Urban ecosystem services and decision making for a green Philadelphia
Dianna M. Hogan, Carl D. Shapiro, David N. Karp, Susan M. Wachter
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1155
Traditional approaches to urban development often do not account for, or recognize, the role of ecosystem services and the benefits these services provide to the health and well-being of city residents. Without such accounting, urban ecosystem services are likely to be degraded over time, with negative consequences for the sustainability...
Flood-inundation maps for the North Branch Elkhart River at Cosperville, Indiana
Moon H. Kim, Esther M. Johnson
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5128
Digital flood-inundation maps for a reach of the North Branch Elkhart River at Cosperville, Indiana (Ind.), were created by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Detroit District. The inundation maps, which can be accessed through the USGS Flood Inundation Mapping Science Web...
Incorporation of inorganic mercury (Hg2+) in pelagic food webs of ultraoligotrophic and oligotrophic lakes: the role of different plankton size fractions and species assemblages
Carolina Soto Cardenas, Maria C. Dieguez, Sergio Ribeiro Guevara, Mark Marvin-DiPasquale, Claudia P. Queimalinos
2014, Science of the Total Environment (494-495) 65-73
In lake food webs, pelagic basal organisms such as bacteria and phytoplankton incorporate mercury (Hg2+) from the dissolved phase and pass the adsorbed and internalized Hg to higher trophic levels. This experimental investigation addresses the incorporation of dissolved Hg2+ by four plankton fractions (picoplankton: 0.2–2.7 μm; pico + nanoplankton: 0.2–20...
Inference for finite-sample trajectories in dynamic multi-state site-occupancy models using hidden Markov model smoothing
Ian J. Fiske, J. Andrew Royle, Kevin Gross
2014, Environmental and Ecological Statistics (21) 313-328
Ecologists and wildlife biologists increasingly use latent variable models to study patterns of species occurrence when detection is imperfect. These models have recently been generalized to accommodate both a more expansive description of state than simple presence or absence, and Markovian dynamics in the latent state over successive sampling seasons....
Detecting well casing leaks in Bangladesh using a salt spiking method
M.O. Stahl, J.B. Ong, C.F. Harvey, C. D. Johnson, A.B.M. Badruzzaman, M.H. Tarek, A. VanGeen, J.A. Anderson, J. W. Lane
2014, Ground Water (52) 195-200
We apply fluid-replacement logging in arsenic-contaminated regions of Bangladesh using a low-cost, down-well fluid conductivity logging tool to detect leaks in the cased section of wells. The fluid-conductivity tool is designed for the developing world: it is lightweight and easily transportable, operable by one person, and can be built for...
Below the disappearing marshes of an urban estuary: historic nitrogen trends and soil structure
Cathleen Wigand, Charles T. Roman, Earl Davey, Mark Stolt, Roxanne Johnson, Alana Hanson, Elizabeth B. Watson, S. Bradley Moran, Donald R. Cahoon, James C. Lynch, Patricia Rafferty
2014, Ecological Applications (24) 633-649
Marshes in the urban Jamaica Bay Estuary, New York, USA are disappearing at an average rate of 13 ha/yr, and multiple stressors (e.g., wastewater inputs, dredging activities, groundwater removal, and global warming) may be contributing to marsh losses. Among these stressors, wastewater nutrients are suspected to be an important contributing...
Integrating land cover modeling and adaptive management to conserve endangered species and reduce catastrophic fire risk
David Breininger, Brean Duncan, Mitchell J. Eaton, Fred Johnson, James Nichols
2014, Land (3) 874-897
Land cover modeling is used to inform land management, but most often via a two-step process, where science informs how management alternatives can influence resources, and then, decision makers can use this information to make decisions. A more efficient process is to directly integrate science and decision-making, where science allows...
Mobilization of selenium from the Mancos Shale and associated soils in the lower Uncompahgre River Basin, Colorado
M. Alisa Mast, Taylor J. Mills, Suzanne S. Paschke, Gabrielle Keith, Joshua I. Linard
2014, Applied Geochemistry (48) 16-27
This study investigates processes controlling mobilization of selenium in the lower part of the Uncompahgre River Basin in western Colorado. Selenium occurs naturally in the underlying Mancos Shale and is leached to groundwater and surface water by limited natural runoff, agricultural and domestic irrigation, and leakage from irrigation canals. Soil...
