Estimated 2012 groundwater potentiometric surface and drawdown from predevelopment to 2012 in the Santa Fe Group aquifer system in the Albuquerque metropolitan area, central New Mexico
Rachel I. Powell, Sarah E. McKean
2014, Scientific Investigations Map 3301
Historically, the water-supply requirements of the Albuquerque metropolitan area of central New Mexico were met almost exclusively by groundwater withdrawal from the Santa Fe Group aquifer system. In response to water-level declines, the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority (ABCWUA) began diverting water from the San Juan-Chama Drinking Water Project...
Estimating landscape resistance to dispersal
Tabitha A. Graves, Richard B. Chandler, J. Andrew Royle, Paul Beier, Katherine C. Kendall
2014, Landscape Ecology (29) 1201-1211
Dispersal is an inherently spatial process that can be affected by habitat conditions in sites encountered by dispersers. Understanding landscape resistance to dispersal is important in connectivity studies and reserve design, but most existing methods use resistance functions with cost parameters that are subjectively chosen by the investigator. We...
Paleoearthquakes at Frazier Mountain, California delimit extent and frequency of past San Andreas Fault ruptures along 1857 trace
Katherine M. Scharer, Ray Weldon II, Ashley Streig, Thomas Fumal
2014, Geophysical Research Letters (41) 4527-4534
Large earthquakes are infrequent along a single fault, and therefore historic, well-characterized earthquakes exert a strong influence on fault behavior models. This is true of the 1857 Fort Tejon earthquake (estimated M7.7–7.9) on the southern San Andreas Fault (SSAF), but an outstanding question is whether the 330 km long rupture...
Fish assemblages, connectivity, and habitat rehabilitation in a diked Great Lakes coastal wetland complex
Kurt P. Kowalski, Michael J. Wiley, Douglas A. Wilcox
2014, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (143) 1130-1142
Fish and plant assemblages in the highly modified Crane Creek coastal wetland complex of Lake Erie were sampled to characterize their spatial and seasonal patterns and to examine the implications of the hydrologic connection of diked wetland units to Lake Erie. Fyke netting captured 52 species and an abundance of...
WaterQualityWatch and water-quality information bookmark
Franceska D. Wilde
2014, General Information Product 157
WaterQualityWatch is an online resource of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) that provides access to continuous real-time measurements of water temperature, specific electrical conductance, pH, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, and nitrate at selected data-collection stations throughout the Nation. Additional online resources of the USGS that pertain to various types of water-quality...
Assessment of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil and gas resources of Armenia, 2014
Timothy R. Klett, Christopher J. Schenk, Craig J. Wandrey, Michael E. Brownfield, Ronald R. Charpentier, Marilyn E. Tennyson, Donald L. Gautier
2014, Fact Sheet 2014-3048
Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated mean volumes of 1 million barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable conventional oil and 6 billion cubic feet of undiscovered, technically recoverable conventional natural gas in Armenia....
Characterization of the porosity distribution in the upper part of the karst Biscayne aquifer using common offset ground penetrating radar, Everglades National Park, Florida
Gregory S. Mountain, Xavier Comas, Kevin J. Cunningham
2014, Journal of Hydrology (515) 223-236
The karst Biscayne aquifer is characterized by a heterogeneous spatial arrangement of porosity and hydraulic conductivity, making conceptualization difficult. The Biscayne aquifer is the primary source of drinking water for millions of people in south Florida; thus, information concerning the distribution of karst features that concentrate the groundwater flow...
Parameter optimization, sensitivity, and uncertainty analysis of an ecosystem model at a forest flux tower site in the United States
Yiping Wu, Shuguang Liu, Zhihong Huang, Wende Yan
2014, Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems (6) 405-419
Ecosystem models are useful tools for understanding ecological processes and for sustainable management of resources. In biogeochemical field, numerical models have been widely used for investigating carbon dynamics under global changes from site to regional and global scales. However, it is still challenging to optimize parameters and estimate parameterization uncertainty...
Interpretations of evidence for large Pleistocene paleolakes in the Bonneville basin, western North America: COMMENT on: Bonneville basin shoreline records of large lake intervals during marine isotope stage 3 and the last glacial maximum, by Nishizawa et al. (2013)
Charles G. Oviatt, Margorie A. Chan, Paul W. Jewell, Bruce G. Bills, David B. Madsen, David M. Miller
2014, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology (401) 173-176
Nishizawa et al. (2013) argue in support of three large paleolakes in the Bonneville basin during Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage 3 (MIS 3). If true, that would be an important contribution to paleoclimate investigations. However, the key evidence in support of their argument consists of four radiocarbon ages that are...
