothers, Karen M. Luttrell, Jason D. Chaytor
2013, Geology (41) 979-982
The temporal coincidence between rapid late Pleistocene sea-level rise and large-scale slope failures is widely documented. Nevertheless, the physical mechanisms that link these phenomena are poorly understood, particularly along nonglaciated margins. Here we investigate the causal relationships between rapid sea-level rise, flexural stress loading, and increased seismicity rates along passive...
USGS quarterly report: July 2012 to September 2012
Anne Ballmann, C. LeAnn White, Barb Bodenstein, Jennifer Buckner
2013, WDA Newsletter (2013) 5-7
Streamflow characterization and summary of water-quality data collection during the Mississippi River flood, April through July 2011
Heather L. Welch, Kimberlee K. Barnes
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1106
From April through July 2011, the U.S. Geological Survey collected surface-water samples from 69 water-quality stations and 3 flood-control structures in 4 major subbasins of the Mississippi River Basin to characterize the water quality during the 2011 Mississippi River flood. Most stations were sampled at least monthly for field parameters...
Changing Arctic ecosystems--the role of ecosystem changes across the Boreal-Arctic transition zone on the distribution and abundance of wildlife populations
Lance McNew, Colleen M. Handel, John M. Pearce, Anthony R. DeGange, Leslie Holland-Bartels, Mary E. Whalen
2013, Fact Sheet 2013-3054
Arctic and boreal ecosystems provide important breeding habitat for more than half of North America’s migratory birds as well as many resident species. Northern landscapes are projected to experience more pronounced climate-related changes in habitat than most other regions. These changes include increases in shrub growth, conversion of tundra to...
Topographic and hydrographic GIS datasets for the Afghan Geological Survey and U.S. Geological Survey 2013 mineral areas of interest
Brittany N. Casey, Peter G. Chirico
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1124
Afghanistan is endowed with a vast amount of mineral resources, and it is believed that the current economic state of the country could be greatly improved through investment in the extraction and production of these resources. In 2007, the “Preliminary Non-Fuel Resource Assessment of Afghanistan 2007” was completed by members...
Conifer seedling recruitment across a gradient from forest to alpine tundra: effects of species, provenance, and site
C. Castanha, M.S. Torn, M.J. Germino, Bettina Weibel, L.M. Kueppers
2013, Plant Ecology and Diversity (6) 307-318
Background: Seedling germination and survival is a critical control on forest ecosystem boundaries, such as at the alpine–treeline ecotone. In addition, while it is known that species respond individualistically to the same suite of environmental drivers, the potential additional effect of local adaptation on seedling success has not been evaluated. Aims:...
Nonstructural leaf carbohydrates dynamics of Pinus edulis during drought-induced tree mortality reveal role for carbon metabolism in mortality mechanism
Henry D. Adams, Matthew J. Germino, David D. Breshears, Greg A. Barron-Gafford, Maite Guardiola-Claramonte, Chris B. Zou, Travis E. Huxman
2013, New Phytologist (197) 1142-1151
* Vegetation change is expected with global climate change, potentially altering ecosystem function and climate feedbacks. However, causes of plant mortality, which are central to vegetation change, are understudied, and physiological mechanisms remain unclear, particularly the roles of carbon metabolism and xylem function. * We report analysis of foliar nonstructural carbohydrates...
Application of the SPARROW model to assess surface-water nutrient conditions and sources in the United States Pacific Northwest
Daniel R. Wise, Henry M. Johnson
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5103
The watershed model SPARROW (Spatially Referenced Regressions on Watershed attributes) was used to estimate mean annual surface-water nutrient conditions (total nitrogen and total phosphorus) and to identify important nutrient sources in catchments of the Pacific Northwest region of the United States for 2002. Model-estimated nutrient yields were generally higher in...
Uranium redox transition pathways in acetate-amended sediments
John R. Bargar, Kenneth H. Williams, Kate M. Campbell, Philip E. Long, Joanne E. Stubbs, Elenal I. Suvorova, Juan S. Lezama-Pacheco, Daniel S. Alessi, Malgorzata Stylo, Samuel M. Webb, James A. Davis, Daniel E. Giammar, Lisa Y. Blue, Rizlan Bernier-Latmani
2013, PNAS (110) 4506-4511
Redox transitions of uranium [from U(VI) to U(IV)] in low-temperature sediments govern the mobility of uranium in the environment and the accumulation of uranium in ore bodies, and inform our understanding of Earth’s geochemical history. The molecular-scale mechanistic pathways of these transitions determine the U(IV) products formed, thus influencing uranium...
Geologic controls on regional and local erosion rates of three northern Gulf of Mexico barrier-island systems
David C. Twitchell, James G. Flocks, Elizabeth A. Pendleton, Wayne E. Baldwin
2013, Journal of Coastal Research 32-45
The stratigraphy of sections of three barrier island systems in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico (Apalachicola, Mississippi, and Chandeleur) have been mapped using geophysical and coring techniques to assess the influence of geologic variations in barrier lithosomes and adjoining inner shelf deposits on long-term rates of shoreline change at regional...
New thermochronometric constraints on the Tertiary landscape evolution of the central and eastern Grand Canyon, Arizona
John P. Lee, Daniel F. Stockli, S.A. Kelley, J. Pederson, K. E. Karlstrom, T.A. Ehlers
2013, Geosphere (9) 216-228
Thermal histories are modeled from new apatite (U-Th)/He and apatite fission-track data in order to quantitatively constrain the landscape evolution of the Grand Canyon region. Fifty new samples and their associated thermochronometric ages are presented here. Samples span from Lee’s Ferry in the east to Quartermaster Canyon in the west...
