USGS approach to real-time estimation of earthquake-triggered ground failure - Results of 2015 workshop
Kate E. Allstadt, Eric M. Thompson, David J. Wald, Michael W. Hamburger, Jonathan W. Godt, Keith L. Knudsen, Randall W. Jibson, M. Anna Jessee, Jing Zhu, Michael Hearne, Laurie G. Baise, Hakan Tanyas, Kristin D. Marano
2016, Open-File Report 2016-1044
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Earthquake Hazards and Landslide Hazards Programs are developing plans to add quantitative hazard assessments of earthquake-triggered landsliding and liquefaction to existing real-time earthquake products (ShakeMap, ShakeCast, PAGER) using open and readily available methodologies and products. To date, prototype global statistical models have been developed and...
Review and synthesis: Changing permafrost in a warming world and feedbacks to the Earth System
Guido Grosse, Scott Goetz, A. David McGuire, Vladimir E. Romanovsky, Edward A.G. Schuur
2016, Environmental Research Letters (11) 1-10
The permafrost component of the cryosphere is changing dramatically, but the permafrost region is not well monitored and the consequences of change are not well understood. Changing permafrost interacts with ecosystems and climate on various spatial and temporal scales. The feedbacks resulting from these interactions range from local impacts on...
A process for reducing rocks and concentrating heavy minerals
Thomas R. Strong, Rhonda L. Driscoll
2016, Open-File Report 2016-1022
To obtain minerals suitable for age-dating and other analyses, it is necessary to first reduce the mineral-bearing rock to a fine, sand-like consistency. Reducing whole rock requires crushing, grinding, and sieving. Ideally, the reduced material should range in size from 80- to 270-mesh (an opening between wires in a sieve)....
High-resolution records detect human-caused changes to the boreal forest wildfire regime in interior Alaska
Benjamin V. Gaglioti, Daniel H. Mann, Benjamin M. Jones, Matthew J. Wooller, Bruce P. Finney
2016, The Holocene (26) 1064-1074
Stand-replacing wildfires are a keystone disturbance in the boreal forest, and they are becoming more common as the climate warms. Paleo-fire archives from the wildland–urban interface can quantify the prehistoric fire regime and assess how both human land-use and climate change impact ecosystem dynamics. Here, we use a combination of...
Scripting MODFLOW model development using Python and FloPy
Mark Bakker, Vincent E. A. Post, Christian D. Langevin, Joseph D. Hughes, Jeremy T. White, Jeffrey Starn, Michael N. Fienen
2016, Groundwater (54) 733-739
Graphical user interfaces (GUIs) are commonly used to construct and postprocess numerical groundwater flow and transport models. Scripting model development with the programming language Python is presented here as an alternative approach. One advantage of Python is that there are many packages available to facilitate the model development process, including...
Changes in the prevalence of avian disease and mosquito vectors at Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge: a 14-year perspective and assessment of future risk
Dennis LaPointe, Jacqueline M. Gaudioso-Levita, Carter T. Atkinson, Ariel N. Egan, Kathleen Hayes
2016, Technical Report HCSU-073
Throughout the main Hawaiian Islands, introduced mosquito-borne disease has had, and continues to have, a profound impact on the distributions and abundance of native Hawaiian forest birds. Populations of remaining native forest birds are largely restricted to high elevation forests where mean temperatures are marginal for vector and parasite development...
Simulation of groundwater storage changes in the eastern Pasco Basin, Washington
Charles E. Heywood, Sue C. Kahle, Theresa D. Olsen, James D. Patterson, Erick Burns
2016, Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5026
The Miocene Columbia River Basalt Group and younger sedimentary deposits of lacustrine, fluvial, eolian, and cataclysmic-flood origins compose the aquifer system of the Pasco Basin in eastern Washington. Irrigation return flow and canal leakage from the Columbia Basin Project have caused groundwater levels to rise substantially in some areas,...
Tracking millennial-scale Holocene glacial advance and retreat using osmium isotopes: Insights from the Greenland ice sheet
Alan D. Rooney, David Selby, Jeremy M. Llyod, David H. Roberts, Andreas Luckge, Bradley B. Sageman, Nancy G. Prouty
2016, Quaternary Science Reviews (138) 49-61
High-resolution Os isotope stratigraphy can aid in reconstructing Pleistocene ice sheet fluctuation and elucidating the role of local and regional weathering fluxes on the marine Os residence time. This paper presents new Os isotope data from ocean cores adjacent to the West Greenland ice sheet that have excellent chronological controls....