Field methods and quality-assurance plan for water-quality activities and water-level measurements, U.S. Geological Survey, Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho
Roy C. Bartholomay, Neil V. Maimer, Amy J. Wehnke
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1146
Water-quality activities and water-level measurements by the personnel of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Project Office coincide with the USGS mission of appraising the quantity and quality of the Nation’s water resources. The activities are carried out in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)...
Radar analysis of fall bird migration stopover sites in the northeastern U.S.
Jeffrey J. Buler, Deanna K. Dawson
2014, The Condor (116) 357-370
The national network of weather surveillance radars (WSR-88D) detects flying birds and is a useful remote-sensing tool for ornithological study. We used data collected during fall 2008 and 2009 by 16 WSR-88D radars in the northeastern U.S. to quantify the spatial distribution of landbirds during migratory stopover. We geo-referenced estimates...
Widespread occurrence of neonicotinoid insecticides in streams in a high corn and soybean producing region, USA
Michelle Hladik, Dana W. Kolpin, Kathryn Kuivila
2014, Environmental Pollution (193) 189-196
Neonicotinoid insecticides are of environmental concern, but little is known about their occurrence in surface water. An area of intense corn and soybean production in the Midwestern United States was chosen to study this issue because of the high agricultural use of neonicotinoids via both seed treatments and other forms...
Flood inundation maps and water-surface profiles for tropical storm Irene and selected annual exceedance probability floods for Flint Brook and the Third Branch White River in Roxbury, Vermont
Elizabeth A. Ahearn, Pamela J. Lombard
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5118
Flint Brook, a tributary to the Third Branch White River in Roxbury, Vermont, has a history of flooding the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department’s Roxbury Fish Culture Station (the hatchery) and surrounding infrastructure. Flooding resulting from tropical storm Irene on August 28–29, 2011, caused widespread destruction in the region, including...
Application of near-surface geophysics as part of a hydrologic study of a subsurface drip irrigation system along the Powder River floodplain near Arvada, Wyoming
James I. Sams, Garret Veloski, Bruce D. Smith, Burke J. Minsley, Mark A. Engle, Brian A. Lipinski, Richard W. Hammack, John W. Zupancic
2014, International Journal of Coal Geology (126) 128-139
Rapid development of coalbed natural gas (CBNG) production in the Powder River Basin (PRB) of Wyoming has occurred since 1997. National attention related to CBNG development has focused on produced water management, which is the single largest cost for on-shore domestic producers. Low-cost treatment technologies allow operators to reduce...
COSMO-SkyMed Spotlight interometry over rural areas: the Slumgullion landslide in Colorado, USA
Pietro Milillo, Eric J. Fielding, William H. Schulz, Brent Delbridge, Roland Burgmann
2014, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing (7) 2919-2926
In the last 7 years, spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data with resolution of better than a meter acquired by satellites in spotlight mode offered an unprecedented improvement in SAR interferometry (InSAR). Most attention has been focused on monitoring urban areas and man-made infrastructure exploiting geometric accuracy, stability, and phase...
Biomass modeling of four water intensiveleading world crops using hyperspectral narrowbands in support of HyspIRI Mission
Michael T. Marshall, Prasad S. Thenkabail
2014, Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing (80) 757-772
New satellite missions are expected to record high spectral resolution information globally and consistently for the first time, so it is important to identify modeling techniques that take advantage of these new data. In this paper, we estimate biomass for four major crops using ground-based hyperspectral narrowbands. The spectra and...
Accuracy of travel time distribution (TTD) models as affected by TTD complexity, observation errors, and model and tracer selection
Christopher T. Green, Yong Zhang, Bryant C. Jurgens, J. Jeffrey Starn, Matthew K. Landon
2014, Water Resources Research (50) 6191-6213
Analytical models of the travel time distribution (TTD) from a source area to a sample location are often used to estimate groundwater ages and solute concentration trends. The accuracies of these models are not well known for geologically complex aquifers. In this study, synthetic datasets were used to quantify the...
The 3D Elevation Program: summary for North Carolina
William J. Carswell Jr.
2014, Fact Sheet 2014-3066
Elevation data are essential to a broad range of applications, including forest resources management, wildlife and habitat management, national security, and recreation. For the State of North Carolina, elevation data are critical for flood risk management, natural resources conservation, agriculture and precision farming, infrastructure and construction management, forest resources management,...
