Deserts
Jayne Belnap, Robert H. Webb, Todd Esque, Matthew L. Brooks, Lesley A. DeFalco, James A. MacMahon
2016, Book chapter, Ecosystems of California
The deserts of California (Lead photo, Fig. 1) occupy approximately 38% of California’s landscape (Table 1) and consist of three distinct deserts: the Great Basin Desert, Mojave Desert, and Colorado Desert, the latter of which is a subdivision of the Sonoran Desert (Brown and Lowe 1980). The wide range of...
Assessing the potential for rainbow trout reproduction in tributaries of the Mountain Fork River below Broken Bow Dam, southeastern Oklahoma
James M. Long, Trevor A. Starks, Tyler Farling, Robert Bastarache
2016, e-Research Paper SRS–58
Stocked trout (Salmonidae) in reservoir tailwater systems in the Southern United States have been shown to use tributary streams for spawning and rearing. The lower Mountain Fork of the Little River below Broken Bow Dam is one of two year-round tailwater trout fisheries in Oklahoma, and the only one with...
Fledgling survival increases with development time and adult survival across north and south temperate zones
Penn Lloyd, Thomas E. Martin
2016, Ibis (158) 135-143
Slow life histories are characterized by high adult survival and few offspring, which are thought to allow increased investment per offspring to increase juvenile survival. Consistent with this pattern, south temperate zone birds are commonly longer-lived and have fewer young than north temperate zone species. However, comparative analyses of juvenile...
The leatherback turtle: Biology and conservation
Raymond R. Carthy
2016, Herpetological Review (47) 703-705
No abstract available....
Geologic and geophysical maps and volcanic history of the Kelton Pass SE and Monument Peak SW Quadrangles, Box Elder County, Utah
Tracey J. Felger, David M. Miller, Victoria E. Langenheim, Robert J. Fleck
2016, Miscellaneous Publication 16-1DM
The Kelton Pass SE and Monument Peak SW 7.5' quadrangles are located in Box Elder County, northwestern Utah (figure 1; plate 1). The northern boundary of the map area is 8.5 miles (13.7 km) south of the Utah-Idaho border, and the southern boundary reaches the edge of mud flats at...
Drivers of Caribbean freshwater ecosystems and fisheries
Thomas J. Kwak, Augustin C. Engman, Jesse R. Fischer, Craig G. Lilyestrom
2016, Book chapter, Freshwater, fish and the future: Proceedings of the Global Cross-Sectoral Conference
No abstract available....
Significance of beating observed in earthquake responses of buildings
Mehmet Çelebi, S. F. Ghahari, E. Taciroglu
2016, Conference Paper, 16th U.S.-Japan-New Zealand Workshop on the Improvement of Structural Engineering and Resiliency
The beating phenomenon observed in the recorded responses of a tall building in Japan and another in the U.S. are examined in this paper. Beating is a periodic vibrational behavior caused by distinctive coupling between translational and torsional modes that typically have close frequencies. Beating is prominent in the prolonged...
Site effects in Port-au-Prince (Haiti) from the analysis of spectral ratio and numerical simulations.
Sadrac St. Fleur, Etienne Bertrand, Francoise Courboulex, Bernard Mercier de Lepinay, Anne Deschamps, Susan E. Hough, Giovanna Cultrera, Dominique Boisson, Claude Prepetit
2016, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (106) 1298-1315
To provide better insight into seismic ground motion in the Port‐au‐Prince metropolitan area, we investigate site effects at 12 seismological stations by analyzing 78 earthquakes with magnitude smaller than 5 that occurred between 2010 and 2013. Horizontal‐to‐vertical spectral ratio on earthquake recordings and a standard spectral ratio were applied to...
Potentially induced earthquakes during the early twentieth century in the Los Angeles Basin
Susan E. Hough, Morgan T. Page
2016, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (106) 2419-2435
Recent studies have presented evidence that early to mid‐twentieth‐century earthquakes in Oklahoma and Texas were likely induced by fossil fuel production and/or injection of wastewater (Hough and Page, 2015; Frohlich et al., 2016). Considering seismicity from 1935 onward, Hauksson et al. (2015) concluded that there is no evidence for significant induced activity...
Upper bound of pier scour in laboratory and field data
Stephen Benedict, Andral W. Caldwell
2016, Transportation Research Record (2588) 145-153
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the South Carolina Department of Transportation, conducted several field investigations of pier scour in South Carolina and used the data to develop envelope curves defining the upper bound of pier scour. To expand on this previous work, an additional cooperative investigation was...
Deathcore, creativity, and scientific thinking
David G. Angeler, Shana M. Sundstrom, Craig R. Allen
2016, Research Ideas and Outcomes (2) 1-6
BackgroundMajor scientific breakthroughs are generally the result of materializing creative ideas, the result of an inductive process that sometimes spontaneously and unexpectedly generates a link between thoughts and/or objects that did not exist before. Creativity is the cornerstone of scientific thinking, but scientists in academia are...
Structural geometry of the Valley and Ridge and Plateaus provinces
Mark A. Evans, Randall C. Orndorff, William S. Henika
2016, Book chapter, The geology of Virginia (Virginia Museum of Natural History Special Publication 18)
The Valley and Ridge physiographic province comprises the area between the Blue Ridge province on the east and the Appalachian Plateau province on the west. The province consists of Paleozoic carbonate and clastic rocks that were folded and thrust faulted during the Alleghanian orogeny. The Appalachian Plateau province consists of mostly flat lying to gently...
The concept of stress in fish
Carl B. Schreck, Lluis Tort
2016, Fish Physiology (35) 1-34
The general physiological response of fish to threatening situations, as with all vertebrates, is referred to as stress. A stress response is initiated almost immediately following the perception of a stressor. Mildly stressful situations can have beneficial or positive effects (eustress), while higher severities induce <a...