Design and testing of a process-based groundwater vulnerability assessment (P-GWAVA) system for predicting concentrations of agrichemicals in groundwater across the United States
Jack E Barbash, Frank D. Voss
2016, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5189
Efforts to assess the likelihood of groundwater contamination from surface-derived compounds have spanned more than three decades. Relatively few of these assessments, however, have involved the use of process-based simulations of contaminant transport and fate in the subsurface, or compared the predictions from such models with measured data—especially over regional...
Archive of Digital Chirp Subbottom Profile Data Collected During USGS Cruise 14BIM05 Offshore of Breton Island, Louisiana, August 2014
Arnell S. Forde, James G. Flocks, Dana S. Wiese, Jake J. Fredericks
2016, Data Series 972
From August 11 to 31, 2014, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), conducted a geophysical survey to investigate the geologic controls on barrier island framework and long-term sediment transport offshore of Breton Island,...
Nitrogen loads from selected rivers in the Long Island Sound Basin, 2005–13, Connecticut and Massachusetts
John R. Mullaney
2016, Open-File Report 2016-1007
Total nitrogen loads at 14 water-quality monitoring stations were calculated by using discrete measurements of total nitrogen and continuous streamflow data for the period 2005–13 (water years 2006–13). Total nitrogen loads were calculated by using the LOADEST computer program.Overall, for water years 2006–13, streamflow in Connecticut was generally above normal....
Earth as art 4
U.S. Geological Survey
2016, General Information Product 161
Landsat 8 is the latest addition to the long-running series of Earth-observing satellites in the Landsat program that began in 1972. The images featured in this fourth installment of the Earth As Art collection were all acquired by Landsat 8. They show our planet’s diverse landscapes with remarkable clarity.Landsat satellites...
Earth as art 4 bookmark
U.S. Geological Survey
2016, General Information Product 162
Images from Landsat 8, launched in 2013, already stand out as stellar additions to our popular Earth As Art series. We are proud to present the fourth collection—Earth As Art 4!...
A Bayesian approach for temporally scaling climate for modeling ecological systems
Max Post van der Burg, Michael J. Anteau, Lisa A. McCauley, Mark T. Wiltermuth
2016, Ecology and Evolution (6) 2978-2987
With climate change becoming more of concern, many ecologists are including climate variables in their system and statistical models. The Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) is a drought index that has potential advantages in modeling ecological response variables, including a flexible computation of the index over different timescales. However, little...
The North American model and captive cervid facilities—What is the threat?
John F. Organ, Thomas A. Decker, Tanya M. Lama
2016, Wildlife Society Bulletin (40) 10-13
The North American Model of Wildlife Conservation represents the key principles that in combination resulted in a distinct form of wildlife conservation in the United States and Canada. How and to what extent captive cervid facilities comport with or conflict with these principles has implications for wildlife conservation. Greatest threats...
2016 one-year seismic hazard forecast for the Central and Eastern United States from induced and natural earthquakes
Mark D. Petersen, Charles S. Mueller, Morgan P. Moschetti, Susan M. Hoover, Andrea L. Llenos, William L. Ellsworth, Andrew J. Michael, Justin L. Rubinstein, Arthur F. McGarr, Kenneth S. Rukstales
2016, Open-File Report 2016-1035
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has produced a 1-year seismic hazard forecast for 2016 for the Central and Eastern United States (CEUS) that includes contributions from both induced and natural earthquakes. The model assumes that earthquake rates calculated from several different time windows will remain relatively stationary and can be...
Landscape-scale habitat selection by fishers translocated to the Olympic Peninsula of Washington
Jeffrey C. Lewis, Kurt J. Jenkins, Patricia J. Happe, David J. Manson, Marc McCalmon
2016, Forest Ecology and Management (369) 170-183
The fisher was extirpated from much of the Pacific Northwestern United States during the mid- to late-1900s and is now proposed for federal listing as a threatened species in all or part of its west coast range. Following the translocation of 90 fishers from central British Columbia, Canada, to the...
Social-value maps for Arapaho, Roosevelt, Medicine Bow, Routt, and White River National Forests, Colorado and Wyoming
Zachary H. Ancona, Darius J. Semmens, Benson C. Sherrouse
2016, Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5019
Executive SummaryThe continued pressures of population growth on the life-sustaining, economic, and cultural ecosystem services provided by our national forests, particularly those located near rapidly growing urban areas, present ongoing challenges to forest managers. Achieving an effective assessment of these ecosystem services includes a proper accounting of the ecological, economic,...
