Groundwater regulation and integrated planning
Philippe Quevauviller, Okke Batelaan, Randall J. Hunt
2016, Book chapter
The complex nature of groundwater and the diversity of uses and environmental interactions call for emerging groundwater problems to be addressed through integrated management and planning approaches. Planning requires different levels of integration dealing with: the hydrologic cycle (the physical process) including the temporal dimension; river basins and aquifers (spatial...
Synthesis of juvenile lamprey migration and passage research and monitoring at Columbia and Snake River Dams
Matthew G. Mesa, Lisa K. Weiland, Helena E. Christiansen
2016, Report
We compiled and summarized previous sources of data and research results related to the presence, numbers, and migration timing characteristics of juvenile (eyed macropthalmia) and larval (ammocoetes) Pacific lamprey Entosphenus tridentatus, in the Columbia River basin (CRB). Included were data from various screw trap collections, data from historic fyke net...
Ecohydrology and Its Relation to Integrated Groundwater Management
Randall J. Hunt, Masaki Hayashi, Okke Batelaan
2016, Book chapter, Integrated Groundwater Management
In the twentieth century, groundwater characterization focused primarily on easily measured hydraulic metrics of water storage and flows. Twenty-first century concepts of groundwater availability, however, encompass other factors having societal value, such as ecological well-being. Effective ecohydrological science is a nexus of fundamental understanding derived from two scientific disciplines: (1)...
Field and laboratory determination of water-surface elevation and velocity using noncontact measurements
Jonathan M. Nelson, Paul J. Kinzel, Mark Walter Schmeeckle, Richard R. McDonald, Justin T. Minear
2016, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the 20th Congress of the Asia Pacific Division of the International Association for Hydro Environment Engineering & Research
Noncontact methods for measuring water-surface elevation and velocity in laboratory flumes and rivers are presented with examples. Water-surface elevations are measured using an array of acoustic transducers in the laboratory and using laser scanning in field situations. Water-surface velocities are based on using particle image velocimetry or other machine vision...
Application of an extreme winter storm scenario to identify vulnerabilities, mitigation options, and science needs in the Sierra Nevada mountains, USA
Christine M. Albano, Michael D. Dettinger, Maureen McCarthy, Kevin D. Schaller, Toby Wellborn, Dale A. Cox
2016, Natural Hazards (80) 879-900
In the Sierra Nevada mountains (USA), and geographically similar areas across the globe where human development is expanding, extreme winter storm and flood risks are expected to increase with changing climate, heightening the need for communities to assess risks and better prepare for such events. In this case study, we...
Geologic context of large karst springs and caves in the Ozark National Scenic Riverways, Missouri
David J. Weary, Randall C. Orndorff
2016, Conference Paper
The ONSR is a karst park, containing many springs and caves. The “jewels” of the park are large springs, several of first magnitude, that contribute significantly to the flow and water quality of the Current River and its tributaries. Completion of 1:24,000-scale geologic mapping of the park and surrounding river...
Loamy, two-storied soils on the outwash plains of southwestern lower Michigan: Pedoturbation of loess with the underlying sand
Michael D. Luehmann, Brad G. Peter, Christopher B. Connallon, Randall J. Schaetzl, Samuel J. Smidt, Wei Liu, Kevin A. Kincare, Toni A. Walkowiak, Elin Thorlund, Marie S. Holler
2016, Annals of the American Association of Geographers (106) 551-572
Soils on many of the outwash plains in southwestern Michigan have loamy upper profiles, despite being underlain by sand-textured outwash. The origin of this upper, loamy material has long been unknown. The purpose of this study is to analyze the spatio-textural characteristics of these loamy-textured sediments to ascertain their origin(s)....
Estimating abundance: Chapter 27
J. Andrew Royle
2016, Book chapter, Reptile ecology and conservation: A handbook of techniques
This chapter provides a non-technical overview of ‘closed population capture–recapture’ models, a class of well-established models that are widely applied in ecology, such as removal sampling, covariate models, and distance sampling. These methods are regularly adopted for studies of reptiles, in order to estimate abundance from counts of marked individuals...
