Great Lakes prey fish populations: a cross-basin overview of status and trends based on bottom trawl surveys, 1978-2013
Owen T. Gorman, Brian Weidel
2014, Report
The assessment of Great Lakes prey fish stocks have been conducted annually with bottom trawls since the 1970s by the Great Lakes Science Center, sometimes assisted by partner agencies. These stock assessments provide data on the status and trends of prey fish that are consumed by important commercial and recreational...
Preliminary interpretation of pre-2014 landslide deposits in the vicinity of Oso, Washington
Ralph A. Haugerud
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1065
High-resolution topographic surveys allow fairly precise mapping of landslide deposits and their relative ages. Relative ages are determined by cross-cutting relations and the amount of smoothing—more smoothed slide deposits are older—of these deposits. The Tulalip Tribes, in partnership with the Puget Sound Lidar Consortium, acquired a high-resolution lidar (light detection...
Hydrologic Drought Decision Support System (HyDroDSS)
Gregory E. Granato
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1003
The hydrologic drought decision support system (HyDroDSS) was developed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the Rhode Island Water Resources Board (RIWRB) for use in the analysis of hydrologic variables that may indicate the risk for streamflows to be below user-defined flow targets at a designated site...
Estimating flood magnitude and frequency for urban and small, rural streams in Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina, 2011
Toby D. Feaster, Anthony J. Gotvald, J. Curtis Weaver
2014, Fact Sheet 2014-3015
Reliable estimates of the magnitude and frequency of floods are essential for the design of transportation and water-conveyance structures, flood insurance studies, and flood-plain management. Flood-frequency estimates are particularly important in densely populated urban areas. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) used a multistate approach to update methods for determining the...
Hydrogeologic framework and salinity distribution of the Floridan aquifer system of Broward County, Florida
Ronald S. Reese, Kevin J. Cunningham
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5029
Concerns about water-level decline and seawater intrusion in the surficial Biscayne aquifer, currently the principal source of water supply to Broward County, prompted a study to refine the hydrogeologic framework of the underlying Floridan aquifer system to evaluate its potential as an alternative source of supply. This report presents cross...
The role of landscape features and density dependence in growth and fledging rates of Piping Plovers in North Dakota, USA
Michael J. Anteau, Mark T. Wiltermuth, Mark H. Sherfy, Terry L. Shaffer, Aaron T. Pearse
2014, BioOne (116) 195-204
For species with precocial young, survival from hatching to fledging is a key factor influencing recruitment. Furthermore, growth rates of precocial chicks are an indicator of forage quality and habitat suitability of brood-rearing areas. We examined how growth and fledging rates of Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus) chicks were influenced...
Monitoring fine-sediment volume in the Colorado River ecosystem, Arizona: construction and analysis of digital elevation models
Matt Kaplinski, Joseph E. Hazel Jr., Paul E. Grams, Philip A. Davis
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1052
Digital elevation models (DEMs) of eleven 2–5 kilometer reaches of the Colorado River ecosystem (CRE) in Grand Canyon were constructed from repeat bathymetric and topographic surveys collected between August 2000 and December 2004. The DEMs will be used by researchers to study the effects of Glen Canyon Dam (GCD) operations...
Acute and chronic sensitivity of white sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus) and rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) to cadmium, copper, lead, or zinc in laboratory water-only exposures
Christopher G. Ingersoll, Ning Contributions by Wang, Robin D. Calfee, Erinn Beahan, William G. Brumbaugh, Rebecca A. Dorman, Doug K. Hardesty, James L. Kunz, Edward E. Little, Christopher A. Mebane, Holly J. Puglis
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5204
White sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus) are experiencing poor recruitment in the trans boundary reach of the upper Columbia River in eastern Washington State. Limited toxicity data indicated that early life stages of white sturgeon are sensitive to metals. In acute 4-day (d) exposures with larval white sturgeon, previous studies have reported...