Timing of ore-related magmatism in the western Alaska Range, southwestern Alaska
Ryan D. Taylor, Garth E. Graham, Eric D. Anderson, David Selby
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1115
This report presents isotopic age data from mineralized granitic plutons in an area of the Alaska Range located approximately 200 kilometers to the west-northwest of Anchorage in southwestern Alaska. Uranium-lead isotopic data and trace element concentrations of zircons were determined for 12 samples encompassing eight plutonic bodies ranging in age...
Mesohabitats, fish assemblage composition, and mesohabitat use of the Rio Grande silvery minnow over a range of seasonal flow regimes in the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo del Norte, in and near Big Bend National Park, Texas, 2010-11
J. Bruce Moring, Christopher L. Braun, Daniel K. Pearson
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5210
In 2010–11, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, evaluated the physical characteristics and fish assemblage composition of mapped river mesohabitats at four sites on the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo del Norte (hereinafter Rio Grande) in and near Big Bend National Park, Texas. The...
Comments on the Yule Marble Haines block: Potential replacement, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Arlington National Cemetery
Victor G. Mossotti
2014, Open-File Report 2013-1182
Marble for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery was cut from the Colorado Yule Marble Quarry in 1931. Although anecdotal reports suggest that cracks were noticed in the main section of the monument shortly after its installation at the Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, detailed...
Methow River Studies, Washington: abundance estimates from Beaver Creek and the Chewuch River screw trap, methodology testing in the Whitefish Island side channel, and survival and detection estimates from hatchery fish releases, 2013
Kyle D. Martens, Teresa M. Fish, Grace A. Watson, Patrick J. Connolly
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1154
Salmon and steelhead populations have been severely depleted in the Columbia River from factors such as the presence of tributary dams, unscreened irrigation diversions, and habitat degradation from logging, mining, grazing, and others (Raymond, 1988). The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has been funded by the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) to...
Protected area management
Daniel B. Fagre, Tony Prato
Yeqiao Wang, editor(s)
2014, Book chapter, Encyclopedia of Natural Resources: Land
Designated protected areas are diverse in scope and purpose and have expanded from Yellowstone National Park in the United States, the world’s first national park, to 157,897 parks and protected areas distributed globally. Most are publicly owned and serve multiple needs that reflect regional or national cultures. With ever-increasing threats...
Chirp seismic-reflection data from the Baltimore, Washington, and Norfolk Canyons, U.S. mid-Atlantic margin
Jeffrey B. Obelcz, Daniel S. Brothers, Uri S. ten Brink, Jason D. Chaytor, Charles R. Worley, Eric M. Moore
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1118
A large number of high-resolution geophysical surveys between Cape Hatteras and Georges Bank have been conducted by federal, state, and academic institutions since the turn of the century. A major goal of these surveys is providing a continuous view of bathymetry and shallow stratigraphy at the shelf edge in order...
Influences of water and sediment quality and hydrologic processes on mussels in the Clinch River
Gregory C. Johnson, Jennifer L. Krstolic, Brett J.K. Ostby
2014, Journal of the American Water Resources Association (50) 878-897
Segments of the Clinch River in Virginia have experienced declining freshwater mussel populations during the past 40 years, while other segments of the river continue to support some of the richest mussel communities in the country. The close proximity of these contrasting reaches provides a study area where differences...
Hydrothermal monitoring in a quiescent volcanic arc: Cascade Range, northwestern United States
Steven E. Ingebritsen, N. G. Randolph-Flagg, Katrina D. Gelwick, Elizabeth A. Lundstrom, Ilana M. Crankshaw, Anna M. Murveit, M.E. Schmidt, Deborah Bergfeld, Kurt R. Spicer, David S. Tucker, Robert H. Mariner, William C. Evans
2014, Geofluids (14) 326-346
Ongoing (1996–present) volcanic unrest near South Sister, Oregon, is accompanied by a striking set of hydrothermal anomalies, including elevated temperatures, elevated major ion concentrations, and 3He/4He ratios as large as 8.6 RA in slightly thermal springs. These observations prompted the US Geological Survey to begin a systematic hydrothermal-monitoring effort encompassing...
