Uncertainty in biological monitoring: a framework for data collection and analysis to account for multiple sources of sampling bias
Viviana Ruiz-Gutierrez, Melvin B. Hooten, Evan H. Campbell Grant
2016, Methods in Ecology and Evolution (7) 900-909
Biological monitoring programmes are increasingly relying upon large volumes of citizen-science data to improve the scope and spatial coverage of information, challenging the scientific community to develop design and model-based approaches to improve inference.Recent statistical models in ecology have been developed to accommodate false-negative errors, although current...
Environmental factors influence lesser scaup migration chronology and population monitoring
Taylor A. Finger, Alan D. Afton, Michael L. Schummer, Scott A. Petrie, Shannon S. Badzinski, Michael A. Johnson, Michael L. Szymanski, Kevin J. Jacobs, Glenn H. Olsen, Mark Mitchell
2016, Journal of Wildlife Management (80) 1437-1449
Identifying environmental metrics specific to lesser scaup (Aythya affinis; scaup) spring migration chronology may help inform development of conservation, management and population monitoring. Our objective was to determine how environmental conditions influence spring migration of lesser scaup to assess the effectiveness of the Waterfowl Breeding Population and Habitat Survey in...
Snake fungal disease: An emerging threat to wild snakes
Jeffrey M. Lorch, Susan Knowles, Julia S. Lankton, Kathy Michell, Jaime L. Edwards, Joshua M. Kapfer, Richard A. Staffen, Erik R. Wild, Katie Z. Schmidt, Anne Ballmann, Doug Blodgett, Terence M. Farrell, Brad M. Glorioso, Lisa A. Last, Steven J. Price, Krysten L. Schuler, Christopher Smith, James F. X. Wellehan Jr., David S. Blehert
2016, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (371)
Since 2006, there has been a marked increase in the number of reports of severe and often fatal fungal skin infections in wild snakes in the eastern USA. The emerging condition, referred to as snake fungal disease (SFD), was initially documented in rattlesnakes, where the infections were believed to pose...
Assessment of hydrogeologic terrains, well-construction characteristics, groundwater hydraulics, and water-quality and microbial data for determination of surface-water-influenced groundwater supplies in West Virginia
Mark D. Kozar, Katherine S. Paybins
2016, Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5048
In January 2014, a storage tank leaked, spilling a large quantity of 4-methylcyclohexane methanol into the Elk River in West Virginia and contaminating the water supply for more than 300,000 people. In response, the West Virginia Legislature passed Senate Bill 373, which requires the West Virginia Department of Health and...
Simulated effects of groundwater withdrawals from aquifers in Ocean County and vicinity, New Jersey
Stephen J. Cauller, Lois M. Voronin, Mary M. Chepiga
2016, Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5035
Rapid population growth since the 1930s in Ocean County and vicinity, New Jersey, has placed increasing demands upon the area’s freshwater resources. To examine effects of groundwater withdrawals, a three-dimensional groundwater-flow model was developed to simulate the groundwater-flow systems of five area aquifers: the unconfined Kirkwood-Cohansey aquifer system and...
Maximum magnitude (Mmax) in the central and eastern United States for the 2014 U.S. Geological Survey Hazard Model
Russell L. Wheeler
2016, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (106) 2154-2167
Probabilistic seismic‐hazard assessment (PSHA) requires an estimate of Mmax, the moment magnitude M of the largest earthquake that could occur within a specified area. Sparse seismicity hinders Mmax estimation in the central and eastern United States (CEUS) and tectonically similar regions worldwide (stable continental regions [SCRs]). A new global catalog...
Geologic framework, age, and lithologic characteristics of the North Park Formation in North Park, north-central Colorado
Ralph R. Shroba
2016, Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5126
Deposits of the North Park Formation of late Oligocene and Miocene age are locally exposed at small, widely spaced outcrops along the margins of the roughly northwest-trending North Park syncline in the southern part of North Park, a large intermontane topographic basin in Jackson County in north-central Colorado. These outcrops...
Occurrence and distribution of arsenic and radon in water from private wells in the Rancocas aquifer, southern New Castle and northern Kent Counties, Delaware, 2015
Judith M. Denver
2016, Open-File Report 2016-1143
Water samples were collected and analyzed for arsenic and radon from 36 private, mostly domestic wells that tap the Rancocas aquifer in southern New Castle and northern Kent Counties, Delaware, during the summer of 2015. Both arsenic and radon are from natural mineral sources, in particular glauconitic and other marine-derived...
Potential effects of climate change on streamflow for seven watersheds in eastern and central Montana
Katherine J. Chase, Adel E. Haj, R. Steven Regan, Roland J. Viger
2016, Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies (7) 69-81
Study regionEastern and central Montana.Study focusFish in Northern Great Plains streams tolerate extreme conditions including heat, cold, floods, and drought; however changes in streamflow associated with long-term climate change may render some prairie streams uninhabitable for current fish species. To better understand future hydrology of these...