The 1946 Unimak Tsunami Earthquake Area: revised tectonic structure in reprocessed seismic images and a suspect near field tsunami source
John J. Miller, Roland E. von Huene, Holly F. Ryan
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1024
In 1946 at Unimak Pass, Alaska, a tsunami destroyed the lighthouse at Scotch Cap, Unimak Island, took 159 lives on the Hawaiian Islands, damaged island coastal facilities across the south Pacific, and destroyed a hut in Antarctica. The tsunami magnitude of 9.3 is comparable to the magnitude 9.1 tsunami that...
Characterization of the Marcellus Shale based on computer-assisted correlation of wireline logs in Virginia and West Virginia
Catherine B. Enomoto, Ricardo A. Olea, James L. Coleman Jr.
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5131
The Middle Devonian Marcellus Shale in the Appalachian basin extends from central Ohio on the west to eastern New York on the east, and from north-central New York on the north to northern Tennessee on the south. Its thickness ranges from 0 feet (ft) where it pinches out to the...
The 3D Elevation Program: summary for Montana
William J. Carswell Jr.
2014, Fact Sheet 2014-3022
Elevation data are essential to a broad range of applications, including forest resources management, wildlife and habitat management, national security, recreation, and many others. For the State of Montana, elevation data are critical for flood risk management, infrastructure and construction management, agriculture and precision farming, geologic resource assessment and hazard...
Petrophysical properties, mineralogy, fractures, and flow tests in 25 deep boreholes at Yucca Mountain, Nevada
Philip H. Nelson, Joyce E. Kibler
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1023
As part of a site investigation for the disposal of radioactive waste, numerous boreholes were drilled into a sequence of Miocene pyroclastic flows and related deposits at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. This report contains displays of data from 25 boreholes drilled during 1979–1984, relatively early in the site investigation program. Geophysical...
Digital orthoimagery base specification V1.0
Philip P. Rufe
2014, Techniques and Methods 11-B5
The resolution requirement for orthoimagery in support of the The National Map of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is 1 meter. However, as the Office of Management and Budget A-16 designated Federal agency responsible for base orthoimagery, the USGS National Geospatial Program (NGP) has developed this base specification to include...
Lower Cody Shale (Niobrara equivalent) in the Bighorn Basin, Wyoming and Montana: thickness, distribution, and source rock potential
Thomas M. Finn
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5138
The lower shaly member of the Cody Shale in the Bighorn Basin, Wyoming and Montana is Coniacian to Santonian in age and is equivalent to the upper part of the Carlile Shale and basal part of the Niobrara Formation in the Powder River Basin to the east. The lower Cody...
Land cover and topography affect the land transformation caused by wind facilities
Jay E. Diffendorfer, Roger W. Compton
2014, PLoS ONE (9)
Land transformation (ha of surface disturbance/MW) associated with wind facilities shows wide variation in its reported values. In addition, no studies have attempted to explain the variation across facilities. We digitized land transformation at 39 wind facilities using high resolution aerial imagery. We then modeled the effects of turbine size,...
1DTempPro: analyzing temperature profiles for groundwater/surface-water exchange
Emily B. Voytek, Anja Drenkelfuss, Frederick D. Day-Lewis, Richard Healy, John W. Lane Jr., Dale D. Werkema
2014, Ground Water (52) 298-302
A new computer program, 1DTempPro, is presented for the analysis of vertical one-dimensional (1D) temperature profiles under saturated flow conditions. 1DTempPro is a graphical user interface to the U.S. Geological Survey code Variably Saturated 2-Dimensional Heat Transport (VS2DH), which numerically solves the flow and heat-transport equations. Pre- and postprocessor features...
Quantifying restoration effectiveness using multi-scale habitat models: implications for sage-grouse in the Great Basin
Robert S. Arkle, David S. Pilliod, Steven E. Hanser, Matthew L. Brooks, Jeanne C. Chambers, James B. Grace, Kevin C. Knutson, David A. Pyke, Justin L. Welty
2014, Ecosphere (5)
A recurrent challenge in the conservation of wide-ranging, imperiled species is understanding which habitats to protect and whether we are capable of restoring degraded landscapes. For Greater Sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus), a species of conservation concern in the western United States, we approached this problem by developing multi-scale empirical models of...