A mechanistic modeling and data assimilation framework for Mojave Desert ecohydrology
Gene-Hua Crystal Ng, David Bedford, David M. Miller
2014, Water Resources Research (50) 4662-4685
This study demonstrates and addresses challenges in coupled ecohydrological modeling in deserts, which arise due to unique plant adaptations, marginal growing conditions, slow net primary production rates, and highly variable rainfall. We consider model uncertainty from both structural and parameter errors and present a mechanistic model for the shrub Larrea...
Diatom and silicoflagellate biostratigraphy for the late Eocene: ODP 1090 (sub-Antarctic Atlantic)
John A. Barron, David B. Bukry, Rainer Gersonde
2014, Book chapter, Diatom research over time and space Morphology, taxonomy, ecology and distribution of diatoms - from fossil to recent, marine to freshwater, established species and genera to new ones
Abundant and well-preserved diatoms and silicofl agellate assemblages are documented through a complete late Eocene sequence, ODP Hole 1090B, recovered from the southern Agulhas Ridge in the sub-Antarctic South Atlantic. A sequence of Cestodiscus (diatom) species occurrence events involving C. pulchellus var. novazealandica, C. fennerae, C. antarcticus, C. convexus, C....
Site response in the eastern United States: A comparison of Vs30 measurements with estimates from horizontal:vertical spectral ratios
Daniel E. McNamara, William J. Stephenson, Jackson K. Odum, Robert Williams, Lind Gee
2014, GSA Special Papers (509) 67-79
Earthquake damage is often increased due to local ground-motion amplification caused by soft soils, thick basin sediments, topographic effects, and liquefaction. A critical factor contributing to the assessment of seismic hazard is detailed information on local site response. In order to address and quantify the site response at seismograph stations...
Family inspiration for my career(s) in transdisciplinary science
Geoffrey S. Plumlee
2014, Earth Magazine
I have been fortunate to spend the last 31 years working for an organization that has allowed me to make multiple career shifts across earth science disciplines and to collaborate with people in fields well beyond the earth sciences. Many inspirational colleagues have guided me along this transdisciplinary science path,...
Using regional moment tensors to constrain the kinematics and stress evolution of the 2010–2013 Canterbury earthquake sequence, South Island, New Zealand
Matthew W. Herman, Robert B. Herrmann, Harley M. Benz, Kevin P. Furlong
2014, Tectonophysics (633) 1-15
On September 3, 2010, a MW 7.0 (U.S. Geological Survey moment magnitude) earthquake ruptured across the Canterbury Plains in South Island, New Zealand. Since then, New Zealand GNS Science has recorded over 10,000 aftershocks ML 2.0 and larger, including three destructive ~ MW 6.0 earthquakes near Christchurch. We treat the Canterbury...
Five centuries of tsunamis and land-level changes in the overlapping rupture area of the 1960 and 2010 Chilean earthquakes
Lisa L. Ely, Marco Cisternas, Robert L. Wesson, Tina Dura
2014, Geology (42) 995-998
A combination of geological and historical records from south-central Chile provides a means to address general questions about the stability of megathrust rupture patches and the range of variation expected among earthquakes and tsunamis along a particular stretch of a subduction zone. The Tirúa River estuary (38.3°S) records four large...
U.S. Geological Survey Science for the Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative: 2012 annual report
Zachary H. Bowen, Cameron L. Aldridge, Patrick J. Anderson, Timothy J. Assal, Carleton R. Bern, Laura Biewick, Gregory K. Boughton, Natasha B. Carr, Anna D. Chalfoun, Geneva W. Chong, Melanie L. Clark, Bradford C. Fedy, Katharine Foster, Steven L. Garman, Steve Germaine, Matthew G. Hethcoat, Collin G. Homer, Matthew J. Kauffman, Douglas Keinath, Natalie Latysh, Daniel J. Manier, Robert R. McDougal, Cynthia P. Melcher, Kirk A. Miller, Jessica Montag, Christopher J. Potter, Spencer Schell, Sarah L. Shafer, David B. Smith, Michael J. Sweat, Anna B. Wilson
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1093
Southwest Wyoming contains abundant energy resources, wildlife, habitat, open spaces, and outdoor recreational opportunities. Although energy exploration and development have been taking place in the region since the late 1800s, the pace of development for fossil fuels and renewable energy increased significantly in the early 2000s. This and the associated...
