Landscape indicators and land cover change in the Mid-Atlantic Region of the United States, 1973-2001
E. Terrence Slonecker, Lesley Milheim, Peter R. Claggett
2010, GIScience and Remote Sensing (47) 163-186
Landscape indicators, derived from land use and land cover data as well as other data, were used to calculate the ecological consequences of land cover change in terms of nitrate loading and physical bird habitat. Both were modeled from 1973, 1992, and 2001 land cover data...
HIMALA: climate impacts on glaciers, snow, and hydrology in the Himalayan region
Molly Elizabeth Brown, Hua Ouyang, Shahid Habib, Basanta Shrestha, Mandira Shrestha, Prajjwal Panday, Maria Tzortziou, Frederick Policelli, Guleid A. Artan, Amarnath Giriraj, Sagar R. Bajracharya, Adina Racoviteanu
2010, Mountain Research and Development (30) 401-404
Glaciers are the largest reservoir of freshwater on Earth, supporting one third of the world's population. The Himalaya possess one of the largest resources of snow and ice, which act as a freshwater reservoir for more than 1.3 billion people. This article describes a new project called HIMALA, which focuses...
A model for Iapetan rifting of Laurentia based on Neoproterozoic dikes and related rocks
William C. Burton, Scott Southworth
2010, GSA Memoirs (206) 455-476
Geologic evidence of the Neoproterozoic rifting of Laurentia during breakup of Rodinia is recorded in basement massifs of the cratonic margin by dike swarms, volcanic and plutonic rocks, and rift-related clastic sedimentary sequences. The spatial and temporal distribution of these geologic features varies both within and between the massifs but...
Viscoelastic-cycle model of interseismic deformation in the northwestern United States
F. F. Pollitz, Patricia McCrory, Doug Wilson, Jerry Svarc, Christine Puskas, Robert B. Smith
2010, Geophysical Journal International (181) 665-696
We apply a viscoelastic cycle model to a compilation of GPS velocity fields in order to address the kinematics of deformation in the northwestern United States. A viscoelastic cycle model accounts for time-dependent deformation following large crustal earthquakes and is an alternative to block models for explaining the interseismic crustal...
Understanding behavioral responses of fish to pheromones in natural freshwater environments
Nicholas S. Johnson, Weiming Li
2010, Journal of Comparative Physiology A (196) 701-711
There is an abundance of experimental studies and reviews that describe odorant-mediated behaviors of fish in laboratory microcosms, but research in natural field conditions has received considerably less attention. Fish pheromone studies in laboratory settings can be highly productive and allow for controlled experimental designs; however, laboratory tanks and flumes...
Creation of next generation U.S. Geological Survey topographic maps
Kari J. Craun
2010, Book
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is 2 years into a 3-year cycle to create new digital topographic map products for the conterminous United States from data acquired and maintained as part of The National Map databases. These products are in the traditional, USGS topographic quadrangle, 7.5-minute (latitude and longitude) cell...
Making lidar more photogenic: creating band combinations from lidar information
Jason M. Stoker
2010, Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing (76) 216-220
Over the past five to ten years the use and applicability of light detection and ranging (lidar) technology has increased dramatically. As a result, an almost exponential amount of lidar data is being collected across the country for a wide range of applications, and it is currently the technology of...
Petrography, mineralogy, and geochemistry of deep gravelly sands in the Eyreville B core, Chesapeake Bay impact structure
Katerina Bartosova, Susanne Gier, J. Wright Horton Jr., Christian Koeberl, Dieter Mader, Henning Dypvik
2010, Meteoritics and Planetary Science (45) 1021-1052
The ICDP–USGS Eyreville drill cores in the Chesapeake Bay impact structure reached a total depth of 1766 m and comprise (from the bottom upwards) basement-derived schists and granites/pegmatites, impact breccias, mostly poorly lithified gravelly sand and crystalline blocks, a granitic slab, sedimentary breccias, and postimpact sediments. The gravelly sand and...
