Comparison of evaporation at two central Florida lakes,
April 2005–November 2007
Amy Swancar
2015, Open-File Report 2015-1075
Evaporation from April 2005 through October 2007 at two central Florida lakes, one close to the Gulf of Mexico and one in the center of the peninsula, was 4.043 and 4.111 meters (m), respectively; evaporation for 2006 was 1.534 and 1.538 m, respectively. Although annual evaporation rates at the two...
Do open access data policies inhibit innovation?
Todd E. Katzner
2015, BioScience (65) 1037-1038
There has been a great deal of attention paid recently to the idea of data sharing (Van Noorden 2014, Beardsley 2015, Nature Publishing Group2015, www.copdess.com). However, the vast majority of these arguments are in agreement and present as fait accompli the idea that data are a...
Measurement of in situ sulfur isotopes by laser ablation multi-collector ICPMS: opening Pandora’s Box
William I. Ridley, Michael Pribil, Alan E. Koenig, John F. Slack
2015, Procedia Earth and Planetary Science (13) 116-119
Laser ablation multi-collector ICPMS is a modern tool for in situ measurement of S isotopes. Advantages of the technique are speed of analysis and relatively minor matrix effects combined with spatial resolution sufficient for many applications. The main disadvantage is a more destructive sampling mechanism relative to the ion microprobe technique. Recent...
Accuracy or precision: Implications of sample design and methodology on abundance estimation
Lucas K. Kowalewski, Christopher J. Chizinski, Larkin A. Powell, Kevin L. Pope, Mark A. Pegg
2015, Ecological Modelling (316) 185-190
Sampling by spatially replicated counts (point-count) is an increasingly popular method of estimating population size of organisms. Challenges exist when sampling by point-count method, and it is often impractical to sample entire area of interest and impossible to detect every individual present. Ecologists encounter logistical limitations that force them to...
Aleutian basin oceanic crust
Gail L. Christeson, Ginger A. Barth
2015, Earth and Planetary Science Letters (426) 167-175
We present two-dimensional P-wave velocity structure along two wide-angle ocean bottom seismometer profiles from the Aleutian basin in the Bering Sea. The basement here is commonly considered to be trapped oceanic crust, yet there is a change in orientation of magnetic lineations and gravity features within the basin that might...
Role of anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) in nitrogen removal from a freshwater aquifer
Richard L. Smith, John Karl Bohlke, B. Song, C. Tobias
2015, Environmental Science & Technology (49) 12169-12177
Anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) couples the oxidation of ammonium with the reduction of nitrite, producing N2. The presence and activity of anammox bacteria in groundwater were investigated at multiple locations in an aquifer variably affected by a large, wastewater-derived contaminant plume. Anammox bacteria were detected at all locations tested using...
Early-Holocene warming in Beringia and its mediation by sea-level and vegetation changes
P. J. Bartlein, M. E. Edwards, Steven W. Hostetler, Sarah Shafer, P. M. Anderson, L. B Brubaker, A. V Lozhkin
2015, Climate of the Past (11) 1197-1222
Arctic land-cover changes induced by recent global climate change (e.g., expansion of woody vegetation into tundra and effects of permafrost degradation) are expected to generate further feedbacks to the climate system. Past changes can be used to assess our understanding of feedback mechanisms through a combination of process modeling and...
A new isotopic reference material for stable hydrogen and oxygen isotope-ratio measurements of water—USGS50 Lake Kyoga Water
Tyler B. Coplen, Leonard I Wassenaar, Christine Mukwaya, Haiping Qi, Jennifer M. Lorenz
2015, Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry (29) 2078-2082
Rationale As a result of the need for isotopic reference waters having high δ2HVSMOW-SLAP and δ18OVSMOW-SLAP values for daily use, especially for tropical and equatorial-zone freshwaters, a new secondary isotopic reference material for international distribution was prepared from water collected from Lake Kyoga, Uganda. Methods This isotopic reference lakewater was filtered through a membrane with 0.2-µm pore...
Aurora painting pays tribute to Civil War's end
Jeffrey J. Love
2015, Eos, Earth and Space Science News
This year marks the sesquicentennial anniversary of the end of the American Civil War, a conflict that Abraham Lincoln called a “mighty scourge.” It was one of the most poignant periods in U.S. history, laying bare political, economic, social, and moral divergence between Northern and Southern states. The cause of...