Advances in a distributed approach for ocean model data interoperability
Richard P. Signell, Derrick P. Snowden
2014, Journal of Marine Science and Engineering (2) 194-208
An infrastructure for earth science data is emerging across the globe based on common data models and web services. As we evolve from custom file formats and web sites to standards-based web services and tools, data is becoming easier to distribute, find and retrieve, leaving more time for science....
Hierarchical spatial capture-recapture models: Modeling population density from stratified populations
J. Andrew Royle, Sarah J. Converse
2014, Methods in Ecology and Evolution (5) 37-43
Capture–recapture studies are often conducted on populations that are stratified by space, time or other factors. In this paper, we develop a Bayesian spatial capture–recapture (SCR) modelling framework for stratified populations – when sampling occurs within multiple distinct spatial and temporal strata.We describe a hierarchical model that integrates...
Simulation of the effects of seasonally varying pumping on intraborehole flow and the vulnerability of public-supply wells to contamination
Richard M. Yager, Charles E. Heywood
2014, Ground Water (52) 40-52
Public-supply wells with long screens in alluvial aquifers can produce waters of differing quality from different depths. Seasonal changes in quality are linked to seasonal changes in pumping rates that influence the distribution of flow into the well screens under pumping conditions and the magnitude and direction of intraborehole flow...
Mercury and methylmercury dynamics in the hyporheic zone of an Oregon stream
Stephen R. Hinkle, Kenneth E. Bencala, Dennis A. Wentz, David P. Krabbenhoft
2014, Water, Air, & Soil Pollution (225)
The role of the hyporheic zone in mercury (Hg) cycling has received limited attention despite the biogeochemically active nature of this zone and, thus, its potential to influence Hg behavior in streams. An assessment of Hg geochemistry in the hyporheic zone of a coarse-grained island in the Coast Fork Willamette...
Time-integrated passive sampling as a complement to conventional point-in-time sampling for investigating drinking-water quality, McKenzie River Basin, Oregon, 2007 and 2010-11
Kathleen A. McCarthy, David A. Alvarez
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5215
The Eugene Water & Electric Board (EWEB) supplies drinking water to approximately 200,000 people in Eugene, Oregon. The sole source of this water is the McKenzie River, which has consistently excellent water quality relative to established drinking-water standards. To ensure that this quality is maintained as land use in the...
Magnetic and gravity studies of Mono Lake, east-central, California
Noah D. Athens, David A. Ponce, Angela S. Jayko, Matt Miller, Bobby McEvoy, Mae Marcaida, Margaret T. Mangan, Stuart K. Wilkinson, James S. McClain, Bruce A. Chuchel, Kevin M. Denton
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1043
From August 26 to September 5, 2011, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) collected more than 600 line-kilometers of shipborne magnetic data on Mono Lake, 20 line-kilometers of ground magnetic data on Paoha Island, 50 gravity stations on Paoha and Negit Islands, and 28 rock samples on Paoha and Negit Islands,...
The influence of study species selection on estimates of pesticide exposure in free-ranging birds
Shannon L. Borges, Nimish B. Vyas, Mary C. Christman
2014, Environmental Management (53) 416-428
Field studies of pesticide effects on birds often utilize indicator species with the purpose 16 of extrapolating to other avian taxa. Little guidance exists for choosing indicator species to 17 monitor the presence and/or effects of contaminants that are labile in the environment or body, 18 but are acutely toxic,...
Toxicity of Pb-contaminated soil to Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica) and the use of the blood-dietary Pb slope in risk assessment
W. Nelson Beyer, Yu Chen, Paula Henry, Thomas May, David Mosby, Barnett A. Rattner, Valerie I. Shearn-Bochsler, Daniel Sprague, John Weber
2014, Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management (10) 22-29
This study relates tissue concentrations and toxic effects of Pb in Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica) to the dietary exposure of soil-borne Pb associated with mining and smelting. From 0% to 12% contaminated soil, by weight, was added to 5 experimental diets (0.12 to 382 mg Pb/kg, dry wt) and fed to...