Emerging themes in the ecology and management of North American forests
Terry L. Sharik, William Adair, Fred A. Baker, Michael Battaglia, Emily J. Comfort, Anthony W. D’Amato, Craig Delong, R. Justin DeRose, Mark J. Ducey, Mark Harmon, Louise Levy, Jesse A. Logan, Joseph O'Brien, Brian J. Palik, Scott D. Roberts, Paul C. Rogers, Douglas J. Shinneman, Thomas Spies, Sarah L. Taylor, Christopher Woodall, Andrew Youngblood
2010, International Journal of Forestry Research (2010)
The 7th North American Forest Ecology Workshop, consisting of 149 presentations in 16 oral sessions and a poster session, reflected a broad range of topical areas currently under investigation in forest ecology and management. There was an overarching emphasis on the role of disturbance, both natural and anthropogenic, in the...
Current challenges using models to forecast seawater intrusion: lessons from the Eastern Shore of Virginia, USA
Ward E. Sanford, Jason P. Pope
2010, Hydrogeology Journal (18) 73-93
A three-dimensional model of the aquifer system of the Eastern Shore of Virginia, USA was calibrated to reproduce historical water levels and forecast the potential for saltwater intrusion. Future scenarios were simulated with two pumping schemes to predict potential areas of saltwater intrusion. Simulations suggest that only a few wells...
Mineral resource of the month: sulfur
Water Resources Division, U.S. Geological Survey
2010, Earth (55) 26-27
The article presents information on sulfur. Sulfur is said to be among the few solid elements found in elemental form in nature and has industrial uses. Changes in the sulfur production process over the years are discussed as well as the mining process developed by German engineer Herman Frasch that...
Mineral resource of the month: platinum group metals
Patricia J. Loferski
2010, Earth (55) 28-29
The article focuses on platinum group metals (PGMs) and their properties. According to the author, PGMs, which include iridium, osmium, palladium, platinum, rhodium, and ruthenium, are among the rarest mineral commodities in the Earth's crust. PGMs are primarily used as catalytic converters that clean harmful exhaust from vehicle engines. They...
Mineral resource of the month: perlite
Water Resources Division, U.S. Geological Survey
2010, Earth (55) 27-27
The article talks about perlite, which is a mineral used as an aggregate for lightweight construction products, filler for paints and horticultural soil blends. Perlite comes from viscous lava, mined and processed to produce lightweight material that competes with pumice, exfoliated vermiculite and expanded clay and shale. It is mined...
Mineral resource of the month: fluorspar
Water Resources Division, U.S. Geological Survey
2010, Earth (55) 28-29
The article features the industrial mineral fluorspar, used in the manufacture of fluorochemicals, aluminum and steel. It defines fluorspar as crude or beneficiated material, mined or milled for the non-metallic mineral fluorite or calcium fluoride. Applications of acid-grade fluorspar in the U.S. are presented, including production of hydrofluoric acid for...
Mineral resource of the month: lead
David E. Guberman
2010, Earth (55) 29-29
The article discusses the properties and uses lead as a mineral resource. According to the author, lead is a corrosion-resistant, dense, ductile, and malleable blue-gray metal that has been used by humans for 5,000 years. Lead was first used in decorative, fixtures, roofs, pipes, and windows. The author says that...
Groundwater hydrology--coastal flow
Ward E. Sanford
2010, Nature Geoscience (3) 671-672
How groundwater flow varies when long-term external conditions change is little documented. Geochemical evidence shows that sea-level rise at the end of the last glacial period led to a shift in the flow patterns of coastal groundwater beneath Florida....
Understanding the potential dispersal of HPAI H5N1 virus by migratory wildfowl
Nicolas Gaidet, Julien Cappelle, John Y. Takekawa, Diann J. Prosser, Samuel A. Iverson, David C. Douglas, William M. Perry, Taej Mundkur, Scott H. Newman
2010, Argos Forum (71) 4-5
We analysed wildfowl movements between 2006-2009, including 228 birds from 19 species, part of a larger international programme (see Figure 1) coordinated by the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations aimed at understanding if there are temporal or spatial relationships between HPAI H5N1 outbreaks and movements of...