Trophic magnification of organic chemicals: A global synthesis
David Walters, T.D. Jardine, Brian S. Cade, K.A. Kidd, D.C.G. Muir, Peter C. Leipzig-Scott
2016, Environmental Science & Technology (50) 4650-4658
Production of organic chemicals (OCs) is increasing exponentially, and some OCs biomagnify through food webs to potentially toxic levels. Biomagnification under field conditions is best described by trophic magnification factors (TMFs; per trophic level change in log-concentration of a chemical) which have been measured for more than two decades. Syntheses...
Evaluation of Caspian tern (Hydroprogne caspia) and snowy plover (Charadrius alexandrinus nivosus) nesting on modified islands at the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge, California—2015 Annual Report
C. Alex Hartman, Joshua T. Ackerman, Mark P. Herzog, Cheryl Strong, David Trachtenbarg, Kimberley A. Sawyer, Crystal A. Shore
2016, Open-File Report 2016-1049
Executive Summary In order to address the 2008/10 NOAA Fisheries Biological Opinion for operation of the Federal Columbia River Power System, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) have developed and begun implementation of Caspian tern (Hydroprogne caspia) management plans. This implementation includes relocating...
Groundwater exchanges near a channelized versus unmodified stream mouth discharging to a subalpine lake
James Constantz, Ramon C. Naranjo, Richard G. Niswonger, Kip K. Allander, B. Neilson, Donald O. Rosenberry, David W. Smith, C. Rosecrans, David A. Stonestrom
2016, Water Resources Research (52) 2157-2177
The terminus of a stream flowing into a larger river, pond, lake, or reservoir is referred to as the stream-mouth reach or simply the stream mouth. The terminus is often characterized by rapidly changing thermal and hydraulic conditions that result in abrupt shifts in surface water/groundwater (sw/gw) exchange patterns, creating the potential for...
California State Waters Map Series — Offshore of Santa Cruz, California
Guy R. Cochrane, Peter Dartnell, Samuel Y. Johnson, Mercedes D. Erdey, Nadine E. Golden, H. Gary Greene, Bryan E. Dieter, Stephen R. Hartwell, Andrew C. Ritchie, David P. Finlayson, Charles A. Endris, Janet Watt, Clifton W. Davenport, Ray W. Sliter, Katherine L. Maier, Lisa M. Krigsman
Guy R. Cochrane, Susan A. Cochran, editor(s)
2016, Open-File Report 2016-1024
IntroductionIn 2007, the California Ocean Protection Council initiated the California Seafloor Mapping Program (CSMP), designed to create a comprehensive seafloor map of high-resolution bathymetry, marine benthic habitats, and geology within the limit of California’s State Waters. The CSMP approach is to create highly detailed seafloor maps through collection, integration, interpretation,...
Crude oil metabolites in groundwater at two spill sites
Barbara A. Bekins, Isabelle M. Cozzarelli, Melinda L. Erickson, Ross Steenson, Kevin A. Thorn
2016, Groundwater (54) 681-691
Two groundwater plumes in north central Minnesota with residual crude oil sources have 20 to 50 mg/L of nonvolatile dissolved organic carbon (NVDOC). These values are over 10 times higher than benzene and two to three times higher than Diesel Range Organics in the same wells. On the basis of...
Improving the ecological relevance of toxicity tests on scleractinian corals: Influence of season, life stage, and seawater temperature
Laetitia Hedouin, Ruth E. Wolf, Jeff Phillips, Ruth D. Gates
2016, Environmental Pollution (213) 240-253
Metal pollutants in marine systems are broadly acknowledged as deleterious: however, very little data exist for tropical scleractinian corals. We address this gap by investigating how life-history stage, season and thermal stress influence the toxicity of copper (Cu) and lead (Pb) in the coral Pocillopora damicornis. Our results show that...
Passage of downstream migrant American eels through an airlift-assisted deep bypass
Alexander J. Haro, Barnaby J. Watten, John Noreika
2016, Ecological Engineering (91) 545-552
Traditional downstream guidance and bypass facilities for anadromous fishes (i.e., surface bypasses, surface guidance structures, and behavioral barriers) have frequently been ineffective for anguillid eels. Because eels typically spend the majority of their time near the bottom in the vicinity of intake structures, deep bypass structures with entrances near the...