Resource partitioning in two stream salamanders, Dicamptodon tenebrosus and Rhyacotriton cascadae, from the Oregon Cascade Mountains
Wynn W. Cudmore, R. Bruce Bury
2014, American Midland Naturalist (172) 191-199
We investigated the potential for resource partitioning between the Coastal giant salamander (Dicamptodon tenebrosus) and the Cascade torrent salamander (Rhyacotriton cascadae) by examining their diet and microhabitats in forest streams. Larval D. tenebrosus and R. cascadae fed primarily upon aquatic insect larvae. We found similar foods in larval and adult...
Wolf population regulation revisited: again
Ronald E. McRoberts, L. David Mech
2014, Journal of Wildlife Management (78) 963-967
The long-accepted conclusion that wolf density is regulated by nutrition was recently challenged, and the conclusion was reached that, at greater levels of prey biomass, social factors such as intraspecific strife and territoriality tend to regulate wolf density. We reanalyzed the data used in that study for 2 reasons: 1)...
Discharge, water quality, and native fish abundance in the Virgin River, Utah, Nevada, and Arizona, in support of Pah Tempe Springs discharge remediation efforts
Matthew P. Miller, Patrick M. Lambert, Thomas B. Hardy
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1104
Pah Tempe Springs discharge hot, saline, low dissolved-oxygen water to the Virgin River in southwestern Utah, which is transported downstream to Lake Mead and the Colorado River. The dissolved salts in the Virgin River negatively influence the suitability of this water for downstream agricultural, municipal, and industrial use. Therefore, various...
Effects of reintroduced beaver (Castor canadensis) on riparian bird community structure along the upper San Pedro River, southeastern Arizona and northern Sonora, Mexico
Glenn E. Johnson, Charles van Riper III
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1121
Chapter 1.—We measured bird abundance and richness along the upper San Pedro River in 2005 and 2006, in order to document how beavers (Castor canadensis) may act as ecosystem engineers after their reintroduction to a desert riparian area in the Southwestern United States. In areas where beavers colonized, we found...
Graptemys gibbonsi Lovich and McCoy -- Pascagoula Map Turtle
Jeffrey E. Lovich, Joshua R. Ennen
2014, Book chapter, Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles
DEFINITION. The Pascagoula Map Turtle, Graptemys gibbonsi, is a large riverine species that exhibits pronounced sexual dimorphism, where females attain a maximum carapace length (CL) of 295 mm and males a maximum of 141 mm (Lovich et al. 2009). Mean adult female CL (248 mm) can be well over twice...
Hematite-bearing materials surrounding Candor Mensa in Candor Chasma, Mars: Implications for hematite origin and post-emplacement modification
Robin L. Fergason, Lisa R. Gaddis, A. D. Rogers
2014, Icarus (237) 350-365
The Valles Marineris canyon system on Mars is of enduring scientific interest in part due to the presence of interior mounds that contain extensive layering and water-altered minerals, such as crystalline gray hematite and hydrated sulfates. The presence of hematite and hydrated sulfate minerals is important because their...
Analysis of potential water-supply management options, 2010-60, and documentation of revisions to the model of the Irwin Basin Aquifer System, Fort Irwin National Training Center, California
Lois M. Voronin, Jill N. Densmore, Peter Martin
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5081
The Fort Irwin National Training Center is considering several alternatives to manage their limited water-supply sources in the Irwin Basin. An existing three-dimensional, finite-difference groundwater-flow model—the U.S. Geological Survey’s MODFLOW—of the aquifer system in the basin was updated and the initial input dataset was supplemented with groundwater withdrawal data for...
Discovery and analysis of time delay sources in the USGS personal computer data collection platform (PCDCP) system
Timothy C. White, Edward A. Sauter, Duff C. Stewart
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5045
Intermagnet is an international oversight group which exists to establish a global network for geomagnetic observatories. This group establishes data standards and standard operating procedures for members and prospective members. Intermagnet has proposed a new One-Second Data Standard, for that emerging geomagnetic product. The standard specifies that all data collected...
Mapping habitat for multiple species in the Desert Southwest
Richard D. Inman, Kenneth E. Nussear, Todd C. Esque, Amy G. Vandergast, Stacie A. Hathaway, Dustin A. Wood, Kelly R. Barr, Robert N. Fisher
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1134
Many utility scale renewable energy projects are currently proposed across the Mojave Ecoregion. Agencies that manage biological resources throughout this region need to understand the potential impacts of these renewable energy projects and their associated infrastructure (for example, transmission corridors, substations, access roads, etc.) on species movement, genetic exchange among...