Decision analysis for habitat conservation of an endangered, range-limited salamander
Orin J. Robinson, Conor P. McGowan, J.J. Apodaca
2016, Animal Conservation (19) 561-569
Many species of conservation concern are habitat limited and often a major focus of management for these species is habitat acquisition and/or restoration. Deciding the location of habitat restoration or acquisition to best benefit a protected species can be a complicated subject with competing management objectives, ecological uncertainties and stochasticity....
Physical condition and stress levels during early development reflect feeding rates and predict pre- and post-fledging survival in a nearshore seabird
Juliet S. Lamb, Kathleen M. O’Reilly, Patrick G.R. Jodice
2016, Conservation Physiology (4)
The effects of acute environmental stressors on reproduction in wildlife are often difficult to measure because of the labour and disturbance involved in collecting accurate reproductive data. Stress hormones represent a promising option for assessing the effects of environmental perturbations on altricial young; however, it is necessary first to establish...
Rare earth element deposits in China
Yu-Ling Xie, Zeng-qian Hou, Richard J. Goldfarb, Xiang Guo, Lei Wang
2016, Book chapter, Reviews in Economic Geology
China is the world’s leading rare earth element (REE) producer and hosts a variety of deposit types. Carbonatite- related REE deposits, the most significant deposit type, include two giant deposits presently being mined in China, Bayan Obo and Maoniuping, the first and third largest deposits of this type in the...
Simulating regional groundwater flow in the vicinity of the Nevada National Security Site, Nye County, Nevada
Wayne Belcher, Donald S. Sweetkind, Claudia C. Faunt
2016, Conference Paper, Waste Management 2016 (WM2016) Online Proceedings Paper 16104
No abstract available....
The potential carbon benefit of reforesting Hawai‘i Island non-native grasslands with endemic Acacia koa trees
Paul C. Selmants, Benjamin M. Sleeter, Nicholas Koch, James B. Friday
Rebekah Dickens Ohara, James B. Friday, editor(s)
2016, Conference Paper, Acacia koa in Hawaiʻi: Facing the future: 2016 Koa symposium proceedings
Large areas of forest in the tropics have been cleared and converted to pastureland. Hawai‘i Island is no exception, with over 100,000 ha of historically forested land now dominated by non-native grasses. Passive forest restoration has been unsuccessful because these grasslands tend to persist even after grazers have been removed,...
Early Mesozoic geology in Virginia
Joseph P. Smoot
Christopher M. Bailey, W. Cullen Sherwood, L. Scott Eaton, David S. Powars, editor(s)
2016, Book chapter, The geology of Virginia (Virginia Museum of Natural History Special Publication 18)
No abstract available....
Does the stress-gradient hypothesis hold water? Disentangling spatial and temporal variation in plant effects on soil moisture in dryland systems
Bradley J. Butterfield, John B. Bradford, Cristina Armas, Ivan Prieto, Francisco I. Pugnaire
2016, Functional Ecology (30) 10-19
The nature of the relationship between water limitation and facilitation has been one of the most contentious debates surrounding the stress-gradient hypothesis (SGH), which states that plant-plant interactions shift from competition to facilitation with increasing environmental stress. We take a closer look at the potential role of soil...
Rating curve uncertainty: A comparison of estimation methods
Mason Jr., Julie E. Kiang, Timothy A. Cohn
George Constantinescu, Marcelo H. Garcia, Dan Hanes, editor(s)
2016, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the international conference on fluvial hydraulics (river flow 2016)
The USGS is engaged in both internal development and collaborative efforts to evaluate existing methods for characterizing the uncertainty of streamflow measurements (gaugings), stage-discharge relations (ratings), and, ultimately, the streamflow records derived from them. This paper provides a brief overview of two candidate methods that may be used to characterize...
By-products of porphyry copper and molybdenum deposits
David A. John, Ryan D. Taylor
Philip L. Verplanck, Murray W. Hitzman, editor(s)
2016, Book chapter, Rare earth and critical elements in ore deposits
Porphyry Cu and porphyry Mo deposits are large to giant deposits ranging up to >20 and 1.6 Gt of ore, respectively, that supply about 60 and 95% of the world’s copper and molybdenum, as well as significant amounts of gold and silver. These deposits form from hydrothermal systems that affect...
