Time-slice maps showing age, distribution, and style of deformation in Alaska north of 60° N.
Thomas E. Moore, Stephen E. Box
2016, Open-File Report 2016-1138
The structural architecture of Alaska is the product of a complex history of tectonism that occurred along the Cordilleran and Arctic margins of North America through interactions with ancient and modern ocean plates and with continental elements derived from Laurentia, Siberia, and Baltica. To unravel the tectonic history of Alaska,...
Sediment oxygen demand in eastern Kansas streams, 2014 and 2015
Guy M. Foster, Lindsey R. King, Jennifer L. Graham
2016, Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5113
Dissolved oxygen concentrations in streams are affected by physical, chemical, and biological factors in the water column and streambed, and are an important factor for the survival of aquatic organisms. Sediment oxygen demand (SOD) rates in Kansas streams are not well understood. During 2014 and 2015, the U.S. Geological Survey,...
Seasonal variation exceeds effects of salmon carcass additions on benthic food webs in the Elwha River
S.A. Morley, H.J. Coe, J.J. Duda, L.S. Dunphy, M.L. McHenry, B.R. Beckman, M. Elofson, E. M. Sampson, L. Ward
2016, Ecosphere (7) article e01422
Dam removal and other fish barrier removal projects in western North America are assumed to boost freshwater productivity via the transport of marine-derived nutrients from recolonizing Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.). In anticipation of the removal of two hydroelectric dams on the Elwha River in Washington State, we tested this hypothesis...
Chesapeake Bay fish–osprey (Pandion haliaetus) food chain: Evaluation of contaminant exposure and genetic damage
Rebecca S. Lazarus, Barnett A. Rattner, Peter C. McGowan, Robert C. Hale, Natalie K. Karouna-Reiner, Richard A. Erickson, Mary Ann Ottinger
2016, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (35) 1560-1575
From 2011 to 2013, a large-scale ecotoxicological study was conducted in several Chesapeake Bay (USA) tributaries (Susquehanna River and flats, the Back, Baltimore Harbor/Patapsco Rivers, Anacostia/ middle Potomac, Elizabeth and James Rivers) and Poplar Island as a mid-Bay reference site. Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) diet and the transfer of contaminants from...
Northwest Boreal Landscape Conservation Cooperative strategic plan 2015 - 2025
Carl Markon, Eric Schroff
2016, Report
The Northwest Boreal Landscape Conservation Cooperative (NWB LCC) is a voluntary, diverse, self-directed management-science partnership, informing and promoting integrated science, sustainable natural and cultural resource management, and conservation to address impacts of climate change and other stressors within and across ecosystems. The NWB LCC area includes parts of Alaska, Yukon,...
Behavior patterns and fates of adult steelhead, Chinook salmon, and coho salmon released into the upper Cowlitz River Basin, 2005–09 and 2012, Washington
Tobias J. Kock, Brian K. Ekstrom, Theresa L. Liedtke, John D. Serl, Mike Kohn
2016, Open-File Report 2016-1144
A multiyear radiotelemetry evaluation was conducted to monitor adult steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss), Chinook salmon (O. tshawytscha), and coho salmon (O. kisutch) behavior and movement patterns in the upper Cowlitz River Basin. Volitional passage to this area was eliminated by dam construction in the mid-1960s, and a reintroduction program began...
Centimeter-scale surface deformation caused by the 2011 Mineral, Virginia, earthquake sequence at the Carter farm site—Subsidiary structures with a quaternary history
Richard W. Harrison, J. Stephen Schindler, Milan J. Pavich, J. Wright Horton Jr., Mark W. Carter
2016, Open-File Report 2016-1134
Centimeter-scale ground-surface deformation was produced by the August 23, 2011, magnitude (M) 5.8 earthquake that occurred in Mineral, Virginia. Ground-surface deformation also resulted from the earthquake aftershock sequence. This deformation occurred along a linear northeast-trend near Pendleton, Virginia. It is approximately 10 kilometers (km) northeast of the M5.8 epicenter and...
Water-surface elevation and discharge measurement data for the Red River of the North and its tributaries near Fargo, North Dakota, water years 2014–15
William C. Damschen, Joel M. Galloway
2016, Open-File Report 2016-1139
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Fargo Diversion Board of Authority, collected water-surface elevations during a range of discharges needed for calibration of hydrologic and hydraulic models for specific reaches of interest in water years 2014–15. These water-surface elevation and discharge measurement data were collected for design planning...