The role of science through a century of elk and habitat management at Rocky Mountain National Park
Therese L. Johnson, Linda Zeigenfuss, N. Thompson Hobbs, John A. Mack
2016, Park Science (32) 70-72
Over the past century elk (Cervus elaphus) management in Rocky Mountain National Park has evolved along with NPS policy, social values, and an improved understanding of the role of elk in the ecosystem. Science has played an important part in shaping management approaches through the application of monitoring and research (Monello...
Recent and possible future variations in the North American Monsoon
Andrew Hoell, Chris Funk, Mathew Barlow, Shraddhanand Shukla
2016, Book chapter, The monsoons and climate change
The dynamics and recent and possible future changes of the June–September rainfall associated with the North American Monsoon (NAM) are reviewed in this chapter. Our analysis as well as previous analyses of the trend in June–September precipitation from 1948 until 2010 indicate significant precipitation increases over New Mexico and the...
Resilience
Craig R. Allen, Ahjond S. Garmestani, David G. Angeler
2016, Book chapter, Oxford Bibliographies in Environmental Science
No abstract available....
A GIS model of habitat suitability for Solanum conocarpum (Solanaceae) in St. John, US Virgin Islands
Matthew D. Palumbo, Jonathan P. Fleming, Omar A. Monsegur, Francisco Vilella
2016, Caribbean Naturalist (36) 1-10
Solanum conocarpum (Solanaceae) (Marron Bacora) is a rare, dry-forest shrub endemic to the island of St. John, US Virgin Islands, considered for listing under the Endangered Species Act. Given its status as a species of conservation concern, we incorporated environmental characteristics of 3 observed populations and 5 additional known locations...
Trophic overlap between native and invasive stream crayfish
Daniel D. Magoulick, Glenn L. Piercey
2016, Hydrobiologia (766) 237-246
We examined trophic dynamics of a stream food web where invasive Orconectes neglectus appear to be displacing native O. eupunctus in the Spring River drainage of the Ozark Highlands, Missouri and Arkansas, USA. We collected crayfish species and possible food sources seasonally from a site of sympatry on the South Fork Spring River. We...
Subsidence induced by underground extraction
Devin L. Galloway
2016, Book chapter, Encyclopedia of Natural Hazards
Subsidence induced by underground extraction is a class of human-induced (anthropogenic) land subsidence that principally is caused by the withdrawal of subsurface fluids (groundwater, oil, and gas) or by the underground mining of coal and other minerals....
San Pedro River Aquifer Binational Report
James B. Callegary, Ismael Minjarez Sosa, Elia Maria Tapia Villasenor, Placido dos Santos, Rogelio Monreal Saavedra, Franciso Javier Grijalva Noriega, A. K. Huth, Floyd Gray, C. A. Scott, Sharon Megdal, L. A. Oroz Ramos, Miguel Rangel Medina, James M. Leenhouts
2016, Report
The United States and Mexico share waters in a number of hydrological basins and aquifers that cross the international boundary. Both countries recognize that, in a region of scarce water resources and expanding populations, a greater scientific understanding of these aquifer systems would be beneficial. In light of this, the...
State-and-transition models: Conceptual versus simulation perspectives, usefulness and breadth of use, and land management applications
Louis Provencher, Leonardo Frid, Christina Czembor, Jeffrey T. Morisette
2016, Book chapter, Exotic brome-grasses in arid and semiarid ecosystems of the western US
State-and-Transition Simulation Modeling (STSM) is a quantitative analysis method that can consolidate a wide array of resource management issues under a “what-if” scenario exercise. STSM can be seen as an ensemble of models, such as climate models, ecological models, and economic models that incorporate human dimensions and management options. This...
Acoustic doppler velocimeter backscatter for quantification of suspended sediment concentration in South San Francisco Bay
Mehmet Ozturk, Paul A. Work
2016, Conference Paper, Coastal engineering proceedings
A data set was acquired on a shallow mudflat in south San Francisco Bay that featured simultaneous, co-located optical and acoustic sensors for subsequent estimation of suspended sediment concentrations (SSC). The optical turbidity sensor output was converted to SSC via an empirical relation derived at a nearby site using bottle...
Testing and use of radar water level sensors by the U.S. Geological Survey
Janice M. Fulford
2016, Report, Manual on sea level: Measurement and interpretation Volume V: Radar gauges
The United States Geological Survey uses water-level (or stage) measurements to compute streamflow at over 8000 stream gaging stations located throughout the United States (waterwatch.usgs.gov, 2016). Streamflow (or discharge) is computed at five minute to hourly intervals from a relationship between water level and discharge that is uniquely determined for...
Brackish marsh zones as a waterfowl habitat resource in submerged aquatic vegetation beds in the northern Gulf of Mexico
Kristin DeMarco, Eva R. Hillmann, Michael G. Brasher, Megan K. LaPeyre
2016, Journal of the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (3) 261-269
Submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) beds are shallow coastal habitats that are increasingly exposed to the effects of sea-level rise (SLR). In the northern Gulf of Mexico (nGoM), an area especially vulnerable to SLR, the abundance and distribution of SAV food resources (seeds, rhizomes, and tissue) can influence the carrying...
Upper bound of abutment scour in laboratory and field data
Stephen Benedict
2016, Transportation Research Record (2588) 154-162
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the South Carolina Department of Transportation, conducted a field investigation of abutment scour in South Carolina and used those data to develop envelope curves that define the upper bound of abutment scour. To expand on this previous work, an additional cooperative investigation was...
