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...
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...
In-air hearing of a diving duck: A comparison of psychoacoustic and auditory brainstem response thresholds
Sara E. Crowell, Alicia M. Wells-Berlin, Ronald E. Therrien, Sally E. Yannuzzi, Catherine E. Carr
2016, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (139) 3001-3008
Auditory sensitivity was measured in a species of diving duck that is not often kept in captivity, the lesser scaup. Behavioral (psychoacoustics) and electrophysiological [the auditory brainstem response (ABR)] methods were used to measure in-air auditory sensitivity, and the resulting audiograms were compared. Both approaches yielded audiograms with similar U-shapes...
Cascade Mountain Range in Oregon
David R. Sherrod
2016, Book chapter, The Oregon Encyclopedia
The Cascade mountain system extends from northern California to central British Columbia. In Oregon, it comprises the Cascade Range, which is 260 miles long and, at greatest breadth, 90 miles wide (fig. 1). Oregon’s Cascade Range covers roughly 17,000 square miles, or about 17 percent of the state, an...
Hematology results from experimental exposure of sandhill cranes to West Nile virus
Glenn H. Olsen
2016, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the North American Crane Workshop
West Nile virus is a deadly virus for young cranes. In testing two different vaccines on both adult sandhill cranes (Grus canadensis), we discovered that some blood parameters are altered by exposure to the virus. White blood cell counts were the most obvious, and may be used as an indicator...
Photoperiod and nesting phenology of whooping cranes at two captive sites
Glenn H. Olsen
2016, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the North American Crane Workshop
Increasing daylight is known to be a breeding stimulus in many avian species breeding in northern latitudes. This is thought to be true for cranes that breed in such latitudes including the Whooping Crane (Grus americana). For this reason, the captive breeding centers use artificial light to lengthen daylight hours,...
A tube seepage meter for in situ measurement of seepage rate and groundwater sampling
John E. Solder, Troy E. Gilmore, David P. Genereux, D. Kip Solomon
2016, Groundwater (54) 588-595
We designed and evaluated a “tube seepage meter” for point measurements of vertical seepage rates (q), collecting groundwater samples, and estimating vertical hydraulic conductivity (K) in streambeds. Laboratory testing in artificial streambeds show that seepage rates from the tube seepage meter agreed well with expected values. Results of field testing...
Status of alewife and rainbow smelt in U.S. waters of Lake Ontario, 2015
Maureen Walsh, Brian Weidel, Michael J. Connerton, Jeremy P. Holden
2016, NYSDEC Lake Ontario Annual Report 2015-12a
In 2015 the joint USGS and NYSDEC surveys for Alewife and Rainbow Smelt were combined for the first time into a comprehensive spring pelagic prey fish survey. The adult Alewife abundance and weight indices in 2015 increased slightly from 2014 levels, and adult Alewife abundance has remained relatively stable for...
Managed island ecosystems
Kathryn McEachern, Tanya Atwater, Paul W. Collins, Kate R. Faulkner, Daniel V. Richards
2016, Book chapter, Ecosystems of California
This long-anticipated reference and sourcebook for California’s remarkable ecological abundance provides an integrated assessment of each major ecosystem type—its distribution, structure, function, and management. A comprehensive synthesis of our knowledge about this biologically diverse state, Ecosystems of California covers the state from oceans to mountaintops using multiple lenses: past and...
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...
Hydropedology: Synergistic integration of soil science and hydrology in the Critical Zone
H.S. Lin, J.J. McDonnell, John R. Nimmo, Y. A. Pachepsky
2016, Hydrological Processes (29) 4559-4561
Soil and water are the two critical components of theEarth’s Critical Zone (Figure 1): Soil modulates the connection between bedrock and the atmospheric boundary layer and water is a major driving force and transport agent between these two zones....
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...
Fishes of the Mississippi River
Harold Schramm, Jay T. Hatch, Robert A. Hrabik, William T. Slack
2016, Book chapter, Fishery resources, environment, and conservation in the Mississippi and Yangtze (Changjiang) River Basins
No abstract available....
Status and trends of the Lake Huron offshore demersal fish community, 1976-2015
Edward F. Roseman, Margret Ann Chriscinske, Dana Kristina Castle, Carson G. Prichard
2016, Report, Compiled reports to the Great Lakes Fishery Commission of the annual bottom trawl and acoustics surveys, 2015
The USGS Great Lakes Science Center has conducted trawl surveys to assess annual changes in the offshore demersal fish community of Lake Huron since 1973. Sample sites include five ports in U.S. waters with less frequent sampling near Goderich, Ontario. The 2015 fall bottom trawl survey was carried out between...
Implications of the methodological choices for hydrologic portrayals of climate change over the contiguous United States: Statistically downscaled forcing data and hydrologic models
Naoki Mizukami, Martyn P. Clark, Ethan D. Gutmann, Pablo A. Mendoza, Andrew J. Newman, Bart Nijssen, Ben Livneh, Lauren E. Hay, Jeffrey R. Arnold, Levi D. Brekke
2016, Journal of Hydrometeorology (17) 75-98
Continental-domain assessments of climate change impacts on water resources typically rely on statistically downscaled climate model outputs to force hydrologic models at a finer spatial resolution. This study examines the effects of four statistical downscaling methods [bias-corrected constructed analog (BCCA), bias-corrected spatial disaggregation applied at daily (BCSDd) and monthly scales...
