Effect of brook trout removal from a spawning stream on an adfluvial population of Lahontan cutthroat trout
G. Gary Scoppettone, Peter H. Rissler, Sean P. Shea, William Somer
2012, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (32) 586-596
Independence Lake (Nevada and Sierra counties, California) harbors the only extant native population of Lahontan cutthroat trout Oncorhynchus clarkii henshawi in the Truckee River system and one of two extant adfluvial populations in the Lahontan basin. The persistence of this population has been precarious for more than 50 years, with...
Downstream movement of fall Chinook salmon juveniles in the lower Snake River reservoirs during winter and early spring
Kenneth F. Tiffan, Tobias J. Kock, William P. Connor, Frank Mullins, R. Kirk Steinhorst
2012, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (141) 285-293
We conducted a 3-year radiotelemetry study in the lower Snake River to (1) determine whether juvenile fall Chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha pass dams during winter, when bypass systems and structures designed to prevent mortality are not operated; (2) determine whether downstream movement rate varies annually, seasonally, and from reservoir to...
The state of amphibians in the United States
E. Muths, M.J. Adams, E.H.C. Grant, Dick Miller, P.S. Corn, L.C. Ball
2012, Fact Sheet 2012-3092
More than 25 years ago, scientists began to identify unexplained declines in amphibian populations around the world. Much has been learned since then, but amphibian declines have not abated and the interactions among the various threats to amphibians are not clear. Amphibian decline is a problem of local, national, and...
Phase II modification of the Water Availability Tool for Environmental Resources (WATER) for Kentucky: The sinkhole-drainage process, point-and-click basin delineation, and results of karst test-basin simulations
Charles J. Taylor, Tanja N. Williamson, Jeremy K. Newson, Randy L. Ulery, Hugh L. Nelson, Peter J. Cinotto
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5071
This report describes Phase II modifications made to the Water Availability Tool for Environmental Resources (WATER), which applies the process-based TOPMODEL approach to simulate or predict stream discharge in surface basins in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The previous (Phase I) version of WATER did not provide a means of identifying...
Net Ecosystem Production (NEP) of the Great Plains, United States
Daniel Howard, Tagir Gilmanov, Yingxin Gu, Bruce Wylie, Li Zhang
2012, Fact Sheet 2012-3134
Gross primary production (GPP) and ecosystem respiration (Re) are the fundamental environmental characteristics that promote carbon exchanges with the atmosphere (Chapin and others, 2009), although other exchanges of carbon, such as direct oxidation (Lovett and others, 2006), can modify net ecosystem production (NEP). The accumulation of carbon in terrestrial ecosystems...
Revolutionary land use change in the 21st century: Is (rangeland) science relevant?
J. E. Herrick, J.R. Brown, B.T. Bestelmeyer, S.S. Andrews, G. Baldi, J. Davies, M. Duniway, K. M. Havstad, J.W. Karl, D.L. Karlen, Debra P. C. Peters, J.N. Quinton, C. Riginos, P.L. Shaver, D. Steinaker, S. Twomlow
2012, Rangeland Ecology and Management (65) 590-598
Rapidly increasing demand for food, fiber, and fuel together with new technologies and the mobility of global capital are driving revolutionary changes in land use throughout the world. Efforts to increase land productivity include conversion of millions of hectares of rangelands to crop production, including many marginal lands with low...
Snake River fall Chinook salmon life history investigations: Annual report 2010
Kenneth F. Tiffan, William P. Connor, Rebecca A. Buchanan, Scott J. St John, John M. Erhardt, Craig A. Haskell
2012, Report
This report summarizes three research activities conducted in 2010-2011. The first was a radiotelemetry study conducted in the lower Clearwater River. The second was a hydroacoustic study conducted in Lower Granite and Little Goose reservoirs. The third was an analysis of covariates affecting juvenile fall Chinook salmon survival and behavior....
Status and trends of land change in the Western United States--1973 to 2000
Benjamin M. Sleeter, Tamara S. Wilson, William Acevedo, editor(s)
2012, Professional Paper 1794-A
Preface U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Professional Paper 1794–A is the first 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 Western United States between 1973 and 2000. Volumes...