Far-field pressurization likely caused one of the largest injection induced earthquakes by reactivating a large pre-existing basement fault structure
William L. Yeck, Matthew Weingarten, Harley M. Benz, Daniel E. McNamara, E. Bergman, R.B Herrmann, Justin L. Rubinstein, Paul S. Earle
2016, Geophysical Research Letters (43) 10,198-10,207
The Mw 5.1 Fairview, Oklahoma, earthquake on 13 February 2016 and its associated seismicity produced the largest moment release in the central and eastern United States since the 2011 Mw 5.7 Prague, Oklahoma, earthquake sequence and is one of the largest earthquakes potentially linked to wastewater injection. This energetic sequence has produced...
Automatic delineation of seacliff limits using lidar-derived high-resolution DEMs in southern California
Monica Palaseanu-Lovejoy, Jeffrey J. Danielson, Cindy A. Thatcher, Amy C. Foxgrover, Patrick L. Barnard, John Brock, Adam Young
2016, Journal of Coastal Research 162-173
Seacliff erosion is a serious hazard with implications for coastal management and is often estimated using successive hand-digitized cliff tops or bases (toe) to assess cliff retreat. Even if efforts are made to standardize manual digitizing and eliminate subjectivity, the delineation of cliffs is time-consuming and depends on the analyst's...
Water-level altitudes 2016 and water-level changes in the Chicot, Evangeline, and Jasper aquifers and compaction 1973–2015 in the Chicot and Evangeline aquifers, Houston-Galveston region, Texas
Mark C. Kasmarek, Jason K. Ramage, Michaela R. Johnson
2016, Scientific Investigations Map 3365
Most of the land-surface subsidence in the Houston-Galveston region, Texas, has occurred as a direct result of groundwater withdrawals for municipal supply, commercial and industrial use, and irrigation that depressured and dewatered the Chicot and Evangeline aquifers, thereby causing compaction of the aquifer sediments, mostly in the fine-grained silt and...
Geology and mineral resources of the North-Central Montana Sagebrush Focal Area: Chapter D in Mineral resources of the Sagebrush Focal Areas of Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming
Jeffrey L. Mauk, Michael L. Zientek, B. Carter Hearn Jr., Heather L. Parks, M. Christopher Jenkins, Eric D. Anderson, Mary Ellen Benson, Donald I. Bleiwas, Jacob DeAngelo, Paul Denning, Connie L. Dicken, Ronald M. Drake II, Gregory L. Fernette, Helen W. Folger, Stuart A. Giles, Jonathan M. G. Glen, Matthew Granitto, Jon E. Haacke, John D. Horton, Karen D. Kelley, Joyce A. Ober, Barnaby W. Rockwell, Carma A. San Juan, Elizabeth S. Sangine, Peter N. Schweitzer, Brian N. Shaffer, Steven M. Smith, Colin F. Williams, Douglas B. Yager
2016, Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5089-D
SummaryThe U.S. Department of the Interior has proposed to withdraw approximately 10 million acres of Federal lands from mineral entry (subject to valid existing rights) from 12 million acres of lands defined as Sagebrush Focal Areas (SFAs) in Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming (for further discussion on the lands...
Geology and mineral resources of the North-Central Idaho Sagebrush Focal Area: Chapter C in Mineral resources of the Sagebrush Focal Areas of Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming
Karen Lund, Lukas Zürcher, Albert H. Hofstra, Bradley S. Van Gosen, Mary Ellen Benson, Stephen E. Box, Eric D. Anderson, Donald I. Bleiwas, Jacob DeAngelo, Ronald M. Drake II, Gregory L. Fernette, Stuart A. Giles, Jonathan M. G. Glen, Jon E. Haacke, John D. Horton, David A. John, Gilpin R. Robinson Jr., Barnaby W. Rockwell, Carma A. San Juan, Brian N. Shaffer, Steven M. Smith, Colin F. Williams
2016, Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5089-C
SummaryThe U.S. Department of the Interior has proposed to withdraw approximately 10 million acres of Federal lands from mineral entry (subject to valid existing rights) from 12 million acres of lands defined as Sagebrush Focal Areas (SFAs) in Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming (for further discussion on the lands...
The effect of restored and native oxbows on hydraulic loads of nutrients and stream water quality
Stephen J. Kalkhoff, Laura E. Hubbard, Joseph P.Schubauer-Berigan
2016, Report
The use of oxbow wetlands has been identified as a potential strategy to reduce nutrient transport from agricultural drainage tiles to streams in Iowa. In 2013 and 2014, a study was conducted in north-central Iowa in a native oxbow in the Lyons Creek watershed and two restored oxbow wetlands in...
Fragmented patterns of flood change across the United States
Stacey A. Archfield, Robert M. Hirsch, A. Viglione, G. Blöschl
2016, Geophysical Research Letters (43) 10232-10239
Trends in the peak magnitude, frequency, duration, and volume of frequent floods (floods occurring at an average of two events per year relative to a base period) across the United States show large changes; however, few trends are found to be statistically significant. The multidimensional behavior of flood change across...