Precipitation changes in the western tropical Pacific over the past millennium
Julie N. Richey, Julian P. Sachs
2016, Geology (8) 671-674
Modern seasonal and inter-annual precipitation variability in Palau is linked to both meridional movement of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and changes in the Pacific Walker Circula- tion (PWC) associated with the El Niño–Southern Oscillation. Thus, Palau’s hydroclimate should be sensitive to mean shifts in the ITCZ and PWC on decadal...
Patchiness in a large floodplain river: Associations among hydrology, nutrients, and fish communities
Nathan R. De Jager, Jeffrey N. Houser
2016, River Research and Applications (32) 1915-1926
Large floodplain rivers have internal structures shaped by directions and rates of water movement. In a previous study, we showed that spatial variation in local current velocities and degrees of hydrological exchange creates a patch-work mosaic of nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations and ratios in the Upper Mississippi River. Here, we...
Reservoirs and water management influence fish mercury concentrations in the western United States and Canada
James J. Willacker, Collin A. Eagles-Smith, Michelle A. Lutz, Michael T. Tate, Jesse M. Lepak, Joshua T. Ackerman
2016, Science of the Total Environment (568) 739-748
Anthropogenic manipulation of aquatic habitats can profoundly alter mercury (Hg) cycling and bioaccumulation. The impoundment of fluvial systems is among the most common habitat manipulations and is known to increase fish Hg concentrations immediately following impoundment. However, it is not well understood how Hg concentrations differ between reservoirs and lakes...
Decomposition drives convergence of forest litter nutrient stoichiometry following phosphorus addition
Tiff L. van Huysen, Steven S. Perakis, Mark E. Harmon
2016, Plant and Soil (406) 1-14
Background and aims Nutrient levels in decomposing detritus and soil can influence decomposition rates and detrital nutrient dynamics in differing ways among various detrital components of forests. We assessed whether increased phosphorus (P) levels in litter and soil influenced decomposition rates and litter nutrient dynamics of...
Evaluation of a method for quantifying eugenol concentrations in the fillet tissue from freshwater fish species
Jeffery R. Meinertz, Theresa M. Schreier, Scott T. Porcher, Justin R. Smerud
2016, Journal of AOAC International (99) 558-564
AQUI-S 20E® (active ingredient, eugenol; AQUI-S New Zealand Ltd, Lower Hutt, New Zealand) is being pursued for approval as an immediate-release sedative in the United States. A validated method to quantify the primary residue (the marker residue) in fillet tissue from AQUI-S 20E–exposed fish was needed. A method was evaluated for...
Rapid estimation of earthquake magnitude from the arrival time of the peak high-frequency amplitude
Shunta Noda, Shunroku Yamamoto, William L. Ellsworth
2016, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (106) 232-241
We propose a simple approach to measure earthquake magnitude M using the time difference (Top) between the body‐wave onset and the arrival time of the peak high‐frequency amplitude in an accelerogram. Measured in this manner, we find that Mw is proportional to 2logTop for earthquakes 5≤Mw≤7, which is the theoretical proportionality if Top is proportional to source...
The Earthquake‐Source Inversion Validation (SIV) Project
P. Martin Mai, Danijel Schorlemmer, Morgan T. Page, Jean-Paul Ampuero, Kimiyuki Asano, Mathieu Causse, Susana Custodio, Wenyuan Fan, Gaetano Festa, Martin Galis, Frantisek Gallovic, Walter Imperatori, Martin Kaser, Dmytro Malytskyy, Ryo Okuwaki, Frederick Pollitz, Luca Passone, Hoby N. T. Razafindrakoto, Haruko Sekiguchi, Seok Goo Song, Surendra N. Somala, Kiran K. S. Thingbaijam, Cedric Twardzik, Martin van Driel, Jagdish C. Vyas, Rongjiang Wang, Yuji Yagi, Olaf Zielke
2016, Seismological Research Letters (87) 690-708
Finite‐fault earthquake source inversions infer the (time‐dependent) displacement on the rupture surface from geophysical data. The resulting earthquake source models document the complexity of the rupture process. However, multiple source models for the same earthquake, obtained by different research teams, often exhibit...