Detecting hidden volcanic explosions from Mt. Cleveland Volcano, Alaska with infrasound and ground-couples airwaves
Slivio De Angelis, David Fee, Matthew Haney, David Schneider
2012, Geophysical Research Letters (39)
In Alaska, where many active volcanoes exist without ground-based instrumentation, the use of techniques suitable for distant monitoring is pivotal. In this study we report regional-scale seismic and infrasound observations of volcanic activity at Mt. Cleveland between December 2011 and August 2012. During this period, twenty explosions were detected by...
Carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide degassing and cryptic thermal input to Brimstone Basin, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
D. Bergfeld, William C. Evans, J. B. Lowenstern, S. Hurwitz
2012, Chemical Geology (330-331) 233-243
Brimstone Basin, a remote area of intense hydrothermal alteration a few km east of the Yellowstone Caldera, is rarely studied and has long been considered to be a cold remnant of an ancient hydrothermal system. A field campaign in 2008 confirmed that gas emissions from the few small vents were...
The Midwest Stream Quality Assessment
Peter C. Van Metre, Jeffrey W. Frey, Ellen Tarquinio
2012, Fact Sheet 2012-3124
In 2013, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water-Quality Assessment Program (NAWQA) and USGS Columbia Environmental Research Center (CERC) will be collaborating with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) National Rivers and Streams Assessment (NRSA) to assess stream quality across the Midwestern United States. The sites selected for this study...
Roles of inflammatory caspases during processing of zebrafish interleukin-1β in Francisella noatunensis infection
Lucia N. Vojtech, Nichole Scharping, James C. Woodson, John D. Hansen
2012, Infection and Immunity (80) 2878-2885
The interleukin-1 family of cytokines are essential for the control of pathogenic microbes but are also responsible for devastating autoimmune pathologies. Consequently, tight regulation of inflammatory processes is essential for maintaining homeostasis. In mammals, interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β) is primarily regulated at two levels, transcription and processing. The main pathway for...
Time-lapse camera observations of gas piston activity at Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō, Kīlauea volcano, Hawai‘i
Tim R. Orr, James Rea
2012, Bulletin of Volcanology (74) 2353-2362
Gas pistoning is a type of eruptive behavior described first at Kīlauea volcano and characterized by the (commonly) cyclic rise and fall of the lava surface within a volcanic vent or lava lake. Though recognized for decades, its cause continues to be debated, and determining why and when it occurs...
Use of ASTER and MODIS thermal infrared data to quantify heat flow and hydrothermal change at Yellowstone National Park
R. Greg Vaughan, Laszlo P. Keszthelyi, Jacob B. Lowenstern, Cheryl Jaworowski, Henry Heasler
2012, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research (233-234) 72-89
The overarching aim of this study was to use satellite thermal infrared (TIR) remote sensing to monitor geothermal activity within the Yellowstone geothermal area to meet the missions of both the U.S. Geological Survey and the Yellowstone National Park Geology Program. Specific goals were to: 1) address the challenges...
Casual instrument corrections for short-period and broadband seismometers
Matthew M. Haney, John Power, Michael West, Paul Michaels
2012, Seismological Research Letters (83) 834-845
Of all the filters applied to recordings of seismic waves, which include source, path, and site effects, the one we know most precisely is the instrument filter. Therefore, it behooves seismologists to accurately remove the effect of the instrument from raw seismograms. Applying instrument corrections allows analysis of the seismogram...
Spatial genetic structure and asymmetrical gene flow within the Pacific walrus
Sarah A. Sonsthagen, Chadwick V. Jay, Anthony S. Fischbach, George K. Sage, Sandra L. Talbot
2012, Journal of Mammalogy (93) 1512-1524
Pacific walruses (Odobenus rosmarus divergens) occupying shelf waters of Pacific Arctic seas migrate during spring and summer from 3 breeding areas in the Bering Sea to form sexually segregated nonbreeding aggregations. We assessed genetic relationships among 2 putative breeding populations and 6 nonbreeding aggregations. Analyses of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control...