Model-based evaluation of highly and low pathogenic avian influenza dynamics in wild birds
Viviane Hénaux, Michael D. Samuel, Christine M. Bunck
2010, PLoS ONE (5)
There is growing interest in avian influenza (AI) epidemiology to predict disease risk in wild and domestic birds, and prevent transmission to humans. However, understanding the epidemic dynamics of highly pathogenic (HPAI) viruses remains challenging because they have rarely been detected in wild birds. We used modeling to integrate available...
Prevalence of antibodies to type A influenza virus in wild avian species using two serologic assays
Justin D. Brown, M. Page Luttrell, Roy D. Berghaus, Whitney Kistler, Shamus P. Keeler, Andrea Howey, Benjamin Wilcox, Jeffrey S. Hall, Larry Niles, Amanda Dey, Gregory Knutsen, Kristen Fritz, David E. Stallknecht
2010, Journal of Wildlife Diseases (46) 896-911
Serologic testing to detect antibodies to avian influenza (AI) virus has been an underused tool for the study of these viruses in wild bird populations, which traditionally has relied on virus isolation and reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). In a preliminary study, a recently developed commercial blocking enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay...
Isotopic composition and origin of indigenous natural perchlorate and co-occurring nitrate in the southwestern United States
W. Andrew Jackson, J.K. Bohlke, Baohua Gu, Paul B. Hatzinger, Neil C. Sturchio
2010, Environmental Science & Technology (44) 4869-4876
Perchlorate (ClO4−) has been detected widely in groundwater and soils of the southwestern United States. Much of this ClO4− appears to be natural, and it may have accumulated largely through wet and dry atmospheric deposition. This study evaluates the isotopic composition of natural ClO4− indigenous to the southwestern U.S. Stable...
Inference of lithologic distributions in an alluvial aquifer using airborne transient electromagnetic surveys
Jesse E. Dickinson, D. R. Pool, R.W. Groom, L.J. Davis
2010, Geophysics (75) WA149-WA161
An airborne transient electromagnetic (TEM) survey was completed in the Upper San Pedro Basin in southeastern Arizona to map resistivity distributions within the alluvial aquifer. This investigation evaluated the utility of 1D vertical resistivity models of the TEM data to infer lithologic distributions in an alluvial aquifer. Comparisons of the...
Mineral resource of the month: silicon
Water Resources Division, U.S. Geological Survey
2010, Earth (55) 27-27
The article offers information about silicon, a metalloid element which is considered the second-most abundant element in the Earth crust....
A short-term look at potential changes in Lake Michigan slimy sculpin diets
John R. P. French III, Richard G. Stickel, Beth A. Stockdale, M. Glen Black
2010, Journal of Great Lakes Research (36) 376-379
Diporeia hoyi and Mysis relicta are the most important prey items of slimy sculpins (Cottus cognatus) in the Great Lakes. Slimy sculpins were collected from dreissenid-infested bottoms off seven Lake Michigan ports at depths of 27–73 m in fall 2003 to study their lake-wide diets. Relatively large dreissenid biomass occurred...
Identification, characterization and genetic mapping of TLR7, TLR8a1 and TLR8a2 genes in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)
Yniv Palti, Scott A. Gahr, Maureen K. Purcell, Sima Hadidi, Caird E. Rexroad III, Gregory A. Wiens
2010, Developmental and Comparative Immunology (34) 219-233
Induction of the innate immune pathways is critical for early anti-viral defense but there is limited understanding of how teleost fish recognize viral molecules and activate these pathways. In mammals, Toll-like receptors (TLR) 7 and 8 bind single-stranded RNA of viral origin and are activated by synthetic anti-viral imidazoquinoline compounds....
Improving inferences from fisheries capture-recapture studies through remote detection of PIT tags
David A. Hewitt, Eric C. Janney, Brian S. Hayes, Rip S. Shively
2010, Fisheries (35) 217-231
Models for capture-recapture data are commonly used in analyses of the dynamics of fish and wildlife populations, especially for estimating vital parameters such as survival. Capture-recapture methods provide more reliable inferences than other methods commonly used in fisheries studies. However, for rare or elusive fish species, parameter estimation is often...