Whooping crane stopover site use intensity within the Great Plains
Aaron T. Pearse, David A. Brandt, Wade C. Harrell, Kristine L. Metzger, David M. Baasch, Trevor J. Hefley
2015, Open-File Report 2015-1166
Whooping cranes (Grus americana) of the Aransas-Wood Buffalo population migrate twice each year through the Great Plains in North America. Recovery activities for this endangered species include providing adequate places to stop and rest during migration, which are generally referred to as stopover sites. To assist in recovery efforts, initial...
Effects of land use on lake nutrients: The importance of scale, hydrologic connectivity, and region
Patricia A. Soranno, Kendra Spence Cheruvelil, Tyler Wagner, Katherine E. Webster, Mary Tate Bremigan
2015, PLoS ONE (10) 1-22
Catchment land uses, particularly agriculture and urban uses, have long been recognized as major drivers of nutrient concentrations in surface waters. However, few simple models have been developed that relate the amount of catchment land use to downstream freshwater nutrients. Nor are existing models applicable to large numbers of freshwaters...
Efforts to eradicate yellow crazy ants on Johnston Atoll: Results from Crazy Ant Strike Team IX, December 2014-June 2015
Paul C. Banko, Robert W. Peck, Kevin Donmoyer, Stephan Kropidlowski, Amanda Pollock
2015, Technical Report HCSU-067
The ecologically destructive yellow crazy ant (YCA; Anoplolepis gracilipes) was first detected on Johnston Atoll in January 2010. Within eight months, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had mobilized its first crazy ant strike team (CAST), a group of biologists dedicated to testing and identifying insecticidal baits to be used...
Stream vulnerability to widespread and emergent stressors: a focus on unconventional oil and gas
Sally Entrekin, Kelly O. Maloney, Katherine E. Kapo, Annika W. Walters, Michelle A. Evans-White, Kenneth M. Klemow
2015, PLoS ONE 1-28
Multiple stressors threaten stream physical and biological quality, including elevated nutrients and other contaminants, riparian and in-stream habitat degradation and altered natural flow regime. Unconventional oil and gas (UOG) development is one emerging stressor that spans the U.S. UOG development could alter stream sedimentation, riparian extent and composition, in-stream flow,...
A quick SEED tutorial
Adam T. Ringler, John R. Evans
2015, Seismological Research Letters (86) 1717-1725
Introduction A number of different government-funded seismic data centers offer free open-access data (e.g., U.S. Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center, the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS), and Data Management System), which can be freely downloaded and shared among different members of the community (Lay, 2009). To efficiently share...
Monitoring ground-surface heating during expansion of the Casa Diablo production well field at Mammoth Lakes, California
D. Bergfeld, R. Greg Vaughan, William C. Evans, Eric Olsen
2015, Conference Paper, Geothermal Resources Council Transactions
The Long Valley hydrothermal system supports geothermal power production from 3 binary plants (Casa Diablo) near the town of Mammoth Lakes, California. Development and growth of thermal ground at sites west of Casa Diablo have created concerns over planned expansion of a new well field and the associated increases in...
Groundwater availability of the Columbia Plateau Regional Aquifer System, Washington, Oregon, and Idaho
J. J. Vaccaro, S. C. Kahle, D.M. Ely, E.R. Burns, D.T. Snyder, J.V. Haynes, T. D. Olsen, W.B. Welch, D. S. Morgan
2015, Professional Paper 1817
The Columbia Plateau Regional Aquifer System (CPRAS) covers about 44,000 square miles of southeastern Washington, northeastern Oregon, and western Idaho. The area supports a $6-billion per year agricultural industry, leading the Nation in production of apples, hops, and eight other commodities. Groundwater pumpage and surface-water diversions supply water to croplands...
Groundwater resources of the Columbia Plateau regional aquifer system
Sue C. Kahle, John J. Vaccaro
2015, Fact Sheet 2015-3063
The Columbia Plateau is a wide basalt plateau between the Cascade Range and the Rocky Mountains that covers parts of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. The climate over much of the Columbia Plateau is semiarid with precipitation ranging from 7 to 15 in/yr in the central part (Vaccaro and others, 2015),...