Bacterial community diversity of the deep-sea octocoral Paramuricea placomus
Christina A. Kellogg, Steve W. Ross, Sandra D. Brooke
2016, PeerJ (4)
Compared to tropical corals, much less is known about deep-sea coral biology and ecology. Although the microbial communities of some deep-sea corals have been described, this is the first study to characterize the bacterial community associated with the deep-sea octocoral, Paramuricea placomus. Samples from five colonies of P. placomus were...
Calcareous microfossil-based orbital cyclostratigraphy in the Arctic Ocean
Rachel Marzen, Lauren H. DeNinno, Thomas M. Cronin
2016, Quaternary Science Reviews (149) 109-121
Microfaunal and geochemical proxies from marine sediment records from central Arctic Ocean (CAO) submarine ridges suggest a close relationship over the last 550 thousand years (kyr) between orbital-scale climatic oscillations, sea-ice cover, marine biological productivity and other parameters. Multiple paleoclimate proxies record glacial to interglacial cycles. To understand the climate-cryosphere-productivity...
Seismic imaging beneath an InSAR anomaly in eastern Washington State: Shallow faulting associated with an earthquake swarm in a low-hazard area
William J. Stephenson, Jackson K. Odum, Charles W. Wicks Jr., Thomas L. Pratt, Richard J. Blakely
2016, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (106) 1461-1469
In 2001, a rare swarm of small, shallow earthquakes beneath the city of Spokane, Washington, caused ground shaking as well as audible booms over a five‐month period. Subsequent Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) data analysis revealed an area of surface uplift in the vicinity of the earthquake swarm. To investigate...
Geology, selected geophysics, and hydrogeology of the White River and parts of the Great Salt Lake Desert regional groundwater flow systems, Utah and Nevada
Peter D. Rowley, Gary L. Dixon, James M. Watrus, Andrews G. Burns, Edward A. Mankinen, Edwin H. McKee, Keith T. Pari, E. Bartlett Ekren, William G. Patrick
John B. Comer, Paul C. Inkenbrandt, K.A. Krahulec, Michael L. Pinnell, editor(s)
2016, Book chapter, Resources and Geo- logy of Utah's West Desert
The east-central Great Basin near the Utah-Nevada border contains two great groundwater flow systems. The first, the White River regional groundwater flow system, consists of a string of hydraulically connected hydrographic basins in Nevada spanning about 270 miles from north to south. The northernmost basin is Long Valley...
Preliminary geologic mapping of Cretaceous and Tertiary formations in the eastern part of the Little Snake River coal field, Carbon County, Wyoming
Jon E. Haacke, C. S. Venable Barclay, Robert D. Hettinger
2016, Open-File Report 2016-1170
In the 1970s and 1980s, C.S. Venable Barclay conducted geologic mapping of areas primarily underlain by Cretaceous coals in the eastern part of the Little Snake River coal field (LSR) in Carbon County, southwest Wyoming. With some exceptions, most of the mapping data were never published. Subsequently, after his retirement...
Geologic structure of the Yucaipa area inferred from gravity data, San Bernardino and Riverside Counties, California
Gregory O. Mendez, Victoria E. Langenheim, Andrew Morita, Wesley R. Danskin
2016, Open-File Report 2016-1127
In the spring of 2009, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District, began working on a gravity survey in the Yucaipa area to explore the three-dimensional shape of the sedimentary fill (alluvial deposits) and the surface of the underlying crystalline basement rocks....
Demographic mechanisms underpinning genetic assimilation of remnant groups of a large carnivore
Nathaniel Mikle, Tabitha A. Graves, Ryan P. Kovach, Katherine C. Kendall, Amy C. Macleod
2016, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (283)
Current range expansions of large terrestrial carnivores are occurring following human-induced range contraction. Contractions are often incomplete, leaving small remnant groups in refugia throughout the former range. Little is known about the underlying ecological and evolutionary processes that influence how remnant groups are affected during range expansion. We used data...
Geoelectric hazard maps for the continental United States
Jeffrey J. Love, Antti Pulkkinen, Paul A. Bedrosian, Seth Jonas, Anna Kelbert, Erin (Josh) Rigler, Carol Finn, Christopher Balch, Robert Rutledge, Richard Waggel, Andrew Sabata, Janet Kozyra, Carrie Black
2016, Geophysical Research Letters (43) 9415-9424
In support of a multiagency project for assessing induction hazards, we present maps of extreme-value geoelectric amplitudes over about half of the continental United States. These maps are constructed using a parameterization of induction: estimates of Earth surface impedance, obtained at discrete geographic sites from magnetotelluric survey data, are convolved...
Aquatic biological communities and associated habitats at selected sites in the Big Wood River Watershed, south-central Idaho, 2014
Dorene E. MacCoy, Terry M. Short
2016, Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5128
Assessments of streamflow (discharge) parameters, water quality, physical habitat, and biological communities were completed between May and September 2014 as part of a monitoring program in the Big Wood River watershed of south-central Idaho. The sampling was conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with Blaine County, Trout Unlimited,...