Burial increases seed longevity of two Artemisia tridentata (Asteraceae) subspecies
Upekala C. Wijayratne, David A. Pyke
2012, American Journal of Botany (99) 438-447
Premise of the study: Seed longevity and persistence in soil seed banks may be especially important for population persistence in ecosystems where opportunities for seedling establishment and disturbance are unpredictable. The fire regime, an important driver of population dynamics in sagebrush steppe ecosystems, has been altered by exotic annual grass...
Selenium in aquatic biota inhabiting agricultural drains in the Salton Sea Basin, California
Michael K. Saiki, Barbara A. Martin, Thomas W. May
2012, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment (184) 5623-5640
Resource managers are concerned that water conservation practices in irrigated farmlands along the southern border of the Salton Sea, Imperial County, California, could increase selenium concentrations in agricultural drainwater and harm the desert pupfish (Cyprinodon macularius), a federally protected endangered species. As part of a broader attempt to...
Costs of living for juvenile Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) in an increasingly warming and invaded world
Lauren M. Kuehne, Julian D. Olden, Jeffrey J. Duda
2012, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (69) 1621-1630
Rapid environmental change in freshwater ecosystems has created a need to understand the interactive effects of multiple stressors, with temperature and invasive predators identified as key threats to imperiled fish species. We tested the separate and interactive effects of water temperature and predation by non-native smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieu) on...
Effectiveness of common fish screen materials to protect lamprey ammocoetes
Brien P. Rose, Matthew G. Mesa
2012, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (32) 597-603
Understanding the effects of irrigation diversions on populations of Pacific lampreyLampetra tridentata in the Columbia River basin is needed for their recovery. We tested the effectiveness of five common fish screen materials for excluding lamprey ammocoetes: interlock (IL), vertical bar (VB), perforated plate (PP), and 12-gauge and 14-gauge wire cloth (WC12)...
Ecosystem services valuation to support decisionmaking on public lands—A case study of the San Pedro River watershed, Arizona
Kenneth J. Bagstad, Darius J. Semmens, Rob Winthrop, Delilah Jaworksi, Joel Larson
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5251
This report details the findings of the Bureau of Land Management–U.S. Geological Survey Ecosystem Services Valuation Pilot Study. This project evaluated alternative methods and tools that quantify and value ecosystem services, and it assessed the tools’ readiness for use in the Bureau of Land Management decisionmaking process. We tested these...
Baseline and projected future carbon storage and greenhouse-gas fluxes in ecosystems of the Western United States
Zhi-Liang Zhu, Bradley C. Reed
2012, Professional Paper 1797
This assessment was conducted to fulfill the requirements of section 712 of the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 2007 and to improve understanding of carbon and greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes in ecosystems of the Western United States. The assessment examined carbon storage, carbon fluxes, and other GHG fluxes...
Survival and growth of juvenile Pacific lampreys tagged with passive integrated transponders (PIT) in freshwater and seawater
Matthew G. Mesa, Elizabeth S. Copeland, Helena E. Christiansen, Jacob L. Gregg, Sean R. Roon, Paul K. Hershberger
2012, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (141) 1260-1268
Tagging methods are needed for both adult and juvenile life stages of Pacific lampreys Lampetra tridentata to better understand their biology and factors contributing to their decline. We developed a safe and efficient technique for tagging juvenile Pacific lampreys with passive integrated transponder (PIT) tags. We tested the short-term survival...
Thermal maturity map of Devonian shale in the Illinois, Michigan, and Appalachian basins of North America
Joseph A. East, Christopher S. Swezey, John E. Repetski, Daniel O. Hayba
2012, Scientific Investigations Map 3214
Much of the oil and gas in the Illinois, Michigan, and Appalachian basins of eastern North America is thought to be derived from Devonian shale that is within these basins (for example, Milici and others, 2003; Swezey, 2002, 2008, 2009; Swezey and others, 2005, 2007). As the Devonian strata were...
Hydrate morphology: Physical properties of sands with patchy hydrate saturation
S. Dai, J.C. Santamarina, William F. Waite, T.J. Kneafsey
2012, Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth (117) B11205
The physical properties of gas hydrate-bearing sediments depend on the volume fraction and spatial distribution of the hydrate phase. The host sediment grain size and the state of effective stress determine the hydrate morphology in sediments; this information can be used to significantly constrain estimates of the physical properties of...