Organic waste compounds as contaminants in Milwaukee-area streams
Austin K. Baldwin, Steven R. Corsi, Christopher Magruder, Matthew Magruder, Jennifer L. Bruce
2015, Fact Sheet 2015-3056
Organic waste compounds (OWCs) are ingredients and by-products of common agricultural, industrial, and household substances that can contaminate our streams through sources like urban runoff, sewage overflows, and leaking septic systems. To better understand how OWCs are affecting Milwaukee-area streams, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Milwaukee Metropolitan...
Lead scrap use and trade patterns in the United States,
1995-2012
David R. Wilburn
2015, Scientific Investigations Report 2015-5114
Since 1995, domestic production of lead has increasingly shifted from primary mining and smelting to the recovery of lead-bearing scrap by the secondary lead industry, which accounted for 91 percent of U.S. lead production in 2012. Increasingly stringent environmental regulations for lead emissions in the United States have contributed to...
Coastal vulnerability across the Pacific dominated by El Niño-Southern Oscillation
Patrick L. Barnard, Andrew D. Short, Mitchell D. Harley, Kristen D. Splinter, Sean Vitousek, Ian L. Turner, Jonathan Allan, Masayuki Banno, Karin R. Bryan, Andre Doria, Jeff E. Hansen, Shigeru Kato, Yoshiaki Kuriyama, Evan Randall-Goodwin, Peter Ruggiero, Ian J. Walker, Derek K. Heathfield
2015, Nature Geoscience (8) 801-807
To predict future coastal hazards, it is important to quantify any links between climate drivers and spatial patterns of coastal change. However, most studies of future coastal vulnerability do not account for the dynamic components of coastal water levels during storms, notably wave-driven processes, storm surges and seasonal water level...
National assessment of nor’easter-induced coastal erosion hazards: mid- and northeast Atlantic coast
Justin J. Birchler, P. Soupy Dalyander, Hilary F. Stockdon, Kara S. Doran
2015, Open-File Report 2015-1154
Beaches serve as a natural buffer between the ocean and inland communities, ecosystems, and natural resources. However, these dynamic environments move and change in response to winds, waves, and currents. During extreme storms, changes to beaches can be great, and the results are sometimes catastrophic. Lives may be lost, communities...
Scaling and design of landslide and debris-flow experiments
Richard M. Iverson
2015, Geomorphology (244) 9-20
Scaling plays a crucial role in designing experiments aimed at understanding the behavior of landslides, debris flows, and other geomorphic phenomena involving grain-fluid mixtures. Scaling can be addressed by using dimensional analysis or – more rigorously – by normalizing differential equations that describe the evolving dynamics of the system. Both...
Intra-annual patterns in adult band-tailed pigeon survival estimates
Michael L. Casazza, Peter S. Coates, Cory T. Overton, Kristy H. Howe
2015, Wildlife Research (42) 454-459
Context: The band-tailed pigeon (Patagioenas fasciata) is a migratory species occurring in western North America with low recruitment potential and populations that have declined an average of 2.4% per year since the 1960s. Investigations into band-tailed pigeon demographic rates date back to the early 1900s, and existing annual survival rate estimates...
Individual heterogeneity in growth and age at sexual maturity: A gamma process analysis of capture–mark–recapture data
William A. Link, Kyle Miller Hesed
2015, Journal of Agricultural, Biological, and Environmental Statistics (20) 343-352
Knowledge of organisms’ growth rates and ages at sexual maturity is important for conservation efforts and a wide variety of studies in ecology and evolutionary biology. However, these life history parameters may be difficult to obtain from natural populations: individuals encountered may be of unknown age, information on age at...
Preliminary characterization of digestive enzymes in freshwater mussels
Blake W. Sauey, Jon J. Amberg, Scott T. Cooper, Sandra K. Grunwald, Teresa J. Newton, Roger J. Haro
2015, Journal of Shellfish Research (34) 415-422
Resource managers lack an effective chemical tool to control the invasive zebra mussel Dreissena polymorpha. Zebra mussels clog water intakes for hydroelectric companies, harm unionid mussel species, and are believed to be a reservoir of avian botulism. Little is known about the digestive physiology of zebra mussels and unionid mussels. The...