Fisheries research and monitoring activities of the Lake Erie Biological Station, 2015
Betsy L. Bodamer Scarbro, W.H. Edwards, Patrick M. Kocovsky, Richard T. Kraus, M. R. Rogers, A. L. Schoonyan, T. R. Stewart
2016, Report
In 2015, the U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) Lake Erie Biological Station (LEBS) successfully completed large vessel surveys in all three of Lake Erie’s basins. Lake Erie Biological Station’s primary vessel surveys included the Western Basin Forage Fish Assessment and East Harbor Fish Community Assessment as well as contributing to the...
Coral calcification and ocean acidification
Paul L. Jokiel, Christopher P. Jury, Ilsa B. Kuffner
2016, Book chapter, Coral reefs at the crossroads
Over 60 years ago, the discovery that light increased calcification in the coral plant-animal symbiosis triggered interest in explaining the phenomenon and understanding the mechanisms involved. Major findings along the way include the observation that carbon fixed by photosynthesis in the zooxanthellae is translocated to animal cells throughout the colony...
Comparative mitogenomic analyses of three North American stygobiont amphipods of the genus Stygobromus (Crustacea: Amphipoda)
Aaron W. Aunins, David L. Nelms, Christopher S. Hobson, Tim L. King
2016, Mitochondrial DNA Part B (1) 560-563
The mitochondrial genomes of three North American stygobiont amphipods Stygobromus tenuis potomacus, S. foliatus and S. indentatus collected from Caroline County, VA, were sequenced using a shotgun sequencing approach on an Illumina NextSeq500 (Illumina Inc., San Diego, CA). All three mitogenomes displayed 13 protein-coding genes, 22 tRNAs and two rRNAs typical of metazoans. While S. tenuis and S....
Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Programme coastal biodiversity monitoring background paper
Donald McLennan, Rebecca Anderson, S. Wegeberg, Maria Pettersvik Arvnes, Liudmila Sergienko, Carolina Behe, Pitseolak Moss-Davies, S. Fritz, Carl J. Markon, T. Christensen, T. Barry, C. Price
2016, Report
In 2014, the United States (U.S.) and Canada agreed to act as co-lead countries for the initial development of the Coastal Expert Monitoring Group (CEMG) as part of the Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program (CBMP, www. cbmp.is) under the Arctic Council’s Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF, www.caff.is) working group....
Tectonic tremor
David R. Shelly
2016, Book chapter, Encyclopedia of Natural Hazards
Tectonic, non-volcanic tremor is a weak vibration of ground, which cannot be felt by humans but can be detected by sensitive seismometers. It is defined empirically as a low-amplitude, extended duration seismic signal associated with the deep portion (∼20–40 km depth) of some major faults. It is typically observed most clearly...
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...
Seasonal electrical resistivity surveys of a coastal bluff, Barter Island, North Slope Alaska
Peter W. Swarzenski, Cordell Johnson, Thomas Lorenson, Christopher H. Conaway, Ann E. Gibbs, Li H. Erikson, Bruce M. Richmond, Mark P. Waldrop
2016, Journal of Environmental & Engineering Geophysics (21) 37-42
Select coastal regions of the North Slope of Alaska are experiencing high erosion rates that can be attributed in part to recent warming trends and associated increased storm intensity and frequency. The upper sediment column of the coastal North Slope of Alaska can be described as continuous permafrost underlying a...
Status and trends of land change in selected U.S. ecoregions - 2000 to 2011
Kristi L. Sayler, William Acevedo, Janis Taylor
2016, Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing (82) 687-697
U.S. Geological Survey scientists developed a dataset of 2006 and 2011 land-use and land-cover (LULC) information for selected 100-km2 sample blocks within 29 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Level III ecoregions across the conterminous United States. The data can be used with the previously published Land Cover Trends Dataset: 1973...