Coupling centennial-scale shoreline change to sea-level rise and coastal morphology in the Gulf of Mexico using a Bayesian network
Nathaniel G. Plant
2016, Earth's Future (4)
Predictions of coastal evolution driven by episodic and persistent processes associated with storms and relative sea-level rise (SLR) are required to test our understanding, evaluate our predictive capability, and to provide guidance for coastal management decisions. Previous work demonstrated that the spatial variability of long-term shoreline change can be predicted...
Kriging and local polynomial methods for blending satellite-derived and gauge precipitation estimates to support hydrologic early warning systems
Andrew Verdin, Christopher C. Funk, Balaji Rajagopalan, William Kleiber
2016, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing (54) 2552-2562
Robust estimates of precipitation in space and time are important for efficient natural resource management and for mitigating natural hazards. This is particularly true in regions with developing infrastructure and regions that are frequently exposed to extreme events. Gauge observations of rainfall are sparse but capture the precipitation process with...
Soil phosphorus cycling in tropical soils: An ultisol and oxisol perspective
Sasha C. Reed, Tana E. Wood
2016, Book chapter, Soil phosphorus
Phosphorus (P) is essential for life. It is the backbone of our DNA, provides energy for biological reactions, and is an integral component of cell membranes. As such, it is no surprise that P availability plays a strong role in regulating ecosystem structure and function (Wassen et al. 2005, Elser...
Influence of basin- and local-scale environmental conditions on nearshore production in the northeast Pacific Ocean
Vanessa R. von Biela, Christian E. Zimmerman, Gordon H. Kruse, Franz J. Mueter, Bryan A. Black, David C. Douglas, James L. Bodkin
2016, Marine and Coastal Fisheries: Dynamics, Management, and Ecosystem Science (8) 502-521
Nearshore marine habitats are productive and vulnerable owing to their connections to pelagic and terrestrial landscapes. To understand how ocean basin- and local-scale conditions may influence nearshore species, we developed an annual index of nearshore production (spanning the period 1972–2010) from growth increments recorded in otoliths of representative pelagic-feeding (Black...
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...
Status and trends in the Lake Superior fish community, 2015
Mark R. Vinson, Lori M. Evrard, Owen T. Gorman, Daniel L. Yule
2016, Report, Compiled reports to the Great Lakes Fishery Commission of the annual bottom trawl and acoustics surveys, 2015
In 2015, the Lake Superior fish community was sampled with daytime bottom trawls at 76 nearshore and 33 offshore stations. Spring and summer water temperatures in 2015 were colder than average, but warmer than that observed in 2014. In the nearshore zone, a total of 11,882 individuals from 22 species...
Phrynosoma hernandesi (Greater Short-Horned Lizard). Commensalism
Amy Yackel, Rod D. Adams, Susan K. Skagen, Daniel J. Martin
2016, Herpetological Review (47)
Commensalism is a relationship between two organisms whereby one benefits without negatively affecting the other. Like other horned lizards, Phyrnosoma hernandesi feeds primarily on ants, but will take other insects (Powell and Russell 1983. Can. J. Zool. 62:428–440). Here we describe apparent com-mensalism between P. hernandesi and Lark Buntings (Calamo-spiza...
Assessment of inland fisheries: A vision for the future
Steven J. Cooke, Angela Arthington, Scott A. Bonar, Shannon D. Bower, David B. Bunnell, Rose Entsua-Mensah, Simon Funge-Smith, John Koehn, Nigel Lester, Kai Lorenzen, So Nam, Robert Randall, Paul A. Venturelli, Ian G. Cowx
2016, Book chapter, Freshwater, fish, and the future: Proceedings of the Global Cross-Sectoral Conference
No abstract available....
Hydrologic effects on diameter growth phenology for Celtis laevigata and Quercus lyrata in the floodplain of the lower White River, Arkansas
Scott T. Allen, Wesley Cochran, Ken W. Krauss, Richard F. Keim, Sammy L. King
Callie Jo Schweitzer, Wayne K. Clatterbuck, Christopher M. Oswalt, editor(s)
2016, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the 18th Biennial Southern Silvicultural Research Conference: USDA Forest Service General Technical Report SRS-212
Bottomland hardwood (BLH) forests represent an extensive wetland system in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley and southeastern USA, and it is currently undergoing widespread transition in species composition. One such transition involves increased establishment of sugarberry (Celtis laevigata), and decreased establishment of overcup oak (Quercus lyrata). The ecological mechanisms that control...
Wildfire may increase habitat quality for spring Chinook salmon in the Wenatchee River subbasin, WA, USA
Rebecca L. Flitcroft, Jeffrey A. Falke, Gordon H. Reeves, Paul F. Hessburg, Kris M. McNyset, Lee E. Benda
2016, Forest Ecology and Management (359) 126-140
Pacific Northwest salmonids are adapted to natural disturbance regimes that create dynamic habitat patterns over space and through time. However, human land use, particularly long-term fire suppression, has altered the intensity and frequency of wildfire in forested upland and riparian areas. To examine the potential...