NHDPlusHR: A national geospatial framework for surface-water information
Roland J. Viger, Alan H. Rea, Jeffrey D. Simley, Karen M. Hanson
2016, JAWRA (52) 901-905
The U.S. Geological Survey is developing a new geospatial hydrographic framework for the United States, called the National Hydrography Dataset Plus High Resolution (NHDPlusHR), that integrates a diversity of the best-available information, robustly supports ongoing dataset improvements, enables hydrographic generalization to derive alternate representations of the network while maintaining feature...
StreamThermal: A software package for calculating thermal metrics from stream temperature data
Yin-Phan Tsang, Dana M. Infante, Jana S. Stewart, Lizhu Wang, Ralph Tingly, Darren Thornbrugh, Arthur Cooper, Daniel Wesley
2016, Fisheries (41) 548-554
Improving quality and better availability of continuous stream temperature data allows natural resource managers, particularly in fisheries, to understand associations between different characteristics of stream thermal regimes and stream fishes. However, there is no convenient tool to efficiently characterize multiple metrics reflecting stream thermal regimes with the increasing amount...
Transboundary fisheries science: Meeting the challenges of inland fisheries management in the 21st century
Stephen R. Midway, Tyler Wagner, Joseph D. Zydlewski, Brian J. Irwin, Craig P. Paukert
2016, Fisheries (41) 536-546
Managing inland fisheries in the 21st century presents several obstacles, including the need to view fisheries from multiple spatial and temporal scales, which usually involves populations and resources spanning sociopolitical boundaries. Though collaboration is not new to fisheries science, inland aquatic systems have historically been managed at local scales and...
Urban planners and urban geographers turn to Landsat for answers
U.S. Geological Survey
2016, Fact Sheet 2016-3056
Government organizations that manage and mitigate the continued growth of cities are looking increasingly to the sky for assistance....
Landsat plays a key role in reducing hunger on earth
U.S. Geological Survey
2016, Fact Sheet 2016-3059
The United Nations’ Department of Economic and Social Affairs predicts 9.7 billion people will sit down every day to the global dinner table by 2050. If this prediction is correct, the world is going to need more crops, more livestock, and more efficient and sustainable agricultural practices....
Landsat helps bolster food security
U.S. Geological Survey
2016, Fact Sheet 2016-3060
One of the cruelest, most complex narratives in the world today (2019) is written in the hunger of sub-Saharan Africa. When famine is the only yield from the scorched Earth, survival often depends on a heart-rending calculation—how far is the distant feeding center and how close is the nearest well?...
Landsat brings understanding to the impact of industrialization
U.S. Geological Survey
2016, Fact Sheet 2016-3054
In his 1963 book, “The Quiet Crisis,” former Interior Secretary Stewart Udall lamented what he called the decline of natural resources in the United States under the advancements of industrialization and urbanization....
Sedimentation survey of Lago Lucchetti, Yauco, Puerto Rico, September 2013–May 2014
Julieta Gómez-Fragoso
2016, Scientific Investigations Map 3364
The U.S. Geological Survey conducted a sedimentation survey of Lago Lucchetti, Yauco, Puerto Rico, in 2013–14 in cooperation with the Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority. The survey updated a previous survey, conducted in 2000, and provided accurate information regarding reservoir storage capacity and sedimentation rate using bathymetric techniques and...
Simulation of climate change effects on streamflow, groundwater, and stream temperature using GSFLOW and SNTEMP in the Black Earth Creek Watershed, Wisconsin
Randall J. Hunt, Stephen M. Westenbroek, John F. Walker, William R. Selbig, R. Steven Regan, Andrew T. Leaf, David A. Saad
2016, Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5091
A groundwater/surface-water model was constructed and calibrated for the Black Earth Creek watershed in south-central Wisconsin. The model was then run to simulate scenarios representing common societal concerns in the basin, focusing on maintaining a cold-water resource in an urbanizing fringe near its upper stream reaches and minimizing downstream flooding....
The Eastern California Shear Zone as the northward extension of the southern San Andreas Fault
Wayne R. Thatcher, James C. Savage, Robert W. Simpson
2016, Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth (121) 2904-2914
Cluster analysis offers an agnostic way to organize and explore features of the current GPS velocity field without reference to geologic information or physical models using information only contained in the velocity field itself. We have used cluster analysis of the Southern California Global Positioning System (GPS) velocity field to...
